Epoch INSIGHT Issue 17

AGAINST THE NARRATIVE

Crypto’s Carbon Footprint

Why a former Harvard professor says science and public health are broken

As cryptocurrencies gain momentum, some question if digital is less “green” than fiat currency. p.30

By Charlotte Cuthbertson

American Sleeplessness

Dying Manatees

How to Be Respectful

Screens and stress are the culprits behind sleep deprivation in America. p.26

Federal and state authorities are racing to save manatees from starvation. p.38

Don't let common courtesies become a not-so-common practice. p.67

FEBRUARY 18–24, 2022 | $6.95

NO. 7

Editor’s Note

Against the Narrative dr. martin kulldorff, a Harvard professor until recently and one of the most qualified voices on infectious disease outbreaks, understands the consequences of standing firm on his scientific convictions.

Early on, he dared to go against the government health agencies' policy of broad lockdowns to deal with COVID-19, and instead advocated for a more targeted approach to protect the elderly and vulnerable without penalizing healthy people.

“One of the principles of public health is, it’s not about one disease, like COVID. It’s about all of public health,” said Kulldorff, an epidemiologist and statistician.

Speaking out publicly resulted in backlash from prominent health officials Dr. Anthony Fauci and then-NIH Director Dr. Francis Collins, as well as corporate media outlets.

“For some reason, a public official narrative was established, and you weren’t allowed to question it—which, of course, is very detrimental, both to the pandemic and how to deal with the pandemic, because you have to have a vibrant discussion to figure out how best to deal with these things,” he said.

Despite losing his job, Kulldorff remains optimistic and takes solace in knowing he's being proven right.

He's now concerned about the future of both science and public health.

“Both science and public health are broken,” Kulldorf told Insight magazine in an exclusive interview.

Kulldorff says both need to be rebuilt so that people's trust in science can be restored.

Read this week's cover story on how an esteemed Harvard professor went from being at the top of his game to being dismissed as a “fringe epidemiologist.”

Jasper Fakkert Editor-in-chief

2 I N S I G H T February 18–24, 2022

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

ON THE COVER Dr. Martin Kulldorff stood against the prevailing pandemic narrative on broad lockdowns, and is now working to rebuild trust in science and public health.

SAMIRA BOUAOU/THE EPOCH TIMES

SHARON KILARSKI ARTS & CULTURE EDITOR BILL LINDSEY LUXURY EDITOR FEI MENG & BIBA KAJEVICH 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 BY THE EPOCH MEDIA GROUP, 9550 FLAIR DR. SUITE 411, EL MONTE, CA 91731-2922.

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vol. 2 | no. 7 | february 18–24, 2022

26 | Sleepless in

50 | Friendships

America Screen-time and stress are causing further sleep deprivation.

It may be tougher for adults to make friends, but not impossible.

52 | Sharyl Attkisson

44 | Big Tech

Silicon Valley has the power to destroy the Republican Party.

Looking for reality in a time of propaganda and slanted narratives.

45 | Beijing

56 | Party Palace

Olympics Olympic Committee sidesteps Visa to allow China’s digital currency.

A contemporary version of Dean Martin’s Beverly Hills mansion.

Hiring and sales shouldn’t go in divergent directions for much longer.

47 | Entrepreneurship How George Washington’s business pursuits changed America.

48 | European

Economy Europe’s high unemployment shows big government is bad for jobs.

49 | Lockdowns

Expats are fed up with “zero COVID” rules in Hong Kong.

58 | Spain’s

Features

46 | Economic Data

Hidden Gem The tiny Spanish town of Ronda holds a wealth of history.

12 | School Board Activism Virginia group prepares parents in Florida to help give school boards a conservative edge.

16 | Against the Narrative Why former Harvard professor Martin Kulldorff says “science and public health are broken.”

THE LEAD

30 | Crypto’s Carbon Footprint As cryptocurrencies gain popularity, some question if they’re any less “green” than fiat currency.

38 | Starving Manatees Polluted seagrasses along Florida’s eastern coastline are causing a record number of manatee deaths.

Servicemen of the Ukrainian Military Forces on the frontline with Russia-backed separatists, near Novolugansk, in the Donetsk region, on Feb. 17.

Western officials have estimated some 150,000 Russian troops are stationed at the border with Ukraine.

60 | Protect the Vino

How serious collectors of wine protect their liquid assets.

63 | A Good Drive

Golf carts to get you around the greens and the neighborhood.

66 | The Whiskey Sour When life gives you lemons, make this classic cocktail.

67 | Don’t Be Rude

Social niceties keep us civilized, so avoid these “don’ts.”

ANATOLII STEPANOV/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES

I N S I G H T February 18–24, 2022 3

T H G IL T O P S MANDATES PROTEST TRUCKS BLOCK A ROAD DURING the Freedom Convoy protest over vaccine mandates and government surveillance, outside the Canadian Parliament in Ottawa on Feb. 15.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau declared a state of emergency on Feb. 14.

PHOTO BY ED JONES/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES

4 I N S I G H T February 18–24, 2022

I N S I G H T February 18–24, 2022 5

SHEN YUN SHOP

Great Culture Revived.

Fine Jewelry | Italian Scarves | Home Decor

ShenYunShop.com

6 I N S I G H T February 18–24, 2022

Tel: 1.80 0.208.2384

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

No.07

The Week

A family watches manatees in an exhibit that doubles as a rehabilitation facility at ZooTampa at Lowry Park in Tampa, Fla. PHOTO BY NATASHA HOLT/THE EPOCH TIMES

Federal and State Authorities Race to Save Starving Manatees Sleepless in America Screens and stress are the culprits behind Americans’ poor sleep quality, experts say. 26

38

Training Conservative School Board Activists

Crypto’s Carbon Footprint

A group offers advice to people of a variety of beliefs across the United States on how to become effectively involved in politics. 12

As cryptocurrencies rise, some bemoan their carbon footprint. 30

INSIDE I N S I G H T February 18–24, 2022 7

The Week in Short US

T’N D L U O W I ​​“ E H T S’T I Y A S ” .S C I T L O P

$6

MILLION

— Dr. Anthony Fauci, White House COVID-19 adviser, suggesting that politics had little to do with decisions in recent weeks from Democrats to rescind vaccine and mask mandates.

“If the administration is not going to be tough on China, then Congress needs to be.”

— Rep. Lisa McClain (R-Mich.)

Entrepreneur Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, donated millions of Tesla shares last year to an undisclosed charity, according to a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filing. The shares were worth around $5.74 billion at the time.

$90

MILLION Meta, Facebook’s parent company, has agreed to a $90 million settlement over a decade-old lawsuit that accused the social media platform of tracking users’ internet activity through browser plug-ins, even after they logged out of their accounts.

30th Democrat

Rep. Kathleen Rice (D-N.Y.) said that she will retire in 2022, making her the 30th Democrat who won't seek reelection in the 2022 midterm elections.

3.8 Percent

American shoppers appeared to hit the shops in droves in January, with the Commerce Department saying in a report that retail sales surged 3.8 percent last month.

120,000 TESTS—From Feb. 5 to Feb. 12, iHealth Labs, a California-based subsidiary of

Chinese medical device maker Andon Health, distributed 120,000 test kits to visitors at a pre-Super Bowl event at the LA Convention Center.

8 I N S I G H T February 18–24, 2022

THIS PAGE FROM TOP: KEVIN DIETSCH-POOL/GETTY IMAGES, COURTESY OF LISA MCCLAIN'S OFFICE; RIGHT PAGE FROM TOP: JOSEPH PREZIOSO/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES, WIN MCNAMEE/GETTY IMAGES

$5.7 BILLION

More than 1,700 steel panels have been shipped to Texas from California to be used to build a barrier on the southern border, according to the Washington Examiner.

The panels are worth about $6 million.

The Week in Short US MANDATES

Judge Temporarily Blocks Boston’s Vaccine Mandate A JUDGE HAS blocked Boston

A vial of the children’s dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine at Hartford Hospital in Hartford, Conn., on Nov. 2, 2021.

VACCINES

FDA Delays Decision on Pfizer’s Vaccine for Children

Mayor Michelle Wu’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate for certain first responders.

Massachusetts Appeals Court Judge Sabita Singh ruled that the vaccine requirement for members of three municipal labor unions, Boston Firefighters Local 718, Boston Police Superior Officers Federation, and the Boston Police Detectives Benevolent Society, can’t be enforced until their ongoing legal challenge is resolved.

While the mandate won't be enforced, unvaccinated workers must comply with an existing agreement to get tested for COVID-19 weekly.

THE FOOD AND DRUG ADMINISTR ATION (FDA) pushed back a decision on

whether to clear Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine for children under 5 because both arms of Pfizer’s clinical trial have a low number of COVID-19 cases, a Pfizer board member and former FDA commissioner says.

“Since there’s a low number of cases overall in the clinical trial—most kids are not getting symptomatic COVID—one case in one direction or another can tip the perception of the vaccine’s overall effectiwveness,” Dr. Scott Gottlieb said on CNBC’s “Squawk Box.” FDA officials analyzed the outcomes of a trial that gave children aged 6 months to 4 years a two-dose primary regimen, and determined that there wasn't enough data to grant an emergency use authorization.

The trial includes approximately 8,300 children 12 or younger.

FDA

Senate Confirms Biden’s Nominee for FDA Commissioner in Narrow Vote THE SENATE HAS narrowly con-

firmed President Joe Biden’s nominee to head the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), a regulatory agency that Dr. Robert Califf testifies before the oversees vaccines and drugs.

Senate Health, Education, Labor and Dr. Robert Califf, who was FDA comPensions Committee in Washington on missioner during the Obama adminis- Nov. 17, 2015. tration, was confirmed in a 50–46 vote.

Six Republicans crossed the aisle to support Califf, who was opposed by Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) and four other Democrats or independents who caucus with Democrats.

COURTS

Jury Decides in Favor of NY Times in Sarah Palin’s Defamation Lawsuit AFTER ROUGHLY 15 HOURS of

deliberation over three days, the jury in the Sarah Palin v. The New York Times trial delivered a verdict of “not liable,” giving the newspaper a victory.

Since the verdict in the defamation trial wasn’t in Palin’s favor, there was no monetary figure attached for damages.

Judge Jed Rakoff said to the jury, “It’s up to you whether or not you want to speak to folks from the media,” but added, “My recommendation to you is not to talk to them.”

Prior to the verdict, Rakoff ruled that Palin and her pair of lawyers hadn't sufficiently proven “actual malice” on the part of The New York Times.

I N S I G H T February 18–24, 2022 9

The Week in Short World ITALY

Unvaccinated Adults Aged 50 and Older Now Banned From Work in Italy ALL ITALIAN EMPLOYEES in

Shoppers wearing masks walk along Princess Street in Edinburgh, Scotland, on June 29, 2020.

UK

Scotland’s COVID-19 Death Rates Higher Than England’s: Report

the public and private sectors aged 50 and older must now show proof of COVID-19 vaccination via the country’s “super green pass” in order to enter their places of work.

The vaccine passport is also required to enter most venues in Italy.

Those who aren’t vaccinated and enter their workplace can face fines of 600 euros ($680) and 1,500 euros ($1,700). Repeat violations mean that those fines are doubled, and employers who don’t enforce state rules are also subject to fines between 400 euros ($455) and 1,000 euros ($1,135).

SCOTLAND’S STRICTER COVID-19 restrictions didn’t prevent its COVID-19

death rates from climbing above those in England during the Delta and Omicron waves, a new analysis of official data shows.

In summer 2021, after the UK government abolished mask mandates in England, the Scottish National Party (SNP) administration continued to require the use of face coverings in public places.

In September 2021, the SNP government pushed through a motion to implement COVID-19 vaccine passports in Scotland’s nightclubs and other crowded venues.

Though the UK government reimposed mask mandates in early December 2021 in response to the Omicron variant, CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus restrictions in England continued to be much more relaxed than in Scotland and other administrations.

However, according to an analysis of official data by the Financial Times, per capita deaths in which COVID-19 was mentioned on the death certificate were actually higher in Scotland than in England in January.

NATO: Russia Still Adding Troops Near Ukraine

A DAY AFTER Russia said it pulled back some of its forces from the Ukrainian

border, NATO officials said Moscow is still adding troops to its buildup around the Eastern European nation.

“We have not seen any withdrawal of Russian forces. And of course, that contradicts the message of diplomatic efforts,” NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg told reporters. “What we see is that they have increased the number of troops and more troops are on their way. So, so far, no de-escalation.”

While a feared Russian invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 16 didn’t materialize, the United States and its allies maintain that the threat remains strong, with Europe’s security and economic stability in the balance.

Russia’s defense ministry on Feb. 16 stated that some of its forces would be heading back to their bases.

10 I N S I G H T February 18–24, 2022

Biden DHS: Russian StateSponsored Hackers Targeted Defense Contractors RUSSIAN HACKERS HAVE

allegedly obtained sensitive defense information technology by targeting American contractors, said several federal agencies in a bulletin post.

From at least January 2020 through February 2022, the agencies “have observed regular targeting of U.S. cleared defense contractors by Russian state-sponsored cyber actors,” said the Department of Homeland Security-run Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Agency, Federal Bureau of Investigation, and National Security Agency.

“The actors have targeted both large and small [defense contractors] and subcontractors with varying levels of cybersecurity protocols and resources.”

THIS PAGE FROM TOP: JEFF J MITCHELL/GETTY IMAGES; RIGHT PAGE FROM TOP: ABDULAZIZ KETAZ/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES, HRISTO RUSEV/GETTY IMAGES, JACK TAYLOR/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES, FETHI BELAID/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES

NATO

CYBERSECURITY

World in Photos

World in Photos

1.

1. Syrian firefighters extinguish a fire following artillery shelling by the Syrian regime on a fuel depot affiliated with the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham jihadist group, in the northwestern rebel-held town of Dana, on Feb. 16. 2. NATO Joint Operations Center Torrejón Deputy Commander Brig. Gen. Athanasios Sextos (R) during a press conference at Graf Ignatievo Air Base, Bulgaria, on Feb. 17. 3. A woman lights a candle during Makha Bucha celebrations at Wat Dhammakaya temple in Pathum Thani province, north of Bangkok, Thailand, on Feb. 16. 4. A female camel approaches its young calf lying on the sand in Ong Jemel, north of Tunisia's southwestern Nefta oasis, on Feb. 12.

2.

3.

4.

I N S I G H T February 18–24, 2022 11

A speaker at a special Kalamazoo County board of education meeting on mask mandates for students and staff, in Schoolcraft, Mich., on Aug. 23, 2021.

PHOTO BY MATTHEW HATCHER/GETTY IMAGES

12 I N S I G H T February 18–24, 2022

Nation Local Governments

EDUCATION

TRAINING CONSERVATIVE SCHOOL BOARD ACTIVISTS

Virginia group prepares parents in Florida to help give school boards a conservative edge

S

By Nanette Holt

ar asota, fl a.—people from all stages of life—with and without children in public schools—are filling workshops across the country designed to prepare them to challenge local school boards on issues and help school board candidates they support to get elected.

In January, it was a mostly conservative crowd that attended activist training in Sarasota, Florida, offered by the Leadership Institute, hopeful they’d learn how to right a lopsided, left-leaning school board. The Arlington, Virginia-based institute’s instructors have mentored people of a variety of beliefs on how to become effectively involved in politics, although the officially nonpartisan organization unabashedly aims to give conservatives an edge.

That’s an advantage some Sarasota residents say they desperately need. The beach community, about midway down the western edge of the peninsula of Florida, is home to 349,049 voters, according to the county’s supervisor of elections.

Of those, about 43 percent are registered Republicans, and 30 percent are registered as Democrats.

The rest are listed as having a different political party affiliation.

Despite the community’s conservative majority, the five-member school board—also officially nonpartisan—leans decidedly left, with a 3–2 split favoring liberals, residents attending the workshop said. So they were eager to become effective school board activists.

Most of those who paid $15 to attend the threehour training seemed to have one goal in mind: putting conservatives in the two seats currently

held by retiring liberal incumbents.

The election is Aug. 23, a voting day that has historically drawn far fewer voters than November elections. So the party that rallies more voters is likely to see success, instructors said.

Conservative residents in Sarasota have clashed with their elected school board members regularly since the COVID-19 pandemic began, mostly to challenge required mask-wearing for students and to object to teaching materials that promote politically charged social issues, such as the Black Lives Matter movement.

In response, the school board began limiting time allocated for members of the community to speak at meetings, which has only further enraged parents and others concerned about school issues.

IT’S A SCENARIO that’s playing out in commu-

nities across the nation.

“Public outrage surrounding progressive indoctrination and dogmatic policy reached a fever pitch in summer 2020,” said Leadership Institute spokesman Matthew Hurtt.

The group “knew parents and concerned citizens would seek out ways to make an impact in the schools, so we launched our school board training at the height of parental concern and unrest,” he said.

Workshops focused on influencing sitting school board members and electing candidates represent just a small part of how the Leadership Institute provides educational opportunities for people hoping to effect change.

