Quotes and Links
A week in review
Note for new subscribers: On Fridays I send out a post with a list of various notable quotes from the past week, along with links to some of the best reading material I’ve come across. You can opt out of these posts by simply clicking on the top right and going to “manage subscription.”
“Earlier today, my wife and I were discussing the election while our six year old son was listening. He asked when we would be voting for Joe Biden. I had to explain to him that Joe Biden wasn’t running now. He got upset and asked why. I told him that Joe Biden was going to retire and rest. He then asked with concern, ‘Does that mean Joe Biden isn’t coming back? Will you never see him again?’ Even the kids know we are going to miss Joe.” — Democratic election commissioner Chris Jackson
“This moment puts [Biden], you know, with a bunch of American greats, you know, the sort of George Washingtons of the world.” — CNN’s Abby Phillip
“Changing horses in mid-stream is rarely wise. But it’s another matter entirely when the stream is the Rubicon and it’s the warrior on the horse who’s selflessly handing the reins to his seasoned partner and will help her navigate the journey.” — Harvard Law professor Laurence Tribe
“I was on Long Island this weekend visiting a really dear friend, and I was really disturbed. I saw, you know, dozens and dozens of pickup trucks with explicatives [sic] against Joe Biden on the back of them, Trump flags, and in some cases just dozens of American flags, which is also just disturbing. Essentially the message was clear: This is my country. This is not your country. I own this. I think that as long as they see Americanness as the same as one with whiteness, this is going to continue.” — New York Times editorial board member Mara Gay, in an interview with MSNBC.
“I guess in not quite knowing what the line of attack should be, the Republicans in 2024, their first instinct is just to be racist and sexist. I guess that’s, like, a tic that they’ve developed.” — Also Mara Gay, in response to people making fun of Kamala Harris.
“And I mean, on a personal note, it’s, you know, seeing Donald Trump get up after getting shot in the face and pump his fist in the air with the American flag is one of the most badass things I’ve ever seen in my life.” — Mark Zuckerberg, in an interview with Bloomberg.
“Well, he’s certainly under consideration, I know that from key Harris allies. He’s a first-term governor, he’s Jewish, there could be some risk in putting him on the ticket.” — CNN’s John King, on Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro potentially being Kamala Harris’s running mate.
“In brief: Ronny Jackson isn’t a doctor. Which is perfect, because Trump wasn’t hit by a bullet.” — Keith Olbermann, regarding former White House physician Ronny Jackson’s letter detailing the medical care Trump received after the assassination attempt.
“I keep seeing Pete Buttigieg’s name floated as a potential Vice Presidential pick for Kamala and it strikes me as a disastrous idea; America simply isn’t ready to vote for a closeted heterosexual yet.” — National Review’s Jeffrey Blehar
“Once again the value of Trump isn’t what he will do in office but that he drives the regime into a delusional frenzy where they destroy the legitimacy of the system. They tried to bankrupt him, jail him, kill him, and now they are pulling a coup against the sitting president.” — The Blaze’s Auron MacIntyre
“Republicans pounce after Netanyahu protestors burn U.S. flags—and wave Hamas ones instead” — Politico headline
“I lost my son, essentially. You know, they call it ‘dead-naming’ for a reason. So, the reason it’s called dead-naming is because your son is dead. So, my son Xavier is dead. Killed by the woke mind virus.” — Elon Musk, during an interview with Jordan Peterson in which the tech mogul shared that he was tricked into signing documents for his son to receive puberty blockers. Musk said he was told his son would commit suicide if he did not acquiesce. Xavier Musk is now trans.
“In a polite functioning society, Jennifer Rubin would be sent into the desert on the back of a mule wearing a giant paper mache head, never to be heard from again.” — The Spectator’s Stephen L. Miller, on Jen Rubin criticizing people for denying the “majesty” of Biden’s “passing the torch” speech.
