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🇺🇸 Maui in Flames

🇺🇸 Maui in Flames

Plus, blame the pandemic: dog bites are on the rise.

Good morning, and happy Tuesday. A dedicated grandma has run a week-long summer camp to bring her 11 grandchildren together for daily meals and activity schedules, with homemade trophies and gold medals. What’s a day at “Camp Narnie 2023” like?

Plus, the pandemic seems to have triggered an uptick in dog bites — some disfiguring, a few fatal.

Also, what if your phone wasn’t a cost, but an income source? Intrigued?

QUICK CLICKS

Trump’s 4th Indictment, Climate Change Trial, Newsroom Raid

US: Trump, 18 allies indicted in Georgia over 2020 election meddling, the 4th criminal case against him (AP)

US: Judge sides with young activists in first-of-its-kind climate change trial in Montana (ABC News)

US: 6 ex-officers, some of whom called themselves ‘The Goon Squad,’ plead guilty to state charges in torture of 2 Black men (CNN)

US: New York judge denies request for recusal from Trump criminal case (CBS News)

US: Biden administration releases diversity guidance for universities after Supreme Court’s affirmative action ban (The Hill)

US: A police raid of a Kansas newsroom raises alarms about violations of press freedom (NPR)

World: China’s defence minister visits Russia and Belarus in show of support (Al Jazeera)

World: 7 killed in Ukraine’s Kherson region, including a 23-day-old baby girl (NBC News)

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CLIMATE

Maui in Flames

Nearly 100 people are confirmed dead after wildfires devastated the village of Lahaina on the Hawaiian island of Maui. The fires are the deadliest in the US since 1918. Strong winds and months of drought reportedly helped the fires move quickly, and many local emergency sirens failed or weren't triggered, meaning the fires likely caught many residents off guard.

Reporting from the Left: Hawaii governor warns death toll could rise as hundreds still missing after fires (The Guardian)

Reporting from the Right: Hawaii fire: Death toll reaches 93 in deadliest wildfire in over 100 years (Washington Examiner)

From The Flag: Maui's police chief said Saturday only 3% of the search area had been covered, and local officials are warning residents against returning too soon, as structures may be unstable and toxins likely remain. The fires caused an estimated $6 billion worth of damage, including over 2,000 buildings damaged or destroyed. Here’s how the tragedy is being covered on both sides.

LEFT-LEANING SENTIMENT

Climate Change Has Real Consequences

Hawaii is not exempt from the very real consequence of climate change, and now its people may be forced to make difficult choices.
This is the latest reminder amid record-breaking heat that no place on Earth will be untouched by an increasingly chaotic global climate.
As these challenges mount, it is not too soon to consider a national fire insurance program and to bolster the science that provides risk maps.

Maui fire shows that Hawaii paradise was a dream Naka Nathaniel, CNN: “…we must ask what is to come for the other islands, as climate change spurs more extreme weather events. … In the county of Maui, 16% of the population is living below the federal poverty line. Meanwhile, many Maui residents work more than one job and live paycheck to paycheck. That’s not a situation that allows for families to be patient as the island rebuilds and the economy recovers. Hawai’i had already been suffering an exodus due to the cost of living. More Native Hawaiians now live outside of Hawai’i than live in Hawai’i. It’s inevitable that this disaster will lead to people fleeing Maui… The dream of living in Hawai’i, to escape the concerns and tumult of the rest of the world, has always been popular. But what is unfolding in Maui is a stark reminder that Hawai’i is tragically just another place on the planet dealing with the problems that exist in the rest of the world.”

