NEW YOR K | DC EDITION
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In the News
NEWS
Los Angeles District At-
torney George Gascon is
being sued by his own staff
prosecutors for defying state
law. ... A2
House Speaker Nancy Pe-
losi’s home has been vandal-
ized, with messages scrawled
on the garage door and what
appeared to be a pig’s head
and blood on the driveway,
according to posts on social
media. ... A2
A six-person team that in-
cluded Rudy Giuliani and Peter
Navarro briefed hundreds of
state lawmakers on evidence
of election irregularities, in a
meeting on Jan. 2. ...A3
A federal appeals court
in California has ruled to lift
a ban on President Donald
Trump’s proclamation that
blocks uninsured immigrants
from entering the United
States. ... A2
Senate Majority Leader
Mitch McConnell’s home
has been vandalized with
messages including “Weres
[sic] my money” and “Mitch
Kills the Poor.” ... A5
The Supreme Court has re-
fused Louisiana’s emergency
request to reinstate a require-
ment that a sex offender’s
status be announced in large
letters on state-issued iden-
tification. ... A6
The Senate has voted to
override the president’s veto
of the National Defense Au-
thorization Act for 2021. ... A7
Trump has questioned the
accuracy of the official na-
tionwide CCP virus case and
death counts, saying that the
CDC has exaggerated those
numbers. ... A8
CHINA
COVID-19 outbreaks in parts
of northern China continue
to worsen as authorities an-
nounce they’ve detected the
first patients infected with the
new UK variant. ...A9
Three Chinese state-owned
telecom firms are the first to
be delisted from the New York
Stock Exchange in compliance
with a new executive order.
...A1
BUSINESS
Fewer Americans sought
unemployment benefits last
week, but the economy still
faces an arduous recovery
from the damage caused by
pandemic measures. ... A17
Moments after Britain
completed its divorce from
the European Union, the first
trucks hauling goods crossed
the new customs border from
the UK to France. ... A17
OPINION
Roger L. Simon: McConnell,
GOP Senators Must Stop De-
serting Their Constituents...
A13
Editorial Board: Happy
New Year, as We Face 2021
Together... A14
Joel Etienne: Trump Should
Declassify How the CCP In-
terfered in Our Election... A16
LIFESTYLE
When “letting it go” and
“burying the hatchet” fail,
what works?. ...B1
Hyperbaric chambers help
us absorb oxygen directly into
the plasma and tissues of our
body. ...B6
DON’T DELAY.
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| M O N D A Y J A N . 4 , 2 0 21
CONGRESS
House Reelects Nancy Pelosi
for Speaker in Tight Vote
5 centrist Democrats defected, progressive squad fell in line,
and Republicans showed unanimous support for McCarthy
BY IVAN PENTCHOUKOV & MARK TAPSCOTT
T
he U.S. House of Repre-
sentatives voted 216–209
to reelect Rep. Nancy Pe-
losi (D-Calif) as the speak-
er on Jan. 3 to lead the chamber’s
narrowest majority in two decades.
Five Democrats defected. Rep.
Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.), Rep. Ab-
igail Spanberger (D-Va.), and
Rep. Mikie Sherrill (D-N.J.) voted
“present.” Two Democrats voted for
candidates other than Pelosi. Rep.
Conor Lamb (D-Pa.) voted for Rep.
Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.), while
Rep. Jared Golden (D-Maine) voted
for Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.)
“In a time marked by historical-
NATIONAL SECURITY
NYSE Begins
to Delist
Chinese
Telecom Giants
in Compliance
With Trump’s
Order
BY FRANK FANG
The New York Stock Exchange
(NYSE) announced that it’s in the
process of delisting three Chinese
telecom companies with ties to the
Chinese military.
The three state-owned compa-
nies—China Mobile, China Tele-
com Corp., and China Unicom
(Hong Kong)—will see their se-
curities suspended from trading
between Jan. 7 and Jan. 11, ac-
cording to a statement. The del-
isting proceedings were begun in
compliance with President Donald
Trump’s Executive Order 13959.
INDIA
Indian Farmers’ Protest Sparks Vigorous Debate
BY VENUS UPADHAYAYA
NEW DELHI—As a protest by In-
dia’s farmers against new reforms
entered its sixth week, a kind of
ecosystem has developed at the
encampment site on the outskirts
of New Delhi, where thousands of
farmers are staying with their trac-
tor-trolleys, pitched tents, and open
kitchens. Meanwhile, netizens are
aggressively and openly debating
about the measures.
Such a situation, when opinions
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
Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) walks back to
her office at the U.S. Capitol in Washington on Jan. 3, 2021.
ly low trust in government, new
voices are necessary to moving
forward and achieving real prog-
ress,” Spanberger said in a state-
ment. “Last Congress, I kept my
promise to vote for new leadership
upon my swearing-in—and in this
Congress, I remain consistent in my
commitment to ushering in new
leadership. Accordingly, I did not
vote for Speaker Pelosi.”
Rep. Cori Bush (D-Mo.) initially
didn’t respond when called to vote.
Bush, a Black Lives Matter activist
who was sworn into Congress ear-
lier the same morning, is a mem-
ber of the expanding progressive
“squad.” Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-
Cortez (D-N.Y.), the de facto leader
The logo of Chinese telecom giant China Mobile, in this file photo.
Trump issued the order in mid-
November, banning U.S. invest-
ments in Chinese companies des-
ignated by the Pentagon as having
ties to the Chinese military, citing
threats to U.S. national security.
Last week, the Treasury Depart-
ment clarified that the investment
ban would apply to any subsidiary
of a communist Chinese military
company, adding that it planned
PRAKASH SINGH/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES
Farmers walk in front of their tents
on a blocked highway during a protest
against the central government’s
recent agricultural reforms, in
Ghaziabad, India, on Dec. 29, 2020.
TASOS KATOPODIS/GETTY IMAGES
SAUL LOEB/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES
House Minority Leader Kevin McCar-
thy on Capitol Hill in Washington on
Dec. 18, 2020.
of the squad, also was absent from
the floor when it came to her turn
to vote. Both later voted for Pelosi.
“After telling their constituents
Continued on A3
FABRICE COFFRINI/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES
to publicly list subsidiaries that
were “50 percent or more owned”
or “determined to be controlled” by
Chinese military companies.
The Pentagon last month identi-
fied a total of 35 Chinese companies
to have links to the Chinese mili-
tary, formally known as the People’s
Liberation Army. The designations
were made under a requirement
Continued on A9
sharply differ but those holding
them can coexist, is symptomatic
of a functional democracy, experts
say.
“This is what democracy is: cha-
os, discussions, debates, and in
the end, consensus, not diktat,”
Aparna Pande, a research fellow
and the director of the Initiative on
the Future of India and South Asia
at the Washington-based Hudson
Institute, told The Epoch Times.
“Democracies are chaotic and
Continued on A10
VOL . X V I I I | NO. 2,867 $1.
ELECTION INTEGRITY
Meadows:
Over 100
House
Members
Plan to Object
to Electoral
Votes
BY ZACHARY STIEBER
More than 100 members of the
House of Representatives plan to
object to electoral votes during the
Jan. 6 joint session of Congress,
according to White House chief of
staff Mark Meadows.
“We’re now at well over 100 House
members and a dozen Senators
ready to stand up for election in-
tegrity and object to certification.
It’s time to fight back,” Meadows
wrote in a tweet on Jan. 2.
We’re now at well over 100
House members and a dozen
Senators ready to stand up
for election integrity and
object to certification.
Mark Meadows,
White House chief of staff
According to an Epoch Times
tally, 45 representatives have pub-
licly committed to objecting during
the joint session. Eleven senators
announced earlier Jan. 2 that they
would object, joining Sen. Josh
Hawley (R-Mo.).
“The forgotten men and women
are speaking out and Washington
D.C. is waking up,” Meadows wrote
in another tweet.
The number of Congress mem-
bers who plan to object continues
to rise, but the exact number com-
mitted so far isn’t clear.
Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas),
who tried to sue Vice President Mike
Pence over the vice president’s pow-
er during the joint session, claimed
Continued on A4
GEORGIA
Markets Eye
High-Stakes
Georgia Election,
Joint Session of
Congress
BY EMEL AKAN
WASHINGTON—The  stock mar-
ket  ended the turbulent year of
2020 at all-time highs, despite the
pandemic lockdown measures and
resulting economic recession. With
2021 underway, the political events of
the first week will set the tone for the
new year, as they have important im-
plications for the political landscape
and the markets going forward.
The focus will be on the Georgia
runoff elections on Jan. 5, which
will determine control of the Sen-
ate and policies in Washington.
Also, investors will closely watch
the joint session of Congress on Jan.
6, which is expected to be “a very
contentious meeting.”
Continued on A3
ELECTION INTEGRITY
TRUMP
SAYS HE
WILL BE
AT RALLY
“I will be there.
Historic day!”
President Donald Trump wrote,
confirming he will be at the Jan.
6 rally in Washington, D.C.
Read more on A4
A2 | NATION
Soros-Funded DA Gascon Sued by His Deputy
Prosecutors for Violating California Law
MATTHEW VADUM
Los Angeles District Attorney
George Gascon is being sued by his
own staff prosecutors for defying
state law by unilaterally deciding
to ignore sentence enhancement
rules under the Three Strikes Law,
to stop seeking the death penalty,
and to end cash bail.
Left-wing billionaire George
Soros donated more than $2 mil-
lion to Gascon’s campaign as
part of a years-long effort to in-
stall soft-on-crime prosecutors in
major population centers. Soros
and political action committees
funded by him have also provided
financial support to radical pros-
ecutors including Chicago District
Attorney Kim Foxx, St. Louis Pros-
ecutor Kim Gardner, Philadelphia
District Attorney Larry Krasner,
and Baltimore City state’s attorney
Marilyn Mosby.
The Cuban-born Gascon, a
Democrat, announced “immedi-
ate, decisive reforms to transform
America’s largest criminal justice
jurisdiction,” when he was sworn
in on Dec. 7, 2020. Formerly the
district attorney of San Francisco,
he asserted that the criminal jus-
tice system is systemically rac-
ist and vowed to free convicted
criminals en masse.
“For decades, those who profit off
incarceration have used their enor-
mous political influence–cloaked
in the false veil of safety–to scare
the public and our elected officials
into backing racist policies that
created more victims, destroyed
budgets, and shattered our moral
compass. That lie and the harm it
caused ends now.”
The case, filed on Dec. 30, 2020,
with the Superior Court of the State
of California for the County of Los
Angeles, is known as Association of
Deputy District Attorneys (ADDA)
for Los Angeles County v. Gascon.
ADDA asks the court to force Gas-
Trump Can Ban Immigrants
Who Can’t Pay for Health Care,
Federal Court Rules
TOM OZIMEK
A federal appeals court in Califor-
nia ordered the lifting of a ban on
President Donald Trump’s proc-
lamation that blocks immigrants
from entering the United States if
they lack health insurance or the
means to pay for hospital bills.
In a Dec. 31, 2020, opinion, the
Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals
in San Francisco said that Trump
acted within his authority when,
in October 2019, he signed  the
Proclamation on the Suspension
of Entry of Immigrants Who Will
Financially Burden the United
States Healthcare System.
The ruling  reverses a federal
court decision to block the imple-
mentation of the president’s order,
delivering a win for proponents of
tighter controls over immigration.
Trump’s order restricts entry of
immigrant visa applicants who
can’t prove that they either will
acquire qualifying health care
coverage within 30 days of entry
or have the ability to pay for rea-
sonably foreseeable health care
expenses. The president said in
the proclamation that American
taxpayers bear the costs associ-
ated with providing health care
to uninsured immigrants, coming
in the form of higher taxes, high-
er premiums, and higher fees for
medical services.
After Trump issued the proc-
lamation, seven U.S. citizens
sued, claiming the order unfairly
blocked their family members
from immigrating to the United
States. A district judge in Or-
egon  issued a nationwide pre-
liminary injunction in the case in
November 2019, blocking imple-
mentation of Trump’s order while
the lawsuit continued, arguing
that the proclamation was likely
Then-San Francisco district attorney George Gascon speaks in San Francisco on Dec. 9, 2014.
Do we follow our
legal and ethical
responsibilities and
risk getting disci-
plined, even fired,
by our new boss?
Eric Siddall, vice president,
Association of Deputy
District Attorneys
con to follow the law and restrain
him and his office “from forcing
compliance by this County’s Dep-
uty District Attorneys ... with un-
lawful portions of recently-enacted
Special Directives.”
ADDA officials explained the ra-
tionale behind the lawsuit.
“While an elected District Attor-
ney has wide discretion in deter-
illegal and the plaintiffs were
likely to succeed on the merits of
the case.
In a 2–1 decision, the Ninth
Circuit Court disagreed, with
U.S. Circuit Judge Daniel Collins
writing in the opinion that the
proclamation did not contradict
established law.
“We turn first to whether the
district court correctly held that
Plaintiffs were likely to succeed
on the merits of their ultra vires
cause of action, which alleges
that the Proclamation exceeds
the President’s delegated author-
ity, conflicts with congressional
judgments embodied in the INA
[Immigration and Nationality
Act], and violates the separation
of powers,” Collins wrote.
“We conclude that Plaintiffs
have not demonstrated a likeli-
hood of success as to any of their
challenges to the Proclamation,”
he wrote, adding that “the dis-
trict court abused its discretion in
granting the preliminary injunc-
tion enjoining the Proclamation’s
implementation.”
In a dissenting opinion, U.S.
Circuit Judge A. Wallace Tashima
said he agreed with the district
court ruling, arguing that Trump’s
proclamation “has no nexus to na-
tional security, addresses a purely
domestic concern (uncompen-
sated health care costs), lacks any
conceivable temporal limit, and
works a major overhaul of this na-
tion’s immigration laws without
the input of Congress—a sweep-
ing and unprecedented exercise of
unilateral Executive power.”
Trump, in 2016, campaigned on
tighter immigration controls and
vowed to curb illegal immigration
into the United States, including
by means of his signature U.S.–
Mexico border wall project.
mining what charges to pursue in
an individual case, that discretion
does not authorize him or her to vi-
olate the law or to direct attorneys
representing the district attorney’s
office to violate the law,” Michele
Hanisee, president of ADDA, said
in a statement. The collective
bargaining agent for prosecutors
claims about 800 members.
“Los Angeles County prosecutors
have been placed in an impossible
position,” ADDA Vice President
Eric Siddall added.
“Do we follow our legal and ethi-
cal responsibilities and risk getting
disciplined, even fired, by our new
boss? Or do we follow his policy di-
rectives and risk losing our Cali-
fornia State Bar Cards and, by ex-
tension, our ability to practice law
anywhere in the state? We’re asking
a court to answer those questions.”
The lawsuit focuses on Gascon’s
Pelosi’s House Defaced With Graffiti, Fake
Blood, Pig Head: Reports
TOM OZIMEK
The San Francisco home of House
Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) was
reportedly vandalized overnight on
Jan. 1, with messages scrawled on
the garage door and what appeared
to be a pig’s head and blood on the
driveway, according to multiple re-
ports and images shared on social
media.
A spokesman for the San Fran-
cisco Police Department told Fox
News that officers responded to a
report of vandalism around 2 a.m.
Jan. 1 at a residence purported to
be Pelosi’s home.
“Unidentified suspect(s) had
painted graffiti on the garage door
and left a pig’s head on the side-
walk,” the police said, according
to the report, which noted that au-
thorities didn’t confirm who the
house belongs to.
“It’s a fairly cowardly way to go
about expressing your opinion,”
said neighborhood resident Audrey
Carlson, in remarks to San Fran-
cisco news outlet KRON, adding
that she witnessed earlier protests
outside Pelosi’s house.
“I don’t think that this is a useful
way to go about it, and it’s a terrible
start to this new year when we’re
hoping for less anger and hatred
than we’ve had to deal with for the
last year.”
Photos on social media, report-
edly from the scene, showed spray-
painted messages on the garage
door that read “$2K” with a line
through it, “Cancel Rent?,” “We
want everything!,” and “UBI!” an
apparent reference to universal ba-
sic income. An “A” inside of a circle
was also scrawled on the garage
door, a symbol commonly attrib-
uted to the anarchist movement.
The “2K” reference could relate
to Pelosi’s handling of efforts to in-
MONDAY, JANUARY 4, 2021
JUSTIN SULLIVAN/GETTY IMAGES
directives that ADDA says ignore
or contradict California law.
California’s “three strikes”
law, codified in Penal Code Sec-
tion 667, is “a sentencing scheme
that gives defendants a prison sen-
tence of 25 years to life if they are
convicted of three violent or seri-
ous felonies,” according to Shouse
California Law Group.
The law also doubles the prison
term for individuals convicted of
any California felony who have two
violent felony or serious felony pri-
ors. So-called second strikers are
given a sentence whose duration
is doubled.
Gascon ordered deputy district
attorneys “to dismiss pending
strike priors, special circum-
stance enhancements, gang en-
hancements, firearm allegations,
and certain other ‘felony prior’
enhancements.”  His directives
Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) heads to her office on Capitol Hill
on Dec. 28, 2020.
crease the size of pandemic-related
relief payments to $2,000 from the
current $600. Pelosi led House
Democrats in passing a bill on Dec.
28 to boost the amount of direct re-
lief. While it passed the Democrat-
ic-majority House with a 275–134
vote, Senate Majority Leader Mitch
McConnell (R-Ky.) blocked a re-
quest for unanimous consent for
the bill.
The newly signed $920 billion CO-
VID-19 relief package includes $600
checks, but both President Donald
Trump and Democrats want to
raise that amount to $2,000, argu-
ing that many Americans are in
dire need of the extra money after
pandemic lockdowns ravaged the
economy. McConnell branded the
$2,000 relief payments as “social-
ism for the rich” on Dec. 31, and
Republicans blocked unanimous
consent requests to pass or hold a
vote on the bill for a fourth day on
Jan. 1.
“Borrowing from our grandkids
to do socialism for rich people is a
terrible way to get help to families
prohibited the filing of strike prior
enhancements in new cases.
Among other offenses that Gas-
con dictated would no longer be
prosecuted are trespassing, dis-
turbing the peace, driving without
a license, prostitution, resisting ar-
rest, criminal threats, drug pos-
session, alcohol possession by a
minor, drinking in public, being
under the influence of a controlled
substance, public intoxication,
and loitering.
The court ordered Gascon to re-
spond to the lawsuit by Jan. 15, af-
ter which ADDA must reply by Jan.
26. A hearing is scheduled in the
court’s Department 85 on Feb. 2.
Gascon’s office didn’t immedi-
ately respond over the weekend
to a request by The Epoch Times
for comment.
The lawsuit comes after the Su-
preme Court of California ruled
last week that a ballot proposition
approved by state voters made sex
offenders convicted of nonviolent
crimes eligible for early parole
consideration even though its pro-
ponents say it was never their in-
tention to free sex offenders, as The
Epoch Times previously reported.
The measure, the California Pa-
role for Non-Violent Criminals and
Juvenile Court Trial Requirements
Initiative, also known as Proposi-
tion 57, was passed by state voters
in 2016 with a vote of 64.5 percent
in favor.
Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye,
who was appointed in 2010 by then-
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, a Re-
publican, noted in the court’s opin-
ion that the proposition doesn’t
mandate that parole necessarily
be granted to prisoners.
“The evaluation of an inmate’s
suitability for parole and the pro-
cesses involved in conducting that
evaluation remain squarely with-
in the purview of the Department
and the Board of Parole Hearings,”
she wrote.
TASOS KATOPODIS/GETTY IMAGES
who actually need it,” McConnell
said on the Senate floor.
The “Cancel Rent?” message likely
refers to calls for rent forgiveness
and eviction moratoriums, which
have proliferated on social media
and at demonstrations across the
country in the wake of the pandem-
ic-related economic fallout.
Universal basic income, mean-
while, is a proposal that gained
attention during the Democratic
primaries, championed by Andrew
Yang, the tech entrepreneur who
competed for the party’s presiden-
tial nomination in the 2020 election
cycle. The supposed aim of the pro-
posal, which is for the government
to pay everyone a monthly or yearly
income, is to help displaced work-
ers who can’t keep up with labor
market developments, mostly auto-
mation and immigration, or other-
wise disenfranchised individuals.
Critics denounce the idea as a tac-
tic to destroy individual responsi-
bility and freedom, pave the way for
more government dependency, and
usher in socialism.
 MONDAY, JANUARY 4, 2021 NATION | A3

BILL O’LEARY-POOL/GETTY IMAGES

Pelosi Reelected as House

Speaker in Tight Vote
CONTINUED FROM A1
they wouldn’t support Pe-
losi for Speaker last Con-
gress, 5 House Democrats
just went back on their
promise and handed Pe-
losi the gavel for two more
years of her failed and radi-
cal leadership,” the House
Republicans said in a state-
ment apparently aimed at
the progressive squad.
Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-
Calif.), who served as the
House Minority Leader
during the last session, ran
against Pelosi. He will again
lead the House Republicans
as the minority leader. All
of the Republicans voted for
McCarthy.
Pelosi has led the House
Democrats since 2003 and
was widely expected to re-
tain her post despite a quiet
effort to oust her. Democrats
held a 222–211 edge over Re-
publicans ahead of the vote,
and the anti-Pelosi effort
counted on absences which
could give the GOP the edge.
No Democrat stepped for-
ward to challenge Pelosi
ahead of the vote.
The Democrats saw a doz-
en incumbents lose during
the 2020 general election
and didn’t defeat a single
Republican representative.
One House race in New
York is still being decided,
and there’s a vacancy in
Louisiana after GOP Rep.-
elect Luke Letlow, 41, died
after a heart attack follow-
ing an operation related to
contracting COVID-19.
Pelosi, 80, recently sug-
gested anew that these
would be her final two years
as speaker, referencing a
statement she made two
years ago in which she said
she would step aside after
this period.
The speaker’s election
came three days before the
joint session on Jan. 6, dur-
ing which Congress would
vet the Electoral College
votes for the presidential
election. Dozens of House
Republicans have commit-
ted to lodging objections
to the Democratic electors
from states in which Presi-
dent Donald Trump has dis-
puted the outcome.
During the last session,
Congress enacted and
Trump signed a $900 billion
CCP virus pandemic relief
package. Trump pushed to
increase individual pay-
ments as part of that pack-
age to $2,000, while calling
for the removal of spending
he deemed wasteful, includ-
ing $10 million for gender
programs in Pakistan.
Democrats took up
Trump’s call to boost the
individual payments. Re-
publicans blocked the effort.
Republican congressional
strategist Brian Darling, for-
mer senior counsel to Sen. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) presides over the year’s opening session, in Washington on
Rand Paul (R-Ky.), told The Jan. 3, 2021.
Epoch Times that Pelosi’s
win represents a tempo- set that they can’t get the so- the 117th Congress, which jority in decades because ...
rary truce in the House cialist Green New Deal and would be disastrous for tax- her embrace of radical poli-
Democratic caucus between legislation to federally de- payers and the country.” cies hurt the left in Novem-
Democratic socialists such fund the police implement- The TPA chief added that ber, as they lost numerous
as Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) ed,” said Darling, who heads “despite all the bickering key moderate districts and
and more moderate liberals. Liberty Government Affairs and complaining about failed to oust a single sitting
“Democrats have some in the nation’s capital. Pelosi’s leadership, the Republican. Impeachment,
temporary unity going into Taxpayers Protection Democrats fell in line and the border wall, and the an-
the new Congress,” Darling Alliance (TPA) President ignored the election, which ti-police crusade were very
said, “but not many think David Williams predicted saw a strong gain by Repub- unpopular, especially in the
the peace between the left that Democratic unity will licans in the House of Rep- swing districts.
flank of the party led by Rep. continue in the Democratic resentatives.” “That’s why ‘moderate’
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez socialists’ favor, noting that Heritage Action for Ameri- Democrats Jared Golden
(AOC) will hold for more “this is a clear signal that ca Executive Director Jessica and Conor Lamb voted
than a few months. the progressives want their Anderson told The Epoch against her.”
“Policy will divide the cau- agenda such as a Green Times that Pelosi resumes
cus, and it will not be long New Deal and Medicare for the speakership “with the The Associated Press
before the AOC squad is up- All front and center during thinnest Democratic ma- contributed to this report.

