The Stream

Al’s Afternoon Tea: Target Pulls Back on Pride, Prayers for a Jailed Pro-Life Warrior

By Al Perrotta Published on May 13, 2024 •

Al Perrotta

Welcome back in for Al’s Afternoon Tea. Next time, bring some friends. There’s plenty of room.

Target Pulls Back on Pride-Month Obsession … Depending on Location

This June, Target won’t be shoving Pride Month down the throats of customers and kids to the same degree it did last year. Make no mistake, the retail chain says it will still be hawking Pride swag to the fullest online and promoting Pride Month in cities across the land. But how much, if any, LGTBQ-themed merchandise will be featured in particular Target stores will be “based on historical sales performance.” According to Bloomberg, Target expects about half of its 2,000 stores to carry the Pride merchandise that caused such an uproar last year.

Who can forget the “tuck-friendly” swimsuits for men who identify as female? Or getting bombarded with Pride signs, imagery, and merchandise the minute you stepped inside the store? 

Target blamed the backlash for its drop in second-quarter revenue. 

Victory: South Carolina Nixes Sex Changes for Minors

The South Carolina Senate passed a bill Thursday banning sex changes, puberty blockers, hormone therapy, and related torments for minors. Republican Gov. Henry McMaster is expected to sign the bill. When he does, South Carolina will become the 24th state to put the brakes on what proponents euphemistically call “gender affirming care.”

J.K Rowling Doubles Down After Being Attacked for Correctly Identifying a Person’s Gender

Author J.K. Rowling was accused of “bullying” when she mocked celebrations over a transgender person being named manager of a European women’s soccer team. Lucy Clark was the first openly trans referee in the sport, and then was billed as “the first trans manager in the top five division of English women’s football.”

Rowling said, “When I was young all the football managers were straight, white, middle-aged blokes, so it’s fantastic to see how much things have changed.”

When a news account said she “compared” Clark to a “straight, white, middle-aged bloke,” Rowling replied, ““I didn’t compare him to one. He IS one.”

When accused of bullying, Rowling responded, “Calling a man a man is not ‘bullying’ or ‘punching down.’ Crossdressing straight men are currently one of the most pandered-to demographics in existence, and women are under no obligation to applaud the people caricaturing us.” To another critic, she said sarcastically, “You’re right. No demographic is more vulnerable and oppressed than large, tattooed crossdressers who get plum jobs in women’s sport. I don’t know how I could have been so cruel.”

Horror in Houston

A 64-year-old man, Steven Anderson, was killed while retrieving his mail on May 3 when a transgender driver ran him over, then backed over him again. The suspect — 20-year-old Karon Fisher — then got out of his vehicle, flipped Anderson over, straddled him, kissed him … and then stabbed him nine times. And then proceeded to dance gleefully around the body.

Fisher, who was wearing a blonde wig at the time of the murder, is male but presents as a female.  Witnesses helped quickly lead police to him, and last Monday, Fisher was charged with Anderson’s murder. 

Here’s some further evidence we are living in perverted, poisoned times:

Yeah, we could caption this. But it’s just too sad to consider what children are being exposed to. And to consider the damage done that would even lead to a person doing this sort of thing to themselves.

Prayers for a Pro-Life Prisoner

Have you been wondering what happened to the people who attacking border agents in Texas several weeks ago in an attempt to violently enter the nation at an approved crossing point? Wonder no longer: The charges have been dropped. Same for the terrorist-loving anarchists tormenting our campuses. But pro-life supporters singing hymns at abortion mills? They’re receiving lengthy prison sentences.

Heather Idoni, 61, of Linden, Michigan, who is a mother of 15, was convicted under the Federal FACE Act last fall for taking part in pro-life demonstrations. She’s been held in prison ever since while awaiting sentencing. Idoni has now suffered a stroke behind bars.  

