80 Years of Remembering Pearl Harbor: Valor, Sacrifice, and Peace
Epoch Times – Thousands of people gathered here on Tuesday to commemorate the 80th Anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor.
The surprise assault by the Imperial Japanese Navy on Dec. 7, 1941, carried out prior to a declaration of war, plunged the United States into World War II.
The ceremony honored the fallen, encouraged the survivors, and brought healing and closure to the 396 families who waited for their loved ones to finally be identified. A smaller group of families, 33 in all, re-interred the remains of fallen warriors who have remained unidentified despite years of effort.
Only 32 Pearl Harbor Veterans were able to attend the anniversary this year with two from the USS Oklahoma, one from the USS Pennsylvania, and one from the USS St. Louis: a reminder that history is transitioning as these heroes are entering their late 90’s and 100’s.
The 80th anniversary marks the completion of a significant project to identify the remains of the fallen. The USS Oklahoma Identification Project used a variety of identification efforts, including historical and modern, to identify 396 of the 429 crew members who perished during the attack.
Kelly McKeague, Director of the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, called the anniversary a “truly a momentous occasion.”
“To say it is a milestone is not an understatement. It was the right thing to do, to provide answers to the families about their loved ones who made the ultimate sacrifice.”
Department of Justice Closes Second Investigation Into Killing of Emmett Till
Epoch Times – The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has closed a second investigation into the killing of Emmett Till, saying it could not prove that a key player in what happened lied.
Till, then 14, was said to have grabbed and whistled at a woman, Carolyn Bryant Donham, the co-owner of a store in Money, Mississippi.
Enraged by the teenager’s actions, Donham’s husband Roy Bryant, his half-brother, and at least one other person took Till from his relatives’ home a few days later.
Till was found three days after that dead. The black boy’s body had been brutally beaten.
Bryant and his relative were charged with murder but an all-white jury acquitted them.
The pair admitted to killing Till in an interview with Look magazine in 1956.
Donham, whose testimony was entered in the trial, was said to have acknowledged making untrue statements at that time in a recent interview with Timothy Tyson, a historian.
Tyson claimed Donham handed her a transcript of her testimony and said, “that part’s not true.”
That prompted the DOJ to reopen the investigation, hoping Donham would admit as much to agents and provide them with fresh information relating to the abduction and murder of Till.
Donham, though, told the FBI she never recanted her testimony and did not provide any new details about the case.
Agents pressed Tyson for evidence for his claim but he couldn’t back it up.
“Although the professor represented that he had recorded two interviews with her, he provided the FBI with only one recording, which did not contain any recantation. In addition, although an assistant transcribed the two recordings, neither transcript contained the alleged recantation,” the DOJ said in a statement.
“The professor also provided inconsistent explanations about whether the missing recording included the alleged recantation or whether, instead, the woman made the key admission before he began recording the interview,” it added.
Epoch Times – Microsoft seized a number of websites that were being used by a China-based hacking firm to carry out cyberattacks against organizations in the United States and 28 other countries around the world, the company announced on Monday.
In a news release, the technology corporation said that a federal court in Virginia had granted Microsoft’s Dec. 2 request to allow its Digital Crimes Unit to seize the U.S.-based websites, which were being run by a hacker group known as Nickel, APT15, orVixen Panda, and stop them from carrying out such attacks.
Microsoft said it has been tracking Nickel since 2016 and monitoring these specific operations since 2019.
“We believe these attacks were largely being used for intelligence gathering from government agencies, think tanks, and human rights organizations,” Microsoft’s corporate vice president of customer security and trust, Tom Burt, said.
The company is redirecting the websites’ traffic to secure Microsoft servers to “help us protect existing and future victims while learning more about Nickel’s activities.”
However, Burt noted that “our disruption will not prevent Nickel from continuing other hacking activities, but we do believe we have removed a key piece of the infrastructure the group has been relying on for this latest wave of attacks.”
The hackers’ “highly sophisticated” attacks use a variety of techniques but often consist of installing inconspicuous malware that allows for data theft and surveillance.
Devin Nunes to Resign From Congress, Will Become CEO of Trump Media Company
Epoch Times – Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.), the ranking Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, is leaving Congress to join a media venture backed by former President Donald Trump, the company said.
“Nunes will be leaving the U.S. House of Representatives and will begin his new role as Chief Executive Officer of TMTG in January 2022,” said Trump Media & Technology Group in a news release.
TMTG, a social media startup, and its blank-check company said Saturday that it received a commitment of $1 billion from an unidentified group of donors and investors. Months before that, Trump announced he would create a platform known as “Truth Social” that is expected to be officially launched sometime in 2022.