JESSICA MCGOWAN/GETTY IMAGES

Markets Eye High-Stakes Georgia percent. And the Dow Jones

Election, Joint Session of Congress
CONTINUED FROM A1
The new Senate currently
stands at 50 Republicans
and 48 Democrats. Should
Democrats win both Geor-
gia runoffs, that would put
the balance at 50–50. If
there were a Biden admin-
istration, the Democrats
would control the chamber
because Kamala Harris as
vice president (and presi-
dent of the Senate) would
break any ties.
Analysts, however, expect
Republicans to hold onto
the majority in the Senate.
That would remove a lot of
uncertainty for markets,
according to the analysts
of Wells Fargo Institute.
“A likely split government
in the U.S. would lessen
the scope for potentially
disruptive policy changes,
better aligning recoveries
on Main Street and Wall
Street,” the analysts said in
their 2021 outlook report.
A split government is ideal
for the markets because it
would make tax increases
and other major legislative
overhauls much less likely,
according to them. It also
means that the two sides of
the aisle will have to con-
tinue to work together on
future stimulus bills.
“Our base case is that Re-
publicans will win at least
one of these seats, keeping
control of the Senate,” Brett
Ryan, senior U.S. economist
at Deutsche Bank, said in a
recent report.
However, if Democrats
take both seats, he predicts
there would be an addition-
al fiscal stimulus package,
which would boost the eco-
nomic growth forecast for
next year. It would also end
the “ongoing debate around
raising the recently legislat-
ed stimulus payments from
$600 per person to $2,000.”
This would, absent offsets,
cost about $400 billion, rais-
ing the overall cost of stim-
ulus above $1 trillion, which
seemed a red line for many
Republican senators.
“Unless the Senate
switches to Democratic
control on the results of the
Georgia election, we do not
see much scope for further
stimulus,” Ryan wrote.
Another crucial event will
take place on Jan. 6, when
the joint session of Congress
convenes to formally count
Electoral College votes.
The session “is shaping up
to be a very contentious”
due to competing slates of
electors and other objec-
tions, according to a note by
Michael Cembalest, chair-
man of market and invest-
ment strategy at J.P. Morgan
Asset Management.
More than 100 Republi-
can House members and
at least 13 GOP senators
have vowed to challenge
Electoral College results
in several states on Jan. 6.
Vice President Mike Pence and Sen. David Purdue (R-Ga.) wave
to the crowd during a rally in support of Purdue and Sen. Kelly
Loeffler (R-Ga.) in Augusta, Ga., on Dec. 10, 2020.
Meanwhile, Trump sup-
porters from across the
country are planning to
hold a large rally in Wash-
ington on the same day.
“Trump supporters intend
to mount primary challeng-
es against GOP politicians
that do not support Jan. 6
Joint Session objections,”
Cembalest wrote in his
note to clients. “How will
most GOP politicians vote
in the Joint Session? I don’t
know, but I’m reminded of
the following Ben Frank-
lin quote in Peter Stone’s
‘1776’: ‘We must indeed all
hang together, or most as-
suredly we shall all hang
separately.’”
The pandemic didn’t stop
the U.S. stock market’s re-
cord-setting rally in 2020.
The benchmark S&P 500
index finished with a gain
of 16.3 percent for the year.
The Nasdaq composite,
recorded its best annual
gain since 2009, thanks to
the performance of tech-
nology stocks, rising 43.6
Industrial Average gained
7.2 percent.
Approval and distribution
of vaccines, combined with
a stimulus deal in Congress
have boosted market con-
fidence in recent weeks.
However, economists are
still cautious as the re-
newed virus surge and
lockdown measures could
reduce economic activity
again. Forecasters believe
the economic recovery is
dependent on how quickly
the vaccines are distributed.
Economists reduced their
projections last month for
economic expansion and
jobs growth in the first
quarter of 2021, but raised
them for the following
quarters of 2021, accord-
ing to a survey by The Wall
Street Journal.
Countering uncertain-
ties arising from lockdown
measures are low-interest
rates, as well as elevated
savings rate and household
income, which are expected
to support consumer-led
growth in the United States,
according to analysts.

6-Person Team Briefs Hundreds of State Lawmakers on Election Irregularities

IVAN PENTCHOUKOV &
ZACHARY STIEBER
A six-person team that included
Rudy Giuliani and Peter Navarro
briefed hundreds of state lawmak-
ers about evidence of election irreg-
ularities, during a Jan. 2 meeting.
The virtual meeting included
legislators from Arizona, Georgia,
Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania,
and Wisconsin, Navarro said dur-
ing an appearance on Fox News.
“These legislators, they’re hot,
they’re angry, they want action,”
said Navarro, the White House
director of trade and manufactur-
ing policy. “We gave them the re-
ceipts. We explained exactly how
the Democrat Party, as a matter of
strategy, stole this election from
Donald J. Trump.”
According to Got Freedom?, a
nonprofit election integrity watch-
dog, the meeting included an ad-
dress by President Donald Trump.
Nearly 300 legislators heard from
the president, Navarro, and
Trump’s lawyer, Giuliani.
John Eastman and John Lott were
also part of the briefing. Eastman
represented Texas in the now-dis-
missed interstate challenge to the
outcome of the election, while Lott,
a senior adviser for research and
statistics for the Department of Jus-
tice, authored a recently released
report on election theft.
Legislators were briefed on
evidence of alleged voter, ballot,
and election fraud, which can be
viewed on a webpage hosted by Got
Freedom?
“This information should serve as
an important resource for state leg-
islators as they make calls for state
legislatures to meet to investigate
the election and consider decerti-
fying their state election results,”
Phill Kline, who heads the Thomas
More Foundation’s Amistad Project
and who hosted the call on behalf
of of the group, said in a statement.
“The integrity of our elections is
far too important to treat cavalierly,
and elected officials deserve to have
all relevant information at their
disposal as they consider whether
to accept the reported results of the
2020 elections, especially in states
where the process was influenced
by private interests.”
Navarro released a report on
Dec. 21 that summarized and
categorized evidence of election
theft. In the Jan. 2 interview, he
said the report “shows beyond a
shadow of a doubt this election
was stolen” and that he planned
to release another report on Jan. 4.
Trump’s legal team and a handful
of third parties are litigating chal-
lenges to the election in court in
six battleground states. Dozens of
U.S. senators and House members
have committed to lodging objec-
tions to electoral slates from those
states when Congress counts the
Electoral College votes on Jan. 6.
Democrats have criticized the
efforts and say the election ran
smoothly, apart from a small num-
ber of voter fraud cases.
Navarro also suggested that a
special counsel may be appointed
to investigate if fraud had occurred.
“I would not be surprised to
see a special counsel on this,”
Navarro said.
Trump’s legal team testified
before several panels and com-
mittees from state legislatures,
including in Michigan, Arizona,
and Georgia. The team argued
that the mounting evidence of
election theft and malfeasance
necessitated that the legislatures
assert their constitutional right
to appoint presidential electors.
None of the legislatures have so
far followed the team’s advice.
Trump has called on his sup-
porters to descend on Washington
when Congress counts the elector-
al votes. Some of the senators who
committed to objecting to the Elec-
toral College votes that day said
they will do so unless Congress
appoints a special commission to
conduct a 10-day emergency audit
of the election.
Individual state legislatures
would then vet the findings and
have the opportunity to convene
and vote on a new set of electors.
A4 | NATION MONDAY, JANUARY 4, 2021

‘I Will Be There’: Trump Announces He’ll Join

‘Historic’ Rally on Jan. 6
JACK PHILLIPS
President Donald Trump on Jan.
3 said he will join the rally on Jan.
6 and march as the joint session
of Congress convenes to count
the Electoral College results.
Trump for weeks has been urg-
ing his supporters to attend the
event.
“I will be there. Historic day!”
the president wrote at around
10:30 a.m. Jan. 3. It’s the first time
Trump has said he’ll join the Jan.
6 events.
On Jan. 1, Trump confirmed
more details about the event.
“The BIG Protest Rally in Wash-
ington, D.C. will take place at
11.00 A.M. on January 6th. ...
StopTheSteal!” Trump wrote on
Twitter, adding that it “will be
wild.”
The District of Columbia police
department said there will be a
number of downtown street clo-
sures in light of the rallies and
events.
The closures will be focused
primarily on the National Mall
and around the White House, ac-
cording to a map from the police
department.
“The decision to restrict ve-
hicles will be based upon public
safety and if safe to do so, vehicles
will be allowed to enter the re-
stricted area if they are on essen-
tial business or traveling to-and-
President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump arrive at the White House on Dec. 31, 2020.
from their residence,” D.C. police
said in a news release on Jan. 1.
The U.S. Park Police confirmed
to USA Today that several permits
for the rallies and marches have
all been approved.
“The Park Police is committed
to working with its partners to
protect the public and National
Park Service resources by ensur-
ing that safety protocols are in
place for permitted events and
other First Amendment activi-
ties,” the agency said in a state-
ment on Dec. 31.
The right-wing group Proud
TASOS KATOPODIS/GETTY IMAGES
Boys also announced they would
attend the rallies and might dress
in all-black clothing to imitate
the anarcho-communist group
Antifa, with whom they have fre-
quently clashed.
“The ProudBoys will turn out
in record numbers on Jan 6th but
this time with a twist. ... We will
not be wearing our traditional
Black and Yellow. We will be in-
cognito and we will spread across
downtown DC in smaller teams.
And who knows ... we might dress
in all BLACK for the occasion. The
night calls for a BLACK tie event,”
Proud Boys chairman Enrique
Tarrio wrote on Parler.
The joint session of Congress
will include objectors from both
the House and Senate. Over the
weekend, about a dozen senators
joined Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.)
in announcing that they would
object to states’ electoral votes,
after at least 50 House represen-
tatives led by Rep. Mo Brooks (R-
Ala.) pledged to do the same.
The challenge requires at least
a House member and a senator
to carry out, triggering two-hour
debates for each state. Then, to
overturn a state’s electoral votes,
a simple majority vote is needed
in both the House and Senate.
On Jan 3, Brooks told Fox News
that the momentum to challenge
the electoral votes appears to be
growing in Congress.
“The momentum to fight against
voter fraud and election theft is
rapidly gaining,” he said. “And
as a consequence, the numbers
that we had who were support-
ive yesterday are almost always
supplemented by reinforcements
today and the next day.”

TASOS KATOPODIS/GETTY IMAGES

ment, they trigger a withdrawal

Meadows: Over 100 House
Members Plan to Object to
Electoral Votes
CONTINUED FROM A1
late last week that 141 Republican
House members have announced
plans to object.
Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.), who
opposes President Donald Trump,
said during a podcast that he be-
lieves upwards of 100 members will
end up objecting.
Rep. Brian Babin (R-Texas) said
Jan. 2 that he was on a call with
House Minority Leader Kevin
McCarthy (R-Calif.), Trump, and
“TONS of Jan. 6 election objectors.”
“This is a pivotal moment. Those
who aren’t with us are against us
- history will be unforgiving,” he
said, using a hashtag for “Stop the
Steal.”
After Hawley’s Dec. 30 announce-
ment—he was the first senator to
commit to objecting—two groups
of representatives joined the effort.
Republican Missouri Reps. Jason
Smith, Billy Long, Sam Graves, and
Vicky Hartzler said they will object
to “protect the integrity of each vote
cast by every law-abiding Missou-
rian.” They alleged that some states,
such as Georgia and Nevada, failed
to follow their own election laws.
Republican Pennsylvania
Reps.  Guy Reschenthaler, Dan
Meuser, Glenn Thompson, Mike
Kelly, Lloyd Smucker, John Joyce,
and Fred Keller also said they
would challenge votes.
“Unfortunately, the many un-
lawful actions undertaken by the
Pennsylvania Governor’s office,
the Secretary of State, and what has
been described as a rogue Penn-
sylvania Supreme Court exceeded
White House chief of staff Mark Meadows talks to reporters at the White
House on Oct. 21, 2020.
and circumvented the state legisla-
ture’s clear constitutional author-
ity,” they said in a joint statement.
A slew of others also said in recent
days that they’re going to object—
Reps.  Clay Higgins (R-La.), Joe
Wilson (R-S.C.), Randy Weber (R-
Texas), Barry Loudermilk (R-Ga.),
John Rutherford (R-Fla.), Chuck
Fleischmann (R-Tenn.),  Kevin
Hern (R-Okla.), and William Tim-
mons (R-S.C.), and Rep.-elects By-
ron Donalds (R-Fla.) and Kat Cam-
mack (R-Fla.).
Objections have to be in writing
and need support from at least one
member of each congressional
chamber. If they meet the require-
from the joint session, a two-hour
debate, and a vote in each house. A
simple majority would uphold an
objection, nullifying a state’s elec-
toral votes, or potentially leading to
the votes going to Trump instead of
Democratic presidential nominee
Joe Biden.
Democrats and some Republi-
cans have expressed hostility to-
ward the planned challenges.
“The egregious ploy to reject
electors may enhance the political
ambition of some, but dangerously
threatens our Democratic Republic.
The congressional power to reject
electors is reserved for the most ex-
treme and unusual circumstances.
These are far from it,” Sen. Mitt
Romney (R-Utah) said late Jan. 2.
Rep. Terri Sewell (D-Ala.) wrote in
a tweet: “The GOP’s latest effort to
delegitimize the election is a bra-
zen, unconstitutional attempt to
overturn the will of the American
people.
“But make no mistake: Joe Biden
will be the next President of the
United States.”

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 MONDAY, JANUARY 4, 2021 NATION | A5
SAMIRA BOUAOU/THE EPOCH TIMES

Appeals Court
Dismisses
Gohmert’s Lawsuit
Against Pence
JANITA KAN
A federal appeals court has dis-
missed a lawsuit filed by Rep. Lou-
ie Gohmert (R-Texas) and other
Republicans seeking clarity on
Vice President Mike Pence’s au-
thority in determining which
Electoral College votes to count
during the Jan. 6 congressional
joint session.
The power of Pence’s role as the
president of the Senate to count
or reject electoral votes has been
disputed.
In an unsigned decision, a
three-judge panel of the  U.S.
Court of Appeals for the Fifth
Circuit on Jan. 2 affirmed a lower
court decision to throw out the
case that aimed to prevent Demo-
cratic presidential nominee Joe
Biden from being declared the
winner on Jan. 6 until a slew of
election irregularities and fraud
allegations is transparently and
independently resolved.
The lower court judge, U.S. Dis-
trict Judge Jeremy Kernodle, on
Jan. 1 ruled that the Republican
plaintiffs lacked standing, or the
legal right, to bring an action that
would prevent Pence from poten-
Vice President Mike Pence attends a rally in support of Georgia Republican
senators in Savannah, Ga., on Dec. 4, 2020.
tially confirming Biden’s elector-
al victory. Kernodle found that
Gohmert couldn’t show a legally
recognizable injury to support
standing, while the other plain-
tiffs identified an injury that could
not be linked to Pence.
“We need say no more, and we
affirm the judgment essentially for
the reasons stated by the district
court,” the panel wrote in their
ruling. “We express no view on
the underlying merits or on what
putative party, if any, might have
standing.”
In their suit, Gohmert and other
Republicans argued that the U.S.
Constitution outlines the protocol
for when alternate slates of elec-
tors are presented to the president
of the Senate. They say the presi-
dent of the Senate has “exclusive
authority and sole discretion un-
der the 12th Amendment to deter-
mine which slates of electors for a
state, or neither, may be counted.”
On Dec. 14, Republican electors
in seven states cast alternate votes
for President Donald Trump, set-
ting up a new challenge for Con-
gress for when it counts the elec-
toral votes.
Responding to the claims,
SPENCER PLATT/GETTY IMAGES
Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas) on Capitol Hill in Washington on June 25, 2019.
Pence’s lawyer from the Justice
Department told the court that the
The power of vice president was not the proper
Pence’s role as the defendant to the lawsuit.
“These plaintiffs’ suit is not a
president of the proper vehicle for addressing
Senate to count those issues because plaintiffs
or reject electoral have sued the wrong defendant,”
the lawyer wrote. “The Vice Presi-
votes has been dent—the only defendant in this
disputed. case—is ironically the very per-
son whose power they seek to pro-
mote. The Senate and the House,
not the Vice President, have legal
interests that are sufficiently ad-
verse to plaintiffs to ground a case
or controversy under Article III.”
This comes as Republican law-
makers from both houses of Con-
gress are preparing to challenge
electoral votes cast for Biden. On
Jan. 2, a group of 11 Republicans,
led by Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas),
announced their intention to join
Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) to object
to Biden votes from several con-
tested states.
The lawmakers are expected to
face an uphill battle, with critics
arguing that the strategy of adopt-
ing the alternative Republican
electoral votes is a long shot, as
many of the alternative votes
haven’t been authorized by state
officials.
Objections to any state’s votes
during the joint session must be
made in writing by at least one
House member and one senator.
If the objection for any state meets
this requirement, the joint session
pauses and each house withdraws
to its own chamber to debate the
question for a maximum of two
hours. The House and the Senate
then vote separately to accept or
reject the objection, which re-
quires a majority vote from both
chambers.
If both candidates receive less
than 270 electoral votes on Jan. 6,
then a contingent election is trig-
gered in which each state’s delega-
tion in the U.S. House of Repre-
sentatives casts one en bloc vote
to determine the president, while
the vice president is decided by a
vote in the U.S. Senate.
The efforts have been criticized
by Democrat and Republican
colleagues, who say such actions
could threaten the democratic Re-
public. Meanwhile, proponents
of the challenge say it is needed
to protect election integrity and
ensure the legitimacy of any sub-
sequent administrations.
Pence, who will be presiding
over the joint session, said on Jan.
2 that he “welcomes efforts”  by
lawmakers to challenge electoral
results, according to a statement
sent by his chief of staff to reporters.
Mimi Nguyen-Ly contributed
to this report.

MORRY GASH-POOL/GETTY IMAGES

Prevention, people who exit

Senate Majority Leader
McConnell’s House Vandalized
After Relief Measure Fails
SAMUEL ALLEGRI
The home of Senate Major-
ity Leader Mitch McCon-
nell’s (R-Ky.) in Louisville,
Kentucky, was found van-
dalized on Jan. 2.
Spray paint on the front
door read, “Weres [sic] my
money,” while “Mitch Kills
the Poor” was scrawled over
a window.
The messages likely re-
fer to the Senate’s failure
to approve an increase in
the amount of money being
sent to individuals to help
cope with the coronavirus
pandemic, from $600  to
$2,000.
“I’ve spent my career
fighting for the First
Amendment and defending
peaceful protest. I appreci-
ate every Kentuckian who
has engaged in the demo-
cratic process whether
they agree with me or not,”
Sen. McConnell said in a
statement in response to
the vandalism. “This is dif-
ferent. Vandalism and the
politics of fear have no place
in our society.
He added: “My wife and I
have never been intimidat-
ed by this toxic playbook.
We just hope our neighbors
in Louisville aren’t too in-
convenienced by this radi-
cal tantrum.”
The Republican Party of
Kentucky wrote on Twitter:
“Vandalism is reprehensi-
ble and there’s no place in
our politics for acts like this.
Kentuckians deserve better
and the Democrats should
join us in condemning this
act of vandalism.”
The governor of Kentucky
called the vandalism “rep-
rehensible.”
McConnell commented
on his recent blocking of
the increase to the direct
payments: “Socialism for
rich people—that’s what
Speaker [Nancy] Pelosi
and Senator Sanders have
sketched out. A terrible way
to help those who need it.
Experts across the political
spectrum agree.”
“Our colleagues who pur-
port to be the champions of
vulnerable Americans now
say that what struggling
people really need is for
Congress to stop focusing
on targeted relief for them
specifically and to instead
send thousands of dollars
to people who don’t need
the help,” McConnell said
on Dec. 31.
House Speaker Nancy Pe-
losi’s San Francisco house
was also vandalized  on
Jan. 1. Written on the ga-
rage door were the mes-
sages “2k,” “cancel rent!”
“We want everything,” and
“UBI!”, an apparent refer-
ence to universal basic in-
come. An “A” inside of a
circle, a symbol commonly
attributed to the anarchist
movement, was also writ-
ten there.
Rep. Gwen Moore (D-Wis.) speaks during the Democratic National Convention at the Wisconsin
Center in Milwaukee, Wis., on Aug. 17, 2020.
Republicans Critical of Democrats
for Allowing Moore to Vote After
Positive COVID-19 Test
ZACHARY STIEBER
Republicans criticized
Democrats for coaxing
Rep. Gwen Moore (D-Wis.)
to travel to Washington on
Jan. 3 to vote for the speaker
of the House of Representa-
tives despite recently testing
positive for COVID-19.
Moore tested positive for
the disease on Dec. 28; fed-
eral health guidance rec-
ommends quarantining for
a minimum of seven days
after a positive test result.
Republicans blamed Rep.
Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.),
who was vying for another
term as House speaker, for
Moore’s decision.
“Nancy Pelosi is so power-
hungry that she brought
a COVID-positive House
Member to Washington to
vote for her for Speaker,”
Rep. Jeff Duncan (R-S.C.)
wrote in a tweet.
Rep. Daniel Webster (R-
Fla.) said, “For months,
Democrats didn’t show up
to DC to work on a budget
or COVID-19 relief, but now
that Pelosi’s speakership is
on the line, fulfilling ones
[sic] constitutional duties is
all of a sudden important ...
even if they’re sick!?”
During the last Congress,
the Democratic-controlled
House passed rules that al-
lowed proxy voting, but those
rules expired as a new House
was sworn in on Jan. 3.
Because Democrats
lost over a dozen seats, their
majority dropped by 38 to
11. That stoked speculation
that Pelosi’s bid for speaker
was in jeopardy, leading to
Moore showing up to vote.
Moore wrote in a statement
that she was feeling good.
“My quarantine is over
and I am medically cleared
to travel and work on be-
half of Wisconsin’s Fourth
Congressional District,” she
wrote. According to the Cen-
ters for Disease Control and
quarantine after seven days
should have tested negative
for COVID-19.
COVID-19 is the disease
caused by the CCP (Chinese
Communist Party) virus.
Moore told reporters at
the Capitol: “I didn’t get a
negative test. No, I did not,
because I got the CDC quar-
antine timeframe.”
She said Brian Monahan,
the attending physician of
Congress, cleared her to
return.
Monahan said in a state-
ment that the “highest possi-
ble safeguards” were put into
place, including a portion of
the viewing gallery that had
plexiglass placed around it.
That area enables “members
who are in quarantine status
to fulfill their Constitutional
duties,” he added. He cited
federal guidance that says
so-called essential workers
can ignore the recommend-
ed quarantine times if they
are not showing symptoms
and “additional precautions
are implemented to protect
them and the community.”
House Republican leader
Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.),
who tried to convince some
Democrats to back his bid
for speaker, said late Jan. 2
during an appearance on
Fox News that Pelosi was
“so scared” about not being
elected as speaker.
“She’s actually calling a
member back that hasn’t
that’s only voted by proxy
for the last four months that
just announced they had
COVID in the last week,” he
said. “Why would that per-
son be coming back?”
A6 | NATION MONDAY, JANUARY 4, 2021

