Dec. 30, 2021 - Epoch Times
22:06
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| Good evening. | |
| Just yesterday, over in the state of Florida, Governor Ron DeSantis held a press conference wherein he announced a new legislative agenda that he will be pushing in the upcoming session, which is focused on election integrity. | |
| Specifically, he's looking to build what he called the Office of Election Crimes and Security, which would essentially be a police force tasked specifically with investigating allegations of election integrity. | |
| And lastly, according to this letter from Senator Ron Johnson, over half a million illegal border crossers have been released into the interior of the United States since the beginning of this year. | |
| However, the state of Texas is fighting back by creating their own border wall out of shipping containers. | |
| Let's go through it all together. | |
| This is your daily Facts Matter update, and I'm your host, Roman, from the Epoch Times. | |
| And now let's begin today's discussion by talking about election security. | |
| Just yesterday, down in Florida, Governor Ron DeSantis announced that he is officially asking the Florida state lawmakers to introduce four election integrity measures when they meet again for the 2022 legislative session. | |
| Here's specifically what he said during his announcement. | |
| We are excited to say that next legislative session we are proposing another package of election integrity reforms that will make Florida the number one state for elections. | |
| I am excited that with this legislation our state will be able to enforce election violations, combat voter fraud, and make sure violators are held accountable. | |
| If potential violators know they will be held accountable, they will be much less likely to engage in improper conduct in the first place. | |
| Now, in terms of what he was specifically talking about, during his speech he outlined the four election integrity measures that he wanted the legislators to add to their agenda. | |
| And first of all, he asked the Statehouse to pass legislation to create what he called the Office of Election Crimes and Security. | |
| And this office, once it's created, would be the largest of its kind in the nation, actually, with 25 law enforcement officers as well as investigators who would be tasked specifically with investigating allegations of people who violated the state's election laws. | |
| It would essentially, you can think of it as a large police unit that is solely dedicated to investigating as well as prosecuting election crimes. | |
| Then second of all, the governor asked the legislature to elevate the crime of ballot harvesting from a misdemeanor to a third degree felony. | |
| Here's the reason that Governor Ron DeSantis gave for this proposed change. | |
| The first person who gets caught, well, no one's going to want to do it again after that. | |
| Then thirdly, another one of his proposals would require that an official timeline be made for county supervisors in order for them to clean up their voter rolls, as well as to remove voters who have either died, moved, or somehow become ineligible to vote. | |
| And then lastly, the fourth proposal that was requested by the governor, it calls for a law to, quote, Now, specifically, this proposal asks that each Dropbox location, it must have a person supervising it, and it must be under constant surveillance by a camera. | |
| And then furthermore, these drop boxes, they must be removed immediately after voting ends so that they can be taken directly to a supervised area for counting. | |
| Although, frankly, this fourth proposal regarding these drop boxes, it appears to be a compromise given the fact that Governor Ron DeSantis, he also said this during his speech. | |
| I don't even think there should be drop boxes. | |
| Now it is worth noting that this new legislative proposal, it actually builds upon the election integrity legislation that was already signed into law by Governor Ron DeSantis back in May of this year. | |
| And those laws, which have already gone into effect, they strengthened voter ID requirements, they prohibited the mass mailing of ballots, they outlawed ballot harvesting, And the barred private money from influencing elections in the state of Florida. | |
| And now the next legislative session, the one that all these proposals are geared towards, it will come together in January of 2022, so about two months from now, and then we will see these proposals be introduced, debated on, and then voted upon. | |
| Until then, if you would like to watch Governor Ron DeSantis' full speech, where he announced all these proposals one by one, I'll throw the link to that into the description box below this video so you can check it out for yourself. | |
| And all I ask in return is that while you're making your way down there to that link, take a quick detour to smash that like button for the YouTube algorithm. | |
| And now let's move on over and talk about the national vaccine mandate. | |
| Earlier today, the Biden administration made three new announcements. | |
| First of all, they officially released the new rule from OSHA, which is the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. | |
