Epoch INSIGHT Issue 6

THE LOUDOUN COUNTY MOMS SAVING EDUCATION Parents risk all for their children’s future

By Terri Wu

How COVID-19 Changed Criminal Prosecutions 32

Impeachments Sweep South America 38

COMPANIES’ CHINA RISK 49

DEC.3–9, 2021 | $6.95

Editor’s Note

‘Courage Is Contagious’ the pandemic and subsequent lockdowns

had an unexpected effect for many parents.

With their children forced to learn from home, parents got a front-row seat to what was being taught in public schools.

For Shawntel Cooper, it was an eyeopening and disquieting sight.

Cooper, like many other parents around the country, was galvanized to take action against portions of today's public school curriculum.

Parents got engaged in school board meetings, booted out school board members, and expressed their dissatisfaction with the curriculum, especially the parts infused with critical race theory or sexualized content.

What many parents didn't expect, however, was the blowback they would face.

Some parents were placed on a "hit list" on Facebook, while others received other forms of harassment.

After Attorney General Merrick Garland instructed the FBI to investigate allegations of "harassment, intimidation, and threats of violence" against school board officials, parents suddenly faced the possibility of being investigated by the FBI for simply voicing displeasure over parts of their children's education.

This week's lead story takes an in-depth look at parents in Loudoun County, Virginia, which in many ways has become "ground zero" for parents raising concerns about the public school curriculum.

Jasper Fakkert Editor-in-chief

2 I N S I G H T December 3 – 9, 2021

STEPHEN GREGORY PUBLISHER JASPER FAKKERT EDITOR-IN-CHIEF CHANNALY PHILIPP LIFE & TRADITION, TRAVEL EDITOR CHRISY TRUDEAU MIND & BODY EDITOR CRYSTAL SHI HOME, FOOD EDITOR

ON THE COVER Jessica Mendez and her two daughers.

Mendez is one of the parents at "ground zero," in Virginia's Loudoun County, who are drawing attention to problems they see in what their kids are being taught in public schools.

GRAEME JENNINGS FOR THE EPOCH TIMES

SHARON KILARSKI ARTS & CULTURE EDITOR BILL LINDSEY LUXURY EDITOR FEI MENG, BIBA KAJEVICH & JUNHAO SU ILLUSTRATORS SHANSHAN HU PRODUCTION CONTACT US THE EPOCH TIMES ASSOCIATION INC. 229 W. 28TH ST., FL. 7 NEW YORK, NY 10001 ADVERTISING ADVERTISENOW@EPOCHTIMES.COM SUBSCRIPTIONS, GENERAL INQUIRIES, LETTERS TO THE EDITOR HELP.THEEPOCHTIMES.COM (USPS21-800)IS PUBLISHED WEEKLY

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issue 08 | ­dec. 3–9, 2021

32 | Backlog Logjam

50 | Simple Gifts

34 | Final Landing

51 | Green Thumb

Prosecutors differ on how to handle pandemic case backlog.

Giving takes us away from our preoccupation with ourselves.

The Wright Brothers' first bicycle shop building is set to be demolished.

Carlos Martinez runs the largest community gardening program in the United States.

38 | South America

52 | Urban Crisis

Three South American nations consider impeaching leaders.

44 | Federal Reserve Does the Fed chair face political interference from Democrats?

45 | CCP Influence

Protections against the CCP in Congress are stalled by Democrats.

46 | US Economy

Will supply chain and inflation problems linger?

47 | Tax Gift

A tax break to the very rich that passed the House divides Democrats.

48 | US Recovery

The U.S. misery index shows the weakness of the recovery.

49 | China's Economy Are companies aware of their China risk?

How homelessness and drug abuse issues are often conflated.

Features

12 | Loudoun Parents

Take on Marxism

56 | South Africa

A luxury nature reserve hits the market for $40 million.

How a group of Virginians started a "parents' revolution" against Marxist influence in schools.

58 | Portugal

26| Hardline Sheriff’s Softer Side Beloved by the folks in Polk County, Florida, Grady Judd has won more than 95 percent of the vote in recent elections.

60 | Gifts for Foodies

A taste of Porto’s treats, from food to fortified wine.

A sampling of food and drink subscription boxes.

61 | Life of the Party Shoppers walk along Oxford Street in central London on Dec. 2. Compulsory mask-wearing in shops and on public transport has been reintroduced in England.

TOLGA AKMEN/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES

How to be the consummate house or dinner guest.

64 | Go Your

Own Way How to plan a trip to explore the path less traveled.

67 | Feel the Breeze Several of the world's best convertibles for your consideration.

I N S I G H T December 3 – 9, 2021 3

4 I N S I G H T December 3 – 9, 2021

T H G IL T O P S ROCKY ROAD A ROCK FROM A CLIFF THAT FELL onto the Calanques de Piana road in Piana, on the French Mediterranean island of Corsica, on Nov. 25. The Calanques de Piana are a UNESCO heritage site, and the road, while very busy with tourists in the summer, gets little use in the winter. No one was injured in the incident.

PASCAL POCHARD-CASABIANCA/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES

I N S I G H T December 3 – 9, 2021 5

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Go to THEEPOCHTIMES.COM 6 I N S I G H T December 3 – 9, 2021

NAT ION • WOR L D • W H AT H A P P E N E D T H I S W E E K

The Week

Issue. 08

The cityscape of Tel-Aviv, with the Meir Shalom tower in front.

PHOTO BY GETTY IMAGES

Tel Aviv Becomes World’s Most Expensive Place to Live Rome dropped the furthest on the list, from the 32nd position to 48th

✒

TEL AVIV, the economic and technological center of Israel, has pushed all cities down to perch atop the current most expensive cities list, according to a global index that tracks the cost of living in 173 cities across the world twice per year.

The Economist Intelligence Unit’s 2021 Worldwide Cost of Living index announced Dec. 1 that Tel Aviv had jumped from the fifth position to claim the title, overtaking Paris and Singapore, jointly in second place. This is the first time Tel Aviv has occupied the top position, and it’s mainly due to soaring price increases led by groceries and transport. Residential property prices in the Israeli city have also gone up.

I N S I G H T December 3 – 9, 2021 7

The Week in Short US

687,788

CNN SUSPENDS HOST CHRIS CUOMO

‘INDEFINITELY’

GUN CHECKS

CNN has suspended host Chris Cuomo “indefinitely” following news that he had tapped sources to seek help for his brother, former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, amid sexual harassment and assault allegations against him.

The move comes after materials released by the New York Attorney General’s Office showed that the anchor wasn’t truthful to viewers when he said in August that he didn’t contact other media members about the scandal.

The newly released material showed that Chris Cuomo tapped sources, including some inside rival outlets, to see whether more women were coming forward against his brother with sexual misconduct allegations.

PENNSYLVANIANS HAVE BEEN HIT WITH AN INCREASE OF UP TO 50 PERCENT ON THEIR ENERGY BILLS STARTING DEC. 1, ACCORDING TO THE PENNSYLVANIA PUBLIC UTILITY COMMISSION.

BILLION

“Use the Debt Ceiling, Mitch, show strength and courage.

Our Country is being destroyed.”

Former President Donald Trump, calling on Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell to leverage the impending debt ceiling deadline to “totally kill” the Democrats’ social welfare bill.

8 I N S I G H T December 3 – 9, 2021

50

% HISTORIC NUMBER OF WORKERS QUIT JOBS TO BECOME THEIR OWN BOSSES AMID COVID-19 PANDEMIC A historic number of workers have become their own bosses amid the COVID-19 pandemic, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

As of Octotber, there were about 9.44 million unincorporated self-employed individuals in the United States, as per the bureau’s data. In that same month last year, there were about 8.78 million unincorporated self-employed individuals in the United States.

The latest figures amount to a rise of 500,000 since the start of the pandemic and an increase of 6 percent in the number of self-employed.

THIS PAGE FROM TOP LEFT: MIKE COPPOLA/GETTY IMAGES FOR TURNER, ANATOLY VARTANOV/SHUTTERSTOCK, JUSTIN SULLIVAN/GETTY IMAGES, ART ALEX/SHUTTERSTOCK, BORIS HORVAT/AFP/GETTY IMAGES, SAUL LOEB/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES

$1.8

Commonwealth Fusion Systems has raised more than $1.8 billion, the largest private investment in the nuclear fusion industry, as more investors pour money into energy projects that claim limitless energy with no or minimal wastage.

The FBI’s background check system recorded 687,788 background checks during the Black Friday week, signaling strong sales for firearms.

The Week in Short US CCP VIRUS

National Guardsmen Who Refuse Vaccination Face Ban on Training and Withheld Pay

President Joe Biden at the South Court Auditorium of the Eisenhower Executive Office Building in Washington on Nov. 22.

VACCINE MANDATE

Judge Blocks Biden’s COVID-19 Vaccine Mandate for Federal Contractors A judge has blocked President Joe Biden’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate for federal contractors, finding that Biden likely lacks the authority to force them to get vaccinated.

“The question presented here is narrow. Can the president use congressionally delegated authority to manage the federal procurement of goods and services to impose vaccines on the employees of federal contractors and subcontractors? In all likelihood, the answer to that question is no,” U.S. District Judge Gregory Van Tatenhove wrote in the 29-page order.

The judge granted a request for a preliminary injunction by the attorneys general of Kentucky, Ohio, and Tennessee.

FROM TOP: ALEX WONG/GETTY IMAGES, GEORGE FREY/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES, JOSEPH PREZIOSO/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES

OIL & GAS

Gasoline Prices Edge Down by a Penny While Oil Drops $15 Over Past Month Oil has plunged around $15 a barrel over the past month, but gasoline prices have inched down by just a penny in the same period, with persistently high costs at the pump frustrating both inflation-weary drivers and the White House, which again raised concerns about potential price gouging.

Data from the American Automobile Association shows national average gasoline prices have fallen from $3.402 a month ago to $3.390 Oil tankers drop off crude oil to be refined into gas on Nov. 30, or barely over one cent. at the Marathon Oil Refinery in Salt Lake City on By contrast, U.S. oil (West Texas Oct. 29.

Intermediate) futures prices have fallen from around $84 a barrel on Nov. 1 to about $69 a barrel on Dec. 1—a drop of around 19 percent—driving speculation about when cheaper crude will push down prices at the pump.

National Guard members who refuse COVID-19 vaccinations will no longer be able to participate in training and risk having their pay withheld, U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin revealed.

In a memo to military officials, Austin stressed that vaccination is “essential to the health and readiness of the force,” and that the secretary of the Army and the secretary of the Air Force, in coordination with the undersecretary of defense for personnel and readiness and the chief of the National Guard Bureau, should “establish policies and implementation guidance to address the failure to maintain this military medical readiness requirement by members of the non-federalized National Guard who remain unvaccinated.”

Unvaccinated members of the National Guard who fail to get their COVID-19 shots by the June 30, 2022, deadline will be barred from participating in drills, training, and other duties, unless they are granted an exemption in accordance with department policy, according to the memo.

An Air Force soldier reconstitutes the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine at an East Boston Neighborhood Health Center Vaccination Clinic in East Boston on Feb. 16.

I N S I G H T December 3 – 9, 2021 9

The Week in Short World WORLD

British Aerospace Engineer Claims MH370 Wreck Lies 4 Kilometers Deep in Indian Ocean

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg attends the Meeting of NATO Ministers of Defence in Brussels, on Oct. 21.

NATO

NATO Head Expresses Concern Over ‘Unprovoked and Unexplained’ Military Buildup on Ukraine Border

US–COLOMBIA

US No Longer Deems Colombian FARC as Terrorist Organization Secretary of State Antony Blinken has announced the guerrilla group known as the revolutionary armed forces of Colombia (FARC) is no longer designated as a terrorist organization.

The decision comes five years after a peace agreement between the group and the Colombian government in 2016.

Blinken said that designations of Guerrillas of the Marxist Revolutwo new terrorist groups—which tionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) march in a military parade in call themselves Segunda MarquetaSan Vicente, Colombia. lia and the FARC-EP, or the “people’s army”—will remain. They have evolved as splinter factions of the FARC. Conflicts with the FARC have left 262,197 people dead. Only 46,813 of these are listed as combatants, according to Colombian government records.

10 I N S I G H T December 3 – 9, 2021

A Malaysia Airlines passenger jet at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport on March 8, 2014.

EUROPE

EU Launches $340 Billion ‘Global Gateway’ Program to Counter China’s BRI The European Union has rolled out a plan to invest hundreds of billions of dollars in global infrastructure projects under the “Global Gateway” program, seen as a counter to China’s controversial Belt and Road Initiative that has been criticized as a vehicle for expanding Beijing’s influence around the world.

The European Commission, the EU’s executive body, said the scheme will see $340 billion in investments through 2027 to boost links in global digital, energy, transport, health, education, and research systems.

CLOCKWISE FROM LEFT: KENZO TRIBOUILLARD/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES, HOW FOO YEEN/GETTY IMAGES, LUIS ACOSTA/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg has expressed concern over a Russian military buildup near its border with Ukraine.

“We see Russian military build-up, we see heavy armor, we see drones and combat-ready troops,” Stoltenberg said in a statement. “We call on Russia to be transparent because this is unprovoked and unexplained.”

The comments were made as ministers of the alliance arrived for a two-day meeting in Riga, Latvia, on Nov. 30 to discuss Russia’s military buildup close to Ukraine’s border, among other issues.

Ukrainian and Western officials expressed worry this month that a military buildup could signal plans by Moscow to invade its ex-Soviet neighbor. Moscow has repeatedly insisted it has no such intention and has accused Ukraine and its Western backers of making the claims to cover up their own allegedly aggressive designs.

A British aerospace engineer claims to have found the final resting place of missing Malaysia Airlines flight 370 using revolutionary new tracking technology.

Expert Richard Godfrey, a founding member of the nongovernmental MH370 Independent Group, says he is confident that the plane crashed into the southern Indian Ocean 1,238 miles west of Perth and lies 4,000 meters below the surface at the foot of an oceanic plateau called the Broken Ridge.

Flight 370 was headed from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, to Beijing on March 8, 2014, with 239 people on board when it abruptly disappeared from radar. All passengers and crew are presumed dead, but there’s been no resolution to the mystery of the flight’s disappearance and search efforts are still ongoing.

World in Photos

People walk near a boat that capsized due to strong winds in Istanbul on Nov. 30.

YASIN AKGUL/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES

Santas wave to bypassers as they take a break from the classroom during Santa School, a series of training courses for professional UK Santas, at The Ministry of Fun in London on Nov. 30.

JUSTIN TALLIS/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES

The Haut-Koenigsbourg castle in Orschwiller, France, after the first snowfall on the Vosges peaks, on Nov. 29.

PATRICK HERTZOG/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES

A farmer carries harvested marigold flowers from a field on the outskirts of Bangalore, India, on Nov. 28.

MANJUNATH KIRAN/ AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES

I N S I G H T December 3 – 9, 2021 11

Jessica Mendez, co-founder of Fight for Schools, at her residence in Aldie, Va., on Nov. 21.

PHOTO BY GRAEME JENNINGS FOR THE EPOCH TIMES

EDUCATION

THE LOUDOUN COUNTY MOMS

Trying to Save Education Faced with hit lists, intimidation, and the FBI, parents risk all for their children’s future

12 I N S I G H T December 3 – 9, 2021

✒ Text by Terri Wu I N S I G H T December 3 – 9, 2021 13

The Lead Education

L

o u d o u n co u n t y , va .

—In December 2020, Shawntel Cooper, a mother of two in northern Virginia, noticed something new in her fourth-grade daughter’s morning class routine. Cooper had just switched roles in her company and was able to work from home, and her daughter, like most of America’s schoolchildren, was remote learning due to the pandemic.

A protester waves a Black Lives Matter flag during a protest in Seattle on Nov. 3, 2020. BLM seeks to enact critical race theory (CRT) principles.

14 I N S I G H T December 3 – 9, 2021

Shawntel Cooper a mother of two, was among the first parents to take a stand on CRT to the Loudoun Country Public Schools board, in Ashburn, Va., on Nov. 21.

FROM LEFT: DAVID RYDER/GETTY IMAGES, LISA FAN/THE EPOCH TIMES, EVELYN HOCKSTEIN/REUTERS

THAT MORNING, COOPER SAW THAT the teacher had introduced a new learning segment: playing clips of topical news items of the day. What was shown was a mainstream media news broadcast covering riots connected with the Black Lives Matter movement.

“Why are they showing that?” Cooper recalled thinking. “They were going against the way that I want my child to be. She was brought up without thinking, ‘I’m white and I’m black.’”

Cooper is African American, while her husband is white.

“She hasn’t been raised based on colors. She has been raised based on loving human beings just for being human beings, of their characters, not putting them in categories on color, or what color their parents are,” Cooper said. So she asked the teacher to exclude her daughter from the morning news segment, a request that was granted.

A few months later, her daughter, while working on a school project for Black History Month, asked Cooper why people would say that there would

The Lead Education

A crowd of parents protest against CRT instruction in public schools, at a Loudoun County Schools board meeting in Ashburn, Va. be “no justice, no peace” until every white person was slaughtered. The girl recalled the news clips she had watched and was confused, especially because her father is white. She also started asking questions about whether she should be making friends based on skin color.

This crossed the line for Cooper.

“Our world went upside down when we had to explain to our daughter what was going on,” she told Insight.

“There’s nothing wrong with seeing through someone else’s lens. But to deceive someone into thinking that you are bad because of the color of your skin, [or] because of your color, we are going to cut you some slack—I will not teach my children that.

“I believe you overcome challenges through your own journey. It’s not because someone felt sorry for me. I had to learn on my own; it was just part of life. It didn’t matter what color I was.”

So the mother started to look into the Black Lives Matter movement and critical race theory (CRT). She was shocked by what she found: that CRT, traditionally something taught in colleges, is an analytical framework underpinned by quasi-Marxist doctrines. It breaks down society into

289

LOUDON RESIDENTS WERE DUE TO speak during a June 22 school board meeting discussing a proposed policy on transgender naming. Fifty managed to speak before the school board declared the meeting an "unlawful assembly," citing disruptive behavior by the crowd. The overwhelming majority of speakers were critical of the policy and of critical race theory.

There’s nothing wrong with seeing through someone else’s lens. But to deceive someone into thinking that you are bad because of the color of your skin, [or] because of your color, we are going to cut you some slack—I will not teach my children that.

Shawntel Cooper, Loudoun County mother two camps: oppressors and the oppressed. Simply for being born white, one is an oppressor. Meanwhile, Black Lives Matter, a left-wing activist group that promotes racial justice in law enforcement and other domains, was the embodiment of CRT principles being put into practice.

I N S I G H T December 3 – 9, 2021 15

The Lead Education

Xi Van Fleet, 10 (R), and her friends hold the “Little Red Book,” also known as “Quotations from Chairman Mao Zedong,” during the Cultural Revolution in 1969.

Xi Van Fleet, a Chinese American mother whose son graduated from a Loudoun County public school.

