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In the News
NEWS
New York Gov. Andrew
Cuomo has responded to
criticism after reports sug-
gested that his administra-
tion attempted to delay the
release of COVID-19 death
counts in state-run health
care facilities. ... A2
Six out of 10 Americans
believe the country needs a
third political party to jockey
with Republicans and Demo-
crats because those parties
are doing such a poor job, a
survey finds. ... A5
Four people in Oregon have
tested positive for COVID-19
after receiving both doses of
a vaccine, health officials say.
... A7
The York County Repub-
lican Party in Pennsylvania
has voted to censure Sen. Pat
Toomey for his vote to con-
vict former President Donald
Trump during his second im-
peachment trial. ... A7
President Joe Biden has
approved an emergency
declaration for the state of
Texas in response to severe
winter weather throughout
the state. ... A6
Democrats used the im-
peachment of former Presi-
dent Donald Trump as a tool
to paint all of his supporters
with the brush of Capitol
breach-related criminality,
Rep. Mike Johnson says. ...A8
Iran says that it will block
snap inspections by the U.N.
nuclear watchdog from next
week if other parties to the
2015 nuclear deal don’t up-
hold their obligations. ... A11
Several Democrat law-
makers say that calling wit-
nesses wouldn’t have made
a difference in the outcome
of Trump’s second impeach-
ment trial. ... A8
CHINA
Miles Yu, former adviser on
China to Secretary of State
Mike Pompeo, explains why
the free world needs a new
approach to dealing with
Beijing’s threats. ... A1
Australia, the United King-
dom, the United States, Ja-
pan, and the Netherlands will
join forces for naval exercises
in the Indo-Pacific region this
spring, as they seek to coun-
ter China’s aggression. ... A9
BUSINESS
Canceling the government
debt held by the European
Central Bank would threaten
the eurozone’s solvency and
credit credibility, economist
David Lacalle writes. ... A17
OPINION
Ryan Moffatt: Missing From
the WEF’s Great Reset: A
Moral Compass... A13
Austin Bay: Will the Biden
Administration Undermine
the Abraham Accords?... A14
Rick Fisher: Is China Prepar-
ing to Blitz the Moon?...A16
LIFESTYLE
Remembering George
Washington, and Valley
Forge, in light of his upcom-
ing birthday on Feb. 22. ...B1
“The family that prays to-
gether, stays together” was
a phrase made famous by
Patrick Peyton. A new docu-
mentary tells the priest’s
story. ...B7
DON’T DELAY.
SUBSCRIBE TODAY.
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Published in New York,
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| T U E S D A Y, F E B . 16 , 2 0 21
CONGRESS
Democrats Face Roadblocks to
Hiking Minimum Wage to $15
Small-business owners say they would be forced to lay off workers;
others say the increase doesn’t take into account regional differences
BY EMEL AKAN
W
ASHINGTON—Democrats have
come closer than ever to achiev-
ing a long-sought-after minimum
wage increase, although opposition
is growing against the inclusion of
a nationwide wage floor of $15 an
hour in the forthcoming coronavi-
rus relief package.
Small-business owners in par-
ticular will breathe a sigh of relief
if the proposal to increase federal
minimum wage fails to pass Con-
gress as part of the economic res-
cue plan.
The federal government last
raised the minimum wage in 2009,
to $7.25. President Joe Biden’s relief
plan includes a proposal to increase
the minimum wage to $15 an hour
over five years, with increases of
nearly $1.50 each year.
Sens. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.)
and Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) have
already expressed concerns about
including the provision in the $1.9
trillion relief package.
“The minimum wage provision
is not appropriate for the recon-
ciliation process. It is not a budget
RELIGIOUS FREEDOM
Maine
Church Asks
Supreme
Court
to Relax
Pandemic
Restrictions
CHINESE REGIME
Free World Should Draw ‘Red Line’ Against Communist China: Former Adviser to Pompeo
BY CATHY HE & JAN JEKIELEK
The world needs to wake up to the
Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP)
bullying tactics and set rules to de-
ter the regime’s aggressions, the
China adviser to former U.S. Sec-
retary of State Mike Pompeo says.
Miles Yu, a Chinese-born aca-
demic who helped shape the
Trump administration’s China
policy, called out the CCP’s tactic Miles Yu, former senior China policy adviser to Secretary of State Mike
Continued on A9
Accuracy The Epoch Times was founded in 2000 as an independent newspaper with the goal to restore accuracy and
integrity in media. We have received numerous awards for our reporting, including from the Society of Professional
& Integrity Journalists, the Society for News Design, and the New York Press Association.
Truth & Tradition
Labor leaders, workers, and activists attend a rally supporting
a $15 minimum hourly wage, in New York on July 22, 2015.
Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.V.) speaks during a hearing on Capitol Hill
in Washington on Jan. 27, 2021.
item. And it shouldn’t be in there,”
Sinema told Politico on Feb. 12.
Democrats in both chambers of
Congress on Feb. 5 passed a bud-
get resolution to start a reconcilia-
tion process that would bypass the
60-vote threshold for legislation. If
they can stick together, Democrats
can pass the COVID-19 relief pack-
age without Republican support.
Continued on A2
BY MATTHEW VADUM
A Maine church is asking the Su-
preme Court to put Maine Gov. Ja-
net Mills’s strict pandemic-related
restrictions on places of worship on
hold while it appeals an unfavorable
ruling from a lower court, arguing
the high court has already forced
some lower courts to comply with
its recent rulings loosening such
restrictions.
The emergency application in the
case, known as Calvary Chapel of
Bangor v. Mills, asks the high court
to stop the Democratic governor’s
clampdown on churches, which
the church’s lawyers describe as Continued on A3
Pompeo, in Annapolis, Md., on Feb. 11, 2021.
VOL . X V I I I | NO. 2,898 $1.
SPENCER PLATT/GETTY IMAGES
CONGRESS
House
Republicans
Demand
Answers From
Pelosi on Jan. 6
Security Failures
BY MARK TAPSCOTT
Ranking Republicans on four key
House committees concerned
with security at the Capitol com-
plex are demanding answers from
Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi
(D-Calif.) about her actions before,
during, and after the Jan. 6 breach
of the Capitol building.
“It has been widely reported and
confirmed by multiple sources that
when [then-Capitol Hill Police]
Chief [Steven] Sund requested the
National Guard be activated ahead
Continued on A5
GUN RIGHTS
Biden Won’t
Undo the 2nd
Amendment in
Texas: AG Paxton
Biden has called on
JIM WATSON/POOL/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES lawmakers to enact
‘commonsense gun
law reforms’
BY TOM OZIMEK
Texas Attorney General Ken Pax-
ton responded to the push to re-
strict gun rights by President Joe
Biden, who on the Feb. 14 anniver-
sary of the mass shooting at a Park-
land, Florida, high school called on
Congress to impose tougher laws
on ownership of firearms.
“The Parkland shooting 3 years
ago was an act of unspeakable
evil,” Paxton wrote in a tweet late
Feb. 14. “But Democrats cannot be
allowed to use this tragedy as an
opportunity to cram down unhelp-
ful and unconstitutional gun laws.”
The minimum wage “Biden won’t undo the #2A in TX
on my watch,” the Republican at-
provision is not torney general said, referring to the
appropriate for Second Amendment.
the reconciliation Feb. 14 marked three years since
former Marjory Stoneman Doug-
process. las High School student Nikolas
Cruz opened fire at the Parkland,
Sen. Kyrsten Sinema
Florida, campus, killing 17 people
and leaving another 17 wounded.
Continued on A7
“the most severe restrictions in the CCP VIRUS
nation on places of worship,” and
CDC Director
would deal with a Dec. 22, 2020, rul-
ing against the church by the U.S.
Explains Changes to
Court of Appeals for the 1st Circuit.
“Calvary Chapel of Bangor and all
houses of worship have special pro-
School Distancing
tections under the First Amendment Recommendation
and cannot be unequally treated or BY ZACHARY STIEBER
relegated to second class status,”
Mat Staver, founder and chairman The director of the Centers for
of public interest law firm Liberty
Counsel, said in a statement.
Disease Control and Prevention
(CDC) defended telling educators
“The U.S. Supreme Court has al-
ready ruled against these uncon-
last year that social distancing in
schools of three feet was “quite
stitutional worship bans and Gov-
ernor Janet Mills has continued to
safe,” while new reopening guid-
ance from her agency says six feet
Continued on A8
CAPITOL HILL
MCCLAIN ASKS WHY
NATIONAL GUARD COULD
TAL ATZMON/THE EPOCH TIMES
REMAIN DEPLOYED IN DC
“We have
received
zero
information,
zero,” Rep.
Lisa McClain
said.
Read more on A4
A2 | NATION TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 2021

Democrats Face Roadblocks to Minimum Wage Increase

CHIP SOMODEVILLA/GETTY IMAGES

CONTINUED FROM A1 “While minimum wage propo-

One-third of small-business
owners indicated they would likely
lay off workers if the minimum
wage rises to $15 an hour, accord-
ing to a recent survey by CNBC-
SurveyMonkey.
Opponents of raising the mini-
mum wage argue that any increase
should take into account regional
differences.
Small-business owners in the
Pacific region (California, Oregon,
and Washington) and the mid-
Atlantic (New Jersey, New York,
and Pennsylvania) are generally
supportive of a $15 federal mini-
mum wage, as most of these states
already have a $15 wage floor or
close to that level. So these busi-
nesses won’t feel much pressure to
comply with the proposed change.
The minimum wage will more
than double in states such as
Mississippi and Georgia if the na-
tionwide minimum wage floor is
applied. There are no studies that
show how these steep increases
could affect the economies of these
states, according to Julia Pollak, a
labor economist with ZipRecruiter,
an online recruitment market-
place.
“The cost of housing ranges
sixfold across U.S. states. And of
course, it ranges even more with-
in states and across cities. And so
when you have a country that has
such vast differences in the cost
of living, perhaps it doesn’t make
sense to have one federal standard
for everywhere,” Pollak told NTD
Business.
Alternatively, the government
Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) (R) leaves following a vote at the U.S. Capitol in Washington on May 18, 2020.
could have a federal standard that
is tied to the cost of living in a par-
A $15 minimum ticular area, she added.
wage would be a job The Congressional Budget Of-
and small business fice estimated that a federal $15
minimum wage mandate would
killer at the worst lift 900,000 people out of poverty
possible time. but also result in the loss of 1.4 mil-
lion jobs nationwide by 2025.
Alfredo Ortiz, Conservative groups such as Job
president and CEO, Creators Network (JCN) criticize
Job Creators Network
Democrats for putting their po-
litical goals before the nation’s 30
million small businesses.
They urge Biden to focus on poli-
cies that boost economic growth
instead of raising the minimum
wage. The pro-growth policies of
the Trump administration lift-
ed 6.6 million people out of poverty
between 2017 and 2019, accord-
ing to “The Economic Report of the
President” released in January.
“The economic facts are clear:
A $15 minimum wage would be a
job and small-business killer at the
worst possible time as the econ-
omy remains stuck in first gear,”
Alfredo Ortiz, JCN’s president and
CEO, said in a statement.
nents claim the few-year imple-
mentation of the wage hike would
dull its negative impact, they over-
look that the first step on the ramp
to $15 is a massive 31 percent in-
crease on June 1st, 2021,” he noted,
adding that small businesses have
only a couple of months to find
out how they can absorb this ad-
ditional cost.
There are concerns that the de-
bate over minimum wage could
further deepen divisions among
Democrats and block them from
getting to the finish line.
The first opposition within
Democrats to increasing mini-
mum wage came from Manchin,
a moderate Democrat.
“I’m supportive of an increase
that’s responsible and reasonable,
and in my state, that’s $11,” Man-
chin told reporters, adding that the
rate could be adjusted for inflation.
The votes of Manchin and Sine-
ma are pivotal. Without their
support, Biden’s economic rescue
package will fail in the Senate,
which is divided 50-50 between
the parties. There’s also a proce-
dural issue related to the so-called
Byrd Rule, which will determine
whether the minimum wage can
be a part of the reconciliation bill.
“We’re, kind of, smack in the
middle of the sausage-making of
legislating, and we will see where
it ends up on the other side,” White
House press secretary Jen Psa-
ki told reporters on Feb. 12.
“The president remains commit-
ted to raising the minimum wage
and he will continue to advocate
that at every opportunity.”

