Presidential: Joe Biden gave the speech of his life last night in accepting the Democratic nomination for President.

  He came out punching; “I give you my word. If you entrust me with the presidency, I will draw on the best of us. Not the worst. I’ll be an ally of the light, not the darkness. It’s time for us, for we, the people to come together and make no mistake United. We can and will overcome this season of darkness in America. We’ll choose hope over fear, facts, over fiction, fairness, over privilege.”

  He said, “As many have said America is at an inflection point, a time of real peril, but also extraordinary possibilities. We can choose a path to becoming angrier, less hopeful, more divided, a path of shadow and suspicion or, or we can choose a different path and together take this chance to heal, to reform, to unite, a path of hope and light.”

  He went on; “This is a life changing election. This will determine what America is going to look like for a long, long time. Character is on the ballot. Compassion is on the ballot, decency, science, democracy. They’re all on the ballot, who we are as a nation. What we stand for. And most importantly, who we want to be, that’s all on the ballot. And the choice could not be more clear.”

Bannon at Sea: If it hadn’t been the day Joe Biden spoke, this would have been the lead story. President Trump’s 2016 campaign strategist Steve Bannon has been indicted on charges that he embezzled money from his crowdfunded “Build the Wall” campaign in which he raised $25 million to help President Trump build his border wall.

  Bannon pleaded not guilty yesterday.

  The acting US attorney in Manhattan said Bannon and three other defendants “defrauded hundreds of thousands of donors, capitalizing on their interest in funding a border wall to raise millions of dollars, under the false pretense that all of that money would be spent on construction.”

    Bannon was arrested by Postal Service inspectors off the Connecticut coast while he was aboard a $28 million yacht owned by an exiled Chinese billionaire. As the President has claimed, the Postal Service is working better than ever.

  Bannon took at least $1 million from the fund, some of which he used to pay off personal expenses, according to the indictment. One of Bannon’s associates, Air Force veteran Brian Kolfage, 38, took $350,000 for himself, according to prosecutors. The indictment says the defendants used fake invoices and sham vendor agreements to conceal their pilferage.

  The indictment cites emails revealing the men knew what they were doing and hid it.

  It’s as if everyone Trump knows is a bicycle thief. The record so far; Rick Gates: Convicted; Paul Manafort, convicted; George Papadopoulos, convicted; Mike Flynn, convicted; Michael Cohen, convicted; Roger Stone, convicted; Steve Bannon, arrested.

  Asked by a reporter, “What’s it say about your judgment that these are the kinds of people you’re affiliated with?,” Trump began his reply with, “There was great lawlessness in the Obama administration. They spied on our campaign illegally. And if you look at all of the things and all of the scandals they had, they had tremendous lawlessness.”

  No one in the Obama administration was ever indicted.

National Insecurity: Hours before Joe Biden delivered his acceptance for the Democratic nomination, 70 former national security officials who served Republican administrations issued a letter saying President Donald Trump, among many other things, is unfit to lead during a national crisis and they will vote for Joe Biden. They listed a litany of complaints, saying Trump has disparaged the armed forces, intelligence agencies, and diplomats, while undermining the rule of law.

Back Taxes: A federal judge rejected President Trump’s continued effort to block the Manhattan district attorney from obtaining his tax returns. The Supreme Court has already ruled against the President and he won’t give up.

  District Attorney, Cyrus Vance Jr., a Democrat, has been pursuing eight years of Trump’s personal and business returns and other financial records as part of an investigation into the president’s business practices. Judge Victor Marrero dismissed the president’s argument that Mr. Vance had embarked on a politically motivated fishing expedition, saying in his decision that “established judicial process” did not “automatically transform into an incidence of incapacitating harassment and ill-will merely because the proceedings potentially may implicate the president.”

The Bulletin Board: In its effort to get schools to fully re-open, the White House declared teachers to be essential workers. But that doesn’t mean teachers can be forced to return to the classroom. — As global warming becomes more dire, Greenland’s ice sheet lost a record 532 billion tons of ice last year, with 223 billion tons melted during the month of July alone. By comparison, between 2003 and 2016 the ice sheet lost an average 255 billion tons of ice per year. —American Airlines is cutting service to 15 small cities under new pandemic rules. 

Speech Therapy: If Joe Biden hadn’t given such a good speech, the star of last night’s Democratic convention would have been Brayden Harrington,  a 13-year-old boy from New Hampshire.

  Harrington spoke about having a serious stutter and meeting Joe Biden, who overcame the same affliction. At times Harrington hung up on his words as he told about Biden giving him personal attention and coaching him on getting through a speech. He’s a charming kid. He said, “Without Joe Biden, I will not be talking to you today.”

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