The Patriot Post® · Tuesday Short Cuts

Insight: “We are taxed in our bread and our wine, in our incomes and our investments, on our land and on our property not only for base creatures who do not deserve the name of men, but for foreign nations, complaisant nations who will bow to us and accept our largesse and promise us to assist in the keeping of the peace — these mendicant nations who will destroy us when we show a moment of weakness or our treasury is bare, and surely it is becoming bare!” —Marcus Tullius Cicero (106-43 BC)

Upright: “In the almost five years since the [9/11] memorial opened, Trump has not once managed to visit the site, this despite owning a building five blocks away on Wall Street. Choosing not to visit the World Trade Center site isn’t something that should be held against Trump or any other New Yorker. I personally know New Yorkers who try to avoid it at all costs. Each has his own views on how best to mourn and remember September 11th. But Trump’s using his first-ever visit as a political attack against Ted Cruz is completely shameful.” —Stephen Miller

New York values: “To be blunt, [the Twin Towers] were not ‘great’ buildings. … They only became great upon their demise last Tuesday.” —Donald Trump, one week after 9/11

Come again? “For me, it’s about the children and the grandchildren. If it were just me, I would [not vote for Trump]. I would say, ‘Hey, I got this, I can deal with it,’ but for them, I can’t.” —Ben Carson

Non sequitur: “I would say this — there isn’t a president who’s taken more terrorists off the field than me, over the last seven and a half years.” —Barack Obama (Well, he has been the only president for the last seven and a half years.)

Non Compos Mentis: “There’s classified and then there’s classified.” —Barack Obama, defending Hillary Clinton’s email practices with a laughable distinction (And remember: Dozens of Clinton’s email were designated “Top Secret” or higher.)

And last… “The State Department took two years to hand over requested Benghazi documents. Still, a faster response than Ambassador Stevens got.” —Twitter satirist @weknowwhatsbest