Communist soldiers sing a hymn to then-Chinese Communist Party leader Mao Zedong, in Shenzhen, China, on Oct. 25, 1949.

Domino Effect Cooper was among the first parents to take a stand on CRT to the school board, and she was ready to 16 I N S I G H T December 3 – 9, 2021

FROM TOP LEFT: COURTESY OF XI VAN FLEET, TIFFANY COUTRIS/CONSERVATIVE PARTNERSHIP INSTITUTE, STAFF/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES, GRAEME JENNINGS FOR THE EPOCH TIMES

She thought it was “crazy” to “try to bring these [CRT] college courses into our children’s school.” In schools, the theory appears under different banners, such as “diversity,” “equity,” and “inclusivity.”

Fast forward to May, when Cooper had some quiet time while recovering from major surgery.

It was then that she decided she needed to do something about what was being taught in her child’s school.

“I see people fighting racism with more racism,” she said. “Critical race theory now is trying to take the children away from the parents to make them social justice warriors. CRT is Marxist ideology.

And the last thing I want is my family to be breaking apart.”

She used the time to write a speech protesting CRT at the next school board meeting.

“CRT is racist. It is abusive. It discriminates against one’s color,” she told the Loudoun County school board on May 11. “Today, we don’t need your agreement. We want action and a backbone

“The [Chinese] communist regime used the same critical theory to divide people.

The only difference is they used class instead of race.”

for what we asked for today: to ban CRT.” “You cannot tell me what is or is not racist. Look at me. I had to come down here today to tell you to your face that we are coming together. We are strong. This will not be the last greet and meet, respectfully,” Cooper said as she left the podium.

The video of her speech went viral.

Cooper is from Loudoun County, a wealthy area in northern Virginia known for its good schools.

By the time she spoke up, Loudoun County Public Schools (LCPS) had been on the equity journey for at least two years. In the spring of 2019, the county hired an equity-focused educational consultancy to conduct a “systemic equity assessment” of the school’s policies.

The result was the LCPS comprehensive equity plan, which states, “A diverse, inclusive, equitable, and socially-just teaching and learning community is a priority in LCPS.” Its equity impact statement highlights the school system’s commitment to “a racially-conscious, identity-affirming, and culturally responsive learning space.”

A primary recommendation in the equity plan was to publish on schools’ web pages a superintendent’s message “defining and condemning White supremacy, hate speech, hate crimes, and other racially motivated acts of violence,” and for this message to be communicated to parents twice a year. This same message was included in the Loudoun County school board’s equity resolution adopted on Sept. 24, 2019.

Cooper said that the principal and teachers at her daughter’s school were transparent and helpful when she raised her concerns about CRT. However, “no one could promise me that critical race theory would not be taught,” she said. That’s because, Cooper said, CRT isn’t packaged as such when it’s transmitted in school classrooms. Rather, it’s disseminated under different guises that have evolved over time, from “culturally responsive learning” to “equity” to now “social-emotional learning.”

As a result, Cooper pulled her daughter out of school after she finished fourth grade in June and began homeschooling her in July.

Loudoun County Public Schools has repeatedly said that CRT isn’t taught in its classrooms and that it presents a standard curriculum designated by the Virginia Department of Education. This refrain is repeated by other school administrators across the country, who contend that parents opposing CRT have been misinformed about what’s being taught.

Many parents in Loudoun, however, disagree, arguing that the school, through its policies, training for teachers, and instruction of students, transmits the tenets of CRT without using its actual name.

The Lead Education

go solo in her endeavor.

“I thought I was going to be fighting alone after I spoke on CRT,” she said.

Not after Ian Prior heard her speech.

He heard it in the hallway outside the school board room; he didn’t know who Cooper was, but remembers saying to himself, “This is an amazing speech.”

Prior, who runs his own public relations firm and was a Justice Department spokesperson during the Trump administration, had just founded Fight for Schools, a local advocacy group, a month earlier.

The next day, Prior called Cooper and told her that Fox News host and commentator Sean Hannity wanted to speak to her.

Subsequently, more parents started speaking out at school board meetings. On May 25, a Loudoun physical education teacher named Tanner Cross denounced a pro-transgender policy, saying he wouldn’t use a child’s preferred pronoun because that would involve “lying to a child” and “sinning against our God.” On June 8, Xi Van Fleet, a Chinese American mother whose son had graduated from a Loudoun County public school and who grew up through the upheaval during communist China’s Cultural Revolution five decades ago, spoke up.

“I’ve been very alarmed by what’s going on in

“I always say we are in the fight of our lives. A lot of people don't understand.

But we feel strongly about what we’re doing.”

Jessica Mendez Loudoun County mother and member, Fight for Schools

our schools. You are now teaching, training our children to be social justice warriors and to loathe our country and our history,” she told the school board.

“The communist regime used the same critical theory to divide people. The only difference is, they used class instead of race.”

People heard others and began saying their own piece, Prior told Insight. “That just brings more and more people and further creates that collective zeitgeist of courage that now exists among parents, grandparents, citizens of Loudoun County,” he said.

Two days after speaking at the board meeting, Cross, the physical education teacher, was suspended. He sued the school board and Superintendent Scott Ziegler in June, alleging that they had violated his rights to the free exercise of religion and free speech. By mid-November, Cross was permanently reinstated to his job after settling with the school board on this issue.

He’s still asking the court to strike down Loudoun’s transgender policy, a decision expected to be handed down before Christmas.

‘Hit List’ on Anti-CRT Parents Ian Prior moved to Loudoun four years ago, looking for a house in a neighborhood with good schools.

I N S I G H T December 3 – 9, 2021 17

The Lead Education

“Courage is contagious because we encourage each other.”

Xi Van Fleet, Loudoun County mother

18 I N S I G H T December 3 – 9, 2021

People hold up signs during a rally against CRT instruction in schools, at the Loudoun County Government Center in Leesburg, Va., on June 12.

25,000

SIGNATURES

Over 25,000 signatures were collected by Fight for Schools to recall several Loudoun County school board members.

FROM LEFT: ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES, SHUTTERSTOCK, EVELYN HOCKSTEIN/REUTERS

Unexpectedly, he was “activated” in March 2021 when he found out that he was on a “hit list” compiled by members of a private Facebook group, Anti-Racist Parents of Loudoun County (ARPLC).

In response, he formed Fight for Schools in April.

In the ARPLC Facebook group, a post on March 12 called for volunteers to gather information about anti-CRT parents and “expose these people publicly.” Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office opened an investigation and obtained the names on the “hit list,” through social media search warrants and conducted interviews.

The sheriff’s office closed the case four months later without pressing any criminal charges. The case’s executive summary indicated that the investigation didn’t find any personal identifying information posted in the ARPLC Facebook discussion. The FBI’s public corruption investigative unit conducted a parallel probe and also decided not to pursue the case criminally. However, the sheriff’s office informed all those on the hit list that they had an option to “pursue misdemeanor criminal

charges or other civil remedies if they chose to do so,” according to the executive summary.

Jessica Mendez, who has two daughters who attend Loudoun’s public schools, is a good friend of Prior.

“You come for my friend, you come for me. People shouldn’t just be making lists,” she said, adding that she also felt a duty to call everyone on the list to inform them that they had been targeted.

The attempted doxxing campaign on her friend galvanized Mendez to take further action. She became a founding member of Fight for Schools, and in May, she started efforts to collect signatures to recall school board members who were a part of the private ARPLC Facebook group.

Fight for Schools filed recall petitions against school board member Beth Barts, a member of the private Facebook group ARPLC, on Aug. 25. On Oct. 5, the court denied Barts’s motion to dismiss the removal action. Ten days later, Barts resigned with an effective date of Nov. 2.

At a rally outside the Loudoun County Public Schools administration building on Nov. 9, Prior announced that Fight for Schools had collected enough signatures to start the recall process on all four targeted board members. The group filed recall petitions against Brenda Sheridan, chairwoman of the school board, on the same day. On Nov. 18, it filed a petition to remove school board vice chair Atoosa Reaser from office.

Over six months, Fight for Schools volunteers, working at community events across the county, collected more than 25,000 signatures.

The Lead Education

What made Loudoun different was teamwork, Van Fleet said. And it’s turned Loudoun into ground zero in the fight for children’s education and America’s future.

“The first day that we got signatures was on May 8, and it hailed. It was windy; it was rainy, and then it was sunny and warm, and then the cycle would repeat itself,” Prior said at the Nov. 9 rally, recalling the dedication of local volunteers.

“The last day we got signatures was on Election Day [Nov. 2], and it was nasty out—it was raining, freezing, but people stayed out there from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m.”

‘Courage Is Contagious’ The Loudoun parents’ fight has taken them to places far from the school board meeting room.

Cooper and Van Fleet have both spoken on national television broadcasts to millions.

Cooper recalled being “scared” before her appearance on Fox’s “Hannity” program.

“I don’t have that confidence in speaking in front of a million people. I am just a mother. I can only teach my kids how to be successful, to learn to think for themselves, learn from their mistakes, and learn right from wrong,” she said.

But she overcame her fear through meditation.

“I would just sit back and look at my husband and children. I would let everything pause for the moment, just take it all in how much I love them,” she said.

“It really all came down to ... that our children trust in our decision to send them to school. Teachers become role models, as our kids learn to trust them in our absence. Teachers play a major role in building our kids’ self-esteem, especially during their most impressionable years.”

Cooper said that some teachers who think they are doing good are actually “causing harm [by] interfering with the parents’ morals and beliefs pertaining to family, political opinions, nationality, health, religion, ethnicity, sex, and personal characteristics.”

As for Van Fleet, who also got an invitation to speak on “Hannity” the day after the June 8 school board meeting, she also had to work to overcome her apprehension. Immediately, anecdotes of conservatives being doxxed and persecution ep-

isodes during the Cultural Revolution flashed in her mind.

At the beginning of the Cultural Revolution in 1967, children in Van Fleet’s neighborhood in China wanted to organize their own “Little Red Guards” troop. Red Guards were radicalized high school and university students who roved around the country persecuting those deemed by Chairman Mao Zedong as “counter-revolutionaries” or “class enemies.”

Van Fleet, who was 8 at the time, told the leader, who was also her friend, that she wanted to join, too. However, upon finding out that Van Fleet’s grandmother was a landowner—a class enemy— the friend immediately announced it to all the children in the neighborhood. They treated her like she was evil.

“And I felt evil,” Van Fleet recalled.

This demonization was felt by school children across the country, Van Fleet told Insight, pointing to an anecdote shared by a mother at Oct. 26 Loudoun school board meeting: “It was in the early spring of 2020 when my 6-year-old somberly came to me and asked me if she was born evil because she was a white person, something she learned in a history lesson at school.”

Still, the naturalized American worried that if she spoke out, she’d become a target all over again, even after having long escaped the suppressive environment in communist China. But, in the end, Van Fleet thought: “It’s a calling. I have to take on this. It’s not even my decision to make.”

The fear didn’t subside, though, even after her appearance on “Hannity.” A local club invited her to an anti-CRT meeting and told her they would send a car for her. As she was waiting for the ride, her thoughts were racing—in her imagination, a black car came and took her to nowhere, and she would never see her family again.

But reading online feedback about her “Hannity” interview helped Van Fleet conquer her demons.

“I cried,” she said.

Scott Smith is arrested for disorderly conduct and obstruction of justice at the Loudoun County Public Schools board meeting, in Ashburn, Va., on June 22.

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Two early comments stood out for her. One person said it was a blessing to have Van Fleet as a fellow American.

Another said, “China sent us a gift to save America, and that is Xi Van Fleet.”

“I just felt so empowered and encouraged,” she said. Over the months, she identified precisely that as her mission: to help save American values by giving back.

“As an immigrant, I have been enjoying the freedom fought for by America’s forefathers and generations of the patriots. Now it’s my turn to fight the fight,” she said during her speech at Heritage Action’s 2021 Sentinel Summit in Orlando on Nov. 13.

But this fight hasn’t been without cost. Van Fleet has lost friends, people she thought were good friends but who distanced themselves due to her advocacy. Meanwhile, she has also gained new friends, like Cooper, to whom she has become close.

“Courage is contagious because we encourage each other,” Van Fleet said.

The mother considers herself a soldier in the Loudoun “army.” While she had seen so many “heroes’’ speaking up at school board meetings in other counties, they weren’t able to find traction. Yet, for some reason, the momentum carried forward in Loudoun.

What made Loudoun different was teamwork, Van Fleet said. And it’s turned Loudoun into ground zero in the fight for children’s education and America’s future.

Escalated Tensions and Arrests

20 I N S I G H T December 3 – 9, 2021

After the events of June 22, a lack of trust became a major theme in parents’ remarks about their dealings with the school board.

FROM LEFT: EVELYN HOCKSTEIN/REUTERS, CALEB SPENCER FOR THE EPOCH TIMES

It was at a heated school board meeting on June 22 that tensions between Loudoun parents and the school board escalated to a new level. It also was the first meeting that pro-CRT and anti-CRT sides both organized attendance.

By June 22, the CRT and pro-transgender policies in Loudoun had attracted national attention, following a series of interviews with parents on television. The agenda for that meeting included discussion of the transgender policy that would require teachers and staff to call students by their preferred pronouns and allow students to use the bathroom of their self-identified gender.

Before the meeting, a campaign on ActBlue.com, a fundraising platform for Democratic candidates and progressive organizations, called for donations to bus supporters of the policy to a “Loudoun for All” rally to “stand up against hate and intolerance in our school system.”

Some parents were concerned that the board might adopt the transgender-friendly policy, even though it wasn’t on the agenda for a vote. Many were concerned that the policy might jeopardize the safety of students as it would allow biological males to self-identify as girls and use girls’ bath-

rooms and locker rooms.

Eventually, 289 people signed up to speak in person at the meeting. The board room was packed with parents against CRT and the transgender policy. About a dozen supporters of the transgender policy sat on one side of the front row.

The audience burst into louder and louder cheers as former Virginia state Sen. Richard Black, the 50th speaker, began his comments.

“This board has a dark history of suppressing free speech. They caught you red-handed with an ‘enemies list’ to punish opponents of critical race theory. You’re teaching children to hate others because of their skin color. And you’re forcing them to lie about other kids’ gender,” Black said. “I am disgusted by your bigotry.”

The crowd cheered more, and many stood up to express their agreement.

The school board members quickly voted to end the public comment period and retreated from the dais, making Black the last speaker allowed out of the total 289 registered.

After chanting “shame on you” to the empty stage and singing the national anthem, the crowd decided to press on with their speeches. Jon Tigges, a local agritourism business owner, took the lead in organizing the speakers. After about a half-hour, Superintendent Ziegler declared the meeting an “unlawful assembly” and called for everyone to leave the premises.

Tigges refused to leave the room and was arrested for trespassing. Another Loudoun father,

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Scott Smith, was arrested for disorderly conduct and obstruction of justice after getting into an argument with a woman who supported the transgender policy. The school board later resumed the meeting with other items on the agenda.

Smith was at the meeting because his ninthgrade daughter was sexually assaulted by a male student in the girls’ school bathroom a month earlier. He told local media that he had never been to a school board meeting before and wanted to see “what all the nonsense was about.”

“I wanted to see it in real life because my family has unfortunately been pulled into this nightmare,” Smith told 7news on Oct. 28.

Smith said he was talking to a woman, an acquaintance of his wife, who insisted that his daughter wasn’t assaulted. “[The woman’s] husband put his hands on me first and the next thing I knew, I was wrestled to the ground by the sheriffs’ department,” Scott told Insight, pointing to video footage of the incident.

Scott added that the woman had also threatened to ruin his plumbing business via social media.

During the meeting, board member Beth Barts had asked if there were assaults happening regularly in bathrooms or locker rooms—a key concern for opponents of the policy.

“To my knowledge, we don’t have any record of assaults occurring in our restrooms,” Ziegler responded, adding later that “the predator transgender student or person simply does not exist.”

But emails made public in October showed that Ziegler knew about the sexual assault of Smith’s daughter on May 28 and informed the school board on the same day. Ziegler also knew about the 15-year-old’s arrest on July 9, but decided to send him to another high school, where another girl became his victim on Oct. 6.

After the disclosure of the emails, Ziegler acknowledged on Oct. 15 that his June statement before the school board meeting was false, but explained that he had misunderstood the question.

On Nov. 5, Ziegler announced that an external law firm would be investigating Loudoun County Public Schools’ handling of the two sexual assault cases.

Ziegler’s handling of the assaults has sparked calls for his resignation.

The teenage boy in October was found guilty on one count of forcible sodomy and one count of forcible fellatio, both felonies, in relation to the May incident. And in November, he pleaded no contest—that is, he wouldn’t challenge the charges—related to the October assault. The Loudoun County Juvenile Court will announce sentencing in both cases in mid-December.

Ziegler, at an Oct. 15 press conference, said the school system handled the sexual assaults in compliance with Title IX federal laws. He also admitted that the schools had “inadvertently” failed to properly report incidents in the past due to a “lack of oversight.” The superintendent’s office didn’t respond to a request for comment from Insight.

Smith’s family is currently in the process of filing a Title IX civil case in federal court against the Loudoun County school board over its handling of his daughter’s sexual assault case.

Declining Trust After the events of June 22, “trust,” or rather the lack of, became a major theme to emerge from parents’ remarks.

“The parents of Loudoun trusted that the members of the board would have our children’s best interests in mind when making decisions. That trust is lost,” one parent said at the next school board meeting on Aug. 10. Another, at a rally before the meeting, suggested that he wanted his children to start wearing a body cam to school.

The June 22 board meeting was the last of the 2020–2021 school year. As of the next meeting on Aug. 10, the first of the 2021–2022 school year, Loudoun County, citing the events of June 22, changed the public comment rules: Public viewing during the public comment period was no longer allowed.

Speakers were allowed into the Loudoun County Public Schools administration building in groups of 10 and allowed into the board room one by one.

Speakers also were told to take shelter in their

Jon Tigges refused to leave a Loudon County Public Schools board meeting and was arrested for trespassing on June 22.

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22 I N S I G H T December 3 – 9, 2021

a move meant to prevent “out-of-town agitators,” school board chair Brenda Sheridan said at the time.

‘We Are Not Domestic Terrorists’ The heated interactions in Loudoun County were unexpectedly thrust into the national spotlight again in late September after the National School Boards Association (NSBA) sent a controversial letter to President Joe Biden requesting “federal assistance to stop threats and acts of violence” against public school board members, administrators, teachers, and staff.

The Sept. 29 letter, for which the NSBA has since apologized, said that “acts of malice, violence, and threats” against school board members over issues such as masking policies and CRT could be equivalent to “a form of domestic terrorism.” It further said that the FBI and federal agencies should use the PATRIOT Act and other tools to go after parents.

NSBA cited 30 news stories in support of its claims, most of which related to disruptive and disorderly conduct at school board meetings.

Three arrests over conduct at school board meetings, including the arrests of Smith and Tigges at the Loudoun meeting in June, were included. The organization didn’t reach out to Smith or Tigges before sending the letter.