Supreme Court Refuses Louisiana’s Emergency

Request to Reinstate Sex Offender ID Law
SAMIRA BOUAOU/THE EPOCH TIMES

MATTHEW VADUM charged him with altering designation would inform

The Supreme Court turned
down an emergency request
from Louisiana urging it
to freeze a state Supreme
Court ruling that struck
down a requirement that a
sex offender’s status be an-
nounced in large letters on
state-issued identification,
while the state pursues an
appeal of the decision.
The unsigned refusal-
of-stay decision came late
on Dec. 30, 2020, in a case
known as Louisiana v. Hill.
The Supreme Court didn’t
explain why it denied the
emergency application,
which began in front of Jus-
tice Samuel Alito but was
then referred to the full
court. The state previously
indicated that it intended at
some point to file a petition
for certiorari with the high
court, which is the usual way
a party initiates an appeal to
the court.
According to the Lafayette
Parish Sheriff’s website, the
respondent in the Supreme
Court proceeding, Tazin Ar-
dell Hill, 43, now residing in
Duson, Louisiana, was con-
victed in Louisiana on June
25, 2010, of having “carnal
knowledge of a juvenile.” He
was released from prison on
Nov. 25, 2013.
Hill cut out the words “SEX
OFFENDER” that appeared
in orange capital letters from
his ID card that he’s required
to carry with him. The state
an official identification card
to conceal his designation
as a registered sex offender,
contrary to state law.
Reinstating the law pend-
ing appeal was important,
Louisiana Attorney General
Jeff Landry, a Republican,
said when his office filed
the state’s emergency ap-
plication Dec. 11. He said if
the Supreme Court failed to
grant the stay, “sex offend-
ers in Louisiana will be able
to move unnoticed through
our communities.”
The state’s brief said the
law should be reinstated
pending appeal because
“the danger is not theoreti-
cal. Children die when re-
cidivistic sex offenders hide
their status.”
“Under the Louisiana
Supreme Court’s decision,
both law enforcement and
the public will lack an essen-
tial tool for identifying sex
offenders in the community
who violate the law by, for
example, visiting schools
or parks, volunteering as a
teacher, renting in an area
where the individual is not
legally permitted to live,
coaching youth sports or
volunteering at YMCA, or
otherwise interacting with
children.
“Online registries are
insufficient to protect the
State’s interests in those
contexts because people can
easily give a false name and
deny their status.”
The Supreme Court in Washington on March 10, 2020.
Before that, on Oct. 30,
2019, a state district court
quashed the state’s bill of
information against Hill,
finding that the law at issue
was unconstitutional on
its face. Opponents of the
law had characterized it as
forcing an offender to wear a
“scarlet letter” that needless-
ly humiliates the individual.
“The requirement that the
offender have ‘sex offender’
written on his official state
identification is not the least
restrictive way to further the
State’s legitimate interest of
notifying law enforcement,”
that court stated. “It could be
accomplished in the same
way that some other states
utilize. Louisiana could
use more discreet labels in
the form of codes that are
known to law enforcement.”
The Supreme Court of
Louisiana agreed, ruling
6–1 on Oct. 20, 2020, that
the state law compelled
speech, in violation of the
First Amendment to the U.S.
Constitution.
Louisiana’s sex-offender
registration rules differ
from those enforced by other
states and the federal gov-
ernment, according to the
majority opinion, written by
Justice James T. Genovese,
an elected Republican.
The Pelican State’s “spe-
cific requirement to carry
a branded identification
card distinguishes Loui-
siana from the rest of the
country,” Genovese wrote.
“Forty-one other states do
not require any designation
on the identification cards of
sex offenders.”
“The branded identifi-
cation card is compelled
speech, and it is a content-
based regulation of speech
that consequently must
pass strict scrutiny,” the
justice wrote. “While the
state certainly has a com-
pelling interest in protect-
ing the public and enabling
law enforcement to identify
a person as a sex offender,
Louisiana has not adopted
the least restrictive means
of doing so.
“A symbol, code, or a letter
law enforcement that they
are dealing with a sex of-
fender and thereby reduce
the unnecessary disclosure
to others during everyday
tasks,” he wrote, adding that
the sex offender registry and
notification is already “avail-
able to those who have a need
to seek out that information.”
Justice William J. Crain,
also a Republican, filed a
dissenting opinion.
The “speech at issue ... is
not First Amendment-pro-
tected speech,” he wrote.
“The speaker is the gov-
ernment: the words are
stamped by a governmen-
tal agency on a government-
issued identification card in
accordance with a govern-
ment-enacted statute. ...
Any reasonable observer ...
would readily ascertain the
speaker is the government,
not the defendant.”
Louisiana Solicitor Gen-
eral Elizabeth Baker Murrill
told The Epoch Times in an
email, “We are disappointed
that the Court did not grant
the stay. We intend to ex-
pedite filing a petition for
certiorari and will continue
to defend this law, a law
which performs an impor-
tant function of providing
critical information to the
public about convicted sex
offenders.”
Hill’s counsel of record,
Richard John Bourke, de-
clined to comment to The
Epoch Times.

High Share of Health Care Workers Reluctant Lankford: Proposed Electoral

to Get COVID-19 Vaccine: Reports
TOM OZIMEK
Reports and studies have emerged
showing that a relatively high per-
centage of those working in health
care settings are reluctant or refus-
ing to get the COVID-19 vaccine.
A research project tracking the
public’s attitudes and experi-
ences with COVID-19 vaccina-
tions has found that nearly one-
third of health care workers are
“vaccine-hesitant,” saying they
probably or definitely wouldn’t
get a COVID-19 vaccine even
if it were available for free and
deemed safe by scientists—a fig-
ure slightly higher than the share
of the general population.
A December survey published
by the Kaiser Family Founda-
tion vaccine attitude tracking
project shows an increase in the
percentage of the general public
saying they would definitely or
probably get a COVID-19 vaccine,
which now stands at 71 percent,
up from 63 percent in September.
At the same time, 27 percent of
the general population is “vac-
cine-hesitant.”
Vaccine hesitancy is highest
among Republicans (42 per-
cent), people aged 30 to 49 (36
percent), and rural residents (35
percent), followed by essential
workers (33 percent), according
to the survey. The lowest vaccine
hesitancy is among Democrats
(12 percent), those aged 65 and
over (15 percent), and members
of households with serious health
conditions (22 percent).
The chief concerns among those
who are hesitant to get a COVID-19
vaccine are worries about possible
side effects, with 59 percent citing
this as a major reason, followed
by a lack of trust in the govern-
ment to ensure vaccine safety
and effectiveness (55 percent),
and concerns that the vaccine is
too new (53 percent), according
to the survey.
Meanwhile, the share of “vac-
cine-hesitant” health care work-
ers, at 29 percent, is slightly higher
A nurse gives a dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine to a health
care worker at the Rocky Mountain Regional VA Medical Center in Aurora,
Colo., on Dec. 16, 2020.
than the general population, ac-
cording to the survey. At the same
time, a handful of reports have
emerged showing high rates of
frontline health care staff refus-
ing to get the shot.
Earlier this week, Ohio Gov.
Mike DeWine said that about 60
percent of the nursing home work-
ers in his state have so far opted
not to get a COVID-19 vaccine.
“We aren’t going to make them,
but we wish they had a higher
compliance,” DeWine said at a
Dec. 30 press briefing, in refer-
ence to nursing home staff, The
Columbus Dispatch reported.
His remarks came as Ohio had
just experienced its deadliest
month of the pandemic, with the
report noting 2,426 deaths from
COVID-19 in December.
California and Texas are also ex-
periencing a high rate of health care
worker refusals, reports indicate.
Public health officials said that
around 50 percent of frontline
workers in Riverside County in the
Golden State have chosen not to get
the vaccine, the Los Angeles Times
reported, while more than half the
hospital workers at California’s St.
Elizabeth Community Hospital
opted against getting the shot.
In Texas, a doctor at Houston Me-
MICHAEL CIAGLO/GETTY IMAGES
morial Medical Center told NPR
earlier in December that around
half the nurses in the facility
wouldn’t get the vaccine.
Harvard epidemiologist Marc
Lipsitch told The Los Angeles Times
that a high percentage of vaccine
refusals may be problematic.
“Our ability as a society to get
back to a higher level of functioning
depends on having as many people
protected as possible,” Lipsitch told
the outlet.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, head of the
National Institute of Allergy and
Infectious Diseases, said in Decem-
ber that between 70 and 75 percent
of Americans would need to get the
vaccine in order to “get that um-
brella of herd immunity.”
Two COVID-19 vaccines have
been authorized for emergency
use in the United States, one
from Pfizer and the other from
Moderna, with scientific panels
deeming both products safe and
effective, and that the benefits
outweigh the risks.
The issue of vaccines is the sub-
ject of longstanding controversy, in
part because some see the inocula-
tion push, driven by the impera-
tive of achieving herd immunity as
quickly as possible, as an infringe-
ment on personal liberties.
Commission Would Review 2020 Voting
ZACHARY STIEBER
An electoral commission being pro-
posed by a group of 11 Republican
senators would look at alleged ir-
regularities in the Nov. 3, 2020, elec-
tion process, Sen. James Lankford
(R-Okla.) said.
Lankford is among the senators
who have pledged to object to elec-
toral votes during the Jan. 6 joint
session of Congress, unless Con-
gress authorizes a commission to
review the 2020 election process.
“They’re gathering all the infor-
mation and they’re challenging
every single thing that’s out there.
I mean, everything from Sharpies
on ballots in Arizona, to suitcases of
ballots under tables in Georgia, to
laws that were changed to individu-
als that were dead or that moved or
from out of state that voted,” Lank-
ford said during a Jan. 2 appearance
on Fox News.
“All those things demand us to be
able to take a look at. We have got
to take it seriously about this mo-
ment, because there were so many
areas that are out there. Some are
rumor, some are fact. But those are
facts, we have to be able to resolve
and determine if this election is
settled? And then what do we do
from here on out.”
Arizona officials have said the
use of Sharpies didn’t cause bal-
lots to be rejected, while officials
in Georgia acknowledged that poll
workers counted ballots for over an
hour on election night after observ-
ers and media went home. Lawyers
for President Donald Trump’s cam-
paign alleged last month that 1,500
dead voters in Nevada cast ballots
while multiple states are accused
of counting votes from voters who
had moved away.
The proposed commission would
be modeled on one formed in 1877
to resolve electoral issues in the
election the previous year. Three
states—Florida, Louisiana, and
South Carolina—had reports of
voter fraud, leading to a contested
election without a clear winner.
The commission, which began on
Feb. 1, 1877, comprised five sena-
tors, five House members, and five
Supreme Court justices. Eventually,
Congress, acting on the decision of
the panel, awarded the disputed
electoral vote and the presidency
to Republican Rutherford Hayes.
The group of 15, which would be
given subpoena power, wouldn’t
decide the election, Lankford said.
In a written statement, Lankford
said millions of Americans “still
have significant questions” about
the Nov. 3 election, referencing re-
ports of problems with voting ma-
chines, double voters, and different
rules for mail-in ballots versus in-
person ballots.
“These are not questions that exist
in the dark corners of the internet,
but ones I hear at the grocery store,
the gas station, through text messag-
es, and on phone calls. For the sake
of the nation’s unity, these questions
should not be ignored,” he said.
The proposal by the Republicans
is still within the Electoral College
system, Lankford said.
“We’re demanding that we have
a good, hard, serious, professional
look at this, then the states in our
system of government, according
the Constitution, actually pick the
president through the Electoral
College. So we’re not trying to take
that over,” he said.
“We’re doing our constitutional
duty, and laying this out, giving it
back to the states and say, ‘States, if
you want to reevaluate where you’re
sending, and who you’re sending,
then you can choose to do that.’ But
the states have to be able to make
that decision.”
Lankford and the other senators
want a 10-day emergency vote au-
dit completed by the commission,
paired with a delay of the joint vote-
counting session.
“Once completed, individual
states would evaluate the Commis-
sion’s findings and could convene a
special legislative session to certify a
change in their vote, if needed,” the
senators said in a joint statement.
If the joint session takes place
without the completed audit, the
senators plan on objecting to elec-
tors from disputed states.
 MONDAY, JANUARY 4, 2021
Romney Opposes
Republican Senators’
Plan to Challenge
Electoral College Votes
JANITA KAN
Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) on Jan.
2 called efforts by his Republican
colleagues to challenge the Elec-
toral College results on Jan. 6 an
“egregious ploy” that “danger-
ously threatens our Democratic
Republic.”
Romney, who has had a turbulent
relationship with President Donald
Trump, offered his criticism in a
statement about a plan by at least
12 Republican senators to object
to Electoral College votes cast for
Democratic presidential nomi-
nee Joe Biden in several contested
states during the Jan. 6 joint session
in Congress, when valid votes are
set to be counted.
“The egregious ploy to reject
electors may enhance the politi-
cal ambition of some, but danger-
ously threatens our Democratic
Republic. The congressional pow-
er to reject electors is reserved for
the most extreme and unusual
circumstances. These are far from
it,” Romney said.
His statement comes after
a group of 11 Republican senators
announced on Jan. 2 their intention
to challenge Electoral College votes
from contested states. The group,
led by Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), said
the 2020 election “featured unprec-
edented allegations of voter fraud,
violations, and lax enforcement of
election law, and other voting ir-
regularities.”
The allegations of fraud and ir-
President Donald Trump at the White House on Dec. 31, 2020.
Senate Overrides Trump’s Veto
of NDAA, 13 Members Uphold Veto
ALLEN ZHONG
The Senate voted to override
President Donald Trump’s veto
of the National Defense Authori-
zation Act (NDAA) for 2021.
The upper house on Jan. 1
passed the bill without the presi-
dent’s signature with an 80–13
vote—the first time a Trump veto
had been overridden. The debate
over the bill was ended earlier
in the day with the same result.
Thirteen senators voted to sus-
tain Trump’s veto of the bill, in-
cluding Republicans Ted Cruz
(R-Texas), Rand Paul (R-Ky.), Josh
Hawley (R-Mo.), Mike Braun (R-
Ind.), Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), Mike
Lee (R-Utah), and John Kennedy
(R-La.).
Across the aisle, supporters
were Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-
Vt.), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.),
Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Ed Markey
(D-Mass.), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.),
and Ron Wyden (D-Ore.).
The House voted on Dec. 28
to override Trump’s veto with a
322–87 vote.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch
McConnell (R-Ky.) indicated
early this week that his chamber
would vote to override Trump’s
veto. He urged the Senate Repub-
licans to pass the bill, breaking
away from the president.
The president said Republicans
lost a chance to abandon Section
230 after the Senate override.
“Our Republican Senate just
regularities in the 2020 election
“exceed any in our lifetimes,” they
said, adding that this “deep dis-
trust” of U.S. democratic processes
“will not magically disappear” and
“should concern us all,” whether or
not elected officials or journalists
believe the allegations.
“It poses an ongoing threat to
the legitimacy of any subsequent
administrations,” the senators
wrote in their statement, while
calling on Congress to appoint
an electoral commission to con-
duct an emergency 10-day audit
of the election results. They said
they would object to the Electoral
College results if the audit didn’t
take place.
In his statement, Romney criti-
cized Cruz and other Republican
senators for their efforts, saying
their plan to “restore trust in the
election” was “nonsense.”
“This argument ignores the wide-
ly perceived reality that Congress is
an overwhelmingly partisan body;
the American people wisely place
greater trust in the federal courts
where judges serve for life. Mem-
bers of Congress who would sub-
stitute their own partisan judge-
ment for that of the courts do not
enhance public trust, they imperil
it,” he said.
The Utah senator added that he
was concerned that if Congress
were to actually reject electoral col-
lege votes, then challenges could
happen every time a lawmaker’s
preferred candidate loses.
BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES
missed the opportunity to get
rid of Section 230, which gives
unlimited power to Big Tech
companies,” he stated in a Twit-
ter post.
Trump vetoed the NDAA on
Dec. 23 for a number of reasons,
including wasteful spending
overseas and a failure to remove
Section 230—the liability shield
that protects social media com-
panies.
He said he’s unhappy with
the bill also because it requires
the renaming of historic mili-
tary installations, restricts the
president’s ability to use military
construction funds for national
emergency use, and contradicts
his efforts to bring the U.S. troops
back from overseas.
“For all of these reasons, I can-
not support this bill,” Trump said
in a statement on Dec. 23.
The president emphasized that
despite his veto, he’s a strong
supporter of the military.
“No one has worked harder, or
approved more money for the
military, than I have—over $2
trillion,” he wrote in his state-
ment. “During my 4 years, with
the support of many others, we
have almost entirely rebuilt the
United States military, which
was totally depleted when I took
office.
“My Administration has taken
strong actions to help keep our
Nation safe and support our ser-
vice members.”
Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) speaks to reporters at the U.S. Capitol in Washington on Sept. 21, 2020.
“Congress, not voters in the re-
spective states, would choose our
presidents,” Romney said.
Cruz’s joint statement was signed
by Sens. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.),
James Lankford (R-Okla.), Steve
Daines (R-Mont.), John Kennedy
(R-La.), Marsha Blackburn (R-
Tenn.), and Mike Braun (R-Ind.).
Meanwhile, Sens.-elect Cynthia
Lummis (R-Wyo.), Roger Marshall
(R-Kan.), Bill Hagerty (R-Tenn.),
and Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.) in-
dicated that they also planned to
join. They’ll be sworn in on Jan. 3,
several days before the joint session.
Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) was
the first senator to announce his
plans to object earlier this week,
while dozens of House members
have said they would object to the
Electoral College results.
Objections to any state’s votes
during the joint session must be
made in writing by at least one
House member and one senator.
If the objection for any state meets
Trump:
States Slow
to Administer
COVID-19
Vaccine
ZACHARY STIEBER
The slow administration of CO-
VID-19 vaccines is due to states,
President Donald Trump said late
Jan. 1.
“Some States are very slow to
inoculate recipients despite suc-
cessful and very large scale dis-
tribution of vaccines by the Fed-
eral Government. They will get it
done!” he wrote in a tweet.
Out of 12.4 million doses distrib-
uted as of Dec. 30, just 2.8 million
have been injected, according to
data from the Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention.
Some states have administered
fewer than a quarter of the doses
they’ve received. In California, for
instance, just 294,281 doses have
been given, out of more than 1.4
million received.
Trump earlier this week told
states to “get moving” with injec-
tions.
Trump administration officials
said they expected to pass out
about 20 million doses by the end
of 2020.
Officials previously said they
expected to circulate double that,
with 20 million people being inject-
ed by the time the new year came.
Democratic presidential nomi-
nee Joe Biden is among those
criticizing the delayed distribu-
tion and injections.
“The Trump administration’s
plan to distribute vaccines is fall-
ing behind, far behind,” Biden told
a press conference in Delaware
this week. “As I long feared and
warned, the effort to distribute
and administer the vaccine is not
progressing as it should.”
With funding and backing from
the federal government, Pfizer and
Moderna developed COVID-19
vaccines in record time, starting in
January 2020 and receiving emer-
this requirement, the joint session
pauses and each house withdraws
to its own chamber to debate the
question for a maximum of two
hours. The House and the Senate
then vote separately to accept or re-
ject the objection, which requires a
majority vote from both chambers.
If both candidates receive less than
270 electoral votes on Jan. 6, then a
contingent election is triggered in
which each state’s delegation in the
U.S. House of Representatives casts
one en bloc vote to determine the
president, while the vice president is
decided by a vote in the U.S. Senate.
Earlier on Jan. 2, Sens. Pat Toom-
ey (R-Pa.) and Lisa Murkowski
(R-Alaska) issued statements to
say that they also opposed any at-
tempts to challenge election college
results on Jan. 6.
Similarly, Senate Democrats re-
buked efforts by their Republican
colleagues.
The group of Republican senators
acknowledged in their statement
A resident of the John Knox Village Continuing Care Retirement Community
receives the Pfizer-BioNtech COVID-19 vaccine, in Pompano Beach, Fla., on
Dec. 16, 2020.
gency use authorization from drug
regulators in December.
Even Biden acknowledged that
Operation Warp Speed, Trump’s
all-of-government effort to speed
the development of vaccines and
therapeutics, “deserves some
credit” for getting the vaccines
produced so quickly.
But some experts are trying to
figure out how to speed up the
administration of the vaccines,
especially the doses that have al-
ready been given to states, even as
administration officials say they’re
hopeful the pace catches up to the
projections this year.
“We need to do essentially the
kind of things we’re doing in our
hospital. In our hospital, we’ve
vaccinated 12 people every 30
minutes,” Dr. Paul Offit, a mem-
ber of a federal vaccine advisory
panel, said Dec. 31.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, head of the
National Institute of Allergy and
Infectious Diseases, said the same
day that states and counties were
behind on giving the shots be-
cause they lacked resources.
Asked if the federal government
should take over vaccine admin-
istration efforts, Fauci told NBC’s
“Today” show, “Rather than step-
ping in and taking over, it would
maybe be better to give more re-
sources and work with them, in
tandem with them.”
Some governors have pointed
to early miscommunication from
Operation Warp Speed officials
NATION | A7
STEFANI REYNOLDS/GETTY IMAGES
that they expected Democrats and
a few Republicans to vote against
them but added that “support for
election integrity should not be a
partisan issue.”
“A fair and credible audit—con-
ducted expeditiously and complet-
ed well before January 20 would
dramatically improve Americans’
faith in our electoral process and
would significantly enhance the
legitimacy of whoever becomes
our next President. We owe that
to the People,” the Republican
senators said.
Vice President Mike Pence, who
will be presiding over the Jan.
6 session, said on Jan. 2 that he
welcomed efforts by lawmakers
to challenge Electoral College re-
sults, according to a statement sent
by his chief of staff to reporters.
In December, Romney boycotted
a Senate hearing examining elec-
tion  “irregularities,” saying he
didn’t think it would be “produc-
tive” at this stage.
JOE RAEDLE/GETTY IMAGES
in terms of receiving fewer doses
than they were told they’d get.
“I had to lower the allocations
to meet the releasable doses that
were presented to me,” the opera-
tion’s leader, Gen. Gus Perna, said
last month.
In Missouri,  Health Director
Randall Williams said at a briefing
that there’s a gap when compar-
ing the number of doses the state
has received to the number it’s ad-
ministered. Half the doses went to
long-term care facilities, he said,
and the state’s partnership with
Walgreens and CVS just started
on Dec. 28, “so there’s going to be
a little bit of a lag there.”
“I just got off the phone with the
executive director for the long-
term care facility association. We
think we’ll have middle January,
all those vaccines, the initial vac-
cines, should be administered, or
shortly thereafter,” Williams said.
One issue stems from the “com-
plex process of preparing the vac-
cines” and training people how to
administer them, North Carolina
Gov. Roy Cooper, a Democrat, told
reporters this week.
Joneigh Khaldun, Michigan’s
chief medical executive, said in
a separate briefing: “There is no
question this is the most massive
vaccination effort that we have
ever undertaken in this country.
“I think it is the operational chal-
lenges of it, that means that it is
moving slower than any of us actu-
ally wanted to.”
A8 | NATION MONDAY, JANUARY 4, 2021

Georgia Data Shows Over 30,000 of Trump’s Votes

Removed, Another 12,173 Switched to Biden: Data Scientists
BRANDON BELL/REUTERS

ALLEN ZHONG time-series election data in the Peach State.

