EPSTEIN VICTIM ON GHISLAINE MAXWELL'S TRIAL ‘I really suffered in silence’ By Charlotte Cuthbertson
DREAM ESTATE
Built by a pasha, La Tenuta del Pascià is magnificent in all ways. p.56 NOV. 26–DEC. 2, 2021 | $6.95
BEHIND RISING OIL PRICES Who is to blame for high gas prices? p.20
BATTLING THE CARTELS
Oregon seeks backup in fight against illegal drug operations. p.30
Editor’s Note
‘I Really Suffered in Silence’ It 's a trial that the world will watch . On Nov. 29, Ghislaine Maxwell, the former partner of Jeffrey Epstein, will be on trial for sex trafficking children, perjury, and the enticement of minors. The trial in New York City is expected to last up to six weeks. Among those watching it closely will be Teresa Helm. In an interview with The Epoch Times, Helm describes how at age 22 she was offered the opportunity to become "'Miss Maxwell's' personal traveling massage therapist." Instead, she says, she was molested by Jeffrey Epstein. In the interview, Helm describes the recruiting process, how she fled Epstein's mansion, and how she suppressed the ordeal for 17 years. It also serves as a cautionary tale of how grooming tactics are employed against vulnerable teens. While she is not named in Maxwell's indictment, and won't take the stand, Helm is determined to be present in the courtroom in Manhattan. "I really aim to be there and look at her right in her face, and equally as important is for her to see me," Helm said in the interview with Epoch Times reporter Charlotte Cuthbertson. Maxwell's indictment alleges that in order to "maintain and increase [Epstein's] supply of victims," Epstein, Maxwell, and other Epstein employees also paid certain victims to recruit additional girls to be similarly abused by Epstein. Read about Helm’s story and the Maxwell trial in the cover story of this week’s INSIGHT. Jasper Fakkert Editor-in-chief
2 I N S I G H T Nov. 26 – Dec. 2, 2021
STEPHEN GREGORY PUBLISHER JASPER FAKKERT EDITOR-IN-CHIEF CHANNALY PHILIPP LIFE & TRADITION, TRAVEL EDITOR CHRISY TRUDEAU MIND & BODY EDITOR CRYSTAL SHI HOME, FOOD EDITOR SHARON KILARSKI ARTS & CULTURE EDITOR BILL LINDSEY LUXURY EDITOR
ON THE COVER Teresa Helm was only 22 when she said she was lured into Jeffrey Epstein's home, where he sexually assaulted her. CHARLOTTE CUTHBERTSON THE EPOCH TIMES
FEI MENG, BIBA KAJEVICH & JUNHAO SU ILLUSTRATORS SHANSHAN HU PRODUCTION CONTACT US THE EPOCH TIMES ASSOCIATION INC. 229 W. 28TH ST., FL. 7 NEW YORK, NY 10001 ADVERTISING ADVERTISENOW@EPOCHTIMES.COM SUBSCRIPTIONS, GENERAL INQUIRIES, LETTERS TO THE EDITOR HELP.THEEPOCHTIMES.COM (USPS21-800)IS PUBLISHED WEEKLY BY THE EPOCH MEDIA GROUP, 9550 FLAIR DR. SUITE 411, EL MONTE CA 91731-2922. PERIODICAL POSTAGE PAID AT EL MONTE, CA, AND ADDITIONAL MAILING OFFICES. POSTMASTER: SEND ADDRESS CHANGES TO THE EPOCH TIMES, 229 W. 28TH STREET, FLOOR 5, NEW YORK, NY 10001.
issue 07 | nov. 26–dec. 2, 2021
30 | Battling
50 | Tough Times
the Cartels Oregon seeks backup in fight against illegal drug operations.
Hardships have a silver lining, if we can learn to recognize it.
51 | Clean Water
32 | Vaccination
Scott Wilson takes persistent toxic chemicals out of the environment.
Status Bank of America is separating empoyees based on their vaccination status.
52 | Globalism
Historian Victor Davis Hanson sounds a warning bell.
44 | Reporting
When willl NYT and WP return to awardwinning reporting?
45 | CCP Infiltration How Beijing exploits the U.N. system with small donations.
46 | US IPOs
A flood of new stock issues carries contradictory messages.
47 | US–China
Relations Beijing's lobby efforts push Congress to resume talks over China bill.
48 | Oil Price
OPEC is not the only solution to high oil prices.
49 | China's Economy China faces an economic doublewhammy.
56 | Dream Estate
Features
12 | Ghislaine Maxwell on Trial Teresa Helm plans to be in the courtroom to face the woman she says facilitated her abuse by Jeffrey Epstein.
Built by a pasha, La Tenuta del Pascià is magnificent in all ways.
58 | Island Getaway
Thailand’s Racha resort is a world away from daily cares.
20 | Diagnosing Rising Gas Prices ‘I Did That’ gas pump stickers register popular anger at rising gas prices. What is causing the rise?
60 | Slice Exchange
35 | A Costlier Thanksgiving American families are tightening their belts for a meal fewer can afford to celebrate in the usual way.
61 | Plan for Fun
A makeshift memorial along the route of the Christmas parade on W. Main Street in Waukesha, Wis., on Nov. 22, one day after a vehicle drove through the parade, killing at least six people and injuring dozens, many of them children. MUSTAFA HUSSAIN/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES
A pandemic-born pizzeria was built on the barter system.
Tips on hosting a gathering you and your guests will enjoy.
64 | Own the Sky
When you have your own personal aircraft, the sky's the limit.
67 | DIY Filmmaking A look at professionalgrade video cameras.
I N S I G H T Nov. 26 – Dec. 2, 2021 3
4 I N S I G H T Nov. 26 – Dec. 2, 2021
S U C O F NI AUSTRIA LOCKDOWN A couple walk past closed boutique stores on the Graben, a street in the city center of Vienna that is normally packed with crowds of people, on Nov. 22. After first enacting a lockdown only for unvaccinated people, the country days later expanded the lockdown to everyone. PHOTO BY JOE KLAMAR/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES
I N S I G H T Nov. 26 – Dec. 2, 2021 5
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6 I N S I G H T Nov. 26 – Dec. 2, 2021
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NAT ION • WOR L D • W H AT H A P P E N E D T H I S W E E K
The Week
Issue. 07
The Los Angeles Police Department in downtown Los Angeles on Nov. 8. JOHN FREDRICKS/THE EPOCH TIMES
LAPD Used Fake Social Media Accounts to Spy on Users: Documents Internal guide on social media use requires officers to get permission from a commanding officer, but imposes few other rules
✒
LOS ANGELES POLICE Department (LAPD) officers used fake online personas to monitor social media users, and, at one point, considered employing tools that critics say could lead to profiling innocent people, according to recently revealed government documents. The documents, released by the Brennan Center for Justice following an openrecords request with the LAPD, have raised concerns that online surveillance operations harm freedom of expression and encourage profiling.
I N S I G H T Nov. 26 – Dec. 2, 2021 7
The Week in Short US
Fauci: Definition of
‘Fully Vaccinated’ Could Change
The definition of “fully vaccinated” could be changed by federal health officials to include COVID-19 booster doses if their data support it, White House pandemic adviser Anthony Fauci said. While speaking to ABC’s “This Week,” Fauci said that medical officials are still considering the necessity of the booster shots, and that he personally wouldn't change the definition of what constitutes “fully vaccinated.”
California County Mandates Masks in Private Homes for People Not in Same Household
President Joe Biden has ordered the release of 50 million barrels of oil from the nation’s strategic petroleum reserve in a bid to bring down surging energy costs.
‘GENERAL HOSPITAL’ ACTOR STEVE BURTON SAYS HE WAS FIRED FOR FAILING TO GET COVID-19 VACCINE Actor Steve Burton, star of ABC’s “General Hospital,” claims he was fired from the show for failing to get the COVID-19 vaccine after applying for both medical and religious exemptions. In a video posted to Instagram, Burton, who first joined the soap series in 1992, said: “Unfortunately, ‘General Hospital’ has let me go because of the vaccine mandate. I did apply for my medical and religious exemptions, and both of those were denied, which, you know, hurts. But this is also about personal freedom to me. “I’ll always be grateful for my time at ‘General Hospital.’ ... I grew up there, I grew up with some of you. So I’ll always be grateful, and I believe that when one door closes, multiple doors open. That’s always been my perspective.” 8 I N S I G H T Nov. 26 – Dec. 2, 2021
Kyle Rittenhouse, who was found not guilty on five charges, during his first televised interview with Fox News after he was acquitted.
BUSINESSES STILL NOT BACK TO NORMAL - 60 % SHORTAGE OF PRODUCTS & SERVICES - 71 % GAS PRICES - 74 % INFLATION & RISING COSTS - 84 % SOURCE: CBS NEWS POLL OF 2,058 U.S. ADULT RESIDENTS, NOV. 15–19, 2021.
WHY IS THE U.S. ECONOMY BAD?
1.9 PERCENT
Nebraska’s unemployment rate edged down to 1.9 percentage in October to hit the lowest rate achieved by any state since data collection began in 1976, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
FROM TOP LEFT: J. SCOTT APPLEWHITE-POOL/GETTY IMAGES, SEAN KRAJACIC-POOL/GETTY IMAGES, DRONE BASE/REUTERS, JASON MERRITT/GETTY IMAGES, SHUTTERSTOCK
Officials in Santa Cruz County, California, imposed a sweeping indoor mask mandate that includes private settings. For individuals gathering with people who don’t live in the same household, masks should be worn in homes regardless of COVID-19 vaccination status, according to the county.
“This case has nothing to do with race. It never had anything to do with race. It had to do with the right to self50 MILLION defense.”
The Week in Short US WISCONSIN
Alleged Wisconsin Parade Killer Darrell Brooks Charged With 5 Homicide Counts
Staff load the casket of a person who died after contracting the CCP virus into a hearse in El Cajon, Calif., on Jan. 15. CCP VIRUS
US COVID-19 Deaths in 2021 Surpass 2020 Total: Data The number of reported COVID-19 deaths in the United States in 2021 has surpassed the total in 2020, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and Johns Hopkins University. As of the weekend of Nov. 20, the number of total reported COVID-19 deaths had hit 770,816 since the pandemic started, according to Johns Hopkins. In 2020, about 385,343 COVID-19 deaths were reported, CDC death-certificate data show. That leaves 385,457 COVID-19 deaths reported so far this year. The CDC currently shows 382,861 deaths so far this year, but that count lags Johns Hopkins as it only includes reported deaths after they've been processed by the National Center for Health Statistics.
A Wisconsin commissioner has set the bail for a man accused of intentionally killing six people and injuring dozens of others at $5 million, declaring the allegations “shocking.” Darrell Brooks, 39, a convicted felon with a long history of criminal charges, allegedly rammed his red Ford Escape into participants in a Christmas parade in Waukesha on Nov. 21. Prosecutors opened the preliminary hearing on Nov. 23 by reading all the charges Brooks previously has faced in three states, including Wisconsin. The charges include running over the mother of his child with the same SUV and several domestic battery counts. Brooks also had jumped bail on multiple occasions.
FROM TOP LEFT: MARIO TAMA/GETTY IMAGES, JUSTIN SULLIVAN/GETTY IMAGES, MARK HOFFMAN-POOL/GETTY IMAGES
UNEMPLOYMENT
Weekly Jobless Claims Plunge to Levels Not Seen Since 1969 The number of workers applying for unemployment benefits in the United States has dropped sharply to a level not seen in more than 50 years, suggesting A “Now Hiring” sign outside of a Lamps Plus store in San businesses have been hold- Francisco on June 3. ing on to employees amid a tight labor market. below consensus forecasts of 260,000. First-time filings for unemployment Besides notching a fresh pandeminsurance—a proxy for layoffs—came in ic-era low and marking the eighth at 199,000 for the week ending Nov. 19, straight week of declines, Nov. 24’s jobthe Labor Department said in a report. less claims number is also the lowest That’s a drop of 71,000 from the prior since Nov. 15, 1969, when there were week’s revised level of 270,000 and well 197,000 filings.
Darrell Brooks is escorted out of the courtroom after making his initial appearance in Waukesha County Court in Waukesha, Wis., on Nov. 23, 2021. I N S I G H T Nov. 26 – Dec. 2, 2021 9
The Week in Short World CCP VIRUS
Just 16 Percent of Organizations Rank Employee Retention and Engagement as Top Priority: Report
Illegal immigrants are picked up by a Royal National Lifeboat Institution lifeboat while crossing the English Channel at a beach in Dungeness, England, on Sept. 7. UK
Number of Illegal Immigrants Crossing English Channel Triples From 2020 The number of illegal immigrants who have reached the UK this year by crossing the English Channel in small boats is now triple the total for the whole of 2020. At least 886 people succeeded in reaching the UK on Nov. 20, the Home Office confirmed. This brings the total for the year to more than 25,600, according to available official data compiled by the PA news agency. Illegal immigrant arrivals through the channel in 2021 now stand at more than three times the number for 2020, when 8,417 people crossed the Dover Strait. WHO
The World Health Organization (WHO) said it has finalized a global license deal to ramp up production of a serological technology that detects COVID-19 antibodies, something the agency says will “turn the tide” on the pandemic. The license will be provided royalty-free to poor and middleThe WHO headquarters in Geneva. income countries, the WHO announced in a news release, adding that it will remain valid until the date the last patent expires. The nonexclusive licensing agreement reached with the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) is the first test license signed by the WHO’s Medicines Patent Pool. “The aim of the license is to facilitate the rapid manufacture and commercialization of CSIC’s COVID-19 serological test worldwide,” the WHO said. The technology checks for the presence of anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibodies developed either in response to a CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus infection or to a vaccine. 10 I N S I G H T Nov. 26 – Dec. 2, 2021
Workers protest outside the John Deere Davenport Works facility in Iowa, on Oct. 15. GERMANY
German Parties Reach Coalition Deal to End Merkel Era German Social Democrat Olaf Scholz said on Nov. 24 that he had reached a deal with the Free Democrats and Greens to form a new coalition government that will bring the curtain down on the Angela Merkel era. According to a 177-page agreement struck after two months of talks, the three parties want to accelerate public investment in green technology and digitalization while returning to strict debt limits from 2023 onward. The deal will install Germany's first federal coalition between the Social Democrats, libertarian Free Democrats, and ecologist Greens, and end 16 years of Merkel-led conservative governing.
FROM TOP LEFT: BEN STANSALL/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES, SCOTT OLSON/GETTY IMAGES, FABRICE COFFRINI/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES
Global License Deal Will ‘Turn the Tide’ on Pandemic, WHO Says
Less than 20 percent of organizations rank employee retention and engagement as a top priority, despite a global labor shortage, according to a new report from NTT DATA. The research polled 1,000 business and IT executives across 16 industries in North America to uncover how organizations are prioritizing digital investments and strategies in the wake of constant disruptions stemming from everything from the global COVID-19 pandemic and social unrest to workforce shortages and supply chain challenges. It found that just 16 percent of organizations deemed employee engagement and retention as a focus area for the next two years.
World in Photos
Visitors pose for a photo on a viewing platform at the Tunnel of Light, designed by Ma Yansong of MAD Architects, at the Kiyotsu-kyo Gorge in Tokamachi, Japan, on Nov. 21. TOMOHIRO OHSUMI/GETTY IMAGES
Demonstrators light flares during a rally held by Austria's Freedom Party to protest the country's COVID-19 vaccine mandates, at Maria Theresien Platz square in Vienna on Nov. 20. JOE KLAMAR/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES
Soldiers of Pakistan's Anti-Narcotics Force stand guard near a burning pile of seized drugs, on the outskirts of Islamabad on Nov. 24. AAMIR QURESHI/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES
People launch khom loy lanterns into the sky during the Yee Peng Festival in Lamphun, Thailand, on Nov. 20. The annual festival of lights is held on the night of the full moon during the 12th month of the Thai lunar calendar.
LAUREN DECICCA/GETTY IMAGES
I N S I G H T Nov. 26 – Dec. 2, 2021 11
Teresa Helm in Houston on April 24. PHOTO BY CHARLOTTE CUTHBERTSON/THE EPOCH TIMES
12 I N S I G H T Nov. 26 – Dec. 2, 2021
The Lead Ghislaine Maxwell Trial
SEX TRAFFICKING
Epstein Victim on Ghislaine Maxwell’s Trial ‘She knew what she was doing’
J
By Charlotte Cuthbertson EFFREY EPSTEIN MOLESTED her and she didn’t tell a soul for 17 years. Teresa Helm was 22, and she had already patched her life back together after being sexually abused by a close family member, starting at age 8. “I really suffered in silence,” Helm told The Epoch Times’ “Insight” magazine. As a child, she had told her mother about the abuse in the hope that she’d make it stop. Instead, her mother told her not to tell anyone, and it continued for 3 1/2 years. “I just didn’t get help, even though I kept asking for it. And so after what happened with Jeffrey, I suffered in silence, just like I had always kind of done,” she said. In 2002, Helm had moved to California from Ohio and was attending a massage therapy school, positive of a bright future. It became even more exciting when a fellow student, a year ahead of her, approached her about an opportunity
NATIONAL HUMAN TRAFFICKING HOTLINE r e c i v d p or t s of22 INNhmuan t r a S c k n gi a s e , r e p s n t mg i o r e thanGG NNN victmsnGN2HT ,
I N S I G H T Nov. 26 – Dec. 2, 2021 13
The Lead Ghislaine Maxwell Trial
Acting U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York Audrey Strauss announces charges against Ghislaine Maxwell, in New York on July 2, 2020.