The letter also cited instances of threatening letters, an alleged attack on a teacher, and a parent using a Nazi salute at a board meeting. According to local media, many members of the Loudoun school board have also received death threats via social media, emails, and phone messages.

Five days after NSBA’s letter, Attorney General Merrick Garland issued a memo directing the FBI to address an alleged “spike in harassment, intimidation, and threats of violence” against school board officials and create “dedicated lines of communication for threat reporting” on the matter. In a separate statement, the Justice Department also announced the creation of a task force, which includes the agency’s National Security Division, to deal with such threats.

Garland, later testifying at a House Judiciary Committee hearing, said that the DOJ hadn’t been told by the White House to issue the memo. He also denied assertions that his agency would label concerned parents as domestic terrorists.

“Justice Department supports and defends the First Amendment right of parents to complain as vociferously as they wish about the education of their children, about the curriculum taught in the schools,” he told lawmakers on Oct. 21.

Some parents have hit back at Garland’s memo.

Four Loudoun parents, including Van Fleet and Cooper, together with a group of parents from Saline, Michigan, on Oct. 19 filed a lawsuit against Garland alleging that his memo violated parents’ rights to free speech.

“Loudoun County parents didn't sit on the sidelines and complain.

They actually recognized that they needed to make change, and they got fully engaged.”

Virginia Governor-Elect Glenn Youngkin

FROM LEFT: WIN MCNAMEE/GETTY IMAGES, SHUTTERSTOCK

cars when a severe thunderstorm hit during the August meeting. Still, more than 170 people signed up to speak in person.

“Thank you for letting us in after three and a half hours of damp and heat, and humidity and storms. It’s nice to be finally let into the building that my tax dollars paid for,” one parent said at the Aug. 10 meeting.

The meeting also saw tightened security, including the use of handheld metal detectors. Before the meeting, Ziegler requested the sheriff’s office to provide a K-9 explosive sweep, undercover officers, and a five-person onsite quick reaction force.

Sheriff Michael Chapman responded: “Your request is extraordinary and would likely constitute LCSO’s [Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office] commitment of a minimum of approximately 65 sworn deputies. Despite this, you fail to provide any justification for such a manpower-intensive request.”

An Aug. 6 memo by Loudoun County Public Schools’ chief operations officer noted a complaint from the sheriff, that the “school board is firing people up and calling LCSO to clean it up.”

Even though most of the in-person speakers and written comments voiced objections to the transgender policy, the school board adopted it on Aug. 11. Parents’ concerns that the pro-transgender approach would lead to sexual assaults in the school restrooms were brushed off by some board members as groundless.

“The fears of nefarious activity happening in bathrooms on any sort of scale due to policies that protect transgender students is simply not what occurs in reality,” school board member Ian Serotkin said during a discussion before the adoption of the policy on Aug. 11.

Parents were angry. Calls for the resignations of the superintendent and school board members grew louder and louder at subsequent school board meetings.

Into the new school year, the number of registered in-person speakers consistently hovered at above 50. Other than the June 22 meeting, at which about a dozen pro-transgender speakers spoke, very few supported the school board during public comment in school board meetings from August. Parents also held rallies before almost every school board meeting; no crowd supporting CRT or transgender-friendly policies was seen.

By late November, Loudoun had reinstated public viewing during the public comment section of school board meetings. Restrictions on using the restrooms and access to the building have also been lifted, Loudoun County Public Schools public information officer Wayde Byard told Insight.

Security measures, including the use of hand-held metal detectors, remain in place.

On Sept. 28, the school board started requiring speakers to show proof of residency in the county,

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Then-Republican gubernatorial candidate Glenn Youngkin speaks to the media in Fairfax, Va., on Sept. 23. Youngkin won the election after announcing that he would ban CRT if elected.

For Cooper, joining the suit was about trying to set the record straight.

“The main discussion is that we’re not domestic terrorists; we’re just parents,” she said. “How do we not back down to bullying, to being pushed in a corner when we’ve done nothing but protect our children and what is in our rights as parents?”

Amid the blowback over its letter to the White House, the NSBA issued an apology to its members on Oct. 22, saying: “There was no justification for some of the language included in the letter. We should have had a better process in place to allow for consultation on a communication of this significance.”

Since the NSBA’s initial letter, some 26 of its state chapters have distanced themselves from the national federation, with 15 of them terminating their membership or halting payments of dues.

The Virginia School Boards Association decided on Nov. 18 to end its membership with NSBA, citing a “persistent pattern of dysfunction” within the organization.

On Nov. 16, Republican lawmakers on the House Judiciary Committee revealed that an unnamed whistleblower had disclosed documents suggesting the FBI was using counterterrorism resources to investigate parents or individuals who threaten school board members or other individuals.

The leaked document was an email containing an Oct. 20 “joint message” from the FBI’s Criminal and Counterterrorism divisions. Referring to Garland’s memo, the message said that the Counterterrorism and Criminal Divisions had “created a threat tag, EDUOFFICIALS, to track instances of related threats” and asked offices to start using that tag to investigations into threats against school administrators and staff.

Judiciary Committee Republicans, in a Nov. 16

letter to Garland, argued that this email appeared to contradict the attorney general’s previous testimony before the committee, during which he said the FBI and DOJ weren’t using counterterrorism resources to target threats against school board members.

In response to the whistleblower’s disclosure, an FBI spokesperson told Insight that the bureau “has never been in the business of investigating parents who speak out or policing speech at school board meetings, and we are not going to start now.”

Make-or-Break Election Issue The issue of parents’ rights in education propelled Republican gubernatorial candidate Glenn Youngkin to a historic win in Virginia on Nov. 2.

Virginia hadn’t had a Republican governor for 12 years. Once a swing state, it hasn’t voted for a Republican presidential candidate since 2004. While the majority of the counties are still red, the more heavily populated areas of northern Virginia, including Arlington, Fairfax, Loudoun, and Prince William counties, as well as the cities of Richmond and Virginia Beach have consistently trended blue.

Youngkin thanked Loudoun County at his post-election rally on Nov. 13, held outside the Loudoun County Public Schools administration building—the same location where he announced five months earlier that he would ban CRT on day one if elected.

“We’re going to make sure that we’re focused on our entire history—the good and the bad.

This is not about hiding our past. This is about knowing where we have come from, so we will know where we are going. But I will tell you that we will not be teaching critical race theory in our schools!” Youngkin said at the rally,

78,000 VOTES

REPUBLICAN GOVERNOR ELECT Glenn Youngkin

gained 78,000 more votes from several blue counties in northern Virginia, including Loudoun, compared to in the previous gubernational election.

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“We are going to ‘Loudounize’ this country because it doesn’t stop here. ” Tiffany Polifko, vice president of education and outreach, Parents Against Critical Theory

Protesters stand at attention as the national anthem is sung to open a Loudoun County Public Schools board meeting in Ashburn, Va., on Oct. 12.

24 I N S I G H T December 3 – 9, 2021

neighbors,” she told Insight at Youngkin’s rally on Nov. 13.

Indeed, people far and wide have been listening.

Scott Mineo, founder of local advocacy group Parents Against Critical Theory (PACT), previously told Insight that other counties in Virginia and across the United States have contacted him for help addressing this issue in their own communities.

The grassroots efforts in Loudoun County have emerged as a template movement to be exported across the country. And there’s already a new term for it.

“We are going to ‘Loudounize’ this country because it doesn’t stop here,” Tiffany Polifko, PACT’s vice president of education and outreach, told the Loudoun school board members during the Nov. 9 meeting.

Tigges, who also founded the Patriot Pub Alliance, a digital platform for secure collaboration and communication for parents and teachers, has drafted a business plan to replicate what Loudoun residents have done in other counties.

“We’re encouraging local communities to start meeting together face-to-face, grow in trust, and form a coalition united in purpose,” he previously told Insight.

Gov.-elect Youngkin was “impressed” that “Loudoun County parents didn’t sit on the sidelines and complain.”

“They actually recognized that they needed to

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OF NSBA'S STATE CHAPTERS HAVE

distanced themselves from the national federation, with 15 terminating their membership or halting payments of dues.

FROM LEFT: ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES, SHUTTERSTOCK, EZRA SHAW/GETTY IMAGES, MANDEL NGAN-POOL/GETTY IMAGES

reiterating his campaign promise.

In a race won by 64,000 votes, three larger northern Virginia counties—Fairfax, Prince William, and Loudoun—gave Youngkin a total of 78,000 more votes compared to in the previous gubernatorial election, even though all three counties still voted Democratic.

Youngkin’s campaign also capitalized on Democratic candidate Terry McAuliffe’s misstep on the issue.

“I don’t think parents should be telling schools what they should teach,” McAuliffe, who served as governor from 2014 to 2018, said in a debate with Youngkin on Sept. 28. That comment put McAuliffe on the defensive.

Invigorated by the election results, Loudoun parents pressed their demands at the school board meeting held a week later, where all of the nearly 100 in-person speakers, with the exception of one, criticized the school board or urged the board and superintendent to resign.

“This has always been about our children, not an election,” said one mother. “Never underestimate the determination of a mama bear when her cubs are under attack.”

Over nearly a year and a half of challenging the school board’s initiatives, Fight for Schools’ Mendez had doubted the utility of making public comments at meetings because the board wasn’t listening.

“I had it all wrong. It wasn’t the school board members who needed to hear us, it was everyone at home. It was the parents, grandparents, and

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Many parents in Loudoun County say that the school transmits the tenets of CRT without using its actual name, through its training for teachers and instruction of students. make change, and they got fully engaged,” he said.

He was also excited about the “Loudounize” project. When asked about the term at the rally on Nov. 13, he told Insight: “It’s a good word. I love it! I love it!”

‘The Fight of Our Lives’ Now, more than one year into their quest for a greater say in their children’s education, the Loudoun parents say there’s no turning back.

Van Fleet acknowledged the “selfish” reasons for her fight.

“I understand that if America falls, there is no place for me to go. My whole life is for this moment,” she said.

Fight for Schools’ Mendez echoed that sentiment.

“I always say we are in the fight of our lives. A lot of people don’t understand. But we feel strongly about what we’re doing,” she said.

It’s about “maintaining our democracy and maintaining our way of life,” and communism will be fended off as a natural result, she said.

While Mendez wasn’t on the original hit list on the Facebook group, she has since been targeted after becoming involved in Fight for Schools. Her employer got two anonymous letters, one in June and another in September, accusing her of being a “racist” and shaming them for employing her.

She said her manager understood what she was doing and that she was being harassed because she was taking a stand.

After her employer received the first letter in June, Fight for Schools’ founder Prior asked Mendez if she needed to scale back.

“No, this is exactly what they want,” Mendez said.

“It’s exactly what they’re trying to accomplish. I’m

not going to be intimidated.

“These other parents are out here fighting and getting signatures, working day in and day out, and going to school board meetings. I’m not going to back down.”

She said Fight for Schools is seeking accountability. She has a problem with “the lying and the cover-up in order to pass a policy because of an agenda,” referring to the process leading to the adoption of the transgender-friendly policy in August.

Mendez recently read a media report about a school board recall effort in Wisconsin, where parents were asked why they decided to do this.

Their answer was “Loudoun.”

“One of the most rewarding parts of this whole thing is that they’re learning that it’s not just one voice anymore, that they can make a difference, too,” she said.

The movement is a “parents’ revolution,” Prior said.

“It’s a revolution that uses the civil tools in the arsenal of democracy to push back against massive government overreach that involves our children,” he said.

Cooper’s wish is for all sides, the left and the right, to come together.

“In the old days, they always came to the middle, and they worked it out,” she said.

She also shares the commitment of her band of “warriors.”

“My fight is to save America from going communist. This will be the hill I die on,” she said.

“I love everything that God gave me: my family, my country, the land, our freedom. So I’m blessed to be able to have the team, the warriors. I’m happy to stand beside them.”

Loudoun County parents have filed a lawsuit against U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland, alleging that his memo in response to NSBA’s letter targeting anti-CRT parents as “domestic terrorists” violated parents’ rights to free speech.

I N S I G H T December 3 – 9, 2021 25

Sheriff Grady Judd at the Polk County Jail in Bartow, Fla., on Nov. 17, 2021.

PHOTO BY JANNIS FALKENSTERN/THE EPOCH TIMES

CLOCKWISE FROM LEFT: COURTESY OF JOSEPHINE COUNTY SHERIFF'S OFFICE, PUBLIC DOMAIN, JOSEPHINE COUNTY SHERIFF’S OFFICE, CHARLOTTE CUTHBERTSON/THE EPOCH TIMES, SHUTTERSTOCK

26 I N S I G H T December 3 – 9, 2021

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I N T E RV I E W

FLORIDA SHERIFF GRADY JUDD: THE MAN BEHIND THE BADGE By reputation, Grady Judd is America’s toughest sheriff, but there's a slightly softer side to the man from Polk County

H

By Jannis Falkenstern E’S KNOWN AS “America’s Toughest Sheriff,” but Sheriff Grady Judd of Polk County, Florida, said he’s “tougher on himself” than anyone he has ever arrested.

“I hold myself to a higher standard,” Judd said in a recent interview at the Polk County Jail. “I always said that I never wanted to do anything that would embarrass my Mama, my wife, or my children.”

The sheriff has garnered national attention in television interviews because of some colorful and memorable quotes that can now be found on the backs of T-shirts at online shops. There’s also a YouTube rap video titled “Ducking Grady,” in which the sheriff made an appearance.

The video was written, performed, and directed by Cedric Wilson, a Lakeland

resident who was once a regular at Judd’s jail. He’s now reformed and has become a successful business owner.

Wilson told a Tampa telev ision station that he made the 2019 video to help “kids stay out of trouble.”

Judd was in favor of the video because he said it would help “strengthen the relationship between the sheriff’s office and the community.”

He’s lived in the community he serves all of his life.

“This community has been good to me, and I will continue to be good to it.

After all, they [voters] keep me here for a reason,” Judd said.

HE’S FAMOUS FOR insightful press

conferences where he proudly “outs” criminals for their behaviors that land them in the confines of his accommodations–the Polk County Jail, or what Judd refers to as “our Crossbar Hotel.”

I N S I G H T December 3 – 9, 2021 27

A YouTube rap video titled “Ducking Grady,” in which the sheriff makes an appearance, written and performed by Cedric Wilson, a former inmate and now a successful business owner.

JUDD SAID HIS MOTHER recognized the

fascination he had with everything police and bought him a small police uni28 I N S I G H T December 3 – 9, 2021

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PERCENT wa s el c te d by mor e tha n h p er c nt of the vote in addnu adeau adexu a nd adadp

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P O L CK U N T Y ’ S c r m i e at s -yea.rlow

FLORIDA POLK

form. As the years went by, he grew out of the little uniform, but just replaced it with bigger ones as he got older, he said.

The 68-year-old sheriff said that looking back, he has lived a “good life” and credits his character and the “man he is today” to his upbringing.

“I was raised in the church,” he said.

“We were sometimes the first to arrive at the church and the last ones to leave.”

Judd’s father was a minister of music, and his mother was a stay-at-home mom—because “that is the way his father wanted it.”

“My father worked two jobs to make sure my mother didn’t have to work and could stay home to look after the home and the family.”

The Judd home, he said, didn’t have air conditioning, and the telephone was set up on a party-line system. He described his family’s economic status as “meager” and said it keeps him “humble.”

JUDD CREDITS HIS FATHER’S example

Sheriff Judd and a resident pose for a photo at John’s Drive-In restaurant in the Fortress Meade on Oct. 16, 2020.

for his own work ethic. He began his law enforcement career as a dispatcher, but the more he worked at the station, the more he wanted to be an officer.

“I wanted to be out there on the road with those guys,” he said. “But I knew I had to work hard to prove myself.”

However, as the saying goes, behind every successful man there is a woman; it’s a statement that Judd agrees with, as he has been married to his “high school sweetheart,” Marisa, since they were 18.

THIS PAGE FROM TOP: BULLYGEAR MEDIA/CEDRIC WILSON, SHUTTERSTOCK, COURTESY OF POLK COUNTY SHERIFF'S OFFICE; RIGHT PAGE: ALL PHOTOS COURTESY OF POLK COUNTY SHERIFF'S OFFICE

“I’m sure if you walk into that jail and ask what they think of me, you will get some who just hate me,” he said. “However, there are some that will tell you that at least I’m a fair person.”

Judd is particularly concerned about crimes “against children, the infirm, and the elderly.”

Polk County is famous for catching pedophiles and cracking human trafficking cases.

Judd has a cyber team that works to lure and catch predators before they can “hurt anyone else,” he said.

“Don’t bring that to Polk County,” he warned. “We will catch you and you will go to jail—I look for predators every day.”

He said that even though Polk County is known for catching pedophiles, they continue to come because the “need to do what they do is stronger than getting caught.”

Judd, who is entering his 49th year of working in law enforcement, said, “It was all I ever wanted to do.”

In 1958, then-4-year-old Grady Judd was always fascinated with red flashing lights, he recalled.

“Since then, red lights have been replaced with blue ones, in my field,” he said as he chuckled remembering the event. “But I remember as a little child, those red lights would just reel me in.”

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“People didn’t give us much hope, getting married at such a young age,” he said. “But we have made it last because we support one another. She is my biggest cheerleader and my biggest critic.

“She took over where Mom and Dad left off,” he said with a laugh. “We have an immense amount of trust in one another—and with that trust, the world just unfolded in front of me.”

Along with a new marriage, a new career emerged as Judd began to realize his lifelong dream of becoming a law enforcement officer. Judd the dispatcher moved on to the academy to realize his dream of becoming a sheriff’s deputy.

“When rioters were burning down Portland and other cities, and when everyone wanted to defund the police, we didn’t have that in Polk County. ” Grady Judd, sheriff, Polk County, Florida

However, attending the academy didn’t pay the bills, he said. After classes, Judd continued his job as a dispatcher at the sheriff’s office, working from 11 p.m. until 7 a.m. He said he would only sleep three or four hours a day.

“I was a hard worker,” he said. “I knew eventually it would pay off.”

After graduating from the academy, he said the department “put him on the road” in a patrol car at the tender age of 19.

He said that the department only provided his pants, shirt, and gun belt. He had to purchase everything else.

But there was one problem. The gun laws didn’t allow him to buy a firearm; he had to be 21, according to federal law.

“My father had to buy my gun and ammunition,” he said. “I was not 21 yet. I was old enough to work for the sheriff’s office, carry the gun and even fire it, I just couldn’t buy it.”

Judd rapidly flew up the ranks and became a corporal at the age of 22, a sergeant by 23, a lieutenant at 25, a captain when he was 27, and a major at 34. He ran for a vacated sheriff seat in 2004, and more than half the voters in

the county elected him, and he’s been there ever since.

Entering his 18th year as sheriff of Polk County, Judd was elected by more than 95 percent of the vote in 2008, 2012, 2016, and 2020.

His resume consists of bachelor’s and master’s degrees, and he has graduated from the FBI National Academy.