Georgia election data indi-
cates that more than 30,000
votes were removed from
President Donald Trump
and another 12,173 votes
were switched to Democrat-
ic presidential candidate Joe
Biden, data scientists testi-
fied on Dec. 30 during a
state Senate hearing.
Lynda McLaughlin from
the Data Integrity Group,
along with data scientists
Justin Mealey and Dave
Lobue, presented the re-
sults before the Georgia
Senate Judiciary Subcom-
mittee on Elections.
Mealey worked as an
electronic warfare techni-
cian in the U.S. Navy for 9
1/2 years and was a former
CIA contractor as a data
analyst and programmer
for the National Counter-
terrorism Center. He cur-
rently works for one of the
“big four” accounting firms
as a programmer.
Lobue is a data scientist
with over a decade of ex-
perience in a number of
industries.
“What we have here is we
actually have fraud that
we can prove in this elec-
tion, there was fraud in
Georgia’s election, we can
prove it with data,” Mealey
said. “The voting will of the
people of Georgia is not re-
flected in what was certified
by the Secretary of State.”
According to their analy-
sis, which was published
online as early as Dec. 24,
shows Trump’s votes were
decrementing in various
counties instead of increas-
ing as they do normally.
At least 30,593 votes were
allegedly removed from
Trump as result, includ-
ing 17,650 votes in Dough-
erty County, 7,008 votes in
Dodge County, and 5,935
votes in Putnam County.
The removals happened at
the county level and were
hard to observe at the state
level because the decre-
ments were offset by accu-
rate data uploaded by other
counties.
“I want to make that very,
very clear that at no point
in an incremental process,
should you decrement it,”
Mealey said.
The group said a huge
number of Trump’s votes
were also observed being
switched to Biden in a sepa-
rate event.
A “clear example of vote
switching” happened in
Bibb county, they said.
At 9:11 p.m. local time,
Trump received 29,391
votes as Biden simultane-
ously received 17,218. How-
ever, in the next reported
time update, Trump’s
votes became 17,218, while
Biden’s changed to 29,391.
In this single event, 12,173
votes were switched, ac-
cording to the data scien-
tists.
State-certified election
results show Trump lost
Georgia by 12,670 votes.
The Trump campaign is still
Employees of the Fulton County Board of Registration and Elections process ballots in Atlanta on
Nov. 4, 2020.
challenging the results in
various courts.
The Data Integrity Group
didn’t name any state offi-
cial, county official, or re-
lated voting machine man-
ufacturers for wrongdoing.
They emphasized that the
analysis is not partisan.
“The analysis we’re going
to be reviewing is purely
scientific, not based on
any political affiliation,
red, blue, left, or right. The
objective really focuses on
numbers, data, and ma-
chine network systems,”
Lobue stated.
The Georgia secretary of
state’s office didn’t respond
to a request for comment
from The Epoch Times. Sec-
retary of State Brad Raffens-
perger and his office have
denied vehemently that
systemic election fraud oc-
curred during the Novem-
ber election.
Ballot Tallying Process
Under Question
The experts said during the
Dec. 30 hearing that they
believed the removals and
switching could have hap-
pened during the Results
Tally & Reporting (RTR)
process.
The Epoch Times was un-
able to verify the allegation
independently.
Based on information
published on Dominion
Voting Systems’  website,
Georgia used Dominion
products during the No-
vember election.
Poll workers can reject or
validate ballots during the
RTR process. In a widely
circulated video, an elec-
tions supervisor in Coffee
County demonstrated how
Dominion voting software
allows votes to be changed
through an “adjudication”
process. The process allows
the operator to add vote
marks to a scanned ballot
as well as invalidate vote
marks already on the ballot.
Accordding to a state-
ment from Richard Barron,
director of Fulton County
Board of Election and Reg-
istration, ballot adjudica-
tions happened substan-
tially in the county, which
has the largest population
“We scanned 113,130 as of
moments ago, we’ve adju-
dicated 106,000 plus [93.7
percent] of those,” he can
be seen saying in a video
clip. “The only ballots that
are adjudicated are if we
have a ballot with a contest
on it in which there’s some
question as to what, how
the computer reads it. So
the vote review panel then
determines voter intent.”
However, the unofficial
results that were used in
the analysis by the group
should be published after
the adjudication process,
according to a Dominion
tally and reporting user
guide, which is available on
the website of the Colorado
secretary of state’s office.
It is unlikely that the ad-
judication process would
cause Trump’s votes to de-
crease.
However, there is a step
called “auditing” in the
RTR process after the bal-
lots are adjudicated and
data is published and sent
to the secretary of state and
media data port. It appears
that adjustments can still
be made during the “audit-
ing” step if needed after the
unofficial results are made
public.
The user manual doesn’t
provide detailed informa-
tion about what specific
changes, if any, can be
made during the auditing
process, including whether
ballots can be added or sub-
tracted during that process.

Portland Mayor Calls Out ‘Antifa Radicals’
After New Year’s Eve Riot
LORENZ DUCHAMPS
The mayor of Portland, Oregon,
promised to bring an end to the
violence caused by “anarchists
and Antifa radicals” following
a New Year’s Eve riot in the city
that’s been rocked for months by
near-daily protests and riots.
“My good faith efforts at de-
escalation have been met with
ongoing violence and even scorn
from radical Antifa and anar-
chists,” Ted Wheeler said during
a press briefing on Jan. 1. “In re-
sponse, it will be necessary to use
additional tools and to push the
limits of the tools we already have
to bring the criminal destruction
and violence to an end.”
Authorities in Portland declared
a riot near the federal court-
house shortly before the start
of the new year, after a crowd of
about 80 to 100 protesters clashed
with police, smashed windows,
and threw firebombs, accord-
ing to a Portland Police Bureau
(PPB) statement.
The riot was declared at about
11 p.m. after the crowd gathered
earlier in the night in the area
of Southwest Avenue and South-
west Main Street, with some in
the crowd engaging in violence.
At least two Molotov cocktail-
style firebombs and large fire-
works were hurled and launched
at riot police, the Mark O. Hat-
field Federal Courthouse, and
the Multnomah County Justice
Center, police and video footage
confirm.
Some rioters also attempted to
break into the justice center but
failed to do so.
Violence erupted in the city
last spring following the police
custody death of George Floyd
in Minneapolis. Wheeler said it’s
now time to “push back harder”
and bring the violence to an end
by increasing penalties on those
set on destroying the community.
“Lawlessness and anarchy
come at great expense and great
Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler speaks to the media at city hall in Portland, Ore.,
on Aug. 30, 2020.
risk to the future of our commu-
nity,” the mayor said. “It’s time to
push back harder against those
who are set on destroying our
community, and take more risks
fighting lawlessness.”
Wheeler said he’s in contact
with Multnomah County District
Attorney Mike Schmidt to actively
work on cases together to ensure
“people are held accountable for
their criminal conduct.”
The mayor addressed three
points he’s committed to work-
ing toward, including increasing
penalties, developing a clear plan
to address anarchist violence
both inside and outside Portland,
as well as having rioters convicted
of criminal destruction meet with
business owners affected by riot-
ers and looters.
“These people need to hear, and
to understand, the social and hu-
man consequences of their irre-
sponsible actions,” Wheeler said.
“All of them should be required
to engage in public services like
litter pick-up and graffiti abate-
ment.”
During the New Year’s Eve riot,
officers were targeted with large
rocks, bricks, and frozen water
bottles, PPB officials said. Rioters
NATHAN HOWARD/GETTY IMAGES
also targeted officers with “paint
balloons” that likely had “been
laced with a caustic substance
as it caused burning to the skin,”
adding that several officers suf-
fered injuries.
Multiple videos shared on Twit-
ter by reporter  Andy Ngo also
show businesses, including a
Chase bank and Starbucks, de-
stroyed during the violence. A
crosswalk sign near the Justice
Center was also set ablaze in just
one of a number of fires spotted
in the area.
“Antifa smashed up a Chase
bank and numerous other busi-
nesses in downtown Portland
after starting fires outside the
Justice Center,” Ngo wrote in the
description of one video. Authori-
ties also confirmed that several
businesses had been damaged,
and reports of the damage were
currently being compiled.
Multnomah County Sheriff
Mike Reese said during a press
briefing that the violence dur-
ing the New Year’s Eve riot was
“criminal and reprehensible,”
adding that it was a focused at-
tack on the Justice Center, a pub-
lic safety facility that protects the
community.
Trump Says US COVID-19 Deaths
‘Far Exaggerated,’ Blames CDC
for Bad Statistics
GQ PAN
President Donald Trump on Jan.
3 questioned the accuracy of the
official nationwide CCP virus
cases and death counts, saying
that the Centers for Disease Con-
trol and Prevention (CDC) has
exaggerated the numbers.
“The number of cases and
deaths of the China Virus is far
exaggerated in the United States
because of [the CDC’s] ridiculous
method of determination com-
pared to other countries, many
of whom report, purposely, very
inaccurately and low,” Trump
wrote on Twitter. “‘When in
doubt, call it Covid.’ Fake News!”
According to the CDC, nearly
337,000 Americans have died of
COVID-19, and more than 19.4
million people were infected by
the end of 2020. The agency says
on its website that the statistics
are based on the most recent
numbers reported by states, ter-
ritories, and other jurisdictions.
“Data are dependent on juris-
dictions’ timely and accurate re-
porting,” the CDC website states.
It adds that counting exact num-
bers of COVID-19 cases “is not
possible” due to the symptoms of
COVID-19 not appearing imme-
diately, delays in reporting and
testing, infected individuals not
getting tested or seeking medi-
cal care, and differences in how
completely states and territories
report their cases.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, a leading
member of the White House
pandemic task force, objected
to Trump’s comments on Jan. 3,
saying the numbers are not fake.
“All you need to do is go out into
the trenches,” Fauci said in an in-
terview with ABC News. “Go to
the hospitals and see what the
health care workers are dealing
with. They are under very stress-
ful situations in many areas of the
country. The hospital beds are
stretched, people are running out
ANDREW HARNIK-POOL/GETTY IMAGES
Centers for Disease Control and Pre-
vention Director Dr. Robert Redfield
speaks at a hearing on Capitol Hill in
Washington on Sept. 16, 2020.
of beds, running out of trained
personnel who are exhausted.”
Trump responded to Fauci
on Twitter, saying: “Something
how Dr. Fauci is revered by the
LameStream Media as such a
great professional, having done,
they say, such an incredible
job, yet he works for me and the
Trump Administration, and I
am in no way given any credit
for my work. Gee, could this just
be more Fake News?”
Earlier this week, a pair of Min-
nesota legislators called for a na-
tionwide audit of the COVID-19
death count after they allegedly
found evidence that people who
died from other causes were add-
ed to the state’s pandemic death
totals.
Republican state Rep. Mary
Franson and state Sen. Scott Jen-
sen said during an interview with
Fox News that a team they en-
listed to examine data provided
by Minnesota’s health depart-
ment found that COVID-19 was
blamed for some deaths that were
clearly unrelated.
“We found clear-cut examples
from the Minnesota Department
of Health’s own files—public re-
cords—of suicide, a drowning, an
auto accident where the passen-
ger was ejected from the vehicle,”
Franson said.
 MONDAY, JANUARY 4, 2021
China Announces New UK Variant Virus Cases;
Superspreaders Appear in Multiple Cities
NICOLE HAO
CCP virus outbreaks in areas of
northern China continued to wors-
en over the weekend as authorities
announced that they had detected
patients infected with the new vi-
rus variant that first emerged in
the United Kingdom.
The metropolis of Shanghai
and southern Guangdong Prov-
ince each reported a patient who
tested positive for B.1.1.7, the new
UK-derived virus strain. Both were
students in the UK who returned
to China in December last year.
After genome sequencing, it was
confirmed that they had the new
strain, which is more contagious.
Meanwhile, Shenyang and Da-
lian authorities provided details
about local superspreaders who
had spread the virus to dozens of
others.
Locals told The Epoch Times that
they knew of cases that their local
governments didn’t announce,
leading them to suspect that au-
thorities have been covering up
the outbreak.
Superspreaders
Over the weekend, authorities an-
nounced more cases in Heihe of
Heilongjiang Province; Dalian and
Shenyang cities in Liaoning Prov-
ince; Beijing; and Shijiazhuang in
Hebei Province.
According to Shenyang authori-
ties, all who were infected in this
latest wave had contact with a
woman surnamed Yin, who ar-
rived in Shenyang from South
Korea on Nov. 29, 2020.
State-run newspaper The Paper
created a map that showed how
Yin’s contacts became infected,
including her granddaughter,
roommates, the medical staff who
treated her at the hospital for CO-
VID-19, and patients who were in
nearby beds.
In Dalian, a 34-year-old patient
surnamed Jin spread the virus to at
least 33 others, according to local
health officials.
At a press conference on Jan.
3, Zhao Lian, vice director of the
Dalian health commission, said
that Jin operates a clothing booth
inside a local mall and contracted
the disease at the venue.
Jin participated in a family gath-
ering after experiencing symp-
toms and spread the virus to 10
of the 11 family members who
were there.
Beijing authorities said the
NYSE Begins to Delist Chinese Telecom Giants in Compliance With Trump’s Order
CONTINUED FROM A1
under section 1237(b) of the Na-
tional Defense Authorization Act,
the annual defense spending bill.
The three Chinese telecom firms
to be delisted are on the Pentagon
list. Other Chinese companies
include telecom giant Huawei,
semiconductor chipmaker SMIC,
defense contractor AVIC, railcar-
maker CRRC, and surveillance
camera maker Hikvision.
NYSE added that the three com-
panies have “a right to a review”
the delisting decision.
MSCI Inc., FTSE Russell, S&P
Dow Jones, and Nasdaq have all
announced plans to remove some
Chinese companies from their
indexes, in compliance with the
executive order.
On Jan. 2, China’s commerce
ministry condemned the delist-
ing and said it would take “neces-
sary measures” to safeguard the
interests of its companies.
Roger Robinson, a former White
House official who supports curb-
ing Chinese access to U.S. inves-
tors, noted that the delisting was
“a modest step, but at least an
awakening to national security
and human rights-related risk.”
U.S. lawmakers have previous-
ly applauded Trump’s executive
order. Last month, Sen. Marco
Rubio (R-Fla.) welcomed MSCI’s
People line up for the COVID-19 test in Shenyang, Liaoning Province, China, on Jan. 2, 2021.
A lot of people
have been infect-
ed with the virus
in Beijing, and
the government
doesn’t dare to re-
port any details.
Li, Beijing resident
latest diagnosis was an 8-month-
old infant. The child’s mother and
grandmother had tested positive
on Dec. 31.
But most of the cases authorities
have disclosed in past days are re-
lated to a 31-year-old woman who
was diagnosed on Dec. 24, 2020.
Unreported Cases
Ms. Li from Beijing told the Chi-
nese-language Epoch Times
that the outbreak in Beijing was
far worse than officials have an-
nounced, noting that she heard of
more diagnosed patients found in
Shunyi and Chaoyang districts.
“A lot of people have been in-
decision to remove seven Chinese
firms from its indexes.
“I was proud to work with the
Trump Administration on their
Executive Order to prohibit in-
vestment in Chinese military
firms, and MSCI’s decision to re-
move these dangerous companies
from their indexes is a result of
that good work,” Rubio said in a
statement from his office.
Rubio warned against any
changes to future U.S. policy, “If
any future Administration were to
reverse course, it would be a clear
signal that they are putting the in-
terests of the Chinese Communist
Party and Wall Street above the
interests of American workers and
mom and pop investors.”
On Dec. 30, Keith Krach, under-
secretary of state for economic
growth, energy, and the envi-
ronment, warned investors via
Twitter about potentially funding
“malign Chinese companies.” He
pointed to a list put together by
the State Department, listing Chi-
nese military-linked companies
as identified by the Commerce
Department and Pentagon, along
with the major stock and bond in-
dices that include them.
“The Chinese Communist Par-
ty’s threat to U.S. national secu-
rity extends into our financial
markets. Investors shouldn’t be
funding China’s military or its hu-
fected with the virus in Beijing,
and the government doesn’t dare
to report any details,” Li said.
She said authorities don’t want
to reveal the real scale of the out-
break, which could damage their
image, but they issued strict lock-
down policies in order to stop the
outbreak and save their reputation.
Li also questioned officials’ nar-
rative that many of the infections
were people who recently traveled
overseas.
“I wonder why these people were
healthy when they were outside of
China, but they were infected after
they came to China?” Li said.
Ming Xuan (a pseudonym) is a
student at Jinzhou Normal College,
a school to train teachers located in
northeastern Liaoning Province.
He told the Chinese-language Ep-
och Times on Jan. 2 that his school
has been fully locked down since
Dec. 27 and has not allowed any
student to leave the campus during
the winter break.
“We heard that a university stu-
dent from another city came back
to Jinzhou with a negative nucleic
acid test and without any symp-
toms. But after he came here, he
man rights abuses,” Krach stated.
China Telecom is also under
fire from the U.S. Federal Com-
munications Commission, which
said last month that it had begun
the process of revoking the com-
pany’s authorization to operate
in the United States.
The companies couldn’t be
reached for comment on a public
holiday in China.
Ties between Washington and
Beijing have grown increasingly
antagonistic over the past year
as the world’s top two economies
sparred over Beijing’s handling of
the COVID-19 outbreak, imposi-
tion of a national security law in
A medical worker takes a swab sample from a child to test for COVID-19, in
Shenyang, Liaoning Province, China, on Dec. 31, 2020.
tested positive for COVID-19,”
Ming said.
The Epoch Times couldn’t verify
the infection Ming mentioned, but
checked with other students, who
confirmed that the college was ful-
ly locked down and nobody knew
when students could go back home
for the winter break.
On Jan. 3, Qinghe county in Xing-
tai, Hebei Province, announced
PETER PARKS/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES
Hong Kong, and rising tensions
in the South China Sea.
Separately, Trump signed a
law last month that would kick
Chinese companies off U.S. stock
exchanges unless they adhere to
U.S. auditing standards. The bill
had passed both houses unani-
mously.
Currently, the Chinese regime
blocks overseas regulators, in-
cluding the Public Company Ac-
counting Oversight Board and
the Securities and Exchange
Commission, from inspecting
full audit reports of publicly
traded companies headquar-
tered in mainland China and
CHINA | A9
STR/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES
STR/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES
that a resident in neighboring
Nangong was diagnosed with
COVID-19. The county alerted its
residents to stop going to Nangong.
However, Nangong authorities
didn’t announce any infections.
That day, Shijiazhuang in Hebei
also confirmed a new patient, but
the National Health Commission
didn’t announce the two diag-
nosed cases in Hebei.
Customers
look at
products in
a China
Unicom shop
in Beijing, in
this file photo.
Hong Kong, citing national se-
curity and privacy.
This year, more than a dozen
U.S.-listed Chinese companies
have gone private as U.S. authori-
ties intensified their scrutiny, in-
cluding Sina Corp, an internet
firm that was the first Chinese
company to list its shares in the
United States.
Several other tech firms, such as
JD.com and NetEase, have pur-
sued secondary listings this year
in Hong Kong.
Reuters and Epoch Times
staff Cathy He contributed
to this report.
 A10 | WORLD
Indian Farmers’ Protest Sparks Vigorous
Debate, a Sign of Democracy, Experts Say
VENUS UPADHAYAYA
so I don’t see this hurting India’s
image. However, India has a large
diaspora that is active and inte-
grated into the countries they live
in.” The upside of a big diaspora is
they help India and its image, the
downside is that countries around
the world and governments will be
interested in what is happening
in India.
The protestors have urged mem-
bers of Parliament (MPs) in the
United Kingdom to ask Prime
Minister Boris Johnson not to visit
India until their demands are met.
Johnson is scheduled to visit New
Delhi on Indian Prime Minister
Narendra Modi’s invitation to be
the chief guest at India’s Jan. 26
Republic Day celebrations.
In response, Tanmanjeet Singh
Dhesi, a Sikh MP in the British Par-
liament, asked Johnson to convey
to Modi the “the heartfelt anxieties
of our constituents” when the two
meet in New Delhi.
Seven lawmakers in the U.S.
Congress, among them six Demo-
crats and a Republican, also wrote
to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo,
asking that he address the matter
with the Indian administration.
India called remarks by foreign
leaders and lawmakers about the
farmers’ protests “ill-informed”
and “unwarranted,” and said it’s
an internal issue.
Need for Agricultural Reforms
The protesters are objecting to re-
forms that Modi enacted in late
September to deregulate India’s
agricultural industry and provide
the farmers with more autonomy
to sell their goods to independent
purchasers, rather than to govern-
ment-sanctioned buyers.
Experts said the reforms are
actually needed and what is hap-
pening is a challenge often seen
whenever a government in a func-
tional democracy tries to enact
mass reforms.
“Agricultural reforms are need-
ed, and the basic principle behind
the reform is good. The problem
as always with reforms is building
consensus before you undertake
massive reforms. Maybe a pilot
project should have been started
first,” Pande said.
“In a state like Bihar, which abol-
ished APMCs [Agricultural Pro-
duce Market Committee] years ago
but no corporates go there, why
would they go to states like Punjab
and others,” she said, noting the
concern of protestors who fear the
reforms will lead to the hijack of
the market by corporate entities.
APMCs, which were established
under the APMC Act of India, op-
erate under the country’s state
government. These committees
help regulate a Minimum Support
Price (MSP) and ensure payments
are timely to the farmers through
auctions in the APMCs.
Before the current reforms, the
farmers could sell their crops only
in the markets of the APMCs. How-
ever, these markets started to lose
their sheen in the 1990s because
they couldn’t keep pace with a sig-
PRAKASH SINGH/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES
Indian farmers demonstrate against the central government’s recent agricultural reforms, at the Delhi–Uttar Pradesh state border on Dec. 27, 2020.
This is what
democracy is:
chaos, discus-
sions, debates,
and in the end,
consensus, not
diktat.
Aparna Pande, director,
Hudson Institute’s Initia-
tive on the Future of India
and South Asia
Volunteers cook
breakfast as farmers
continue to demonstrate
against the central
government’s recent
agricultural reforms
while blocking a highway
at the Delhi–Haryana
state border in Singhu,
India, on Dec. 30, 2020.
nificant increase in the amount
of produce, and states like Bihar
opted out. Other states such as Ut-
tar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Gu-
jrat, and Karnataka have already
relaxed some regulatory aspects
of the APMC laws.
Pande said corporate houses are
profit-driven and would mostly be
interested in commercial crops
such as cotton and jute.
“Why would a corporate entity
even want to produce foodgrains,
there is no money in that,” she said,
adding that India also needs to en-
sure that foodgrains are produced,
purchased at a certain price, and
stored for delivery to the poor.
Professor Madhav Nalapat, a
New Delhi-based strategic analyst,
told The Epoch Times that he sees
a need for more changes that will
provide Indian farmers with more
professional choices, whether in
agriculture or other endeavors.
“The problem that I’m seeing is
that they are planting crops that
people don’t want to eat anymore,
and maybe they can make more
money by planting different types
of crops,” he said.
“And they may be happier if some
of them either go for different
types of crops or for different pro-
fessions,” since regulation locks
“people into a system for decades
and decades and decades,” he said.
“Conditions change and new
opportunities emerge, but often
regulation prevents people from
shifting as they block the new op-
portunities. For example, com-
puters were opposed for years by
many political parties as was do-
ing airline and rail reservations
through the internet. There’s still
opposition to e-commerce among
those who believe it will harm
MONDAY, JANUARY 4, 2021
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi speaks during a press conference in New
Delhi on Feb. 25, 2020.
their interests. Outdated regula-
tions help those who are resistant
to change.”
Need for Deregulation
Further decentralization and
deregulation—a process that the
country started in the 1990s to
empower elected local self-gov-
ernments in rural and urban ar-
eas—are needed, Pande said.
“Why is it that the urban areas,
as well as the village panchayats
[local self-governments], have less
money and less control on what
they can spend and how they
can get taxes than they did in the
1990s?” Pande said. She said de-
centralization genuinely works
when the local self-governments
and the states have the power to
adapt a wider law to their specific
contexts.
While “genuine decentraliza-
tion” is challenging, it’s a dire need
in the Indian governance system.
she said. India is a big country with
varied geographical, climatic, and
agricultural crop cycles, and re-
sources; reforms are needed but
they need to be decentralized to
allow states to work out specific
solutions, she said.
Nalapat said he’s also in favor of
“genuine deregulation.”
“I am in favor of decentralization
of decision-making. And I trust the
citizens in India to be as sensible
as citizens anywhere else,” he said.
By genuine deregulation, he
means a “system that is neutral
between players and transparent.”
“Even if deregulation takes place
on paper, sometimes vested inter-
ests seek to sabotage it in practice.
Such forces need to be eliminated
and this is a work in progress,” he
said.
Pande says the larger application
of reforms also needs to be under-
STR/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES
MANDEL NGAN/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES
stood in the unique Indian con-
text, in which some Indian states
produce food crops while the oth-
ers produce cash crops. Those who
produce cash crops are heavily
reliant on food-producing states.
Deadlock Over Negotiations
The Modi government has made
various outreach attempts to the
protesting farmers, but farmers’
unions have labeled the outreach
as propaganda. They have asked
the government to first include
scrapping the reform laws in the
agenda of the discussions.
A meeting is scheduled between
the two sides on Jan. 4, although
the protestors have threatened to
take firm steps if the government
doesn’t decide in their favor, by
scrapping the three reform laws
introduced in September and giv-
ing a legal guarantee for a mini-
mum support price.
Pande said to overcome the
deadlock in negotiations, a will-
ingness to negotiate by follow-
ing democratic approaches and
practices is needed, adding that
healthy negotiations would mean
identifying immediate needs and
what can be achieved gradually
within specific time frames.
She said this gradual application
of reforms is also essential because
there can be “no one answer” for
all Indian states where climate, ir-
rigation facilities, soil types, and
land productivity vary drastically
from each other.
Nalapat expressed optimism that
the deadlock in negotiations will
be eventually settled.
“Farmers are a treasure for the
country, and it is certain that the
deadlock will be resolved, al-
though in India, matters some-
times take a bit longer than in
some others,” he said.
 MONDAY, JANUARY 4, 2021 WORLD | A11

