Happy Tuesday!

Today’s Brew opens with heroes and zeroes. 

Honoring the Fallen from Afghanistan Three Years Later 

Kamala Harris boasted that she was the “last person in the room” when Joe Biden made the disastrous decision to quickly withdraw U.S. troops from Afghanistan without using Bagram Air Force Base, a double mistake that led directly to the deaths of 13 American service members in a suicide bombing three years ago Monday.

Yesterday, a service was held at Arlington National Cemetery honoring the 13 on the anniversary of their ultimate sacrifice.

Donald Trump was there. But Harris and Biden were no-shows. The best we got from them were statements released in their names.

Trump honors 13 heroes killed in botched Afghanistan withdrawal

pic.twitter.com/FGiN4XzJQe

— The Post Millennial (@TPostMillennial) August 26, 2024

Where’s Joe? Apparently, he’s so worn out from his week-long vacation at the beach in California that he’s headed directly to a nine-day vacation at the beach in Delaware. As for Harris, she’s been so scarce since being put at the top of the Democratic ticket for the top job in the nation over a month ago that her new Secret Service code name is “Amelia Earhart.”

It’s not just that Biden and Harris were absent yesterday. They haven’t been there for Gold Star families who lost their loved ones that day at all. Who can forget Biden repeatedly checking his watch during the dignified transfer when their bodies arrived home from overseas? One Gold Star father told Fox News yesterday, “(Harris)’ll say just about anything to get herself elected. That’s obvious. What’s she going to do? Start caring now? She’s had three and a half years to reach out to me.”

Adding to the insult are some newly uncovered internal memos from then-Pentagon spokesman John Kirby showing the Pentagon was fully aware that the situation in Afghanistan was in “chaos,” spiraling toward violence, even though Kirby would later deny the withdrawal was chaotic.

Just the News reports that Kirby used the terms “chaos” and “chaotic” more than two dozen times in the communications. But then he went before the cameras to declare, “Now, some say we should have started mass evacuations sooner and, ‘Couldn’t this have been done in a more orderly manner?’ I respectfully disagree.”  

NASA Promotes DEI While Astronauts Are Stranded

On yesterday’s serving of Al’s Afternoon Tea, we told you about how the Department of Homeland Security’s Information Technology Strategic Plan lists DEI as its #1 priority. On yesterday’s Brew, we relayed how NASA was forced to rely on SpaceX to rescue two astronauts currently stranded on the International Space Station.

Today we have this: NASA engineers have been forced to lament their “whiteness.”

NASA’s DEI trainings include engineers vocalizing they “feel shame” for being white and for taking part in “white supremacy culture”. pic.twitter.com/xewypVKP1p

— TENET Media (@watchTENETnow) August 25, 2024

How does this stuff get us to Mars or get our stranded astronauts home?

One small step for wokeness, one giant leap backward for mankind.

“Boy, Does That Kamala Harris Slogan ‘Strength Through Joy’ Sound Familiar,” Say the Nazis

A tip of the hat to The Stream’s Gayle McQueary for this one (and hopefully she’ll be writing more on it). Remember that mantra “Strength through Joy” we were hearing all last week at the Democratic National Convention? Apparently, the Harris campaign copped it straight from the Nazis. Kraft durch Freude (“Strength through Joy”) was a campaign promoting Nazism through leisure activities launched in 1933.

It’s rather amazing that the same people pushing the hoax about Trump calling neo-Nazis “very fine people” a few years back — the same people who just last week blasted him for appearing in a Michigan town that once hosted a neo-Nazi rally — are actually copying a slogan taken straight from the actual Nazis.

We can be snide and say we shouldn’t be surprised, giving the Left’s totalitarian leanings and the fact that the Nazis were officially the “National Socialist German Workers Party.” And who can forget Joe Biden’s Hitler-esque lighting and staging of his Philadelphia speech howling about the dangers of MAGA?

However, it’s more likely that the campaign came up with the slogan without having any idea of its history. Which raises another set of problems: Vetting and carelessness. You come up with a nifty phrase tying in with your “joy” theme and don’t even bother to Google the term?

Harris Enters Day 37 Without Formal Interview or Press Conference. Axios Reporter Explains Why

Kamala Harris is entering her 37^th day as the Democratic presidential nominee without sitting down for an interview or holding a press conference. Axios political reporter Alex Thomson explained Monday on CNN that this is because her “worst moments” as vice president have come during live interviews.

(You could argue that her worst moments were opening the border and being part of the disastrous Afghanistan withdrawal, but you know he just means her most embarrassing moments.)

“The question is, who would be it with? Is it with a much more friendly host? Is it with a more serious, like a serious in-depth interview? How long is it, is it edited, is it live? Like all of these questions are part of Harris’s caution, extraordinary caution when it comes to interviews is why some Democrats were nervous about making her the nominee. It’s why people like Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer were more in favor of an open process because the fact is that almost all of her worst moments as vice president have come in live interviews.” 

Moments like this. Especially timely today.

FLASHBACK: This was Kamala Harris' first reaction to the reports that Americans were trapped and possibly dead in Afghanistan three years ago.

"Slow down" followed by a maniacal cackle.pic.twitter.com/O65GtPQdoM

— Trump War Room (@TrumpWarRoom) August 26, 2024

“Extraordinary caution” when it comes to interviews? You don’t get any edits, redos, or friendly questions when you’re sitting across the table from Chairman Xi. If Harris is scared of Peter Doocey, what will Putin do to her nerves?

By the way, is this admission from the liberal Axios about Pelosi and Schumer evidence that despite all the “Rah-rah, Kamala!” last week, they don’t think she can cut it in the Oval Office, either?

Texas Cleans Up Voter Rolls, Eliminating 1 Million Ineligible Voters

Texas has removed more than 1 million (and counting) ineligible voters from the state’s voter rolls, Gov. Greg Abbott announced Monday. This includes those who’ve moved out of state, who’ve died, or who are noncitizens. Democrats immediately protested, saying the deceased and illegal aliens are a core part of their voter base. (Okay, I made that part up. Though Democrats do furiously fight efforts to clean up voter rolls.)

Using the ballots of ineligible voters is one way for bad actors to rig the vote. The cleaner the rolls, the cleaner the election.

The news comes five days after Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton announced an investigation into allegations that NGOs are orchestrating illegal voter registration drives.

Texans are deeply troubled by the possibility that organizations purporting to assist with voter registration are illegally registering noncitizens to vote in our elections. If eligible citizens can legally register to vote when conducting their business at a DPS office, why would they need a second opportunity to register with a booth outside? My office is investigating every credible report we receive regarding potential criminal activity that could compromise the integrity of our elections. The Biden-Harris administration has intentionally flooded our country with illegal aliens, and without proper safeguards, foreign nationals can illegally influence elections at the local, state, and national level.

Trump Stops at Vietnamese Restaurant

After attending the service at Arlington National Cemetery on Monday, Trump went to the Truong Tien Vietnamese restaurant in Falls Church, Virginia. Those folks know what Communist governments look like. Usually Trump does drop-ins at pizza joints, Philly cheesesteak hotspots, and Chick-Fil-A franchises. Vietnamese food? It’s only been three days since Robert Kennedy endorsed him, and already Trump’s eating healthier.

Along The Stream

Head on down to the bookstore or hit up Amazon. Today, Stream editor at large Jay Richards, along with coauthor Guillermo Gonzalez, releases an updated 20th-anniversary edition of their book Privileged Planet: How Our Place in the Cosmos Is Designed for Discovery.

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.