Welcome back in for Al’s Afternoon Tea — our chance to sample some of the latest news and headlines.

Welcome to the Twilight Zone, Episode 4,712: Let’s Ask 12-Year-Old Boys If They Are Pregnant Before X-Rays

What’s being put into the warm beer across the Pond? Radiologists that are part of Britain’s National Health Service must now ask all patients between the ages of 12 and 55 — including men and boys — if they are pregnant before medical scans, The Telegraph reported Wednesday. Yep. Even them.

The edict came after a woman who identifies as a man discovered she was pregnant after a CT scan.

Repeatedly asking patients, including boys who are not even teens, if they are pregnant, is “grooming patients into gender ideology,” Not-the-Bee argues.

Kamala and the Nine Pronouns

Don’t expect Kamala Harris to be aghast over this news, though. She’s down with this kind of stuff — just look at the job applications for her campaign.

Rather than just have boxes for male and female — heck, rather than include another box or two for “other” or “rather not say” — Harris goes full woke. And you never go full woke.

Fox News reports that Harris has nine — count ’em, nine — boxes for would-be hires to select their pronouns, plus another box for custom pronouns, if nine isn’t enough. These include Xe/zem, Ze/hir, Fae/faer, Hir/hir, Hu/hu.  

These are the people who will be manning her campaign … and manning her White House. (Oh, my. Can I even use the word “manning”?)

Stunning: Was Trump’s Would-Be Assassin Recruited and Trained for the Task, Then Activated?

The Blaze’s investigative journalist Steve Baker broke a story Wednesday that hits you right in the pit of the stomach. Baker revealed he has sources who train Secret Service snipers and other counter-assault teams. Those sources are nearly certain, that 20-year-old Thomas Crooks was trained for his mission to kill Trump by pros.

“They’re telling me that the impossibility of him not being groomed exists, but that it is highly improbable to the Nth degree,” Baker told Blaze colleague Sara Gonzales. “Everything that they see in him indicates and shows signs of the type of grooming, and I quote, ‘I recognize my own handiwork.’”

Baker went on. “I just told you about somebody, that’s what they do. Overseas, in dangerous hot spots around the world, when they groom disaffected young men, should an opportunity present itself when they need to activate them.”

The clothes Crooks was wearing on July 13 also caught Baker’s eye, especially after examining photos of a scene Judicial Watch recently uncovered that reveal shadowy undercover law enforcement involvment in the incident. IS THIS WHAT YOU MEAN?

“The bottom line is that for some reason, Crooks showed up dressed like undercover cops,” Baker says. “Did he know that he was covered by what he was wearing? I have to ask those questions, right? If I don’t ask those questions, I’m not being honest even with myself.”

A foundational question to ask: Would this government allow techniques designed to protect our interests overseas to be used against domestic political opponents? There are answers to that. One word: FISA. Two words: Patriot Act.

Now we just have to learn if that is actually the case here. We pray the lone-assassin story is the truth — but we’d be negligent, even foolish, to assume it’s true. As Baker told Gonzales, “I am so fed up with giving the excuse of incompetency after incompetency after incompetency. We’ve seen it so much.”

Biden Still Miffed at Being Dumped as Fox News Poll Shows Race the Same as It Was Before He was Forced Out

Even with all the media hype, manipulated Google headlines, and glossy magazine covers for Kamala Harris, the presidential race is still in the same place it was before Joe Biden was jettisoned from the Democratic ticket, at least according to a new Fox News poll. They have Trump up 1 point nationally over Kamala Harris, just as he was up one against Biden.

No wonder Biden is still bitter at being unceremoniously dumped from the ticket, at least according to Politico. Sources say he is particularly hurt that the “ruthless” Nancy Pelosi pushed him out, but understands his longtime friend “did what she had to do,” even at the risk of their relationship. The president is also frustrated that former President Barack Obama didn’t man up and talk to him face-to-face about getting out of the race.

Biden is scheduled to speak at the Democratic National Convention Monday night.  Will he say what he really feels?