Italian Government Totters as Conte, Renzi Divide Deepens

JOHANNA GERON/POOL/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES
ROME—Italian Prime Minister
Giuseppe Conte faces a show-
down with his coalition partner
and former premier Matteo Renzi
this week that could bring down
his government even as it strug-
gles to contain the COVID-19
pandemic.
Long-strained relations be-
tween the two men have deterio-
rated markedly in recent weeks,
with Renzi calling for radical
changes to plans to reboot the
economy while also demanding
that Conte cede his control over
the secret services.
The prime minister has resisted
the pressure, saying last week
that he was prepared to confront
Renzi in parliament, effectively
challenging him to act on his
recent threats and abandon the
coalition, thereby triggering an
ill-timed crisis.
Renzi told Il Messaggero news-
paper over the weekend that he
wouldn’t back down and dis-
missed suggestions that Conte
could persuade a limited number
of opposition politicians to prop
up the government if his small
Italia Viva party walked away.
“If he has decided to go to par-
liament and see the numbers, Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte departs from a meeting at the EU summit in Brussels on July 20, 2020.
we accept the challenge,” Ren-
zi said. “If ... he goes under, we new consensus. fication, in terms of the content If all else fails, national elec-
have several different solutions Conte’s two main coalition and structure of the government,” tions would have to be held
that can be assessed by parlia- At this point, it is allies, the Five Star Movement Luigi Zanda, a senior PD senator, some two years ahead of time,
ment and the head of state.” difficult to move and center-left Democratic Party told Corriere della Sera on Jan. 3. but such an outcome would
A political source said matters ahead without a (PD), have both urged restraint If the government falls, the co- appear highly unlikely given
could come to a head at a cabi- but appeared resigned to an alition parties could seek to draw the COVID emergency in Italy,
net meeting expected for Jan. 7, real clarification. eventual face-off with Renzi, who up a new pact and agree on a new which has registered 74,985 CO-
when Conte was expected to ask Luigi Zanda, senior senator, is looking to carve out a strong team of ministers, with or without VID-19 deaths, the highest toll
ministers to support his econom- Italy’s Democratic Party identity for his group, which is Conte as prime minister. Alter- in Europe and the fifth-highest
ic recovery plan. If Italia Viva’s struggling in the opinion polls natively, the head of state could in the world.
two ministers refused, the prime at around 3 percent. try to put together a government
minister would go to parliament “At this point, it is difficult to of national unity to confront the By Crispian Balmer
and start work on trying to find a move ahead without a real clari- health and economic crisis. From Reuters

TOLGA AKMEN/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES

London Police Arrest 17 at Hyde Park

Anti-Lockdown Rally
ALEXANDER ZHANG
UK police arrested 17 anti-lock-
down protesters in London’s Hyde
Park on Jan. 2 on suspicion of
breaching CCP virus restrictions.
Officers arrested four people
who had gathered in Hyde Park
near Marble Arch at around 1
p.m. local time under Health
Protection Regulations, the Met-
ropolitan Police said on Twitter.
At 2:35 p.m., police reported
that officers were continuing to
“engage with groups of people”
who had gathered in the area,
and that “a number of people
have been arrested under Health
Protection Regulations and taken
into custody.”
Officers urged those in the area
“to leave immediately,” the force
said.
At 4:40 p.m., police said that
the majority of protesters had
left Hyde Park, but 17 people had
been arrested on suspicion of
breaching CCP (Chinese Com-
munist Party) virus rules.
London was put under “tier
four,” the strictest COVID-19 re-
strictions in England, on Dec. 20,
because it was one of the regions
most affected by a new variant of
the CCP virus, which the govern-
ment has said spreads faster than
the old variant.
Under tier four rules, which are
broadly equivalent to the national
lockdown in England in Novem-
ber, people must stay at home ex-
cept for limited exceptions, and
individuals can only meet one
person from another household
in an outdoor public space.
In the run-up to the new year,
the government ran a public
information campaign urging
people to stay at home on New
Year’s Eve.
The Metropolitan Police said on
New Year’s Day that officers at-
tended calls to 58 unlicensed mu-
sic events and parties in breach
of tier four rules across London
during the night.
The police issued fixed pen-
alty fines to 217 people, and five
people were reported for con-
sideration of a possible £10,000
($13,676) fine for organizing large
gatherings.
In addition, four people were
arrested on New Year’s Eve for
Police officers
patrol The
Victoria
Embankment
in London on
Dec. 31, 2020.
gathering in central London.
Commander Paul Brogden said:
“We are still dealing with the stark
reality of fighting a deadly virus.
I urge Londoners to continue to
keep themselves and their fami-
lies safe by staying at home.”
Lily Zhou contributed
to this report.

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Senate Majority Leader Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) at the U.S. Capitol in Washington on Sept. 21, 2020.
McConnell and GOP Senators Must
Stop Deserting Their Constituents
ROGER L. SIMON
Excuse me, but if I get an-
other text message from
Mitch McConnell asking
for money—I seem to get
one roughly every five
minutes, and one came
10 seconds after midnight
to welcome 2021—telling me that things
are desperate for the GOP and that if I
don’t donate another $50 (to be matched
at 5X, of course, or is it 7X?) all will be
lost, because I’m an “important patriot”
for whom a “critical deadline” has been
“extended” (who writes these things?), I
will leave the Republican Party forever
and register as an independent.
Or maybe move to New Zealand.
OK, I’m exaggerating—but not by a lot.
Frankly, these endless messages and
emails are nauseating, especially when
emanating (supposedly) from the major-
ity leader of the U.S. Senate, who seems to
be, deliberately or not, so far out of touch
with the wishes of his constituency he
may as well be in another galaxy.
That only 12 senators, with Josh Hawley
(R-Mo.) leading the way, have stood up
to say they would question the results
of our presidential election, when CNN
reports that at least 140 House members
have said they would, does not speak well
for what was once known as “the world’s
greatest deliberative body.”
Or perhaps they know something we
don’t—like who won.
That’s hard to imagine—we all know
the judiciary is not interested in, or may
even be allergic to, finding out—but per-
haps a secret cabal of senators has made
a forensic investigation of the Dominion
voting machines (said, under oath by its
CEO, not to be connected to the internet;
the CEO also alleged there was never a
relationship between Dominion and the
devised-for-Chavez Smartmatic).
That investigation would have to be suffi-
cient to assure us that a man named Jovan
Pulitzer, who was able to hack said ma-
chine in seconds, live, over the internet, in
front of a Georgia legislative committee on
Dec. 30, was some kind of magician pull-
ing an electoral rabbit out of his hat.
And this assumes the testimony of
MONDAY, JANUARY 4, 2021 • A13
forensic computer expert Russell Rams-
land about the Antrim County Michigan
machines was also either entirely false
or discredited (in a real way, not by some
media outlet yelling “debunked”).
One doubts a single member of Con-
gress from either party has anything
near the technical expertise to make
that or similar determinations for
themselves. (Ironically, probably a good
number of people out there among the
“deplorables” actually could.)
Not only that, but this same cabal of
senators must have limned all the testi-
mony about election fraud, from mail-in
voting, to trucked-in voting, to ballots
suddenly appearing from under a table
after everybody went home, to absentee
ballots being absconded with and prob-
ably shredded, and other possibilities
so multitudinous at this point that the
sworn affidavits stacked on top of each
other would reach somewhere near the
top of the Capitol Dome.
Obviously, this investigation never hap-
pened. So what gives?
Are these reluctant senators simply
abject cowards, trying to protect their
committee assignments, or are they
more aligned with the deep state than
they would like us to know or even wish
to acknowledge to themselves? Do they
really want business as usual?
McConnell would seem to have more
than a whiff of that.
But the rest do not have to go along. Do
they need a reminder that the Demo-
crats protested the Electoral College
certification of the last three Republican
presidents—Donald Trump in 2016 and
George W. Bush in 2000 and 2004?
There’s nothing new in this, except maybe
the search for the truth in what happened
and the promise of a better tomorrow.
And that truth is bigger than Trump,
larger than life though he may some-
times be—much bigger.
It speaks to the nature of what we are
as a functioning democratic republic.
Can we actually have elections that the
majority of the public trusts? We clearly
don’t trust this one.
More than that, we are in a monumen-
tal transitional phase in human history
when technology is dominating our lives
Are elections even
going to mean any-
thing in the future?
Supporters of President
Donald Trump rally at the
U.S. Capitol in Washing-
ton on Nov. 14, 2020.
Like this article? Share it
with your friends and family.
Use the camera on your
smart-phone to scan this code
and receive a shareble link.
ALEX WONG/GETTY IMAGES
OLIVIER DOULIERY/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES
as never before, with its power over us,
conscious and unconscious, escalating
every day and our elections being only a
part of that story, and a fragile one.
With an increasingly unchecked China
in the ascendancy, our world is chang-
ing before our eyes, minute by minute.
Transnational elites are in the process of
taking over. Are elections even going to
mean anything in the future? Will they
happen in any way other than Soviet?
How monumental is the transition we
are undergoing, which is explained in an
extraordinary video by Catherine Austin
Fitts I happened to watch on New Year’s
Eve (hey, the restaurants close at 10).
Fitts, an investment banker and former
assistant secretary of housing and urban
development for housing under Bush 41,
has some rather astonishing and, frank-
ly, scary things to say about where these
elites—what she calls “Mr. Global”—are
taking us.
Even if what she is saying in this vid-
eo—essentially, that the United States is
on the cusp of joining China in its “social
credit” system and that our freedoms are
about to vanish, if they haven’t already—
were only partially true, it normally
would be of paramount concern to sena-
tors, were the Senate really “the world’s
greatest deliberative body.”
But apparently, they can’t even deal
with making elections transparent.
On the other hand, we can. Don’t
forget that.
Roger L. Simon is an award-winning
novelist, Oscar-nominated screenwriter,
co-founder of PJ Media, and now a col-
umnist of The Epoch Times.
A14 | OPINION MONDAY, JANUARY 4, 2021

COREY SIPKIN/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES

charges of fraud have been made. How-

ever, there are issues that transcend the
choice of a president.
Regardless of the outcome of the elec-
tion, what we do now matters. Each of
us must make a choice on fundamental
things. Communism seeks to gain con-
trol of the world and to silence voices
that oppose it. In thousands of ways in
our daily lives, we see a struggle play-
ing out between good and evil. How
do we respond? Do we choose good or
evil? Truth or falsehood? In making this
choice, we decide our destiny.
History will measure each one of us
precisely, and, in the end, history will
side with those who align with good-
ness and truth.
As for The Epoch Times, our faith
in the future and our pursuit of truth
won’t change.
Courage will be needed as a pan-
0demic that has recently shown signs
of worsening might get much worse. 
Try to protect yourself by following the
advice of your doctor.

History will measure each one

of us precisely, and, in the end,
history will side with those who
align with goodness and truth.

Happy New Year, At the same time, we should be aware

that this pandemic carries a message.
Its origin lies with the Chinese Com-

as We Face 2021 Together

EDITORIAL BOARD
Happy New Year!
We usually look forward
with some joy to the begin-
ning of a new year, as it brings
the hope of unrealized possi-
bilities. In 2021, though, the joy
of the new year may be dulled by
controversy and apprehension. But
we should take heart: In the most im-
portant matters, our destiny is in our
own hands.
The United States faces an unprec-
edented political crisis. The presiden-
tial race is still not settled, and serious
The ball drops to ring in the
new year in a mostly empty
Times Square in New York
City on Jan. 1, 2021.
munist Party, and each case of infection
is a reminder of how harmful the CCP is
to the world.
The world has an alternative to the CCP’s
malice. History has suggested that in
past pandemics, those who had a strong
faith in the divine had a better chance
of surviving. In China, we see the CCP
seeking to uproot humankind’s relation
to the divine, by persecuting the faithful.
We at The Epoch Times will face
any difficulties with you. With faith
and courage, we can emerge from the
troubles besetting 2021 with new hope
for the future.