The news release included comments from both Trump and Nunes, a 10-term congressman, confirming his departure from the House.
“The time has come to reopen the Internet and allow for the free flow of ideas and expression without censorship,” Nunes said in confirming the move. “The United States of America made the dream of the Internet a reality and it will be an American company that restores the dream. I’m humbled and honored President Trump has asked me to lead the mission and the world class team that will deliver on this promise.”
Nunes also told constituents that he will depart Congress at the end of 2021.
“Recently, I was presented with a new opportunity to fight for the most important issues I believe in. I’m writing to let you know I’ve decided to pursue this opportunity, and therefore I will be leaving the House of Representatives at the end of 2021,” the Republican congressman said. “Rest assured, I have not, by any means, given up our collective fight—I’ll just be pursuing it through other means.”
Corporate Insiders Sold Record Level of Stock in 2021
Epoch Times – Some of the biggest names in the corporate world sold a record $69 billion in stock this year as share valuations surged to record highs, new data from Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filings show.
According to the latest numbers from InsiderScore/Verity, via CNBC, sales by CEOs, founders, and corporate insiders have climbed 30 percent from last year to $69 billion. This is also up 79 percent compared to the 10-year average.
Experts averred that this figure is expected to swell in December as this is typically an active month ahead of tax season.
A vast portion of the sales was concentrated among a few individuals, with Ben Silverman, director of research at InsiderScore/Verity, describing the top four as “super sellers.”
Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk was at the top of the list at $10 billion. Former Amazon president and CEO Jeff Bezos shed $9.97 billion. The Walton family cashed in on $6.18 billion in Walmart stock in 2021. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg liquidated $4.47 billion.
Other big names were on the list, too. Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin each sold approximately $1.5 billion of their Alphabet shares. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella got rid of close to half of his company shares for roughly $285 million.
What Do They Know? Insiders Are Dumping Stocks At A Pace Never Seen Before In All Of U.S. History
Economic Collapse – Why are CEOs and corporate insiders selling their stocks at a far faster rate than we have ever seen before? Do they know something that the rest of us do not? If stock prices are going to continue soaring into the stratosphere like many in the mainstream media are suggesting, these insiders that are dumping stocks like there is no tomorrow will miss out on some absolutely enormous profits. On the other hand, if a colossal market crash is coming in 2022, then 2021 was absolutely the perfect time to get out. As I have said countless times before, you only make money in the stock market if you get out in time. Could it be possible that many of the richest people in the world have picked the absolutely perfect moment to pull the trigger?
According to CNBC, CEOs and corporate insiders have sold 69 billion dollars worth of stock so far this year. That is a new all-time record, and it is a whopping 30 percent higher than last year…
CEOs and corporate insiders have sold a record $69 billion in stock in 2021, as looming tax hikes and lofty share prices encourage many to take profits.
From Satya Nadella at Microsoft to Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk, CEOs, founders and insiders have been cashing in their stock at the highest pace on record. As of Monday, sales by insiders are up 30% from 2020 to $69 billion, and up 79% versus a 10-year average, according to InsiderScore/Verity, which excludes sales by large institutional holders.
Los Angeles has turned into ‘The Purge,’ detective warns
RT – A Los Angeles police detective is warning tourists to stay clear of the city, saying that they will be unsafe, and comparing conditions to the horror movie ‘The Purge.’
“We’re telling people don’t visit because we don’t think we can keep you safe right now,” Los Angeles Police Department detective Jamie McBride told Fox News on Monday.
The city, he added, is like the movie ‘The Purge,’ a popular horror film set in a US where crime is legal for a set period of time every calendar year. The difference between the movie and the city, however, is that in Los Angeles, criminals have 365 days to run riot, McBride said.
Like numerous other critics, McBride, also director for the LA Police Protective League, points to Proposition 47 as key to California’s laid-back attitude towards crime. The 2014 measure made theft below $950 a misdemeanor. The attempt at criminal justice reform, critics have said, has only fueled home invasions and smash-and-grab robberies as most criminals know they will be released not long after being caught and usually with little to no bail set.
“It’s almost safer to hang out with Alec Baldwin on a movie set than to go shopping in Los Angeles right now,” McBride said.
California Governor Gavin Newsom, whom McBride says “needs to go,” expressed frustration last week with a string of headline-grabbing smash-and-grab robberies in Los Angeles and other cities, insisting law enforcement do more.
“Police need to arrest them. Prosecutors need to prosecute them. Judges need to hold people accountable for breaking the law,” the Democrat governor said. “These are not victimless crimes, and I have no empathy for these criminal elements.”
