The Patriot Post® · Wednesday Short Cuts

Insight: “There are 10^11 stars in the galaxy. That used to be a huge number. But it’s only a hundred billion. It’s less than the national deficit! We used to call them astronomical numbers. Now we should call them economical numbers.” —physicist Richard Feynman (1918-1988)

Upright: “That’s the theme of [Donald Trump’s] campaign: ‘believe me.’ How are you going to build a wall? Believe me. I’ll build it, I’ll come in under budget, it will be a beautiful wall, and it will come in at half of what people say. China, I’ll defeat China. How you going to do it? Believe me, I’ll do it. America. I’m going to bring in the most jobs in the history of mankind. How you going to do it? Believe me. He’s running a campaign on belief and … a lot of it revolves around the fact that not just he’s been a success in business, but he’s been a personality on television for 14 years where the persona is a guy in charge, a guy in command, and it carried over into this campaign. That’s why I think his numbers are high.” —Charles Krauthammer

Braying Jackass: “Look at Medicaid expansion! Do you know how many people are yelling at me? I go to events where people yell at me. You know what I tell em? … [T]here’s a book — it’s got a new part and an old part, they put it together. It’s a remarkable book. If you don’t have one, I’ll buy you one, and it talks about how we treat the poor. Sometimes you just have to lead.” —John Kasich, who doesn’t seem to get that Jesus was talking to his disciples, not government

Warning shot: “The president has frequently pushed his team to consider a range of executive actions that could more effectively keep guns out of the hands of criminals and others who shouldn’t have access to them. That’s something that is ongoing here.” —Obama spokesman Josh Earnest on possible executive action on guns

Non Compos Mentis: “Why are we allowed to have these weapons that blow up … literally blow up animals if you were hunting with them?” —MSNBC’s Mika Brzezinski hyperventilating about the relatively small caliber AR-15, which isn’t about to “blow up” anything

Late-night humor: “If Bernie Sanders wins, he will be the first socialist elected president since 2008.” —Jay Leno making a guest appearance on the Tonight Show