For 23 years, he has taught at both the University of South Florida and Florida Southern College.

Judd said he has been asked to run for higher office, but said he doesn’t “have the patience for the legislative process.”

“I could have won; all the polls indicated that, but as I’ve said in the past, just let me be sheriff,” he said.

Because Judd was raised in the church, he has maintained his faith over the years and allowed it to be his “guiding light.”

Behind the badge, there’s a soft side to Judd. For example, he said he can’t fathom the idea of some child waking up on Christmas Day without a gift from their mother, especially if she’s in his jail.

That prompted Judd to begin a charity program, funded by donors, that benefits members of the community.

“I went into the area of the jail where the females are kept and ask them if they have children at home,” Judd said. “We get their names, sizes, and ask a little about them. Then we go out and shop for that child.”

Judd said often the same officer who arrested the mother of the children is the one who returns to the home bearing Christmas gifts.

“We always tell the kids, when we deliver the gifts, that the gift is from their mother. We say, your Mama wanted you to have this.”

The same charity also funds other things. If a child has their bike stolen, the charity will buy them a new one, he said.

It also funds the toys that deputies carry in their patrol cars.

“Sometimes we go out to domestic situations, and if a child is upset or traumatized, the deputy will pull out a toy in order to help soothe the child and establish trust.”

JUDD SAID THAT ALL OF these efforts

go into relationship-building with the community, and these ideas have “never been needed more than today.”

Judd is particularly concerned about crimes “against children, the infirm, and the elderly.”

Judd, who is entering his 49th year of working in law enforcement, said, “It was all I ever wanted to do.”

“When rioters were burning down Portland and other cities, and when everyone wanted to defund the police, we didn’t have that in Polk County,” he said.

“OUR CITIZENS were building us up.

They put their arms around us. I would drive into the parking lot of the jail and there would be signs placed all around the property with messages of support.”

Judd said he ends his day praying for the deputies working at night to return safely to their families.

“Then I ask myself, what can I do to help people?”

Judd said he has worked to make his community strong and boasts of a 44-year-low crime rate. He credits that to people in the county taking responsibility for watching after one another.

“I have always known what I was called to do. I know this is where God wants me to be.”

I N S I G H T December 3 – 9, 2021 29

30 I N S I G H T December 3 – 9, 2021

SPOTLIGHT MONKEY BUSINESS Macaque monkeys climb onto a news photographer at the Phra Prang Sam Yod temple during the annual Monkey Buffet Festival, in Lopburi Province, north of Bangkok, on Nov. 28.

PHOTO BY JACK TAYLOR/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES

I N S I G H T December 3 – 9, 2021 31

BACKLOG COURTS

LOGJAM

The Changing Face of Prosecution in a Pandemic

T

By Cara Ding HE WHEEL OF JUSTICE

almost came to a grinding halt during the pandemic.

Many state courts suspended in-person proceedings for months, piling up a massive backlog that insiders say will take years to clear.

To tackle the heavy caseload, state prosecutors are using their discretion in different ways. Prosecutors decide whether a case shall be filed and hold great influence on how a case will progress within the state court system.

Some use their discretion more liberally to dismiss entire categories of crimes. Others cautiously push the envelope of prosecution on a case-by-case basis.

Some are determined to bear the load the old way without compromising their prosecution standards.

Sherry Boston, chief prosecutor of the Dekalb County District Attorney’s Office in Georgia, thinks an unprecedented court backlog demands a new prosecutorial response.

In April, Boston asked her team to stop prosecuting at least four categories of low-level, nonviolent crimes so there’s more time to focus on violent ones.

The dropped categories include drug possession involving small amounts for personal use, forgery offenses where victims suffered no financial harm, and multiple categories of theft where victims had no financial loss, according to an internal policy memo obtained by Insight.

The policy applies to pending felony cases between March 13, 2020, and March 31, 2022.

Boston plans to extend the policy into 2023.

After that, she may make the policy permanent, if data suggest it’s working.

Just like chief prosecutor Marilyn Mosby did in Baltimore, she said.

Mosby stopped prosecuting nine categories of offenses during the pandemic, including drug possession, prostitution, and trespassing.

In March, she made the pandemic policy permanent,

32 I N S I G H T December 3 – 9, 2021

citing a John Hopkins University study that suggested Baltimore’s violent crimes dropped under the plan.

In Chicago’s Cook County, chief prosecutor Kim Foxx also stopped prosecuting nonviolent, low-level drug offenses during the pandemic, though she has yet to make the policy permanent.

Right now, Chicago faces the highest level of violence the city has seen in more than a decade—nearly 4,000 people were shot and 700 killed in 2021.

In Dekalb County, Georgia, violent crimes are also on the rise, but Boston doesn’t think there’s any evidence that suggests her new policy is the driver.

“Homicides have increased everywhere, including places where prosecutors’ offices are not engaging in reforms like ours,” she told Insight.

These policy changes are part of a progressive prosecution movement that has gained momentum since the pandemic, according to professors Chad Flanders and Stephen Galoob in a Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology article.

The movement seeks to focus on violent crimes while shifting attention away from low-level drug or property crimes.

According to the article, the long-term goal is to reduce the jail population and a change of “tone” in prosecution.

For Adam Cornell, chief prosecutor of Snohomish County in Washington, dismissing entire categories of crimes outright doesn’t seem the right approach for his office.

The Criminal Courts Building and district attorney’s office in New York on July 1.

60 CASES

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Criminal Justice

Coconino County chief prosecutor William Ring stands outside his county office building in Flagstaff, Ariz., on Nov. 22.

“What we have not done in our office is cat“I think it egorically saying that is in the inthere are certain crimes terest of the that we will never, ever prosecute,” Cornell said. community “I think it is in the inthat we, as terest of the community prosecutors, that we, as prosecutors, are always going to exerare always cise our discretion.” going to exer- Shortly following court shutdowns, he cise our discreated an accelerated cretion.” prosecution program to get certain nonviolent felony cases to move Adam Cornell, chief faster within the crimiprosecutor, Snohomish County, Washington nal justice system.

For certain low-level property and drug crimes, if defendants plead guilty early in the process, they get the benefit of less severe charges and a much quicker decision.

Still, prosecutors have the discretion to depart from Cornell’s policy guidelines when they believe doing so would better protect community safety, Cornell said.

He also expanded the criteria of diversion programs to let more people avoid the criminal justice system while getting help with their mental or drug abuse problems.

In the past, only those who had five or fewer felony convictions—or pending felony charges—could enter the diversion program; during the pandemic, Cornell dropped the number to three, according to the internal policy memo.

“I directed my attorneys simply to exercise their discretion more liberally, with an eye toward admittance into those programs,” Cornell said.

“We are keeping an open mind and are waiting to see how law and justice stakeholders, and the community at large, respond.

“I think it’s highly likely that some policies will remain—or at least not revert to what they were prior to the pandemic.”

At the Denver District Attorney’s Office in Colorado, chief prosecutor Beth McCann chose to let each prosecutor decide the best way to tackle the caseload.

“We didn’t change any charging standards or issue any guidelines specific to the pandemic,” McCann told Insight.

“My attorneys are empowered to look at each case on their own and decide whether or not it’s one that they should push all the way through the system.”

Faced with trial backlogs, many of her prosecutors give better plea deals to defendants than they would have agreed to under normal conditions, she said.

That’s a nationwide phenomenon, according to a survey of 93 defense attorneys by professors Tarika

Daftary-Kapur, Kelsey Henderson, and Tina Zottoli.

The survey found that more than 60 percent of attorneys think prosecutors are offering more lenient deals than they would have before the pandemic.

The pressure to ramp up plea deals is particularly high in Colorado.

Unlike many other states, Colorado didn’t halt the speedy trial statute during the pandemic court shutdowns, so a prosecutor could have a long docket of pending trials close to trial deadlines.

According to Colorado law, every criminal defendant has a right to have a speedy trial, within six months of a “not guilty” plea; if a trial can’t be conducted by the deadline, the case can be dismissed.

Chief prosecutor of Boulder County in Colorado Michael Dougherty is worried some cases in his office may get dismissed in the coming months.

His attorneys are working hard to prevent that from happening, he said.

“Let’s say you have a sex assault or a robbery case that can be proven beyond a reasonable doubt, the evidence is strong, the witnesses are cooperative, and we are ready to try the case. But because of the backlog, the trials are not conducted and the cases are dismissed. That means the person who would otherwise have been convicted and held responsible goes free,” Dougherty told Insight.

In that regard, the court’s shutdown and halting jury trials for months are very concerning, he said.

Though under pressure, Dougherty didn’t make any changes to his office’s standards in charging or disposing of cases.

“Our top priorities are public safety and doing justice,” he said.

“I would rather just keep working to the bitter end. I just think that we have a mission and a mandate from the community, and we should do everything we can to meet that,” Dougherty said.

That’s an uwnderstanding shared by the chief prosecutor of Coconino County in Arizona, William Ring.

Right now, Ring’s office has 60 cases pending trial, four times the number before the pandemic.

He has worked hard to get his prosecutors on board with new technology to conduct business remotely, but he hasn’t made any changes to the standards in charging or disposing of cases.

He said it’s the lawmakers’ job to criminalize or decriminalize certain categories of crime, not that of prosecutors.

Justice is a constant, he said, something that endures, not something flimsy or plastic that you mold to the latest fad.

“The pandemic is merely incidental and not a driver of policy,” Ring said. “If we did that, we all would lose our way.”

“Instead, it is just like bad weather, sometimes very bad. It will pass. Until then, we put up the storm sails, we keep our cargo, we stay the course.”

I N S I G H T December 3 – 9, 2021 33

FINAL LANDING OH IO

Wright Brothers’ First Bicycle Shop Building to Be Demolished

By Michael Sakal

CI T Y ZON I NG BOA R D ’ S

34 I N S I G H T December 3 – 9, 2021

The two-story storefront building later housed the Gem City Ice Cream Co., which was a household name in the city for more than seven decades, from 1901 to 1975. Similar to a winning lottery ticket on a smaller scale, many of the Hungarian children living in the West Side neighborhood during the Great Depression savored winning a “free ice cream treat” if they were lucky to have the reward on their wooden popsicle stick. The winning stick could be traded in for an ice cream treat.

Neighbors living around the building have considered it an eyesore and have said they would like to see it gone. The back of the building has been in a deteriorated state for a number of years and has been left open to the elements. On occasion, homeless people have started fires in the building to stay warm.

The city has performed two inspections on the building with unfavorable results. In 2007, an inspection concluded that it could cost as much as $2.8 million to have the building repaired to be “developer ready.” An inspection done in

The site of the Wright Brothers' first bicycle shop, in Dayton, Ohio, is set to be torn down. The city says that it's in a state of disrepair and needs to be removed.

CLOCKWISE FROM LEFT: HULTON ARCHIVE/GETTY IMAGES, COURTESY OF PRESERVATION DAYTON, INC., SHUTTERSTOCK LIBRARY OF CONGRESS/GETTY IMAGES

decision to demolish an iconic building that has been part of the aviation heritage of Dayton, Ohio, has upset history buffs hoping that it would be saved.

The Dayton Board of Zoning Appeals, during its Nov. 23 meeting, voted 5–1 against Preservation Dayton Inc.’s wishes to block the city’s demolition of the 129-year-old brick building at 1005 West Third Street on the city’s West Side. The structure is included on the National Aviation Heritage Trail overseen by the National Parks Service in a historic district known as the Wright-Dunbar Village in Dayton, the birthplace of aviation.

Part of the building’s interior was where the Wright Brothers decided to start repairing and selling bicycles when Wilbur Wright was 25 and Orville Wright was 21. They called it the Wright Cycle Exchange. It was the first of six locations for their bicycle shops, where they sold as many as 11 different brands of bicycles, including their own.

Heritage Conservation

U.S. aviation pioneers (L–R) Orville Wright (1871–1948) and his brother Wilbur (1867–1912), circa 1910.

American inventor and aviator Orville Wright poses with a Wright Model E airplane, which has a chain-driven propeller and a flimsy, box-like construction.

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2019 concluded that the building was in an “extreme state of disrepair” and needed to be removed.

The city says that while there has been no interest from developers to rehab the building, but they’ve expressed an interest in the site and part of the city’s mediation plan calls for salvaging materials such as bricks, decorative tile, and a Gem City Ice Cream sign.

Fred Holley, who serves as the chairman of the Dayton Landmarks Commission on Preservation Dayton’s board, said he was disappointed at the zoning board’s decision.

“It’s very difficult to save our history when the neighbors in the area don’t support preservation,” Holley told Insight.

“They want to live in our Historic Districts, but they want to be very selective about what that means. Thank goodness they don’t live near the arcade or other restored landmarks in the downtown area. Immediate gratification never yields long-term benefits and ‘demo by neglect’ should be questioned by those who have fallen into the trap and mindset of ‘tear it down.’

“This building has been owned by the city for the last 20 years. Why did they let it get into this condition?”

The city has owned the building since the late 1990s, according to city records.

The building is also on the National Register of Historic Places for its architecture, according to the Carillon Historical Park in Dayton. It was already in a state of decay in 2003, when Dayton celebrated the Wright Brothers’ 100th Anniversary of Flight.

No one from Dayton’s Board of Zoning Appeals or its secretary, Tony Kroeger, responded to a request for comment by press time.

Kendell Thompson, the superintendent of the Dayton Aviation Heritage National Historical Park, said that although the Wright Brothers were inside that building for a very short period of time, it was a contributor to the park.

He believes that a wall remains inside the building that was part of the bicycle shop before the building was altered years later.

“From the park’s perspective, we are interested in maintaining the National Historic District known as the Wright-Dunbar Village, named for the

“It’s very difficult to save our history when the neighbors in the area don’t support preservation.”

Fred Holley, chairman, Dayton Landmarks Commission Wright Brothers and Paul Laurence Dunbar. Dunbar was the first nationally recognized African American poet, who also lived in the neighborhood.”

The Dayton Aviation Heritage National Park is overseen by the National Parks Service, and Thompson is one of its rangers. He works at the Wright Brothers Bicycle Shop Museum, the fourth bicycle shop location set up by the brothers, a block away from the building slated for demolition.

Dayton area resident Dan Wohlslagel, who has a personal connection to the Wright Brothers, was among the many people disappointed to hear of the zoning board’s decision. Wohlslagel’s grandfather, the late John Wohlslagel, was Orville Wright’s shoeshine boy in the 1920s, as he shined shoes about two blocks down from the building now planned for demolition.

John Wohlslagel shined Orville Wright’s shoes “for a dime” in front of Gus Stathes’ Clothing Store at the Boyd Building, a three-story building with stores on street level and apartments above. That building was torn down in the 1960s.

“It’s horrible,” Dan Wohslagel said of the zoning board’s decision. “I think it’s a really neat building. As soon as people look at that building, they’d see that it’s an old, historic building. The front of it kind of looks art-deco. People aren’t going to get off the highway to look at a building built in 2021.

“They all look pretty much the same.

Although reinvesting in a historic property is something that could require a long-term investment, I believe an area would have a way of attracting more people if it could keep its intrinsic value. I think the building adds a lot to that area instead of just trashing it.”

I N S I G H T December 3 – 9, 2021 35

36 I N S I G H T December 3 – 9, 2021

SPOTLIGHT SNOWY LANDSCAPE A Canadian Pacific railway locomotive pulls train cars east along a rail line past Morant’s Curve in Banff National Park, Canada, on Nov. 26.

PHOTO BY CHARLES MCQUILLAN/GETTY IMAGES

I N S I G H T December 3 – 9, 2021 37

Peruvian President Pedro Castillo wearing the presidential sash after the presidential inauguration in Lima, Peru, on July 28. Castillo of Free Peru National Political Party defeated Keiko Fujimori of Popular Force party by a slight margin in the runoff on June 6.

POLITICA L U N R E ST

SCANDALS, CORRUPTION, inffectiveness lead to big votes in Peru, Chile and Ecuador

By Autumn Spredemann

38 I N S I G H T December 3 – 9, 2021

CLOCKWISE FROM LEFT: GETTY IMAGES/GETTY IMAGES, MARTIN BERNETTI/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES, SHUTTERSTOCK

PRESIDENTI A L IMPE ACHMENT S SW EEP ACROS S SOUTH AMERICA

P

eru’s Congress filed a motion to impeach President Pedro Castillo on Nov. 25, which political rival Keiko Fujimori and her Popular Force party supported.

Castillo’s administration has been plagued by scandal and corruption charges since he took office this summer.

The Nov. 25 impeachment motion makes Peru the third South American nation since October to consider removing its president.

Chile’s President Sebastián Piñera faced impeachment by the lower chamber of the nation’s legislature on Nov. 9 due to his involvement in a questionable acquisition exposed in the Pandora Papers investigation.

The action failed to pass the Senate due to a lack of opposition votes on Nov. 16.

In Ecuador, President Guillermo Lasso faced a congressional investigation for tax evasion, likewise revealed in the Pandora Papers. Former presidential can-

World South America

Chilean firefighters extinguish burning buses during clashes between protesters and the police, over the announcement of an increase in public transit fees, in Santiago, on Oct. 19, 2019.

“People were unhappy with [President Sebastián] Piñera because of the social unrest situation back in 2019.”

Patricio Navia, political analyst and professor, New York University

3rd COUNTRY

didate Andrés Arauz called for Lasso to resign from office on Oct. 7.

Neither Side Was Happy With Piñera “People were unhappy with Piñera because of the social unrest situation back in 2019,” South America political analyst and New York University professor Patricio Navia told Insight.

Widespread protests and unrest broke out in Chile in October 2019 over the announcement of an increase in public transit fees.

Both conservatives and liberals were unhappy with the way Piñera handled the government’s response to the upheaval.

In response to his diminished approval ratings following the 2019 protests, Piñera said, “I understand that Chileans are not happy with what has happened. I am not happy either.”

Conservatives felt the president’s response wasn’t effective, and liberals de-

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cried the use of excessive force by the police against unarmed demonstrators.

As of September, Piñera’s approval rating fell to 26 percent due to unfulfilled voter expectations and ineffectual policies.

“The Pandora Papers were just an excuse [for impeachment],” Navia said.

Peru’s Pandemic Fumble Peru has the distinction of having the highest per-capita death rate from the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus in the world, which factors into the chaos surrounding Castillo’s impeachment.

Overall discontent with the way the state responded to the pandemic, combined with slow economic recovery and the government’s use of the less-effective Chinese Sinopharm vaccine, cast a shadow over the new president.

The CCP virus, commonly known as the novel coronavirus, is the pathogen that causes COVID-19.

Among the official reasons listed by Congress as grounds for Castillo’s removal are the illegal use of public funds by members of the Peru Libre party and the president’s appointment of officials currently under investigation for suspected ties to terrorism.

I N S I G H T December 3 – 9, 2021 39

World South America

Protesters clash with the police, demanding Chilean President Sebastián Piñera’s resignation over the government’s economic policies, in Santiago, Chile, on Oct. 29, 2019.

