After a year of economic disaster due to Democrat-imposed lockdowns, what--if anything--have we learned?

As we near the one-year anniversary of our catastrophic experience with the Chinese virus--and in view of the totally incompetent leftist hacks Biden has appointed to his cabinet--it's way past time for Americans to take stock of what, if anything, we've learned.  Because there are LOTS of lessons here.

Hoo, boy!  LOTS of lessons. 

Seems as though we've seen ample evidence that Anthony Fauci--who was NOT appointed by Trump--is either incompetent or a fraud.  It's hard to imagine a better poster-child for a bloviating bureaucratic shill-bitch for the deep state.  After first claiming the virus was NOT a threat, Fauci later found and parroted statistics from a Brit professor that 2.2 million Americans would die from Wuhan coronavirus infections unless the nation embraced a bunch of draconian rules.  

Democrat governors eagerly seized on this "expert" to command all citizens to stay under house arrest and wear masks.  They shut down non-essential businesses (though somehow exempting liquor stores and marijuana "dispensaries."  The economy, which had been booming, tanked.  Thousands of small businesses went bankrupt.  Joblessness soared.

And Democrat politicians danced with glee.  The lockdowns had demolished one of Trump's greatest achievements.  

Trump didn't have the authority to tell governors how to run their states, so couldn't demand that they lift the lockdowns.  So while it was crazy to place healthy, law-abiding citizens under what amounted to house arrest, president Trump couldn't force the governors.  All he could do was to urge people who were more vulnerable to stay home, and let healthy people live normally, rather like we do each year with the flu.

President Trump took another huge hit when he mentioned a drug that had been used since 1938 or so to both treat and prevent malaria.  Hundreds of millions of people have taken it, including our troops in WW2.  Millions of Americans were taking it every day to combat lupus.  It's dirt-cheap and has virtually no side-effects.

The Democrats hated this news, since it had the potential to end their wonderful crisis, so they tipped their allies in the Mainstream Media to sneer that the president had urged Americans to "take an untried, dangerous drug."  Or to "inject bleach into themselves," or equally ridiculous crap.  But since millions of Americans stupidly believe whatever the Lying Mainstream Media bleats, the sneering, snarling attack built to a crescendo.

President Trump was also damaged by Birx, who was a staunch Democrat and undermined Trump whenever possible.  Birx joined the Dem mob in doing their best to panic Americans, following the advice of Obozo's chief of staff: “Never let a good crisis go to waste.” 

As the lockdowns stretched on, seemingly endlessly, owners of small businesses were devastated.  With no income, they went bankrupt and became totally dependent on government checks.  Politicians bleated "We’re all in this together,” But no politicians or staff were laid off.  In fact none ever missed a single paycheck, nor suffer any loss of benefits.

So-called "relief bills" cut checks to laid-off Americans, but also added billions in pure pork.  No politician complained, because the Media would destroy any pol who dared delay the bill to try to remove the pork

Higher unemployment and lockdowns backed by punishingly high fines caused rates of physical and mental abuse, substance abuse, and suicide to skyrocket.  Apparently Dems and progressives never feel remorse for the consequences of their harmful actions because no one has expressed any regret for the lockdowns and fines.  In fact, they're getting nastier about 'em every day.

Throughout 2020 the Mainstream Media kept screaming that anyone who refused the orders to stay inside, and wear masks everywhere else, were trying to kill other citizens--even though the numbers were now solidly showing that the Chinese virus was less deadly than the flu.  Instead of discussing alternatives and searching for better solutions, the Media relentlessly praised the most restrictive government actions as heroic, wonderful, necessary.

After the CDC released official statistics showing the survivability rate was 99.98 percent for people younger than 50 years old, the Lying Mainstream Media ignored it.  Cases like the one of the Florida motorcyclist death in a traffic accident being classified as "Covid" didn't get much play, just like the revelation that the feds would pay health care providers $33,500 if a death was attributed to the virus, but about a tenth of that sum for other causes of death.

As of November, no refereed science or medical journals published studies indicating public mask-wearing effectively reduced coronavirus infection. However, journals published dozens of studies on mask types, materials, virus dimensions versus pore sizes, and droplet propagation densities and distances after speaking, coughing, or sneezing.

Last March Fauci claimed masks were NOT effective against viral infections. But within weeks, without disavowing his earlier assertion, Fauci urged mandatory mask-wearing.  Interesting, total reversal.  Fauci also claimed asymptomatic people could spread the virus, yet a study from China (yeah, I know) claims that doesn't happen.  The Mainstream Media ignored the contradiction, and senile Biden boasted that he would order mask-wearing in every state for the first 100 days of his co-presidency.

Data invariably show higher infection rates if you confine people indoors.  Yet very few of the Democrat-ordered lockdowns have been lifted.  The Mainstream Media resolutely ignore any study that reports higher infections among locked-down populations.

Last year’s fascist experience was a trial run.  Democrats found, as expected, that by having their Media allies scream that millions would DIE unless Americans did exactly as the Dems demanded, people would obey insane, counterproductive laws, even if it resulted in their losing their jobs and businesses.

The results of this trial have shown Democrats (socialists) that if they redouble the Media scream that American use of energy is killing the planet (global warming), people will give up using the energy that makes our lives so great compared to countries that don't have low-cost energy.  

With Democrat co-presidents and control of both chambers of congress, Democrat leaders will use the same tactics for climate change, enacting the Green New Deal.  And a majority of American sheep will cheerfully obey, just as they've done with the virus.

H/T to (and heavily edited from)  Whitson G. Waldo, III  at American Thinker