Teresa J. Helm, survivor
14 I N S I G H T Nov. 26 – Dec. 2, 2021
and she was very polite. Her home was stunning,” Helm said. “I was super impressed with her because she’s this very well-spoken woman, and she’s clearly successful because of her beautiful home, and she has photos on the wall of ex-president Bill Clinton. And I’m thinking: ‘Wow, she’s really something special, she’s worked hard. She’s accomplished a lot in her life.’” Helm spent a couple of hours in the home before Maxwell told her she was next going to meet up with Maxwell’s partner, Jeffrey. It was the first time Helm had heard of a partner, but nothing had indicated she should feel alarmed or that she was in any kind of danger. Any red flags, she realized in hindsight, had been easily normalized and explained away. Even when Maxwell told her to “give Jeffrey whatever he wants” during his massage because he “always gets what he wants,” Helm thought Maxwell clearly must mean, “Do a good job, because he’s had a lot of professional massages.” “Because of my trust with [Maxwell]—she was able to create that trusting bond within me in a matter of hours—I literally walked myself to the man of the house who was going to assault me,” Helm said. “I took myself there, because those three wom-
FROM LEFT: JOHANNES EISELE/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES, COURTESY OF TERESA HELMTIMES
“You don’t help facilitate and run and orchestrate one of the largest sex trafficking rings on this globe, on this earth, without knowing what you’re doing and intentionally doing it.”
for a traveling massage therapist job. Helm was interested and was connected with another young woman, whom she subsequently met at Santa Monica to discuss the potential job. “We looked similar, we were at a similar age, so I connected with her,” Helm said. “I never felt like anything she was saying to me wasn’t legitimate, or I never felt fearful.” Helm said the woman painted a phenomenal picture of what life would be like as “Miss Maxwell’s” personal traveling massage therapist—private jets, top chefs, access to the best education all over the world. “So I’d say that she did her job very well. Because in an hour or so of walking around the boardwalk, I was like, ‘Wow. This is really great. I’m so lucky, this is meant to be.’” Wanting to grasp the incredible opportunity, Helm told the woman she was interested, and was informed that she’d need to fly to New York City and meet Maxwell for the final interview. Two weeks later, Helm’s travel to New York City had been arranged—flights, driver, an Upper East Side apartment to stay in, a gift basket waiting. “I go meet with Miss Maxwell. I was expecting to give a massage because that’s what the interview was pertaining to. And everything with Ghislaine Maxwell was legitimate and pleasant,
The Lead Ghislaine Maxwell Trial
en did their job perfectly well and I didn’t suspect a darn thing. When I look back at the fact that three women set me up to be assaulted, it’s just disgusting. It’s a different level of betrayal.” Helm said Epstein sexually assaulted her in his office during the interview and threatened her as she ran out of the house, her world shaking and head spinning. Shocked to the core and full of shame, Helm returned to California the following day. “The shame was overwhelming, it was paralyzing,” she recalled. “I was just so ashamed to say anything.” Her life spiraled down, and three months later she broke her lease, dropped out of school, and returned to Ohio. For the next five years, Helm fell into a destructive pattern. But just weeks before her 28th birthday, she found out she was pregnant, and life shifted again—this time toward the positive. “That’s what really saved my life and turned my life around,” she said. “It was the first time I really valued myself. It was like that sense of purpose. And knowing that I was going to protect my child the way that I was never protected. “Then after having him, I was so honored to be his mom. And then it really actually dug up, it was like, almost hatred toward my mom and Jeffrey. That first year of my son’s life was a lot of emotional processing for me. And I just wanted to kind of remove myself from the world and just be a mom. And that’s what I did.” Helm’s son has just turned 14, and she also has a daughter who is 7. She is the full-time caregiver for both.
‘The World Shifted’ Helm, who had moved to Florida, was folding laundry one Thursday evening in July 2019 when she went online and saw a headline about Epstein after he’d been arrested for sex trafficking. She clicked the link to open the article and came face-to-face with her abuser. In that instant, she realized “Jeffrey” was Epstein. Stunned, she sat down and googled Ghislaine Maxwell and Jeffrey Epstein. “It was life changing, just in that moment. It was like retraumatization, No. 1. No. 2, it was like the world shifted and changed all over again. It’s been different ever since that moment, like the world changed yet again, in that moment and it has not gone back. Nor will it,” Helm said. “Because I didn’t know there were others. I didn’t know that this was this huge thing with these people.” The following day, after a regular yoga class, Helm sat in her car and sobbed as the emotions swirled. She decided it was time to break her silence.
The opportunity to speak out presented itself quickly. Epstein was found dead in his cell at the Metropolitan Correctional Center on Aug. 10, 2019, one month after his arrest. A medical examiner ruled it a suicide by hanging nine days later. The New York judge, Richard Berman, would be forced to dismiss the charges against Epstein— which included the sex trafficking of dozens of minors from as early as 1995—but not before he allowed survivors to speak. Twenty-three women spoke in the courthouse on Aug. 27 about being sexually abused by Epstein, either in person or through a lawyer.
Teresa Helm at age 21.
“This is a woman that changed the entire trajectory of my life, and not for the better.” Teresa J. Helm, survivor
“I’m coming forward because it is time to bring light to that darkness, and it’s time to replace that darkness with light,” Helm said that day. She had only decided that morning to speak out and use her name publicly. Another survivor, “Jane Doe 9,” said she was 15 when she met Epstein, in 2004. “I flew on Jeffrey Epstein’s plane to Zorro Ranch, where I was sexually molested by him for many hours.” she said through a lawyer. “What I remember most vividly was him explaining to me how beneficial the experience was for me and how much he was helping me to grow. Yikes.” Epstein’s Zorro Ranch is in New Mexico. He also owned multimillion dollar properties in New York, Florida, and France, and his own islands in the Caribbean, Little St. James Island and I N S I G H T Nov. 26 – Dec. 2, 2021 15
The Lead Ghislaine Maxwell Trial
“I can turn around and leverage this pain into purpose and help others.”
Maxwell on Trial Helm had finally broken her silence, and it was a watershed moment. She didn’t get to see Epstein face his charges, but she’s eager to be in court to see Maxwell face hers. FBI agents arrested Maxwell at her New Hampshire estate on July 2, 2020. She has been in a Brooklyn jail since. Bail has been denied several times, with Judge Alison Nathan ruling that she is a flight risk. The trial was originally set for July, but was delayed until Nov. 29 and is expected to last six weeks. Jury selection began on Nov. 16. Maxwell is charged with sex trafficking children, perjury, and the enticement of mi-
16 I N S I G H T Nov. 26 – Dec. 2, 2021
nors while she was a close associate of Epstein, according to a superseding indictment filed in the Southern District of New York on March 29. “In particular, from at least in or about 1994, up to and including at least in or about 2004, Maxwell assisted, facilitated, and contributed to Jeffrey Epstein’s abuse of minor girls by, among other things, helping Epstein to recruit, groom, and ultimately abuse victims known to Maxwell and Epstein to be under the age of 18,” the indictment alleges. “Moreover, in an effort to conceal her crimes, Maxwell repeatedly lied when questioned about her conduct, including in relation to some of the minor victims described herein, when providing testimony under oath in 2016.” Virginia Giuffre (formerly Virginia Roberts), one of Epstein’s most well-known accusers, claimed in a 2016 deposition that she was directed by Maxwell to have sex with a number of rich and powerful men, including “foreign presidents,” a “well-known” prime minister, and “other world leaders.” None of the men Giuffre named in the documents have been charged, and all have denied the claims. Maxwell, often described as a British socialite, maintains her innocence on all charges and in a 2016 deposition claimed she had no idea Epstein abused young girls. During the deposition, Maxwell was asked: “Did Jeffrey Epstein have a scheme to recruit underage girls for sexual massages? If you know.” She replied: “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” according to the transcript. “I never saw any inappropriate underage activities with Jeffrey ever.” Maxwell acknowledged that former President Bill Clinton traveled on Epstein’s plane, but denied introducing Britain’s Prince Andrew to underage sex partners. “I’m ready for this trial to start,” Helm said. “I really aim to be there and look at her right in her face, and equally as important is for her to see me.” Helm isn’t named in the indictment and won’t be testifying, but that doesn’t matter. “I’m hopeful that there will be justice in this, that she will finally be held accountable and finally be sentenced for crimes that she has committed and for the lives that she has just willingly stepped in and ruined. This is a woman that changed the entire trajectory of my life and not for the better.” Helm said she hopes Maxwell is found guilty on all charges and receives the maximum penalties. “I don’t think for a moment that she deserves to be on the outside of a jail cell,” she said.
FROM LEFT: CHARLOTTE CUTHBERTSON/THE EPOCH TIMES, TIMOTHY A. CLARY/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES
Teresa J. Helm, survivor
Great St. James Island. Epstein has been linked with a veritable who’s who of the fashion and political worlds. Chauntae Davies also spoke in the courtroom. She said she was recruited by Maxwell while doing a massage apprenticeship. “Upon my first meeting her, I wouldn’t know I had been recruited until many years later, when I would read it in a headline,” Davies said. She said Maxwell and Epstein took her in, sent her to school, and gave her a job. “They flew me around the world, introduced me to a world I had only dreamt of and made me feel as though I had become a part of their family—another thing I was desperately searching for,” Davies said. “But on my third or fourth time meeting them, they brought me to Jeffrey’s island for the first time.” Davies said a knock on her door late at night indicated that Epstein was ready for another massage, so she hesitantly went to his villa. As Epstein began his assault on her, Davies said she told him, “No, please stop.” “But that just seemed to excite him more. He continued to rape me, and when he was finished, he hopped off and went to the shower.” Davies said she ran out of the villa, cried herself to sleep, and then spent two weeks in a Los Angeles hospital throwing up from a neurological disorder that manifests into violent vomiting attacks, largely triggered by stress. “Jeffrey’s abuse would continue for the next three years, and I allowed it to continue because I had been taken advantage of my entire life and had been conditioned to just accept it.”
The Lead Ghislaine Maxwell Trial
“I and other girls, we’re on the outside of these bars, and yet we haven’t fully regained our freedom back. So I hope she gets the maximum sentence. She doesn’t deserve any less than that.” Helm said she often gets asked if she thinks Epstein’s death means Maxwell is now a scapegoat and is being punished for his crimes. “No, I do not. She knew what she was doing. She didn’t think twice about doing it. She did it countless times. She did it ... very masterfully, very successfully,” she said. “You don’t help facilitate and run and orchestrate one of the largest sex trafficking rings on this globe, on this earth, without knowing what you’re doing and intentionally doing it.” The indictment alleges that Maxwell befriended some of Epstein’s minor victims prior to their abuse, including by asking the victims about their lives, their schools, and their families. Other times, Maxwell and Epstein would take the victim shopping or to the movies, or pay travel or education expenses. “Having developed a rapport with a victim, Maxwell would try to normalize sexual abuse for a minor victim by, among other things, discussing sexual topics, undressing in front of the victim, being present when a minor victim was undressed, and/or being present for sex acts involving the minor victim and Epstein,” the court document states.
Attorney Gloria Allred (R) and her client Teala Davies, who claims to have been a victim of sexual abuse by Jeffrey Epstein when she was a minor, at a press conference to announce a lawsuit against Epstein's estate, in New York on Nov. 21, 2019.
was used for most (59 percent) of the online recruitment in active sex trafficking cases in 2020, according to the Human Trafficking Institute's annual trafficking report. Human Trafficking Institute's annual trafficking report
The indictment goes on to say that in order to “maintain and increase his supply of victims,” Epstein, Maxwell, and other Epstein employees also paid certain victims to recruit additional girls to be similarly abused by Epstein. Helm said she has tried to understand what would cause a woman such as Ghislaine to intentionally set girls up to be forever traumatized. She said she has read how Ghislaine lost her father, whom she was very close to, and met Epstein not long afterwards. Helm said she lost her own father unexpectedly almost seven years ago. “I still to this very day miss him incredibly, and I am not out there hurting people,” she said. “There’s no grievance, or there’s no tragedy that justifies you turning around becoming literally a monster.” Maxwell’s lawyers didn’t respond to a request for comment by Insight. Epstein avoided criminal charges for years, raising questions about being protected by the rich and powerful. In September 2007, he entered into a nonprosecution agreement that gave him immunity against prosecution for numerous federal sex crimes in the Southern District of Florida. As part of the deal, in 2008, Epstein ultimately pled guilty to state charges of procuring a minor I N S I G H T Nov. 26 – Dec. 2, 2021 17
The Lead Ghislaine Maxwell Trial
“If you don’t have a successful grooming process, you don’t have the abuse, because it just doesn’t make it that far.” Teresa J. Helm, survivor
for prostitution and was registered as a sex offender. He spent 13 months in jail but was granted work release for 12 hours a day, six days a week.
The Grooming Process
18 I N S I G H T Nov. 26 – Dec. 2, 2021
The Threat Online Fifty-five percent of domestic sex-trafficking survivors who entered the life in 2015 or later met their trafficker for the first time using a mobile app, website, or text, said Tammy Toney-Butler, an anti-human trafficking consultant for Path2Freedom.
(Left) Jeffrey Epstein, in a booking photo in Palm Beach, Fla., on July 27, 2006. (Right) Little Saint James Island, in the U.S. Virgin Islands, a property purchased by Jeffery Epstein more than two decades ago.
SEX TRAFFICKING DEFINITION The recruitment, harboring, transportation, provision, obtaining, patronizing, or soliciting of a person for the purpose of a commercial sex act. It involves the use of force, fraud, or coercion for adults, but any commercial sexual activity with a minor is considered trafficking. SOURCE: Trafficking Victims Protection Act
FROM LEFT: PALM BEACH SHERIFF'S OFFICE, NAVIN75/CC BY-SA 2.0
Grooming and recruitment are critical steps in the sex trafficking industry. “If you don’t have a successful grooming process, you don’t have the abuse, because it just doesn’t make it that far,” Helm said. Jennifer Hill, assistant executive director of the Children’s Assessment Center in Houston, said her organization sees 5,000 children a year who’ve been sexually abused, both by family members or through trafficking. And that’s just the children who have spoken up. “I think most people never, ever tell. And that’s what’s tragic,” she said. Hill said it’s hard to discern how many children don’t report abuse, but statistics show that 1 in 4 girls and 1 in 6 boys will be sexually abused before they’re 18. Common events—the divorce of parents, a breakup, bullying, or the death of a family member—can all make a child vulnerable. Many trafficked children come from the foster care system. But sexual abuse is the most common source of vulnerability for sex-trafficked children—70 to 90 percent of these children have a history of sexual abuse, according to anti-trafficking organization Path2Freedom. Hill said the grooming and recruitment process takes different forms, but involves getting access to the intended victim and gaining their trust so that eventually they’ll be willing to listen to that person, and that person has some control over their behavior. For children, it can include buying gifts, listening to their problems, or helping them in some way. These days, a lot of grooming occurs online through messaging apps or social media and gaming platforms. Post-abuse, children can be threatened to stay silent.
Hill said she hopes the Maxwell trial will spur other victims of trafficking and sexual abuse to come forward. As a former prosecutor of child sex abuse cases, she said a lot of abusers are teachers or trusted adults in the community, which can be intimidating for victims. Her organization conducts awareness trainings for law enforcement, medical professionals, mental health professionals, teachers, and the community on recognizing and reporting trafficking. Helm said so many lessons can be taken from the Maxwell case, “like the fact that it can be a woman.” “That woman groomed me precisely well, beautifully. And that grooming process is so crucial for parents to identify that this is what’s happening to their children. Or for a child to think I think this might be happening to me. Because that grooming process is such a transfer of power [and] a gatekeeper to the abuse.” During 2019, the National Human Trafficking hotline received reports of 11,500 human trafficking cases, representing more than 22,000 victims. California, Texas, and Florida are identified as the worst three states for human trafficking. In Texas alone, more than 79,000 children are being trafficked for sex, according to a study by the University of Texas at Austin. “There’s not one single zip code in this nation, not one that is exempt from trafficking,” Helm said. “It happens in the wealthiest of the wealthiest, to the most impoverished, and everything in between. It has exploded online.”
The Lead Ghislaine Maxwell Trial
Common events—the divorce of parents, a breakup, bullying, or the death of a family member—can all make a child vulnerable. Many trafficked children come from the foster care system. But sexual abuse is the most common source of vulnerability for sextrafficked children—70 to 90 percent of these children have a history of sexual abuse, according to antitrafficking organization Path2Freedom. Predators ramped up their sexual enticement of minors and the posting of child sexual abuse material as schools closed and kids worked online from home in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, according to National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC). The number of reports of online child sexual abuse materials reported to the NCMEC during the first six months of 2020 surged 90 percent to more than 12 million, the center reported. Reports of predators enticing minors went up 93 percent to more than 13,200. Facebook was used for most (59 percent) of the online recruitment in active sex trafficking cases in 2020, according to the Human Trafficking Institute’s annual trafficking report. That makes Facebook “by far the most frequently referenced website or app in public sources connected with these prosecutions, which was also true in 2019,” the report found. In June, the Texas Supreme Court ruled that Facebook could be held liable if sex traffickers use the platform to prey on children, arguing the social media website isn’t a “lawless noman’s-land.” The ruling was made following three Houston-area lawsuits involving teenage trafficking victims who alleged that they met their abusers through Facebook’s messaging service. Pros-
ecutors also said that Facebook was negligent by not doing more to block sex traffickers from using the site. The court said the victims can move forward with their lawsuits against Facebook. They claimed that the company violated the Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code, which was approved in 2009. Toney-Butler said the income traffickers can make from one victim can be close to $400,000 a year, and survivors have reported being forced to have sex more than 20 times a day while being six to seven months pregnant. And once a woman is over 18, she’s often seen by society as “a drug-addicted prostitute” rather than a victim of sex trafficking, she said. A child, after being pulled into sex trafficking, “only lives for seven years before they succumb to the environment,” Toney-Butler said. Suicide, drug overdose, and violence are often the killers.
FOR HELP The National Human Trafficking Hotline is confidential, tollfree, and available 24/7 in more than 200 languages. Call: 1-888-3737888 Text: “Help” or “Info” to 233733 Chat: humantraffickinghotline.org
The Future Now 41, Helm is hopeful. Aside from looking after her children, she’s a fierce advocate and mentor to other survivors and a consultant to organizations and politicians to ensure laws and programs are victim-centered. “Helping others is the ultimate payback. That I didn’t completely break forever. I’ve been broken and I have repaired myself stronger,” she said. She referred to the old Japanese art form called kintsukuroi, or “to repair with gold,” which is the practice of repairing broken ceramics with gold, making them stronger and more beautiful than before. “And I definitely kind of view myself as that, in the fact that I can turn around and leverage this pain into purpose and help others—that’s the ultimate thing for me, to be able to be strong enough to go out and help others, help them change their lives, help them recover their lives and recover their power.”
