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In the News
NEWS
New York Gov. Andrew
Cuomo has largely ended in-
door masking requirements
for people who have received
a COVID-19 vaccine . ... A3
Over 1,100 people in the
United States have been
hospitalized with COVID-19
after being fully vaccinated,
and more than 220 have died,
according to the Centers for
Disease Control and Preven-
tion. ... A4
U.S. gasoline prices have
stabilized, but stations across
the southeast remain without
fuel. ... A3
A COVID-19 vaccine pro-
duced in a partnership be-
tween Sanofi and GlaxoSmith-
Kline showed strong results
in a new trial, the companies
announced. ...A4
The Biden administration
has announced that Ameri-
can families will begin receiv-
ing monthly payments from
an expanded child tax credit
starting July 15. ... A4
Lou Barletta, ally of former
President Donald Trump, has
announced that he’s running
for governor of Pennsylvania.
... A5
Sen. Ron Johnson says that
the Green New Deal would
make the U.S. energy grid
more vulnerable to cyberat-
tacks. ... A7
The Israeli military has de-
stroyed a 9.3-mile “terror tun-
nel” network used by Hamas
forces as part of its effort to
reduce terror groups’ ability to
launch strikes against Israel.
... A10
The European Union and
the United States have de-
cided to temporarily suspend
measures at the heart of a
steel tariff dispute. ... A10
Groups alleging human
rights abuses against mi-
norities in China are calling
for a full-blown boycott of
the 2022 Winter Olympics
in Beijing. ... A11
Lawyers for Rudy Giuliani
have asked a federal judge to
block a review of data from
his phones. ... A6
A former Customs and
Border Protection officer
has pleaded guilty to illegally
bringing a Mexican woman into
the United States, the Justice
Department says. ...A7
A Texas cafe owner is ask-
ing a federal court to tempo-
rarily block the Small Busi-
ness Administration from
prioritizing its grants for cer-
tain business owners. ... A7
OPINION
Daniel Lacalle: The US Con-
sumer Is Not Happy...A14
Christopher Ferrara &
Charles LiMandri: Packing
the Supreme Court: An At-
tempt to Stamp Out Religious
Liberty?...A16
Theodore Dalrymple: Older
Art Focused on the Beautiful;
Modern Art Often Looks at the
Disturbing...A17
FEATURES
Marriage has always been
an important foundation of
traditional culture. In ancient
China, weddings were marked
by many rites. ...B1
Acting Appreciation 101: So
you think acting is easy. Here’s
what it actually takes. ...B7
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| T U E S D A Y, M A Y 18 , 2 0 21 Truth & Tradition VOL . X V I I I | NO. 2,963 $1.
ELIJAH NOUVELAGE/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES
ABORTION
Supreme Court
to Consider
15-week
Abortion Ban
Court will consider
whether all restrictions on
abortions prior to viability
are unconstitutional
By MATTHEW VADUM
The Supreme Court has decided to
hear a Mississippi case that could
allow states to ban abortions after
15 weeks of gestation.
The case will probably be heard
in the fall of this year. It comes as
Democrats and President Joe Biden
intensify their push to expand the
Supreme Court from its current
nine members, in part to protect
abortion rights.
ECONOMY Consumers pump gas at a Costco gas station in Atlanta on May 11, 2021. The abortion debate has
divided our country for
As Prices Rise, Fed Continues over 50 years, and many of
us believe the decision to
to Dismiss Inflation Worries review is long past due.
Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves
JIM WATSON/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES
US businesses are cant improvement in labor markets. Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves
From gas to groceries, Americans hailed the court’s decision, saying
raising prices for their have started to see price increases a review of the nation’s abortion
goods and services at a in recent weeks as the economy re- laws was “long past due.”
opens. Used car and truck prices, “The sanctity of life. The future of
rate not seen since the for example, surged 21 percent year- our children. Mississippi is at the
over-year, including a 10 percent forefront of protecting both. And
late 1970s, early 1980s
increase in April alone. that is what is at stake in the case
By EMEL AKAN Surveys also show that U.S. busi- we have been praying the U.S. Su-
W
nesses are raising prices for their preme Court would decide to hear,”
ASHINGTON–Al- goods and services at a rate not the Republican governor said on
though inflationary seen since the late 1970s and early social media.
pressures keep build- 1980s, when inflation was running It is the second abortion-related
ing in the U.S. economy, at double-digit rates. case the high court has decided to
economists believe Federal Reserve Thirty-six percent of small busi- A sign on a restaurant advertises that take up since Justice Amy Coney
officials are unlikely to tighten mon- ness owners reported that they raised the business is hiring, in Annapolis, Barrett’s arrival on the bench last
etary policy before seeing signifi- Continued on A3 Md., on May 12, 2021. Continued on A2
FRANCOIS PICARD/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES
NATION CHINA
Associate Chinese
of Rep. Gaetz Regulators on
Pleads Guilty Mission to Rule
in Federal Sex Over Technology
Trafficking Case Giants
By ZACHARY STIEBER By FAN YU
An associate of Rep. Matt Gaetz (R- Commentary
Fla.) pleaded guilty to child sex traf- Beijing has begun to rein in Chi-
ficking and other charges on May People drink and eat at Truck Yard beer garden in Houston on April 9, 2021. na’s technology companies, issu-
17, agreeing to cooperate fully with ing fines and instructing firms to
U.S. prosecutors in a larger-scale PANDEMIC change their corporate structure
investigation. due to anti-competitive behavior
Magistrate Judge Leslie Hoffman
accepted the guilty plea from Joel
Texas Records Zero COVID-19 and other transgressions.
But a common thread across
Greenberg, a former tax collector Deaths for 1st Time Since March 2020 recent regulatory actions against
for Seminole County in Florida, at the technology sector, regardless
federal court in Orlando. By ZACHARY STIEBER shows zero newly reported fatali- of the allegations on the surface,
The court “found the facts suffi- ties; the last reported deaths among is the Chinese Communist Party
cient to allow the defendant to plead The state of Texas recorded zero those with COVID-19 were on May (CCP)’s desire to control them
guilty” after Greenberg acknowl- deaths among people with COV- 12, when two people died. and their data.
edged that he signed an 86-page ID-19 on May 16 for the first time Texas also on May 16 saw the There’s been increased scrutiny
plea agreement and admitted to since March 2020, Gov. Greg Ab- fewest COVID-19 cases in over 13 over China’s technology industry.
the facts set forth in the document. bott said. months, the lowest seven-day CO- It materially kicked off last year
Greenberg, who was placed “Today Texas reported: 0 Covid VID-19 positive rate ever, and the with the halting of Ant Group’s IPO.
in the custody of U.S. Marshals related deaths—the only time that’s lowest number of people hospital- Then Beijing regulators announced
pending sentencing, was associ- happened since data was tracked in ized with COVID-19 in 11 months, guidance around regulating finan-
ated with Gaetz. In 2017, the con- March, 2020,” the Republican said Abbott said. cial tech companies, to prevent
gressman promoted Greenberg as on Twitter. According to state officials, 388 any from becoming too powerful
a potential congressional nominee. A dashboard run by the Texas De- cases were newly confirmed, with and to protect the interests and
Continued on A6 partment of State Health Services Continued on A5 Continued on A9
HONG KONG CCP VIRUS
CDC CHIEF: NO
‘Game Is Not Over’: Emily Lau Says of Hongkongers’ Fight for Democracy
FEDERAL MASK
By FRANK FANG & JAN JEKIELEK lifestyle and our freedoms to Washington-based nonprofit
MANDATES
but in a peaceful and non- Freedom House, Hong Kong saw
In Hong Kong, the struggle violent way,” Lau said in its score for civil liberties drop to
for democracy and free- a recent interview on The 37 this year from 45 in 2017. “We’re not
dom will continue despite Epoch Times’ “American The significant drop in the score counting on
the local government’s re- Thought Leaders” program. is in part due to a draconian na- vaccine
pression of opposition fig- Hong Kong, a former Brit- tional security law that the Chinese mandates
Emily Lau.
ures, activists, and press ish colony, has seen a dras- regime imposed on Hong Kong at all,” CDC
freedom, said Hong Kong’s tic deterioration of press last year. Since then, a local me- Director
“Iron Lady,” Emily Lau. and other freedoms as the dia newsroom was raided by the Dr. Rochelle
“I can tell you the game is Chinese Communist Party police, many activists and opposi- Walensky said.
not over. We will continue to (CCP) has tightened its grip tion figures have been detained and Read more on n A6
struggle to defend our free over the city. According Continued on A9
Accuracy The Epoch Times was founded in 2000 as an independent newspaper with the goal to restore accuracy and
integrity in media. We have received numerous awards for our reporting, including from the Society of Professional
& Integrity Journalists, the Society for News Design, and the New York Press Association.
A2 | NATION
The U.S. Supreme Court in Washington on May 4, 2020.
Supreme Court to Consider
Mississippi’s 15-Week Abortion Ban
CONTINUED FROM A1
fall gave the conservative bloc a
6–3 majority on the court, giving
pro-life activists hope.
The first was Cameron v. EMW
Women’s Surgical Center, as The
Epoch Times reported on March
29. The case revolves around Ken-
tucky’s 2018 ban on dilation and
evacuation (D&E) abortions on
unborn, living children.
Then-Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin,
a Republican, signed the law, the
Human Rights of Unborn Children
Act, which stopped D&E abortions
after 11 weeks of pregnancy and
was subsequently enjoined by
federal courts. After the succeed-
ing administration of Gov. Andy
Beshear, a Democrat, refused to
defend the statute in court, Ken-
tucky Attorney General Daniel
Cameron, a Republican, indicated
that he wanted to do so.
Supreme Court Issues Ruling on
Unanimous Jury Verdict Requirement
JACK PHILLIPS
The U.S. Supreme Court on May
17 reiterated that the Constitu-
tion requires unanimous jury
verdicts for state criminal trials,
but it doesn’t apply retroactively,
which denies relief to thousands
of inmates who were found guilty
via divided juries.
The court ruled 6–3 to reaffirm
last year’s decision that the Con-
stitution requires a unanimous
conviction. However, this time
around, the Supreme Court ar-
gued in its majority opinion that
it didn’t necessitate reopening
closed cases.
Justice Brett Kavanaugh pro-
vided the majority opinion and
was joined by Chief Justice John
Roberts and Justices Clarence
Thomas, Samuel Alito, Neil Gor-
such, and Amy Coney Barrett. The
three members of the liberal wing
of the court—Justices Stephen
Bill Gates Left Microsoft Board Before Conclusion of Probe Into Affair With Employee
SAMUEL ALLEGRI
Microsoft board members deter-
mined in 2020 that Bill Gates had
to step down from the company’s
board while they were investigat-
ing an alleged prior relationship
the billionaire had with a female
Microsoft employee that was
deemed inappropriate.
The Wall Street Journal re-
ported,  citing people familiar
with the subject, that the board
members hired a law firm in 2019
to investigate the relationship af-
ter an engineer at the company
claimed that she’d had a sexual
relationship over several years
with Gates.
The legal issue to be examined
isn’t the constitutionality of the
Kentucky statute as such, but
standing—that is, whether a state
attorney general vested with the
power to defend state law should
be permitted to intervene after
a federal court of appeals invali-
dates a state statute when no other
state actor will defend the law.
In theory, the Supreme Court
could overturn Roe v. Wade, the
1973 ruling that made abortion
lawful throughout the United
States, but narrowing its reach
seems more likely. The court could
also take aim at the Planned Par-
enthood v. Casey (1992) ruling,
which held that states can’t impose
significant restrictions on abortion
before a fetus becomes viable for
life outside the womb. The Casey
ruling didn’t specify when viabil-
ity occurs but suggested it was at
about the 24-week gestation mark.
Breyer, Elena Kagan, and Sonia
Sotomayor—dissented.
Kavanaugh w rote t hat
the  court’s “well-settled retro-
activity doctrine” led to the con-
clusion that the decision doesn’t
apply retroactively, and it “tracks
the Court’s many longstanding
precedents on retroactivity.”
It is assuring that the
Supreme Court up-
held the rule of law.
Jeff Landry, attorney general,
Louisiana
During arguments, several jus-
tices noted the very high bar that
past cases have set to making
similar new rules retroactive.
The decision came in the case of
Thedrick Edwards, an inmate in
“Microsoft received a concern
in the latter half of 2019 that Bill
Gates sought to initiate an inti-
mate relationship with a compa-
ny employee in the year 2000,” a
Microsoft spokesperson told The
Epoch Times in a statement. “A
committee of the Board reviewed
the concern, aided by an outside
law firm, to conduct a thorough
investigation. Throughout the in-
vestigation, Microsoft provided
extensive support to the employ-
ee who raised the concern.”
Gates resigned on March 13,
2020, before the investigation was
finalized, soon after his reelec-
tion for the board seat.
“There was an affair almost 20
SAUL LOEB/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES
The Supreme Court took its time
deciding whether to hear the ap-
peal of the case from Mississippi,
known as Dobbs v. Jackson Wom-
en’s Health Organization, court
file 19-1392, which was filed with
the court in April 2020.
The court indicated that it will
limit the scope of the appeal
and consider only Question 1 as
stated in the petition for certio-
rari, or review, that the state filed
with the court. That question is,
“whether all pre-viability prohi-
bitions on elective abortions are
unconstitutional.”
No justices stated in the un-
signed order that they disagreed
with the decision to hear the case.
Mississippi’s petition to the Su-
preme Court notes that the state
enacted H.B. 1510, the Gestational
Age Act in 2018, which “protects
the health of mothers, the dignity
of unborn children, and the integ-
Louisiana serving life in prison af-
ter he was convicted by a divided
jury on charges including aggra-
vated rape, two counts of aggra-
vated kidnapping, and five counts
of armed robbery stemming from
a crime spree in 2006.
The jury divided 10–2 on most of
the robbery charges and 11–1 on
the remaining charges. Edwards,
who had confessed to police, was
sentenced to life in prison without
the possibility of parole.
In the dissent, Kagan wrote that
the decision in 2020 “comes with
a promise, or at any rate should,”
adding: “If the right to a unani-
mous jury is so fundamental—if
a verdict rendered by a divided
jury is ‘no verdict at all’—then
Thedrick Edwards should not
spend his life behind bars over
two jurors’ opposition. I respect-
fully dissent.”
Only two states allowed nonu-
nanimous jury verdicts in crimi-
years ago which ended amica-
bly,” a spokeswoman for the bil-
lionaire told the WSJ, adding that
his “decision to transition off the
board was in no way related to
this matter. In fact, he had ex-
pressed an interest in spending
more time on his philanthropy
starting several years earlier.”
This comes after the billionaire
on May 3 said in a tweet that he
and his wife of 27 years, Melinda
Gates, are getting divorced.
“After a great deal of thought
and a lot of work on our relation-
ship, we have made the decision
to end our marriage,” a statement
from the two said. “Over the last
27 years, we have raised three
TUESDAY, MAY 18, 2021
rity of the medical profession and
society by allowing abortions after
15 weeks’ gestational age only in
medical emergencies or for severe
fetal abnormality.”
The petition states that surgical
abortion after 15 weeks “carries
inherent medical threats to the
mother.” The risk of the mother dy-
ing is 35 times more likely at 16 to
20 weeks than at 8 weeks, “and the
relative risk of mortality increases
by 38 percent for each additional
week at higher gestations.”
“It is undisputed in the medical
literature that a human fetus de-
velops neural circuitry capable of
detecting and responding to pain
by 10–12 weeks after the last men-
strual period,” it states.
“At 14–20 weeks, spinotha-
lamic circuitry develops that can
support a conscious awareness
of pain.”
During the time period cov-
ered by the law, “the human fe-
tus is likely capable of conscious
pain perception in a manner
that becomes increasingly com-
plex over time.”
“We know so much more about
the development of unborn chil-
dren today than 1993—much less
1972,” Reeves said in an apparent
reference to Roe v. Wade, after the
Supreme Court decided to hear
the Mississippi case.
“Honestly, the abortion debate
has divided our country for over
50 years, and many of us believe
the decision to review is long
past due.”
Mississippi argues that viability
is “not an appropriate standard for
assessing the constitutionality of
a law regulating abortion.” The
state says its ban is intended to
safeguard the health of the mother
and baby.
“America cannot be a humane,
civilized society if its courts pre-
clude lawmakers from imposing
reasonable limits on the taking of
innocent life,” Mississippi Attor-
ney General Lynn Fitch, a Repub-
lican, has argued.
The federal district court that
found against Mississippi excori-
ated state lawmakers for passing
the law at issue, H.B. 1510.
“The Mississippi Legislature’s
The justices of the Supreme Court pose for a group photo at the Supreme
Court in Washington on April 23, 2021.
nal trials: Oregon and Louisiana,
with Louisiana changing its law
in January 2019.
Louisiana Attorney General Jeff
Landry said the May 17 ruling was
necessary.
“Today, the Supreme Court reaf-
firmed long-final convictions in-
volving rape, murder, child moles-
tation, and other violent crimes,”
incredible children and built a
foundation that works all over the
world to enable all people to lead
healthy, productive lives.”
They didn’t provide any other
details about the split.
According to WSJ, the divorce
had been in the works for years,
partly driven by Melinda’s con-
cerns about her husband’s deal-
ings with convicted sex offender
Jeffrey Epstein, who died in a
New York federal jail cell in Au-
gust 2019 while awaiting trial on
federal charges related to sex traf-
ficking.
The Gateses started dating in
1987 after meeting at a trade show
in New York. They got married on
professed interest in ‘women’s
health’ is pure gaslighting,” the
district court stated in its ruling.
“No, legislation like H.B. 1510 is
closer to the old Mississippi—the
Mississippi bent on controlling
women and minorities. The Mis-
sissippi that, just a few decades
ago, barred women from serving
on juries ‘so they may continue
their service as mothers, wives,
and homemakers’”—a reference
to a Mississippi legal precedent
from 1966.
America cannot be
a humane, civilized
society if its courts
preclude lawmak-
ers from imposing
reasonable limits on
the taking of inno-
cent life.
Lynn Fitch, attorney general,
Mississippi
“The Mississippi that, in Fannie
Lou Hamer’s reporting, sterilized
six out of ten black women in Sun-
flower County at the local hospi-
tal—against their will. ... And the
Mississippi that, in the early 1980s,
was the last State to ratify the 19th
Amendment—the authority guar-
anteeing women the right to vote.”
The lawyer representing the clin-
ic said in court filings that there
was no reason for the Supreme
Court to consider the case.
“In an unbroken line of decisions
over the last fifty years, this Court
has held that the Constitution
guarantees each person the right
to decide whether to continue a
pre-viability pregnancy,” lawyer
Hillary Schneller wrote.
Mississippi’s argument was
“based on a misunderstanding
of the core principle of” prior Su-
preme Court rulings, she said.
“While the State has interests
throughout pregnancy, ‘before
viability, the State’s interests are
not strong enough to support a
prohibition of abortion,’” she said.
ERIN SCHAFF/POOL/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES
Landry, a Republican, said in a
statement. “At a time when crime
rates are through the sky and at-
tempts to erode law and order are
incessant, it is assuring that the
Supreme Court upheld the rule
of law.”
The Associated Press contributed
to this report.
New Year’s Day in 1994. Melinda
Gates briefly worked for Micro-
soft and was ultimately made
general manager of information
products before leaving the com-
pany in 1996.
The two started the Bill and Me-
linda Gates Foundation in 2000
and have donated tens of billions
of dollars to various causes.
According to Forbes maga-
zine, Bill Gates is the fourth-
richest person in the world. Me-
linda Gates was No. 5 on Forbes’
world’s most powerful women list
compiled in 2020.
Jack Phillips contributed
to this report.
 TUESDAY, MAY 18, 2021
As Prices Rise,
Fed Dismisses
Inflation Worries
CONTINUED FROM A1
average selling prices in April, up 10
percentage points over the March
reading, according to the National
Federation of Independent Busi-
ness. This was the highest level
since 1981, when it was 43 percent.
Price increases were most common
in wholesale and retail businesses,
according to the survey.
The Fed officials have repeatedly
said the price increases are “tran-
sitory,” with the expectation that
inflation will eventually moderate
back to the central bank’s 2 per-
cent target.
The upward pressure on prices
is “caused by this artificial shut-
down in the economy, which should
have never happened,” according
to Lance Roberts,  chief invest-
ment strategist at RIA Advisors. In
an interview with NTD Business,
Roberts said the government has
created this “pressure cooker” by
compressing economic activities
during the pandemic.
“Now they’re all about to get re-
leased at one time, and unfortu-
nately, this is going to really put the
Fed into a box,” he said.
While some price increases could
be transitory, he said, many Ameri-
cans, especially those living pay-
check to paycheck, would be hit by
inflation.
“They’re going to curtail spending
and that’s going to impact economic
growth,” Roberts said.
The consumer price index soared
last month above economists’ ex-
pectations and by the most in more
US Gasoline Prices Begin Stabilizing but Stations
Slow to Restock After Pipeline Back Online
ZACHARY STIEBER
Gasoline prices in the United
States stabilized over the week-
end, but stations across the south-
east remain without fuel, even
after Colonial Pipeline brought
its 5,500-mile fuel conduit back
online.
The average price per gallon in
the United States on May 17 was
$3.04, which was the same aver-
age as May 15.
Prices jumped in the wake of
Colonial taking its Texas-to-New
Jersey pipeline offline earlier this
month after being cyberattacked.
The national average increase
was eight cents per gallon, accord-
ing to the American Automobile
Association (AAA). The hardest-
hit states—such as Georgia, North
Carolina, and South Carolina—
saw prices jump by as much as 21
cents in just a few days.
“The Southeast will continue to
experience tight supply this week
as terminals and gas stations are
refueled,” Jeanette McGee, a AAA
spokesperson, said in a statement.
“Over the weekend, gas prices
started to stabilize, but are ex-
pected to fluctuate in the lead up
to Memorial Day weekend.”
The group projects that 34 mil-
lion Americans will take a trip 50
miles or more from their home
between May 27 and May 21, a 52
percent increase from the sum-
mer of 2020, but about a 10 percent
decrease from 2019.
The people who do venture out
will see prices that are as high as
they have been since 2014.
“This is going to be an expensive
summer for motorists. However,
we do not expect it to deter trav-
elers from hitting the road. AAA
finds that despite the higher pump
prices, Americans still take their
road trips but just may not travel
as far as originally planned, or go
to their planned destination and
spend a little less,” McGee said.
Gas in some states, primarily in
the Midwest, remains between
$2.72 per gallon and $2.85 per gal-
lon. Western drivers and those in
than a decade. The index jumped
by 4.2 percent for the 12 months
ending in April, compared to 2.6
percent in March. That was the
largest monthly gain since Sep-
tember 2008.
A 25.1 percent spike in energy
costs drove much of the increase,
with gasoline prices surging 49.6
percent and energy commodities
rising by 47.9 percent in April.
Meanwhile, car rental prices, air-
line fares, and hotel rates are also
surging as they continue to ben-
efit from economic reopening and
pent-up demand.
Worldwide commodity shortages
due to supply chain disruptions
have also led to higher prices for
many raw materials from lumber
and grains to iron ore and copper.
In a speech on May 12 at the
National Association of Business
Economics Symposium, Fed Vice
Chairman Richard Clarida repeat-
ed the Fed’s “transitory” rhetoric
about the inflation expectation.
“Over the next few months,
12-month measures of inflation
are expected to move above our
2 percent longer-run goal, largely
reflecting, I believe, transitory
factors such as a run of year-over-
year comparisons with depressed
service-sector prices recorded last
spring as well as the emergence of
some supply bottlenecks that may
limit how quickly production can
rebound in certain sectors,” he said.
Economists don’t expect Fed of-
ficials to change this rhetoric un-
less the increase in prices proves
sustainable.
Motorists fill up gas cans at a Shell station in Charlotte, N.C., on May 12, 2021.
A fuel holding tank at Colonial Pipeline’s Linden Junction Tank Farm in Wood-
bridge, N.J., on May 10, 2021.
Illinois, Hawaii, and Washington
are seeing prices as high as $4.13
per gallon.
Colonial resumed normal op-
erations on May 15, several days
after it initiated a restart of its
pipeline, which delivers 2.5 mil-
lion barrels of fuel per day to ma-
jor markets such as New York,
Texas, and Florida.
But 11,667 stations remained
unable to service customers as
of midday May 15, according to
GasBuddy. That included about
half of the 5,373 stations in North
Carolina, 45 percent of the 3,084
Shoppers walk on the street near Herald Square in New York on June 25, 2020.
“If sustained, we would expect the
rhetoric from the Fed around infla-
The Fed officials tion expectations to shift towards
have repeatedly cautious optimism going forward,”
said the price Deutsche Bank economists stated
in a report.
increases are “As of now, however, we do not
‘transitory,’ with expect the Fed to express much
concern about the recent rise in in-
the expectation flation expectations nor alter their
that inflation will messaging with respect to the near-
eventually mod- term policy trajectory.”
The Fed signaled that it would
erate back to the keep rates near zero through 2023
central bank’s 2 and ruled out any tapering of asset
percent target. purchases in the near term before
seeing significant improvement in
the labor market.
Since March last year, the central
bank has been pumping unprec-
edented amounts of money into
the system by buying large sums
of Treasury bonds and mortgage-
backed securities in the market.
Prominent economists have been
Cuomo Ends New
York’s Indoor
Mask Mandate for
LOGAN CYRUS/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES
Vaccinated People
ZACHARY STIEBER
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo
on May 17 largely ended indoor
masking requirements for people
who have been vaccinated against
COVID-19.
The state is authorizing business-
es to continue to require masks,
but in most settings, vaccinated
people won’t be required to don
the coverings.
However, unvaccinated persons
still must wear masks indoors,
and the New York Department of
Health is recommending masks
for everybody in “settings where
vaccination status of individuals
MICHAEL M. SANTIAGO/GETTY IMAGES
is unknown,” Cuomo’s office said.
If you are vaccinated,
you are safe.
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo
Cuomo, in a press conference,
cited how the Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention (CDC)
abruptly last week changed its
recommendations to state that
fully vaccinated people don’t need
to wear face coverings indoors in
many settings.
“By the CDC guidance, immu-
nocompromised people, unvac-
cinated people should continue to
wear a mask and social distance.
But if you are vaccinated, you are
stations in South Carolina, 40 safe—no masks, no social distanc-
percent of the 6,639 stations in ing,” he said.
Georgia, and roughly a quarter The Democrat initially resisted
of stations in Virginia, Maryland, altering his state’s guidance, say-
and Tennessee. ing officials needed to review the
Some 16,315 stations were with- CDC’s updates.
out fuel on May 13. Consistent with the CDC’s guid-
Gas demand is falling along with ance, New York will still require
the number of stations out of fuel, masks for every public transporta-
according to Patrick De Haan, an tion rider and all people who enter
analyst with GasBuddy. nursing homes, homeless shelters,
Prices are already falling in correctional facilities, schools, and
some areas and may trend lower health care buildings.
in the coming days but may start The state isn’t letting private busi-
going back up around Memorial nesses eliminate a requirement
Day, he said. of six feet of social distancing be-
NATION | A3
ANGELA WEISS/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES
raising concerns that the central
bank may end up waiting too long
before reacting to inflation.
The Fed officials should start to
voice more concern about the infla-
tion risk, according to Democratic
economist Larry Summers, who
served as Treasury secretary un-
der President Bill Clinton and as a
top economic adviser to President
Barack Obama.
“All the evidence is that inflation
is a terrible thing for the poor,”
Summers said during a webinar
hosted by the Council on Foreign
Relations.
“The Fed has traditionally acted
and spoken in ways that were de-
signed to preempt inflation fears.
Today, the Fed speaks in a way that’s
designed to preempt the idea that
the Fed might have inflation fears.”
Tom Ozimek contributed
to this report.
tween small groups or individuals
unless all patrons within the busi-
ness, or a separate designated part
of the establishment, present proof
of vaccination.
Patrons can use the state’s Excel-
sior Pass, a vaccine passport sys-
tem, use a different digital applica-
tion, or show a paper document.
New York has increasingly begun
treating the vaccinated and un-
vaccinated differently. Major sta-
diums, for instance, are requiring
unvaccinated fans to sit separately
from those who have gotten a CO-
VID-19 shot. And a reopening of
the Tribeca Festival will only allow
vaccinated attendees, the governor
announced on May 17.
“We do want to say directly: 100
percent [capacity] at Radio City
Music Hall. So if I’m not vaccinat-
ed, I can’t go,” he said. “If you’re
vaccinated, yes, you come to Ra-
dio City Music Hall. And if you’re
unvaccinated, that’s your choice.
But you can’t go into the Radio
City Music Hall with vaccinated
people.”
Cuomo had previously an-
nounced that many capacity re-
strictions would end in New York
and surrounding states.
Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-N.Y.), who is
challenging Cuomo in the 2022
gubernatorial election, said he
disagrees with Cuomo’s approach.
“Andrew Cuomo is wrong to be
pushing Vaccine Passports on
New Yorkers,” he said on Twitter.
“Privacy and freedom may not be
anywhere on his priority list, but
they are on mine, which is why
there would be no implementation
of Vaccine Passports in NY right
now if I was Governor.”
JEFFREY D. ALLRED/DESERET NEWS VIA AP
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo speaks
to the media at a news conference in
Manhattan on May 5, 2021.
A4 | NATION
223 People Have Died With COVID-19 After
Getting Fully Vaccinated: CDC
ZACHARY STIEBER
Over 1,100 people in the United
States have been hospitalized with
COVID-19 after being fully vacci-
nated against the virus that causes
it, and more than 220 have died,
according to new figures from a top
U.S. health agency.
The numbers could
also be undercount-
ed because ‘national
surveillance relies
on passive and vol-
untary reporting.’
The number of hospitalizations
among the fully vaccinated is up
to 1,136, and the number of deaths
among the same population is 223
as of May 10, according to the Cen-
ters for Disease Control and Pre-
vention (CDC).
The statistics published by the
CDC are an accumulation of re-
ports from 46 U.S. states and ter-
ritories. Which locations haven’t
shared breakthrough numbers
isn’t clear.
The numbers could also be un-
dercounted because “national sur-
veillance relies on passive and vol-
untary reporting, and data might
not be complete or representative,”
according to the CDC.
Breakthrough metrics refer to
cases, hospitalizations, or deaths
among people who have seen
two or more weeks elapse since
receiving the final dose of a CO-
VID-19 vaccine—the single-shot
Johnson & Johnson vaccine or the
second shot of either the Moderna
Monthly Child Tax Credit Payments to
Start for Most Families on July 15: Biden
JACK PHILLIPS
The Biden administration on May
17 announced that American fami-
lies will begin receiving monthly
payments from an expanded child
tax credit starting July 15.
President Joe Biden, in a state-
ment, said that about 90 percent of
families who have children will get
the tax relief automatically as part of
the American Rescue Plan, which
was passed by Congress and signed
into law by Biden earlier this year.
The president, meanwhile, said
Congress should pass the American
Families Plan, an infrastructure-
related proposal worth about $2
trillion, to provide “relief for years
to come.”
Republicans have balked at the
price tags of the American Families
Plan and the infrastructure mea-
sure known as the American Jobs
Plan, saying that both proposals
contain too many provisions that
aren’t related to traditional infra-
structure such as roads, bridges,
water pipes, and electrical lines.
Some critics have said the bills are
tantamount to stimulus packages
and would lead to a rise in inflation,
which would thereby raise the cost
of goods and services for all Ameri-
cans.
The American Families Plan
would extend most of the child tax
credit expansion until 2025, which
is backed by most Democrats in
Congress.
Republicans have also said that
infrastructure bills won’t be passed
with GOP support if they include
any changes to the 2017 tax cuts that
were passed by Congress in 2017
and signed into law by President
Donald Trump. They also said these
bills shouldn’t increase the corpo-
rate tax rate.
“Senate Republicans are not in-
terested in revisiting the 2017 tax
bill. I think the president and vice
president understand that,” McCo-
nnell told reporters last week after
meeting with Biden at the White
House.
A pharmacist with the Memorial Healthcare System receives a Pfizer-BioNtech COVID-19 vaccine in Miramar, Fla., on
Dec. 14, 2020.
or Pfizer vaccine.
Of the people who died after
being fully vaccinated, 42 were
asymptomatic or not related to
COVID-19, according to the CDC.
Additionally, 342 of the hospital-
izations were asymptomatic or not
related to COVID-19.
“Many, many hospitals are
screening people for COVID when
they come in, so not all of those 223
cases who had COVID actually died
of COVID. They may have had mild
disease, but died, for example, of
a heart attack,” CDC Director Dr.
Rochelle Walensky said on CNN’s
“State of the Union” on May 16.
Under the usual counting pro-
IRS headquarters in Washington on April 15, 2019.
Stimulus checks are prepared for printing at the Philadelphia Financial Cen-
ter, in this file photo.
The Biden-backed American
Rescue Plan, passed to deal with
the economic downturn amid the
CCP virus pandemic, increased
the maximum credit amount from
$2,000 to $3,600 for kids under the
age of 6. For children older than 6,
$3,000 will be doled out.
The law also made the tax credit
fully refundable, which would allow
low-income families to be eligible,
according to the Internal Revenue
Service (IRS).
“Advance payments of the 2021
gram, people who haven’t been
vaccinated but who die of heart at-
tacks or other causes while testing
positive for the CCP virus are typi-
cally listed as a COVID-19 death.
The death rate among the fully
vaccinated is “extraordinarily low”
when taking into consideration
the death rate of COVID-19 itself,
Walensky said.
Some 115 million people had
been fully vaccinated as of May 10.
The CDC had been sharing the
number of so-called breakthrough
COVID-19 cases, but is no longer.
The agency had said that 9,245
people as of April 16 tested positive
for the disease at least two weeks
ZACH GIBSON/GETTY IMAGES
JEFF FUSCO/GETTY IMAGES
Child Tax Credit will be made regu-
larly from July through December
to eligible taxpayers who have a
main home in the United States for
more than half the year. The total
of the advance payments will be
up to 50 percent of the Child Tax
Credit,” the IRS said last week in
a statement. “Advance payments
will be estimated from information
included in eligible taxpayers’ 2020
tax returns (or their 2019 returns if
the 2020 returns are not filed and
processed yet).”
TUESDAY, MAY 18, 2021
JOE RAEDLE/GETTY IMAGES
after getting their final shot. The
numbers were again from 46 U.S.
states and territories and said to be
a likely undercount.
COVID-19 is caused by the CCP
(Chinese Communist Party) virus.
Clinical trials showed the Pfizer
vaccine to be 95 percent effective in
preventing infection by the virus;
the Moderna shot to be 94 percent
effective; and the Johnson & John-
son shot to be 66.9 percent effective.
The Johnson & Johnson vaccine
was studied later than the others.
No other shots are currently
authorized for use in the United
States.
The CDC last week dramatically
Sanofi-GSK COVID-19 Vaccine Shows
Positive Results in New Trial
ZACHARY STIEBER
A COVID-19 vaccine produced in
a partnership between Sanofi and
GlaxoSmithKline showed strong
results in a new trial, the compa-
nies announced on May 17.
Interim results from a phase 2
trial showed the development of
antibodies against the CCP (Chi-
nese Communist Party) virus in
95 to 100 percent of volunteers,
who ranged in age from 18 to 95.
“With these favourable results,
we are set to progress to a global
Phase 3 efficacy study. We look
forward to generating additional
data and working with our part-
ners around the world to make
our vaccine available as quickly
as possible,” Thomas Triomphe,
executive vice president and
head of Sanofi Pasteur, said in
a statement.
“These positive data show the
potential of this protein-based
adjuvanted vaccine candidate in
the broader context of the pan-
demic, including the need to ad-
dress variants and to provide for
booster doses,” added Roger Con-
nor, president of GSK Vaccines.
The trial involved 722 volun-
teers in the United States and
Honduras, with roughly equal
numbers of adults in two age
groups: between 18 and 59, and
60 and older. Volunteers were giv-
en two injections 21 days apart,
with antigen dose levels ranging
from 5 to 15 micrograms.
U.S. government money helped
fund the study.
Full results will be published in
a peer-reviewed journal, the firms
stated.
The companies reformulated the
JOEL SAGET/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES
altered previous masking guid-
ance, saying fully vaccinated peo-
ple can go without masks in many
indoor settings.
“We now have science that has
really just evolved even in the last
two weeks that demonstrates that
these vaccines are safe, they are
effective, they are working in the
population, just as they did in the
clinical trials, that they are work-
ing against our variants that we
have here circulating in the United
States, and that, if you were to de-
velop an infection even if you got
vaccinated, you can’t transmit that
infection to other people,” Walen-
sky said on ABC’s “This Week.”
If people are vaccinated, “they’re
safe,” she said.
She also said health officials
are trying to figure out how a CO-
VID-19 outbreak occurred among
the New York Yankees, who were
mostly vaccinated.
“I would consider that, when you
look at the details that I’m aware
of, seven of those eight were com-
pletely asymptomatic. The eighth
was a mild case. They were detected
on routine testing that generally
doesn’t happen in many other pop-
ulations. This is the vaccine work-
ing,” she said. “This means that you
didn’t get infected—or you didn’t
get a severe infection. You didn’t
require hospitalization. You didn’t
require death [sic], and most likely
those people were not transmitting
to other people.”
A ninth team member has tested
positive, an official said on May 16.
“We’re just doing the best we can
with it,” manager Aaron Boone said.
“Fortunately, he’s another one that
feels good. So we’ll just continue to
try and be vigilant and handle it as
best we can.”
vaccine candidate last year after
interim results from a combined
phase 1/2 trial showed it trig-
gered an “insufficient response”
in older adults, one of the groups
most at risk from COVID-19 of se-
vere disease or death. They said at
the time they would start a phase
2 trial in February 2021.
These positive data
show the potential
of this protein-
based adjuvanted
vaccine candidate.
Roger Connor, president,
GlaxoSmithKline
The vaccine isn’t expected to be
ready until the fourth quarter.
The upcoming phase 3 trial will
enroll more than 35,000 adults
from a variety of countries. It will
be randomized and double-blind
and test against some CCP virus
variants.
Many COVID-19 vaccines au-
thorized in countries around the
world so far use messenger RNA
or a modified virus delivery sys-
tem. In contrast, the Sanofi-GSK
shot utilizes a copy of the CCP vi-
rus spike protein as the antigen,
which helps the body recognize
and fight off the virus if a person
becomes infected.
European Commission Presi-
dent Ursula von der Leyen told
reporters last month that protein-
based COVID-19 vaccines have
“quite a potential” and could be
added to the commission’s stock
of authorized jabs.
Fifteen COVID-19 vaccines have
received emergency authorization
or approval in at least one country,
according to the Regulatory Af-
fairs Professionals Society, with
another 57 in varying stages of
development. About a dozen are
in late-stage trials, including shots
from CureVac/GSK, the Center for
Genetic Engineering and Biotech-
nology, and Vaxxinity.
 TUESDAY, MAY 18, 2021 NATION | A5
MARK MAKELA/GETTY IMAGES

