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July 22, 2021 - Epoch Times
21:06
13% of Maricopa County Ballots Counted So Far; Background Checks Slowing Process | Facts Matter
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Good evening.
If you are living on the East Coast right now, you might be feeling like there's a bit of a repeat of the 1970s.
That's because after the cyberattack on the Colonial Pipeline, gas stations in multiple states have run out of gas.
Meanwhile, over in Texas, BLM and Antifa activists blocked a highway in order to protest.
However, the police there actually appeared to arrest only a driver who came out to complain.
Now, across the ocean, the situation over in Hong Kong is getting worse and worse by the day.
In fact, just yesterday, one of our reporters out there was beaten by a man wielding an aluminum bat.
We here at Facts Matter actually got a chance to interview her for today's program.
And lastly, according to the official who's overseeing the Arizona election audit, only 13% of the ballots have been recounted thus far.
So what's the plan moving forward?
Well, let's discuss that 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 over in Arizona.
And actually, just as a quick aside, at the very top of the description box, you will find a link to Epic TV, our brand new no-censorship platform where you can find all of the Epoch Times programs, like The Larry Elder Show, Crossroads with Joshua Phillip, American Thought Leaders, Life and Times, China in Focus, as well as Facts Matter, with me, myself, Roman Dalmakov, And on there right now, you can find our very first exclusive Epic TV episode.
We'll actually run a trailer for that episode at the end of today's episode of this YouTube channel.
But if you want to go on over to Epic TV and watch the full thing, you can go there now by clicking on that button below.
And now let's really start over in Arizona.
As we've already discussed in several previous episodes, the large-scale audit of the 2020 election over in Maricopa County has been underway for about three weeks now.
And as a part of that audit, the Arizona State Senate is doing a hand recount of 2.1 million ballots, they are looking for any possible IT breaches that might have occurred, and they are also examining close to 400 tabulation machines which were used during the election.
Now, according to Ken Bennett, who is the former Arizona Secretary of State, as well as the audit liaison, as of Monday, so as of two days ago, only 13% of the ballots have been reviewed thus far.
That means that of the 2.1 million ballots, as of Monday, only 275,000 have been recounted.
And so, if you do the math, the audit started on April 23rd.
Workers there take Sundays off, so that means they work six days a week, and so that means that workers have been processing about 20,000 ballots per day.
Now, the reason for this slower-than-expected pace is that the auditors are having a hard time finding people to actually do the job.
The firms which are actually conducting the audit have been trying to hire more workers.
But as of Monday, only 19 tables are staffed, which is far below the 46 tables that Ken Bennett said would be ideal.
According to him, the reason for this slowdown is the need for background checks on all of the potential hires.
And so, because the ballot counters need to have an extensive background checks run on them, that slows down the process of getting them to actually work.
Now, this ballot recount is going to run into a soft deadline this Friday, on May 14th.
That's because when the venue, which is the Veterans Memorial Coliseum over in Phoenix, that's when the venue is scheduled to host several high school graduations.
And so, come Friday, come this Friday, the audit will have to pause.
According to Ken Bennett, come Friday, all of the ballots will be moved to a different secure location, which is still on site.
And just as with the audit itself, that location where the ballots will be stored will be webcast 24 hours a day.
You will be able to watch it over at azaudit.org, just like you can watch the audit itself.
Furthermore, according to Bennett, the venue is currently preparing paperwork for the Senate to actually run the Colosseum again once the high school graduations are over, and then they want to resume the audit later this month right there at the Veterans Memorial Colosseum.
However, a spokeswoman for the Colosseum said that nothing has been signed thus far.
Now, according to a statement by Ken Bennett, it looks like the auditors will use this break as an opportunity to find more ballot counters, so that when the audit actually resumes, they can restart at full capacity.
Here's what he told reporters.
Hopefully, within a few days, or when we come back after the graduations, we'll be fully stocked at the tables and ready to go.
Now, the earliest that the audit can actually restart at the Coliseum is May 21st.
That's when all the high school graduations are over.
And so, it looks like no matter what, the Arizona audit will be paused for at least a week.
Now, in terms of all of the legal drama that is happening behind the scenes that we've been discussing in previous episodes, like the Maricopa County officials not handing over routers and passwords, the judge who released the Cyber Ninja security plan to the public, as well as the Department of Justice letter to the Senate, thus far, there have been no developments on those fronts which have been made public.
