‘Stop the Steal’ violence can’t stop fact that Trump lost

BY JACK CROWE

December 14, 2020

SWARMS OF DISAFFECTED TRUMP SUPPORTERS took to the streets of Washington, D.C. on Saturday for one last chance to play-act combat against black-clad anarchists before President Trump leaves office.

With weeks left before their champion leaves the White House, Trump's most ardent "defenders" did their best to get around lines of bicycle-wielding police officers to brawl with whatever Antifa remnant bothered to show up.

Videos of the scene show uncoordinated men dressed in ill-fitting polo shirts swinging clubs at home-made shields held by other men who, in less trying times, they may have playing video games against online.

All told, the "stop the steal" rally resulted in four stabbings and 23 arrests and, despite the best efforts of the Proud Boys, the electoral college is still scheduled to certify Trump's defeat today.

Those who attended the rally actually seemed more intent on keeping Trump in office than his own lawyers, who, as Andy McCarthy pointed out over the weekend, declined to argue about any of the relevant facts in their Wisconsin election challenge.

Andy writes: "There was no there there. Despite telling the country for weeks that this was the most rigged election in history, the campaign didn't think it was worth calling a single witness. Despite having the opportunity of a hearing before a Trump appointee who was willing to give the campaign ample opportunity to prove its case, the campaign said, 'Never mind.'"

The Wisconsin challenge was rejected Saturday right around the time the president's army of true believers was gearing up to do battle. That defeat came after the Supreme Court eliminated any lingering chance of a Trump victory by unanimously rejecting Texas' lawsuit, which made the tortured argument that Texans' votes were diluted by unconstitutional election laws in other states.

The legal battles are over but there may still be some segment of Trump's base (D.C. police estimated 700 people showed up on Saturday) intent on creating chaos in the name of their president. One hopes they stay home on inauguration day, but the spectacle of Biden supporters being harassed as they try to celebrate the onset of his presidency may prove irresistible to the kind of person who showed up in Washington on Saturday.

And judging by the behavior of elected Republicans in recent weeks, those hordes of violent Trumpers won't have been told by anyone in power that he really did lose. They'll show up on inauguration day believing they're disrupting a fraudulent ceremony.

While they failed to "stop the steal," the Trump supporters who attended the day of rage did manage to give the Democratic elite a visceral example of the exact far-right bogeyman they're constantly hunting for, right before the Biden administration takes power.

Google Services Suffer Major Outage

Google services including Gmail and YouTube suffered a major outage on Monday morning, with services down across the globe for about 40 minutes.

The Google search engine was not affected by the outage, however other services were down from about 6:55 A.M. to 7:35 A.M. worldwide. The cause of the outage was not immediately clear, and Google parent company Alphabet Inc. did not immediately comment on the incident.

The outage came after U.S. government agencies were hacked in a suspected Russian cyberattack.

Russian Intelligence Suspected in Cyberattack on Federal Agencies

Multiple federal agencies including the U.S. Treasury and Commerce departments were subject to a highly sophisticated cyber attack on Monday, U.S. officials told the Wall Street Journal.

The Russian foreign intelligence service is suspected of orchestrating the attack, one official familiar with the details said.

"The United States government is aware of these reports, and we are taking all necessary steps to identify and remedy any possible issues related to this situation," National Security Council spokesman John Ullyot said in a statement.

First Shipments of Pfizer Coronavirus Vaccine Leave Michigan Plant
The first shipments of Pfizer's coronavirus vaccine left the drugmaker's facility in Portage, Michigan early Sunday morning, paving the way for millions of vulnerable individuals in the U.S. to be vaccinated.

About 184,275 vials of the vaccine, developed by Pfizer and BioNTech, were shipped in freight trucks from the plant and will be delivered to every state. Another 390,000 vials are set to be shipped on Monday.

A total of 145 distribution sites are scheduled to receive the shots on Monday, 425 more will receive it on Tuesday, and 66 sites on Wednesday.

Multiple People Stabbed, 23 Arrested During Election Protest in Washington, D.C.

Multiple people were stabbed in downtown Washington, D.C. Saturday night during a pro-Trump protest challenging the results of last month's presidential election.

Police officers in riot gear worked to keep opposing groups of protesters apart during the "Stop the Steal" protests, which remained largely peaceful during the day, but as darkness fell, the demonstrations turned violent.

At Harry's Bar several blocks east of the White House, clashes broke out between a group of Proud Boys, a fringe men's group that frequently instigates confrontations with left-wing protesters. Four people were stabbed during the brouhaha, although it was not immediately clear with which group the perpetrators and victims were respectively affiliated.

Hunter Biden Email Requested D.C. Office Keys for Father, Chinese Business Partner

Hunter Biden requested keys for "office mates" Joe Biden and an "emissary" for a Chinese firm run by a business associate of Hunter, according to an email reported by the Daily Caller.

Joe Biden has repeatedly denied speaking with Hunter regarding the latter's overseas business dealings. Hunter was engaged in business partnerships with CEFC, a now-defunct Chinese energy company, founded by Ye Jianming. The Chinese government arrested Ye in 2018 over unspecified criminal allegations, and the former executive has not been heard from since.

In the newly-revealed email dated September 21, 2017, Hunter Biden asks the general manager of House of Sweden, a Washington, D.C., office building, to provide keys to members of the Biden family and a representative of CEFC.

China Detains Bloomberg Staffer on Suspicion of Jeopardizing 'National Security'

Chinese authorities have detained a staffer for Bloomberg on suspicion of endangering national security, the outlet reported on Friday.

Haze Fan, a Chinese citizen employed at Bloomberg's Beijing news bureau, was last seen on Monday being escorted from her apartment by plainclothes police officers. Chinese authorities confirmed on Thursday that Fan had been detained, although her family was notified in the day following her arrest.

Fan has previously worked for Thomson Reuters, CBS News, CNBC, and Al Jazeera.

"We are very concerned for her, and have been actively speaking to Chinese authorities to better understand the situation," a Bloomberg spokesperson said. "We are continuing to do everything we can to support her while we seek more information."

Supreme Court Rejects Texas Suit to Overturn Elections

The Supreme Court on Friday evening rejected a suit brought by the state of Texas seeking to challenge election results in Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, and Georgia.

The Court wrote in an order that the lawsuit was denied for "lack of standing under Article III of the Constitution.

The lawsuit claimed that voting procedures in those four states were marred by irregularities that led to the election of Joe Biden as president. A group of 126 House Republicans, including Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy of California, signed on to an amicus brief in support of the lawsuit.

House Intel Republicans Demand Answers on Swalwell's Relationship with Chinese Spy

Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee are demanding answers on Democratic committee member Eric Swalwell's close ties to a suspected Chinese spy, and some are even calling for an investigation and for him to be immediately removed from the committee in order to deprive him of the access to classified information that comes with membership on the high-profile panel.

Between 2011 and 2015, a suspected Chinese intelligence operative, Christine Fang, developed close relationships with Swalwell and a number of other American politicians, particularly in the Bay Area, as part of a Chinese political intelligence operation, a year-long Axios investigation published this week found.

Representative Michael Conaway of Texas, who sits on the intelligence committee with Swalwell, called for an investigation into Swalwell's relationship with Fang and said Swalwell should be removed from the committee in the meantime.