Welcome back in for Al’s Afternoon Tea! After the long, busy weekend, we have plenty of flavors to sample as we start the summer season.

Friday was the busiest air travel day ever, according to the Transportation Security Administration. It reported screening a record 2.95 million travelers. That is a lot of stinky shoes being taken off before takeoff.

BREAKING: Biden Campaign Shows Up at Trump Courthouse, Bringing Bitter, Coherent Old Man (Who Wasn’t Biden)

Talking about stinky, the Biden-Harris campaign held a press conference today outside the courtroom where jurors were hearing closing arguments in the Biden-coordinated “hush money” case against the man currently whipping him in the polls. We are not talking about Biden supporters showing up to rag on Trump; that is okay. We are talking about the official Biden presidential campaign. (That is Biden. That is not okay.)

But putting his fingers on the scales of justice is nothing new for our current president. Just the other day, he decided to pay a surprise visit to Hallie Biden, who is not only the widow of his son, Beau, and past lover of his other son, Hunter, but a key witness in Hunter’s gun trial, which is about to start.

Actor Robert DeNiro was brought into this Biden campaign presser to let loose one of his unhinged rants against Trump. Trump supporters drowned out portions of it with a now-familiar, not-family-friendly, anti-Biden chant. DeNiro, who called Trump a threat to “democracy,” responded by saying the protesters shouldn’t be allowed on the site. 

How bad is the Biden-Harris campaign? They’ve now got New Yorkers booing and cursing Robert DeNiro. 

That’s pretty bad.

Harrison Butker Doubles Down on Christ in First Public Comments Since Controversial Commencement Speech

Kansas City Chiefs kicker Harrison Butker doubled down on Jesus Christ in his first public comments since giving his controversial pro-motherhood commencement speech at Benedictine College recently.

““If it wasn’t clear that the timeless Catholic values are hated by many, it is now. Over the past few days, my beliefs — or what people think I believe — have been the focus of countless discussions around the globe,” Butker said Friday at the Regina Caeli Academy Courage Under Fire Gala in Nashville. “At the outset, many people expressed a shocking level of hate. But as the days went on, even those who disagreed with my viewpoints shared their support for my freedom of religion.”

He went on to say that glorifying God and sharing his faith is more important than the approval of man. “It is not people but Jesus Christ who I am trying to please.”

Standing up for your faith sometimes means more than getting hated on by Swifties and or being verbally pummeled by the women of The View, however. Sometimes it means paying with your life. Last Thursday, married missionaries David and Natalie Lloyd and a colleague were murdered in a gang ambush in Haiti. Natalie was the daughter of Missouri state Rep. Ben Baker, who posted a heartbreaking tribute on X.

Words seem empty right now…Our hearts are broken. This is the hardest thing we have ever done. We’re grieving, but we want Davy and Natalie’s story to be told because it deserves to be told. They were the perfect example of a life of putting others before self. A life of loving… pic.twitter.com/pgZ5ipXSH9

— Ben Baker (@BenBakerMO) May 24, 2024

Oh, Look. Another Dude Is a Women’s State Track Champ

Last weekend, a boy who identifies as female won the Oregon girls’ high school state championship 200-meter race. This weekend, another male smoked the competition in the Washington girls’ 400-meter championship race. Donovan Brown, who goes by Veronica Garcia, won by a full second in a sport that is usually decided by fractions of a second.

Watch the video, keeping in mind these are the best of the best female runners in the state, and then tell me this was a fair competition.

Would you look at that…the thing that never happens happened again.

🚨Veronica Garcia (Donovan Brown) just won the Washington State Championship in the girls' 400m in total domination.

In Washington & Oregon this past week, the fastest "girl" in the each state has been a boy. pic.twitter.com/jbAEhdyTDl

— Riley Gaines (@Riley_Gaines_) May 25, 2024

Rather than grouse about Brown, let’s congratulate Lauren Matthew of West Valley High in Spokane for being Washington’s legitimate state champion.

Meanwhile, another trans-identifying male isn’t content with taking girls’ titles. He set out to take girls’ lives. 

Oh, Look. Another Transgender Person Goes on a Rampage

No, not all those suffering from gender confusion are violent. Not even close. However, can we at least be honest enough to admit something real is going on? Once again, someone identifying as transgender has gone on a deadly mass rampage.

On Saturday evening, 26-year-old Jared Ravizza was arrested after entering an AMC movie theater in Braintree, Massachusetts and randomly stabbing four underaged girls. According to the mother of one of the victims, Ravizza was “laughing the whole time.” Fortunately, none of the injuries were life-threatening. Ravizza was caught after a similar assault in Plymouth.

Police say Ravizza is also suspected of committing a murder in Deep River, Connecticut, earlier Saturday. Neighbors tell local News 8 that Ravizza and the male victim had been living in a rental home together for about three weeks. 

Not-the-Bee is making much of the fact that Ravizza’s father is a wealthy, high-end Martha’s Vineyard psychologist. Guess the elder Ravizza doesn’t make house calls.

Cracker Barrel Revamps After Business Downturn. Are Only COVID and Bidenomics to Blame?

Cracker Barrel’s stock took a dramatic dive Friday after the company announced it was undergoing a major overhaul, slashing its annual dividend. “We’re just not as relevant as we once were,” chief executive Julie Felss Masino said on an investor call. “Some of our recipes and processes haven’t evolved in decades.”

The chain, which has been in decline for several years, plans to spend $700 million on revamping the menu, then “refreshing the interior and exterior” with a “different color palette.”

Cracker Barrel said in 2022 that older, loyal clientele stopped coming during COVID restrictions and inflation has kept them from coming back. Yet is inflation the only reason Cracker Barrel left a bad taste in their mouth?

The chain’s recent woes can’t have anything to with the traditional family eatery embracing Pride Month, can it?

RIP Cracker Barrel pic.twitter.com/y7H5f2nyot

— Battle Beagle (@HarmlessYardDog) May 26, 2024

Are rainbow colors the change in palette and exterior look Cracker Barrel execs are talking about? After last year’s Bud Light and Target fiascos, one has to ask.

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul Gets Burned

On this morning’s Brew we talked about how New York Gov. Kathy Hochul – just days after claiming black kids in the Bronx “don’t know what the word ‘computer’ is” — called Trump supporters “clowns.”

Well, she was the one with the pie in her face this weekend. Hochul, like so many leftist leaders, offered warm-and-fuzzy tributes to George Floyd on the anniversary of his death.

You remember George Floyd — the repeat felon who died in Minneapolis while resisting arrest after ingesting a lethal amount of fentanyl? Whose death triggered nationwide riots that wrecked many an American city?

Hochul’s tribute was met with a response we can’t help but applaud.

Setting aside for a moment the fact that Hochul probably meant to say “systemic racism,” here’s a serious question: Do you feel the American people have grown tired of these radical, snobby yahoos?

 

On The Stream Menu

John Z roars back from the holiday with “Is Richard Dawkins More Catholic Than the Pope?”

John Amanchukwu has part four of his “Protect the Children” series: “What is Grooming Culture and How Is Your School Promoting It?”

 

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.