Welcome back in for the first Afternoon Tea of autumn!

Who doesn’t enjoy watching the colors change? By that, I mean when the colors at Costco change to the green-and-red of Christmas. 

Those Tax Dollars at Work: Funding Sex Changes in Guatemala

You know how Kamala Harris has been hard at work solving the root causes of illegal immigration from places like Guatemala? Apparently she found the answer: more mascara for all, and castration for dudes.

According to the Daily Caller, USAID has given $2 million to a Guatemala-based LBGTQ activist organization to facilitate sex-change operations in the country:

Using USAID’s funds, Asociacion Lambda is specifically expected to “strengthen trans-led organizations to deliver gender-affirming health care, advocate for improved quality and access to services and provide economic empowerment opportunities,” according to grant records. 

Meanwhile, USAF Trying to Reduce “White Male Population” in Officer Ranks

Is the goal of the United States Air Force to dominate the “Wild Blue Yonder” in defense of our nation, or to become a Benneton ad? Under this administration it’s the latter.

The Daily Caller News Foundation has gotten hold of documents and slides detailing how the Air Force is using DEI efforts to reduce the “white male population” among its officers.

The prioritization of “diversity and inclusion” over the mission has James Fitzpatrick, director of the Center to Advance Security in America (CASA), worried. He told DCNF:

The American people are rightly concerned that, at a time when our country is facing dangerous and increasing threats throughout the world, the Air Force is focused on recruitment efforts based on arbitrary racial diversity goals — not merit or increasing the force’s lethality.

IRS Union Backs Harris?

Quick question. If you were running for political office, would you want to be endorsed by the union representing IRS agents? Do you really want your opponent to be able to say, “The people sucking away your money in taxes and doing your IRS audit want my opponent to win”?

I don’t think so. That’s kinda like getting an endorsement from the Gambino family.

Nonetheless, Kamala Harris can add the National Treasury Employees Union, which reps IRS workers, to her list of endorsements.

Meanwhile … whatever Joe Biden had, Harris is catching. 

Kamala says she wants to debate Mike Pence? pic.twitter.com/S1PJnQh4jC

— Breaking911 (@Breaking911) September 22, 2024

Then again, perhaps she’s talking about debating her new BFF, former Vice President Dick Cheney.

DoD Transcripts Confirm Trump Wanted National Guard Troops Protecting Capitol January 6, and Pentagon Delayed Because of “Optics”

Further proof emerged last week that Donald Trump is the worst insurrection leader in the history of anti-government rebellions.

According to transcripts hidden for nearly three years and uncovered by the House Administration Subcommittee on Oversight, then-Joint Chiefs Chairman General Mark Milley confirmed that on January 3, 2021, President Trump requested “sufficient National Guard or soldiers to make sure it’s (J6 protest) a safe event.”

“Do what you have to do,” Trump told Milley. “Just make sure it’s safe.”

That request went unheeded.

Why? Optics. That’s the same excuse Nancy Pelosi and the mayor of D.C. gave for rejecting Trump’s plea for the National Guard to be on hand.

Then-Acting Defense Secretary Chris Miller told Trump, “We’ve got a plan and we’ve got it covered.” But Miller wanted no part of having the military at the Capitol on January 6. He later told DoD investigators troops had to be the “last resort,” because their  presence “would have been interpreted by the press, by the punditry, but most importantly by the elected officials on the Hill as an effort by the Trump administration to influence the Electoral College count.”

Thanks to putting political considerations above safety, Miller did not approve  the deployment of the DC National Guard until 3:04 p.m., long after the trouble started. That approval did not reach Major General William Walker until 5:08 p.m.

Funny how Trump is blamed for the violence he tried to stop, but was rebuffed. Amazing how those who rebuffed him have for more than three years stood by and let him take the blame.

Eye on Ol’ Virginia

Yes, Virginia, there is a nail-biter election.

Joe Biden won the state by ten points in 2020. However, a new poll from the University of Mary Washington released Friday shows Old Dominion in a virtual dead heat: Harris at 47%, Trump at 46%. Adding intrigue is the fact that Gov. Glenn Youngkin has cleaned up the voter rolls and mandated paper ballots — meaning there’s now less chance of funny business impacting the election.

Virginia’s also got a Senate race worth watching. Hung Cao, the highly decorated son of Vietnamese refugees, is giving veteran Democratic Senator Tim Kaine fits. The latest poll out of University of Mary Washington shows Cao has now climbed within six points. Kaine was up by double digits in August.  

Could Cao pull it off? He already has what many are calling the most powerful political ad of the season.

I'm Hung Cao. My family was one of the last to escape Saigon before it fell to the Communists. I know what it's like to lose your country. We are losing ours today.

November 5th is Liberation Day. President Trump and I will save America and make it great again.

Watch below👇 pic.twitter.com/j7uJ8P99jO

— Hung Cao (@HungCao_VA) May 31, 2024

Wow! Jersey of Kansas City Chief Knocked for His Religious Beliefs Outselling That of Taylor Swift’s Boyfriend

Fox News actually ran this story this morning: “Taylor Swift fans worry for Travis Kelse as he looks downcast during game.” The Chiefs beat the Atlanta Falcons 22-17 in Sunday Night Football, but Kelse wasn’t involved too much in the offense. Was it frustration over his play, or trouble in Taylorville?

Or was it because his uniform jersey is being outsold by kicker Harrison Butker’s? Earlier this year, the woke mobs tried to force the Chiefs to cancel Butker because of the devout Catholic’s impassioned defense of his faith and traditional families. But not only did the organization defend Butker, they made him the highest-paid kicker in NFL history.

And now the fans have shown their support by lapping up all the Harrison Butker merchandise they can find. As Breitbart pointed out, he’s even outselling the Hall of Fame-bound tight end who is dating the most famous celebrity on the planet.

Something to get a “kick” out of on a Monday afternoon.

On The Stream Menu

Dr. Joseph Mattera shares “8 Humanistic Errors That Have Crept Into the Modern Church”

Meanwhile, Dr. Michael Brown offers some “Understanding Israel’s Pager Attack on Hezbollah.” 

We’ll have more to say about this in the next couple of days, but Thursday will mark 40 days until the most consequential American election since 1860, with the fate of our nation, freedom, fate of the unborn, and religious liberty at stake. So starting then, The Stream will be inviting all our readers to take part in 40 days of prayer and fasting. It’s more powerful than anything else we can do.

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.