Last week, White House press secretary Jen Psaki blamed the recent rash of smash-and-grab thefts on the Covid-19 pandemic.
China threatens the US with retaliation over diplomatic boycott of Winter Olympics
CNN – China has threatened the Biden administration with retaliation over its decision to impose a diplomatic boycott of the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, warning the move could harm bilateral relations.
The Biden administration said Monday it would not send an official United States delegation to the Beijing Winter Games as a statement against China’s “ongoing genocide and crimes against humanity in Xinjiang.” US athletes will still be allowed to compete in the Games.
Responding to the White House announcement, China’s Foreign Ministry said it had launched “solemn representation” with the US and vowed to take “resolute countermeasures.”
“Out of ideological bias and based on lies and rumors, the US is trying to disrupt the Beijing Winter Olympics. This will only expose its sinister intention and further erode its moral authority and credibility,” ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian said at a news conference Tuesday.
“The wrong move of the US has undermined the foundation and atmosphere for China-US sports exchanges and Olympic cooperation. It has shot itself in the foot. The US should understand the grave consequences of its move,” Zhao said.
Omicron Variant May Cause Less Severe Disease: Report
Epoch TImes – The Omicron virus variant may lead to less severe cases of COVID-19 than earlier strains, according to data from South Africa, where the variant was first identified last month.
Most of the hospitalized patients admitted with COVID-19 did not need oxygen, a contrast to earlier in the pandemic, the South African Medical Research Council said in a new report.
Of 42 patients at a COVID-19 ward inside one of the hospitals in Gauteng Province, the epicenter of the latest wave, on Dec. 2, 70 percent did not need oxygen and had no respiratory symptoms, researchers said.
They described the patients as “incidental COVID admissions” because the patients were admitted to the hospital for a medical or surgical reason, not COVID-19.
Out of the 13 patients that required supplemental oxygen, nine had a diagnosis of COVID-19.
“This is a picture that has not been seen in previous waves. In the beginning of all three previous waves and throughout the course of these waves, there has always only been a sprinkling of patients on room air in the COVID ward and these patients have usually been in the recovery phase waiting for the resolution of a co-morbidity prior to discharge,” researchers said.
“The COVID ward was recognizable by the majority of patients being on some form of oxygen supplementation with the incessant sound of high flow nasal oxygen machines, or beeping ventilator alarms,” they added.
Another sign of optimism regarding Omicron? While COVID-19 cases have shot up in recent days, the in-hospital rate of deaths linked to the disease 6.6 percent in the previous two weeks before the report was published, versus 17 percent in the year-and-a-half preceding that time period.
“This may be due to the usual lag between cases and deaths and the trend will become clearer over the next few weeks,” said the researchers, who also cautioned against reading too much into the emerging data.
The first Omicron cases in southern Africa date back to Nov. 9.
Omicron is a variant of the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus, which causes COVID-19.
Biden Plan to Combat Corruption Includes New Real Estate Rules
Epoch Times – The White House’s new plan to combat corruption—both domestically and overseas—seeks to, among other things, add new regulations on the real estate industry.
The United States’ Strategy on Countering Corruption, a 38-page document released Dec. 6, outlines five pillars characterizing its goals.
These are: modernizing, coordinating, and resourcing U.S. government efforts to fight corruption; curbing illicit finance; holding corrupt people accountable; preserving and strengthening the capacity to fight corruption; and improving diplomatic engagement, and leveraging foreign assistance resources to fight corruption.
The White House calls the strategy a whole-of-government approach to elevating the fight against corruption.
“Corruption threatens U.S. national security, economic equity, global anti-poverty and development efforts, and democracy itself,” said President Joe Biden on Dec. 6. “But, by effectively preventing and countering corruption, and demonstrating the advantages of transparent and accountable governance, we can secure a critical advantage for the United States and other democracies.”
As part of this new strategy, FinCEN, a financial regulator within the Treasury Department, is soliciting public comment on a potential rule to address the vulnerability, in the U.S. real estate market, to money laundering and other illicit activity.
The public comment period will determine which real estate transactions should be covered under new regulations that seek to address the problems created by all-cash purchases of commercial, and residential, real estate, according to a senior administration official.
“We recognize that any approach that we take is going to have burdens on the real estate industry.
“So we’re very focused on asking a number of questions around ways that any approach that we take … can be used to minimize the regulatory burdens on the real estate sector in a way that’s consistent with our efforts, and desire, to combat corruption.”