“You know, a lot of times the press would say ‘He gets along with Kim Jong Un, North Korea, he’s got a lot of nuclear weapons.’ I got along with him great, you were never in danger with me as your president. It’s a good thing to get along, not a bad thing. I used to tell him, ‘Why don’t you do something else?’ All he wants to do is buy nuclear weapons and make ‘em, I said ‘Just relax. Chill. You’ve got enough. You’ve got—you’ve got so much nuclear weapons. So much.’ I said ‘Just relax, go to a nice—let’s go to a baseball game, we’ll go watch the Yankees.” — Donald Trump, during a campaign rally in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
“You’re gonna look real crazy being on the other side of that line particularly as a person of color, but really as anyone who claims to have any connection to the culture. You gonna look real weird and real lonely on that side.” — MSNBC’s Joy Reid, in a “warning to people of color” who don’t vote for the “cultural phenomenon” Kamala Harris.
“The Pelosi coup succeeded, when on Sunday, July 21, 2024, Biden released a letter announcing he would no longer seek a second term. Less than half an hour after he announced his withdrawal, Biden exercised what in many ways is the greatest power any leader can: The power to choose your own successor. He bypassed the rumored wishes of the Pelosi and donor crew and fully endorsed his historic Vice President Kamala Harris to be the Democrat nominee, and the would be first woman, first Black woman, and first Asian woman president.” — Also Joy Reid
“But the plain fact is that each of you has some time ago crossed the line from concerned campaigner to fanatic. You have appointed yourselves as the sole arbiters of what should be done about climate change, bound neither by the principles of democracy nor the rule of law. And your fanaticism makes you entirely heedless of the rights of your fellow citizens. You have taken it upon yourselves to decide that your fellow citizens must suffer disruption and harm, and how much disruption and harm they must suffer, simply so that you may parade your views.” — Southwark Crown Court Judge Christopher Hehir, handing down multi-year sentences to five Just Stop Oil protestors who “conspired to cause gridlock on London’s orbital motorway.”
“When something like this happens to you, like this assassination attempt, and you say something like ‘God was watching me,’ that is a very un-Christian thing to say because it’s very narcissistic.” — The View’s Joy Behar
“They want to call [Harris] a DEI president or DEI candidate. She has more experience than Trump and J.D. Vance combined, times a million, right? And so these are just racist dog whistles. Whenever you hear DEI, I want you to think about the n-word, I want you to think about racial slurs. That‘s what they actually mean.” — Congressman Maxwell Frost (D-FL), during an interview with CNN.
“Amazed this still needs saying, but some don’t seem to have got the memo. If calling me ‘transphobe’ and ‘fascist’ was going to scare me out of speaking up for women’s rights, it would have happened years ago. Whatever the square root of not giving a fuck is, that’s where I am.” — J.K. Rowling
“Imagine if Donald Trump was trying to put Joe Biden in prison for the rest of his life, Biden came within an inch of being assassinated, Biden had been begging for secret service protection, the request was denied and the Trump team lied about it. Because all of that happened.” — Outkick’s Clay Travis
“My historically ‘all are welcome’, no-politics-zone yoga studio has changed its policy because ‘2024 matters so much.’ Today’s class was devoted to Kamala — literally, we were invited to speak our devotion. When it came to Camel pose the instructor called it Camela pose.” — Novelist Ann Bauer
A Rolling Stone piece about the mystery surrounding the Route 91 Las Vegas massacre in 2017.
“Eye of the storm: A day in the life of Ukrainian infantry on the zero line near Toretsk,” from the Kyiv Independent.
The Wall Street Journal: “How the Bet on an 81-Year-Old Joe Biden Turned Into an Epic Miscalculation”
A Vanity Fair story about the week-long standoff between the French luxury cruise ship Le Ponant and a hopped-up band of Somali pirates.
“Guilty: Inside the high-risk, historic prosecution of a school shooter’s parents,” from The Washington Post.
The New York Times: “I Lived the #VanLife. It Wasn’t Pretty.”
An ESPN piece on a skydiver who survived a 14,000-foot fall.
Progressives make a point of hiring black people because of their skin color. And then when someone says "hey, maybe that black person was hired because of her skin color" they cry racism. Mind boggling. If you don´t want folks to wonder if someone was a DEI hire, stop promoting DEI.
Did Joy Reid just do a "If you don't vote for Kamala, you ain't black" move? She really does admire Biden.
Did no one tell the headline writer at Politico that "Republican's pounce" is a self-own for being such a tired cliche?
Kudos to the judge that told the Just Stop Oil folks that thinking they have the moral high ground doesn't entiitle them to bypass the structures of civilzed society.
Joy Behar is being fucking ridiculous.
J.K. Rowling is badass.