Al’s Afternoon Tea: Is Secret Service Allowing Unstable DEI Hires to Guard Our Vice President?
Welcome back in for Alβs Afternoon Tea, our chance to pause in the day to sip and savor some of the latest news.
Why Pray for Leaders: Secret Service Agent on VPβs Detail Attacks Fellow Agents
God calls us to pray for our leaders — all of them. Something that happened Monday is a good reason why.
A Secret Service agent assigned to Vice President Kamala Harrisβs detail reportedly had some sort of mental collapse and attacked his fellow agents while they were waiting for Harris to arrive at Joint Base Andrews. The Washington Examiner broke the story. The Secret Service would only say the agent βbegan displaying behavior their colleagues found distressing. The agent was removed from their assignment while medical personnel were summoned.β
Should the agent ever have had the assignment in the first place? That’s a legitimate question.
Susan Crabtree of RealClearPolitics reports:
I’m also told there are DEI concerns among the [United States Secret Service] community about the hiring of this agent. Other agents and officers within the USSS are asking questions about the agent’s hiring process, whether the USSS did enough to look into the agent’s background and monitor the agent’s mental well-being because there have been widespread concerns about other strange behavior before this incident.
Thus far, neither RealClearPolitics nor The Washington Examiner are releasing the agent’s identity. The good news is that Harris had not yet made it to the base and was not involved in the altercation.
Hopefully, the story wonβt be buried. But itβs a good bet it will be. The Secret Service ended its statement by saying, βAs this was a medical matter, we will not disclose any further details.”
Itβs not just a medical matter, though. If it’s true that other agents had been questioning how this person wound up on the prestigious VP detail, we have a right to know how that happened. Were the agent’s troubles overlooked because he or she (or whatever they may identify as) checked the right box?
Agents who aren’t deeply interested in discovering who brought cocaine into the White House is one thing, but pushing mentally unstable hires onto the protective detail of our #2 elected official to appease the woke gods is another. Harris may have a peculiar laugh, but her security is no laughing matter.
Cicadageddon Getting Under Way
Here we go with the latest in 2024βs βItβs Sure Feels Like Biblical Timesβ phenomena: Cicadageddon. Two groups of trillions of cicadas — one grup that emerges every 13 years and another that emerges every 17 years — are currently emerging together. Like Alien and Predator. Godzilla and King Kong. Bill and Hillary.
Last time this happened, Thomas Jefferson was president.
The Associated Press reports the growing deafening racket already has South Carolina residents calling the police, reporting sirens or loud roars. The comingled cicadas can be as loud as a jet engine.
The Midwest and Southeast will be the most impacted by the emergence of Brood XIX and Brood X, though exact locations are uncertain. What is certain is that The Viewβs Sunny Hostin will blame it on climate change, MSNBC’s Joy Reid will blame it on racism, and Joe Biden will claim to have eaten roasted cicadas while dining in prison with Nelson Mandela.
The good news? Cicadas arenβt harmful to humans, pets, or most plants. And theyβll be out of our hair — and ears — within a month.
Pro-Hamas Fever Spreads to Harvard
Anti-Israel protesters took over Harvard Yard on Wednesday. (Did they kick out the communists and the plagiarists while they were there?)
According to Harvard Crimsonβs play-by-play, the protesters are upset the school suspended the Harvard Undergraduate Palestinian Solidarity Committee on Monday, accusing the school of suppressing voices opposed to Israel. (These are the voices calling for “death to Israel” and genocidal shouts of βfrom the River to the Sea.”)
Perhaps our response should be, βWelcome to our world, radical.β Harvard has been suppressing conservative voices for years. But we didnβt see anyone pitching hissy fits and tents on the quad over that.
SNL Nailed 2024 in 2015
What was once comedy shtick is now headline news. American students embracing the genocidal ideology of the Hamas terrorist group is stunning, but no surprise to old writers of Saturday Night Live. Back in 2015 they produced a sketch that could have been video taken yesterday outside the dorms of Columbia University.
That moment when SNL predicted the future⦠pic.twitter.com/CTRhthsnOb
— Rabbi Shmuel Reichman (@ShmuelReichman) April 21, 2024
Fighting Back: Oklahoma Education Chief Tells Schools to Ignore Biden’s Female-Sabotaging Rewrite of Title IX
Last week, Joe Biden gutted the whole purpose of Title IX by replacing the word “sex” with “gender identities,” thus requiring schools to allow males who identify as females to compete on girl and women’s sports teams and use their showers and bathrooms. The unilateral rewrite also mandates schools use a student’s preferred pronouns regardless of a parent’s wishes.
Oklahoma Superintendent of Public Instruction Ryan Waters says the Sooner State will not comply. He directed all public school districts in the state to ignore the rewritten rule.
βIn Oklahoma, we donβt bend to the senseless will of Biden and his posse eradicating womenβs rights and putting women in danger,β Walters told the Washington Examiner. βThis is why Iβve instructed every superintendent in my state to completely ignore Bidenβs new Title IX changes that allow males to roam in female locker rooms, dorms, and bathrooms β places where women should feel safe.β
Trump Hangs With the Hard Hats Before Heading to Trial
This morning’s resumption of the hush-money case prevented Donald Trump from hearing the crucial arguments at the Supreme Court over what, if any, immunity he and other presidents have for actions taken while in office.
But you’ve heard of “Trump Water”? Seems we’re now getting “Trump Lemonade.” He’s taking the lemons that are the lawfare cases against him and turning them into lemonade. Before beginning another day trapped in a Manhattan courtroom, Trump was seen hanging out with a roaring crowd of construction workers.
PRESIDENT TRUMP: "We built a lot of great buildings in this city with these people. They've given me great support. They're really amazing." pic.twitter.com/UlYi6YRUyV
— Trump War Room (@TrumpWarRoom) April 25, 2024
This is yet another example of why giving Trump the opportunity to do pop-up campaign events in the metropolis he helped rebuild and came to symbolize is biting Biden on the behind. The prospect of NYC falling back in love with Trump has to be giving the smarter people in the DNC fits. Are New York and New Jersey being put in play in November?
One pop-up appearance we can bet we’ll see before long: Trump showing up at one of the New York pizza joints that risk being shut down if rules banning wood-burning ovens go into effect. Trump railing about how the crazy Democrats want to destroy New York pizza, while scarfing down a slice of pepperoni? Forgettabout it!
Trump’s visit with the construction workers came one day after Biden said of him, “The guy has never worked a day in working man’s boots.” (Kind of an odd statement from a guy whose only jobs have been in public office. Imaginary stints as a driver of 18-wheelers don’t count.)
Biden also intimated β again β that he harbors a desire to punch the former president.
“Think about the guys you grew up with [that] you’d like to get into the corner and just give them a straight left,” Biden said before adding, “I’m not suggesting we hit the president.”
Biden’s tough talk came in a speech where he read out loud from his teleprompter: “Four more years … PAUSE.” A fact ABCE News buried at the bottom of its glowing account of how Biden needled, teased and attacked Trump was that he was “momentarily confused.”
Trump on trial and Biden on the trail. Never a dull moment.
On Tomorrowβs Menu for The Stream
Youβll be treated to John Zmirak doing the Brew!
Contributor Albin Sadar is scheduled to drop βThe Fundamental Unraveling of Americaβ in the afternoon.
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.