Teresa Helm (R) with three other sextrafficking survivors, (L–R) Cathy Hoffman, Sabrina Lopez, and Nissi Hamilton, in Houston on April 24.
I N S I G H T Nov. 26 – Dec. 2, 2021 19
ENERGY
GAS PRICES WHO DID
Global dynamics and administration po rising gas prices as helpful f
20 I N S I G H T Nov. 26 – Dec. 2, 2021
ARE RISING. D THAT?
The Marathon Petroleum Corp.’s Los Angeles Refinery in Carson, Calif., on April 25, 2020. The Biden administration’s $2 trillion spending bill may meet resistance in the Senate, after passing in the House, because of its potential impact on gas prices and energy. PHOTO BY ROBYN BECK/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES
olicies both affect prices, while some see for fighting climate change
✒ Text by Nathan Worcester I N S I G H T Nov. 26 – Dec. 2, 2021 21
In Focus Oil & Gas
Congestion on the 210 freeway between Los Angeles and cities to the east, near Pasadena, Calif., on Dec. 1, 2009. Restrictions on domestic energy production are likely to drive up gas prices.
HE STICKERS ARE a smash hit.
At the top: President Joe Biden, pointing with double finger guns or, in one of several other versions, a single outstretched finger. Underneath him, in bold black text: “I Did That!” or a variation thereof. Slapped on a gas pump next to the digital meter display, the stickers tell a simple, powerful story: Today’s gasoline prices, the highest in years, are courtesy of the commander in chief. Biden, this story goes, has pursued an agenda that undermines U.S. oil and gas production and energy independence, while raising the costs of gasoline and other energy sources: halting construction of the Keystone XL pipeline, pausing oil and gas leasing on public land and water, and suspending oil and gas leases on Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, among other moves. His administration’s $2 trillion spending bill, which was approved in the House on Nov. 19, would, the story goes, further increase energy costs by blocking new offshore drilling along the Pacific and Atlantic coasts and in the Gulf of
22 I N S I G H T Nov. 26 – Dec. 2, 2021
Mexico, imposing a new methane emissions fee on oil and natural gas firms, and implementing other measures that might interfere with domestic mineral and hydrocarbon production. The spending bill still needs to pass the Senate, where Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) has vowed it will “meet a buzz saw of resistance,” in large part because of its potential impact on gas prices and energy in general. But is the story true? Is Biden really to blame for high gas prices? There’s no question that gasoline is much more expensive than it was before Biden took office. The American Automobile Association (AAA) reports that the average price for regular gasoline in the United States on Nov. 18 was $3.413, as compared with $2.118 a year ago. In October, those prices were as high as they’ve been since September 2014, according to the Energy Information Administration (EIA). In some parts of the country, average gas prices are at or even above $5. In rural Mono County, California, for example, AAA reports that gas is $5.548 a gallon. However, some argue that current trends in gas prices are largely or entirely a function of economic factors over
Further impacting the imbalance is the continued decision from the administration to restrict access to America’s energy supply and cancel important infrastructure projects. Frank Macchiarola, senior vice president, American Petroleum Institute
CLOCKWISE FROM LEFT: DAVID MCNEW/GETTY IMAGES, JACKSON ELLIOTT/THE EPOCH TIMES, JOE RAEDLE/GETTY IMAGES, SHUTTERSTOCK
T
News Analysis
In Focus Oil & Gas which the president has little or no control. Moreover, according to some fact-checkers in the corporate media, the claim that Biden has anything whatsoever to do with rising gas prices is simply “false.” Yet others see the situation differently. Mike Sommers of the American Petroleum Institute (API), an oil and natural gas industry trade group, has argued that Biden administration policies aimed to curtail U.S. energy production are “one of the key factors” behind increasing energy prices. Who, or what, is responsible for rising gas prices—and can we expect gas to get cheaper any time soon?
Sharing the Blame At a recent hearing of the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, Stephen Nalley of the EIA testified about the root causes of increasing U.S. energy prices. Speaking on behalf of his agency, he tied the increase in gasoline prices to the global economic recovery from COVID-19, which raised the demand for crude oil before supply could catch up. Nalley predicted U.S. crude oil production “will grow significantly in 2022 but still not quite reach the record level of 2019.” He went on to predict U.S. gasoline prices will drop “closer to $3 per gallon at the end of this year and continue to gradually decline throughout 2022.” In his written testimony, Nalley stated that historically low U.S. gasoline and diesel inventories may be driving greater demand and profits for refineries. He projected that rising global oil production will make more crude oil available, lowering prices and ultimately reducing the cost of gasoline in the United States. Economist and New York Times columnist Paul Krugman has also emphasized the global scope of gasoline price dynamics, arguing that “Biden has no control” over rising gas prices. Yet as the website Pluralist pointed out, Krugman had asserted in April 2020 that then-President Trump’s actions on oil-producing nations meant he was “desperate to raise oil prices.” Because crude oil prices greatly influence the costs of gasoline, this suggests Krugman believed Trump had some capacity to affect gas prices. Two recent CNN headlines for stories by the same reporter, Julia Horowitz, seem to perfectly capture the motivated reasoning when it comes to gas prices under the current administration: On Nov. 8: “Why Joe Biden can’t do much to ease gas prices.” A week later, on Nov. 19: “Oil prices are finally falling. Thank China and Joe Biden.” Biden, for his part, has taken steps to increase oil production outside the United States, trying and failing to persuade OPEC (with members including Iran and Venezuela) and Russia to boost
A sticker that blames President Joe Biden for rising gasoline prices, at the One9 truckstop in Wildwood, Ga., on Oct. 18.
Gas prices are rising alongside inflation.
their output. On Nov. 17, Biden turned his attention to U.S. energy companies, asking the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to look into potential “illegal conduct” or anti-competitive behavior. The letter drew a rebuke on Twitter from Mike Pompeo, the secretary of state under President Trump, who accused Biden of “gaslighting about gas prices.” The API labeled Biden’s letter a “distraction.” “Further impacting the imbalance is the continued decision from the administration to restrict access to America’s energy supply and cancel important infrastructure projects,” said the API’s Frank Macchiarola, in a comment that apparently referred to the Biden administration’s actions against the Keystone XL pipeline as well as offshore drilling. Yet that same day, shortly before the House’s passage of the $2 trillion spending bill that
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I N S I G H T Nov. 26 – Dec. 2, 2021 23
In Focus Oil & Gas
“By heavily restricting fossil fuel production and transportation, ‘climate policies’ have radically limited the supply of fossil fuel energy on the market.” The Biden administration has pursued an agenda that undermines U.S. oil and gas production, while raising the costs of gasoline and other energy sources.
24 I N S I G H T Nov. 26 – Dec. 2, 2021
Unused pipes prepared for the proposed Keystone XL pipeline outside Gascoyne, N.D., on Oct. 14, 2014. An expert says the Biden administration's halt on construction for the pipeline has contributed to an increase in gas prices.
“Wherever renewables have been ramped up, as in Europe and California, energy prices have soared,” Bryce commented in his written testimony. “So-called ‘climate policies’—fossil fuel elimination policies—bear fundamental responsibility for today’s skyrocketing fuel prices,” energy expert Alex Epstein told The Epoch Times’ “Insight”. “By heavily restricting fossil fuel production and transportation, ‘climate policies’ have radically limited the supply of fossil fuel energy on the market, including its ability to rise quickly in the face of rising demand. Part of the rationale of these ‘climate policies’ was that unreliable solar and wind could replace the fossil fuel energy that ‘climate policies’ destroyed. This never made any sense, and now it is painfully being proven false,” he added. Worryingly, gas prices are rising alongside increased inflation. Mark Thornton, an economist with the Ludwig von Mises Institute, told Insight that government policies restricting domestic energy production can be expected to make gasoline costlier. “Restrictions on supplies will drive up energy prices and contribute to higher consumer prices in general, and this is particularly acute and troubling when the Fed has been printing money like a drunken sailor for a very long time. They, the restrictions, also reduce potential GNP [gross national product] and wages,” he said. Ongoing monetary inflation, Thornton argued, “heats up the economy and oil prices and oil prices translate roughly into higher gasoline prices.”
FROM TOP LEFT: SARAH SILBIGER/GETTY IMAGES, ANDREW BURTON/GETTY IMAGES, MARIO TAMA/GETTY IMAGES
could ban new offshore leasing, and soon after the conclusion of the COP26 climate change summit in Glasgow, the Bureau of Ocean Management held a large offshore land lease sale—after the Nov. 2 election, and with polling suggesting Republicans may sweep the 2022 midterms, the immediate political pressure to deliver cheaper energy may have outweighed all of John Kerry’s rhetoric in Glasgow. Energy expert Robert Bryce, who testified at the same Senate hearing as Nalley, warned that European-style policies aimed at rapidly reducing U.S. use of oil, gas, and coal and increasing its reliance on solar and wind could lead to disastrous financial results for consumers.
Alex Epstein, energy expert
In Focus Oil & Gas
“When government spending and debt explodes and the Fed is printing tons of money in the trillions, higher prices will result and have done so for thousands of years! Then you will soon see politicians and their panderers putting forth scapegoats like oil companies, middlemen, the weather, Middle Easterners, unions, monopolies, etc.”
Gasoline prices above $5 per gallon are displayed at a gas station in Los Angeles on Nov. 15.
Rising on Purpose? When it comes to rising gas prices, Democrats and their allies on the left may be talking out of both sides of their mouths. Economists and other policy experts who are broadly aligned with the president or his party have long argued that the environmental costs of climate change and pollution should be incorporated into gasoline prices. This would necessitate greater costs at the pump. Former Bloomberg Opinion columnist Noah Smith, renowned on the internet for saying the quiet part out loud, exemplifies this view. “America, much like a petrostate, has become politically and socially addicted to low gas prices. The only way to break the addiction is to rapidly transition to electric cars,” Smith wrote on Twitter.
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IN SOME PARTS of the country, average gas prices are at or even above $5. In rural Mono County, California, for example, gas is $5.548 a gallon.
The Biden administration has in fact issued an executive order that aims to ensure “50 percent of all new passenger cars and light trucks sold in 2030 be zero-emission vehicles,” in part by instructing Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg to develop more stringent emissions standards for those and other vehicles. More than half a decade ago, Cass Sunstein, a Harvard Law professor who led the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs under President Barack Obama, argued that Americans should pay both a monthly energy tax and a gasoline tax in order to curb greenhouse gas emissions. Many in this camp may even (quietly) think that today’s high prices are still too low: In 2006, when average U.S. gas prices were on an upswing before reaching a peak of more than $4 per gallon in 2008, Washington & Lee University economist James F. Casey wrote a letter to The Economists’ Voice titled, “Believe It or Not, What We Need Now Are Higher Gas Prices.” It therefore shouldn’t come as a surprise that many current or aspiring future members of the current administration have struggled to sound upset about more expensive fuel. I N S I G H T Nov. 26 – Dec. 2, 2021 25
A petroleum tanker ship passes through the Aransas Channel in Port Aransas, Texas, on May 27, 2020. The Biden administration set a monthly record in October by selling 1.6 million barrels of oil.
“When government spending and debt explodes and the Fed is printing tons of money in the trillions, higher prices will result.” Mark Thornton, economist, Ludwig von Mises Institute
26 I N S I G H T Nov. 26 – Dec. 2, 2021
Just this week, Saule Omarova, Biden’s nominee to lead the key Treasury Department Office of the Comptroller, wavered when Sen. Bill Haggerty (R.-Tenn.) asked her if higher gasoline prices are bad for the United States, reportedly describing his query as a “tricky question.” Omarova had been under fire for a February video in which she said of small oil and gas firms that “we want them to go bankrupt.” On Nov. 12, White House press secretary Jen Psaki claimed that higher gas prices “make it an even stronger case for doubling down our investment and our focus on clean energy options so that we are not relying on the fluctuations and OPEC and their willingness to put more supply and meet the demands in the market.” Perhaps most notoriously, in early November, energy secretary Jennifer Granholm laughed when asked by a Bloomberg reporter about how she intended to increase U.S. oil production. She
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In Focus Oil & Gas
by selling 1.6 million barrels of oil, including multiple tankers destined for Asia. The U.S. Strategic petroleum reserve, which has an authorized storage capacity of 714 million barrels of oil, currently sits at 606.1 million barrels, down from more than 656 million barrels in July 2020.
‘I Didn’t Do That’
CLOCKWISE FROM LEFT: TOM PENNINGTON/GETTY IMAGES, APU GOMES/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES, SHUTTERSTOCK
Thorntons said that government policies restricting domestic energy production can be expected to make gasoline costlier. then told the reporter that oil “is controlled by a cartel,” OPEC. American shale producer Occidental Petroleum has told CNBC that the administration should have asked domestic firms to boost production rather than turning to OPEC. Nalley, of the EIA, noted that “our refineries have historically been designed to work well with the heavy oil available in international markets,” meaning that “instead of displacing imports, our increased production has tended to be exported.” Even as the Biden administration has unsuccessfully pressured foreign countries to produce more oil and urged the FTC to crack down on U.S. producers, it has opted to sell large quantities of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. According to reporting from Bloomberg, the administration set a monthly record in October
It wouldn’t be right to pin all the global factors behind rising gas prices on Biden. Yet any explanation that ignores his administration’s policies on oil, gas, and other hydrocarbons— or pretends that many Democrats do not, in fact, think that gas prices must rise to dizzying new heights—would also be incomplete. After all, if high demand and low supply on the global oil market have affected U.S. gasoline prices, surely constraints on U.S. oil production, such as the current administration’s freeze on oil and gas leasing on federal lands or the proposed offshore drilling ban in the House version of the spending bill, can also be expected to have an impact. While Democratic politicians may not admit that they want to make gasoline expensive again, their actions while in power show that pricier fossil fuels are a feature, not a bug. If the EIA is right, gas prices should soon fall, and Americans will experience some relief, at least in the short run. Yet everyday consumers may need to steel themselves for more pain at the pump in the years to come. The viral “I Did That!” stickers might need to be rewritten—this time in fluent D.C. swampspeak: “I Didn’t Do That—But I’m Glad It’s Happening.”
Oil pumpjacks at Willow Springs Park in Long Beach, Calif., on April 21, 2020. I N S I G H T Nov. 26 – Dec. 2, 2021 27
S U C O F NI AGAINST BREXIT Border Communities Against Brexit protesters dressed as customs officials man an unofficial border checkpoint on the Irish border as they take part in a demonstration in Newry, Northern Ireland, on Nov. 20, 2021. The protest was in response to fears that the UK government will trigger Article 16, which could see a return to a so-called hard border on the island of Ireland. PHOTO BY CHARLES MCQUILLAN/GETTY IMAGES
28 I N S I G H T Nov. 26 – Dec. 2, 2021
I N S I G H T Nov. 26 – Dec. 2, 2021 29
C A RT E L S
OREGON PLEADS FOR FEDERAL HELP TO FIGHT CARTELS Marijuana production in southern Oregon fueling narco slavery, torture, and executions
OOTING OUT THE international drug cartels and narco slavery associated with illegal marijuana production in southern Oregon will require “all hands on deck,” according to law enforcement and elected leaders who participated in a Nov. 10 roundtable convened by Rep. Cliff Bentz (R-Ore.) in Medford, Oregon. Inadequate regulation, open borders, and the lure of boundless amounts of cash are contributing to a wild-west atmosphere in the predominantly rural areas, participants reported. “There’s a lot of frustration and a lot of fear, and a lot of people are getting hurt,” Bentz said during the meeting. “We need to get in here and do something about it.” Already, Jackson County has declared a state of emergency as cartels have stolen water, intimidated residents,
30 I N S I G H T Nov. 26 – Dec. 2, 2021
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and enslaved more than 10,000 illegal immigrants, who are reportedly pressed into service under threats to their lives or those of their families back home.. Worse yet are emerging allegations that some people have been tortured and others executed. “This is a humanitarian disaster taking place in plain sight,” Bentz said. “People just can’t ignore it.” Bentz called the meeting in his home district just days after writing to Attorney General Merrick Garland to ask for federal help. In that letter, provided to Insight, the congressman asked the attorney general to direct the FBI and DEA to provide additional resources to Jackson, Josephine, Douglas, and Klamath counties in Oregon. Specifically, he requested teams of up to 20 people be sent to each. Already the request has drawn the attention of the Department of Homeland
CLOCKWISE FROM LEFT: COURTESY OF JOSEPHINE COUNTY SHERIFF'S OFFICE, PUBLIC DOMAIN, COURTESY OF JOSEPHINE COUNTY SHERIFF’S OFFICE, CHARLOTTE CUTHBERTSON/THE EPOCH TIMES, SHUTTERSTOCK
R
By Scottie Barnes
International criminal organizations are illegally growing marijuana on an industrial scale in southern Oregon.
Trafficking Law Enforcement
“There’s a lot of frustration and a lot of fear, and a lot of people are getting hurt.” Rep. Cliff Bentz
Security, which is planning a fact-finding trip in late November. “They stand ready to do whatever they can as fast as they can,” Bentz said. He sat down with local leaders to get more details about what they need in a region under siege. “We brought this issue to the nation’s attention very quickly. Now what do you need us to do?” he asked participants, including Jackson County Sheriff Nathan Sickler, Medford Mayor Randy Sparacino, Jackson County Commissioner Rick Dyer, and state Reps. Kim Wallan and Lily Morgan. “We need federal help, and we can’t wait for next year,” Morgan said. Rather than just cultivating from May to October—the prime growing season for outdoor cannabis—growers now operate year-round, producing three or four harvests each year, she said, and law enforcement is overwhelmed. Morgan said the FBI needs to help local law enforcement investigate financial connections, along with human trafficking and involuntary servitude. The U.S. Department of Agriculture needs to regulate hemp-derived intoxicants such as CBD, she said. That would require revisions to the 2018 farm bill, which allows for the legal production of hemp but doesn’t include adequate enforcement or regulation. “Oregon has issued hemp licenses since 2015, but there wasn’t an inspector on the ground until 2020,” Morgan said. “The [bill] legalizing the production of hemp did not contemplate intoxicating hemp products entering the general marketplace.”
