Power struggle: The Sunshine Blog is probably not the only one wondering what the heck is up with Tommy Waters and his political cabal at the Honolulu City Council. A very interesting resolution dropped Friday that would shake up long-standing Democratic alliances (yes, The Blog knows these council folks are nonpartisan, cough-cough) and have the council chair in cahoots with known Republicans.

The resolution, introduced by Scott Nishimoto and Val Okimoto, would upend the current leadership structure that has Waters as chair, Matt Weyer as vice chair and Radiant Cordero as floor leader.

The new leadership team would be Waters as chair, Andria Tupola as vice chair and Esther Kiaʻāina as floor leader. Okimoto and Nishimoto make five, the majority needed on the nine-member council to put the new power structure in place.

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Weyer and Cordero were both backed in their elections to the council by Democratic powers that be. And of course Waters, Kiaʻāina and Nishimoto are well-known Democrats.

Tupola and Okimoto are from across the aisle — strong Republicans.

So why is Waters suddenly making a play to dump his leadership team with the help of political rivals?

Inquiring minds want to know.

Speculation is he was not pleased after the recent hard-fought council vote that increased sewer rates where he ended up on the losing side. Oops. Weyer and Cordero both went against Waters’ position, as did Augie Tulba (a, wink-wink, Republican) and Tyler Dos Santos-Tam (a solid D) and, interestingly for the new alliance, Okimoto.

Tupola, who ran for governor on the Republican ticket in 2018, has made no secret of her ambition to be council chair. Waters is a savvy politician and has no doubt included that in his political calculations.

This new development caught Honolulu Hale insiders by surprise and they’re still trying to get their heads around it. But a good guess would be a special agenda item dropping Monday that would set a vote for June 16, the soonest this reorg could happen and still comply with the Sunshine Law.

So exciting!

What’s a little deepfake between friends: The Babylon Bee and local conservative activist Dawn O’Brien are none too happy with a new state law, which took effect last year, that attempts to keep deepfake material out of elections in Hawaiʻi. We’re talking about really, really bad completely altered, exceptionally mean-spirited and outright photo-shopped pictures and other made-up stuff.

They’ve filed a federal lawsuit against Attorney General Anne Lopez, Honolulu Prosecuting Attorney Steve Alm and members of the Hawaiʻi Campaign Spending Commission seeking to prevent them from enforcing the law, which includes criminal penalties for those who, say, post pictures of Josh Green as a big fat guy with a double chin in an aloha shirt standing next to a svelte nice-looking Donald Trump who’s holding a Josh Green for Governor sign. (Seriously. It’s in the complaint.)

O’Brien, who contends she is a Christian, calls herself “the Aloha Ambassador to the State of Hawaiʻi” and says she represents the “Choose Aloha” program in 310 schools across the state. The Blog thinks she must have a different definition of aloha if she considers the stuff she posts on her social media “aloha.”

The Babylon Bee, with its slogan “Fake News You Can trust” is considered a right-wing version of the left-wing The Onion, and plans to do heavy satire of federal political candidates running in 2026, including people who will be on the ballot in Hawaiʻi. And contributors don’t want to end up with criminal records for what they consider to be free speech and exercising their First Amendment rights.

You can read the complaint here, which includes a lengthy section on the history of political satire, but here’s how they see it: “The Bee runs and controls a website that exposes foolishness, mocks absurdity, and highlights hypocrisy in faith, politics, and culture through satire, humor, and parody.”

“Indeed, the purpose of The Bee’s satire and parody — like other satire and parody — is to create content that is not literally true in all respects,” the complaint says, “and so The Bee knows that at least some of that content is literally false or acts without regard to that literal truth, but The Bee does so anyway to prove a broader point.”

The Bee says it has 20 million viewers a month with about 10,000 of those in Hawaiʻi. O’Brien claims about 7,000 Facebook followers and plenty more on other social media sites.

