DEATH IN PRINCEVILLE- HO HUM

Today's death on the rocks of Queen's Bath could have been predicted for it's regularity.

Going down the trail and climbing on the rocks, especially when the waves are massive, has killed many tourists over the years- or should I say their own stupidity has done them in for the ones who more recently purposely ignored signs and videos and all. And as for books, like one called “Ultimate Kaua`i Guide Book” many have continued to list it as a good place to go leaving out weather warnings and, in years past, some, like the UKTB, telling visitors to disregard the warnings.

In the 90's it got so bad the County Engineer tried to close the access- the only one who has the right, by law (county charter) to a close trail completely (partial closings for safety are permitted) to do so. But apparently, it was explained by Ray, there is also a state law that allows any one citizen to reopen any trail that has been closed (it's a little more complicated than that but that's the essence).

So enter the great Kaua`i activist Ray Chuan who took members of his “Limu Coalition “ to the trail-head and “reopened” it.

Why, you might rightly ask? Well, if you remember, beach access had been designated the top issue in a poll prior to the 1998 election (or maybe '96- this is “seat-of-the-pants”).

Well, the county attorney wanted to sue the UK tour book but came up against the 1^st Amendment so things stand where they are. I'm not sure of the various other guide books and what they say but Kaua`i Visitors Bureau's Sue Kanoho made it a priority to try to talk to them about it for quite a while with pretty good success with most guide books (although the “Ultimate” was still refusing to de-list it last I heard maybe 10+ years ago... I'm not sure about the “disregard the signs” part)

File under the “Darwin Awards,” a popular designation here, where people forget to pack their brains when they are “on vacation.”

LEADING FROM (ONE'S) BEHIND

I haven't seen so much naivety since Little Red Riding Hood, in people's reactions to the Kaua`i County Council preliminary leadership vote, including- or especially?- Luke Evslin's on Facebook (best go to his page- there's a few).

The original Perot's fairy tale ends after the infamous penultimate line, “Oh Grandma, what big teeth you have,.” then unequivocally stating “And with that he opened his mouth and A T E   H E R  U P.

No hunters with butcher knives stumbling by outside to save the day by cutting open the wolf's belly and removing The Notorious LRRH.

In case there are some out there that haven't heard the secret, policy IS politics, unlike Luke's Facebook essay last night portended. If you care about policy you will have to pay attention to those paying attention to politics because otherwise you will find yourself like the guy standing in front of the boss's desk readying himself to ask for a raise and instead finding himself dropping precipitously through the trap door.

The Chairperson of most bodies- or whatever they're calling the boss of your legislative “board,” sets the agenda, I'll say that again.

The Chair of the Board sets the agenda. The rest of the board may put up a fight to change that de facto rule but it isn't likely to pass and you'll be playing more politics to accomplish that than you would to have if you just sat down and shut up and kept your powder dry for the battles to come over the next 2,4,6 or 8 years.

Whether the Chair wins by one vote or all but one vote he or she will be keeping a close eye on his or her friends and a closer one on their enemies. You, as one of the rabble, don't need to grab an inordinate share of the chair's attention while you work on the politics that will allow you to execute the policy. If you're worried about climate change there's no need to remind the chair every day that he works for the most dispoiling business (Grove Farm) on the island until you're ready- and have enough allies- to execute a political shift, which is after all the only way to execute that policy shift.

Best not to get caught with you pants down; if you go at the king, best not miss... and all that Machiavellian clap trap.

I've watched the Kaua`i County Council at work for 40 years and have never seen anyone go along and give their vote and not get stabbed in the back for it unless they join the right prison gang and then they'll support you with their political life. It's really a simple- and simplistic way to play politics but no one around here is any smarter than knight takes pawn, bishop takes knight, etc. and they all figure they'll find out when they get a year or so under their belts. And once they do, they've been sucked in and there's no getting out.

Maybe you're smarter than the av-er-age bear. Luke You seem to be. Or maybe, as they say “you're goin' places boy.”

I fear young Mr. Evslin will slip down that slope if he doesn't have more of a plan than “forget about politics, concentrate on policy and assume others will be doing the same. Otherwise, gnaw, slurp, lick lips... yum-yum-yum.

Others have made the same mistake.

MIDNIGHT AT THE HACIENDA

I really lead a sheltered existence. Although I spend half my life reading about the current generation of FOX-News MAGA-heads and the kind of conspiratorial substitute news that has apparently taken hold across the country, it actually walked up my stairs in the form of a large middle-aged southern-accented appliance repairman yesterday about 6:45 p.m.