Squalid conditions at an illegal marijuana farm. International criminal cartels are using legal hemp farm operations as cover for growing illegal marijuana. Oregon Health Authority reports that nearly half of the registered hemp farms inspected in the state are doing so. “Many operations will intersperse the marijuana plants in a field of hemp,” Josephine County Sheriff Dave Daniel told Insight. “When the grow is done, they harvest the illegal marijuana and let the hemp rot.” R EGISTER ED HEMP FAR MS won’t
allow state inspectors in, and there’s nothing law enforcement can do. Roundtable participants also urged the federal government to follow the money. “We have violence related to the transfer of money,” Morgan said. “We’ve seized millions of dollars in cash and it’s not taxed or accounted for, and that’s just the money we’ve seized,” said Sickler, who suggested that the “IRS find out where these millions of dollars are going.” As a “critical drug-trafficking region,” Oregon also needs the “aggressive enforcement” activities provided under the federal High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas (HIDTA) program, Morgan said. That program enables partnerships between local law enforcement and federal drug enforcement. It’s already proven its worth in southern Oregon. An Aug. 17 collaboration with HIDTA led to a large raid in which about 250 law enforcement officers from more than a dozen state, local, and federal agencies served a search warrant at a suspected grow. That search uncovered approximately 200,000
plants in 400 greenhouses, spread across 1,300 acres. It also revealed the extent of narco slavery, with nearly 300 workers living in squalid conditions on-site. “With that kind of help, we can get a handle on this problem, but it will take a while,” said Daniel, who spearheaded the investigation. “We also need the U.S. Attorney on board,” Sickler said. “We can arrest as many people as we want, but if there’s no prosecution, it doesn’t matter.” The complex situation requires triage, according to Dyer. “Nobody has any illusions that we’ll completely eradicate this problem in a year,” he said. “But we can start to make a difference.” Meanwhile, the group will continue to press the state of Oregon for more resources. The governor’s office is already considering taking action during a February special session. “We can’t wait for February,” said Sparacino. “We’ve already kicked this can down the road for too long.”
Nearly half of the registered hemp farms inspected in Oregon were growing illegal marijuana. I N S I G H T Nov. 26 – Dec. 2, 2021 31
A Bank of America branch in Washington. The corporation has restricted employees who haven't disclosed their status as vaccinated to working on a separate floor. PHOTO BY BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/ AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES
32 I N S I G H T Nov. 26 – Dec. 2, 2021
Nation Vaccine Mandates
B A N K OF A M E R ICA
PROGR AM SEPAR ATES
VACCINATED FROM UNVACCINATED EMPLOY EES
ETHAN MILLER/GETTY IMAGES
By Matt McGregor bank of america reportedly has begun a pilot program that aims to separate vaccinated from unvaccinated employees at an administration building in Jacksonville, Florida, according to a person who works with the bank. The program, which began on Nov. 18, was initiated as a way to bring employees back to the office after a period of working remotely during the pandemic, the person—who spoke on condition of anonymity—told The Epoch Times’ “Insight”. But the plan casts a dark shadow on our potential future society, the source said. “It’s segregation,” they said. “I’m blown away.”
Shifts in Work Culture Employees have trickled back to their abandoned offices this year at varying rates amid a multitude of experimen-
SEPAR ATE FLOOR FOR UNVACCINATED AND THOSE WHO DON'T DISCLOSE VACCINATION STATUS
tal corporate policies, after the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus led to a worldwide work-from-home culture. With the wider availability of vaccines, people began taking off their masks, and workplace policies became less restrictive. Then fears over the Delta variant sent many back home and became the platform on which President Joe Biden announced his vaccine mandate policy in September, when he directed the Department of Labor to develop a rule requiring all employers with 100 or more workers to get vaccinated by Jan. 4, 2022, or require unvaccinated employees to be tested weekly. On Nov. 12, a U.S. appeals court rejected a challenge by the Biden administration and reasserted its decision to halt Biden’s order. However, many businesses have initiated their own vaccination deadlines and policies I N S I G H T Nov. 26 – Dec. 2, 2021 33
Nation Vaccine Mandates
A branch of Bank of America in Lower Manhattan. A source says that access for the unvaccinated will be monitored “to make sure they are kept in containment.”
Bank of America plans to prioritize the vaccinated when bringing employees back to the office.
The unvaccinated will be stripped of their access and given access only to one floor, with offices and a restroom, but they can’t go anywhere else.
‘Essentially, They’re Discriminating’
Source
At Bank of America, vaccinated workers had already been returning to their offices. But while the corporation hasn’t implemented a vaccine mandate overall, those who haven’t disclosed their vaccinated status, or have disclosed their status as unvaccinated, will only be allowed to return to work on a separate floor, the person said.
“But I can’t partake in this,” the person said, acknowledging that they may be fired or have to quit. “I’m not quiet and I don’t keep my mouth shut. I’m not going to partake in this program they are rolling out.” Bank of America has described itself on its website as having a “diverse and inclusive workplace.”
34 I N S I G H T Nov. 26 – Dec. 2, 2021
“We firmly believe all employees should be treated with respect, live free of discrimination, and be able to bring their whole selves to work,” its website states. “This is the core to who we are as a company and how we drive responsible growth.” “So you’re inclusive of all people, but not the unvaccinated?” the person said. “No, you’re just blatantly hypocritical.”
Bank of America’s Response In response to statements by the source, a Bank of America spokesperson told Insight that, relying on CDC guidance, the bank plans to prioritize the vaccinated when bringing employees back to the office. A spokesman noted that “the company is now taking the next step forward and beginning to return a limited number of teammates who have either not disclosed their status or are unvaccinated. These teammates will work in an environment where our health and safety protocols are aligned to the latest guidance from the CDC and other medical experts. “They will be required to use face coverings at all times, maintain physical distancing, and test weekly.” The company said that with a pandemic underway, there are going to be added measures the company must take on behalf of its employees to ensure their safety.
THIS PAGE FROM TOP: STAN HONDA/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES, NATHAN HOWARD/GETTY IMAGES
as lawsuits have piled up against the Biden administration regarding the mandates. While some businesses have chosen to mandate vaccines, leading to mass firings and resignations, others have not, leading to policies that require weekly testing and division that has appeared to some evocative of medical segregation.
“The unvaccinated will be stripped of their access and given access only to one floor, with offices and a restroom, but they can’t go anywhere else,” the person said. “Essentially, they’re discriminating.” The source was told that the program was designed so the bank could gain feedback from employees. Meanwhile, access for the unvaccinated will be monitored “to make sure they are kept in containment, so to speak,” the person said.
CONSUMER PRICES
Consumers Feeling
Focus Supply Chain
The Pain of Inflation This Thanksgiving Rising prices for food and gas, together with shortages brought about by the supply chain crisis, are casting a pall over many gatherings By Allan Stein
PHOTO BY H. ARMSTRONG ROBERTS/RETROFILE/GETTY IMAGES
I N S I G H T Nov. 26 – Dec. 2, 2021 35
In Focus Rising Costs
O
n t he v erge of c e l e b r at i n g t h a nksgi v ing
w i t h h e r fa m i ly , m e l i s s a n g o wa s n ’ t h a p p y a f t e r h e r g r o c e r y s h o p p i n g t r i p. t h e h i g h p r i c e o f g a s o l i n e h a s c u t i n t o h e r fa m i ly ’ s b u d g e t for ev ery t h i ng, sh e sa i d. SHE’S NOW HAVING TO shop at three different
36 I N S I G H T Nov. 26 – Dec. 2, 2021
Local Market in the South Shore neighborhood in Chicago on Nov. 23. year,” Ellison said. “Now, we’re always penny-pinching. “Working a 40-hour workweek doesn’t keep your head above water anymore. Everything has gotten higher in price—food, gas, and utilities. And it’s not getting any better.” Van Houten noted that the couple have been depending on each other to get through such a difficult time. “If we didn’t have each other, we couldn’t survive,” he said. In addition to purchasing a smaller turkey this year, they’ve eliminated deviled eggs and potatoes from their Thanksgiving meal.
14%
THE COST OF
a celebratory dinner has increased by 14 percent in the past year, according to an annual Thanksgiving meal survey.
FROM TOP LEFT: CSA IMAGES/GETTY IMAGES, CARA DING/THE EPOCH TIMES, MICHAEL SAKAL/THE EPOCH TIMES, JACKSON ELLIOTT-THE EPOCH TIMES
grocery stores—Giant Eagle, Marc’s, and Aldi—to find the lowest prices. “It’s everything,” said Ngo, a resident of Lakewood, Ohio, whose husband works as a dye-maker in Cleveland. “Everything has gone up, not just gas. The main thing I’ve noticed at the grocery store that has gone up in price [is] U.S. meat. It’s about double from last year. “We’re a one-worker family, and we’re always having to juggle. Now, we’re juggling more.” She blames the situation Americans have been facing for more than a year on such things as the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus pandemic, supply chain issues, and even the president she voted for. As a resident of the west Cleveland suburb and Democratic stronghold, Ngo is quick to admit that she’s sorry she voted for President Joe Biden in the 2020 election. She usually votes Democrat. She said she may not vote in the next election. For Allen van Houten and Kathy Ellison of Lakewood, things have always been tight. Going into the 2021 holiday season, their budget is tighter still. Van Houten, an Army and Navy veteran on disability, and Ellison, who works as a cook at a local restaurant, had just finished shopping at the Giant Eagle. Because of the skyrocketing price of gasoline and the higher food prices, they hardly go “anywhere” anymore, they said. They’re doing without as they prepare to spend Thanksgiving together. “We’re penny-pinching a lot more from last
In Focus Rising Costs
“WE’RE GOING TO three different grocery stores
because we’re having trouble finding stuff,” Ellison told The Epoch Times’ “Insight”. “We’re looking at pies at Giant Eagle that used to be on sale for $3.99. Now, they’re $5.99. We’d like to get a Dutch Apple pie, but those are $13.99. Sometimes, the supplier takes advantage of these situations, too.” The couple blames the situation on the high prices of gas and food, the workforce shortage, and the government. Van Houten and Ellison said they don’t vote. “The government is going to do whatever they want anyway,” Van Houten said. Kathy, also of Lakewood, who didn’t want to give her last name, was more sympathetic toward those facing hard times going into Thanksgiving. She had just loaded a cart full of groceries into her car outside of the Giant Eagle. Although she has seen at least a 20-percent increase in her grocery bill from 2020, she said her family won’t have to cut back. “We’ve been lucky. We’ve been blessed and have been able to work and stay comfortable through all of this,” Kathy told Insight. Although she said she’s happy with Biden, since she “didn’t like Donald Trump,” she noted that she feels as though the president could be doing more to help ease the situation.
“We’re a one-worker family, and we’re always having to juggle. Now, we’re juggling more.” Melissa Ngo, homemaker, Lakewood, Ohio
“SEVERAL FACTORS CONTRIBUTED to the in-
“I’M NOT HAPPY with everything Joe Biden has
done,” Kathy said. “The U.S. is not tapping into its resources, and we’re having to rely on foreign countries too much for certain goods. “I don’t want to have to pay more for everything. Our salaries are not commensurate with inflation. With all the high prices, it does make me and my husband want to give more to charity to help others who are struggling.” In Florida, two large grocery chains—Publix and Winn-Dixie—are limiting certain holiday foods during Thanksgiving week. Publix Director of Communications Maria Brous released a statement saying that “caps” are being placed on certain food items because of “supply chain issues” and increased demand. Last week, the Lakeland company, which has 1,280 stores across the southeastern United States, placed the restrictions in anticipation of the demand and supply chain crisis, according to Brous. Another grocery outlet, Winn-Dixie, has placed a cap of one turkey per customer. Southeastern Grocers, a Jacksonville, Florida, company, owns Winn-Dixie, as well as Fresco y Mas and Harveys Supermarket. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis weighed in on the rising cost of food and said he’s concerned about “inflationary pressures,” for which he blames the Biden administration.
“Inflation that you’re seeing—the White House said it wasn’t real. It’s real,” DeSantis said on Nov. 22. “This is going to be the most expensive Thanksgiving we’ve seen in quite some time. Prices have increased by 20 percent from last year.” Since 1986, the American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF) has conducted a Thanksgiving meal survey. The 2021 survey found that a meal for 10 people was expected to cost $53.31–up 14 percent from the 2020 average. The federation checked prices between Oct. 26 and Nov. 8 and noted that stores began selling whole frozen turkeys at a lower price two weeks later. As the meat protein most associated with Thanksgiving, the turkey is going to cost consumers 24 percent more than it did in 2020. The AFBF estimates that a 16-pound turkey will cost $23.99, or roughly $1.50 per pound more than 2020. The survey also found that the costs of other holiday goods were up as well, including dinner rolls—a 15 percent increase—while a 30-ounce can of pumpkin pie mix is up by 7 percent.
“I spent $300 on stuff that I should not have to spend $300 on.” Charnita West, single mom, Rossville, Ga.
crease in average cost of this year’s Thanksgiving dinner,” senior economist Veronica Nigh said in a statement on the AFBF website. “These include dramatic disruptions to the U.S. economy and supply chains over the last 20 months; inflationary pressure throughout the economy; difficulty in predicting demand during the COVID-19 pandemic and high global demand for food, particularly meat. “The trend of consumers cooking and eating at home more often, due to the pandemic, led to increased supermarket demand and higher retail food prices in 2020 and 2021, compared to pre-pandemic prices in 2019.” Outside of the Winn-Dixie in Punta Gorda, Florida, Diane Crowi said food prices are definitely going up. “Our kids are all grown up, and they live out of the area, so we don’t celebrate like we used to. But, yes, things are more expensive this year than last year,” Crowi said. “We’re retired—I mean, we have Thanksgiving, just on a smaller scale. You just have to absorb the costs.” Along with increasing food costs, the price of gasoline has significantly risen as well, she said. “Gas prices are ridiculous,” Crowi said. “We just have to shift things around to afford what we have on our fixed income. We just cut down on our trips. We don’t drive as much to save fuel. “If I have to blame anyone, it would be our president—but I’m a Trump fan, so ...” Winn-Dixie shopper Crystal Hunsicker of Punta Gorda said Thanksgiving is “definitely more expensive this year than last year.” I N S I G H T Nov. 26 – Dec. 2, 2021 37
POTATOES: +1.7%
POULTRY: +7.5%
FRESH VEGETABLES: +2.7%
RISING THIS THA
CANNED FRUITS: +2.9%
PHOTO BY LAURIPATTERSON/GETTY IMAGES
38 I N S I G H T Nov. 26 – Dec. 2, 2021
FROZEN VEGETABLES: -0.3%
Other Products
CANNED VEGETABLES: +6.6% COFFEE: +4.7% SUGAR: +5.2%
SALT: +4.9%
BUTTER: +0.9%
PIE: +4.1%
SOUPS: +3.2% BEEF: +20.1% HAM: +7.1% EGGS: +11.6% FRESH WHOLE MILK: +5.8% SALAD DRESSING: +7.7% PREPARED SALADS: +6.8%
PERCENTAGE INCREASE OCT. 2020–OCT. 2021 SOURCE: U.S. BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS
WINE: +0.4%
G COSTS NKSGIVING BREAD: +2.3%
GRAVY: +1.8%
I N S I G H T Nov. 26 – Dec. 2, 2021 39
In Focus Rising Costs
In the Midwest, the average cost of gas at the pumps was $3.19, an increase of $1.28. On the West Coast, however, gas is currently trending at $4.19 for an increase of $1.42 compared to 2020. “IT AFFECTS US, but what are you going to do?”
40 I N S I G H T Nov. 26 – Dec. 2, 2021
“I FEAR FOR THE OTHER PEOPLE,” he told In-
sight. “They’ve got children and are trying to raise them.” Weathers, a Republican who voted for Trump in 2020, said he didn’t want to say whether Trump or Biden was responsible for the inflation. Once a Democrat, he said he left the party because it offered handouts in an irresponsible way. “The Democratic Party is not what it was 20 years ago,” he said. Political independent Edward Garrett agreed with Weathers and West about the rising prices that were changing his budget. “Everything impacts the budget,” he said. “You just got to make it happen. You got to do what you got to do. Just squeeze and tighten what you can.” Garrett blamed the Trump administration for the inflation issues. He said the effects of a president’s policies usually hit months after the person leaves office. “It is what it is,” he told Insight. “You’ve got to take the bitter with the sweet.” Long-time grocer Jeff Durecka, who owns a couple of supermarkets known as Jeff’s Marketplace in the “Thumb Area” of Michigan, said the supply chain issues aren’t affecting him much.
Susie Lentz of Lexington, Michigan had no trouble getting everything she needed for Thanksgiving dinner at Jeff's Marketplace in Lexington on Nov. 23, 2021. At Jeff’s Marketplace, meat department manager Jed Matthews said his department was only short on “turkey gizzards” on Nov. 23.
CLOCKWISE FROM LEFT: STEVEN KOVAC/THE EPOCH TIMES, STEVEN KOVAC/THE EPOCH TIMES, SHUTTERSTOCK
Hunsicker said. “You just deal with it. “Yes, gas is expensive, and we were energy independent before Biden took office. It takes $100 just to fill up my tank. There’s nothing I can do to save any money on fuel. I have to work, so I have to have gas.” Hunsicker said she voted for Trump in 2020 and identifies as a Republican. “I blame Biden for all of this. Trump’s policies were working, and [Biden] gets into office and destroys everything Trump put into place.” Charnita West, a single mom, looked cold in the parking lot of the Food City grocery store in Rossville, Georgia, on Nov. 23. In 2021, feeding her three children a Thanksgiving dinner has been more expensive than usual, she said. “I spent $300 on stuff that I should not have to spend $300 on,” West said. Her shopping wasn’t over with, either. The previous night, she had spent three hours at Walmart looking for some items, but couldn’t find everything that she needed. “I can’t even find ham. It took a lot of digging to find ham,” West told Insight. For West, spending $80 on groceries is a lot, and rising gas and food prices have hurt her family, she said. West said she’s heard that food inflation was caused by the Biden administration, but she admitted that she knows little about politics. She’s
currently working on getting her high school diploma. “I don’t pay much attention to presidential stuff,” she said. “I’m just trying to do better or get my daughters a better life.” Another Thanksgiving shopper, Don Weathers, said that prices on everything have risen. “I don’t know what it is,” he said. “The beef has gone up. Turkeys and ham, pork, and everything else.” Weathers said the situation has affected his family little because his children are adults, but he feels concerned about others.
