March 23, 2021 - Epoch Times
17:53
| 
| Time | Text |
|---|---|
| Good evening. | |
| Over in New York City, Columbia University is planning on hosting six different graduation ceremonies based on the students' race, their income level, as well as how they self-identify. | |
| For instance, they will be holding a Latin graduation ceremony, a Black graduation ceremony, as well as an Asian graduation ceremony. | |
| They claim that this is being done in order to celebrate the students' diversity. | |
| Meanwhile, over in Ohio, a large Ford Motor Plant has just announced that they are planning to move a major project worth about $900 million from Ohio over to Mexico. | |
| The local union over there, the United Auto Workers Union, is now looking for ways to fight back. | |
| Now, down in Virginia, the governor over there has just signed an executive order which will allow 69,000 released prisoners to vote, serve on a jury, and serve in public office. | |
| And lastly, as Democrats at the federal level are pushing more and more left-leaning gun policies, new data shows that there is a surge around the country of first-time gun buyers. | |
| Let's go through these stories together. | |
| This is your daily Facts Matter update, and I'm your host, Roman, from the Epoch Times. | |
| Now let's start today's discussion by talking about New York City. | |
| Columbia University, which is located in Manhattan, plans on hosting six separate graduation ceremonies. | |
| Different ceremonies for students with different cultural backgrounds, different races, or different self-identities. | |
| According to their website, Columbia is calling them multicultural graduation celebrations, and they say that it's being done in honor of the students' diversity. | |
| And specifically, Columbia says that they will provide a more intimate setting for students who self-identify in a variety of ways. | |
| Now, in terms of what the six different ceremonies will be, well, here is a list. | |
| There will be a Latinx graduation celebration, a black graduation celebration, a lavender graduation celebration, which will cater to the LGBTIAQ community, as well as an Asian native, as well as an FLI graduation celebration. | |
| And in case you don't know, FLI stands for First Generation and or Low Income Community. | |
| Now, Columbia University received a ton of blowback online for doing this, with many people claiming that these anti-racism efforts have come around full circle and are now actively segregating people based on their race, their gender, their ethnicity, etc. | |
| For instance, Tom Cotton, who is a senator from Arkansas, he wrote that... | |
| The problem is not just one woke university embracing discrimination. | |
| Critical race theory is being pushed on our kids at school. | |
| It's peddled by HR departments at corporations, and the Biden administration has embraced it under the guise of racial equity. | |
| Critical race theory is the belief that people have value based on the color of their skin and that our race defines everything about us. | |
| It is not just false. | |
| It is dangerous. | |
| Now, in their defense, after receiving all this criticism online, Columbia University came out and clarified that these six different ceremonies exist in addition to, not instead of, university-wide commencement and individual school class days. | |
| Furthermore, they added that these events are important, intimate, and welcoming spaces for students aligned with these groups to come together to celebrate their achievements if they wish. | |
| They are organized in tandem with students and student groups. | |
| Now, if you would like to read more about these six different graduation ceremonies happening over at Columbia, or if you would like to go a little bit deeper into the subject of critical race theory, as well as its origins in Marxism, I'll throw those links into the description box below this video for you to check out. | |
| And by the way, that is that same little description box that is right below that like button that I hope you take a moment to smash. | |
| Because, as you already know, videos that are like this, talking honestly about what is happening in this world, are routinely censored, throttled, meaning their reach is reduced, or they are outright removed by big tech platforms like YouTube. | |
| However, when you smash that like button that's below this video, you are forcing the YouTube algorithm to share this video out to potentially thousands of more people, letting the truth be known far and wide. | |
| And now let's talk about Virginia. | |
| Three days ago, the governor of Virginia, Ralph Norum, he signed an executive order which would allow at least 69,000 released prisoners to vote. | |
| He called the move a restoration of their civil rights, saying that: Now, in case you're wondering, as it currently stands, according to the law at least, anyone convicted of a felony in Virginia loses the right to vote, they lose the right to serve on a jury, to run for office, to become a notary public, or to carry a firearm until they serve their sentence and finish the probation period. | |
| However, this new order from the government restores all of those rights except for the right to carry a firearm. | |