COMICS
DILBERT GARFIELD

PEANUTS GINGER MEGGS

RED AND ROVER

BIG NATE

GRAND AVENUE DRABBLE

MUTT & JEFF FRANK AND ERNEST

 MONDAY, JANUARY 4, 2021
SPECIAL SERIES
How the Specter of Communism
Is Ruling Our World
Corrupting the Legal System
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.”
3. How Communism
Warps the Law in the West
c. Twisted Court Interpretations
Legalizing Drug Abuse  (cont.)
Governments anticipate that legal-
izing drugs would generate billions
of dollars in revenue. But it’s not
hard to see that as greater numbers
of people become addicts, lose
their desire to work, and suffer poor
health, productivity will fall, and
the aggregate wealth created by
society will shrink. It is self-evident
that legalizing drugs cannot in-
crease government revenue in the
long term. Furthermore, judging
what is right or wrong shouldn’t be
based on economic profit, but on di-
vine standards. Traditional moral-
ity sees the human form as sacred
and created in the divine likeness.
Western religions believe the body is
the temple of the Holy Spirit, while
in the East, it was believed that the
body can be improved through
cultivation to become a Buddha or
a Tao. Drug abuse, then, is an act of
desecration.
According to a report by the Los
Angeles Times, one of the impor-
tant figures lobbying for the legal-
ization of marijuana in the United
States is a wealthy progressive. [26]
In March 2017, six senators wrote a
letter to the U.S. State Department
requesting that this individual be
investigated for using his founda-
tion to promote progressivism
abroad and subvert conservative
governments. [27]
The legalization of drugs is an
additional step toward encouraging
people to lose their inhibitions and
cut themselves off from the divine.
As society experiences turmoil and
economic downturns, communists
seize opportunities to gain political
power.
Legalizing Same-Sex Marriage
Schlafly listed 12 methods judges
use to undermine morality: rewrite
the Constitution, censor acknowl-
edgment of God, redefine mar-
riage, undermine U.S. sovereignty,
threaten property rights, promote
pornography, foster feminism,
handicap law enforcement, invite
illegal immigration, interfere with
elections, take over parental rights,
and impose taxes. [28]
The book of Genesis describes the
destruction of Sodom. One of the
sins the doomed city’s residents
indulged in was homosexuality. This
is the origin of the term “sodomy,”
meaning sexual relations between
men. Those with basic knowledge of
the Bible know that homosexuality
goes against the will of God.
In June 2015, the Supreme Court
ruled in a 5–4 decision that same-
sex marriage is a right guaranteed
by the Constitution. [29] When the
ruling was passed, the U.S. presi-
dent at the time changed the ban-
ner on the White House’s official
Twitter account to the rainbow flag
in support of LGBT rights. The Su-
preme Court’s ruling prohibited the
13 states that still banned same-sex
marriage from enforcing their laws.
In August 2015, a clerk in Rowan
County, Kentucky, refused to issue
marriage certificates for same-sex
couples due to her beliefs. She was
later jailed for five nights for defying
a U.S. federal court order to issue
the documents. [30] In fact, the
court had violated her constitution-
al right to freedom of belief. Com-
menting on the clerk’s case, former
governor of Arkansas and former
Republican presidential candidate
Mike Huckabee called the Supreme
Court’s ruling on marriage “judicial
tyranny.” [31]
As of 2019, 28 countries and ter-
ritories had officially acknowledged
or accepted same-sex marriage,
including the United States, the
United Kingdom, France, Germany,
Spain, Norway, Denmark, Finland,
Sweden, Portugal, Belgium, Aus-
tralia, New Zealand, and Canada.
The law has the power to reinforce
morality or influence its movement
in a new direction. To legalize be-
havior that deviates from traditional
moral values is the same as having
the government and laws train the
people to betray morality and dis-
obey divine commandments.
Traditional morality sees the
human form as sacred and
created in the divine likeness.
Western religions believe the body
is the temple of the Holy Spirit,
while in the East, it was believed
that the body can be improved
through cultivation to become a
Buddha or a Tao. Drug abuse, then,
is an act of desecration.
Under the influence of political
correctness, criticism of the chaos
that our society finds itself in—
whether from the people, civil
associations, or religious groups in
particular—can easily be escalated
to the level of politics or law, and re-
sult in restrictions on free speech or
other punishments. Following the
legalization of immoral behavior,
those who make any comments or
criticisms on related issues are often
accused of violating laws, such as
those concerning gender discrimi-
nation. The law has been twisted
into a means of strangling people’s
ability to make moral judgments. It
is essentially promoting homosexu-
ality and encouraging people to give
themselves to endless desire and
degeneracy.
d. Restricting Law Enforcement
Under liberal influence, many
judges or legislative agencies delib-
erately curtail the legitimate power
of law enforcement, effectively
turning a blind eye to crime. The
communist specter’s aim in doing
this is to paralyze the state appara-
tus in order to stir up social turmoil,
which in turn creates excuses either
for the expansion of government, or
the necessary conditions for a coup
or revolution.
Many states have passed far-left
laws, a typical example being “sanc-
tuary” policies. Among other provi-
sions, sanctuary cities often prohibit
federal immigration officials from
arresting illegal immigrants in local
Chapter Ten
prisons, including those with out-
standing warrants for arrest. Local
police are barred from cooperating
and communicating with federal
agents to enforce immigration laws.
This poses a serious security risk
for the public. In July 2015, illegal
immigrant José Inez García Zárate
shot and killed a young woman who
was walking along a pier in San
Francisco. Zárate had a history of
crime: He had been charged with
seven felonies involving drugs and
robbery, and possession of weap-
onry, and had been deported five
times. Under San Francisco’s sanc-
tuary laws, officials released Zárate
from custody three months before
the fatal shooting, rather than trans-
ferring him to federal immigration
authorities, who had requested
custody of him for deportation.
When a criminal stands trial,
extremely strict standards are
placed on the prosecution. This is
ostensibly to protect the legitimate
rights of the suspect, but often the
result is that criminals are able to
take advantage of loopholes in the
law. Cunning suspects—or those
who enjoy status or privileges, who
understand the law and regulations,
or who hire capable attorneys—can
drag out the legal process, at great
cost to the judicial system. It can be
very difficult to bring guilty sus-
pects to justice.
Influenced by the spread of
“sexual liberation,” verdicts in cases
involving sex crimes often cite find-
ings in research by Alfred Kinsey or
activists who follow him to argue
that the damage caused by sex
abuse is little or nonexistent. Many
cases have been settled by reducing
the sentences of sexual predators.
[32] Many ordinary criminals also
have had their original sentences
reduced, ostensibly owing to budget
shortages or on account of prison-
ers’ rights. The real motivation,
though, is to use political correct-
ness to weaken the power of the
law, disturb social order, and pave
the way for further expansion of
government.
Notes
26. Patrick McGreevy, “Billionaire
Activists like Sean Parker and
George Soros Are Fueling the
Campaign to Legalize Pot,” Los
Angeles Times, Nov. 2, 2016.
27. Sen. Mike Lee, “GOP Senators Call
on Sec. Tillerson to Investigate
State Department Meddling,”
March 14, 2017.
28. Schlafly, “The Supremacists.”
29. Obergefell v. Hodges, 576 U.S. 644
(2015).
30. Todd Starnes, “Kentucky Clerk:
‘This is a fight worth fighting,” Fox
News, Sept. 3, 2015.
31. Fox News, “Attorney for Kim Davis
Speaks Out, Huckabee Blasts ‘Ju-
dicial Overreach’ in Case,” Sept.
8, 2015.
32. Stop the Kinsey Institute Coali-
tion, “Kinsey Helped Undermine
Laws Protecting Women & Chil-
dren,” accessed on April 20, 2020.
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
promise to you.
CONTACT US
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229 W. 28th St., Fl. 7
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A16 | OPINION
Trump Should Declassify How Chinese
Communist Party Interfered in Our Election
JOEL ETIENNE
Politicians tackle debts and
deficits, politicians deal
with planning and zon-
ing, politicians struggle
with their civil service.
Statesmen, or states-
women, however, are the
politicians who take hold, grasp, and
define the seminal moments of our
times. They map out the course of history
through surgical words and key actions.
These words and actions stand to drive
the statesman/stateswoman to glory,
and with luck and historical hindsight,
will even earn the begrudging respect of
political foes and ideological opponents.
Lincoln gifted the world with the Get-
tysburg Address, 272 words that were
backed with surgical action—blood
and treasure spilled to forge a nation
together and to free the slaves. Roosevelt
spoke of and gave America a “New Deal”
that has lasted over three-quarters of a
century, while Eisenhower cautioned
an innocent nation to beware of “the
Military-Industrial Complex.” President
Reagan, the truest and last important
voice of the modern presidency in the
20th century, tore down the Soviet Em-
pire without firing one bullet in active
combat, and told Mr. Gorbachev, before
any New York Times pundit ever foresaw
the end of the Soviet Empire, to “Tear
down these walls.”
Wunderbar—still music to my ears!
The symbiotic convergence between
“East and West,” caused through tech-
nological and financial integration, has
reached an inflection point of no return.
East and West are converging and creat-
ing one culture, one world. Whether
we like it or not, it could be argued with
some legitimacy that the combination
has now become unstoppable.
The defining issue of our era is this:
Which of the two dominant ideologies
will prevail in this, our latest bout with
neofascist communism?
The Book
You’ve Been
Waiting
for...
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
(Left) President Donald Trump walks on the South Lawn of the White House on Dec. 12, 2020. (Right) Chinese policemen stand guard in Jinan,
Shandong Province, China, in this file photo.
Will the Western ideal bring about a
new Confucianism, a merged ideal that
includes Eastern thoughts of forbearance
and detachment, coupled with West-
ern values of capitalism, multi-ethnic
democracy, and human rights; or are we
heading toward a “1984” or “Fahrenheit
451” world of neofascist communism
anchored by technological and econom-
ic control, and fueled by the tyrannic
methods developed through the -isms
brought on by Hitler, Stalin, Mao, and
then later re-weaponized by the Chinese
regime and Putin? The stakes couldn’t be
any higher for any aspirant of freedom
and democracy.
President Donald Trump’s appointment
and continued support of Secretary of
State Mike Pompeo followed his better
instincts and wisdom as they relate to the
Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Unfor-
tunately, CCP enthusiasts within his own
administration and White House slowed
him in January 2020, on the grounds that
the United States needed a new trade deal
with China, a delay that lost America the
opportunity to follow best practices and
survive the COVID-19 pandemic in the
same manner Taiwan, New Zealand, and
Australia have done.
PATRICK SEMANSKY/AP PHOTO
Beijing has learned from Russian Presi-
dent Putin’s playbook. Using KGB-like
tactics, the fascists appreciate that they
can’t match American might through a
direct toe-to-toe confrontation, so they
now aim to corrupt the North American
continent from the inside out.
When the West used both its culture
and its intelligence infrastructure to dis-
rupt communism, we offered the Eastern
Bloc democracy, the rule of law, human
rights, and capitalism. Many former East-
ern Bloc countries have flourished under
this new direction, and we say many,
because unfortunately, Putin and Beijing
have stopped their respective homelands
and many satellite nations from progress-
ing and advancing toward the human
ideal of freedom and democracy.
Worse, our communist and fascist
torturers have now pivoted “the game”
to give the West a taste of the same
tactics they’ve force-fed on dissidents
and human rights advocates, who are
continuously sidelined in the streets
of Beijing and Moscow—the tactics
are well-known—disruption, violence,
infiltration, repression, and lies through
the mediums of force, state-controlled
media, technology, and corruption.
With these same tactics and means
of planning and deliberation, Beijing
and Putin aim to further murder our
democracies from the inside—and sadly
enough, they might pull it off.
CCP Infiltration
This is where our president has the op-
portunity to act quickly and decisively
to work toward bringing an end to the
destructive influences of the CCP’s cor-
rosive political corruption methods.
The facts and infiltration are indis-
putable. On Dec. 5, 2020, China expert
Gordon Chang, author of “The Coming
Collapse of China,” publicly exposed
the varied methods used by the Chinese
Communist Party to corrupt the 2020
presidential election.
Chang confirmed that during the general
election, the CCP tried to unseat Trump.
He said there “was a massive disinforma-
tion campaign conducted, especially by
the Chinese Foreign Ministry, which is offi-
cial—and [confirmed by] the Global Times,
which is the Communist Party tabloid.”
Chang said “there were the troll and
bot farm operations, which were actually
quite massive. There was the Spamou-
flage Dragon network, which attacked
the president on Twitter, Facebook,
YouTube. And we know that Twitter took
down 174,000 fake Chinese accounts in
June alone. So they really went after the
Republican candidate.”
Frighteningly, Chang also confirmed
that “the Chinese military—the People’s
Liberation Army—actually based an in-
telligence unit in the then-open Houston
consulate. From there, they used artifi-
cial intelligence and big data to identify
Americans likely to participate in Antifa
protests. And then they sent them videos
through Tik-Tok on how to riot.”
It isn’t only academic experts on the
Chinese Communist Party that have
opined on CCP interference. In fact, prior
to the election, then-Attorney General
William Barr confirmed that the CCP
was directly involved in corrupting the
presidential election.
Indeed, in a Sept. 2, 2020, interview on
CNN, AG Barr was asked about election
security and who was the most assertive
or aggressive nation in this regard.
“I believe it’s China,” Barr said. “China
more than Russia right now.”
When asked why he made that assess-
ment, Barr said he had “seen the intel-
ligence” clearly suggesting that the CCP
was a greater threat than Russia. “That’s
what I concluded,” he said, adding that
MONDAY, JANUARY 4, 2021
FENG LI/GETTY IMAGES
he couldn’t elaborate more on what is
classified information.
Classified Information
Therein lies the key—classified infor-
mation.
Now that the CCP has infiltrated the
core of American democracy, it’s no
longer sufficient or acceptable that only a
small cadre of U.S. intelligence and mili-
tary defense officials, running around
scared in D.C., be the only good folks
apprised of the CCP’s real and appre-
hended threat toward our way of life. Too
many Americans are now dead because
of Communist Party negligence.
There can and should be a method of
rapidly declassifying enough of the raw
intel to prepare and educate U.S. society
in respect to the CCP’s existential threat,
while at the same time protecting U.S.
sources and intelligence-gathering meth-
odologies. With all due respect, represen-
tatives and senators who sit on the intel-
ligence committees no longer hold enough
credibility and respect, notwithstanding
any political party affiliation, with their
own voters, to be the filters and dissemi-
nators of information to their constituents.
That train left the station a long time ago.
In fact, in the middle of the Russia in-
vestigation, in May 2019, when so much
disinformation against the president was
being aired across the continent, Trump
actually gave Barr sweeping powers
to declassify intelligence in the Russia
probe review. The chattering classes were
obviously upset that true facts about the
“so-called collusion” would see the light
of day with the U.S. public and sought to
dispel the presidential authority to “clas-
sify and declassify” information. Inter-
estingly enough, the “executive’s” power
in this regard appears to be sacrosanct,
notwithstanding the false protests of the
mainstream media.
Experts agree that the president, as
commander-in-chief, is ultimately
responsible for classification and declas-
sification. When a person lower in the
chain of command handles classification
and declassification duties—which is the
established methodology—it’s essential-
ly because they have been delegated to
do so by the president directly, or by an
appointee chosen by the president. The
majority ruling in the 1988 U.S. Supreme
Court matter Department of the Navy v.
Egan addressed this line of authority.
Clearly, the president can declassify.
Handing over that authority to an act-
ing AG, seeking that “We, the People”
finally all get to hear and learn the full
truth about the CCP’s conduct in our
2020 elections within the next 20 days—
pursuant and subject to a careful review
that has assumed the proper protocols to
protect intelligence-gathering assets and
tools is critical, if not existential.
It seems to be the least we should all
expect in words and deeds from a true
statesman.
The coming words and actions on this
issue would very well stand the test of
time—just as the words and actions of
Lincoln, Roosevelt, Eisenhower, and Rea-
gan cemented the future and continued
standing of the American experience.
Joel Etienne is a human rights attorney
and television producer who specializes
in public affairs. Etienne represented The
Epoch Times in its communications with
CBC regarding the network’s negative
portrayal of The Epoch Times.
 MONDAY, JANUARY 4, 2021
US Jobless Claims Dip
But Show Recovery
Has Long Way to Go
F
ewer Americans sought unem-
ployment benefits last week, but
the modest drop did little to dispel
concerns that the U.S. job market
and wider economy face an ardu-
ous recovery from the devastation inflicted
by the coronavirus pandemic in 2020.
The final major economic data point for a
year that saw a recession of historic magni-
tude erupt out of nowhere stood as a fitting
reminder for both how far the recovery has
progressed and how much more it has to go.
While new claims for benefits reported
by the U.S. Labor Department on Dec. 31
dropped for the second week in a row to a
seasonally adjusted 787,000 in the week
ended Dec. 26, from 806,000 a week before,
it left them at roughly the level they were
three months ago and with little indication
that they would show material improve-
ment any time soon.
The arrival of effective COVID-19 vac-
cines and additional federal pandemic aid
have set the stage for a brighter 2021. But
economists agree the still-raging epidemic
and the fractured government response
to it means more difficult months ahead
before improvement takes hold.
“While prospects for the economy later
in 2021 are upbeat, the economy and labor
market will have to navigate some diffi-
cult terrain between now and then and we
expect claims to remain elevated,” Nancy
Vanden Houten, lead U.S. economist at
Oxford Economics, said in a note.
COVID-19’s unexpected appearance late
last year and rapid spread in early 2020
brought an abrupt end to a record-long U.S.
1st Trucks Cross New Customs
Border With UK to France
CALAIS, France—Moments after Britain
completed its divorce with the European
Union, the first trucks hauling goods across
the new customs border presented their
clearance documents to French agents be-
fore loading onto a train to pass through
the Eurotunnel.
A barcode on Romanian driver Toma
Moise’s paperwork was scanned and ap-
REUTERS/PASCAL ROSSIGNOL
The first trucks leave Eurotunnel’s new cus-
toms border in Calais, France, just after mid-
night, as Britain formally exits the European
Union, on Jan. 1, 2021.
economic expansion that had fostered the
strongest job market in generations. It also
brought down the global economy, dashing
hopes for a second straight decade of unin-
terrupted growth and widening prosperity.
While prospects for the
economy later in 2021 are
upbeat, the economy and labor
market will have to navigate
some difficult terrain between
now and then, and we expect
claims to remain elevated.
Nancy Vanden Houten, lead U.S.
economist, Oxford Economics
Jobs Drop in December?
The report also showed that as of the mid-
dle of last month, more than 19.5 million
people were receiving some form of jobless
aid, including from emergency measures
extended by the latest coronavirus aid bill
that was passed by Congress and signed
by President Donald Trump. Those emer-
gency programs now account for roughly
two-thirds of all ongoing jobless assistance.
As of Dec. 19, 2020, the number of people
continuing to draw benefits under regular
state unemployment insurance programs
declined to 5.219 million, the lowest since
March, from 5.322 million the week before.
Economists took little solace from that de-
cline, however, seeing it more the result
proved in seconds. “The future, I don’t
think it will be difficult,” he said before
continuing his journey toward Britain.
Cast as the dawn of a newly indepen-
dent “global Britain,” the UK’s exit from
the world’s biggest trading block means
the return of customs formalities on the
island nation’s frontier with Europe for the
first time in several decades.
Freight flows through the Eurotunnel’s
Calais terminal were extremely light in the
early hours of the new year.
British and European businesses have
warned of carnage at the border as they
learn to navigate a wall of red tape and
paperwork that threatens to disrupt the
smooth flow of nearly 1 trillion euros in
annual trade.
Yann Leriche, chief executive of Getlink,
which operates the Eurotunnel, told Re-
uters that tweaks to customs procedures
might be necessary but that there would
be no chaos in the weeks ahead.
By Richard Lough
From Reuters
BUSINESS & ECONOMY
BRYAN WOOLSTON/REUTERS
People line up outside a
Kentucky career center
hoping to find assistance
with their unemploy-
ment claim in Frankfort,
Ky., on June 18, 2020.
of people exhausting benefits rather than
finding new work.
The elevated level of claims aligns with
other recent weak economic reports, in-
cluding a decline in consumer confidence
to a four-month low in December and
drops in both consumer spending and in-
come last month.
With persistently high COVID-19 infec-
tion levels forcing renewed restrictions on
What People Are Saying
I read The Epoch Times daily.
I still like hard papers […] and
I still like to grab that paper in
my hand, but I get more printed
versions of stories than ever
before. You guys have done an
amazing job, and really—I think
there’s such a void in media,
especially newspapers. They
slant so solidly one way that
there are very few papers that
I can really feel that I can rely on,
and The Epoch Times is one.
SEAN HANNITY
Talk show host
The Epoch Times is a
great place where you can
understand traditional
values in a way and in a tone
and through content that is
accessible. It’s smart.
CARRIE SHEFFIELD
Columnist and broadcaster
Learn more at EpochSubscription.com
TRUTH AND TRADITION
| A17
businesses and consumer activity around
the country, some economists now see a
chance that overall U.S. employment has
fallen this month for the first time since
April, when 20.8 million people lost jobs
in a single month.
While payrolls have risen each month
since then, the total level of employment
remains roughly 10 million jobs below its
pre-pandemic level.
Aneta Markowska, chief financial econ-
omist at Jefferies, said the company’s in-
house economic activity index, which
tracks the recovery through high-frequen-
cy measures, has fallen to a three-week low,
led by weakness in measures of consumer
spending and employment.
“Taken at face value, our data suggest fur-
ther downside for retail sales and raise the
prospect of an outright contraction in De-
cember employment,” Markowska wrote.
“However, with more fiscal stimulus on the
way, we expect the negative momentum to
reverse in January.”
The Labor Department will issue Decem-
ber’s employment data on Jan. 8, 2021.
Pandemic Relief Tussle
The latest report’s end date—Dec. 26—was
when as many as 14 million people were
set to lose jobless benefits provided by a
$3 trillion pandemic relief bill enacted in
the spring. That was a cliff that lawmak-
ers had raced to avoid by passing a nearly
$900 billion supplemental package in the
days before Christmas, including $600 pay-
ments to most individuals and extensions
of unemployment benefits and eviction
moratoriums.
Trump, however, railed against the deal
negotiated by his own Treasury secretary,
demanding higher payments to individu-
als, and did not sign it into law until Jan. 3
after pressure from senior lawmakers in
his Republican Party.
It was unclear whether that lapse had a
material effect on last week’s data or what
effect it might have on the level of claims
in the current week and into the new year.
“The new stimulus package is a life pre-
server, but containing the virus is the only
way to completely end the economic cha-
os,” AnnElizabeth Konkel, economist at
Indeed Hiring Lab, said in a note. “Even
then, a full recovery will have to clear the
hurdle of mounting long-term joblessness.”
By Dan Burns
From Reuters
I congratulate you and
The Epoch Times for the work
you are doing, especially with
regard to keeping the menace of
the communist threat in front of us.
DR. SEBASTIAN GORKA
Military and intelligence analyst and
former deputy assistant to the president
I rely on The Epoch Times
newspaper for factual and
unbiased news coverage.
LARRY ELDER
Best-selling author, attorney,
and talk show host
It’s our favorite paper. It’s the first
one we read. Thank you so much
for your reporting of the news.
PAUL GOSAR
U.S. representative for Arizona
A18 | PUZZLES MONDAY, JANUARY 4, 2021

CROSSWORD CONSTRUCTED BY TOM HOUSTON

EPOCH TIMES STAFF 10. Musical offering 4NUMBERS CONSTRUCTED BY C. CHANG
AT 4NUMS.COM DAILY BRIDGE CLUB
11. Conceal Back to the future
Use the four numbers in the corners, and
12. Non-earthling the operands (+, - X, and ÷) to build an BY FRANK STEWART, TRIBUNE CONTENT AGENCY
13. Outside of town equation to get the solution in the middle.
©2020 Tribune Content Agency, LLC
There may be more than one “unique” so-
14. Estate extent lution but, there may also be “equivalent” Cy the Cynic defines the future as the time
15. Clad in a cape solutions. For example: 6 + (7 X 3) +1 = 28 when you’ll wish you had been more careful
and 1+ (7 X 3) + 6 = 28
20. Their assets and now. Cy should know: As declarer, he plays
without a care.
liabilities may be moles: At four hearts, Cy took the ace of spades
Abbr. and then the queen of trumps, expecting 10
27. Tavern offering easy tricks. When East threw a spade, the
Cynic led a diamond from dummy. East won
28. Basis for a WWII and led a spade, and Cy ruffed and took the
code A-K of trumps.
Cy then ducked another diamond, hoping
30. British big shot East had held A-J doubleton. But East’s
31. Account inspection queen won, and Cy lost a club and a trump.
33. “Evening out” me- TRICK TWO
mento After Trick Two, Cy had no future: He
34. Graphic ___ must lead a diamond, not a high trump.
East wins and leads a high spade, and Cy
37. “___ true!” Hard 1 - 2 Solution ruffs and takes a high trump. If East-West
38. Kind of deer followed, Cy would be safe.
When East discards, Cy ducks another
39. Window covering diamond. East wins and leads a spade,
40. “Down in front!” and the Cynic ruffs with the ten. West can
41. Cake topper overruff and lead a club, but Cy wins in his
hand, leads a trump to dummy and ruffs a
45. Tabby treat diamond to drop the ace. He draws trumps
47. “The ____” award- and pitches his club loser on the king of
diamonds.
winning magazine
48. “Them” DAILY QUESTION
You hold: k A 9 6 5 j Q 4
49. Poop i K 5 3 2 hA 7 3. Your partner opens
50. Cover an upper one diamond, you respond one spade and
surface Hard 2 - 2 Solution he bids two hearts. What do you say?
ANSWER: Partner has “reversed”
Across 42. Turned blue, maybe 79. Ring king 51. Yours and mine and promises a strong hand — in some
1. Collector of antiquities 43. Unduly 80. Harmless 52. Discouraging words styles, strong enough to force to game.
Since you have four useful honors, at
9. ___ Major (constella- 44. Shenanigan 84. Whip 56. Transparency least a small slam is certain. Jump to
tion) 45. U.S.S.R. successor 85. “My word!” 57. Music of Java and four diamonds to show good support and
13. Engine part 46. Rationalization 86. Leaf stems Bali slam interest. If partner bids four spades
next, you will cue-bid five clubs.
16. “Carmen” role 53. Asian tongue 87. “... came to pass at 58. Insurrections East dealer
17. Sense 54. 1960 Copland com- the ___ of forty days” 59. All Wellesley gradu- Both sides vulnerable
18. Andean stew veg- position (Genesis 8:6) ates NORTH
etable 55. Sonny & Cher, e.g. 88. Played for a sap 60. Part of Scand. kA 9 6 5
jQ 4
19. Pathogenic bacteria 56. Like centenarians 89. Buoyancy, on a global 61. Forest female iK 5 3 2
21. Coffee ___ 58. Tools used by snipers scale 66. Bye word hA 7 3
Easy 1 - 1 Solution
22. Comics cry and golfers 67. 1957 Treaty of Rome WEST EAST
23. Lesotho loot 62. Attention org. kQ 7 kK J 10 8 3 2
Down jJ 8 7 5 jNone
24. Indignation 63. Worldwide workers’ 1. Flummoxed 69. Ancient stone monu- i10 9 8 7 iA Q J
hQ 10 5 hJ 9 8 4
25. .com alternative grp. 2. Memory methods ment
26. Eastern economic 64. Miscellany 3. A short-billed rail 70. Havens SOUTH
k4
bloc 65. Parapet gunport 4. “Can I ___ you?” (in 71. Second part jA K 10 9 6 3 2
29. Before birth 68. Philippine moola 75. Brazilian people i6 4
Austin) hK 6 2
32. Tibetan monk 72. Address book no. 5. “I see!” 76. Some votes
35. Wild thing? 73. Faint 6. Tennyson work 77. “Pilot” starter East South West North
1k 2j Pass 2k
36. Addict’s “itch” 74. 10,900-foot Euro- 7. Aria, e.g. 81. Unmatched Pass 3j Pass 4j
All Pass
37. Beyond the point of pean peak 8. Fox or turkey follower 82. Family member
no return 78. Wan’s preceder 9. “The X-Files” whatsit 83. “___ so fast!” Easy 2 - 1 Solution Opening lead —kQ

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.

ACETATE CATNIP OASES

ACREAGE CRAKE PESOS
ADIEU FADER PETIOLES
ALIEN GAMELAN RECITAL
ALUMNAE ICING ROLLER BLIND
ANTENATAL INNOCUOUSNESS ROTES
ANTIC IRREVERSIBLE SECRETE
ARCHAIST ISOSTASY SISSY
ASEAN MANTLED STELA
AT SEA NAVAJO TOREADOR
AUDIT NONET

SOLUTIONS
CROSSWORD SUPER KAKURO 4NUMBERS

HARD 1

HARD 2

EASY 1

EASY 2
 MONDAY, JANUARY 4, 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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Easy
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OUR PUZZLE PAGE IN RESPONSE TO
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CRYPTIC QUOTE
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
18

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,
Get the free JUST JUMBLE app • Follow us on Twitter @PlayJumble

to form four ordinary words.

Easy
TEYNR
EPOCH ESCAPE MAZE
NUHOD

NRIHED

CGENAH
Now arrange the circled letters
©2020 Tribune Content Agency, LLC to form the surprise answer, as
All Rights Reserved. suggested by the above cartoon.

Print answer here:

WORK SPACE

SOLUTIONS
SUPERSUDOKU SUDOKU: EASY JUMBLE EASY KAKURO
HUGE HIT
which was a —
pinata for the party
They made a giant
Answers:

CHANGE
HINDER
HOUND
ENTRY
SUDOKU: HARD EPOCH DOKU
Jumbles:

CRYPTIC QUOTE
backward to their ancestors.
to posterity, who never look
People will not look forward

Contact the Puzzle Master @: Feedback@EpochTimes.com

A20 | MONDAY, JANUARY 4, 2021

TRUTH and TRADITION

In Our Own Words

An Editor’s Perspective Dear Epoch VIP,
For my whole life I’ve distrusted the media and always
felt something terribly wrong was happening behind
the scenes. I made it a point to ignore as much as I could
and rely on my intuition to figure things out. But I was
neglecting important knowledge and information about
the state of the world. It wasn’t until I started educating
myself on the nature and danger of communism that
Tom Lewis I really started putting the pieces together.
Editorr When I got the opportunity to work for The
Epoch Times, I knew right away the vast
p
potential of what I could achieve by
b
becoming part of the media.
As an editor, I am responsible
f maintaining a high quality of
for
reporting
r in line with the values
o The Epoch Times: Truth and
of
T
Tradition. These values are not
merely
m a branding slogan, but
f
fundamental principles that
d
define the reason why our
media was established and
m is protected in the First Amendment because of its
our goal. To uphold this goal,
o vital function of providing accurate information and
I take my work at The Epoch
TTimes seriously.
While at The Epoch Times,
II’ve been able to fulfill my
dream of helping to inform
and change the world for the
better. It’s very satisfying to
see the immediate impact and
results of our efforts and how
they help to build an informed
populace ready to navigate the
cultural and political pitfalls in
ttoday’s society.
That said, listening to the
ffeedback from our readers is
also an important part of my job. We appreciate those
who are watching out for us and letting us know when
we make mistakes. Creating an open forum with our
readers in the comments section has helped us better
understand what people care about and has provided
valuable insight and information. Aside from that,
I believe that providing a place for the people to speak
is crucial for a free society that is increasingly under
attack and being silenced.
I’m very grateful to see the support and encouragement
we get from those who truly value and understand
what we are doing. The letters of support we get from
our readers provide powerful boosts to morale and
are cherished by our staff. They are a heartwarming
source of inspiration that lets us know we are on
the right path. Reading how others have clarity on
the terrible dangers of communism gives me great
comfort in knowing we are not alone in our efforts to
protect freedom against tyranny. I am proud to stand
with each one of our allies in this fight.
It is my hope that our work at The Epoch Times can
help to restore the public’s trust in the media and
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holding those in power accountable. I believe that
faith in the Fourth Estate must be restored, or we will
lose an important aspect of what maintains social
order and stability.
As things seem to inch closer to the edge and
spiral out of control, I hope that The Epoch Times
can hold the line and provide the rational wisdom
we need to pull things
back from the brink. I’ll
certainly try my best.
In Truth and Tradition,
Tom Lewis
The Epoch Times

What Our I always go to The Epoch Times to gather facts to

Readers
Say (22) determine truth by the outstanding due diligence of
fine journalists. I encourage you, the people, to use your
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The Epoch Times has kept my faith
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Thanks to The Epoch Times and
all the hard work your staff does!!
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I can count on this paper to print the truth.
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The Epoch Times reports the truth
as to what is actually happening on
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If you are a reader of social media
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TRUTH AND TRADITION

 MONKEY BUSINESS IMAGES/SHUTTERSTOCK SFROLOV/SHUTTERSTOCK
LIFESTYLE AGING

The Best Way to Keep Up Hyperbaric Oxygen Treatment

Is to Slow Down Reverses Signs of Aging
Our hectic urban lifestyle is devouring our Hyperbaric chambers allow those inside to absorb
time and energy with little upside. oxygen directly into the plasma and tissue of the body.