Chilean conservatives felt that President Sebastián Piñera’s response to widespread protests in 2019 wasn’t effective, and liberals decried the use of excessive force by the police against unarmed demonstrators.

A Common Denominator: Inequality

Parallels Between Ecuador and Peru Lasso and Castillo both represent egress from the legacy of a stigmatized predecessor.

In the case of Ecuador, Lasso is the first right-wing leader in 14 years and is emblematic of the departure from the corruption and scandals of former democratic socialist President Rafael Correa.

Correa was sentenced to eight years in prison for a bribery scandal in September 2020.

In Peru, Castillo was the only front-runner candidate besides Keiko Fujimori, the daughter of controversial former President Alberto Fujimori, who was accused of crimes against humanity during his tenure and is currently serving a 25-year sentence in prison.

This mentality among voters creates 40 I N S I G H T December 3 – 9, 2021

“The Pandora Papers were just an excuse [for impeachment].”

Patricio Navia, political analyst and professor, New York University what Navia calls a “rebound effect.”

He highlighted that choosing presidential candidates from a “lesser of evils” perspective doesn’t lay a foundation for stability in any nation.

Undermining Democratic Values Aside from being an avowed Marxist-Leninist, Castillo’s first speech as president in July singularly addressed a handful of indigenous communities, leaving some Peruvians with the impression he had little interest in repre-

Peruvian political analyst Alberto Adrianzén said his nation is not only divided by politics, but also by segregation and inequality.

The 20th-century solution to this problem in Latin America was land distribution. Through this method, the economically disadvantaged had a chance to become part of the middle class.

Today, education reform appears to be the modern equivalent and was called a “social equalizer” by the National Institute for the Evaluation of Education in Mexico.

Inequality and instability in Latin American politics go hand in hand, much of which comes from ongoing trust issues between the civilian population and their governments, according to an Inter-American Development Bank study.

Martinez noted that since 1979, one in every six South American presidents has failed to complete their constitutional term.

FROM TOP LEFT: PEDRO UGARTE/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES, PEDRO UGARTE/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES, THIBAUD MORITZ/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES

senting the nation as a whole.

This set the tone for what escalated into his impeachment.

Chilean political science professor Christopher Martinez says that, paradoxically, presidential failures occur when leaders are forcibly removed from office.

Navia echos this sentiment and believes impeachments and protests undermine the logic of basic democratic values, saying it’s merely a way to circumvent the polls.

“Democratic values and institutions must be respected,” Navia said.

A group of tourists in front of the Grand Theatre in Bordeaux, France, on Nov. 27. While the Omicron variant of the virus that causes COVID-19 may be more contagious, so far it has not been associated with greater illness or death.

N E W VA R I A N T

WHAT WE KNOW ABOUT

OMICRON

Warnings spread fear in spite of little information

I THIBAUD MORITZ/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES

By Nathan Worcester t’s been just days since a new strain of COVID-19 made headlines across the planet.

While the World Health Organization (WHO) has warned that the new Omicron variant presents a “very high risk,” other scientists, including some with WHO, have stressed that we still have much to learn about the new CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus strain.

Francis Collins, director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), told CNN’s “State of the Union” that Omicron is likely “more contagious” than its predecessors. He said there isn’t yet any information indicating it causes worse disease than earlier variants.

Following Omicron-related upheavals in the stock market on Black Friday, in-

vestment banking giant Goldman Sachs pushed back against widespread anxiety, arguing that existing treatments will likely keep the new variant in check.

In South Africa, where some of the earliest cases of Omicron have been identified and treated, Dr. Angelique Coetzee of the South African Medical Association told The Daily Telegraph that patients with Omicron have had relatively minor symptoms, albeit ones atypical of COVID-19.

“It presents mild disease, with symptoms being sore muscles and tiredCASES ness for a day or two not feeling well,” Cod e t c e d in E ur o p e h av e etzee said. “So far, a l b e n mil d o r we have detected a sy mptoma ic . that those infected

44

do not suffer the loss of taste or smell.

They might have a slight cough. There are no prominent symptoms. Of those infected, some are currently being treated at home.”

Origins, Spread, and Severity The earliest reports of Omicron came from southern Africa. On Nov. 25, a statement from Botswana’s COVID-19 Task Force announced that a new variant, B.1.1.529, had been detected in four travelers.

A statement on Nov. 26 from the country’s Ministry of Health and Wellness noted that the four individuals, who are foreign diplomats from an unnamed country, initially tested positive for COVID-19 on Nov. 11. Genomic sequencing later revealed that the travelers had the new variant.

That same day, the WHO announced I N S I G H T December 3 – 9, 2021 41

World COVID-19

spreading farther while also becoming less damaging to their hosts.

Some scientists think existing therapeutics will probably prove effective against Omicron.

“There’s reason to be optimistic current boosted vaccines will provide meaningful protection against #Omicron,” wrote Scott Gottlieb, a Pfizer director and former Trump official, on Twitter.

Collins, of the NIH, thinks scientists will be better able to comment on the efficacy of existing vaccines against Omicron after two to three more weeks of field and laboratory testing.

Little Knowledge, Big Government Action Travelers from South Africa are tested for COVID-19 upon arrival at Schiphol airport in Amsterdam on Nov. 30.

42 I N S I G H T December 3 – 9, 2021

“No one here in South Africa is known to have been [hospitalized] with the Omicron variant, nor is anyone here believed to have fallen seriously ill with it.”

Angelique Coetzee, chair, South African Medical Association

In a Nov. 29 Twitter thread, Dr. Nicholas Christakis of Yale University noted there had been “no reports, yet, of deaths” from Omicron. “We will see such deaths before long,” he said.

So far, even as the Omicron variant reportedly swept South Africa in November, COVID-19 deaths in the country have fallen from recent highs during the country’s winter in July and August.

On Dec. 1, however, WHO’s COVID-19 technical lead, Maria Van Kerkhove, noted an increase in hospitalizations in that country, according to CNBC. The country has simultaneously dealt with a small surge in the Delta variant, which may account for some of the increase in hospitalization.

If Omicron is both more contagious and less severe than earlier variants, its emergence could reflect the trade-off between transmission and virulence.

According to this scientific hypothesis, pathogens evolve in the direction of

REMKO DE WAAL/ANP/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES

that B.1.1.259, or Omicron, was a variant of concern (VOC). The WHO cited the variant’s large number of mutations, adding that “preliminary evidence suggests an increased risk of reinfection with this variant, as compared to other VOCs.” In the days since, Omicron has been detected across the world, reaching at least 24 countries as of Dec. 1, according to Forbes.

Recent analyses have suggested it was circulating long before early- to mid-November.

Notably, Nigerian scientists have identified the variant in a sample obtained in mid-October, from a traveler who had returned from South Africa.

While the variant may be contagious, so far it hasn’t been associated with greater illness or death.

All 44 cases detected in Europe were mild or asymptomatic, according to reporting from Bloomberg.

This has led some experts to criticize the media and governments across the world for stirring up fear over the variant.

Coetzee, of the South African Medical Association, has led the charge against what she sees as the over-hyping of Omicron.

“Let me be clear: nothing I have seen about this new variant warrants the extreme action the UK government has taken in response to it,” she wrote in The Daily Mail.

“No one here in South Africa is known to have been [hospitalized] with the Omicron variant, nor is anyone here believed to have fallen seriously ill with it.”

Our understanding of Omicron will improve as we learn more about it.

Thankfully, that knowledge could come sooner rather than later—WHO’s Van Kerkhove has said her agency expects to know more about the new variant in days rather than weeks as initially projected, according to Reuters.

Yet despite our limited information on the new variant, as well as early indications that it may not be very severe, the United States and other governments have already reacted strongly, banning travel from southern Africa.

The WHO and other experts have criticized such restrictions, as has the U.S. Travel Association.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, President Joe Biden’s chief medical adviser, told ABC’s George Stephanopoulos on Nov. 28 that it was “too early to say” whether new lockdowns or mandates would be implemented in response to Omicron in the United States.

“We just really need to, as I’ve said so often, prepare for the worst,” Fauci said in that interview.

More and more experts have voiced concerns about the use of lockdowns and similarly sweeping measures. Economist Donald Boudreaux told Insight that such shutdowns have “massive, gigantic, maybe even unprecedented” effects.

Writing in The Daily Wire, Dr. Scott Atlas, a coronavirus adviser under President Donald Trump, said that even if COVID-19 deaths stop rising quickly alongside cases during recurring spikes, “it is unlikely the recurring hysteria and mismanagement by those in power will end so quickly.”

P OL I T IC S • E C ONOM Y • OPI N ION T H AT M AT T E R S

Perspectives

Issue. 08

The U.S. Capitol on Capitol Hill in Washington on July 26.

SAMUEL CORUM/GETTY IMAGES

Foreign Malign Influence in Congress A group of House Republicans is pushing for transparency about foreign revenues, especially from adversaries of the United States, in the American political system. 45

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BIDEN'S FED CHOICE 44

2 ECONOMIC CHALLENGES 46

A TAX GIFT TO THE RICH 47

SIGNS OF WEAKNESS IN THE US RECOVERY 48

I N S I G H T December 3 – 9, 2021 43

THOMAS MCARDLE was a White House speechwriter for President George W. Bush and writes for IssuesInsights.com.

Thomas McArdle

Biden’s Fed Choice

Has the president bought an ally with easy money?

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ith inflation raging at its highest level in more than 30 years, President Joe Biden has reappointed then-President Donald Trump’s Federal Reserve chairman, Jerome Powell, patting Powell on the back for resisting Trump’s supposed attempts at interference in monetary policy. But if Powell has to do anything akin to what the Fed had to do to clean up President Jimmy Carter’s inflation, history suggests that Democrats won’t be shy in denouncing him, no matter who it was who appointed him to steer the nation’s central bank.

It’s been four decades since the last time inflation was a serious political issue in America, and the infamous “misery index” of adding together the inflation and unemployment rates, which Carter used to great effect in his 1976 campaign, bit him back hard when he ran for reelection in 1980.

President Ronald Reagan’s tax cuts, paired with Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker’s tight money, eliminated the misery index from political discourse as Americans enjoyed what would be a long era of sustained economic growth with low inflation.

Democrats tried their best to destroy Volcker while he was taking away the punch bowl. During a 1981 House hearing, Rep. Frank Annunzio (D-Ill.), of Chicago pounded his desk and loudly accused Volcker of being in the pocket of big corporations. Leftist Rep. Henry Gonzalez of Texas, who later in the decade would chair the House Financial Services Committee, actually threatened to impeach Volcker for his commitment to squash inflation.

The next year, House Democratic

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leader Jim Wright, the Texan who would succeed Tip O’Neill as House speaker and then be forced by a little-known GOP backbencher named Newt Gingrich to resign the speakership in a financial scandal, called for Volcker’s resignation.

Wright had met with Volcker no fewer than eight times to pressure him to lower interest rates.

If Powell gets serious in combating inflation, history suggests that Democrats won’t be shy in slamming him.

Yet Biden would have us believe that interfering with the independent, politically insulated Federal Reserve is a Republican thing.

According to the president, during Trump’s term, Powell “stood up to unprecedented political interference.”

Trump’s “interference,” calling Powell gutless and suggesting he could yank him from office (clearly an idle threat), may have been more colorful than the statements of Democrats during the stagflation era, but it would be hard to argue that they were as ominous.

More importantly, Biden’s favorite sector of the Democratic Party’s base, Big Labor—today, not 40 years ago—holds no truck with the lofty notions of Fed independence, and union bosses today aren’t the least bit shy about trampling on the Fed’s independence.

“Too often, the Fed has been a prisoner to overblown concerns about inflation and prioritized price stability over a raising wages economy,” the late AFLCIO President Richard Trumka in 2019 told a Washington gathering

of labor leaders who held positions within the regional Federal Reserve banks or who were “active in the campaign to push the Fed to adopt pro-worker policies.” All of those assembled, Trumka said, “are active in our campaign to influence the Fed’s policymaking,” and they were meeting together to “strategize about the best ways to maximize our collective impact.” Trumka charged that the Fed “has stolen productivity gains from a generation of working people” and was “a threat to our entire democracy.”

This is the same Trumka who gushed, “Just imagine what we can accomplish with an ally in the White House” in his endorsement of Biden for president. Trumka died in August. In September, Biden hosted Trumka’s longtime protege and successor Elizabeth Shuler and other AFL-CIO leaders at the White House, telling them, “This is your house,” and conceding that “I wouldn’t be here without you.”

Serious threats against the Fed’s independence haven’t been heard from high-ranking Democrats for a very long time, but we can be sure that if Powell in the coming months has to get serious in combating inflation, everyone from Squad members in Congress to union bosses to Biden himself will find the central bank chief and his colleagues convenient scapegoats, blaming them for both the unemployment exacerbated by the Democrats’ federal handouts and the inflation caused by their unprecedented spending.

If that happens, we’ll see whether Powell will stand against political interference when it’s Biden, congressional Democrats, and their supporters outside the government who are doing the interfering.

ANDERS CORR is a principal at Corr Analytics Inc., publisher of the Journal of Political Risk. He is an expert in political science and government.

Anders Corr

CCP Influence in Congress Proposed Protections in the House Stalled by Democrats

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embers of congress are finally pushing to remove the malign influence of foreign money from the U.S. political system.

Rep. Lance Gooden (R-Texas) recently introduced legislation to require think tanks to disclose foreign money they’ve received, according to a statement by Rep. Jim Banks (R-Ind.), who’s pushing for a Truth in Testimony resolution that requires congressional witnesses to divulge their sources of foreign funding.

Those funded by the adversaries of the United States—including China, North Korea, Russia, Iran, Venezuela, and Cuba—would face extra scrutiny.

Rep. Mike Johnson (R-La.) has proposed to prohibit lobbying by former members of Congress on the part of communist regimes. A group of House Republicans wants to strengthen the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA).

Some Democrats support these measures, but have done so quietly thus far.

Josh Rogin, a journalist for the Washington Post who often writes on foreign influence issues, wrote an opinion piece published on Nov. 23, demanding that Democrats use their majority to take action on this bipartisan issue.

“Dozens of D.C. think tanks and other policy organizations take money from foreign countries and corporations without ever disclosing the details,” Rogin wrote. “The staffers who have received this financing then write policy papers and testify before Congress, posing as objective, disinterested experts.”

Banks said the proposed rules “would allow Committees to know when individuals are being paid for consulting or advising services to Chinese companies with internal CCP [Chinese Communist Party] committees or companies such as Huawei and Tencent.”

“It would also encompass witnesses who perform consulting work for oligarchs in ... adversarial nations, which is

often not disclosed under the Lobbying Disclosure Act [LDA] or FARA,” he said.

The lack of transparency is even worse in the Senate, which doesn’t require witnesses to divulge foreign conflicts of interest—and apparently has no plans to do so.

Think tanks that refuse foreign funding, such as the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and the American Foreign Policy Council, support additional transparency on the Hill.

The most effective lobbyists for Beijing are U.S. corporations that export to China and want the U.S. government to look the other way.

Banks is leading demands for the House reform effort.

“Witnesses appearing before committees are often able to skirt disclosure requirements. ... This is problematic considering [the] Chinese Communist Party’s disinformation operations in the United States include funding Washington D.C. think tanks,” he said.

“The U.S. China Security and Economic Commission has noted that a number of Washington D.C. think tanks and universities have received funding from Tung Chee-hwa, a vice chairman of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, which is a group that directs the United Front Work Department.”

The rule changes would be a step in the right direction, but even they don’t go far enough.

U.S. Air Force Academy professor Jahara Matisek, whose forthcoming book, “Old and New Battlespaces,” addresses the issue of foreign influence in the United States, said, “From a national security perspective, all foreign money (and even big corporate money) should be kept out because it skews American

democracy, not to mention skewing domestic and foreign policies that benefit other countries and elites at the expense of the average American.”

The most effective lobbyists for Beijing in Washington are U.S. corporations that export to China and want the U.S. government to look the other way on certain issues—the CCP’s multiple genocides, for example—so as to not derail the gravy train of $600 billion in annual U.S.–China trade and $2.3 trillion in U.S. institutional investments in China.

“U.S. national security is not taken that seriously by either political party in the US, precisely because the incentive structures are upside down,” Matisek wrote. “No politicians seem to be punished by their electorate for [bad] national security outcomes.”

So it would seem that even the Republican proposals don’t go far enough.

The penalty for lying on disclosure forms that they’ve proposed is only a ban on speaking before the same committee for three years. Perjury is a more serious offense, especially on matters of national security. Anyone who purposefully lies to Congress should spend time in prison.

Professors at U.S. universities, which receive extensive funding from China through individual student tuition that the CCP can turn on or off, would likely be exempt under the new rules.

Politically influential professors, who can make millions of dollars in outside contracts with foreign governments, should have to report this publicly. Professors at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government aren’t required to publicly disclose foreign funding, even as they often appear as media and congressional experts on national security matters.

Greater transparency about foreign revenues should also apply to corporate experts. Everyone who’s politically influential in the United States, if they receive any foreign money, should have to disclose that funding.

At risk is the future of freedom.

I N S I G H T December 3 – 9, 2021 45

MILTON EZRATI is chief economist for Vested, a contributing editor at The National Interest, and author of “Thirty Tomorrows” and “Bite-Sized Investing.”

Milton Ezrati

2 Economic Challenges

Supply chain problems will lift in time, but inflation will linger

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wo issues shadow economic prospects today. One is supply chain problems. The other is inflation. A recent report from the Labor Department sheds considerable light on both of these matters.

The report shows that supply chain interruptions have significantly slowed the pace of the economy’s recovery. Though this strain will likely abate in time and allow the economy to catch up, relief will not arrive as soon as administration officials have suggested. Meanwhile, the same Labor Department report suggests that inflation problems will be around for a good deal longer.

The effects of shortages show clearly in the Labor Department statistics. They show that overall business output grew a mere 1.4 percent annual rate during the third quarter, the quarter most affected by supply chain shortfalls, far below the 8.2 percent rate of advance averaged during the first half of the year.

Against this sharp slowdown, hours worked actually accelerated, rising at a 6.5 percent annual rate in the third quarter, well above the 4.6 percent annual rate of advance averaged during the year’s first half.

Productivity—output per hour—fell accordingly at a 4.8 percent annual rate during the third quarter, quite a difference from the historically robust 3.4 percent annual rate of advance averaged during the first half of the year.

This sudden shortfall in business output growth suggests that supply chain problems kept overall economic output as much as 4 percent lower than it otherwise might have been. The increased hours worked set against this low production response gives a good idea of the

46 I N S I G H T December 3 – 9, 2021

waste supply problems imposed.

In everyday terms, it tells, for instance, of the number of times everyone in a shop stood around while supervisors checked the inventory yet again for a needed part that may or may not have arrived. It tells of the trucks that in the past never left the yard until full, now leaving on deliveries with half a load or less. And it tells of ships with full crews riding at anchor for days, even weeks, before they can dock and unload their cargoes. It tells, in other words, of countless hours of paid time wasted because of these supply chain problems.