What we're going to be doing next here at The Epoch Times is spending the next several days actually following up with the officials who are involved, and I hope to give you an update by this Friday.
Otherwise, as always, if you would like to watch the audit for yourself, you can do so over at azaudit.org, which is the website that the Arizona State Senate set up, which allows you to watch the audit in real time happening from nine different camera angles.
And furthermore, if you would like to read the statements from Ken Bennett for yourself, the link to them will be in 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 videos that are like this, talking honestly about what is happening in this world, are routinely censored, throttled, or sometimes outright taken down by big tech giants like YouTube.
However, when you smash that like button below this video, you are forcing the YouTube algorithm to share this video out to potentially thousands of more people As we already mentioned in a previous episode, the situation over in Hong Kong has been steadily deteriorating over the last year.
And especially since the passing of the national security law It seems like the freedom of the press, as well as the freedom of speech, are being suppressed more and more every single day.
Now, we already discussed how, a few weeks ago, four masked men, they broke into our printing facility in Hong Kong and damaged our printing equipment, our computers, our control panels, as well as several other pieces of equipment using sledgehammers.
Well, the silver lining in that incident, at least, was that even though our facility was busted up, nobody was physically hurt.
However, as I mentioned, things are looking like they are getting worse and worse every single day.
And unfortunately, just yesterday, one of our senior reporters, who has been on the ground for 20 years over in Hong Kong, was beaten up by a man with an aluminum bat.
Now, the reporter who was beaten up is named Sarah Liang.
And if you've ever watched our program here called American Thought Leaders with Jan Yekelek, well, she runs a similar program over there in Hong Kong, where she interviews the thought leaders over on the island.
Now, furthermore, she also does a lot of great first-hand reporting from the ground.
When I was over in Hong Kong, we collaborated quite a bit.
And luckily, we here at Facts Matter actually got a chance to interview her after her attack, and she told us what happened.
Take a look.
All right, so Sarah, thank you so much for joining us.
So to start with, you look pretty good.
Are you still in the hospital?
Oh, and I am at home now.
I'm not in the hospital anymore.
Can you describe to our audience a little bit about what happened yesterday with the attack?
I go outside and do my job around 11.30.
It's in the morning.
And it's sunny.
Everything is OK.
I just walk from my home for just one minute.
And I met somebody that taking a stick, a long stick, it's longer than my arm, and holding to me.
It's so strange.
I just want him.
Will he?
Who me?
The first question.
He's like, to me, the first...
I think maybe it's not true.
Yeah, I'll take my My iPhone, I want to shoot this person, but he could just my legs for around one minute and shoot it ten times, I think.
And very brutally, yeah.
And I cannot get this photo or anything because it's crystal creek.
Now, since that attack, the U.S. State Department has actually released a statement saying this.
The United States condemns the recent attack committed against an Epoch Times journalist.
Attacks against journalists are unacceptable and cannot be tolerated.
We urge the authorities to complete a full investigation of this incident, as well as the recent attack on the Epoch Times Hong Kong printing facilities.
If you would like to read more about her full story for yourself, the link to that will be in the description box below this video for you to check out.
And now, before we move on over and discuss the Antifa and BLM protests which have been breaking out over in Portland as well as Texas, I would like to take a quick moment and introduce our sponsor for today's episode, and I will do so from the sound booth.
The sponsor of today's episode is AMAC, that's A-M-A-C, and it stands for the Association of Mature American Citizens.
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But if you or someone in your family is 50 years old or older, You should consider joining AMAC. They are basically the conservative version of the AARP and they have basically three main benefits to joining.
The first one is the money-saving benefit.
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And even though I'm not a member, I have read their magazine and it's pretty good.
It's filled with a lot of really good thought-provoking articles.
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And so if you are interested, it doesn't cost that much.
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Check out AMAC. The link will be in the description box below this video.
Or you can go on over to amac.us forward slash facts matter.
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And AMAC, thank you so much for sponsoring this episode.
And now Roman in the studio, back to you.
And now let's move on over to Portland.
According to police reports, last Wednesday, a large group of Antifa as well as BLM protesters, they clashed with regular people on the streets of Portland.