In Focus Rising Costs
“If we are short on a certain brand, we have substitutes,” Durecka, a Democrat and a strong supporter of Joe Biden in 2020. “It’s not affecting us much. As you can see, we are pretty well stocked for Thanksgiving. “Wholesale prices are going up because of the cost of fuel. It takes fuel to get product to the warehouses and then to the stores. There’s really nothing we can do about it.” Durecka speculated that the rise in food and fuel prices may have something to do with the different administration in Washington. Shopper Dean Rydock of Port Sanilac, Michigan, had no doubt that Biden was to blame. “EVERYTHING TRUMP DID made our living
“Food is definitely more expensive than last year. I suppose the pandemic has a lot to do with it. Less stuff being shipped. ” Susie Lentz, retiree, Lexington, Mich.
easier and better,” he said. “Biden is acting like Trump’s policies are the cause of all this and is doing whatever he can to counteract them. Food and gas prices are way up. It looks to me like decisions are being made to deliberately bring our economy down, so we will all eventually look to the government for help.” Rydock, a conservative Republican, “most definitely voted for the non-politician Trump and his pro-American agenda.” “I’m driving 100 miles to have Thanksgiving with my daughter,” he said. “The high price of gasoline is starting to pinch. And we really have to mind our heating expenses with propane going up. I’m starting to burn wood, and even that is getting costly.” Shopper Susie Lentz, a retired resident living in the village of Lexington, Michigan, is a regular customer at Jeff’s. “Food is definitely more expensive than last year,” she said. “I suppose the pandemic has a lot to do with it. Less stuff being shipped. But I am finding everything I want for Thanksgiving.” Lentz, a self-described independent voter, said that if she were still working and having to drive more, the high gas prices would be “putting a dent” in her budget. “I think the current political policies are affecting the economy in a negative way,” she told Insight. WHEN ASKED WHETHER Jeff’s Marketplace had
$1.50 d e r a p m oc ,d n u o p
E KY R U T d e p m u j sa h OnNo yb r ep
vovo ot .s e c i r p
enough meat and turkeys for the Thanksgiving holiday, butcher Jed Matthews said: “The only thing that has been hard to get is turkey gizzards sold separately. People love to add them to their stuffing.” Insight also spoke with a number of shoppers at Local Market in the South Shore neighborhood on the South Side of Chicago. The neighborhood is predominately African American and has a median household income that is almost half
of the city average. Ruth Shannon said that she used to help local nonprofit New Life Center give away turkeys during the Thanksgiving holiday every year, but not this time. The center decided to cancel the giveaway in 2021 because of the high prices, she said. Shannon said she used to spend less than $100 on gas every month. Now, as prices rise, she spends around $200. “I KNOW WHERE I GO. I’m more strategic with
how I travel for sure,” she told Insight. Shannon said she thinks that inflation is the unintended consequence of massive government spending during the pandemic. “It was a lot of money over a fairly short period of time. They could have stretched it out,” she said. “Lawmakers have to be more intentional about the policies they create.” A lot of people in her neighborhood received stimulus checks during the pandemic, but they didn’t know how to spend the money in the right way, according to Shannon. “It is one thing to have money. It’s a whole other thing to know what to do with it,” she said. “Everybody was happy when they got the stimulus checks. Now, the money’s gone and prices are up. What do they do?” Shannon hasn’t voted for most of her life. Her community has remained the same whether a Democrat or Republican was in office, she said. “I do whatever I can to volunteer in the community,” she said. “That is my voting.” Beverly, who declined to give her last name, was another shopper at Local Market. She said the rising food prices have further limited her grocery shopping because she lives on fixed government aid. She lost her daycare job at the start of the pandemic. She has since gone on food stamps and unemployment aid. Because the gas prices are much higher in Illinois, she drives to Indiana whenever she needs to fill up. A few other shoppers told Insight that they, too, drive to Indiana for gas. And across the United States, gas and diesel prices continue to be on the rise. According to the Energy Information Administration, the cost of a gallon of regular gasoline on the East Coast was $3.39 on Nov. 22—up by about $1.29 from the same time in 2020. In the Midwest, the average cost of gas at the pumps was $3.19, an increase of $1.28. On the West Coast, however, gas is currently at $4.19, an increase of $1.42 compared to 2020. Cara Ding, Steven Kovac, Jackson Elliott, Michael Sakal, and Jannis Falkenstern contributed to this report. I N S I G H T Nov. 26 – Dec. 2, 2021 41
IN FOCUS FRENCH SPIDERMAN French urban climber Alain Robert, also known as the “French Spiderman,” climbs up the 500-foot-high SKYPER Tower building in Frankfurt am Main, Germany, on Nov. 23. Robert has climbed more than 100 skyscrapers around the world, including the tallest building in the world, the Burj Khalifa in Dubai. PHOTO BY THOMAS LOHNES/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES
42 I N S I G H T Nov. 26 – Dec. 2, 2021
P OL I T IC S • E C ONOM Y • OPI N ION T H AT M AT T E R S
Perspectives
Issue. 07
The Christopher Columbus Memorial Fountain overlooks the U.S. Capitol in Washington on Jan. 2, 2020. SAMIRA BOUAOU/THE EPOCH TIMES
Beijing Reacts to US Effort to Counter China Threat The Chinese regime is pressuring American companies to lobby against a bill that threatens Beijing’s economic ambitions. 47
✒
WILL THE NYT AND WP RETURN THEIR 2018 PULITZERS? 44
BEIJING EXPLOITS UN SYSTEM 45
A SURGE IN STOCK OFFERINGS 46
OPEC IS NOT THE SOLUTION 48
I N S I G H T Nov. 26 – Dec. 2, 2021 43
ROGER L. SIMON is an award-winning novelist, Oscar-nominated screenwriter, co-founder of PJMedia, and now, editorat-large for The Epoch Times.
Roger Simon
Will the NYT and WP Return Their 2018 Pulitzers? To what degree did these publications know they were lying at the time?
T
o anyone paying the slightest attention to the indictments so far resulting from John Durham’s investigation, the still-posted announcement of the 2018 Pulitzer Prize awards in national reporting to the staffs of The New York Times and The Washington Post now reads like an entry from the Babylon Bee: “For deeply sourced, relentlessly reported coverage in the public interest that dramatically furthered the nation’s understanding of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election and its connections to the Trump campaign, the President-elect’s transition team and his eventual administration.” At the link, the Pulitzer Committee lists some of the “deeply sourced, relentlessly reported” (well, it might have been the latter) articles they had in mind. Some of the more amusing and Bee-like in retrospect are “Emails Disclose Trump Son’s Glee at Russian Offer” (New York Times) and “Trump reveals secret intelligence to Russians” (Washington Post). More ominous, less funny, and more than slightly disreputable, considering what we know now, is “White House received warning about Flynn” (Washington Post). At the link, you can read the list of reporters who received the prize as well as the “distinguished journalists” who made the award, so I will skip over that, except to say the frequent unabashed appearances of many of these reporters on Twitter are one of the reasons I left that site some time ago. It nauseated me to see them on there, pontificating. There’s only so much self-deception you can tolerate. Consequently, the question that most interests me is to what degree these people knew they were lying at the time? Were they merely victims
44 I N S I G H T Nov. 26 – Dec. 2, 2021
of extreme Trump Derangement Syndrome? Did they believe the ends, in this instance, justified the means? They allowed themselves to be conduits for lies. Did they ask serious questions? “Informants,” almost always anonymous, were telling them things. (Collecting those anonymous informants has been the stock and trade of establishment journalists since Watergate.)
No paper should ever be considered the ‘newspaper of record’ or anything close. The most obvious conclusion is that they wanted to believe the lies they were hearing, so they didn’t question them. To be blunt, they were lousy reporters and remain so because, most of them, all to my knowledge on the linked list, have not publicly acknowledged their faults. One way, perhaps the best way, would be to return their Pulitzers. They have not done so. Are we supposed to believe anything else they say? In light of the Igor Danchenko indictment, The Washington Post has at least corrected two stories. “The Washington Post on Friday took the unusual step of correcting and removing large portions of two articles, published in March 2017 and February 2019, that had identified a Belarusian American businessman as a key source of the ‘Steele dossier,’ a collection of largely unverified reports that claimed the Russian government had compromising information about then-candidate Donald Trump,” a Washington Post article reads. “Largely unverified” is putting it mildly. The dossier has been revealed as a collection of scurrilous lies insti-
gated by Hillary Clinton campaign associates, a political dirty trick unprecedented in modern American history that borders on, or crosses over into, the treasonous. Nevertheless, the Post did something to acknowledge they had a problem. They also published an opinion article by Erik Temple that excoriates multiple media outlets, including MSNBC host Rachel Maddow, in light of the Durham investigation. The NY Times has done little more than mutter in editorials. This is not new for the one-time newspaper of record that so many still inexplicably believe without question. If it seems as if I’m picking on the NY Times (which I once wrote for), it’s because I am. They have too much power, too much monopolization of the information flow. No paper should ever be considered the “newspaper of record” or anything close. That’s no way to run a democracy, a democratic republic, or a constitutional republic. It more resembles a subtler version of Pravda and Izvestia of the Soviet era. And yet the networks and many other outlets, including the supposedly all-powerful social media, still trot along behind the NY Times like seven dwarfs behind Snow White. This is how Trump’s “fake news” happens. But in all honesty, I never liked the term “fake news,” popular as it is. It’s too weak. What we’re surrounded by is more than fake. It’s the quite deliberate manipulation of information in order to brainwash the public. And it has been quite successful, alas. Nevertheless, the 2018 Pulitzer Prizes now look ludicrous. That’s a good start in beginning to do away with this propaganda. Better would be for the reporters at the two papers to return their Pulitzers. (As Joseph Welch would put it, “Have you no shame?”) Better still would be putting an end to the Pulitzers themselves.
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
Beijing Exploits UN System Increasing illiberal influence globally through small donations
B
eijing expertly leverages international organizations to maximize the regime’s growing influence, according to a new study. The regime’s financial contributions to these organizations are small, segregated, and targeted for maximum advantage. Yet the Beijing regime seeks to portray itself as a responsible member of the international community. Even as it commits multiple genocides, according to the U.N. definition, and threatens war against the United States and allies, Beijing exploits democratic voting structures in international organizations while denying those structures to its own citizens. Analysis of a new report released by the Center for Global Development (CGD) reveals that China’s contributions are tightly controlled, segregated from dilution by the far larger and less strategic donations of global democracies, and leveraged for maximum advantage to itself, rather than to the broader goals of the international community. While the U.N. system supposedly seeks to promote human rights and democracy, Beijing instead uses it to deny sovereignty to democratic Taiwan, along with other illiberal goals under cover of “peace and development.” Peace for Beijing means continuing human rights abuse and the taking of territory from its neighbors without provoking self-defense by the world’s democracies. Development means increasing China’s own economic power, especially at the expense of its major geopolitical competitors, the United States, Europe, Japan, and India. As noted by the CGD authors, China “has become a top donor to multilateral institutions and funds devoted to infrastructure and agriculture but its contributions to funds focused on public goods like climate and global health remain disproportionately low.” China is the world’s second-largest
economy, but typically ranks 10th to 30th in funding of multilateral institutions. Beijing has an increasing voting share in these organizations, but it often earmarks contributions to allow the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to use its “donations” and loans for global influence operations or export goals.
While the U.N. seeks to promote human rights, Beijing uses it to deny sovereignty to democratic Taiwan under cover of ‘peace and development.’ “Chinese firms, many of which are particularly competitive in high-value infrastructure sectors, have been particularly successful in MDB [multilateral development bank] procurements,” according to Scott Morris, Rowan Rockafellow, and Sarah Rose, who co-authored the report. CCP leader Xi Jinping’s 2015 creation of the $3 billion South-South Cooperation Assistance Fund engages with multilateral actors to implement the U.N. Sustainable Development Goal agenda. But between 2013 and 2018, 91 percent of its completed projects were in public and economic infrastructure, from which Beijing benefits because of its Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) that exports China’s excess industrial production. China’s polluting and subsidized iron, steel, and prefabricated building industries are overproducing, and the United Nations, in contradiction to its own Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) is there to help the Beijing regime find more markets. In 2017, China’s Ministry of Finance signed an agreement with five multilateral development banks to promote connectivity and infrastructure, which
suits its attempts to control the rollout of the 5G infrastructure Beijing uses for espionage. Instead of pledging donations of COVID-19 vaccines to the international COVAX access facility, as have many countries in addition to their financial contributions, Chinese pharmaceutical companies have benefited from COVAX agreements to buy 550 million vaccines from China through mid-2022. That’s despite the CCP’s culpability in the initial spread of COVID-19 due to its initial coverup of the Wuhan outbreak in 2019, and the lackluster effectiveness of Chinese-made vaccines compared to their Western counterparts. On balance, China benefited disproportionately through multilateral engagement compared to its financial contributions, despite it being the world’s second-largest economy. The Asian Development Bank (ADB), for example, has committed $43.3 billion to developing China, but Beijing only co-financed ADB projects worth $6.1 billion (plus capital subscriptions of approximately $9.85 billion). The U.N. Development Program (UNDP) assisted China in its 2001 accession to the World Trade Organization, which facilitated its economic explosion and military modernization. The UNDP in 2010 also supported Beijing’s South-South “cooperation,” which facilitates the CCP’s dominance of votes at the U.N. General Assembly. In 2016, the UNDP supported BRI, which promotes China’s exports and attempts at controlling ports that serve Beijing’s global naval expansion. Given the regime’s ongoing genocide against Uyghurs, Tibetans, and Falun Gong, as well as its increasing military belligerence against democracies, anyone who supports democracy and human rights should take a stand against Beijing’s leveraging of the world’s international organizations for its own benefit. I N S I G H T Nov. 26 – Dec. 2, 2021 45
MILTON EZRATI is chief economist for Vested, a contributing editor at The National Interest, and author of "Thirty Tomorrows" and "Bite-Sized Investing.”
Milton Ezrati
A Surge in Stock Offerings
The Movement Carries Mixed Signals of Wariness and Optimism
couple of weeks ago, the buzz on Wall Street centered on a new stock offering. The heretofore private electric car startup, Rivian, listed its shares on the NASDAQ exchange. This initial public offering (IPO), as such things are called, was the biggest since Alibaba’s 2014 listing. Investors certainly have an appetite for electric vehicle manufacturers, a fact to which the sky-high valuation of Tesla testifies. But as the patterns of the last few months have made clear, that appetite is broader-based. This year has seen a flood of private companies list on exchanges for the first time, with most met with enthusiasm. This activity would seem to carry two seemingly contradictory signals about the future. On the one hand, the surge of IPOs speaks to business optimism about the economy by both the listing companies and investors. On the other hand, it signals a belief among managements that stocks today are pricey enough to give listing companies more for their shares than perhaps an internal assessment might put their worth. Certainly, firms wouldn’t readily list if they thought the reverse was true. After the economic harm caused by pandemic lockdowns and quarantines, it’s striking how many IPOs this year has seen. In the eight months through August, almost 280 new companies have listed. If this pace keeps up, 2021 will see almost twice as many IPOs as last year. Barring some major economic or market setback, it looks as though the pace will hold during the remaining months of the year. An informal count among 46 I N S I G H T Nov. 26 – Dec. 2, 2021
financial people reveals at least 100 companies that have either announced their intention to list on exchanges or have indicated an interest. And none of these figures includes the special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) IPOs, which, according to an accounting done by SPAC Research, amount to some 473 so far this year, already some 70 percent higher than all of 2020.
After the economic harm caused by pandemic lockdowns and quarantines, it is striking how many IPOs this year has seen. There can be no denying that all this activity carries a positive judgment on the future. Managements raise money through public offerings because they think they have ample opportunity to deploy the funds profitably. They certainly don’t raise capital on such a grand scale to let it sit idle, especially with interest rates and bond yields as low as they are, and inflation now eroding the real value of money at more than 6 percent a year. The only reason managements would go through the time and expense of an IPO is to expand their operation and take advantage of presumably profitable opportunities. Each firm, of course, makes its decisions about its own products and its particular market niche, but taken across all this IPO activity, the outpouring suggests the kind of general confidence that brings real investment and drives the overall level of economic activity upward.
Less positive is the judgment onthe valuation these IPOs contain. If the listing decision reflects a long-term assessment of opportunities for deploying financial capital, the IPO’s timing can reflect an assessment of market valuations. If management determines that market levels are higher than fundamental assessments of the company’s value, they will see an opportunity to raise more than they otherwise could and so rush the IPO to market. If enough companies make the same assessments, they will crowd a year with IPOs, as 2021 is crowded. Of course, these judgments may have missed some considerations. The assessments on relative valuations may only apply to the listing companies and perhaps those in similar lines of business. Perhaps those taking the view that market valuations are high have failed to consider certain macro considerations, for example, the commitment by the Federal Reserve, despite the increasing inflationary pressure, to reverse its practice of pouring liquidity on markets only very slowly. The flood of IPOs and the valuation judgments they carry in no way imply that a market correction is imminent. Nonetheless, they do carry a warning to investors about any assumption that the rally will continue unabated. There are no assurances. There never are. What the IPO flood reveals is that a large and diverse group of presumably savvy businesspeople see a bright economic future, but a market that might be pricing itself for something even brighter than the reality they see. It’s a view that investors need to consider and one to which the flood of IPOs has called attention.
