FRIDAY short TAKES.

Feel like a chump yet? It’s fitting that a senile buffoon leads the party of lies.

When somebody tells you who he is ... "Who gives a speech warning  people how dangerous Republicans are to Democracy while having a background that looks like the Soviet Union and Hitler had a baby?"

The weekly roundup of pithy summations of Cold Spring Shops themes follows.

1.  Punish the Democrats with your vote.  Corona tyranny must be punished.

2.  Punish the Democrats with your vote.  Democrats aren’t tough on crime; they create it.

3.  Conservatives should be going after the real enemy.

4.  We are the Chumbolones.

5.  You play by the rules under Biden, and you get punished.

6.  Exactly.  "Trump handed the Senate to the Democrats with his 'stolen election' lunacy determining the December 2020 runoffs in Georgia."

7.  Not transgressive enough?  "Why are lesbians no longer welcome at Pride?"

8.  Good question.  "Was ignorance, economic stagnation, and violence the true American system?"

9.  The business model is "subprime party school?"  "Unselective colleges often enroll poorly prepared students who have trouble completing degrees or turning low-tech degrees into good jobs."

10.  Exactly.  "Students unprepared for college will fail or turn to adults who are not equipped"

11.  That was the point.  "The administration is creating a system where everyone involved in higher education has an incentive to fleece the American people."  We bear what follows.  "Amazing what a con they are pulling off…"

12.  Oberlin:  "You did the deed; you never even attempted an apology; you hired the airhead apparatchik dean who made the magic happen."

13.  Progressive totalitarianism.  "These people, so unctuous and self-righteous in their self-appointed role as defenders of what they call 'our democracy,' don’t even pretend to believe in actual democratic rule anymore."

14.  Diversity is our mediocrity.  Yup.

15.  The Puny Reality of Russian Election Meddling.

16.  Minnesota:  "In fact, our K-12 schools have failed students, particularly minority students, for decades, often in the name of equity."

17.  Reality.  For the children.  "What does appear to have changed [Leana Wen's] mind is that her child appears to have suffered from the mandates."  Tradeoffs, the most basic priciple in economics, for the win.

18.  Kicking the can down the road, notwithstanding.  "To understand administration, imagine being those other people."

19.  Bingo.  "Stop running deeply unpopular figures in volatile election environments."

20.  You're fired?  "If conservatives want to stop the Democrats from wrecking the country, and -- stay with me here -- actually do things to turn around America in decline, it is clear that they have to get Trump out of the way."