Happy Wednesday!

Today’s Brew is dedicated to those racing to put up last-minute defenses before Hurricane Milton attempts to do its worst to Florida later today.  

Now a bit on the destructive cultural winds — starting with a big win for religious freedom.

Colorado Baker Jack Phillips Wins Latest Harassment Lawsuit

The Colorado Supreme Court has dismissed the latest lawsuit filed against Christian baker Jack Phillips, owner of the Masterpiece Cakeshop near Denver. Phillips famously won his case at the U.S. Supreme Court in 2018, after Colorado tried punishing him for refusing to bake a wedding cake for a same-sex ceremony. Shortly afterward, however, a transgender lawyer named Autumn Scardina demanded that Phillips bake a cake celebrating gender transition and another cake made to look like Satan smoking marijuana. Phillips refused both requests because the messaging conflicted with his religious beliefs.

The case should have been tossed the minute the Supreme Court upheld free speech for creative professionals like Phillips in 2023 with its decision in 303 Creative v. Elenis. But that did not happen.

Instead, Scardina’s harrassment suits wound their way through the court system for another six years — until Tuesday, when the liberal and activist Colorado Supreme Court tossed the case our on a technicality, ruling Scardina did not follow the right process. It should have been canned on its merits, but still — a win’s a win.

Praise God, the 12-year legal assault on Jack Phillips is now over!

“Enough is enough,” Alliance Defending Freedom Senior Counsel Jake Warner said in a statement. “Jack has been dragged through courts for over a decade. It’s time to leave him alone.”

Stunning Stats on Sex Changes for Minors

Here’s a number for you: 5,747. That’s the minimum number of minors who underwent sex change operations in the United States between 2019 and 2023, according to a first-of-its-kind database compiled by Do No Harm. In that time frame, another 8,579 children were poisoned with puberty blockers or cross-sex hormones.

Hospitals charged nearly $120 million for these treatments. (This doesn’t include the cost of the drugs these poor kids will be forced to take for the rest of their lives.)

According to Daily Caller News Foundation, the $120 million does not include “self-pay, charity payments, internal Veterans Affairs claims or Kaiser Permanente Health Plans.”

Given that Do No Harm collected the data via “gender-related diagnosis codes with codes for procedures related to gender transitions,” we would say the numbers also do not include surgeries and treatments that were improperly coded to hide what was being done to the children. Whistleblowing nurse Vanessa Sivadge claims that kind of massive cover-up was going on at Texas Children’s Hospital. (The hospital terminated Sivadge earlier this year for exposing the potential Medicaid fraud.)

Do No Harm Chairman Dr. Stanley Goldfarb says the numbers put to bed the myth that sex-changes on children are “rare.”

You can find the database, including what’s going on in your own state, at stoptheharmdatabase.com.

What Do Drag Queens Have to Do with Teaching Math?

Credit Libs of TikTok for another great find. The Ohio Conference Council of Teachers of Mathematics will be holding its annual conference this weekend. Yet for some reason, the conference will include a session called “Math in Drag” featuring drag queen Kyne Santos, plus a session on “inclusive and safe mathematics for LGBTQ+.”

SCOOP: The Ohio Council of Teachers of Mathematics is hosting its annual conference this weekend featuring a drag queen event with Kyne Santos and a segment on "inclusive and safe mathematics for LGBTQ+" individuals.

Apparently, Math isn’t safe for trans students. That makes… pic.twitter.com/fobwO2lMnq

— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) October 7, 2024

What does that mean? That you can’t teach Euclidean geometry because it features only straight lines, without gay or gender-fluid lines? That insisting that 1 +1 = 2 makes you guilty of “toxic math-ulinity”? Or maybe it teaches the kind of “creative accounting” practices that have led people for decades to claim that homosexuals represent 10% or more of the American population, when in reality it’s likely closer to 4%?

I’m sorry. This is crazy. One of the smartest people in my high school math classes was a lesbian. Inclusivity – dare I say, equity — would have been Alicia sharing her answers to the homework problems with me.

And for the record, calculus, by definition, isn’t a safe space for anyone. I’m sorry, Mrs. Rollins of Oxon Hill High, you were a dear, but that’s simply the truth.

Harris Does The View, 60 Minutes Does a Stealth Edit

Kamala Harris enjoyed the loving embrace of the women of The View on Tuesday morning. But even there, she made news for the wrong reasons. 

