The Patriot Post® · Friday Short Cuts

Insight: “Make men large and strong and tyranny will bankrupt itself in making shackles for them.” —Rev. Henry Ward Beecher (1813-1887)

“I know the media wants to distract from the Biden administration’s failed agenda by focusing on one day in January. They want to use that one day to demean the character and intentions of 74 million Americans who believed we could be strong again and prosperous again.” —Mike Pence

“Vice President Mike Pence’s statement very much destroys and discredits the Unselect Committee’s witch hunt on the events of January 6th. It will continue, however, because the Fake News doesn’t want to focus on Afghanistan, Russia, Taiwan and China, the Border, inflation and a failing economy.” —Donald Trump

“If this isn’t a deliberate attempt to chill parents from showing up at school board meetings for their elected school boards, I don’t know what is. I’m not aware of anything like this in American history… You’re using the FBI to intervene in school board meetings!" —Senator Josh Hawley

"Moms at school boards are being told that they’re criminals, potential domestic terrorists, for the crime of dissent. And I think criminalizing dissent is something that we should all be appalled with.” —Senator Rand Paul

“DOJ wants you to think that Antifa is ‘just an idea’ and BLM riots are about ‘racial justice’ but parents who don’t want their kids taught CRT trash in school or to be abused with worthless mask mandates are insurrection soccer moms who pose a threat to democracy.” —Buck Sexton

Belly laugh of the week: “In America, we’re proud to have a president who was one of the first leaders in Congress to advance climate action as early as 1986. He brags about that a lot. President Biden respects science and understands the urgency, which is essential also for combating the coronavirus pandemic.” —House Speaker Nancy Pelosi

Hot air: “Certainly we all want to keep gasoline prices low, but the threat of … the climate crisis certainly can’t wait any longer.” —White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki

The BIG Lie: “I thank my Democratic colleagues for showing unity in solving this Republican-manufactured crisis. Despite immense opposition from Leader McConnell and members of his conference, our caucus held together, and we have pulled our country back from the cliff’s edge that Republicans tried to push us over.” —Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer

Missing the forest for the trees: “When you see headlines and reports of ‘mass firings’ and ‘hundreds’ of people losing their jobs, look at the bigger story. I’ve spoken with Scott Kirby, the CEO of United Airlines, who’s here today. United went from 59 percent of their employees to 99 percent of their employees in less than two months after implementing the requirement.” —Scranton Joe Biden

Braying jenny: “I think we can all agree it’s not ideal for any party involved to follow anyone into a bathroom for any reason — but keep in mind, the Arizona senator has canceled her in-person meetings and hasn’t hosted a town hall in three years, so desperate times, desperate measures. But of course, the Republican Party has pounced on the incident to reignite the decency debate.” —MSNBC’s Joy Reid

A blind squirrel finds a nut: “When you violate someone’s privacy, it blurs a line between activism and harassment. I’m not sure if it’s even that blurry. It’s harassment. Very few arguments, if any, have been won by yelling at someone in a bathroom.” —CNN’s Don Lemon

Facepalm: “How do they get through to people like the black audience, for instance, the African American community, who has been burnt in the past by these Tuskegee experiments and things coming out that have harmed them? I don’t blame that community for being skittish about it, but I say that so many white people have gotten [the COVID vaccine] now, you know, the experiment has been done on white people now.” —"The View" cohost Joy Behar

Grand delusions: “Anybody who supports the party’s normal political operations — even the handful of remaining open Trump critics — is throwing lit matches around the kindling of Trump’s next Reichstag fire. What’s striking is how few Republicans accept the idea that the insurrection has fundamentally changed anything. … Trump doesn’t need to be a potential Hitler, or even a Mussolini, to justify suspending our normal rules of political conduct. … Trump’s Republican Party is an authoritarian project. For the time being, there is no form of Republican politics that is consistent with democracy.” —New York magazine columnist Jonathan Chait

Non compos mentis I: “People across the country are lighting candles to honour Indigenous women, girls, and 2SLGBTQQIA+ people who are missing or have been murdered.” —Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau

Non compos mentis II: “I urge all Canadians to take time today to honour the Indigenous women, girls and Two Spirit, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, questioning, intersex and asexual (2SLGBTQQIA+) people who are missing or have been murdered.” —Canadian Minister of Crown-Indigenous Relations Carolyn Bennett

And last… “First Nicki Minaj, then NBA dissidents, now Dave Chappelle: there’s been a recent string of high-profile Black public figures thoughtfully and forcefully questioning or rejecting elite liberal pieties, and it’s fascinating to watch liberal elite discourse-managers navigate this.” —Glenn Greenwald