Claiming that the programs were not benefiting Americans and were simply opportunities to boost Chinese Communist propaganda, the Trump Administration abruptly canceled five cultural exchange programs with the Chinese government, CBS News reports.

The cancelation of the programs is the latest turn in a fight the Trump Administration continues against the Chinese government, even as the administration is slated to leave office in a matter of weeks.

In a statement released Friday, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said that the programs were “soft power propaganda tools” giving the Chinese government the ability to choreograph “carefully curated access to Chinese Communist Party officials, not to the Chinese people, who do not enjoy freedoms of speech and assembly.”

AP: “The prehistoric monument of Stonehenge in southern England was closed to visitors Saturday after dozens of protesters staged a trespass against the British government’s road-building plans, including a new tunnel near the World Heritage Site. The protesters, who described themselves as an alliance of local residents, ecologists, activists, archaeologists and pagans, gathered at Stonehenge around midday. English Heritage, a national charity that manages hundreds of historic sites, soon after made the decision to close Stonehenge to visitors ‘due to unforeseen circumstances’ and said it was against the law for anyone to enter the area without its consent.”

https://youtu.be/UPX3MrBPARs

Apparently this rally was planned as an anti-lockdown protest by Republican State Rep. Vicki Kraft, per MyNorthwest.com “State lawmaker holding a reopen Washington rally in Olympia Saturday“. Looks like them Antifa boys showed up to taunt the MAGA clowns upset over Trump’s loss.

Slate: “As President Donald Trump heads to Georgia for a campaign rally on Saturday, a menace is spreading across the country: a right-wing insurrection, led by the president and his supporters, to overthrow the 2020 election by intimidation or force. That threat is becoming a central issue in the Jan. 5 Georgia runoffs that will decide control of the U.S. Senate. The insurrection has been boiling at pro-Trump rallies in the past few weeks. In Georgia, amid chants of ‘victory or death,’ speakers have vowed to ‘remove’ a new Democratic administration, arguing that it ‘doesn’t have the military on their side.’ At a rally led by Donald Trump Jr., a speaker warned, ‘We’re getting ready to start shooting.’ Last weekend in Michigan, a crowd cheered as a member of the Proud Boys declared, ‘We don’t want a civil war, but we’re already in one. And we’re in it to win it.'”

“The Republican Party and its Senate nominees in Georgia, David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler, could have stood with democracy. They could have accepted Trump’s defeat and asked their supporters to unite behind the new president. Instead, they’ve embraced Trump’s lies and defiance. ‘We’re going to keep fighting until every illegal vote is thrown out,’ Vice President Mike Pence pledged at a rally for Loeffler and Perdue in Georgia on Friday. He urged Republicans to “stand with” Trump in his challenges to the election, and he told the crowd—in a gesture of support for claims of Democratic cheating—’We’re on ’em this time.’ This isn’t a party of law and order. It’s a party of civil war.”

But you never got the signature verification! Your people are refusing to do what you ask. What are they hiding? At least immediately ask for a Special Session of the Legislature. That you can easily, and immediately, do. #Transparency https://t.co/h73ZfjrDt3

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 5, 2020

David Lander, the actor who played the iconic role of Squiggy in the television show “Laverne & Shirley,” died from complications of multiple sclerosis Friday evening in Los Angeles at the age of 73.

Lander landed the role of the sidekick to Michael McKeon’s “Lenny” on the spin-off of “Happy Days.”  Prior to Kramer’s entrances to Jerry Seinfeld’s apartment, Squiggy was known for his characteristic “Hello!” when greeting the leading characters.

Lander had an extensive career, particularly doing voice acting in animated features as the MS made it more difficult for his to take live acting jobs.

“In a streak of light across the night sky, samples collected from a distant asteroid arrived on Earth on Sunday after being dropped off by Japanese space probe Hayabusa2. Scientists hope the precious samples, which are expected to amount to no more than 0.1 grams of material, could help shed light on the origin of life and the formation of the universe” ScienceAlert reports.

“The capsule carrying samples entered the atmosphere just before 2:30 am Japan time (1730 GMT), creating a shooting-star-like fireball as it entered Earth’s atmosphere. ‘Six years and it has finally come back to Earth,’ an official narrating a live broadcast of the arrival said, as images showed officials from Japan’s space agency JAXA cheering and pumping their fists in excitement. The capsule separated from Hayabusa2 on Saturday, when the refrigerator-sized space probe that launched into space in 2014 was 220,000 kilometres (136,702 miles) away from Earth. It landed in the southern Australian desert, where it will be recovered from an area spanning some 39 square miles with search crews guided by beacons emitted as the capsule descended.”

