Insight: “A lie doesn’t become truth, wrong doesn’t become right and evil doesn’t become good just because it’s accepted by a majority.” —Booker T. Washington (1856-1915)

For the record: “Even though our vaccines are currently working well to prevent hospitalizations, we are seeing concerning evidence of waning vaccine effectiveness over time and against the Delta variant.” —CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky

Observations: “The president whose empathy is endlessly touted now sounds cold and dismissive when asked about Afghans’ desperately crowding into American planes or falling to their deaths. All of the available evidence indicates that the president ignored the warnings of his foreign-policy team, withdrew the armed forces before evacuating the civilians, gave up Bagram Air Base, and now is in a large-scale foreign crisis that is mostly the result of his own choices. … Something is wrong with President Biden, and we are all being asked to pretend we don’t notice.” —Jim Geraghty

Friendly fire: “This is a chaotic situation. … I don’t think it needed to be this way.” —Democrat Senator Mazie Hirono

Grand delusions I: “This is what happens when you withdraw. Some stuff, some equipment is left there.” —House Speaker Nancy Pelosi regarding Taliban-confiscated U.S. military armaments valued at billions of dollars

Grand delusions II: “I think [the Taliban are] going through sort of an existential crisis about do they want to be recognized by the international community as being a legitimate government. … They also care about whether they have food to eat, whether they … can make any money and run an economy. … I’m not sure I would’ve predicted … that when we decided to leave, that they’d provide safe passage for Americans to get out.” —President Joe Biden

Carrying a little stick: “Together with our international partners, we call on those in positions of power and authority across Afghanistan to guarantee the protection of women and girls and their rights. We will monitor closely how any future government ensures their rights and freedoms.” —Secretary of State Antony Blinken (“We ‘call on.’ We will ‘monitor.’ In short, we will issue more statements and write more memos to each other. We don’t plan to actually do anything. This is our public confession that we are worse than useless.” —Dinesh D'Souza)

Birds of a feather flock together: “The Taliban have repeatedly expressed their hope to develop good relations with China, and that they look forward to China’s participation in the reconstruction and development of Afghanistan. We welcome this. China respects the right of the Afghan people to independently determine their own destiny and is willing to continue to develop … friendly and cooperative relations with Afghanistan.” —China foreign ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying

Non compos mentis: “Don’t talk to your neighbors. Please, keep to your [lockdown] bubbles.” —New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern

D'oh! “I’m proposing dollars to hire more police officers and ensure they’ve got great pay, good training and better resources to do their jobs effectively. We need more cops in communities experiencing a rise in gun violence that’s been associated with this pandemic.” —Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer, August 2021 | “You don’t need all the money going to the police departments. So yeah, the spirit of [defunding the police], I do support that spirit.” —Governor Whitmer, June 2020

And last… “Biden successfully emboldened our enemies and betrayed our allies in one reckless decision. And he still has the nerve to say he has no regrets.” —Nikki Haley