The Patriot Post® · Friday Short Cuts

Good question: “Why didn’t President Barack Obama’s administration deal with this alleged ‘systemic’ or ‘structural’ or ‘institutional’ police brutality against blacks in his eight years in office? Meanwhile, over Memorial Day weekend in Obama’s adopted hometown of Chicago, 10 people were killed, and 49 were shot. In a city where roughly one-third of the population is black, 70% of the city’s homicide victims, according to the Chicago Police Department, are black. When and where do the protests begin?” —Larry Elder

Food for thought: “There is no natural place where one can logically stop with the collective culpability racket. If I as a ‘white’ American of multi-European ethnicities have ‘benefitted’ from the political and economic systems in the United States, one could just as plausibly argue that I benefitted from the Irish Potato Famine, the Inquisition, the Thirty Years’ War, the bubonic plague, the sacking of the library at Alexandria and every other historical event that somehow made it possible for me to be who and what and where I am at this moment. … History has proven — amply — that a political system founded upon class resentment, blame, hatred and violence destroys everything and helps no one.” —Laura Hollis

For the record: “The truth is that we have a much larger, deeper and more chilling problem on our hands. There is no doubt in my mind that foreign intelligence services are orbiting in or around this issue and contributing to the violence. They see an opportunity to further destabilize the United States. They want to roll back our influence. Unable to defeat us militarily, they want to strike at us economically and to chip away at our society, causing the population to lose confidence and trust in our system and structure of government. We must not play into their hands.” —Armstrong Williams

Upright: “It is only through honest conversations with your neighbors, your friends and the new people you bring into your life that we can begin to really hear one another again. Our political polarization has helped inspire extreme reactions. When we are ranting at one another from our own separate corners, our own news sources and our own social media clusters, we cannot listen, and we cannot solve anything. We have to stop reacting to everything out of our deep-seated ideologies and start having real conversations with one another again.” —Jackie Gingrich Cushman

Non compos mentis: “We’re devastated, grieving, and outraged by violence against Black lives. We must continue to demand accountability, justice, and an end to the inequity that continues to define every moment of life for Black America from the racist institutions that uphold white supremacy.” —Planned Parenthood, which, as Tyler O'Neil points out, butchers 247 black babies in the womb every day

Alpha jackass: “There are probably anywhere from 10 to 15 percent of the people out there who are just not very good people.” —Joe Biden

Race bait: “[America is] a private club founded by old rich white men, for rich white men.” —Charlamagne tha God

And last… “The same politician who destroyed your business a few weeks ago is now making value judgments on when and where you can practice your freedoms. It is a massive scandal.” —David Harsanyi