ago, it’s slipping away from us,” he said.

“Our way of life changed dramatically
during the pandemic,” Barletta added,
blaming the state’s Democratic governor
for a heavy-handed approach to COVID-19
restrictions that he said made things “so
much worse.”
“They had a disastrous response to the
pandemic. Wolf squeezed our small busi-
ness owners and put hardworking Pennsyl-
vanians on the unemployment line. These
politicians kept our kids out of school for
far too long. And who knows the long-term
damage of that?” Barletta said.
Falling COVID-19 infection and death
counts, along with updated public health
guidance from the Centers for Disease Con-
trol and Prevention, have fueled calls for
states to roll back restrictions.
Wolf recently defended his decision not to
lift all COVID-19 restrictions until Memo-
rial Day, May 31, after some Republicans
argued they should be lifted on May 28 to
boost Pennsylvania’s economy and help
the hospitality industry, which has been hit
especially hard by the pandemic.
“I’m not trying to play games. Maybe
we should have done it May 15. Maybe we
should wait until Sept. 1. I don’t know. What
is the right time? I’m trying to do the best
that I can,” Wolf said at a press conference
Then-Rep. Lou Barletta (R-Pa.) addresses supporters in Hazleton, Penn., on May 15, 2018. last week, according to local outlet News 8.
Barletta also accused Wolf and “his liberal
friends in DC” of trying to end the produc-

Republican Lou Barletta Launches tion of coal, oil, and natural gas, which Bar-
letta said would destroy thousands of jobs.
“We need to take back our natural re-

Bid for Pennsylvania Governorship
TOM OZIMEK
Lou Barletta, a Republican who was
endorsed by former President Donald
Trump for a U.S. Senate seat in 2018, has
announced that he’s running for governor
of Pennsylvania.
“I’m in! I’m running for Governor of the
Commonwealth of Pennsylvania,” Barletta,
65, said in a tweet on May 17. “We need bold
leadership to help get Pennsylvanians back
to work, our students back in the classroom,
and our businesses booming again!”
Barletta, who represented the state in
the U.S. House from 2011 to 2019, lost his
Senate bid to incumbent Sen. Bob Casey
(D-Pa.). Previously, he had served as mayor
of Hazelton, Pennsylvania.
Pennsylvania’s governor, Tom Wolf, a
Democrat, is barred from running for re-
election in 2022 due to term limits.
We need bold In a campaign launch video, Barletta
leadership to touted his record as a successful business-
help get Penn- man, vowed to boost the state’s economy,
oppose efforts to suppress fossil fuels,
sylvanians back fight illegal immigration, take measures
to work, our to shore up election integrity, and make
neighborhoods safer.
students back “We grew our company to the largest of
in the class- its kind in the Commonwealth,” he said, re-
room, and our ferring to the pavement marking company
that he founded in 1984.
businesses “We created good-paying jobs for hard-
booming again! working Pennsylvanians,” Barletta said,
highlighting his service as mayor and
Lou Barletta, gubernato-
member of the U.S. House.
rial candidate for Penn-
sylvania
“But the Pennsylvania we all grew up
with, the one we all knew just a few years
sources from the elites and turn on the
energy powerhouse that Pennsylvania can
be,” Barletta said.
Wolf’s administration in early May solidi-
fied its intention to begin imposing a price
on greenhouse gas emissions from power
plants, a move that could make Pennsyl-
vania the first major fossil fuel state to
adopt a carbon pricing policy. The regula-
tory scheme is a key part of Wolf’s climate
change agenda. Opponents say the move
would devastate coal and natural gas jobs
and hurt local businesses.
In his campaign video, Barletta also
vowed to oppose efforts to defund the
police or “put sanctuary cities in our
hometowns,” while promising to fight for
election integrity.
So far, Barletta’s only declared opponent
in the Republican primary is Joe Gale, a
Montgomery County commissioner.
State Attorney General Josh Shapiro
will be seeking the Democratic Party’s
nomination.

MONTINIQUE MONROE/GETTY IMAGES

Texas Records Zero COVID-19 Deaths for 1st

Time Since March 2020
CONTINUED FROM A1
another 208 cases probable, or
believed but not confirmed.
Texas has seen nearly 2.5 million
confirmed cases and approximate-
ly 422,000 probable cases since
March of 2020, with almost 50,000
people dying with COVID-19, the
disease caused by the CCP (Chi-
nese Communist Party) virus.
Some 2.7 million patients have
recovered from COVID-19, officials
estimate.
Deaths among those with the ill-
ness have dropped sharply in the
United States in recent months,
hitting a 10-month low of about
625 per day last week.
Cases and hospitalizations have
also fallen, while the number of
those vaccinated against the CCP
virus has continued rising.
Just under 123 million Americans
were fully vaccinated against the
virus as of May 17. Over half of the
population of Texas had received
at least one dose as of May 16.
Texas also saw the
fewest COVID-19
cases in over 13
months.
Abbott imposed harsh restric-
tions in the summer of 2020, such
as a statewide mask mandate,
but later rescinded the orders. He
drew criticism from some, includ-
ing President Joe Biden, for rolling
back the mask mandate and lifting
all capacity restrictions on busi-
nesses in March. Biden and one of
his top medical advisers, Dr. An-
thony Fauci, claimed the move was
ill-timed and could result in a spike
in infections and other metrics.
The latest statistics show that the
prediction didn’t materialize. A
new working paper indicates why.
Using anonymized smartphone
Pedestrians walk down South Congress Avenue in Austin, Texas, on March
data, they found “no evidence that
the Texas reopening led to sub- 3, 2021.
stantial changes in social mobility,
including foot traffic at a wide set of ing the five weeks following the nated people stop wearing masks
business establishments in Texas.” reopening.” in most settings. Unvaccinated
They also analyzed COVID-19 case The Centers for Disease Con- people, the health agency advised,
data and found “no evidence that trol and Prevention followed the should still don face coverings in
the Texas reopening affected the lead of Texas and other states last indoor settings and some outdoor
rate of new COVID-19 cases dur- week, recommending fully vacci- environments.

