Quotes and Links

A week in review

Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas speaks about the flooding in North Carolina at the White House daily press briefing on Tuesday, October 1, 2024. | AP

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.”

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• “We’ve got kind of two different views of masculinity. There’s this kind of alpha, retro view of masculinity that we’re seeing from the Trump campaign. And then you’ve got Tim Walz and Doug Emhoff who are both professional men but are in sort of supportive roles of a woman who’s the principal candidate.” — MSNBC contributor Katty Kay

• “I think Project 2025 is the Steele Dossier of this election: a dumb sideshow that people who ought to know better are using to whip up the base.” — The Washington Post’s Megan McArdle

• “One of the first bits of nonverbal communication to appear in the debate was on JD Vance’s face: his beard. As POLITICO Magazine has noted before, Vance is the first White House wannabe to wear facial hair in 80 years. Our appearance is fundamental to our body language, and research indicates that voters see beards as (surprise, surprise) more masculine. That can be positive to some, reading as strength and competence. But to others, especially women, it can be negative, conveying aggression and opposition to feminist ideals.” — Politico’s Joe Navarro

• “How Hot Girls Became the Right’s New Obsession” — Newsweek headline

• “They will use the mechanisms of the DOJ to go after people who are their political foes. This is something that has never really happened in the history of this republic.” — Eric Holder, during an appearance on Jen Psaki’s show

• “I think she hates him. Okay, so we can all agree on that. That’s a given. I also think that she wants to take him out. She does not want to be the First Lady anymore. She does not want to be the First Lady. She destroyed the rose garden. Who hates Christmas? Melania Trump hates Christmas. She doesn’t want to decorate for Christmas, she doesn’t want to sleep in the same room as him, she can’t tolerate him.” — The View’s Sunny Hostin

• “Well, right now Trump is America’s dictator, right? I mean that’s what [Project 2025] is.” — Ben Rhodes, during an appearance on MSNBC

• “This is essentially tonight ‘big dad’ energy versus Hillbilly Elegy.” — ABC News’ Linsey Davis, speaking before the vice presidential debate

• “How can I or anyone take away a belief? You’re perfectly free to believe you’re a woman, but other people are free to know you’re a man.” — J.K. Rowling

• “There’s something oily about describing your kids, every time, as ‘beautiful.’” — Wired’s Virginia Heffernan

• “Don’t ask for the American dream if you’re not willing to obey American laws and embrace the American culture.” — Virginia Senate candidate Hung Cao

• “What [Trump] is telling his voters, his small—his share of extreme MAGA voters, these blacks are stealing the election. Black Haitians are violent cannibals. Black people are the enemy. Black people are going to be responsible if and when I lose. And you are permitted through my language to do violence to them, if necessary, to stop another peaceful transfer of power. Because he understands that he is not winning the election.” — MSNBC’s Joy Reid

• “We do not have the funds. FEMA does not have the funds to make it through the season and what — what is imminent.” — DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas; FEMA has spent more than $1.4 billion on illegal immigrants since the fall of 2022

• “This kind of move isn’t ugly politics, it’s flat-out bribery. Who is paying for all those French Laundry meals? Like Eric Adams and Bob Menendez, Gavin Newsom should be under investigation and possibly jailed.” — Matt Stoller, regarding Gavin Newsom signing a bill that extends alcohol sales to 4 AM only at the new L.A. Clippers arena. The wife of the L.A. Clippers owner recently donated $1 million to Newsom.

• “We got to keep this troglodyte out of office because if he comes in, our babies are gonna be in danger because, remember, we know children are gonna grow up with the memory of having to not go to school for the threat of bombs, and somebody told them that their moms and dads eat cats and dogs.” — MSNBC panelist Eddie Glaude, who nearly broke down in tears saying this

• “We put together a list of resources at 19th News for those looking to donate in the wake of Hurricane Helene. We focused on mutual aid groups and organizations on the ground that are helping LGBTQ+ people and people seeking an abortion.” — Jessica Kutz, who reports on “gender and climate” for 19th News

• “[Trump] has a hard time running against Vice President Harris because she’s a black woman. When he would tussle with the women that would ask him questions, our colleagues on the White House beat, reporters, he held his kind of most angry self for black women, right?” — Politico’s Eugene Daniels, speaking on MSNBC

• “Creeping Christian nationalism alert: Alaska Air flight attendant just wished us a ‘blessed’ night as we landed in SFO (!) to groans. Other adjectives that would have sufficed: great, awesome, fabulous, amazing, fantastic…” — Mother Jones editor-in-chief Clara Jeffery, whose Twitter history is teeming with examples of her using “God bless” and “blessed”

• “Institutional impunity is the chief characteristic of our current form of government.” — Matt Taibbi

• “You were handed 42 billion to expand broadband and didn’t connect a single person to the internet. I don’t care if Trump lost his own money. You lost mine.” — Cartoonist Seamus Coughlin, in response to Kamala Harris tweeting that “Donald Trump was handed $400 million on a silver platter and then filed for bankruptcy six times.”

• “I’m not feeling my best right now about where we are on Kamala Harris in a place like Michigan. We have her underwater in our polling.” — Rep. Elissa Slotkin (D-MI), during a virtual fundraiser with Sen. Cory Booker

• “You know, I’m not—I’m not a politician. I’m not an expert on various issues that we’re up against today. But I do know, I do feel strongly about who our leaders should be as an American citizen. And I would really like it if the discourse could become kinder and more effective. And I think that that will be the case with Kamala Harris and Tim Walz in office.” — Actress Julia Luis Dreyfuss, speaking on MSNBC

If you need to get past a paywall, try Archive Today or 12ft.io.

• “The Elite College Students Who Can’t Read Books,” from The Atlantic.

• A GQ piece by George Saunders based on a “field study” he conducted while living in a Fresno homeless encampment for a week.

• The Wall Street Journal: “Sorry, Harvard. Everyone Wants to Go to College in the South Now.”

• D Magazine: “Nancy and Frank Howard were happily married for three decades. Then he fell in love with another woman, embezzled $30 million, and hired a hit man to kill her.”

• A Buzzfeed story about an Australian cop who patrols, alone, a jurisdiction in the Australian Outback that’s roughly the size of the United Kingdom.

• “How a Michigan Farmer Made $4 Million Smuggling Rare Pez Containers Into the U.S.,” from Playboy.