The Patriot Post® · Monday Short Cuts

Upright

“A person is capable of rooting for Vladimir Putin to be embarrassed, beaten and weakened, without accepting the historical revisionism and a highly idealized version of Ukraine. A person is fully capable of rooting for Putin to be embarrassed, beaten and weakened, and also asking questions about where this is all headed.” —David Harsanyi

“The Eastern calculation is that the West is tired and weak. Some on the Right, because of cultural concerns, have embraced and champion this. They seem to think they would be spared from the ‘wokes’ if Russia and China were dominant. Putin played into that belief last week with a speech in which he attacked Western cultural progressivism. Some on the Left, because of economic and cultural concerns, also embrace and champion this. The NBA profits from China while lecturing the United States on social justice. The Left believes the Chinese economic system is more equitable than our own. Both those on the Left and Right who flirt with this realignment are playing with fire.” —Erick Erickson

For the Record

“California is losing population for the first time in its history — and it’s not because of climate change. It’s because of the woke ideas and policies being pushed by destructive politicians like Mayor Bass and D.A. Gascon. Life is not going to make a turn for the better in California unless its voters wake up and do to Bass and Gascon what Chicago’s voters did Lori Lightfoot — give them the boot.” —Michael Reagan

“In America today, we price young people out of the jobs market with a too-high minimum wage. We essentially tell them they shouldn’t have to work because it might cut into their video game or social media time. And then we keep them on their parents’ health insurance until age 26 and confiscate taxpayer money to pay off their student loans. We treat work as a plague rather than something that gives dignity to the worker, even if the job is dangerous or dirty.” —Nate Jackson

“Biden’s ‘student loan cancellation’ plan is nothing more than a transparent vote-buying scheme and an unconstitutional one at that. But even if it were constitutional, passing the costs of higher education onto the taxpayers will only exacerbate a problem created by the federal government in the first place.” —Laura Hollis

Race Card

“I am a black woman. Of course.” —defeated Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot when asked if she was treated unfairly

Spin Cycle

“We don’t tell social media companies to censor anything.” —FBI Director Chris Wray (Technically, the FBI did not tell social media companies to censor the Hunter Biden laptop revelations ahead of the 2020 election, but it did “flag” the story as “potentially violating Twitter’s Terms of Service,” suggesting it was fake news.)

Leftmedia Flip-Flops

“Lab Leak Most Likely Caused Pandemic, Energy Dept. Says” —The New York Times (In 2020, NYT called such claims “racist.” The Washington Post called the idea a “conspiracy theory.” MSNBC labeled it “debunked bunkum.”)