| Now, this move to restore these rights in Virginia is not an isolated incident. | |
| It's not that the governor just came out and did this out of nowhere. | |
| Instead, it is the culmination of several reforms, actually several bipartisan reforms, that have been made over the last decade in Virginia. | |
| In fact, there is currently right now an amendment to the Virginia Constitution that is going through the ratification process and might be added to the Constitution as early as next year. | |
| Now, one of the justifications that the governor made for his new executive order was that according to him, many of the laws were written during a period of racism and discrimination and that they still bear the traces of inequality. | |
| He said that,"...we are a commonwealth that believes in moving forward, not being tied down by the mistakes of our past. | |
| If we want people to return to our communities and participate in society, we must welcome them back fully, and this policy does just that." The Senate Republican Caucus of Virginia put it this way... | |
| Democrats won't be happy until they can do an absentee voting drive at Red Onion State Prison. | |
| Now, if you would like to read more about this move by the Virginia governor to get 69,000 former prisoners to be able to vote, that link will be in the description box below this video for you to check out. | |
| And now, before we talk about the surge in first-time gun buyers across the country, I'd like to take a quick moment to introduce our sponsor for today's episode, and I will do so from the sound booth. | |
| The sponsor for today's episode is AMAC, which stands for the Association of Mature American Citizens. | |
| Now, I do consider myself a mature American citizen. | |
| However, I'm about 20 years too young to join AMAC. However, if you or somebody else in your family is 50 years old or over, I will consider joining them because there are three main benefits to joining AMAC. The first one is the money saving benefit. | |
| Basically, if you're a member, they give you a ton of perks to restaurants across the country, to retail shops, on insurance plans, on vitamins. | |
| It's a pretty long list. | |
| Actually, it'll be in the link in the description box below this video. | |
| You can check out the full list. | |
| It's pretty long. | |
| The second benefit is that they have an awesome magazine that they send to your door. | |
| And even though I'm not a member, I have read their magazine and it's really good. | |
| It It's filled with a lot of thought-provoking articles. | |
| And the third benefit, which a lot of people cite as their favorite benefit, is that they actually fight for conservative values on Capitol Hill. | |
| Basically, they're fighting against what they're calling a socialist storm that is brewing in America. | |
| I mean, they're basically the conservative alternative to the AARP, and you should consider joining. | |
| I mean, it's only about $16 every year, but you get a ton of benefits. | |
| So you can click on the link in the description box below this video, or you can go to amac.us forward slash facts matter. | |
| Again, that's amac.us forward slash facts matter, and check them out. | |
| AMAC, thank you so much for sponsoring this episode, and now Roman in the studio, back to you. | |
| And now, let's talk a little bit about guns. | |
| In recent months, as Democrats, at least at the federal level, are pushing more and more left-leaning policies, first-time gun ownership has surged across America. | |
| According to the National Shooting Sports Foundation, last year, so in 2020, as many as 8.5 million people bought their first gun. | |
| Now, we here at the Epoch Times, we actually sent some of our reporters around California to ask some of these first-time gun owners why they decided to make their purchase. | |
| And the answers are pretty much what you'd expect. | |
| For instance, one woman named Susan from Southern California, she told us that,"...no one likes violence, but now it is the left who is using policy to treat us violently." We need to be able to defend ourselves. | |
| We buy guns legally. | |
| We buy guns to protect ourselves and our families. | |
| We will not hurt others. | |
| This is our constitutional right. | |
| We can choose to buy guns legally or not buy guns, but the choice should be in our hands not to be taken away or manipulated by the left. | |
| Now, one thing that she might be referring to here is the fact that last year, the California governor, Gavin Newsom, he released more than 8,000 prisoners, including felons, citing the pandemic. | |
| And separately from that, although possibly connected, is that California has seen a surge in crime due to lenient prison policies, laws that lessen criminal sentences, as well as cuts to police funding. | |
| Now, another man that we spoke to over in California, a man who actually came here from a communist country, he told us that... | |
| When I was in a communist country, we had no freedom, no freedom of speech, much less the possibility of buying a gun. | |
| If people had guns, the government would be scared to death. | |
| Now, what is left of the American people's right to freedom? | |
