The Patriot Post® · Thursday Short Cuts

Insight: “It is our nature to conform; it is a force which not many people can successfully resist. What is its seat? The inborn requirement of self-approval.” —Mark Twain (1835-1910)

Upright: “Recent weeks have seen families spending lots of time together, even if under stressful conditions. COVID-19 aside, the majority of that stress is because the American family has forgotten how to be together. Sadly, the reality is that most have never known togetherness in the first place, so there was really nothing to forget. … The fact is that we live in an era where more jobs can be done at home. I’m not sure when we developed the idea that ‘real work’ only occurs within the four walls of an office building, but our nation has suffered from that mindset because our families have suffered.” —Rebecca Hagelin

Food for thought: “Our COVID-19 policy is akin to dealing with the road fatalities problem by shutting down every highway in America and calling it a day.” —Jordan Schachtel

For the record: “The claim that the United States has more coronavirus deaths than China is false. Without commenting on any classified information, this much is painfully obvious: The Chinese Communist Party has lied, is lying, and will continue to lie about coronavirus to protect the regime.” —Sen. Ben Sasse

Political futures: “Can Donald Trump win Wisconsin? Can he win Michigan? Can he win Pennsylvania? Can he win Florida? Sure, because his base is so solid. And I think he’s going to turn out voters almost at a historical level on his behalf, so that makes him very dangerous if you’re Joe Biden.” —former Obama adviser David Plouffe (“More Than Twice as Many Voters Are Enthusiastic About Voting for Trump Compared to Biden.” —PJ Media)

The BIG Lie: “With ten million people having applied for [unemployment benefits] over the past two weeks it is an absolute mind boggling scandal that the Trump administration is not reopening the health care exchanges.” —The Daily Beast’s Sam Stein (As The New York Times reports [in the fourth paragraph, by the way], “The decision will not prevent Americans who recently lost their jobs from obtaining health insurance if they want it.”)

Braying jackass: “These press conferences are disturbing to watch. It’s not only the lies and spins that are disturbing, but the millions of people who watch this and actually believe this insane stuff. It’s like watching train wreck happen and not knowing to what to do.” —Rep. Ilhan Omar

Alpha jackass: “A bigger problem for society is information inequality. Like, why did [Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis] do what he did? Why did Georgia wait so long? It’s because they were listening to President Trump up until the last five or six days. They were watching Fox News. They were listening to Rush Limbo [sic]. And they were following conservatives on Twitter or social media, all of whom were downplaying this.” —Axios CEO Jim VandeHei

And last… “If you are not on Twitter, now is not the time to start. You’ll live a happier life learning to juggle knives and grenades.” —Erick Erickson