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A6 | NATION TUESDAY, MAY 18, 2021

Associate of Rep. Gaetz Pleads Guilty to Child Sex

Trafficking, Agrees to Cooperate With Feds
CONTINUED FROM A1
Greenberg, Gaetz said, had “been
a disruptor” at the Seminole
County Tax Collector’s Office.
Gaetz’s office didn’t respond to a
request for comment from The Ep-
och Times. The congressman has
said in response to news reports
about the federal probe that he has
done nothing wrong. A spokesman
told news outlets that Gaetz didn’t
seem to be named or referenced in
the plea agreement.
“Congressman Gaetz has nev-
er had sex with a minor and has
never paid for sex,” the spokes-
person said. “Mr. Greenberg was
first indicted for falsely accusing
someone else of sex with a minor.
That person was innocent. So is
Congressman Gaetz.”
Fritz Schiller, Greenberg’s attor-
ney, told reporters in April, after
suggesting his client would plead
guilty, that Gaetz “is not feeling
very comfortable today.”
“The emphasis in the last few
days is on the Matt Gaetz-Joel
Greenberg relationship, right?
Wouldn’t it be obvious to assume
that he would be concerned?”
Schiller said.
Greenberg pleaded guilty to six
out of the 33 counts filed against
him by prosecutors. According
to the lengthy plea agreement,
Greenberg used at least four ac-
counts—including a Venmo ac-
count—to pay for commercial
sex acts.
From December 2016 to Decem-
ber 2018, Greenberg conducted
more than 150 transactions total-
ing over $70,000. All of the transac-
tions involved Greenberg paying
women for sex.
Greenberg often portrayed the
spending from his Venmo as go-
ing toward everyday expenses,
such as “school” or “food.”
One of the girls whom Greenberg
Greenberg plead- paid was a minor under the age of
ed guilty to six out 18, according to the plea docu-
of the 33 counts ment. The minor, who was not
named, had an account on a web-
filed against him site representing her as an adult.
by prosecutors. Greenberg introduced the minor
He used at least to other adult men who engaged
in sex acts with her.
four accounts to Greenberg abused his office by
pay for commer- using a state database to look up
and investigate sexual partners,
cial sex acts. authorities said. On Sept. 4, 2017,
he looked up the minor because
he suspected she was underage.
When Greenberg learned last
year that he was charged with
OCTAVIO JONES/GETTY IMAGES
Attorney David
Webster (R)
looks on while
Fritz Scheller,
Joel Greenberg’s
attorney, speaks
to the press
after Greenberg,
a former tax
collector in
Seminole
County, pleaded
guilty to six
federal charges,
including a child
sex trafficking
charge, at
the United
States Federal
Courthouse in
Orlando on May
17, 2021.
crimes, he contacted the girl and guilty that he endured an eight-
asked her to lie. month long string of attacks on
Greenberg was initially indicted his character just one week af-
with stalking and illegally using ter he announced his run for tax
someone else’s identity as part of collector.
a scheme to smear a political op- The developments in the Green-
ponent, Brian Breute, last year. berg case, he said, have left him
Greenberg allegedly wrote letters heartened.
to Breute’s place of employment, “I have personally a renewed
a school, representing himself as hope and satisfaction with our
an anonymous concerned student federal system,” Breute said. “I’d
who knew of Breute engaging in like to say the same thing about
sexual misconduct with another our state system, frankly.”
student. The probe later widened Breute called on Gov. Ron De-
to include other allegations. Santis to initiate an investigation
Breute told reporters on May 17 into all state agencies that are re-
outside of the federal courthouse sponsible for overseeing the Semi-
where Greenberg later pleaded nole County Tax Collector’s Office.

CDC Chief: ‘We’re Not Counting
on Vaccine Mandates at All’
ISABEL VAN BRUGEN
Dr. Rochelle Walensky, the director
of the Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention (CDC), said May 16
that the federal government isn’t
“counting on vaccine mandates at
all” and that any such mandates
will be locally driven.
Her remarks come days after
the CDC updated its guidelines
to state that individuals who have
been fully vaccinated against CO-
VID-19, the disease caused by the
CCP (Chinese Communist Party)
virus, “can resume activities that
you did prior to the pandemic”
and no longer have to wear a mask
or socially distance in most indoor
and outdoor settings.
“We’re not counting on vaccine
mandates at all. It may very well
be that local businesses, local
jurisdictions will work toward
vaccine mandates. That is going
to be locally driven and not feder-
ally driven,” Walensky told NBC’s
“Meet the Press.”
“We were pretty clear when we
lifted it that the science right now
tells us that it is safe for vaccinated
people to take off their masks,”
Walensky told host Chuck Todd.
“We also said that this virus has
given us many curve balls over
the last 16 months. We’ve also said
that the more circulating virus
that we have, the more likely it is
that variants will emerge.”
KEVIN C. COX/GETTY IMAGES
The Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention in Atlanta on Oct. 5, 2014.
CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky speaks to the press at the Hynes Conven-
tion Center FEMA Mass Vaccination Site in Boston on March 30, 2021.
The CDC chief, in a separate in-
terview on “Fox News Sunday,”
noted that several colleges have
asked that students be vaccinated
before the fall semester. New York
Gov. Andrew Cuomo said May 17
that students attending public
universities in the state must be
fully vaccinated to return to in-
person classes.
On the topic of private firms
asking people to provide proof of
vaccination in the future, Walen-
sky said that she believes it’ll be
“industry-by-industry.”
“I can also see how difficult it
might be,” she added.
States including Wyoming,
Montana, Arizona, Texas, and
Florida have blocked the usage
of vaccine passports, while legis-
latures in Indiana and Iowa have
passed bills blocking them. Simi-
lar measures are being proposed
in Michigan, Tennessee, New Jer-
sey, and New Hampshire.
New York and some parts of
California, meanwhile, have
rolled out programs for digital
CCP virus and testing passports.
New York’s Excelsior Pass was
implemented several months
ERIN CLARK-POOL/GETTY IMAGES
ago for sporting events, Madison
Square Garden, the Times Union
Center, and the City University of
New York.
The American Civil Liberties
Union in late March voiced con-
cerns about such proposals, say-
ing that they would likely violate
Americans’ privacy—namely if
there is a centralized, digitized
system. The group noted that in-
dividuals who don’t have a smart-
phone with an app saying they
are vaccinated could be excluded
from certain services.
White House press secretary Jen
Psaki signaled last month that the
Biden administration won’t sup-
port or develop CCP virus vaccine
passports.
“The government is not now, nor
will we be supporting a system
that requires Americans to carry
a credential. There will be no fed-
eral vaccinations database and no
federal mandate requiring every-
one to obtain a single vaccination
credential,” Psaki said during a
White House press conference.
Jack Phillips contributed
to this report.
Giuliani Lawyers Ask Judge to Block
Review of Data From His Phones
JACK PHILLIPS
Lawyers for Rudy Giuliani have
asked a federal judge to review
the “constitutionality and legal-
ity” of the federal government’s
conduct in its investigation be-
fore the appointment of a special
master after several of Giuliani’s
devices were seized when his
apartment was searched by fed-
eral investigators.
“The validity of the 2019 covert
warrant, and the handling of the
information obtained by the pros-
ecutor are serious questions that
must be resolved before any fur-
ther damage is done,” Giuliani law-
yers Robert Costello and Arthur
Aidala wrote in a letter unsealed
on May 17 that was sent last week to
U.S. District Judge for the Southern
District of New York Paul Oetken.
The attorneys argued that the
“fruits of the 2019 search were
certainly used in some part to se-
cure the 2021 largely duplicative
search warrant and subsequent
seizures. It is for those reasons that
it is premature to consider a special
master before these critical issues
are resolved.”
The attorneys are calling on the
court to rule on their filing before
a special master is appointed to
review the contents seized during
the raid on Giuliani’s apartment.
Costello and Aidala said federal
investigators shouldn’t begin to ex-
amine electronic material seized
from Giuliani—a former attor-
ney of former President Donald
Trump—until they provide more
information about a “covert war-
rant” they executed in 2019 that
targeted Giuliani’s iCloud account.
According to the letter, the ma-
terial obtained via the iCloud ac-
count was used to obtain a warrant
for the April search of his apart-
ment. Federal investigators seized
several of Giuliani’s smartphones,
laptops, and other devices, Guil-
iani confirmed at the time.
I know the criminal
law, and I do not
violate it.
Rudy Giuliani,
former New York City mayor
Giuliani was serving as Trump’s
personal lawyer and was an attor-
ney to several other high-profile
individuals when the 2019 war-
rant was used, Costello wrote in
the letter.
“In addition, in the original war-
rant for the iCloud account, there is
a non-disclosure order based upon
an allegation made to the issuing
Court, that if Giuliani were in-
formed of the existence of the war-
rant, he might destroy evidence or
intimidate witnesses,” the former
mayor’s attorneys stated.
“Such an allegation, on its face,
strains credulity. It is not only
false, but extremely damaging to
Giuliani’s reputation. It is not sup-
ported by any credible facts and is
contradicted by Giuliani’s efforts
to provide information to the Gov-
ernment. We should be allowed
to question the Government as to
what basis it had, if any, to make
that assertion.”
Giuliani had denied any wrong-
doing during an interview with
Fox News in early May, saying the
warrant appeared to be based on
the suspicion that Giuliani violated
the Foreign Agents Registration
Act by allegedly lobbying on be-
half of Ukrainian officials. The law
requires people to notify the U.S.
Department of State if they are act-
ing as a foreign agent.
“I know the criminal law and
I do not violate it,” Giuliani said,
adding at the time that he believed
the April raid of his apartment was
politically motivated.
The Department of Justice didn’t
respond to requests for comment
from The Epoch Times.
 TUESDAY, MAY 18, 2021
Sen. Ron Johnson Says Green
New Deal Would Make US Grid More
Vulnerable to Cyberattacks
TOM OZIMEK
Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) says
the Colonial Pipeline cyberat-
tack and ensuing shutdown
have exposed “existential” vul-
nerabilities in the United States’
fuel and electrical grid.
The senator called vulnera-
bilities “a devil of a problem” for
which there’s no easy fix, while
arguing that the Democrats’
Green New Deal would make
the problem worse.
Colonial Pipeline, which deliv-
ers approximately 45 percent of
the fuel consumed on the East
Coast, halted operations last
week after revealing it had been
targeted by hackers. The shut-
down affected gasoline supplies,
with some people waiting for
hours at gas stations—a situation
made worse by panic buying.
Colonial Pipeline announced
on May 15 that it has returned its
systems to “normal operations.”
Johnson was asked by John
Catsimatidis, host of the radio
program “The Cat’s Roundtable”
about the possibility of future
attacks on the nation’s critical
infrastructure systems in a May
16 interview.
We need to recog-
nize that, harden
our grid under that
reality, and [not]
make ourselves
more vulnerable
with the Green
New Deal.
Sen. Ron Johnson
“Cybersecurity is a devil of
a problem,” Johnson replied.
“There are no easy solutions.”
The Wisconsin Republican
said part of the solution is hold-
ing cyberattackers accountable.
The United States should
“make them pay for these types
of intrusions,” Johnson said,
though he acknowledged that
identifying the hackers behind
such attacks is difficult.
The FBI and administration of-
ficials have blamed a criminal
syndicate named DarkSide for
the Colonial Pipeline attack.
President Joe Biden said at a
May 13 press briefing that while
the administration does not be-
lieve the Russian government
was involved in the intrusion,
“we do have strong reason to
Former CBP Agent Admits to
Bringing Mexican National
Into US Illegally: DOJ
JANITA KAN
A former Customs and Border
Protection (CBP) officer has
pleaded guilty to illegally bring-
ing a Mexican woman into the
United States, according to the
Justice Department.
Rhonda Lee Walker, 40, of
Laredo, Texas, admitted to fed-
eral prosecutors that she helped
the illegal immigrant enter the
country so that she could work
for Walker as a housekeeper
and nanny.
The department said in a state-
ment that on Jan. 2 that Walker
used a colleague’s computer
login to help the woman, who
has no legal status to reside or
work in the United States, pass
through the Laredo Port of Entry
in Texas by scanning her immi-
gration documents before en-
try. When questioned by author-
ities, Walker falsely stated that
A fuel holding tank at Colonial Pipeline’s Dorsey Junction Station in Washington on May 13, 2021.
believe that criminals who did
the attack are living in Russia.”
“We have been in direct
communication with Mos-
cow about the imperative for
responsible countries to take
decisive action against these
ransomware networks,” Biden
said, adding that the adminis-
tration would “pursue a mea-
sure to disrupt their ability to
operate” and the Department
of Justice (DOJ) had launched a
new task force for prosecuting
ransomware hackers.
Johnson said a key lesson from
the Colonial attack is “how in-
credibly vulnerable our fuel grid
is, our electrical grid is.”
“We are very vulnerable,”
Johnson said, and called for
more investment to shore up
grid resiliency. “We’re spend-
ing all these trillions of dollars
in infrastructure, let us spend
a couple of billion and pre-
purchase backup, large power
transformers in case there’s an
EMP or a GMD issue with our
electrical grid.”
Johnson has long advocated for
enhanced measures to protect
the electric grid from threats of
electromagnetic pulse (EMP)
disruptions, nuclear weapons,
and geomagnetic disturbances
(GMD) such as solar storms.
“We are a fossil fuel-based
economy and will be a fossil fu-
el-based economy for decades,”
Johnson said in the interview.
“We need to recognize that,
harden our grid under that re-
the woman, identified as Yadira
Yesenia Trevino-SanMiguel, was
her biological aunt and denied
implementing the scheme to
help her enter the country.
According to the criminal
complaint, Walker, who initially
denied paying Trevino, admit-
ted that she had paid Trevino for
child care and housekeeping du-
ties and that Trevino would stay
at her residence for several days
to take care of her children.
As a part of the plea deal, the
charges of illegally transport-
ing the woman into the United
States and lying to investigators
will be dismissed, according to
The Associated Press. Walker
faces 10 years in prison and a
possible $250,000 maximum
fine; her sentencing is sched-
uled for Aug. 9.
The CBP didn’t immediately
respond to a request by The Ep-
och Times for comment.
ality, and don’t make ourselves
more vulnerable with the Green
New Deal.”
Progressive Democrats, led by
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
(D-N.Y.) and Sen. Ed Markey
(D-Mass.),  reintroduced their
signature blueprint to address
climate change, the Green New
Deal, in late April—this time in
the form of a Senate resolution.
Republicans have denounced
it as a “socialist super-package.”
Johnson said Biden’s plan to
adopt proposals in the Green
New Deal could make the coun-
try’s power grid more vulnerable.
“With everybody hooking up
their solar panels and hooking
into the grid so they can get a few
shekels for the electricity they’re
selling into the grid, we become
more and more vulnerable,” he
said, arguing that it will create
“more points of contact that cy-
berattackers can exploit.”
“We really need to change the
direction we’re headed in here.
No administration has paid suf-
ficient attention to the vulner-
abilities of our electrical grid.
“This could be existential.”
Republicans have repeatedly
opposed the Green New Deal,
dismissing it as a costly and ex-
treme proposal that would cost
jobs and reduce American en-
ergy independence.
“True to its name, the Green
New Deal is the most amateurish
resolution in recent memory,”
Environment Subcommittee
ranking Republican Rep. Ralph
Border Patrol agents arrest seven illegal immigrants who tried to evade
capture near Penitas, Texas, on March 15. 2021.
In the 2019 fiscal year, 223
CBP employees were arrested
for violating state or federal
laws. Among those arrested,
drug- and alcohol-related of-
fenses make up about half of
the arrests, while about 20 per-
cent were related to domestic or
family offenses. There were 10
arrests made in relation to cor-
ruption. CBP had about 61,000
employees in 2019.
“The number of employees
DREW ANGERER/GETTY IMAGES
Norman (R-S.C.) said in a state-
ment following the deal’s rein-
troduction.
“This legislation would change
every aspect of American life:
what we eat, how we travel, how
we stay warm, and even what
jobs we can take. This is no way
to govern. Simply put, the Green
New Deal is an attempt to dis-
guise socialism in the name of
environmental protections.”
Markey stated at a press event
in Washington on April 20
that “the Green New Deal isn’t
just a resolution, it is a revolu-
tion,” adding that the proposal
“provides the framework we
need to confront the intersect-
ing crises our country faces—
climate change, a public health
pandemic, racial injustice, and
economic inequality.”
“We can transform our econ-
omy and our democracy for all
Americans by addressing the
generational challenge of cli-
mate change,” he said.
Ocasio-Cortez, who joined
Markey at the reboot, reinforced
the plan’s sweeping and revolu-
tionary zest.
“We’re going to transition to a
100 percent carbon-free econ-
omy that is more unionized,
more just, more dignified, and
guarantees more health care
and housing than we ever have
before,” Ocasio-Cortez said. “Do
we intend on sending a message
to the Biden administration that
we need to go bigger and bolder?
The answer is absolutely yes.”
CHARLOTTE CUTHBERTSON/THE EPOCH TIMES
arrested continues to be a con-
cern,” the CBP stated in its report.
“CBP is addressing employee
arrests through its ongoing ef-
forts promoting education and
resilience services to employ-
ees and their families, reduc-
ing the use of administrative
leave or indefinite suspension
when employees are subject to
a criminal proceeding, and by
ensuring appropriate discipline
is applied.”
NATION | A7
Cafe Owner Seeks to
Temporarily Block
Biden Admin From
Prioritizing Certain
Groups for Grants
JANITA KAN
A Texas cafe owner is asking a fed-
eral court to temporarily block the
Small Business Administration (SBA)
from prioritizing its grants for certain
business owners.
Philip Greer, the owner of Greer’s
Ranch Cafe, has filed a temporary
restraining order seeking to imme-
diately stop the SBA from prioritiz-
ing women, veterans, and socially
and economically disadvantaged
business owners for its $28.6 bil-
lion Restaurant Revitalization Fund.
Greer argued in a motion, filed by
America First Legal (AFL), the SBA
has already received 147,000 appli-
cations from women, veterans, and
socially and economically disad-
vantaged business owners who re-
quested a total of $29 billion in relief
funds. This means the funds will be
depleted before other groups can be
considered for relief.
“Mr. Greer and his restaurant
respectfully seek a temporary re-
straining order to bring an immedi-
ate halt to these unconstitutional
race and sex preferences,” the AFL
attorneys wrote.
According to SBA regulations, so-
cially disadvantaged individuals are
those “who have been subjected to
racial or ethnic prejudice or cul-
tural bias within American society
because of their identities as mem-
bers of groups and without regard to
their individual qualities. The social
disadvantage must stem from cir-
cumstances beyond their control.”
Meanwhile,  economically dis-
advantaged individuals are those
whose “ability to compete in the
free enterprise system has been
impaired due to diminished capi-
tal and credit opportunities as
compared to others in the same or
similar line of business who are not
socially disadvantaged.”
Greer, who is represented by
America First Legal and the Texas
Public Policy Foundation, argued
that such a policy actively excludes
entire classes of Americans not
mentioned in the “priority” group
who are also suffering significant
financial losses caused by the pan-
demic. He claimed that the SBA
is in fact prioritizing women and
racial minority groups through its
regulations.
Greer argued that
such a policy active-
ly excludes entire
classes of Ameri-
cans not mentioned
in the ‘priority’
group who are also
suffering due to the
pandemic.
“The Small Business Administra-
tion lurches America dangerously
backward, reversing the clock on
American progress, and violating our
most sacred and revered principles
by actively and invidiously discrim-
inating against American citizens
solely based upon their race and sex.
This is illegal, it is unconstitutional, it
is wrong, and it must stop,” the law-
suit states.
The lawsuit, which was filed last
week, calls on the court to block
the enforcement of any policy that
would discriminate against certain
classes of Americans, arguing that
this would be necessary to “pro-
mote equal rights under the law for
all American citizens and promote
efforts to stop racial discrimination.”
In a statement, AFL President Ste-
phen Miller argued that the decision
on which an individual receives relief
shouldn’t be decided on race, as it
compounds “injustice for all.”
“This egregious violation of civil
rights must be stopped. The pan-
demic, and the closures that fol-
lowed, caused extraordinary harms
to bar and restaurant owners of all
backgrounds,” Miller said.
The SBA previously told The Epoch
Times that the agency doesn’t com-
ment on pending litigation.
A8 | NATION
Sen. Rubio: Some
Lawmakers Are ‘Very
Interested’ in UFO
Sightings, Should Be
Taken Seriously
JACK PHILLIPS
Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) says that
members of Congress and other officials
need to seriously investigate UFOs and
the potential threat they pose.
Speaking to CBS News’ “60 Minutes,”
the Florida Republican described a
“stigma on Capitol Hill,” in which some
lawmakers “are very interested in this
topic,” but some “kind of giggle when
you bring it up.” However, he cautioned,
“I don’t think we can allow the stigma
to keep us from having an answer to a
very fundamental question.”
The senator said he wants the Pentagon
to come up with a process to take UFOs,
or unidentified flying objects, seriously.
“I want us to have a process to analyze
the data every time it comes in,” Rubio
said. “That there be a place where this
is cataloged and constantly analyzed,
until we get some answers. Maybe it has
a very simple answer. Maybe it doesn’t.”
The U.S. government is reportedly
planning to release a report regarding
UFO sightings to Congress next month.
The CBS News program also inter-
viewed former Navy Lt. Ryan Graves,
who claimed he witnessed “unidenti-
fied aerial phenomena” over restricted
areas “every day” for several years.
Graves added that he’s worried they
could pose a security threat.
“If these were tactical jets from an-
other country that were hanging out
up there, it would be a massive issue,”
Graves said. “But because it looks slight-
ly different, we’re not willing to actually
look at the problem in the face.
“We’re happy to just ignore the fact
that these are out there, watching us
every day.”
Although the thought of UFOs con-
jures up images of aliens or saucer-
shaped spacecraft, Graves suggested
that these objects could be technology
developed by Russia or the Chinese re-
gime.
Another former official, Luis Elizon-
do, who previously headed the Penta-
gon’s Advanced Aerospace Threat Iden-
tification Program, told “60 Minutes”
that there were often “simple explana-
tions” for UFO sightings. However, he
noted, others weren’t so simple, also
questioning whether China was in-
volved.
“Is it some sort of new type of cruise
missile technology that China has de-
veloped? Is it some sort of high-altitude
balloon that’s conducting reconnais-
sance?” Elizondo asked. “Ultimately,
when you have exhausted all those
what-ifs and you’re still left with the fact
that this is in our airspace and it’s real,
that’s when it becomes compelling, and
that’s when it becomes problematic.”
The comments come as the Pentagon
confirmed that recent images of uniden-
tified aerial phenomena (UAP), which is
the term the Pentagon uses for UFOs,
were taken by U.S. Navy personnel.
“I can confirm that the video was
taken by Navy personnel, and that the
UAPTF included it in their ongoing ex-
aminations,” Pentagon spokeswoman
Susan Gough told the Daily Caller on
May 14 about footage that appeared to
show an object appearing to defy the
laws of physics.
Parler Returns to Apple’s App Store
After Months-Long Ban
TOM OZIMEK
Social media platform Parler has announced
that its app has returned to Apple’s App Store
following months of “productive dialogue”
between the companies.
“Millions of Parler and Apple customers
may once again exercise their right to freely
exchange ideas and opinions on social me-
dia, without viewpoint discrimination,” Par-
ler said in a May 17 statement.
“The dialogue was complemented by a
backdrop of important revelations about
Parler’s cooperation with law enforcement
in the weeks leading up to January 6, as well
as the prevalence of violent and inciting con-
tent on competing social media networks
during that period,” Parler said, adding
that these “revelations” show that Parler was
“unjustly scapegoated and deplatformed
shortly after January 6,” the day of the U.S.
Capitol breach.
Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) speaks to the press at the U.S. Capitol in Washington on May 12, 2021.
Cheney Says Replacing Her With
Stefanik Is ‘Dangerous’
ZACHARY STIEBER
Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) and her recent re-
placement as the No. 3 Republican in the U.S.
House made their cases for their brands of
conservatism during interviews broadcast
on May 17.
Cheney claimed the move by House Re-
publicans to vote her out and install Rep.
Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) as House GOP Confer-
ence chair is “dangerous.”
We are focused on mov-
ing forward but also the
stakes are so high.
Rep. Elise Stefanik
“I think that we have to recognize how
quickly things can unravel. We have to rec-
ognize what it means for the nation to have a
former president who has not conceded and
who continues to suggest that our electoral
system cannot function, cannot do the will
of the people,” she said.
Cheney was ousted on May 12 because
of her increasingly critical comments about
former President Donald Trump and the
Republican Party’s messaging; House Re-
publicans said she was distracting from their
effort to flip the House and the Senate in
2022. Among other things, Cheney has said
the party needs to move away from Trump
following his claims about the 2020 elec-
tion, while calling the former commander-
in-chief “dangerous” and “anti-democratic.”
Two days later, the caucus voted in Ste-
fanik, who served on Trump’s impeachment
defense team.
Stefanik thanked Trump in her remarks
after being voted a part of the House GOP
leadership team, calling him “a critical part
of our Republican team.”
OLIVIER DOULIERY/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES
Version 2.39 of Parler’s iOS app, which
features “enhanced threat and incitement
reporting tools,” was available for download
on Apple’s App Store.
“Adhering to Apple’s requirements, Parler’s
iOS app excludes some content that Parler
otherwise allows,” the company said. “How-
ever, that content is still visible, at the user’s
discretion, on the web-based and Android
Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) arrives at the U.S. Capitol Visitors Center in Washington on May
14, 2021.
In new interviews, Cheney denounced
Stefanik as “wrong” and accused her of be-
ing complicit with Trump’s election claims.
Stefanik responded by saying Cheney is
“looking backward” while “Republicans
are looking forward.”
“We are unified and we are talking about
conservative principles. President Trump
is an important voice in the Republican
Party. We are working as one team and vot-
ers across America, certainly voters in my
district in upstate New York, we believe that
President Trump’s results, whether it was
the economic growth, whether it was the
historic accords in the Middle East, whether
it was being tough on China, or the bipar-
tisan coronavirus relief packages—these
were significant results that helped everyday
Americans,” Stefanik said.
“We are focused on moving forward but
also the stakes are so high. Look at how
versions of the platform.”
Parler added that it plans to continue its
discussions with Apple about “the optimal
way to handle this content.”
Apple and Google removed Parler from
its app stores, while Amazon removed the
platform from its web hosting service fol-
lowing the Jan. 6 Capitol breach. All three
companies took issue with the company’s
alleged lax approach to removing violent
content posted by its users and “repeated
violations” of their terms of service related
to such violent content.
Parler denied the allegations and ar-
gued that the Big Tech companies had
colluded against it while not taking any
action against competitors such as Twitter
and Facebook, which had similar content
on their platforms regarding the Capitol
breach.
In late March, Parler revealed that it had re-
ferred “violent content and incitement” from
its platform to the FBI over 50 times before
Jan. 6. It also warned the bureau about “spe-
cific threats of violence being planned” about
the Jan. 6 incident.
Parler has sued Amazon for breach of
TUESDAY, MAY 18, 2021
MANDEL NGAN/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES
CHIP SOMODEVILLA/GETTY IMAGES
radical Joe Biden and Nancy Pelosi’s poli-
cies have been. Joe Biden promised bipar-
tisanship, we have yet to see any bipartisan
legislation coming out of the Oval Office or
the House. So I’m proud to represent the vast
majority of Republicans. And that’s why we
needed to make a change of House Confer-
ence chair.”
Moving forward, Stefanik’s support of
Trump suggests she would back him if he
chooses to run in 2024. Cheney, on the other
hand, said she will do everything she can
to make sure he’s not the GOP nominee for
the third time.
“I will not support him and will do every-
thing I can to make sure that doesn’t hap-
pen,” she said.
Cheney was speaking on ABC’s “This
Week” and “Fox News Sunday,” while Ste-
fanik spoke on Fox Business’s “Sunday
Morning Futures.”
contract, defamation, and anticompetitive
behavior.
Google, in an April 20 statement to The
Associated Press, said that “Parler is wel-
come back in the Play store once it submits
an app that complies with our policies,”
although that hasn’t yet happened.
Adhering to Apple’s
requirements, Parler’s
iOS app excludes some
content that Parler
otherwise allows.
Parler
Parler’s interim CEO Mark Meckler said in
a statement on May 17 that “the entire Par-
ler team has worked hard to address Apple’s
concerns without compromising our core
mission,” calling the reinstatement “a win-
win for Parler, its users, and free speech.”
Janita Kan contributed to this report.
 TUESDAY, MAY 18, 2021 CHINA | A9
ANTHONY WALLACE/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES

