Happy National Hawaii Day!

Travel 2 Minutes

If you’re fortunate enough to be planning a trip to Hawaii, Trip Advisor recommends these places!

Diamond Head State Monument

This dormant volcano crater is one of Honolulu’s major natural landmarks, known for its history, amazing hikes, and stunning coastal views. The way to the summit is an easy-to-moderate hike up—though there’s a steep flight of steps—and you’ll be treated to some of the best views on the island. There are also many lookouts surrounding the crater. If you have limited mobility, don’t worry, multiple other hikes within the park are accessibility friendly. It can get busy (and hot!) so try to reach early in the morning and bring sunscreen and plenty of water.

Waimea Canyon State Park

Also known as the Grand Canyon of the Pacific, this scenic state park overlooks the colorful Waimea Canyon, which stretches over 14 miles and is more than 3,600 feet deep. The park itself is famous for its scenic drive, panoramic lookouts, and hikes of varying difficulty. Depending on the time you visit, the canyon’s appearance can seem to change throughout the day—it’s best to visit earlier in the morning for fewer crowds and better visibility. You might even spot a rainbow, especially during the summer months. There are many ways you can tour the canyon, including a bike tour, or even from up top on a helicopter ride.

Pearl Harbor National Park

A National Historic Landmark, this site consists of five memorials commemorating the events around WWII and the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941.

Waikiki Beach

This iconic landmark in Waikiki is one of Hawaii’s most famous beaches, located on the south shore of Oahu. Waikiki Beach is the birthplace of modern surfing culture—look out for the statue of renowned waterman Duke Kahanamoku, who popularized the sport internationally. Once the playground of Hawaiian royals, today the beachfront is lined with resorts and some of Hawaii’s most historic hotels. Surfers, swimmers, and sunbathers flock to this beach all day long. Boat tours in Waikiki are a great way for admiring the coast away from the crowds. Neighboring Kalākaua Avenue has plenty of shopping, dining, and entertainment options.

Iolani Palace

Iolani Palace, the official residence of Hawaii’s monarchy, is a marvel of opulence, innovation and political intrigue. Meticulously restored to its former grandeur, this National Historic Landmark in downtown Honolulu tells of a time when their Majesties, King Kalakaua, who built the palace in 1882, and his sister and successor, Queen Liliuokalani, walked its celebrated halls. Today, you can enjoy one of the most spectacular living restorations in all of Polynesia and immerse yourself in Hawaii’s royal heritage.

SOURCE: TRIPADVISOR.COM

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Published by pat frederick

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112 thoughts on “Happy National Hawaii Day!”

    1. Good morning, Pat!

      Slept in today! Son and GS visited yesterday 😊 We played with bubbles in the yard. 😁

      Cloudy, temp & dew point @ 61*, humidity 93%. Pure Michigan.

      ☕☕☕ Have a great day! God Bless. 💖

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  4. Jake

    August 21, 2026 6:14 am

    Walmart: Used $3 Billion Tariff Refund to Cut Priceshttps://www.newsmax.com/finance/streettalk/walmart-tariffs-refunds/2026/08/20/id/1266833/

    Walmart received $3 billion in tariff refunds and used the money to cut prices on 11,000 items, particularly groceries and general merchandise, the retailer said in its quarterly earnings report.

    I am not a fan of Walmart for a lot of reasons, but I applaud this corporation for passing the Tariff refund onto it’s customers. Will Target, Lowe’s and Home Depot do the same thing? I doubt it.

    Target reported receiving a $994 million refund. TJX, the parent company of TJ Maxx, Marshalls, and HomeGoods, received $331 million.

    Home Depot and Lowe’s reported $730 million and $80 million refunds, respectively.

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  5. Newsmax: “President Donald Trump on Thursday night appeared on the radio show of his former attorney Michael Cohen, a sign the two have reconciled after a falling-out that culminated in Cohen testifying against Trump at his New York criminal trial.

    In August 2018, Cohen pleaded guilty in Manhattan federal court to eight criminal counts and implicated Trump in a campaign-finance scheme involving hush-money payments to women who asserted they had affairs with Trump before the 2016 election.

    The guilty plea marked a dramatic break between the two men. Cohen, who once said he would “take a bullet” for Trump, became one of his most prominent critics. Trump, in turn, repeatedly called his former attorney a “rat” and a liar.

    Cohen was a key prosecution witness in Trump’s 2024 trial, which resulted in his conviction on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records. But Cohen did an about-face in January, alleging he “felt pressured and coerced” by New York prosecutors to provide information and testimony that would help them build their cases against Trump.

    “You were an advocate and then they weaponized you like nobody has ever been weaponized, like few have been,” Trump said by telephone in a prerecorded interview that aired Thursday on WABC-AM.