JOHN MINCHILLO/AP PHOTO

Cuomo Former GOP Sen. Flake in Touch

Defends
New York’s
Response
After NY Post
Report on
Nursing Home
Deaths
JACK PHILLIPS
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo
on Feb. 15 responded to the
growing criticism of his handling
of the CCP virus situation in the
state’s nursing homes, coming
after several reports were pub-
lished that suggested the admin-
istration attempted to delay the
release of COVID-19 death in-
formation from state-run health
care facilities.
Cuomo said there
was no connection
between the nurs-
ing home ques-
tions and emer-
gency powers that
he used.
“The New York State Depart-
ment of Health fully and pub-
licly reported all COVID deaths
in nursing homes and hospitals.
They have always been fully re-
ported,” Cuomo said during a
news conference.  “We paused
the state legislature’s request.
We voluntarily complied with the
[Department of Justice’s] request
for information. Two very differ-
ent things.”
“Nursing homes have the most
vulnerable populations, we know
that.”
Cuomo said there was no con-
nection between the nursing
home questions and emergency
powers that he used.
Cuomo, a Democrat, said that
“all deaths in nursing homes and
hospitals were fully, publicly, and
accurately reported,” adding that
there was a “delay in providing
A patient is loaded into the back of an ambulance by emergency medi-
cal workers outside Cobble Hill Health Center in Brooklyn, N.Y., on April
17, 2020.
the press and the public with
providing all that additional in-
formation.”
“The truth is everybody did the
best they could,” he said. “The
truth is it was the middle of a
terrible pandemic. The truth is,
COVID attacks older people. The
truth is, with all we know, people
still die.”
Last week, more than a dozen
Democratic lawmakers called for
the removal of Cuomo’s powers
after a New York Post report re-
vealed that his administration
allegedly covered up nursing
home death data and apologized
to state Democratic lawmakers in
a private conference call.
“While COVID-19 has tested
the limits of our people and
state—and, early during the pan-
demic, required the government
to restructure decision making
to render rapid, necessary pub-
lic health judgments—it is clear
that the expanded emergency
powers granted to the Governor
are no longer appropriate,” the
14 Democrats said. “While the
executive’s authority to issue di-
rectives is due to expire on April
30, we urge the Senate to advance
and adopt a repeal as expedi-
tiously as possible.”
The NY Post reported that it
obtained an audio recording of
a conference call in which Sec-
retary to the Governor Melissa
DeRosa allegedly told Demo-
cratic lawmakers that Cuomo’s
administration withheld the
nursing home death toll figures
because they might be “used
against us” by the Trump admin-
istration’s Department of Justice.
When officials learned about
Justice Department’s investiga-
tion, “we froze,” said DeRosa, ac-
cording to the NY Post.
“So, we do apologize,” she
added. “I do understand that you
were put in ... that political posi-
tion with the Republicans.”
Cuomo’s office didn’t deny that
DeRosa made the comments.
DeRosa, in confirming her re-
marks, said in a Feb. 12 statement
that she “was explaining that
when we received the DOJ in-
quiry, we needed to temporarily
set aside the Legislature’s request
to deal with the federal request
first. We informed the houses of
this at the time.”
“We were comprehensive and
transparent in our responses to
the DOJ, and then had to im-
mediately focus our resources
on the second wave and vaccine
rollout,” she said.
Last month, Attorney General
Letitia James released a report
that found the state may have
underreported nursing home
deaths by as much as 50 percent.
Cuomo was lauded earlier on in
the pandemic for his state’s re-
sponse, eventually winning an
Emmy Award last year.
Queens Councilman Robert
Holden, a Democrat, said last
week that Cuomo’s Emmy should
be taken away, saying, “We now
know that his TV appearances
and clout were used to mislead
the public regarding how their
loved ones died.”
With Biden Administration About
Foreign Policy
ZACHARY STIEBER Biden has seen some of his
nominations stall because the
A former Republican senator said
he’s been in touch with the Biden
Senate was consumed with the
impeachment trial of Trump. The
administration regarding bipar-
tisanship in foreign policy posi-
Senate acquitted Trump on Feb.
13, enabling Congress to turn to
tions, but indicates there’s been
“no specific talks” about ambas-
other matters.
Biden has so far picked no Re-
sadorships.
“All I’ve said is I have an interest
publicans for key posts.
One report last week claimed
in making sure President Biden’s that Biden was considering nom-
foreign policy is bipartisan. We inating Flake and Cindy McCain,
used to say  that partisanship the widow of the late Sen. John
stops at the water’s edge,” for- McCain (R-Ariz.) and a fellow
mer Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.), a Republican from Arizona, for
CNN political commentator, said ambassadorships. McCain also
during an appearance on the net- endorsed Biden in 2020, and has
work on Feb. 14. criticized Trump.
Pressed on what he meant by Flake, McCain, and Arizona
“no specific talks,” Flake said: “I GOP Gov. Doug Ducey were cen-
think they’re a ways from deci- sured last month by the Arizona
sions like they’re talking about Republican Party for their oppo-
now, I mean they still have half sition to Trump.
the Cabinet to get through the Flake penned an op-ed for CNN
Senate. But I certainly have an on Feb. 15 that called for the Re-
interest in, like I said, making publican Party to move on from
sure that our foreign policy is the former president.
bipartisan. But we’ll leave that “There is no redeeming his be-
to the Biden administration to havior. And let’s not continue this
make those decisions.” tragic charade by further humili-
Flake then confirmed that he’s ating and debasing ourselves,”
been in touch with the Biden ad- he wrote, referring to allegations
ministration. against Trump relating to the Jan.
Flake, 58, left office in Janu- 6 breach of the U.S. Capitol.
ary 2019, after deciding not to “History always knows the
seek reelection in the 2018 mid- truth. Let’s learn the lessons of
terms. He was succeeded by Sen. this experience, admit our fail-
Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.), who ings, and move on. This is what
defeated Republican candidate our country deserves.”
Martha McSally.
CHIP SOMODEVILLA/GETTY IMAGES
Flake has been heavily criti-
cal of former President Donald
Trump and endorsed Biden over
Trump in the 2020 election.
Biden trumpeted his own expe-
rience reaching across the aisle
during his decades in Congress
and as vice president while cam-
paigning; he’s said he’d consider
appointing Republicans to key
positions.
Former Sen. Doug Jones (D-
Ala.), who lost his bid for reelec-
tion last year, said Biden “will be
looking at some of his Republican
colleagues and others for differ-
ent places in the administration.”
“We don’t see that in the Cabi-
net right now, but I think he’s Former Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) at
open to that,” Jones said, while the U.S. Capitol in Washington on
appearing on the same program. Jan. 21, 2020.
 TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 2021
Maine Church Asks Supreme Court
to Relax Pandemic Restrictions
CONTINUED FROM A1
discriminate against churches
and places of worship. The Gov-
ernor’s unconstitutional actions
must end.”
Calvary Chapel is suffering ad-
ditional hardship because the
operational restrictions on the
church have an adverse effect on
its Calvary Residential Disciple-
ship program, a biblical-based
ministry that helps men and
women who are seeking a way of
escape from drugs, alcohol, and
other life-controlling issues, the
law firm states.
“The year-long residential
program operates two homes
with 24 women and 24 men for
a total of 48 full-time residents
on the church property. C.R.D.
is a Christ-centered alternative
to secular programs within the
drug and alcohol community
and includes a work program,
daily Bible studies, devotional
readings and prayer. Regular at-
tendance at church services is
paramount to this program.”
After the Supreme Court struck
down limits on church atten-
dance and found that total bans
on worship were unconstitutional
in South Bay United Pentecostal
Church v. Newsom and Harvest
Rock Church v. Newsom, “Maine
now has the dubious distinction
of imposing the most severe re-
strictions in the nation on places
of worship with its 50-person nu-
merical cap notwithstanding the
size of the facility,” according to
First Liberty.
The Supreme Court ruled
in November 2020 in Roman
Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn
v. Cuomo and Agudath Israel v.
Cuomo that New York’s 10- and
25-person numerical caps dis-
criminated against houses of
worship.
Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote at
the time, “There is no world in
which the Constitution toler-
ates color-coded executive edicts
that open liquor stores and bike
shops but shutter churches, syna-
Online Health Insurance Marketplaces
Reopen for Special Enrollment Period
ZACHARY STIEBER
Online health insurance market-
places have reopened for a spe-
cial enrollment period through
May 15, after President Joe Biden
signed an executive order last
month.
Biden, in a statement on Feb. 15,
said that he will do everything he
can “to ensure that all Americans
have access to the quality, afford-
able health care they deserve.”
“That is especially critical in
the midst of a deadly pandemic
that has already taken the lives
of more than 470,000 of our fel-
low Americans and infected more
than one out of every 12 addition-
al Americans, often with devas-
tating consequences to their
health,” he said.
The three-month special pe-
riod  will help people “secure
some peace of mind as we work to
beat the pandemic and strengthen
and build on the Affordable Care
Act,” he said, encouraging people
to sign up through the Health-
Care.gov website if they don’t
currently have health coverage.
The act is colloquially known as
Obamacare.
Biden’s order affects the 36 states
that use the federal marketplace.
At least 13 states and the District
of Columbia, which operate their
own platforms, are following the
federal government’s lead and of-
fering similar special periods for
signing up.
Acting Health and Human Ser-
vices Secretary Norris Cochran
said in a recent statement: “Presi-
dent Biden was clear: we need to
strengthen the Affordable Care Act
REBECCA HAMMEL/U.S. SENATE/PUBLIC DOMAIN
Maine Gov. Janet Mills in 2019.
gogues, and mosques.”
Despite the Supreme Court’s
“clear admonitions and instruc-
tions in several previous appeals
... the Governor continues to im-
and give more Americans access
to health care, especially during
this pandemic, which has further
demonstrated the importance of
having the right coverage. This
Special Enrollment Period will
give Americans who need afford-
able, quality health insurance an
opportunity to get covered, and we
encourage folks to head to Health-
Care.gov starting on Monday to
explore their options.”
Some 90 percent of people en-
rolled in coverage through the
website receive financial help,
and three-quarters of consum-
ers buy plans that cost $50 or less
per month when counting the as-
sistance.
Each year, there’s a set period of
time where people can sign up for
health insurance. The period for
2021 had already elapsed prior to
Biden’s order.
Not everyone will qualify to
get insurance during the period.
Qualifying conditions include
moving to a new home, getting
married, and having a baby.
People interested in looking for
health care can go to the website
directly or use a phone to reach
the marketplace’s call center. A
network of over 50,000 agents and
brokers are ready to help, accord-
ing to HHS.
To promote the special enroll-
ment period, health officials are
spending $50 million on a mix of
advertisements and other out-
reach methods.
The administration plans on re-
leasing data on how many people
utilized the special period on a
monthly basis, with the first re-
port expected early next month.
There is no world
in which the Con-
stitution tolerates
color-coded ex-
ecutive edicts that
open liquor stores
and bike shops but
shutter churches,
synagogues, and
mosques.
Justice Neil Gorsuch
Capitol Police Officer Goodman Awarded
Congressional Gold Medal
ISABEL VAN BRUGEN
The U.S. Senate unanimously
voted on Feb. 12 to award the
Congressional Gold Medal to
Eugene Goodman, the Capitol
police officer who’s been hailed
for his role in steering protesters
away from the Senate chambers
during the Jan. 6 breach of the
Capitol building.
The Congressional Gold Medal
is the highest honor that Con-
gress can bestow. The measure to
give the award to Goodman was
passed by unanimous consent
days after House Speaker Nancy
Pelosi (D-Calif.) announced that
Capitol Police officers who pro-
tected the building during the
events last month would receive
the medal. Pelosi’s office later re-
leased a draft of the legislation
that the House speaker said will
“pay tribute to the Capitol Po-
lice and other law enforcement
personnel who protected the
Capitol.”
Goodman, who has since been
promoted to acting deputy Sen-
ate sergeant-at-arms, was cap-
tured on video successfully guid-
ing Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah)
away from the intruders and back
to the Senate chamber on Jan. 6.
Romney at the time credited
Goodman for his actions, saying
that he was “very fortunate” that
Goodman was there to “get me in
the right direction.”
Goodman’s “foresight in the
midst of chaos, and his willing-
ness to make himself a target
of the mob’s rage so that others
might reach safety,” said Senate
pose discriminatory restrictions
on religious worship services that
are not imposed on similar non-
religious gatherings,” the appli-
cation states.
“Her discriminatory reign of
terror must end.”
The Supreme Court has issued
several orders forcing lower
courts to comply with its rulings
on pandemic-related worship re-
strictions.
For example, on Feb. 8, the high
court granted a California wor-
shipper’s emergency application
asking for the state’s far-reaching
restrictions on in-person reli-
gious services to be rolled back.
The ruling, in the case known
as Gish v. Newsom, came after
applicants filed an emergency
application for an injunction
Capitol Police Officer Eugene Goodman watches newly released video footage
of the Jan. 6 Capitol breach, during the second day of the impeachment trial of
former President Donald Trump in Washington on Feb. 10, 2021.
majority leader, Chuck Schumer,
a Democrat, on Feb. 12, address-
ing the officer who stood in the
back of the chamber.
“In the weeks after the attack
on Jan. 6, the world learned about
the incredible bravery of Officer
Goodman on that fateful day,”
Schumer said. “I think we can
all agree that Eugene Goodman
deserves the highest honor Con-
gress can bestow.”
Lawmakers burst into a stand-
ing ovation for Goodman, who
briefly placed his hand on his
heart. Schumer said all the law
enforcement officers who re-
sponded to the Capitol breach
should be honored and recog-
nized as well.
Senate Republican leader
Mitch McConnell said he was
“pleased to join the majority
NATION | A3
The Supreme Court in
Washington on May 7, 2019.
SAMIRA BOUAOU/THE EPOCH TIMES
a month ago. Wendy Gish, one
of the four worshippers who
brought the application, attends
Shield of Faith Family Church in
San Bernardino County, The Ep-
och Times previously reported.
The decision overruled the U.S.
Court of Appeals for the 9th Cir-
cuit, instructing that Gish’s case
be returned to the U.S. District
Court for the Central District of
California “for further consid-
eration in light of” the Supreme
Court’s South Bay United Pente-
costal Church ruling, which held
that California Gov. Gavin New-
som’s restrictions violated First
Amendment-protected freedom
of worship guarantees.
Mills couldn’t be immediately
reached by The Epoch Times for
comment.
BRANDON BELL-POOL/GETTY IMAGES
leader’s request.”
“If not for the quick thinking
and bravery of Officer Eugene
Goodman in particular, the peo-
ple in this chamber may not have
escaped that day unharmed,”
McConnell added.
Pelosi said on Feb. 11 that mem-
bers of Congress “will never for-
get” what officers did on Jan. 6.
“The service of the Capitol Po-
lice force that day brings honor to
our democracy and their accept-
ing this reward brings luster to
this medal. We must all remem-
ber their sacrifice and stay vigi-
lant against what I’ve said before
about what Abraham Lincoln
said, ‘the silent artillery of time.’
We will never forget,” she said.
Reuters contributed to this
report.
A4 | NATION
Top US Nuclear Lab Could Be Impacted
by Wildfires, Audit Warns
ZACHARY STIEBER
A top nuclear laboratory in the
United States is at risk from wild-
fires because some mitigation
measures have been ignored in
recent years, an audit found.
The Department of Energy’s
(DOE) inspector general said
the Los Alamos National Labo-
ratory (LANL) in New Mexico is
prone to “future large, high-inten-
sity wildfires that could threaten
to seriously interrupt mission
work,” as a large fire did in 2000.
The Cerro Grande Fire that year
burned more than 7,500 acres of
department land, damaging or
destroying more than 100 struc-
tures and ruining a variety of lab
projects and scientific records and
forcing the lab to close for 15 days.
Another wildfire in 2011, the Las
Conchas Fire, burned an acre of
department land, and its intensity
and proximity to the lab forced it
to close for nine days.
In light of the fires, the inspec-
tor general undertook an audit to
determine whether its Los Ala-
mos office and lab contractors
were taking steps to try to avoid
potential fire-related closures
and losses.
The review found that mitiga-
tion measures such as tree thin-
ning weren’t always performed,
“increasing the potential for
a devastating wildland fire to
spread.” Other highlighted con-
cerns included a lack of maintain-
ing fire roads and a lack of docu-
mentation of what measures had
been completed.
“Without documenting plan-
ning and preparedness activities,
there was no assurance that all
prevention and mitigation op-
tions were considered and that
the site was fully prepared for
wildland fire events,” the inspec-
tor general’s office stated.
Rep. Matt Gaetz Suggests Idea of
Gov. DeSantis Running for President
JACK PHILLIPS
Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), an out-
spoken supporter of former Pres-
ident Donald Trump, suggested
that Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis
could be a viable Republican
candidate for president in 2024.
“He is a strong potential presi-
dential candidate in 2024,” Gaetz
said Feb. 14 on Fox News. “The
Biden team knows that, and so
they’re trying to somehow cast
aspersions on the Florida expe-
rience because you know what,
throughout America, there’s a lot
of Florida envy right now.”
He was referring to DeSantis’s
orders to keep Florida open dur-
ing the CCP (Chinese Commu-
nist Party) virus pandemic and
reports that the White House
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The Los Alamos National Laboratory in Los Alamos, N.M., in this file photo.
The lab is located about 35 miles
northwest of Santa Fe in rugged
northern New Mexico. Promoting
and protecting national security
through work on nuclear weap-
ons, lab workers research renew-
able energy, nanotechnology, and
other subjects. The lab employs
some 12,000 people and includes
approximately 2,000 structures,
including 13 nuclear facilities,
strewn across 36 square miles.
The watchdog group Nuclear
Watch New Mexico said the au-
dit showed the need for a new
site-wide environmental impact
statement.
“The lab and DOE have so far
blocked a new site-wide environ-
mental impact statement which,
as the past has shown, is actually
in their own best interests. We be-
may be considering placing trav-
el restrictions on the state. The
Epoch Times has reached out to
the White House for comment.
“People see Florida businesses
are opening and unemployment
is dropping, and home buying
is increasing,” Gaetz said. “That
type of prosperity is attractive
to people who are having to en-
dure a lockdown in other parts
of America.”
DeSantis on Feb. 14 praised
his state’s response to the virus
and responded to reports of the
White House’s travel restrictions.
“One, it would be unconstitu-
tional, it would be a political at-
tack against Florida. ... We also
have 26 other states and the
District of Columbia that have
higher per-capita COVID mortal-
Pass it on, one friend at a time
In my political monthly forum I have taken
copies of some of my weekly editions for
members to look over and take home to read.
I’ve recommended many of my friends to
take out subscriptions. There has been
good feedback from information in some
articles I’ve shown around to others.
lieve LANL and DOE have a legal
requirement to prepare a new one
and NukeWatch will be pursuing
that,” Jay Coghlan, director of the
group, said in a statement.
The lab and the department
didn’t reply to requests for com-
ment. A lab spokesperson told
The Associated Press that since
the audit was performed in 2018
and 2019, the lab has been aggres-
sively completing wildfire man-
agement tasks.
“We continue to review our
wildfire and forest health plans
and have already implemented
most of the recommendations the
Department of Energy offered to
improve our efforts to protect the
public, the environment, and the
laboratory,” he said.
Managers wrote to the inspec-
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis at a press conference at Bayview Elementary
School in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., on Oct. 7, 2019.
ity than we do. We have 28 states
that have higher per-capita cases
that we do,” DeSantis told Fox
Business.
“There’s no basis in medical,
no basis in economics, there’s no
— RITA MARTINSON
ReadEpoch.com/Friends
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 2021
THE ALBUQUERQUE JOURNAL VIA AP
tor general to say they concurred
with the audit’s recommen-
dations, and that many of the
recommended actions, such as
conducting a site-wide wildfire
risk assessment, were already
planned or started.
“Because the audit focused on
prior plans, most of the salient
issues in the report had already
been identified and captured,”
William Bookless, acting under-
secretary for nuclear security and
administrator at the National
Nuclear Security Administration,
wrote to Inspector General Teri
Donaldson last month.
“We have prioritized and imple-
mented actions to protect em-
ployees, the public, and the site’s
critical infrastructure from the
risks of wildland fire.”
JOE RAEDLE/GETTY IMAGES
basis in reality to do this except
to punish a state who is doing it
better than what his experts have
recommended.”
DeSantis hasn’t said whether
he would run for president.
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Rep. McClain
Asks Pelosi Why
National Guard
Could Remain
Deployed in DC
Through Fall
SAMUEL ALLEGRI
Rep. Lisa McClain (R-Mich.) joined
with other House Republicans in
asking House Speaker Nancy Pe-
losi (D-Calif.) to explain why the
National Guard needs to be de-
ployed in Washington until pos-
sibly fall of this year.
“The only briefings that we’ve
had, through the media really, is
that the troops may be staying there
through the fall,” McClain told Fox
in a Feb. 15 interview. “Which is ex-
tremely concerning because myself
and several of my colleagues have
asked Nancy Pelosi for a briefing as
to: ‘Why do we need these troops
here?’ And we have received zero
information, zero.”
Pentagon spokesperson John Kir-
by said last week that the estimated
cost for National Guard protection
at the Capitol complex through
March 15 will cost taxpayers a to-
tal of $483 million. $284 million to
cover personnel and $199 million
to cover operations.
“It’s amazing to me that she can
do this without any disclosure,
without any information, and just
continue to spend money with no
briefing. [It] doesn’t make sense to
me,” McClain said.
Tens of thousands of National
Guard troops were deployed to
Washington to assist with secu-
rity in the wake of the Jan. 6 Capi-
tol breach.
Around 5,000 troops were expect-
ed to remain in the city until March
15, but that period seems to have
been extended by Pelosi. It’s unclear
whether there’s any specific threat.
“Just tell me why. I feel like there’s
a boogeyman under my bed,” said
McClain, who sits in the House
Armed Services Committee.
“Washington, D.C., is an absolute
ghost town. I feel completely safe.
There’s no one there.”
Kirby said on Feb. 12 that there
were more than 6,000 troops de-
ployed in Washington.
“I think the number today is—I
don’t want to guess. It’s 6,061. As
of today, they continue to support
the FBI, the Capitol Police, the Park
Police, Secret Service, and the city
of Washington, and I know of no
changes to the mission require-
ments,” said Kirby.
In late January, 42 House Repub-
licans sent a letter to Pelosi urging
her to remove the barricades sur-
rounding the Capitol.
Rep. Ted Budd (R-N.C.), the pri-
mary signatory of the letter, said in
a statement that the request is for
Pelosi to remove what some fear
is poised to become “permanent
military-style fencing.”
“In particular, we are concerned
with recent reports that the fenc-
ing surrounding the Capitol may
become permanent,” they wrote.
Tom Ozimek contributed
to this report.
 TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 2021
House Republicans Demand Answers From Pelosi
on Jan. 6 Security Failures
CONTINUED FROM A1
of the January 6th Joint Session
of Congress, the response from
the Sergeant-At-Arms (SAA), act-
ing on your behalf, was that the
‘optics’ of having the National
Guard on-site were not good and
the intelligence didn’t support
the move. The request was not
approved,” the four GOP repre-
sentatives told Pelosi in a lengthy
letter made public on Feb. 15.
Many important
questions about
your responsibil-
ity for the security
of the Capitol re-
main unanswered.
Reps. Rodney Davis and
Jim Jordan, James Comer,
and Devin Nunes
“Furthermore, on January 6th, in
the middle of the on-going attack
of the Capitol, Chief Sund again
notified the SAA of his request for
approval to authorize the National
Guard. It took over an hour for his
request to be approved because
the SAA had to run the request up
the chain of command, which un-
doubtedly included you and your
designees.”
The four signers of the letter are
Rep. Rodney Davis of Illinois, the
ranking Republican on the House
Committee on Administration,
Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio, the rank-
ing member on the House Judiciary
Committee, Rep. James Comer of
Kentucky, the ranking member of
the House Committee on Oversight
and Government Reform, and Rep.
Devin Nunes of California, the
senior Republican on the House
Select Committee on Intelligence.
The signers demanded answers
from Pelosi on the following
questions:
• When Police Chief Sund made
a request for National Guard
support on Jan. 4, why was that
Support for Third US Political Party
Reaches High Point: Poll
ZACHARY STIEBER
Some six out of 10 people believe
America needs a third political
party to jockey with Republicans
and Democrats because those par-
ties are doing such a poor job, ac-
cording to a new survey.
Just 33 percent of respondents
said they think the two major par-
ties do an adequate job, while 62
percent answered yes when asked
by Gallup whether “parties do
such a poor job representing the
American people that a third party
is needed.”
The figure represented a 5 percent
increase from the last poll, in Sep-
tember 2020, and is a record high.
Pollsters found that half of re-
spondents identify as political in-
dependents, another record, and
that the public opinion of the Re-
publican Party has declined to 37
percent favorable, versus 48 per-
cent for the Democrat Party.
Gallup first asked people in 2003
whether they thought a third party
was needed. At the time, 40 percent
said yes.
A majority of respondents have
said yes in most surveys since 2007.
Talk of a third party among po-
litical heavyweights has grown in
recent years, as former President
Donald Trump shocked insiders
by emerging from the crowded Re-
publican primaries in 2016 and ul-
timately winning the White House.
Some have discussed forming an
anti-Trump third-party, composed
of former Republicans disenchant-
ed with Trump.
Others have mused about a
third party with Trump at its
head, although he and his ad-
Protesters push their way into the U.S. Capitol’s Rotunda on Jan. 6, 2021.
Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) speaks during her weekly press
conference at the U.S. Capitol in Washington on Feb. 11, 2021.
request denied?
• Did sergeant-at-arms Paul Irving
get permission or instruction
from your staff on Jan. 4 prior to
denying Sund’s request for the
National Guard?
• What conversations and what
visers have signaled they aren’t
pursuing that path.
More than two-thirds of Repub-
licans would join or consider join-
ing a new political party if Trump
were to start one, a different poll
recently found.
In Gallup’s survey, most Demo-
cratic respondents said they don’t
see a need for a third party. Sev-
enty percent of independents want
a third party, as do 63 percent of
Republicans. The latter figure was
a sharp increase from 40 percent
six months ago.
Trump remains the leading Re-
publican in the minds of nearly
7 out of 10 voters, though Repub-
lican-leaning independents are
slightly in favor of preferring a new
voice to supplant him.
The direction that respondents
want the party to move boosts
Trump’s future in the party. A
plurality of Republicans and GOP-
leaning independents want the
party to become more conserva-
tive, though a substantial number
would rather see the party stay the
same or become more moderate.
Democrats, meanwhile, primar-
ily want the party to stay the same,
though Democratic-leaning inde-
pendents prefer the party to shift
toward the center.
The survey was conducted over
the phone from Jan. 21 to Feb. 2.
Results were based on a random
sample of 906 adults across all 50
states and Washington. The re-
sults included 412 Republicans
and Republican-leaning inde-
pendents and 420 Democrats and
Democrat-leaning independents.
The margin of sampling error was
plus or minus 6 percentage points.
SAMUEL CORUM/GETTY IMAGES
guidance did you and your staff
give the sergeant-at-arms lead-
ing up to Jan. 6, specific to the
security posture of the campus?
• What conversations with the
SAA and Capitol Police did you
have during the attack on the
CDC: No Link Between COVID-19 Vaccines,
Post-Vaccination Deaths
ZACHARY STIEBER
Investigations so far have shown no
link between COVID-19 vaccines
and deaths that occurred among
people after getting vaccinated,
health officials say.
A passive reporting system run by
the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention (CDC) and the Food and
Drug Administration (FDA) has re-
ceived 1,170 reports of death among
people following a COVID-19 vac-
cination, as of the latest CDC report
on the data, released on Feb. 7.
“CDC and FDA physicians review
each case report of death as soon as
notified and CDC requests medical
records to further assess reports.
A review of available clinical in-
formation including death certifi-
cates, autopsy, and medical records
findings revealed no link with vac-
cination,” the CDC said in a recent
update to its webpage concerning
post-vaccination adverse events.
A CDC spokeswoman told The
Epoch Times earlier this month
that data on post-vaccination
deaths showed “many of these
deaths are among nursing home
residents who had serious underly-
ing conditions and death was not
hastened by the vaccination.”
“It’s important to remember that
many adverse events, including
death, following immunization
are often coincidental—that
means that while an adverse event
may happen after getting vacci-
nated, the vaccine is not always
the cause of it,” she added in an
email on Feb. 1.
“Establishing cause of death for a
patient from any cause (including
vaccines) is an involved and com-
SAUL LOEB/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES
Capitol, and what response did
you give security officials on Jan.
6 when Sund requested Nation-
al Guard support that required
your approval?
• Why are your House officers re-
fusing to comply with preserva-
tion and production requests to
turn over materials relevant to
the events surrounding the 6th?
A spokesman for Pelosi didn’t re-
spond to a request for comment by
press time.
Later in the day, Pelosi an-
nounced in a letter sent only to
House Democrats that she has
asked Gen. Russel Honoré to head
an independent commission to in-
vestigate the Jan. 6 Capitol breach.
The letter writers questioned the
commission’s independence, say-
ing: “While there is wide-spread
support to conduct an indepen-
dent security review of the cam-
pus, General Russel Honoré was
appointed solely by you, without
consultation of the minority.
plex process that involves physi-
cian judgment. Typically, CDC de-
fers to autopsy reports and death
certificates as the definitive cause
of death for any given patient.”
An FDA spokesperson told The
Epoch Times last month that inves-
tigations into death reports include
working with health care provid-
ers to obtain medical histories and
clinical follow-up information.
Between Dec. 14, 2020, and Feb.
7, more than 41 million doses of
the two authorized COVID-19
vaccines were administered in
the United States.
One vaccine is made by Pfizer
and BioNtech. The other is made
by Moderna, with assistance from
U.S. health officials.
COVID-19 is the disease caused
by the CCP (Chinese Communist
Party) virus.
Pfizer is closely monitoring all
reports following vaccination, a
A doctor administers a dose of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine at the Amazon
Meeting Center in Seattle on Jan. 24, 2021.
NATION | A5
“To the General’s credit he has
reached out to several Republicans
to brief on his work to date. We are
hopeful his review will result in
beneficial recommendations that
are not influenced by political
motivations. However, it is easy to
understand why we and our Senate
counterparts remain skeptical that
any of his final recommendations
will be independent and without
influence from you.”
The questions were addressed to
Pelosi because as House speaker,
she has a decisive role in ensuring
the safety and security of all mem-
bers of Congress, congressional
staff and employees, people visit-
ing the Capitol complex on busi-
ness, and the thousands of tour-
ists who routinely flood the historic
grounds.
“Five weeks have passed since
the January 6th attack on the Capi-
tol building, and many important
questions about your responsibil-
ity for the security of the Capitol
remain unanswered,” the letter
states.
“As you are aware, the Speaker
of the House is not only the leader
of the majority party, but also has
enormous institutional respon-
sibilities. The Speaker is respon-
sible for all operational decisions
made within the House. We have
observed for two years this very
heavy-handed and tightly con-
trolled approach to House op-
erations that has been exerted by
yourself, your staff, and an army of
appointed House officials.”
The Jan. 6 event occurred when
hundreds of protesters, ostensibly
seeking to disrupt congressional
certification of electoral votes in
the November 2020 presidential
election, overwhelmed Capitol Hill
Police officers and ultimately pen-
etrated both the Senate and House
chambers, as well as other historic
areas of the Capitol building.
Five people, including Capitol
Hill Police Officer Brian Sicknick,
died as a result of actions during
the breach. A 14-year Air Force
veteran, Ashli Babbitt, was shot
and killed by another officer dur-
ing the violence.
spokesperson previously told The
Epoch Times. Moderna hasn’t re-
sponded to requests for comment.
“CDC and FDA will continue
to investigate reports of adverse
events, including deaths, reported
to VAERS,” or the passive Vaccine
Adverse Event Reporting System,
the CDC stated.
VAERS accepts reports from the
public, including health profes-
sionals and family members.
Officials are relying on VAERS
and other passive systems in the
early phase of the U.S. vaccination
program, according to Dr. Grace
Lee, co-chair of the Advisory Com-
mittee on Immunization Practic-
es’ COVID-19 Vaccine Safety Tech-
nical Subgroup. The committee
advises the CDC on vaccines.
There are plans to use data from
population-based surveillance sys-
tems to examine the risk of adverse
events following vaccination.
GRANT HINDSLEY/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES
A6 | NATION
Biden Issues Emergency Declaration for Texas
Amid Severe Winter Weather
ISABEL VAN BRUGEN
President Joe Biden on Feb. 14 ap-
proved an emergency declaration
for the state of Texas in response
to the severe winter weather
throughout the state that began
on Feb. 11 and threatens wide-
spread power outages.
The president responded to re-
quests for federal assistance from
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, Sen. Ted
Cruz, and Sen. John Cornyn, or-
dering the Department of Home-
land Security (DHS) and Federal
Emergency Management Agency
(FEMA) to supplement state and
local response efforts.
The emergency declaration cov-
ers all 254 counties in the state.
The action follows the Electric
Reliability Council of Texas (ER-
COT), the nonprofit organization
that operates the state’s power
grid, entered its highest alert lev-
el overnight Feb. 14 into Feb. 15
and has begun rolling blackouts to
conserve power during this harsh
winter storm.
Cruz said on Feb. 14 that more
than 23,000 Texans had already
experienced a loss of power.
“We are experiencing record-
breaking electric demand due to
the extreme cold temperatures
that have gripped Texas,”  ER-
COT CEO Bill Magness said in a
statement on Feb. 14. “At the same
time, we are dealing with high-
er-than-normal generation out-
ages due to frozen wind turbines
and limited natural gas supplies
available to generating units. We
are asking Texans to take some
simple, safe steps to lower their
energy use during this time.”
Dan Woodfin, ERCOT’s senior
director of system operations, said
that about half of West Texas’s
wind turbine capacity (25,000
megawatts) was “iced out” on Feb.
14. Over the past decade, wind-
generated power has gradually
increased to overtake coal-gener-
ated power. In 2020, 23 percent of
the energy supplied to the state’s
Biden’s $1.9 Trillion Proposal Would Give Nearly Social Media App Parler Is Back
$3,600 to Poorest Americans: Analysis
ZACHARY STIEBER
President Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion
COVID-19 relief proposal, which
congressional Democrats are
moving to pass, would give nearly
$3,600 in direct payments and oth-
er benefits to the poorest Ameri-
cans, according to a new analysis.
Households making less than
$21,300 would see an average boost
of $3,590, the Institute of Taxation
and Economic Policy (ITEP) said.
The figure comes from a combi-
nation of three components of the
proposal: a $1,400 stimulus check
and expansions of two tax credits:
one for parents and another for
those bringing in little income.
According to details published by
the House Ways and Means Com-
mittee, Biden’s proposal would
nearly triple the maximum credit
from the Earned Income Tax Cred-
it, while extending eligibility for the
benefit.
The Child Tax Credit currently
gives parents up to $2,000 per child,
depending on their tax bracket. The
new plan would boost the credit
to $3,000 per child, and $3,600 per
child under the age of 6.
The Child Tax Credit would in-
crease income for the bottom 20
percent of earners by an average
of 9.7 percent, the ITEP said. The
other tax credit expansion would
provide approximately $13 billion
in additional benefits to those who
qualify for the credit.
The three changes would bring
an average of $3,340 in benefits for
those making $21,300 to $39,800;
an average of $3,370 for those mak-
ing between $39,800 and $65,000;
an average of $3,630 to those mak-
ing between $65,000 and $111,300;
and an average of $3,250 to those
A pump jack array in Midland, Texas, on Feb. 13, 2021.
MANDEL NGAN/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES
President Joe Biden speaks during a meeting in the Oval Office on Feb.12, 2021.
grid was wind-generated. possible until then.
Woodfin said the organiza- “During this fairly unprecedent-
tion expects it will need to go ed cold weather event across the
into emergency operations un- entire state, electric demand is
til Feb. 16. It asked consumers expected to exceed our previ-
and businesses to reduce their ous winter peak record set in
electricity consumption where January of 2018 by up to 10,000
Online, With New Hosting Service
MICHAEL LOCCISANO/GETTY IMAGES FOR FOOD BANK FOR NEW YORK CITY
A woman receives meals and information from Food Bank for New York City,
in Staten Island, N.Y., on Jan. 30, 2021.
have recently unveiled the portions
of the proposal they’re working on,
Households mak- and have held hearings discussing
ing less than the measures.
$21,300 would see Chunks of proposed spending
include $350 billion for state and
an average boost local aid, $50 billion for disaster re-
of $3,590, the In- lief, and $46 billion for health offi-
cials to detect, diagnose, trace, and
stitute of Taxation monitor COVID-19 infections, and
and Economic conduct work related to mitigating
Policy said. the spread of the illness.
COVID-19 is the disease caused
by the CCP (Chinese Communist
making between $111,300 and Party) virus.
$247,400, according to ITEP. Biden has said Congress must
The benefits would give several pass the package in order to prop-
hundred dollars to the next brack- erly respond to the current phase
et. For the top 1 percent, it would of the COVID-19 pandemic, even
bring just $50. as America sees its economic situ-
Democrats in Congress approved ation improve and the number of
a budget process earlier this month positive cases drops sharply.
that enables them to pass the pro- The Brookings Institution, analyz-
posed package with no Republican ing the proposal last month, found
support, although they’ve said they that the package would jumpstart
hope GOP lawmakers eventually the real gross domestic product,
back the package. sending it above its pre-pandemic
House and Senate committees projection by the end of the year.
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 2021
ELI HARTMAN/ODESSA AMERICAN VIA AP
megawatts,” Woodfin said, The
Texas Tribune reported. “In fact,
the peak demand on ... [Feb. 16]
is currently forecasted to meet or
exceed our all time summer peak
demand of 74,820 megawatts.”
Woodfin noted that if demand
for electricity is close to reaching
its capacity, ERCOT can declare
a level-one, level-two, or level-
three energy emergency alert
(EEA), which will see it tap into
power reserves as well as allow
it to import electricity from other
regions and request extra power
from transmission companies, ac-
cording to the news outlet.
“If the additional resources
available during an EEA [are] still
not sufficient to balance genera-
tion and load, and we still don’t
have enough resources to serve
the demand, then we could have
to implement what’s called ro-
tating outages ... so that we’ve got
enough resources to cover what’s
what’s left,” he said.
JACK PHILLIPS
Parler, a social media platform fa-
vored by conservatives, resumed
service on Feb. 15 with new man-
agement—coming about a month
after Amazon Web Services sus-
pended the site from its servers.
The company moved to a new
server farm, said interim Chief
Executive Mark Meckler in a
statement. He said that new us-
ers should be able to sign up for
the service within a week or so.
“We are off of the Big Tech plat-
form, so that we can consider
ourselves safe and secure for
the future,” Meckler said in the
release. He didn’t disclose which
service provider is hosting Parler.
Meckler said that the firm is
using artificial intelligence pro-
grams and human editors to in-
vestigate speech that violates its
terms of service agreement.
“Cancel culture came for us,
and hit us with all they had. Yet
we couldn’t be kept down. We’re
back, and we’re ready to resume
the struggle for freedom of ex-
pression, data sovereignty, and
civil discourse. We thank our us-
ers for their loyalty during this
incredibly challenging time,”
part owner Dan Bongino said in
the release.
Meckler was tapped as the com-
pany’s CEO after his predeces-
sor, John Matze, was let go by the
company several weeks ago.
“On January 29, 2021, the Par-
ler board controlled by Rebekah
Mercer decided to immediately
terminate my position as CEO
of Parler. I did not participate in
this decision,” Matze said, ac-
cording to Fox News. “I under-
stand that those who now control
the company have made some
Biden’s emergency declaration
will ensure that protective mea-
sures are in place for mass care,
and sheltering and direct assis-
tance will be provided at 75 per-
cent federal funding, according to
a White House statement.
Abbott on Feb. 12 had warned
Texans to brace for a winter
storm “unprecedented in Texas
history” as he declared a disas-
ter for the state. He urged Texans
to reduce their energy usage as
much as possible in order to con-
serve power.
“Every part of the state will
face freezing conditions over the
coming days, and I urge all Tex-
ans to remain vigilant against
the extremely harsh weather
that is coming,” Abbott said in
a statement. “Stay off the roads,
take conscious steps to conserve
energy, and avoid dangerous
practices like bringing genera-
tors indoors or heating homes
with ovens or stovetops. Our
emergency response to this win-
ter weather requires a collective
approach between state agen-
cies, local officials, and Texans
throughout our communities to
ensure the safety and security of
the Lone Star State.”
ERCOT, in its release, suggested
that residents set their thermo-
stats to 68 degrees or lower where
possible, close shades and blinds
to reduce the amount of heat lost
through windows, turn off and
unplug nonessential lights and
appliances, and to avoid using
large appliances such as ovens
and washing machines.
“Preparations to protect life
and property should be rushed
to completion,” the National
Weather Service said in an alert
for parts of Southeast Texas. “Pre-
pare for power outages and have
non-perishable food and water
on hand. Do not travel unless it is
an emergency. If you must travel,
keep an extra blanket, flashlight,
food, and water in your vehicle, in
case you become stranded.”
OLIVIER DOULIERY/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES
The social media application logo from
Parler displayed on a smartphone in
Arlington, Va., on July 2, 2020.
communications to employees
and other third parties that have
unfortunately created confusion
and prompted me to make this
public statement.”
Following the Nov. 3, 2020, elec-
tion, Parler saw a significant spike
in users as many moved from
Facebook, Twitter, and other
social media platforms because
of censorship concerns. In the
wake of former President Donald
Trump’s suspension from Twit-
ter, Google and Apple removed
Parler from their app stores, and
days later, Amazon terminated its
hosting service agreement with
the company.
Parler, in response, filed a law-
suit last month against Ama-
zon, arguing that the company
violated antitrust laws and col-
luded with other Big Tech firms
to deplatform the website. The
company alleged in a court fil-
ing that Amazon was primarily
concerned with whether Trump
would have moved to Parler, rath-
er than alleged violations.
Parler officials didn’t immedi-
ately respond to a request by The
Epoch Times for comment.
 TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 2021
Biden Won’t
Undo the Second
Amendment in
Texas: AG Paxton
CONTINUED FROM A1
Biden took the opportunity to
call on lawmakers to enact what
he called “commonsense gun
law reforms.” This includes back-
ground checks on all gun sales,
eliminating immunity for gun
manufacturers, and banning “as-
sault weapons” and high-capacity
magazines.
“We owe it to all those we’ve
lost and to all those left behind
to grieve to make a change. The
time to act is now,” Biden said in
a statement.
Parkland parents have been di-
vided over how lawmakers should
respond.
Ryan Petty, whose daughter
Alaina was 14 when she was killed
in the shooting, addressed the
president in a tweet on Feb. 14.
“Mr. President, thank you for re-
membering the loved ones taken
from us 3 years ago,” he wrote.
“Alaina loved this country and
the freedoms it guarantees. Com-
mon sense tells us that honoring
her life does not require infringe-
ment on the rights of law-abiding
citizens.”
In an interview on Feb. 14, Pet-
ty said the president’s proposals
won’t prevent more tragedies.
“It’s wrong to focus on the
4 Oregonians Test Positive
for COVID-19 After 2nd
Vaccine Dose
TOM OZIMEK
Four people in Oregon have tested
positive for COVID-19 after receiv-
ing both doses of a vaccine, health
officials said.
Dean Sidelinger, the Oregon
Health Authority’s state health
officer, said at a Feb. 12 briefing
that there were two cases each in
Yamhill and Lane counties.
“We’re beginning to receive
reports of individuals who have
tested positive after receiving a
COVID-19 vaccine,” Sidelinger
said, according to a series of tweets
by the Oregon Health Authority.
“These are called ‘breakthrough
cases.’ These are people who get
sick with COVID-19 at least 14 days
after completing their vaccination
series.”
With vaccine efficacy at around
95 percent, breakthrough cases
are to be expected in some 5 per-
cent of vaccine recipients.
“Clinical trials of both vac-
cines presently in use included
breakthrough cases,” Sidelinger
Toomey Censured by Pennsylvania County GOP Over Impeachment Vote
JACK PHILLIPS
The York County Republican Party
in Pennsylvania voted to censure
Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) for his
vote on Feb. 13 to convict former
President Donald Trump during
his second impeachment trial.
“For the past four years, Senator
Toomey sat silently as a hyper-par-
tisan Democrat Congress relent-
lessly attacked President Trump,
impeaching him twice on fabri-
cated charges,” stated Republican
state Rep. Dawn Keefer, who drew
up a resolution to censure—or
condemn in an official capacity—
the senator.
“Given his recent support of
the second unconstitutional im-
peachment effort against a presi-
dent who is no longer in office the
York County Republican Commit-
tee has reached the limits of its
Democrats can-
not be allowed to
use this tragedy as
an opportunity to
cram down unhelp-
ful and unconstitu-
tional gun laws.
Ken Paxton,
Texas attorney general
weapon,” said Petty, who is now a
member of the state school board.
“For those who understand what
happened that day, there were
mistakes. This was the most pre-
ventable school shooting in the
history of our country. The warn-
ing signs were there. It was clear
the killer had intentions to attack
the school.”
Mass shootings have galvanized
gun control advocates, who argue
that guns are too easily accessible
and say more needs to be done to
keep assault-style firearms away
from potentially bad actors.
“The passage of time has done
little to heal the heartbreak we felt
upon hearing the shocking news
three years ago today, nor dulled
our sense of outrage at the lack
said, according to the agency. “In
those cases, even though the par-
ticipants got COVID, the vaccines
reduced the severity of illness.”
He said in all four breakthrough
cases, people either showed
mild symptoms or were entirely
asymptomatic. Sidelinger add-
ed that he expects to see more
breakthrough cases and that
“getting as many Oregonians as
possible vaccinated remains a
critical objective to ending the
pandemic.” More than 17,000 Or-
egonians are being vaccinated
each day, on average.
Sidelinger also said that cases
have been confirmed in Oregon
of the COVID-19 variant first de-
tected in the United Kingdom,
dubbed B.1.1.7.
“We have already discovered
that the more easily transmitted
virus variant from the UK is pres-
ent here in Oregon. Other variants
may follow,” Sidelinger said.
The Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention (CDC) stated on
Feb. 14 that there have been 1,173
frustration,” Keefer wrote.
Toomey announced he would re-
tire at the end of his current term,
which expires in 2022.
The committee passed the reso-
lution during a meeting on Feb.
13. Toomey’s office didn’t imme-
diately respond to a request by The
Epoch Times for comment.
Toomey had said that he would
vote to convict Trump for allegedly
inciting violence on Jan. 6 during
the Capitol breach because of “all
the evidence” that was presented
by Democratic House impeach-
ment managers.
“It’s important as a party to be
able to distinguish ... the terrific
successes of this administra-
tion, the fact that the president
did stand up to and against some
bad policies and some bad trends,”
Toomey said. “Those things can be
true, and it can also be true that
A woman looks at weapons at a gun show in Fort Worth, Texas, on July 10, 2016.
of consequential legislative ac-
tion from lawmakers since that
horrible morning—laws that
would prevent another Parkland
from ever happening again,” said
Manny Diaz, chair of the Florida
Democratic Party.
Last week, administration of-
ficials met with gun control ad-
vocates, with White House press
secretary Jen Psaki telling report-
ers later that the administration is
ready to move on the “ambitious
plan” Biden laid out during the
campaign.
The main part of Biden’s gun
control agenda includes banning
the manufacture and sale of “as-
sault weapons” and high-capacity
magazines, regulating possession
of existing assault weapons un-
A man receives a CCP virus rapid test after arriving at Portland International
Airport in Portland, Ore., on Nov. 25, 2020.
confirmed cases of B.1.1.7 in 40
states. Two other variants, one first
identified in South Africa (B.1.351)
and the other in Brazil (P.1), have
also led to infections in a handful
of states.
As of Feb. 15, a total of 17 cases of
the South African strain have been
confirmed in California, Illinois,
North Carolina, South Carolina,
Texas, and Virginia. Just three
cases of the Brazil variant have
been confirmed so far, in Minne-
sota and Oklahoma.
Meanwhile, scientific advisers to
SARAH SILBIGER-POOL/GETTY IMAGES
Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) during a
hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington
on Dec. 10, 2020.
his behavior after the election be-
came completely unacceptable.”
The Senate acquitted Trump in
a 57–43 vote; seven Republicans
joined all 50 Democrats in voting
to convict. The result fell short of
the two-thirds majority needed
to convict.
Aside from Toomey, Republican
Sens. Richard Burr (N.C.), Mitt
der the National Firearms Act,
buying back these weapons and
high-capacity magazines from
citizens, requiring background
checks for all gun sales, ending
the online sale of firearms and
ammunition, and providing more
funds to enforce these laws.
John R. Lott Jr., former president
of the Crime Prevention Research
Center, argued in an op-ed that
the reasoning behind Biden’s gun
control agenda is flawed.
“Far less than 1 percent of guns
are ever used in crimes, suicides,
or accidents, and when they are,
it’s virtually always the result of
the user’s actions,” he wrote, ar-
guing that plenty of other prod-
ucts are used to commit crimes,
including cars and computers,
NATHAN HOWARD/GETTY IMAGES
the British government believe the
UK variant is likely deadlier than
previous strains.
In a study released Feb. 12, scien-
tists stated that B.1.1.7 “is associat-
ed with an increased risk of hospi-
talization and death compared to
infection” with the original strain
of the CCP (Chinese Communist
Party) virus, commonly known as
the novel coronavirus.
The  UK variant, which was
earlier determined to be around
30 to 70 percent more transmis-
sible than other strains, has been
Romney (Utah), Lisa Murkowski
(Alaska), Bill Cassidy (La.), Ben
Sasse (Neb.), and Susan Collins
(Maine) voted to convict Trump.
Over the weekend, Cassidy faced
blowback from the Louisiana GOP,
which unanimously voted to cen-
sure him after his vote to convict.
“The Executive Committee of
the Republican Party of Louisiana
has unanimously voted to censure
Senator Bill Cassidy for his vote
cast earlier today to convict former
President Donald J. Trump on the
impeachment charge,” the state
GOP said in a statement on Feb. 13.
“We condemn, in the stron-
gest possible terms, the vote to-
day by Sen. Cassidy to convict
former President Trump,” the
GOP members wrote. “Fortu-
nately, clearer heads prevailed,
and President Trump has been
acquitted of the impeachment
NATION | A7
SPENCER PLATT/GETTY IMAGES
or are associated with accidental
deaths, such as swimming pools.
“Many other products, such as
motorcycles, have much higher
probabilities of causing harm.
The death rate per motorcycle is
0.05 percent; the death rate for
guns is 0.008 percent,” a figure
that, in addition to homicides,
includes accidental deaths and
suicides.
“Guns are also used defensively
about 2 million times in the av-
erage year, according to the FBI.
Will government reward gun
makers when their products are
used to save lives?” Lott said.
Masooma Haq and
The Associated Press
contributed to this report.
spreading relatively quickly across
the country.
CDC director, Dr. Rochelle
Walensky, told CBS’ “Face the Na-
tion” on Feb. 14 that the UK variant
may soon become the “dominant
strain” in the United States.
“We know now that, or we esti-
mate now that about 4 percent of
disease in this country is related
to B.1.1.7,” she said. “And we have
projections that it may be the dom-
inant strain by the end of March.”
In light of the new variants
spreading in the United States,
the CDC stated that “rigorous and
increased compliance with public
health mitigation strategies, such
as vaccination, physical distanc-
ing, use of masks, hand hygiene,
and isolation and quarantine, is
essential to limit the spread of the
virus that causes COVID-19 and
protect public health.”
Some states, such as Iowa and
Montana, have lifted some restric-
tions, including masking require-
ments, which Walensky said is a
mistake.
“I think we’re not out of the
woods yet. We need to get our
kids back to school. We need to
get our communities back to
some normal functioning before
we can start thinking about letting
up our mitigation strategies,” she
told CBS.
charge filed against him.”
The Louisiana senator, who is
up for reelection in 2026, wrote an
opinion article on Feb. 15 for The
Advocate, saying that he voted be-
cause Trump’s speech and claims
“were clearly intended to prevent
a peaceful transfer of power,” add-
ing that “I took an oath to support
and defend the Constitution, and I
take that oath seriously. This was,
is, and will remain my commit-
ment to you.”
Trump during a Jan. 6 speech
called on demonstrators to “peace-
fully and patriotically” make their
voices heard. He later condemned
the violence at the Capitol.
The former commander-in-
chief’s lawyers asserted that House
managers doctored evidence dur-
ing the impeachment trial, adding
that the impeachment effort was
unconstitutional.
A8 | NATION TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 2021

