Today’s Top 5:
1Maui wildfire death toll climbs to 111; thousands of island residents need housing
The death toll from the Maui wildfire that destroyed much of this historic town surpassed 100 late Tuesday and authorities say that cadaver dogs have reached less than half the scorched homes and businesses.
a). Maui officials defend decision not to sound sirens during wildfire
Maui’s emergency management chief on Wednesday defended his agency’s decision against sounding sirens during last week’s deadly wildfire amid questions about whether doing so might have saved lives.
2.Judge Claimed Trump Might Flee If He Learned of Secret Order
A federal judge claimed that former President Donald Trump might flee if he learned of a secret warrant, according to newly unsealed documents.
U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell said that “immediate notification to the customer or subscriber of the TARGET ACCOUNT(S) would seriously jeopardize the ongoing investigation, as such a disclosure would give that person an opportunity to destroy evidence, change patterns of behavior, notify confederates, and flee from prosecution,” according to a filing from Twitter that was among those unsealed by the judge on Aug. 15.
Judge Howell, appointed under President Barack Obama, entered the non-disclosure order at the request of the special counsel Jack Smith’s team.
Alan Dershowitz, Felix Frankfurter professor of law at Harvard Law School, said the latest indictment of former President Donald Trump, and perhaps even the three others, amount to “nothing.”
“First of all, nobody should take at all seriously that there was a grand jury indictment,” Mr. Dershowitz told Fox News on Monday evening. “It means nothing, it’s the prosecutor who indicted him, the best evidence of that it was on the website before the grand jury even voted.”
4.Dershowitz Predicts ‘Bad’ and ‘Fast’ Convictions for Trump
Alan Dershowitz, Harvard law professor, says convictions against former President Donald Trump will come quick, before the elections, in an attempt to quagmire his chance for presidency.
Yet, the poorly constructed legal cases will fall apart on appeal, he added, but only after the elections.
Mr. Dershowitz had defended President Trump during his impeachment despite being neither a supporter of the president nor a Republican. After witnessing what he believed was a collapse in the rule of law, he authored “Get Trump,” predicting the “unremitting efforts” his political opponents would use to take him down before the 2024 elections.
5.Twitter Gave Special Counsel Trump’s Deleted Messages, Location Data: Documents
Twitter has handed over a voluminous set of data from former President Donald Trump’s account to special counsel Jack Smith, newly unsealed documents show.
Twitter, now known as X, gave Mr. Smith’s team data including deleted direct messages, other direct messages, draft posts, and information on the locations of users who posted to the account, lawyers for the company said in a Feb. 9 closed-door court hearing, a transcript of which was just made public.
The data included what Twitter described as “confidential communications,” or messages between President Trump and his senior advisers.
WORLD NEWS
Justin Trudeau and Canada’s Elites Double Down on Poverty-by-Migration
Canada’s supercharged immigration is shrinking wages, hiking house prices, and polarizing national polls, but the nation’s establishment — including the right-of-center party — is demanding more migrants to build more housing in suburban neighborhoods.
China Mocks Biden’s Inability to Handle Hawaii Fires
Chinese state media this week gleefully mocked President Joe Biden for bungling the response to Hawaii’s wildfires.
Editorials pushed the Communist Party narrative that only authoritarian governments can handle disasters of such magnitude, and taunted the U.S. for prioritizing military spending over disaster response.
Former Olympic Swimmer Helen Smart Dies Suddenly at 43
Former Olympic swimmer Helen Hart, who represented Britain during the 2000 Summer Games in Sydney, Australia, has died at the age of 43.
No cause of death has been given. Friends and loved ones have described her death as “sudden.”
U.S. NEWS, POLITICS & GOVERNMENT
Biden Tells Children ‘I Know Great Ice Cream Places’ Nearby ‘Talk to Me Afterward’
President Joe Biden opened his remarks at the White House on Wednesday by telling the children in attendance he knows “great ice cream places” nearby and to come to see him after his speech.
Biden took the podium in the East Room of the White House to tout the Inflation Reduction Act, which does not reduce inflation despite its moniker and passed Congress along partisan lines last year. But before he began, he told those attendance, “I want to say one thing to your children.”
Sanctuary City Chicago Considers Shipping Border Crossers to Suburbs
Chicago, Illinois, Mayor Brandon Johnson (D) is considering a plan in which the city would bus border crossers and illegal aliens to surrounding suburbs.
According to the Center Square, Johnson said he is working with Cook County officials as well as other officials from various counties to coordinate a plan that would send hundreds — potentially thousands — of border crossers and illegal aliens out of Chicago, a proud sanctuary city. Johnson said:
We’ve had conversations with mayors across not just Cook County but the surrounding counties, and we have had tremendous feedback. We see some real support on the horizon … looking forward in the days to come that these collaborative efforts that we have been organizing will begin to see some dynamic come to fruition.
“Here’s what I am committed to doing, honoring the law of being a sanctuary city and building systems of care that provide a pathway with dignity for individuals who are seeking refuge here in the city of Chicago,” he continued.
From Press Room Raids to Indictments, Anything Goes When the Government Piles On
Commentary by John Whitehead
What is playing out before our eyes right now should be familiar to any fan of football: it’s called the pile on, a brutal, frenzied, desperate play to seize control and gain power while crushing the opposition.
In this particular analogy, “we the people” are trapped at the bottom of that pile, buried under a mountain of bread-and-circus distractions, economic worries, environmental disasters, power plays, power grabs, police raids, indictments and circus politics.
