The Patriot Post® · Thursday Short Cuts

Upright: “According to Statista.com, the United States has 223 million Facebook users, almost the size of the entire U.S. population over age 18. Per Pew, 22% of U.S. adults use Twitter. These developments have put enormous power at the disposal of technology firms over what we see and read. Power alone doesn’t worry me. Exclusive power, power to control, does. … If Donald Trump broke the law, this should be determined through legal channels, not by the subjective decision of a businessperson with a net worth of some $12 billion accrued because of American freedom.” —Star Parker

Tongue-in-cheek: “I think the lesson of the past few decades is that basically anyone can be president.” —David Harsanyi

With friends like these, who needs enemies? “The Republican Party needs to be burned down or changed. … Who would want to be part of an organization that at its core is built on lies and racism and know-nothingism? It’s just not a healthy political organization.” —James Comey

Braying jackass: “I consider Trump the biggest threat to American democracy since Robert E. Lee — a terrorist who had at his disposal a great army and used it to great effect. … Opportunistic amnesia is, like terrorism, a manageable problem. Far worse — and, I believe, nearer to the source of the disease — is a mental defect afflicting MAGA extremists as well as normal people: a near-total vulnerability to the hyperstimulation of our political senses. The proper response to these extremists isn’t counterterrorism. It is mental hygiene.” —The Atlantic’s Graeme Wood

Alpha jackass I: “We’ve never taken domestic extremism seriously, because white, Christian men are not seen as a threat in the same way that people who look like you and me are. That’s been a tragedy for America.” —MSNBC's Mehdi Hasan

Alpha jackass II: “Al Qaeda after 9/11 was not as much of a threat to us [as] this domestic movement of Oath Keepers, Proud Boys, militia men, neo-Nazis, Qanon types — what I would call ‘MAGA terrorists.’” —Mehdi Hasan

Grand delusions: “I’ve been listening to these inaugural addresses since 1961. John F. Kennedy, ‘Ask not.’ I thought [Biden’s] was the best inaugural address I have ever heard.” —Fox News anchor Chris Wallace

Non compos mentis: “I think we’ll have more to say on the Mexico City policy in the coming days, but I will just take the opportunity to remind all of you that [Biden] is a devout Catholic and somebody who attends church regularly. He started his day attending church with his family this morning, but I don’t have anything more for you on that.” —New White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki

And last… “Get married. Have kids. Buy guns. Buy books. Buy land. Turn off the TV. This is the way.” —Matt Walsh