Happy Wednesday!

Grab your Brew and put on a cowboy hat, ‘cause we’re venturing out to the Gipper’s home turf. Well, technically, his presidential library in Simi Valley. Not his ranch. But you get the picture. For all off you fleeing California, please make a point of stopping by the Reagan Library before you go. It truly is a wonderful and beautiful place to visit.

2nd GOP Debate Tonight at Reagan Library

If having the shadow of front-runner Donald Trump hanging over them wasn’t enough, the GOP candidates debate tonight in the enormous shadow of former President Ronald Reagan. The 2nd Republican Debate of the 2024 election season is taking place at the Reagan Library.

Seven candidates made the cut: Gov. Ron DeSantis, former Gov. Nikki Haley, Vivek Ramaswamy, Sen. Tim Scott, former Gov. Chris Christie, former VP Mike Pence, and North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum. Front-runner Donald Trump is again passing on participating.

The debate will air on Fox Business and Telemundo, with Rumble providing a stream. Dana Perino, Stuart Varney and Univision’s Ilia Calderón are moderating.

The curtain rises at 9 p.m. Eastern.

So what do the candidates have to do tonight?

Turns out its simple: Be worthy of — and as good as — this momma bear at a school board meeting in North Carolina. And be as serious. She ain’t playing games. And neither should any of the candidates.

https://twitter.com/robertdunlap947/status/1706677548065689950?s=20

BTW, isn’t it curious how that judge in New York decided to accuse Trump of fraud over his real estate dealings … and, in essence, declare lenders are too stupid to do their own due diligence … on the eve of the GOP debate? And 48 hours after polling shows Trump developing a lead over Biden “outside the margin of fraud” as some are joking?

First Witnesses for First Impeachment Hearing Announced … as Yet More Evidence Ties Joe to Chinese Cash

The first impeachment inquiry hearing is scheduled for Thursday, and now we know who will be the first witnesses:

• Forensic accountant Bruce Dubinsky
• Former Assistant Attorney General of the DOJ’s tax division Eileen O’Connor
• Liberal Constitutional Law Professor and Pundit Jonathan Turley

Don’t expect any ground-breaking new revelations. House Oversight Committee chairman James Comer says this first hearing “will present evidence uncovered to date and hear from legal and financial experts about crimes the Bidens may have committed as they brought in millions at the expense of U.S. interests.”

A new teaser of what’s to come dropped Tuesday. Seems about $250,000 in 2019 wire transfers from Hunter’s business associates in China listed Joe Biden’s Delaware home as the beneficiary address. Fox News broke the news last evening. Oh, the listed beneficiary was Hunter. But address was all the Big Guy’s.

What’s more, Oversight Committee now has records revealing that from 2014 to 2019, the Biden family and associates raked in $24 million in foreign payments. $15 million of that to the Bidens. That’s $4 million more than previously announced.

Callous Disregard? Working to Prevent Biden From Falling. But Not For His Sake

Axios broke the story yesterday that White House and Biden campaign staffers are taking extra efforts to make sure Biden doesn’t trip and fall while out and about. He’s taking physical therapy to improve his balance, is wearing tennis shoes and using the shorter steps on and off Air Force One. (Though that didn’t help much yesterday when he nearly fell coming down the stairs.)

But I find something odd about the story. No. Telling. And sad. Reading the Axios report, you hear how the White House and campaign are concerned about Biden suffering an embarrassing fall that would wreck him politically. Especially with all the concerns about his age. In fact, the article points to the political damage endured by Republican nominee Sen. Bob Dole in 1996 when he took a tumble. The WWII vet looked old and worn compared the still-young and vibrant President Bill Clinton.

Nowhere does Axios (or apparently the campaign) express worry that the 80-year-old Biden could fall and seriously hurt himself. Biden the senior citizen does not matter. They are worried about the memes and not the man. Power. Not the person.

Yesterday, Biden flew to Detroit for a 12-minute visit with picketing UAW workers. Today, Donald Trump will be dropping by.

UPDATE: Charges Dropped Against Sound of Freedom Donor Whose Case Was Used to Tarnish Film

The efforts by the media to derail Sound of Freedom hit its low point when it blew up charges filed against a minor funder of the movie. Fabian Marta is a St. Louis landlord who got caught in the middle of a custody dispute involving a renter. He was charged in August with child kidnapping after initially refusing to let police in who were coming for the kids after the mother refused to drop them off at her aunt’s as required. Local case. Nothing of national concern. You knew right away nothing would come of the charges.

However, the media turned Marta’s bust into the Lindbergh Baby Kidnapping because Marta was one of the thousands who had helped crowd fund the release of anti-child sex trafficking blockbuster Sound of Freedom.

The dude donated $500 on GoFundMe and was charged as an accessory to child kidnapping because he rented an apartment to a woman who took her own child who she was in a custody battle over.

Why is the media so desperate to smear a movie that brings attention to child trafficking? pic.twitter.com/x1x5gVAjic

— Greg Price (@greg_price11) August 5, 2023

Now, as predicted, a St. Louis grand jury and the state of Missouri have dropped the charges, citing lack of evidence a crime had been committed.

Thankfully, the effort to tarnish Sound of Freedom (for whatever sick reason) failed. The film has now made over $182 million in the U.S. and nearly $30 million around the world, and hit number one in every Latin American country where it screened. Can we get an “Amen”?

Meanwhile, Tim Ballard, the man whose exploits the film is based on, said earlier this month he’s thinking about running for the Utah Senate seat currently held by Sen. Mitt Romney. Mere days later, he was hit with allegations of sexual misconduct stemming from his time at Operation Underground Railroad. Ballard denies the allegations, calling them “baseless inventions designed to destroy me and the movement we have built to end the trafficking and exploitation of vulnerable children.”

Along The Stream

Here’s one you’re going to want to send around. Stream contributor Mark Judge’s “’We’ll Get You Through Your Children’: The Night in 1958 That Launched the Cultural War.” Judge brilliantly takes us to the apartment of Beat poet Allen Ginsberg the evening Ginsberg squared off against conservative writer Norman Podhoretz. Turn the night into a play, Mark!

The ethnic cleansing of Armenian Christians at the hands of Azerbaijani has resumed. Stream contributor Raymond Ibrahim digs into the story … and the history. “The Genocide of Christians: Islamic Terrorists vs. Muslim Statesmen.”

https://twitter.com/JackPosobiec/status/1706342311204999289?s=20

 

Al Perrotta is the Managing Editor of The Stream, chief barista for The Brew and co-author, with John Zmirak, of The Politically Incorrect Guide to Immigration. You can follow him at @StreamingAl at GETTR, Gab, Parler, and now at TRUTH Social.