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
Beijing Irked by Anti-China Bill Congress has no intentions of backing down, says Republican senator
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eijing’s influence operations inside the United States have taken on a new dimension, as revealed by reports that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has been pressuring American companies to lobby against a sweeping China bill that seeks to enhance U.S. competitiveness. The report must have alarmed U.S. Congressional leaders, who now pledge to “immediately” resume talks and get the bill over the finish line “as soon as possible.” The China bill that bothers Beijing is called the U.S. Innovation and Competition Act (USICA), which is a 2,376-page legislative package. The Senate passed USICA in June with a bipartisan vote of 68–32. A narrower version of the bill, called the Ensuring American Global Leadership and Engagement (EAGLE) Act, has stalled in the House since July due to disagreements and other legislative priorities. The Chinese Embassy in Washington threatened U.S. companies with losing market share in China if the legislation became law, Reuters reported. Through letters and meetings, Chinese officials have been imploring “a wide range” of business actors to lobby against the measure. Both Senate and House bills aim to counter Beijing’s economic ambitions and global influence. They seek to address issues surrounding Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Beijing’s genocide against Uyghurs in Xinjiang. USICA calls for boycotting the 2022 Beijing Olympics and reporting on the origins of the COVID–19 pandemic. To enhance U.S. competitiveness, the Senate bill also dedicates $52 billion in funding to domestic semiconductor production and authorizes nearly $190 billion in spending to bolster U.S. critical technologies. In a letter sent in early November, the Chinese Embassy asked company executives to “play a positive role in urging
The Chinese Embassy in Washington threatened U.S. companies with losing market share in China if the legislation became law. members of Congress to abandon the zero-sum mindset and ideological prejudice, stop touting negative China-related bills, [and] delete negative provisions.” China’s foreign ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian didn’t deny these influence operations but said that certain U.S. bills reflected “Cold War thinking” that harmed the bilateral relations between the two countries. Washington, however, has no intentions of backing down, according to Sen. Todd Young (R-Ind.), co-sponsor of the Senate bill, who responded to China’s threats. “Xi Jinping does not want this bill to become law,” Young said in a statement. The Chinese leader is “scared” because USICA will make the United States “once again surge ahead.” China threats “will only help to ensure the bill becomes law,” he said. News that China is lobbying against the bill could unite and energize both parties and chambers of Congress to pass a bipartisan bill without delay.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, longtime China hawks, reached a deal on Nov. 17 to reconcile the two different bills. The deal came after Senate Republicans and some House Democrats opposed Schumer’s plan to include the legislation in the annual defense policy bill. “While there are many areas of agreement on these legislative proposals between the two chambers, there are still a number of important unresolved issues,” Schumer and Pelosi said in a joint statement. Both chambers “will immediately begin a bipartisan process of reconciling the two chambers’ legislative proposals so that we can deliver a final piece of legislation to the president’s desk as soon as possible,” they said. The House version of the bill, sponsored by Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-N.Y.), chairman of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, drew criticism earlier for narrowing some of the provisions in the Senate bill pertaining to human rights and Taiwan. The House bill also asked for billions to fight climate change, which wasn’t included in the Senate version. These changes upset Foreign Affairs Committee Republicans, who opposed the bill in July. “I am glad talks have resumed on passing legislation to confront the generational threat posed by the Chinese Communist Party,” lead Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee Michael McCaul (R-Texas) told me. “But it is vital this legislation be bipartisan–and meaningfully address the various aspects of the CCP’s malign actions, rather than providing billions more for the Green Climate Fund on top of the tens of billions in climate dollars appropriated this week alone.” It’s unclear what the ultimate China bill will look like, but it “needs to be more than messaging and can’t be turned into another political football–it’s too important,” McCaul said. I N S I G H T Nov. 26 – Dec. 2, 2021 47
DANIEL LACALLE is chief economist at hedge fund Tressis and author of “Freedom or Equality,” “Escape from the Central Bank Trap,” and “Life in the Financial Markets.”
Daniel Lacalle
OPEC Is Not the Solution
Misguided activism and political nudging disrupt oil supply
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igh oil prices are a symptom of economic and monetary imbalances, not a consequence of OPEC decisions. Throughout history, we have seen how Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) cuts have done little to elevate prices when diversification and technology added to rising efficiency. Likewise, OPEC output increases don’t necessarily mean lower prices, let alone reasonable ones. OPEC helps but doesn’t solve price issues, even if it would like to. The problem in the oil market has been created by years of massive capital misallocation and underinvestment in energy—the result of extremely loose monetary policies directed by governments that have, for ideological reasons, penalized capital expenditure on fossil fuels. Misguided activism and political nudging in the middle of monetary injections have created bottlenecks and underinvestment that hinder both security of supply and a technically feasible competitive energy transition. Massive injections of liquidity have caused a double side effect: rising malinvestment in nonproductive activities and, now, a large inflow of capital into so-called value areas—more money directed to relatively scarce assets. Energy has gone from a consensus underweight stock rating to a large overweight, exacerbating the price increase. The marginal barrel of oil has risen almost 60 percent in a year, despite supply rising in tandem with demand. According to JP Morgan, the required capital expenditure in energy required to meet demand is $600 billion for the period 2021–2030. This “cumulative missing capex” is part of the problem. The other important problem is artificial demand created by chains of stimulus plans. As I explained in a previous column, adding enormous
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Without Russia and the United States, production prices would soar no matter what OPEC partners or Saudi Arabia alone might do. energy-intensive infrastructure plans to a reopening economy where some supply bottlenecks have been worsened generates the same effect on energy prices as a huge speculative bubble. Political intervention has also created an important impact on the price of a marginal barrel of oil. Threatening to ban domestic development of energy resources in the United States or announcing the prohibition of fossil fuel investment in some European summits makes the net present value of the longterm marginal barrel higher, not lower. Why? Because those threats aren’t made with sound technical analysis and robust supply and demand estimates, but with political agendas. Any serious engineer who understands the importance of security and supply and technology development understands that a successful energy transition to a greener economy requires solid and realistic targets as well as policies that avoid an energy crisis. Those have been forgotten.
OPEC is benefitting from high oil prices, but not as much as one would think. The OPEC Reference Basket average is $68.33 per barrel year-todate, a large 68.4 percent increase over the same period last year, but still massively below the elevated levels prior to the 2008 financial crisis. Furthermore, OPEC and non-OPEC supply have risen in tandem with demand. Global oil supply in October increased by 1.74 million barrels per day to an average of 97.56 million barrels per day compared with the previous month. The U.S. liquids production growth forecast for 2021 has been revised up by 19,000 barrels per day and is expected to be 17.57 million barrels per day in 2021. Imagine where oil and gas prices would be if the political threats to ban or severely penalize domestic production had been enforced. Let’s not forget that OPEC has also revised down the estimates of global oil demand to 96.4 million barrels per day in 2021. Supply remains ample, and the U.S. administration should see that Russia and the United States are expected to be the main drivers of next year’s supply growth. Without Russia and the United States, production prices would soar no matter what OPEC partners or Saudi Arabia alone might do. We’re suffering from the combination of misguided energy policies, excessive money creation, and ill-timed giant construction plans. OPEC and its partner Russia may alleviate this somewhat, but not change it dramatically. Furthermore, as time passes and underinvestment becomes more severe, OPEC’s ability to curb prices will weaken. We can’t forget that OPEC and Russia account for less than half of the total world supply. They matter, but putting two more million barrels a day of supply into the market doesn’t solve the long-term price problem. Energy prices will decline with more technology, investment, and diversification, not empty political threats.
Fan Yu
FAN YU is an expert in finance and economics and has contributed analyses on China’s economy since 2015.
China’s Economic Double Whammy Risk of stagflation in China is growing
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nflation is about to hit China at a very inopportune time. Inflation and specters of a U.S. Federal Reserve interest rate increase could present a double whammy on China’s economy as it struggles to come out of COVID-19 lockdowns. Official National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) data showed Chinese factory-gate prices, or the cost at which wholesalers purchase from factories, increased 13.5 percent in October compared to a year ago. That’s the fastest rise in China’s producer price index (PPI) since 1996. The index tracks purely the price of goods at “factory gates” and doesn’t include transportation or logistics costs, which also are rising. The alarming figure was the result of a rise in other input prices, including that of coal, oil, steel, and electricity. Factory-gate inflation may have been exacerbated by an unexpected energy crunch over the past few months. In October, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) ordered its mining companies to increase coal production and forced price cuts to lower energy costs. That shouldn’t be a surprise to U.S. consumers already suffering from inflation. October consumer price index (CPI) in the United States rose 6.2 percent from 2020, the fastest year-over-year surge in 31 years. In China, consumer prices haven’t risen to that degree, but it’s only a matter of time. Higher prices at China’s factory gates affect the whole world—everyone consumes Chinese goods—including China’s domestic consumers. Chinese CPI was 1.5 percent higher in October. That’s the official figure, and we can be sure the CCP is closely managing these numbers. Runaway prices, especially on necessities such
The cost of fresh vegetables in China jumped 16.6 percent in October, a huge red flag. as food, are a sensitive topic for social stability. The official figures report that the nationwide cost of fresh vegetables jumped 16.6 percent in October, a huge red flag. I raised the issue of stagflation in China almost two years ago, but today, the risk of stagflation is much higher. Stagflation is an economic state in which a country’s economy suffers from stagnant economic growth and rising inflation at the same time. It’s especially tricky as the central bank can’t use its usual tool of raising interest rates to combat inflation without harming economic activity. The United States experienced this during the 1970s when an economic recession was met with an oil supply crisis. China isn’t likely to report negative economic growth, at least not according to official NBS figures. But rising PPI means that much higher consumer prices are just around the corner. But the CCP’s tools are limited in the near term. Due to ongoing power shortages, it can’t stimulate the econ-
omy efficiently, as there isn’t enough electricity generated to support higher activity. But without increasing power supply, China can’t increase economic growth. Already, some areas are seeing factories being shut to lower strain on the power grid. Meanwhile, the U.S. Federal Reserve’s expectation of raising interest rates poses another threat to China’s economy. The U.S. central bank has lowered monthly asset purchases (quantitative tightening) starting this month. In scaling back the Fed’s pandemic-driven economic stimulus, Fed Chairman Jerome Powell has laid the groundwork for the Fed to raise interest rates in mid-2022. But if U.S. inflation continues to worsen, Powell may be forced to act sooner. Few experts in the United States have chimed in on this impact, as the focus has been the domestic economy, but Citadel LLC founder and CEO Ken Griffin recently rang the warning bell. “China and the United States are very tightly integrated,” he said at the 2021 Caixin Summit in November. “Any steps that take place in the United States to slow inflationary pressures will put pressure on global growth, hurting the economies of both countries.” So far, U.S. consumer prices have outpaced Chinese prices, at least officially. A Federal Reserve move to tighten monetary policy in the U.S. will likely have a negative impact on China given that its economy is still struggling with COVID-19-related lockdowns and travel restrictions. The expectation of monetary tightening in the U.S. will likely weaken China’s currency and force outflows from the world’s No. 2 economy. For an economy still struggling to find its footing, it’s an unwelcome development. I N S I G H T Nov. 26 – Dec. 2, 2021 49
JEFF MINICK lives and writes in Front Royal, Va. He is the author of two novels, “Amanda Bell” and “Dust on Their Wings,” and two works of nonfiction, “Learning as I Go” and “Movies Make the Man.”
Jeff Minick
The Greatest of Our Treasures Hard times give us a chance to consider what's most important in life
T
ough times demand tough people. This winter promises to bring some hard times to most Americans, and we need to set our hearts and souls like flint against what’s coming down the pike. An inflationary spike in fuel and food costs, the slowdown in our nationwide supply chain, the ongoing fights over Wuhan flu mandates, and the damage they’re doing to the economy: These troubles and more are already knocking on the door. They bring to mind that old song by Stephen Foster, “Hard Times,” which ends with these wistful words: “’Tis the song, the sigh of the weary Hard times, hard times come again no more Many days you have lingered Around my cabin door Oh hard times come again no more” We all know what we must do in this coming fight. We cut back on consumption, look for bargains, avoid debt—time to put away those credit cards—and seek ways to simplify our lives. But hard times also provide us with the opportunity to consider what’s most important to us, where our real treasures lie. And most often those treasures aren’t material riches like new cars, designer clothing, or even a grand house. Food, shelter, and money are important, of course, and indispensable for survival, but most often when
50 I N S I G H T Nov. 26 – Dec. 2, 2021
No matter what adversity this winter brings, public or personal, let’s remember we don’t need to endure misfortune by ourselves. we weigh what’s most valuable in our lives, what’s really meaningful, what truly counts, the scales tip heavily in favor of family and friends. When life womps us upside the head, as it sometimes does, and we find ourselves in dire straits, we need these folks like a man in a desert needs water. When catastrophe strikes, we can find respite and rescue in the arms of a parent, a spouse, a sibling, or a friend. When these loyal souls stand beside us, we realize we’re no longer alone. They are the gold doubloons in our life, not the money deposited in our bank accounts or the investments we’ve made. They’re the ones who don’t abandon us in a time of crisis, our winter soldiers who stick around when
we’ve encountered disaster and everything seems dark and hopeless. Five years ago, a man I knew had come to a major crossroads in his life. He had made some mistakes, and it wasn’t pretty. Of his acquaintances and friends, four stuck with him, listened to him, and offered counsel. They didn’t excuse his wrongdoing, but they kept him upright, refused to let him sink into destructive self-pity, and helped him find his way again. We are blessed when such people are a part of us, cavalry comes to the rescue. And we can offer them the same reinforcement and help: a shoulder to cry on, a sympathetic ear, words of advice to strengthen and encourage them in their own time of disaster. No matter what adversity this winter brings, public or personal, let’s remember we don’t need to endure misfortune by ourselves. We can circle the wagons with relatives and friends, draw on our mutual strengths and affection, and protect and defend one another. In their song 1970 song “Bridge Over Troubled Water,” the folk duo Simon and Garfunkel gave us these words: “I’ll take your part When darkness comes And pain is all around Like a bridge over troubled water I will lay me down Like a bridge over troubled water I will lay me down” Sometimes, we need those bridges. Sometimes, we can be those bridges.
Environmental Warriors Cleaning Groundwater
Scott Wilson Tackles ‘Forever Chemicals’ Through Technology
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REGENESIS
By Nathan Worcester cott Wilson works to take persistent, toxic chemicals out of the environment. He’s the president and CEO of Regenesis, which aims to address hazardous per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), or “forever chemicals,” in groundwater using an activated carbon solution called PlumeStop. Wilson’s concern with nature and the environment started early in life. “I’ve always been drawn to the water,” Wilson told The Epoch Times’ “Insight”. “This started in my early youth, where I spent days in the Pennsylvania woods exploring the streams, taking in all flora and fauna. Later in my youth, our family moved to San Diego, and I fell in love with the ocean. “I always wanted to be around water and learn as much as I could, whether studying the tide pools, watching how the cliffs erode, or even observing the wave action while surfing. Apart from the sheer beauty of water and the fact that it supports all life sources, I was also very interested in how water moves early on.” Through his parents’ membership in the National Wildlife Federation, Wilson was exposed to “Ranger Rick,” the iconic cartoon raccoon. In one story Wilson read as an 8-yearold, Ranger Rick and his friends couldn’t use their swimming hole— it had been polluted. “There was foam floating on top of the
water’s surface and trash everywhere,” Wilson recalled. “I just couldn’t believe someone would do that to a river. At that age, I didn’t comprehend that many rivers were actually much worse off, so much worse, in fact, that a river could catch fire, like the Cuyahoga River did, which happened about that same time.” “I was naturally led into this field from these early experiences and inspirations.” Hence his interest in groundwater contamination and, more specifically, PFAS. PFAS has emerged as a hot topic in recent months. In June, the Environmental Protection Agency proposed a rule mandating PFAS reporting from manufacturers or importers of it. And in early October, California banned PFAS in food packaging and children’s clothing. More recently, PFAS have garnered scrutiny from Congress.
“Do we want these substances in our bodies or in the bodies of our children and grandchildren? ” Scott Wilson, president and CEO, Regenesis
In the popular media, PFAS have attracted attention from the likes of infotainment host John Oliver on “Last Week Tonight.” His company’s technology doesn’t destroy the PFAS that it filters out of groundwater. While some contaminants that
the system traps can be degraded by bacteria, PFAS aren’t among them. “The PFAS is bound beneath the surface of the earth as a constituent of the aquifer material, much like other compounds such as forms of lead and arsenic,” Wilson said. In other words, the product helps pull the PFAS out of the groundwater and binds it to the surrounding sand and rock. He articulates his perspective on PFAS chemicals carefully: “It is important to recognize that not all PFAS are the same. PFAS are a vast class of chemicals in the thousands with widely different environmental behavior and toxicological properties. The biggest concern right now is with two specific PFAS compounds, perfluorooctane sulfonic acid (PFOS) and perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA).” PFOA has been linked to various cancers, including testicular cancer and kidney cancer. In addition, PFAS don’t deteriorate, meaning they accumulate within the body. Wilson poses a question about other PFAS compounds, which he notes haven’t all been studied extensively: “Do we want these substances in our bodies or in the bodies of our children and grandchildren? If the answer is no, then we should look for ways to reduce our exposure to PFAS where it makes sense, starting where there is the highest risk. My focus is on removing PFAS from groundwater and eliminating this specific exposure risk pathway.” PlumeStop has already been utilized at various sites, including the Camp Grayling Army Airfield in Michigan. “We just need more sites in the ground for a longer period of time to further demonstrate what the approach can do. That just takes time,” Wilson said. His environmental “war cry”? “Eliminate environmental risk now instead of waiting for a silver bullet.” I N S I G H T Nov. 26 – Dec. 2, 2021 51
Nation Profile
THOUGHT LEADERS
Historian Victor Davis Hanson.