The organization has been coaching activists and political hopefuls since 1979. It now offers I N S I G H T February 18–24, 2022 13

Nation Local Governments

(L–R) Ron Nehring, an instructor with the Leadership Institute and spokesman for the 2016 presidential campaign of Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), teaches would-be school board activists at a training in Sarasota, Fla., on Jan. 19, 2021. Supporters and those who oppose mask mandates speak during the public comment period at a Hillsborough County Public Schools Board meeting in Tampa, Fla., on July 27, 2021. Parents chat about plans for political activism after finishing a training aimed at conservatives, in Sarasota, Fla., on Jan. 19.

14 I N S I G H T February 18–24, 2022

ment is taking our liberties away.”

And at first she felt disgusted by that and hopeless.

“Then I realized I’m not getting any younger,” the 44-year-old said. “And I can run locally and make a national impact.”

“Public outrage surrounding progressive indoctrination and dogmatic policy reached a fever pitch in summer 2020.”

Matthew Hurtt, spokesman, Leadership Institute

At 76, John Alexander attended a school board activist session thinking he might decide to run for school board.

He spent 27 years practicing law in Cleveland, and has worked in real estate since moving to Florida.

“I don’t like CRT [critical race theory] and left-wing-everything in the schools,” he said.

He remembers with fondness how male teachers, when he was a youth, sent the message that they meant business, starting with their professional attire that always seemed to include a white button-down shirt and tie.

“And we got a great public school education,” he said. “We need to educate, not just entertain” students today.

AFTER THE MEETING, Alexander

and his wife found they were most enthusiastic about helping someone else get elected.

“It was good to know that we weren’t the only ones concerned about schools,” he said. “And it was especially good to learn that there really is something we can do. So we will get involved, go ring doorbells, and pound the pavement” helping on a school board candidate’s campaign.

Alexis Spiegelman got involved with her local Moms for Liberty chapter when she realized that teaching materials encouraged what she considered far too much focus on race. As the parent of a daughter adopted from Guatemala, she was furious.

FROM L: NANETTE HOLT/THE EPOCH TIMES, OCTAVIO JONES/ GETTY IMAGES, NANETTE HOLT/THE EPOCH TIMES

47 types of training courses and seminars online and in-person around the country.

When he was a political hopeful, U.S. Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-Texas) became one of the organization’s more than 243,000 graduates.

Late last year, the organization started holding training to outline how to be an effective school board activist and how to run an effective campaign for school board. Since the August launch, more than 1,600 people—conservatives and liberals—have participated in online or in-person sessions on school board activism, Hurtt said.

And though the first classes were held just weeks before last year’s elections, at least three participants won their races and claimed seats on their local school boards, Hurtt said.

The training in Sarasota left mom-ofthree Tanya Parus feeling inspired. As part of her efforts with her local chapter of Moms for America, she encourages women to run for political office. She left the training feeling ready to make a run for office, but not for school board, she said. She declined to hint at specifics.

Now is the time for people to get involved, she said, because “our govern-

Nation Local Governments

“She doesn’t look like we’re her family,” she said, speaking of her daughter. “So the idea that you’re going to teach children that there’s something different about us because we don’t look alike really bothered me. It made me feel concern for how she was interpreting that.

“We’ve always just taught her that [skin color] doesn’t determine what kind of person you become. It’s not a central focus of our world. We’re just family.”

Members of her group now review curriculum and pore over books in school libraries looking for materials they feel indoctrinate children with harmful values, including those that focus on skin color rather than character. And they’re carefully interviewing school board candidates so they can issue endorsements and rally behind them, working on their campaigns.

Now that she’s seen how much power school boards wield, she has vowed to stay vigilant in her group’s push to hold school officials accountable.

Clashes between parents and school boards have drawn national attention like never before over the past two years.

Sleepy meetings that used to be mostly devoid of onlookers have started drawing energetic crowds. Speakers at school board meetings now often represent

well-organized groups. They unleash passionate tirades objecting to forced mask-wearing, materials that teach critical race theory, the lack of proper discipline for students, and gender policies that allow boys who identify as girls, for example, to use girls’ restrooms.

AT LEAST ONE Virginia girl was sexu-

ally assaulted in a girls’ bathroom by a biological boy dressed in a skirt. He was recently found guilty, but only after the girl’s father was arrested while angrily complaining during a school board meeting that the matter had been hidden by school officials.

Many school boards, including Sarasota County’s, have dramatically shortened the time allotted for members of the public to speak at meetings. And that has provoked even more angry outbursts from frustrated parents desperate to be heard.

Late last year, the National School Boards Association (NSBA) wrote a letter to the White House asking for federal law enforcement to start investigating parents for being aggressive or threatening to school board members, suggesting it was “domestic terrorism.” In the ensuing uproar, state school board associations started backing away from the organization, withdrawing their af-

filiation from the national group.

Later, it was widely reported that email correspondence revealed through a records request by a conservative parents group suggested that the NSBA had sent the troublesome letter at the request of the White House. The White House and the NSBA have said that isn’t true.

Insight reached out to the National School Boards Association for comment, but didn’t receive a response.

Conservatives aren’t alone in seeking activism training. Progressives can learn tactics in community organizing from Momentum, Midwest Academy, and re:power. Those groups don’t focus specifically on school board efforts, but rather on developing grassroots movements.

Calling parents terrorists is just an attempt to bully conservatives into silence, Spiegelman said. Being eyed as a potential criminal because she speaks up at school board meetings isn’t pleasant, but it’s not enough to make her and other moms in her group back away from making their voices heard, she said.

“No, we’re not going to go away,” Spiegelman said. “When you cross a line and start to affect people’s children, I don’t think that it really matters what someone tries to do to intimidate you. A parent is not going to go away.”

I N S I G H T February 18–24, 2022 15

Dr. Martin Kulldorff, epidemiologist and statistician, at his home in Ashford, Conn., on Feb. 11.

PHOTO BY SAMIRA BOUAOU/THE EPOCH TIMES

16 I N S I G H T February 18–24, 2022

THE MAVERICKS

Against The Narrative Why a former Harvard professor says science and public health are broken

By Charlotte Cuthbertson

I N S I G H T February 18–24, 2022 17

The Lead Profile

Dr. Martin Kulldorff is one of the most qualified public health pandemic experts in the United States. To the narrativeshapers, he’s a pariah.

S A PROMINENT epidemiolo-

18 I N S I G H T February 18–24, 2022

has since paid the price.

It’s quite something for a public health scientist at the top of his game to admit that “both science and public health are broken.”

“For some reason, a public official narrative was established, and you weren’t allowed to question it—which, of course, is very detrimental, both to the pandemic and how to deal with the pandemic, because you have to have a vibrant discussion to figure out how best to deal with these things,” he told Insight.

The Swedish native said he tried to point out in March 2020 that there was a very steep age gradient on mortality for COVID-19, the disease caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus.

Kulldorff said he attempted to publish a paper both in U.S. medical journals and mainstream newspapers stating that while anyone could contract the virus, the focus should be on protecting the elderly and those at high risk. His paper was knocked back from all directions.

“I was able to publish in Sweden, in the major daily newspapers there during the spring of 2020, so that was not a problem,” he said. “But the United States was not allowed to have a debate, which is very troubling.”

Dr. Martin Kulldorff, a single father with a 19-year-old son and twin 6-year-olds, spends a lot of time with his children.

The Great Barrington Declaration His early efforts culminated in the Great Barrington Declaration, published with Dr. Sunetra Gupta and Dr. Jay Bhattacharya in October 2020. The declaration called for a more nuanced approach to the one-size-fits-all restrictions that had been imposed on much of Western society.

“The most compassionate approach that balances the risks and benefits of reaching herd immunity, is to allow those who are at minimal risk of death to live their lives normally to build up immunity to the virus through natu-

SAMIRA BOUAOU/THE EPOCH TIMES

gist and statistician, Kulldorff has worked on detecting and monitoring infectious disease outbreaks for two decades. His methods are widely used around the world and by almost every state health department in the United States, as well as by hundreds of people at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Kulldorff has also worked on vaccine safety for decades, developing globally used methods for monitoring adverse reactions in new vaccines.

His résumé on the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) website is 45 pages long and includes a list of 201 peer-reviewed published journal papers. His work has been cited more than 27,000 times.

Since 2003, Kulldorff worked at Harvard Medical School, first as an associate professor of population medicine and later as a professor of medicine.

In November, Harvard and Kulldorff abruptly parted ways.

Kulldorff prefers to keep the reasons private, but it’s hard to ignore that he placed himself in the crosshairs of the pandemic narrative early on in the “15 days to slow the spread” lockdown and

ral infection, while better protecting those who are at highest risk,” the declaration states.

The two other authors are also amply qualified in the field. Gupta is a professor at Oxford University, an epidemiologist with expertise in immunology, vaccine development, and mathematical modeling of infectious diseases. Bhattacharya is a professor at Stanford University Medical School, a physician, epidemiologist, health economist, and public health policy expert focusing on infectious diseases and vulnerable populations.

Kulldorff said the Great Barrington

Declaration proposed nothing new.

“It’s just the basic fundamental principles of public health that existed in the pandemic preparedness plan that was prepared many years before,” he said. “It’s sort of astonishing that it wasn’t followed from the very beginning of the pandemic.”

Conventional public health science had deemed it unnecessary and potentially harmful to close schools and small businesses, to impose masking on the general public, and to quarantine healthy people.

Kulldorff said the document wasn’t for the politicians, or scientists, or even the doctors—although thousands of each signed it.

“The most important audience was the public,” he said, “because it’s the public that ultimately will end these misguided public health policies. It’s the public, regular people, who are suffering the consequences.”

He said the authors wanted to advise the average person that their intuition was correct, that the restrictions weren’t based on public health science—“so when you oppose them, you’re standing on firm scientific ground.”

“The key thing was to break the pretense that there was scientific consensus for these lockdowns—which there wasn’t.”

The appearance of a scientific conI N S I G H T February 18–24, 2022 19

The Lead Profile

(L–R) Martin Kulldorff, then-professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School; Sunetra Gupta, professor of theoretical epidemiology at the University of Oxford; and Jay Bhattacharya, professor of medicine at Stanford University, at the American Institute for Economic Research in Great Barrington, Mass., on Oct. 3, 2020.

20 I N S I G H T February 18–24, 2022

director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), were released. An email to Fauci from Collins, then-director of the National Institutes of Health, was sent days after the Great Barrington Declaration was published.

“This proposal from the three fringe epidemiologists ... seems to be getting a lot of attention,” Collins told Fauci in the Oct. 8, 2020, email. “There needs to be a quick and devastating published takedown of its premises. I don’t see anything like that online yet—is it underway?”

Collins’s four-line email mentioned that the declaration included “even a co-signature from Nobel Prize winner Mike Leavitt at Stanford.”

Fauci appears to have been in full agreement with Collins’s proposal to

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sensus was formed through high-profile public health officials such as Dr. Anthony Fauci, Dr. Francis Collins, and Dr. Deborah Birx, as well as corporate media along with the stifling of opposing viewpoints.

“There’s really no public health arguments against the declaration. So if you want to criticize it, you have to ... make up lies about it and then attack that, as well as slander the people behind it. And they did both of those things,” Kulldorff said.

It wasn’t until a December 2021 email dump that Kulldorff and the American public got to peek behind the curtain of how the traditional pandemic playbook had been tossed and how swiftly dissenting voices were maligned.

Following a Freedom of Information Act request, emails that involved Fauci, the

The Lead Profile

Kulldorff’s résumé on the Food and Drug Administration website is 45 pages long and includes a list of 201 peer-reviewed published journal papers. His work has been cited more than 27,000 times. take down the authors and their declaration, sending a one-line reply.

“I am pasting in below a piece from the Wired [magazine] that debunks this theory,” he wrote. Collins replied. “Excellent.”

Within a day of the Collins–Fauci exchange, Google began to censor search results for “Great Barrington Declaration.”

In a subsequent interview, Collins said the declaration “is not mainstream science. It’s dangerous.”

Fauci called the declaration “ridiculous” and “total nonsense” in an interview with ABC. A cavalcade of articles from corporate media outlets ensued, with a common theme to disparage the declaration and its authors.

The New York Times called focused protection a “viral theory.”

BuzzFeed called it a “highly controversial recommendation.”

Forbes called the declaration’s detractors “real infectious disease and public health experts.”

“Anti-lockdown advocate appears on radio show that has featured Holocaust deniers,” a Guardian headline blared, referring to Kulldorff’s interview on the “Richie Allen Show.”

Gregg Gonsalves, an associate professor of epidemiology at Yale, called the focused protection strategy “a massacre” and a “straw man argument” produced by “fancy scientists,” in a Twitter thread a week after the declaration was published.

Kulldorff, when asked if he’d ever considered himself a “fringe epidemiologist,” said, “No I have not, but I guess, when the public health leaders get it wrong, then it’s an honor to be a fringe epidemiologist.”

The playground at Lincoln Park in Los Angeles is closed during the pandemic on March 21, 2020.

Social media giants such as Twitter and Facebook jumped on the censorship bandwagon and started labeling certain posts as misleading, while permanently banning journalists such as Alex Berenson.

Berenson’s final tweet before being purged was about the COVID-19 vaccines.

“It doesn’t stop infection. Or transmission,” he posted on Aug. 28, 2021. “Think of it—at best—as a therapeutic with a limited window of efficacy and terrible side effect profile that must be dosed in advance of illness. And we want to mandate it? Insanity.”

Berenson, a former New York Times journalist, has since sued Twitter.

“You always have to be allowed to question science,” Kulldorff said. “We should never silence that debate, pretend that there’s some person who is ‘The Science,’ who has all the truths.

“I think that happened during this pandemic and that’s an embarrassment for the scientific community.”

In an interview at the end of November 2021, Fauci lashed out at Republican senators who had criticized him.

“They’re really criticizing science, because I represent science,” Fauci told CBS.

Personal Life Kulldorff was 8 years old when he first came to reside in the United States. His father, also a scientist, moved the family from Sweden for a one-year university sabbatical in 1970.

It was October, and two weeks after arriving in Texas, Kulldorff’s mother told him to don a costume and head out with the local children.

“We walked around the neighborhood, and everywhere we knocked on the door, they gave us candy. So that was pretty nice for an 8-year-old. And I’ve liked this country ever since,” he said.

Kulldorff returned to the United I N S I G H T February 18–24, 2022 21

The Lead Profile

154,000 Health experts

warned in May 2020 that as pandemic-driven hardship puts added strain on the mental health of Americans, as many as 154,000 extra lives may be lost due to drug or alcohol abuse and suicide.

Why Take a Stand?

Kulldorff has worked in both the Swedish and U.S. health science fields, and followed closely his native country’s very different, less invasive response to the pandemic.

His family members in the Nordic country understood when he took a divergent tack to the U.S. mainstream narrative of harsh lockdowns, closing 22 I N S I G H T February 18–24, 2022

A teacher interacts with students virtually while sitting in an empty classroom at Hazelwood Elementary School in Louisville, Ky., on Jan. 11. schools, and mandatory masking.

“Sweden had a more sane approach to it, so they didn’t find it strange what I was saying,” he said.

He didn’t set out to be a rebel, and there wasn’t much hand wringing behind Kulldorff’s decision to go against the grain when he saw the tried-and-true pandemic response being cast aside.

“I don’t think I have a choice. Since I worked on infectious disease outbreaks for two decades and they instituted policies that go against the basic principles to public health, I can’t just be silent. I have to speak up. There’s no other alternative,” he said.

“Otherwise, what’s the point of being a public health scientist?”

He’s quick to show support for other scientists who agree with him but feel as

if they can’t speak out due to potential loss of research funding or even their job. People such as Fauci, who oversees an annual taxpayer-funded budget of over $6 billion at NIAID, hold the purse strings as well as control of what’s published in journals.

“If you dare speak out against [Fauci’s] views on the pandemic, you can lose funding. And if you agree with him and support him, you can gain funding,” Kulldorff said.

Four prominent scientists who were instrumental in shaping the COVID-19 “natural origin” narrative received substantial increases in grant money from Fauci’s NIAID in the subsequent two years, Insight found.

“So I fully understand that scientists are very afraid of criticizing the

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States for a couple of years in the 1980s for his doctoral work, and in the early ‘90s, he made the move permanent.

The original dream for Kulldorff was to teach high school math and history. He laughs about it still being a backup plan if his current career falls apart.

He still sees fatherhood as his most important job. As a single father with a 19-year-old son and twin 6-year-olds, he spends a lot of time with his children.

“I think the most wonderful and the most important thing in life is to be a parent and see your children grow up,” he said. “So I have always spent plenty of time with them since they were born. I’ve always prioritized that over my career.”

He said the twins were fortunate during the pandemic restrictions in Connecticut to have each other as builtin playmates.

His oldest son was 17 when the pandemic started.

“I wasn’t concerned about him getting COVID because I knew that the risk for him is minuscule. But I was very concerned about his mental health. So I was urging him to go out there and play basketball with his friends, hang out with them, do those social things. I wanted him to have as normal a life as possible.”

The Lead Profile

policies championed by the guy who sits on the biggest chunk of infectious disease research money in the world,” Kulldorff said.

“We shouldn’t have those conflicts.

Research should be very broad, and we should fund broadly different ideas, and some pan out and some don’t, but that’s how you do good science.”

Collateral Damage One of the major precepts behind the Great Barrington Declaration is that public health is wide-ranging and needs a long-term view, yet many influential scientists had a singular focus on COVID-19 outcomes.

