Media Outrage Over Capitol Riot Isn’t About Defending Democracy, It’s About Wielding Power

For our political and media elites, the capitol riot on Wednesday is the perfect excuse to 'cleanse' the country of Trump supporters.

After the pro-Trump mob stormed the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday, Twitter blue-checks, politicians, and elite corporate journalists wailed and rent their garments in outrage. But they weren’t really outraged.

Yes, the breach of the capitol was appalling and disturbing. Most people didn’t see it coming and were understandably shocked when images of MAGA bros fighting capitol police began popping up on social media (although the authorities should have been better prepared, most of all D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser, who had earlier rejected offers of additional law enforcement.) There’s no question the protesters who decided to riot should be prosecuted, as all rioters everywhere should be.

But elite outrage is not really about what happened at the capitol—about the “sacred citadel of our democracy being defiled” and so on. The outrage, like almost all expressions of righteous indignation from our elites in the Trump era, is performative. It is in service of a larger purpose that has nothing to do with the peaceful transfer of power and everything to do with the wielding of power.

Specifically, it’s about punishing supporters of President Trump. If the pro-Trump mob can be depicted as “terrorists” and “traitors,” then there’s almost nothing we shouldn’t do to silence them. Right? Rick Klein, the political director at ABC News, said the quiet part out loud on Thursday when he mused (in a now-deleted tweet) that getting rid of Trump is “the easy part” and the more difficult task will be “cleansing the movement he commands.”

That’s not the kind of language you use when you’re in the business of reporting the news. It’s the kind of language you use when you’re in the business of social control.

A lot of people on the right have noted the supposed hypocrisy of media elites like Klein, but it’s not really hypocrisy because Klein and his comrades don’t really have a problem with violent mobs storming into buildings and smashing windows, so long as they agree with the mob’s agenda. That’s why corporate media was so tolerant of much larger and more dangerous mobs destroying American cities for months on end last year. When Black Lives Matter rioters stormed city halls and police stations, burned down churches, and ransacked shopping districts in major U.S. cities, killing dozens and destroying livelihoods, the media offered support for the rioters’ cause, which they invoked time and again to justify their criminal acts.

That’s why CNN’s Chris Cuomo said, “Please, show me where it says protesters are supposed to be polite and peaceful.” That’s why his colleague, Don Lemon, compared the riots to the Boston Tea Party, saying, “This is how our country started.”

https://thefederalist.com/2021/01/08/media-outrage-over-capitol-riot-isnt-about-defending-democracy-its-about-wielding-power/

Iranian-Flagged Ship Arrives in Venezuela Again Despite US Pressure, Tracking Data Suggests

Venezuela and Iran, two nations which have been heavily targeted by US sanctions, have maintained their close cooperation in the fuel sector. Tehran has been sending ships to the South American nation to bring gasoline supplies or load them with Venezuelan crude for future exports.

An Iranian-flagged ship made its way to the Venezuelan port of La Guaira this week, Reuters reported, citing vessel tracking data provided by Refinitiv Eikon analytical firm.

The Golsan, a cargo ship which had reportedly entered port on Thursday, was spotted leaving Iran in November. However, it remains unclear what is on board the vessel, which is owned by Mosakhar Darya Shipping Co.

The information was not confirmed by Venezuela’s ministry of information when approached by the media.

Back in July, the Golsan came to Venezuela from Iran loaded with food in a bid to supply the country’s first Iranian supermarket. It later made its way back to the Republic with alumina powder on board, a substance used to produce aluminium metal.

The two countries, both members of OPEC, have been in close commercial cooperation over the past year. Iran has been sending its fuel-loaded tankers to Venezuela in exchange for gold and also to load them with Venezuelan crude oil, for shipment to other countries.

In December, it was reported that National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) had sent a Palau-flagged vessel to Jose, a Venezuelan port, to load it with 1.9 mln bbl of oil from Venezuela's state-owned PdVSA that was designated as a shipper in the transaction.

Both Iran and Venezuela have been under extreme sanctions pressure from Washington. In January 2019, the US Treasury Department subjected PdVSA to sanctions, effectively prohibiting American firms from engaging in transitions with the company.

In 2020, Washington punished Russia’s Rosneft Oil Company and four other foreign shippers for conducting business with the oil giant. But Iran, which has long been a target of American economic pressure and an arms embargo, has only been ramping up ties with Venezuela, in defiance of US sanctions.

https://sputniknews.com/world/202101091081714337-iranian-flagged-ship-arrives-in-venezuela-again-despite-us-pressure-tracking-data-suggests/

New Detailed Inventory on Election Fraud in the 2020 Election by Deroy Murdock Provides Strong Evidence on President Trump’s Performance in All the Swing States and Overall Race

A new report by investigative journalist Deroy Murdock shows that per an inventory of known vote and election fraud issues in the 2020 election, President Trump won the election.

Deroy Murdock is a political commentator and a contributing editor at National Review Online. He’s provided a comprehensive inventory of election and voter fraud issues in the six swing states in the 2020 election at TrumpTrainNews.com. We are told Deroy worked on this report for weeks.

In every state (Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin) there are more fraudulent ballots identified than there are votes Biden reportedly led Trump by.

As the nearby chart details, once a variety of categories of allegedly improper or illegal votes have been subtracted from Biden’s margins of victories, his wins become losses in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. If those states shift into President Donald J. Trump’s column, he comfortably would win four more years in the White House.

Some of the more worrisome data include these allegations: 19,997 ballots in Arizona cast by those under age 18. In Georgia, 20,312 out-of-state voters seemingly voted in-state. In Michigan, 27,825 ballots apparently were “requested” by voters who made no such request. Nevada saw 42,284 suspected in-state double voters. Absentee ballots officially recorded as returned on or before the day they were mailed out total 58,221 in Pennsylvania. In Wisconsin, 96,437 able-bodied voters evidently skirted the Badger State’s voter ID law by claiming to be “indefinitely confined.”

Beyond this chart, senators and House members of both parties should be chilled to their marrow by a December 22 letter signed by 19 members of Pennsylvania’s State Senate. In that document, and a December 28 news release by 17 of these legislators, they calculate that 202,377 more ballots were cast for president than there were voters who voted. This is called “stuffing the ballot box” and is the most basic and profound species of vote fraud.

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2021/01/new-detailed-inventory-election-fraud-2020-election-deroy-murdock-provides-strong-evidence-president-trumps-performance-swing-states-overall-race/