A warning from eminent historian and commentator Victor Davis Hanson
A
re globalism, the ambitions of the rich and the powerful, and loyalty to a group or an ideology rather than to a country undermining the foundations of America? Is citizenship becoming meaningless? And is the middle class in particular
bearing the brunt of these assaults on the traditions and ideals of the American Dream? American Thought Leaders host Jan Jekielek sat down with historian Victor Davis Hanson to discuss these topics and Hanson’s latest book, “The Dying Citizen: How Progressive Elites, Tribalism, and Glo-
52 I N S I G H T Nov. 26 – Dec. 2, 2021
balization Are Destroying the Idea of America.” JAN JEKIELEK: Victor,
I’ve had such a good time reading your new book, “The Dying Citizen.” This governance by the expert class you mention in the epilogue greatly accelerated in 2020, the annus horribilis, as you call it. At the same time, we’re seeing it failing in real time. VICTOR DAVIS HANSON:
I tried to write “The Dying Citizen” with the idea of
some historical or cultural history and background, and then provide contemporary examples that reflect those long-standing trends. But I had no idea when I finished the book that we would see this disaster at the border or General Milley or what’s happened in Afghanistan or critical race theory. I’ll give you an example. General Milley is not elected, but we learned he called his Chinese communist counterpart and suggested he would tip them off if
THE EPOCH TIMES
Tribalism and Globalism: Destroying the Idea of America
Nation Profile
“It’s very disheartening, 50 years and more after the civil rights movement, to hear that what counts is the color of our skin and not the content of our character. ” Trump took some sort of preemptive action. He said later, when asked under oath, he didn’t really believe that Trump was deranged. Yet he interrupted the chain of command concerning nuclear protocols, even though the chairman of the Joint Chiefs is forbidden by statute from doing so. Then we go to Dr. Fauci. He still cannot explain how he channeled $600,000 through EcoHealth to the virology lab in Wuhan, which we now know is the source of the virus. I won’t even get into Hunter Biden or Bill Gates and what they’ve said about China. Hunter Biden wasn’t elected to anything. General Milley was not elected, and Anthony Fauci was not elected. But they all exercise judicial, executive, and legislative powers. And they all seem blind to the atrocity that’s the modern Chinese Communist Party. MR. JEKIELEK: Victor, why
do you feel this progressive ethos—and you document this quite extensively in
the first chapter—is set against a thriving middle class? MR. HANSON: The elite
resent the aspirations of the middle class, who are interested in their family, their church, their country, their history, and their traditions. Middle-class people have experience with reality because they have to work and feed their families. They’re also thinking, planning, and strategizing for their own interest. So they combine muscular activity and intellectual activity: knowledge of the farming, oil, minerals, steel, and manufacturing that makes America go. MR. JEKIELEK: In your
book, you make the case that progressives are regressive in historical terms. MR. HANSON: When you
have a border where 2 million people this year alone are scheduled to cross, there’s little point in saying “I’m a citizen and you’re not a citizen,” “I have responsibilities you don’t
have,” “I have rights you don’t have.” And a very dangerous pre-civilizational pathology is tribalism, the idea that you identify with the person who has superficial affinities with you—skin color, hair color, eye color, or linguistic commonalities. So I hire my first cousin—and not the other person who’s better qualified—because he’s part of the tribe. It’s very disheartening, 50 years and more after the civil rights movement, to hear that what counts is the color of our skin and not the content of our character. We’ve gone back to a pre-civilizational mentality. MR. JEKIELEK: Certain
rights and responsibilities come with citizenship, but that’s not understood right now, is it? MR. HANSON: It isn’t. In
“The Dying Citizen,” I looked at the things once unique to citizenship to see if they still applied. Only a citizen could be in the military. That’s not true anymore. Only a citizen could qualify for entitlements. That’s not true anymore. If the first thing you do is commit a crime when you cross a border illegally, and the second thing you do is reside illegally, and the third, in so many cases, is that you get an ID that allows you to justify the first two transgressions, then the migrants say, “This is a strange country. I entered it illegally, I’m here illegally, and I have these IDs that are illegal, yet I’m given exemptions
that even citizens are not accorded.” MR. JEKIELEK: Absolutely.
The expectations of tolerance are uniquely placed on America by Americans, not by anybody else—by the people espousing this ideology. MR. HANSON: Part of it is
more mundane. The left is in crisis. They’ve made this long march and taken over professional sports, entertainment, Hollywood, the corporate boardroom, Wall Street, K through 12, academia, foundations, Silicon Valley—and yet they only get 30 percent to 40 percent that poll in their favor. They have two avenues to retain power. One is to change the demography and destroy the idea of citizenship and borders. Allow immigrants to enter the country illegally. Then there are those who want to change the system. This new version of neo-Marxism transcends all of the former political stances of the left. You can really see what’s happening when the secretary of state, Mr. Blinken, tells us that he’s invited the U.N. to adjudicate whether we’re racist at a time when China has over a million and a half people incarcerated in a labor camp. MR. JEKIELEK: I can’t help
but think about something that the Chinese Communist Party and the critical social justice movement have in common—which is this idea, “If you’re not with me, you’re the enemy.”
I N S I G H T Nov. 26 – Dec. 2, 2021 53
Nation Profile
MR. HANSON: Yes. You can’t
argue with these people because it’s almost a religious cult, and they believe in faith, not empiricism.
supposed to be truth to power? It’s a huge issue. MR. HANSON: We don’t be-
ing of Herbert Marcuse’s repressive tolerance.
lieve in these institutions anymore because they have been culpable, and we don’t know what’s true and what’s not.
MR. HANSON: Yes. Of all
MR. JEKIELEK: What do
of the Frankfurt School, he was the most honest in saying, “We’ll decide what will be tolerated and what will not be tolerated. Because we’re revolutionaries, and we start with the premise that we’re morally superior.” Once you have that attitude, where do you stop? Mao’s 60 million dead, Stalin’s 20 million dead, Pol Pot’s 3 million dead?
you say to people thinking about things like a national divorce?
MR. JEKIELEK: I’m think-
MR. JEKIELEK: Is the
media—which indeed we’re very much trying to do at The Epoch Times—
MR. HANSON: It’s more
likely that we’ll see something like the third and fourth century with Rome and the new city of Constantinople. While the West was disintegrating, people were actually moving into Eastern Europe toward the confines of the Byzantine Empire. They were the ones that gave us the Justinian Law Code and Hagia Sophia, the biggest church in
Rather than a civil war, I think we’ll gradually have two manifestations of America. the world until the Vatican was built, and a lot of other good things. They lasted a thousand years beyond the Western Romans. I’m very skeptical of using such models, but I think what’s happening is the red states are starting to go Byzantine and the blue states are starting to get looser, with fewer borders and traditions. They’re also starting to be dysfunctional.
If I go to Seattle, which I did recently, or to Chicago, or to Washington or New York, and I compare them to Knoxville or Salt Lake City, I find different premises on how to run a city. Rather than a civil war, I think we’ll gradually have two manifestations of America. One will be enduring and solid, more tradition-bound, more religious. The other will be more freewheeling, more cosmopolitan, globalist, maybe more exciting but ultimately unsustainable. MR. JEKIELEK: Any final
thoughts? MR. HANSON: I don’t have
Haitian migrants staying in an encampment on the U.S. side of the border, cross the Rio Grande to get food and water in Mexico, near the International Bridge in Del Rio, Texas, on Sept. 19, 2021. 54 I N S I G H T Nov. 26 – Dec. 2, 2021
This interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.
PAUL RATJE/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES
a blueprint to restore citizenship. But we do have a self-correcting mechanism if the citizens exercise their constitutional rights and vote, and are vocal. I think this annus horribilis is an aberration. I have to believe that. If I don’t believe it’s an aberration, then we’re through. I think the dying citizen can be resurrected.
T R AV E L • F O O D • L U X U R Y L I V I N G
Unwind
Issue. 07
At its brick-and-mortar location, Unregular Pizza now sells by the slice. But the shop is keeping the bartering spirit alive. PHOTO BY SAMIRA BOUAOU/THE EPOCH TIMES
The Pizza Barterer of New York
TRAVELING VIA COMMERCIAL airlines continues to get worse, which makes having your own plane a great alternative. 64
In the middle of the pandemic, Gabriele Lamonaca built a business—and human connections—swapping over-the-top pies for homemade goods. 60
LIGHTS, CAMERA, ACTION! Here's our selection of the best video cameras on the market right now. 67
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THAILAND’S RACHA RESORT, just half an hour from Phuket, features upscale villas on an island where you can luxuriate in natural beauty. 58 I N S I G H T Nov. 26 – Dec. 2, 2021 55
The Pasha’s Vision:
LA TENUTA DEL PASCIÀ An estate boasts uncompromising luxury in a lush, romantic setting
By Phil Butler
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56 I N S I G H T Nov. 26 – Dec. 2, 2021
ming pools, centuries-old olive groves of more than 7,500 trees, tens of thousands of lavender plants, and even giant redwoods imported from North America. The Pascha’s private country house is Il Casale, a classic villa that melts into the landscape in flawless and historic style. The home has its own pool, four lavish bedrooms, a triple living room, and is decked out with stunning frescoes and antique furnishings that reflect a bygone era. Across from Il Casale, Villa degli Ulivi sits at the foot of Monte Pizzuto and overlooks the rose garden. This villa houses a restaurant, a bar, a series of halls, and wonderfully decorated rooms, where unique heirlooms from all over the world are exhibited. There are also several large rooms for special events. In a corner of the rose garden, La Limonaia is a 27,000-square-foot, two-story events hall, a grand ceremonial venue with an enormous kitchen and great rooms This famous estate also has countless smaller farmhouses, a unique disco room, twin tennis courts, and numerous special agricultural features. Giorgio Mece’s marvelous estate is a place that almost defies description—a romantic but utilitarian fantasy he obviously wanted to share with the world. 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.
LA TENUTA DEL PASCIA ROCCANTICA RI, ITALY 58,000,000 EUROS • 40 BEDROOMS, 20 BATHROOMS • 107,639 SQUARE FEET (10,000 SQUARE METERS) • 321 ACRES (130 HECTARES) KEY FEATURES: • THE ROSETO VACUNAE ROSAE (ROSE GARDEN) • POOLS AND TENNIS COURTS • VINEYARDS, OLIVE GROVES, FARMS • EXCLUSIVE VILLAS AND VENUES • A NATURE WONDERLAND NEAR ROME AGENT VITTORIO SAVOIA VIA GIUSEPPE MERCALLI 3 - 00197 ROME +39 392 0807611
ALL PHOTOS BY PAOLA PANICOLA
ust like there's a season for all things, there are levels to everything. In real estate, there are many tiers of luxury, too. For instance, if you want 40 bedrooms, the world’s most famous rose garden, and the dream estate of a dreamer, you’ll pay top dollar. Or in the case of La Tenuta del Pascià (“The Estate of the Pasha”)—precisely 58 million euros ($65.6 million). The vision of the pasha from Albania, Giorgio Mece, La Tenuta del Pascià began as a small 74acre farm (30 hectares) outside the medieval village of Roccantica in the Sabina region northeast of Rome. Today, the 321-acre (130-hectare) estate’s houses, gardens, orchards, and nature fields surround an incomparable rose garden in the shape of an angel’s wing. Dedicated to Vacuna, the Sabina goddess of the woods, Vacunae Rosae has 5,000 varieties of the world’s rarest roses spread across five acres. Mece, who was the prefect of Durrës, Albania, before fascist forces invaded in a prelude to World War II, returned to Italy after the war, vowing to create his dream. The Pasha’s vision manifested in a setting of stunning natural and man-made spaces, including a restaurant, a unique forest with holm oaks, cypresses, and sequoias, vineyards, and even a space for treehouses. Located in the heart of Sabina (named after the ancient Sabines, an Italic people), the estate has a stunning garden chalet, two spectacular swim-
The second floor atrium at La Limonaia reveals the level of detail and fine design of the Pasha’s vision for an events space. Every edifice of the estate flows with the natural beauty of its surroundings.
The gorgeous rose garden, Vacunae Rosae, has no fewer than 5,000 varieties of roses, spread across five glorious acres.
La Limonaia is a lavish and massive venue for all manner of ceremonies and events. The two-story building has hosted state, private, corporate, and special events year-round.
This aerial view of the estate shows its expansive, encompassing nature.
The Pasha’s country villa is a romantic affair surrounded by nature. Tuscan in architecture, the spacious house is a blend of the ancient and modern. The Pasha brought detail after detail from abroad to furnish the home. I N S I G H T Nov. 26 – Dec. 2, 2021 57
Lush vegetation and turquoise waters make for a beautiful backdrop at The Racha.
The Racha:
Your Island Escape in Thailand Luxury and natural beauty await at this resort near Phuket
can think of a lot worse things than a private villa overlooking a crescent moon stretch of sand and a small bay opening up into the sea with a sunset view—in fact, add some Thai food and I think I’m in heaven. If that sounds lovely to you, then take a look at The Racha. I love Thailand for its islands, and I had the opportunity to visit one of them earlier in 2021 for an unforgettable escape. Phuket (pronounced “poo-KET”) is typically the star of Thailand island tourism, a 209-squaremile island connected to the nation’s southerly reaches by a short bridge. It’s well known for its beaches and high-end resorts. The landscape is lined with karst, towering limestone rock formations that rise straight up from the earth, verdant with plant life or multicolored with minerals and erosion-sculpted rock—like wedding cakes melting in the sun. Those formations also rise out of the sea as islands large and small. Koh Racha Yai (“koh” means
58 I N S I G H T Nov. 26 – Dec. 2, 2021
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island, “yai” means big) is one of them. Situated a half-hour’s boat ride from the southern port of Phuket, Koh Racha Yai is the green-covered variety. Racha Yai itself has very limited lodging with only three resorts, the nicest of which is The Racha.
Luxury and Natural Beauty The Racha is comprised of 85 villas, which are nicely spaced across the 20-acre property that slopes gently to the seaside. The landscaping is meticulously crafted to grant further privacy between villas and create a very natural look. When I stayed there in May, it was the season of butterflies: Throughout the property, several of them fluttered above flowering trees, flashing iridescent blue when they caught the sunlight and giving the property a magical, dreamlike air. We checked into a villa with a private pool, sun deck, whirlpool bathtub with a view to the sea, outdoor and indoor showers, and a sound system that piped our music into any part of the villa— including underwater.
FROM LEFT: FIVETONINE/SHUTTERSTOCK, THE EPOCH TIMES, COURTESY OF KEVIN REVOLINSKI, LIGHTRECORDS/SHUTTERSTOCK, SHUTTERSTOCK, PIXABAY
I
By Kevin Revolinski
Travel Thailand
In the morning, a brahminy kite, a large brown bird of prey with a white head similar to its American cousin, circled just above the treetops along the beach, scanning the sea for a meal. It returned daily and took up perches in trees to either side of the bay. As we strolled the wet sand at low tide, we watched black Pacific reef herons hunt along the reach of the waves while their gleaming white counterparts, the egrets, poked through the green spaces back on dry land. The bird population is abundant on Racha, and the only large animals are a few domesticated water buffalo in the interior and the occasional monitor lizard.
One can reach any one of the five snorkeling beaches in less than 10 minutes. B A N G KO K
The Dining Experience As Koh Racha is mostly green space and surrounded by sea, the food options aren’t numerous. Yet, they’re quite satisfying. A mom-and-pop restaurant that has been around for nearly 40 years is tucked into the rocks along the northern edge of the bay and serves local cuisine. A path leads diners to the narrow collection of seaside tables and continues a bit farther up to a scenic overlook of the sea, the bay, and The Racha itself. The resort has three main eateries: a Thai-style grill along the beach, an international dining room, and, unsurprisingly, a Thai restaurant. The local fare is nothing short of amazing—with traditional dishes from all regions of the country, including the northern-style khao soi curry, larb from the northeast, and a traditional southern beef curry. Spice fans be warned: Phuket is considered part of the spicy south and the tendency among chefs there is to add a few more peppers to anything. Most dishes can be made mild upon request.
PHUKET
KOH R A C H A YA I
Koh Racha Yai is a half-hour boat ride away from Phuket.
a diving or snorkeling trip to Koh Racha Noi If You Go is recommended. ATVs and mountain bikes are When to Go From November available for rent for to April, the those who want to exsnorkeling is plore the island’s small great along the network of rustic dirt rocky areas of roads. One can reach the shoreline. From May into any one of the five October, the bay snorkeling beaches in is better suited for less than 10 minutes— modest surfing, or even 20 minutes on body-boarding, or playing at the foot. And the sports beach. center sets up visitors with snorkeling gear Getting There and standup paddleFly to Phuket from boards. Bangkok or select international Get your activities airports. in, then head to the A floating dock spa. Thai massage and accommodates spa treatments are an the resort’s private ferry three times important part of Thai a day. The floating culture, and the redock migrates to sort’s Anumba Spa was the eastern side voted the Top Island Reof the island and a sort Spa in Asia in the trolley makes the 10-minute crossing 2017 World Luxury Spa to accommodate a Awards. Be prepared for daily boat run. pampering. One morning during our stay, General Manager Devan Bhaskaran helped out as his staff prepared the beach for the day, and he spoke of the spell The Racha casts on its guests. “About 30 percent of our clients are returning, and not for two or three days, but 14 days to a month,” he said. Lounging in our own pool, a bottle of Singha beer in hand as the sun angled to the sea, I could imagine that. Kevin Revolinski is an avid traveler, craft beer enthusiast, and home-cooking fan. He’s based in Madison, Wis.
Staying Active The Racha has two large swimming pools, one of which overlooks the beach from the second floor with an infinity edge. A dive center operates on-site with its own special training pool, and
While at The Racha, make sure to head to the spa and get pampered with massages and spa treatments.
Boats gather at a snorkeling point in Koh Racha Yai. I N S I G H T Nov. 26 – Dec. 2, 2021 59
Food Restaurants
HAVE PIZZA, WILL BARTER: THE IRREGULAR STORY OF UNREGULAR PIZZA When the pandemic pressed pause on his pizzeria dreams, Gabriele Lamonaca found another way to share his Roman-style pies with New Yorkers. The question that launched a business: Want to trade? By Crystal Shi
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60 I N S I G H T Nov. 26 – Dec. 2, 2021
Lamonaca’s signature “Burrapizzas” feature a whole ball of burrata on every slice.
Among the highlights of the shop’s “Wall of Barters”: a Michael Jordan trading card, a souvenir from Sicily featuring the island’s three-legged Trinacria symbol (bartered by Gagliardo’s wife), a pizza poem, and various pieces of custom art.
GABRIELE LAMONACA Age: 31 Born: Rome Lives: Harlem, New York Favorite Pizza Toppings: Burrata and anchovies Off-Limits on Pizza: Cucumbers or pickles Best Barter: Sidewalk orchestra performance by children from the Special Music School Dream Barter: Stanley Tucci’s negroni
Gabriele Lamonaca (L) and Salvatore Gagliardo at Unregular Pizza in New York.
In March 2021, pizza chef Salvatore Gagliardo joined Lamonaca as a partner and investor, and in May, they opened a shop near Union Square, where they now sell by the slice—for cash, though they still do a few barters per week. Displays are packed with inventive loaded pies, including Lamonaca’s indulgent “Burrapizzas,” featuring a whole burrata on every slice. Since their brick-and-mortar success, they’ve been looking for ways to pay it forward to other small businesses. They frequently barter both goods and social media exposure and recently hosted a pop-up series inviting
local makers to sell in their store. Anyone can sign up to barter at UnregularPizza.com. Celebrity visits and partnerships have brought in bigger offers—a Times Square billboard appearance, tickets and merch from the Mets—but everyone gets a fair chance, they say, as they work through the waitlist. “We just want something legal,” Lamonaca said with a laugh, “and something interesting.” “It doesn’t matter if you’re a big company or just someone who has a passion for creating something at home. What we’d like to see in people is the excitement to share what they create.”
