Happy Wednesday!

Today’s Brew is not — repeat, not — a rerun from 2021. It just feels like it.  

First, a stop at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.

COVID, Baby Talk and a Vanishing Commander-in-Chief

Joe Biden is wearing a mask “while indoors and around people” as a precaution after wife Jill tested positive again for COVID. Or at least that’s what the White House press secretary said Tuesday … before Biden proved her wrong.

The First Lady is staying at their Rehoboth Beach pad, while Biden hangs at the White House. Thus far, Biden is testing negative. Let’s pray he stays that way.

Biden has good reason to don a mask. The U.S. deficit on his watch is projected to double this year from $1 trillion to $2 trillion. The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget — which sounds as fantastical as the “Committee for Feeding Unicorns” — blames high inflation and lower tax revenues. Then there’s all that new government spending.

Meanwhile, a strange bit of business in the White House briefing. Citing a new book where Biden allegedly complains about being infantilized by his staff, Fox News’ Peter Doocy asked Karine Jean-Pierre, “President Biden is the oldest president in U.S. history. Why does White House staff treat him like a baby?”

Jean-Pierre denied all. “That’s a ridiculous, that’s a ridiculous claim.” Perhaps they need to treat him like a toddler.

Biden bolted Tuesday from a Presidential Medal of Honor ceremony before the benediction, leaving honoree Retired U.S. Army Captain Larry L. Taylor standing there by himself, looking stunned. Perhaps Biden heard a passing ice cream truck, because, boy, was he scootin’!

Biden abruptly walks out of the Medal of Honor ceremony, even before the closing benediction pic.twitter.com/Ck0i8EIf8Q

— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) September 5, 2023

Did you notice something? He wasn’t wearing the mask. He had taken it off as the ceremony was beginning.

Back to our hero. Taylor, a helicopter pilot during the Vietnam War, was honored for his heroic actions and conspicuous gallantry in saving four lives while on a daring rescue mission. A reconnaissance unit was surrounded by enemy forces. It took some heroic derring-do, but Taylor got them out. Army.mil can fill you in on the amazing details.

Mask Mandates Back in Vogue?

Isn’t the definition of insanity doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result?  And yet, mask mandates are coming back in vogue. Sen. J.D. Vance is trying to head it off at the pass.

Sen. Vance introduced a bill Tuesday in the Senate that would ban federal mask mandates for schools and public transit systems. It also forbids air carriers, transit authorities and education institutions from refusing to serve people who don’t wear masks. It’s called the Freedom to Breathe Act. 

Unfortunately just a few miles away in Silver Spring, Maryland, Rosemary Hills Elementary School is mandating N95 masks for third graders after a couple kids tested positive.

A DC area elementary school — Montgomery County, Maryland — is reinstating a mask mandate — N95’s — for third graders over a few kids testing positive for covid. Here’s the letter. They’re coming with masks for your kids again. Get ready. Read this insanity. pic.twitter.com/LZs4N19XLL

— Clay Travis (@ClayTravis) September 5, 2023

Not two weeks ago, a study published by NIH suggested N95 masks may expose wearers to a dangerous level of “toxic volatile organic compounds” (TVOCs). 

So we’re going to stuff potentially toxic masks on kids to ward off a virus that shrugs off N95 masks and barely impacts children. Again. 

Austin: Don’t Call 911 When Robbed

The leftist Texas city of Austin loved busting on cops. It’s one of those woke enclaves that decided police were the problem. In August 2020, the Austin City Council voted to slash the police budget by one-third.

And to the surprise of no one, three years later, the town with the motto “Keep Austin Weird” can’t “Keep Austin Safe.”

Crime has gotten so out of control, and the police force so short staffed, the city is telling residents not to bother calling 911 when robbed. They’re to call 311 instead, a line used for non-emergency requests.

Since the 2020 “Defund the Police” movement started, Austin has had a 77% increase in auto thefts, an 18% increase in aggravated assaults, and a 30% increase in murders.

Along The Stream

The new “Conversations With Christians Engaged” podcast is up. This week, part four of a six part series on our founding documents. “The U.S. Supreme Court.”

Dr. Michael Brown’s latest is “A Prophetic Message About the 2024 Elections.”

The Stream’s Nancy Flory chats with Miss Kay and Phil Robertson about The Blind, a movie drama about their early life together, before Phil came to Christ.  

Al Perrotta is the Managing Editor of The Stream, chief barista for The Brew and co-author, with John Zmirak, of The Politically Incorrect Guide to Immigration. You can follow him at @StreamingAl at GETTR, Gab, Parler, and now at TRUTH Social.