The Patriot Post® · Friday Short Cuts

Insight: “All government, in its essence, is organized exploitation, and in virtually all of its existing forms it is the implacable enemy of every industrious and well-disposed man.” —H. L. Mencken (1880-1956)

Political futures: “Recent polls have found Obamacare to be at unprecedented levels of popularity while Republican efforts to replace it are very unpopular. My own interpretation of those polls: People don’t dislike the Republican plans because they favor Obamacare; they favor Obamacare because they dislike the Republican plans. The public’s dominant sentiment on health care is usually: Please, Washington, don’t do anything more to screw it up, especially if it could affect me.” —Ramesh Ponnuru

Braying Jackass: “I look at a place like Syria, where despite our best efforts — and this is something I worked on a lot — we still have a vicious war.” —Barack Obama

Braying Jenny: “To see this person who wants to be the one representative into the House of Representatives from Montana be sort of a wannabe Trump — you know, use language like that, treat people harshly like that — that’s his model. Donald Trump’s his model. And we’ve really got to say, ‘Come on, behave, behave.’” —Nancy Pelosi

Demo-gogues: “It’s a tactic, to attack the press. And we really have to say this is about the Constitution of the United States, and behavior that creates alternative facts and fake news, and all these other mischaracterizations, do a disservice to our democracy.” —Nancy Pelosi, who’s an expert at ignoring the Constitution and peddling fake news

The BIG Lie: “When the president fired the head of the FBI who was investigating him … and the president went on to say on national TV that he did it because of the investigation … all of these things combined are enough to conclude that the president has committed an impeachable act.” —Rep. Al Green

That’ll fix it! “We should explore ideas like universal basic income to give everyone a cushion to try new things.” —Mark Zuckerberg

Late-night humor: “An Ohio man recently proposed to his girlfriend at the finish line of a marathon. And she can never find out that he really said, ‘Will you carry me?’” —Seth Meyers