Judge Juan Merchan Again Refuses to Recuse Himself from Trump Case … Despite Daughter Having Worked for Kamala Harris

Maybe I’m wrong. Maybe “conflict of interest” doesn’t mean what I think it means. According to the New York State Commission on Ethics:

New York State officers and employees … shall not have any interest, financial or otherwise, direct or indirect, or engage in any business or transaction or professional activity or incur any obligation of any nature, which is in substantial conflict with the proper discharge of his (or her) duties in the public interest.

So if my daughter is making millions of dollars working for the political opponents of a defendant, and stands to make even more money if that defendant loses, and my beloved offspring has specifically worked for the woman now directly running against the defendant, do I have a conflict of interest?

The judge in Trump’s hush money case says, “Naaaaaaah.” Judge Juan Merchan for the third time refused to recuse himself from the Trump case, even despite the fact his daughter Loren worked extensively for Kamala Harris in her 2020 campaign, and has banked at least $13 million this year alone from Trump’s Democratic foes.  

“This Court now reiterates for the third time, that which should already be clear — innuendo and mischaracterizations do not a conflict create,” Merchan wrote on Aug. 13. “Recusal is therefore not necessary, much less required.”

Meaning, Merchan still gets to sentence Trump on September 18, giving Democrats — his daughter’s clients — potent ammo in the heat of the election battle.

The state court ethics panel ruled last year that a relative’s independent political activities are not “a reasonable basis to question the judge’s impartiality.” But it’s not independent when that relative’s political activities are focused on targeting a client’s political opponent — the defendant. It is not independent if she cashes in on Trump’s legal downfall, and her clients lose big if Trump wins his case. How is the judge, already known as a partisan, whose wife worked for Letitia James (who also hunted Trump), not impartial when his baby girl’s nest egg is at stake? His decisions in this case directly impact her clients — and her income. 

Now They Tell Us: Hunter Biden Lobbied State Department for Burisma While Joe was VP

The State Department has released documents indicating Hunter Biden lobbied in 2016 on behalf of Ukraine energy giant Burisma in an effort to land a gas deal in Italy. Sure. Now they release the records. And not just now that the Big Guy has bailed from the race, and the Department of State no longer feels the need to protect the Biden family. Wouldn’t this have been useful to know when Donald Trump was being impeached for asking President Volodymyr Zelenskyy what the Bidens had been up to in Ukraine?

Now They Tell Us: DOJ Suddenly Finds Transcripts of Biden Biographer

The U.S. Department of Justice also is magically finding documents it said it didn’t have while Joe Biden was still a presidential candidate — in this case, transcripts from his interviews with his biographer — specifically, the one where he not only admitted he had classified documents in his personal possession, but demonstrated the kind of mental incapacity that led Special Counsel Robert Hur to conclude he was too far gone for any jury to convict him of a crime.

A few months back, the DOJ said it didn’t have any verbatim transcripts of Biden’s interviews with Mark Zwonitzer. However, as part of a lawsuit filed by the Heritage Foundation’s Oversight Project against the DOJ for documents connected to the Hur investigation, the DOJ is suddenly now saying, by golly, they do have a 117-page transcript.

New Head Coach Says He’s Asked Colin Kaepernick to Join Chargers Coaching Staff

New L.A. Chargers head coach Jim Harbaugh says he’s asked QB-turned anti-American radical Colin Kaepernick to join the Chargers coaching staff. 

Good idea. Kaepernick can help players practice taking a knee — on kickbacks.

Kaepernick played for Harbaugh with the 49ers when the pair led the team to the 2012 Super Bowl. Will Kaepernick take Harbaugh up on the offer? He told Harbaugh he’d think about it, while telling Sky Sports News he’s still working out and thinks he can lead another team to the Super Bowl.

He hasn’t played an NFL down in eight seasons.

On the Stream Menu

John Zmirak has posted a must-read article — not the usual “must” Zmirak read, but a must must. Click on it right now and share it with anyone you know, then pray and fight for our nation: “You and Your Kids Could Be 90 Days Away From Living in a Police State … Like Britain.” 

Newcomer Gerald McDermott asks, “Is Christian Zionism 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.