Maui Fires Show Climate Change’s Ugly Reach Mark Gongloff, Bloomberg: “…we do know the conditions fueling the blazes included prolonged drought and high winds from Hurricane Dora far offshore to the south. Neither of those particular weather events has yet been tied directly to climate change. But we do know warmer water makes hurricanes more intense; Dora passed Hawaii as a Category 4, its high winds spreading havoc on land despite being hundreds of miles out to sea. And a relentlessly heating planet has made Hawaii drier; 90% of the state gets less rain than it did 100 years ago. When the fires began, most of the state’s islands were abnormally dry, and half of Maui was experiencing moderate to severe drought. …we must do everything we can to break our fossil-fuel addiction and stop pumping out the carbon that makes these disasters both more likely and more destructive. There’s no hiding from this truth or its consequences.”

One more opinion piece from the Left: Our wildfire problem is growing beyond our ability to tame it Jennifer Balch, The Washington Post

RIGHT-LEANING SENTIMENT

Biden Isn’t Doing Anything

President Joe Biden has built a persona of being empathetic, but his poor response to what’s happening in Hawaii contradicts that image.
Biden isn’t receiving the same level of criticism that Senator Ted Cruz did when he flew to Cancun during Texas’s mass power outages.
Critics are questioning the emergency response and the effectiveness of evacuations. Better warning systems and technology are needed to prevent and mitigate the affects of these disasters.

‘Empathizer-In-Chief’ Biden Offers Hawaiians Devastated By Wildfire ‘No Comment’ From His Beach Chair Jordan Boyd, The Federalist: “The deadliest wildfire in modern US history deserves more attention not just from the media but also from the White House. Biden, however, offered reporters ‘no comment’ on the tragedy, its victims, or its survivors as he wrapped up his tanning time on Rehoboth Beach on Sunday. The president could have easily mentioned the White House’s official statement released on Wednesday ordering 'all available Federal assets on the Islands to help with response.’ Biden also could have pulled a talking point or two from his Thursday speech about the calamity. Instead, he refused to say a word of compassion. Biden’s ‘no comment’ shows yet again that he’s incapable of thinking on his feet or on his own. When Biden is on the clock and has a script written by his team, Maui will get ‘everything it needs.’ When he’s on vacation and asked to respond off the cuff, Biden has no words of comfort or plan of action.”

Maui should be Biden's Katrina moment, but he's a Democrat Ian Haworth, Washington Examiner: “It is true that the modern obsession with performative politics in times of tragedy has resulted in the somewhat bizarre expectation that politicians immediately descend on the site of any disaster as proof not only of their control of the situation, but also of their deep and unwavering compassion. Not only that, but any politician who fails at any stage to behave otherwise, regardless of their previous actions or work behind the scenes, is widely demonized … if they’re a Republican. Perhaps the best-known example of this phenomenon is the intentional political demolition of President George W. Bush in the days following Hurricane Katrina's destruction of New Orleans. This was arguably motivated by the desire to distract from local institutional and structural failures by pushing the falsehood that the federal government is to blame for all that is bad … if the state or local government is controlled by Democrats.”

One more opinion piece from the Right: The Fire in Maui and the Lesson of Greece Costas Synolakis, Wall Street Journal

FLAG THIS

Climate Change Hitting Close to Home

At the end of the hottest month on record, nearly two-thirds (62%) of US adults say that climate change is noticeably affecting their local communities.

Additionally, a majority of Americans support addressing climate change, even at the risk of slowing economic growth. Specifically, 53 percent of US adults said that tackling climate change should take priority (PBS).

Do you believe climate change has played a role in the wildfires in Hawaii?

FLAG FINDS

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WATERCOOLER

Ford Starts Ford, Abe the Sammarinese, What Is Time?

Henry and Clara Ford in his first car, the Ford Quadricycle

On This Day in 1899: In Detroit, Michigan, Henry Ford resigns his position as chief engineer at the Edison Illuminating Company’s main plant in order to concentrate on automobile production.

Discover: Now Means Nothing: How Time Works In Our Universe

Lifehacker: Track Your Work With the Kanban Method

Today I learned Abraham Lincoln was offered honorary citizenship of the Republic of San Marino in 1861. He accepted, writing, “Although your dominion is small, your State is nevertheless one of the most honored, in all history.”

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