| If even the right to buy a gun is gone, it seems no different from a communist country. | |
| Now, aside from first-time gun buyers, in terms of total gun sales, last year, 2020, appeared to be the highest on record. | |
| According to data from the FBI, last year there were almost 40 million background checks for gun purchases, which is an all-time record. | |
| And of course, background checks correspond to gun sales. | |
| According to the U.S. Concealed Carry Association, which is a gun rights group, this large uptick was largely due to uncertainty surrounding the pandemic, as well as the BLM riots which sprung up across the country, prompting many Americans to buy guns in order to protect themselves as well as their families. | |
| And this trend appears to be continuing this year as well. | |
| According to the same FBI data, in January of this year, there were more than 4.3 million background checks related to gun purchases. | |
| And in February, so last month, there were 3.4 million background checks. | |
| And so, if these two months are any indication, and if these buying trends continue... | |
| 2021 will likely meet or exceed last year in terms of overall gun sales. | |
| And I don't know about you, but on social media, on Instagram, I'm seeing a lot of people saying that they will be using their stimulus checks on guns. | |
| So it's likely to continue, at least from what I'm seeing. | |
| And in fact, some states are fighting back against federal Second Amendment overreach through legal means. | |
| For instance, two days ago, the Iowa House of Representatives approved a measure that would allow people to purchase and carry firearms without a permit. | |
| The measure passed the House and is now on its way over to the Iowa Senate. | |
| In Idaho, the House passed a bill that would let some school employees carry concealed firearms without the need for school board permission. | |
| Over in Utah, the governor there assigned a measure into law which allows people to carry a concealed gun without a permit. | |
| And so what it looks like is happening, at least to me, is that individual states are asserting the rights of their citizens in the face of ever-increasing hostile gun policies at the federal level. | |
| And in terms of how hostile those policies actually are, well, the America Concealed Carry Association, which is the gun rights group we mentioned earlier, they recently said that Joe Biden's gun control proposal would potentially turn 105 million law-abiding American gun owners into criminals. | |
| And so we here at the Epoch Times, we will be keeping a close eye on this Second Amendment battle happening between the state and federal level throughout the country, and we'll be reporting on developments as they're happening. | |
| Now, if you would like to comb through either the FBI's gun purchase data for yourself, if you would like to read our interviews with the first-time gun buyers, or if you would like to check out what's happening over in the states which are fighting back against this anti-gun legislation, all those links will be in the description box below this video, free to check out. | |
| And now, let's talk about Russia. | |
| Earlier this week, during a televised interview, Joe Biden made comments about how the Russian leader, Vladimir Putin, is a killer. | |
| That interview, which was on ABC News, had George Stephanopoulos ask Joe Biden whether he agrees that Putin is a killer. | |
| And Biden said... | |
| Yes, I do. | |
| Now, Joe Biden did not elaborate further on what he exactly meant by that, but it could be in reference to the alleged poisoning and jailing of a Russian opposition leader named Alexei Navalny, who is currently under arrest in Russia. | |
| Regardless, the fallout from that comment was almost instantaneous. | |
| The very next day, a spokesperson for the Russian embassy said that they will be withdrawing their ambassador from the United States, although the reason for that recall was not publicly disclosed. | |
| The embassy only told the reporters that the ambassador would leave on Saturday and would... | |
| discuss ways to rectify Russia-U.S. ties that are in crisis. | |
| And shortly after that, Vladimir Putin went on Russian state TV and said this, I've just thought of this now. | |
| I want to propose to President Biden to continue our discussion, but on the condition that we do it basically live, as it's called, without any delays and directly in an open, direct discussion. | |
| It seems to me that would be interesting for the people of Russia and for the people of the United States. | |
| So he essentially challenged Joe Biden to a live debate, adding that it could be done as early as Friday. | |
| I don't want to put this off for long. | |
| I want to go to the Taiga this weekend to relax a little, so we could do it tomorrow or Monday. | |
| We are ready at any time convenient for the American side. | |
| Now, this debate is very unlikely to happen, at least in the near future. | |
| The White House press secretary responded to this request by saying that the discussion was unlikely to occur because Joe Biden is scheduled to travel to Georgia on Friday. | |
| I'll have to get back to you if that is something we're entertaining. | |
