FRIDAY short TAKES.

Humble them!  "Democrats have become more unfriendly to deplorables, I mean normal people."  That's their nature.  "Democrats have a penchant for treating voters, especially their base, with contempt and condescension."  They're miserable, so you should be, too.  "[Leftists] can flatten the bubbles out of a case of champagne at 50 paces."  They've learned nothing.  "Democrats have eagerly returned to their criminal-coddling roots."

The weekly roundup of pithy elaborations on traditional Cold Spring Shops themes follows.

1.  Borrowing less money is still borrowing money.  "By Biden’s standard, President Harry Truman is the greatest budget-cutter in American history simply because he was in office when World War II (and its military costs) ended."

2.  First vote.  Then investigate.  "How the United States went from an energy-exporting nation with a booming economy, low gas prices and no new foreign wars to an energy-short nation with a stagnating economy, soaring prices for gas (and everything else) facing a potential nuclear confrontation with Russia deserves some looking into."

3.  Ist's nicht ein Schlachterfrau?  "Smug, arrogant, and appealing to the morally superior set in a way that grates on people like me, Whitmer still seemed ready to cruise to victory."  (Yes, that's a second link to the same essay.)

4.  Unforced error?  "As a socialist city councilmember who has participated in Black Lives Matter protests, I am being told that my case of six threatening incidents involving human excrement doesn’t merit even a serious investigation, let alone protection."

5.  "Neurodivergent" is a fancy way of saying "nutso."  "As easy as they are to hate, these adult children are damaged goods — confused overgrown kids who had their futures stolen by multinational bankers and their mental health wrecked by weird social engineering schemes in public school."

6.  Change the subject and declare victory.  “Yes, we missed our inflation targets but we did hit our target for hiring Native American women, and our target of reducing our carbon impact by replacing the Fed motor vehicle fleet with electric cars and trucks. So two out of three is not bad.”  Sounds like a Buckwheat briefing, doesn't it?

7.  Norms emerged for a reason.  "It's worked before, and it works still. I will not surrender it simply because you demand that I do so."

8.  You could always be in Portland.  "Preservation of civilized norms requires preservation of civilization, and our civilization has been viciously undermined by the Left for many years. Liberals have sown the wind and are reaping the whirlwind. I doubt that there is much they can do about it."

9.  The Gods of the Copybook Headings limped up to explain it once more.  "Modern society is impossible if the most talented intellectuals exit the gene pool."

10.  Environmentalist wackos.  "Smart move: people are starving, so let’s have a food fight in an art museum."

11.  In the 1930s, Wisconsin was the world leader in high-speed trains.

12.  How far they’ve fallen in just 14 days.  This one is on Brian.