14-Year-Old Dead in Hawaiian Fires After Police Block Mother, Biden Talks About Kitchen Fire During Visit, A New Genocide in Eastern Europe (The Five for 08/22/23)
Plus, Trump to surrender to Fulton County Jail tomorrow, the first Republican debate candidates.
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Fair warning, this is a very heavy one.
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[one]
Stories coming out of the Hawaiian wildfire tragedy are starting to look a lot like…Uvalde, TX, where police prevented parents from rescuing their children from a school shooter.
Teenager Keyiro Fuentes was enjoying his last day of summer vacation hanging out at his Lahaina home when the fire swept through. His adoptive mother, Luz Vargas, was working five miles away.
She and her husband tried to get home to Fuentes as soon as they learned of the fire, but got stuck in traffic. When she got out of the car to run to the house, she faced a police barricade. Later, after running past officers, first responders told her the area had been cleared and no one was there.
When they were finally allowed to go to their house two days later, they found the body of their 14-year-old son, hugging the family's dead dog. He was just days away from celebrating his 15th birthday.
As of this morning, there are more than 800 missing, although it’s possible some made it to safety and are still unaccounted for on the official records (which happened in a 2018 California wildfire).
The death toll currently sits at 115…with much of the early data leaning towards poor local governance resulting in at least some of the fatalities.
[two]
This morning, social media lit up with criticism for President Biden’s speech to the victims of the wildfire, some of whom lost loved ones.
Newsweek reports:
"I don't want to compare difficulties but we have a little sense, Jill and I, of what it's like to lose a home," he said. "Years ago now, 15 years ago, I was in Washington doing Meet the Press. It was a sunny Sunday," he continued.
"Lightning struck at home, on a little lake that's outside of our home—not a lake, a big pond,—and hit a wire that came up underneath our home into the heating ducts and air conditioning ducts," he added.
"To make a long story short, I almost lost my wife, my '67 Corvette, and my cat."
To be charitable here, I assume Biden was attempting to relate to the audience.
But this will likely be clipped, remixed and re-run as commercials, videos and memes for the remainder of the 2024 Presidential campaign by his Republican rivals.
[three]
While the world’s eyes are on Ukraine, genocide may happening, unseen, in another part of Eastern Europe.
A former International Criminal Court chief prosecutor has said there is “reasonable basis to believe that genocide is being committed against Armenians” in the contested region of Nagorno-Karabakh.
“There are no crematories and there are no machete attacks. Starvation is the invisible genocide weapon. Without immediate dramatic change, this group of Armenians will be destroyed in a few weeks,” said Luis Moreno Ocampo in an expert opinion letter on Monday.
Responding to the comments, a lawyer hired by Azerbaijan called the findings “fundamentally flawed.”
Nagorno-Karabakh is a landlocked area between Eastern Europe and Western Asia that is home to a large Armenian population but is internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan.
Armenia and Azerbaijan have been battling over the region for decades. Ocampo worked at the Netherlands-based ICC until 2012.
On Monday, UN experts urged Azerbaijan to lift a blockade on the Lachin corridor, the sole road connecting Nagorno-Karabakh to Armenia. The blockade has been in place for the past seven months.
In a press release, the OHCHR called on Azerbaijan to end “the dire humanitarian crisis” in the Nagorno-Karabakh region, which it said had resulted in shortages of food, medication, and hygiene products.
“The blockade of the Lachin corridor is a humanitarian emergency that has created severe shortages of essential food staples including sunflower oil, fish, chicken, dairy products, cereal, sugar and baby formula,” it said.
The issue was raised at a UN Security Council meeting on August 3, with the Deputy Foreign Minister of Armenia, Vahe Gevorgyan, warning that Azerbaijan’s blockade had affected 2,000 pregnant women, around 30,000 children, 20,000 older persons and 9,000 persons with disabilities.
It’s questionable whether repeating myself is even worth it, but I am baffled by the number of Americans who throw a Ukraine sticker on their car while remaining painfully oblivious to the suffering of so many in the world.
That willful ignorance is one of the reasons The Five exists…albeit a very small way to fight back against the American head-in-the-sand syndrome.
[four]
Sometime between now and Friday, President Trump will be booked at one of the worst jails in America.
Former President Donald Trump and his 18 co-defendants accused of trying to steal the 2020 presidential election are expected to be booked at the Fulton County Jail this week.
The facility is known for its poor conditions and management, and the Department of Justice is currently investigating the jail's living conditions, medical care and use of excessive force.
The jail is open 24 hours a day and the former president and other defendants could show up at any time, Fulton County Sheriff Pat Labat's office announced last week. Trump and the defendants have until noon on Friday to voluntarily surrender.
Trump isn't expected to spend a long time at the jail, but this booking process marks a stark contrast with the former president being processed in courthouses in the other criminal investigations he faces. Here's what you need to know.
35-year-old inmate LaShawn Thompson was allegedly found in his cell at the Fulton County Jail last year, with his body dehydrated, malnourished and “infested inside and out with insects."
An independent autopsy report found that the cause of Thompson’s death was “complications due to severe neglect,” among other factors including untreated schizophrenia, dehydration, malnutrition and severe body insect infestation.
The Southern Center for Human Rights found last year that the jail has allegedly been understaffed and mismanaged for decades, “leading to multiple lawsuits." The facility also easily facilitated the spread of viruses, such as COVID-19.
"The jail is a public health nightmare," Terrica Ganzy, Executive Director of the Southern Center Human Rights, said in a statement.
A report released last year from the American Civil Liberties Union acknowledged overcrowding in the prison.
The Department of Justice announced it would investigate conditions at the Fulton County Jail last month after Thompson's death. The investigation also comes after accusations that the jail is structurally unsafe, “prevalent violence has resulted in serious injuries and homicides” and officers are using excessive force, according to the department.
Hopefully, the news coverage forces changes to what sound like third-world conditions.
According to CNN, Trump posted on Truth Social about turning himself in tomorrow.
[five]
Finally, the first Republican debate happens tomorrow night, with eight qualifying candidates, according to Yahoo:
North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum
Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis
Former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley
Former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson
Former Vice President Mike Pence
Businessman Vivek Ramaswamy
Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina
The following candidates did not make the debate stage:
Miami Mayor Francis Suarez
former Rep. Will Hurd of Texas
businessmen Perry Johnson
radio host Larry Elder
Perry Johnson, a guy I’ve never even heard of, despite writing about news and politics, was big mad.
Every primary needs a Karen-who-demands-to-speak-to-the-assistant-manager, I suppose. Mr. Johnson may have more to say tomorrow, but no one is listening.
The debate will forgo YouTube to appear on competitor platform Rumble, as well as broadcast on Fox News. The debate will be moderated by Fox News hosts Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum.
Until the next one,
-sth