ALL PHOTOS BY SAMIRA BOUAOU/THE EPOCH TIMES
hat would you give for a fresh-baked pizza? For some people, anything from homemade cocktails to caviar to a night in a hotel penthouse, Gabriele Lamonaca discovered. The 31-year-old Rome-born, New York City-based pizzaiolo is the creator of Unregular Pizza, a new pizzeria built on an age-old idea: bartering. When the pandemic hit, putting Lamonaca out of a job and his dream of opening a pizzeria on hold, he turned to baking Roman-style pies in his apartment, perfecting his 72-hour-leavened dough—key to a light and airy crust—and experimenting with toppings. At the suggestion of his marketing-pro girlfriend, he opened an Instagram account to share his creations. Soon, friends were asking: Do you deliver? Reluctant to charge money, Lamonaca started swapping pies for his friends’ own homemade goods, and posting the exchanges on Instagram. In December 2020, when a stranger messaged him requesting to barter, he realized he’d hit upon something bigger. Lamonaca began taking three to four requests per week, biking to street-corner meetups with pizzas in tow. No two pies were the same. “I wanted to experiment as much as I could, and get feedback from future customers,” he said. Bartered items started with food and drinks, but grew to include custom art, poetry, even horseback riding lessons. During those months of social isolation, “everyone was really excited. ... I could see the spark of joy they had when they did [the barter],” Lamonaca said. “It’s not just an exchange of goods. It’s really an experience, getting to know each other ... and sharing what we can do best.”
How to Be a
Perfect Host or Hostess As the host or hostess of any gathering, you are responsible for ensuring everyone enjoys themselves Parties are supposed to be fun, but hosting any type of gathering can be stressful. To make sure you enjoy the party, too, your Polite Society guide has a few pointers to make it easy. By Bill Lindsey
1 Start Early so You Can Enjoy the Party
4 Let Them Help No matter how hard you work to get everything ready ahead of time, there will always be a few tasks left undone when the doorbell rings. If your guests offer to help, let them; they can bring plates from the kitchen or pour the wine. If some of the guests are family or close friends, it’s also OK to let them help clean up after the party as long as you take care of the bulk of it.
As the host or hostess, it’s OK for you to enjoy the gathering, too. The best way to ensure that, says Melissa Ringstaff of A Virtuous Woman blog, is to finish the preparations long before your guests arrive. Start by deciding what you need to do to make your home ready, such as bringing in more chairs or moving childrens’ toys. Plan the menu of snacks or dinner several days in advance to allow time to shop and cook.
5 Every Party Must Eventually End
2 Make Everyone Feel Welcome
3 Mi Casa, Su Casa The role of a host or hostess is to ensure your guests are enjoying themselves. Offer a drink or snack when they arrive and let them know they can help themselves to refills. The rule of thumb is to put yourself in their shoes to make sure you’d be a happy guest. That said, be firm if you need to cut off the alcohol and/or call a cab for a guest who is over-enjoying.
When you extend the invitation, in addition to telling your guests when to arrive, it’s OK to also advise when you expect to wrap things up. For dinner parties, the rule of thumb is guests can leave 30 minutes or so after dessert is served. For more casual affairs or for those you know will have babysitters at home, set an end time. But if everyone is having a great time, the party may go on till the wee hours.
GETTYIMAGES
It’s likely many of the guests aren’t frequent visitors to your home, so make an extra effort to welcome them, show them around, and make them feel at home. Ask about food preferences and allergies; it’s a safe bet Emily Post would advise against sending a guest with peanut allergies to the ER. Pay attention to guests who may be shy, making time to give them your undivided attention and introducing them to others.
I N S I G H T November. 12 – 18, 2021 61
Epoch Booklist
RECOMMENDED READING NONFICTION
Bad News
By Batya Ungar-Sargon
American Journalism Gone Woke Many books have been written about the failed state of journalism, but Ungar-Sargon broaches the subject from a perspective that is accessible to readers across a wide spectrum of political views, addressing how the elite, woke media have abandoned the working class. A fantastic book. ENCOUNTER BOOKS, 2021, 234 PAGES
The Plot to Change America
By Mike Gonzalez
The Myths Driving Identity Politics Everything today is a war of words. As identity politics dominate the discourse in America, it’s important to understand that cultural Marxism is laser-focused on cre-
This week, we recommend books on the state of journalism and identity politics in the United States, as well as classics about love and redemption.
ating division and disunity. Certain groups and politicians are manufacturing narratives about race and identity to drive wedges between people for their own political goals. This book is a valuable tool to understand the myths that have perpetuated identity politics in America, what’s taking place, and offers a strategy to change course. ENCOUNTER BOOKS, 2020, 224 PAGES
FICTION
Till We Have Faces: A Myth Retold
By C.S. Lewis
An Ancient Myth Resurrected In this 1956 retelling of Cupid and Psyche, we are guided by Orual, Psyche’s bitter and possessive older sister, who mistakes love for control and dominance. She despises Cupid, the god of love, for taking Psyche from her, and ruins Bardia, her confidant at court, by working him to death. Soon she sets out on a spiritual journey and issues a complaint against the gods themselves and discovers we cannot meet the gods “till we have faces.” A remarkable book with profound lessons about love. HARTCOURT, 2006, 313 PAGES
62 I N S I G H T Nov. 26 – Dec. 2, 2021
Are there books you’d recommend? We’d love to hear from you. Let us know at features@epochtimes.com
HISTORY
The Viking Heart
By Arthur Herman
The Legacy of a Millenium-Old Culture Herman takes readers on a journey on the figurative Viking longboat through the world of the Scandinavians, covering nearly 1,200 years, from the time that Vikings struck the island monastery of Lindisfarne in England in 793, to the contributions of Scandinavians in modern times. Discover their larger-than-life heroes, how they conquered the world, and how their indisputable work ethic and ingenuity continue to impact the world. MARINER BOOKS, 2021, 512 PAGES
CAREERS
From Paycheck to Purpose
By Ken Coleman
Finding Your Dream Job As an unexpected consequence of the pandemic and the ensuing
public health measures, many people are reevaluating their work. For those looking to take their careers in a different direction, Ken Coleman offers a guide on getting clear, getting qualified, getting connected, and getting started, in order to find work that they love.
FOR KIDS
RAMSEY PRESS, 2021, 272 PAGES
The Bronze Bow
CLASSICS
Hate Is the Enemy
Crime and Punishment
By Fyodor Dostoevsky
Immorality and Redemption This masterpiece speaks to the moral confusion of our own age. Here the author puts an impoverished Russian student and murderer, Raskolnikov, under a microscope, giving us insights into his troubled soul, his justifications for killing a pawnbroker, and his mood swings between thinking himself above any moral code and feeling enormous guilt for what he has done. Saved from himself in part by Sonya, a simple girl driven by poverty to prostitution, Raskolnikov confesses his crime and discovers that “love had raised them from the dead.” W.W. NORTON & COMPANY, 2018, 576 PAGES
By Elizabeth George Speare
This 1962 Newbery Medal winner features Daniel, a Hebrew youth who vows vengeance on the Romans for killing his father. He realizes his hatred is eating him alive after meeting Jesus of Nazareth. Highly relevant for our troubled time. HMH BOOKS, 1997, 254 PAGES
The Story of Holly and Ivy
By Rumer Godden
Secret Wishes and Christmas Miracles A great family readaloud book about a Christmas doll and the orphan girl who fell in love with her through the shop window. This story from 1958 is full of delightful happenstance to foster the belief in miracles at Christmas time. PENGUIN, 2006, 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 check out a family-friendly new release, a drama about a misunderstood ex-con, and a thought-provoking docudrama about modernization.
NEW RELEASE: A FUN FRANCHISE REBOOT
INDIE PICK
Adopt a Highway
Ghostbusters: Afterlife When a single mother named Callie (Carrie Coon) and her two children, Trevor (Finn Wolfhard) and Phoebe (Mckenna Grace), are evicted from their home, they move into a creepy old farmhouse in Oklahoma. The house was left to them by Callie’s late father and as they explore the place’s spooky environs, they learn about the man’s eldritch predictions. The kids are helped by brilliant seismologist Mr. Grooberson (Paul Rudd). This is a pretty solid and fun reboot with some good laughs balanced by just the right amount of nostalgia.
ADVENTURE | COMEDY | FANTASY
Release Date: Nov. 19, 2021 Director: Jason Reitman Starring: Carrie Coon, Paul Rudd, Finn Wolfhard Runtime: 2 hours, 4 minutes MPAA Rating: PG-13 Where to Watch: Theaters
A RIVETING WORLD WAR I CHARACTER STUDY a man who stands up for justice to defend the lives of his men against the forces arrayed against them. DR AMA | WAR
Paths of Glory It’s World War I, and the Germans have invaded Paris. Colonel Dax (Kirk Douglas) must find a way to rally the demoralized men of the unit he
commands down in the trenches, and also a conniving general who is plotting his demise. This film is a fascinating character study of
Release Date: Dec. 25, 1957 Director: Stanley Kubrick Starring: Kirk Douglas, Ralph Meeker, Adolphe Menjou Running Time: 1 hour, 28 minutes Rating: Approved Where to Watch: Subs, Vudu
Russell Millings (Ethan Hawke) is released from a 20-year lockup for a marijuana crime—a result of the controversial three-strikes law. Since technology has passed him by, he struggles to learn about everything new. When he finds a discarded baby in a dumpster, he knows having her in his care won’t look good by the authorities, including his parole board.. This is a beautifully shot film filled with both touching and
tense moments. It also carries some inspiring messages, such as doing the right thing in spite of your past. DR AMA
Release Date: Nov. 1, 2019 Director: Logan Marshall-Green Starring: Ethan Hawke, Chris Sullivan, Elaine Hendrix Runtime: 1 hour, 18 minutes Rating: Not Rated Where to Watch: Starz, Redbox
ONE OF THE BEST DOCUDRAMAS OF 2021
Luzzu Jesmark Scicluna stars as Jesmark, a Maltese fisherman whose livelihood is thrown into peril when the small fishing vessel he owns, Luzzu, becomes compromised. He soon becomes tempted to become involved in black market activities in order to take care of his wife and newborn child. This is a fascinating docudrama that details how both modernization and corruption destroy many cultures’ economies, traditions, and livelihoods. It’s also
a multi-layered tale of one man’s struggle to eke out an honest living in a corrupt world. DR AMA
Release Date: Jan. 29, 2021 Director: Alex Camilleri Starring: Frida Cauchi, Jesmark Scicluna, Michela Farrugia Running Time: 1 hour, 34 minutes MPAA Rating: Not Rated Where to Watch: FandangoNow, Theaters
I N S I G H T Nov. 26 – Dec. 2, 2021 63
Having your own private aircraft opens a world of travel opportunities. COURTESY OF TEXTRON AVIATION
Lifestyle Aviation
Nothing trumps a private jet for the ultimate in luxurious stress-free travel.
A private aircraft is the key to ultimate freedom, allowing you to go where you want to go, when you want, in luxurious style. But what's the best way to own it?
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ALL PHOTOS BY IMAGES ARE COURTESY OF TEXTRON AVIATION AND GULFSTREAM AEROSPACE
By Bill Lindsey
HENEVER the conversation turns to personal freedom, two things invariably come up: owning a yacht and having a luxurious jet or turboprop aircraft at your immediate disposal. But what are the realities of these dreams? The answer depends in large part on how you define “own.” Just as luxury yachts are commonly owned by an LLC or corporation created for that purpose and then registered in a tax haven, so too are private aircraft more commonly owned by an entity rather than an individual. Even corporations typically opt to not take direct ownership for liability and tax reasons. Airlines do this as well; by some estimates, up to a third of all the aircraft operated by commercial airlines are leased. If you want your name on the registration, consider what’s involved. Outright
ownership means you’re responsible for the initial purchase plus ongoing maintenance and related expenses. A private jet can cost from about $4.5 million for a HondaJet capable of carrying four to five passengers on trips up to 1,223 nm (nautical miles) at speeds of 485 miles per hour, to $71.3 million for a Gulfstream G8000 that can accommodate eight or more passengers, depending on interior layout, on trips up to 7,000 nm at speeds of just under 500 miles per hour. Pre-owned jet prices are pricey as well, typically starting at about $2 million, subject to the age, type, and condition of the aircraft. TURBOPROP AIRCRAFT ARE another
luxury private airplane option; a Beechcraft King Air selling for $7.9 million has room for up to 10 passengers with a range of 1,800 nm at speeds of 360 miles per hour. These smaller turboprop and jet aircraft don’t require the long runways needed by a typical Delta or United airlin-
er, meaning they can travel to many more destinations than commercial aviation. As can be the case with a yacht, the purchase price may end up being the least expensive aspect of ownership. Ongoing ownership costs include pilot and cabin crew salaries (owners may be able to fly the aircraft if they hold the required certifications and have permission from the insurer), aircraft insurance, landing and ramp fees, maintenance, fuel, and repairs.
Alternatively, you don’t need to own the plane in order to have 24/7 access to it. Industry experts say operating costs for a private jet can be $500,000 to $1 million per year. One way to defray these expenses is to make the aircraft available for charter. Many luxury yacht owners recognize the practicality of letting others use the yacht to help pay the bills whenever they don’t need theirs; this works equally well for owners of in-demand private aircraft. Alternatively, you don’t need to own I N S I G H T Nov. 26 – Dec. 2, 2021 65
Lifestyle Aviation
LIFESTYLE
OWN THE SKY 3 ways to fly better than first class
1 Spacious, well-appointed interiors ensure passenger comfort. the plane in order to have 24/7 access to it. Alternatives to outright ownership include fractional ownership, a lease, or a charter. Just as is the case with a vehicle, a leased aircraft provides the benefits of ownership at a much lower upfront cost. Aircraft are usually “dry leased,” with the user responsible for pilots and cabin crew, fuel, airport fees, aircraft insurance, maintenance, and repairs. Leasing also prevents you from having to explain to a chief financial officer or significant other why there is a significantly depreciated asset on the balance sheet, or worse, one that turned out to be the wrong choice. For these and other reasons, leasing is often a method that makes “owning” a private plane financially viable. FRACTIONAL OWNERSHIP plans allow
multiple owners to share the aircraft. Each shareholder has access to the aircraft based on the size of their share; the larger the share, the more hours they can use the aircraft. A management company handles all owner-related details from hiring pilots to paying landing fees. Chartering an aircraft is another ownership alternative. This is especially attractive for those who infrequently require the plane or need different aircraft for different trips. In a manner similar to chartering a yacht, a charter company will make all the arrangements to get you and your party to your destination and back. A similar option offered by Delta Air 66 I N S I G H T Nov. 26 – Dec. 2, 2021
Lines is its Wheels Up program: a fleet of aircraft ranging from turboprop-powered King Airs to Falcons, Gulfstreams, and similar larger private jets, available on an hourly basis. Users can specify the destination just as they would if it were their personal airplane, but upon arrival walk away without any overhanging financial obligations. IN THE FINAL ANALYSIS, only the indi-
vidual can decide if the cost of individual or corporate ownership is viable. Those who travel frequently may be better off owning, while those whose schedules are not so crowded may decide to charter. If money is no object, owning may be the best way to have complete control over all aspects of travel as well as having the outrageously fun opportunity of being able to say, “I hear the canapés are fabulous this time of year in Cannes. Let’s take my jet.” ■
Own It The cost of bragging rights from owning a luxury aircraft goes far beyond the initial purchase price. Add in fuel, storage, pilot salaries, landing fees, repairs, maintenance, and more.
2 Lease It Just as when leasing a car, leasing a luxury aircraft provides the benefits of ownership without having to make a huge down payment. It also keeps a depreciating asset off the books.
3 Charter It
Private aircraft utilize commercial airliner-quality navigation systems.
Chartering a luxury aircraft may be the best way to have your own aircraft. With a charter, you can choose from a wide selection of aircraft as well as where and when you go.
Luxury Living Video Cameras
VIDEOGRAPHY CAMERAS: CATCH AND KEEP THE ACTION
Once deemed too complicated for most, videography has boomed in popularity, driven by the need to connect with others via social media. This professional-quality collection covers every scenario from filming weddings to exploring shipwrecks. By Bill Lindsey
DON’T JUST FILM, LIVESTREAM
EX PR ESS YOUR SELF
Blackmagic Design Pocket Cinema Camera 6K Pro
Panasonic X1500 FROM $1,699
FROM $2,429.95
The X1500 is a very impressive, capable, and compact 4K package. The 25 millimeter wide-angle Leica lens smoothly zooms out to 24x while the optical stabilization ensures a clear image while filming or livestreaming via Wi-Fi.
The 6K Pro shoots 6K video at 50 frames per second and is compatible with lenses from most other cameras. Intuitive controls, a tilting five-inch back screen, and superior low-light performance make it a handheld videography studio.
DI Y D O C U M E N TA R Y C A M
COURTESY OF CANON, PANASONIC, BLACKMAGIC, DJI, GOPRO
Canon XA55 Professional Camcorder FROM $2,799
SUPERMAN’S VIEW
DJI Mavic 3 FROM $2,199
Until you get a jetpack, the Mavic 3 is the top choice for aerial videography. Featuring object avoidance capability, it has a Hasselblad main lens, plus a 28x zoom lens to capture distant subjects.
The XA55 is a great choice for those seeking compact professional-grade video equipment. Ready to record in both MP4 and XF-AVC formats, it maintains 4K UHD throughout the 15x zoom range. Compatible with a variety of lights and external microphones, it features a threeinch LCD touch panel monitor and an electronic viewfinder.
MINI MARVEL
GoPro HERO10 FROM $399.98
GoPro’s new Hero10 uses integral stabilization to crisply capture even the most extreme action at up to 5.3K. Waterproof to 33 feet right out of the box, it redefines ultra-portable videography. I N S I G H T Nov. 26 – Dec. 2, 2021 67
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