The report on wage costs is less encouraging about future inflation, and the authorities in Washington habitually describe that as “transitory.”

Supply problems will lift in time. Production schedules will align themselves again as will shipping arrangements.

Washington has promised implicitly that the relief will come soon. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg has offered a more sober assessment, indicating that matters will wait until the middle of next year to lift. Even he is likely on the optimistic side of reality, but there’s comfort in knowing that the problems have an end date.

The Labor Department’s report on wage costs is less encouraging about future inflation, something the authorities in Washington also habitually describe as “transitory.”

Indeed, the inflation picture painted in Labor’s report points to what economists might call a “wage-price spiral,” in which rising prices create

wage demands that in turn drive up prices, in something of a self-sustaining cycle.

Hourly compensation, according to the report, rose at a 3.3 percent annual rate during the summer quarter. That was quite an acceleration from the 2.7 percent annual rate averaged during the first half of the year, and hardly surprising given the country’s labor shortage.

With output per hour in decline, that rise in wages pushed up the cost of a unit of production at an annual rate of 8.5 percent, far above the first half’s slight decline in these so-called unit labor costs.

The change has put enormous pressure on businesses to raise prices or lose all profitability.

But the sequence of events doesn’t end with this unwelcome conclusion. Because inflation, at more than 6 percent over the last 12 months, has outpaced even these robust hourly wage gains, workers will then press for still more wage gains, and given today’s labor shortage, they have the leverage to get them. Unless productivity then skyrockets—unlikely, to say the least—businesses will respond with more price increases. The stage seems set for a “wage-price spiral” that is pretty much the definition of embedded inflation.

Despite problems, the economy will continue to recover from the setbacks endured during the pandemic. Supply chain difficulties may slow the pace of growth for longer than Washington presently suggests, but the economy will likely leave them behind after another eight to 12 months.

The developing wage-price spiral, however, seems to have staying power and may even build. It will soon take center stage as the economy’s biggest challenge.

EMEL AKAN is a senior reporter for The Epoch Times in Washington, D.C. Previously she worked in the financial sector as an investment banker at JPMorgan.

Emel Akan

A Tax Gift to the Rich

Biden and Democrats will likely face a real messaging problem

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resident Joe Biden repeatedly said he would raise taxes only on the rich to pay for his Build Back Better plan, but now he’s backing a tax break for millionaires and billionaires, contradicting his promises.

While the White House calls it a “compromise” to move the president’s agenda forward, this is a big deal, according to critics, as Biden and Democrats will likely face a messaging problem heading into the 2022 elections.

House Democrats on Nov. 19 passed Biden’s nearly $2 trillion social and climate spending plan. The bill, called the Build Back Better Act, contains a wide variety of tax provisions, including an increased federal deduction for state and local taxes, or SALT. The plan allows taxpayers to deduct up to $80,000 of state and local taxes against their federal income taxes, a sharp increase from the current $10,000 cap. This means many among the rich would pay lower federal income taxes than they currently pay.

President Donald Trump’s 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act limited individuals’ deduction for SALT payments to $10,000 per year. This cap on deductions, the studies show, has increased the tax bill for residents of high-tax states, especially those who earn more than $500,000.

Blue states with higher individual income and property tax rates, such as New York, New Jersey, and California, objected to the cap imposed under the 2017 tax overhaul, saying it’s unfair to their residents. Since the passage of tax reform, they’ve tried various tax maneuvers to avoid the limitation.

Critics on both sides of the aisle, however, have for years said that eliminating or raising the SALT deduction cap would be a handout to the rich.

Under the House plan, roughly onethird of the tax benefits would go to the richest 1 percent and three-quar-

Critics on both sides of the aisle have said for years that eliminating or raising the SALT deduction cap would be a handout to the rich. ters would go to the richest 5 percent, according to an analysis by the left-leaning Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy.

Another analysis, by the right-leaning Tax Foundation, found that “the top 1 percent of earners would experience a 0.8 percent increase in after-tax income in 2022 due to a more generous SALT deduction.”

The handout to the rich in the first few years would be much higher than the money spent on child tax credits, which is “pretty unbelievable,” says Garrett Watson, a senior policy analyst at the Tax Foundation.

The House bill would increase the cap to $80,000 from 2021 through 2030 and drop it back to $10,000 in 2031. Without changes, the current $10,000 limit is set to expire by the end of 2025. So the change proposed by the House would result in a tax cut for higher earners for 2021 through 2025, and a tax hike for 2026 through 2031, Watson said.

The SALT break in the first few years, however, will likely hit a Senate wall, as key senators have already voiced opposition. Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) say that any SALT relief should benefit those earning less than $400,000 rather than the very wealthy.

Sanders criticized Democrats over their “hypocrisy.”

“You can’t be a political party that talks about demanding the wealthy pay their fair share of taxes and then end up with a bill that gives large tax breaks to many millionaires,” Sanders wrote on Twitter on Nov. 18.

“The hypocrisy is too strong. It’s bad policy, it’s bad politics.”

But this reform is especially important for lawmakers in high-tax states, including Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), who vowed to eliminate the SALT cap “forever.”

“It will be dead, gone, and buried,” he said last year.

High tax states are losing residents and congressional seats as migration to low-tax states continues. California, for example, will lose one seat in Congress next year for the first time in state history. Goldman Sachs estimated that the SALT deduction cap may have lowered tax revenues in high-tax states by up to 1 percent due to tax revenue declines from emigration.

It remains to be seen who wins the SALT battle, but it has already become a divisive issue among Democrats.

Progressives have got “a real messaging problem,” said Jonathan Williams, chief economist at the conservative American Legislative Exchange Council.

Hence, there’s going to be “some heartburn” on the Senate side, he said.

In addition, he said, many state legislators, particularly in low-tax states, feel strongly that any reform to repeal or increase the SALT cap “amounts to a subsidy for high tax, high spend states.”

I N S I G H T December 3 – 9, 2021 47

DANIEL LACALLE is chief economist at hedge fund Tressis and author of “Freedom or Equality,” “Escape from the Central Bank Trap,” and “Life in the Financial Markets.”

Daniel Lacalle

Signs of Weakness in US Recovery The so-called ‘recovery’ has exchanged unemployment for inflation

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.S. consumer confidence has plummeted to a decade-low. The University of Michigan’s consumer sentiment index fell to 66.8 in November, down sharply from the October figure of 71.7 and well below consensus forecasts of 72.4.

Inflation is hurting consumers, and the effects on daily purchases are more severe than the Federal Reserve and consensus estimates may want to believe.

The misery index, which adds inflation and unemployment, is at 10.8 percent, the highest reading in a decade if we exclude the peak of COVID-19 lockdowns, when the misery index reached 15.03 percent.

These are Carter-era levels for the misery index and stagflation alert signs.

The so-called “recovery” has exchanged unemployment for inflation, leaving consumers fighting to make ends meet despite job growth.

Interventionists say inflation isn’t a problem because it’s a function of high growth and point to higher wages as a mitigating factor. To them, people are earning more, so they can afford the same and continue to consume.

The problem is that it’s a lie.

According to St. Louis Fed data compiled by FRED, real median weekly wages for full-time employed citizens aren’t rising, they’re falling dramatically.

Median real wages are down, unemployment is falling but is still significantly above the pre-pandemic level, and 35 million workers have quit their jobs because they either expect more government checks or simply can’t afford daycare, transport, and other costs. That’s why the labor participation rate has remained

48 I N S I G H T December 3 – 9, 2021

Real median weekly wages for full-time employed citizens aren’t rising, they’re falling dramatically, according to St. Louis Fed. stagnant for 17 months at a poor 61.6 percent—a recovery in which citizens can’t take a job because they can’t afford the costs and where businesses are struggling to get workers but can’t raise wages as margins weaken due to rising input prices.

Inflation is hurting businesses, eroding their margins in an allegedly strong economy, and consumers can’t make ends meet with falling real median wages. This isn’t a strong economy, it’s a disaster waiting to happen as inflation remains elevated.

Even the Federal Reserve now admits inflationary pressures are “persistent.”

The U.S. economy is living on borrowed time. In a recent JPMorgan Special Report “The 2022 US economic outlook: Help wanted,” the investment bank estimates a robust growth in consumer spending for 2022 predicated on the reduction of what they call “excess savings”—ask

any hardworking family if they’ve saved too much—and reduction of unemployment.

However, what the current economic slowdown is showing is that this so-called “recovery” has many elements of a crisis—the erosion of purchasing power, rising misery index, and general loss of welfare while savings are depleted.

Consumer confidence would be even worse if the level of savings had fallen faster. But that savings rate is now close to pre-pandemic levels. Consumers have been using their savings to make ends meet and now find a dangerously weak labor market, rising inflation, and poor prospects of improvement.

Furthermore, small businesses are suffocated by input prices as their sales rise but margins and profits plummet. Small businesses are seeing a recovery where sales improve but the financial situation worsens. And businesses are consuming their savings and credit availability fast.

Meanwhile, the U.S. government, advised by theorists who believe that a unit of deficit is a unit of revenue for the private sector, something that’s simply false, continues to spend and increase debt, almost fully monetized by the Fed, perpetuating inflation and bottlenecks with unnecessary spending after a supply shock. No serious government launches a massive demand-side spending spree to address a supply shock.

U.S. consumers have been able to endure this period because of prudent saving and moderating their consumption levels, but the cushions that have allowed them to get through these months are vanishing.

Time to stop the spending, deficit, and printing lunacy, or the stagflation of the 1970s won’t be a risk, but a reality.

Fan Yu

FAN YU is an expert in finance and economics and has contributed analyses on China's economy since 2015.

Understanding China Risk

Companies need to get smarter about unique risks in China

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he earnings of companies within the S&P 500 Index are currently 90 percent correlated with China’s gross domestic product growth, according to Bank of America analysts.

In 2010, that correlation was zero.

That’s an astounding statistic.

It’s not unfathomable once you dive into what it means. The S&P 500 consists of the 500 largest U.S.-based publicly traded companies. Companies of this size—think multinationals such as Intel and Starbucks—must have generated sales from Chinese customers. One can’t become one of the 500 largest companies without operating in the world’s No. 2 economy.

It does raise a question, however: Are companies equipped to manage the risks of operating in China, and are they adequately disclosing such risks to investors?

Ten years ago, the Chinese market was immaterial to corporate revenues. Today, it’s a major driver.

China is a market with unique risks.

They pose real challenges for companies and shareholders.

Shares of casino operator Wynn Resorts tumbled by 25 percent from Sept. 10 to Sept. 21, after the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) announced restrictions on casino operations in the gambling hub of Macau. Nike saw its stock drop by 12 percent between March 16 and March 25, as it was censored on Chinese social media after releasing a statement of “concern” about forced labor harvesting cotton in China’s Xinjiang region. And Nike has historically been a proponent of Beijing’s policies.

Those are examples causing quantifiable detriment to investors.

There are also issues that don’t directly correlate to stock price movements.

China’s draconian lockdowns during the CCP virus pandemic have harmed restaurant operators such as Yum China Holdings and Starbucks, as well as hospitality firms such as Marriott In-

Ten years ago, the Chinese market was immaterial to corporate revenues. Today, it’s a major driver. ternational. That effect is still ongoing.

On Marriott’s third-quarter earnings call on Nov. 3, upon being asked about the risks of operating in China by a Wall Street analyst, Marriott Chief Executive Anthony Capuano said, “Well, how much time do we have?”

Japan’s SoftBank Group, whose subsidiary, Vision Fund, owns several technology startups in China, including ride-hailing company Didi Chuxing, recommended in September to be “more cautious” about investing in China. Beijing’s crackdown on technology firms has forced SoftBank to write down its holdings by more than $50 billion.

There’s no singular type of China risk.

Obviously, the CCP’s regulatory whims are a risk. China’s lack of judicial independence is another. Not to mention the CCP’s politics and its views on U.S. businesses in China. The country’s own domestic companies are also becoming increasingly fierce competitors to foreign incumbents.

Lastly, China’s economy poses a macro risk—its slowdown hurts mining com-

panies exporting natural resources and farmers exporting agriculture.

In the Nov. 15 issue of Barron’s, the financial newspaper compiled a list of “China sensitive” S&P 500 companies based on the percentage of their annual sales are derived from China.

The top 10 companies on that list, in order, are casino operators Wynn Resorts (with 70 percent of its sales coming from China) and Las Vegas Sands, chipmakers Qualcomm and Texas Instruments, fiber optics firm IPG Photonics, computer hardware maker Western Digital, chipmaker NXP Semiconductors, radio and wireless technology maker Qorvo, semiconductor firm Broadcom, and glassmaker Corning (with 33 percent of its sales deriving from China).

I’m not here to argue that all companies need to exit China. Perhaps some should. Others, with the right framework, could see their profits outweigh the risks. But all of them need to ask if they have the resources, know-how, and expertise to properly assess, identify, and mitigate the risks of operating in China. And they need to be independent enough to give objective assessments.

Even if they’re equipped with the resources, are companies properly disclosing such issues to investors? China is a hot topic of discussion on corporate earnings calls. It’s no longer good enough for corporate CEOs, CFOs, and COOs to say, “We are monitoring the situation in China.”

A paragraph on the risk of doing business in China in a company’s SEC filing is too vague. Companies need to tell investors how they’re monitoring and what contingencies and hedges are in place to deal with political, regulatory, or economic changes specific to China. Managing business in China should span functional departments and executive management.

Risk isn’t a one-way street. With risks, there are also opportunities. But companies and shareholders need to get smarter and be better informed.

I N S I G H T December 3 – 9, 2021 49

JEFF MINICK lives and writes in Front Royal, Va. He is the author of two novels, “Amanda Bell” and “Dust on Their Wings,” and two works of nonfiction, “Learning as I Go” and “Movies Make the Man.”

Jeff Minick

Gifts for the Giver What we gain when we give

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riter and lecturer Dale Carnegie once said: “Life truly is a boomerang.

What you give, you get.”

Last year, I missed the birthday of an 8-year-old grandson. Having noticed on a recent visit to his home that he enjoyed driving nails into a board, I sent him an age-appropriate toolbelt and tools I’d found online.

That unexpected gift prompted a phone call from a kid bursting with excitement. We talked for a few minutes while he described each tool, and I got off the phone suffused with the happiness he’d shared.

There was that boomerang.

Giving to others brings gifts in return.

For one thing, giving takes us out of what can be the prison of the self.

Ours is a culture in which we can become obsessed with that self. We see therapists, hoping to find a key to unlock that prison door, we read self-help books, seeking relief from circumstances as varied as obesity and depression, and in the worstcase scenario, we try to escape the self through drugs or booze.

But the act of giving takes us away from this preoccupation with ourselves. The professor whose beloved wife has recently died fights his grief by throwing himself into his teaching, tutoring students, taking them on field trips, and inviting them in groups into his home for special suppers. The alcoholic attorney joins AA and after a while. becomes a sponsor for new members seeking sobriety, finding that in helping them, she is helping herself.

Whether it’s time, treasure, or talent, when we give to others, we can also take enormous satisfaction

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in the happiness and pleasure we deliver to them. The husband who out of the blue brings his wife a bouquet of roses, the boss who bestows an end-of-the-year bonus on his employees, the retired accountant who teaches her 10-year-old granddaughter the art of making apple pies: there’s that boomerang again, coming back around to gladden these gift givers’ hearts.

Whether it’s time, treasure, or talent, when we give to others, we can also take enormous satisfaction in the happiness and pleasure we deliver to them.

And right now, we particularly need this generosity of the spirit.

We’re coming up on a winter that promises hardships and trials for most of us, a season of dark days when there may be shortages of food and fuel, and economic chaos caused by a seemingly endless pandemic. Stout hearts and unwaver-

ing willpower will be essential if we are to make our way through these tribulations.

If we are to prevail during this ordeal, and not merely survive, we must also intentionally cultivate largesse, a giving of ourselves—that greatest of gifts—to those around us. Faced with privation and fear, many people become despondent and anxious.

We must resist that temptation, look clear-eyed at whatever is taking place in the public square and our private lives, and whenever possible strive to encourage those around us, our family and friends, our fellow employees, and our neighbors. Gifts large and small may inspire the recipients to take heart and pay those gestures forward.

Denzel Washington is renowned as an award-winning film actor, but he’s also a noted inspirational speaker.

Here are his thoughts on giving: “At the end of the day, it’s not about what you have or even what you’ve accomplished. It’s about what you’ve done with those accomplishments.

It’s about who you’ve lifted up, who you’ve made better. It’s about what you’ve given back.”

This winter, in particular, let’s give generously of ourselves to others, candles of hope in the darkness.

Environmental Warriors | Community Gardens

Offering Connection With Nature and Neighbors

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By Nathan Worcester arlos martinez leads GreenThumb, New York City’s massive community gardening program. He spoke to The Epoch Times about his childhood in Colombia, his work on an abandoned burial ground, and his personal environmental “war cry.”

Carlos Martinez in front of the gates of the Leverich Burial Ground in Jackson Heights, N.Y.

THE EPOCH TIMES: Can you tell me

a little bit about your background and how you became interested in environmental issues?

CAR LOS MARTINEZ: I was born

and raised in Pereira, Colombia, at the foothills of the Andes, and I had the privilege of growing up surrounded by nature in a region well known for its coffee-growing tradition. From the city, I was able to explore diverse natural environments, learn from sustainable agricultural models, and be inspired by community development initiatives.

While navigating mountain trails, natural parks, and local farms all my life, I became interested in pursuing a career in the environmental field. I obtained a bachelor’s degree in environmental administration at the Universidad Tecnológicade Pereira, and I was fortunate to use my own surrounding environment as a laboratory.

During my last years in college, I was drawn to urban issues and the role of public spaces in building and strengthening communities. A decade later, I decided to pursue a master’s degree in urban planning at Hunter College, where I connected with like-minded professionals in New York City in the quest for a more resilient and equitable city.

BEATRIZ GIL/HIBRIDOS COLLECTIVE

THE EPOCH TIMES: How did you get

involved in GreenThumb—and how does it relate to your training and practice in the arts.

MR . MARTINEZ: I co-founded Hi-

bridosCollective, an interdisciplinary collaborative working to reenvision spaces through community-based art

practices. Through the collaboration between artists and neighbors, the collective has activated sidewalks, parks, plazas, and other unconventional spaces.

“People are looking for a respite from limited spaces for connection and community. ” Carlos Martinez, deputy director, GreenThumb

Some of the place-based interventions and community-building initiatives include outdoor art and music festivals, pop-up art installations, mapping projects, neighborhood tours, workshops, and interactive events.

One of the most rewarding projects was the revitalization of an abandoned burial ground in my neighborhood in Jackson Heights, which neighbors collectively transformed into a community space. Today, this neighborhood gem continues to offer a place to connect with nature and neighbors.