And this, by the way, all took place in broad daylights and at multiple areas throughout the city.
And at least two of these incidents were actually captured on video camera, and they show armed protesters getting into conflicts with drivers.
Now, by the way, if you take a look at the way that this footage is shot, it's actually unclear whether the person behind the camera is a protester themselves, or they are just there documenting what is happening.
Take a look.
In one of these incidents, Armed protesters surrounded a red Dodge Chrysler, slashed the car's tires, broke the rear window, and held the driver hostage after they accused them of driving through their protest.
And by the way, just as an aside, when I was in Portland late last year, I saw this type of thing happening quite a lot.
What the protesters seem to do is that they typically take over an intersection, and then they force the drivers who are trying to get through to say something positive about BLM, to either say the slogan or put their fist up in the air as solidarity.
And if the drivers refuse, they are either attacked or they are not allowed to pass through and just have to sit there and get intimidated.
It has, in my opinion, a very French Revolution vibe to it.
Now, another video that came out from last week showed a standoff between a man in a red Ford pickup and a crowd of protesters.
That got pretty dangerous since both the man as well as the protesters were armed.
And actually, after this took place, the man in that video, he actually gave an interview to local media.
His name is John Hall.
He is 53 years old, and he is a veteran who previously served in both the Army as well as the Marines.
And he said that on the night of the incident, he was driving through that area after finishing one job as he was making his way to his next job.
And then, a crowd of protesters stopped his truck and blocked the road.
Here's how he described what happened next.
He said that right afterwards, someone tackled him to the ground, grabbed his pistol, and then the crowd began to kick and hit him while he was on the floor.
When describing the type of injuries that he sustained, this veteran said that after the beating, he suffered from a partially collapsed left lung, broken ribs, a broken collarbone, head trauma, as well as spinal injuries.
And like many, many other people who are currently living in Portland, Mr. J.
John Hall said that he is leaving the city for good.
Here's what he said.
I'm done.
I'm done working in Portland.
I'm shutting my business down, and I'm probably not going to be coming back.
Now, if you have been following the developments over in Portland over the last several years now, then frankly, these types of incidents are not that surprising.
But what was more surprising, at least to me, was that a similar incident occurred out in Texas.
About a week ago, a video came out of Plano, which is a city in Texas, and it appeared to show a police officer allowing BLM protesters, as well as people who looked like Antifa agitators, who were apparently armed with guns, by the way, to block traffic.
And furthermore, that same police officer then actually reprimanded a Texas driver who got out of his car and confronted these protesters.
Now, Ken Paxton, who is the Attorney General out in Texas, he is taking a very different approach to this incident, when you compare it to what's going on out in Portland.
That's because shortly after this video was made public, he announced an investigation.
And then right afterwards, he released this statement.
We must not let lawlessness take root in Texas.
Unfortunately, it looks like it already has in Plano, thanks to a group of radical left-armed agitators and a police chief unwilling to enforce the law.
Last week, a group of militant BLM protesters illegally shut down traffic underneath a major highway.
When one man got out of his car to demand the mob clear the way, an Antifa-like character pulled out what appears to be a gun and pointed it at the man.
Meanwhile, rather than disperse the crowd or arrest the lawbreakers, the lone police officer told the man to go away.
Only one person from this whole incident is being charged with a crime.
The one man who told the protesters to go away.
Why?
For assault with contact because he slapped a person's hand out of his face.
No one else is being charged with anything.
None of the law-breaking traffic blockers.
Not the guy who pulled a weapon.
No one.
Now we here at the Epoch Times, we reached out to the Plano Police Department for comment on this case, but we have yet to hear back.
Regardless, as of yet, Ken Paxton has not announced any concrete actions that he's taking on this case, but he did add this to the end of his statement.
I will never allow our beautiful Texas cities and neighborhoods to become Portland or Seattle or San Francisco because of the unchecked left.
Thus far, it's not clear whether the charges against that man will be pursued or dropped.
Now if you would like to watch the footage for yourself, or if you would like to read Ken Paxton's statement in its entirety, the links to that will be in the description box below this video for you to check out.
And now let's talk a bit about gas lines.
If you live somewhere on the East Coast right now, you might be experiencing some nostalgia, as for the first time since the 1970s, gas stations are running out of gas.