“One of the principles of public health is, it’s not about one disease, like COVID, it’s about all of public health,” Kulldorff said.

That singular focus resulted in government officials filling skateboard parks

in California with sand and locking up children’s playgrounds with chains and yellow police tape. Millions of children were sent home from school and for almost two years were forced to learn virtually from home.

Meanwhile, teen suicide rates have increased, drug and alcohol abuse has increased, domestic violence has risen, while childhood vaccinations decreased and cancer screenings plummeted.

Health experts warned in May 2020 that as pandemic-driven hardship puts added strain on the mental health of Americans, as many as 154,000 extra lives may be lost due to drug or alcohol abuse and suicide, or “deaths of despair.”

People were dying from cardiovascular diseases that, in normal circumstances, they would have survived, Kulldorff said,”because maybe they were afraid to go to the hospital, or they went too late.”

“So these are all tragic consequences, collateral damage, of these COVID measures, restrictions that were imposed,” he said. “And you can’t just do that for a whole year or two and expect that it doesn’t have other enormously bad outcomes on public health.”

Kulldorff anticipates that many of the ancillary health impacts have yet to surface.

In January, a Johns Hopkins meta-analysis of lockdown data concluded that lockdowns didn’t save lives.

What’s Next?

Kulldorff is dedicating his next chapter to helping restore trust in science and public health—both of which he calls “broken.”

“So it’s the heads of the funding agencies, the heads of the big journals, and the university presidents and deans who all went into the same bubble thinking that they knew what was right, and which turned out to be wrong,” Kulldorff said.

“But all scientists now are going to have to suffer from that, because, for good reasons, the public won’t trust scientists anymore.”

He’s working with the Brownstone Institute as the scientific director to navigate how to shore up public health again. He’s also part of Hillsdale College’s new Academy for Science and Freedom, which he says will promote and defend

“Since I worked on infectious disease outbreaks for two decades and they instituted policies that go against the basic principles to public health, I can’t just be silent.”

Martin Kulldorff, epidemiologist and former Harvard professor

the importance of open, free scientific discourse.

“It’s very clear that if we want to have vibrant science, and a vibrant scientific community, we have to reform the way science operates and the way public health operates,” he said.

But, Kulldorff said, it’s up to the public—the truckers, farmers, nurses, pilots, and parents—as well as rank-and-file scientists to effect real change.

It’s also time to compassionately help each other heal from the psychological and mental wounds, he said, especially those still living in constant fear of COVID and those who have been self-isolating for two years now.

“I think we shouldn’t blame those who were afraid, because they were major victims of this pandemic strategy,” he said.

“We shouldn’t blame people for believing Anthony Fauci and the CDC— that was the natural thing to do. We just have to help them realize that these measures were misguided so that never happens again.”

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SPOTLIGHT US TROOPS DEPLOYED A SOLDIER OF THE 82ND Airborne Division checks his weapon, at Fort Bragg, N.C., on Feb. 14, 2021. U.S. service members based at Fort Bragg are preparing to deploy to Europe as the crisis between Russia and Ukraine escalates.

PHOTO BY ALLISON JOYCE/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES

24 I N S I G H T February 18–24, 2022

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W E L L- B E I N G

Sleepless in America Modern technology and the COVID-19 pandemic are leaving more people vulnerable to sleep deprivation

By Jackson Elliott

T

he bright lights and work demands of modern life create a hidden sleep crisis that affects Americans in countless ways,

26 I N S I G H T February 18–24, 2022

Singh said. “It’s a biological necessity.”

But sleep is boring, Singh said. Screens are entertaining. Consistently, Americans have chosen them instead.

“When you’re hungry, what do you look for? Food. When you’re thirsty, what do you look for? A glass of water. When you’re sleepy, what do you look for? The ‘next episode’ button,” Singh said.

The average American now gets 6 1/2 hours of sleep per night, he said. This habit strains the body and can cause countless other health issues.

Lost sleep now means higher blood pressure, waste remains in the brain, higher blood sugar, and clogged blood

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experts say.

During the age of COVID-19, sleep issues have gotten worse.

Most adults need 7 to 9 hours of sleep each night, but 1 in 3 Americans gets less than seven hours in a typical day, according to the American Sleep Association.

Among young adults, 37 percent reported poor sleep duration.

During the pandemic, these numbers have gotten worse.

“Across the board, health behaviors, mental health, and things like insomnia have all been moving in a worse direction because of the lack of health care services and the prevalence of stress and unpredictable schedules on Americans,” said sleep expert Dr. Yelena Chernyak.

Sleep loss has been on the rise since at least 1991, according to Gallup poll numbers. The 1990s were a time when personal computer ownership rose rapidly.

The two trends might be connected, experts say, with sleep problems tracing back to two main sources—excessive work and excessive screen time.

“Sleep is not a luxury,” Dr. Abhinav

Health Technology

37

PERCENT

of young adults report experiencing poor sleep duration, according to the American Sleep Association.

Most adults need seven to nine hours of sleep each night, but 1 in 3 Americans gets less than seven hours in a typical day. vessels, Singh said. These issues can cause heart disease, early-onset Alzheimer’s, and other problems.

But American culture sees sleep loss as a trophy, Singh said. Americans are proud that they did something more valuable with their time than sleep.

“Sleeping is still equated with laziness, being demotivated, not interested, complacent, all these adjectives falsely get added to sleeping. It’s looked at as negative.”

Sleeping five hours or less can increase the chances of dying of all causes by 15 percent, according to studies.

“There should be a warning on all those streaming websites.”

Sleep’s Rival Studies show that Americans work about 25 percent more than Europeans. Often, people who feel overworked find free time by sacrificing sleep.

Most doctors say our sleep schedules started collapsing with the invention of the electric light. The popularization of screen devices was another turning point, said Dr. Angela Drake, a University of California–Davis clinical professor.

One problem technology has created is a higher amount of disturbed sleep.

“The increase in sleep disturbances really started with computers and computer gaming, even before the internet,” she said.

Drake said that many of her patients spend all night using electronic tablets, shopping, using the internet, or on technology.

“I had a lady who woke up every night at 4 o’clock and she would read on her iPad,” Drake said.

Experiments suggest that sleep cleans the brain, cements learning, heals the body, improves metabolism, and performs several other important functions.

Once the woman switched the tablet for a normal book, the sleep problems disappeared, she said.

Although scientists agree that sleep is important, they still have little idea how sleep works.

“Every animal in the universe has to sleep. If you don’t sleep, you don’t live,” Drake said.

Experiments suggest that sleep cleans I N S I G H T February 18–24, 2022 27

Health Technology

Sleep is boring, an expert says. Screens are entertaining. Consistently, Americans choose them instead.

28 I N S I G H T February 18–24, 2022

a sleep expert.

According to estimates from the research organization RAND Corporation, the United States likely loses $411 billion per year to mistakes and inefficiency caused by lack of sleep.

Accident reports on events such as the explosion of the Challenger space shuttle, the Exxon Valdez oil spill, and the crash of American Airlines Flight 1420 all likely had lost sleep as a factor.

Sleep loss also affects problems that often prove harder to measure, psychologist Dr. Nicholas Kardaras said. Studies have shown that lost sleep impacts impulsive action.

“If you’re not getting that really good sleep, you seem distracted and error

[prone], irritable, and jittery, and jumpy the next day,” he said.

Unending Daylight Modern life and now the COVID-19 pandemic leave people vulnerable to sleep deprivation.

People stay up all night playing video games because the games throw off the body’s sense of time, Kardaras said.

The excitement from gaming also keeps people awake.

“It spikes dopamine as much as a sexual experience, and it spikes adrenaline pretty high,” he said.

Gaming researchers design games to spike blood pressure and keep people excited, Kardaras said. Light from screens

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the brain, cements learning, heals the body, improves metabolism, and performs several other important functions.

At least one rare genetic disease, fatal familial insomnia, makes people become unable to sleep, Drake said.

Those who suffer from it die within three years, even if nothing else is wrong with them.

Even in less extreme cases, sleeplessness can cause problems including diabetes, weight gain, mood issues, depression, and vehicle accidents.

“Anything that causes inefficient sleep is going to increase your risk for a lot of long-term diseases, because it basically just creates an inflammatory state in your body,” said Dr. Kori Ascher,

Health Technology

Gaming researchers design games to spike blood pressure and keep people excited. The excitement from gaming keeps people awake.

“The increase in sleep disturbances really started with computers and computer gaming, even before the internet.”

Dr. Angela Drake, clinical professor, University of California–Davis

also throws off the sleep cycle.

“The blue screen itself, the radiant screen, disrupts our circadian sleep cycle,” Kardaras said. “Our brains and our nervous systems process that as daytime.”

Kardaras runs an Austin, Texas, clinic for young people addicted to video games.

Often his patients suffer from a severe lack of sleep, he said. Once they start sleeping normally, their personalities change for the better.

“They become almost entirely different people,” he said. “They’re more focused, they’re calmer, they’re less anxious, less depressed.

“Just sleep is a critical ingredient to our mental well-being and gaming does do a pretty significant number on our healthy sleep patterns.”

Modern video games aren’t like older forms of entertainment, according to Dr. Stephen Amira, a sleep expert. They’re more engaging than television.

“It’s not passive. It’s meant to be engaging,” he said. “A lot of people are spending a lot of time online doing things that are not as relaxing as they had in the past.”

The internet never turns off for the night, Amira said. There’s always more to do, more to play, and more to see.

“Nothing signs off anymore,” he said.

For children, sleep is especially important, Amira said.

“We know that growth hormone in children is secreted primarily during a particular stage of sleep called ‘slow wave sleep,’” he said.

Work Culture Compared to Europeans, Americans sleep less, according to a University of Michigan study.

This difference comes from culture, said Dr. Kori Ascher.

“We don’t put any value on sleep,” she said. “If you’re in Europe, they say go and take a nap every day.”

In America, people prioritize work and achievement more, she said. Studies show that Americans work about 25 percent more than Europeans.

Often, people who feel overworked find free time by sacrificing sleep.

This phenomenon has earned the name “revenge bedtime procrastination.”

But by trading sleep for work, people lose in the long run, according to the Sleep Foundation.

“A lack of sleep is tied to irritability and other difficulties regulating emotions. It’s also been connected to mental health disorders, such as depression and anxiety,” the foundation’s website reads.

Sleep Well The good news is that sleep is under our control, Drake said.

“There’s no such thing as a bad sleeper,” she said. “You have learned these habits, and these ways of being, and you can learn new ways.”

According to experts, getting enough sleep is like any other health practice. It requires discipline and willingness to

improve, said Drake.

If people darken their surroundings and turn off interactive electronic devices, they will usually sleep well, she said. Keeping TVs outside the bedroom also helps.

“It isn’t just the light, though, it’s the activity, it’s the noise. It’s engaging your brain.”

But patients often aren’t willing to change. As a result, fixing a sleep schedule means working together with the person in need of help, Drake said.

“If you tell people that they’ve got to take the TV out of their room, they usually won’t come back for a second appointment.”

Drake said she usually looks for compromise solutions with patients. Even small steps such as switching from playing video games to watching TV can help. Seeing good results from consistent small steps often leads to larger changes for the better.

Often, people who believe they are “bad sleepers” will sleep easily under the right circumstances, Drake said.

The best way to get people to prioritize sleep is by explaining its benefits, sleep expert Dr. Yelena Chernyak said. People respond poorly to negative incentives.

With more sleep, life improves in many ways, Chernyak said. People feel well-rested and perform at a higher level.

“What could you gain, and how worth it would more sleep be for you?” she asked.

I N S I G H T February 18–24, 2022 29

A visual representation of the digital cryptocurrency bitcoin in London on Dec. 7, 2017.

PHOTO BY DAN KITWOOD/GETTY IMAGES

MONEY MARKETS

CRYPTO’S

CARBON FOOTPRINT As cryptocurrency gains in popularity, some question if it’s any less ‘green’ than fiat currency

I

N THE YEARS SINCE THE still-anonymous “Satoshi Nakamoto” created the first cryptocurrency, bitcoin, crypto has proven to be polarizing.

Proponents argue that cryptocurrencies offer a transparent alternative to fiat currencies such as the dollar. Crypto transactions are permanently recorded on a decentralized ledger known as a blockchain, making them potentially resistant to censorship.

For political dissidents, or for people living in economically unstable regimes, cryptocurrencies could enable free exchange and prosperity in spite of local oppression or instability.

“The majority of people on this planet do not have access to fair financial services, and Bitcoin fixes this,” Christopher Bendiksen, bitcoin research lead at the digital asset investment firm CoinShares, told Insight via email.

Crypto has also had its share of controversy. It’s known to be volatile—the

By Nathan Worcester

price of bitcoin fell from nearly $69,000 to roughly $35,000 between November 2021 and early January 2022.

In addition, a wave of scams has vividly illustrated the potential for crypto fraud.

On Feb. 8, federal agents seized $3.6 billion worth of bitcoin stolen in the 2016 Bitfinex hack. Ilya “Dutch” Lichtenstein and Heather Morgan were arrested in connection with an alleged conspiracy to launder the stolen funds.

Despite these concerns, bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are making leaps and bounds. A 2021 Intertrust survey of hedge fund managers revealed that respondents anticipated holding more than 7 percent of their assets in cryptocurrency within five years. Today, the total market capitalization of all cryptocurrencies is nearly $2 trillion, according to TradingView—a decrease from November, but a marked increase just since 2020, when its market capitalization was in the hundreds of billions.

Crypto’s surge has prompted the gov-

ernment to explore new regulations. The infrastructure bill passed in November 2021 includes new tax reporting requirements for cryptocurrencies. Not everyone has celebrated the prospect. Forbes described the measures as a seed for “unintended tax nightmares.”

With the Biden administration and major international financial institutions such as BlackRock now emphasizing “environmental, social, and corporate governance” (ESG) and other environmental policies, the carbon footprint of cryptocurrencies has steadily gained attention, including from lawmakers in the Democratic-controlled House and Senate. On Jan. 20, the House Energy and Commerce Oversight and Investigations panel held a hearing on the environmental impact of cryptocurrency.

The Federal Reserve, the United States’ central bank, has articulated similar concerns. In a January publication outlining the potential for a central bank digital currency, the Federal Reserve I N S I G H T February 18–24, 2022 31

Economy Currency

32 I N S I G H T February 18–24, 2022

“Is it truly necessary?” asked Alfonso Pating, an NRDC financial expert, in the article.

Unsurprisingly, then, the White House is reportedly contemplating a “whole-of-government” response. Unnamed sources told Bloomberg that the White House intends to issue an executive order on cryptocurrency, possibly before the end of February. The executive order could also include comments on the central bank digital currency under consideration by the Fed.

“While regulators have blamed cryptocurrency for illegal uses like funding terrorism and funding illicit drug operations, the truth of the matter is that cash is mostly used for illicit activities, not cryptocurrency.”

Chadwick Hagan, business columnist The White House didn’t respond by press time to a request for clarification on whether the cryptocurrency executive order will include any language related to climate or the environment.

Now more than ever, it seems important to step back and seek out the facts.

How “green” is crypto anyway?

Crypto and the Grid A good place to start is cryptocurrency’s electricity consumption. How much juice does crypto use?

The most authoritative answer, at least for bitcoin, may come from the Cam-

bridge Centre for Alternative Finance (CCAF). The CCAF pegs bitcoin electricity consumption at an estimated 125.13 terawatt-hours per year, within a possible range of 49.31 to 291.587 TWh. That would put bitcoin in the same league as Argentina when it comes to electricity use. (Cambridge researchers declined to comment to Insight due to time constraints.)

Other estimates have been fairly similar. Writing in 2020, a team led by Johannes Sedlmeir of Germany’s University of Bayreuth came up with lower and upper bounds of 60 and 125 TWh for the same figure. That’s somewhere between Austria and Norway, roughly speaking.

A 2022 report from CoinShares, motivated in part by rising ESG pressures in the past year, featured a lower guess for the bitcoin network’s power consumption: 75 TWh in 2020 and 82 in 2021.

China’s 2021 ban on cryptocurrency mining had an effect on CoinShares’s projections about network draw per country. The authors didn’t assume that all activity in China had ceased, however, as they attributed all activity supposedly originating in Ireland and Germany to China—the countries, popular locations for proxy IP addresses or virtual private networks, experienced an uptick in mining at that time.

Although China does rely on coal for many existing and future power plants, the report found something unexpected: the carbon intensity of bitcoin hashing, or transaction validation, actually rose following the ban.

“While China has heavily coal-based provinces like Xinjiang and Inner Mongolia, it also has provinces, Sichuan and Yunnan, that almost exclusively rely on hydroelectric power,” Bendiksen told Insight. “In China’s rainy seasons, miners often migrated and took advantage of cheap hydropower, so the chasing of cheap power by Chinese miners led to seasonal variances in emissions.

“We expect the longer-term effect of the Chinese ban will result in more steady carbon intensity, and also a reduction as miners set up operations in more welcoming political environments with abundant power that happen to have less carbon-intensive resources—the United States, with high concentration of renewables, and Russia, with nuclear and natural gas.”

FABRICE COFFRINI/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES

listed crypto’s energy footprint among what it described as shortcomings of cryptocurrency.

The Fed’s stance is apparently in keeping with that of Biden’s latest nominees to it.