“Moody and by accounts of his advisers sometimes depressed, the president barely shows up to work, ignoring the health and economic crises afflicting the nation and largely clearing his public schedule of meetings unrelated to his desperate bid to rewrite the election results. He has fixated on rewarding friends, purging the disloyal and punishing a growing list of perceived enemies that now includes Republican governors, his own attorney general and even Fox News.”

“The final days of the Trump presidency have taken on the stormy elements of a drama more common to history or literature than a modern White House. His rage and detached-from-reality refusal to concede defeat evoke images of a besieged overlord in some distant dictatorship defiantly clinging to power rather than going into exile or an erratic English monarch imposing his version of reality on his cowed court. And while he will leave office in 46 days, the last few weeks may only foreshadow what he will be like after he departs. Mr. Trump will almost certainly try to shape the national conversation from his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida and his relentless campaign to discredit the election could undercut his successor, President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. Although many Republicans would like to move on, he appears intent on forcing them to remain in thrall to his need for vindication and vilification even after his term expires” – New York Times.

Washington Post: “President Trump called Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp (R) on Saturday morning to urge him to persuade the state legislature to overturn President-elect Joe Biden’s victory in the state and asked the governor to order an audit of absentee ballot signatures, the latest brazen effort by the president to interfere in the 2020 election.”

“Hours before he was scheduled to hold a rally in Georgia on behalf of the state’s two GOP senators, Trump pressed Kemp to call a special session of the state legislature to get lawmakers to override the results and appoint electors that would back him, according to a person familiar with the conversation who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe the private call. He also asked the governor to demand an audit of signatures on mail ballots, something Kemp has previously noted he has no power to do. Kemp declined the entreaty from Trump, according to the person. The governor later referenced his conversation with Trump in a midday tweet, noting that he told the president that he’d already publicly advocated for a signature audit.”

“Man, these lawyers are on FIRE here! I hope Lin, Sidney, Rudy and all the rest of them leave a trail of bloody and beaten Democrats in their wake in the courts” – The current top comment on The Gateway Pundit article “Lin Wood Drops a Bomb On Georgia’s Gabriel Sterling – Calling Him a Communist and Crook“, posted at 11:13 am EST Saturday.

“11th Circuit affirms denial of Lin Wood effort to block Georgia certification. Trump and his allies remain 1-46 in post election litigation” Dem elections attorney Marc Elias tweeted 7 minutes later.

I will easily & quickly win Georgia if Governor @BrianKempGA or the Secretary of State permit a simple signature verification. Has not been done and will show large scale discrepancies. Why are these two “Republicans” saying no? If we win Georgia, everything else falls in place!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 5, 2020

“Two years before she’d become the breakout star of the clown show Rudy Giuliani brought to Lansing this week, Mellissa Carone was sending her then-boyfriend’s ex-wife graphic videos of the two of them having sex. Police reports obtained by Deadline Detroit reveal obscenity and computer crime charges filed against the 33-year-old Grosse Pointe Woods mother stem from a harassment campaign she waged against a 42-year-old woman in 2018 and 2019. Earlier Friday, the Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office said Carone pleaded the initial charges down to disorderly conduct, a misdemeanor” reports Deadline Detroit.

“Her boyfriend’s ex-wife, Jessica, called Southgate police about Carone multiple times between November 2018 and September 2019, initially after receiving three videos from an uknown email address showing Carone and her ex having sex. Carone’s last name was then Wright. Police traced the IP address from the emails to Carone, who initially denied sending them but revealed she was aware of their content. Eventually, she confessed to investigators, saying her goal was to send Jessica “over the top.” She admitted to also asking her boyfriend to cover her tracks by getting a new router and internet provider.”

CNN: “A more combative Ivanka Trump has emerged with little more than one month left in her role as adviser to President Donald Trump, as the first daughter makes a conscious effort to publicly push back on her critics. According to a source familiar with her thinking, Ivanka Trump recognizes there is a time stamp on the administration and she’s spent the last several weeks highlighting on social media the causes she feels she has impacted during her tenure, as well as showing hints she is ready for a fight.”

“Trump recently veered from her more milquetoast posts to pushing back against what she described as ‘partisan investigations,’ and adopting an aggressive posture more aligned with that of her father. On Tuesday, Ivanka Trump was deposed in the Washington, DC, attorney general’s inauguration lawsuit, focused on investigating potential malfeasance during the 2016 Trump inaugural festivities. And though she did not publicly announce her testimony ahead of time, she had something to say afterward.”

