Quotes and Links

A week in review

Joe Biden speaks during an event on the Ukraine Compact at the NATO Summit in Washington, Thursday, July 11, 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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• “Like President Trump, I haven’t looked all that deeply at Project 2025, but it seems that Democrats on this committee are sort of like Peter Pan and Tinkerbell. If they say Project 2025, enough, their presidential candidate becomes alive again.” — The Daily Wire’s Ben Shapiro, testifying during Wednesday’s Judiciary Committee hearing on “Collusion in the Global Alliance for Responsible Media.” 

• “They taught us that we could do anything and should never be burdened by the limitations of other people to be able or not be able to see what can be. And this is that community who understands and can see what is possible, unburdened by what has been.” — Kamala Harris, speaking at a campaign event in Greensboro, North Carolina.

• “Democrats go public with fears of GOP ‘landslide’ that could jeopardize US democracy” — CNN headline

• “That the sheep are still on the air, dispensing undiminished certitudes, is evidence of two things. That — outside of a few bastions of meritocracy and accountability, such as professional sports — there is no penalty for failure in contemporary America. And that many prominent people have the scary strength that comes from being incapable of embarrassment.” — The Washington Post’s George Will, on the media accomplices that assisted the White House in maintaining “the fiction of Biden’s competency.”

• “They’re trying to institute Nazism 2.0 in the United States. Christo-fascism.” — Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-TX), in a video message to black voters.

• “This is about keeping white, male, and Christian dominance out!” — MSNBC’s Joy Reid, in yet another rant posted on her TikTok. She also said “By the way, if it’s Biden in a coma, Imma vote for Biden in a coma.”

• “This election isn’t going to just be a referendum on Biden and his cognitive decline, but on the gaslighting and fraud perpetrated by Democrats on American voters in promoting Biden.” — Hot Air’s Ed Morrissey

• “It’s not every day you get to sit in a stealth bomber, talk to the President of the United States, and change a diaper.” — Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas, in a now deleted tweet.

• “This is the 2024 version of the Jim Crow poll tax.” — Rep. Jennifer McClellan (D-VA), regarding the SAVE Act, which aims to prevent illegal immigrants from voting in U.S. elections by requiring proof of citizenship.

• “They’re literally importing Democratic voters. They think by allowing the borders to be porous, and by giving people aid, and giving people housing that you’re essentially guaranteeing that if you can rig it so those people are allowed to vote, those people are going to vote Democratic. And if you can say, ‘Oh, voter ID is racist…’ Like, what!?” — Joe Rogan

• “So, essentially if Biden ends up running, potentially the Democrats could lose the Senate, the House, and the White House. And it’s going to be a bloodbath.” — DNC delegate Rishi Kumar, during an interview on CNN. There was no uproar about his use of the word “bloodbath.”

• “Whatever else can be said about crooked Joe Biden, you have to give him credit for one brilliant decision: picking Kamala Harris as his vice president was the greatest insurance policy of all time. If Joe had picked someone even halfway competent, they would have bounced him from his office years ago.” — Donald Trump, at a campaign rally in Miami, Florida.

• “Watching new episodes of Cops with my mom (one of her favorite shows). In the old episodes, felons used to be stoic. In the newest seasons every third offender will resist arrest but then starts crying and screaming ‘You’re hurting me’ ‘Ow my elbow’ or when cops ask why they started running they reply ‘I ran because you were chasing me and I feared for my life’ etc. Now even criminals embrace victimhood mentality. Sad.” — Author Rob Henderson

• “Donald Trump is on track, I think, to win this election — and maybe win it by a landslide — and take with him the Senate and the House.” — Sen. Michael Bennet (D-CO), during an interview on CNN.

• “Scorched by history: Discriminatory past shapes heat waves in minority and low-income neighborhoods” — AP headline

• “Now, I want to hand it over to the president of Ukraine, who has as much courage as he has determination. Ladies and gentleman, President Putin.” — Joe Biden, speaking at the NATO Summit on Thursday. He also referred to Kamala Harris as “Vice President Trump.”

• “Have you seen any evidence that the Russians have tried to seize on the debate performance and repeat some of the president’s most embarrassing moments?” — NYT’s David Sanger, who posed the question to Karine Jean-Pierre during Tuesday’s White House press briefing.

• “This is like living in East Germany, but with social media. It’s wild.” — Matt Taibbi, regarding author Don Winslow appearing to threaten Democrat Senator Mark Warner on Twitter after reporting revealed Warner was organizing a group of Senators to talk to Biden about his candidacy.

• “What I find interesting is that the issue is more around ageism and ableism, and not what this president, President Biden, has done.” — Rep. Steven Horsford (D-NV), during an interview with CNN.

• “What kind of sick fuck are you? Either do your job or quit but literally no one wants whatever the fuck this is. THIS IS ABOUT OUR DEMOCRACY! On a personal level, this is about my family’s future and safety. This is not a football game.” — Rachel Vindman, wife of Alexander Vindman (Trump impeachment whistleblower), in response to a tweet from Politico’s Rachael Bade that simply said “This week on Capitol Hill is gonna be lit.”

• “Journalists would rather look like idiots than admit they helped advance a lie. But dumb isn’t better than dishonest, especially when you’re pretending dishonestly to be dumb.” — Babylon Bee’s Seth Dillon

• “Viewers of Fox News understood the president’s condition better than our audiences, which ought to be a huge wake-up call for us. We don’t have the exact problem conservatives imagine, but we do have a problem. And the only way to fix it is to add more viewpoint diversity to our newsrooms.” — The Washington Post’s Megan McArdle

• “The day after the election in 2016, I went to a SoulCycle in Chelsea where the instructor said ‘this isn’t going to be a normal ride. We’re just going to feel all of our emotions’ and then played Jeff Buckley’s Hallelujah for 45 minutes.” — Ben Dreyfuss, former editorial director of Mother Jones.

• “The inability of conservatives to not do this type of shit is a potentially major upside to elevating Harris.” — Politico’s Sam Stein, in reference to a New York Post story about how Kamala Harris would be the country’s first ever DEI president.

• “The mysterious tyranny of trendy baby names,” from The Washington Post.

• An ESPN story on how “The Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race pushes participants to the brink on an unforgiving trek to the end of the world.”

• The New Yorker: “How a Homegrown Teen Gang Punctured the Image of an Upscale Community”

• A Harper’s article that dives into the grisly mechanical details of how the President of the United States orders a nuclear reprisal.

• “How Liberal College Campuses Benefit Conservative Students,” from The Atlantic.

• The Wall Street Journal: “How Biden’s Inner Circle Worked to Keep Signs of Aging Under Wraps”

• Another WSJ piece on “How DEI Becomes Discrimination.”