Sarah Bloom Raskin, Biden’s pick for vice chair for supervision of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors, has written for Ceres that “we must rebuild with an economy where the values of sustainability are explicitly embedded in market valuation,” in part by ensuring regulators promote measures “that will allocate capital and align portfolios toward sustainable investments that do not depend on carbon and fossil fuels.”

The Wall Street Journal’s editorial board accused her of wanting to “politicize Fed bank supervision, especially on climate.”

Raskin and another Biden nominee for the Fed, Lisa Cook, drew unfeigned faint praise from the Hoover Institution’s John Cochrane.

“Lisa Cook is superbly qualified, by written word, experience, and connections—if the job is to bring the Administration and progressive supporters’ racial policies to the Fed. That might mean requiring DEI or ESG practices at banks,” Cochrane, a Chicago School economist, wrote on his blog, “The Grumpy Economist.”

Business columnist Chadwick Hagan has argued that the push for more laws on crypto is all about more government revenue.

“While regulators have blamed cryptocurrency for illegal uses like funding terrorism and funding illicit drug operations, the truth of the matter is that cash is mostly used for illicit activities, not cryptocurrency. The worry is that government will be unable to tax capital gains,” Hagan wrote in The Epoch Times.

“It is my opinion that cryptocurrency helps promote overall financial literacy and financial independence,” Hagan said later.

Environmental groups aligned with the Biden administration, including the Sierra Club and the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), have also joined the push to regulate crypto. In its Explainer, “Crypto Has a Climate Problem,” the NRDC goes so far as to question whether crypto should exist in light of its purported risks to climate and the environment.

Economy Currency

A man works at a company’s main cryptocurrency mining site, where metal racks are lined with hundreds upon hundreds of graphics cards, in Gondo, Switzerland, on March 9, 2018.

Cryptocurrency’s carbon footprint is also influenced by the percentage of renewables and other lower-carbon energy sources, such as natural gas in place of coal.

Writing in Bitcoin Magazine, Alex Gladstein of the Human Rights Foundation argued that cryptocurrency mining could incentivize the development of solar, wind, and similar energy sources as well as the associated transmission infrastructure in remote parts of Africa, where corruption and dependence often make foreign aid counterproductive to development.

Crypto miners can also curb emissions by using ‘stranded’ dry natural gas in oil fields. That gas cannot be profitably transported elsewhere, meaning it would otherwise be vented or flared. Flaring generates methane, a greenhouse gas

that is believed to have an even more powerful effect on climate than carbon dioxides. Bitcoin miners are beginning to take advantage of this byproduct of physical mining by siting their rigs near oilfields.

CoinShares’s analysis also situated cryptocurrency in the context of global finance by comparing its carbon intensity with that of the gold sector as well as that of minting and printing fiat currency. At 41 megatons of carbon dioxide emissions per year, crypto fell between fiat currency, at 8 Mts per year, and the gold industry, at 100 to 145 Mts per annum.

Bendiksen of CoinShares noted the difficulty of calculating all the emissions associated with fiat currency: “The energy/ emissions of printing/minting fiat currency isn’t transparently published, so

we reference what we have determined as comprehensive approaches to estimate these metrics.

“Information isn’t always released publicly by private banking companies and government agencies to do these calculations.”

Some analysts think the environmental costs of fiat currency, and corresponding savings from cryptocurrency, are greatly underestimated.

Peter St. Onge, an Austrian School economist affiliated with the Heritage Foundation, has written for CoinDesk that estimates of cryptocurrency’s carbon footprint should account for various wasteful or otherwise carbon-intensive features of the existing economic order—most notably, the recessions and associated boom-bust cycles that St. Onge attributes to fiat currency.

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Economy Currency

By that measure, central banking is, according to St. Onge, “vastly more polluting than Bitcoin, indeed more polluting than the worst industrial offender you could imagine. Bitcoin, by implication, is among the most green technologies humanity has ever invented.”

These prospective savings notwithstanding, bitcoin’s significant energy use in the here and now has caused blowback. In May 2021, Elon Musk announced that Tesla would no longer accept bitcoin for vehicle purchases.

“We are concerned about rapidly increasing use of fossil fuels for Bitcoin mining and transactions, especially coal, which has the worst emissions of any fuel,” Musk wrote in a Tweet.

In January, Musk revealed that Teslas could be purchased using a different cryptocurrency, Dogecoin. Musk, who has said per CNBC that he owns both bitcoin and Dogecoin, has heavily promoted the latter for years, as detailed

by The Motley Fool.

Tesla didn’t respond by press time to a request for comment on its choice to accept Dogecoin.

Bitcoin’s heavy energy consumption is driven in large part by its consensus mechanism for verifying and securing transactions.

Bitcoin, like Dogecoin and many other cryptocurrencies, uses a mechanism called “proof of work” (PoW). Proof of work pits miners across the world against each other as they try to solve a complex mathematical problem. The fastest to the finish line wins digital currency.

Dogecoin, by contrast, relies on “proof of stake” (PoS), whereby miners stake a certain number of coins to be eligible for random selection to review a new block.

If their review doesn’t contain any mistakes, the miners gain digital currency.

34 I N S I G H T February 18–24, 2022

Controversial Claims and ‘Gee Whiz’ Statistics While crypto’s overall energy impact is hard to pinpoint, it’s clearly making a dent on global electricity use. Yet some researchers have gone further in their criticism, arguing that cryptocurrencies alone could drive a significant amount of global warming.

In an 2018 paper, “Bitcoin emissions alone could push global warming above 2 C,” a University of Hawaii at Manoa team led by Camilo Mora projected an extremely high rate of adoption for Bitcoin. They asserted that the associated electricity use would be enough to cause 2 degrees Celsius of warming through the emission of carbon dioxide.

The paper and its conclusions have gone on to influence the discussion of cryptocurrency and the environment—the Sierra Club Pennsylvania, for instance, has cited 2 degrees Celsius of warming as a possibility in a 2012 blog entry.

The analysis has been controversial, to say the least.

“It is probably the single most discredited paper ever written on mining—to the point where it triggered no less than three debunking articles in the same publication as it was originally published. Its methodology is entirely inappropriate and indicates a complete lack of understanding of even the most elementary facets of mining,” said Bendiksen of CoinShares.

A 2019 “Matters Arising” paper from Northwestern University’s Eric Masanet and others outlined some of the analy-

sis’s deficiencies, including out-of-date information on bitcoin mining efficiency and an implausibly rapid increase in bitcoin transactions.

In the years since the Mora paper was published, bitcoin transactions per day have remained relatively flat, at times decreasing, according to data from YCharts.

Echoing other criticisms, Sedlmeir and colleagues argued that Mora’s paper revealed a misunderstanding of the energy demands of crypto.

Reached for comment by Insight, Mora said via email that “as far as I know the paper remain[s] valid.”

Another co-author, Erik Franklin, defended the paper to Insight.

“At the time of the study, there was discussion about Bitcoin being adopted broadly for day-to-day consumer transactions. Our work provided a scenario that assessed what would happen if Bit-

FROM L: DADO RUVIC/ILLUSTRATION/REUTERS, ALEX PEÑA/GETTY IMAGES

A visual representation of cryptocurrency Dogecoin, on Nov. 29, 2021.

In proof of stake, participants who stake more coins have more mining power.

Proof of stake uses far less energy than proof of work, spurring environmental organizations such as the NRDC to endorse it. One of the largest cryptocurrencies, Ethereum, is moving to a proofof-stake model.

But Bendiksen of CoinShares thinks the mechanism could undercut some of crypto’s chief benefits.

“Compared to [proof of work], it is vastly inferior in terms of security, lacks trust [minimization], is not censorship-resistant, and is effectively no different than the current monetary system where those with the most money make all the decisions,” he said.

Economy Currency

La Geo geothermal power plant in Berlin, El Salvador, on Oct. 22, 2021. After declaring bitcoin legal tender alongside the U.S. dollar, the Salvadoran government mines cryptocurrency, with hundreds of computers in the plant powered by the Tecapa volcano.

coin replaced credit card transactions and how the energy use from those Bitcoin transactions would contribute to greenhouse gas emissions,” he said in an email, noting he and his co-authors published a reply to the debunking articles.

“The main goal of the study was to generate discussion about the scale of potential environmental impacts of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, which we achieved given the global attention it has received as well as the numerous follow-up studies that built on our work.”

In Erikson’s view, the environment is still at risk from the growth and concomitant energy demands of crypto, regardless of any changes in the composition of the grid or the adoption of PoS. “In general, a move toward more efficient hardware and algorithms and greater use of renewables as a power source should decrease relative environmental impacts but these improvements are eas-

ily offset by the continued growth in the cryptocurrency sector, which just adds more overall energy demand,” he said.

The NRDC’s report on cryptocurrency has also drawn expert criticism, in part for advocating PoS over PoW. “It’s likely legally difficult for governments to outlaw ‘proof of work infrastructure, but there are ways the government could incentivize switching over to the less computationally intensive (and therefore less carbon-consuming) verification process,” it stated.

Bendiksen of CoinShares told Insight that the NRDC is wrong to dismiss PoW

$2 TRILLION

Today, the total market capitalization of all cryptocurrencies is nearly $2 trillion, according to TradingView.

on the basis of energy use, given its other advantages over PoS. “As for PoS, it’s simply not appropriate for a global monetary system like bitcoin,” he said. “The whole point of bitcoin is to move away from the legacy oligarchic structures, so PoS is simply not a good fit for bitcoin. PoS may very well be appropriate for NFTs, gaming Apps, and other less-serious use cases, but not for something as important as global money.”

Extreme claims about the environmental impact of digital technology are nothing new. A commentary in the periodical Joule, “Does Not Compute,” outlines some of the ways analysts have been prone to overstating the negative consequence of innovations in IT such as the pace of data center growth. The authors cited the Mora paper as an example of erroneous research that has nevertheless been highly cited. Google Scholar records 177 references to the paper.

According to the commentary, breathless journalism may be partly to blame: “A recurrent theme is that well-intentioned research often overestimates IT’s electricity use and climate impacts, sometimes by orders of magnitude.

These results then become ‘factoids’ that spread quickly as people share them and the media report them.”

“People are fascinated by ‘gee whiz’ statistics,” Jonathan Koomey, a researcher and author of the commentary, told Insight by email. (Koomey was a co-author on the paper from Masanet and colleagues critiquing the Mora paper).

Koomey pointed out the extremely wide range of projected electricity usage by bitcoin in the Cambridge statistics.

“There’s still a factor of 10 from the low to high estimates, so we really don’t understand these systems very well,” he said.

Koomey’s comments suggest a useful rule of thumb: When it comes to assessing crypto’s environmental impact, a little humility goes a long way.

I N S I G H T February 18–24, 2022 35

SPOTLIGHT DOG CAPSULE A WOMAN CARRYING HER DOG in a transparent pet carrier backpack arrives on the island of Basse-Terre, in the French Antilles, on Feb. 12.

PHOTO BY THOMAS COEX/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES

36 I N S I G H T February 18–24, 2022

I N S I G H T February 18–24, 2022 37

ENVIRONMENT

THE R ACE TO SAVE

M A N AT E Polluted seagrasses along Florida’s eastern coast are causing record manatee deaths

By Nanette Holt

38 I N S I G H T February 18–24, 2022

Florida Stewardship

F

STARVING

ES

Federal authorities are likely to decide in the fall whether to officially change the designation of the West Indian manatee—the official name of the Florida species—back to endangered.

PHOTO BY GETTY IMAGES

lorida’s manatees gently glide through the state’s rivers and along coastal beaches like great grey footballs, endearing themselves to residents and tourists alike.

The half-ton whiskery mammals are celebrated throughout the state on T-shirts, license plates, and with huggable stuffed toys in their likeness.

Tourists and locals converge on inland waterways during winter, donning dive gear and plunging into chilly waters when manatees migrate inland in massive numbers each year.

Enraptured humans hope simply to snap photos of the sea cows moving through the water lazily with curious calves. The peaceful animals exude an aura of complete contentedness, seemingly unafraid.

But now, when ocean temperatures dip below 68 degrees, waterways on the state’s Atlantic coast have become nightmarish for the thousands of manatees seeking refuge from the cold there.

Long their winter sanctuary, the coastline has become a place of starvation.

As of Jan. 28, 97 manatees had died this year, with 64 in Brevard County, the epicenter of the starvation crisis. During the same 28-day period at the beginning of last year, 170 manatees perished.

But that’s probably because January this year was mostly warm. It’s the cold that complicates matters for manatees, and as temperatures dip, wildlife authorities predict deaths will go up. By how many, they can’t say.

Last year, more than 1,100 manatees died. That’s about 13 percent of the manatee population. The animals had spent 50 years on the endangered species list and were only recently reclassified as threatened in 2017.

So understandably, Floridians’ hearts are breaking over a crisis that has the beloved animals dying in record numbers along the coastline.

The cause: the obliteration of their food source. Seagrasses in areas where many seek warmth in winter have been wiped out by water pollution.

For now, there’s no end to the crisis in sight, government wildlife authorities say. To look for solutions, a partnership was formed in 2021 between the I N S I G H T February 18–24, 2022 39

Florida Stewardship

Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS). They’re working together now to combat what they’re calling an Unusual Mortality Event (UME).

Since coming together to solve the problem, the agencies have navigated mostly discouraging reports on the situation.

In recent days, scientists working on a short-term fix rejoiced about a major breakthrough.

IN MID-JANUARY, RESEARCHERS de-

40 I N S I G H T February 18–24, 2022

T H E CAUS E OF R E C E N T M A NAT E E DE AT H S is the obliteration of their food source.

Seagrasses in areas where many seek warmth in winter have been wiped out by water pollution.

FROM TOP L: NATASHA HOLT/THE EPOCH TIMES, NATASHA HOLT/ THE EPOCH TIMES, FLORIDA FISH AND WILDLIFE CONSERVATION COMMISSION, EVA MARIE UZCATEGUI/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGE

cided to take desperate measures that go against the first rule in dealing with wildlife. They started trying to feed the wild manatees.

More bad news followed. About two weeks into the team effort involving state and federal authorities and wildlife-related nonprofits, the project looked to be a failure. The manatees are used to nibbling on slim delicately undulating seagrasses underwater and don’t recognize floating heads of lettuce as food.

But in the last days of January, as forecasts predicted deadly cold, workers tossing romaine and butterhead bunches to the starving animals saw what looked like a miracle.

Manatees were munching.

More good news followed. As they’d hoped once a few of the hungry herbivores recognized broad, bright-green, lettuce leaves as food, others began eagerly chomping too. Soon, clusters of manatees clamored for a taste, poking their noses to the surface to gobble the floating vegetation.

Now, trucks hauling lettuce are delivering about 2,500 pounds daily to an area set up for feeding the animals at a Florida Power and Light natural gas power plant in Brevard County. The area is off-limits to spectators and boaters as scientists work as fast as they can to stabilize the health of as many animals as possible.

On the chilliest recent days, up to 750 animals bunched into the site. It isn’t clear exactly how many are eating and how much they’re getting, authorities told reporters on Feb. 2 in a video conference.

A healthy adult manatee needs to eat about 4 to 9 percent of its body weight per day. That’s 40 to 90 pounds of vegetation.

But the successful feeding program

Florida Stewardship

FWC spokeswoman Carli Segelson said.

Permits must be obtained, so other agencies can be sure the efforts won’t cause other problems while attempting to solve this one.

Donor seagrass beds are practically nonexistent in places where harvest could be practical, authorities told reporters. So seagrasses now are being grown for transplant in upland nurseries.

And the need to improve water quality so that newly started seagrass beds can grow and flourish is a problem that has no easy answer, authorities admit.

But part of the plan involves restoring clam and oyster beds. Those creatures naturally filter the water around them.

The vexing seagrass die-off began due to pollution from the run-off of yard fertilizer, sewage, pet waste, and other sources. As nutrients from those pollutants streamed into waterways, algae growth exploded.

ALGAE CLOUDS the water, blocking sun-

(From top, L–R) A keeper at ZooTampa at Lowry Park throws lettuce to manatees being brought back to good health, on Jan. 13.

Orphan manatee Tober takes his bottle of baby formula as part of his round-the-clock care. Wild manatees gather for a feeding in a Brevard County, Fla., waterway near a power plant on Feb. 4. A manatee care team member places lettuces into a feeder for manatees at ZooTampa's Manatee Critical Care Center on Jan. 19, 2021.

is a cause for hope. And scientists say they’re thankful to be learning lessons that will help them feed wild manatees next winter too. It’s almost certain the remaining population will need the help, authorities say.

Efforts to replant seagrass beds that would sustain the remaining manatee population naturally have begun. But there are significant obstacles, authorities say. They expect progress will be slow. They’re not sure how long it will take to regrow the seagrasses needed,

light. Without sunlight, seagrasses die.

Most animals simply move on when their habitat runs out of food. Not manatees.

Water temperatures colder than 68 degrees make them sick. Their bulbous bodies aren’t covered in insulating blubber to protect them against cold. Most of an adult manatee’s 10-foot-long frame is muscle.

So as coastal waters chill, manatees seek spring-fed waterways that stay 72 degrees year-round, or they find their way to areas where power plants supply heated discharge from cooling towers.

There are about 67 sites, natural and manmade, where manatees find warmth around the state. They often visit the same places year after year.