Somehow Harris and company managed to blame Donald Trump for FEMA’s mishandling of the response to Hurricane Helene. She also blasted Trump for his “callousness,” which is rich coming from a woman who was partying with San Francisco elites at fundraisers and doing sex-talk podcasts while North Carolinians drowned.

The candidate’s appearance wasn’t lacking in humor, though. She was asked about Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis saying she hadn’t called him in three and a half years while his state was hit by other hurricanes, until this storm. She admits it.  

HOST: Governor DeSantis said, "You've never called regarding any of the storms Florida's had since you've been Vice President — until apparently now — and called it 'political.'"

KAMALA: I called governors during the most recent hurricane. pic.twitter.com/qqRuf80NQl

— Trump War Room (@TrumpWarRoom) October 8, 2024

She’s calling lots of governors — now. Exactly his point.

The Border Czar also found a way to blame Trump for the immigration crisis. I am waiting for her to say Trump is really the one who impregnated the nanny her husband employed during his previous marriage. (We’ll likely have more on the latest involving Doug Emhoff tomorrow.)

Kamala on the border crisis: "Donald Trump prefers to run on problems, instead of fixing problems." pic.twitter.com/7JHqcw6Ygb

— The Post Millennial (@TPostMillennial) October 8, 2024

Uh, the border was fixed. The Biden-Harris administration broke it. Trump can’t fix it again until they’re out of the White House.

This one is stunning, a Trump ad for the making. Harris was asked, “Would you have done anything differently than President Biden during the past four years?” Her response: “There is not a thing that comes to mind.”

The View: “Would you have done something differently than President Biden during the past four years?”

Kamala: “There is not a thing that comes to mind. I’ve been a part of most of the decisions that have had impact.” pic.twitter.com/jVHgYTBP99

— TheBlaze (@theblaze) October 8, 2024

Wait a second. If things are so great and you wouldn’t change a thing, why would we need to “turn the page” and make “A New Way Forward”? Even CNN was baffled, given that “one of the main things she’s been trying to establish as part of her candidacy is the idea that she would represent a break from the past four years.”

As we mentioned in yesterday’s Afternoon Tea, Harris simply doesn’t answer questions the way someone with presidential timber would. If you had asked George H. W. Bush in 1992 that question, he would have said, “Sure. There were many times I disagreed with President Reagan. But I’m not going to tell you when. My job has been to give him my best advice and then back the decision he makes.”

If you’d asked Clinton’s vice president, Al Gore, that question in 2000, he’d have said: “You mean, aside from ‘getting friendly’ with the intern?” He’d wait for the laughter to subside, then give the same answer as Bush.

Let’s add another rib-tickler from Harris’s appearance on The View. Over the past three months, Joe Biden has popped up on television about as often as the Loch Ness Monster. Yet for the second time in a week, Biden has answered press questions on cameras at the very same time Harris was having a media moment — stealing her spotlight. 

Kamala is currently on the View.

For the second time in a week, Biden counter programmed her — holding a briefing at the White House on the hurricane at the same time. pic.twitter.com/8R8Cu6KN93

— Greg Price (@greg_price11) October 8, 2024

And this time, he made what could be interpreted as another dig at Harris. One day after Harris complained that DeSantis wasn’t returning her calls, Biden said DeSantis is doing a “great job.” In fact, he gave DeSantis his “personal phone number.” Sure sounds like a deliberate way of saying, “No need to bother with her. You ring me up personally if you need something.”

Meanwhile, would you like to see a wild display of media manipulation? Check this out. The other day, 60 Minutes released a clip of its interview with Kamala Harris. When asked about the Middle East, Harris offered a word salad.

Yet, in the version of the interview that was put on YouTube, editors grabbed Harris’s answer to a previous question and made it the answer to the Middle East question. This is craaaaaazy.

Remember Kamala’s word salad answer about Israel on 60 Minutes? It’s gone.

This is what many Americans will now see. pic.twitter.com/H4w7btDv6x

— MAZE (@mazemoore) October 8, 2024

Along The Stream

Our 40-day fast for the election continues with the publication of a new prayer guide. This one is “Contending for Breakthrough: Abortion.”

Meanwhile, before Hurricane Milton is expected to make landfall, Wanda Alger is urging believers to “Rebuke the Winds!”

Plus, at 9 a.m. Eastern, John Zmirak kicks off a new two-part series called “What Explains This Regime of Evil?”

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.