I joined NYC Parks GreenThumb six years ago as the deputy director and I was recently appointed as the director of the nation’s largest municipally led community gardening program.

the jurisdiction of the NYC Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) with temporary licenses were slated for the development of affordable housing. Instead, these gardens were transferred to the jurisdiction of NYC Parks to be preserved as GreenThumb community gardens.

In addition, since 2019, GreenThumb has been rebuilding community gardens in housing developments through an innovative partnership with the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) that will engage and support 50 gardens across the city.

Community gardening continues to thrive through the partnership between the New York City government, volunteer community gardeners, and countless partners who collectively care for these unique public spaces in a shared spirit of service.

Since the start of the pandemic, we have been receiving countless requests from New Yorkers who want to join or start a new community garden. People are looking for a respite from limited spaces for connection and community.

THE EPOCH TIMES: We call our se-

ries “Environmental Warriors,” so I like to ask people if they have a unique “environmental war cry.” What’s yours?

THE EPOCH TIMES: Have you dealt

MR . MARTINEZ: As we work togeth-

with any particularly challenging gardening projects as part of your work with GreenThumb?

er to build a path to post-pandemic recovery, my motto for the upcoming growing season is the theme of GreenThumb’s 38th Annual GreenThumb GrowTogether Conference: “Deeply Rooted: Growing Community Connections,” because this reminds me of the strength and resilience of gardeners in caring for the land and each other.

MR. MARTINEZ: I have directly

overseen the largest addition of community gardens into GreenThumb’s portfolio in over a decade. In 2015, 36 community gardens operating under

I N S I G H T December 3 – 9, 2021 51

Nation Profile

THOUGHT LEADERS

The Homelessness Epidemic: Can We Solve the Crisis in Our Cities?

Homelessness and drug abuse issues have been conflated, according to Michael Shellenberger Michael Shellenberger, author of “San Fransicko: Why Progressives Ruin Cities.”

mericans living in cities such as New York, Los Angeles, and San Francisco see first-hand on their streets the results of ideology and failed policies: the homeless encampments, skyrocketing crime, and open-air drug markets.

In a recent episode of “American Thought Leaders,” host Jan Jekielek discussed the causes and possible solutions to this ongoing ruination with Michael Shellenberger, author of “San Fransicko: Why Progressives Ruin Cities.”

JAN JEKIELEK: Today,

we’re going to talk about “San Fransicko.” This is something you’ve been working on for a long time, the issue of mental health and homelessness and the intersection of this.

What is really happening out there?

MICH A EL SHELLEN BERGER : In

the late 1990s, I did work on the decriminalization of drugs.

When I stopped doing that work around 2000, my understanding was that we were advocating drug rehabilitation as an alternative to prison.

Around 2017, when drug overdose deaths reached 73,000 a year, up from 17,000 in the year 2000, I remember thinking something has gone horribly wrong.

Last year, we had 93,000 deaths from illicit drugs, overdoses, and poisonings.

I knew this was something I needed to come back to.

MR . JEKIELEK: One of the

things that comes through in “San Fransicko” is the homeless problem. It’s a misnomer. It’s not a homeless issue. It is a drug abuse issue, but somehow these things are conflated.

Nation Profile

MR . SHELLENBERGER:

Homeless is a propaganda word. It was used in the 1980s by progressive activists to demand more subsidized housing.

They used people who were on the street suffering from drug addiction or untreated mental illness as reasons for more housing.

The word homeless suggests that the underlying problem is lack of housing, expensive rents, or poverty.

And that’s not the case.

The problem is they’re combining groups of people that should not be combined. The two groups in the biggest trouble living on the street are people suffering from untreated mental illness and people suffering from drug addiction.

To mix up those people with, say, the mother escaping an abusive husband, is irresponsible. We do a pretty good job of helping those people. They don’t need the same things as those addicted to heroin and meth.

MR . JEKIELEK: You say

in your book that someone in this situation cannot be held accountable because addiction is seen as an illness. But paradoxically, the only way they’re going to escape is to take some responsibility for their situation or let someone else take responsibility.

MR . SHELLENBERGER:

Many of us have family or a friend who have suffered from addiction and benefited from an intervention, or not gotten an intervention and needed one. I have had two childhood friends who died from complications

relating to drug addiction.

Another friend is still struggling with addiction.

So you have to ask, why do people who say they’re so compassionate allowing people suffering from drug addiction or severe mental illness to live on the streets?

The idea that people can be put in the category of victims and that everything should be given to them, and nothing is asked, is the dominant ideology of progressives right now.

What we call homeless encampments is a euphemism.

It’s propaganda designed to make you think something’s different than it is. The idea is that: “Oh, these people are helping each other. They’re camping out.”

When you’re addicted to opioids, whether pills, heroin, or fentanyl, and you’re in the depths of that addiction, you often need to be using your opioids every four hours, except at night when you might sleep a long time.

That’s what those encampments are. They’re open drug scenes.

MR . JEKIELEK: You

describe in the book how people with mental illness end up in prison or in these open-air drug markets. But neither of those scenarios necessarily helps them.

MR . SHELLENBERGER:

It’s an issue I’m sensitive to. My aunt suffered from schizophrenia. She lived in a residential care facility in Denver, Colorado. She had her own bedroom, and a shared living space and kitchen. She was too disabled to work. She was cared for by taxpayers but in as

“We don’t allow our grandparents suffering from Alzheimer’s or dementia to live on the streets. Why then do we allow people suffering from psychosis, whether from schizophrenia or from chronic meth use, to be on the streets?” positive a way as possible.

We don’t allow our grandparents suffering from Alzheimer’s or dementia to live on the streets. Why then do we allow people suffering from psychosis, whether from schizophrenia or from chronic meth use, to be on the streets?

In my book, I argue for a system more like the one Europeans have, which is universal psychiatric care— shelter first, treatment first, and then housing earned.

Here we’re paying people to live in tents, use hard drugs, defecate publicly, and commit crimes.

MR . JEKIELEK: Let’s talk

about Europe a bit.

MR . SHELLEN BERGER :

When you ask progressives what the solution is to all the drug overdoses in San Francisco, they say we need a safe place for people

to use drugs. They claim that’s what Europe did.

They claim that Europe simply decriminalized.

That’s just false.

I asked the head of Portugal’s drug program, “If I were shooting heroin in Lisbon, in public, what would happen to me?” He said, “You would be arrested and brought to the police station.”

They have decriminalized certain drugs. But if you’re caught breaking other laws as a result of your addiction, including shooting heroin on a park bench, you are brought before something called a Commissions for the Dissuasion of Addiction.

Basically, it’s an intervention with the power of the state behind it.

MR . JEKIELEK: But the

idea is that, because of this accountability, you can have a chance, right?

I N S I G H T December 3 – 9, 2021 53

Nation Profile

“The word homeless suggests that the underlying problem is lack of housing, expensive rents, or poverty. And that’s not the case.”

MR . SHELLENBERGER:

That’s right. Interventions are liberating. The addicts are in the grip of a mental illness. That’s the first thing you have to understand. In the book, I describe three recovering addicts. And they say: “I had to be arrested to quit drugs. And I’m glad I was arrested.”

They need some sort of structure to keep themselves healthy and clean.

You don’t necessarily need to arrest addicts and put them in prison, but they do need the intervention to get clean and move on with their lives.

surprised you most when you went out into various communities while writing “San Fransicko?”

MR . SHELLENBERGER:

The most surprising thing is that we don’t have enough shelter beds in San Fran-

MR . JEKIELEK: So what’s

the end game of this?

MR . SHELLENBERGER:

We’re seeing attacks on the pillars of civilization. The radical left has been attacking psychiatric hospitals.

It’s attacking the police. It’s attacking universities as a place of free inquiry. It’s

54 I N S I G H T December 3 – 9, 2021

seeking censorship.

I have a lot of faith in this country because we do have an ability to remake ourselves. We’re still unique and special among nations.

But I do think we have to rescue a sense of national identity. This hypersensitivity to racial identity, sexual identity, and gender identity occurs because there isn’t a strong national identity.

I advocate for universal psychiatric care. Our current system of psychiatric care is a mess. I’m proposing a new agency, Cal-Psych, with a hierarchy that reports directly to the governor. It would have the power to get you the particular care you need.

I found broad agreement on this vision, even from the radical left.

MR . SHELLEN BERGER :

MR . JEKIELEK: In the

Yes. A progressive teacher I know complained that he was punished for having disciplined a child engaged in deeply inappropriate behavior in the classroom.

The idea was that that child was, if not a victim, then fragile and should not be disciplined. So, the rise of coddling culture.

I also see this behind the opioid epidemic, this idea that any amount of pain should be treated with drugs.

Everybody’s life is full of moments of pain and suffering.

We need to tell our kids to expect pain and suffering, and that they can develop character by taking responsibility for what they do with that pain and suffering, which is inevitable.

book, you mention the coddling in education and upbringing.

This interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.

ALL PHOTOS BY YORK DU/THE EPOCH TIMES

MR . JEKIELEK: What

cisco or in other cities in California.

Some on the left really believe that housing is a right. That if you just show up and say, “I’m homeless,” then you have a right to an apartment in San Francisco.

If you were to say to the people on the street: “You can’t sleep here in the park.

You have to sleep in the shelter. And if you’re not going to the shelter and you insist on staying here, then we’re going to arrest you,” you will suddenly discover that you don’t have tents all over your city anymore.

T R AV E L • F O O D • L U X U R Y L I V I N G

Unwind

Issue. 08

A convertible transforms any ride into an adventure that supercharges all your senses. Put the top down to see what you’ve been missing.

COURTESY OF BENTLY

Enjoy the Ride: A Selection of Remarkable Convertibles The most luxurious convertibles also have tons of performance to make the daily commute fun. 67

✒

HOME TO PORT WINE, great food, and varied architecture, Portugal’s second-largest city offers much to explore and enjoy. 58 THE MOST APPRECIATED gifts are those that are thoughtfully chosen.

You’ll ensure smiles with recurring gifts of their favorite food or drink. 60 WITH EVERY INVITATION comes the potential to be on future guest rolls.

Here are a few tips to make sure you are at the top of the Must Invite list. 61 I N S I G H T December 3 – 9, 2021 55

All three of the lodges have been designed to create a seamless personal connection with nature. The suites and apartments give off a sense of warmth and security, while at the same being freeflowing and open.

South Africa’s Magic Hills:

A WILD ESCAPE

A luxury nature reserve promotes conservation efforts, hits the market for $40 million

By Phil Butler

O

56 I N S I G H T December 3 – 9, 2021

rehabilitation and species diversification have already taken place, and there are plans for expanding the preserve to 42,000 hectares.

Thus far, there’s been a regreening of vast swaths of the landscape, and a fourth luxury encampment is already underway. The overall vision is to link biodiverse sites and to protect sensitive species, including the “big five”—lions, leopards, black rhinoceroses, African bush elephants, and African buffaloes.

The visionaries who began this conservation effort set out to restore the natural balance of this part of the region. The various areas of the property offer breathtaking views out across the rugged mountains and karoo landscapes as far as the eye can see. Thriving in this stunning natural environment are 26 large mammal species, 10 endemic bird species, and more than 7,700 plant species.

Phil Butler is a publisher, editor, author, and analyst who is a widely cited expert on subjects ranging from digital and social media to travel technology.

MAGIC HILLS CONSERVATION PRESERVE EASTERN CAPE, SOUTH AFRICA $40,553,202 (580,000,000 ZAR) • 24 BEDROOMS • 3 FABULOUS LODGES • 50,000 ACRES KEY FEATURES: • A UNIQUE WILDLIFE REFUGE • BREATHTAKING NATURE • POOLS, GARDENS, AND EXCLUSIVE LUXURY • PRIVATE AIRFIELD AGENT GREEFF CHRISTIE’S INTERNATIONAL REAL ESTATE AIMEE CAMPBELL, FRANCHISE OWNER +27 72 693 4052

ALL PHOTOS BY ANDREW HOWARD/MAGIC HILLS

ne sad reality in our world is that much of our pristine wilderness is disappearing. Fortunately, it’s possible to support conservation efforts, such as the one at a luxury nature reserve in South Africa’s seemingly endless heartland, the Eastern Cape province.

The Magic Hills property, which lists for 580 million South African rand (US$40,553,202), is made up of the Sky Lodge, Ilanga Manor House, and the Elsa Farmhouse. These houses are set in isolated locations across roughly 50,000 acres (21,000 hectares) of mountain and karoo (semi-desert) landscapes.

In all, there are 24 bedrooms and 24 baths divided across the three residences. There’s also a grotto, a wine cellar, staff quarters, a private lake, several pools, a spa, and even a private airport on the property. A tent-style lodge called ISanti, currently under construction, is intended as part of the hospitality aspect of the preserve.

As for the conservation effort, extensive veld

Sky Lodge’s main salon features facing fireplaces and custom furnishings to accentuate the panoramic views of the preserve from inside. Outdoors, the lodge features sweeping decks for sunning in the day and stargazing at night.

Sky Lodge’s whirlpools, spa, and other therapeutic touches further differentiate this authentic South African experience.

Sky Lodge mountain retreat at Magic Hills, one of South Africa’s largest nature preserves. The lodge features seven lavishly appointed suites and two separate apartments.

Luxurious suites and apartments on the preserve are fitted with every possible convenience, from rainfall showers to WiFi. Each has its own en-suite bath and shower, as well as a private terrace.

Safari experiences are a part of the daily routine at Magic Hills.

Here rhinos, sometimes called “chubby unicorns” by staff, join other endangered wildlife roaming the preserve.

I N S I G H T December 3 – 9, 2021 57

Travel Portugal

Porto has been inhabited at least since the fourth century; the Romans called it “Portus Cale.”

A TASTE OF PORTO

Portugal’s 2nd-largest city is a treat to explore, from its history to its port wine

By Kevin Revolinski historic city center, colorful buildings with red-tiled roofs, phenomenal foods with a namesake, world-famous wine, and a beautiful river running through it—this is Porto, Portugal’s second city after Lisbon, and a real gem of a travel destination.

Back in the days of the Roman Empire, a settlement flourished along the south bank of the Douro River: Portus Cale. As the Empire crumbled, others arrived and settled on the northern side of the river. Over the centurries, the town has changed hands among the Alani, Visigoths, Moors, and Christians.

Porto itself is small, but the greater Porto municipality spreads up and down both sides of the river from the Douro Valley to the east out to the Atlantic Ocean two miles to the west.

The historic center is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and includes the district of Ribeira, which slopes with its cobblestone streets and medieval 58 I N S I G H T December 3 – 9, 2021

If I Had a Hammer P OR T C E L T B RS A

patronS i SãoJ n Jnue hawhen f e s t i va l- g o r s a t c ek h othweirplasc toyhamers.

Port Wine The city lends its name to Port, the fortified wine, and the Port Wine Museum occupies a 19th-century warehouse in the old city. But to visit the “port houses,” you must cross the river to the municipality of Vila Nova de Gaia. Kopke Port House is the oldest, dating to 1683. Most were founded by UK merchants and bear names such as Taylor’s—one of the largest in the world—and Graham’s. Most of them lie along the riverside street and promenade, Cais de Gaia, which offers views of the pastel buildings of Ribeira and

CLOCKWISE FROM LEFT: ESBPROFESSIONALPHOTOS/SHUTTERSTOCK, SHUTTERSTOCK, KIEV VICTORPHOTOS/SHUTTERSTOCK, IVO RAINHA PHOTOS/UNSPLASH

An Enduring City

buildings down to the riverside. One can find a variety of small shops, bars, and restaurants to disappear into here.

Visit the Church of St. Francis, a Gothic structure with a magnificent Baroque interior; the old stock exchange at the 19th-century Palácio da Bolsa; and the city cathedral. Another iconic church, Igreja dos Clérigos, features a 248-foot tower (with 240 steps and a 49-bell carillon) and is iconic to the city.

Travel Portugal the Ponte de Dom Luís I, the 1886 steel bridge designed by a co-founder of the Eiffel Company.

Cross it at river level for foot and car traffic or at almost 135 feet above at the top of the bridge’s arch via the bridge reserved for light rail and view-seeking pedestrians.

For a spectacular end to a sunny day in Porto, take the Gaia cable car from the riverside up to the green space that is Jardim do Morro, where crowds gather for sunsets. The gorgeous UNESCO-listed Monastery of Serra do Pilar rises just beyond, overlooking everything, and the upper level of the bridge connects back to Porto there.

Have coffee at The Majestic Café, a Belle Epoque-era cafe with an ornate interior.

PROT

Portuguese Tiles Porto offers varied scenic views—high and low, in all directions. But one of the city’s most unusual features is its ceramic tile work. Typically blue and white, the famous azulejos are gleaming squares of beauty and adorn the exteriors of even ordinary houses. Don’t miss the lobby of the 1903 São Bento Station, which counts more than 20,000 of them.

Another fine display is the Igreja do Carmo, conjoined churches from the mid-18th century, one of which features a completely tiled façade on its streetside wall. Take a coffee or snack at a sidewalk café opposite the churches. Azulejos created by local artists make for popular souvenirs.

COIMBRA

PORTUGAL LISBON

ÉVORA

Porto is located along the Douro River in the north of Portugal.

FARO

Majestic Café, a Belle Epoque-era cafe with an ornate interior.

Burn off at least a few of those calories: Taste Porto offers three-hour walking tours of the best places to eat each iconic dish while providing a history and culture tour along the way. They also offer wine-focused excursions and a craftbeer tour with visits to several local breweries and taprooms.

Harry Potter?

Modern myth claims that the library of the popular book series is Livraria Lello on Rua Das Carmelitas. Maybe not, but the stained-glass ceiling and curving staircases capture the imagination. Pick up a novel from Portugal’s Nobel-honored José Saramago, take some photos, and check out the little HP display in the back.

If You Go The summer heat is kept at bay by pleasant ocean breezes in May through September. During April through May and October through November, the weather is still mild and Porto sees fewer tourists.

Buy a Porto Card for unlimited public transport, free entry to six sites, and discounts on many other attractions. Port house tours and tastings require reservations.

You need at least 48 hours to see the city itself—ideally a full weekend—and add time for day trips, beaches, and exploring the wider region as well.

Day Trips The Douro Valley, also a UNESCO World Heritage region, produces the wines for Port. One can drive or hike through there or board a rabelo, a traditional flat-bottomed wooden boat, for a river tour.

Visit the seashore. Vila Nova de Gaia alone has 17 “Blue Flag” beaches in a 10-mile stretch. At the mouth of the river is Foz do Douro, home to fine restaurants, an old fortress, a covered market, and a lovely promenade.

Kevin Revolinski is an avid traveler, craft beer enthusiast, and home-cooking fan. He’s based in Madison, Wis.

Eat, Drink, and Be Merry At least half of the attraction of Porto is its cuisine. Patisserie windows tempt with the national treasure: the pastel de nata, an egg custard tart.

With a clean bill of health from your doctor, try a francesinha, a toasted sandwich stuffed with ham, fresh sausage, and steak and covered with melted cheese and a gravy-like beer sauce. Tuck into a Pudim Abade de Priscos, a rich crème caramel particular to the region, made with abundant egg yolks, pork fat, and port wine.