| I would say that the president already had a conversation with President Putin. | |
| The president, of course, will be in Georgia tomorrow and quite busy. | |
| She also added that Joe Biden does not regret making that comment. | |
| Now, if you'd like to read more about the situation that's currently unfolding between Joe Biden and Vladimir Putin, that link will be in the description box below this video for you to check out. | |
| And now, let's talk about Ohio. | |
| The United Auto Workers Union said that the Ford Motor Company is planning to move a major project worth about $900 million from Ohio over to Mexico. | |
| Here's what the vice president of the union wrote in a letter. | |
| We 100% reject the company's decision to put corporate greed and more potential profits over American jobs and the future of our members. | |
| We expect the company to honor its contractual commitments to this membership, and when it fails to do so, we will take action. | |
| We are intensely exploring our options at this time. | |
| Furthermore, he said that this decision of Ford to move the project over to Mexico might actually be a violation of Ford's contractual commitments. | |
| In that same letter, the union's vice president wrote that back in 2019, Ford committed $900 million for a plant in Avon Lake, Ohio, and that this plant would include a next-generation Ford model to be added to the production line. | |
| He added that, Ford management expects us to just hang our heads and accept the decision. | |
| But let me be clear, we are making a different choice. | |
| Although, at the moment at least, it is not exactly clear what that choice might be. | |
| Now, the Ford Motor Company issued a response letter saying that the conditions surrounding the expansion of the Ohio plant had changed. | |
| Here's what the letter said in part. | |
| While conditions upon which the 2019 administrative letter were based have changed, the company is investing in the plant and increasing production of super-duty trucks at OHAP. OHAP, by the way, is the Ohio plant. | |
| Now, regarding what conditions have actually changed since that agreement was signed back in 2019, it's not exactly clear what they're referring to, whether they're referring to the economic conditions relating to the pandemic or a change in the administration with Trump no longer in office. | |
| We here at the Epoch Times, we actually reached out to Ford for clarification, but we have yet to hear back. | |
| Regardless, a spokesperson for the Ford Motor Company came out and she publicly did not say whether they will keep their end of the agreement to invest in the Ohio plant. | |
| Here's what she told the media. | |
| We are always looking at our options. | |
| We still plan to invest $6 billion and create and retain 8,500 jobs in America during the course of this four-year contract. | |
| We are invested in the Ohio Assembly Plant and our dedicated workforce there. | |
| Now the union that is affected by this, the United Auto Workers Union, they endorsed Joe Biden during the last election cycle, partly because Joe Biden has repeatedly talked about his focus on American car manufacturing as part of his plan to create new jobs here in America. | |
| And at the moment, at least at the time of this episode, the time we're doing this recording here, there has not been any comment from the White House on this decision by the Ford Motor Company to move their project to Mexico. | |
| Now, if you would like to read more about this plant over in Ohio moving their production to Mexico, that link will be in the description box below this video for you to check out. | |
| And now lastly, as we already mentioned in several other episodes, on the very same day that Joe Biden was sworn into office, YouTube made the unilateral decision to demonetize our program. | |
| We can now no longer run any pre-roll, mid-roll, or post-roll ads, and the Super Chat feature has just been disabled. | |
| However, if you would like to support independent journalism, I'll throw a link into the description box below this video to a page where you can subscribe to the Epoch Times. | |
| It doesn't cost much, just a few dollars every month. | |
| By subscribing, not only will you be supporting independent journalism, but you will also gain access to an unfettered conduit of uncensored reporting, deep investigations, video documentaries that you can't find anywhere else, our awesome infographics that connect the dots and super complex issues, and best, in my opinion at least, our opinion our awesome infographics that connect the dots and super complex issues, and best, in my opinion at least, our opinion section, which continues the long tradition of So again, that link will be in the description box below this video. | |
| I hope you go there. | |
| I hope you at least check it out and potentially subscribe. | |
| Now, lastly, if you haven't already, smash that like button for the YouTube algorithm. | |
| Subscribe to this YouTube channel if you haven't already in order to get our content delivered directly into your YouTube feed while you still can. | |
| And until next time, I'm your host, Roman from the Epoch Times. |
Export Selection