Insight: “A world of unseen dictatorship is conceivable, still using the forms of democratic government.” —Kenneth Boulding (1910-1993)

Political futures: “The problem that Democrats have is that they have accepted — and celebrated — the people making a comprehensive case against the police as systematically racist. This argument doesn’t naturally allow for nuance. In fact, it logically entails calling for fewer cops and less police funding, an agenda that will be hard to sell to most people in the best of circumstances but is toxic in an environment of rising crime. Black Lives Matter has already been losing support in the polls, while trust in the police has been rising. Things would have to get much worse for crime to become as central an issue as it was in the 1970s. But Democrats who aren’t alarmed that reporters are dodging bullets at the George Floyd memorial are temping political fate.” —Rich Lowry

Re: The Left: “No one seemed upset when President-elect Joe Biden claimed Ted Cruz was a latter-day Goebbels spreading the ‘Big Lie.’ If challenging the legitimacy of an election is tantamount to fascistic disinformation, Democrats have been running the Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda for the past five years.” —David Harsanyi

Re: the ChiCom Virus: “If you follow the money, you usually get to the bottom of things. In this case, when you get to the bottom of things the world population will find out that their governments approved a level 4 biolab that can produce biological weapons for China — the world’s number one enemy of freedom. And so far, 3.4 million human beings have died because of it.” —Michael Reagan

For the record: “Despite criticism of the pharmaceutical industry, sometimes well deserved, it represents a source of incredible innovation. Drug development has contributed to increasing life expectancy and quality of life for millions. Innovation in the industry is done at risk with no guarantee of success. According to the Tufts Center for the Study for Drug Development, it takes approximately $2.6 billion and from 12 to 15 years for a drug to go from development to FDA approval. Each new drug then has only five years of patent exclusivity. In addition, only five of 5,000 compounds that enter pre-clinical trials make it to human testing. From those five, only one is approved. Vegas has better odds. Business takes risk with the idea of a greater reward. IP protection in any industry is the insurance policy for the risk. Waiving IP protection, even in the extraordinary circumstances of a global pandemic, will dampen a willingness to take risk in the pharmaceutical industry, lessening innovation, and potentially depriving future generations of medical advances.” —Richard D. Kocur

And last… “If you took President Xi Jinping and turned him upside down and shook him, the World Health Organization would fall out of his pocket.” —Senator John Kennedy