Quotes and Links

A week in review.

ProPublica’s John Harwood conducts an interview with President Joe Biden, October 1, 2020.

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• “Members of Congress have not had a pay raise since 2009. Long overdue.” — The Atlantic’s David Frum.

• “Heard the other day about a kid who was asked by a parent what she was learning at her top 5 university. She answered, ‘I’m learning what you can’t say.’” — County Highway editor Walter Kirn.

• “Per CBP sources, initial data for September shows there were over 260,000 migrant encounters at the border, making it the highest single month ever recorded.” — Fox News national correspondent Bill Melugin.

• “We had to create the time and space for every member of Congress to read the bill.” — House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries. Jamaal Bowman is still claiming that he didn’t mean to set off the fire alarm, but it’s obvious he pulled it because Democrats wanted more time to read the temporary spending bill. No consequences.

• “Republicans need to instead focus their energy on the Nazi members of their party before anything else.” — A suggested talking point/refutation sent out in a memo to House Democrats by Jamaal Bowman’s office.

• “The attack on January 6 was more severe also than the attack on Pearl Harbor.” — Lincoln Project founder Steve Schmidt, during an interview with the Patrick Bet David Podcast. Schmidt also claimed that Jan. 6 was worse than 9/11.

• “It’s almost like leftists will support insane bullshit right up until the point when it affects them personally.” — Matt Walsh, regarding the uproar over males who took over the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing conference by registering as non-binary.

• “‘Misinformation’ was something I dealt with a lot inside the agency. The context in which it’s being used today is, it has a very simple meaning, it means ‘shut up, peasant.’” — Former CIA analyst Martin Gurri.

• “When I left the Senate, I was able to convince Strom Thurmond to vote for the Voting Rights Act.” — President Joe Biden, in an interview with ProPublica. Strom Thurmond died in 2003, and Biden didn’t leave the Senate until 2009. The Voting Rights Act passed in 1965, before Biden was in office.

• “Adults shouting at children can be as harmful as sexual or physical abuse, study finds.” — Headline from CNN. The actual study claims that verbal abuse should be considered a real form of abuse and taken seriously. It does not suggest that yelling at a child is as damaging as sexually assaulting them.

• “There is presently an acute and immediate need to construct physical barriers and roads in the vicinity of the border of the United States in order to prevent unlawful entries into the United States in the project areas.” — Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas. The Biden administration is waiving 26 federal laws to allow border wall construction in South Texas. It’s absolutely amazing how Democrats’ immigration views and rhetoric changed the second that undocumented migrants started arriving in Blue cities.

• “Trump’s running on white grievance… all it is is white grievance. Without racism, Trump is just a dumber Chris Christie.” — Elie Mystal, during a segment with MSNBC’s Mehdi Hasan.

• “We will look carefully to see if this is a one-off situation and if they're fundamentally law-abiding people.” — Soros-funded progressive Philadelphia DA Larry Krasner, who is going soft on the rioters and looters who turned over the city last week.

• “It is too open right now. People coming from all over the world are finding their way through simply saying they need asylum and the majority of them seem to be ending up in the streets of New York.” — New York Governor Kathy Hochul, in an interview with CBS News. Two years ago, Hochul explicitly invited all migrants to come to New York: “Our message to the world is send us your people and send us those who need our cloak of comfort.”

• “Planned Parenthood is giving cross-sex hormones to teenagers—including those with special needs—after just a 30 minute consult.” — The Washington Free Beacon’s Aaron Sibarium.

• “The pattern’s obvious.” — Bill Hemmer of Fox News, pointing out that in 2019 there were 0 suspected terrorists arrested at the border; in 2020 there were 3; and this year there have been 151.

• “In other words, the Party whose leaders and followers constantly and shrilly insist that voting for them is morally imperative to stop fascism are aggressive advocates of fascims' [sic] defining hallmarks, starting with unifying state and corporate power to forcibly silent dissent.” — Glenn Greenwald.

• “California’s Proposition 47 reduces certain theft and drug possession offenses from felonies to misdemeanors. Shoplifting items worth less than $950 won’t result in a felony charge, making life a little less stressful.” — A bullet point in pamphlets encouraging illegal migrants to go to San Francisco. The pamphlets are being distributed in Eagle Pass, Texas.

• “And concerns tonight about the lack of vaccines for young children. Some parents say pharmacies will not vaccinate kids under age six, even though studies show that age group is at highest risk for the virus.” — NY1 Spectrum News. This is straight up “misinformation.” The risk of severe illness from covid increases with age.

• “I follow lots of undocumented immigrants on TikTok taping their journey to America. Usually follows a pattern where they’re stuck at the border for awhile, eventually get in and become DoorDash drivers, and then make videos warning people back home how dangerous U.S. is for crime.” — The Intercept’s Murtaza Hussain.

• A Washington Post piece on how thousands of teen boys are being extorted in sexting scams.

• “The Disadvantages of an Elite Education,” from the American Scholar.

• Rolling Stone: “Two Teens Hitchhiked to a Concert. 50 Years Later, They Haven’t Come Home.”

• “Inside Sam Bankman-Fried’s Family Bubble,” from the New Yorker.

• A Newsweek piece on how the FBI is targeting Trump supporters ahead of the 2024 election.

• Simulation Commander: “The Walls Are Closing In — Around Free Speech.”

• “The New Push for Censorship Under the Guise of Combating Hate,” from Tablet.

• The Wall Street Journal: “How ‘Preapproved Narratives’ Corrupt Science.”

• “The Covid Cover-up,” from City Journal.