Insight: “Liberty is meaningless where the right to utter one’s thoughts and opinions has ceased to exist. That, of all rights, is the dread of tyrants. It is the right which they first of all strike down.” —Frederick Douglass (1818-1895)

Inquisitive minds want to know: “Administration officials keep sending mixed messages, repeating phrases from the White House podium like ‘now is not the time to come.’ So there will be an appropriate time sometime later for people to enter our country illegally?” —Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell

Observations: “Pretty pathetic actual government tyrant Xavier Becerra got through yet Neera Tanden, who sent mean tweets but didn’t sue nuns, didn’t.” —Katie Pavlich

Topsy-turvy: “We require no evidence to declare that the Atlanta shootings are attributable to ‘white supremacy.’ But if you overtly block Asian-Americans from high schools and colleges on the basis of race, and declare ‘whiteness’ an ‘infection,’ you are anti-racist.” —Ben Shapiro

Race bait I: “The former President used racist phrases like Kung Flu that inflamed discrimination against the Asian American community. Officials that continue to use ethnic identifiers in describing the virus are part of the problem.” —Congressman Ted Lieu

Race bait II: “[Republicans] can talk about issues with any other country that you want — but you don’t have to do it by putting a bullseye on the back of Asian Americans across this country, on our grandparents, on our kids.” —Congresswoman Grace Meng

Race bait III: “It’s important to recognize that this surge did not spontaneously rise only out of fears regarding the coronavirus pandemic. Some of this blame lies squarely on political leaders who have demonized China.” —Congressman Jerry Nadler

Race bait IV: “Anti-Asian hate did not begin with the COVID-19 pandemic, and it will not end when the pandemic is over. All the pandemic did was exacerbate latent anti-Asian prejudices that have a long and ugly history in America.” —Congressman Steve Cohen

Racism: “Whiteness is a public health crisis. It shortens life expectancies, it pollutes air, it constricts equilibrium, it devastates forests, it melts ice caps, it sparks (and funds) wars, it flattens dialects, it infests consciousnesses, and it kills people — white people and people who are not white, my mom included. There will be people who die, in 2050, because of white supremacy-induced decisions from 1850. … White supremacy is a virus that, like other viruses, will not die until there are no bodies left for it to infect. Which means the only way to stop it is to locate it, isolate it, extract it, and kill it. I guess a vaccine could work, too. But we’ve had 400 years to develop one, so I won’t hold my breath.” —NY Times contributing opinion writer Damon Young

Non sequitur: “We also have to start being realistic about God and the Bible, and if you are a person of faith in this country … then we have to … present the true identity of Jesus, and that is as a black or a brown person rather than someone who looks like a white hippie from Sweden or Norway, and I think we should start with a true depiction of what Jesus looked like, and put that in your home. Either a black Jesus or a brown Jesus, because we know Jesus looked more like a Muslim or someone who was dark rather than someone who was blond, a blond-looking carpenter.” —CNN’s Don Lemon

Agent provocateur: “Some loving parents might send their child to traverse Mexico alone to reach the southern border — our southern border. I hope they don’t undertake that perilous journey. But if they do, we will not expel that young child. We will care for that young child and unite that child with a responsible parent.” —DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas

Gaslighting: “The filibuster … was designed to give the South the ability to veto any effective civil rights legislation or anti-lynching legislation. The filibuster has deep roots in racism, and it should not be permitted to serve that function, or to create a veto for the minority. In a democracy, it’s majority rules.” —Senator Elizabeth Warren

Famous last words: “Anybody making more than $400,000 will see a small to a significant tax increase. If you make less than $400,000, you won’t see one single penny in additional federal tax.” —Joe Biden

And last… “The federal government does not lack revenue; it lacks self-control when it comes to spending.” —Cal Thomas