As Judy Woodruff began to introduce a PBS NewsHour piece on the American atrocities at the Mexican-American border I hear “They're all ISIS, you know.”

“Excuse me?” I said. After all I have had trouble getting enough oxygen to the brain lately. Maybe it's the ears too.

But no. The deluge was about to begin. In shock, I caught maybe every third word or concept because I had apparently stumbled into the belly-of-the-beast- and that belly was my own living room.

“They're all young men- no women or children.... notice, they're all under 30. It's all paid for and staged.” he said, pointing at the refugees seeking asylum which he no doubt saw as the invading Caravan chock-full-of “bad hombres.”

Still not being quite ready to push my reporting brethren under the bus, I had to ask. “You mean they're all making it up? PBS, CBS. CNN, NY Ti...”

“Of course they are.”

I was unable to formulate the words quickly enough to ask if he, thought maybe there was some secret corner closet in the US Capitol where they and Adam Sorkin gather to write today's script- i.e. the mainstream media news.

The pundits say that the country is divided and tell stories about “unfriending” 25-year acquaintances. Funny- I've never had any actual “friends” I needed to ditch like that. Apparently we picked each other well at the time

And I'm not likely to come across one unless it's a friend of a friend, usually of someone I don't even really know. And I intend to keep it that way- by ignoring them.

I've apparently unconsciously- or maybe super-consciously, spent 66 years weeding these people out of my life as, not just traditional “friends” but new “social media friend” as well.

Something in the back of my click-clacking lizard brain I know I should have friends with differing political bents. And I have “true conservative” friends I've loved and still do.

But I've begun to realize this is not just another political view. This is a whole new brand of troglodyte and it's the job of his or her friends and family that helped them achieve such a stunning lack of media literacy in the first place to help ease them back to reality.

It's not mine if I want to maintain the bones in my nose in their current alignment .

SOMEBODY FLUSHED AND THEN THERE WERE NONE

Well, well, well, apparently it's time to go out there and NOT vote for a bunch of crooks, know-it-alls and folks who care passionately about their showing in the next election.

The folks who have devoted themselves to making their neighborhood and the world around them a better place are no longer in office. And most aren't even running.


As to the ones who used to be there, when I ask about their plans each election cycle, they either give me one of those "hush uppa yo' face 'fore I hush it up fo' you" looks or have, against all odds, taken up the non-elective fight 27/7 after learning what I learned decades ago- elective office is no place for politics.

Or, in at least a couple of cases, because doing it killed them.

So let's start at the bottom since that's really the top when it comes to the really important day-to-day officeholders- the local ones.

There's really no one among the 14 running for KAUA`I COUNTY COUNCIL to vote "FOR." But those offices will be filled no matter what we do so at this point it's a matter of harm reduction.

The ones with the biggest potential for reducing harm are:


1) MASON K CHOCK- Mason is the only incumbent worth returning to office and should really be separated from others on this list. He's a reliable progressive vote and somehow manages to deal with the other council knuckleheads.


2) ADAM PROVERSI- Adam comes highly recommended as an environmental attorney (now with the county attorney's office) and a former organic farmer. On paper he's hard to beat. Don't include him in the "harm reduction" crew. He sounds a whole lot better than that. I've never met him but you couldn't ask for better credentials.


3) FELICIA COWDEN- Felicia hosts a public affairs radio program on community radio and ran for council in 2016. She'd be a hell of a lot better than any of the others and thinks and acts progressively. I am enthusiastic about the potential for seeing her round out a council majority along with


4) LUKE EVESLIN-- HAHAHA- PSYCH- FAKED YOU OUT. Yeah, after much consternation I'm gonna say "yes, you too Luke." And it isn't even that I've known him since he was in swaddling clothes and his dad for lo these 40 years. His failure to oppose the POISON FARMS in Waimea is still a big matzoh ball out there between us and I will do my best to figure out why Luke would support GM food since he's so pragmatic- or at least studied- in so many other areas. Perhaps I just need to show him the real dangers of eating genetically modified foods, "back-of-the-envelope" style. Other than that I'll vote for Luke enthusiastically and I promise I will do my best to change his mind on GMOs by the next election (or die trying). Anyway, I could get used to hearing him in the background every Wednesday. At least maybe he'd drown out Idiot Boy.

