Insight: “The deterioration of every government begins with the decay of the principles on which it was founded.” —Charles de Montesquieu (1689-1755)

2020 in a nutshell: “Governors with the worst outbreaks are being hailed as heroes while governors with the most well contained outbreaks are villainized. Everything is upside down and backwards.” —Matt Walsh

Propaganda: “Since January, China has fought a tough battle against the novel coronavirus and made remarkable progress. In this unprecedented fight, China spared no expense to save lives. However, an unnecessary burden has been distracting our focus and undercutting international efforts to curb the virus: the absurd mind-set of ‘always blame China.’” —Chinese ambassador to the U.S. Cui Tiankai in a Washington Post op-ed

Braying jackass: “We’re not in a position to provide any subsidies right now because we have a $13 billion deficit. So there’s a lot of good things I’d like to do, and if we get federal funding, we can do, but it would be irresponsible for me to sit here looking at a $13 billion deficit and say I’m gonna spend more money, when I can’t even pay the essential services.” —New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo refusing tax breaks for non-residential healthcare workers

Alpha jackass: “We, of course, could have survived [COVID-19] much better if [the] idiot had done the right thing and listened and heeded all the warnings. There were many, many warnings. And we’re all paying for it now. It would have been bad maybe in some ways, but never like this.” —Robert De Niro, blaming President Trump

And last… “Governors and mayors have infected over 33 million Americans with joblessness, and it’s spreading. The vaccine: open the economy.” —Twitter’s @hale_razor