About half the population has become reliant on power plant discharge canals, authorities say. But as power production decreases, less warm water flows into waterways where manatees have come to expect relief.

A task force now is working on a warm-water habitat action plan and hopes to wean the animals off reliance on power plants and direct them to naturally warmer areas.

Thousands of manatees are drawn each year to what used to be a safe harbor for them within the Indian River Lagoon, a I N S I G H T February 18–24, 2022 41

Florida Stewardship

42 I N S I G H T February 18–24, 2022

researchers say. During the team’s feedings, workers hide behind screens so the animals won’t associate the suddenly appearing food with humans.

The best way for Floridians to help manatees is to report distressed, dead, or tagged animals by calling the state wildlife hotline at 888-404-3922 (FWCC). Manatees in distress may seem to come up for air too frequently or may list to one side while swimming.

Having a photo or video of suspicious manatee behavior that can be sent to the hotline operator can help.

Teams try to remove all manatee carcasses because those aren’t good for waterways either.

POSSIBLY THE BIGGEST heartbreak of

all, say members of three wildlife organizations, is that the manatee starvation problem didn’t have to happen. It was totally preventable, they say.

Wildlife advocates pointed out the need to take action to protect manatee habitat in 2008, during the George W. Bush administration.

A year into the presidency of Barack Obama, the agency finally acknowledged the need to take action, but nothing was ever done, says Jaclyn Lopez of the Center for Biological Diversity.

Her group, along with Defenders of Wildlife and the Save the Manatee Club, filed a lawsuit on Feb. 1 against the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The lawsuit says the agency didn’t follow the law requiring administrators to designate protected habitats for manatees.

“The lawsuit is directed to the federal agency, and as a matter of policy, the USFWS does not comment on ongoing litigation,” Chuck Underwood, a spokesman for the agency, told Insight.

The saddest part is that the animals’ suffering and the potential loss of the species could have been avoided altogether, Lopez says.

Government scientists don’t believe the problem will lead to extinction or even near-extinction, Segelson told Insight.

By fall, federal authorities are likely to decide whether to officially change the designation of the West Indian manatee—the official name of the Florida species—back to endangered, Segelson said.

Lopez says government scientists long “have known this ecosystem was in col-

A sign asks people to please watch out for manatees on the Homosassa River in Homosassa, Fla., on Oct. 5, 2021. lapse,” and had seagrass been listed as an element needing to be monitored, as the groups had suggested 14 years ago, “perhaps the [U.S. Environmental Protection Agency] would have realized much earlier that the water-quality standards it approved for the [Indian River Lagoon] were inadequate to protect manatees and their habitat.”

The Center for Biological Diversity is a national nonprofit conservation organization with more than 1.7 million members and online activists dedicated to the protection of endangered species and wild places.

The Save the Manatee Club has advocated for manatees since 1981 through scientific research, education, public awareness, and legislative action. Defenders of Wildlife has nearly 2.2 million members and activists focused on protecting all native plants and animals and their habitats.

“In the broadest sense,” Lopez said, the problem was “totally preventable—in that we should be able to stop pollution at its source, detect when waters become polluted, and take swift action to improve water quality.

“In a nutshell, USFWS should have long ago revised critical habitat to include things like seagrass. That way, when other federal agencies authorize a project that might impact habitat, FWS could have looked at EPA’s proposal and made a decision as to whether it would destroy the habitat, which is unlawful and would require modifications of the project.”

Lopez and her colleagues hope aggressive moves to improve water quality and regrow seagrass beds can turn the problem around in time to save the manatees.

“It is possible,” she says, “but I don’t know whether it will be done.”

THIS PAGE: JOE RAEDLE/GETTY IMAGES

156-mile biodiverse habitat along Florida’s East Coast. About 4,400 plant and animal species live there.

Though seagrasses have been in decline there since 2011, the migratory manatees kept coming, and eating, until there was nothing left for them.

Now, unable to leave the area because of deadly-cold water temperatures beyond the lagoon, the animals are stuck there with nothing to eat.

Necropsies reveal many of the starving animals have resorted to ingesting sand off the seafloor in an attempt to survive.

Many of the dead are lactating mothers who have higher calorie demands while nursing their calves for a year.

That has left orphans. Some of these babies, along with adult animals spotted in the worst condition, are being rescued and transported to a network of facilities willing to take in manatees for rehabilitation. The hope is to make them well enough for eventual release where there’s warm water and more food. That’s often on the state’s western side, bordered by the Gulf of Mexico.

Keepers at ZooTampa at Lowry Park, SeaWorld, and others have been treating and releasing manatees for decades. Boat strikes used to be the most common reason animals needed their help.

In the first four weeks of this year, 14 manatees were rescued and transported to rehab facilities. As of the first week in February, about a dozen more had been spotted in need of rescue, authorities said.

But rescue efforts are difficult, especially on days when chilly temperatures cause animals to congregate in clusters.

The hope is to attempt rescues of those in the most distress at the first sign of warmer weather, authorities said.

Biologists understand how heart-wrenching the problem is for Floridians, who love their state’s iconic creature. But taking matters into their own hands and throwing food to the animals could make matters worse. It also happens to be against the law, one that authorities won’t hesitate to prosecute.

The reason is that trying to feed wild manatees or offer them drinks from a hose—something the animals seem to enjoy—may encourage them to stay year-round in waterways that can’t provide enough food or warmth for them,

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

No.07

Perspectives A man takes a photo of names at the Empty Sky Memorial at Liberty State Park in Jersey City, N.J., in this file photo. Since 9/11, Americans have been spied on through communications technology, an expert says.

PHOTO BY JUSTIN SULLIVAN/GETTY IMAGES

AMERICA’S ‘FIRST ENTREPRENEUR’

SILICON TYRANNY The Silicon Valley has the power to destroy the Republican Party.

44

George Washington’s business pursuits changed the nation. 47

BIG GOVERNMENT MEANS POOR JOBS European unemployment shows that big government means poor jobs. 48

INSIDE I N S I G H T February 18–24, 2022 43

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

Thomas McArdle

Silicon Tyranny

New technologies make surveillance easier

E

lectronic spying is supposed to be what government does, but it’s private companies—not at all limited to within the United States—that produce the tools that spy beyond any snoop or spook’s wildest dreams of a few years ago. And today, tech companies bow to no one in being woker than thou.

Whether it’s Bill Gates complaining that “The world today has 6.8 billion people ... headed up to about nine billion,” but “if we do a really great job on new vaccines, health care, reproductive health services, we could lower that by, perhaps, 10 or 15 percent”; or Twitter’s Jack Dorsey canceling former President Donald Trump and suppressing the readership of new stories about Hunter Biden’s alleged corruption and its connection to his father that could have swayed the 2020 election.

Consider the recent observation from White House press secretary Jen Psaki, commenting on Spotify attaching disclaimers to speech such as podcast superstar Joe Rogan’s, who noted the now-documented fact of masks not protecting against COVID transmission. According to Psaki, “We want every platform to continue doing more to call out misand disinformation while also uplifting accurate information.”

Control of the propagation of information and the ability to know by electronic means the activities of the populace are two powerful tools that become unstoppable weapons when paired.

Concerns about new technologies making surveillance easier are far from novel, and were more often to be heard from the left than the right.

For instance, in 1979, dissenting in the narrow 5-to-3 Smith v. Maryland case on telephone privacy, Supreme

44 I N S I G H T February 18–24, 2022

Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, joined by fellow liberal William Brennan, warned that “Many individuals, including members of unpopular political organizations or journalists with confidential sources, may legitimately wish to avoid disclosure of their personal contacts.

Permitting governmental access to telephone records on less than probable cause may thus impede certain forms of political affiliation and journalistic endeavor that are the hallmark of a truly free society.”

Google, Facebook, Amazon, and Twitter have all already used their technological muscle against those who would drain the Washington swamp.

Governmental access, however, may no longer be the main issue. As Justice Clarence Thomas notes in his dissent in Carpenter v. United States in 2018, cellphone location records are not a cellphone user’s property.

“He did not create the records, he does not maintain them, he cannot control them, and he cannot destroy them. Neither the terms of his contracts nor any provision of law makes the records his. The records belong to MetroPCS and Sprint.”

And yet, as Chief Justice John Roberts pointed out in his decision in Carpenter, “a cell phone—almost a ‘feature of human anatomy,’—tracks nearly exactly the movements of its owner ... faithfully follows its owner beyond public thoroughfares and into private residences, doctor’s offices, political headquarters, and other potentially revealing locales. ...

Accordingly, when the Government

tracks the location of a cell phone it achieves near-perfect surveillance, as if it had attached an ankle monitor to the phone’s user ... the Government can now travel back in time to retrace a person’s whereabouts, subject only to the retention policies of the wireless carriers, which currently maintain records for up to five years.”

Combining Thomas’s and Roberts’s points, the records of “near-perfect surveillance” belong to the tech companies. They already use them for marketing and other business purposes. In the future, especially if Silicon Valley and those in power in Washington share political enemies, they could use them to suppress opposition.

Google, Facebook, Amazon, and Twitter all already have used their technological muscle against those who would drain the Washington swamp. Yet no one elected their CEOs to anything. They helped prevent President Donald Trump’s reelection; they can destroy a candidate, a movement, and a political party if the American people allow them to.

If, despite the People’s Republic of China’s genocides, regulation of motherhood, and quashing of political dissent, corporate giants within the free world such as Coca-Cola, Intel, Procter & Gamble, and Visa are willing to sponsor the Beijing Winter Olympics; why would they automatically be disposed against tyranny and oppression when it rears its head at home? If we think that high-tech surveillance, disinformation, and character assassination are only the stuff of the corporate puppets of communist China such as Huawei, and not our own ideologically driven powerful businesses, we will pay dearly for our naivete.

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

Olympics Row: Visa Versus e-CNY IOC apparently breaks Visa exclusivity agreement to appease Beijing

t the beijing winter Olympic Games, China is rolling out its digital currency, the e-CNY, for the first time to foreigners.

Nobody should want to attend the Winter Games given the genocide.

But if you were forced to go, then you would have the option of prepaying a credit card with digital Chinese yuan loaded for touchless payments. Or you could buy the more gimmicky versions, with payment chips embedded in ski gloves or a panda soft toy.

You can now buy your hot chocolate without freezing your hand first by removing your glove to dig into your pockets for change.

This is progress, apparently. It’s at times like these that one appreciates the supposed innovations of dictatorship. But for those droids always looking for the next greatest and latest, wrist implantable e-CNY isn’t yet available.

Forgotten by most are the wearable payment methods that Visa promoted during the 2018 Winter Games.

“You dream of amazing. We dream of amazing ways to pay,” stated Visa ads for the Pyeongchang Winter Games in South Korea.

E-CNY is a digital currency, like Bitcoin, which is illegal in China. Beijing doesn’t want the competition, and Bitcoin, along with other cryptocurrencies, is just too easy to spend on illegal things. Crypto is relatively anonymous for users, which is ideal for criminals.

In China, that likely includes you if you want your money out of the country or have any ideas that aren’t in concert with Xi Jinping Thought.

E-CNY is unlike other cryptocurrencies because it’s tightly controlled, monitored, and transparent to the regime. The state knows exactly what you’re spending and where you’re spending it at every moment of the day.

While many who quietly made a killing on cryptocurrencies over the past years are trying to get their money into low-tax zones such as Germany, Portugal, and Malta, that’s impossible with e-CNY. Chinese leader Xi Jinping knows who you are and where you keep your money. You’ll never escape Beijing’s taxman.

The regime would eventually like e-CNY to be a global currency, trusted by all because all trust the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). But that’s tough, given Beijing’s repeated broken promises, including in the e-CNY’s first rollout to international consumers.

E-CNY is unlike other cryptocurrencies because it is tightly controlled, monitored, and transparent to the regime.

Visa, the credit card company, has long had exclusive rights in the electronic payments category at the Olympics. It’s one of only 13 main sponsors of the Games that likely collectively paid more than $1 billion for what amounts to advertising rights for the 2022 and 2024 Games.

“For 36 years, Visa has paid hundreds of millions of dollars to be an Olympic sponsor, ensuring its branding is all over stadiums and athletes, and that no one attending or watching the Games even thinks of Mastercard,” a Feb. 7 article in The Globe and Mail reads.

Mastercard and American Express aren’t allowed to be used for payments at the Games as a result. Neither should e-CNY or China’s state-owned UnionPay mobile app. But in Beijing, the CCP can be very persuasive. After all, it has the guns and a Maoist philos-

ophy that power grows from their barrels. So companies tend to believe that when in Beijing, do as the Beijingers.

According to China’s state-controlled Global Times on Feb. 9, “The e-CNY is one of three forms of payment available to athletes and visitors at the Olympic Games, along with Visa and cash, and the only one that supports contact-less payment for the need of epidemic prevention and control.”

Way to play the COVID-19 card against Visa. One wonders why Visa’s contactless forms of payment aren’t around four years after Pyeongchang. Why is the e-CNY panda getting all the credit?

The e-CNY is particularly focused on expansion in China. The utilization of e-CNY at the Games “paves the way for a further large-scale national rollout and cross-border application,” according to Global Times.

On Feb. 4, more payments at the Winter Olympics’ Bird’s Nest stadium were made through e-CNY than through Visa’s network, according to The Wall Street Journal. Most of those payments were made by Chinese citizens.

When e-CNY started splashing its logo around the Olympics, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and Visa apparently thought the better part of discretion was to not complain publicly, despite the fact that it conflicted with their exclusivity agreement. That also makes sense from a public relations perspective: first, because Visa doesn’t much want to associate with the “Genocide Games” and second, because it doesn’t want the public in China—or, more importantly, the regime—to be angered by a commercial dispute. Visa wants to grow its business in China, and getting into a fight over e-CNY is the best way to jeopardize that goal.

So yet again, the CCP and its favored businesses get away with murder. At the Olympic Games, there’s yet more blood on Beijing’s fake snow.

I N S I G H T February 18–24, 2022 45

Milton Ezrati

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

The Economic Data Are Contradictory

Employment and sales cannot diverge for long

few months ago, all of the economic indicators seemed to line up well. They painted a positive picture.

Despite the Omicron coronavirus variant and supply chain problems, it was clear that the economy was rebounding strongly from pandemic-induced strictures.

Consumers were buying and businesses were ordering new equipment and systems. Families were purchasing new homes and builders were scrambling to construct them.

“Help Wanted” signs appeared everywhere.

More recently, the picture has become mixed. In fact, it has become downright contradictory. A recent report from the Labor Department shows historically robust hiring and a welcome flow of new entrants into the workforce. At the same time, the recent report on the fourth quarter’s gross domestic product (GDP) signals weakness in most sectors.

Retail sales have declined, as have business orders. Even government spending has slowed.

Hiring and sales can’t go in divergent directions for long. Unless sales pick up soon, jobs growth will falter and the picture will become consistent—but not nearly as uplifting as it looked a few months ago—again.

By itself, the recent employment report for January looked good.

Total employment growth for the month was 467,000, edged down from 510,000 in December 2021 and higher figures in prior months, but still a historically robust gain.

According to the Labor Department’s household survey, about 157 million Americans are now at work, up by a strong 0.8 percent from November 2021. A bit more than 1 million people joined the workforce in January, raising what the Labor 46 I N S I G H T February 18–24, 2022

Department calls the “participation rate”—people working or looking for work as a percent of the civilian population—from 61.9 percent in December 2021 to 62.2 percent in January.

Because not of all these new entrants found work immediately, the number of unemployed ticked up by 194,000 in January, and the unemployment rate—those looking for work as a percent of the labor force—inched up from 3.9 percent in December 2021 to 4 percent in January. All in all, a good showing.

Retail sales have declined as have business orders. Even government spending has slowed.

A look at recent sales figures tells a very different story. The GDP report for the fourth quarter of 2021 looked strong, but only on the surface. Overall, real GDP rose at an annual rate of 6.9 percent, but that was misleading. Most of the growth came from retailers and wholesalers rebuilding inventory stocks, no doubt a response to the summer quarter’s acute shortages.

Actual sales to consumers, businesses, homebuyers, and governments grew on balance at only a 2 percent annual rate, slower than the summer quarter’s Omicron-burdened 2.3 percent rate.

Retail sales fell by 1.9 percent from November 2021 to December 2021, the most recent month for which data exists. Business orders for new capital equipment fell by 2.4 percent during December 2021, and money spent on the construction of

productive facilities fell by 0.7 percent. The only major sector of the economy that showed strength was housing, where sales jumped by 11.9 percent in December 2021.

Unless these sales pick up, the recent employment report, as gratifying as it is, can’t repeat for long.

Indeed, the only reason the jobs report looks as good as it does is because businesses took advantage of the increased participation in the labor market to fill positions that weren’t new, but rather those that had long been vacant.

As was widely reported, roughly 10 million job vacancies existed at the end of 2021. The strain of that worker gap is evident in the Labor Department’s report on worker productivity—output per hour.

Businesses were so stretching their existing workforce that productivity surged at a 6.6 percent annual rate during the fourth quarter of 2021, far faster than the 2.3 percent rate of advance averaged during the prior six quarters. But that kind of stretching can only go on for so long. The employment growth in January was more of an effort to relieve a strain placed on existing workers from past sales levels than a sign of any need for new production.

