The Patriot Post® · Thursday Short Cuts

Upright: “Those of us who take a more miserly view of the enumerated powers of the federal government believe that it does not have very many legitimate jobs to do. Instead of doing a few things well, it does many, many, many things — badly. But if the federal apparatus serves any purpose at all, providing for national security — beginning with securing the borders — is it.” —Kevin Williamson

Braying Jenny: “I understand that Donald Trump doesn’t care [about the murder of Jamal Khashoggi]. … But why doesn’t Mike Pompeo care right now? Are the pathetic deflections that we just heard… Is that a patriot speaking, or a wannabe dictator’s buttboy?” —MSNBC host Mika Brzezinski

Non Compos Mentis: “It’s ridiculous that it’s unconstitutional for Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to run for president.” —Vox’s Matthew Yglesias

Apples and oranges I: “Even if Google were deliberately discriminating against conservative viewpoints, just as Fox News and Sinclair Broadcasting and conservative talk-radio hosts like Rush Limbaugh discriminate against liberal points of view, that would be its right as a private company to do so, not to be questioned by government.” —Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY) (While technically true, this isn’t a fair comparison. Unlike some of these other big names, Google — which has a vastly bigger consumer base — isn’t a political entity. If the circumstances were flipped and it was conservatives being aggrandized by Google, Nadler would argue just the opposite.)

Apples and oranges II: “You’ve got a right to have whatever politics you have. We could subpoena Fox News and bring them in here and beat them up about how 90% of the references on Fox News to Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton are negative, but they’ve got that right under the First Amendment, and you’ve got a right under the First Amendment to have whatever political views you’ve got.” —Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD)

And last… “The thing that really outrages me about the potential government shutdown is that it’s only partial and temporary.” —Matt Walsh