By getting the information needed for law enforcement—and for national security agencies—to both protect U.S. national security, the official said, it would also protect the “integrity of the global financial system and the U.S. financial system as well.”
Currently, title insurance companies in just 12 metropolitan areas are required to file reports concerning all-cash purchases of residential real estate, if the transaction exceeds $300,000.
The U.S. real estate market has been susceptible to being manipulated and used as a haven for the laundered proceeds of illicit activity, including corruption, according to the official.
Over the course of the week, the U.S. Treasury is expected take a series of actions to designate individuals—who are engaged in malign activities that undermine democracy and democratic institutions around the world—including through corruption, repression, organized crime, and serious human rights abuses, the official said.
Chris Cuomo Claims CNN’s Jeff Zucker Knew About His Involvement With Andrew Cuomo Scandal
Epoch Times – Former CNN anchor Chris Cuomo said that the network’s executive, Jeff Zucker, was previously aware of Cuomo’s actions when he protected his brother, then-New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo.
Chris Cuomo and Zucker “were widely known to be extremely close and in regular contact, including about the details of Mr. Cuomo’s support for his brother,” said a spokesperson for Chris Cuomo.
The spokesperson told The Wall Street Journal on Sunday evening that “there were no secrets about this, as other individuals besides Mr. Cuomo can attest.”
Cuomo was fired on Saturday following the release of materials that suggested he was more involved than he had admitted in trying to help Andrew Cuomo amid sexual harassment allegations against the former governor earlier this year. The materials were released on Nov. 29 by New York’s attorney general, Letitia James, who previously alleged that the former governor harassed at least 11 women while he was in office.
Andrew Cuomo ultimately stepped down as governor earlier this year, but he has maintained that the allegations against him are false. The former governor now facing misdemeanor criminal charges after one of his accusers pressed charges against him.
On Sunday, CNN told WSJ that Chris Cuomo’s characterization of his relationship with Zucker and Cuomo’s other claims are incorrect.
“He has made a number of accusations that are patently false,” CNN said, without elaborating on what claims may have been false. “This reinforces why he was terminated for violating our standards and practices, as well as his lack of candor.”
Wow! FOX News Sidelines Lara Logan After Dr. Fauci Complains About Her Nazi Doctor Comparison
Gateway Pundit – Investigative reporter and FOX News contributor Lara Logan responded to Dr. Tony Fauci’s recent statement that he is “science” and challenging him is challenging “science.”
Lara Logan had other thoughts on Dr. Fauci, comparing him to notorious Nazi Dr. Josef Mengele.
Vaccine Mandate Exemplifies How President Joe Biden Has Become Lawmaker‐In‐Chief
CATO – As someone who spent most of his adult life in the Senate, President Joe Biden surely appreciates the constitutional boundaries between the legislative and executive branches of government. So why is he acting like the lawmaker‐in‐chief?
Biden has been issuing executive orders at an unprecedented clip for modern presidents — 71 and counting. If he sustains this pace through the year, Biden would almost double the combined annual average of his three immediate predecessors. The New York Times even called him out in an editorial titled, “Ease up on the executive actions, Joe.”
As a practical matter, executive orders call on federal agencies to implement law‐like regulations in line with the president’s policy preferences. Thus, the Biden administration has imposed several sweeping measures that are indistinguishable from major legislation, including a halt on oil and gas leasing on federal property, a nationwide moratorium on evictions, and, most recently, a vaccine mandate on businesses with more than 100 employees.
In this regard, Biden’s actions reflect a modern trend. Scholars have coined the phrase “presidential administration” to describe American government since at least the Clinton administration. The idea is that the president, rather than Congress, has become the primary policymaker in Washington, D.C. Think former president Barack Obama’s “pen and phone” or Donald Trump’s bogus “national emergency” to fund his border wall.
To be clear, presidents aren’t writing actual statutes. Instead, they’re ordering their administrations to interpret ambiguous laws that have long been on the books.
And therein lies the rub: Congress has given away, or “delegated,” much of its policymaking power over the last century to the executive branch by passing broadly‐worded laws that empower the federal bureaucracy to impose law‐like rules. For the most part, Congress delegates to pass the buck. When voters want something done, lawmakers could legislate policy specifics, but they’ll get blamed if they err. By delegating, Congress can escape accountability.
At first, Congress tempered these delegations by competing with the president for control over regulatory policy. Over the last few decades, however, our increasingly polarized Legislature has become a shell of its former self. In the contemporary Congress, political party trumps institutional pride. As a result, half of Congress loses interest in runaway executive power whenever “their guy” occupies the Oval Office.