The Maui wildfires. The Trump indictments. Hunter Biden’s legal troubles. The looming 2024 presidential election. The Ukraine-Russia conflict.
In the midst of this pile on of woes, worries and semi-manufactured crises falling with sledgehammer-like frequency, monopolizing the media narrative and eclipsing all other news, it’s difficult to stay focused on what’s really going on, and yet something is brewing.
Pay attention.
Caught up in the partisan boxing match that is politics today, it’s easy to lose sight of what’s real.
The indictments against Trump, the investigation of Hunter Biden, and the chatter of the political classes aren’t real; they are more sound and fury, signifying nothing in the end.
2ND AMENDMENT
‘Off The Charts Weird’: RFK Jr Hires Republican State Lawmaker As Campaign Aide
Democratic presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. hired a Republican lawmaker in New Hampshire, The New Republic reported Tuesday.
Kennedy, whose platform has appealed to some conservatives, hired New Hampshire state Rep. Aidan Ankarberg for an undisclosed position in his campaign, according to TNR. Ankarberg is a top Republican in the state legislature who served as the deputy majority whip until March, and was previously endorsed by the National Rifle Association.
“He’s got the broadest appeal of anybody that’s run in a long time,” former Democratic Rep. Dennis Kucinich of Ohio, who heads Kennedy’s campaign, told TNR. “Mr. Kennedy has crossover appeal. And it’s really powerful. And we had Republicans who are coming over. We have independents. We have libertarians, we have conservatives, we have liberals, every stripe of political following and endeavor is moving toward our campaign.”
Florida Felon Gun Ban Challenged
After a major U.S. Supreme Court ruling last year on Second Amendment rights, the Florida Supreme Court could decide whether to uphold a state law barring possession of guns by convicted felons.
An attorney for convicted felon William Edenfield on Tuesday asked the Florida Supreme Court to take up a constitutional challenge to the law. The request came after a three-judge panel of the 1st District Court of Appeal in May rejected Edenfield’s arguments.
ECONOMY & BUSINESS
Retirees Could See $17,400 Reduction in Benefits by 2033: Analysis
The average retired couple could see their Social Security benefits reduced by $17,400 in 2033 as funding for the program diminishes over the coming decade, according to a recent analysis.
The Social Security program is funded by the Old-Age and Survivors Insurance (OASI) trust fund. Trustees for the Social Security program project that OASI would deplete its reserves by 2033, the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget (CRFB) pointed out in an Aug. 8 post. At the time, today’s 57-year-olds will hit the normal retirement age while the youngest retirees at present will turn 72.
“Upon insolvency, the law mandates that the OASI trust fund can only spend in amounts equal to incoming trust fund revenue, which means that all 70 million retirees, dependents, and survivors—regardless of age, income, or need—will see their benefits cut by 23 percent,” the analysis states.
“For a typical dual-income couple retiring in 2033, we estimate this would represent an immediate $17,400 cut in current dollar annual benefits and an immediate $13,100 cut for a typical single-income couple.”
Over 50,000 To Lose Homeowners Insurance as Two More Insurers Exit California
Two more insurance companies will exit the California homeowners market, further narrowing options for people seeking to insure their home or to purchase a house with a mortgage.
AmGUARD Insurance—a subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway GUARD Insurance Companies—will withdraw its homeowners and personal umbrella programs in California, while Falls Lake Insurance will also end its homeowners program.
Both companies made the announcements in little-noticed filings submitted to the state regulator on July 21.
The two companies are the latest insurers to rush for the exits in California or limit their business in the state during the past year. But unlike heavyweights State Farm and Allstate, which declined to sign new homeowners business in the state, AmGUARD and Falls Lake will drop their existing policyholders.
That will force tens of thousands of California homeowners to seek new coverage at a time when the available options are growing fewer.
CANCEL CULTURE
Target Sales Slump In Trans Backlash—But Shares Jump Higher on Profit Beat
Target on Wednesday said its sales declined in the second quarter, the first quarterly decline in six years, after customers pulled back from purchases in reaction to the company promoting transgender ideology for children as part of its “Pride” month merchandising push.
The company said its comparable sales fell 5.4 percent in the second quarter, which ended July 29, compared with the year ago period. Online purchases slumped a steep 10.5 percent. The volume of in-store transactions fell, as did the average dollar amount of transactions. In-store traffic fell 4.8 percent.
How NewsGuard Became the Establishment Guard Against Independent Media
Company makes a profit—including from US government funds—through a business model that leads to defunding and censoring of independent media
ICYAC
Alec Baldwin Could Face Charges After New Forensic Report
A forensic report issued this week in the 2021 death of “Rust” cinematographer Halyna Hutchins disputed Alec Baldwin’s longstanding claims that he didn’t pull the trigger.
Mr. Baldwin could potentially face a new set of manslaughter charges after prosecutors dismissed an involuntary manslaughter charge in April because of doubts about whether the prop gun was working.
“Although Alec Baldwin repeatedly denies pulling the trigger, given the tests, findings, and observations reported here, the trigger had to be pulled or depressed sufficiently to release the fully cocked or retracted hammer of the evidence revolver,” a report compiled by Forensic Science Services of Arizona stated.
“If the hammer had not been fully retracted to the rear and were to slip from the handler’s thumb without the trigger depressed, the half cock or quarter cock notches in the hammer should have prevented the firing pin from reaching any cartridge in the firing chamber,” the report stated, according to multiple sources.
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