The Patriot Post® · Thursday Short Cuts

Upright: “The modern Russians are not as clubbable as the Democrats found the Russians of the Soviet era. They are not even as agreeable as President Obama found them in 2012. Perhaps ordinary Americans, having read their history, can agree with me. These Democrats are mercurial. No wonder more and more Americans are coming to the conclusion that the country is in better hands with a real estate developer.” —R. Emmett Tyrrell

For the record: “I would be more bitter about the role of the House Republicans … except that in this case [overhauling ObamaCare], the Republican Party establishment is not really lagging behind the Republican base. The base has recently proved they don’t care all that much about rolling back the welfare state, because they elected, in the primaries and in the general election, a politician whose agenda has never included a rollback of the welfare state.” —Robert Tracinski

Observations: “The Republicans denounced the New Deal for 20 years. Eisenhower comes into office in 1953, and they don’t touch an element of it. Social Security remains intact. They were not suicidal, and they lived to govern another day. You cannot retract an entitlement once it has been granted. That’s the genius of the Left.” —Charles Krauthammer

But what about the years before? “[O]nce [Republicans] had a blocking position in the Senate and then in the House, we couldn’t get the minimum wage increase, we couldn’t get increases into Social Security, we couldn’t get a more progressive tax bill.” —Elizabeth Warren accusing the GOP of obstructing Democrat prescriptions to income inequality under Obama

Braying Jackass: “The interesting thing is that with the Trump administration and many people who support Donald Trump, they think it is their country, that it is a white country and they are absolutely wrong. This is not a white country, this is not their country, it is ours.” —Jorge Ramos

And last… “Governors who cannot build a reservoir have little business fantasizing about 200-mph super trains. And dense celebrities who cannot open the right envelope should not be sought for cosmic political wisdom.” —Victor Davis Hanson