Happy Friday! And what a Friday the 13th it is.

We’re not superstitious, but you might want to wrap your Christmas list in tin foil. It seems another “crazy conspiracy theory” has bitten the dust.

DOJ IG: 26 FBI Informants Were at Capitol on J6

For four years, people have been calling us “conspiracy theorists” for saying the feds had their mitts all over the “riot” that took place on January 6, 2021. Now, a day after FBI Director Christopher Wray announced his resignation, the DOJ Inspector General has admitted that no fewer than 26 FBI “confidential human sources” (what we would call spies) were on hand at the Capitol that day.

According to Julie Kelly, who’s been on the J6 story like stripes on a candy cane, at least 17 of those “confidential human sources” committed offenses for which other J6ers have been federally charged — but not a single CHS has faced prosecution. Kelly also guarantees the number “26” is “not accurate” — that federal involvement was much more widespread — and adds that the timing of Wray’s resignation is no coincidence.

“The findings here completely contradict Wray’s assertions that the FBI was caught by surprise as to the events of January 6 as well as his prevarications about the use of informants,” Kelly writes.

According to the report, the FBI claims only three of the informants were assigned to be there on January 6, and none were authorized to “break the law” or “encourage others to commit illegal acts.” Only one entered the Capitol, while the other two entered the restricted area around the Capitol building.

If you believe the FBI, the other 23 were at the protest of their own accord. (Wink, wink.)

We’ve left the “You’re crazy to say the feds were involved” phase and entered the “Sure, we were there, but nobody did anything wrong” phase. Once Kash Patel takes over the FBI, perhaps we’ll get to the “whole truth and nothing but the truth” phase.

Scott Adams asks the pertinent question: “If we don’t believe the FBI, why would we believe what they told the IG?”

If we don’t believe the FBI, why would we believe what they told the IG? https://t.co/UpqMk9NJWC

— Scott Adams (@ScottAdamsSays) December 12, 2024

Joe Biden Pardons, Gives Clemency to Chinese Spies and Child Porn Enthusiasts

Looks like Hunter Biden isn’t the only criminal with prurient interests in minors that Joe Biden is letting off the hook.

On Thursday, Biden commuted the sentences of 1,500 people — the most far-reaching such action to be executed in one day by a lame-duck president in modern history. Among those convicted criminals is Chinese national Shanlin Jin. Biden gave him clemency despite the fact that he was convicted of having 47,000 child pornography images on his hard drive, including infant rape.

🚨BREAKING NEWS🚨

Joe Biden just provided a Chinese national with clemency who was convicted of having 47,000 child p*rnography images in his possession.

Shanlin Jin was sentenced to 97 months in prison after pleading guilty.

Plano police stopped going through his computer… pic.twitter.com/MeJKrGrkcx

— Breanna Morello (@BreannaMorello) December 12, 2024

Biden also gave clemency to two other Chinese nationals, Yanjun Xu and Ji Chaoqun. Yanjun was a Chinese intelligence officer convicted of spying, while Ji was convicted of illegally operating as a unregistered agent for China.

TIME Magazine Names Donald Trump “Person of the Year”

President-Elect Donald Trump has been selected as TIME Magazine’s “Person of the Year.”

Donald Trump is TIME's Person of the Year https://t.co/IjP5W2otV5 pic.twitter.com/CVHX9o0DB3

— TIME (@TIME) December 12, 2024

Who else could they have picked aside from Trump, given the drama of his unprecedented comeback, his dominant election win, and his domination of the headlines? TIME summarized what Trump accomplished just in the wake of surviving the first attempt on his life in July:

Over the next four months, he beat not one but two Democratic opponents, swept all seven swing states, and became the first Republican to win the popular vote in 20 years. He has realigned American politics, remaking the GOP and leaving Democrats reckoning with what went awry.

And he managed to serve perfect golden fries at McDonalds.

Trump’s Thursday also included ringing the opening bell for the New York Stock Exchange — the first president since Ronald Reagan to be given the honor.

'AN HONOR': President-elect Trump rings the opening bell at @NYSE after being named Time Person of the Year. https://t.co/iAThHifg3L pic.twitter.com/R31Z96Rs2z

— Fox News (@FoxNews) December 12, 2024

Look at his face. That is not the same Trump we saw during his first go as president. (And I don’t mean he’s been replaced by a clone or a body double.) That guy has gratitude. Humility. Peace. TIME’s writers also picked up on the difference from an interview conducted several months ago. They describe Trump as “more subdued, less verbose, the same discursive speech patterns but with the volume turned down.”

AOC: Executing that United Healthcare CEO was Wrong, BUT …

Add Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to the list of leftists who want to excuse away the recent murder of United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson. Like Sen. Elizabeth Warren, AOC offers a perfunctory acknowledgement that violence is wrong, followed by a huge “but.”

In fact, she draws a moral equivalence between a cold-blooded murder and the financial burdens of health care.

“Of course, we don’t want to see the chaos that vigilantism presents,” Ocasio-Cortez said Wednesday. “We also don’t want to see the extreme suffering that millions of Americans confront when your life changes overnight from a horrific diagnosis, and people are led to just some of the worst, not just health events, but the worst financial events of their and their family’s lives.”

AOC on the assassination of the United Healthcare CEO: “This is not to say that an act of violence is justified, but…” pic.twitter.com/yzjuPpotEI

— TheBlaze (@theblaze) December 12, 2024

AOC went so far as to assert that people see the denial of an insurance claim as an “act of violence.”

The Stream Readers Have Spoken: Die Hard Is a Christmas Movie

We love you, readers. Steve R. sent this epic response to the question “Is Die Hard a Christmas movie?”:

As a red-blooded, Southern, redneck, hillbilly, ridge-runnin’ man (grunt spit whittle) I must declare to you and whomever else will listen.

Die Hard is a Christmas movie. Christmas songs at the beginning, Christmas songs at the end. Christmas trees. A Christmas party. Christmas decorations. There even is a man in a Santa hat. It shouldn’t be discounted because he’s dead.

With sincerest Christmas blessings

Steve R.

His fellow Streamers agree, by a 61.5% to 38.5% margin: Die Hard is a Christmas movie, according to a poll we posted on X.

Is Die Hard a Christmas movie?

— The Stream (@Streamdotorg) December 10, 2024

Along The Stream…

Jules Gomes gives us more details about crime and punishment in the Biden administration in “Pope, Bishop Beg Biden to Lift Death Penalty for Federal Prisoners Convicted of Murdering Jews, Women, and Children.”

Coming up soon, Mass Resistance will give us a brief education on “How Blue State Legislatures Scam Their Citizens.”

Al Perrotta is The Stream’s Washington bureau chief, coauthor with John Zmirak of The Politically Incorrect Guide to Immigration, and coauthor of the counterterrorism memoir Hostile Intent: Protecting Yourself Against Terrorism.