| And this new rule will effectively require 84 million workers in the private sector, not the public sector, but 84 million private workers to get vaccinated by January the 4th if they work for a company that has over 100 employees. | |
| And then secondly, the Biden administration announced another new rule. | |
| This one came from the CMS, which is the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Assistance, which will require an additional 17 million workers who work in the healthcare field to get the shot as well. | |
| And then lastly, the White House pushed their deadline for federal contractors to be vaccinated back. | |
| The new deadline is now January the 4th. | |
| So let's unpack that all together. | |
| The first rule, the one that came from OSHA, it will specifically require all businesses with over 100 employees to either implement the vaccine requirements for all of their staff members or face a fine of up to $14,000 per violation. | |
| However, there is a caveat to this rule, which says that workers who are not vaccinated are going to be required to submit a weekly negative COVID test at no expense to the employer, meaning that the worker themselves will very likely have to pay for it. | |
| Furthermore, unvaccinated employees will be required to wear masks while on the job. | |
| And so let me just reiterate this rule. | |
| According to this new rule from OSHA, all companies with over 100 employees will have to either force their staff to get the vaccine or if they don't want to get the vaccine, the staff members will have to submit a negative weekly COVID test at their own expense. | |
| And they will also have to wear a mask while at work. | |
| And businesses who don't comply with this mandate, they will face a $14,000 fine for each violation. | |
| Now, the second rule that was issued to health care workers is very similar, except for the fact that health care workers don't have the testing slash masking option. | |
| Meaning that if you work in a healthcare facility, which receives money from either Medicare or Medicaid, then you are going to be forced to get the shot by January the 4th or be fired. | |
| Now, you might be asking for yourself whether this is actually legal or not, and that is, frankly, a very good question, which will obviously be fought over in courts over the next few months, and very likely it will make it all the way up to the Supreme Court. | |
| Technically, OSHA is allowed to put into place what are called emergency temporary standards, And this is exactly the argument that the White House is currently making. | |
| White House officials are saying that this new ETS is well within the agency's authority, and it is consistent with the agency's requirements to protect workers in America from health and safety hazards, including from infectious diseases. | |
| On the flip side, however, critics are calling this a gross overreach of the federal government, and there are about 21 states across the country right now, all with Republican governors and Republican attorney generals, who have been waiting for this rule to be officially formulated and implemented so that they can officially challenge it in court. | |
| And now that the rule has been officially announced and implemented, well, those lawsuits are likely coming very soon. | |
| All right. | |
| Since the filming of that segment of the episode, there have actually been a few developments on this case. | |
| And there were also several things I failed to mention, but that people have been asking about, such as the question of whether if they live in a state or a municipality that actually has explicit rules against things like vaccine mandates or vaccine passports, does this OSHA rule apply? | |
| And the answer is yes, because within that rule, this is what it says, quote, OSHA intends to preempt any state or local requirements that ban or limit an employer from requiring vaccination, face covering or testing. | |
| This means that all states will be affected. | |
| Well, obviously, you might be thinking, well, there are states like Texas and Florida, which have very explicit rules, state rules against things like vaccine passports or employers requiring that their workers are vaccinated as a prerequisite for working. | |
| And you would be right. | |
| So that is obviously a collision course waiting to happen between the federal government and the state in those scenarios. | |
| And that will have to be determined ultimately at the Supreme Court. | |
| And a lot of people are saying, well, obviously, the federal government will win in such a case. | |
| But that is not necessarily the case because the way our federalist government is set up, right, you assume that federal law always preempts state law. | |
| But that's not necessarily the case because according to the 10th Amendment in the Bill of Rights, it says that all powers not enumerated in the Constitution are reserved to the states or the people respectively. | |
| And so it'll have to ultimately be the Supreme Court, which determines whether this rule by OSHA is a federal power grab or it's within their enumerated right. | |