The labor shortfall was so severe that this backing and filling of jobs will likely need to go on for a couple of months more, even if sales fail to regain their momentum. After all, there are still a lot of open positions. But unless sales pick up soon, this robust hiring pattern will end.

Then, jobs growth will slow and issue the same signs of lost momentum that are presently evident in consumer spending and business’ capital spending. Housing growth might well persist because it’s an excellent inflation hedge.

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

America’s ‘First Entrepreneur’ How a Founding Father’s business pursuits changed the nation

PUBLIC DOMAIN

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his year, feb. 22 marks the 290th anniversary of President George Washington’s birth. The Founding Father of the nation is often remembered as a great military leader and statesman, but little is known about his business ventures and innovations.

Washington was not only the first president of the United States, but he was also the country’s “first entrepreneur,” according to historians who have extensively studied his business dealings.

Private enterprises he founded had an effect on the future of American agriculture, transportation, and manufacturing, says John Berlau, a senior fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute and the author of the book “George Washington, Entrepreneur: How our Founding Father’s Private Business Pursuits Changed America and the World.”

Berlau’s portrait of Washington, drawn in large part from his journals and letters, shines a light on the Founding Father’s endeavors as an innovator and entrepreneur.

The book presents “another side of Washington’s greatness and how our country is rooted in entrepreneurship,” Berlau told Insight.

Washington devoted his life to the improvement of his farm at Mount Vernon and American agriculture. His passion for his farm never ceased on the battlefield or during his presidency, Berlau wrote in his book.

Washington, on his Virginia estate, grew countless varieties of trees and built a greenhouse, which became a showcase for exotic fruits, herbs, and plants from around the world.

“Unlike his Virginia neighbors who remained wedded to tobacco, Washington planted seven types of wheat,” according to the book. “Transforming Mount Vernon from a tobacco plantation into a diversified farm with wheat as its main crop was a great entrepreneurial feat.”

Washington built a small industrial complex at his estate, which included a fishery, a dairy, a textile and weaving workshop, and a blacksmith shop.

Washington also went into the flour-making business, which was a big success. In 1772, he registered the “G. Washington” brand for his flour, pioneering in the distribution of branded food products. Even before the Revolutionary War, his flour was shipped throughout America and exported to England and its colonies in the West Indies.

The Founding Father also receives credit for introducing mules to American agriculture and promoting them as an efficient alternative to horses for plowing.

“We owe a lot to George Washington, and I think he’s someone that should be studied a little bit further than the surface,” says Tom Washington, a businessman and a certified public accountant from Texas. He’s a collateral descendant of George Washington through the Founding Father’s brother, John Augustine, seven generations down.

“I appreciate George Washington as an entrepreneur in that time of history when it was so hard to be an entrepre-

neur because there were predatory governments like Britain always trying to keep an entrepreneur down and under control,” Washington told Insight during a family reunion at Mount Vernon in October 2021.

“But George found a way, and he fought for the country as a general, but he also fought for his own self-interest and the wealth of the people that depended on him by being successful at Mount Vernon.”

Mount Vernon always remained the base of Washington’s agricultural and industrial endeavors. He built a small industrial complex at his estate, which included a fishery, a dairy, a textile and weaving workshop, and a blacksmith shop.

The estate also was home to a distillery that became one of the largest American whiskey distilleries in the country at that time. It was also one of the most profitable enterprises at Mount Vernon.

Lindsay Chervinsky, historian and author of “The Cabinet: George Washington and the Creation of an American Institution” defines Washington as a very pro-business president.

Washington believed that America’s future lay in expansion to the west, she said. He saw commerce as something that would naturally lead to peace and unity. Hence, he promoted river trade from the east to the west via the Potomac River.

Washington was also an early investor in the Potomac Company, an enterprise dedicated to improving navigation on the river.

Washington and his wife, Martha, poured their passions into Mount Vernon and its enterprises, Berlau says in his book.

The growing threat from oppressive British taxes and red tape motivated Washington “to lead the fight both for his own liberties and those of his countrymen.”

I N S I G H T February 18–24, 2022 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

Big Government Means Poor Jobs High spending hasn’t improved job creation in Europe

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48 I N S I G H T February 18–24, 2022

The EU is betting its entire future on the loose concept of the ‘entrepreneurial state’ championed by Italian economist Mariana Mazzucato. of government spending, and a weak energy position that causes businesses and households to pay much higher power and natural gas bills than their U.S. counterparts.

In the face of all of these challenges, the EU has launched a massive recovery plan (Next Generation EU), which aims to boost growth and competitiveness.

The problem is that it’s difficult to see how these enormous spending plans are going to deliver the expected transformation and growth.

The biggest problem that the EU faces is technological. The EU hasn’t even presented itself as a serious contender in the technology race. Less than 4 percent of the Stoxx 600 market cap comes from technology, compared to 25 percent in the S&P 500. It’s difficult to believe that the radical change in growth and pace of job creation will come from a large stimulus plan directed by governments and focused on climate change and sus-

tainability from a political perspective and not an entrepreneurial one.

The EU is betting its entire future on the loose concept of the “entrepreneurial state” championed by Italian economist Mariana Mazzucato. Governments and socialist parties love this idea, as it makes them believe that giant tech companies such as Apple or Amazon owe all of their success to government spending and the public sector. The problem is that such fantasy has been completely debunked by reality—the EU lags in global technology reach.

Unfortunately, the Next Generation EU plan is likely to create such little impact as the Juncker Plan or the Growth and Jobs Plan of 2009. The main problem is that it aims to spend a massive amount of money rapidly in areas that are favored by politicians while the European economy suffers from rising input, energy, and raw materials costs. The European economy is losing competitiveness from rising producer prices and weaker margins, and part of it comes from banning shale gas and imposing an uncompetitive and politically directed energy policy. All of those things can change quickly with serious policies aimed at supporting small businesses and families with lower taxes, but the reluctance of policymakers is enormous.

In 2009, some countries decided to use the Growth and Jobs Plan to finance lower taxes and reduce red tape. This time, unfortunately, the Next Generation EU plan is focused on spending under the guidance of a political vision.

It could be an extraordinary opportunity to reduce energy prices and boost small and medium enterprises to become the new technology giants.

Unfortunately, there’s a high risk that this new program will become another massive spending spree on Keynesian white elephants with no real economic return.

The potential of the EU is enormous, but “dirigisme” is preventing many countries from growing closer to that potential.

KENZO TRIBOUILLARD/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES

he unemployment rate in the euro area fell to 7 percent in December 2021, while it dropped to 6.4 percent in the European Union, compared with the U.S. unemployment rate at 3.9 percent. We must not forget that these unemployment rates don’t include furloughed jobs covered by unemployment retention plans, which account for another 5 million workers waiting to return to normal activity.

After fiscal stimulus plans by EU member states that averaged more than 5 percent of their gross domestic products (GDP) in 2020 and another 4 percent of their GDPs in 2021 and the European Central Bank purchasing 100 percent of net issuances from most sovereigns, the recovery shows a concerning weakness.

Furlough jobs are rising again, working hours are still below the pre-pandemic level, and real wages are falling as inflation eats into the recovery.

In December 2021, the youth unemployment rate was 14.9 percent in both the EU and the euro area. These unemployment levels are high, but some member states have even higher jobless ratios. Spain has a 13 percent official unemployment rate with 220,000 jobs still furloughed, and the youth unemployment rate stands at 30 percent.

What these figures show is that high government spending and enormous employment retention plans haven’t helped the European economy recover faster or improve job creation compared to similar economic zones.

The economic recovery has been slow, and job creation has been even slower.

Furthermore, a large proportion of the job recovery has been from the public sector. In Spain, there are still 95,000 fewer jobs in the private sector than before the pandemic and 220,000 more in the public sector.

The EU faces unique challenges because of demographics, elevated levels

Fan Yu

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

Is Hong Kong’s Status in Jeopardy?

There’s a notable contraction in the talent pool in Hong Kong

ANTHONY KWAN/GETTY IMAGES

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f the “hong kong security law” couldn’t crater Hong Kong’s financial services industry, perhaps its “zero COVID” policy could.

That’s what the Chinese city is grappling with, as expats within its financial services sector head for the exits because of the city’s draconian quarantine, lockdowns, and restrictions to combat the ongoing CCP virus epidemic.

Hong Kong has kept up restrictive quarantines along with strict entry rules since 2020, even as other financial markets in Asia reopen. Returning residents from most locations must quarantine for as long as three weeks regardless of vaccination status. The punishing sequestration was only recently cut to two weeks after complaints from the Hong Kong financial sector.

Despite all the restrictions, “zero COVID” is far from reality. Instead, infection numbers are getting worse by the day, with health officials worrying about the city’s unvaccinated population. As of mid-February, Hong Kong has been experiencing record infection rates.

The goal is to open Hong Kong’s borders with China—itself having some of the world’s strictest COVID policies—and there’s no indication of when that day might come. In fact, it’s unclear if Beijing would even send help should Hong Kong’s worsening pandemic require it.

So leaving the city is on the minds of many expats.

A senior executive contact of mine at a Hong Kong financial firm recently confided: “I fear a good portion of my staff will likely depart after bonuses are paid later this month.

“Unless you’re young and single or a very highly paid executive compensated to put up with government policy, for most people it’s been hard to cope.”

Hong Kong has kept up restrictive quarantines along with strict entry rules since 2020, even as other financial markets in Asia reopen. Despite all the restrictions, ‘zero COVID’ is far from reality.

Broader statistics support that sentiment. A recent American Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong survey said 40 percent of people were more likely to leave Hong Kong than stay.

Consultancy KPMG said in a Jan. 25 report that there’s a notable contraction in the talent pool in Hong Kong. An acute talent shortage is one of the biggest challenges facing the financial sector in 2022. And if financial expats are leaving, adjacent and supporting professionals such as accountants and lawyers would likely follow suit.

Aside from a 1.2 percent decline in population by official statistics, there’s only anecdotal evidence to support this trend of financial “brain drain” thus far. The city’s industry executives and officials believe the COVID-related restrictions are tran-

sitory, and that as long as Hong Kong maintains its low taxes, relatively stable legal system (compared to mainland China), wealthy individuals and foreigners will remain.

Some financial firms are indeed pondering.

The Financial Times reported that Bank of America has been conducting a formal review to assess whether to relocate staff from Hong Kong to Singapore, the other Asian financial hub, where COVID-related travel restrictions are less draconian.

This isn’t the first time we’ve heard that Singapore could eat Hong Kong’s lunch.

I’m sure Bank of America executives were less than enthused about the Financial Times report on its internal deliberations. But it’s easy to imagine Western banks in Hong Kong conducting this evaluation. It would be shocking if Bank of America were alone in this.

Nevertheless, officially discussing leaving Hong Kong is politically fraught for Wall Street banking giants vying for a piece of mainland Chinese business. Beijing has slowly been opening its banking and investment sector to foreign competitors and most recently began allowing majority foreign ownership of local entities. The banks need to balance politics with employee demands. We can easily rewind back to when HSBC—a decidedly pro-Beijing financial firm—was openly criticized by China for being a “party” to the detention case of Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou.

So it’s no surprise that Bank of America is already back-tracking.

According to the financial paper, the firm’s Asian executives wrote in a memo to staff that Hong Kong remains “central” to its business plans in Asia.

But do its staffers feel the same way?

We’ll find out.

I N S I G H T February 18–24, 2022 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

Making Friends as an Adult It’s tough but not impossible ne is the loneliest number that you’ll ever do.”

So sang Three Dog Night in 1969 in their hit song “One.” Six years later, a best-selling item for a while was the “pet rock,” a stone taken home and treated like a pet. Yes, that’s right, people actually bought rocks and either kept them for themselves or gave them to others as gifts, companions they could talk to without all the fuss and mess of a dog or a cat.

Both the song and the pet rock craze reveal that feeling lonely isn’t some new American phenomenon.

In the early 21st century, social media promised new avenues to friendship. MySpace, Facebook, and similar sites attracted millions of users, then hundreds of millions. You could communicate online with “friends” and followers, sharing your life, your successes (rarely your failures or your interior miseries), and personal news, again nearly always positive, about such events as weddings, newborns, and promotions at work.

Here in these magnificent tools was surely a cure for loneliness.

Alas, no.

Recent reports describe a surge in loneliness in America, especially among millennials. A 2019 survey found that 27 percent of those ages 25 to 40 claimed to have no close friends, while only 9 percent of baby boomers and 15 percent of Gen Xers described themselves as friendless. The masks and lockdowns of the past two years undoubtedly made finding friends even more of a challenge.

And, in fact, rather than enhancing our associations with others, social media may actually damage human relations. Researchers associated with the University of Pennsylvania, for instance, found that limiting time 50 I N S I G H T February 18–24, 2022

‘Companion’ comes from the Latin ‘cum panis,’ meaning ‘with bread.’ spent on social media to half an hour a day brought a decrease in loneliness and in depression. “Our findings,” they report, “strongly suggest that limiting social media use to approximately 30 minutes per day may lead to significant improvement in well-being.”

Think about it. Which offers greater companionship, hours spent punching buttons on your iPhone or an evening sitting with a buddy, coffee or glass of wine in hand, talking together on the back deck or at a cafe?

The word “companion” comes from the Latin “cum panis,” meaning “with bread.” When we break bread with others, that meal draws us closer. When we interact with them on our electronic devices, we may connect “cum verbis,” meaning “with words,” but that encounter lacks the intimacy of a face-to-face conversation. It’s missing the laughter, the gestures, and even the silences that may speak as loudly as words.

Aristotle once observed “Man is by nature a social animal,” yet it’s possible that some people, for all sorts of reasons, don’t want close friends. Some might claim, for example, that their busy lives preclude building friendships, others say they’re perfectly happy being solitary.

But what of those who long for friends?

In her article “Making Friends as an Adult Isn’t Easy, so We Came Up With 102 Expert-Backed Ways to Do It,” Kaitlin Vogel provides many valuable tips on making friends. Her list includes everything from maintaining eye contact to deepening your relationships with people already familiar to you.

But number one on Vogel’s list— “Take initiative”—is crucial. Here’s the key that can unlock the door of solitude. To find a friend, take the first step. Be the one to break the ice. Be the one to start a conversation. Be the one who smiles, engages, tells stories, and listens attentively to the other. “Be a kind initiator,” Vogel writes, “even if you’re an introvert.”

As the old saying goes, “If you want a friend, you must be a friend.”

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Nation Profile

THOUGHT LEADERS

‘Truth Finds a Way to Be Told’ Looking for reality in a time of propaganda and slanted narratives

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Sharyl Attkisson, investigative journalist and news host, in Leesburg, Va., on Jan. 14.

ou can get information online,” investigative journalist Sharyl Attkisson says, “but trust your cognitive dissonance and talk to the people around you. You’ll get a whole different picture of what’s really happening.”

In this episode of "American Thought Leaders," host Jan Jekielek talks about censorship and finding truth with Sharyl Attkisson, host of "Full Measure" and author of “Slanted: How the News Media Taught Us to Love Censorship and Hate Journalism.”

JAN JEKIELEK: Sharyl,

I’ve been thinking about your book "Slanted." You wrote this pre-COVID. I think you were seeing something profound, earlier than many were.

SHARYL ATTKISSON:

52 I N S I G H T February 18–24, 2022

YORK DU/THE EPOCH TIMES

Prior to 2015, there was no big movement begging Big Tech or third parties or fact-checkers to get between us and our information online or on the news.

Yet here we are just a couple of years later where

Nation Profile

some know-nothing third party whose strings are being pulled by corporate or political interests is telling us what we can and can’t read and what we should believe.

MR . JEKIELEK: The whole

phenomenon is strange.

People who aren’t qualified are fact-checking people like Dr. Robert Malone, an expert in vaccine technology.

MS. ATTKISSON: Nearly

every mode of information has been co-opted by some group. Fact checks are no different. They’ve been co-opted in many instances or created for the purpose of distributing narratives and propaganda.

This is all part of a well-funded, well-organized landscape that dictates and slants the information they want us to have.

MR . JEKIELEK: Let’s talk

about coronavirus. When did you realize there was something amiss in how we were thinking about this?

MS. ATTKISSON: Pretty

early on, quite a few scientists questioned the advice being given by Dr. Anthony Fauci.

These scientists had important differences of opinion with what we were doing. I said to them, “Shouldn’t you say something? Shouldn’t you speak out?”

But if the government doesn’t like what you say and do, that can get you fired from your institution or make it so you’ll never get a grant again. So a lot of people are afraid to talk about these things. It’s a dangerous environment

when esteemed scientists who have valuable information and opinions are afraid to speak up.

It’s well-documented, for example, that taxpayer money was used over a period of years to fund controversial research involving China. Every scientist I spoke to thought this partnership with the communist Chinese was one of the most ill-advised things they could think of.

Yet they didn’t want to say that publicly.

“Nearly every mode of information has been co-opted by some group.

Fact-checks are no different.”

Do you know about the Wayback Machine?

MR . JEKIELEK: Of course.

MR . JEKIELEK: I was

MS. ATTKISSON: This is

stunned to discover that the term anti-vaxxer in the Webster dictionary was modified at some point. It was changed from someone who’s against vaccines to someone who’s against vaccines or vaccine mandates.

a really invaluable tool for reporting. You can go to archive.org, and you can paste in a website. Many times—I would say three out of five times—an old version has been captured. You can prove to yourself you’re right, that this website used to say something different or a definition has been changed, because the old site is captured.