Splurge and take breakfast or coffee at The

About 20,000 azulejo tiles adorn the lobby of the São Bento Railway Station.

For a marvelous 360-degree view of Porto, climb up the

225 STEPS of Torre dos Clérigos.

Book lovers should not miss Livraria Lello; it offers books in English and Portuguese.

I N S I G H T December 3 – 9, 2021 59

EDIBLE GIFTS THAT KEEP ON GIVING

By Bill Lindsey

WHAT COULD BE A BETTER GIFT for the foodies on your list than one they can eat or drink? A gift that shows up every month! They’ll think warmly of you all year long when you surprise them with one of these subscriptions.

A WORLD TOUR OF CHEESE

This is like having a butcher hand-select their finest cuts to deliver to your recipient’s doorstep every month. Each box includes dry-aged steaks, sirloin filets, pork chops, bacon, ground beef, and a rotating assortment of additional seasonally appropriate cuts.

What better way for the cheese lover on your list to discover exciting varieties of cheese than to receive a new selection every month? Each box contains a half-pound each of three kinds of cheese from around the world, curated by specialty food importer igourmet. Other box themes include French or Italian Cheeses, Pasta Dinners, and Charcuterie.

Porter Road Butcher’s Choice Box

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iGourmet International Cheese Subscription Box

ALL ABOARD THE CAFFEINE EXPRESS!

Trade Coffee Subscription The coffee lovers on your list will stay awake waiting for the next freshly roasted package from Trade. A welcome quiz helps personalize their subscription, including their preference for whole beans or ground, to ensure a custom-fit pick each month. Hundreds of coffees are available from small roasters across the nation.

FROM $40 FOR 2 BAGS.

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COOKIES WITH A CAUSE

Fans of peanut butter and jelly believe that this combination is one of mankind’s greatest creations.

Imagine their delight each time they receive a new gift of a small-batch, freshly roasted peanut butter, in a flavor such as Chai Spice or Hot Mamba, paired with a jelly to match the season.

Pizza fanatics will cheer your name as they dive into a fresh pie every month from the nation’s best pizzerias. Choices include deep-dish and thin-crust, white and red, and wood-fired and coal-oven to please every palate. Each pie is sized to serve at least four—just heat and eat.

Forget socks—give cookies! Each month, they’ll receive an assortment of 12 cookies in flavors such as Cocoa Loco, Show Me the Honey, Snickerdoodle, and more. Your gift also gives to others, with a portion of the proceeds being donated to help feed the homeless.

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60 I N S I G H T December 3 – 9, 2021

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CARNIVORE’S DELIGHT

How to Be the

Perfect House Guest Overnight or just for dinner, how to win hearts and more invitations

When you’re so fortunate as to receive an invitation to spend time in someone’s home, whether it’s just for dinner or for a weekend, proper behavior will ensure that you’re welcome back anytime.

By Bill Lindsey

1 Start Off on the Right Foot

4 Clean Up After Yourself Meier said it’s always appropriate to help your hostess by clearing the table or cleaning up spills, especially if you were the spiller. If you’re family or close friends with the host or hostess, offer to stay after the other guests have left to do dishes, take the trash out, or reposition the furniture. When using the restroom, take care to leave it in the same clean condition that you found it.

The moment you’re invited to someone’s home for any reason, after you thank them, ask, “What can I bring?” In most cases, the answer will be, “Nothing, but thanks.” Your question underscores your gratitude for the invitation, which is simply good manners. But don’t arrive empty-handed. In her book, “Modern Etiquette and Me,” Myka Meier suggested that you always bring a gift for your host or hostess. Instead of wine or flowers, consider bringing a gift card to their favorite restaurant or store.

CSA IMAGES/GETTY IMAGES

2 Be Respectful While you’re in someone’s home, respect their belongings and privacy.

Take care to not track dirt in from outside and to use a coaster to avoid leaving rings on wood tables. Resist the urge to snoop while using the bathroom—you would be surprised by how well the sound of drawers and cabinets closing can carry. Treat any borrowed items, from a car to golf clubs, gently, immediately advising of any accidental damage with a promise to make amends.

3 Don’t Overindulge An invitation to come inside includes helping yourself to food and drinks.

Regardless of whether the invitation is for a party, a meal, or a stay of overnight or longer, the important thing is to not overindulge. Resist the urge to monopolize your favorite snacks, even if you brought them. Know your limits with alcohol, and if staying overnight, respect others by not making loud phone calls or watching TV with the sound booming.

5 Make Sure You’re Welcome to Return An invitation to someone’s home is an invitation to make yourself comfortable. But don’t overdo it by feeding their pets at the table or ever chiding or correcting their children, even if they’re wading in the punch bowl. Unless your hostess has kicked off her shoes, leave yours on. Ashley Nelson of the YouTube channel “Til Vacuum Do Us Part” said seeing her guests relax and settle in lowers her stress, as she knows that they’re enjoying themselves.

Epoch Booklist

RECOMMENDED READING NONFICTION

‘Woke Racism: How a New Religion Has Betrayed Black America’

This week, we examine wokeism, pandemic panic, and, for the holidays, a tale of redemption, German treats, and splendid stories for the children.

started—often putting him at odds with public figures and mainstream journalists when the data didn’t match their narrative. It’s an in-depth look at how, all too often, fear-mongering and misinformed policies were rolled out at the costs of medical autonomy, free speech, and other freedoms.

REGNERY PUBLISHING, 2021, 464 PAGES

By John McWhorter

A New Racism Disguised as Antiracism Progressive Columbia linguist John McWhorter makes the convincing case that “wokeism” functions like an illogical religion and that it’s setting up black Americans for failure. The author is a brilliant thinker and writer whose every sentence is meticulously considered.

PORTFOLIO, 2021, 224 PAGES

‘Pandemia: How Coronavirus Hysteria Took Over Our Government, Rights, and Lives’

By Alex Berenson

The Price of Pandemic Panic Journalist Alex Berenson has been obsessed with digging up the data behind the pandemic numbers since it

HISTORY

‘History of the United States’

By George Bancroft

Against All Odds Written less than 100 years after the American Revolution, this history book from 1860 delves into a few key years of the American War for Independence.

Unlike many history books that gloss over small details, Bancroft’s book goes in-depth about life on the ground—from soldiers in freezing conditions who had no shoes to an army that relied on the goodwill of locals for supplies. The stories illustrate how the colonists fought a war that they saw no hope of winning for the hope of freedom.

PALALA PRESS, 475 PAGES

62 I N S I G H T December 3 – 9, 2021

Are there books you’d recommend?

We’d love to hear from you. Let us know at features@epochtimes.com

FICTION

cious time of year. Dunk takes readers through the parade of traditional treats, from spiced Lebkuchen to mice-shaped meringues. The warm storytelling and charming illustrations will fill you with festive cheer.

FOR KIDS

QUADRILLE PUBLISHING, 2021, 272 PAGES

‘Once an Eagle’

By Anton Myrer

A Soldier’s Story Young Sam Damon joins the Army just before the outbreak of World War I. He earns a Medal of Honor and decides to make the military his career. Two decades later, he ships out again to fight the Japanese. Often confronted by moral dilemmas and by the temptations of careerism, Damon shows what it means to be a “true officer and a gentleman.” An enthralling novel.

HARPER, 2013, 1,312 PAGES

FOOD

‘Advent: Festive German Bakes to Celebrate the Coming of Christmas’

By Anja Dunk

A Sugar-Dusted Countdown to Christmas In Germany, Advent season is the most deli-

CLASSICS

‘Treasury of Classic Children’s Literature’

Edited by William F. Buckley Jr.

Gems From the Past

‘A Christmas Carol and Other Christmas Stories’

By Charles Dickens

Read the Book!

There are more than 100 film versions of “A Christmas Carol,” but how many of us have read the book? Dickens’s story of Ebenezer Scrooge and his conversion to goodness became a best-seller on the day it was published. The writing is exuberant, the characters are finely drawn, and the story is inspiring. Watch the films if you wish—the Alastair Sim 1951 movie is wonderful—but give the book a shot as well.

This book is a great read-aloud for the family or for the enjoyment of those who love the English language. It also includes “The Chimes” and “The Haunted Man.” SIGNET PUBLISHERS, 2011, 224 PAGES

This collection of stories first appeared in the famous children’s periodical “St. Nicholas Magazine.” Here, young readers can enjoy such splendid tales as Rudyard Kipling’s “Rikki-tikki-tavi” and Louisa May Alcott’s “Onawandah.”

INTERCOLLEGIATE STUDIES INSTITUTE, 1994, 508 PAGES

‘The Twelve Days of Christmas’

By Laurel Long

A Carol Comes Alive The classic English carol comes to life through Long’s stunning oil paintings, which become more elaborate as new gifts are added each day. Readers will revel in searching for the gifts hidden within each illustration.

DIAL BOOKS, 2011, 32 PAGES

Ian Kane is a U.S. Army veteran, filmmaker, and author.

He enjoys the great outdoors and volunteering.

MOVIE REVIEWS

Epoch Watchlist

This week, we cover a riveting drama shot in a single take, an inspiring biopic, some holiday fun, and an outstanding Western.

NEW RELEASE

FAMILY PICK

Nativity! (2009)

Boiling Point (2021 )

DR AMA | THRILLER

Master chef Andy Jones (Stephen Graham) isn’t prepared for the workplace tsunami that washes over his restaurant one evening.

Jones becomes a one-man juggling act as he struggles to balance workplace drama with his understaffed crew, personal issues, and other challenges. Eventually, a health inspector decides to pop by for a look around, which complicates things even further.

Enjoy riveting drama, along with outstanding, believable performances, as Jones faces the storm that descends on his posh London restaurant.

Release Date: Nov. 23, 2021 Director: Philip Barantini Starring: Stephen Graham, Vinette Robinson, Alice Feetham Runtime: 1 hour, 32 minutes MPAA Rating: R Where to Watch: Theaters, Vudu, Apple TV

Packed with lots of bravery and romance, this is an outstanding Western film.

DR AMA

When tall, gentlemanly ex-Navy officer James McKay (Gregory Peck) arrives on the Wild West of the American frontier

to meet up with his fiancée, Patricia Terrill (Carroll Baker), he has a rough landing.

McKay soon becomes embroiled in an ongoing war between two families over cattle watering land.

uproarious comedy and light-hearted dramatic tension as everything leads up to a final climax.

COMEDY

Release Date: Nov. 27, 2009 Director: Debbie Isitt Starring: Martin Freeman, Marc Wootton, Jason Watkins Runtime: 1 hour, 45 minutes MPAA Rating: PG Where to Watch: Amazon Prime Video, DirectTV

HEARTFELT BIOPIC

Gifted Hands: The Ben Carson Story (2009)

TOP WESTERN EPIC

The Big Country (1958)

When failed actor-turned-primary Catholic school teacher Paul Maddens (Martin Freeman) is tasked with putting on the year’s Christmas Nativity play, he teams up with an eccentric teacher’s aide, Mr. Poppy (Marc Wootton) by the well-meaning principal.

As Paul’s and his underprivileged students prepare for their showdown with a snooty rival school, a touching story about underdogs emerges.

It’s also sprinkled liberally with lots of

Release Date: Aug. 13, 1958 Director: William Wyler Starring: Gregory Peck, Jean Simmons, Carroll Baker Running Time: 2 hours, 48 minutes Rating: Passed Where to Watch: Vudu, Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV

This highly inspirational TV biopic is based on intrepid neurosurgeon Dr. Ben Carson (Cuba Gooding Jr.). It begins with Ben’s tumultuous upbringing and destitute family life with his mentally ill mother Sonya (Kimberly Elise) and brother Curtis (Tajh Bellow). As the movie progresses, we see how Ben struggled with (and eventually overcame) both his anger issues and learning disabilities to become an exceptional

human being, in this very moving portrait of self-discovery.

BIOGR APHY

Release Date: Feb. 7, 2009 Director: Thomas Carter Starring: Cuba Gooding Jr., Kimberly Elise, Aunjanue Ellis Running Time: 1 hour, 26 minutes MPAA Rating: Not Rated Where to Watch: DirectTV, Redbox, Vudu

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TRAVEL TRAVELING TO distant places far off the beaten path may seem like an unattainable goal, but you can do it with help from an experienced planner

By Bill Lindsey

PHOTO BY LIGHTSCAPE/UNSPLASH

Lifestyle Travel Planning

The only limits to where your wanderlust takes you are your imagination and budget.

GHING/SHUTTERSTOCK

W

EBSITES AND

youtube allow us to vicariously explore distant lands from the comfort of the couch, but how hard is it to make them a reality? The answer depends in large part on how picky you may be about travel.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with “canned” vacations during which every step is laid out for you. These allow you to go whale watching, climb mountains, or visit exotic ports simply by showing up and stepping aboard a bus or cruise ship.

But what if you long to venture far off the beaten path? Perhaps you want to visit the isolated islands of the South Pacific, trek across Mongolia, or explore the tiny village in northern Italy where your great-grandmother was born. You could simply show up and take it a step at a time, but that’s a recipe for misadventure, as too many things can go wrong.

All this is especially true when you venture far from home or abroad.

Happily, there is a process for making your custom dream trip a reality. The secret is to either spend an enormous

amount of time planning and researching, or take the easy route by choosing a firm that will do all the work for you.

Developing a bespoke vacation is not unlike the process of commissioning a bespoke suit. Just as a tailor asks for fabric and style preferences, a well-connected tour planner will start by determining your expectations and budget based upon where you want to go and what you want to see. This information will allow them to craft the framework of the experience, arranging transportation, visas, packing lists, required inoculations, and advising you of the costs.

Your preferences and budget will determine the scope of the trip; chartering a private jet rather than flying commercial, the need to book a small plane or small craft to reach the destination, and the need for local guides will be reflected in the overall cost. One way to keep expenses low is to plan a hybrid trip, in which you may start on a pre-planned journey, such as exploring England via canal boat, but then veering off to follow your own path exploring the charming Cotswolds. This method has the benefit

of getting you to a jumping-off point.

You’d still need to arrange for transportation, lodging, meals, and a guide, but a good touring company can assist with all of those details.

Developing a bespoke vacation is not unlike the process of commissioning a bespoke suit.

Not all dream trips can be realized; a knowledgeable tour planner will be able to gauge the viability of your plan. If the itinerary involves traveling abroad, the planner can check information from the U.S. State Department for travel advisories due to political unrest and health-related issues such as COVID, research currency exchange rates, and ask their local contacts for expected weather conditions.

In the same vein, year-round weather conditions need to be taken into account, with the planner suggesting the best time to visit. A trip to Antarctica is I N S I G H T December 3 – 9, 2021 65

Lifestyle Travel Planning

LIFESTYLE

ADVENTURE TRAVEL

Pre-planning is the key to success

1 Where to Go A bespoke travel firm can help you connect with your heritage.

66 I N S I G H T December 3 – 9, 2021

embarked on some of the most arduous adventure vacations conceivable as they rode motorcycles from the tip of Scotland to the southernmost tip of Africa, and from London to New York, as captured on film in their “Long Way Down” and “Long Way Around” documentaries.

A team of planners worked with an army of local fixers to ensure smooth transit across borders by motorcycle, aircraft, trains, and boats. A smaller team will make your dream trip a reality as well.

2 When to Go Research to determine the best time of year to go, considering when high season or wet season occur and whether it will be summer or winter when you arrive at your destination.

3 Find a Local Expert

Creating your dream vacation can take you to places you've only read about or seen in movies.

Make sure the tour planner has local fixers and trusted guides who know the routes to follow and special spots to see such as cave paintings, waterfalls, castles, and more.

FROM TOP: ONEINCHPUNCH/SHUTTERSTOCK, MAGDA V/UNSPLASH

always going to involve exposure to seriously cold conditions, but rescheduling a trip to see Peru’s Machu Picchu ruins to coincide with the dry season can greatly improve the experience.

After the first step of the perfect personalized trip—choosing a destination—comes the need to find the perfect planner. An internet search of the terms “custom travel” or “bespoke travel” will produce many pages to review; fine-tuning the search by using specific destination-related keywords, such as “bespoke travel Morocco” greatly improves the results. Look for a tour planner that includes client reviews on their website and conduct an internet search of the planner to uncover bad reviews or other issues that could lead to you looking for another company. Anyone who has seen the movie “Captain Ron” knows the family would have experienced a more relaxing vacation had they done a bit of googling beforehand. Conversely, you may find great reviews.

The appeal of well-connected tour planners is their ability to not only plan a trip to the finest detail, but to be able to assist in the case of an emergency. The best tour planners will have “local fixers” on retainer to make sure permits are in order and lodgings accurately reflect the photos on the website. Actor Ewan MacGregor and Charley Boorman have

Once you’ve chosen a destination, find a tour planner who is up to date on the local laws, customs, and has well-established connections for lodging, transportation, meals, and guides.

Luxury Living Automobiles

CRUISE WITH THE TOP DOWN AND LET THE SUN SHINE IN Convertibles make every drive an adventure, open to the breeze and sunshine on pleasant days and evenings. They quickly convert into a snug cocoon when it’s cold and wet. Here, we’ve collected the best of the breed for your consideration.

By Bill Lindsey

TEUTONIC TEMPTR ESS

B R I TA N N I A R U L E S T H E R OA D S

2022 Mercedes Benz AMG C Roadster

2022 Jaguar F-Type Convertible

FROM $130,700

FROM $74,500

AMG’s superlative performance convertible uses a snarling V8 and 7-speed automatic to conquer twisties.

Open the leather-swathed cockpit in 11 seconds, with a wind deflector to avoid mussed hair.

The new F-Type Jag is a worthy successor to the epic E-Type. Available with rear- or all-wheel drive, cruise in splendid quiet or put the top down to enjoy the rumble of a supercharged V8 engine.

L U X U R Y AT L I G H T S P E E D

Bentley Continental GT W12

ALL PHOTOS COURTESY OF THE MANUFACTURERS

FROM $218,900

W O R L D ’ S FA S T E S T H A I R D R Y E R

Porsche 911 Turbo Cabriolet FROM $187,100

At Porsche, performance comes first, with luxury a close second. The iconic 911 is powered by a 572-horsepower turbocharged engine and 8-speed transmission for speeds up to 199 mph, rocketing from 0 to 60 in 2.8 seconds.

Handcrafted in Britain utilizing only the best materials, a 626-horsepower W12 engine propels it at up to 207 mph for unsurpassed luxury and performance. Guests, as well as the driver in this mobile private club, are ensured maximum comfort at all times. Feel a raindrop? The roof deploys in a scant 19 seconds at speeds up to 30 mph.

PR ACTICA L DECA DENCE

Lexus LC500 Convertible FROM $93,050

Luxury and technology abound in this land yacht.

Enjoy the practicality of a coupe or the frivolity of a convertible at the push of a button to retract the top. Power options include a 471-horsepower V8 and a 354-horsepower hybrid.

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