Insight: “Volumes can be and have been written about the issue of freedom versus dictatorship, but, in essence, it comes down to a single question: do you consider it moral to treat men as sacrificial animals and to rule them by physical force?” —Ayn Rand (1905-1982)

For the record: “Once again Trump is embroiled in a heated controversy. Once again, it is about something he’s alleged to have said. And once again, his reported comments are at odds with his record, this time on veterans and the military. Such disparities have been a constant in his presidency.” —Brit Hume

Braying jenny: “These people [in the Trump administration] will stop at nothing. … The Russians helped them last time; the Russians are helping them now. … [Donald Trump] is a clear and present danger to our freedoms, our liberties, our unity, and we’ve got to defeat him.” —Hillary Clinton

Demo-gogues: “I do believe that there will be foreign interference in the 2020 election and that Russia will be at the front of the line.” —Kamala Harris

Non sequitur: “We have to recognize that almost everything we know about the truth about Donald Trump and his presidency comes from reporting, great reporting, by news organizations including The Atlantic, CNN, Washington Post, The New York Times, and that reporting is almost uniformly based on anonymous sourcing in part because that’s the only way we can get to the truth. The people who are on the scene who know Donald Trump, who are participants in his presidency, and are telling us the truth about this man, his actions, and his real words as in this case. The same thing happened in Watergate. We used anonymous sourcing at The Washington Post — Deep Throat — almost all 200 of our stories about Watergate were based on anonymous sourcing. That’s the only way to do this. And we must continue in the press to do our reporting day by day by day because that’s how we know who this president — what this presidency really is. The fake news is the president’s news. We’re doing the real reporting.” —Carl Bernstein

And last… “Anyone who studies the history of ideas should notice how much more often people on the political left, more so than others, denigrate and demonize those who disagree with them — instead of answering their arguments.” —Thomas Sowell