    “They weaponized you, they weaponized a lot of people. I respect the fact that you recanted. Everything you said. And that’s a big thing that you did — a very big thing.”

    Cohen told CNN earlier Thursday that the interview lasted 40 minutes. It is expected to air in full Sunday on WABC. Cohen told CNN that his relationship with Trump was “resuscitated.” During the interview, he referred to Trump as “boss.”

    “I truly believe that there is forgiveness between Donald Trump and myself, and that to me is what is important right now,” he said. Cohen also said he submitted a pardon application during Trump’s second term after unsuccessfully seeking clemency from then-President Joe Biden. He said he has not asked Trump directly about the request.

    Cohen said he has not received confirmation that his latest application was received and intends to follow up Friday.

    In the interview, Trump also pushed back on unfavorable approval ratings and defended his administration’s military operations in Iran. “I think that we’re doing really well in the polls — the real polls,” Trump said. “The economy has never been stronger, we’re doing numbers that nobody has ever seen before.”

    On Iran, Trump stressed that the regime “is in bad shape.”

    “Inflation is 300% there. Their currency is virtually valueless,” he said. “Their military is not being paid. So, they’re in bad shape. But the reason I did it — and we had no choice, I would have done it 100 times. They cannot have a nuclear weapon, and they won’t be having a nuclear weapon.”

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  6. Hmmmm…..not very covert if they are reporting on it…..

    Just The News: “The U.S. military has established a covert shipping corridor through the Strait of Hormuz, which is allowing millions of barrels of oil per day to flow. 

    The operation has been underway for several weeks, and 15–20 tankers have managed to enter and exit the strait each night through a southern channel along Oman’s coast, Axios reported, citing unnamed sources. 

    About 10 million barrels of oil per day have slipped past the Iranian blockade utilizing the secret route, Axios’ sources said, which has helped satisfy global demand. 

    The operation entails having the U.S. military guide empty tankers entering the Gulf from the Arabian Sea through the strait. The vessels pick up oil from countries in the region, and then exit. Each night, the ships are scheduled to move in one big outbound line during a certain time slot and one big inbound line during a separate time slot. 

    The operation was made possible by a recent two-week effort by U.S. Central Command to degrade Iran’s radar and maritime surveillance systems, according to the officials.” 

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    1. covert /kō′vərt, kō-vûrt′, kŭv′ərt/adjective

      1. Not openly practiced, avowed, engaged in, accumulated, or shown: synonym: secret. “covert military operations; covert funding for the rebels.” Similar: secret

      why do they keep revealing things that would be best kept to ourselves?

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  7. Just The News: “First lady Melania Trump announced Thursday that a $2 million donation to her “Fostering the Future” initiative will be used to produce new scholarships for foster youth at Indiana University and Purdue University.

    The White House said the new donations come from IndyCar and the Fox Corporation and mark an expansion of the program’s national network.

    “America’s greatest competitive advantage remains in its own people,” Trump said at a White House event. “Tomorrow’s leaders are sitting in classrooms today, including those growing up in foster care. Their capability is no less remarkable.”

    The expansion brings the program’s network to 26 academic institutions nationwide. Other schools that have partnered with the program include Arizona State University, the Ohio State University, University of Georgia, University of Texas, Louisiana State University, University of Alabama and University of Florida.

    The partnerships are intended to create new pathways to higher education for individuals from the foster care community.

    “Fostering the Future elevates America’s youth based on merit and talent, lifting them beyond economic circumstance and every other condition that may limit opportunity,” the first lady said. “Our mission is simple yet transformational: provide every young person from the foster care community the chance to earn a college education, launch a meaningful career, and achieve lasting financial independence.

    “Education is the one asset that can never be taken away,” she continued. “It is the foundation upon which confidence is built, opportunity is created, and the future is invented.”

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  8. Just The News: “The pilot of a small, single-engine Cessna aircraft was killed when his plane collided with a police helicopter in Pennsylvania’s Cumberland Valley on Wednesday evening, officials said. 

    The Cessna 150 struck the Bell 407 helicopter, which was conducting a training exercise, shortly before 7 p.m., according to Pennsylvania State Police Acting Commissioner Col. George Bivens.

    The pilot, Dr. Paul Sokoloski, 57, of Hersey, Pennsylvania, was the sole occupant of the plane, ABC News reported. A trooper and a colonel, who were inside the helicopter, were injured in the crash, but they are expected to recover, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro said. 

    He identified the officers as Cpl. Bryce Corman and Trooper Jason Mills.

    The cause of the crash remains under investigation.” 

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      1. Neither am I – yep – three of them. From what little I’ve read, this seems to me to be a case of waaaaay over-medicating, with multiple doctors prescribing multiple drugs.

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  10. “The British Home Office has apparently concluded that asylum seekers arriving in the United Kingdom require a tutorial on what should be universal morality. This week, the government released “Understanding behaviours and expectations in the UK: A guide for asylum seekers,” accompanied by a series of illustrated posters explaining some of the finer points of British life.

