The Patriot Post® · Thursday Short Cuts

Insight: “You can’t give the government the power to do good without also giving it the power to do bad — in fact, to do anything it wants.” —Harry Browne (1933-2006)

For the record: “Fully one-third of Pelosi’s 193 House Democrats now come from just three states, the usual liberal suspects of California, New York and Massachusetts, not the crucial Heartland. Pelosi’s entire leadership team is also coastal, and like her, linger on in their mid-70s.” —Andrew Malcom

Friendly fire, part I: “The DNC & DCCC has [sic] NO idea how 2 win cause they have no message, no plan, no leaders, won’t fight & hate the resistance.” —Michael Moore on Twitter

Friendly fire, part II: “It’s not going to work for us just to have an anti-Trump message. … In the last election, Donald Trump, frankly, had a message that resonated with people. … What we didn’t talk about enough, consistently, was about jobs, the economy, and fighting for people who want better times ahead.” —Rep. Cheri Bustos

Friendly fire, part III: “The Democrats are nothing now but words and fantasy and hallucination and Hollywood. There’s no journalism left. What’s happened to The New York Times? What’s happened to the major networks? It’s an outrage. … I think it’s absolutely grotesque the way my party has destroyed journalism.” —Camille Paglia

A broken clock… “I’m bothered by the lack of emerging evidence about the underlying crime, that there was actually collusion or coordination between the Trump White House. … I’m just afraid we’re being swallowed up by the politics of scandal, when there’s less and less evidence that they actually colluded.” —NY Times’ David Brooks

Political futures: “The Democratic Party is going to be torn apart by the Left and the centralists. Now, the Republican Party is also being torn apart between the centralists and the hard right, but they’ve rented a candidate. The candidate has rented a party, and they will probably without much fuss get behind Donald Trump, I would assume, assuming he runs for re-election.” —Michael Bloomberg

And last… “In the accelerated churning of today’s capitalism, changing tastes and expanding choices destroy some jobs and create others, with net gains in price and quality. But disruption is never restful, and America now faces a decision unique in its history: Is it tired — tired of the turmoil of creative destruction? If so, it had better be ready to do without creativity. And ready to stop being what it has always been: restless.” —George Will