Welcome back in for today’s serving of Al’s Afternoon Tea.

We dished out a full plate of debate reaction this morning with “The Trump vs. Harris-Muir-Davis Debate: Was That Debate or a Gang Mugging?”

There’s plenty more to say about that. But first …

9/11 Anniversary Brings Foes Together

The twenty-third anniversary of the 9/11 attack was commemorated this morning at Ground Zero, the Pentagon, and the hallowed ground near Shanksville, Pennsylvania.

For a few minutes, partisanship was placed aside as Joe Biden, Donald Trump, Kamala Harris, and JD Vance stood together at the ceremonies in New York. It was a good, if brief, reminder of a moment when our nation was one.

Along those lines, Stream editor Tom Sileo has posted the poignant “Son Reflects on Losing His Dad 23 Years After 9/11,” and frequent contributor Raymond Ibrahim writes “When 9/11 Was a Day of Victory Against Jihad.”

The Day After: Why Trump Is Nuts

I awoke this morning to images of a smiling Donald Trump and Kamala Harris shaking hands at the 9/11 commemoration in New York.

Trump and Harris meet at 9/11 memorial, shake hands.

Follow: @AFpost pic.twitter.com/1el6FuhtYZ

— AF Post (@AFpost) September 11, 2024

This and his demeanor in the spin room and on Fox News last night offer one conclusion: Trump is bats. He actually thinks he had fun last night.

He got hammered for over 90 minutes from three different directions in a debate so biased and full of lies that Megyn Kelly went on a brutal five-minute rant about it afterward, and Trump is acting like it was a tickle-fest. I guess those people from Queens are just a different breed.

Then again, if you’ve survived being shot in the head, even an unfair debate is cause for celebration.

By the way, can anyone identify that white-haired guy standing in the middle of the photo above? Seems like he used to be important, but he hasn’t been seen for a while.

The Day After: How Fixed Was It?

In our debate wrap-up, I mentioned that Harris hit Trump with the debunked claims about him calling KKK members “very fine people,” the “bloodbath” comment, and a few other discredited claims, all in a matter of seconds without the moderators fact-checking her at all.

It hit me this morning. Harris brought up these things knowing they’d been debunked and that the moderators were fact-checking Trump. Given how coordinated and choreographed the debate was, Harris must have known they weren’t going to fact-check or challenge her on anything she said. How did she know that? Did Muir and Davis’s boss – Harris’s great friend Dana Walden — give word that she wasn’t to be touched?

It’s also still astonishing that Muir interrupted Trump when he started talking about the assassination attempt he survived.

No Surprise: Taylor Swift Endorses Kamala Harris

To the shock of no one, Taylor Swift released a statement shortly after the debate declaring she’s endorsing Kamala Harris for president. Given her fervent support for abortion, this is about as surprising as Swift shouting “Go Chiefs!” or announcing her next concert will feature costume changes.

Swift’s statement included a photo of her with a pretty kitty (or as Harris’s Haitian migrants call it, “lunch”). She also signed the statement “Taylor Swift, Childless Cat Lady.”

Meanwhile, in Springfield, Ohio …

The citizens are speaking. Will the media listen?

🚨 BREAKING:

Springfield, Ohio—

𝗟𝗶𝗳𝗲 𝗹𝗼𝗻𝗴 𝗿𝗲𝘀𝗶𝗱𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗱𝗲𝘁𝗮𝗶𝗹𝘀 𝗵𝗼𝘄 𝘀𝗵𝗲 𝗱𝗶𝘀𝗰𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗿𝗲𝗱 𝗮 𝗱𝗲𝗰𝗮𝗽𝗶𝘁𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝗽𝗶𝗴 𝗵𝗲𝗮𝗱 𝗶𝗻 𝗦𝗻𝘆𝗱𝗲𝗿 𝗣𝗮𝗿𝗸 (where the goose abduction allegations are coming from) 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗲𝘅𝗽𝗹𝗮𝗶𝗻𝘀 𝗵𝗼𝘄… pic.twitter.com/4B6H5rhBFX

— Tayler Hansen (@TaylerUSA) September 11, 2024

And contrary to David Muir’s “fact check” when Trump brought this up, this is happening. The Federalist got the audio of a 911 call from a citizen reporting four Haitian migrants heading down the street with four dead geese.