| So we'll have to wait and see. | |
| Now, the other thing that I failed to mention is that this rule actually does not apply to people who work from home. | |
| So this is what it says, quote, The ETS does not apply to employees who do not report to a workplace where other individuals such as co-workers or customers are present. | |
| Employees while they are working from home or employees who work exclusively outdoors. | |
| So that is a caveat. | |
| So if you work, let's say, outdoors or if you work at home, this rule wouldn't apply to you. | |
| And so the two deadlines that are pertinent to The first deadline for employees to submit their vaccination status to their employers is December the 4th. | |
| And then the deadline for employers to begin testing their employees who have not received the full treatment, the full two-dose treatment, is January the 4th. | |
| So it's staggered by two months. | |
| So basically, if this rule is not successfully challenged, then by December the 4th, you need to submit vaccination. | |
| Now, another aspect of it that I forgot to mention is that any employee who tests positive for COVID, regardless of their vaccination status, this is what's written in this rule, will be removed from the workplace until it is deemed that they can safely return to COVID. Which is, I'm sure, something that people have been doing throughout the country anyway. | |
| If you test positive for COVID, you're likely sent home pretty much wherever you are. | |
| Now, the one thing I did mention, failed to mention, is that Joe Biden did release a statement saying in part, quote, And while I would have much preferred that requirements not become necessary, too many people remain unvaccinated for us to get out of this pandemic for good. | |
| So I instituted requirements and they are working. | |
| Now, the other thing worth mentioning is something we mentioned in the studio portion, which is that states across the country are likely about to start suing the federal government, and that is exactly what happened. | |
| In fact, Ron DeSantis, he just came out with his attorney general, and he announced that he is joining a lawsuit that's already in motion from Georgia, Alabama, as well as several private plaintiffs against OSHA. | |
| Here's what he said during that press conference that he held just earlier today. | |
| Quote, this is not consistent with a government of limited and enumerated powers. | |
| There is no general police power. | |
| There is no power to mandate on the American people from the federal government. | |
| Individuals should make informed choices about their own health care. | |
| They shouldn't be coerced into getting the jab and then the last thing worth mentioning is Is that even though this OSHA rule, as we mentioned, applies only to employers who have over 100 workers, the Labor Department did come out earlier today and say that they are considering expanding this rule to small businesses as well. | |
| So if you work at a company or you run a company that has less than 100 employees, do not assume that this mandate will not eventually come for you because they are considering it. | |
| If you want to read any of the documents that we discussed in today's episode, they'll all be down there in the description box below this video, which is of course right next to that like button, which I hope you've already smashed. | |
| And now, before we move on over and talk about what's happening down in Texas, how they are literally having to use freight containers as a makeshift southern border to keep out the caravan that's making its way, I would like to take a quick moment and introduce our sponsor for today's episode, and I will do so from the other sound booth. | |
| That's right, Roman. | |
| The sponsor of today's episode is an awesome company called My Patriot Supply. | |
| So I don't know about you, but I have friends who all they have is this saved up in case of an emergency. | |
| And don't get me wrong, I love toilet paper as much as the next guy, and it's better to have it than to not. | |
| But frankly, if that's all you have saved up in case of an emergency, then you are really not prepared. | |
| Because, listen, with these supply chains stretched to the extreme as they are, with inflation raging, and with the government even admitting that it might default on its loan obligations, I mean, a disaster looks like it might be coming. | |
| In my opinion, it's a question of when, not if. | |
| And so I would highly recommend that you prepare. | |
| In my own house, I have cupboards, I have an entire closet that's filled with food, ready to go in case anything goes down. | |
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| And when you head on over to their website, you'll see they don't only sell food. | |
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| Now, Roman in the studio, back to you. | |
| And now let's move on over and talk about the U.S. southern border. | |
| According to this new letter right here that was sent to the Department of Homeland Security from Senator Ron Johnson, it revealed the fact that more than half a million border crossers as well as illegal aliens have been released into the interior of the United States since January the 1st of this year. | |