“President Donald Trump heads to Georgia on Saturday to campaign for two Republican senators one month ahead of a critical runoff that will determine which party controls the Senate. But Trump’s visit comes as he has spent the last several weeks consumed by his own election loss while attacking party officials in the state, casting doubt on its voting process and questioning one of the lawmakers he’s urging voters to elect.”

“According to two sources, during a recent phone call Trump blasted Georgia Republican Gov. Brian Kemp as a ‘moron’ and ‘nut job’ and asked why Sen. Kelly Loeffler did not secure a majority of votes on Election Day, placing her in a runoff against the Democrat Rev. Raphael Warnock. Last December, Trump had lobbied Kemp to fill the seat vacated by Johnny Isakson with Doug Collins, not Loeffler, but Kemp appointed Loeffler anyway – a factor Trump has harped on in recent days. Trump’s private and public broadsides have raised concerns among Republicans that his interference could do more harm than good in the pivotal races” – CNN.

New York Times: “Nearly 160 million Americans voted in the 2020 elections, by far the most in history and a level of turnout not seen in over a century, representing an extraordinary milestone of civic engagement in a year marked by a devastating pandemic, record unemployment and political unrest. With all but three states having completed their final count, and next week’s deadline for final certification of the results approaching, the sheer volume of Americans who actually voted in November was eye-opening: 66.7 percent of the voting-eligible population, according to the U.S. Election Project, a nonpartisan website run by Michael McDonald, a University of Florida professor who tracks county-level data. The shifts that led to this year’s surge in voting, in particular the broad expansion of voting options and the prolonged time period for casting ballots, could forever alter elections and political campaigns in America, providing a glimpse into the electoral future.”

“A backlash from the right could prevent that, however. In many ways, the increase in voting is what Mr. Trump and the Republican Party are now openly campaigning against in their futile bid to overturn his clear loss to President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. – whose popular vote lead grew to seven million on Friday. Republicans have portrayed the burgeoning voting ranks as nefarious and the expanded access to voting options as ripe for fraud – despite the fact that the record turnout provided them numerous victories down ballot. Though Mr. Trump and the party have not managed to prove a single claim of fraud in the courts – where they and their allies have lost or withdrawn dozens of cases — Republicans at the state level are vowing to enact a new round of voting restrictions to prevent what they claim – without evidence – is widespread fraud.”

AP: “Much of California is on the brink of sweeping new restrictions on businesses and activities, a desperate attempt to slow the frighteningly rapid escalation of coronavirus cases that threatens to overwhelm hospitals. Five San Francisco Bay Area counties imposed a new stay-at-home order for their residents that will take effect Sunday. Southern California and a large swath of the central portion of the state could join this weekend.”

“Those two regions have seen their intensive care unit capacity fall below the 15% threshold that under a new state stay-at-home order will trigger new restrictions barring all on-site restaurant dining and close hair and nail salons, movie theaters and many other businesses, as well as museums and playgrounds. If their capacity remains below that level when the data is updated Saturday, the closures will take effect Sunday and stay in effect at least three weeks. Gov. Gavin Newsom announced the new plan Thursday. It is the most restrictive order since he imposed the country’s first statewide stay-at-home rule in March.”

The United States continues to set unfortunate new records for coronavirus cases, with three days exceeding 2,500 daily fatalities and more than 200,000 new cases reported Friday, according to the COVID Tracking Project.

The nation also exceeded 14 million cases of the coronavirus, amassing one million more cases in just six days.  Also the US reached a new daily high for hospitalizations due to COVID, at 101,276.

The aggregator Worldometers listed seven states–California, Texas, Pennsylvania, New York, Illinois, Florida and Ohio–logging more than 10,000 new cases each.  California and Texas exceeded 200 fatalities on Tuesday, with Pennsylvania, Illinois, Florida, Ohio, Missouri and Kansas topping 100 deaths.

As Spartan posted earlier this evening, some radical Pennsylvania Republicans in the state legislature are calling on Pennsylvania’s Republican-led Congressional delegation to object to Pennsylvania’s Biden-committed slate of electors to the Electoral College.  Somehow, they believe, this will benefit lame duck president Trump.

Let’s game this out, shall we?

On December 14th, Pennsylvania’s electors for the Electoral College will cast their ballots for Biden in Harrisburg, or remotely if they’re smart.  (By state law, 100% of them are appointed from a list of electors submitted by the Party of the candidate that got the plurality of votes, but we’ll put that aside for sake of this discussion.)

By December 23rd, those votes must be sent to Congress. Let’s say the Congress refuses to accept Pennsylvania’s votes on that date, or anytime in the two weeks thereafter. Who do they return it to? Certainly not the Pennsylvania legislature, which ended its session this past Monday, November 30th.