JOHN MOORE/GETTY IMAGES

CDC’s Walensky
Explains Changing
School Distancing
Recommendation
CONTINUED FROM A1
of distancing is recommended.
“Over the summer, we were at
much less disease, and our guid-
ance is a bit more flexible in terms of
the distancing if you are at low rates
of transmission, those rates that we
were seeing over the summer,” Dr.
Rochelle Walensky said on Feb. 14.
“The other thing I want to just
highlight is that a lot’s changed
since July. We know, we have a lot
more science. We have over 60 ref-
erences accompanying our school
guidance. Many, if not most of
those references have been expe-
riences that have happened in the
fall, both here in the United States
and in Europe, as well as new data
on variants, which we weren’t talk-
ing about over the summer. So, I
think one of the lessons learned
here is, we have to be humble as to
what we’re learning and be willing
to be flexible as we learn more,”
she added.
Walensky was speaking on CNN’s
“State of the Union.”
Before she was selected to lead
the agency, Walensky in the sum-
mer of 2020 told the mayor of her
hometown in Massachusetts that
“if people are masked, it is quite safe
and much more practical to be at
three feet,” emails obtained by a
group of parents showed.
Parents in Newton pointed to the
recommendation when question-
ing why officials in the town were
against fully reopening schools.
The officials said it wasn’t possible,
citing guidance from its health de-
partment that recommended six
feet of distancing.
Newtown Public Schools’s
(NPS) “decision to ignore the three-
foot expert recommendation pre-
vented Newton from fully opening
schools,” Dr. Stefanos Kales, a pro-
fessor at Harvard Medical School, A kindergarten class socially distances while preparing to leave the classroom at Stark Elementary School in Stamford,
wrote in a blog post. “Newton owes Conn., on Oct. 21, 2020.
taxpayers, parents, and children
some explanations.” (Chinese Communist Party) virus, the power of layered risk-reduction “Our guidance is really depen-
Some groups have said a mini- that causes the disease COVID-19. measures,” they wrote in an op-ed. dent on how much disease is in the
mum distance of three feet is ap- The CDC’s new guidance, pub- “Ultimately, this six-foot distancing community. We know that most
propriate, including the Ameri- lished last week, repeatedly states rule is what will keep most kids out of the disease that comes into the
can Academy of Pediatrics and that six feet of distancing should be of school simply because of space school comes into the community.
the Massachusetts Department targeted when reopening schools. limitations.” And with universal mask-wearing,
of Elementary and Secondary Walensky told reporters in a call The CDC didn’t immediately re- we know that there’s very limited
Education. about the guidance that, along with spond to a request for comment transmission within the schools,
“Some countries have been able masking, “physical distance of at about the origin of the six-foot and that that transmission is largely
to successfully reopen schools af- least six feet” should be required guidance. from staff to staff and largely when
ter first controlling community- “across the school environment.” A spokesperson for the City of those masks are, mask-wearing is
wide spread of SARS-CoV-2 while Joseph Allen, associate professor Newton told The Epoch Times via breached,” she said.
using three feet of distance be- and director of the Healthy Build- email: “The Newton Public Schools “So, we are more flexible with the
tween students without increases ings program at Harvard Univer- and City of Newton have consis- six feet if there’s limited amount
in community spread. Physical sity’s T.H. Chan School of Public tently used recommendations from of community spread in those low
distance between desks should Health, and Helen Jenkins, an as- the CDC and the Massachusetts to moderate ranges. When you get
follow current public health guid- sociate professor of biostatistics at Department of Public Health.” to substantial and high ranges of
ance, and desks should be placed Boston University School of Public Walensky said on NBC’s “Meet community spread, we really feel
at least three feet apart and ideally Health, criticized the guidance. the Press” that the distancing like you need six feet. The data
six feet apart,” the academy said in “The CDC emphasizes maintain- guidance can be flexible, depend- suggests, the science suggests, you
reopening guidance. ing six feet of distancing, even be- ing on the amount of community need six feet with universal mask-
SARS-CoV-2 is the strain of coro- tween kids. But that ignores the sci- transmission of the virus in the wearing to keep our children and
navirus, also known as the CCP ence on children, transmission and school’s locale. our staff safe.”