It’s a fascinating way to prove this attempt to change our perceptions of reality.

MS. ATTKISSON: Remem-

ber I said that virtually every form of information and sourcing that can be co-opted has been. That includes dictionary definitions.

Definitions now are being rewritten and changed to fit with whatever the establishment wants people to think.

Websites are changed and definitions are altered to fit the narrative.

In the beginning, some claimed that the vaccines were nearly 100 percent effective at preventing infection. Today I’m hearing people say, “No, no one ever said the vaccines would prevent infection.” So this definition of these vaccines was modified over time because they turned out to be wholly ineffective in a traditional sense at preventing infections.

MR . JEKIELEK: The

mainstream corporate media and our officials got a lot of the narrative wrong.

I don’t think it’s a problem to be wrong, as long as you say, “Oh my goodness, I was wrong. Here’s the truth.”

MS. ATTKISSON: Yes.

Our public health officials first said masks don’t work.

Then they said masks do work, but we didn’t tell you because we didn’t want you making a run on masks.

Very early on, Dr. Fauci testified to Congress that the death rate for corona-

virus was 10 times worse than the flu, which sounded pretty serious.

Yet I came across an article published in a scientific magazine about the same time, authored by Dr. Fauci, that said it was about like a bad flu season. Why would he be testifying to Congress that it was 10 times worse, but writing in a scientific journal that it was about the same?

It turns out COVID wasn’t 10 times worse than the flu.

We were also wrong in sending infected people from hospitals to nursing homes.

Many scientists told me that it was wrong to isolate at home. We had early data that showed the vast majority of the people hospitalized with coronavirus had been isolating at home and that people outside weren’t getting as sick.

Yet here we were telling people to isolate at home when we should have been telling them to go to the parks and beaches.

We were wrong to say the vaccines prevented infection. We were wrong to say they prevented spread. Then we were wrong to say it prevented hospitalization and death. It may do so in some cases, but it certainly didn’t do what it was designed and advertised to do.

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Nation Profile

“You can get information online, but trust your cognitive dissonance and talk to the people around you.”

And we were wrong not to focus more on therapeutics prior to vaccines and even post-vaccine. Many scientists will tell you that.

MR . JEKIELEK: The

narrative I’ve found most problematic of all—and there’s no data to support this—is that unvaccinated people are responsible for perpetuating the pandemic.

We’ve heard rhetoric like this before, and it’s never ended well.

MS. ATTKISSON: It reeks

to me of a propaganda campaign.

In fact, as we know, Omicron spreads very well among the fully

vaccinated. Maybe it doesn’t make them sicker, but it seems to be a very efficient spreader among the vaccinated. The notion that this was a pandemic of the unvaccinated isn’t supported by the scientists I talked to.

MR . JEKIELEK: It’s almost

like we’ve given up on common sense.

MS. ATTKISSON: A whole

generation of people have lived “in the box,” as I call it.

By the box, I mean the internet. They’ve never known a time when information was gathered by talking to people and looking at books and research.

The people who want to control the information understand that if they can control a few sources, like Google and Twitter and Facebook and Wikipedia, they’ve got a lock on information. The goal is to make people live online and think it’s reality.

As I wrote in The Smear, their goal is to make you believe you’re an outlier and to make you afraid to say what you think. They want to make you feel like you’re the one that’s crazy, even though you may be of the majority opinion. So I’m constantly telling people to live outside the box.

You can get information online, but trust your cognitive dissonance and talk to the people around you.

You’ll get a whole different picture of what’s really happening than if you’re looking online.

MR . JEKIELEK: I know

you’re a pretty optimistic person from having talked to you enough. What do you see as the path through this?

MS. ATTKISSON: Truth

finds a way to be told. That’s a phrase that came to me when I was writing one of my books. The truth finds a way to be told and it may take some time and there may be a lot of people that don’t want a truth out, but inherently, we as humans seek it. There may even be a certain percentage of the population that’s happy to go along with whatever they’re told.

But there’s a large chunk of the population that wants the truth, even if it’s not what they want to hear. Our search for the truth is part of us, and it will ultimately win out.

Today, I really encourage people to try to find some original sourcing. From The Epoch Times, for example, I get all kinds of information I can’t find elsewhere, including great investigations with graphics that explain things in-depth—good old-fashioned journalism.

MR . JEKIELEK: Any final

thoughts?

MS. ATTKISSON: I always

A user holds a smartphone displaying a new Facebook policy on “misinformation about COVID-19,” with the Facebook logo in the background, in Arlington, Va., on May 27, 2021.

54 I N S I G H T February 18–24, 2022

THIS PAGE: ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES

say do your own research, make up your own mind, think for yourself, and use your common sense.

You’re going to be right more often than you think.

Open your mind, read a lot, think a lot, and don’t buy into the prevailing narrative at face value.

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

No.07

Unwind

Fought over for centures by the Celts, Romans, and Moors, the tiny town of Ronda is a storehouse of early Spanish history.

PHOTO BY ANDREI ALI/SHUTTERSTOCK

A Spanish Gem THERE’S A NEW MANSION on the site of Dean Martin’s legendary Beverly Hills home.

Luxurious and spacious, it’s ideal for those who enjoy entertaining. 56

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THE ULTIMATE ACCESSORY for a true wine connoisseur is a proper wine storage system. An underground wine cellar is the best, but there are other options as well. 60

EVER SINCE THE RECIPE for a whiskey sour first appeared in print in 1862, mixologists have been improving it in very imaginative ways. 66

INSIDE I N S I G H T February 18–24, 2022 55

DEAN’S PAD Phil Butler

A

56 I N S I G H T February 18–24, 2022

blend the open plan into the natural landscape.

At the center of it all, the great room is “where it’s at,” to coin a phrase from Martin’s heyday.

Adjoining this cavernous space is a state-of-theart kitchen that serves out into the great entertainment spaces, which in turn flow out onto the lush pool and gardens. The home also features a theater, a complete gym, an office, a spa with a massage area, a laundry room, and much more.

Venturing outside through the motorized Fleetwood glass doors, guests will find open patios, a fireplace, a deck with built-in seating and a fire pit, the pool and spa, and a full kitchen/BBQ/ bar. There’s also an attached garage showplace for three cars. Finally, the estate offers stunning canyon and sunset views that punctuate the remake of the legendary celebrity hangout.

Trousdale Estates is just minutes from Rodeo Drive and the Sunset Strip. An interesting side note, the estate was once owned by actor David Janssen, who was the star of the hit TV drama “The Fugitive.” The neighborhood was also called home by Frank Sinatra, Tony Curtis, Elvis Presley, and Ray Charles back in the day.

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.

LOMA VISTA DRIVE, BEVERLY HILLS $27,950,000 • 5 BEDROOMS • 9 BATHROOMS • 0.859 ACRE KEY FEATURES • FAMOUS CELEBRITY ESTATE • EXCLUSIVE NEIGHBORHOOD • MEMORABLE DESIGN • NOSTALGIA GALORE AGENT JADE MILLS ESTATES STEPHANIE ZEBIK, MANAGING DIRECTOR 310-285-7508

PHOTOS COURTESY OF JADE MILLS ESTATES

remarkable beverly hills mansion brings to mind the days when legendary singer Dean Martin and his famous “Rat Pack” pals were the toast of the town.

This stunning new pad is a contemporary 10,000-plus square foot redux by developer Patrik Mirahmadi on the site of the famous crooner’s estate. Designed to retain the soul of Martin’s famous original party palace, the mansion is listed for $29,995,000.

Completed in 2017, the Loma Vista estate is a modern remake of Martin’s swanky residence, the scene of many memorable celebrity dinner parties. The updated five-bedroom and ninebath residence boasts spaces controlled by Crestron Electronics home automation and every state-of-the-art appliance and amenity that you would expect in such a grand residence.

Owners and their guests access the property through private gates before traveling down a winding drive that culminates in front of a walnut pivoting door, protected by a shimmering moat. Set in the center of an acre of manicured grounds, the showplace home features 12-foothigh ceilings, art gallery-style hallways, and a sea of glass and wide entrances that serve to

Dean Martin’s legendary estate in Beverly Hills has been reimagined

In the 1980s, singer-entertainer Dean Martin often hosted his friends Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr., Joey Bishop, and Peter Lawford at his home on Loma Vista.

The famous “Rat Pack” would have approved of the reinvented pad on the site of their friend’s former home.

A complete cinema experience was a “must” according to the developer. How could the house be complete without a way to watch and listen to “Dino” in style?

Developer Patrik Mirahmadi has described the new home on Martin’s estate as “consummately cool and entertaining,” and from the moment one enters, the sense permeates. The new home seems like a monument to Martin and the life and times of his famous friends.

If you peel your eyes “just so,” you can almost see them: Hollywood and Vegas legends of yesteryear laughing and joking, making vibrant conversation at the bar, by the pool, warming by the fire pit. Can’t you?

Mirahmadi also designed a “floating” dining room, which is surrounded by a moat. The room also has a temperature-controlled, glass-enclosed wine room for storing and displaying as many as 450 bottles.

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Travel Spain In his classic work, “Death in the Afternoon,” Ernest Hemingway described Ronda as the perfect place to go if you don't want to be found.

Spain’s Little Gem

This small Andalusian town, set high above a gorge, enchants all who behold it

By Fred J. Eckert

I

t ' s a da z z l i n g s e t t i n g .

Perched at an isolated point in the sierra upon a lofty shelf 2,460 feet above sea level—with a commanding vista of the wide, barren plains below and the circle of dark, jagged mountains in the distance—the town of Ronda is cut into two unequal parts by a spectacular gorge formed by the Guadalevin River.

The town is a natural, almost impregnable, fortress. First the Celts then the Romans held it, but it was the Moors who did the most masterful job of fortifying it. They ruled here until just a few years before the fall of Granada. It finally fell to the Christian forces of Ferdinand and Isabella in 1485 after a strenuous siege that required 25,000 infantrymen and 13,000 cavalry and marked the Spanish army’s first recorded use of iron cannonballs.

The gorge, El Tajo de Ronda, is breathtaking— around 400 feet deep, more than 1,600 feet

58 I N S I G H T February 18–24, 2022

long, and 220 feet wide at its widest point. Picturesque whitewashed homes cling to its cliffs. Some of them have narrow steps that trail down the sheer edges to the river far below. A bunch of birds—rock doves, choughs, and crag martins—whirl around it.

The old town, known as Ciudad, stands on the south side of the deep gorge and clings atop precipitous cliffs on its other three sides as well. It's joined to the newer (post-1485) part of town at the narrowest point of the gorge by the spectacular 18th-century Puente Nuevo arched bridge.

Besides the Puente Nuevo (“New Bridge”) that was built in 1761—the only bridge that spans the gorge—two other, even older bridges are landmarks of old Ronda. One is a 17th-century work, which, like the Puente Nuevo, still carries vehicular traffic. The lowest and oldest bridge, which the Moors built in the 14th century, is used only for pedestrian traffic.

MADRID

SPAIN SEVILLE

RONDA

COSTA DEL SOL

Ronda is only one hour from the beaches of the Costa del Sol and two hours from Seville.

Travel Spain During the Spanish Civil War, both sides took a fancy to throwing enemy supporters off the Puente Nuevo alive into the gorge. Hemingway wrote of that in "For Whom the Bell Tolls," but without mentioning Ronda by name.

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A Moorish Maze Old town Ronda is small—only about a halfmile long and a quarter-mile wide—and yet one could easily get lost here. That's because its streets still follow their original Moorish design. They're a maze—a labyrinth of winding narrow cobbled alleyways, often steep, usually following an irregular path and only now and then widening onto small courtyards.

Moorish homes and buildings still stand, including old mosques that were long ago converted into churches. Interspersed among the Moorish structures are striking Renaissance mansions with their characteristic wroughtiron balconies and whitewashed small homes that glisten in the sunshine.

The gates to the city have been magnificently restored, as have its southern walls. Almost at the center of old Ronda, looking out on Plaza Duquesa de Parcent, the town’s most beautiful square, lies the Catholic cathedral of Santa Maria la Mayor.

In Ronda, as in most Spanish towns, one of the delights is walking about and constantly catching glimpses of window boxes and balconies teeming with flowers—images that to us always look like objects posing for fine paintings.

And of course there’s the shopping. Ronda is full of lovely little shops well-stocked with fine-quality ceramics, pottery, wickerwork, leather goods—it’s known for its fine footwear—and all sorts of other gift items.

The Gate of Philip V, constructed in 1742 during the reign of the first Bourbon king of Spain, Philip V, still carries vehicular traffic.

Plaza de Toros Ronda’s best-known monument lies in the more modern part of town known as the Mercadillo.

Opened in 1785, the Plaza de Toros is Spain’s second-oldest (after Seville), largest (in ring diameter, not seating capacity), and probably most revered bullring.

It’s an impressive structure—an elegant neoclassic design with double arches supported by 176 Tuscan columns—that can hold 5,000 spectators. You may have seen it; it was the setting for the film "Carmen."

It was here during its early years that Ronda native son Pedro Romero achieved Spanish immortality by establishing the techniques for fighting bulls on foot using a sword and a red cape, as opposed to the prior practice of fighting them from horseback. This father of modern bullfighting lived until age 85 and killed more than 5,000 bulls in his lifetime, without ever being gored.

Romero and Ronda’s Plaza de Toros were the inspiration for a number of artist Francisco Goya’s paintings.

Death in the Afternoon Hemingway was right about Ronda. Much as I admire Hemingway’s writing, I had always taken a pass on "Death in the Afternoon." Now I decide to read it.

In it, he says of Ronda: “The entire town and as far as you can see in any direction is romantic background.”

Ronda, writes Hemingway, “is where you should go if you ever go to Spain on a honeymoon or if you ever bolt with anyone.”

Good advice.

Fred J. Eckert is a retired U.S. ambassador and former member of Congress.

Take a

DAY TRIP

to Jerez de la Frontera, famous for its sherry and equestrian ballet.

If You Go When to Go: Spring and fall are generally considered the best times to visit Ronda. Attending a Ronda festival is a special experience.

Getting There: Fly to Malaga on Spain’s Costa del Sol, where you can rent a car or take a one-hour train trip to Ronda.

Accommodations: The Parador of Ronda is an excellent modern hotel behind the facade of Ronda’s 18thcentury City Hall. Its views of the gorge and countryside are incredible.

Side Trips: Ronda is a good base for touring the “white towns” of Andalusia.

The breathtaking gorge of Ronda. The “New Bridge” (which was completed in 1793) spans the gorge that divides the town. The older part of town is to the right.

The building at top left is the Parador de Ronda, one of the finest hotels in Spain.

I N S I G H T February 18–24, 2022 59

Home Wine Cellars:

A Liquid Home Improvement

If your idea of ‘we need more wine’ is when you have less than 35 bottles, you need your own cellar

By Bill Lindsey

A proper wine storage system regulates temperature and humidity to ensure proper aging and perfect flavor.

Lifestyle Wines

The size and complexity of a wine cellar is subject to the budget and available room. Systems are available to match home size and preferred price points.

FROM L: ANDRII ZASTROZHNOV/SHUTTERSTOCK, SLAVUN/SHUTTERSTOCK

C

reating and curating a wine collection is serious business for oenophiles. Sir Robert Scott Caywood may have summed it up best, “Compromises are for relationships, not wine.” This raises two questions: Why do I need to protect my wines and what’s the best way to do so?

Acquiring a 1947 Cheval-Blanc is only the first step. Until you’re ready to enjoy it, wine needs to be coddled. Stored properly, a bottle of wine can be handed down in perfect condition from generation to generation. Keep in mind that the most convenient place to keep wine may not be the best choice for long-term storage. Step one is storing it in a dark place, because UV exposure can affect the flavor. Additionally, you need to ensure that the area is subject to minimal or no vibration, which might prove to be a challenge in earthquake-prone areas such as California.

Next, the sediments in the bottles need to remain as undisturbed as possible in

Your budget, as well as your geographic location, will play a large role in the decision to create a cavern. order to allow for proper aging. This means there’s to be no excessive movement or handling of the bottles and making every effort to eliminate—or at least mitigate—vibrations. Other than Mother Earth, common vibration sources to be avoided include refrigerators, speakers for TV and audio sound systems, stairs above or adjacent to the storage system, free weights, trampolines, and other equipment in a home gym, as well as clothes washers and dryers.

It’s critical to keep the corks moist in order to prevent them from drying out, meaning that the bottles must be stored horizontally. The humidity and temperature of the storage area are other factors

to be addressed. A proper wine cellar or a wine refrigerator will address these concerns, leaving you free to anticipate the marvelous moment when you open and enjoy the wine. Another positive of a dedicated storage system is how it allows you to organize wines by region or vineyard or by any other category that allows you to keep track of them.

WINE STOR AGE OPTIONS range from

relatively simple in the form of a wine refrigerator to a full-blown wine cellar. The size of the collection, as well as budgets and space limitations, will play important roles in determining what’s best for you.

Wine refrigerators, also known as wine coolers, differ from regular refrigerators in several important ways that matter when it comes to storing fine wines. A wine refrigerator can be set to maintain a specific storage temperature between 45 degrees Fahrenheit and 65 degrees F, unlike the 40 degrees F or lower temperatures in a kitchen refrigerator.