plans to go anywhere.”
Many Hongkongers who share Lau’s con-
cern have fled to other cities and regions, in-
cluding Taiwan and the UK. Among promi-
nent figures who have left the city are activist
Nathan Law and former lawmaker Ted Hui.

Press Freedom
Lau also described a current reality in Hong
Kong—people are now less willing to speak
to the media, either foreign or local. She said:
“We cannot blame people. We have to un-
derstand the pressure they are under.”
She also quoted a previous remark by Keith
Richburg—president of the Foreign Corre-
spondents’ Club in Hong Kong and director
of Hong Kong University’s Journalism and
Media Studies Centre—describing the de-
clining press freedom in the city as “death
by 1,000 cuts.”
Richburg made the remark during an on-
line program hosted by Lau that was aired
by local online television OurTV earlier this
month. He was describing a series of recent
incidents that have brought down the city’s
press freedom.
One of the incidents mentioned by Rich-
burg involved Bao Choy, a freelancer pro-
ducer with local public broadcaster Radio
Television Hong Kong, who was found guilty
and fined in April for making false state-
Secondary school students raise their phone torches as they sing ‘Do You Hear the People Sing’ from ‘Les Miserables’ while attending a rally at Edin- ments to obtain vehicle records, which were
burgh Place in Hong Kong on Aug. 22, 2019. used in her documentary examining a mob
attack on commuters at a Hong Kong metro

‘Game Is Not Over’: Emily Lau Says

station on July 21, 2019.
However, Lau said she isn’t afraid to speak
to the media, while being fully aware that

of Hongkongers’ Fight for Democracy

CONTINUED FROM A1
charged, a “patriotic” oath law was imple-
mented, and the city’s electoral system
was overhauled to cut down the number
of seats in the city’s Legislative Council to
be directly elected by the public.
“Things are terrible and very difficult [in
Hong Kong],” Lau said. “More people could
get arrested in the coming days, weeks, and
months. And people have warned me many
times that I could be a target.”
Lau, 69, is currently a prominent pro-de-
mocracy figure in the city. She was previ-
ously a longtime lawmaker, from 1991 to
1997 and 1998 to 2016, as well as being the
chairperson of the city’s opposition Demo-
cratic Party from 2012 to 2016.
She was a vocal supporter of the city’s on-
going anti-CCP, pro-democracy movement,
which started in June 2019 when millions
took to the streets in protest against a now-
scrapped anti-extradition bill.
In November 2019, she and another local
the Hong Kong authorities might use what
she says against her.
“I just feel that I just would not allow my-
self to be intimidated into silence,” Lau said.
“We have to stand up with dignity, to defend
TAL ATZMON/THE EPOCH TIMES what we believe in, but to take the conse-
quences—that I know.”
According to Paris-based Reporters With-
We have to out Borders, Hong Kong’s press freedom in-
stand up with dex dropped to 80th place this year from
dignity, to de- 18th in 2002.
Lau also pointed to the recent attack
fend what we against Sarah Liang, a reporter for the Hong
believe in, but to Kong edition of The Epoch Times, saying it
take the conse- was “absolutely abominable.”
Liang was assaulted by an unidentified
quences—that man wielding an aluminum softball bat at
I know. Emily Lau, former chairperson of Hong Kong’s noon on May 11. The attack left bruises on
Democratic Party, in Hong Kong. both of her legs. The assault happened about
Emily Lau, a month after the Hong Kong edition’s print-
pro-democracy advocate activist, Figo Chan, on behalf of all Hong ing plant was attacked by hammer-wielding
Kong protesters taking part in the move- intruders. The same printing press was set on
ment, accepted the 2019 John McCain Prize fire by four masked individuals in November
for Leadership in Public Service. The award 2019. It’s widely believed that the CCP was
paid homage to protesters for “their strug- behind all three attacks.
gle to preserve their rights and to press for “People in journalism, people in politics,
democratic reform.” activists—people are very, very alarmed and
Despite being at risk of being prosecuted very scared. So you’re looking at a very anx-
by the Hong Kong government over her ious, very apprehensive, and very unhappy
role in the movement, Lau said she has “no city,” Lau said.

Chinese Regulators on Mission to Rule Over Technology Giants

CONTINUED FROM A1
business models of the country’s
commercial banks.
Then in January, the CCP an-
nounced that it’s engaging with
many technology firms to prevent
“monopolies,” to promote “healthy
competition,” and to make sure
the technology firms’ growth is in
alignment with the interests of the
CCP. How these regulations benefit
the end consumer is still unclear.
In March, the State Administra-
tion of Market Regulation (SAMR)
handed out fines of 500,000 yuan
($80,000) each—the highest per-
missible under existing laws—to 12
companies over completing acqui-
sitions without notifying or getting
sign-off from the proper authori-
ties. The companies disciplined
included internet giants Baidu
and Tencent and ride-hailing firm
Didi Chuxing. While the fines were
small, their significance is not.
In April, after months of friction
between the CCP and Alibaba, as
well its founder Jack Ma, regulators
handed out a $2.75 billion fine—
that’s dollars, not yuan—against
Alibaba for engaging in “mo-
nopolistic” practices by locking
their customers into the firm’s
ecosystem. That’s the largest fine
ever issued by a government to a
corporation in East Asia.
Reuters reported in late April
that a massive fine is also being
planned for WeChat owner and
mobile gaming giant Tencent. The
SAMR fine is expected to be in the
$1.5 billion range, much smaller
than Alibaba’s, but a significant
amount nonetheless. The fine is
expected to be related to alleged
DAVID BECKER/GETTY IMAGES
monopolistic practices by Ten-
cent’s music-streaming business.
The sudden crackdown on Chi-
na’s homegrown technology sector
has been heavy-handed, and is
another way for CCP regime leader
Xi Jinping to remind the powerful
industry that the CCP is in charge
and their past and continued suc-
cesses remain at the pleasure of the
Party.
On the surface, the CCP wanted
to rein in Jack Ma, whose larger-
than-life stature and criticisms of
regulators had become a thorn in
Beijing’s side. But Beijing authori-
ties actually want something far
more useful.
Back to Ant, which is in negotia-
tions with regulators to reorganize
the company after calling off its data is the ultimate weapon of the tech platforms. But the CCP’s road-
IPO last year. As part of the restruc- Attendees pass by an information age, then the power of map for control is quite clear.
turing, the People’s Bank of China Alibaba.com display at CES these tech giants could rival that Beijing will soon roll out its digital
wants Ant to hand over its user 2019 at the Las Vegas of the CCP. Then if their corporate currency. It has already imple-
data—the most valuable asset of Convention Center on Jan. leaders ever go rogue, that’s bad mented the social credit system
any internet company—to a state- 8, 2019. news for Beijing. So the CCP has introduced in 2018. It is putting col-
controlled credit monitoring firm sought to lessen the influence and lars around Chinese internet and
to be managed by the central bank, power of these platforms. payment giants Alibaba, Tencent,
according to a recent Financial China’s recently tested digital and Baidu, all of which are forced
Times report, citing people close to yuan is a major step to compete to integrate government trackers
ongoing negotiations. with these platforms and increase into consumer behavioral data.
As a reminder, Chinese consum- Beijing regula- the level of surveillance and data The CCP’s recent scrutiny and fines
ers have adopted mobile payments tors announced harvesting of consumers. over nonfinancial tech companies
at a much higher rate than almost guidance Legacy payment solutions, even are another warning that they
any other country. WeChat and digital ones, don’t quite give the must cooperate with the govern-
Alipay can be used to pay for many around regu- CCP the level of control and data ment—Didi for taxi and location-
goods and services. China’s tech lating financial it desires. But China’s digital yuan related data, Meituan for dining
giants have treasure troves of user tech compa- could “create unprecedented and grocery data, JD.com for
data on the country’s consumers. opportunities for surveillance,” ac- online shopping data, and so on.
Alibaba and Tencent do share nies to prevent cording to a 2020 study published In other words, when the China
user data with Beijing authori- any from be- by the Australian Strategic Policy Banking and Insurance Regula-
ties when asked, and they have Institute’s International Cyber tory Commission said in January
set up internal monitors to the
coming too Policy Centre. that it wasn’t targeting Jack Ma or
specifications of the regulators. powerful. It’s still too early to tell what type Ant Group specifically, the regula-
But ultimately the companies still of conflict will result between the tor actually meant that it is in fact
own and control the data. And if digital yuan and China’s consumer targeting everyone.
A10 | WORLD
EU, US Agree
to Temporarily
Suspend Tariffs in
Steel Dispute
BRUSSELS—The European Union and the
United States have decided to temporarily
suspend measures at the heart of a steel
tariff dispute that is seen as one of the
major trade issues dividing the two sides.
With the decision, “we are walking the
talk in our efforts to reboot the trans-
Atlantic relationship,” said EU trade
chief Valdis Dombrovskis. It will affect
anything from steel production to Ken-
tucky Bourbon sales.
On top of suspending the measures,
both sides also said they are committed
to talks “to address global steel and alu-
minum excess capacity. We are creating
the space to resolve these issues before
the end of the year,” said Dombrovskis.
It was the second palpable step to get
back to better trade relations under
President Joe Biden after both sides in
March decided on a four-month suspen-
sion of tariffs used in the longstanding
Airbus–Boeing dispute.
“As early as December 2020, the EU
reached out to the Biden administra-
tion with a plan for a renewed EU–U.S.
agenda, and we are pleased to see this ap-
proach bearing fruit,” Dombrovskis said.
The decision comes in time for the visit
of Biden to EU headquarters in mid-June
to discuss a new relationship after the
bloc’s difficult relationship with former
President Donald Trump.
The issue goes back to the 2018 tariffs
that Trump placed on EU steel and alu-
minum, which called the EU and other
allies’ metals a threat to U.S. national se-
curity. The Section 232 ruling both hurts
European producers and has raised the
cost of steel for U.S. companies.
“The EU is not a national security threat
to the U.S. But the distortions created by
global excess capacity—driven largely
by third parties—pose a serious threat to
the market-oriented EU and U.S.,” Dom-
brovskis said.
Together, the EU and United States
would be better positioned to deal with
giant steel producer China, which is seen
as partly responsible for the glut.
When Trump imposed the tariffs, Eu-
rope retaliated by raising tariffs on U.S.-
made motorcycles, bourbon, peanut but-
ter, and jeans, among other items.
The U.S. spirits industry was one of the
first to react.
“This news couldn’t come soon enough.
Distillers across the United States are
breathing a huge sigh of relief after brac-
ing for a 50 percent tariff on American
whiskeys in just a matter of days,” said
Chris Swonger, president of the Distilled
Spirits Council.
He said any extension “would have
forced many craft distillers out of the EU
market,” one of the most lucrative mar-
kets in the world.
By Raf Casert
From The Associated Press
SCOTT OLSON/GETTY IMAGES
Steel is loaded onto a truck for shipping at
the NLMK Indiana steel mill in Portage, Ind.,
on March 15, 2018.
PM Urges ‘Heavy Dose of Caution’
as Restrictions Ease in England
LILY ZHOU
UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson has
asked people to exercise “a heavy dose of
caution” as indoor socializing resumes.
As of May 17, up to six people or people
from two households are allowed to meet
indoors, and 30 people can gather out-
doors; indoor hospitality businesses can
reopen, and the “new guidance on meet-
ing friends and family emphasizes per-
sonal responsibility rather than govern-
ment rules,” according to the government.
This third step of the government’s
road map to exit the lockdown has been
overshadowed by concerns of the Indian
variant of the CCP (Chinese Communist
Party) virus, commonly known as novel
coronavirus, prompting Johnson and his
Rockets are launched toward Israel from the southern Gaza Strip on May 17, 2021.
Israel Says Over 9 Miles of Gaza ‘Terror
Tunnel’ Destroyed in Airstrikes
TOM OZIMEK
The Israeli military has announced the de-
struction of 9.3 miles of a so-called terror tun-
nel network used by Hamas forces as part of
its effort to degrade the ability of terror groups
to launch strikes against Israel.
“Our fighter jets neutralized 9.3 miles of the
Hamas ‘Metro’ terror tunnel system over-
night. That’s 9.3 miles that can no longer be
used for terror,” according to a statement on
the official Twitter account of the Israel De-
fense Forces (IDF) on May 17.
Hostilities broke out on May 10, when
Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and other Islamist
terrorist groups fired long-range rockets at
Jerusalem after weeks of clashes in the holy
city between Palestinian protesters and Is-
raeli police. Hamas said its rocket assault was
in response to weeks of tensions over a court
case to evict several Palestinian families in
East Jerusalem, and in retaliation for Israeli
police responding to Palestinian protests.
In response, Israel has launched more
than 1,000 precision air and artillery strikes
aimed at Hamas and other targets that are
often built close to civilian landmarks in the
densely populated coastal strip.
Since May 10, 192 people, including 58
children and 34 women, have been killed
in Gaza, according to the Palestinian health
ministry. In Israel, 10 people, including one
child, have been killed, according to Israel’s
emergency response service.
In a May 17 update on Operation Guardian
of the Walls, launched May 10 by the IDF in
response to what it characterized as “non-
stop rocket fire on Israeli civilians,” the Israeli
military stated that more than 820 terror tar-
gets had been struck and at least 130 terrorists
had been neutralized, while more than 3,150
rockets had been fired at Israel.
President Joe Biden spoke with Israeli
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on May
15, reiterating his strong support for Israel’s
right to defend itself against missile attacks.
“He condemned these indiscriminate at-
tacks against towns and cities across Israel”
and “encouraged continued steps to hold
violent extremists accountable and to estab-
ministers to urge caution.
“Together, we have reached another mile-
stone in our road map out of lockdown, but
we must take this next step with a heavy
dose of caution,” the prime minister said
in a statement.
“We are keeping the spread of the variant
first identified in India under close obser-
vation and taking swift action where infec-
tion rates are rising.”
Johnson said the current data don’t indi-
cate “unsustainable pressure on the NHS,”
and that second vaccine doses are being
accelerated to give the greatest protection
to the most vulnerable.
“But now everyone must play their
part—by getting tested twice a week,
coming forward for your vaccine when
called, and remembering hands, face,
TUESDAY, MAY 18, 2021
SAID KHATIB/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES
DREW ANGERER/GETTY IMAGES
Israeli soldiers fire a 155mm self-propelled howitzer toward the Gaza Strip from their position
along the border on May 17, 2021.
lish calm,” according to a readout of the call
released by the White House.
We’ll do what- Netanyahu told CBS News on May 16 that
ever it takes Israel would act decisively to protect its peo-
to restore ple and restore calm.
“We’ll do whatever it takes to restore order
order and and quiet, and on the security of our peo-
quiet, and on ple in deterrence. We’re trying to degrade
the security of Hamas’s terrorist abilities, and to degrade
their will to do this again,” the longtime
our people in prime minister said, adding that he hopes
deterrence. the conflict doesn’t last long.
Besides destroying miles of the terror tun-
Israeli Prime Minister nels, the Israeli military also stated it had
Benjamin Netanyahu struck nine houses in different parts of north-
ern Gaza that belonged to “high-ranking
commanders” in Hamas.
Meanwhile, Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-Ga.) led a
group of 29 senators in calling for an imme-
diate cease-fire agreement.
“To prevent any further loss of civilian life
and to prevent further escalation of conflict
in Israel and the Palestinian territories, we
urge an immediate ceasefire,” the senators
said in a joint statement.
MATT DUNHAM-WPA POOL/GETTY IMAGES
“My advice is that just because you can
do something, doesn’t necessarily mean
you should. As far as possible, socialize
outside, maintain social distancing, if
you’re going to hug, hug cautiously,” he
said.
Health Secretary Matt Hancock on May
16 said there are more than 1,300 cases of
the Indian variant of concern, which is
“relatively widespread in small numbers”
and is becoming “the dominant strain” in
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson speaks Bolton and Blackburn.
about the ongoing coronavirus outbreak, at 10 He didn’t rule out the possibility of de-
Downing Street in London on May 14, 2021. laying the final phase of the road map, or
imposing local lockdowns in areas such as
space, and fresh air.” Bolton to tackle the Indian variant, which
Former chief scientific adviser Sir Mark he warned could “spread like wildfire.”
Walport has said that he thought it was But early lab data indicated that the CCP
“extremely important” that the govern- virus vaccines do work against the Indian
ment has added “fresh air” to its mantra variant, according to Hancock. Ministers
of “hands, face, space.” are hoping surge testing and vaccines will
“People have got to be sensibly cau- allow a safe opening up of the nation, with
tious so I think,” Walport told Sky News jabs due to be extended to people over the
on May 16. age of 35 this week.
 TUESDAY, MAY 18, 2021 WORLD | A11