CHIP SOMODEVILLA/GETTY IMAGES MARK ZOU/THE EPOCH TIMES

“State of the Union” that entering People attend

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) walks to his office at the con-
clusion of former President Donald Trump’s impeachment trial at the U.S. Capi-
tol in Washington on Feb. 13, 2021.
Democratic Lawmakers
Defend Not Calling Witnesses
at Impeachment Trial
TOM OZIMEK
Several Democratic lawmakers
have defended the decision not to
call witnesses in former President
Donald Trump’s impeachment trial,
saying it wouldn’t have made any
difference to the outcome.
Trump was acquitted on Feb. 13
in a 57–43 vote, with seven Republi-
cans joining all Democrats in voting
to convict the former president on
the sole charge of “incitement of in-
surrection,” which Trump’s defense
lawyers denounced as a “monstrous
lie.” The vote fell short of the two-
thirds, or 67 votes, needed to convict
him.
Sens. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.)
and Chris Coons (D-Del.), along
with Del. Stacey Plaskett (D-V.I.),
who served as one of the impeach-
ment managers, said in statements
to media over the weekend that call-
ing more witnesses was pointless.
“Once Mitch McConnell made it
clear he intended to acquit, even de-
spite the compelling evidence, what
the House managers needed wasn’t
more witnesses or more evidence,”
Coons told ABC News’ “This Week.”
Mere minutes after the Democrat-
ic-led House impeached Trump on
Jan. 13, Senate Minority Leader
Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) wrote to
his GOP colleagues that he had “not
made a final decision” about how
he would vote at the Senate trial.
There had been close scrutiny over
how McConnell would vote, given
his position as the Senate’s most
influential Republican and the
longest-serving GOP leader ever.
McConnell finally made his posi-
tion known early on Feb. 13, when
he told his Republican colleagues
that he would vote to acquit.
“He said it’s a vote of conscience,”
Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) told re-
porters on Capitol Hill, commenting
on McConnell’s remarks. “So I think
each senator needs to make that de-
cision on their own. Obviously, he’s
reached that conclusion.”
The House impeachment manag-
ers on Feb. 13 requested testimony
from Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler
(R-Wash.), who said in a statement
that House Minority Leader Kevin
McCarthy (R-Calif.) spoke with
Trump as a mob was storming the
U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 and that the
president hesitated to call off the
riots at McCarthy’s request.
The Senate voted 55–45 to begin
consideration of witnesses, al-
though negotiations between Dem-
ocrats and Republicans led to a deal
not to call any more witnesses, with
Herrera Beutler’s statement instead
entered into the official record.
Plaskett said Feb. 14 on CNN’s
the statement into the official record
was sufficient.
“I think what we did was we got
what we wanted, which was her
statement, which was what she said,
and had it put into the record and
being able to say it on the record
out loud so that others would hear,”
Plaskett said.
“So I know that people are feeling a
lot of angst and believe that maybe, if
we had this, the senators would have
done what we wanted,” she said.
“But, listen, we didn’t need more
witnesses. We needed more sena-
tors with spines,” she said, presum-
ably referring to the 43 Republican
senators who voted to acquit Trump.
Murphy echoed those remarks
on Feb. 14 on CNN’s “State of the
Union,” saying that Democrats
achieved their goal of drawing atten-
tion to Herrera Beutler’s statement.
“Frankly, I think they did get what
they wanted. They got the whole
country tuned in,” Murphy said.
“In the end, the managers made the
decision that it probably wouldn’t
have helped their case.”
Rep. Joe Neguse (D-Colo.), another
of the Democratic impeachment
managers, said calling on witness-
es during the impeachment trial
would have dragged out the pro-
ceeding for years.
The lead House impeachment
manager, Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-
Md.), described the outcome of the
impeachment trial as a “dramatic
success.”
“We got seven Republicans, and
if you look at the 10 Republicans
in the House who joined us, it was
by far the most bipartisan decision
and a complete repudiation of the
president’s conduct. Now, unfortu-
nately, it didn’t reach the two-thirds
majority in the Senate,” Raskin said
in an interview with NBC’s “Meet
the Press.”
Trump, in a statement following
his acquittal, denounced the im-
peachment effort and thanked his
supporters.
“This has been yet another phase
of the greatest witch hunt in the his-
tory of our Country,” Trump said.
“I also want to convey my grati-
tude to the millions of decent, hard-
working, law-abiding, God-and-
Country loving citizens who have
bravely supported these important
principles in these very difficult and
challenging times.”
Aim of Impeachment Was to Paint
All Trump Voters as Criminals:
Rep. Mike Johnson
TOM OZIMEK
Rep. Mike Johnson (R-La.) says
Democrats used the impeach-
ment of former President Donald
Trump as a tool to paint all of his
supporters with the brush of Capi-
tol breach-related criminality.
Johnson told Breitbart News
in an interview on Feb. 14 that
the ultimate aim of impeaching
Trump a second time was to as-
sociate the 75 million Americans
who voted for him with those
individuals who on Jan. 6 broke
the law.
“They really wanted to use
impeachment as a vehicle be-
cause they wanted to equate all
those tens of millions of Trump’s
voters and all of his supporters
and everybody who came to the
rally, they wanted to equate all
of those people with the couple
hundred criminals who came
in and ransacked the Capitol,”
Johnson told the outlet.
Asked about the future of im-
peachment, Johnson said it would
increasingly become a tool of par-
tisan spats.
“You weaponized this. You
turned it into a political weapon
to be used by the majority party
against a president they don’t like.
You opened a Pandora’s box that
we may never be able to close
again,” Johnson said.
“What [Democrats] tried to do
[is] to raise ‘cancel culture’ now
to a constitutional level,” Johnson
said, echoing remarks made on
Feb. 12 by David Schoen, one of
the three attorneys representing
Trump who accused Democrats
of using impeachment as a tool
to disqualify political opponents.
the Save
America rally in
Washington on
Jan. 6, 2021.
“In short, this unprecedented
effort is not about Democrats
opposing political violence. It is
about Democrats trying to dis-
qualify their political opposi-
tion. It is constitutional cancel
culture,” Shoen said.
On Feb. 13, the Senate voted
57–43 to convict Trump, 10 votes
shy of the 67 needed for convic-
tion. The vote cleared Trump of
the charge of “incitement of in-
surrection,” a charge that his law-
yers denounced as a “monstrous
lie” that didn’t reflect the reality
of what happened on Jan. 6.
“An insurrection—unlike a
riot—is an organized movement
acting for the express purpose
to overthrow and take posses-
sion of a government’s pow-
ers,” Trump’s lawyers wrote in
filings, arguing that the former
president’s speech “was not an
act encouraging an organized
movement to overthrow the
United States government.”
Trump’s acquittal was widely
seen as a foregone conclusion
ahead of the trial after 45 Repub-
licans voted to declare the pro-
ceeding unconstitutional.
In a statement following his
acquittal, Trump denounced the
impeachment effort and thanked
his supporters.
“This has been yet another
phase of the greatest witch hunt
in the history of our Country,”
Trump said.
“I also want to convey my grat-
itude to the millions of decent,
hardworking, law-abiding, God-
and-Country loving citizens who
have bravely supported these im-
portant principles in these very
difficult and challenging times.”
 TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 2021 CHINA | A9
TAL ATZMON/THE EPOCH TIMES

Free World Should

Draw ‘Red Line’
Against Communist
China: Former
Pompeo Adviser
CONTINUED FROM A1
of warning the United States not
to interfere in issues that the re-
gime deems to be “internal af-
fairs,” including Hong Kong, Ti-
bet, and Xinjiang—which it dubs
“red lines.”
“This is [the] Chinese Communist
Party’s ‘red line,’ that’s all. It’s not
red lines based upon international
law,” Yu said in an exclusive inter-
view with The Epoch Times’ “Amer-
notion that economic engagement
with Beijing would lead to China be-
coming more democratic and a re-
sponsible stakeholder in the world.
“What we did is, we tried to
change the framework,” Yu said.
“Rather than focus on how to do
things right, we focused on how to
do the right thing.”
The previous thinking on China
was “completely off the wall,” he Hudson Institute senior fellow Miles Yu, former senior China policy adviser to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, in
said, because it failed to under- Annapolis, Md. on Feb. 11, 2021.
stand the nature of the regime that NICOLAS ASFOURI/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES

ican Thought Leaders” program.
Most recently, the regime’s top
diplomat warned the Biden ad-
ministration that “any trespassing
would end up undermining China–
U.S. relations and the United States’
own interests.”
Yu said that when the regime tells
countries that the topic of Xinjiang
is a “red line,” what it’s really saying
is “We’re going to lock up a million
Uyghurs in concentration camps,
we torture them, we suppress their
freedom.”
“And you, the international com-
munity ... are not allowed to say a
word in protest. Otherwise, you’re
not respecting us.”
Yu said “the world has to wake up
to that kind of bullying” and reject
such rhetoric.
While the CCP claims that coun-
tries wanting to hold it accountable
for human rights abuses in Xinji-
ang are interfering in “domestic
sovereignty,” that’s not the case,
“because ... you cannot really kill
people, commit genocide, in the
name of sovereignty,” Yu said.
He urged the international com-
munity to instead set its own red
lines against the CCP’s predations,
forcing the regime to adhere to in-
ternational rules.
Doing the Right Thing
Yu believes the Trump administra-
tion has indelibly transformed the
United States’ approach to China
by recognizing the nature of the
challenge posed by the CCP—that
is, as the “central threat of our
time,” a description often used by
the former secretary of state.
Previous administrations, ac-
cording to Yu, were “consumed”
by how to maintain a “smooth re-
lationship” with the regime based
upon a “flawed framework.” That
framework was guided by what he
called a “missionary sentiment”: the
ruled over the Chinese people.
“We in the West, constantly, con-
stantly underestimate the degree
to which China is still a Commu-
nist Party,” Yu said, adding that the
CCP is the most dogmatic Leninist
political party in human history.
“Look at their domestic policy.
Look at their international policy.
Every single major policy move
there is motivated by this kind of
ideology,” he said, adding that one
needs only to read the speeches of
CCP leaders to recognize that.
Yet, he says, Western policymak-
ers have failed to take it seriously.
“I think that’s the ultimate short-
fall of U.S. foreign policy [prior to the
Trump administration],” he said.
Yu, who grew up in China’s west-
ern Chongqing city during the Cul-
tural Revolution, was in a unique
position to offer a more realistic as-
sessment of the regime. He arrived
in the United States as an exchange
student in 1985; four years later,
the Tiananmen Square Massacre
prompted Yu to become a student
advocate for democracy in China.
He went on to earn his doctor-
ate at the University of Califor-
nia–Berkeley, before becoming a
professor of modern China and
military history at the U.S. Naval
Academy in Annapolis, Maryland,
in 1994, where he has continued,
excluding the past four years on
transfer to the State Department.
Yu was at the forefront of the de-
partment’s development of China
policy. In the final year of Trump’s
presidency, Pompeo became the
public face of the administration’s
tough stance toward Beijing, de-
claring sanctions and other
measures against the CCP for its
human rights abuses, suppres-
sion of freedoms in Hong Kong,
military aggression in the South
China Sea, and threats posed by
Chinese technology.
Then-President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping leave a business
leaders event at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on Nov. 9, 2017.
Minimized ‘Unhealthy Influence’
Yu said one of the non-public
We in the West, “crowning achievements” of the
constantly, con- Trump administration was that
stantly underesti- it was able to minimize the “un-
healthy influence” of the China
mate the degree lobby, which in many ways is be-
to which China holden to the CCP.
is still a Commu- The CCP has leveraged its ex-
clusive control over market ac-
nist Party. cess to influence U.S. companies
Miles Yu, and groups wanting to operate in
former adviser to Secretary China. This applies to Washington
of State Mike Pompeo lobbyists who “would have to go
to the Chinese Communist Party
elite to get any access to China,”
Yu said.
“That’s created a very unhealthy
and very dangerous permanent
class,” he said.
The entrenched lobbying groups
have exerted “tremendous influ-
ence in our country’s foreign
policy, and particularly China’s
policy-formulation process,” Yu
said.
Working With Allies
The former adviser rebutted those
who criticized the Trump admin-
istration for being too unilateral
in carrying out its China policies.
Biden officials have vowed to work
with allies in confronting the re-
gime’s threats, which they say is a
point of departure from the previ-
ous administration.
Yu said Pompeo spent “most
of his time” attempting to foster
global awareness of the China
challenge and build a coalition
to counter it.
“We spent many, many efforts to
form that multilateral coalition,”
he said. But the administration en-
countered much resistance from
other nations early on.
“Many of our friends and allies
didn’t see it that way initially,” Yu
said, adding that they accused the
United States of being unilateral.
“But they were the ones [who were]
most unilateral, because they
didn’t want to go along.”
It wasn’t until the COVID-19
pandemic that many countries
came around to recognizing the
global threat, he said.
For instance, the United States
convinced NATO to address the
China challenge in the Indo-Pacif-
ic, Yu said, something that would
have been inconceivable a mere
three years ago.
At the same time, the United
States must be able to take the
lead in confronting the regime,
according to Yu.
“When we take the lead, free na-
tions will follow,” he said.
“It’s not because we’re being ar-
rogant. It’s because ... we’re the
country that has the capability
... to stem the Chinese expansion
globally.”
Yu said the views that he ex-
pressed are his own and don’t
represent those of the U.S. Naval
Academy, the Pentagon, or the
federal government.

Australia, UK, US, Japan, Dutch Navies to Conduct Exercises Countering China
KYLE HELLER/MINISTRY OF DEFENCE VIA GETTY IMAGES

CADEN PEARSON
Australia, the United Kingdom,
the United States, Japan, and the
Netherlands are joining forces for
naval exercises in the Indo-Pacific
region this spring, a move that an
expert says marks the UK’s return as
a global maritime power as it seeks
to protect its interests in the face of
an expansionist China.
The U.S. and UK defense secretar-
ies co-signed the UK–U.S. joint dec-
laration for the Carrier Strike Group
2021 deployment on Jan. 19.
An Australian defense depart-
ment spokesperson told The Epoch
Times that it welcomed the Indo-Pa-
cific deployment by the UK’s HMS
Queen Elizabeth Carrier Strike
Group and said advanced planning
is underway to determine how the
navies can train together during the
deployment.
“Australia and the United King-
dom share a unique relationship
based on shared history and val-
ues, with both nations committed
to a rules-based international order
that supports economic growth, se-
curity, and prosperity,” the spokes-
person said.
“The Royal Australian Navy rou-
tinely seeks to train with partner na-
vies to build interoperability, share
mariner skills and enhance profes-
sional ties in the region, particularly
in this case, with the Royal Navy’s
newest aircraft carrier.”
Further details of Australia’s in-
volvement haven’t been confirmed.
Meanwhile, Robert Clark, a de-
fense fellow at the London-based
think tank Henry Jackson Society,
noted that the UK is changing to
a forward-deployed posture as it
seeks to return as a power on the
international seas to protect its in-
terests in the face of an increasingly
expansionist Chinese regime.
“Increased opportunities also
come with increased risk, and
challenge is associated with those
risks, not least is the role in which
an increasingly expansionist China,
and the PLA Navy in particular, are
militarizing the vital sea lanes in
the South China Sea,” he said dur-
ing a live-streamed panel hosted by
the Henry Jackson Society on the
UK’s maritime policy. The PLA, or
People’s Liberation Army, is the of-
ficial name of China’s military.
“How the UK-led carrier strike
group will deal with these chal-
lenges posed by an assertive PLA
The HMS Queen Elizabeth carrier, in Portsmouth, England, on Sept. 26, 2018.
Navy will shape future deployments
and set conditions of naval policy
going forwards,” he said.
UK Defense Secretary Ben Wal-
lace said: “I am delighted that the
UK now possesses a 21st century
Carrier Strike capability, which
has been greatly assisted by the un-
swerving support and cooperation
of the United States at all levels over
the past decade.
“This deployment embodies the
strength of our bilateral ties and re-
flects the depth and breadth of this
vital defense and security partner-
ship,” he said.
Clark also said the upcoming de-
ployment is a triumph for the Royal
Navy and the UK.
“This deployment physically dem-
onstrates how the UK armed forces
will operate in shaping a truly global
Britain,” Clark said.
The participation of the UK-led
carrier strike group comes amid a
sweeping review of the UK’s foreign
policy, dubbed “the most radical as-
sessment of the UK’s place in the
world since the end of the Cold War.”
It also comes as the island nation
sets out a new approach to warf-
ighting in its Integrated Operating
Concept 2025, which the UK gov-
ernment calls “the most significant
change in UK military thought in
several generations.”
In recent years, the Chinese regime
has ramped up its military aggres-
sion in the South China Sea, seeking
to bolster its territorial claims over
nearly the entire waterway. Several
other Asian countries lay claim to
parts of the South China Sea.
The Chinese military has con-
ducted flights and drills in the area,
while Beijing has built up artificial
islands.
Earlier this month, the United
States sent two carrier groups to
conduct exercises in the South
China Sea.
Personnel from the U.S. Marine
Corps and U.S. Navy will join the
naval exercises. It will include a de-
tachment of the Marines’ F-35B
Lightning II aircraft and the Navy
destroyer USS The Sullivans.
A10 | WORLD TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 2021

AP PHOTO

Burmese Security
Forces Intensify
Crackdown on
Protests of
Military Coup
YANGON, Burma—Security forces
in Burma (also known as Myan-
mar) sought to quell demonstra-
tions calling for the military junta
to reinstate the elected govern-
ment on Feb. 15.
According to a photographer
who says he witnessed the Feb. 15
demonstrations, more than 1,000
protesters rallied in front of the
Myanmar Economic Bank in Man-
dalay, the country’s second-largest
city, when at least 10 trucks full of
timates put the figure at between
20 and 40.
Earlier on Feb. 15, Burma’s mili-
tary leaders extended their deten-
tion of deposed leader Aung San
Suu Kyi, whose remand was set
to expire and whose freedom is
a key demand of the crowds of
people continuing to protest the
Feb. 1 coup.
Suu Kyi will now be remanded un- A policeman aims a slingshot toward an unknown target during a crackdown on anti-coup protesters holding a rally in
til Feb. 17, when she will likely ap- front of the Myanmar Economic Bank in Mandalay, Burma (also known as Myanmar), on Feb. 15, 2021.
pear in court by videoconference, AP PHOTO

soldiers and police arrived and im-
mediately started firing slingshots
toward the protesters.
The soldiers and police then at-
tacked the protesters with sticks,
the witness said, and police could
be seen aiming long guns into the
air amid sounds that resembled
gunfire. Local media reported that
rubber bullets were also fired into
the crowd and that a few people
were injured.
The junta, led by Senior Gen. Min
Aung Hlaing, staged a military coup
earlier this month because, it says,
the government failed to properly
investigate allegations of fraud in
2019’s election, which leader Aung
Suu Kyi’s National League for De-
mocracy party won in a landslide.
The state election commission has
refuted that contention, saying
there is no evidence to support it.
In the capital, Naypyitaw, protest-
ers gathered on Feb. 15 outside a po-
lice station demanding the release
of a group of high school students
who were detained while joining in
anti-coup activities.
One student who managed to es-
cape told reporters that the pupils—
thought to range in age from 13 to
16—were demonstrating peacefully
when a line of riot police suddenly
arrived and began arresting them.
It wasn’t clear exactly how many
students were rounded up, but es-
according to Khin Maung Zaw, a
lawyer asked by Suu Kyi’s party to
represent her. The Nobel laureate
remains under house arrest on a
minor charge of possessing unreg-
istered imported walkie-talkies.
Suu Kyi’s extended detention is
likely to further inflame tensions
between the military and the pro-
testers of the coup who have taken
to the streets of cities across the
Southeast Asian nation seeking the
return of the elected government.
When the military seized
power, it detained Suu Kyi and
members of her government and
prevented recently elected law-
makers from opening a new ses-
sion of Parliament.
Protesters continued to gather
across Burma on Feb. 15, follow-
ing a night in which authorities cut
the country’s internet access and
increased the security presence in
major cities seeking to curtail dem-
onstrations.
Thousands of engineers marched
on the streets of Mandalay chanting
and holding signs that read: “Free
our leader,” “Who stands with jus-
tice?” and “Stop arresting people
illegally at midnight.”
In Yangon, the country’s most
populous city, fewer protesters
gathered on Feb. 15 due to the loss
of the internet and reports of mili-
tary vehicles on the streets. Never-
Engineers hold posters with an image of deposed Burmese leader Aung San
Suu Kyi as they hold an anti-coup protest march in Mandalay, Burma, on Feb.
15, 2021.
theless, more than 1,000 anti-coup
demonstrators were outside the
Central Bank of Myanmar build-
ing, where there were also military
trucks full of soldiers, riot police,
water cannon trucks, and armored
personnel carriers.
Demonstrators carried placards
that read “#SupportCDM #Save-
Myanmar.” CDM refers to the civil
disobedience movement that has
seen doctors, engineers, and oth-
ers in Burma refuse to work un-
til the military releases elected
political leaders and returns the
country to civilian rule.
Some protesters posed for photos
in front of military vehicles while
holding red signs that read “Join
in CDM.”
The military justified its move by
citing a clause in the 2008 constitu-
tion, implemented during military
rule, that says in cases of national
emergency, the government’s exec-
utive, legislative and judicial pow-
ers can be handed to the military
commander-in-chief.
It is just one of many parts of the
charter that ensured the military
could maintain ultimate control
over the country it ruled for 50
years following a 1962 coup. The
military is allowed to appoint its
members to 25 percent of seats in
Parliament and it controls several
key ministries involved in security
and defense.
An order on Feb. 14 that appeared
to be from the Ministry of Trans-
port and Communications told
mobile phone service providers to
shut down internet connections
from 1 a.m. to 9 a.m. on Feb. 15.
It circulated widely on social me-
dia, as did a notice said to be from
service provider Oredoo Myanmar
containing the same details.
On Feb. 14, ambassadors from
the United States and Canada
and 12 European nations called
on Burma’s security forces to re-
frain from violence against those
“protesting the overthrow of their
legitimate government.”
They condemned the arrests of
political leaders and activists as
well as the military’s interference
with communications.
“We support the people of Myan-
mar in their quest for democracy,
freedom, peace, and prosperity,”
they said in a joint statement is-
sued late at night on Feb. 14. “The
world is watching.”
From The Associated Press