The next category is The Truly Horrific (vote for the plague before these candidates)- aka the DO NOT VOTE FOR council list, aka the KAUA`I LEAST WANTED list.

1) I suppose it would have to start with SHAYLENE LEI MAILE ISERI, (formerly SHAYLENE ISEI-CARVALHO), the person who has done so much to disgrace her name that she has gone to great lengths to disguise it on the ballot. If you don't remember "all of the horrible things she's done" (off to see the wizard?) search her name in the search box (just Shaylene is enough) on my "got windmills blog" http://parxnewsdaily.blogspot.com/ . While I can't exactly accuse her of killing Tim Bynum because that would be libelous, I sure can think it.


2) ROSS KAGAWA, Mel Rapozo's Mini-me comes next but is really the worst. Ross is known by many simply as "Idiot Boy" because, among other things, it can be physically painful to listen to him think. He's famous of late for trying to explain why he (and others on the council) turned down a $100,000 grant to study what more we can do locally to fight climate change. The video is floating around Facebook. I can't even list all the stupid stuff he says and does.


3) ARTHUR BRUN is actually a Vice President of one of the west side chemical companies and was the one overseeing the place the day a national inspector just happened to be there on another matter when they caught them not using standard procedures to keep workers a safe time and distance from a super-poison being sprayed (yeah- I'm sooo sure it was only that one day). Workers had to go to the hospital. The company was originally fined millions.


4) ARRYL KANESHIRO is a chip off the old Grove Farm block and seems to be working for them in his council decision making.


5) KIPUKAI KUALII- There's a reason why his name doesn't seem to appear on any "who to vote for" lists. This article ( https://parxnewsdaily.blogspot.com/2012/09/separating-white-from-rice.html ) would be a wonderful place to start reading about both Kipukai and Shaylene. Don't forget to follow the links to read more about "Rice-Cooker-Gate"... If you're new enough here to have never heard about it there's no time like the present for education.


Oh- and there's that pesky Mayoral Race where Mel Rapozo is running against Derek Kawakami.

And one of them will be mayor in December (hand me my vomit bucket emoji- there must be one).

Rather than endorse/not endorse I am recommending people read the first three chapters of a book called "KPD Blue" by former Honolulu Star-Bulletin Kaua`i Bureau Chief Anthony "Tony" Sommer to find out more about former KPD Sgt. Mel Rapozo who was the only cop in uniform and on duty and in the fondling room at the station house the night the "Lap Dancer" made her infamous"personal appearance." (The juicy part is in the first three chapters).


You can order it from Amazon. Or let me know and I'll get you in touch with Tony and you can buy it directly from him (he makes more pennies that way). Or if you're cheap or in a hurry (even though Amazon delivers, like, yesterday) you can find Chapter by Chapter links to the book at the top of the "left rail" at my blog (which covers my decades of journalism, covering politics and government on Kaua`i. got windmills? is at http://parxnewsdaily.blogspot.com/ Or try the library for "KPD Blue."


Voting starts Oct. 23 at the Kaua`i County Building Annex and you DO NOT- let me repeat DO NOT- need to be registered. The legislature passed a law this past May saying that you can register when you vote (no matter what you hear from anyone including the elections website itself). Election day is November 6.

Sometimes I feel like my life has been a political failure local, state and national wise. So if you are on the mainland and there's any chance people where you are might be electing a (play spooky "screech, screech, screech" music) Republican, as a LIFE LONG GREEN and former GREEN NATIONAL COMMITTEE DELEGATE, I'm asking you (and/or giving you permission) to PLEASE VOTE FOR THE DEMOCRAT- even one of those sucky ones. I've never asked people to do that before. It's that bad.

WHO TO VOTE AGAINST ON KAUA`I- 2018

No, it's not time to chose who to vote FOR any more these days. It's 2018 and there are seemingly only candidates to vote against... and a handful that we will vote for by default.


So here's my ill-considered and uninformed list of what my- and I do hope your- ballot will look like in the upcoming primary/special election, ending August 11. Ballots are either in your mailbox now or, if you haven't signed up for permanent mail-in ballots (please do- it's really convenient), early voting will be available soon and you can now register and vote on "primary" election day, August 11.--------
We'll start at home in our "non-partisan" Mayoral and County Council races.