| Let me just repeat that. | |
| According to this new data, more than 500,000 border crossers have been released into the interior of the United States since the beginning of this year of 2021. | |
| And for your reference, by the way, that number, 500,000, it is equivalent to the entire population of cities like Atlanta, Georgia, Tucson, Arizona, Miami, Florida, or quite literally the entire state of Wyoming. | |
| It's also worth noting that this year is not over yet. | |
| We still have two months remaining, meaning that this number might go all the way up to either 600,000 or 700,000 by the end of the year. | |
| And by the way, the reason I say 700,000 is because the rate of border crossers appears to actually be accelerating. | |
| In fact, there was a Border Patrol agent who spoke under the condition of anonymity with Breitbart News, and he told them that in the month of October alone, 60,000 border crossers were released into the interior of the United States. | |
| 60,000 just in the month of October alone. | |
| And so, just to give you a visual picture of what the change in policies between the current administration and the previous administration actually looks like, let's take a moment to compare this October with October of last year. | |
| In October of 2020, Border Patrol agents apprehended 69,032 migrants at the U.S. southern border. | |
| And out of those, more than 62,000 were quickly returned to Mexico. | |
| The other 7,000 were detained for further processing, and some of them were led into the country. | |
| However, this year, in October of 2021, Border Patrol agents apprehended a whopping 158,000 migrants. | |
| Out of those, 59,000 were immediately returned to Mexico. | |
| 40,000 were detained in temporary holding facilities while they awaited to be processed, and then 60,000 were released into the interior of the United States under the so-called catch-and-release policy. | |
| Now again, some of those numbers came from that anonymous source with the Border Patrol Agency, so take it for what it's worth. | |
| However, it does seem to be consistent with the official data that we're seeing come out of the agency. | |
| And so, in regards to the official data, here is what part of the letter from Senator Ron Johnson that was, again, addressed to the Department of Homeland Security, here's what it said. | |
| Quote, One week later, you finally provided limited data on encounters showing at least 500,000 people dispersed in the United States this year. | |
| In addition to those dispersed by the Department of Homeland Security, over 344,000 known gotaways, individuals who evaded apprehension, have entered the United States illegally in fiscal year 2021. | |
| Now just to pause here for a moment. | |
| What he mentioned there is actually worth highlighting as well. | |
| Because besides the half a million border crossers which were let in through this catch and release policy, you also have the illegal aliens who were detected but managed to somehow evade capture. | |
| And then of course you have another sub-segment of illegal aliens who managed to sneak in and avoid detection and get into the country without anyone knowing. | |
| And so when you combine all these people, the ones who were able to sneak in and the ones who were let in, well that could already amount to over a million people We're good to go. | |
| However, according to this letter from Senator Ron Johnson, there are actually indications that larger waves of caravans are making their way up. | |
| Here's what it says, quote, quote, recently, more than 25,000 illegal aliens amassed under a bridge in Del Rio, Texas, and reports indicate another massive surge is coming. | |
| Reportedly, 125,000 migrants are currently making their way through Central America, attempting to reach the United States. | |
| Now, we did report on this in a previous episode. | |
| If you look online right now, there is a lot of footage of massive caravans making their way north through Mexico on their way to the U.S. southern border. | |
| Some of those caravans, by the way, the ones in the front, they might reach the southern border as early as next week. | |
| Now, the state of Texas, seeing this situation play out on their own territory, they have taken matters into their own hands, and they are currently constructing what you can describe as a makeshift border wall. | |
| During an interview on Fox News, here's how Governor Greg Abbott, here's how he described the project. | |
| We began dropping these large containers that you see on 18-wheelers, that you also see on these ships that are going across the ocean. | |
| We are dropping them down on locations that could be crossings that would be used by these caravans to serve as a blockade to prevent them from coming across the border. | |
| And so they are essentially in the process of placing these large shipping containers at the U.S. southern border, hoping that they can deter the migrants or at least funnel them into areas where it is easier to have them apprehended. | |
| Now, during an interview with Fox News, Mr. | |