See B4 See B6

MIND & BODY

WELL-BEING |DIET |FITNESS MONDAY, JANUARY 4, 2021 B1

WAVEBREAKMEDIA/SHUTTERSTOCK

There’s
no right way
to find or live
forgiveness; any
path to and version
of it will do.

MINDSET MATTERS

What
Forgiveness
Really Is
When ‘letting it go’
and ‘burying the
hatchet’ fail, what
works?

Forgiveness asks us
to stop looking at
the other person and
resolve ourselves to
the fact that the past
is the past.

W
NEW AFRICA/SHUTTERSTOCK

e often hear that for- exists and forever matters. Not forgiving
giveness is an act of Forgiveness is, in part, a will- is a way of validating and honoring our
kindness for ourselves, ingness to drop the narrative own hurt.
that if forgiveness ben- on a particular injustice and We especially believe this when the
efits the one we are for- stop telling ourselves over and one we believe hurt us won’t take re-
giving, that’s an added benefit. And yet over again the story of what sponsibility for their actions or claim
this other person did and how
one of the obstacles we face in forgiving we were injured. they did nothing wrong.
someone is that we do not wish them Not forgiving becomes a way of hold-
well and, in fact, we want them to suffer ing on to our rightness—remaining
because of what they did. justified in our version of the truth and
The idea that the other person could maintaining our sense of having been
feel better due to our forgiveness is chal- treated unjustly.
lenging and precisely what we want to Our lack of forgiveness, as we imagine
prevent. it, continues to prove the other person
We imagine that not forgiving them is wrong. This legitimizes our pain. In-
a form of punishment, a way of being in deed, it is the validity of our suffering
control of a situation that we didn’t feel that we are trying—often desperately—
we had control over.  At a primal level, to confirm and have confirmed.
we imagine that not forgiving is a form of
wound care, proof that our suffering still Continued on B3
B2
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TRUTH AND TRADITION
POSITIVE AGING
Cultivate
the Positive
An optimistic outlook does more than
lift the spirit, it helps heal the body
MARILYN MURRAY WILLISON
S
ixty-five years ago, Dr. Norman
Vincent Peale revolutionized
the publishing world with his
enormously popular book
“The Power of Positive Think-
ing.” Fifty-one years later, the equally
popular book and video “The Secret”
proposed the same argument: that fo-
cusing on the things that we want (i.e.,
being positive or optimistic) can pay big
dividends.
Some people have interpreted this at-
titude as meaning that tangible material
items (a bigger home, a new car, etc.)
will come their way if they just focus
on that object long enough and hard
enough. But new studies indicate that
the major benefit of thinking positively
has less to do with our assets than our
immune system.
Judith T. Moskowitz, a professor of
medical social sciences at Northwestern
University’s Feinberg School of Medi-
cine, is being hailed as the scientific pa-
tron saint of positivity. She has helped
train patients who are coping with a va-
riety of physical challenges to focus on a
set of eight skills to create and maintain
positive emotion. Years earlier, she and
her colleagues at the University of Cali-
fornia–San Francisco found that using
these skills helped newly diagnosed HIV
patients combat their infection more
effectively.
As most of us know, it’s no easy task
to remain calm, feel happy, and expe-
rience satisfaction while coping with
a health crisis. But Moskowitz and her
colleagues encouraged their patients
in both San Francisco and Chicago to
study and retain at least three of the fol-
lowing eight skills, and to practice one
or more of them every single day.
r
List a personal strength and how you
have used it.
r
Practice mindfulness. Focus on the
here and now.
r
Recognize and practice small acts of
kindness on a daily basis.
r
Start a daily gratitude journal.
r
Set an attainable goal and note your
progress.
r
Write down a minor stress in your life,
and list ways to think of it positively.
r
Recognize at least one positive epi-
sode or occurrence every day.
r
Savor that event. Then, either log it in
your private journal or tell someone
else about it.
Moskowitz was gratified to discover that
people with AIDS, Type 2 diabetes, and
other chronic illnesses seemed to live
longer if they demonstrated positive
emotions. Obviously, the next step was
to see whether others could be taught
skills that would trigger positive emo-
tions. According to Jane E. Brody of The
New York Times, Moskowitz is not the
only physician who believes that posi-
One of the best
ways to stay
positive is to
keep a gratitude
journal.
MONDAY, JANUARY 4, 2021
tivity has healing powers.
In Dallas, Dr. Wendy Schlessel Harpham
has written several books designed to help
people who are coping with cancer. Three
decades ago, she was a practicing internist
when diagnosed with non-Hodgkin lym-
phoma, a cancer of the immune system.
Over the next 15 years, she dealt with eight
relapses of her cancer, but she has now
been in remission for more than a decade.
Harpham makes sure to:
r
Do something good for someone else
every day.
r
Keep a daily gratitude journal.
r
Surround herself with supportive
people who lift her spirits.
r
Watch funny, inspiring, or elevating
movies.
A positive view of aging
can have a beneficial
impact on both health
outcomes and longevity.
In one of her books, “Happiness in a
Storm: Facing Illness and Embracing
Life as a Healthy Survivor,” she en-
courages people who are dealing with
cancer, diabetes, heart disease, or any
prolonged illness to do all they can to
overcome their disease and live life to
the fullest. Harpham opens our eyes
to the opportunities for happiness in
life despite medical problems, and even
because of illness.
Becca Levy and Avni Bavishi of the
Yale School of Public Health published a
study in the Journal of Gerontology that
demonstrated the benefits of an upbeat
outlook on life. They found that a posi-
tive view of aging can have a beneficial
impact on both health outcomes and
longevity. The bottom line is that being
positive tends to lower blood pressure,
reduce incidents of heart disease, con-
tribute to better weight control, and have
a positive effect on blood sugar levels.
Even if you tend to pessimistically see
the glass as half empty, I can’t help but
feel that these findings are really some-
thing to smile about.
Marilyn Murray Willison has had a
varied career as a six-time nonfic-
tion author, columnist, motivational
speaker, and journalist in both the UK
and the U.S. She is the author of The
Self-Empowered Woman blog and the
award-winning memoir “One Woman,
Four Decades, Eight Wishes.” She can
be reached at marilynwillison.com. To
find out more about Marilyn and read
her past columns, please visit the Cre-
ators Syndicate webpage at creators.
com. Copyright 2020 Creators.com
MIMAGEPHOTOGRAPHY/SHUTTERSTOCK
 MONDAY, JANUARY 4, 2021
MINDSET MATTERS
What Forgiveness Really Is
Continued from B1
We think that forgiving the other person
implies we are now OK with what they
did, or even that what they did is OK on a
grander scale. Our perception is that for-
giveness announces that what happened
is no longer relevant, significant, or alive.  order for us
It’s as if we’re allowing the past to be done,
and thus to move out of mind and heart,
which can feel intolerable.
Perhaps most troubling, however, is that
we believe forgiveness lets the other person
“off the hook.” We equate it with absolution—
excusing the other from blame, guilt, or re-
sponsibility for what they did. We imagine
it sets them free from the burden of suffering
that we believe they caused.
And so the question follows: What is for-
giveness, and what is it not?
Forgiveness is not saying ...
r
You were not hurt by what the other
person did.
r
Your pain is gone.
r
You are back to being the person you
were before it happened.
r
Life can now pick up where it left off
because you feel as if what happened
never happened.
r
You no longer believe the other per-
son is responsible for causing harm.
r
You excuse the other person’s be-
havior.
r
You no longer view what happened
as important.
r
You share the blame for what hap-
pened.
r
You can forget what happened.
The way many of us view forgiveness is
flawed. We say “forgive and forget,” but
when we forgive, we don’t forget.
Forgetting is not an inherent part of for-
giving, nor should it be. Neither is “burying
the hatchet.” When we bury the hatchet,
the hatchet is still there, just under a bunch
of denial. Buried or not, we still need to find
peace with what’s happened.
The same holds when we are flippant
about forgiveness, encouraging ourselves
and others to “just let it go.”  Forgiveness is
not a small affair that we can rationalize,
intellectualize, manipulate, or bully our-
selves into feeling.
Forgiveness is different for every human
being that lives it.
For some, it comes on suddenly, bless-
edly, without having to think about or try
to create it.  For others, it’s a more deliberate
process that requires effort and practice.
And for others, it’s a permanent destination
that, once discovered, never slips away.
But it can also be a feeling that ebbs and
flows. There’s no right way to find or live
forgiveness; any path to and version of it
will do. And yet, despite the fact that there
are infinite kinds of forgiveness, there are
aspects of forgiveness essential to its ba-
sic nature.
What Forgiveness Is
Forgiveness is, in part, a willingness to drop
the narrative on a particular injustice and
stop telling ourselves over and over again
the story of what this other person did and
PROSTOCK-STUDIO/SHUTTERSTOCK
Forgiveness
is an inside job.
how we were injured.
It’s a decision to let the past be, to leave
When we need it imperfect and not what we wish it had
someone else been. Forgiveness means that we stop
the “shoulda, coulda, woulda beens” and
to change in relinquish the idea that we can create a
better past.
Forgiveness also suggests an openness to
to be OK, we meeting the current moment with a fresh
approach. We are able to be with the other
are a pris- person without our feelings about the past
affecting the present. We can respond to
oner shackled what’s happening at the moment and not
to anger and react through the residue of anger and re-
sentment from the past.
resentment. When we forgive, we stop employing the
present moment to correct, vindicate, vali-
date, or punish the past. We may forever be
changed by the past, but are ready to find
what’s possible right now, with our eyes
open and our heart available.
Forgiveness requires us to choose to
guide our attention away from the other
person, away from what they did or didn’t
do, or needed to do.
It takes the focus off of them, off of wait-
ing for and wanting them to be different,
and moves it toward ourselves, our own
experience, and our heart.
Forgiveness means that
we lose interest in or
simply give up the fight
to have the other under-
stand what they’ve
done, or get that we
matter.
We stop trying to get compassion or ac-
knowledgment out of the other, stop try-
ing to get them to see and know our pain.
Forgiveness means that we lose interest
in or simply give up the fight to have the
other understand what they’ve done, or
get that we matter.
We stop struggling to get some-
thing back from the other and take on the
role of our own caring witness. We offer
ourselves the compassion that we’ve tried
so hard to get from the other.
True forgiveness means acknowledg-
ing that our suffering matters—to us, the
Nancy Colier is a psy- one who’s lived it—whether or not the other
chotherapist, interfaith person ever agrees.
minister, author, public We do all of this with or without the oth-
speaker, workshop lead- er’s awareness. Forgiveness is an inside job.
er, and author of several Forgiveness, ultimately, is about freedom.
books on mindfulness When we need someone else to change
and personal growth. in order for us to be OK, we are a prisoner
She is available for indi- shackled to anger and resentment.
vidual psychotherapy, We cling to the hope that we might get
mindfulness training, the empathy we crave, but with our at-
spiritual counseling, tention focused outward, we bleed out
public speaking, and our own power. We never use our capac-
workshops, and also ity for self-compassion. What we want
works with clients via from the one we can’t forgive is, most of-
Skype around the world. ten, love. Forgiveness is ultimately about
For more information, choosing to offer ourselves love—and
visit NancyColier.com with it, freedom.
B3
WISE HABITS
The Practice
of Year-End
Reflection
Deepen the lessons of
the previous year with a
dedicated review
STEPHEN ORSILLO/SHUTTERSTOCK
When I wrote up a journal entry on all of it, I
reflected on what this year has been like for me.
LEO BABAUTA
Every year, I like to close the year
by reflecting on my past. I find that
it deepens my learning, and it makes
me more appreciative of the power of
a year.
I spent about an hour writing a jour-
nal entry on the previous 12 months.
It was a great practice. To really reflect
on the year, I had to remember every-
thing about it. Here’s how I did it:
r
I went through my travel history in
my Tripit account, making a list of
all my trips. You might store your
trip information in email or some
other place, so you’ll probably want
to search for your travel-related
messages on there.
r
I looked through the files on my
computer that were created in the
last year. On a Mac, you go to the
“all my files” view and it’s sorted by
“date last opened.” This gives me
an idea of what I might have been
working on.
r
I reviewed my Amazon orders for
2020. It was interesting to see the
different books I’ve purchased and
the different interests (OK, obses-
sions) I’ve had over the year.
r
I skimmed my credit card state-
ments, looking for any interesting
purchases that stood out.
r
I looked over journal entries, Google
Docs, and notes (using Evernote
or Apple’s Notes program). This
showed me various notes or things
I’ve been working on.
All of this showed me what I’ve been
working on, what I’ve been obsessed
about, what I’ve been learning, what
I’ve read, where I’ve gone, and who I
spent time with. As I looked over all of
this, I took notes if something struck
me as noteworthy. You don’t have to
go through as much data, but it’s in-
teresting.
When I wrote up a journal entry
on all of it, I reflected on what this
year has been like for me. It helped
me deepen my learning that seemed
sporadic and unconnected until I
reflected back on all of it.
This practice helped me to see what
I’ve done over the last year, and it kind
of amazes me. I would never have
guessed that I’d have done all of that.
I didn’t plan it, it just ended up being
what I was moved to do.
I also was able to see how I’ve
changed over the last 12 months. In
small steps, I’ve become a different
person. The Leo from a year ago would
want to be friends with me, I think.
I highly recommend this year-end
practice, as a way to close out the year
and say goodbye to all that you’ve
been through.
Leo Babauta is the author of six books
and the writer of Zen Habits, a blog
with over 2 million subscribers. Visit
ZenHabits.org
B4 MONDAY, JANUARY 4, 2021

CASTOR CHOY/SHUTTERSTOCK

enriching life. Today’s crisis has served as

a catalyst for change.
And change is sorely needed. We have
all seen the statistics. Rates of depression,
suicide, and drug and alcohol abuse have
skyrocketed across many segments of the
population in recent years. Societal pres-
sure to keep up can exacerbate individual
mental health challenges.
Exhausted, pressured, restless, search-
ing—these are what we feel while running
in the rat race.

Rates of depression, suicide,

and drug and alcohol abuse
have skyrocketed.
How do I know? For years, I was sprinting
to keep up with the pack.
What changed? I finally identified what
mattered to me and embraced a more
minimalist lifestyle, which allowed me to
find the space and time necessary to strive
for things—and by “things” I mean experi-
ences, relationships, beliefs, and values—
that are necessary to cultivate a contented
and fulfilled life.

Live a Life That’s True to Yourself

Perhaps you’re feeling the weight, too. If

The Best Way to Keep

Few things will
improve your quality of
life as quickly as get-
so, of course you’re not alone. We all are
these days, to one extent or another. What’s
required to bring about positive change is
slowing down and taking stock. As yourself
the following questions.

Up Is to Slow Down
Our hectic urban lifestyle is devouring
our time and energy with little upside
JAY HARRINGTON
Henry was a bright student and attended
Harvard, where he studied Greek, Latin,
and German. After graduating, he wasn’t
sure what to do next. After a period of drift-
ing, he founded a school with his brother,
but the venture failed a few years later.
He subsequently met a mentor who intro-
duced him to Transcendentalism, an ide-
alistic philosophical and social movement.
Henry began to think deeply and write
about what it means to live a good life.
Still a young man, Henry decided to
Are you retreat from the city—its noise and
living to work, distractions—to live and work on
land owned by his mentor outside
or working of Concord, Massachusetts.
to live?
Henry, as you may have guessed,
is Henry David Thoreau. His men-
tor, Ralph Waldo Emerson. In his
masterwork, “Walden,” Thoreau describes
what led him to pursue a simpler existence:
“I went to the woods because I wished to
live deliberately, to front only the essential
facts of life, and see if I could not learn what
it had to teach, and not, when I came to die,
discover that I had not lived.”
For Thoreau, to “live” was to live on his
own terms, not based on the norms, dic-
ting out of the rat race Are you living to work, or working to live?
for more and bigger. Are you sacrificing your time, energy, and
relationships now, in hopes of some idyllic
retirement in the future that may never
materialize?
Are you surrounding yourself with people
who lift you up or drag you down?
Do you live in a place that makes you
happy?
Are you chasing short-term highs by ac-
B. D. MAXHAM -
NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY quiring more physical things, or are you
tates, and expectations of others. He wasn’t pursuing new and novel experiences that
interested in “keeping up with the Joneses” bring real happiness?
of his day. He wrote: Is it your own desires, or the expectations
“Why should we be in such desperate of others, that are keeping you from making
haste to succeed, and in such desperate big changes?
enterprises? If a man does not keep pace Transformation is not easy. I know this
with his companions, perhaps it is because from experience. But I can say with cer-
he hears a different drummer. Let him step tainty that there’s only one way off the he-
to the music which he hears, however mea- donic treadmill, and it’s by taking a leap of
sured or far away.” faith into a more minimalist, intentional,
and purpose-driven lifestyle.
March to the Beat of Your Own Drummer Once you regain your footing, and start
When we look back on this time, I believe following a beat that’s uniquely yours,
that one of the cultural shifts that’s iden- you’ll come to realize that everything you
tified as a silver lining of the COVID-19 were chasing was never going to make you
pandemic will be that large numbers of happy. You’ll see clearly, perhaps for the
people found a drummer that led them in first time, that passion for life comes from
a direction away from the unhealthy norms
Henry David Thoreau
its simplest pleasures.
on June 18, 1856.
of today’s society. Instead of striving to keep Slow down and determine what really
up, they decided to slow down, because matters to you. The only thing worth keep-
they, too, feared not living. ing up with is your own vision of a life
Shifts in mindset are leading to shifts in well lived.
location. There must be more to the great
exodus from big cities to small towns than Jay Harrington is an author, lawyer-
a desire for more physical space alone. Up- turned-entrepreneur, and runs a north-
rooting oneself and one’s family is no small ern Michigan-inspired lifestyle brand
endeavor. Like Thoreau, more people are called Life and Whim.  He lives with his
seeking to live deliberately, having realized wife and three young girls in a small town
that trying to “keep pace with compan- and writes about living a purposeful,
ions” is not the path to a rewarding and outdoor-oriented life.

