Musings: Stops and Starts

The day started with stars, Venus, two adorable piglets running across our path as the dogs and I walked in first light, and a thought that's been recurring in this long spate of muggy weather: Did I somehow get transported to Guam?

I learned something rather disturbing yesterday. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission issued its findings of retaliatory behavior against Police Chief Darryl Perry without ever questioning him, or taking his statement. Nor was he ever given a copy of the EEOC's report. How is that a person can be accused and found guilty while never being allowed to speak in their own defense, or see the findings against them?

Glancing at Civil Beat, I notice it has a new look. I also noticed a commentary by Ashley Lukens, director of the Center for Food Safety, demanding more transparency from the seed/chem companies. Awesome. And while you are it, could you please tell us more about the Rockefeller sisters who are the primary benefactors of your work, and what their agenda is in Hawaii?

Ashley's not the only talking out of both sides of her mouth. There's uber hypocrite Councilman Tim Bynum trying to take away ag tax rates from the seed companies because they aren't growing something that goes right into the mouth of the consumer. But he had no problem falsely signing a document that claimed his own house — with rental — was a farm dwelling and his land agricultural, though he produced absolutely nothing at all.

Speaking of hypocrites, I found it so fascinating that Surfrider wants to hold the seed companies to the highest possible standards, as in not even the faintest trace of pesticides leaving their land. Which is fine, the very best management practices should be required. But when I asked Dr. Carl Berg if they also intended to hold the state and taro farmers to the same standards, regarding their use of glyphosate (Roundup), which was also detected in waterways, I got this:

RUP [restricted use pesticides] and experimental pesticides are more dangerous than general use pesticides. Why not target those that use the most and the most toxic pesticides? While not ignoring everyone else?

Except, as I pointed out, they are ignoring everyone else, including the termite treatment companies, which actually use more RUPs than the seed companies, with no buffers, no disclosure, no nothing. What do they think happens to the poison gas when the tent is removed?

And when I asked why they weren't saying anything about the RUPs leaching off the golf courses — an issue that used to be an environmental concern, before Surfrider allied itself with the pro-tourism contingent — I got no response at all.

A friend who attended the recent state Democratic Convention was bummed that “the progressives still get suppressed.” Which, sadly, is exactly what I predicted would be the effect of allowing regressives like the “lil fisties” — and what woman so aptly termed “the pole dancers” — to dominate the supposedly progressive political arena, setting it back decades.

But do they learn? No, they run doomed-to-lose candidates like Dylan Hooser, Felicia Cowden and Dustin Barca. I loved Felicia's comment in The Garden Island about how KKCR listeners encouraged her to run. And soon she will discover just how small and empty the KKCR echo chamber really is.

Finally, the county has again posted the list of approved transient vacation rentals on its website. But the TVRs are listed by tax map key, rather than their advertised property name. So it is still virtually impossible for consumers to determine whether they are renting a legal or illegal property, or for neighbors to participate in the county's policy of enforcement by complaint. What's up with that, guys?