CELLOU BINANI/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES

then spreads between hu-

Guinea Declares Ebola Epidemic,
Neighboring Countries Act
DAKAR, Senegal—Guin-
ea has officially declared
it has an Ebola epidemic
after at least three people
have died and four others
have been infected in the
West African nation.
Neighboring Sierra Leone
and Liberia have put their
Guinea, where health of-
ficials detected suspicious
cases of Ebola with pa-
tients presenting symp-
toms of diarrhea, vomit-
ing, and bleeding. The sick
had participated in the
burial of a nurse on Feb.
1 in Gouake, according to
mans via direct contact
with bodily fluids.
Liberia’s President George
Weah has mandated health
authorities “to heighten the
country’s epi-surveillance
Guinean and preventative activities”
Minister of and also ordered health
Health and officials to “immediately
Public Hygiene engage communities in
Remy Lamah towns and villages border-
delivers a ing Guinea and increase
weekly press
anti-Ebola measures.”
conference
on fightting Sierra Leone has activated
Ebola, in emergency response sys-
Conakry, tems and heightened sur-
Guinea, veillance for Ebola at the
on June already closed border with
28, 2014. Guinea, it stated.
International humani-
tarian and medical orga-
nizations are also racing to
prevent the further spread
of the virus.
The World Health Organi-
zation has stated it’s work-
ing to be sure that vaccines
areas to respect hygiene and developed during the 2014
prevention measures and to to 2016 outbreak will be
report to health authorities readily available as quick-
in the presence of sugges- ly as possible. In January,
tive signs,” Lamah said in the World Health Organi-
the ministry statement. zation stated it was creat-
The epidemic was de- ing a global emergency
clared after a crisis meeting stockpile of about 500,000
on Feb. 14. All suspected doses of the Ebola vaccine
Federation of Red Cross
and Red Crescent Societies’
regional director for Africa,
adding there is hope with
scientific advances. “Un-
less the response is swift,
the health, economic and
social impacts are likely to
be immense for millions of
people in a country with a
relatively weak health sys-
tem, and where more than
half of the population lives
below the poverty line.”
The IFRC and Guinea
Red Cross say teams that
include more than 2,500
volunteers have been acti-
vated in Guinea to provide
contact tracing, psycho-
social support, water, and
sanitation.
The international medical
organization Doctors With-
out Borders stated it’s also
sending teams to combat
the outbreak.
“We know from the past
that the speed of response is
important ... We also know
that community engage-
ment is vital, so we will be
trying to get the right bal-
ance between responding
quickly and taking steps
to make sure the commu-
nity is a willing and active
Russian Cargo
Ship Launched
to International
Space Station
MOSCOW—An unmanned
Russian cargo ship launched
successfully on Feb. 15 with
a load of supplies for the In-
ternational Space Station.
The Progress MS-16 cargo
ship blasted off as sched-
uled at 9:45 a.m. local time
from the Russia-leased
Baikonur launch facility in
Kazakhstan and reached a
designated orbit en route to
the station.
It’s carrying water, propel-
lant, and other supplies, and
is set to dock at the space
outpost on Feb. 17.
The space outpost is now
operated by NASA’s Kate
Rubins, Michael Hopkins,
Victor Glover, and Shannon
Walker; Japan Aerospace
Exploration Agency astro-
naut Soichi Noguchi; and
Russian Space Agency Ros-
cosmos’ Sergey Ryzhikov
and Sergey Kud-Sverchkov.
From The Associated Press
SERVICE PHOTO VIA AP
ROSCOSMOS SPACE AGENCY PRESS

citizens on high alert as the
three West African nations
battled the world’s deadliest
Ebola outbreak from 2014 to
2016, which began in Guin-
ea and in which more than
11,300 people died.
Sierra Leone’s President
Julius Maada Bio has flown
to consult with Guinean
President Alpha Conde.
Guinea’s new Ebola
outbreak occurred in
N’Zerekore, in southern
Guinea’s Minister of Health
Remy Lamah, who added
that the first investigation
counted seven cases, all of
the people over the age of
25 years, including the two
women and one male who
have died.
“The government reas-
sures the population that all
measures are being taken to
stem this epidemic as quick-
ly as possible. It invites the
populations of the affected
cases have been isolated in
N’Zerekore and Conakry,
the capital. Investigations
have begun, a treatment
center has opened, and
supplies have been sent to
the region.
Traditional funerals in
which people wash and
touch the body of the de-
ceased facilitate the spread
of Ebola. It usually jumps
to humans from infected
animals, such as bats, and
to help stamp out future
outbreaks, but only 7,000
were available at the time
of the statement. The Ebola
vaccine being stockpiled is
made by Merck.
“Time is of the essence.
The resurgence of the vi-
rus in Guinea comes at the
worst possible time when
the country is already fac-
ing the COVID-19 pan-
demic,” said Mohammed
Mukhier, International
participant in both preven-
tion and response,” said
Frederik van der Schrieck,
the organization’s head of
mission in Guinea.
Guinea’s announcement
comes more than a week
after eastern Congo con-
firmed it had four cases of
Ebola. The outbreaks in the The Progress MS-16 cargo
two countries aren’t linked. blasts off from the launch pad
at Russia’s space facility in
By Carley Petesch Baikonur, Kazakhstan, on Feb.
From The Associated Press 15, 2021.
 TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 2021 WORLD | A11

UK Needs ‘Cautious but Irreversible’ UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson holds a

vial of the AstraZeneca–Oxford COVID-
Path out of Lockdown: Boris Johnson 19 vaccine at the Health and Well-being
Centre in London on Feb. 15, 2021.

JEREMY SELWYN/POOL/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES

ALEXANDER ZHANG

British Prime Minister Boris John-

son on Feb. 15 refused to set firm
dates for easing COVID-19 lock-
down measures, arguing instead
that a “cautious but irreversible”
plan would be preferable.
Johnson, who is due to reveal his
plan for exiting lockdown on Feb.
22, has come under pressure from
lawmakers and businesses to set
clear dates for the lifting of CCP
(Chinese Communist Party) virus
restrictions following the biggest
vaccine rollout in British history.
“If we possibly can, we’ll be set-
ting out dates,” he told reporters
during a visit to a health center
in London.
But he said the dates the govern-
ment will set out will be “the target
date by which we hope to do some-
thing at the earliest.”
“If, because of the rate of infec-
tion, we have to push something
off a little bit to the right, delay it
for a little bit, we won’t hesitate to
do that,” he said.
“I think people would much rath-
er see a plan that was cautious but
irreversible, and one that proceeds
sensibly in accordance with where
we are with the disease.” dous pace of the vaccination lifted by the end of April. remain in the hospital, more than show that you’ve had a vaccination
The government announced rollout” and the restrictions will Johnson said the government sees at the April 2020 peak. against yellow fever or other dis-
on Feb. 14 that 15 million people no longer be justified once high- it as a priority to reopen schools on Asked if the government has eases in order to travel somewhere.
across the UK had received the first risk groups have been protected March 8, and “we will do every- plans to issue “vaccine passports,” I think that’s going to be very much
dose of a COVID-19 vaccine. by COVID-19 vaccines. thing we can to make that happen.” Johnson said: “I think inevitably in the mix down the road.”
The COVID Recovery Group, a In a letter to the prime minis- But he said “we’ve got to be very there will be great interest in ideas He added that he doesn’t think
group of Tory MPs who are skep- ter, they demanded that schools prudent” as deaths and rates of like—can you show that you’ve had the UK would adopt “vaccination
tical about lockdown measures, reopen to all pupils on March 8 infection remain “very high,” and a vaccination against COVID—in passports to allow you to go to, say,
said it welcomed “the tremen- and all CCP virus restrictions be some 23,000 COVID-19 patients the way that you sometimes have to the pub or something like that.”

WEST ASIA NEWS AGENCY VIA REUTERS

Iran Says It Will End Snap IAEA Inspections

If Nuclear Deal Terms Not Met
DUBAI—Iran said on Feb. 15 that
it will block snap inspections by
the U.N. nuclear watchdog from
next week if other parties to the
2015 nuclear deal don’t uphold
their obligations, a challenge to
U.S. President Joe Biden’s hope of
reviving the accord.
“If others do not fulfill their
obligations by Feb. 21, the gov-
ernment is obliged to suspend
the voluntary implementation
of the Additional Protocol,” For-
eign Ministry spokesman Saeed
Khatibzadeh said.
“It does not mean ending all
inspections by the U.N. nucle-
ar watchdog. ... All these steps
are reversible if the other party
changes its path and honors its
obligations,” he said, alluding to
the United States.
Iran’s envoy to the International
Atomic Energy Agency wrote on
Twitter on Feb. 15 that Tehran has
informed the U.N. watchdog about
its plan next week to end sweep-
ing inspection powers given to the
agency under the nuclear pact.
Under legislation enacted by
hardline Iranian lawmakers in
2019, the government is obliged on
Feb. 21 to limit IAEA inspections
to declared nuclear sites only, re-
voking its short-notice access to
any location seen as relevant for
information-gathering, if other
parties did not fully comply with
the deal.
The Biden administration aims
to return the United States to the
deal, which his predecessor Don-
ald Trump abandoned in 2018.
Under the deal, Iran agreed to
curbs on its uranium enrichment
program in return for the lifting
of sanctions.
After Trump quit and reim-
posed sanctions, Iran began vio-
lating some of the deal’s limits on
sensitive uranium enrichment.
Washington and Tehran now dis-
agree over how best to restore the
accord, with both sides demand-
ing the other side act first to re-
turn to compliance.
Despite Iran’s public hard line
that Washington must take the
first step, however, several Iranian
officials told Reuters last week that
the mounting economic pain of
U.S. sanctions may push Tehran
to show flexibility on terms for re-
storing the nuclear deal.
Qatari Foreign Minister Sheikh
Mohammed bin Abdulrahman
Al-Thani said last week that Doha
was in consultations to help sal-
vage the deal, and Iranian state
media said he would meet Iran’s
president and foreign minister in
Tehran on Feb. 15.
“We welcome efforts by friendly
countries like Qatar. ... There have
been consultations between Teh-
ran and Doha at various levels,”
Khatibzadeh said.
Iran has long denied striving to
develop nuclear weapons through
uranium enrichment, though its
An Iranian
flag near in a
missile, during
a military drill,
in Iran on Oct.
19, 2020.
intelligence minister said last
week that persistent Western pres-
sure could push Tehran to fight
back like a “cornered cat” and seek
nuclear weapons.
But Khatibzadeh rejected this, cit-
ing a religious decree issued in the
early 2000s by the Islamic Repub-
lic’s top authority, Supreme Leader
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, banning
the pursuit of nuclear arms.
By Parisa Hafezi
From Reuters