    Women are equal to men. Women may work, study and travel without a man’s permission. You may not hit or control your wife. Sex requires consent, including within marriage. Children under 16 cannot consent to sex. Do not follow strangers. Do not block their path. Do not make sexual comments. Do not whistle or make kissing noises at women. Do not photograph people in private situations without permission.

    There are even separate government posters devoted to “Age of consent,” “Consent,” “Child abuse,” “Domestic abuse,” “Gender equality,” “Harrassment” and “Photography and filming.” These are not memes created by some foreign bot account on X. They are official Home Office materials, published by His Majesty’s Government on August 19, 2026.

    Which raises the rather obvious question that polite society will presumably regard as impolite: Why did the British government believe these particular instructions needed to be written down?

    Governments generally do not spend taxpayer money designing illustrated educational campaigns reminding newcomers not to rape women, abuse children, beat their wives or sexually harass strangers unless someone, somewhere, has concluded that there is a reason to do so.

    Over the last decades, Britons have experienced very large migration flows from profoundly different cultures, which might produce “problems” of assimilation. These were routinely dismissed as xenophobic, racist or simply “far right.”

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  11. “For years, organized groups of men, disproportionately British Pakistani in several of the towns at the center of the scandal, groomed, trafficked and raped vulnerable girls in places such as Rotherham, Rochdale, Oxford and Telford. Authorities had repeated warnings, yet victims were ignored, blamed or treated as troublesome teenagers. Subsequent (conservative) official inquiries documented catastrophic failures by police, councils and social services, including reluctance in some institutions to confront the ethnicity of perpetrators for fear of being called racist or inflaming community tensions.

    In Rotherham alone, the official inquiry estimated that approximately 1,400 children were sexually exploited between 1997 and 2013. Britain learned, at an appalling cost to thousands of girls, that refusing to discuss cultural differences does not make those differences disappear.

    Yet after decades of scandals across numerous English towns, the government’s own 2025 national audit concluded that the data were still so inadequate that Britain could not reliably say how many children had been victimized by grooming gangs nationwide.

    So, guess what mainstream media and the liberal parliament had to say about that?

    Apparently the Home Office, while not actually addressing the issue of rape gangs head on, has now decided that spelling out a few expectations might be prudent.

    Progress, I suppose? Not! How about actually arresting and deporting immigrants who break the law?

    Real progress, as Britain’s Conservative Party and Reform UK have both campaigned on, would mean dramatically reducing the enormous influx of migrants into a country roughly the size of Alabama, but with about 11 times as many people packed into essentially the same land area.

    One might imagine that population density, housing, infrastructure and assimilation would eventually enter the conversation. But that doesn’t seem to be in the cards for jolly old England.”

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  17. Federal Housing Bill Pulte Responds to Reports of Sharia Compliant Home Mortgages

    GP, by Cristina Laila Aug. 20, 2026

    “Federal housing regulator Bill Pulte on Thursday responded to reports of Sharia-compliant mortgage loans purchased by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

    Pulte says Fannie and Freddie don’t give out sharia-compliant-loans.

    Effective immediately, these programs, along with Kosher and Amish programs, will be open AND marketed to ALL AMERICANS. https://t.co/SzsNzKOKxW

    — Pulte (@pulte) August 21, 2026

    Bill Pulte clarified to The Gateway Pundit that Fannie and Freddie “DON’T GIVE OUT SHARIA MORTGAGES.”

    Guidance Residential, a private Islamic home-financing company, publicly states that it brings Freddie Mac and, according to another passage on its website, Fannie Mae, into its transactions as investors.

    The company describes its product as “Islamic co-ownership financing.” Instead of issuing a conventional interest-bearing mortgage, Guidance says it purchases a home alongside the buyer. The buyer then gradually acquires the company’s ownership share while paying for the use of the remaining share.

    Guidance says the arrangement was constructed to satisfy Sharia principles prohibiting riba, or interest. It also claims that its Sharia board and 18 law firms developed a contract under which Freddie Mac can participate without purchasing conventional debt. “Guidance simply brings on Freddie Mac as an additional investor,” the company states.

    As RealClearInvestigations reported in May 2026, federal data show Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have become the primary investors in these Islamic mortgages, injecting billions of dollars in liquidity.

    The Center for Security Policy and other national security analysts have warned for years that Sharia-compliant finance can serve as a vehicle for broader ideological penetration and potential material support networks. Yet under previous administrations, the practice continued largely without scrutiny at the highest levels of FHFA.

    Earlier this month, Pulte said officials were examining the Fannie/Freddie Sharia-compliant loans.

    We are looking into this right now. Thanks for mentioning! https://t.co/SzsNzKOKxW

    — Pulte (@pulte) August 13, 2026

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  18. This appears to be a later and longer video than the one posted previously.

