The Patriot Post® · Friday Short Cuts

For the record: “[A] carbon tax will not accomplish the environmental benefits that are the entire purpose of this exercise — regardless of what one believes about global warming. The same climate sensitivity modeling used by the EPA shows that totally eliminating all carbon dioxide emissions in the U.S. would reduce warming by only 0.137 degree Celsius by the end of the century, and only 0.278 degree Celsius if the entire industrialized world totally eliminated all carbon dioxide emissions.” —Katie Tubb

Wise impartiality: “They have paid their hard-earned money to come in there and fill a seat. … I am there to entertain them, to take their worries away from them, so when they walk out, they can kind of have a little lift in their step and go, ‘Aw, that was such a great break from all the problems I have to deal with during daily life.’ So I’m not going to give them my political views.” —Reba McEntire

Alpha Jackass: “[W]e think we have done a real service to America [by demonizing and obstructing]. We have shown who these Cabinet nominees are. Every time Betsy DeVos does something now that might hurt public education, there’s going to be millions of Americans looking over her shoulder. Every time Jeff Sessions hurts immigrants or voting rights, there are going to be millions of Americans looking over his shoulder.” —Chuck Schumer

Easy to do in the liberal Ninth Circuit: “Mr. President, we just saw you in court, and we beat you.” —Washington Gov. Jay Inslee

Upright: “The ruling is outrageous. It’s an abomination. It’s an intrusion on the president’s authority in the area of foreign policy and national security.” —former U.S. attorney Joseph diGenova

And last… “The fundamental point is that it is not just the executive or Congress that can abuse its power and overstep its bounds. The courts can, too, and no one is obligated to meekly accept their decisions. If the courts throw out Trump’s travel ban, despite the black-and-white letter of the law giving him the authority to block aliens in the interest of national security, it will be a usurpatory act. In that scenario, the courts will have done more violence to our constitutional system than a foolish Trump tweet ever could.” —Rich Lowry