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A security guard gives directions to a man outside of the Davos Congress Centre ahead of the World Economic Forum 2018 annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland, on Jan. 22, 2018.
Missing From the WEF’s
Great Reset: A Moral Compass
RYAN MOFFATT
Globalization has afforded
non-governmental
organizations, the ultra-
wealthy, and Big Tech
power and influence on
a global scale that were
once reserved for the world’s
superpower states.
The World Economic Forum, which
describes itself as an international orga-
nization for public-private cooperation,
has proposed a “Great Reset” initiative
to rework global economics to address
the challenges of the post-pandemic
world. The WEF paints a picture of the
year 2030 in which the United States
will lose its place as the preeminent
superpower, a billion people will be dis-
placed by climate change, carbon will
be taxed globally, and “you will own
nothing and be happy.”
The WEF frames the afflictions of the
world primarily in economic and climate
terms while advocating that individual
property rights can be discarded, pri-
vacy can be sacrificed, and national
sovereignty can be dissolved—all for the
greater good of addressing these two so-
called existential threats. That it has the
means to further this agenda is undeni-
able, as it’s backed by world leaders, tech
oligarchs, and the ultra-wealthy who
are seemingly eager to implement these
changes on behalf of the rest of us.
Mankind’s great civilizations
prospered under a moral
foundation, but crumbled
under its demise.
But for all the proposals put forth by the
WEF, there is little talk of principle. In
line with other NGOs such as the United
Nations, the Great Reset adopts a value-
neutrality model, where moral relativism
hinders any adoption of moral principles
to guide policy and action.
Value neutrality, however, isn’t a suf-
ficient doctrine to regulate global orga-
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 2021 • A13
FABRICE COFFRINI/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES
FABRICE COFFRINI/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES
nizations who seek power and permis-
sion to change the world. There must be
founding principles as cornerstones to
ensure a consistently virtuous course of
action. To this end, a robust conversa-
tion around guiding moral principles is
imperative from those who seek to shape
our future.
Evolution of Ethics 
Mankind’s great civilizations prospered
under a moral foundation, but crumbled
under its demise. Ethics weren’t tran-
sient, but rather the cornerstone of
society from which prosperity naturally
arose. History has shown that sustain-
able economic success is necessarily
tied to a stable moral currency.
Flourishing trade and economic
growth stemmed from an environment idea that a capable group of global elites
in which virtues such as integrity, World Economic Forum is hard at work solving the existential
truth, and industriousness spurred founder and executive crises of our day, but this is not the time
invention, fostered mutually beneficial chairman Klaus Schwab to abdicate our say in the future.
trade, and invigorated the endeavors speaks during a ceremony The WEF will need to sell its vision,
of the populace. to mark the 50th anniver- not through compulsion but through
In the East, China sustained 5,000 years sary of the organization, adopting concrete ethics and principles
of dynastic rule where Taoism, Confu- in Davos, Switzerland, on sufficient to convince people that the
Jan. 20, 2020.
cianism, and Buddhism encouraged self-restraint and sacrifice it’s demand-
transcendental and ethical thought. The ing will indeed serve the greater good.
five virtues of Confucianism—benevo- The only other way to impose such a re-
lence, righteousness, propriety, wisdom, working of the world economic structure
and fidelity—fortified China’s ingenuity is through force, as a global ruling body
and rich culture, resulting in such pivotal will inevitably erode liberty, freedom,
inventions as the compass, gunpowder, and self-determination. The past cen-
paper, and the abacus. tury has shown that centralized power
The ancient Greeks established the always ends in totalitarianism sustained
foundations for modern fields of study by violence.
such as mathematics, biology, engineer- Every nation that has adopted this
ing, and linguistics, among others, while model of amoral governance has ended
establishing democracy and the modern in poverty, tyranny, or both. Think about
justice system. From Socrates to Aris- the Soviet Union, Cambodia, China, and
totle to Plato, a vigorous debate around Cuba; there are no exceptions. If the WEF
ethical principles was a key feature of does away with prescriptive moral prin-
Grecian life. ciples, the results will be no different.
The United States combined the Athe-
nian foundation with Judeo-Christian Ryan Moffatt is a journalist based in
ethics to create the most prosperous Vancouver.
nation in modern history. Its core virtues
were embedded in the Constitution and
the establishment of one nation under
God, and a belief that a moral foundation
would result in net benefits on an indi-
vidual and national level.
It may be tempting to take solace in the
A14 | OPINION
Will the Biden Administration
Undermine the Abraham Accords?
AUSTIN BAY
Based on words and deeds,
the emergent Iran policy
of President Joe Biden’s
administration is either
structurally incoherent,
another blatant example
of mixed messaging by intel-
lectual mediocrities or, worse yet, both.
Whether alone or both, the structurally
incoherent condition is dangerous. What-
ever the case, the administration must
quickly decide if it wants to advance sen-
sible policies that will secure Middle East
peace or, in lieu of that obvious wisdom,
choose to promote murderous geopoliti-
cal fantasy theories hawked by left-wing
academia and authoritarian leftist media.
Administration officials have praised
the Trump administration’s Abraham
Accords: the Nobel Peace Prize-worthy
agreement normalizing diplomatic rela-
tions between Israel and key Arab states.
However, foolish faculty club “yes, buts”
qualify the Bidenist praise.
Hard fact: Biden administration actions
and statements favoring revival of the
so-called Iran nuclear deal encourage the
Middle East’s most malign regime: Iran’s
ayatollah dictatorship. “Criminal” is a bet-
ter description than “malign,” for transna-
tional crime (narcotics smuggling, human
trafficking) dovetails with Iranian terrorist
attacks and proxy war operations.
The Iranian dictatorship ritually threat-
ens Death to America and Death to Israel.
Its agents conduct or finance violent
meddling operations in at least 30 differ-
ent countries.
Another hard fact: The Joint Comprehen-
sive Plan of Action (JCPOA), the ostenta-
tious cover name that former President
Barack Obama’s administration pasted on
DILBERT
PEANUTS
RED AND ROVER
GRAND AVENUE
MUTT & JEFF
(L–R) Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, U.S. President Donald Trump, Bahrain Foreign
Minister Abdullatif al-Zayani, and United Arab Emirates Foreign Minister Abdullah bin Zayed
Al-Nahyan wave from the Truman Balcony at the White House afterthe signing of the Abraham
Accords on Sept. 15, 2020.
its Iran nuclear deal, never halted Iran’s
nuclear weapons development program.
Israeli intelligence has leaked enough info
to support this statement. The JCPOA did
give the dictatorship billions of dollars,
which it used to finance terror attacks and
proxy wars.
Diplomatically critical fact: The Trump
administration’s decision to withdraw
from the Obama administration’s destruc-
tive JCPOA was the predicate action that
made the Abraham Accords possible.
On Jan. 5, then-Secretary of State Mike
Pompeo told Bloomberg News that ter-
minating the JCPOA set the stage for the
Abraham Accords, saying: “The policy
we took with respect to Iran—putting
COMICS
SAUL LOEB/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES
pressure on Iran, not taking Iran as our
primary security partner in the Middle
East, but, in fact, flipping the script and
acknowledging that the Gulf states had the
rightful capacity and Israel had the right-
ful capacity to defend themselves from
Iran, and putting real pressure on Iran.
Those things all enabled the good work.”
In late January, during a United States
Institute of Peace-sponsored panel dis-
cussion, former Trump national security
adviser Robert O’Brien echoed Pompeo.
The Trump administration “built political
capital with Bahrain, with Morocco with
the UAE by letting them know that we
would stand with them, by getting out of”
the Iran nuclear deal, “which was a serious
GARFIELD
GINGER MEGGS
BIG NATE
DRABBLE
FRANK AND ERNEST
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 2021
threat to the region.”
Biden administration national security
adviser Jake Sullivan participated in the
panel. He told the audience the Biden
administration intends “to build a global
effort, including partners and allies in the
region and in Europe and elsewhere, to take
on the other significant threats Iran poses.”
However, Sullivan also said he wants to
“get back to diplomacy” and “put Iran’s
nuclear program in a box.”
What an “oh, but.”
The Abraham Accords are unfinished
business—a complex work in progress that
has achieved much but requires resolve to
succeed. Its spine is isolating Iran’s dictator-
ship and spurning security deals, especially
nuclear weapons deals, with a corrupt and
criminal regime that cannot be trusted.
The Abraham Accords are too
valuable to lose.
Oh, but. The Biden administration
and its faculty-club leftists can’t admit
Obama’s Iran deal was an amalgam of self-
infatuated fantasy and idiocy.
What should the Biden administration
do about Iran?
Model the Trump administration’s policy.
Oh, but! The Bidenists can’t do that be-
cause OrangeManBad! Plus, the Abraham
Accords exposed Obama’s Iran policy as
blind and vapid.
The Abraham Accords, however, are too
valuable to lose.
In 2017, the Trump administration
reimposed economic sanctions with the
goals of stopping Iran’s nuclear weapons
program and penalizing the regime’s
malign behavior. Trump held the regime
responsible for its proxy’s violent actions.
Alas, Biden just took Iran’s Yemen prox-
ies, the Houthis, off the U.S. terrorist list.
Austin Bay is a colonel (ret.) in the U.S.
Army Reserve, author, syndicated colum-
nist, and teacher of strategy and strategic
theory at the University of Texas–Austin.
His latest book is “Cocktails from Hell: Five
Wars Shaping the 21st Century.”
 TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 2021
SPECIAL SERIES
How the Specter of Communism
Is Ruling Our World
The Media: The Specter’s Mouthpiece
The Epoch Times here serializes an adaptation from the Chinese of
“How the Specter of Communism Is Ruling Our World,” a new book by
the editorial team of the “Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party.”
1. Mass Indoctrination in
Communist Countries (cont.)
During the 1989 Tiananmen Square
massacre, the CCP claimed that the
student demonstrators were violent
thugs and used this as justification
to deploy the army to suppress the
alleged “riot.” Following the massa-
cre, it claimed that the army didn’t
shoot anyone and that there were
no casualties in the square. [6] In
2001, early on in the persecution
of Falun Gong, the regime staged a
self-immolation hoax in Tiananmen
Square to frame the spiritual prac-
tice and kindle hatred toward Falun
Gong practitioners across China
and around the world. [7]
Leading cadres in committees at
all levels of the CCP place great im-
portance on propaganda work and
field considerable personnel for this
task. By the end of 2010, China had
more than 1.3 million staff working
in the national propaganda appara-
tus, including about 56,000 in pro-
paganda departments at the provin-
cial and county levels, 1.2 million in
local propaganda units, and 52,000
people in the central propaganda
work units. [8] This figure does not
include the large number of staff
who were responsible for moni-
toring and manipulating online
opinion, such as internet police,
moderators, Party-controlled com-
mentators, and others employed in
various forms of public relations.
Countries ruled by communist
parties, without exception, use great
amounts of resources to manipulate
the media. Years of operation have
honed communist state media into
efficient mouthpieces for their to-
talitarian masters. They use any and
all means to deceive and poison the
minds of the people.
2. Communist Infiltration of
Western Media and Hollywood
The last century was witness to great
conflicts between the free world and
the communist camp. All the while,
communism has been successfully
infiltrating and subverting the me-
dia in Western countries. This chap-
ter focuses on the United States, in
light of the extraordinary influence
of American media throughout the
world.
After the Soviet regime seized
power in Russia, it attempted to es-
tablish control over public discourse
in the West, dispatching its agents to
infiltrate Western media and entic-
ing local communist sympathizers.
It used these people to great effect
in eulogizing the Soviet Union and
concealing the brutality of commu-
nist rule. Soviet propaganda efforts
swayed large numbers of Western-
ers and even influenced government
policy to favor the Soviet Union.
The Soviet KGB used its agents in
the United States to work directly
with prestigious American media
organizations. Among these agents
were John Scott, Richard Lauter-
bach, and Stephen Laird of Time
magazine, who used their positions
to mingle with politicians, celebri-
ties, and heads of state. Aside from
gathering a wide range of intelli-
gence, they also influenced high-
level decisions concerning matters
of politics, economics, diplomacy,
war, and more. Another Time
editor and Soviet spy, Whittaker
Chambers, later defected and wrote
the book “Witness” detailing com-
munist subversion in the United
States. [9]
Walter Duranty, the Moscow
correspondent for The New York
Times, won the 1932 Pulitzer Prize
for a series of articles on the Soviet
Union. Former American commu-
nist Jay Lovestone and prominent
journalist Joseph Alsop both believe
Duranty acted as a Soviet agent. [10]
During the 1932–1933 famine that
ravaged Ukraine and other regions
of the Soviet Union, Duranty denied
that the famine even existed, let
alone that millions of people were
starving to death. He claimed that
“any report of a famine in Russia is
today an exaggeration or malignant
propaganda.” [11] Describing the
consequences of Duranty’s false re-
porting, Robert Conquest, a famous
British historian and authoritative
scholar on the history of the So-
viet Union, wrote in his book “The
Harvest of Sorrow: Soviet Collectiv-
ization and the Terror-Famine”: “As
one of the best known correspon-
dents in the world for one of the best
known newspapers in the world, Mr.
Duranty’s denial that there was a
famine was accepted as gospel. Thus
Mr. Duranty gulled not only the
readers of The New York Times but
because of the newspaper’s prestige,
he influenced the thinking of count-
less thousands of other readers
about the character of Josef Stalin
and the Soviet regime. And he cer-
tainly influenced the newly-elected
President [Franklin D.] Roosevelt to
recognize the Soviet Union.” [12]
Years of operation have honed
communist state media into
efficient mouthpieces for their
totalitarian masters. They use
any and all means to deceive and
poison the minds of the people.
At the same time, Hollywood was
infiltrated by communist and leftist
ideas. Willi Münzenberg, a Ger-
man communist and member of the
Third International, traveled to the
United States and recognized that
the American film industry could
be used as a tool for propaganda,
implementing Lenin’s concepts of
film development and production.
He sent his trusted assistant Otto
Katz and his associate Louis Gibarti
to infiltrate the industry. Katz was
highly successful in penetrating the
social circles of the Hollywood elite
and soon established a Communist
Party branch organization, the Hol-
lywood Anti-Nazi League.
Step by step, the Soviet Union’s
influence began to set in. Many
filmmakers of the era idolized the
Soviets, and these sentiments only
grew during World War II, when the
United States and the Soviet Union
were briefly allied against Nazi Ger-
many. A famous playwright claimed
that the German invasion of the
Soviet Union was “an attack on our
motherland.” [13] A line in “Mission
to Moscow,” a 1943 film intended to
bolster support for the Soviet–Amer-
ican alliance, portrays the Soviet
Union as being a country founded
on the same fundamental principles
as those of the United States. [14]
Chapter Thirteen
The Chinese communist regime
also has greatly benefited from
leftist media and journalists in the
free world. Prominent among them
were left-wing American journalists
Edgar Snow, Agnes Smedley, and
Anna Louise Strong. Snow’s book
“Red Star Over China” painted a
glowing picture of Mao and other
senior Chinese Communist Party
leaders while hiding their crimes
and the evil nature of communism
from Western readers. Mao said,
“Snow is the first person to clear
the road for the friendly relations
needed to establish a united front.”
[15] Smedley wrote many articles
and books flattering the CCP and its
leadership. There is strong evidence
from the Soviet archives suggesting
that she was a Comintern agent who
worked to foster armed revolution
in India and collect intelligence for
the Soviets. [16] Strong also was an
admirer of the Chinese communist
movement. The CCP has acknowl-
edged these three Americans by
issuing postage stamps in honor of
their “meritorious service.”
Notes
6. Han Mei ᶥ໶, “Ying jiemi dang’an
baoguang ‘liu si’ siwang renshu:
shiti duiji zai dixiatongdao 舣薹ੂ
໩礯฿‫ط‬ʼn‫ࢥم‬Ŋ稴犜Ո踞物੬֛ञ
ᑌࣁ瑿ӥ蝢螇 [“UK Declassifies
Files on Casualties at Tiananmen;
Bodies Stored Underground in
Heaps”], Sound of Hope Radio,
Dec. 20, 2017. [In Chinese]
7. “Self-Immolation Hoax on Ti-
ananmen Square,” Minghui,
en.minghui.org/cc/88.
8. “Zongshu: Chuangxinjizhi qian-
ghua peiyang – goujian gaosuzhi
xuanchuanwenhuaduiwu” ᖓ蝄 Advertising
‫ڠ‬碝๢‫ګ‬୩玕璢ِ຅ୌṛᔰᨶਯ
փ෈玕ᴚշ [“General Overview:
Intensify the Fostering of a Mecha-
nism for Innovation, Construct a
High-Grade Propaganda Cultural
Team”], Xinhua News Network,
Sept. 28, 2011 [In Chinese]
9. Matthew Vadum, “Journalistic
Treachery,” Canada Free Press,
July 1, 2015.
10. Marco Carynnyk, “The New York
Times and the Great Famine,”
Ukrainian Weekly, vol. LI, no. 37,
published Sept. 11, 1983.
11. Walter Duranty, as quoted in
Robert Conquest, “The Harvest
of Sorrow: Soviet Collectivization
and the Terror-Famine” (New
York: Oxford University Press,
1986), 319.
12. Robert Conquest, as quoted in
Arnold Beichman, “Pulitzer-Win-
ning Lies,” The Weekly Standard,
June 12, 2003.
13. Ronald Radosh and Allis Radosh,
“Red Star Over Hollywood: The
Film Colony’s Long Romance
With the Left” (San Francisco:
Encounter Books, 2005), 80.
14. Ibid., 105.
15. Mao Zedong, as quoted in Edgar
Snow, “Random Notes on Red
China, 1936–1945” (Montana:
Literary Licensing, LLC, 2011).
16. Ruth Price, “The Lives of Agnes
Smedley” (New York: Oxford
University Press, 2004), 5–9.
See next edition for the next
installment.
To purchase the books, visit
EpochShop.com
OPINION | A15
Stephen Gregory, Publisher
Jasper Fakkert, Editor-in-Chief
Channaly Philipp, Life & Tradition,
Travel Editor
Chrisy Trudeau, Mind & Body Editor
Crystal Shi, Home, Food Editor
Sharon Kilarski, Arts & Culture Editor
ABOUT US
The Epoch Times is a media
organization dedicated to seek-
ing the truth through insightful
and independent journalism.
Standing outside of politi-
cal interests and the pursuit of
profit, our starting point and our
goal is to create a media for the
public benefit, to be truly respon-
sible to society.
We endeavor to educate read-
ers about today’s most impor-
tant topics, seeking to broaden
and uplift minds. We believe that
rational, balanced debate is key
for fostering a healthy democ-
racy and a compassionate
society.
As an independent media out-
let, we use our freedom to inves-
tigate issues overlooked—or
avoided—by other media outlets.
We seek to highlight solutions
and what’s good in society rather
than what divides us.
We report respectfully, compas-
sionately, and rigorously.
We stand against the destruc-
tion wrought by communism,
including the harm done to cul-
tures around the world.
We are inspired in this by our
own experience. The Epoch
Times was founded in 2000 to
bring honest and uncensored
news to people oppressed
by the lies and violence in
communist China.
We still believe journalism is a
noble vocation, but only when it
genuinely seeks to serve its com-
munities and help them to flour-
ish. In all that we do, we will hold
ourselves to the highest stand-
ards of integrity. This is our
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A16 | OPINION
Is China Preparing
to Blitz the Moon?
RICK FISHER
When the Chinese Communist
Party (CCP) commences its
manned moon program, it may
do so in a big way, as its goal
is to control the Earth-moon
system to enforce its hegemony
on Earth and then regulate access
to the future “Space Economy.”
This means the United States must ex-
ploit what may be temporary advantages
in technology to create an early domi-
nant lunar presence for democracies.
For most of the past decade, the Chinese
The Book You’ve Been
Waiting for...
“Extremely well “The Truth, as horrifying as it is,
researched and true.” shall set us free. This should be
on this country’s academia’s
list of required reading.”
HOW THE
SPECTER OF COMMUNISM
IS RULING OUR WORLD
The specter of communism did not
disappear with the disintegration of the
Communist Party in Eastern Europe
ORDER NOW!
EpochShop.com
NOEL CELIS/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES
A Long March-5 rocket,
carrying an orbiter, lander, and
rover as part of the Tianwen-1
mission to Mars, lifts off from the
Wenchang Spacecraft Launch
Center in Hainan Province,
China, on July 23, 2020.
regime has been peddling the idea that
The advantages its manned moon program may not start
until around 2030. This appeared to be
offered by Starship, confirmed by Chinese revelations that its
if quickly exploited main moon mission space launch vehicle
by resolute U.S. lead- (SLV), the China Aerospace Science and
Technology Corp. (CASC) Long March-9,
ership, could help wouldn’t be in service until about 2030.
thwart the Chinese But now it’s possible to assess that China
regime’s hegemonic may get there well before 2030. China
began to reveal a possible acceleration of
ambitions. its moon plans in November 2018, when it
revealed a new 5-meter diameter manned
SLV with a three parallel booster con-
figuration, like the 63-ton to Low Earth
Orbit (LEO) SpaceX Falcon Heavy. Few
details were revealed at the time, not even
its name, so Chinese space enthusiasts
dubbed it the “921 Rocket” after China’s
manned “921 Program” from 1992.
Then, in September 2020, an official
subordinate to the Armaments Depart-
ment of the Central Military Commission
of the People’s Liberation Army, which
controls China’s space program, official-
ly confirmed for the first time that China
had an active manned moon program,
and was developing a new manned
NOW moon lander, and the new manned SLV.
This is the 921 Rocket designed to loft
BIGGER SIZE, about 70 tons to LEO, and about 25 tons
EASIER TO READ to the moon.
FORMAT It’s possible that future versions of this
SLV will feature reusable first stages like
Falcon Heavy, helping China to signifi-
cantly reduce the cost of sending people
and supporting payloads to the moon.
The interest and attention paid to this
new rocket caused some Chinese observ-
ers to speculate that the Long March-9
program has possibly been abandoned.
But this was put to rest by a Nov. 26, 2020,
report in China Daily that stated, “China
Aerospace Science and Technology Corp
[CASC] has estimated that about 10 Long
March 9s will be needed each year from
2030 to 2035 in China to serve the nation’s
robust demand for heavy-lift rockets.”
This means that the Chinese regime
may be planning to build 60 of its Long
March-9 super-heavy space launch vehi-
cles (SLVs) over a period of six years. This
has huge implications for China’s ambi-
The Jiuquan space center in the Gobi Desert, in China's Gansu Province, on June 11, 2013.
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 2021
tions to build a dominant presence on the
moon and to begin colonizing Mars.
While it isn’t yet clear that the CCP
leadership has approved such plans, CASC
likely wouldn’t be disclosing such SLV
requirement numbers without some level
of approval or encouragement from Party
leaders.
China Daily also stated, “The super-
heavy rocket will be 93 meters tall, have
a liftoff weight of 4,140 metric tons, and
thrust power of 5,760 tons. Its core stage
will be about 10 meters in diameter ... will
be able to transport spacecraft with a com-
bined weight of 140 tons to a low-Earth
orbit ... will also be able to place spaceships
weighing up to 50 tons in an Earth-moon
transfer trajectory for lunar expeditions.”
Other Chinese sources indicate that oth-
er possible versions of the Long March-9
could loft 65-ton payloads to the moon.
Such limited data, however, does offer
some idea for how rapidly China might
populate the moon. One might start by
estimating that China devotes 40 of the
potential 60 Long March-9’s to moon
missions, with the remaining to be used
to support a second-generation Low
Earth Orbit space station, and to begin
sending people to Mars.
The 50-square-meter interior and 22.5-
ton Tianhe module that could be launched
by April for China’s new space station can
support a crew of three. Perhaps a moon
base of four similar size modules might
support a crew of six people. Assum-
ing a Long March-9 could transport two
Tianhe-size moon base habitat modules to
the moon, then 20 Long March-9 missions
might begin the building of 10 separate
Chinese moon bases.
The other 20 Long March-9 missions
could transport moon rovers, power sys-
tems, communication systems, mining
equipment, and moon production sys-
tems that would enable full exploitation
of the moon’s resources. This, in turn,
could accelerate the Chinese regime’s
ambition to build very large space-based
solar power satellites to achieve energy
independence on Earth.
Such potential Chinese moon “blitz”
ambitions are of concern because it’s also
possible that water-ice, the most impor-
tant early lunar resource objective, may
be available only in a small number of
locations at the moon’s South Pole. Re-
member, the CCP is capable of “imperial-
ism” as in the South China Sea.
In March 2019, the Trump adminis-
tration set a goal of getting to the moon
by 2024, which doesn’t appear realistic
given congressional reluctance to provide
additional funding. The U.S. National
Aeronautics and Space Administration
(NASA) is developing its nonreusable
Space Launch System superheavy SLV
that could send 27 to 46 tons of cargo to
the moon. It’s a classic risk-averse NASA
program but its projected payload cost to
the moon is about $20,000 per kilogram.
Starship could be ready for moon mis-
sions by 2022 to 2023 and has been se-
lected by NASA as a possible moon lander
for its Artemis program. But it offers a
potential amazing strategic advantage,
if projections are correct, of transporting
payloads to the moon for about $2,000 per
kilogram.
Perhaps China’s potential plans to build
such a large number of Long March-9
superheavy SLVs may be their response to
the Starship, along with an accelerating
investment in their own reusable SLVs.
This only redoubles the need for Star-
ship to succeed, so that the United States,
its allies, and partners can use it to build
a sufficient moon presence before China
does, to have a better chance of deter-
ring the CCP from lunar imperialism and
aggression. The advantages offered by
Starship, if quickly exploited by resolute
U.S. leadership, could help thwart the
Chinese regime’s hegemonic ambitions.
Rick Fisher is a senior fellow with the Inter-
national Assessment and Strategy Center.
AFP/AFP/GETTY IMAGES
 TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 2021
Europe’s Debt Cancellation Would
Mean Recognition of Insolvency
DANIEL LACALLE
Commentary
More than 100 economists,
led by French economist
Thomas Piketty—the
creator of some of the
most absurd proposals
embraced by the extreme
left—on Feb. 5 published an
open letter in which they called for a can-
cellation of government debt by the Eu-
ropean Central Bank (ECB) “in exchange
for greater public investment”—which,
by the way, would be paid for with the is-
suance of more public debt. Fascinating.
Luís de Guindos, vice president of the
ECB, has settled the controversy with
two pieces of evidence.
“The cancellation of debt [on the ECB
balance sheet] is illegal ... [and] does not
make any economic or financial sense at
all,” he explained in a speech on Feb. 5.
The first part is obvious. Such cancella-
tions are prohibited by the bylaws of the
ECB.
I will explain the lack of economic logic
here. A debt write-off or cancellation is
evidence of the issuer’s insolvency. If, as
the economists repeat, the solvency and
credit credibility of the eurozone is not
at stake, why ask for a cancellation? If, as
Piketty and other defenders of massive
state indebtedness maintain, deficits
aren’t a problem and increasing debt isn’t
a concern because it creates reserves,
why cancel it?
Let’s not forget that many of the political
parties that have embraced Piketty’s idea
in Europe—Podemos, Syriza, and other
European radical parties—filed a propos-
al to exit the euro in 2015 that they have
never subsequently withdrawn or reject-
ed. Podemos MEPs presented a resolution
in Strasbourg for the European Union to
prepare the mechanisms for the “orderly
dissolution of the euro zone.” They also
proposed to establish “the mechanisms
that would allow a country integrated in
the single currency to abandon it to adopt
another currency,” according to Spanish
newspaper Crónica Global.
So basically, radical parties in Europe
demand that the ECB forgives their debt
and prints more money while keeping the
option of leaving the euro. Call that bak-
ing the cake and eating it.
Piketty and colleagues open a
dangerous option: direct moneti-
zation of all and any government
spending, Argentina-style.
Most eurozone states finance them-
selves today at negative rates or extremely
low yields. It would be a mistake to think
that these low-interest yields are the
consequence of good government fiscal
policy. If the eurozone has low-interest
rates and low yields, it’s because European
taxpayers keep it solvent—mostly thanks
to Germany’s financial solvency. Europe-
an taxpayers uphold the credibility of the
euro as a currency, and with this, the ECB
can carry out expansionary policies.
Piketty and colleagues open a danger-
ous option: direct monetization of all and
any government spending, Argentina-
style. And they do so while ignoring that
the euro is the only global reserve cur-
rency with redenomination risk, and that
its credibility is maintained only because
of the widespread confidence in the euro
area’s commitment to repay its debts.
A eurobond is an asset for many inves-
tors globally only because it’s supposed to
be of the lowest risk. Opening the Pando-
ra’s box of cancellations means its status
as an asset disappears.
What we read in the open letter are typi-
cal fallacious populist arguments. Debt
relief and defaults exist, of course; they are
evidence of an issuer’s insolvency. What
doesn’t exist is debt relief to enable spend-
ing more and getting even more into debt,
which is what they propose, which leads
to constant monetization and cancellation
that ultimately undermines the solidity of
the euro. What the economists ask for is
the direct monetization by the ECB of all
and any public spending without limits or
differentiation. That is, to copy Argentina.
Neither the United States nor Japan nor
the UK thinks of such nonsense, because
each country knows it would lose its status
as a global reserve.
BUSINESS & ECONOMY | A17
European Central
Bank headquaters, in
Frankfurt, Germany,
on March 7, 2019.
THOMAS LOHNES/GETTY IMAGES
The ECB has already bought 100 percent
of most euro-area member states’ net
issuances and around 30 percent of their
outstanding debt. What did it buy it with?
With the creditworthiness of the econom-
ic agents of the entire euro area. This is
essential to understanding why debt isn’t
a simple accounting note and the ECB
can’t cancel it at will.
The ECB can borrow thanks to the
strength of the savings and economy of
the eurozone member countries.
When the ECB buys euro-area sovereign
bonds, for the central bank, that debt is
a maximum-quality and lowest-risk as-
set that has value if member states meet
their credit commitments and are reli-
able debtors. If the ECB were to remove
this debt from its balance sheet, it would
destroy its assets, and with it the confi-
dence in its viability, as well as its ability to
remain a leading central bank.
cuts that would return the country to a the eurozone into stagflation and mon-
primary surplus in a short time. Debt re- etary disaster with their magic proposals.
structuring exists, of course; what doesn’t Debt isn’t a number; it’s a commitment
Debt relief is not a gift; it’s a exist is debt restructuring in exchange for contract whose value is maintained be-
demonstration that the issuer spending more and borrowing even more. cause the issuer’s guarantee and reliability
is not solvent or reliable. Only someone who has no idea of the are assured. Debt, which is an asset on the
monetary system could believe that a ECB’s balance sheet, maintains the stabil-
restructuring of the debt in the hands of the ity and solvency of the euro as a currency
Canceling the debt in the hands of the ECB would be a free ride. It would be ac- because the commitment of member states
ECB would destroy its global position companied by many greater cuts and sacri- to repay it is unquestioned. If they break
as a lender and guarantor of last resort, fices because it’s evidence of insolvency. that commitment, the euro—and with
because it shows the world’s investors that In any case, a reduction doesn’t solve it, the financing capacity of the country’s
its assets (the debt of the countries it has anything if the annual deficit continues economy—will disappear in a short time.
bought) are not high quality and low risk, to run wild, a problem that neither Piketty These proposals are coming in when
but insolvent. Any investor can under- nor the parties that defend his theories in- the investor community is mostly bullish
stand that what seems “one-off” now will tend to solve, quite the opposite. In a few on the euro and long on Europe, and they
recur in the future, judging by the mas- years, the country’s indebtedness would show that the risk of those bets is that what
sive deficit-spending policies that parties be the same as it accumulates higher seems like a random and unimportant idea
that follow Piketty endorse, destroying the structural deficits. from a radical economist may be a reality
credibility of the euro and the ECB. Do Debt relief isn’t a gift; it’s a demonstration someday. This makes the consensus long
you think that when this “one-off cancel- that the issuer is not solvent or reliable. euro bet not a risk, but a massive concern.
lation” ends, most countries won’t ask for With this, access to current and future fi-
more two years later? nancing is greatly reduced. It’s not a blank Daniel Lacalle, Ph.D., is chief economist at
Remember that the ECB’s balance sheet check to keep increasing imbalances. hedge fund Tressis and author of “Freedom
is considered one of the safest in the world Unfortunately, that has never mattered to or Equality,” “Escape from the Central Bank
because its assets (the bonds it buys) are those who would, without blinking, send Trap,” and “Life in the Financial Markets.”
also the safest. The economists’ proposal
means demolishing the credibility of the
euro system and the ECB.
If the ECB removes what’s supposed to
be the highest-quality and lowest-risk as-
set—sovereign bonds—from the balance
sheet, what can anyone think they have
on their balance sheet but toxic debt from
What People Are Saying
insolvent countries? In fact, what would
happen to confidence in the eurozone’s
creditworthiness in general, the monetary
system, and its stability if the ECB decides
to eliminate the so-called safest bonds
from its assets?
Eliminating the bonds of Spain, Italy,
or any country from the assets of the ECB
puts the stability, solvency, and credibility I read The Epoch Times daily. I congratulate you and
of the entire system in serious doubt. I still like hard papers […] and The Epoch Times for the work
If the ECB were to eliminate part of the I still like to grab that paper in you are doing, especially with
bonds purchased from Spain from its bal- my hand, but I get more printed regard to keeping the menace of
ance sheet, it would be to acknowledge the
versions of stories than ever the communist threat in front of us.
country’s insolvency, but it would also re-
flect the impossibility of continuing to buy before. You guys have done an DR. SEBASTIAN GORKA
such bonds in the future. The economists’ Military and intelligence analyst and
amazing job, and really—I think former deputy assistant to the president
call to cancel and continue to monetize there’s such a void in media,
all and any public spending is simply to
copy the mistakes of Argentina, which has especially newspapers. They
devastated the peso and its economy. slant so solidly one way that
That it is also proposed by people from there are very few papers that
Podemos, who have been in favor of I can really feel that I can rely on,
leaving the euro, takes a lot of nerve. They
demand that their debt be forgiven, get and The Epoch Times is one.
into more debt, and then, if they don’t like SEAN HANNITY I rely on The Epoch Times
it, leave. Talk show host newspaper for factual and
Not only is it illogical economics, it’s unbiased news coverage.
also a swindle on all European taxpayers.
The simplicity of saying that debt is LARRY ELDER
an accounting note that the ECB can Best-selling author, attorney,
and talk show host
eliminate can only occur to someone who
doesn’t know how the stability of the mon-
etary and financial system is established.
No governor of the Federal Reserve or the
Central Bank of Japan would think of the The Epoch Times is a
nonsense of eliminating top-quality as-
great place where you can
sets—government bonds—from its balance
sheet, because it would be recognizing, understand traditional
one, that they’re toxic; two, the insolvency values in a way and in a tone It’s our favorite paper. It’s the first
of their issuer (the state); and three, the and through content that is one we read. Thank you so much
lack of value in the assets it accumulates. It accessible. It’s smart. for your reporting of the news.
would be equivalent to destroying the cred-
ibility of the system that gives confidence to CARRIE SHEFFIELD PAUL GOSAR
Columnist and broadcaster U.S. representative for Arizona
the currency and the state debt, supported
by the current and future savings of citi-
Learn more at EpochSubscription.com
zens, such as that of the ECB with the sav-
ings of Europeans—and, with it, destroying
the euro’s status as a currency of reserve
and, at the same time, the possibility of
supporting the national debt in the future.
The reader may say that Greece was TRUTH AND TRADITION
granted debt relief. True, but in exchange
for what? In exchange for a broad and
forceful program of reforms and budget
A18 | PUZZLES TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 2021