Full-Blown Boycott Pushed for Beijing Olympics

LINTAO ZHANG/GETTY IMAGES
Groups alleging human-rights abus-
es against minorities in China are
calling for a full-blown boycott of the
2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, a
move likely to ratchet up pressure on
the International Olympic Commit-
tee, athletes, sponsors, and sports
federations.
A coalition representing Uyghurs,
Tibetans, residents of Hong Kong,
and others issued a statement on
May 17 calling for the boycott, es-
chewing lesser measures that had
been floated, such as “diplomatic
boycotts” and further negotiations
with the IOC or China.
“The time for talking with the IOC
is over,” Lhadon Tethong of the Tibet
Action Institute said in an exclusive
interview with The Associated Press.
“This cannot be games as usual or
business as usual; not for the IOC
and not for the international com-
munity.”
The Beijing Games are set to open
on Feb. 4, 2022, just six months after
the postponed Summer Olympics in
Tokyo are to end.
Rights groups have met several
times in the past year with the IOC,
asking that the games be removed
from China. A key member in those
talks was Zumretay Arkin of the
World Uyghur Congress.
Tethong, herself, was detained
and deported from China in 2007—
a year before the Beijing Summer People walk past the logo of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics at the National Aquatics Center in Beijing on April 9, 2021.
Olympics—for leading a campaign DU XIAOYI/POOL/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES

for Tibet.
“The situation where we are now
is demonstrably worse than it was
then,” Tethong said, pointing out
that the IOC said the 2008 Olym-
pics would improve human rights
in China. “If the games go ahead,
then Beijing gets the international
seal of approval for what they are
doing.”
The push for a boycott comes a
day before a joint hearing in the U.S.
Congress focusing on the Beijing
Olympics and China’s human-rights
record, and just days after the Unit-
ed States Olympic and Paralympic
Committee said boycotts are inef-
fective and only hurt athletes.
“People have worked to engage
with the IOC in good faith to have
them understand the issues directly
from the mouths of those most im-
pacted—the Uyghurs at the top of
that list and the Tibetans and oth-
ers,” Tethong said. “It’s clear the IOC
is completely uninterested in what
the real impacts on the ground for
people are.”
The IOC has repeatedly said it
must be “neutral” and stay out of
politics. The Switzerland-based
body is essentially a sports busi-
ness, deriving about 75 percent of
its income from selling broadcast
rights, and 18 percent more from
sponsors. It also has observer status
Black Lives Matter movement, may
become allies. She acknowledged
International Olympic this as a “gloves-off” moment.
Committee President
Thomas Bach attends
“There are obviously a lot of peo-
a press conference in ple who are concerned about the
Tokyo on Nov. 16, 2020. athletes and their lifelong work,”
Tethong said. “But in the end, it’s
the IOC that has put them in this
position and should be held ac-
countable.”
American skier Mikaela Shiffrin,
a two-time Olympic gold medalist,
spelled out the dilemma for athletes
in a recent interview on CNN.
“You certainly don’t want to be put
in the position of having to choose
between human rights like moral-
at the United Nations. ity versus being able to do your job,”
“We are not a super-world govern- she said.
If the games ment,” IOC President Thomas Bach Tethong suggested coalition mem-
go ahead, said recently. bers might lobby the IOC’s top 15
then Beijing China’s foreign ministry has criti- sponsors, American network NBC,
cized “the politicization of sports” which generates about 40 percent of
gets the inter- and has said any boycott is “doomed all IOC revenue, sports federations,
national seal to failure.” China has denied accu- civil society groups “and anyone that
of approval sations of genocide against the Uy- will listen.”
ghur people. Activists have already singled out
for what they A recent U.S. State Department re- IOC sponsor Airbnb for attention.
are doing. port stated explicitly that “genocide “First is the moral question,”
and crimes against humanity” have Tethong said. “Is it OK to host an in-
Lhadon Tethong, taken place in the past year against ternational goodwill sporting event
director, Tibet Action Muslim Uyghurs and other minori- such as the Olympic Games while
Institute ties in the western region of Xinjiang. the host nation is committing geno-
Tethong said she knows some ath- cide just beyond the stands?”
letes may be opposed. But she said In meetings with the IOC, activ-
others, who gained traction from ists say they have asked to see doc-
uments in which China has given
“assurances” about human rights
conditions. Activists say the IOC
hasn’t produced the documents.
The IOC included human rights
requirements several years ago in
the host city contract for the 2024
Paris Olympics, but it didn’t include
those guidelines—the United Na-
tions Guiding Principles on Business
and Human Rights—for Beijing. Par-
is is the first Olympics to contain the
standards, long pushed for by hu-
man rights groups.
Last week, human rights groups
and Western nations led by the
United States, the UK, and Germany
accused China of massive crimes
against the Uyghur minority and
demanded unimpeded access for
U.N. experts.
At the meeting, Britain’s U.N.
Ambassador, Barbara Woodward,
called the situation in Xinjiang “one
of the worst human rights crises of
our time.”
“The evidence points to a pro-
gram of repression of specific ethnic
groups,” Woodward said. “Expres-
sions of religion have been crimi-
nalized and Uyghur language and
culture are discriminated against
systematically and at scale.”
By Stephen Wade
From The Associated Press

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The New York Stock Exchange on March 9, 2021.
ESG Investing: Politics by Other Means
RUPERT DARWALL
Before Joe Biden’s election,
environmental, social,
and governance (ESG)
investing was sweeping
all before it. Wall Street
was coming to the planet’s
rescue and saving capital-
ism at the same time. It was a self-serving
myth. As I show in my new report, “Capi-
talism, Socialism and ESG,” published
May 13, doing well by doing good is no
more than Wall Street sales patter.
But since the election, financial regula-
tors have been falling over themselves
playing catchup.
In early December, Fed governors vot-
ed unanimously to join the Network
of Central Banks and Supervisors for
the Greening of the Financial System,
a club of central bankers and financial
regulators established by the Banque de
France to implement the Paris climate
agreement. Acting Securities and Ex-
change Commission Chair Allison Her-
ren Lee has put climate and ESG front
and center of the SEC’s work.
“No single issue has been more press-
ing for me than ensuring that the SEC
is fully engaged in confronting the risks
and opportunities that climate and ESG
pose for investors, our financial system,
and our economy,” she said.
At the Department of Labor (DOL), it
was widely expected that the new ad-
ministration would use the Congressio-
nal Review Act to scrub out two late-term
Trump administration ESG rules gov-
erning corporate retiree-savings plans
under the 1974 Employee Retirement In-
come Security Act (ERISA). Instead, the
DOL announced that it merely intends to
“revisit” the rules. Pending that process,
it would not be enforcing them.
Why?
The DOL’s position is unconventional,
to say the least. The first constitutional
duty of the executive is to enforce the
law. A trio of Republican senators—Rich-
ard Burr, Mike Crapo, and Pat Toomey—
have criticized the DOL’s decision to ab-
dicate its legal responsibility to enforce
ERISA and the rules that operationalize
its provisions to protect retiree incomes.
The DOL finds itself between a rock
and a hard place. The hard place is
Biden’s first executive order instructing
OPINION
TUESDAY, MAY 18, 2021 • A13
federal agencies to suspend, revise, or
rescind (not revisit) Trump administra-
tion regulations that conflict with, to use
shorthand, the ESG, and climate policies
of the Biden administration. The rock
is the letter of the law. ERISA imposes
tightly defined duties on plan manag-
ers and fiduciaries to act solely in the
interests of plan beneficiaries and must
set out to maximize the risk-adjusted fi-
nancial value of plan assets, considering
only so-called pecuniary factors when
making investment decisions.
The essence of the DOL’s financial fac-
tors rule is to clarify the legal duty of plan
managers not to subordinate the finan-
cial interests of plan participants to other
objectives or promote non-pecuniary
goals. “The weight given to any pecuni-
ary factor by a fiduciary should appropri-
ately reflect a prudent assessment of its
impact on risk-return,” the rule states.
In a tie-break, where the pecuniary fac-
tors are indistinguishable between two
alternatives, the rule requires plan man-
agers to document why the pecuniary
attributes of the two alternatives cannot
meaningfully be distinguished.
ESG advocates would have us believe
that incorporating ESG factors boosts
financial returns—or, as the ESG sales
patter has it, “doing well by doing good.”
Were the superiority of ESG investing
strategies clear-cut and supported by
generally accepted investment theories,
the rule would present little difficulty to a
competent investment manager. Yet, ac-
cording to the Biden DOL, the new rule is
having a “chilling effect” on integrating
ESG factors into investment decisions.
This isn’t surprising. Modern invest-
ment theory emphasizes the importance
of portfolio diversification. The MSCI KLD
400 Social Index, used by BlackRock’s iS-
hares MSCI KLD 400 Social Index, consti-
tutes less than one-fifth of the MSCI USA
IMI Index. No investment theory says that
shrinking the universe of potential invest-
ment options by 80 percent is conducive to
producing higher returns. The 2000 deci-
sion by CalPERS, the nation’s largest state
pension fund, to divest itself of tobacco
stocks is reckoned to have cost it $3 billion
in lost returns.
Insofar as material ESG factors boost
corporate profits, ESG investment strate-
gies must assume that the market fails to
incorporate this into higher valuations,
Laurence D. Fink, chairman
and CEO of BlackRock, in
New York on Nov. 1, 2018.
Climate risk
disclosure is
about facilitating
and encouraging
non-state actors
to regulate
corporations and
thereby society.
Much climate
disclosure
required by ESG
standard-setters
is systematically
misleading because
it treats the world
as a homogenous
regulatory space.
SPENCER PLATT/GETTY IMAGES
MICHAEL COHEN/GETTY IMAGES FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES
because once the market has priced in
those factors, investors must be satisfied
with lower expected returns. As Eugene
Fama, a founder of modern portfolio
theory, puts it, “virtue is its own reward
since investors get lower expected re-
turns from the shares of virtuous firms.”
In terms of compliance with ERISA,
virtue is a non-pecuniary benefit.
Ostensibly, much of the planned regula-
tory action is about more disclosure en-
abling investors to make better investment
decisions, especially on climate change.
But the notion of climate risk requiring
additional disclosure is deeply suspect.
Was February’s energy whiteout in Texas a
climate change physical risk—or a climate
change regulatory risk, arising from over-
investment in wind and underinvestment
in coal and nuclear, making the Texas
grid less resilient? These are questions for
climate risk theologians but of little real-
world relevance to investors.
Much climate disclosure required by
ESG standard-setters is systematically
misleading because it treats the world as
a homogenous regulatory space. Climate
regulations are made by nation-states;
it’s highly unlikely that a corporation’s
global footprint is coterminous with the
borders of a state.
In reality, climate risk disclosure is about
facilitating and encouraging non-state ac-
tors to regulate corporations and thereby
society. As BlackRock CEO Larry Fink says,
it isn’t transparency for transparency’s
sake: “Disclosure should be a means to
achieving a more sustainable and inclu-
sive capitalism.” The SEC is giving activist
investors the green light to table share-
holder motions to force ConocoPhillips
and Occidental Petroleum to set out
detailed plans for cutting Scope 3 emis-
sions—those emitted by their customers.
Continued on A14
A14 | OPINION
The US Consumer Is Not Happy
DANIEL LACALLE
The University of Michi-
gan consumer confi-
dence index fell to 82.8
in May, from 88.3 in
April. More importantly,
the current economic
conditions index slumped to
90.8 from 97.2, and the consumer expec-
tations index declined to 77.6 from 82.7.
Hard data also questions the strength
of the recovery. April retail sales were
flat, with clothing down 5.1 percent,
general merchandise store sales down
4.9 percent, leisure and sporting goods
down 3.6 percent, and food and drink
services up by just 3 percent.
U.S. manufacturing output was also
almost flat in April, rising just 0.4 per-
cent month-on-month in April pushed
by a 4 percent slump in motor vehicle
production. You may think this isn’t that
bad until you see that industrial capac-
ity utilization came in at 74.9 percent in
April, significantly below the pre-pan-
demic levels.
Employment also questions the
“strong recovery” thesis. Non-farm em-
ployment is still down 8.2 million, or 5.4
percent, from pre-pandemic levels, yet
gross domestic product is likely to have a
full recovery in the second quarter.
These figures are important because
they come after trillions of dollars of so-
called stimulus, and the entire thesis
of the V-shaped recovery comes from
a view that consumption is going to
soar. Reality shows otherwise. In fact,
reality shows that retail sales showed
an artificial bump due to the wrongly
called stimulus checks, only to return
to stagnation.
The rise in inflation further ques-
tions the idea of a consumption boom,
certainly for the middle class. Why?
If we look at the 4.2 percent rise in the
DILBERT
PEANUTS
RED AND ROVER
GRAND AVENUE
MUTT & JEFF
consumer price index for the 12 months
ending in April, it includes a 25 percent
increase in energy, a 12 percent in-
crease in utility gas prices, a 5.6 percent
increase in transportation services, a
2.2 percent increase in medical ser-
vices, etc.
Retail sales showed an artificial
bump due to the wrongly called
stimulus checks, only to return
to stagnation.
As consumers perceive a higher rise
in prices, especially in those essential
goods and services that we purchase ev-
ery day, consumption decisions become
more prudent and the propensity to save
rises. This is something that we’ve seen
in numerous countries. In Japan, years
of “official” messages about the risk of
deflation clashed with citizens’ percep-
tion of the cost of living, and the tenden-
cy to save increased—rightly so. Citizens
aren’t stupid, and you can tell them that
there’s no inflation or that it’s transitory,
but they feel the increase in cost of living
COMICS
SHUTTERSTOCK
COVID-19
economic
stimulus
check on
blurred USA
flag and sun
light back-
ground.
Relief pro-
gram concept.
and react accordingly.
Two things should concern us. First,
the weakness of the recovery in the
middle of the largest fiscal and mone-
tary stimulus seen in decades, and sec-
ond, the short and diminishing effect of
these programs. A $2 trillion stimulus
package creates a very short-term effect
that lasts less than five months.
I recently had a discussion with
former Federal Reserve nominee Judy
Shelton, and she stated that the recov-
ery would be stronger without stimulus.
She’s probably right.
Neo-Keynesians will likely say that if
the above figures persist, the solution is
more stimulus, but it’s not. More money
to government programs means slower
growth and weaker recoveries.
U.S. consumers aren’t happy. They
don’t see the official optimism about
the job market or the macro figures,
and the current sugar-high is likely to
lead to an abrupt sugar-low.
Daniel Lacalle, Ph.D., is chief econo-
mist at hedge fund Tressis and author
of “Freedom or Equality,” “Escape from
the Central Bank Trap,” and “Life in the
Financial Markets.”
GARFIELD
GINGER MEGGS
BIG NATE
DRABBLE
FRANK AND ERNEST
TUESDAY, MAY 18, 2021
ESG Investing:
Politics by
Other Means
CONTINUED FROM A13
BlackRock, the world’s largest fund
manager, is pressuring companies to
formulate business plans “consistent
with achieving net-zero global green-
house gas emissions by 2050.”
ESG investing thus turns out to be
politics continued by other means.
Far from a vision of inclusive capital-
ism, it’s the culmination of a trend
away from democratically accountable
law-making. In 2009, despite large
Democratic majorities in both houses
of Congress, cap-and-trade was passed
only narrowly by the House and died
in the Senate. After the 2010 midterm
elections, such efforts became the
purview of the administrative state
and the Obama administration’s
Clean Power Plan—until the Supreme
Court ordered a stay on its implemen-
tation. Now, society is apparently to
be regulated by the top executives of
multitrillion-dollar index funds and a
handful of activist shareholders.
Inclusive it is not. Americans’ savings
are to be deployed for wider societal
ends, ones determined not by them
or by elected politicians but by Wall
Street oligarchs. The endpoint is the
socialization of American capital.
Rather than being inclusive, ESG is
pure insider capitalism: It excludes the
many from power exercised by the few.
Rupert Darwall is a senior fellow of
the RealClear Foundation and author
of “Green Tyranny: Exposing the Total-
itarian Roots of the Climate Industrial
Complex” and the report “The Climate
Noose: Business, Net Zero, and the
IPCC’s Anti-Capitalism.”
 TUESDAY, MAY 18, 2021
SPECIAL SERIES: How the Specter of Communism Is Ruling Our World
The Chinese Communist
Party’s Global Ambitions
Communism Is Ruling Our World,” a new book by the editorial team of the “Nine Commentaries
on the Communist Party.”
Over the long course of history, hu-
CONCLUSION mankind has seen eras of splendor
and glory, but also has endured count-
less episodes of tragedy and disaster.
Looking back, we find that moral rec-
titude ushers in clean governance,
economic prosperity, cultural bril-
liance, and national strength, whereas
moral degeneracy signals the fall of
nations and the extinction of entire
civilizations.
Today, humankind has reached a
zenith in material wealth, yet it faces
unprecedented challenges caused by
the havoc of communism. The ultimate
goal of communism is not to establish
a heaven on earth, but to destroy hu-
mankind. The nature of communism
is that of an evil specter forged by hate,
degeneracy, and other elemental forces
in the universe. Out of hate, it slaugh-
tered more than 100 million people,
trampled several thousand years’
worth of exquisite civilization, and
corrupted human morality.
The communist specter made ar-
rangements to corrupt both the East
and the West, adopting different strate-
gies in different countries. In the East,
it slaughtered people ruthlessly and
forced them to accept atheism. In the
West, it took an alternate route: infil-
trating society in covert form, coaxing
people into abandoning their tradi-
tional faiths and moral values.
Using communist regimes and or-
ganizations, fellow travelers, accom-
plices, and other agents, communism
rallied negative elements in the human
world to amass formidable power. With
this power, it subverted and established
control in all social spheres, including
politics, economics, law, education, the
media, the arts, and culture. Today’s
humankind is in dire straits.
In hindsight, the reasons for commu-
nism’s triumph over the past two cen-
turies are clear. When people indulge
in the material pleasures brought by
technological advancement and al-
low atheism to spread, they reject
divine mercy and turn themselves
over to evil. Having strayed from
the traditions established by the di-
vine, much of humanity is now eas-
ily deceived by communism and its
myriad ideological permutations,
such as socialism, liberalism, and
progressivism.
Traditional culture shows the path
SPECIAL SERIES
for humans to maintain their morality
and gain salvation in the final epoch.
But with traditional culture under at-
tack and basic moral truths cast aside,
the link between man and the divine
has been severed. Man can no longer
understand divine instruction, and evil
reigns supreme, wreaking havoc in the
human realm. When human moral-
ity drops below the basic standards
required of human beings, the divine
must reluctantly abandon humankind
as the devil leads man into the abyss
of damnation.
But having reached an extreme, the
circumstances are bound to reverse.
It is an eternal principle in the human
realm that evil can never defeat righ-
teousness. Communism’s momentary
victory is a temporary phenomenon,
brought about by the devil, which has
intimidated people with its illusory
might and treacherous temptations.
Man, while imperfect, innately car-
ries kindness, virtue, and moral cour-
age, which have been nurtured and
passed down for millennia. In this,
we find hope.
Global events are developing at an
incredible pace. Righteous elements
are growing stronger, and the world’s
people are awakening.
In China, millions of people have
Participants in a parade carry banners encouraging people to quit the Chinese Commu-
nist Party, in this file photo.
peacefully resisted the Chinese Com-
munist Party’s tyrannical rule by re-
maining steadfast in their faith and
morality. Inspired by the editorial se-
ries “Nine Commentaries on the Com-
munist Party,” more than 350 million
Chinese have bravely renounced their
ties with the CCP and its affiliated or-
ganizations, through the act of “tui
dang,” or “quitting the Party.” More
and more individuals are making a
heartfelt decision to free themselves
from the shackles of communism. The
disintegration of the Communist Party
is already well underway.
As long as we remain
unmoved by the devil’s
facades, maintain true
compassion, follow
divine standards for
being human, revive
traditional values, and
return to traditional
culture, the divine will
deliver humankind
from evil.
The end of the Communist Party is a
matter of divine arrangement. Should
China’s leaders take steps to dismantle
the Party, they will be provided with
all the conditions required for a clean
transition. In the future, they stand
to gain true authority—that which is
granted by the divine. Should they
stubbornly refuse to make this break,
they will take the Party’s fate as their
own, joining in the calamities of its fi-
nal downfall.
The world is experiencing a revival
of traditional culture and morality in
alignment with the universal values of
truthfulness, compassion, and toler-
ance. At the fore of this renaissance is
Shen Yun Performing Arts, which tours
five continents every year. In its display
of classical Chinese dance, Shen Yun
brings universal values to audiences
around the world.
The West has begun to recognize the
communist infiltration and its subver-
sion of traditional culture that has taken
place over the past century. Society has
begun to be cleansed of communist ele-
ments and deviated modern culture in
many spheres, from law and education
to government administration and in-
ternational relations. Governments are
becoming more vigilant against com-
GET
YOUR
COPY
HERE
EPOCHSHOP.COM
DAI BING/EPOCH TIMES
munist regimes and their enablers,
which is greatly reducing communism’s
influence on the global stage.
Communism is not an enemy that
can be defeated by military force. To
free the world from its grasp, we must
start by purifying ourselves from the
inside. Li Hongzhi, the founder of Falun
Gong, wrote in his article “Pacify the
External by Cultivating the Internal”:
“If people do not value virtue, the
world will be in great chaos and out
of control; everyone will become
enemies of one another and live
without happiness. Living without
happiness, they will not fear death.
Lao Zi said, ‘If the populace doesn’t
fear death, what good will it do to
threaten them with death?’ This is a
great, imminent danger. A peaceful
world is what people hope for. If
at this point an excessive number
of laws and decrees are created
to secure stability, it will end up
having the opposite effect. In order
to solve this problem, virtue has to
be cultivated around the world—
only this way can the problem be
fundamentally resolved. If officials
are unselfish, the state will not be
corrupt. If the population values
self-cultivation and the nurturing
of virtues, and if both officials and
civilians alike exercise self-restraint
in their minds, the whole nation
will be stable and supported by the
people. Being solid and stable, the
nation will naturally intimidate
foreign enemies and peace will
thus reign under heaven. This is the
work of a sage.” [1]
The merciful Creator has always been
watching over humankind. Disasters
occur when man turns against the
divine, and humanity can be saved
only by returning to our divinely be-
stowed heritage. As long as we remain
unmoved by the devil’s facades, main-
tain true compassion, follow divine
standards for being human, revive
traditional values, and return to tra-
ditional culture, the divine will deliver
humankind from evil. Today, whether
or not humanity will walk this path is
the choice that we all face.
Notes
1. Li Hongzhi, “Pacify the External by
Cultivating the Internal,” in “Essentials for
Further Advancement,” Jan. 5, 1996.
This concludes The Epoch Times’
serialization of “How The Specter of
Communism is Ruling Our World.”
See next edition for the next
installment.
OPINION | A15
Stephen Gregory, Publisher
Jasper Fakkert, Editor-in-Chief
Channaly Philipp, Life & Tradition,
Travel Editor
Chrisy Trudeau, Mind & Body Editor
Crystal Shi, Home, Food Editor
Sharon Kilarski, Arts & Culture Editor
ABOUT US
The Epoch Times is a media
organization dedicated to seek-
ing the truth through insightful
and independent journalism.
Standing outside of politi-
cal interests and the pursuit of
profit, our starting point and our
goal is to create a media for the
public benefit, to be truly respon-
sible to society.
We endeavor to educate read-
ers about today’s most impor-
tant topics, seeking to broaden
and uplift minds. We believe that
rational, balanced debate is key
for fostering a healthy democ-
racy and a compassionate
society.
As an independent media out-
let, we use our freedom to inves-
tigate issues overlooked—or
avoided—by other media outlets.
We seek to highlight solutions
and what’s good in society rather
than what divides us.
We report respectfully, compas-
sionately, and rigorously.
We stand against the destruc-
tion wrought by communism,
including the harm done to cul-
tures around the world.
We are inspired in this by our
own experience. The Epoch
Times was founded in 2000 to
bring honest and uncensored
news to people oppressed
by the lies and violence in
communist China.
We still believe journalism is a
noble vocation, but only when it
genuinely seeks to serve its com-
munities and help them to flour-
ish. In all that we do, we will hold
ourselves to the highest stand-
ards of integrity. This is our
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A16 | OPINION
Packing the Supreme
Court: An Attempt to
Stamp Out Religious
Liberty?
CHRISTOPHER FERRARA
& CHARLES LIMANDRI
If Democrats succeed in packing the U.S.
Supreme Court with progressives, as is
their wont, what freedoms now protected
by a conservative majority will they first
try to cancel?
Gun ownership? “Deplorable” voices
on social media? Citizen United’s free
speech protections? So much to undo, so
little time to do it, before losing control of
government.
Here’s our guess: Religious liberty. The
first right guaranteed by the Bill of Rights.
Why?
Because the court has issued a string of
unambiguous decisions that guarantee
religious liberty during the COVID-19 pan-
demic. They’re so clear and forceful that
they deeply get under progressives’ skin.
So upset was the notoriously liberal San
Francisco-based 9th Circuit Court of Ap-
peals that it amazingly—five times—dared
to defy the high court’s clear directives
that the COVID-19 pandemic isn’t reason
JUSTIN SULLIVAN/GETTY IMAGES
California Gov. Gavin Newsom in Alameda,
Calif., on March 16, 2021.
The Book You’ve Been
Waiting for...
“Extremely well “The Truth, as horrifying as it is,
researched and true.” shall set us free. This should be
on this country’s academia’s
list of required reading.”
HOW THE
SPECTER OF COMMUNISM
IS RULING OUR WORLD
The specter of communism did not
disappear with the disintegration of the
Communist Party in Eastern Europe
ORDER NOW!
EpochShop.com
enough to tell the faithful how to worship.
Or more precisely, how not to worship.
In a rare rebuke, the Supreme Court re-
cently stated in Tandon v. Newsom: “This
is the fifth time the [Supreme] Court has
summarily rejected the Ninth Circuit’s
analysis of California’s COVID restric-
tions on religious exercise.”
Justice Neil M. Gorsuch, in the case
South Bay United Pentecostal Church v.
Gavin Newsom, wrote, “Once more, we
appear to have a State playing favorites
during a pandemic, expending consider-
able effort to protect lucrative industries
(casinos in Nevada; movie studios in
California) while denying similar lar-
gesse to its faithful.”
Simply put, according to the Supreme
Court, states must not impose tougher
restrictions on the houses of worship
than those on other industries.
In an earlier case, Roman Catholic
Diocese of Brooklyn v. Cuomo, the court
ruled that such restrictions ran afoul of
“the minimum requirement of neutrality”
when limiting the faithful to 10 or 25 in at-
tendance. Similar protections were enun-
ciated in two cases brought by attorneys
affiliated with the Thomas More Society,
South Bay United Pentecostal Church v.
Gavin Newsom and Gish v. Newsom.
Anticipating the outcome the Supreme
Court requires in the cited cases, a Cali-
fornia state court judge, in the case of
Burfitt v. Newsom, another case brought
by Thomas More Society lawyers, issued
a preliminary injunction back in De-
cember 2020 mandating that California
allow Father Trevor Burfitt’s five Catholic
churches the same 100 percent capacity
as favored businesses under Newsom’s
NOW
BIGGER SIZE,
EASIER TO READ
FORMAT
The Supreme Court in Washington on Oct. 4, 2018.
COVID-19 regime. With the Supreme
Court’s handwriting on the wall, Califor-
nia has since abandoned its appeal from
that injunction, along with the counties
of Los Angeles and San Diego.
In a nutshell, the enunciated principle
holds that if restrictions are imposed
on individuals and society because of a
medical emergency, then worship must be
treated at least as well as numerous com-
parable secular activities. The plaintiffs
weren’t claiming a right to disobey gener-
ally applicable laws; they wanted the same
freedoms as shoppers in a grocery or big
box store, a schoolroom, or a factory.
So why were people of faith targeted
with greater restraints than other people
who gather indoors—the homeless in
shelters and workers in meatpacking
operations, for example? Why, in some
cases, were houses of worship ordered to
shut down altogether?
Maybe it’s the work of influential
secularists carrying out an anti-religion
agenda. For them, faith is “nonessential.”
Or perhaps it’s an unfounded, unscien-
tific belief that worshipful gatherings are
inherently more contagious. We pray—
we say without irony—that elected of-
ficials and unelected bureaucrats aren’t
motivated by the former.
The latter is no better. The idea that sci-
ence identifies worship as uniquely con-
tagious is a pseudo-scientific supersti-
tion. The virus is just as contagious and
travels the same distance in hair salons
and barbershops as it does in churches
and temples. Indeed, a new study con-
cludes that virus transmission isn’t so
much a function of where a gathering
occurs as it is of the quality of the ventila-
tion, size of the space, and duration of
stay. Throughout this saga, gatherings
for worship have never been shown to
be riskier in terms of viral transmission
The Chinese Communists
Get American Aid
NEWT GINGRICH &
CLAIRE CHRISTENSEN
Even though the Chinese Communist
Party (CCP) is responsible through its lab-
oratory in Wuhan for the global outbreak
of the COVID-19 pandemic, the commu-
nist totalitarian dictatorship has turned
this worldwide crisis into a great benefit.
In the beginning of the pandemic, com-
munist China—as the world’s dominant
medical supply manufacturer—hoard-
ed and later sold critical medical products
to countries crippled by the pandemic.
China’s “vaccine diplomacy” continues to
advance its Health Silk Road as it ex-
ports hundreds of millions of doses of its
vaccines abroad, while chiding Western
countries for “vaccine nationalism.”
Further, as countries responded to the
pandemic, Chinese and Indian troops
clashed along their disputed border in
the Himalayan region, China escalated
tensions in the illegally claimed South
China Sea, further tightened its totalitar-
ian control over Hong Kong, and militar-
ily provoked Taiwan.
Exploiting a global crisis in pursuit of
its global strategy is not a novel approach
for the Chinese Communist dictatorship.
Following the 2008 financial crisis, the
CCP exploited the recession to advance
its global strategy.
Similarly, in the wake of the COVID-19
pandemic, as the United States rapidly
distributed emergency loans as part of
the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP)
to help struggling businesses, the dicta-
torship saw an opportunity for American
money and took it.
TUESDAY, MAY 18, 2021
MANUEL BALCE CENETA/AP PHOTO
than gatherings for commerce, educa-
tion, or transportation.
None of this matters to those who
have declared war on religious liberty.
The freedom of religion’s legal “winning
streak” has ignited the usual condemna-
tions from partisans and ideologues. They
accuse people of faith of “weaponizing”
the First Amendment. They accuse former
President Donald Trump’s Supreme Court
appointees of using “alleged” infringe-
ments on religious liberty to “trump”
public health and safety restrictions.
Justice Elena Kagan accused the court of
“second-guess[ing] the judgment of expert
officials” and of “insisting that science-
based policy yield to judicial edict,” even
though science fails to show that churches
are unique pandemic hotspots.
How paradoxical is it that peaceful
worshipers have had to battle all the way
to the Supreme Court against restrictions
never imposed on “peaceful demonstra-
tions” that feature arson, looting, and
attacks on police stations?
How sad is it that those who come in
peace in the name of the Lord would be
targeted by an expanded and suitably
politicized Supreme Court bench of 13
justices, which the court-packing brigade
now demands? And that the protection of
the first of all constitutional rights would
then depend on who won the last election?
Even now, with one victory after another
before the traditional bench of nine, our
most cherished rights face the specter of a
politically packed bench of 13—a number
never associated with happy outcomes.
Attorneys Christopher Ferrara and
Charles LiMandri both serve as special
counsel to the Thomas More Society, a
national not-for-profit law firm dedicated
to restoring respect in law for life, family,
and religious liberty.
According to a Horizon Advisory re-
port by Emily de La Bruyère and Nathan
Picarsic, as much as $419 million of PPP
funds were awarded to companies that
were owned or invested in by entities in
communist China. To be clear: Due to
the nature of the totalitarian system in
China, there is no such thing as a wholly
independent business that’s free from
the supervision and control of the Chi-
nese Communist Party.
From a sample of PPP recipients, de
La Bruyère and Picarsic identified more
than 125 recipients of emergency loans
from the Small Business Administra-
tion and Treasury Department that the
Chinese dictatorship’s entities owned
or invested in. More than $1 million in
loans were secured by at least 32 entities
controlled by the Chinese regime.
The report stated, “These [People’s
Republic of China] entities span State-
owned enterprises (SOEs); companies
with ties to China’s military and mili-
tary-civil fusion programs; companies
that the US government has identified
as national security threats; companies
complicit in China’s genocide against the
Uighur minority in Xinjiang; and media
outlets owned by, or that take direction
from, the CCP.”
For example, the U.S. Department of
Defense has published a list of compa-
nies that it has identified as being con-
nected to communist China’s military,
the People’s Liberation Army. At least
eight entities affiliated with companies
on the DOD’s list received Paycheck Pro-
tection Program loans.
Moreover, according to the report, “The
 TUESDAY, MAY 18, 2021 OPINION | A17

