UNCONVENTIONAL: Kamala Harris broke convention and made a surprise address to the delegates last night at the Democratic National Convention. The presidential candidate historically has been the last act of the week.

  “When we fight, we win,” Harris told the cheering crowd.

  The convention went late into the night.

  A variety of speakers from basketball coach Steve Kerr to liberal “squad” member Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Hillary Clinton drove home messages about Trump’s handling of the pandemic, the right wing Project 2025, and the former President’s criminal convictions.

  Maryland rep. Jamie Raskin called the other political party “banana Republicans.”

  Three women delivered wrenching stories about difficulties getting an abortion under new laws. Hadley Duvall, a young woman from Kentucky, told of becoming pregnant at 12 by her stepfather.

  A tearful President Biden was introduced by his daughter Ashley to a crowd chanting “We love Joe, we love Joe!” Passing the baton of party leadership to Harris, the President said, “I love the job, but I love my country more. I love my country more. And all this talk about how I’m angry at all the people who said I should step down — it’s not true.”

  Biden said, “I love my country more, and we need to preserve our democracy.”

THE WAR ROOM: Israel has agreed to US-proposed ceasefire arrangements for the war in Gaza and has called on the Hamas militants to do the same, according to Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

  It’s been described as a proposal to “bridge differences” between Israel and Hamas. Blinken said in Tel Aviv, “This is a decisive moment, probably the best, maybe the last, opportunity to get the hostages home, to get a cease-fire and to put everyone on a better path to enduring peace and security.”

  Israel said today that it recovered the bodies of six more hostages from Gaza.

AS CHARGED: George Santos, a grifter and pathological liar who got himself elected to Congress from New York with a fictional biography, pleaded guilty yesterday to wire fraud and aggravated identity theft in federal court on Long Island. Santos had been accused of bilking his own campaign fund and donors for personal expenses. 

  “I understand my actions have betrayed the trust of my supporters and my constituents,” he told the court.  Santos faces the possibility of years in prison and sentencing was set for February 7^th. He has already agreed to pay nearly $374,000 in restitution and forfeit another $205,000.

  Santos, a republican, was ejected from Congress and he was replaced by a Democrat in a special election. 

FIRING LINE: A Texas jury found a couple not financially liable for the actions of their son, who killed eight students and two teachers at his high school in Santa Fe, Texas in 2018. The jury decided instead that the gunman who was then 17 and the company that sold him ammunition was liable for hundreds of millions of dollars in damages to relatives of several of those killed and others who were wounded. The suit originally charged that the parents, Antonios Pagourtzis and Rose Marie Kosmetatos, were negligent in how they stored more than a dozen guns in their home. 

THE OBIT PAGE: Phil Donohue, the popular and influential talk show host who entertained Americans with conversation that was both highbrow and low from international relations to male strippers, died in Manhattan at age 88.

  “The Phil Donohue Show” started in 1967 in Dayton, Ohio and ultimately went syndicated nationally with a 29 year run. He moved production from Dayton to Chicago, and then to New York.

  Before Donohue, live studio audiences watched but did not speak. He had them engage guests with questions and brought everyday people into the fray of often controversial conversation.

  Donohue featured live birth and prison inmates, world leaders and lesbian go-go dancers. As the years went on, there was more and more sex. He told The NY Times, “It doesn’t do any good to talk if nobody’s listening.”

  He was married twice, the second time to actress Marlo Thomas, daughter of the comedian Danny Thomas. You see her now on the St. Jude Children’s Hospital commercials.

THE SPIN RACK: A Milwaukee woman charged with killing the man who sex-trafficked her as a teenager was sentenced yesterday to 11 years in prison plus five years of extended supervision. It was a six-year case that tested the limits of sympathy for a victim of sexual abuse.  Chrystul Kizer, now 24, killed 34-year-old Randall Volar III when she was just 17. She had been allowed to present the abuse as a defense but in the end pleaded guilty to avoid a life sentence. — A programming tech tycoon once described as Britain’s Steve Jobs is missing after the 160-foot sailboat he was on with 22 others was struck by a tornado and sank off Porticello, Sicily. Mike Lynch and his 18-year-old daughter are among six people missing. — US intelligence agencies say that Iran was responsible for hacking into former Donald Trump’s campaign and trying to do the same to what was then the Biden-Harris campaign. Evidently they gained access through the Hotmail and Gmail accounts of Trump adviser, Roger Stone. — Hurricane Debby earlier this month washed up more than 100 pounds of cocaine worth $1 million on a beach in the Florida Keys.

BELOW THE FOLD: Not so swift. Donald Trump over the weekend on his Truth Social website promoted an image of pop star Taylor Swift appearing to endorse him for president.  It said, “Taylor Wants You to Vote for Donald Trump.”

  Trump had felt angry and insulted that Tay-Tay had not previously endorsed him so he seemed to be pleased and posted, “I accept.”

  The trouble is that swift has not endorsed Trump … she has yet to endorse anyone and is unlikely to endorse Trump if she ever does. The former president who claims to be one of the smartest people on Earth fell for an internet fake. 

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