CROSSWORD CONSTRUCTED BY TOM HOUSTON

EPOCH TIMES STAFF 15. Small-minded 4NUMBERS CONSTRUCTED BY C. CHANG
AT 4NUMS.COM DAILY BRIDGE CLUB
20. Resort with a mineral Use the four numbers in the corners, and Great expectations
spring the operands (+, - X, and ÷) to build an BY FRANK STEWART, TRIBUNE CONTENT AGENCY
equation to get the solution in the middle.
24. A semi nomadic There may be more than one “unique” so- ©2020 Tribune Content Agency, LLC
Muslim lution but, there may also be “equivalent”
solutions. For example: 6 + (7 X 3) +1 = 28 Unlucky Louie is usually a loser in my club’s
27. Forceful and 1+ (7 X 3) + 6 = 28 penny game, but he’d had a miserable
28. Bit of sun Monday.
“Maybe you should lower your
29. “Ain’t that ____” expectations,” I said when he showed up
(Fats Domino hit) on Tuesday.
“I’m lowering them to the point where
30. Australian cuties they’ve already been met,” Louie growled.
At today’s 3NT, Louie took the ace of
31. Nab spades and led a low club to his jack. West
35. Lots won and led another spade, and Louie
pitched a diamond from dummy and
36. “Mamma Mia!” four- captured East’s queen.
some
DOWN ONE
38. One of yoga’s five Louie next led a club to dummy’s queen; a
vital forces 3-2 break would have given him 10 tricks.
Hard 1 - 1 Solution When East showed out, Louie groaned and
39. Encounter let the jack of hearts ride. West produced
41. Sitting Bull, e.g. the queen, and the defense took three
spades for down one.
42. Delivered “cold” “My expectations were too high,” Louie
sighed.
before the Kelvinator Louie should lead a club to his ace at
43. Waist pincher Trick Two and return a club. If West takes
the king, Louie is safe. If West ducks,
45. “Home of the bean dummy’s queen wins, and then Louie
and the ___” finesses in hearts for at least nine tricks.
He also succeeds if West has the singleton
46. 60 sec. ten or nine of clubs.
50. Little more than two DAILY QUESTION
cups Hard 2 - 1 Solution
You hold: k A j J 10 4 2
i A K 9 6 2 h Q 6 2. You open
Across 47. Mexican sandwich 82. Prodding 53. D neighbors on typi- one diamond, and your partner bids one
cal guitars spade. What do you say?
1. Arcing shots 48. “Smart” ones 83. Green land ANSWER: Your options are limited. A
5. Highest quality stone 49. Muscat resident 84. Do away with 55. Palindromic conjunc- rebid of two diamonds would suggest a
six-card or longer suit, and a bid of two
masonry 50. “Mad Max” extra 85. 500 to a ream tion hearts would be a “reverse,” promising
11. Chubby much more than minimum strength. Bid
51. Conceal 86. Humid 56. Intro to physics? 1NT. Your distribution isn’t balanced, but
16. Wet nurse 60. Some chocolates if your partner insists on a spade contract,
52. Eating places your singleton ace shouldn’t be a terrible
17. Comparison Down 62. Swimming disappointment.
18. Crow’s home 54. High regard South dealer
1. Young fellows 64. “___ de Suif,” De N-S vulnerable
19. Break down 57. Film container
2. Drop Maupassant story
21. Deal maker 58. Palmetto State river NORTH
3. It may be stolen 65. Of an arm bone kA
22. Bouillabaisse cooking 59. Hike jJ 10 4 2
4. Early form of the oboe Easy 1 - 1 Solution iA K 9 6 2
vessel 61. Trinitrotoluene, for 66. “The Scales” con- hQ 6 2
5. An A of A&E
23. Beer choice short stellation
6. Reddish brown WEST EAST
25. “Meet Me ___ Louis” 63. Aardvark’s morsel 67. Whinny kJ 7 4 2 kQ 8 6 5 3
7. “I wonder...” jQ 9 7 j8 6 5
26. April 1st, 2021 64. Place to hang an- 68. Trash hauler iJ 4 iQ 8 7 3
29. Rap sheet abbr. 8. Big name in vegetables hK 10 9 5 h4
nouncements 9. Parcel out 69. “Hi, Neighbor” mo.
32. Place 70. Floor it
SOUTH
71. Mix 10. Bounce back again kK 10 9
33. Academic ordeal jA K 3
72. “_ ___ of troubles” 11. “Every child. One 74. Hip bones i10 5
34. Cold dessert hA J 8 7 3
37. “A Prairie Home 73. Articles of jewelry. voice” org. 75. Math calculation
77. Open, in a way 76. “___lively!” South West North East
Companion” airer 12. Concern of Congress 1 NT Pass 2h Pass
40. Paired 79. Knight person 13. Flip over 78. White alternative 2i Pass 3 NT All Pass
44. Devil-may-care 81. Fat 14. Bright circle? 80. Deception Easy 2 - 2 Solutions Opening lead —k2

WORDSEARCH CONSTRUCTED BY TOM HOUSTON

EPOCH TIMES STAFF SUPER KAKURO CONSTRUCTED
BY EPOCH TIMES STAFF

Help with Today’s Crossword Puzzle? Kakuro puzzles are like crosswords that use numbers instead of words. The goal is to fill the blank squares associated with a clue (called a “run”) with the numbers 1-9
so that the numbers add up to the corresponding clues. Like Sudoku, digits in a run cannot repeat. When the grid is filled, the puzzle is complete.

AGENT DAKOTA LIBBY SANTEE

ALECS DYADIC LIBRA SHAWM
ALLOT DYNAMIC MENSA SIENNA
ARREST EGGING NATANT SIMILE
ASHAME ERASE NEIGH SORBET
SPEED
ASHLAR ESTEEM OMANI STEWPAN
ASSAULTS G-STRINGS PETTY TEPEE
BARGE ICEMEN PLUMP TIEPINS
BIKER KISSES PRANA ULNAR
BOULE KOALAS RE-ECHO UNBAR
CORSET LARDY RUN INTO UPEND

SOLUTIONS
CROSSWORD SUPER KAKURO 4NUMBERS

HARD 1

HARD 2

EASY 1

EASY 2
 TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 2021 PUZZLES | A19
SUDOKU CONSTRUCTED
BY KANNAN SANKARAN SUPERSUDOKU CONSTRUCTED
BY KANNAN SANKARAN

Fill in the boxes using numbers between 1 and 9 so that each column, each Fill in the boxes using numbers from 0 to 9 and letters from A to F so that each column, each row, and
row, and each 3x3 square contain all nine numbers only once. each 4x4 square contain all ten numbers and six letters only once.
Hard

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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
9

EPOCH DOKU CONSTRUCTED

BY EPOCH TIMES STAFF

WORK SPACE

KAKURO CONSTRUCTED
BY EPOCH TIMES STAFF JUMBLE BY DAVID L. HOYT
& JEFF KNUREK

Kakuro puzzles are like crosswords that use numbers instead of words. The goal THAT SCRAMBLED WORD GAME
is to fill the blank squares associated with a clue (called a “run”) with the numbers By David L. Hoyt and Jeff Knurek
1-9 so that the numbers add up to the corresponding clues. Like Sudoku, digits
Unscramble these Jumbles,
in a run cannot repeat. When the grid is filled, the puzzle is complete. one letter to each square,
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to form four ordinary words.

Easy
LAKAO
EPOCH ESCAPE MAZE
VTIPO

CSASEC

CLADPI
Now arrange the circled letters
©2021 Tribune Content Agency, LLC to form the surprise answer, as
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Ans.
here:

WORK SPACE

SOLUTIONS
SUPERSUDOKU SUDOKU: EASY JUMBLE EASY KAKURO
she could — CAST A SPELL Keep your fingers crossed
and reel to catch fish because
The witch didn’t need a rod
Answers:

PLACID
ACCESS
PIVOT
KOALA
Jumbles:
SUDOKU: HARD EPOCH DOKU

CRYPTIC QUOTE
contribution.
one where everybody makes a
group. A good compromise is
depend on one single interest
make sure that they do not
politics, and we do it, must

Contact the Puzzle Master @: Feedback@EpochTimes.com

That is why everyone in
A20 | TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 2021

‘You and I have

a rendezvous with destiny.’ – Ronald Reagan

A
s a nation, we are once again facing the
same darkness that President Reagan
faced decades ago, one that we
thought that we had fought off—the
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This is why we’ve been able to keep going for
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TRUTH AND TRADITION

What Our Also, the roots of The Epoch Times—started by a Chinese man
Readers who left Communist China and began publishing the truth
Say (#27)
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TRUTH AND TRADITION

TRADITIONAL CULTURE
Truth and Its False Twin
Aesop tells us: Truth (Veritas) walks steadily, but her
twin is Mendacium (Falsehood) and has no feet.
See B6
TRADITIONAL CULTURE|ART|ENTERTAINMENT
TRADITIONAL CULTURE JEFF MINICK
A
Winter
s I write these words, the date
is Feb. 2, 2021, and I am visit-
ing my daughter in Elmhurst
Township, Pennsylvania. The
Patriots:
ground is covered by approx-
imately 15 inches of snow, with no end
in sight. Though born in this state, I was
reared in the South, and though I’ve seen
Remembering
big snows, especially when living in the
Smoky Mountains, like most Southerners
I am awestruck by a boatload of snow.
Valley Forge
Several times, dressed in three layers of
shirts, a hoodie, and a North Face coat,
trousers, and shoes and warm socks, I’ve
stepped to the covered porch on the side of
POPCORN & INSPIRATION
Pray: The Story of
Patrick Peyton’
This documentary on Fr. Patrick Peyton suggests what
the only solution for us may be: Praying!
See B7
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 2021 B1
BRUNO BLEU/SHUTTERSTOCK
Brass relief
of George
Washington
kneeling in
prayer, at
Federal Hall in
New York City.
the house to look at this ongoing bombard-
ment. It’s cold and windy, but I’m dressed
warmly enough and can enjoy the beauty
of the day: the gray tree trunks standing
in contrast to the falling snow, the path-
way and road to the nearby school erased
by the accumulated flakes, the majesty
of nature mantling firs, cars, and nearby
houses with wreaths of whipped cream.
We’re out in the country, and as I look
across the broad lawn buried in snow, I
find myself thinking of a place 120 miles
east of us and a time almost 250 years in
the past.
Valley Forge, Pennsylvania.
Continued on B4
B2 TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 2021

LITERATURE

How a Lost
Manuscript
Revealed the First
Poets of Italian
Behind the Literature
Subscription MARIA CLOTILDE CAMBONI
PUBLIC DOMAIN

I
magine a world where we knew the
Your subscription will not only provide you with name of Homer, but the poetry of
accurate news and features, but also contribute “The Odyssey” was lost to us. That
to the revival of American journalism and help was the world of the early Italian
Renaissance during the second
safeguard our freedoms for future generations. half of the 15th century.
Many people knew the names of some
We aim to tell you what we see, not how to think; we early poets of Italian literature—those
who were active during the 13th centu-
strive to deliver you a factual picture of reality that ry. But they could not read their poems
lets you form your own opinions. because they had not been printed and
were not circulating in manuscripts.
Then, in around 1477, the de facto sov-
We believe that we live in truly epochal times, where ereign of Florence, Lorenzo de’ Medici—
the faithful representation of our current events “the Magnificent”—commissioned the
won’t just be important for the people of today, but creation of an anthology of rare early
Italian poetry to be sent to Federico
also for the generations to come. The records we d’Aragona, son of the king of Naples.
keep now will directly inform the foundations of the The luxurious manuscript became
history they’ll learn and the values they’ll cherish— one of Federico’s most prized posses-
sions. It was exhibited to and coveted
and this knowledge is what drives us. by patricians and intellectuals for half
a century, until its disappearance in the A page from another manuscript of
Learn more at early 16th century. vernacular poetry commissioned by
Lorenzo the Magnificent in 1476. Gallica/
But it did not disappear completely. The National Library of France.
EpochSubscription.com interest aroused by this manuscript gen-
erated a paper trail of letters, partial cop-
ies, and other materials, which I, along Medici in 1477 contained Dante’s “Vita
with other researchers, have managed to Nuova,” as well as rare poems recovered
piece together. These documents allow us from ancient manuscripts by Cino, Gui-
TRUTH AND TRADITION to reconstruct not only the trajectory of ttone, Cavalcanti, and many others. The
the manuscript through different courts collection was opened by a letter signed
in Europe, but also—crucially—what by Lorenzo himself.
works it may have contained. The manuscript was later named af-
ter its owner and became the “Raccolta
Who Were the Vernacular Poets? Aragonese” (“The Aragon Collection”).
Vernacular literature—that is, literature It became one of Federico’s most prized
written in the language normally spoken possessions and the object of wide-
by the people—had only a marginal role spread interest and curiosity.
during the Middle Ages and early Renais- Federico took it with him when he
sance. The “real” culture was Latin. This traveled to Rome at the end of 1492 to
meant that interest in the early poets swear allegiance to the Borgia Pope Al-
who wrote in the Italian vernacular was exander VI. During this trip, he showed
limited, until the flourishing of the Ital- it to the scholar Paolo Cortesi, who im-
ian language in the age of Lorenzo de’ mediately wrote to Piero de’ Medici—
Medici. PUBLIC DOMAIN the son of the recently
One of these 13th- deceased Lorenzo
century poets, Cino da the Magnificent. In
Pistoia, was loved and this letter, Cortesi
celebrated by  Dante recounts that he had
Alighieri in his treatise been shown a manu-
on the art of poetry, script with poems by
“De Vulgari Eloquen- early vernacular po-
tia.” Dante said of his ets, chiefly Cino and
contemporary Cino: Guittone. The excite-
“There are a few, I ment is palpable: Cor-
feel, who have under- tesi is able to read po-
stood the excellence of ems by these authors
the vernacular: these whose names he had
include Guido, Lapo … only ever heard men-
and Cino, from Pistoia, tioned before.
whom I place unwor- Such was the inter-
thily here at the end, est in these lost poets
moved by a consider- that partial copies of
Ying and Yang by Sandra Kuck ation that is far from the “Raccolta” started
unworthy.” A print portrait of Cino da Pistoia, to circulate. The first
Guido Cavalcanti was with the original drawing by one was probably
another love poet. He Giuseppe Valiani. made by someone
and Dante were best in Federico’s inner
friends, and Dante regarded Cavalcanti circle before he became king of Naples
as an authority on poetry. Cavalcanti is in 1496. News about his collection of
mentioned in Dante’s early poetry col- rare early Italian poems was spreading.
lection, “La Vita Nuova” (“The New Life”).
The whole work is addressed to SAILKO / CC BY-SA 3.0 The Widow Queen
Cavalcanti, and Dante even and the Duchess
implies that he is writing Federico was the last sover-
in Italian because of him. eign of his dynasty. He lost
Original artworks, canvas wraps, But despite Dante’s pop- his throne when Louis
ularity, even “La Vita XII of France invaded
and prints of Award-winning oil Nuova” was hard to Italy. When he left Na-
paintings now available at get hold of before 1576 ples in the summer of
when it was printed for 1501, Federico took the
the first time. books of the royal library
InspiredOriginal.Org/Store Guittone d’Arezzo was with him. He later had to
another highly regarded sell part of them to sustain
poet. He started as a love poet himself and his followers dur-
before becoming the most ing his exile in France. But
important author (before King Federico of Naples the “Raccolta Aragonese”
Dante) writing on moral and portrayed on a Francesco was not sold; after his death
di Giorgio medal.
political themes. in 1504, it was passed on to
his widow, Isabella del Balzo.
The ‘Raccolta Aragonese’ The widow queen then lent the col-
The collection of Tuscan poetry sent lection to Isabella d’Este, the duchess of
to Federico d’Aragona by Lorenzo de’ Mantua, in northern Italy, in 1512. She
 TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 2021
“Six Tuscan Poets,” circa 1544, by Giorgio Vasari. Pictured are (L–R) Marsilio Ficino, Cristoforo Landino,
Francesco Petrarca, Giovanni Boccaccio, Dante Alighieri, and Guido Cavalcanti. The William Hood Dunwoody
Fund. Minneapolis Institute of Art.
kept it for two months and, even though
in her letters she promised not to leave it
in other people’s hands, it is likely that she
commissioned a complete copy, which
led to further partial copies being made.
Even though the transmission of these
copies was in manuscript form—and so
not widespread—several Renaissance
intellectuals managed to read these
“lost” works and were influenced by
them in their attempts to reconstruct
the history of Italian literature.
The real game changer came in 1527
when a printed collection of vernacular
Original artworks, canvas wraps,
art posters, and framed prints of
Award-winning oil paintings
now available for purchase at
I n s p ire d O r i g i n a l .O rg
poetry finally took the works of masters
like Cino, Guittone, and Cavalcanti to
a much wider audience. This is when
they stopped being obscure and arcane
authors and finally took their place in
the canon of Italian literature.
Maria Clotilde Camboni is the Marie
Sklodowska-Curie Fellow at the Faculty
of Modern and Medieval Languages,
and academic visitor at Somerville
College, both at the University of
Oxford in the UK. This article was first
published on the Conversation.
  B3
PUBLIC DoMAIn PUBLIC DoMAIn
A portrait of Isabella d’Este, circa 1534–1536, by Titian.
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna.
PUBLIC DoMAIn
Lorenzo de’ Medici—
‘the Magnificent’—commissioned
the creation of an anthology of
rare early Italian poetry.
A portrait of Lorenzo de’
Medici “the Magnificent,”
circa 1555–1565, by
Bronzino and workshop.
Uffizi Gallery.
B4
“March to Valley Forge,” 1883, by William B.T. Trego. Museum of the American Revolution.
TRADITIONAL CULTURE
Winter Patriots:
Remembering
Valley Forge
Continued from B1
The Long Winter
In December of 1777, Philadelphia, seat of
the Continental Congress, had fallen into
the hands of the British. George Washing-
ton removed his defeated men to the rolling
countryside about 20 miles from the city,
using the terrain of that place to keep an
eye on his enemy. According to History.
com, Washington’s troops arrived at Valley
Forge exhausted, hungry, and dispirited by
several defeats.
Yet these soldiers displayed tenacity
and resolution even in these dire circum-
stances.
“Within days of arriving at Valley Forge,
troops constructed 1,500 to 2,000 log huts
in parallel lines that would house 12,000
soldiers and 400 women and children
throughout the winter. Washington di-
rected that each hut measure approxi-
mately 14 feet by 16 feet. Sometimes the
soldiers’ families joined them in the space
as well. Soldiers were instructed to search
the countryside for straw to use as bedding,
since there were not enough blankets for
everyone.”
The privations of these soldiers would
continue throughout most of that winter.
Hunger, disease, and cold weather were
their comrades; one soldier in six died in
that place. The National Park Service notes
that many of these deaths occurred in the
spring, indicating the deceased had likely
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 2021
contracted diseases like typhus, influenza,
and dysentery.
An Eyewitness
Albigence Waldo, an army surgeon from
Connecticut, kept a journal, often bitter
and sarcastic in tone, of the early days of
Washington’s forces at Valley Forge. On
Dec. 14, he recorded these observations:
“The Army has been surprisingly healthy
hitherto, now begins to grow sickly from
the continued fatigues they have suf-
fered this Campaign. Yet they still show
a spirit of Alacrity and Contentment not
to be expected from so young Troops. I
am Sick—discontented— and out of hu-
mour. Poor food—hard lodging—Cold
Weather—fatigue—Nasty Cloaths—nasty
Cookery—Vomit half my time—smoak’d
out my senses—the Devil’s in’t—I can’t
Endure it—Why are we sent here to starve
and Freeze—What sweet Felicities have
I left at home; A charming Wife—pretty
Children—Good Beds— good food—good
Cookery—all aggreable—all harmonious.
Here all Confusion—smoke and Cold— A steel engraving, 1830, nearly naked from the tatter’d remains of
hunger and filthyness—A pox on my bad of the Valley Forge an only pair of stockings, his Breeches not
luck. There comes a bowl of beef soup—full encampment, by George sufficient to cover his nakedness, his Shirt
of burnt leaves and dirt, sickish enough to W. Boynton, in Jared hanging in Strings, his hair dishevell’d, his
make a Hector spue—away with it Boys— Sparks’s “The Life of face meagre; his whole appearance pic-
I’ll live like the Chameleon upon Air.” George Washington,” tures a person forsaken and discouraged.
Boston: Tappan &
On the same day, Waldo wrote of a com- Dennet, 1843, “The
He comes, and crys with an air of wretch-
rade coming to him for medical attention: Cooper Collections of edness and despair, I am Sick, my feet lame,
“There comes a Soldier, his bare feet are American History.” my legs are sore, my body cover’d with this
seen thro’ his worn out Shoes, his legs tormenting Itch—my Cloaths are worn out,
my Constitution is broken, my former Ac-
tivity is exhausted by fatigue, hunger and
Cold, I fail fast I shall soon be no more! and
all the reward I shall get will be—“Poor
Will is dead.”
With such privation occurring early in
the winter, it surely seemed impossible that
this rag-tag band could hold out until the
spring, much less face the British army. Yet
out of that forlorn host came troops ready
to challenge the soldiers of George III.
An Edwin Austin Abbey The Prussian
painting of Baron Friedrich Wilhelm Baron von Steuben
von Steuben drilling arrived at this encampment in February
American troops at Valley 1778. Impressed by the baron’s organi-
Forge in 1778. zational skills and military knowledge,
PUBLIC DOMAIN
 TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 2021
PUBLIC DOMAIN
Washington appointed the Prussian the
army’s chief drillmaster and inspector
general.
Von Steuben drilled the troops inces-
santly, teaching them how to load their
weapons fast and efficiently, how to reform
ranks and rapidly change direction, and
how to deliver a bayonet charge at the en-
emy. In addition, he wrote a drill manual
that was distributed throughout the army
and remained standard for the military for
years. With these drills and instructions,
the baron transformed a band of amateurs
into an army of professionals.
The Americans were also negligent about
camp hygiene. By having the men dig la-
trines on a downhill slope running away
from the camp, von Steuben undoubtedly
saved lives at Valley Forge.
So trained in the arts of war, and led
into battle by von Steuben, the Americans
that next summer would meet the British
troops on the field of battle as worthy op-
ponents in tactics and techniques.
Without Baron von Steuben, the Ameri-
can army might have continued its streak
of losing battles.
HULTON ARCHIVE/GETTY IMAGES
1 2
TRACI LAW/SHUTTERSTOCK
3 4
PUBLIC DOMAIN
First in War
But the man who deserves the lion’s share
of the credit for preserving the army and
the cause of liberty is George Washington.
With some in the government calling for
his removal for incompetency, with his
troops suffering from illness and the cold
weather, and with the British only about
a day’s march away, Washington worked
heroically for the American cause. He
wrote letter after letter to the Continen-
tal Congress, begging for supplies of food
and clothing. Though he quartered in a
farmhouse, he remained with his men
throughout that winter, promising them
that he would “share in the hardship” and
“partake of every inconvenience” of their
tribulation. Washington held that rag-tag
army together through every reverse and
hardship, and aided by the French, they
finally defeated the British at Yorktown,
Virginia.
Henry “Light Horse Harry” Lee, one of
Washington’s officers and later the father of
Robert E. Lee, eulogized Washington with
this famous line: “First in war, first in peace,
and first in the hearts of his countrymen.”
1.
An engraving of George
Washington, circa
1790, by W. Nutter,
after C.G. Stuart.
2.
A portrait of Friedrich
Wilhelm von Steuben,
1780, by Charles
Willson Peale.
Pennsylvania Academy
of the Fine Arts.
3. Reproductions
of the rustic cabins
used by Revolutionary
War soldiers under
the command of Gen.
Washington during the
winter of 1777–78.
Valley Forge National
Historic Park, Pa.
4.
American soldiers at
Valley Forge, Pa., in
1777.
MICHAEL J THOMPSON/SHUTTERSTOCK
From December 1777 to
June 1778, Washington
made his headquarters
in a business residence
owned by Isaac Potts.
At Valley
Forge,
Washington
held his rag-
tag army
together
through every
reverse and
hardship.
B5
PUBLIC DOMAIN
EVERETT COLLECTION /SHUTTERSTOCK
He was a leader who commanded by ex-
ample and by personal virtue.
Then and Now: Some Takeaways
Many of today’s elites fail these tests of lead-
ership. During our pandemic, members of
Congress, some of our governors and may-
ors, and our bureaucrats have continued
receiving paychecks while shutting down
small businesses, leaving many of those
establishments permanently closed. They
may claim “to feel our pain,” but that re-
sponse is unworthy of them. Some of them
break their own edicts, eating at restaurants
with a crowd of friends, traveling, getting
haircuts, and taking off their masks when
they believe no one is watching.
Unlike George Washington, most of these
officials do not “partake of every inconve-
nience” along with the rest of us.
And unlike the Prussian, we forget that
each and every one of us can make a dif-
ference in the world. We may not shake up
the course of history like von Steuben did,
but the mother overseeing her children’s
education, the man I know who plays the
stock market and then generously gives his
friends money, all those who every morn-
ing get out of bed and cheerfully perform
their duties—they grease the wheels of our
society and keep it functioning.
Finally, though none of us welcomes pain
and sorrow, suffering can act as a forge for
us, as it did for the men at Valley Forge,
hardening our resolve, giving us strength,
and building our character. As we struggle
right now through this winter of pandemic,
hard economic times, and political uncer-
tainty and upheaval, we might do well to
call Washington’s soldiers to mind as well
as other great Americans and look to them
as examples of courage and determination.
During the American Revolution, Thomas
Paine wrote that “the summer soldier and
the sunshine patriot” would fail to do their
duty and thus fail their country. The patriots
at Valley Forge were winter soldiers and
patriots, men who continued the fight and
who gave their descendants a free country.
We should strive to be the same.
A final note: Though we now celebrate
Presidents’ Day instead of George Washing-
ton’s birthday, we might pause on February
22 and remember the first president of the
United States, his sacrifices, and what he
meant for our country.
Jeff Minick has four children and a
growing platoon of grandchildren.
For 20 years, he taught history, literature,
and Latin to seminars of homeschooling
students in Asheville, N.C. He is the author
of two novels—“Amanda Bell” and
“Dust On Their Wings,” and two works
of non-fiction, “Learning As I Go” and
“Movies Make The Man.”  Today, he
lives and writes in Front Royal, Va.
See JeffMinick.com to follow his blog.
B6
Truth and Her Twin, Part 1:
Which One Is Real?
JAMES SALE
T
he history of twins and our fas-
cination with them is legend-
ary. Although the Bible doesn’t
explicitly say so, Cain and Abel
are often regarded as twins; and
even if they weren’t, Esau and Jacob, a bit
later in the Genesis narrative, definitely
were. Interestingly, it also says in the Book
of Malachi that God loved Jacob but hated
Esau. There is so often a chalk-and-cheese
aspect to twins: Despite clearly being simi-
lar, their fates are very different.
We see this even in something like the
founding of Rome: Romulus, the twin of
Remus, gets all the credit (the name Rome
gives that away) and finally gets taken to
heaven by his father, Mars (Ares), although
he has slain his twin brother, as Cain slew
his brother Abel.
Not all twin stories show differentiation
through moral virtue or turpitude, but pro-
found division there invariably is. Pollux
loved his twin brother, Castor, but they too
were chalk and cheese in that Pollux was
immortal whereas Castor was not. Eventu-
ally, their “twinness” was immortalized for
us in the constellation we call Gemini.
Why are we so fascinated by twins? I think
for two primary reasons. In our own time,
they have become an inexhaustible source of
inquiry for helping scientists establish wheth-
er it is nature or nurture that determines who
we are and what we do. If two people have
near-identical genetic codes, so the reason-
ing goes, then in separating them at birth,
we should be able to see how much genetics
plays its part in their individual destinies,
versus the nurturing they have received.
Which One Is Real?
But perhaps there is a more important sub-
conscious reason: Namely, twins represent
to us, in visual form, the issue of appear-
ance and reality. We have this insatiable
hunger to know whether what we are see-
ing—the appearance—is real, is true, or
whether it is not.
This question is true philosophically. We
have all probably heard of the Buddhist
aphorism about the man dreaming he was
a butterfly, but on waking up wondered
whether he was now a butterfly dreaming
he was a man! Be that as it may, the impor-
tance of whether something is an appear-
ance or a reality is nowhere more critical for
us than in our dealings with other people.
D. GORDON E. ROBERTSON/CC BY SA 3.0
A mural, by Jean-
Baptiste Mauzaisse
after Jean-Simon
Berthélemy, of Prome-
theus (C) who is known
for creating man and
giving him the gift of fire.
“Comedy of Errors:
Two Dromios,” 1829,
by H. Richter. Folger
Digital Image Collection.
FOLGER SHAKESPEARE LIBRARY/CC BY-SA 4.0
(Left) Truth has a male-
volent twin. The statue of
Veritas (Truth), by Walter
Seymour Allward. Outside
the Supreme Court of
Canada in Ottawa.
(Right) “Castor and Pollux,”
a copy, of an antique statue,
by Joseph Nollekens. Victo-
ria and Albert Museum.
(Below) “The Shepherd
Faustulus Bringing Romu-
lus and Remus to His Wife,”
1654, by Nicolas Mignard.
Dallas Museum of Art.
MARIE-LAN NGUYEN/CC BY-SA 2.5
Our whole human history and all our im-
portant literature concerns this question.
Shakespeare explored this comically in his
play  “The Comedy of Errors,” which hinges
on two sets of twins being mistaken for each
other. And this plot device Shakespeare
liked so much that he was to use it again;
for example, in “Twelfth Night,” where the
twins are actually brother and sister and
yet, nevertheless, are able to pass off for one
another. I think what we are really talking
about here is the question of truth.
Veritas and Mendacium,
or Truth and Falsehood
Aesop tells a fable that explains how this
came about. Prometheus created human
beings and had always been their great
friend. To help them further (remember,
it was Prometheus who at considerable per-
sonal cost gave humans fire), he decided to
sculpt a new form called Veritas or Truth.
And if Truth were to come alive, then she
would help people in their interactions and
behavior. But as Prometheus was working
on this project (he was a potter), he was
summoned by almighty Zeus and so had
to leave his workshop.
Because he had recently acquired an ap-
prentice, Prometheus left Dolus (or Decep-
tion) in charge of his workshop. In the brief
time that Prometheus was away, Dolus, who
was ambitious, had accessed the clay and
fashioned a virtually identical figure to the
Truth that Prometheus had created. The
only difference was that the copy did not
have feet because Dolus had run out of clay.
When Prometheus returned, Dolus re-
tired in fear, but Prometheus was amazed
at the similarity of the two statues and,
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 2021
PUBLIC DOMAIN
PUBLIC DOMAIN
sadly, wanted to take credit for both. So
both models went into the kiln, were baked,
and became infused with life.
Thus, a new pair of twins was born: One,
Veritas or Truth, walked with steady, mea-
sured steps; and the second, her twin, Men-
dacium (or Falsehood), who because she
had no feet, could hardly stand and cer-
tainly could not move. Aesop concluded,
therefore, that although Falsehood might
appear to be successful, at least initially, its
footless limitation meant inevitably that
Truth would prevail against it.
A new pair of twins
was born: One, Veritas
or Truth, walked with
steady, measured steps;
and the second, her twin,
Mendacium (or Falsehood),
who because she had no
feet, could hardly stand and
certainly could not move.
Nice thought. If that only seemed true
today.
The Epoch Times itself is waging a war
against the twin Mendacium, which seems
so similar to Veritas. However, victory is
not easy and does not seem a foregone
conclusion. But it is vitally important that
we continue to strive for Truth, for as Dr.
Johnson said, “The mind can only repose
upon the stability of truth,” which requires
feet, in other words.
Without Truth, we are “footless”; we can-
not go anywhere and of course we are not
rooted, as in that Tai Chi sense of being
rooted firmly to the ground so that our bal-
ance is secure. We are in short unbalanced,
easy to tip over, unstable.
To recover Veritas, it would seem that we
need to examine things closely, very closely
indeed, so that we can spot the difference:
Which is Veritas, and which the idol that
seems identical but has no feet?
In Part 2 of this article we will examine
some further implications of these twins.
James Sale has had over 50 books pub-
lished, most recently, “Mapping Motiva-
tion for Top Performing Teams” (Rout-
ledge, 2021). He won first prize in The
Society of Classical Poets 2017 annual
competition, performing in New York in
2019. His most recent poetry collection is
“HellWard.” For more information about
the author, and about his Dante project,
visit TheWiderCircle.webs.com
 TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 2021 B7
ALL PHOTOS COURTESY OF FAMILY THEATER PRODUCTIONS/ARTAFFECTS ENTERTAINMENT

