The Patriot Post® · Wednesday Short Cuts

Insight: “We contend that for a nation to try to tax itself into prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket and trying to lift himself up by the handle.” —Sir Winston Churchill (1874-1965)

Upright: “We saw this at Occupy Wall Street; we saw this in Black Lives Matter. Heck, you can go back to the anti-war protests and the WTO protests in Seattle. There seems to be this sense in some newsrooms that left-wing protests are somehow inherently less violent, and if there is violence, it’s somehow justified or understandable as a reaction to provocation from the Right.” —Jim Geraghty responding to last night’s anti-Trump protests

Dezinformatsia: “The Post conducted a poll of American Indians, 9 out of 10 of whom said they were not bothered by the team’s use of the name. … If there were an important principle of free speech at stake in holding on to the name, we would say, by all means, ignore the one-fifth to one-quarter of Indians who say the word is disrespectful. … But no public purpose is served by holding on to a slur.” —Washington Post editorial board

Quandary: “If we have a Republican governor in any of those states [whose senator was tapped to be Clinton’s vice president], the answer is not only no, but hell no. I would do whatever I can [to stop it], and I think most of my Democratic colleagues here would say the same thing.” —Harry Reid

Spread the wealth: “[T]he prosperity that we are starting to see is not fully shared, and … we still have a stacked deck where too much of the rewards of the improved economy today are flowing to the top. … That’s what [Clinton’s] … tax proposal to incentiv[ize] profit-sharing by corporations is all about.” —Clinton campaign spokesman Brian Fallon

Braying Jenny: “Yes, I get paid a lot less than my colleagues. I don’t complain. I’m not going to whine about it. It’s like being born a slave. It’s like, ‘Aw, damn, darn my luck.’ You know? I wish I was born somewhere else or maybe some other way, but it is what it is.” —actress Michelle Rodriguez

Non Compos Mentis: “If [Christians] really did as they claim to do, they would quickly see that Jesus must be, by their own exegetical rules, the first transgender male. … In his person, and in his salvific actions, Jesus is truly the first and forever trans man.” —Suzanne DeWitt Hall in The Huffington Post

Late-night humor: “The White House went into lockdown … after several balloons drifted onto the property. Even worse, Bernie Sanders’ house was attached to them.” —Seth Meyers