The race for KAUAI MAYOR has four candidates with a realistic shot and three are disgusting. Only JOANN YUKIMURA is worth voting for if we ever want to get a grip on our current, horrendous over-development. While she is not the same JoAnn she was back in the '80's and '90's, when compared to the rest, she shines. I would gladly vote FOR her even if the others were not so nauseating.


The other three are former KPD Sgt. Mel Rapozo of "The Lap Dancer at the Station House" fame and Derek "Mr Big Save" Kawakami, replete with silver spoon still lodged in his mouth and Lenny Rapozo who spent the Carvalho administration as Parks and Recreation head, which, if you've seen our parks, speaks for itself.


With 24 COUNTY COUNCIL candidates you'd think there would be more than three you might want to vote for... but of course you'd think wrong if you did. You get seven votes- DO NOT use them all. USE ONLY THREE


1) Vote for MASON CHOCK, who, as an incumbent has been the only fresh air blowing through the council chambers for the last two years now.
2) While it's hard to really pin down FELICIA COWDEN on very much she can be probably be trusted to make the right decisions. But if you make it, we'll be watching Felicia.
3) The third is ADAM ROVERSI who is a former farmer from Kilauea who went back to school and studied environmental law. He now works in the county attorney’s office. I've never met him but people I know and trust tell me we can't go wrong in voting for him. Google him and checkout his website.


Watch out though- there are some real pigs running. Among them are disgraced former prosecuting attorney Shaylene Iseri, Ross "Idiot Boy" Kagawa who causes actual pain in those who attempt to watch him think and corrupt former councilmember Kipukai Kualii.


All three voted to continue to allow the chemical companies to poison people, voting against "the bill" back in the day- among other horrific actions/inactions. Same goes for Grove Farm Vice President, former councilmember Arryl Kaneshiro. Chemical company Vice President, council incumbent Arthur Brun fills out the "basket of deplorables".


Which brings us to Luke Evslin.


I've known Luke since he was a little boy. He is bright, articulate and inquisitive but has one blind spot- he fully supports the chemical companies' experimental genetic modification operations on the West side. I can't bring myself to support someone who makes that kind of political decision over the health of his potential constituents. It indicates the types of votes he would cast in the future. Sorry Luke- no support from this direction.


The rest aren't worth a second look. Don't forget- you don't need to vote for seven and if you're voting for a person based on some kind of "feeling," a family tie or some other tenuous connection you could defeat the candidate(s) you really do want to see with your vote. "Plunking," as it's called, is a long-time tradition on Kaua`i where we can vote for all seven "at-large" candidates but usually don't. It's not hard to see why.

If anyone wants to research those I've mentioned above- or at least those with a record- I've written about many extensively in my "Got Windmills- the Daily Tilt" blog at http://parxnewsdaily.blogspot.com/ where you can enter their names in the search box at the top of the page and you will get all the articles I've written about them. The same goes for those below.


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Next, to the state legislature


STATE HOUSE DISTRICT 16

These could be the two biggest races on Kaua`i ballots. On the West side DEE MORIKAWA stuck her neck out to pass the pesticide bill in the legislature- it wouldn't have happened without her. Stephanie Iona is a lobbyist for the chemical companies, sent to defeat Dee. I'm sure you know how important this race is. I wish I could vote for Dee.

STATE HOUSE DISTRICT 15

Jimmy (James) Tokioka is THE wost excuse for a human being- much less a legislator- that I've ever seen. He is corrupt to the core. Yet he gets reelected every two years. I wish I lived in the district. I don't know Elaine Daligdig but she's GOT to be better than Jimmy. PLEASE vote for ELAINE DALIGDIG.

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CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT 1

First let me say I don't live in District 1. No one on Kaua`i does. But it's rare to find such a long list of candidates to "vote against."

But one stands out as one of the worst turds Hawai`i has ever sent to DC, Ed Case. He managed to slip into a seat in a plurality election where the two popular candidates split the vote and he slipped into an the "interim" seat when the Sainted Patsy Mink passed away just before an election. Get a history book- it hurts too much to have to remember that fiasco.

One problem is that Kaniela Ing is a great candidate, according to those on Maui that know him. But he also got into some trouble over "misreporting" campaign contributions and was severely fined for it. If I lived there I'd vote for him. Bu he might not have a shot to stop Case because he's really outspoken- in a good way.

Doug Chin needs to beat Case because the rest of the field is just that disgusting. Making it easier is that Chin hates Trump and, when he was our attorney general, he led the national effort to block the infamous "Muslim Ban" in court.