Older Art Focused on the Beautiful,

Modern Art Often Looks at the Disturbing
METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART VIA WIKIMEDIA COMMONS/PUBLIC DOMAIN

THEODORE DALRYMPLE logically, than bad.

Notwithstanding the re-
cent disruptions caused
by the COVID-19 pan-
demic, we are still very
fortunate by the stan-
dards of all previously ex-
isting human populations.
Those, however, aren’t the standards
by which we judge our own condition.
Instead, we compare it with some ideal
normal, a perfection, which never has
existed and never will exist.
This, perhaps, partially explains the ex-
traordinary bitterness with which we ap-
proach our modern problems; any devia-
tion from the perfection which is held to
be the natural state of the world isn’t only
magnified in our minds but assumed to
result from someone’s wickedness.
“In the midst of life we are in death,”
says the Book of Common Prayer; we
might usefully change this nowadays
to, “In the midst of privilege, we are in
grievance.” I say privilege, incidentally,
because we have done nothing to merit
our good fortune, it was bequeathed to
us by the efforts of our forerunners.
Aesthetic cynicism leaves
the field of beauty open to
those who do not, or cannot,
rise above the level of kitsch.
It’s hardly news that misery isn’t nec-
essarily proportional to the objective
features of the world that cause it. All the
same, I admit to having been startled by
an online advertisement I received for an
exhibition called “Mother!” now running
in an art gallery in Copenhagen.
I will overlook the installation of what
looked to me like the amputated legs of
pregnant mothers suffering from varicose
veins after their pregnancies, hanging
from the ceiling in a kind of forest, and
remark only on the two paintings repro-
duced in the advertisement. The first, “Vir-
gin and Child,” was by Dieric Bouts (circa
1400 to 1475), and the second, “Ginny and
Elizabeth,” by Alice Neel (1900–1984).
“Objectively,” the half-millennium that
separated these two artists was one of
enormous improvement from the point
of view of average life chances and stan-
dard of living—despite the terrible wars
and regimes that disfigured the history
of the 20th century.
By the time Neel came to paint her pic-
ture “Ginny and Elizabeth” (1975), more-
over, the worst of the century was over.
In the time of Bouts, by contrast, life was
routinely of an incredible hardship almost
for everyone, and even the best-off were
but an illness or minor injury way from
the kind and degree of suffering almost
unknown to us, with no possibility of
relief, at least none of the medical variety.
To mention but one hardship relevant
to the these of the exhibition: In Bouts’s
century, probably about a twelfth of
women died sooner or later in childbirth.
By 1975, maternal mortality was a tiny
fraction of what it had been, perhaps in
the region of a thousandth of what it was
in earlier times.
But Bouts’s picture is serene and tender,
while that of Neel is so anxiety-ridden
that it makes the observer feel deeply
anxious. If one saw Ginny and Elizabeth
in real life, one would be unsure whether
one ought to call the doctor, the social
worker, or the police in order to forestall
a tragic denouement.
The mother in “Ginny and Elizabeth”
looks at the end of her tether. The baby
isn’t much better.
I’m not criticizing Neel or saying that
mothers such as she depicts (as she does
also in other pictures) don’t exist and
therefore that her picture is unrealistic.
We aren’t in the regions of Hieronymus
Bosch’s fevered imagination. There is no
doubt, either, that her portrait is a power-
ful one in the expressionist mold: The
“Virgin
and Child”
by Dieric
Bouts, circa
1455–1460.
mother is raddled by care and perhaps
by illness, at the very least post-partum
depression or psychosis.
Not surprisingly, the baby isn’t a happy
smiling one of the type that reduces us
all to cooing soppiness—on the contrary,
it looks as if it might keep us awake all
night and perpetually need changing. I
have known several cases in my career as
a doctor that ended with infanticide.
Perhaps Bouts chose to paint “Virgin
and Child” so tenderly not only because
it was religiously required to do so, but
because his society had a need of calm-
ing images that provided some respite
from the harsh realities of daily life and
common experience.
We often need, or think we need, the
opposite of what we have. And it isn’t un-
common these days to read that it’s the
positive duty of the artist to unsettle, be-
cause otherwise, we should descend into
a tepid bath of complacency or worse.
And, pace COVID-19, our lives are so
safe that we have a desire to feel that they
are really no such thing, that we live con-
stantly on a knife-edge of danger. Good
fortune is less gratifying to us, psycho-
I’m not arguing for the prettification of
art or that art shouldn’t deal with subjects
that are disturbing. I don’t think there can
be prescribed or forbidden subjects for art.
Among the most moving pictures
known to me are Velasquez’s portraits of
dwarfs and a mentally handicapped boy
in the Prado; they are a moral education
in themselves, for Velasquez’s love of and
respect for his subjects—which surely
weren’t usual at the time—are, to me at
least, evident. If these pictures disturb,
they are also of transcendent beauty.
Many modern artists, especially those
who achieve fame, go for the disturb-
ing while bypassing the beautiful. This
doesn’t imply that they are without great
talent—clearly no one would say that of,
say, Lucien Freud.
The very fact that they are talented is
disturbing in itself, for they depict the
world in a brilliantly cold light, as if the
world were to them almost hateful, de-
prived of all tenderness and worthy only
of exposure as cruel.
I don’t have an explanation for this. It
seems to me that it’s in some way de-
fensive. Expressing tenderness or love
renders you vulnerable, especially to
mockery, as does declaring too openly
what you consider beautiful.
A kind of aesthetic agnosticism or cyni-
cism renders you, by contrast, invulner-
able, because no one can know what you
truly find beautiful.
You become like the kind of person
who is always joking, in that way, you
can never know what he really thinks.
But aesthetic cynicism leaves the field of
beauty open to those who don’t, or can’t,
rise above the level of kitsch. No wonder
we are so good at ugliness.
Theodore Dalrymple is a retired doctor. He
is contributing editor of the City Journal
of New York and the author of 30 books,
including “Life at the Bottom.” His latest
book is “Embargo and Other Stories.”

U.S. CUSTOMS AND BORDER PROTECTION

A shipment
from Shen-
zhen, China,

Behind the
of what is
believed to be
counterfeit
N-95 respi-
rator masks,

Subscription
seized by U.S.
Customs and
Border Pro-
tection in Chi-
cago on Sept.
10, 2020.

Your subscription will not only provide you with

identified recipients linked to People’s
Republic of China-based ownership span
critical and strategic industries including
aerospace and defense; pharmaceuti-
cals and medical technology; legacy and
emerging automotive manufacturing;
advanced manufacturing and manufac-
turing components (e.g., semiconductors,
robotics); telecommunications; financial
technology; entertainment; and media.”
Many of these industries are critical to
the Chinese Communists for advancing
their Made in China 2025 industrial plan,
which aims to make China the world’s
dominant high-tech manufacturer.
The plan emphasizes 10 key sectors, in-
cluding: new-generation information
technology; maritime equipment and
high-tech ships; high-end computerized
machines and robots; aerospace; new en-
ergy and energy-saving vehicles; energy
equipment; and biopharma and high-
tech medical devices.
It’s a tragedy that loans intended to help
save American businesses ultimately aid-
ed communist China in advancing its goal
of replacing America as the most power-
ful country. But to be fair, these hundreds
of millions of dollars weren’t stolen—the
money was freely handed over due to the
absence of proper protections.
accurate news and features, but also contribute
First, the Small Business Administration to the revival of American journalism and help
should work with outside researchers and
experts, such as Horizon Advisory and safeguard our freedoms for future generations.
RWR Advisory Group, to put together a list
of known China-affiliated companies and We aim to tell you what we see, not how to think; we
ensure these loans are repaid in full.
Second, the Small Business Administra- strive to deliver you a factual picture of reality that
tion and Treasury Department should put lets you form your own opinions.
more protections in place to ensure that
loans are not awarded in the future to enti-
ties affiliated with American adversaries. We believe that we live in truly epochal times, where
American businesses shouldn’t be sec- the faithful representation of our current events
ond fiddle. It’s the responsibility of the won’t just be important for the people of today, but
U.S. government to ensure the security of
Americans in times of crisis, not enable also for the generations to come. The records we
our cleverly opportunistic adversaries to keep now will directly inform the foundations of the
profit. history they’ll learn and the values they’ll cherish—
The U.S. government must act now to
develop the systems that will ensure the and this knowledge is what drives us.
American taxpayers aren’t subsidizing
the very dictatorship which wants to Learn more at
defeat them.
EpochSubscription.com
Newt Gingrich, a Republican, served as
House speaker from 1995 to 1999 and ran
as a presidential candidate in 2012.
Claire Christensen is the director of research TRUTH AND TRADITION
and Chinese studies for Gingrich 360. She
is the co-author, with Newt Gingrich and
Ryan Ramsey, of “Electing Trump.”
A18 | PUZZLES TUESDAY, MAY 18, 2021

CROSSWORD CONSTRUCTED BY TOM HOUSTON

EPOCH TIMES STAFF 11. Conscription org. 4NUMBERS CONSTRUCTED BY C. CHANG
AT 4NUMS.COM DAILY BRIDGE CLUB
12. Touch Use the four numbers in the corners, and Secondhand Rose
13. Raspy the operands (+, - X, and ÷) to build an BY FRANK STEWART, TRIBUNE CONTENT AGENCY
equation to get the solution in the middle.
14. Fergie’s ex There may be more than one “unique” so- ©2021 Tribune Content Agency, LLC
lution but, there may also be “equivalent”
15. Hardens solutions. For example: 6 + (7 X 3) +1 = 28
The player we call Secondhand Rose was at
my club today. When the lesson on “second
23. Atlas abbr. and 1+ (7 X 3) + 6 = 28
hand low” on defense was taught, Rose
24. “Help Me Make It ___ must have been out with Jiggs the plumber.
As today’s West, Rose led a spade
the Night” against four hearts. South took the ace
27. Certain pitch and led the nine of clubs, and Secondhand
Rose ... with the ace! She then led a
29. 1965 King arrest site diamond. Dummy played low, and East
took the king. South also lost a trump to
31. Great Lakes port of Rose’s king and a second club.
entry South succeeds if Rose plays “second
hand low” on the first club. East takes the
32. “Buck” attachment king and may return a trump. A diamond
33. Swiss capital shift fails as the cards lie.