As noted above, vibration can ruin a I N S I G H T February 18–24, 2022 61

Lifestyle Wines

LIFESTYLE

A HOME FOR YOUR WINE

Even the smallest home or apartment can have a wine cellar

Wine storage systems can be designed to seamlessly fit into existing spaces. good wine by stirring up the sediments, and most regular refrigerators vibrate at a noticeable level. Accordingly, compressors used on quality wine coolers or refrigerators utilize a damping system to minimize vibration.

A wine refrigerator also maintains the proper humidity levels needed to ensure that corks don’t become dry. A regular food refrigerator is engineered to actively minimize humidity, which is why wines shouldn’t be stored in them for more than just a few days. Wine refrigerators are available in sizes ranging from the size of a dormitory refrigerator to vast wall-mounted systems. When shopping, look for a dual-zone system that can accommodate the needs of varying wines.

A WINE CELLAR is another option, and

62 I N S I G H T February 18–24, 2022

How big should it be?

This depends on your budget and how much room is available.

Closets, bedrooms, and basements can all be converted to proper wine storage systems.

2 What if I live in a small apartment?

A compact, easily removed wine cooler might be the answer for a collection of under 50 bottles.

Larger collections can be stored in full-size wine refrigerators.

3 Host a Wine Tasting

Curating investment and drinking wines can easily be done with a home storage system.

When you add a wine cellar, host a tasting to show it off. Choose an assortment of whites and reds to compare and contrast the unique qualities of each.

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as is the case with a specialized refrigerator, sizes range from a closet up to commodious sub-surface caverns. Many firms sell and install closet cellars, which repurpose a closet, walk-in closet, or even a garage. These are the way to go when equipping a condominium unit with a storage system. Do-it-yourselfers can create their own as well, with all of the required equipment and materials being readily available.

The key factors to consider include avoiding vibration and UV exposure. A cellar is the ultimate choice for oenophiles, as it keeps the wines away from regularly-trafficked, vibration-prone areas and allows the lighting to be

kept to a level just sufficient to read labels. The fact that it provides a seriously cool home upgrade can’t be overlooked, either.

Your budget will play a large role in the decision to create a cavern, along with your geographic location. If the home has a basement, the costs will be limited to the equipment needed to build the storage system. If there’s no sub-level, you’ll need contractors to build a cellar, obtaining all of the permits required by the local municipality for what can become a seriously expensive undertaking. If the property is located in South Florida, where water is routinely encountered a foot under the soil, or in an area of dense, rocky soil, the cost and difficulty of creating a cellar may result in a decision to opt for a wine refrigerator.

Regardless of which direction you take, you’ll have created an oasis of tranquility for your wines, where they can age gracefully, improving with time.

1

Luxury Living Getting Around

CARTS FOR GOLF AND GROCERIES In golf, the ‘drive’ is the first shot off the tee; with these carts, it’s how to get around the course and to the neighborhood grocery store

By Bill Lindsey

Roam Alone

A G reat Drive on the Course

ELLWEE X

CLUB CAR VILLAGER 2+2

This sporty single-seat ATVstyle cart from Sweden features a front-mounted golf bag holder that can be outfitted with a cargo rack or a locking helmet storage box. Designed for golf course use, it’s also a fun way to do laps around the block.

Club Car has come a long way since its three-wheel carts of the 1960s.

The new street-legal carts can roam at speeds of 20 miles per hour for up to 30 miles per charge. Everyone on board is protected by three-point seat belts and a full-height safetyglass windshield.

$6,495

$12,314

Four-W heeled Danish

GARIA STREET LEGAL GOLF CART $21,899

COURTESY OF GARIA, AIRCAPITAL, ELLWEE, CLUBCAR, NEW ENGLAND GOLF CARS

Be a Star on the Course

LUXE ELECTRIC CARS CALL FOR PRICE

Featuring front ends that resemble BMW, Aston Martin, Mercedes Benz, and other luxury cars, these can be customized with carbon fiber accents, premium seats, and more. Capable of speeds up to 32 miles per hour, they’re a stylish choice for getting around town, too.

With its overly large cabin and passenger-friendly features, such as an icebox, sound system, and USB charging ports, as well as notable options, including a refrigerator and carbon fiber accents, these carts from Denmark let you scoot around town or through 18 holes in style.

Ready for Adventure

NEW ENGLAND GOLF CARS CALL FOR PRICE

Large 14-inch tires with custom aluminum wheels and an SUV-like grill give this cart a rugged look, while a 7-inch LED dash display, rearview camera mirror, a Bluetooth sound system, and premium seating with headrests, provide serious creature comforts around the course and around town.

I N S I G H T February 18–24, 2022 63

Epoch Booklist

RECOMMENDED READING PSYCHOLOGY

‘Outliers’

By Malcolm Gladwell

Are there books you’d recommend?

We’d love to hear from you. Let us know at features@epochtimes.com

From an iconic Cold War spy novel to a self-portrayal by Lawrence of Arabia of his exploits, here are this week’s book recommendations.

final mission for MI6 to discredit an East German officer. Leamas tries to complete the mission and extricate himself and his lover from danger, back to West Berlin. One of the best spy novels to be written and the one that put Le Carré on the map of great novelists.

‘The Roots of American Order’

PENGUIN, 1963, 240 PAGES

By Russell Kirk

HISTORY

Tracing the American Identity

This book scours the globe to study the cultures of the world and how they’ve contributed to the success of certain people in certain trades and industries. “Outliers” establishes answers for how some people succeed and some people don’t. Impossible to put down.

‘The Bully Pulpit: Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, and the Golden Age of Journalism’

LITTLE, BROWN AND COMPANY, 2008, 304 PAGES

By Doris Kearns Goodwin

This book suggests that the United States grew out of five cities: Jerusalem, Athens, Rome, London, and Philadelphia.

Kirk demonstrates how these cities influenced U.S. views on morality, religion, law, government, and citizenship through the writings of great ancient thinkers such as Plato, Aristotle, and Cicero to Enlightenment thinkers such as Hobbes, Locke, and Montesquieu. A great book to reveal the sources of U.S. identity.

A Study of What Makes Us Successful

FICTION

‘The Spy Who Came in from the Cold’

By John Le Carré

A Thrilling, Tragic Spy Novel This book is the third novel by John Le Carré.

Although George Smiley, Le Carré’s most famous protagonist, is mentioned, he plays a minor role. The book centers around Alec Leamas, an aging intelligence officer, on his

Roosevelt, Taft, and Muckrakers This book takes the reader to the turn of the 20th century with the rise of progressivism, muckraking reporters, and Theodore Roosevelt’s installment as president after the assassination of William McKinley.

Goodwin covers the influence journalists such as Lincoln Steffens and Ida Tarbell had on U.S. society, as well as on Roosevelt. The author thoroughly discusses the friendship, fallout, and reunion of Roosevelt and William Howard Taft. A well-written book about a glittering age that wasn’t always gold.

SIMON & SCHUSTER, 2014, 912 PAGES

64 I N S I G H T February 18–24, 2022

INTERCOLLEGIATE STUDIES INSTITUTE, 1974, 534 PAGES

‘Seven Pillars of Wisdom’

By T. E. Lawrence

At War in the Desert A great man? Publicity hound? Charlatan?

The arguments con-

tinue a century after he led his revolt, but one thing is certain about the enigmatic Lawrence of Arabia: His masterful tactics and grasp of strategy helped defeat the Turks during World War I. “His name will live in history,” King George V wrote. His story tells us why.

FOR KIDS

WORDSWORTH EDITIONS, 1999, 704 PAGES

‘Swallows and Amazons’

By Arthur Ransome

CLASSICS

‘The Scarlet Letter’

By Nathaniel Hawthorne

Love & Guilt, Darkness & Light Hester Prynne breaks the rigid Puritan code when she bears a child out of wedlock. Refusing to name the father, she’s forced to wear an “A” on her chest, condemning her as an adulteress.

As this story unfolds, we gain insights into others involved with her: Roger Chillingworth, Hester’s cold, estranged, and twisted husband; the Reverend Dimmesdale, who hides his own dark secrets; and Pearl, Hester’s daughter who goads the others toward confession and truth.

A timeless novel about moral temptations and spiritual warfare.

READER’S LIBRARY CLASSICS, 2021, 214 PAGES

Adventure and Imagination In the first of 12 volumes in this series, the Walker siblings befriend the Beckett girls from across the lake. They sail, camp out on Wild Cat Island, and play pirates and explorers.

One of the classics of adolescent literature.

DAVID R. GODINE, 2010, 352 PAGES

‘Flip, Flap, Fly!’

By Phyllis Root

A Picture Book That Inspires This immensely adorable picture book features encouraging moms and adventurous baby animals, along with a rhythmically satisfying text that bursts with curiosity and love. Parents are sure to hear, “Again, please,” after every read.

CANDLEWICK PRESS, 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 look at a new adventure movie, and two very different films that feature the famous DeLorean.

NEW RELEASE

FAMILY PICK

Back to the Future

(1985)

Uncharted (2022 )

ACTION | ADVENTURE

To aid him in his search for a famous lost treasure, Victor Sullivan (Mark Wahlberg) hires savvy thief Nathan Drake (Tom Holland), and the two set off on a grand adventure. However, they soon realize they’re in a race against Santiago Moncada (Antonio Banderas) and his henchmen to get to the vast fortune first.

Based on the very popular “Uncharted” video game franchise, this adventure yarn features some uneven storytelling and pacing that results in it being a decent, if unremarkable, buddy flick that harks back to the ’80s.

Release Date: Feb. 18, 2022 Director: Ruben Fleischer Starring: Tom Holland, Mark Wahlberg, Antonio Banderas Running Time: 1 hour, 56 minutes MPAA Rating: PG-13 Where to Watch: Theaters

UPLIFTING CLASSIC reminds us of how far we’ve come as a nation. A deeply moving and ultimately uplifting film.

CRIME | DRAMA

To Kill a Mockingbird (1962)

Gregory Peck stars as a good-intentioned attorney in the Deep South. He takes on an incendiary case

involving a black man accused of raping a white woman, and some of the townsfolk don’t exactly approve.

This film is a look back at how serious racial inequality was in the past—but also

Release Date: Dec. 25, 1962 Director: Robert Mulligan Starring: Gregory Peck, John Megna, Frank Overton Running Time: 2 hours, 9 minutes Not Rated Where to Watch: Redbox, Vudu, DirecTV

Eccentric scientist Dr. Emmett Brown (Christopher Lloyd) accidentally sends quintessential ’80s teenager Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox) back in time 30 years—from the ’80s to the ’50s.

Now mixed into the timeline of the past, Marty must ensure that his parents connect so he can return to the future.

Not only does this classic film have a zany script permeated by hilarious comedy, but it also has dazzling special

effects that actually add to the story rather than supplant it. And it features the famous DeLorean.

ADVENTURE | COMEDY | SCI-FI

Release Date: July 3, 1985 Director: Robert Zemeckis Starring: Michael J. Fox, Christopher Lloyd, Lea Thompson Running Time: 1 hour, 56 minutes MPAA Rating: PG Where to Watch: Redbox, Vudu, DirecTV

RIVETING DRAMA

Driven (2019) When auto maverick John DeLorean (Lee Pace) meets his new neighbor Jim Hoffman (Jason Sudeikis), the two men strike up an immediate friendship.

But just as DeLorean’s auto company is taking off, he runs into some financing troubles. Jim offers to help, but his offer seems a little too good to be true.

A recreation of actual events, this biopic features nuanced acting and moves along at a peppy pace. It’s a well-done caution-

ary tale of how too much ambition can sometimes have dire consequences.

BIOGR APHY | DR AMA | THRILLER

Release Date: Aug. 16, 2019 Director: Nick Hamm Starring: Lee Pace, Jason Sudeikis, Judy Greer Running Time: 1 hour, 53 minutes MPAA Rating: R Where to Watch: Redbox, DirecTV, Starz

I N S I G H T February 18–24, 2022 65

Food Drinks

ANATOMY OF A CLASSIC COCKTAIL: THE WHISKEY SOUR Spirit, citrus, sugar, and water combine in simple, perfect balance.

Hold the sour mix; bring the fresh citrus—and an egg white, if you like.

By Kevin Revolinski

T

66 I N S I G H T February 18–24, 2022

The popular whiskey sour is simple enough to do at home.

Use fresh citrus for best results, but feel free to switch up the types.

An egg white rounds out the flavor and adds a silky mouthfeel.

If using an egg white, start with a dry shake— shaking the ingredients without ice—to froth the white.

WHISKEY SOUR

Serves 1 • 2 ounces bourbon or rye whiskey • 3/4 ounce simple syrup • 1/2 ounce freshly squeezed and strained lemon juice • 1 ounce egg white (optional) If you’re not using the egg white, add all of the ingredients to a cocktail shaker and shake over ice.

If you’re adding the egg white, add it last and shake vigorously without ice for 10 seconds. Then add ice cubes and shake again for 10 seconds.

Filter into a coupe glass. Garnish with a cherry.

bitters? Or try a robust maple syrup for the sweetener.

If you’ve never added an egg white to a drink, try it! It doesn’t impart anything particularly eggy, neither in flavor or texture, but the result is a fine white foam and a smooth, creamy mouthfeel that rounds off any harshness from the whiskey.

Of course, be aware of the risks of uncooked eggs. You might consider eggs pasteurized in the shell when you shop, but packaged egg whites aren’t the same.

Kevin Revolinski is an avid traveler, craft beer enthusiast, and home-cooking fan.

He's based in Madison, Wis.

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he addition of citrus juice to booze was such an obvious combination that it’s impossible to pin down its true point of origin.

Sailors of yore learned to combat scurvy with citrus fruits that offer vitamin C. Lime juice mixed with Caribbean rum kept the British sailors healthy, if not tipsy, and spawned the nickname “limeys.” In any case, the concept of cocktails became popular among landlubbers, the first mixes being punches made with hard liquor, fruits, sweeteners, and a bit of water.

An early cocktail recipe book, “How to Mix Drinks: Or, the Bon-Vivant’s Companion,” written in 1862 by American bartender Jerry Thomas, holds the first mention of a “sour.” One section of the book, “Fixes and Sours,” lists a Brandy Sour, Gin Sour, and rum-based Sour, each of which is made with its namesake liquor and part of a lemon pressed into the glass with sugar and a bit of water (a “fix” is practically the same drink but with seasonal fruit served on top). A whiskey option is notably missing.

The first known appearance of the whiskey sour in print is in an 1870 article in a Wisconsin newspaper, the Waukesha Plaindealer, wherein a writer, describing an apparently newsworthy tavern excursion, mentioned his drinking partner ordering “another whisky sour.” It remains a popular drink, and busy bars have a sour mix on hand—not as nice as something freshly prepared, something simple enough to do at home.

A simple drink lends itself to a little tweaking. Why not lime instead of lemon or even blend in some grapefruit juice? A drop of

How to Be Respectful Being unaware of social faux pas is no excuse for inadvertent rudeness

There are several basic rules of common courtesies that need to be followed when interacting with others for social or business purposes. To ensure they’re not forgotten, here’s a brief refresher course.

By Bill Lindsey

Excuse 4 Yourself to Use the Phone

1 Make Eye Contact

Abruptly interrupting a meeting to take a call or respond to a text message is bad behavior, whether in a meeting with one person or 37 others. If you are expecting an important call, let the others in the room or on the call know at the start of the meeting that you may need to take a moment to reply. Checking your phone for messages during a meeting is also disrespectful.

Responding to a text or call during a meeting is even worse outside of extremely unique situations such as a dire emergency.

In addition to being rude, it is very disconcerting to talk with someone when they avoid making eye contact. Eye contact and appropriate facial expressions make it clear you are interested in what the other person has to say. Wait for your turn to talk, and when you do, speak clearly.

They may not be able to hear you due to background noise or if they have impaired hearing.

If you notice them frowning or asking you to repeat yourself, apologize and speak up—without shouting.

CSA IMAGES/GETTY IMAGES

2 Give a Heads Up While the use of turn signals while driving may seem to be optional, it is not.

Using them alerts nearby drivers of your intentions, thereby hopefully avoiding an accident. The same can be said in the office. If you need the conference room for a meeting, make sure it’s not already in use or scheduled for a meeting when you need it. Be on time for in-person and virtual meetings as well as scheduled calls, and take care to meet due dates for projects. If you cannot avoid being late or missing a meeting, let your co-workers know as soon as possible.

3 Be Thoughtful If you share a refrigerator at the office, you certainly know what is yours and what is not. Don’t help yourself to someone else’s food or beverages. If you have assigned parking spaces, don’t use someone else’s even if someone is in your space. Leave a polite note on the windshield of the offending vehicle and alert the property manager. In multi-level buildings, don’t delay elevators by holding the doors open if there are others already aboard.

Be Mindful of 5 Communication Etiquette Don’t send a reply to all or send a new business-related e-mail to all, unless it is truly relevant to all on the list. Doing so may cause those not involved to waste time reading it, or it may come across as tattletale behavior and/or attempting to curry favor with a supervisor.

Reply to e-mail, text messages, and phone calls as soon as practical.

If you will be out of the office for a few days, post an auto-reply message to this effect with an alternate contact suggestion.

I N S I G H T February 18–24, 2022 67

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