Welcome back in for Al’s Afternoon Tea, our chance to stop and sample some of the latest headlines.

Praise God! Another Israeli Hostage Rescued in Daring Operation

Great news out of Israel this morning: Israeli forces have rescued another Hamas hostage in a daring operation deep in the Gaza Strip. 

Qaid Farhan Alkadi, 52, had been held for 325 days since the October 7 massacre. Alkadi is currently in an Israeli hospital, listed in stable condition. Details of the rescue are being kept under wraps,”due to considerations of the safety of our hostages, the security of our forces, and national security,” said Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant.

Alkadi is the first hostage to actually be rescued alive from inside the Hamas tunnel network; 108 Israeli hostages remain in the hands of the terrorists, as do eight Americans. 

Zuckerberg: Biden-Harris Pressured Facebook to Censor Americans

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg spent about $400 million in 2020 to staff election offices in swing states with liberal activists and pay for cheat-friendly ballot drop boxes to get Joe Biden and Kamala Harris elected. Is he now having some buyer’s remorse?

In a letter to House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan on Monday, Zuckerberg admitted that in 2021, “senior officials” at the White House “repeatedly pressured our teams for months to censor certain COVID-19 content, including humor and satire.”

You remember that. He’s talking about any posts that went against the Fauci line, including the expert opinion of medical professionals in the field, saying the vaccines were good, efficacious, harmless, and that taking them was the best way to keep yourself and your loved ones safe from the dreaded virus. The information that was censored, in so many cases, proved to be correct. Facebook and other social media sites censored critical scientific debate that could have saved lives, to say nothing of how they stifled constitutionally guaranteed free speech.

Zuckerberg adds that Facebook drew the ire of the administration every time it didn’t go along with the censorship push.

JUST IN – Zuckerberg regrets working with the Biden-Harris administration to censor Covid era information online. pic.twitter.com/vD4Ug5ebqh

— Disclose.tv (@disclosetv) August 26, 2024

Zuckerberg also admitted that it was wrong to suppress the Hunter Biden laptop story. “I believe the government pressure was wrong,” he said, “and I regret that we were not more outspoken about it.”

The big question for Zuckerberg heading into the final months of this election is: “Are you still going to allow the government (and the government loyalists at Facebook) to censor election information as you did in 2020?”

In other words, are you going to continue being teammates with the kind of people who arrested the founder of Telegram last weekend for not censoring users’ posts?

Zuckerberg says he’s going to be “politically neutral” this time. Guess we’ll have to see what unfolds between now and Nov. 5.

Former Democrat Tulsi Gabbard Endorses Trump and the American Way

Just days after former Democratic and Independent presidential candidate Robert Kennedy, Jr. endorsed Donald Trump, 2020 Democratic presidential candidate Tulsi Gabbard fully endorsed him as well. Her reasons echo those of Kennedy and Elon Musk.

We can’t live free as long as we have a government that is retaliating against its political opponents and undermining our civil liberties, weaponizing our very institutions against those they deem as a threat.

I was a Democrat for over 20 years. Today, I endorsed Donald Trump for President. WATCH to hear why: pic.twitter.com/lwA8FYFx8h

— Tulsi Gabbard 🌺 (@TulsiGabbard) August 26, 2024

Just a question: If politics were fantasy football, would you trade Adam Kinzinger and Liz Cheney for Tulsi Gabbard and a Kennedy?

Speaking of which, RFK Jr. weighed in on Tulsi’s announcement.

Wonder Woman just joined the Justice League. pic.twitter.com/RT95DLJUJa

— Robert F. Kennedy Jr (@RobertKennedyJr) August 27, 2024

They Really Don’t Like Competition: Dems Lose Two Battles to Keep Stein and West Off Ballots

Good news on the democracy front: Two of the latest efforts by the Democrats to kick a competitor off the ballot have failed. A Wisconsin judge ruled Monday that Green Party candidate Jill Stein must remain on the ballot in the state, and on Saturday, a Michigan judge reversed a decision by the Michigan Board of Electors to boot independent Cornel West off the ballot there.

West lost a challenge last week to get on the Pennsylvania ballot.

Democrats fear that West and Stein, like Kennedy, would siphon off presidential votes from Kamala Harris; hence, the lawfare. Hence, the effort to deny voters options. Next thing you know, the DNC will keep Democratic voters from choosing their own nominee. 

Oh, wait. 

RNC Sues Detroit Over Biased Hiring Practices

What’s the saying? What counts most is who counts the votes?

The Republican National Committee is suing the city of Detroit for hiring seven times as many Democratic poll workers as Republicans for the upcoming election. Michigan law requires the state to maintain as close a 50-50 split as possible. And it’s not like Republicans didn’t apply. According to one report, as many as 2,500 did.

The suit alleges the city’s election commission appointed 2,337 Democrats and 310 Republican election inspectors, and that 200 precincts in Detroit did not hire a single Republican.

They did the same thing already this year. According to The Federalist, records obtained by the Michigan Fair Elections watchdog group show Detroit hired 2,340 Democrats, only 308 Republicans, and 179 people listing their political affiliation as “other” for the August 6 primary.  

This is Rich! White Fragility Author Accused of Plagiarizing Thesis from Scholars of Color

White Fragility author Robin DiAngelo, who has made a fortune in the “antiracism consultant” racket ripping white folks for their “inherent bigotry,” has been accused of swiping much of her doctoral dissertation from minority scholars.

The Washington Free Beacon reports that a complaint filed with the University of Michigan lays out 20 instances of plagiarism in DiAngelo’s 2004 dissertation “Whiteness in Racial Dialogue: A Discourse Analysis,” in which she lifted the analysis and verbiage of seven scholars, including two Asian-American professors and one of her own classmates.

Amusingly, in the accountability statement on her own website, DiAngelo goes out of her way to advise others to give credit where credit is do in academic work. 

“Always cite and give credit to the work of BIPOC [black, indigenous and people of color] people who have informed your thinking,” she says.

What’s the saying? Those who can’t, charge $40,000 per consulting session?

Kennedy’s Not the Only One to Switch Teams in the Middle of a Game: Ask Catcher Danny Jansen

Baseball history was made yesterday when Red Sox catcher Danny Jansen played for both teams in a Major League game. The Sox were resuming a June game against the Toronto Blue Jays that had been halted by rain. At the time of the first tame, Jansen played for the Blue Jays. In fact, he was at the plate when the game was halted. The catcher was later traded to Boston, and had the unique distinction of crouching behind the plate when his own pinch hitter came up to bat. 

Babe Ruth’s “Called Shot” Jersey Fetches $24 Million

While we’re talking about historic baseball moments, the jersey New York Yankee legend Babe Ruth was wearing when he made his famous “called shot” sold at auction Sunday for $24 million.

During Game Three of the 1932 World Series, the Yankees faced the Chicago Cubs. In the fifth inning, Ruth stepped up to the plate, pointed his bat toward the distant bleachers, and boom! Ruth smacked a home run off pitcher Charlie Root. The Yanks went on to win the game and sweep the series. It would be Ruth’s final World Series and final World Series home run.

And one of baseball’s most electric moments of all time. 

 

On the Stream Menu

Stream contributor Joseph D’Hippolito returns with “The Deep Church Meets the Deep State in Chicago.”

Timothy Furnish has a different take on current events: “DEI in Middle-Earth: Queering the Rings of Power.”

 

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.