By now, Congress has ceded enough policymaking initiative to render itself expendable. When Biden wants a law made, he can go it alone. All he has to do is order an agency to push the envelope of its existing authority.
Of course, presidential lawmaking flies in the face of our constitutional framework. The Founding Fathers designed a government with three branches — executive, legislative and judicial — and gave each the means to check the other. By dispersing power into competing institutions, the Constitution’s structure protects individual liberty. But now Congress has taken itself out of the constitutional competition, and the result is an alarming accumulation of power in the executive branch.
In Federalist 62, James Madison warned that an “excess of lawmaking” is a “disease” to which “our government is most liable.” For this reason, the Constitution makes lawmaking difficult: Before becoming law, a bill must pass the both the House and Senate and then receive the president’s signature.
By contrast, it’s much simpler for the president to achieve a regulation. All he needs to do is pick up the phone to get the ball rolling. Overbearing government is easier in our era of presidential administration.
In addition to these constitutional concerns, there are also pragmatic problems with our current era of presidential administration. Congressional delegations are written so loosely that successive Republican and Democrat (or vice‐versa) presidents can achieve opposite policies by interpreting the same statutory text.
The upshot is that federal policymaking pivots 180 degrees whenever there’s a party changeover in the White House. This is no way to run a country.
Ultimately, this mess is Congress’s fault. Until lawmakers rediscover their institutional ambition, the Constitution’s separation of powers will remain out of whack, and presidential power will run amok.
The good news is that the Supreme Court might compel Congress to get its act together.
Global Research – On Wednesday, Ursula Van Der Leyen – the chief of the European Union (EU) Commission – told the press that she would like to see the long-standing Nuremberg Code ignored completely in favor of allowing countries to force vaccinate anyone who is refusing to take the experimental jab.
Her alarming comments come just days after Germany followed Austria’s lead, mandating an authoritarian lockdown on only the unvaccinated.
In addition to being in full support of the segregated lockdown, von der Leyen said it was “understandable and appropriate” for EU countries to discuss mandatory COVID vaccinations because of the new Omicron variant, which has already been detected in 12 countries in the EU.
From The BBC:
“European Union countries should consider mandatory vaccination to combat Covid and the Omicron variant, the head of its Commission has said.
Ursula von der Leyen said vaccines would be crucial in the fight against the “highly contagious” new variant
How we can encourage and potentially think about mandatory vaccination within the European Union? This needs discussion. This needs a common approach, but it is a discussion that I think has to be led.“
Forcing individuals to take this experimental and potentially dangerous vaccine against their will would be in direct violation of the Nuremberg Code which was established in 1947 in the immediate wake of the horrific medical experiments and human rights atrocities by Nazis during the Holocaust.
The laws expressly state that
“the voluntary consent of the human subject is ABSOLUTELY ESSENTIAL,”
meaning that the individual is able to
“exercise free power of choice, WITHOUT the intervention of any element of force, fraud, deceit, duress, overreaching, or other ulterior forms of constraint or coercion“ – i.e taking away your right to work if you are not vaccinated.
A leading cause for the code’s creation was the Nazi’s sickening performance of medical experiments on subjects without their consent. These procedures, typically performed under the command of high-ranking officials such as Dr. Josef Mengele, were some of the worst and most deranged ever documented. Since then, full and proactive ongoing consent for any medical procedure has been required by law in western nations that recognize the Nuremberg Laws.
The only way countries in the EU would be able to get away with forced vaccinations for this mild virus, which is an extraordinarily unethical and atrocious violation of human rights, is to do away with the Nuremberg laws, or just ignore them completely.
As esteemed professor, Dr. Jordan Peterson sarcastically notes: “Hey, it’s just the Nuremberg code. Only what we learned from the Nazi atrocities, not least those that were medical.”
Instagram will now tell users when to take a break from using the app
CNN – Just a day before the head of Instagram will face questions from lawmakers over its child safety practices, the company is rolling out a handful of new features aimed at making it harder for users, particularly teenagers, to fall down rabbit holes that could be harmful to their mental health.
On Tuesday, the company launched its Take a Break tool, which will encourage users to spend some time away from the platform after they’ve been scrolling for a certain period. The feature, announced in September, will first come to users in the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada and Australia, and to all users in the months ahead.
Users can turn on the feature in “Settings” and select if they want to be alerted after using the platform for 10 minutes, 20 minutes or 30 minutes. They’ll then get a full-screen alert telling them to close out of the app, suggesting they take a deep breath, write something down, check a to-do list or listen to a song.
More Stories
Today’s News: May 03, 2024
Today’s News: May 01, 2024
Today’s News: April 30, 2024