| Troy Nels, who is not only a former sheriff of Bend County, Texas, but he is also currently serving as a congressman, he explained that while these shipping containers are not infallible, meaning that athletic people can still, of course, climb over them, but they are potentially an effective deterrent. | |
| Here's what he said on this front. | |
| These shipping containers are what you see on the back of 18-wheelers. | |
| Some of them are 25, 30 feet long, 8 foot tall. | |
| So, if these individuals are going to approach one of those barriers, number one, some may attempt to climb over it. | |
| Maybe some of them will stop and wait and move alongside that barrier and try to find an opening. | |
| He further went on to say that this is actually the job of the federal government. | |
| However, since he claims that they have essentially abdicated their role, it is now up to the border states themselves. | |
| Here's what he said. | |
| It is the federal government. | |
| It's the federal government's job. | |
| It is Congress's job to secure our nation's borders. | |
| And we haven't done it for years. | |
| For decades, Congress has not secured the southern border. | |
| So now it's incumbent upon governors along these southern states to have borders to augment the Border Patrol with their own resources, the Department of Public Safety, the National Guard, It's costing Texans billions of dollars. | |
| Although it is worth noting that while there are only about four American states that share a border with Mexico, this problem is actually national. | |
| Which brings us right back to this letter from Senator Ron Johnson, who concludes it by noting that the migrants who are being caught and released into America, they are not necessarily being placed at the southern border. | |
| Instead, many of them are actually being transported well into the interior of the United States. | |
| Here's what he wrote, quote, Media reports indicate that Immigration and Customs Enforcement, meaning ICE, is not just releasing illegal aliens into border towns after processing, but rather transporting illegal aliens from the border to cities within the interior of the United States. | |
| It also appears that ICE might not be properly assessing these illegal aliens before releasing them into the interior of the U.S. | |
| If true, ICE's reported actions could threaten the safety and security of all Americans. | |
| Senator Ron Johnson then concluded this letter by asking the Department of Homeland Security to provide the Senate with a breakdown of how many illegal aliens have been transported by either plane, train, and or bus since January the 1st, as well as what their final destination was. | |
| And in fact, he ended the letter specifically with this request by writing this, I request that you provide updates to these figures on a monthly basis. | |
| Please provide this information as soon as possible, but no later than November 2nd, 2021. | |
| Thank you for your attention to this matter. | |
| Which, for one, after I read that, I was a little surprised to learn that these numbers are not being provided regularly to the Senate. | |
| But secondly, today is already November the 4th, and so far these updates have not been released from the Department of Homeland Security, as far as I know. | |
| Although, as you can imagine, they probably have their hands full with that large caravan that's making its way up to the southern border. | |
| If you'd like to read the full text of this letter, as well as some related articles, I'll throw all that into the description box below this video for you to check out. | |
| And again, all I ask in return is that if you haven't already, take a quick moment to smash that like button for the use of algorithm. | |
| And now, lastly, I would like to mention that over the weekend, I will be publishing an exclusive episode over on Epic TV, which will be about an hour long, and it will follow me as I walk through the New York City protest against vaccine mandates and talk to the people who are there, get their stories, ask them why they're not taking the vaccine, ask them why they're protesting the vaccine mandate, ask them whether they're thinking about moving out of the state. | |
| Basically, it's an on-the-ground report of these anti-mandate protests, which frankly is... | |
| Very pertinent to the rest of the country right now as that new OSHA rule. | |
| It applies to the entire country, and maybe you will see more of these anti-vaccine mandate protests popping up in all 50 states. | |
| And so if you want to check it out, if you want to subscribe to Epic TV, I'll throw a link to it. | |
| It'll be right there at the very top of the description box. | |
| And I hope you click on it. | |
| I hope you check out all the other awesome content on Epic TV, and I hope that you subscribe. | |
| That way, you can join us on this journey of exploring this beautiful, beautiful world through honest journalism that is based in truth and tradition. | |
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| I publish behind-the-scenes videos as well as spicy memes. | |
| And then, until next time, I'm your host, Roman from the Epic Times. |
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