Now, as I'm sure you've already heard, four days ago, the Colonial Pipeline, which is one of the largest pipeline operations in all of America, they actually supply half of the fuel on the East Coast, and their pipelines run all the way from Houston, Texas to Linden, New Jersey, and they were unfortunately forced to shut down their operations after experiencing a cyberattack.
According to the FBI, the group behind the cyberattack is called DarkSide.
And they stole data from Colonial, as well as locked their computer system with ransomware, which is a method that attackers like this use to hold crucial information from companies until their paid ransom.
And as a result, Colonial took certain systems offline, which temporarily halted all pipeline operations.
However, since Colonial says that it is not willing to pay the ransom, the pipeline remains closed to this day, and now gas stations across multiple states have run out of gas.
There are actually videos online that you can go and check out for yourself of people lining up, of cars lining up, bumper to bumper, for hours in order to fuel up, if they're lucky.
Now, multiple states have enacted a state of emergency, such as North Carolina, whose governor declared a state of emergency on Monday, which, among several other things, suspended motor vehicle regulations for vehicles which are supporting emergency relief efforts to make it easier for them to help.
So these are vehicles such as semi-trucks, which can now transport the oil in lieu of the pipeline.
Now, if you go on over right now to the Colonial Pipeline corporate website, their latest update says that while their main lines continue to be offline, some smaller, lateral lines between terminals and delivery points are now currently operational.
And their line, which runs from Greensboro, North Carolina, to Woodbine, Maryland, is operating under manual control at this point in time.
Now, besides the gas lines that are happening across different states, because of the shutdown, airlines are also having to adjust.
For instance, American Airlines is making adjustments to some of its normal flight patterns.
As just one example, the usual nonstop flight from Charlotte to Honolulu will now land over in Dallas, where passengers will have to switch planes.
Another flight pattern, the one from Charlotte to London, will now go over to Boston in order to refuel.
Now, all of these adjustments are, of course, temporary, as long as the shutdown does not last too long.
In terms of the price of gas, which is already hovering at around $3 a gallon nationally as the average, we here at the Epoch Times got a chance to speak someone over at AAA and here's what he told us.
We're expecting to see price increases to continue through the week, and in particular in the southeast region and in the northeast, because we are seeing directly impacted areas along the terminals of the pipeline that remain out.
Now, if you would like to read more about this cyberattack, as well as the gas shortages happening across the East Coast, the links to those articles will be in the description box below this video for you to check out.
And now, as we already mentioned in several previous 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 ads before, during, or after our episodes, and the Super Chat feature has just been disabled.
They're essentially snuffing out our independent journalism.
However, we here at the Epoch Times have launched something very cool.
It's called Epic TV. It's our new no censorship platform where you can find all of our content, such as The Larry Elder Show, My Show Facts Matter, Crossroads with Joshua Phillips, American Thought Leaders, China in Focus, Life and Times, and all the rest.
And right now, we have an exclusive episode on there.
Here's a trailer for it.
What is the theoretical underpinning guiding the CCP? The Chinese Communist Party wants to make the China model.
They want to make that system the model for world governance, and they're actually doing a lot to make that happen.
When the CCP talks about strangle you with your own systems, they have study groups in China.
But the CCP uses this for their narrative drive.
If you can do that, you can control the strings.
You can create chaos.
You can create conflicts.
You can create new narratives.
You can use these systems and manipulate them in ways that people tear down the system themselves rather than needing a foreign invading force to do it for them.
There's a lot of talk about things like vaccine passports.
The Chinese Communist Party is manufacturing the system through which countries are bouncing back from the virus.
They are creating the model for it.
When does government give itself new powers and relinquish those powers?
The question you have is, how do we change this?
Journalists from just about every major media are traveling to China on paid trips.
How many of them are taking money from the Chinese Communist Party?
A shockingly large number.
All of them have their ties to the CCP to various degrees.
And all of those ties mean that the narrative is being controlled by the CCP if you have any relation with those systems.
Stay informed and stay free.
If you want to check out that exclusive episode, as well as all of our other no-censorship content, the link to it will be in the description box below this video.
I hope you check it out.
And 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 this type of honest news content delivered directly into your YouTube feed.
And until next time, I'm your host, Roman from the Epoch Times.
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