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.”
“Tulsi Gabbard as Director of National Intelligence? Putin must be shaking his head in disbelief at his luck! The payoff of Trump’s victory already has been beyond his wildest dreams!” — David Axelrod
“Why not cut out the middlewoman and just name Putin as director of national intelligence?” — David Frum
“According to Federal Election Commission filings, political donors listing their profession as human resources made 6,598 donations to Kamala Harris in this election cycle, and only 821 to the Trump campaign.” — The Atlantic’s Mike Pesca
“So, on election night I went to go pick up my daughter from water polo practice, and she’s 12, and she got in the car and she was crying. And I said ‘did someone punch you,’ water polo’s a rough sport. I was like ‘did someone hit you, did the coach yell at you, what happened.’ And she said ‘mom, Trump won. Trump’s gonna win. And what if I get raped and I need to have an abortion?’” — Democratic Rep. Katie Porter, during an appearance on The Issue Is
“We acknowledge that we are performing today at Rogers Centre, located on Treaty 13 lands. We acknowledge the First Nations, Inuit, and Metis peoples whose original and treaty territories we stand upon.” — A “land acknowledgement” statement projected on the stage before a Taylor Swift concert on Thursday
“I don’t know how the most accomplished presidency in modern presidential history can be all of a sudden turned into, you know, ‘the worst presidency ever.’” — MSNBC’s Mika Brzezinski
“How do we move forward when we know there are people and families who voted for [Trump], they work with people who voted for him, they live next to people who voted for him?” — MSNBC’s Jonathan Capehart
“I will do everything that I can to protect our undocumented immigrants. They are residents of our state.” — Illinois Governor JB Pritzker, speaking with MSNBC’s Joy Reid
“Trump is Musk’s client. Musk is Putin’s client. Putin is Xi’s client.” — Yale professor Timothy Snyder
“People felt quite strongly that they didn’t want to see immigrants sleeping in police stations, at airports. I don’t think we were clear enough by saying fewer people came in under President Biden than came under Donald Trump.” — Nancy Pelosi, in an interview with The New York Times
“When you take a reasonable, calculated risk to fuck around, embrace your culpability for what you found out.” — Sen. John Fetterman, on the Democrats replacing Biden with Harris
“Also, Latino men, who, despite the utter disrespect shown by Trump and his promise to deport some of your mixed-class, mixed-status families, most of them voted in a 55% majority to make the deportations happen. You all voted with Stephen Miller and David Duke and against your own sisters who chose Kamala Harris with 60% of their votes. So you own everything that happens to your mixed-status families and to your wives, sisters, and abuelas from here on in.” — MSNBC’s Joy Reid
“Lots of earnest ‘how did we lose Joe Rogan?’ takes from Democrats seemingly unaware that their party’s NGO minions (Media Matters / CCDH) AstroTurfed a pressure campaign against Spotify to deplatform or censor Rogan that was then endorsed by the Surgeon General and White House press secretary.” — Tablet’s Park MacDougald
“Joe Biden has been amazing but he should fulfill one last promise - to be transitional. Biden should resign and make Kamala Harris the first woman president.” — CNN’s Jamal Simmons
“I hope that Joe Biden makes the next ten weeks as consequential as he can. I don’t care about drawing outside the lines or what Republicans may think about it. This is within your purview. You can actually do it and you should do it. And you know, one more thing, John, is you have a hell of a vice president right there who has a legal pedigree to sit on the Supreme Court.” — CNN’s Bakari Sellers
“The Venn Diagram of MSNBC liberals who spent the last decade LARPing as White Saviors rescuing the Imperiled Browns from Big Orange, and the liberals who now openly fantasize about minorities being sent to the camps as punishment for voting for Trump is, unsurprisingly, a circle.” — Bates College professor Tyler Austin Harper
“I’m Gay, Engaged, and Terrified Trump Will Prevent My Wedding Next Year” — Vogue headline; Trump hosted a gay wedding at Mar-a-Lago this year
“Family is irreplaceable, especially parents. But replace ‘Trump’ with, say, ‘David Duke’ and ask: Would I want to hang out with my uncle or cousin who thinks David Duke is awesome? ‘Trump isn’t Duke’ isn’t an answer: He’s more dangerous. Some things transcend politics.” — The Atlantic’s Tom Nichols
“We need a primetime debate between Harris and Biden on whose fault it was that Trump won. Proceeds to charity. Commercials would sell at Super Bowl rates.” — National Review’s Charles Cooke
“The suggestion that the Department of Defense should be led by the host of Fox and Friends on weekends, his main contribution to society, is scary to our soldiers who need the best and brightest at the helm.” — Democratic Rep. Steve Cohen, regarding Pete Hegseth, who served in the Army for 20 years and deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan (two bronze stars), has experience in private enterprise, is a graduate of Princeton and Harvard, and has been a tireless advocate for veterans
If you need to get past a paywall, try Archive Today or 12ft.io.
The Atlantic: “The $30 Million Lottery Scam”
The Atlantic: “How the Ivy League Broke America”
Popular Mechanics: “How Three Amateurs Solved the Zodiac Killer’s ‘340’ Cipher”
The Los Angeles Time: “Is gold hidden under a California peak? This treasure map says so”
The Washington Post: “How Kamala Harris — and Joe Biden — lost to Donald Trump and left Democrats in shambles”
GQ: “Inside New Balance’s Plans to Topple the Global Sneaker Hierarchy”
The Chronicle of Higher Education: “Cheating Has Become Normal”
Katie Porter should start a wild-eyed ventriloquist act with her daughter, because that's how her stories play out:
- "Mom, the world is on fire and we're all gonna die,"
- "Mom, Trump won and now I'm a handmaiden with no bodily autonomy."
- "Mom, what do we do if Trump's tariffs increase the cost of imported materials because those taxes are passed along to the manufacturer and Apple stops making iPhones forever??"
Gawd, the quote from Dem Rep Katie Porter has to be one of the saddest, most pathetic, grotesque, deranged things I've read here....level after level of delusion, receding to infinity......