LifeSiteNews reported in early May that Idoni was “rushed to the hospital this week after suffering a stroke while being held at Northern Neck Regional Jail in Virginia. She is reportedly stabilized and will be taken back into custody to await sentencing on May 17.”

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Idoni recently told LifeSiteNews she had been subjected to 22 days of solitary confinement because she shared food with other prisoners. She only gets to leave her cell for two hours in the middle of the night, and lights are continually kept on.

We pray for Idoni’s full recovery, and pray she will be sentenced to time served and then released.

Yesterday, the Biden campaign released a video declaring, “On Mother’s Day, a reminder: Donald Trump stands only for himself — and not mothers across America and their families. The stakes of this election are high for all Americans, but especially moms across our country who will suffer under a second Trump term.”

Think of the mother of 15 the Biden administration has already kept behind bars for months on end, who could perhaps spend the rest of her life in prison, her health already falling apart, all for singing hymns at an abortion center in the cause of protecting the lives of innocent children.

What a cruel, wicked joke by the Biden campaign.

RFK Jr. Is for Abortion Up to Birth. Or Is He Flip-Flopping?

Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. told The Sage Steele Show last Wednesday that he opposes any government restrictions on abortions.

“Even if it’s full term?”  Steele asked.

“Yes,” Kennedy responded. While he said he finds the argument for protecting a full-grown fetus “really, really good,” he says he doesn’t “trust the state” when it comes to personal medical decisions.

“Ultimately, we have to trust women.”

However, after receiving severe backlash for supporting the lawful willy-nilly slaughter of the unborn up to birth and apparently learning that women are having “elective late-term abortions,” Kennedy has now reversed course. He released a statement Friday expressing support for returning to the Roe v. Wade standard of abortion up to the point of viability.

“I support the emerging consensus that abortion should be unrestricted up until a certain point,” he said. “I believe that point should be when the baby is viable outside the womb. Therefore I would allow appropriate restrictions on abortion in the final months of pregnancy, just as Roe v. Wade did.”

Update: Congresswoman Who Dumped on Trump’s Jersey Rally Pays Judge’s Daughter Big Bucks

On this morning’s Brew, we mentioned the massive Trump rally in Wildwood, N.J. Democratic Congresswoman Mikie Sherrill, who represents the area, groused about Trump going to the Garden State, tweeting, “Donald Trump, you’re not welcome in NJ. … Do us a favor and go back to court.”

(Ask the vendors on the Wildwood boardwalk if Trump is welcome back.)

However, that’s not the news. Activist-journalist Laura Loomer tweeted out an interesting tidbit Sunday. Wanna guess who has received more than $200,000 from Rep. Sherrill over the past nine months?

If you said Authentic Campaigns — the company run by the daughter of the judge presiding over Trump’s New York trial — you’d be correct. Sherrill has shelled out $216,793 for “political digital consulting” to the firm. (Hmm. Does that include social media?)

According to OpenSecrets.org, Authentic Campaigns is by far Sherrill’s biggest vendor in the 2024 election cycle. All told, the company pulled in nearly $15 million from Democrat politicians and organizations in 2013, including Rep. Adam Schiff and Rep. Dan Goldman, who are at the forefront of the lawfare efforts against Trump.

When Trump talks about how conflicted Judge Juan Merchan is, this is the kind of thing he’s talking about. A congresswoman who pays hundreds of thousands of dollars to his daughter for “digital services” is on social media, using the court case over which Merchan is presiding, to blast Trump — all while he holds Trump to a gag order.

Yeah, that sounds like a fair trial.

On The Stream Menu

John Zmirak kicks the week off with a bang.: “Mission Accomplished: The Rainbow Seamless Garment Is Suffocating the Church, as Intended.”

Meanwhile, there’s also a really delicious piece from Hendrik van der Breggen that you must share with your college-aged family members and friends. “Untangling Anti-Israel Propaganda for Today’s College Students.” 

 

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.

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