For the Record

“The world is a dangerous place to live, not because of the people who are evil, but because of the people who don’t do anything about it.” —Albert Einstein (1879-1955)

“I think [the] precipitous withdrawal from Afghanistan was a message to people like Putin that America was rethinking our forward-leaning position in the world. And I don’t think if we cut and run in Afghanistan, Putin would have tried this at all.” —Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell

“If Trump were president now and vacillating over whether Putin has committed war crimes there would be calls for impeachment on that alone.” —David Limbaugh

“The war turns on this: Which breaks first, the Russian economy or the Ukrainian military? The next decade turns on this: Does China think the world could or would do the same to it, if it invaded Taiwan?” —Paul D. Miller

“Speaker Pelosi: Ban oil from Russia. Also Speaker Pelosi: Ban oil from America. Democrats aren’t trying to punish Russia OR help Americans. They actually want gas prices to be as high as possible so they can scam you with their radical Green New Deal.” —House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy

“We actually changed our entire energy policy because Greta Thunberg yelled at us.” —former White House Press Secretary Dana Perino

Non Compos Mentis Awards

“Vladimir Putin was counting on being able to split up the United States. Look, how would you feel if you saw crowds storm and break down the doors of the British Parliament and kill five cops, injure 145 — or the German Bundestag or the Italian Parliament? I think you’d wonder. That’s what the rest of the world saw. It’s not who we are. And now we’re proving under pressure that we are not that country. We’re united.” —Joe Biden

“We are a stronger nation when we allow people to participate. And if we ever doubted that, the war that Putin is waging against Ukraine, President Zelenskyy said … this isn’t a war on Ukraine, this is a war on democracy in Ukraine. When we allow democracy to be overtaken by those who want to choose who can be heard and those choices are not based on anything other than animus or inconvenience, that is wrong.” —Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams (“Brushing aside the fact that the only restriction Republicans and the laws they’ve passed in Georgia and Texas place on elections is that voters be legal, Abrams really seems to think that her quest to make it easier to cheat in elections means she and Ukraine’s freedom fighters are on the same level. Not only is Abrams’ claim outrageous, it’s poorly researched. Stacey Abrams, someone who’s dedicated her career to stripping election integrity measures, is saying she’s like the country that requires government ID to vote.” —Spencer Brown)

World’s Smallest Violin

“I was prepared for rightwing attacks. I wasn’t prepared for Black people to attack me. And I think that’s probably the hardest thing in this position, to lose your own people. The people that you love the most, the people that you do this work for. The human being feels betrayed, the leader feels like: ‘Yeah, welcome to Black leadership. This is the f***ing hazing.’” —BLM cofounder Patrisse Cullors

Village Idiot

“If we could throw [the Constitution] out and start over with a new document that was more inclusive of everybody, that was written by everybody … I would be all for that.” —The Nation legal correspondent Elie Mystal

And Last…

“Dems thought state and local lockdowns would help them in the 2020 elections and that federal lockdowns would give them the power to transform America. Now, they think ending the lockdowns will help them in 2022.” —Senator Bill Hagerty