35. Join, redundantly DISCARDS

South can take the ace and lead the
37. Height: Prefix Hard 1 - 1 Solution
jack of clubs. If West wins and leads
38. Former Portuguese a diamond, South takes the ace and
cashes two clubs to pitch his remaining
colony in India diamonds.
39. German spa Rose’s defense was indicated. East-
West needed a diamond trick, and if
40. Ancient physician East had the king, a diamond lead had
to come from Rose’s side of the table —
42. Creator of a logical and quickly, before South got discards
razor on the clubs.
43. River to the Volga DAILY QUESTION
You hold: k K J 10 7 2 j 10
44. Daughter of Loki, in i K 8 5 3 hK 6 3. Your partner opens
Norse myth one heart, you respond one spade and he
Hard 2 - 2 Solutions rebids two hearts. The opponents pass.
45. Cardinal’s insignia What do you say?
Across 34. Hurricane’s center 75. Shows disdain ANSWER: This case is close. Swap
47. Zest
1. Go ballistic 36. Pianist Claudio 76. Even your king of spades for the ace and you
7. Luau dances 48. “Maybe yes, maybe could certainly bid 2NT. Some players
37. Everlasting 77. Grape or tomato, e.g. would try 2NT anyway, especially if
12. Cries of surprise 41. Hockey score 78. Antarctica’s ___ no” vulnerable with more to gain by bidding
16. Agriculturally viable 42. Cries at fireworks Coast 52. Indian tourist city and making a game. If not vulnerable,
pass. Your minimum high-card strength
17. “No bid” 46. Monthly MetroCard, 79. Exxon competitor 54. Apparition and lack of heart support suggest
18. Prohibition e.g. 80. Salad green 55. “The Day the Earth caution.
South dealer
19. Lock sites 49. Tabula ___ 81. Specks in the sea Stood Still” star Michael N-S vulnerable
20. Prescription 50. Flair 56. Some wild goats NORTH
amounts 51. Jeer Down 57. Wanderers k5
1. Spikes jJ 8 5 3 2
21. Shade of green 52. Play area 58. Heathers Easy 1 - 1 Solution iA 6
22. To be enclosed in an 53. Nutritional abbr. 2. Florida fruit hQ 10 8 7 2
3. Safe places 59. French possessive
abnormal membrane sac 54. Soaked 61. Knickknack
WEST EAST
4. Online auction site kQ 9 8 4 kK J 10 7 2
24. Baseball manager 60. CPR pros 5. Parting words jK 4 j10
62. Deem appropriate i10 9 4 2 iK 8 5 3
Joe 63. Like some Christians 6. Hospital work hA 5 4 hK 6 3
65. Very, in music
25. ___ Hulka (“Stripes” 64. Take in 7. Cab Calloway catch-
role) 66. “The Crying Game” 67. Ninnies SOUTH
phrase kA 6 3
26. Book before Job: star 8. Fairy tale’s second 69. Crowd sound jA Q 9 7 6
iQ J 7
Abbr. 68. Soul word 70. After hJ 9
27. Cheat 69. Chicken cookers 9. Survive 71. Twitches South West North East
28. Slip (into) 73. Ancient Peruvian 10. “___ Death” (Grieg 72. Cambodian money 1j Pass 4j All Pass
30. Reporter’s asset 74. Volcano-shaped work) 74. Toronto media inits. Easy 2 - 1 Solution Opening lead —k4

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.

ADELIE CHISEL HULAS RENNIE

ADJOIN COAL TAR I PASS ROTISSERIES
ANDREW CONIC IBICES SAGINAW
ANIMA CRESS I’LL SEE YOU SANCTA
ARABLE DOSES ISLETS SEE FIT
ARENA ENTER IN LACES SELMA
ARRAU ERICAS LOSE IT SNIFFS
ASSAI FRANC NOMADS STEELS
ASSES GALEN OCCAM TESTS
BACCA HI-DE-HO ORANGE TORRE
CANALS HOARSE REBORN TRIFLE

SOLUTIONS
CROSSWORD SUPER KAKURO 4NUMBERS

HARD 1

HARD 2

EASY 1

EASY 2
 TUESDAY, MAY 18, 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

Easy

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
2

EPOCH DOKU CONSTRUCTED

BY EPOCH TIMES STAFF

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
INNOO
EPOCH ESCAPE MAZE
LAGEE

LDCEDU

FTAIYR
Now arrange the circled letters
©2021 Tribune Content Agency, LLC to form the surprise answer, as
All Rights Reserved. suggested by the above cartoon.

THE “ ”

WORK SPACE

SOLUTIONS
SUPERSUDOKU SUDOKU: EASY JUMBLE EASY KAKURO
THE “RODE” WORK SPACE
it was the — END OF
the stable on horseback,
When they returned to
Answers:

RATIFY
CUDDLE
EAGLE
SUDOKU: HARD EPOCH DOKU
ONION
Jumbles:

CRYPTIC QUOTE
the old system.
wanted to get away from
virtually all groups that
I was sympathetic to
Contact the Puzzle Master @: Feedback@EpochTimes.com
A20 | TUESDAY, MAY 18, 2021

Truth and Tradition

The Gift of Strength in a Challenging Time
You know that the truth doesn’t just make you more Through our journalism, you can prove to them that our
informed—it can also give you the strength to fight and to nation’s values still remain strong. You can show them that
hope. But what about your friends and family who are still there is a growing community that’s willing to stand up for
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unbiased news coverage.
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Best-selling author, attorney,
and talk show host
I congratulate you and I love reading The Epoch Times has been
The Epoch Times for the work The Epoch Times! a welcome and refreshing
you are doing, especially with I always feel encouraged antidote that re-instills
regard to keeping the menace and hopeful about sanity and rationality, as well
of the communist threat in our future. as sanctity for human life.
front of us. CHRISTINE CARTWRIGHT NEAL BOGOSIAN
DR. SEBASTIAN GORKA
Military and intelligence analyst and former
deputy assistant to the president

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CHILDREN’S LITERATURE THEATER

Not Just for Kids Acting Appreciation 101

Adults, try rereading childhood classics. You’ll gain So you think acting is easy.
a more profound understanding of these stories. Here’s what it actually takes.

See B2 See B7

TRADITIONAL CULTURE|ART|ENTERTAINMENT TUESDAY, MAY 18, 2021 B1

TRADITIONAL CULTURE

A pair of geese take shelter

The Many Meanings of Marriage: among reeds during adverse

weather. During the end of
the Song Dynasty, this kind
of painting symbolized the

Centuries-Old Wisdom couple who suffered together

and still loved each other.

ANN LIN

S
o that they are no more
twain, but one flesh. What
therefore God hath joined
together, let not man put
asunder. —Matthew 19:6

Since biblical times, we’ve been

searching for our other halves,
wanting to ride into the sunset with
our one true love, and marrying the
love of our life. But marriage tradi-
tions through the ages have ranged
from joyous to somber. Some
ancient wedding traditions empha-
sized the challenges that awaited
newlyweds and the loss of moving
away from their families. If one
word could capture the universal
ideal of marriage success, it’s prob-
ably “harmony,” beginning with the
story of our first ancestors.

And the Lord God said, “It is not

good that the man should be alone;
I will make him an help meet for
him.” —Genesis 2:18

According to the Hebrew Bible, all of

humankind descended from Adam
and Eve. God felt that Adam needed
a partner and created Eve by taking
her from Adam’s rib. Thus, the first
couple in the world was formed.
Eve was born to nurture and ac-
company Adam, and in exchange,
Adam vowed to protect and provide
for her. They were two sides of the
same coin—born of the same body,
and through God’s blessed union,
once again brought together as one
in order to be fruitful.

If one word could

capture the universal
ideal of marriage
success, it’s probably
‘harmony.’
The True Meaning of Marriage
In ancient China, it was said that
unmarried men and women were
incomplete. Only after they found
their other half and were wedded
were they considered whole. Ac-
cording to the “Yili Zhushu,” a text
from the pre-Han Dynasty, “father
and son, man and wife, [and] broth-
ers are one body as well.” This pas-
sage illustrates the importance that
was placed on marriage in ancient
China. While brothers and fathers
and sons are bonded by blood,
husbands and wives are connected
only by love and loyalty.
In “The Book of Rites,” Confucius
says, “From the distinction between
man and woman came the righ-
teousness between husband and
wife.” Similar to biblical beliefs,
people in ancient China thought
that men and women had different
responsibilities. The husband was
expected to provide for his wife and
family, while the wife was supposed
to take care of household duties.
This exchange of responsibilities
resulted in a mutual understand-
ing and respect, which the ancients
referred to as “righteousness.”
Marriage was an important foun-
dation of society in ancient China,
and often played an important role
in clan organization and politics.