During the debate, Harris laughed off Trump’s claim. But it’s no laughing matter to the citizens of Springfield.

Last night, CNN’s Kaitlin Collins also tried calling what’s happening in Springfield a lie, but J.D. Vance smacked that down.

JD Vance just gave a masterclass on CNN! pic.twitter.com/qERFOun3OU

— Brigitte Gabriel (@ACTBrigitte) September 11, 2024

Not Playing That Game: High School Girls Field Hockey Team Forfeits to Team With Male Player Rather Than Risk Another Injury

Dighton-Rehoboth High School in Massachusetts has forfeited next week’s girls’ field hockey game against Somerset Berkley, and by now you can probably guess why: players’ safety. Somerset Berkley’s squad features a male player.

Last November, a girl on Dighton-Rehoboth’s field hockey team suffered “significant facial and dental injuries” when a biological male player from Swampscott High rocketed a shot into her face during a match.

Superintendent Bill Rudney told WJAR earlier this year he understands forfeiting next week’s match “could potentially impact our chances for qualifying for the playoffs, but there are times where we have to choose safety over victory.”

The good news: Contrary to some school districts which have banned teams that forfeit for this reason, a new policy in this school district allows teams to forfeit without penalty.

Kelsey Bain — a team captain last season — wrote a letter of protest to the state’s Inter-Scholastic Athletic Association after her teammate was injured by the male player.

“We all witnessed the substantial damage that a male has the ability to cause against a female during a game,” she said. “How much longer does the MIAA plan on using girls as statistical data points before they realize that boys do not belong in girls’ sports?”

WHOA. Dighton-Rehoboth Regional School District in Massachusetts just announced that their girls' field hockey team is refusing to compete in their next game because the opposing girl’s team has male players.

Every school in the nation should adopt this policy.

Keep males out… pic.twitter.com/V14o4kZgVz

— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) September 10, 2024

ELLE Magazine Names Two Dudes and a October 7 Denier in List of “8 Incredible Canadian Women”

Two of the eight people named in an ELLE magazine article titled “8 Incredible Canadian Women” are actually men, and another denies that the October 7 terrorist attack in Israel actually happened.

Certainly there are more than six incredible women in Canada. But ELLE had to diminish the millions of possible choices by including two biological men, Vivek Shraya and Fae Johnstone.

The editors also originally picked former Ontario MPP Sarah Jama, who was booted from Parliament after denying Hamas had slaughtered innocent Israelis on October 7.

After an outcry, ELLE dumped the genocide denier, but kept the two males, then changec the title of the article to “These Incredible Canadians Have Broken the Glass Ceiling.”

And what was so incredible about the two biological males? Were they responsible for medical breakthroughs? Did they save a busload of children from going through the ice on a frozen lake? Did they design new mouth guards for hockey players? Post Millennial writes:

Vivek Shraya, a transgender pop artist and literary figure who aspires to be the world’s first “brown Madonna” … created a CBC online series about his failure as a pop star, and Fae Johnstone, a radical trans activist … has advocated for violence against political opponents.

The Truth About J6 Trickles Out:  Trump Supporter Didn’t Die of Broken Ribcage, Nor Overdose

Another myth of January 6 has been exposed and debunked. The official story has been that Trump supporter Roseanne Boyle died during the demonstrations at the Capitol because of an overdose. For three years, family and witnesses have insisted she died as a result of being suffocated by the crowd and then being pummeled by a DC cop.

On Tuesday, Rep. Josh Brecheen (R-OK) revealed that an autopsy hidden for months from her family indicated Boyle died from a broken ribcage and had ventilator gas in her lungs.

Video from J6 shows witnesses desperately trying to get help for the unconscious Boyle as a female officer from the Metro police repeatedly struck her.

Did everyone see this video of Roseanne Boyle and getting beat by Capitol police officers on January 6th? @julie_kelly2 @DarrenJBeattie @ColumbiaBugle @McBrideLawNYC pic.twitter.com/tyIvlKICQO

— 3sidedstory 🇺🇲 (@3sidedstory) April 29, 2022

And somehow, Kamala Harris thinks J6 was a worse attack on democracy than 9/11.

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.