From Behind the Paywall: A Few Things Haven't Changed in 2022
If you want to save your freedom and this republic, take this as a "to-do" list.
At the beginning of a new year, we naturally hope for a fresh start, a new beginning, an opportunity to correct past wrongdoings. Unfortunately, not everything magically changes for the better with the calendar change. A few things have remained the same or taken a turn for the worse in 2022 so far.
Our elites continue to sell out American values in China
We have gotten used to our elites and corporate America kowtowing to Beijing. The new year came with new troubling revelations. A special report from Reuters reveals how far Amazon has gone to help the Chinese government enforce censorship to do business in China. For example, a collection of Chinese Communist Party General Secretary Xi Jinping's speeches and writings is available for sale on Amazon's Chinese site. The company disabled the customer reviews and rating section because rating less than "five stars" will hurt the dear leader's feelings.
Amazon also reportedly handed off its cloud technology to local Chinese companies. These local partners use their access to Amazon cloud to enforce China's censorship on behalf of Amazon, including "monitoring and taking down illegal content, collecting and reporting basic information of customers … and working with PRC (the People's Republic of China) authorities on all compliance-related inquiries that may arise."
Amazon's capitulation to the CCP doesn't stop within China's borders.
The company partnered with an arm of China's propaganda operation to create a China Book portal on the company's U.S. site. The portal brings the Chinese Communist Party's propaganda directly to our doorstep, including books that proclaim Uyghur Muslims are fine in China's Xinjiang region. These books' contents contradict what the rest of the world already knows. Numerous reports and witness testimonies have confirmed that the CCP has committed gross human rights abuses against Uyghur Muslims and other minorities in the region, which amounts to genocide.
Jay Carney, former press secretary for President Barack Obama and currently a top public-policy executive at Amazon, went to China in April 2018 and promised the CCP that his company would make "every effort" to promote China Books. Carney knew what he was doing. An internal document he helped prepare for Amazon executives states, "Ideological control and propaganda is the core of the toolkit for the communist party to achieve and maintain its success...We are not making a judgment on whether it is right or wrong."
Another American company that chose not to make a moral judgment of the CCP for profit is Tesla. The company opened a new showroom in Urumqi, the capital of Xinjiang. Tesla China announced the opening with great fanfare on China's social media with photos and this message, "On the last day of 2021, we meet in Xinjiang. In 2022, let us together launch Xinjiang on its electric journey!"
Tesla's announcement came only a few days after President Biden signed The Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act into law, banning companies from importing products that are made with forced labor in the Xinjiang area. By opening a new showroom in Xinjiang, Tesla not only defiantly ignores the U.S. law but also serves as a poster child for the CCP's "There is no slave labor in Xinjiang and everything is fine" propaganda.
We can only hope as time goes by, more American companies will heed the warning from former Attorney General William Barr -- that American companies should remember "what allowed them to succeed in the first place was the American free enterprise system, the rule of law, and the security afforded by America’s economic, technological, and military strength...A world marching to the beat of Communist China’s drums will not be a hospitable one for institutions that depend on free markets, free trade, or the free exchange of ideas. "
The Masking Theater Continues
For two years, public health officials such as Dr. Anthony Fauci, and talking heads on liberal cable news had supported mask mandates and kept telling Americans that wearing any kind of face-covering or even multiple layers of face-coverings were necessary to prevent the spread of COVID19, despite various studies have discredited their claims and shown that regular masks were not effective at COVID19 prevention. Their insistence on masking is why we have to wear masks to enter almost anywhere public, be it a restaurant, gym, grocery store, office, or airplane.
But at the end of 2021, their messages on masking suddenly changed. A CCN medical analyst and former head of Planned Parenthood, Leana Wen went on CNN and Twitter, claiming, " Don't wear a cloth mask. Cloth masks are little more than facial decorations. There's no place for them in light of Omicron." A few days later, Dr. Fauci also confirmed that cloth masks were ineffective.
If you think these mask-Nazis finally had a change of heart and decided to "follow the science," you are wrong. They want Americans, including children, to ditch cloth masks and start wearing the more expensive and highly uncomfortable N95 masks. Someone told me that several private schools in San Francisco began to mandate kindergarteners to wear N95 masks even though there are no N95 masks available for kids that young.
So expect the masking theater to continue in 2022 and will get even more weird and oppressive.
American Youth Continue to be Victimized by Extreme COVID19 Policies
Although repeated studies have shown that youth has the lowest risk of being severely affected by COVID19, teachers' unions and education officials from K-12 to universities still chose to impose extreme COVID19 policies at the start of a new school year 2022.
Officials at New York City School District announced to keep in-person schools closed for at least one week, starting January 3rd. The teachers union at Chicago Public Schools voted to stop providing in-person instruction two days after the school began. The union offered no plans for remote learning, so classes were canceled this week, and kids who attended Chicago Public schools received no education at all.
Emerson college requires "all students, faculty, staff, and vendors to get a Covid-19 vaccine booster prior to returning to campus for the Spring 2022 semester" and "all students to be tested for COVID19 twice a week, at least three days apart, for the first seven days after returning." The college will also offer virtual learning at least until January 17th.
Georgetown University also requires booster shots for "all students, faculty, staff, and vendors." It will offer virtual learning at least until the end of January. In addition, students "would not be allowed to eat or drink in public spaces on campus. All university-sponsored indoor events were canceled or moved outdoors. And, in the name of public health, campus fitness centers would be closed starting on December 16th."
By the way, the person who decided to impose such draconian COVID19 measure in Georgetown was Dr. Ranit Mishori, the chief public health officer for the university. Guess what? She posted a photo of herself having fun inside the Kennedy Center only a few days after announcing policies that would take the fun away from young and healthy students. So expect such left hypocrisy that we have witnessed so many in the last two years to continue in 2022.
We should also note that attending Emerson College costs about $51,000 a year and $80,000 a year to attend Georgetown. Neither school will offer students any refund for not delivering a whole college experience.
But aside from the money issue, American children and young adults' mental health and quality of learning have become the most significant casualties of two years of pro-longed school closure and virtual learning from K-12 to college level. Yet, at the start of the third year into the COVID19 pandemic, it is unconscionable that fearful and selfish adults have decided to take even more extreme measures, which will no doubt victimize American youths further, probably to the point of no return.
If my list makes you depressed, don't be. These examples only offer a further proof that the left will never give up controlling our lives. Things will not get better on their own. Therefore, if you want to save your freedom and this republic, take this as a "to-do" list. None of us can fight all the battles. Pick a topic or a cause you care about and get to work. Together, we can make sure 2022 won't go down like the last two years, and we can make a difference.
Podcast Interview
Talked to Jim Herilhy, host of “The San Francisco Experience” podcast about my book, “Backlash: How China’s Aggression Has Backfired.” You can listen to it here.
Op-eds in the Federalist
Intel argues that its silence on China’s human rights violations and its kowtowing to Beijing’s demands is necessary to follow Chinese law, an excuse many U.S. companies, including Apple and Nike, used in the past to justify moral cowardice. In contrast to U.S. companies’ collective compliance with Chinese laws, China Telecom, a Chinese state-run company, vowed to continue its U.S. operations despite an eviction order from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). Read more here.
By some measure, the trial of Holmes was also the trial of the ‘fake it until you make it’ Silicon Valley mentality. Read more here.