Happy Friday! And go Team USA! Yes, the Olympics are officially underway now in Paris.

So I guess today’s Brew needs to be a French roast.

USA! USA! USA! “We Raised the Flags Back Up”

On Wednesday, pro-Hamas demonstrators brought down and burned three American flags from flagpoles in front of Washington, D.C.’s Union Station. They then raised Palestinian flags in their place, just a stone’s throw from the U.S. Capitol.

Wednesday night, a group of Congress members, led by Speaker Mike Johnson, left the Capitol, walked to Union Station, and again raised up Old Glory.

We raised the flags back up🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸

Earlier today, terrorist sympathizers tore down the American flags at Union Station, burned them, and raised the Palestinian flag in its place. After votes tonight, a group of members, including many veterans and the Speaker of the House, took… pic.twitter.com/hYbqLmxe21

— Dan Crenshaw (@DanCrenshawTX) July 25, 2024

VICTORY! Navy SEALS Booted for Refusing COVID-19 Vax Win Battle, Reach Settlement with Military

Navy SEALS who were either kicked out or decided to leave the service for refusing to take the COVID-19 vaccines have won their legal battle with the Pentagon. The two sides reached a favorable settlement Wednesday. Originally the lawsuit covered dozens of SEALS and special operators, but over time it became a class action suit for all Navy service members who had a religious objection to the vaccines.

According to First Liberty, which represented the SEALS, the settlement ensures that Navy servicemembers who refused the COVID vaccine for religious reasons will now have an opportunity to have their records corrected and their careers protected. Their next three promotion “boards must not consider any adverse information related solely to COVID-19 vaccine refusal in cases in which a religious accommodation was requested.” Servicemembers who elected to leave after being mistreated by the Navy will also have their records corrected.

“This has been a long and difficult journey, but the Navy SEALs never gave up,” said Danielle Runyan, chair of the Military Practice Group and senior counsel at First Liberty Institute. “We are thrilled that those members of the Navy who were guided by their conscience and steadfast in their faith will not be penalized in their Navy careers.”

First Liberty hopes to parlay Wednesday’s victory with the Navy into justice for servicemembers across all the other military branches.

Huh? Whistleblowers Claim Local Authorities Offered Secret Service Drones Before Trump Rally

One advantage of all the revelations coming out about the Secret Service’s problems the day former President Donald Trump was shot is that each one has you shaking your head enough to loosen up the ol’ neck. On the downside, some make your jaw drop so much you could swallow a watermelon whole.

The latest? A whistleblower told Sen. Josh Hawley that local authorities and suppliers repeatedly offered drones to the Secret Service the night before the rally in Butler, Penn., for use the next day. And the Secret Service repeatedly turned them down. Yet after the shooting, the Secret Service asked for the drones to help survey the aftermath.

🚨🚨 NEW – Whistleblower tells me local law enforcement partners & suppliers offered drones to Secret Service BEFORE the rally – but Secret Service declined pic.twitter.com/UM0jfrMc9z

— Josh Hawley (@HawleyMO) July 25, 2024

Hawley wants to know why the Secret Service — knowing it was short of agents and relying on the Department of Homeland Security to fill the gaps — would turn down the offer of drone technology to help protect the former president.

Meanwhile, the Democratic talking point that shooter Thomas Crooks was a registered Republican took a major smack on Thursday. GAB CEO Andrew Torba revealed that Crooks appears to have used the social media site to push messages “in support of President Biden.” The account was uncovered after an “emergency disclosure request from a law enforcement agency.” Although Crooks (assuming the account was actually his, a detail that has yet to be confirmed) only posted nine times, according to Torba, “A number of posts in particular expressed support for President Biden’s COVID lockdowns, border policies, and executive orders.”

GovTrack Deletes Website That Ranked Harris as “Most Liberal Senator”

If a radical falls on her face in the woods and nobody can see it because it’s been scrubbed from the internet, does it still make a sound?

The efforts to scrub Kamala Harris’s record continue. GovTrack has eliminated a website that ranked then-Sen. Harris as the “Most Liberal Senator” of 2019.

This comes after an all-out effort by the media, including news organizations, to convince America that Harris never served as Biden’s point person for the border crisis. As if Harris wasn’t the one who declared, “Don’t come!” only to do nothing when eight million illegal immigrants ignored her and invaded our country.

However, let’s say she wasn’t the border czar. What else has she been doing for three and a half years?

Here’s a neat thing to do when you have time: Check out the White House Flickr page. That’s where you’ll find a depository of official White House photos. Notice that you do not see a single solo shot of Harris at an event going back to February. Jill Biden? Constantly. Other officials? Plenty of pix. Plenty of events. So suddenly, we’re not sure what Harris has been doing (or not doing).

We’re not suggesting she was sitting in her office playing Keno all day. But whatever she was doing apparently was not worth having the White House photographers document. Either that, or Biden’s people didn’t want to highlight the vice president. Or perhaps there’s a third option, with photos being deleted. At any rate, contrast that to the beginning of the administration, when Harris was heavily featured both solo and with Joe.

Barack Obama Endorses Kamala Harris One Day After NY Post Story Claims He’s Sure She’s Going to Lose

After holding off for five days, former President Barack Obama is reportedly going to be endorsing Kamala Harris. The news came a day after the New York Post reported that Obama was holding back because he’s convinced Harris can’t win and will be unable to manage the “landlines” heading her way. (Landlines of her own making, like being a “border czar” who didn’t go to the border.)

Meanwhile, six House Democrats joined the Republicans Thursday in passing a resolution condemning Harris for her role in leaving our border wide open.

Along the Stream

Just up from Stream Publisher James Robison: A video teaching on “The Key to Extending Freedom.”

From the Ruth Institute: “This Ex-Gay Christian Campaigns for Therapy Freedom.”

 

Al Perrotta is the Washington Bureau Chief for The Stream.