FILM INSIGHTS Mark Jackson grew up in Spring Val-

ley, N.Y., where he attended a Waldorf

WITH MARK
school. At Williams College, his pro-
fessors all suggested he write pro-
fessionally. He acted professionally

JACKSON
for 20 years instead. Now he
writes professionally about
acting. In the movies.

POPCORN AND INSPIRATION

The Country That

Prays Together ... The family that prays together, stays together. Former professional baseball player Mike Sweeney
(R) with his family, in “Pray: The Story of Patrick Peyton.”

MARK JACKSON ‘Pray: The Story bastions of the counterculture movement.

You’ve undoubtedly heard the phrase “The
family that prays together, stays together.”
The documentary “Pray: The Story of Pat-
rick Peyton” tells of the Irish priest who
made that phrase famous, and why it was
his life’s mission to do so.
In Peyton’s own words: “I’m for God, for
peace, justice, mercy, truth, love. I’m for
stronger homes and loftier lives, and the
better use of time. But first of all, I am for
prayer, family prayer, because the family
that prays together, stays together.”
“Pray” should really be a biopic—I imag-
ine it soon will be—and the late, great Philip
Seymour Hoffman would have been a good
casting choice to play Father Peyton. But if
you can’t wait for the movie, this documen-
tary will do an excellent job as a history les-
son, as well as function as a reminder about
what is possibly the only solution for where
our modern American culture is headed:
Pray, everybody!
And it should be noted that while the
form of prayer depicted here is primarily
Catholic, prayer is universal to all forms of
religion, and stories of miracles occurring
through prayer are found across all cultures
on our planet Earth.
of Patrick Peyton’
Documentary
Director
Jonathan Cipiti
Starring
Seamus Mulligan, Steve
Gibson, Liam Gillard, David
L. Guffey, Dorothy Halloran,
Niamh Kelly, L.S.P. Mother
Marguerite McCarthy Father Patrick Peyton preaching to the masses,
in “Pray: The Story of Patrick Peyton.”
Rated
PG
prayer, and he employed every means at his
Running Time disposal in doing so. This included leverag-
1 hour, 11 minutes
ing radio and pop culture, schmoozing like
Release Date a pro, and falling to his knees and crying
Oct. 9, 2020 in front of movie stars who said no—thus
ultimately revealing himself to be a to-the-
manor-born Hollywood player.
However, that said, it is pointed out that
every last bit of the entire package of his
mover-and-shaker charm stemmed from a
guileless, burning desire to serve God and
St. Mary and to rescue modern culture from
the destruction of the nuclear family, by
means of his patented phrase.
The Power of Prayer,
Celebrities, and the CIA
One surprising fact is that funding was
funneled from the CIA to sponsor Peyton’s
rosary crusades in Chile, Brazil, Venezuela,
and Colombia in order to battle commu-
nism. The Vatican found out about it and
ordered an end to the practice.
The film’s explanation is that Father Pey-
ton was most likely unaware of where the
funding originated. But it’s clear that his
prayers played a role in Filipino kleptocrat
Ferdinand Marcos (and his wife, Imelda,
with her notorious shoe addiction) be-
ing ousted. He prayed up a storm in their
backyard, with oceans of Filipinos in at-
tendance.
Faith-Based Films Needed Now More
Than Ever
Family Theater Productions, which Father
Peyton himself founded, produced “Pray,”
and so it somewhat predictably borders on
hagiography, but the power of this man
is akin to a Martin Luther King Jr. or a
Ghandi, and speaks for itself. His cause
for canonization was launched in 2001, and
he was named venerable by Pope Francis
in 2017, which is the first of three stages
leading to sainthood.
I find it strange that I never heard of Fa-

Early Life
Born in 1909 in Attymass, Ireland, the
young Patrick Peyton grew up in a large
Catholic family. No one could have guessed
from his general comportment and bad
temper that he’d ever be a priest, and when
he lit out for America, it was with visions of
secular riches dancing in his head.
Patrick and his brother Thomas immigrat-
ed to the United States in 1928, staying with
a sister of theirs in Scranton, Pennsylvania.
There, after much pavement-pounding,
Patrick landed a job as the sexton of St. Pe-
ter’s Cathedral. After hearing a priest give
a sermon, Patrick entered the seminary in
Notre Dame, Indiana, in 1929.
The pivotal experience of his life came
when, after coming extremely close to dying
of tuberculosis, he turned the tide by pray-
ing to St. Mary with such passion and fervor
that he could literally feel the physical shifts
inside his lungs, as his body rejected the
illness and miraculously rehabilitated itself.
Patrick dedicated the rest of his life to
spreading the word about the power of
The role Here’s a sample of Peyton’s views, respond-
ing to a college student telling him her life
of prayer is was way too busy to pray:
“The role of prayer is like asking: What is
like asking: the role of air for breathing? If we connect
What is the with God and each other, other things will
take care of themselves. The family unit
role of air for would then impact society. Fathers, make
breathing? your wives proud that she chose you, make
your children proud that they have a father
Father Patrick Peyton like you, and prayer will transform your life.
Prayer is the solution to problems of today,
not just saying prayer but letting prayer
change you.”
Eventually, Father Peyton had Hollywood
A-list stars of the era helping him spread
his message of family prayer, such as Bing
Crosby, Frank Sinatra, Lucille Ball, Bob
Newhart, Jackie Gleason, and so on, not to
mention eventually Pope John Paul II. Such
a different time. It’s slightly shocking to see
a young, pre-fame James Dean acting in
Peyton’s Family Theater Production.
It’s also fascinating to witness how Fa-
ther Peyton’s “Rosary Rallies” drew a half
million people in San Francisco, one of the
ther Peyton before viewing “Pray.” The ship
of Peyton’s mission foundered on the rocks
in the 1970s as American cultural mores re-
versed course, due to the creeping infiltra-
tion by the long arm of Soviet communism.
The “long march through the institutions,”
with its intent to destroy our culture from
the inside out, is well-documented.
While “Pray” is obviously aimed primarily
at Christian audiences, it will hold anyone’s
attention; the man had that much charisma.
“Pray” is directed by documentarian Jona-
than Cipiti, whose vision and hope for the
film is, in his own words, “That it model fam-
ily prayer, and if parents have any inclination
at all, to try it, even if it’s awkward at first.”
With communism now at our door-
step, “Pray” is the perfect film for America
to watch, immediately. There’s a phrase from
Eastern philosophy: “It is easier to invite an
immortal than to see one off.” The same
goes for communism. It’s time to take Father
Peyton’s promotion of the healing, cohesive
bonding effect of family prayer and open it
up nationwide; turn it into “The country that
prays together, stays together.”

POPCORN AND INSPIRATION a Yemen desert—his homeland. efforts by the sheik’s comely rep- with various interchanges between

The Power of Faith

MARK JACKSON
When “Salmon Fishing in the Ye-
men” hit theaters in 2011, a New
York subway poster advertising the
lottery showed a Boeing 747 with
the words “Kevin’s Airline” sten-
ciled on its side. And a huge photo
of Kevin’s face on the rear stabilizer
fin. The caption read: “That kind
of rich.”
In this delightful comedy-drama-
romance, a wealthy sheik, upon
falling in love with cold-water
fly-fishing on his Scottish estate,
decides that he’ll just construct
himself a convenient fly-fishing
river smack-dab in the middle of
Sheik Muhammed (Amr Waked, L) and Fred Jones (Ewan McGregor)
discuss matters of faith, in “Salmon Fishing in the Yemen.”
What would you call that?
“That kind of rich” could have
been the alternative title for “Salm-
on Fishing in the Yemen.” However,
it’s not about the squandering of
‘Salmon Fishing wealth that it first appears to be.
in the Yemen’ It’s about the project as a concrete
Director manifestation of the sheik’s deep
Lasse Hallstrom and poetic understanding of faith.
Starring
Ewan McGregor, Emily
If You Build It, They Will Come
Blunt, Kristin Scott Thomas, When the British military inadver-
Amr Waked, Catherine tently blows up a mosque in Afghan-
Steadman, Tom Mison, istan, the prime minister’s top spin
Rachael Stirling, Tom Beard doctor, Patricia Maxwell (Kristin
Rated Scott Thomas), immediately orders
PG-13 her team to dig up “a good news
Running Time story from the Middle East.” Said
1 hour, 47 minutes story is to be exploited into a warm,
fuzzy diversion of public attention
Release Date
April 20, 2012 (UK) away from said mosque fiasco.
The sheik’s intention to recon-
struct his beloved salmon-fishing
CBS FILMS INC. milieu in the Yemen desert is quick-
ly sniffed out. He claims that, more
than anything else, it’s an offering
of healing, peace, and spiritual
uplifting for his troubled people.
Warm and fuzzy perfection!
Exceedingly uptight scientist Dr.
Fred Jones (Ewan McGregor, never
better) is a fisheries expert. Spin-
doc Patricia saddles him with over-
seeing the salmon-fishing project,
to which he is at first vehemently
opposed due to its staggering, on-
the-page, logistical and scientific
impossibility.
Aided in his initial foot-dragging
resentative Harriet (Emily Blunt),
Fred soon finds himself eventually
swayed by the sheik’s infectious
charm, warming to the plan and,
of course, also eventually warming
to Harriet.
The sheik, charismatically played
by Amr Waked (whom producer
Paul Webster considers “the George
Clooney of the Middle East,” ac-
cording to the press notes), is a man
of moral stature, a philosopher, and
a keen observer of life. He rumi-
nates, “Fishermen only care about
patience, tolerance, and humil-
ity.” (Renowned fly-fishing author
John Gierach would definitely have
something hilarious to say about
that.) But the sheik hopes that the
Yemen locals will possibly benefit
from such a mindset, since we see
them forever patrolling about, bran-
dishing AK-47s, and yelling a lot.
The Power of Faith
The acting in the film is all-around
stellar. It’s a cast of stars who excel
at comedy as well as drama, and
Amr Waked is a revelation.
Lasse Hallstrom, who’s helmed
such films as “What’s Eating Gilbert
Grape,” masterfully steers the sub-
tle and very funny rhythms of Euro-
pean humor. He also engineers very
moving dramatic scenes between
the male and female leads, capital-
izing on their powerful chemistry.
Hallstrom also underscores the
film’s theme of the power of faith
no-faith Fred and the faithful sheik.
Remember, this Fred we’re talking
about is a secular guy, an athe-
ist. He needs to take baby steps
toward faith, and the sheik helps
him do that. For example, Dr. Fred
also loves fly-fishing, and the sheik
points out, hilariously, that Fred’s
fishing fun (standing in a stream
for hours, waving a stick, with no
guarantees) is not too terribly dis-
tant from ...  ahem ... faith?
Furthermore, there’s the ex-
ample of the dilemma of stocking
the salmon run with farmed fish,
which most likely lack their original
wild instinct to head upstream to
spawn. Fred’s hunch that it’s still
deeply in their nature to “run” is
pointed out again as being closely
related to faith.
Finally, the entire apparently
cockamamie project is one huge act
of faith—what else could it be? There
are always setbacks, but one must
demonstrate faith by persistence. At
one point, the sheik wonders aloud,
after a setback perpetrated by angry
countrymen who don’t yet under-
stand his vision, whether his project
glorifies God or man.
We already know. We’ve seen the
warmth of his hospitality, the depth
of his philanthropy, the extent of
his faith, and know his grand ges-
ture to have enriched our lives. We
know it by the laughter, tears, and
the renewed faith in humanity’s
goodness that we feel.
B8
POPCORN AND INSPIRATION
As Stirring as It Is Whimsical
IAN KANE
F
ilms about underdogs that are
sports-oriented, particularly
ones that relate to the American
Dream, can be tricky to pull off.
Some, such as 1976’s “Rocky” and
1981’s “Chariots of Fire,” can go on to be-
come classics—and deservedly so. Many
others, however, can feel derivative and
unauthentic, and in some cases, downright
manipulative.
“Breaking Away” (1979) fits among the
former camp—a rare gem in a large pile
of coal. It feels incredibly grounded in au-
thenticity, as well as very earnest in its de-
livery. Some of today’s cynics would prob-
ably even say naive.
Ironically, the actor who plays the film’s
protagonist Dave—Dennis Christopher—
was actually in “Chariots of Fire,” although,
sadly, only in a supporting role.
Dave and his motley band of three young
buddies, Mike (Dennis Quaid), Cyril (Dan-
iel Stern), and Moocher (Jackie Earle Hal-
ey), live in the Ivy League-ish college town
of Bloomington, Indiana. Historically, the
town was a center for stone quarry work-
ers, but most of the quarries have been
shut down.
One of the things that
I appreciate the most
about this film is its
peppy writing.
The descendants of these blue-collar
workers, who are known as “cutters,”  in-
clude Dave and his friends. The film em-
phasizes—early on—the wide disparity
between these lower-middle-class townies
and their college kid counterparts.
Dave, Mike, Cyril, and Moocher each
have their own reasons for not going to col-
lege after their high school years. Therefore,
much of the film is about their transitions
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 2021
ALL PHOTOS COURTESY OF TWENTIETH CENTURY FOX
leave that to the audience. Let’s just say
that one of them has to do with the film’s
rousing climax.
Goodness at the Forefront
One of the things that I appreciate the
most about this film is its peppy writing,
including witty dialogue. Even the rela-
tionship between Dave and his sometimes
cantankerous father has a marked lack of
mean-spiritedness that we typically see in
similar movies.
Also, all of the characters, including those
in the supporting cast, are simply endear-
ing. Even the supposed bad guys have
their own flecks of goodness. This allows
to adulthood and their quests for their own Dennis Christopher stars for some unusually complex characteriza-
little pieces of the American Dream. as an eccentric, young tions that enable the characters to seem
The film also demonstrates class friction, Italophile in “Breaking real, as opposed to cardboard cutouts or
as the college kids consider the cutters little Away.” mere clichés.
more than unwanted detritus and the off- “Breaking Away” is a lighthearted film
spring of relics from a bygone era. Ironi- that somehow conveys much deeper and
cally, the original stone cutters had a major
‘Breaking Away’ thought-provoking questions. It’s fun to
hand in building the town, including the Director watch and ultimately ends on a good note.
gilded halls of its university. Peter Yates Yet its feel-good vibe never devolves into
Dave is an Italophile and not only ap- Starring saccharine drivel.
preciates the culture but also constantly Dennis Christopher, Dennis
practices his flourishing Italian-language Quaid, Daniel Stern Ian Kane is a filmmaker and author
skills on the locals. While this behavior Running Time based out of Los Angeles. To learn
peeves his father (Paul Dooley) to a certain 1 hour, 41 minutes more, visit DreamFlightEnt.com
degree, his mother (Barbara Barrie) doesn’t Rated
mind their only son’s eccentricities. What PG
they both never doubt, however, is Dave’s Release Date
ability and passion for bike racing. July 20, 1979
One day, Dave spies a beautiful college
girl, Katherine (Robyn Douglass), as she
mounts her scooter to travel home. She
drops a notebook, and Dave picks it up and (L–R) Jackie Earle Haley,
takes off after her on his bike. After they Dennis Christopher,
Dennis Quaid, and Daniel
meet, a budding romance begins.
Things culminate during the film’s third Stern play four teens
act as a big bike race approaches, and there- grappling with adulthood.
in lies the crux of the movie’s title, which
can be interpreted in several ways. One way
is that Dave begins to emerge as the leader
among his small group of friends. But will
his natural athletic gifts (that begin to open (L–R) Paul Dooley,
up options for him) be at the expense of his Barbara Barrie, and
childhood friendships? Dennis Christopher play
There are other ways in which the term father, mother, and son,
“breaking away” can be viewed, but I’ll respectively.