Continued on B4
COURTESY OF THE NATIONAL PALACE MUSEUM
B2
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International
Chinese Vocal
Competition
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TUESDAY, MAY 18, 2021
CHILDREN’S LITERATURE
Not Just For Kids:
Children’s Literature
and the Rest of Us
JEFF MINICK
M
any years ago, I hired a
young man, Kevin, to help
out part-time during the
summer in my bookshop
on Waynesville, North
Carolina’s Main Street. Kevin was about
six feet tall, a bulky kid who was a rising
senior in high school and an outstanding
student with a great sense of humor.
One afternoon, I left the store and
walked down the street to make a de-
posit at the bank. When I returned, Kevin
stood in the back of the store weeping
like a child. “Hey, man, what’s wrong?” I
asked, hurrying toward him and thinking
someone must have died. Margery Williams’s
Kevin held up a children’s book and said “The Velveteen Rabbit”
through his tears, “We’ve sold so many was published in 1922.
of these. I just wanted to see what all the
excitement was about.”
The book was Robert Munsch’s “Love
You Forever,” the touching story of a
mother’s love for her son and the return
of that love when the son cares for his
mother in her final years. Like so many
other readers, including me, this tough-
minded, funny kid broke down as he read
this story of care and affection.
As we get older, we tend to put away the
books we’ve read as children and ado-
lescents, and only retrieve those stories
when we wish to share them with out own
children. If we remain readers as adults—
and I hope we all do—we instead pick up Robert Munsch’s
some history or biography that interests “Love You Forever” has
us, a bestselling novel, a cookbook, or a
manual on gardening or home decora-
made grown men cry.
tion. We read for pleasure and edification,
and leave behind the stories so dear to us
as children and teenagers.
Which is unfortunate.
Becoming Real
As both a parent and a teacher, I explored
books unfamiliar to me, or returned to
stories I scarcely remembered from my
childhood. Either I passed them by in my
younger years, or they made little impres-
sion on me.
One such story I read to my kids was
Margery Williams’s “The Velveteen Rab-
bit,” and we listened to the Meryl Streep
recording as well. Had I read this classic
story in elementary school? I have no idea.
But as an adult, the passage below hit me
like a left hook:
“Real isn’t how you are made,” said the The first-edition dust
Skin Horse. “It’s a thing that happens to jacket of the 1968 novel
you. When a child loves you for a long, “True Grit” by Charles Portis.
long time, not just to play with, but RE-
ALLY loves you, then you become Real.”
“Does it hurt?” asked the Rabbit.
“Sometimes,” said the Skin Horse, for he
was always truthful. “When you are Real
you don’t mind being hurt.”
“Does it happen all at once, like being
wound up,” he asked, “or bit by bit?”
“It doesn’t happen all at once,” said the
Skin Horse. “You become. It takes a long
time. That’s why it doesn’t happen often
to people who break easily, or have sharp
edges, or who have to be carefully kept.
Generally, by the time you are Real, most
of your hair has been loved off, and your
eyes drop out and you get loose in the
joints and very shabby. But these things
don’t matter at all, because once you are
Real you can’t be ugly, except to people
who don’t understand.”
Readers may laugh, but even as I cop-
The cover of “Anne of Green
ied this passage into this article my eyes Gables” by Lucy Maud Mont-
misted up. As an old guy, I’m loose in the gomery, published in 1908.
joints, very shabby, and yet “these things
don’t matter at all.”
Age Brings Depth
When I mentioned to others that I was
writing this article, several people told
me they had reread childhood classics as
adults and had gained a more profound
understanding of these stories.
One of my sons, for example, a Harry
Potter fan as a teenager who when he fin-
ished the final volume felt as if he’d “said
goodbye to a close friend,” revisited the
series last year and found deeper mean-
ing, including religious insights, in this
story of Hogwarts Castle with its cast of
heroes and villains.
I knew that editor and writer Annie
Holmquist of Intellectual Takeout has a The front-cover art for the
passion for such literature, and so wrote book “Winnie-the-Pooh”
to her asking if she reread old childhood written by A.A. Milne and
favorites. She replied: illustrated by E.H. Shepard.
 TUESDAY, MAY 18, 2021
“Well, ‘Anne of Green Gables’ and the
subsequent books in that series have
been ones that I have picked up countless
times. The ‘All-of-a-Kind Family’ series is
another one that I still enjoy as an adult. I
actually picked up a Marguerite de Angeli
book over the weekend that I hadn’t read
in ages (‘Thee, Hannah!’).
“I’ve enjoyed reading some of the Moffat
stories by Eleanor Estes. I especially like
the humor in these latter books—from
my point of view, the humor is such that
it would be missed by a child, because
it is written through a child’s eyes and
shows how they take something very se-
riously that an adult would be guffawing
at behind his hand while trying to keep
a straight face.
“I think that’s one of the things I really
enjoy about children’s books as an adult—
I pick up on all the hidden meanings that
completely went over my head as a child.
I also find that some of these books have
wonderful nuggets of truth that speak to
Original artworks, canvas wraps,
art posters, and framed prints of
Award-winning oil paintings
now available for purchase at
I n s p ire d O r i g i n a l .O rg
MONKEY BUSINESS IMAGES/SHUTTERSTOCK
my heart in ways that they never would
If you loved one of have as a child.”
your children’s books,
why not reread it? Plain and Simple Truths
Like “The Velveteen Rabbit,” several of
the books I taught to classes of 7th- and
8th-grade homeschoolers were also
strangers to me. Mildred Taylor’s “Roll
of Thunder, Hear My Cry,” Jeanne Bird-
sall’s “The Penderwicks: A Summer Tale
of Four Sisters, Two Rabbits, and a Very
Interesting Boy,” and Lois Lenski’s “In-
dian Captive: The Story of Mary Jemison”
provided as much or more pleasure for
me as an adult as they might have in my
Such literary youth. I also admired these stories and
others for the virtues and truths they of-
works can fered young readers.
bestow One such novel that I particularly en-
joyed teaching was Charles Portis’s “True
wisdom and Grit,” the coming-of-age story of a teenage
solace on girl who hires a U.S. Marshal and a Texas
Ranger to help her track down her father’s
adults as well. killer. This novel is a crossover book, ap-
B3
propriate for both teens and adults, but
though I’d seen the John Wayne film
based on the story, and the 2010 version
with Jeff Bridges as Marshal Rooster Cog-
burn, I’d never read the book until I se-
lected it for my students, a choice based
on the recommendation of a parent.
Two qualities in “True Grit” particu-
larly attracted me. The first was Portis’s
command of the English language, his
straight-shooting descriptions and dia-
logue that are so different from much
of contemporary English literature. The
second was the character Mattie, the ad-
mirable young girl who unerringly thinks
and speaks the truth.
Like so many books for young people
with such characters, “True Grit” cele-
brates a hero with grit, bravado, a sense
of justice, and a clear-cut sense of values.
Treasures for All of Us
Recently in The Epoch Times I reviewed
“Pollyanna,” another children’s classic
new to me. Here I found a refreshing in-
nocence absent from my normal literary
fare, a belief in goodness and in searching
out reasons to be happy in life. Given the
pandemic and other troubling events of
the last year, Pollyanna’s “glad game” was
a wonderful reminder to seek the good
in each day.
Reading an old chestnut from our child-
hood, or even opening such a classic for
the first time—“Treasure Island,” “The
Jungle Book,” “Winnie-the-Pooh”—can
bring us the same unforeseen gifts I found
in “Pollyanna.” They may be aimed at a
younger audience, but such literary works
can bestow wisdom and solace on adults
as well.
So pour yourself a cup of cocoa, grab a
chocolate chip cookie, open up a copy of
some book like “Charlotte’s Web,” and let
the magic begin.
Jeff Minick has four children and a grow-
ing platoon of grandchildren. For 20
years, he taught history, literature, and
Latin to seminars of homeschooling stu-
dents in Asheville, N.C. He is the author
of two novels, “Amanda Bell” and “Dust
On Their Wings,” and two works of non-
fiction, “Learning As I Go” and “Movies
Make The Man.” Today, he lives and
writes in Front Royal, Va. See JeffMinick.
com to follow his blog.
B4
There are three versions of the “Up the River During Qingming” handscroll painting, made in the Qing, Song, and Ming dynasties, depicting a groom going to the bride’s home to escort her to their
wedding. Here is the Ming Dynasty version, and below center, the Qing. 
TRADITIONAL CULTURE
The Many Meanings of Marriage:
Centuries-Old Wisdom
Continued from B1
PUBLIC DOMAIN
But the main purpose of marriage was to
raise children to become upstanding mem-
bers of society and pass down each family’s
heritage. As “The Book of Rites” says: “The
ceremony of marriage was intended to be a
bond of love between two [(families of dif-
ferent]) surnames, with a view, in its retro-
spective character, to secure the services in
the ancestral temple, and in its prospective
character, to secure the continuance of the
family line.”
Ancient Rituals
Due to the sacred nature of the marriage
bond in ancient China, there were strict rules
of etiquette surrounding it. For a marriage to
be considered valid, it must be approved by
the couple’s parents. A marriage wasn’t only
a union between the couple—it was a union
between their two families. In fact, the par-
ents often acted as matchmakers. Arranged
marriages were very common.
The courting process began with a match-
maker introducing the two people. It was
considered improper for unmarried men
and women to become closely acquainted
with each other outside of formal match-
making procedures. Once a match was
made, the family needed to report news
A newly wedded couple pays their respects in the wedding of the marriage to the monarch. A feast
chapel. The three-step procedure involves first paying respect was then organized, and the entire village
to the heavens, then to the groom’s parents, and finally to one came together to celebrate the union of the
another, sealing their status as husband and wife. new couple.
TUESDAY, MAY 18, 2021
Similar to
biblical beliefs,
people in
ancient China
thought that
men and
women had
different
responsibilities.
The official proposal process involved
COURTESY OF THE NATIONAL PALACE MUSEUM
the “six rites,” which originated in classi-
cal times. Since the Western Zhou Dynas-
ty, it was mainly practiced among the elite.
But in the Tang Dynasty, it spread widely
among the common people. In order for a
couple to be considered properly married,
the rites had to be performed in order.
The first step was for the man to propose
with an accompanying gift. If the lady’s
family chose to accept the proposal, they
A white jade gourd ladle could proceed to the second rite, which
from the Mogul Empire.
was “inquiring into the lady’s name and
In ancient times, the
bride and groom would birthday.” This was done to make sure the
drink from a gourd ladle, couple didn’t have any blood relatives.
symbolizing that they Third was “the intimation of the approv-
would share the burden ing divination,” which ensured that the
of any difficulties that union would be a balanced match. The
might lie ahead. fourth rite involved the husband making
 TUESDAY, MAY 18, 2021
COURTESY OF THE NATIONAL PALACE MUSEUM
offerings to the lady’s family, and the fifth
was inquiring about the date of the wed-
ding. Finally, the six rites conclude with
the groom and bride meeting in person.
A Solemn Affair
Nowadays, wedding ceremonies are seen as
celebrations and are often treated like a big
party. However, during certain periods and
places, such as China’s Zhou Dynasty, they
were solemn, serious affairs. As “The Book of
Rites” recounts: “At the marriage ceremony,
they did not employ music, having reference
to the feeling of solitariness and darkness
[natural to the separation from parents]. …
There was no congratulation on marriage;
it indicates how [one generation of] men
succeeds to another.” This sentiment was
present in the bleak wedding ceremonies
COURTESY OF THE NATIONAL PALACE MUSEUM
of the Western Zhou Dynasty, which had
no music, words of congratulation, food,
or drinks.
After the wedding ceremony, the bride’s
family wasn’t allowed to light candles
for three nights, so as to show their sad-
ness over their daughter’s parting. At the
groom’s home, music, singing, and danc-
ing was banned for three days to dem-
onstrate that he was a serious man who
could handle the responsibility of raising
a family.
There were also many traditions that
took place during the couple’s first night
under the same roof. To symbolize the
start of their new life as husband and wife,
the two drank together from a calabash,
or gourd. The gourd was broken into two
pieces, and each half was filled with wine.
A string was used to tie the two halves to-
gether, conveying that though the couple
used to be apart, fate had brought them
together. The gourd and wine typically
have a bitter taste, which signified future
hardships the couple would face. A com-
mon tradition throughout China was for
the husband and wife to each cut off a lock
of hair and tie them together to symbolize
unity and an eternal bond.
While the marriage process has changed
drastically over the centuries, a person’s
wedding day remains one of life’s most
important moments. Now that the world
has placed so much emphasis on the indi-
vidual and has splintered into thousands
of subcultures, finding two people who
both agree on the meaning and function
of marriage is becoming rare. But the hope
remains universal that, God willing, each
of us will find our one perfect match and
walk arm in arm for the rest of our lives.
Translated into English by Angela Feng.
FINE ARTS
A Golden Engagement
Petrus Christus,
a Northern
Renaissance
master
LORRAINE FERRIER
In the painting “A Goldsmith in
His Shop,” a finely dressed couple
are eagerly purchasing a wedding
ring. The man tenderly wraps his
arm around his fiancée, while she
happily gestures to the goldsmith
who is weighing a ring on a set of
scales. The goldsmith, dressed in a
rich-red robe, concentrates on his
customer’s request as he prepares
the ring for sale.
On the right side of the painting
is a wall full of the goldsmith’s tools
and the fruits of his trade. Each one
is meticulously rendered. Elegant
pewterware pitchers are displayed
on the top shelf. According to the
Metropolitan Museum of Art (The
Met) website, these were created for
the city’s aldermen, who would of-
fer them to important guests. The
bottom shelf displays an open
purse of seed pearls, and on a cloth
are many precious gems alongside
a selection of rings displayed much
like we’d see them in a shop today.
On the bottom shelf, behind the
gems, are some of the goldsmith’s
raw materials: from left to right,
crystal, porphyry (a rock contain-
ing large crystals), and coral.
Some of the items in the painting
look a little out of place, but they’re
there to indicate the virtues of the
couple’s pending matrimony. For
instance, in the foreground, on the
left side of the wooden bench with
its wonderfully detailed grain, a
discarded red girdle (like a belt) is
near the woman. It is rendered as
if to enter into the viewer’s space.
The girdle traditionally symbolizes
chastity and a readiness to serve,
both seen as the contemporary ide-
als of a traditional marriage.
On the far right side of the work-
bench, a convex mirror reflects the
outside world where, standing in
front of a row of buildings, two falcon-
ers seem to peer into the goldsmith’s
shop. The mirror indicates vanity,
and the falconers represent pride
and greed. It’s a symbolic warning
of the vices that have no place in the
bounds of a happy marriage.
Some scholars believe that the
painting is a portrait of the Bruges
goldsmith Willem van Vleuten, who
worked for the duke of Burgundy,
Philip the Good. In 1449, the year
the painting was completed, the
duke commissioned van Vleuten
to create a gift for his great-niece,
Mary of Guelders, to celebrate her
marriage to James II, the king of
Scotland.
Researchers further reinforced
the possibility that the painting is a
portrait, as the artist, Petrus Chris-
tus, had corrected the goldsmith’s
“A Goldsmith in His Shop,” 1449, by Petrus Christus. Oil on oak panel; 39
3/8 inches by 33 3/4 inches. Robert Lehman Collection, 1975; Metropolitan
Museum of Art.
B5
appearance several times in his un-
derdrawing, indicating that he was
creating someone’s likeness rather
than an imaginary figure.
Petrus Christus
Christus was a contemporary of the
great Flemish painters Jan van Eyck
and Rogier van der Weyden. Born
around 1420 in the Flemish town
of Baerle, now in Belgium, Christus
worked in Bruges (in the region of
Flanders), which at that time was the
leading center of Netherlandish art.
For over 20 years, after van Eyck
died in 1441 and before Hans Mem-
ling came to Bruges around 1465,
Christus was the leading artist
in Bruges.
Some sources believe that Chris-
tus studied in van Eyck’s studio, even
finishing some of his master’s works
when he died in 1441. His meticu-
lously detailed paintings certainly
mirror van Eyck’s fastidious paint-
ings, but the brightness that van Eyck
brought to his figures isn’t quite seen
in Christus’s works.
Nonetheless, Christus made im-
portant contributions to Northern
Renaissance art. It is believed that
he helped spread the Northern Re-
naissance style of painting to Italy.
The pioneering style was defined by
van Eyck’s use of layer upon layer of
translucent glazes, resulting in the
exceptional blending and detailing
on his canvas.
It’s not known if Christus traveled
to Italy himself, but his paintings
certainly did. According to The Met’s
website, nearly half of his known
paintings were commissioned by
Italians, have an Italian or Spanish
provenance, or were known by Ital-
ian artists such as Anthony of Mes-
sina, who was highly influenced by
Christus’s work.
Art historian E.H. Gombrich ex-
plains the difference between North-
ern and Italian Renaissance art in his
book “The Story of Art”:
“It is a fair guess to say that any
work which excels in the representa-
tion of the beautiful surface of things,
of flowers, jewels or fabric, will be by
a Northern artist, most probably by
an artist from the Netherlands; while
a painting with bold outlines, clear
perspective and a sure mastery of
the beautiful human body, will
be Italian.”
Christus mastered single-point
perspective in his later paintings,
perhaps by replicating perspective
in Italian art owned by his patrons,
according to The Met’s website. Some
sources believe that his painting
“The Virgin Enthroned With Saints
Jerome and Francis,” at Frankfurt’s
Städel Museum, is the earliest ex-
ample of single-point perspective
in Northern Renaissance art.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
in New York owns five of the ap-
proximately thirty Petrus Christus
paintings known to exist. To find out
more, visit MetMuseum.org
PUBLIC DOMAIN
B6
LITERATURE
The First
Queen of
Mystery:
Mary Roberts
Rinehart
BENJAMIN WELTON
M
ary Roberts Rinehart
(1876–1958) almost wound
up dead just like one of her
own characters.
On the morning of June
21, 1947, a disgruntled cook named Blas
Reyes pointed a loaded gun at Rinehart
and pulled the trigger. The only thing that
saved the famous mystery writer was the
age of the bullets; the filthy and ancient
cartridges did not fire. The gun dropped
to the floor.
The household servants rushed to save
Rinehart. Her personal maid, Margaret
Muckian, and her chauffeur, Ted Falken-
strom, tried to subdue Reyes. They only suc-
ceeded after Reyes tried another method to
dispatch his employer—the mad and likely
drunk Reyes placed two kitchen knives in
his hands and took a swipe at Rinehart.
Once pinned to the floor, Reyes was escort-
ed out of the house by Howard MacFarland,
the police captain of Bar Harbor, Maine.
The next day, the would-be assassin took
his own life in his jail cell. Rinehart paid
for the Reyes’s funeral and burial.
Although she was called
‘America’s Agatha
Christie’ for a time,
Rinehart’s popularity
once overshadowed her
British peer.
Breast cancer had earlier tried to take
Rinehart’s life too, and in 1947 (the same
year as the close call with murder), she told
the “Ladies’ Home Journal” about her deci-
sion to undergo a dangerous mastectomy.
Rinehart was nothing if not a survivor.
Tragedy and Triumph
This harrowing story was but one tale in
the tragic and triumphant life of Rinehart.
Born Mary Ella Roberts in Allegheny City,
Pennsylvania (today part of Pittsburgh),
she grew up in a family beset by financial
and emotional difficulties. Her father com-
mitted suicide when she was just 19. This
forced her to get serious about maturity
and money matters. Rinehart graduated
from the Pittsburgh Training School for
Nurses. While working as a nurse, she met
and married Stanley Rinehart, a physician.
This marriage produced three
children.
Following a stock market
crash in the early 20th century,
Rinehart turned to writing to
improve the young family’s
finances. She proved to be a
maestro of the short story form
and regularly appeared in The
Saturday Evening Post.
However, in 1907, Rinehart
landed upon the genre and
the form that would make
her a household name in the
English-speaking world: the
mystery novel.
‘The Circular Staircase’
Rinehart’s debut effort, “The Circular Stair-
case,” remains one of the most popular
mystery novels ever written. The novel fo-
cuses on a wealthy widow named Rachel
Innes, who is described as an adventurous
woman: a globe trotter, a donator to causes,
and a one-time socialist supporter.
Innes and her personal maid rent a man-
sion outside of Pittsburgh for the summer.
Little does the pair know that their summer
house will become a den of intrigue and
murder thanks to a mysterious criminal.
Outside of the mansion’s walls, jewel thefts,
a bank heist, and cold-blooded murder
TUESDAY, MAY 18, 2021
PUBLIC DOMAIN
The first
queen of the
mystery novel,
Mary Roberts
Rinehart, in
1922.
“The Circular Staircase”
was first serialized in 1907
and then released as a
book in 1908.
PUBLIC DOMAIN
have rocked the small town, and before fiction. The woman
long Innes’s summer retreat is targeted. who wrote stories
“The Circular Staircase” features a nar- about isolated man-
ration style, called “had I but known,” that sions and summer re-
came to define Rinehart’s later work. “The treats spent her years
Circular Staircase,” for example, has the alternating between
murderer hiding in plain sight all along. luxury apartments
Rinehart’s first novel created a pop-cul- in New York City and
ture sensation. After its initial publication, Washington, D.C., and
“The Circular Staircase” was recast as the her summer mansion
Broadway play “The Bat” in 1920. Rinehart in Bar Harbor.
and collaborator Avery Hopwood turned
the Gothic mystery into a pulp-style yarn Rinehart’s Legacy
with the inclusion of a masked and black- Rinehart is little re-
clothed master criminal called the Bat. Ra- membered today. Her
chel Innes was turned into Cornelia Van legacy pales in com-
Gorder, a tough woman always shadowed parison to Christie’s
by her skittish nurse, Lizzie Allen. Director larger shadow. If dis-
Roland West turned the play into a major cussed at all, Rinehart The film “The Bat
motion picture in 1926. is characterized as a writer of cozy and quiet Whispers,” which
West was not done with the source mate- mystery stories. In truth, she was a master is based on “The
rial, either. A master of macabre storytell- of plotting who weaved intricate mysteries Circular Stair-
ing, he returned to “The Bat” again in 1930 that thrilled generations of readers. case,” inspired
Bob Kane, the
with the release of “The Bat Whispers.” The Her novels and short stories also show-
Rinehart’s 1930 novel future creator of
story remained the same, but West’s second case an all-American mystery mix of “sci- Batman. Kane
“The Door” is credited with adaptation added sound and experimental entific” crimefighting, the manor-house
creating the phrase “the posing with art-
cinematography. aesthetic more common in British novels, work for the Bat-
butler did it,” although that Cinematographers Ray June and Robert and the hard-boiled accoutrements of the
line does not appear in the mobile, in this file
novel.
H. Planck shot the film in both 35 mm and style made famous by Dashiell Hammett photo.
65 mm, plus West, June, and Planck utilized and Raymond Chandler.
the then innovative technique of panning Rinehart’s novels feature corruption and
to give “The Bat Whispers” an incredible violence, but they are also romantic and Rinehart’s debut
sense of excitement. One of the cinemago- humorous fantasies set in familiar worlds. effort, “The Cir-
cular Staircase,”
ers who fell in love with the movie was Bob Rinehart deserves new appreciation as not
remains one of
Kane, the future creator of Batman. Kane just a great and important writer, but also the most popu-
wrote in his 1989 autobiography, “Batman as a survivor who defeated a murderous lar mystery nov-
and Me,” that the idea of a caped crusader cook and breast cancer. els ever writ-
disguised as a bat came from “The Bat ten. In 1915, it
Whispers.” Benjamin Welton is a freelance writer appeared as a
Rinehart’s influence is much greater than based in New England. silent movie.
her connection to Batman,
however. Although called
“America’s Agatha Christie” for
a time, Rinehart’s popularity
once overshadowed her British
peer, and few can dispute that
she wrote long before Christie
and clearly influenced the Brit-
ish grande dame of mystery
novels.
Rinehart’s 1930 novel “The
Door” is also credited with
creating the phrase “the but-
ler did it,” although that exact
wording does not appear in
the novel. Rinehart sold mil-
lions of books—some stand-
“The Bat Whispers” is alone novels and some featuring recurring
Roland West’s second characters like Cornelia Van Gorder, the
adaptation of “The nurse-detective Hilda Adams (aka Miss
Circular Staircase,” Pinkerton), and the international adven-
which added exciting turer Letitia “Tish” Carberry.
innovations in sound and
All characters bore traces of Rinehart’s
cinematography. A lobby
card for the film. real life: She lived alone after her husband’s
death in 1932 as a rich widow, she was a
UNITED ARTISTS
former nurse, and, during World War I, she
worked as a war correspondent for The Sat-
urday Evening Post. In this position, the
PUBLIC DOMAIN
poor girl from Pittsburgh lived in Belgium
and interviewed luminaries like King Al-
bert I of Belgium and Winston Churchill.
In other ways, Rinehart’s life mirrored her
 TUESDAY, MAY 18, 2021
Acting Appreciation 101:
‘Character Acting’ Explained
MARK JACKSON
The art of acting, and especially shape-
shifting, or character acting, is largely
misunderstood and underappreciated by
nonactors. Which is no surprise; theater
is the most misunderstood of all the arts.
The seven classical arts are architecture,
sculpture, painting, music, dance, theater,
and poetry.
We know immediately that a musical
instrument is hard to master, because it’s
external to us. When we watch Itzhak Perl-
man play violin or Jimi Hendrix play elec-
tric guitar, we say, “Wow, that’s looks hard.
I could never do that.” We see world-class
ballet and say, “That’s obviously extremely
difficult. No way.” Same thing for Michel-
angelo’s most well-known sculpture, “Da-
vid” (also his architectural masterpiece
the Piazza del Campidoglio), Leonardo
da Vinci’s painting “Mona Lisa,” Handel’s
“Messiah,” and Shakespeare’s “Hamlet.”
Those are all hard to create.
But when we see an actor act ... it looks
easy. It’s supposed to look easy. And so
many people feel, deep down, that they
could do that. The problem starts with the
fact that the instruments of the actor—the
physical body and the voice—are, well, as
John Lennon put it: “Everybody’s got one.”
We all have these instruments. They’re
built-in. Which makes most people think,
“How hard could it be?”
Plenty Hard
There’s a reason that acting conservatories
like Juilliard and the Yale School of Drama
exist: It takes practice. The greatest stage
actor of all time, Laurence Olivier, said
acting takes 20 years to master. Or 10,000
hours, as author Malcolm Gladwell says, is
the universal time it takes to master any-
thing, in his book “Outliers.” The level of
talent can shorten or lengthen that time,
but either way—it takes a good, long effort.
Screen legend Clint Eastwood maintains
that the uninitiated think acting means,
“Don’t just stand there—do something!”
Eastwood spoke about how fiendishly dif-
ficult it is to learn to become simple. He said
it takes years to learn, and that when it comes
to acting, that well-known phrase is reversed:
“Don’t just do something—stand there.”
But you also have to be able to just stand
there ... and still be interesting, since the
cardinal rule in theater is to never be bor-
ing. Standing still, doing nothing, and still
being interesting has to do with charisma,
which is a talent. It can’t be taught. There
are different forms of it. People who are
drop-dead gorgeous have a certain charis-
ma, for example. That kind of beauty is god-
like; it’s inherently fascinating. Which is
why looks are not a big deal in the industry;
it’s a standard tool of the trade like height
in basketball—people want to watch it, it’s
bankable. Sit in on any top-flight New York
or L.A. acting class and you’ll be floored by
the sheer amount of physical beauty in one
room. For everyone else in there, it’s just
another day at the office.
The true definition of
acting: disappearing so
thoroughly into a role
that the actor becomes
unrecognizable to even
friends and family.
But stage charisma usually has to do with
the ability to achieve extreme inner still-
ness. Which can be enhanced by learning
to meditate. People can’t stop watching that
because they can’t figure out what the ac-
tor will do next. Why? Because the actor
himself or herself, in that state, doesn’t
know—shouldn’t know—what’s going to
happen next.
Laser Focus
Acting has been called “the ability to be
private in public.”
We can all walk around our apartments
in our underwear. That’s easy. But put that
same regular person onstage in front of a
big audience or in front of a camera and
movie crew (still in their underwear) with
many memorized lines to speak, and also
blocking (choreographed directions on the
stage or movie set), that need to be synced,
timing-wise, with other actors, stage light-
ing, sound effects, and so on. Maybe throw
in that the character must cry real tears
while on the phone looking out the window
(Above) Two of modern act-
ing’s top character actors
(who also happen to belong to
the category of leading man
and woman, a rare occur-
rence): Daniel Day-Lewis,
winner of the Best Actor
award for “Lincoln,” and pre-
senter Meryl Streep pose in
the press room during the
Oscars on Feb. 24, 2013.
(Right) Jon Heder completely
changed his appearance to
play the pathetic nerd Napo-
leon, here looking very sharp,
in “Napoleon Dynamite.”
Sir Laurence Olivier, consid-
ered by some to be the best
actor of the 20th century, as
Heathcliff.
PUBLIC DOMAIN
Beautiful Charlize Theron was
unrecognizable in her star-
ring role in “Monster.” Here
she is at the 69th annual
Cannes Film Festival in 2016
in Cannes, France.
(and maybe they’re also naked now, with
people scrutinizing their body). And hit all
the consonants enough to make speech
intelligible to people in the back row (while
standing with his or her back to the audi-
ence or microphone) while not sounding
stilted. (And don’t forget the cardio fitness it
takes to handle all that and not get winded.)
That non-trained civilian I mentioned at the
beginning of this paragraph will freak out
and completely forget how to walk and talk.
The ability to laser-focus the mind for
extended periods of time is key for a vari-
ety of reasons, one which is that an audi-
ence will naturally vibrate and respond
on a subconscious level to whatever is
happening onstage. Which means that if
your mind falters on that high wire that
is the stage, and you look down and see
the ground waaaay down there with no
safety net—or as in this extended example,
you realize that you are literally naked in
front of a thousand people and become
self-conscious—the entire audience will
immediately become self-conscious and
feel embarrassed for you.
Otherwise, when the actor maintains a
clear mind and focuses on “doing the do-
ings,” which means focusing on actions (as
opposed to trying to feel feelings—that’s
why they’re called actors and not feelers),
the audience subconsciously thinks it’s at the
zoo, seeing a species of human in its natural
habitat, doing things that are universal to
humans. Then, in the best instances, theater
creates life-solving gifts that the audience
members can take home with them, and
improve and heal their lives with.
And it’s not a one-way street. The audi-
ence communicates subconsciously as
PHOTO BY PASCAL LE SEGRETAIN/GETTY IMAGES
B7
JASON MERRITT/GETTY IMAGES
FOX SEARCHLIGHT PICTURES
well, and a skilled actor must pick up on
the energy and wants and needs of an audi-
ence, directing the subconscious to make
new choices and emphasize news things
each night to suit the personality of each
audience. The collective of an audience is
a palpable personality to an actor. This is
especially the case when doing comedies;
each audience will require slightly different
timing on jokes to produce a laugh. This
kind of timing is part of why it takes 10,000
hours to master. An actor has to fail, embar-
rassingly, over and over until the reactions
to the audience become second nature.
That gives you a bit of an idea of what’s
involved in the stage actor’s craft and com-
mand of the acting instruments of body
and voice. As Laurence Olivier said, all the
great Shakespearean lead roles are athletic
events. It’s extremely challenging to not
hyperventilate while doing the balcony
speech from “Romeo and Juliet” in a stage
whisper that carries to the back row.
But What About ...
The standard argument that attempts to
counter the fact that acting and theater be-
long to the list of the seven great classical
arts, and supports the idea that anybody
can do it, is: “But what about those people
they just take off a street corner with no
prior experience and they’re brilliant?”
Most of that is showbiz publicity spin.
Woody Harrelson was declared an over-
night success when he landed the televi-
sion comedy hit “Cheers.” The publicity
machine didn’t tell you that he’d been in
New York 10 years prior, studying and au-
ditioning. This myth feeds the American
showbiz dream: Anybody can do it.
Laurence Olivier did say, though, about
acting and showbiz: “You either know ev-
erything about this business, or you know
nothing about this business.” Pure talent
(especially when combined with beauty)
can gain traction in showbiz. People want
to watch that. Which is why a talent scout
was able to snag the young Matt Dillon,
who was lounging around a junior high
hallway, cutting class.
A skilled director can, using a variety
of tricks and techniques (some of which
can definitely be labeled as abusive) get
believable, realistic, and naturalistic per-
formances out of untrained actors and non-
actors. But that’s the movies, where you can
do a hundred takes and eventually get one
right. That’s not theater. That’s not a pro.
Continued on B8
B8
Acting Appreciation 101:
‘Character Acting’ Explained
Continued from B7
‘Playing Oneself’
as Opposed to ‘Character Acting’
One classic acting comment and myth
that will never die is, “Oh he’s just playing
himself—anybody can do that.” There are
many different kinds of actors, and many
different subcategories of talents and skills
that come under the acting umbrella. Such
as accents. Some actors can do them, some
can’t. Most can. Same with impressions.
But there are essentially two different
types of actors: personality actors and
character actors. Jack Nicholson is a prime
example of a personality actor. Jack is al-
ways Jack, whether he’s a Marine Corps
colonel, a psychotic writer, or a wannabe
hippie hitching a ride on the back of a chop-
per. Jack does not do accents. Jack doesn’t
shape-shift. You always know it’s Jack, and
you’ll watch Jack all day, because Jack’s the
epitome of charismatic. But what Jack does
is not easy.
Every actor has what famous but reclu-
sive New York acting coach Allen Savage
calls the “power alley.” Which is a base-
ball term. Each thespian has something
they do exceptionally well, for which they
tend to get cast repeatedly. Contrary to
popular belief, a smart actor wants to get
typecast, because an actor is a product.
That’s how you get work. Which is why it’s
called show business. Highly business-
savvy Arnold Schwarzenegger, when
asked when he was going to get rid of
his thick Austrian accent, said he wasn’t
going to because it had become his “sig-
nah-choo-uh.” Arnold is very smart. Most
Americans can now do a decent rendition
of Arnold’s accent.
Character Actor Versus Leading Man
In contrast to leading men and leading
ladies, character actors as a showbiz and
theatrical category are generally seen as
less glamorous. A leading man or woman
as a rule has the physical beauty needed to
play the love interest; whereas a character
actor typically does not. Some character
actors are known for their unusual looks.
Yet many lead actors and actresses have
Virtue of the Brush
in a Time of Chaos
“When things are chaotic to the extreme,
order must be restored.”
- “The four books” by Zhu Xi
TUESDAY, MAY 18, 2021
RICHARD TERMINE/BAM
lead-role looks but character actor person-
alities. Which means a shy, retiring per-
sonality that is most comfortable when the
actor can disappear and become unrec-
ognizable in a role. Daniel Day-Lewis and
Jared Leto are probably the best examples
of this particular combo. Meryl Streep is
the queen of this, but she’s not exactly shy
and retiring.
Character Acting
So what, then, is character acting? Some
call it the quintessential acting experience;
it’s the true definition of acting—disap-
pearing so thoroughly into a role that the
actor becomes unrecognizable to even
friends and family. It’s to be able to be-
lievably play a role far removed from the In this production, Antony Sher (L) plays Lear, and Graham Turner play’s his fool. The Royal Shake-
comfort zone of the power alley. speare Company’s production of “King Lear,” directed by Gregory Doran, at the BAM Harvey Theater.
The classical understanding is that one
becomes a character, as in you somehow has ever seen before. Thus, you bring the (Dumbledore in the “Harry Potter” mov-
rise up and become one with the great role character down to you. ies), who was playing Lear, sitting in deep
of Hamlet; you magically morph into some- The truth lies somewhere in between. contemplation in front of the gorilla cage.
one else’s soul. The modern view is that One the best descriptions of the process As Sher says, it “all goes into the pot.” Sher
we have no other soul but our own, and is in the excellent book “Year of the King,” was later delighted to discover that his Fool
our sensory organs produce responses in by British theater acting great Antony Sher, would emit high-pitched screams, swing
us that are uniquely ours. We all process about preparing for “King Lear.” The Brit from doorways, and waddle bowlegged
the world differently. And so by putting actors love to go to the zoo and pick out across the stage with his hands high in the
ourselves in various situations we would animals with similar character traits as the air. It’s very much like giving birth.
never normally be in, such as wearing a role they’re going to play, as part of their To create a character like that and vocally
humpback and walking with a limp à la character development. project to the back row of the London Palla-
Shakespeare’s “Richard III,” we are our- Since Sher was playing the Fool, he picked dium theater, with its 2,286 seats, without a
selves in that particular set of circum- the chimpanzee. Studied it for hours. He microphone, as it was done in classical the-
stances. Which is, in fact, a person no one was happy to run into Michael Gambon ater ... that actually does look pretty hard.
WARNER BROS. PICTURES DAVID JAMES/ DREAMWORKS II DISTRIBUTION CO., LLC.
Jack Nicholson in “The Bucket List.” Nicholson almost always plays a Daniel Day-Lewis disappeared into his role as the 16th U.S. President
role that hits his power alley. Abraham Lincoln in the biopic “Lincoln.”
The original calligraphy is now available for purchase at
Ins p ired O rig inal.O rg