    “Earlier this year, my husband Abraham was diagnosed with a very rare bone cancer. This has been a challenging time for us and is hard to talk about. But so many of you have reached out asking how he’s doing, and sharing your prayers and well wishes with us. We made this video to share a little about what this journey has been like, and to update you on his recovery. Mahalo for all of the love and support🙏”

    (Video)

    https://xcancel.com/TulsiGabbard/status/2090424874971877649

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  19. i did some reading about that clancy woman who murdered her children and the cult that has ground around her.

    women confessing they want to kill their children and maybe their husbands…???WTH????? and now conspiracy theories that the husband ACTUALLY killed the kids and set her up. women filming themselves crying and moaning about their lives like pathetic losers…

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  25. Good old public school…

    Hmmmm….personally, I think it’s a bit much to wear that around a bunch of kids who are going to ask what it means. That is a subject best addressed between the kids & parents.

    Mitch is almost ready to get back to work for the people…

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  26. “Ever heard of ‘Detroit Agate’? Fordite, also known as Detroit agate, is not a stone – it’s a by‑product of the automotive industry. It formed in factories between the 1920s and 1970s, when cars were hand‑sprayed and overspray collected on racks, rails, and floors. 

    With each new paint job, another layer was added – sometimes over 100 layers per car. Over time, the hardened paint was cut, polished, and transformed into jewellery, cufflinks, and inlays.

    Because modern robotic painting techniques and environmental regulations have changed how factories handle paint waste, the original accumulation process no longer happens the same way. 

    Workers and collectors eventually realized these chunks could be cut, shaped, and polished into cabochons for unique, one-of-a-kind jewelry. Cutting through the random layers yields striking visual effects, ranging from tight, linear geometric stripes to wild, concentric bullseyes. Each piece is unique, its colours reflecting the car styles of its era. A one‑of‑a‑kind gem born from an industrial process – and no two pieces are ever the same.” 

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  31. BEST STORY OF THE DAY: Flying Through the Moon’s Shadow

    “The total solar eclipse of August 12 produced thousands of spectacular photographs. But this may be my favorite.

    Taken by Juan Carlos Casado on August 12, 2026 @ Palencia (Spain), above 11,000 meters via: https://spaceweathergallery2.com/indiv_upload.php?upload_id=235903

    Astrophotographer Juan Carlos Casado photographed totality from near the nose of an Airbus A321 chartered specifically to intercept the Moon’s shadow over Spain.

    And from 31,000 feet, you can actually see the shadow itself. Not simply darkness around the Sun, but an enormous cone of darkness stretching nearly a quarter-million miles from the Moon to Earth, enveloping the aircraft while the horizon outside glows orange in every direction.

    The pilots flew a carefully calculated racetrack pattern that kept the aircraft inside totality for 2 minutes and 8 seconds—longer than observers on the ground experienced.

    There’s even a mystery aircraft visible crossing the shadow that the photography team hasn’t been able to identify. Imagine looking out an airplane window and realizing you’re literally flying inside the Moon’s shadow. That’s difficult to beat.”

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  32. Etna Is Creating Aviation Chaos in Sicily – Mount Etna isn’t merely erupting. It’s becoming an air-traffic nightmare.

    Europe’s tallest active volcano has reportedly been erupting continuously since August 6, producing lava fountains, flows and persistent clouds of volcanic ash. That ash has repeatedly drifted toward Catania airport, forcing authorities to restrict arrivals and cancel or divert hundreds of flights.

    Between August 6 and 12 alone, 36% of roughly 1,974 scheduled arrivals were reportedly canceled, while around 630 incoming flights were diverted. By August 13, nearly 800 flights had been canceled. Airport officials are calling it their most difficult emergency in 20 years.

    And volcanologists warn the eruption could potentially continue for weeks or months. Great volcano. Terrible travel agent.

    🔗 Source: https://www.rt.com/news/644388-etna-eruption-flight-disruption/

    Waterspouts Become Tornadoes in New York — Two waterspouts reportedly moved ashore around Queens and Long Island, becoming rare tornadoes and causing damage as severe weather hit the New York region.

    Flood warnings were also issued as heavy rain moved through the area. Waterspouts are essentially tornado-like rotating columns over water. When one reaches land, it can officially become a tornado. It’s not something New Yorkers see every day.

    Then again, weather increasingly seems determined to expand everyone’s local disaster vocabulary.

    🔗 Source: https://abc7ny.com/live-updates/nyc-nj-weather-flood-storm-watches-issued-ahead-heavy-rain-new-york-jersey/19708976/

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  44. Good night, Pat! We had a short cloudburst earlier today but it’s been sunny ever since and up to 86. The grass sure is growing with all the rain. I’ll need to mow again soon.

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