The Patriot Post® · Friday Short Cuts

For the record: “Republicans were explicit about the goals of the tax cuts. They want you to have more money in your paycheck. If you have more money in your paycheck, you aren’t giving the government as much. Ergo, they will not be holding as much of your money at the end of the year. What they give back will be less. Math anyone?” —Stacey Lennox

Friendly fire: “My dear departed grandmothers … as well as my deceased parents must be turning in their grave right now to see their family’s name, reputation, and proud Jamaican identity being connected, in any way, jokingly or not, with the fraudulent stereotype of a pot-smoking joy seeker and in the pursuit of identity politics. Speaking for myself and my immediate Jamaican family, we wish to categorically dissociate ourselves from this travesty.” —retired Stanford professor Donald Harris, after his daughter, Sen. Kamala Harris, associated her previous drug use with her Jamaican heritage

Might want to reconsider that: “Jussie Smollett continues to be a consummate professional … and … he is not being written out of the show.” —Fox Entertainment

Non Compos Mentis: “In the court of public opinion, Jussie has lost. … And he lost that because of how — and not his fault. … You think it’s his fault? You think he was doing what he wants? … In cable news. Sean Hannity is going to eat Jussie Smollett’s lunch every single second. Tucker Carlson is going to eat Jussie Smollett’s lunch every single second. … The president of the United States is going to eat his lunch. And who does the president of the United States watch every night?” —CNN’s Don Lemon

Non Compos Mentis II: “No matter how you feel about the wall, I think it’s a moral abomination. I think it’s like the Berlin Wall. I think it’s like any other wall designed to separate human beings and block out people who are running away from the humanitarian disasters. I just think it’s wrong.” —Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

Non Compos Mentis III: “I have friends who are in Caracas right now. There is, so far, no civil war, no mayhem, no murder, no apparent dictatorship, no mass imprisonment of opposition, no suppression of the press — none of that is going on even though that is the narrative that is being sold to the rest of us.” —songwriter Roger Waters

And last… “Beware of euphemisms. Radical changes in vocabulary are usually admissions that reality is unwelcome or indefensible.” —Victor Davis Hanson