Quotes of the Week
Plus links to some of the best articles and essays.
Note for new subscribers: On Fridays I send out a post with a list of 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.”
“We call them undocumented immigrants.” — MSNBC’s Alex Witt, correcting her own colleague for saying “illegal aliens”
“The number of children in England diagnosed with gender dysphoria has risen 50-fold over the past decade, research shows.” — Eleanor Hayward, Health Editor at The Times
“The Biden people, being wrong about almost everything, decided to sanctify error. They were the keepers of reality, owners of the truth, and they told us, over and over again, ‘Error is truth’—and they insisted we repeat it until we got it right.” — Former CIA analyst Martin Gurri
“Trump is a petulant child.” — MSNBC’s Katie Phang, on Trump threatening to impose penalties on Colombia for refusing to take back illegal immigrants
“One thing about me is that I will fight Nazis until I’m six feet in the ground.” — Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
“The GOP has turned a 11 point deficit on who Americans trust on immigration in Trump’s first term at roughly this point into a 22 point lead right now. Moreover, the percentage who say we’re on the right track on immigration is up 23 points under Trump than it was under Biden.” — CNN’s Harry Enten
“Everything Trump is doing makes sense when you think ‘What would Putin want?’” — Lincoln Project’s Stuart Stevens
“That White House is being ran in one of the most raggedy forms of government that I’ve ever seen. If anybody is questioning whether or not what our country would have looked like had the Confederacy won, there should be no question now.” — Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson
“The scale of Biden’s executive spending is hard to convey. The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget estimated that Biden’s executive actions added up to $1.4 trillion to the deficit. For comparison, it estimated that Trump’s executive actions in his first term added $13 billion to the deficit, or about 1 percent of Biden’s amount.” — City Journal’s Judge Glock
“We spent three days, you know, debating, having them trying to debate whether President Musk gave a Nazi salute. Of course he did!” — Tim Walz, during an appearance on Rachel Maddow’s show
“I think that she’s probably been put in there because according to Donald Trump, she’s a 10. You know that’s what it is.” — The View’s Joy Behar, regarding new White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt
“A majority of white people voted for this. This is the disgusting version of America that people want. And, oh, by the way, eggs are still more expensive. So you didn’t even get that. Great job, white folks.” — MSNBC’s Elie Mystal
“The pulling down of portraits and forced erasing the past is a reminder—check your 20th century history about what kind of regimes do this stuff.” — The New Yorker’s Susan Glasser, on the Trump administration removing retired Gen. Mark Milley’s portrait from the Pentagon
“Only one thing for Dems to do - quadruple down on calling everyone Nazi.” — CNN’s Scott Jennings, regarding the new Quinnipiac poll showing that only 31% of voters have a favorable view of the Democratic Party (lowest ever, with only 22% of men saying they have a positive impression of the party), while 57% of voters have a favorable view of the Republican Party (highest ever)
“I almost think it’s worse than the Civil War folks who were pardoned back then to try to unite the country.” — MSNBC’s Tara Setmayer, on Trump’s January 6 pardons
“I can’t wait until American women can’t put blueberries in their smoothies.” — Democratic strategist Jenna Arnold, during a CNN panel on deportations
“I also want to make a point that an undocumented immigrant is not a criminal because he or she is undocumented. That is a civil offense. So to call people ‘illegals’ is in and of itself, I think, xenophobic and racist and incorrect.” — The View’s Sunny Hostin. This is false: overstaying a visa is a civil infraction, but crossing the border illegally is indeed a crime (misdemeanor), and illegal re-entry after deportation is a felony
“Gosh, I remember when we had an actual president instead of a loudmouth bully who won’t take responsibility for his actions.” — Stephen King
“One of the dumbest phrases in military history is ‘our diversity is our strength.’ Our diversity is NOT our strength — our unity and our shared purpose is our strength.” — Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth
“Similarities to what happened in Germany, and what’s happening now in America, are just undeniable. History may not repeat verbatim, but it sure does rhyme.” — MSNBC’s Joy Reid, in a two minute clip comparing deportations under the Trump administration to the Holocaust
“Dear Republicans, grocery prices are UP. Gas prices are UP. And soon prescription drug costs will be UP. You. Got. Fucking. Played. By. Trump. Again.” — Author Don Winslow
“If you are under 35 and you try to Newyorksplain me how urban crime isn’t a big deal to people who know how to live in a city, I am going to call your mother and tell her to fetch you back to Ohio before you get yourself in a predicament.” — The Washington Post’s Megan McArdle
If you need to get past a paywall, try Archive Today or 12ft.io.
The Atlantic: “The Con Man Who Became a True-Crime Writer”
Rolling Stone: “The Private Firefighters On Call for the Californians Who Can Afford Them”
New York Times Magazine: “Do Our Dogs Have Something to Tell the World?”
N.S. Lyons: “Taiwan: Trump’s Most Dangerous Global Challenge”
Asterisk: “Chimes at Midnight”
Wired: “He Thought He Could Outfox the Gig Economy. He Was Wrong”
Curbed: “The House on West Clay Street”
The Wall Street Journal: “Democrats Joke About Moving to Canada Post-Trump. These People Actually Did It.”
Once again, thanks for listening so we don't have to!
That Alex Witt "correction" of the correspondent -- "We call them 'undocumented immigrants'," as opposed to "illegal aliens" is a fine example of what Helen Dale and Lorenzo Warby call a "piety display." Here's the relevant passage from their Substack essay:
"The prestige opinion/luxury belief/linguistic taboos pattern of ostentatious verbal sensitivity is much better described as piety display than virtue signalling. First, because it lacks the character or effort implied by virtue. Second, it lacks the cost element implied by signal, as biologists or economists use the term. On the contrary, the social cost often comes from not engaging in such display. What we are dealing with is control of the legitimacy of discourse based on a mixture of required affirmations and not noticings."
The correspondent paid the cost of not signaling her in-group loyalty to a group -- elite liberals -- that uses illegal aliens as "moral mascots."