The Hawaiʻi law requires them to include disclaimers on deepfake, er, satirical, material. But the plaintiffs say that defeats the purpose and mucks up their artwork, as shown in this screenshot from the complaint:

Toni Schwartz, a spokeswoman for the AG’s office says the office won’t comment on whether it advised Green about the bill’s constitutionality before he signed it. She told Civil Beat reporter Kevin Dayton, who made some calls on this case before The Blog hijacked it, “We are not aware of citations related to SB 2687 (Act 191 SLH 2024). There are other entities, besides the Attorney General, that may bring such actions.”

The Blog, of course, thrives on satire, snark and snide comments so you’d think we applauding this case. But ick, no. Not a fan of blatant incivility, demeaning altered photos and truly fake news.

Going to the whip early: While his rivals roll their eyes and imply it’s too soon, Hawaiʻi’s Brian Schatz keeps lining up key endorsements in his internal campaign to take over the No. 2 spot in the Democratic power structure of the U.S. Senate next year.

Wisconsin Sen. Tammy Baldwin, secretary of the Democratic Caucus, told the online news organization Axios she is supporting Schatz to become the Democratic whip because he “listens to his colleagues, knows how to build consensus, and gets that to deliver for working families, our caucus needs to be united.”

The whip is second only to Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York in the party hierarchy, and current whip Dick Durbin of Illinois recently said he is retiring next year.

Schatz, already the chief deputy whip, wasted no time announcing his candidacy to succeed Durbin.

The Hawaiʻi’s senator’s potential rivals for the post include Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar and Washington Sen. Patty Murray. Klobuchar said recently it was a “mistake” for Democrats to be focusing so soon on next year’s whip race.

That hasn’t stopped Schatz, who has lined up endorsements from nine other Democratic senators in addition to Baldwin.

Meanwhile, The Blog appreciates that Schatz continues to entertain on his social media X account. Tracking the blowup between President Trump and Elon Musk, the senator posted, “is like watching the Patriots playing the Cowboys and both teams lose by four touchdowns.”

She seeks sanctuary: President Donald Trump’s Department of Homeland Security recently put up a website warning that it would “name and shame” officials in hundreds of alleged sanctuary jurisdictions.

The list included Honolulu, according to The Associated Press, which cited the National Sheriffs’ Association.

But … Honolulu is not a sanctuary city. The designation would be news to the people who run the city.

“The City and County of Honolulu is unaware of policies and practices that would result in Honolulu being listed as a jurisdiction non-compliant with federal law,” Ian Scheuring, deputy communications director for Mayor Rick Blangiardi, told The Blog in an email. “We have received no such notice to date, and we look forward to learning more about the basis for this designation by the Department of Homeland Security.”

DHS announced the list in a social media post May 29 that said the jurisdictions “are deliberately obstructing the enforcement of federal immigration laws and endangering American citizens. We are exposing these sanctuary politicians who harbor criminal illegal aliens and defy federal law.”

DHS soon removed the list of cities after coming under fire from groups like the National Sheriffs’ Association, which argued that the manner in which the list was put online was arbitrary and lacked transparency and accountability.

The brief posting of the DHS list followed Trump’s April 28 executive order directing the department and the U.S. attorney general to identify obstructing jurisdictions.

Of note: Sergio Alcubilla is the new director of community engagement for the ACLU of Hawaiʻi. He is a former executive director of the Hawai‘i Workers Center, director of external relations for the Legal Aid Society of Hawai‘i and a Democratic candidate for Hawaiʻi’s 1st Congressional District in 2022.

Matt Elliott is the new athletics director for University of Hawaiʻi Mānoa. The appointment of Elliott, who recently spent 13 years in athletics administration at UCLA, is subject to approval by the Board of Regents later this month.

Chip Fletcher is officially the new dean of the UH Mānoa School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology. He also needs the rubber stamp from the Board of Regents. The Blog can hardly imagine them rejecting Fletcher — a well-known climate scientist, geologist and educator, he’s been the interim dean of SOEST since 2022 and was previously the associate dean for academic affairs.