Decluttering Tips From the Minimalist Home

Use these 7 strategies to create a home that pushes you forward instead of weighing you down
JOSHUA BECKER
Exactly two years ago, “The Minimalist
Home” was published.
Since then, the book has sold more than
100,000 copies, has appeared on every major
bestseller list, and has been translated into
nine different languages. I am so, so grateful
for the interest and support it has received.
To celebrate its two-year anniversary,
here are seven decluttering tips you can
find in the book:
Tip No. 1: Identify the purpose
of a room and get rid of anything
that doesn’t serve that purpose.  spaces and move on to harder ones.
The importance of determining a purpose
for the rooms in your home cannot be over-
stated. Once you are clear on what you want
each room to accomplish, it becomes easier
to decide what stays and what goes. For
example: If the purpose of your bedroom
is rest, does the television on the dresser
promote or detract from that goal?
Tip No. 2: Distinguish between
minimizing and organizing.
A minimized home is a home that is first of
all purposeful. A room can be tidy or orga-
nized and still have too much stuff inside
it. Organized clutter is still clutter and you
should never organize what you can discard.
Tip No. 3: Simplify walls.  stuff and need this process even more. Ev-
Walls can be overstuffed just like closets
and drawers. Often, they are full of out-
dated objects, dusty knickknacks, or wall
hangings purchased only because they
color coordinate with the couch. Simpli-
fied walls are curated spaces that display
images with meaning. They communicate
what matters most to you. Less is more
when it comes to decorations, too.
Tip No. 4: Start with the easier
The central process of “The Minimalist
Home” and the Clutterfree App is that de-
cluttering works best when you start with
the easier spaces and build up the skills and
confidence to tackle harder spaces later. So
take your focus off the garage and attic, and
move it to an easier place to start: the living
room and bedrooms. Easiest to hardest,
starting with the most lived-in areas first.
Tip No. 5: Choose one of three
options for every object: remove it,
relocate it, leave it.
As you declutter any area in your home, be
sure to physically touch every item. If your
first thought is, “I have too much stuff to
touch every item,” then you have too much
ery item you touch can be left, relocated, or
removed. Work as hard as you can to put
items in that third pile.
Simplified walls are
curated spaces that display
images with meaning.
They communicate what
matters most to you.
Less is more when it
comes to decorations, too.
Tip No. 6: Count the ‘clutter cost.’
It can be hard to get rid of things you spent a
lot of money on. But keeping things you no
longer wear, use, or love has a cost—every
object carries a burden as well as a benefit.
The burden of clutter is money, time, focus,
energy, and space. Keeping an item doesn’t
make it more useful and clinging to a past
mistake won’t change the fact that it was a
mistake. Count the full cost, consider the
benefit-to-burden ratio for everything you
intend to keep, and minimize as much as
you can.
Tip No. 7: Focus on the gains,
not the subtractions.
A minimalist mindset is all about how
owning less creates an opportunity to live
more. Minimalism isn’t about removing
things you love. It’s about removing the
things that distract you from the things
you love. It’s about living more by own-
ing less. So focus on the benefits and make
even more progress than you ever dreamed
possible.
If you want more help with your room-by-
room, step-by-step declutter process, get a
copy of “The Minimalist Home,” (you may
be able to find a copy at your local library).
It has helped people all over the world to
declutter their home and refocus their life.
Joshua Becker is an author, public speak-
er, and the founder and editor of Becom-
ing Minimalist where he inspires others to
live more by owning less. Visit Becoming-
Minimalist.com
 MONDAY, JANUARY 4, 2021
Arsenic is a naturally occuring mineral; pollution and industrial use has increased the amount
of arsenic in our food.
The Effects of Too
Much Arsenic in the Diet
Arsenic toxicity is linked to cancer and diabetes
and impairs immune function
MICHAEL GREGER
E
ven at low-level exposure, ar-
senic is not just a class I car-
cinogen, but may also impair
our immune function and in-
crease our risk of cardiovascu-
lar disease and diabetes.
When people hear about arsenic, they
think of it as an acute poison, and, indeed, a
tiny amount—a hundred milligrams, about
one-tenth the weight of a paperclip—could
kill you in an hour. But, there is also chron-
ic arsenic poisoning, where even a dose
10,000 times as small can be harmful if
you’re exposed day-after-day for years at a
time as I discuss in my video “The Effects
of Too Much Arsenic in the Diet.” Chief
among the concerns is cancer.
As a class I carcinogen, arsenic is classi-
fied at the highest level of things known to  If you’re pregnant,
cause cancer in humans. Other class I car-
cinogens are asbestos, cigarette smoke,
formaldehyde, plutonium, and processed
meat (the consumption of bacon, ham, hot
dogs, deli meat, and the like). So, arsenic is
pretty bad, to say the least, implicated in
tens of thousands—or even hundreds of
thousands—of cancer cases worldwide
every year.
Of course, cancer is our number-two
killer. What about heart disease, our lead-
ing cause of death? “Long-term exposure
to low to moderate arsenic levels was as-
sociated with cardiovascular disease in-
cidence and mortality,” meaning heart
attacks and strokes.
Arsenic is also considered an immu-
notoxicant, meaning it’s toxic to our im-
mune system. How do we know that?
There’s a virus called varicella, which
is what causes chickenpox the first time
we get it. Our immune system is able to
stamp it down but not stamp it out. The
virus retreats into our nerve cells where
it lies in wait for our immune function
to dip.
And, when it does, the virus re-emerg-
es and causes a disease called shingles.
We’ve all been exposed to the virus, but
only about one in three of us will get
shingles because our immune system is
able to keep it at bay. However, the virus
can slip its muzzle as we get older or im-
munosuppressed, for instance, if we’re
given arsenic chemotherapy.
Shingles is a common side effect, be-
cause the arsenic drugs not only kill the
cancer but also some of our immune cells,
too. That’s at high doses, though. Might
even low doses of arsenic, like the kind
we’re exposed to in our daily diet, im-
pact our immune function? Researchers
tested the levels of arsenic in the urine
of thousands of Americans, along with
their levels of anti-virus antibodies, and,
indeed, they found that the more arsenic
the subjects had flowing through their
bodies, the lower their defenses.
And, if you’re pregnant, arsenic can  ingested
pass to your baby, possibly increasing the
risk of miscarriage or infant mortality,
and “may affect an infant’s immune de-
ALL PHOTOS BY SHUTTERSTOCK
velopment and susceptibility to infections
early in life.” Indeed, a study out of New
arsenic can pass  Hampshire on infant infections in rela-
to your baby. tion to prenatal arsenic exposure found
that the more arsenic the mom was ex-
posed to during pregnancy, the higher
the baby’s risk of infection during infancy.
However, “it’s unknown whether arsenic-
induced epigenetic changes are trans-
generational”—that is, whether changes
in gene expression can impact the health
of not only your own children but your
grandchildren as well. Regardless, arse-
nic exposure isn’t good for mom’s health,
as it is associated with increased blood
pressure.
Hold on. If arsenic suppresses immune
system function, then, as a silver lining,
Arsenic is would we, for example, have fewer al-
considered lergies, which is a kind of over-reaction
of the immune system? Apparently not.
an immuno- Those with higher arsenic levels tend
to  have  higher  rates of food allergies,
toxicant, tend not to sleep as well, and tend not to
meaning it’s feel as well. When people were asked how
they would rate their health, those report-
toxic to our ing “excellent” or “very good” tended to
have lower levels of arsenic, compared to
immune those who reported their general health
system. condition as “good,” “fair,” or “poor,” who
tended to have higher arsenic levels.
What about diabetes? Studies support
an association between ingested arsenic
and diabetes. Population studies can’t
prove cause and effect, though.
We know arsenic is a carcinogen. We
know it causes cancer. What more do we
need to take steps to decrease our exposure?
Michael Greger, M.D., FACLM, is a
physician, New York Times bestselling
author, and internationally recognized
professional speaker on a number of
Studies important public health issues. He has
lectured at the Conference on World Af-
support an fairs, the National Institutes of Health,
and the International Bird Flu Summit,
association testified before Congress, appeared on
between “The Dr. Oz Show” and “The Colbert
Report,” and was invited as an expert
witness in defense of Oprah Winfrey at
arsenic and the infamous “meat defamation” trial.
This article was originally published
diabetes. on NutritionFacts.org.
B5
Diagnosed
With Diabetes?
Pay Attention
to Your Heart
Diabetes and prediabetes
come with an increased
risk of heart disease
MAT LECOMPTE
Type 2 diabetes raises your odds of devel-
oping heart disease, so it is imperative to
start paying attention to your heart health
immediately if you have a diabetes diagno-
sis. Even those who have prediabetes are
at risk and should be focusing on a healthy
cardiovascular lifestyle.
Prediabetes is a result of poor blood sugar
levels in the body. Unchecked, over time
it could become Type 2 diabetes. This el-
evated blood sugar, which is present in
both prediabetes and Type 2 diabetes, can
harm blood vessels and the nerves that
keep your heart and blood vessels func-
tioning properly. Over time, this can lead
to heart disease.
Patients with diabetes often have other
conditions that threaten the heart such as
high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and
obesity. These health problems, collectively
known as metabolic syndrome, can boost
the likelihood of blood clots as well as cause
damage to the arteries in the heart.
“Managing the risk of heart attack and
stroke is less about managing diabetes
than it is about reducing the risk factors
that go along with diabetes,” says Matthew
Freeby, an assistant clinical professor of
medicine and director of the Gonda Dia-
betes Center at the David Geffen School of
Medicine at UCLA.
One of the earliest, most serious, and
most common heart problems in those
with diabetes is heart failure. Diabetes has
been found to worsen heart failure while
heart failure can also complicate diabetes
treatment.
“We only have so many tools at hand for
lowering your blood sugars, and some of
these are medications that should not be
used if you have heart failure,” says Freeby.
Lifestyle Changes
By making some simple lifestyle changes,
the risk of heart disease can be reduced,
and overall health can be improved.
Weight reduction should be the first prior-
ity for those looking to reduce their risk. By
simply losing 5 to 10 pounds, you can have
a positive effect on your heart.
Eating right is also extremely important
for those with prediabetes and Type 2 di-
abetes. By understanding the foods that
are harmful and which can increase your
health, you can help to manage blood sugar
levels improving overall health. Cutting
sugar out of the diet is the first place to start
when looking at changing eating patterns.
Exercise is often overlooked for those with
diabetes, but it is one of the most important
aspects of healthy living. By finding an ac-
tivity that you enjoy, you will want to get
up and get moving every day. Don’t aim to
do too much too soon or you’ll risk injury.
Focus on simply getting started and slowly
increase intensity as you go. This can not
only make you feel great, but it will help
with weight loss, reduce stress levels, and
keep the heart healthy.
Mat Lecompte is a freelance health and
wellness journalist. This article was first
published on Bel Marra Health.
COEN VAN DE BROEK/UNSPLASH
Find exercise you enjoy doing so you will get
up and move.
B6
Hyperbaric oxygen sessions are used therapeutically for several conditions but research suggests they could be used far more widely.
Hyperbaric Oxygen Treatment
Reverses Signs of Aging
Hyperbaric chambers allow those inside to absorb oxygen directly
into the plasma and tissue of the body
JOSEPH MERCOLA
H
yperbaric oxygen treatment
may be a practical method
for slowing down the hands
of time, suggests research
from Tel Aviv University
and the Shamir Medical Center in Israel
published in the journal Aging.
At its foundation, aging represents a
progressive loss of physiological capacity
due to biological deterioration. This leads
to impaired functions and increased
vulnerability to diseases, including can-
cer, heart disease, diabetes, Alzheimer’s
disease, and others. Hyperbaric oxygen
treatment (HBOT), the Aging study sug-
gests, may target two key cellular hall-
marks of aging—shortening of telomeres
and cellular senescence.
Telomeres are repetitive nucleotide se-
quences at the end of each chromosome.
Sometimes compared to the plastic tip on
a shoelace, telomeres help protect DNA
by preserving chromosome stability and
preventing chromosomes from interact-
ing with neighboring chromosomes.
Cellular senescence is when your cells
don’t want to grow and divide anymore
because of DNA damage, like shortened
telomeres.
60 Hyperbaric Oxygen Sessions
Slow Down Aging
The research team has been exploring
the benefits high-pressure oxygen thera-
pies at different concentrations inside a
pressure chamber for years, with stud-
ies showing such treatments improved
stroke, brain injury, and lowered brain
function caused by aging.
The current study looked at hyperbaric
oxygen treatment on healthy adults aged
64 and over to determine its effects on the
normal aging process at a cellular level.
Thirty-five subjects were exposed to a se-
ries of 60 hyperbaric oxygen sessions over a
90-day period. Blood samples, which were
analyzed for immune cells, were collected
before, during, and after the treatments.
Two exciting results were found.
The first was that telomeres at the end
of chromosomes grew longer instead of
shorter, at a rate of 20 percent to 38 per-
cent depending on the type of cell.
The second was that the amount of se-
nescent cells decreased significantly, by 11
percent to 37 percent depending on cell type.
In a Tel Aviv University news release,
study author Dr. Shai Efrati of the universi-
ty’s Sackler School of Medicine, explained:
Evidence sug- “Today telomere shortening is consid-
ered the ‘Holy Grail’ of the biology of
gests telomere aging. Researchers around the world are
length may trying to develop pharmacological and
environmental interventions that enable
predict mor- telomere elongation. Our HBOT protocol
bidity and was able to achieve this, proving that the
aging process can in fact be reversed at
mortality. the basic cellular-molecular level.”
Telomeres and Cellular
Senescence: Keys to Aging?
Evidence suggests telomere length may
predict morbidity and mortality, with
shorter telomeres linked to an increased
risk of premature death, but the link is
controversial.
“This uncertainty is actually due to a
kaleidoscope of biological and technical
factors, including preanalytical issues
(e.g., sample matrix), poor standardiza-
tion of techniques used for their as-
sessment, and dependence of telomere
structure upon genetics, epigenetics,
environment and behavioral attitudes,
which may be present at a variable extent
in various physiological or pathological
conditions,” researchers wrote in the An-
nals of Translational Medicine in 2018.
Still, despite the controversy, telomere
shortening has been associated with a
Burns are one of the 23 percent higher risk of all-cause death,
common ailments more along with an increased risk of certain
effectively healed with cancers, including glioma, neuroblasto-
hyperbaric oxygen ma, ovarian, endometrial, lung, kidney,
treatment. bladder, skin, and testicular.
AFRICA STUDIO/SHUTTERTOCK
MONDAY, JANUARY 4, 2021
NAKLEYKA/SHUTTERTOCK
Dr. Amir Hadanny, chief medical re-
search officer of the Sagol Center for Hy-
perbaric Medicine and Research at the
Shamir Medical Center, an author of the
featured 2020 study, added that lifestyle
modifications and intense exercise have
previously been found to slow telomere
shortening, but HBOT appears to be
another viable option:
“In our study, only three months of
HBOT were able to elongate telomeres at
rates far beyond any currently available
interventions or lifestyle modifications.
With this pioneering study, we have
opened a door for further research on the
cellular impact of HBOT and its potential
for reversing the aging process.”
Cellular senescence is also known to
play a role in cellular aging, and the ac-
cumulation of senescent cells is believed
to be an integral part of the aging pro-
cess, even potentially acting as a causal
factor in age-related disease.
Research is underway to develop
therapeutic strategies to interfere with
cellular senescence, including eliminat-
ing senescent cells. HBOT has emerged
as one potential strategy.
Not Necessarily a
Clear-Cut Fountain of Youth
It’s important to take the study’s limi-
tations into account when evaluating
whether HBOT is truly a fountain of youth,
as the researchers imply. It was a small
study, which means the results should be
replicated in a larger sample of subjects.
Also, as mentioned, the use of telomere
length as a marker for aging is in itself
controversial. The study also measured
telomere length on immune cells called
T cells, which may fluctuate depending
on a number of environmental condi-
tions, such as exercise.
It’s a positive sign that HBOT also
decreased cellular senescence in T cells,
but as noted by Steve Hill, who serves
on the board of directors for LEAF, a
nonprofit promoting increased healthy
human lifespan:
“The problem with interpreting these
results as rejuvenation or age reversal is
that T cells are a poor choice of cell type
to use for this kind of thing due to their
highly dynamic nature. Unfortunately,
they are a popular cell type to use in
these sorts of studies, due to the ease of
collection from the bloodstream.
“These particular immune cells can
have large variance in their telomere
 MONDAY, JANUARY 4, 2021
length based on the demand for cellular
replication at that particular time.
“T cell populations replicate rapidly in
the face of pathogens, and with each rep-
lication, the telomeres shorten, meaning
that telomere lengths can vary in these
cell populations from day to day. Infec-
tion and other environmental factors
can play a key role in the status of T cell
telomeres, and this is why they are not
overly useful as aging biomarkers.”
This isn’t to say that HBOT isn’t useful,
as other experts agree HBOT can have
significant benefits for longevity. One of
the reasons I’m fascinated by HBOT, in
particular, is because of research dem-
onstrating its ability to improve mito-
chondrial function. However, it should
be viewed as one component of healthy
aging, not necessarily a magic bullet that
will stop it in its tracks.
How Does Hyperbaric
Oxygen Therapy Work?
HBOT has long been used as a treatment
for decompression sickness that can
occur among scuba divers. When you sit
in a hyperbaric oxygen therapy cham-
ber, you breathe air that has 2 to 3 times
greater air pressure than normal, which
allows your lungs to absorb more oxygen.
This, in turn, increases the amount of
oxygen in your blood, which is transport-
ed throughout your body, fighting patho-
genic bacteria and stimulating the release
of healing growth factors and stem cells.
Dr. Jason Sonners, a chiropractor who
has worked with HBOT for more than
12 years, explains that oxygen can be
viewed as a nutrient. Your body needs
it to carry out its regular functions and,
when tissue is injured, it needs even
more oxygen for healing.
Most healthy individuals have some-
where between 96 percent and 98 per-
cent oxygen in their hemoglobin, which
means your capacity to increase your
oxygen level is between 2 percent and 4
percent, were you to breathe medical-
grade oxygen, for instance. However,
you can increase your oxygen level far
beyond that if your body is under pres-
sure. According to Sonners:
“Two main laws govern how that works:
Boyle’s Law and Henry’s Law. Basically,
as you take a gas and exert pressure on it,
you make the size of that gas take up less
space. As a result of that pressure, you
can then dissolve that gas into a liquid.
“An easy example is a can of seltzer.
They’re using carbon dioxide and water.
But basically, you can pressurize that
can, so you can put carbon dioxide into
that can. As a result of that pressuriza-
tion, you can dissolve molecules of
carbon dioxide into the water.
“In the hyperbaric version of that, we’re
using oxygen, and the can is the chamber.
But as a result of dumping excess oxygen
inside that chamber, you can dissolve that
into the liquid of your body ... directly into
the tissue and the plasma of your blood.
“The oxygen in your blood is carried by
hemoglobin. The plasma that carries your
red blood cells that holds the hemoglobin
normally does not carry oxygen. We rely
wholly on red blood cell oxygen-carrying
capacity. But inside the chamber, you
could literally bypass the red blood cell
oxygen-carrying capacity altogether, and
you can absorb oxygen directly into the
plasma and tissue of the body.”
HBOT Fights Mitochondrial and
Oxidative Stresses, COVID-19
HBOT can be used to help speed healing
of any inflammatory condition, and it’s
known to facilitate wound healing and
cell survival.
A small study involving 10 healthy men
also revealed that a single 45-minute
HBOT session reduced levels of metabol-
ic stress-related biomarkers, including
attenuating mitochondrial and oxidative
stresses and relieving metabolic bur-
dens, which suggests it may be useful for
treating metabolic diseases.
The fact that HBOT protects against
SASHKIN/SHUTTERTOCK
mitochondrial dysfunction is a major
benefit, considering most chronic and
degenerative diseases involve mitochon-
drial dysfunction. Unfortunately, con-
ventional medicine still reserves HBOT
for a limited number of conditions, such
as certain brain injuries and serious
wounds, as well as the following:
r
Severe anemia
r
Brain abscess
r
Bubbles of air in your blood vessels
r
Burns
r
Carbon monoxide poisoning
Telomeres are r
Crushing injury
often com- r
Deafness, sudden
r
Decompression sickness
pared to the r
Gangrene
r
Infection of skin or bone that causes
plastic bind- tissue death
ings at the end r
Nonhealing wounds, such as diabetic
foot ulcer
of shoelaces r
Radiation injury
because they r
Skin graft at risk of tissue death
r
Traumatic brain injury
keep our chro- r
Vision loss, sudden
mosoms from
In the United States, there are only 14
‘fraying.’ conditions for which insurance will pay
for HBOT, whereas there are up to 100
approved indications for HBOT interna-
tionally, according to Sonners.
From my perspective, it’s medically rep-
rehensible and inexcusable for a doctor to
not treat patients with diabetic neuropa-
thy, infections in the distal extremities, or
peripheral vascular disease with HBOT,
as it will in most cases prevent the need
for amputation. Other conditions that
may benefit from HBOT include:
r
All autoimmune conditions
r
Neurological conditions, including
HBOT can be concussion, traumatic brain injury,
used to help dementia and post-stroke
r
Musculoskeletal injuries, including
speed healing broken bones, disk herniations, and
torn muscles and tendons
of any inflam- r
Any condition involving mitochondrial
matory con- dysfunction
r
Any condition involving damaged
dition, and microcirculation
r
Any condition that can benefit from
it’s known capillary growth
to facilitate r
Chronic infections
r
Subacute infections
wound healing
and cell sur- Researchers are also looking at HBOT in
cancer treatments in a number of differ-
vival. ent ways. For example, using HBOT may
allow you to use less radiation or chemo-
therapy and still get the same outcome.
Or, it may allow the patient to tolerate
higher amounts of radiation by speeding
the healing between sessions.
HBOT is also showing promise for
treating COVID-19 via a number of
beneficial effects, including reversing
hypoxia, reducing inflammation in the
lungs, increasing virucidal reactive oxy-
gen species, upregulating HIF-increasing
host defense peptides, and reducing pro-
inflammatory cytokines such as IL-6.
Typically, hospitals will only provide
HBOT if you have one of the 14 approved
indications. If you’re interested in HBOT
for other medical or longevity purposes,
you’ll need to look into the private sector for
treatment. The International Hyperbaric
Association (IHA) and Hyperbaric Medical
International (HMI) are two organizations
that may direct you to more local centers.
You can also learn more on HBOTusa.
com which is Sonner’s primary educa-
tion website where you can find a list of
treated conditions, research, the benefits
of HBOT in athletics, testimonials, and
much more.
Dr. Joseph Mercola is the founder of Mer-
cola.com. An osteopathic physician, best-
selling author, and recipient of multiple
awards in the field of natural health, his
A decompression primary vision is to change the modern
chamber commonly used health paradigm by providing people
for scuba divers is another with a valuable resource to help them take
way people get hyperbaric control of their health. This article was
oxygen treatment. originally published on Mercola.com
YIORGOS GR/SHUTTERTOCK
B7
SEBRA/SHUTTERSTOCK
Different locations and types of pain indicate
different ailments, from the aching pain of
arthritis to the throbbing of a headache or gout.
Describing
Pain so
Your Doctor
Pinpoint a
Diagnosis
How well you can talk to
your doctor about arthritis
pain will affect how
capably it can be treated
MAT LECOMPTE
Chronic pain caused by arthritis can be
debilitating for many people. Discussing
the pain with a doctor and putting symp-
toms into words can help you get better
treatment for the specific pain you may be
experiencing.
Many people find it hard to communicate
with their doctor about how much pain they
are feeling. Because of this, The Arthritis
Foundation created a guide with suggestions
for expressing pain and discomfort through
words. It includes questions such as “What
does the pain feel like?” or “How does the pain
affect your life?” and specific details to share.
The foundation suggests being as specific
as possible when describing what your pain
feels like. This can help doctors pinpoint the
exact problem. For example, if a dull or ach-
ing pain is expressed, they know it could be
due to muscle strains or arthritis. A descrip-
tion of shooting, tingling, or burning might
point to nerve pain as the cause. Stabbing
or sharp joint pain could suggest injuries to
a bone, muscle, or ligament, and throbbing
could be a headache, abscess, or gout.
They suggest rating your pain on a scale
from 1 to 10, with zero being pain-free and
10 being unimaginable. This can help a
physician to determine the dosage and
type of pain medication you may need.
“Some patients come in the door with an
eight on the pain scale, and they’re function-
al. Other patients walk in with a three and
they’re disabled,” said Dr. Thelma Wright,
medical director of the Pain Management
Center at the University of Maryland Reha-
bilitation and Orthopedics Institute.
Many people find it hard
to communicate with their
doctor about how much
pain they are feeling.
Keep a Pain Journal
By being more aware of your pain and
learning how to communicate your
symptoms, your physician will be better
equipped to offer tailored treatment to your
needs. Many specialists suggest keeping a
pain journal and tracking when the pain is
felt, and making notes if it is worse during
certain times of the day.
Keeping notes of treatments that you have
tried to ease pain can also be helpful for
your physician. In your journal, note any
pain management, including over-the-
counter pain medicine, heat or ice, or rest
that made a difference to your pain levels.
By keeping in contact with your doctors
regularly and taking control of your treat-
ments by tracking progress, you may be
able to find the exact treatment for your
chronic pain. Just be aware that it could
take a while to find relief, but communicat-
ing your pain will help get you closer to a
solution quicker.
Mat Lecompte is a freelance health and
wellness journalist. This article was first
published on Bel Marra Health.
B8 MONDAY, JANUARY 4, 2021

TRADITIONAL CHINESE MEDICINE

The Power of Small Changes

Winter is a time to take stock of our lives and consider making changes
AALTAIR/SHUTTERSTOCK

LYNN JAFFEE

I
am a gardening geek. I love to get
outside in the spring to see what
plants are peeking through the wet,
still-frozen ground. To me, there is
nothing better than seeing a new
flower on a carefully-tended plant or a
vegetable ripe for the picking in my com-
munity garden.
When I moved a few years ago, I
inherited a small shady garden under
a healthy looking pine tree. The garden
had been untended for several years,
and was an overgrown mess. At first, just
looking at the space felt overwhelming,
but my strategy to slowly pick away at
what I could do in small amounts of time
paid off. I began by clearing out an inva-
sive ground cover. Then I sprinkled the
garden with a few shade-loving hostas
and ferns. And finally, I had the pleasure
planting a few colorful specimens in the
front of the garden for show. It took me a
couple of years, but now when I look out
my back door, I see an inviting space that
has color and texture.
Why am I writing about gardening in
the heart of winter? Yes, the Chinese
believe that the winter solstice is the
seed of spring. But that’s not it. It’s
because the deepest part of win-
ter is by nature cool, dark, nour-
ishing, and inward-looking. Not
that it’s a time for navel-gazing,
but this time of year compels
us to take stock of our lives and
think about change. It’s the
stuff of New Year’s resolutions.
Unfortunately, most people who
vow to make changes at this time
of the year either don’t do so, or only
stick with their new regimen for a short
time. For proof, just look at the jam packed
parking lot at your local health club dur-
ing the first week of January. A month later
many of those cars will be gone, a sign of
frustration and abandoned New Year’s
resolutions.
If you are
wanting to be a
little healthier,
think about
taking baby
steps
The still of winter is a natural time for contemplation and taking stock of ourselves.
As with my garden, I suggest a differ- that yup, yes, yay! you can do this.
ent strategy for getting healthy. It’s a Supported by the surgeon general, the
plan of making small changes slowly. A American Heart Association, the Ameri-
ENK
O M A R Y N A /S H U T T E R S
T OC
lifestyle overhaul can feel overwhelm- can Cancer Society, and a whole host of
OM
KH K ing and be hard to maintain, but many other agencies, the small change strategy
small changes over time can yield big may very well offer the pathway to col-
results. And this is backed up by a lectively improving the health of people
large body of research, with some all over the world. If you are wanting to
studies suggesting that mak- be a little healthier, think about taking
ing small tweaks can actually baby steps–small changes, slowly, and
extend your life by years. one at a time.
A small change strategy gives
you a better chance of success
for a couple of reasons. First,
it’s realistic. You’re not trying
to overhaul your diet, exercise Even making one small
daily, do something for stress re-
lief, and quit smoking all at once.
change can have an
Second, even making one small impact.
change can have an impact. Research
has documented that even small modi-
fications in your diet have a very real Lynn Jaffee is a licensed acupunctur-
and positive effect on your health. And ist and the author of “Simple Steps: The
A “small change” strat- finally, by switching things up in a small Chinese Way to Better Health.” This article
egy gives you a better way and sticking with it, you gain a sense was originally published on Acupuncture-
chance of success. of self-efficacy, which is the knowledge TwinCities.com

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