I'm glad I don't have to vote in this one.

CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT 2

I do have to vote in this one. And I feel kind of queasy over having to vote for Tulsi Gabbard and so will be voting for Sherry Alu Campagna who, some say, has really good progressive credentials (Her web site is kind of wishy-washy). Gabbard will win no matter what I do.

Gabbard kind of gets all "Stepford Wives" when you ask her about her childhood- and apparently current- guru Cris Butler and while I don't care what religion/cult someone might be/join unless it gets in the way of governing, there's something about Tulsi's reaction to being asked about it that's really really creepy (and I don't often use two "reallys." Really.

But she's also an early Bernie supporter and says and does some great stuff in congress and that's probably what counts.

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LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR

Oh Goodie, goodie. We get to vote FOR someone.

KIM COCO IWAMOTO is a "true progressive" (I'd say democratic socialist but my Democratic Party friends would have a conniption fit) and, although I've never met her she appears to be the real deal. It's too bad Josh Green is running for Lt. Governor also.

If you play all those tic-tac-toe political games you're probably, to mix a metaphor, still twiddling your thumbs. But if you like voting with integrity like I do and you'll be voting for "Kim Coco."

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GOVERNOR
We'd run out of arm before we run out of candidates on the list for governor. But since everyone I know will be "pulling" a Democratic ballot we are told that "if you want your vote to count" you'd better choose between former Chief Cook and Bottle Washer (along with every other political position imaginable) Colleen Hanabusa and David "Wow, how the heck did I get here" Ige (D).


The problem is choosing which one nauseates us more- or less as the case may be. Many had already tentatively made up our minds not to vote for Ige, based on four years of getting our faces slapped by him- especially through his Dept of Ag lackey Scott Enright who has allowed multi-national chemical companies to engage in school, home and road-side poisonings under the "jobs, jobs, jobs" banner for those who survive the daily toxic deluge.

But just as we were about to accept anybody- repeat ANYBODY- to get rid of him and Enright we looked up and saw- ARRGGGH, the ghost of elections past- the Hanabusa machine.

Who makes us sicker, who makes us sicker... all summer was gonna be spent measuring who made us sicker.

But a last minute a "here's your damn bill-choke on it" effort on the part of Ige and his Legislative 76 Stooges gave us a watered down but acceptable law, banning one of the worst of the restricted use chemicals, stopping poison spraying within 7 millimeters of a school, oh let's say 150 years from now (something like that) and, the one substantive measures, a complete list of "What the Heck Are They Spraying?" which was how this who thing got started in the first place.

So, although I've promised myself I'm too old to vote for this worst evil crap and I should be choosing a Green Party ballot to vote for candidate Jim Brewer since there's a Green on the ballot. But he'll be there in November. So you have my permission to make sure we don't have to look at Colleen on the news every night but rather listen to the nasal stylings of Ige and the Indecisive-tones.

Vote Early- And Often.

BE ON MY SIDE I'LL BE ON YOUR SIDE

There're no "sides." There is a continuum of critical thinking skills and many who either don't want to learn how to use them or even do the work to obtain them. Many of those who were never taught those skills certainly weren't taught media literacy either. 

People have a hard time knowing when they are being lied to, because they lack a background in using the scientific method to test the statements they hear beyond applying some nebulous "belief" in the statement or the person or organization making it. But belief has nothing to do with actual information. They are from different worlds.

The vast majority of what we hear can be tested using rational thought and critical thinking and discarded immediately. A "packet" of real information is precious.

It's okay to "not know"- it's not okay to claim to know when you don't.

WHO- ME TOO?

This morning I get up to brush my teeth, come back, and find "Rosanne" has gone from being the cat's-meow to a cat-turd.
 
Yes, I'm shocked- SHOCKED- to once again find racism, race-bias and race-privilege in America... and from such an icon of propriety no less.

And I'm shocked, shocked, SHOCKED to find it happening in Hollywood of all places!

And finally, I'm shocked, shocked, shocked SHOCKED to find a celebrity has spoken aloud one such lizard-brained mentation as scurries across everyone's brain from time to time. 

But I'm NOT shocked, shocked, shocked, shocked, SHOCKED that there are people who deny having such cognitive content, whether predominantly, preeminently or simply fleeting. Otherwise we wouldn't be ugly, phony-ass Americans.

Got denial?