Friday, October 9, 2015

Musings: Grand Delusions

It's always fascinating — and often downright funny — to observe delusional thinking.

Like this excerpt from the draft mission statement for KKCR, the supposed “community” radio station on Kauai:

We provide a forum for overlooked, suppressed, or under-represented voices.

We broadcast news, opinion and civic affairs that foster our community’s capacity to think independently, skillfully, and critically.

Mmm, since when does an echo chamber filled with all the same old voices and group speak foster independent, skillful or critical thinking? Yet these guys honestly think they are presenting a balanced view of the world and giving voice to the “voiceless.”

This is followed in the minutes by Mickey Sussman, president of the station's Community Advisory Board:

Mickey says that we have a different world than from when the last [mission] statement was made. Our island is under attack (poisons and policies) and we need to talk about it.

Yup. There's that echo I was talking about. Though Mickey might find some people have a very different idea about who and what is poisoning the island — if he actually stepped outside the chamber, that is.

Then there was the woman whose family bought a house in Wainiha six years ago because she thought the double bridges — now slated for replacement — would keep big trucks, and thus “McMansions” out of her neighborhood. “We moved here for the solitude,” Christina Presley tells The Garden Island.

Presley obviously has no clue what has already gone down on "her" side of the bridge, where so many of the small houses that formerly served as affordable long-term rentals have been slicked up and greatly expanded — often in violation of federal flood laws — to serve the high-end vacation rental market.  Nope, not even the bridges could stop that lucrative action — they just made more trips with smaller trucks — or the growing hordes of tourists. But watch, they'll be the first ones to scream about lack of services if there's a disaster.

Then there was the Center for Food Safety's Ashley Lukens — yes, her again — bitching about the inadequacies of the “Good Neighbor” program, in which the big ag companies agree to voluntarily disclose restricted pesticide use and impose 100-foot buffers. It started on Kauai and is about to go statewide. But Ashley tells Civil Beat:

Time and time again we’ve seen that voluntary measures don’t capture bad actors so a voluntary program isn’t going to be adequate by itself, but information is absolutely a starting point.

Yet on Sept. 30, she was lauding the advent of “a historic Good Neighbor Program on O'ahu!” and taking credit for something that has been in the works between the Dept. of Ag and the seed companies since March:
Kauai Councilman Gary Hooser also weighed in on the call to make disclosure mandatory:

It’s volunteer [sic] so we have no way of knowing how accurate the numbers are unless there’s some government oversight. Without some oversight it’s based on pure trust of the industry. My experience with the industry is that’s not enough.

Yet we are supposed to trust him, even when he repeatedly lies....Like I said, this stuff is humorous.

Which brings me to Baby Hoos — Dylan — who penned this letter to the editor:

To be clear: I do not condone witch hunts of politicians or their supporters on social media or via rabid bloggers, but I do support truth.

Being a victim of such witch hunts as a child of a politician and as a candidate, they leave me with an uncomfortable feeling in my stomach. Especially when being used as tools to manipulate facts.

Meanwhile, his own father is a fount of mistruths and manipulation. And Dylan has been at the forefront of the Kauai anti-GMO movement, which is characterized in large part by its witch hunts on social media. He himself held the infamous “shame” banner at the Lege, trying to cast aspersions on politicians who disagree with his view on biotech.

Dylan concludes with this little gem:

It’s not whether you win or lose, but how you play the game.

Yeah, Dylan, you and your “ends justify the means” comrades tell us all about it.

I'll close with this, posted on Facebook by Kaiulani Kimbrell, whose father, Andrew, runs the Center for Food Safety and helped bring Vandana Shiva to Hawaii so she could spread her poisonous message of fear:

It was posted with this message:

One of my DVD/CD projects [yes, Kaiulani is on the CFS payroll, too] we recently finished just arrived in the mail! Feels good! It's a manifesto for a new food future! Thanks team!

Proving once again that one person's propaganda is another's "manifesto."

43 comments:

Anonymous said...

Don't you want free money? But you need to spend it my way... You see I don't want anyone to discover a better drug on the market that could compete with mine. Since I got this market all to my self, I will spend a percentage of my earnings to eliminate my competition. Free money, free money, free money.

Anonymous said...

So drugs, domestic violence, income inequality, climate change, affordable housing and other issues that apparently don't impact the good people who run KKCR should take a back seat to GMOs and pesticides (applied solely to seed company crops because why worry about golf courses, termite companies or all of the other users of these chemicals).

Anonymous said...

Sounds like KIUC's motto.

Anonymous said...

They don't want to talk about issues that may shame them, their families or neighbors families.

Just act like we fighting for a good cause and hide the REAL life issues that destroys Kauai's families.

Anonymous said...

Joan I want to create a "Hooser lie list"! I want to list and point to specific statements he made that were lies and then point out and link up the truth backed up by documentation. Maybe you your readers can help? But to maintain credibility I need the source of the big fists statements (newspaper quotes, his blog etc) too and don't want to rely on general statements. In the end, I am confident that we can come up with an irrefutable document listing all his lies. Then we can circulate and take the guy down properly! Are you in?

Anonymous said...

It's downright scary to observe your delusional thinking that introducing pesticides to the food chain is safe.

Joan Conrow said...

Mmm, what makes you think that's my thinking, 12:50? But hey, check this out. It might allay your more irrational fears.

12:47 -- I've got quite a bit of documentation already. Perhaps I'll do a blog post and then others can contribute.

Anonymous said...

Joan, Do you trust the big seed/chemical companies which have branches here in Hawaiʻi?

Robin Clark said...

@12:50 pm: You appear to know all about delusional thinking. Pesticides and herbicides have been used in virtually all agricultural activity for the past 100 years or so. There are rigorous analytical methods in place to ensure that the food you eat is safe (or at least as far as pesticides and herbicides are concerned- much of the processed food and fast food that you probably consume I would not consider as "safe". As a chemist who once worked on such analytical methodology I am rather familiar with these issues.

Anonymous said...

Woops, Joan did I say 12:47? meant 12:50

Robin

Anonymous said...

12:56 Monsanto is probably the least trusted and most reviled company in the world. And now Syngenta is being sued by corn farmers across the country. Why would any intelligent person trust companies like these?

Dawson said...

2:05PM wrote...
...Why would any intelligent person trust companies like these?

Why would any intelligent person think Joan Conrow trusts those companies, when she has made her position clear?

Anonymous said...

Dylan Baby Hoos will take Derick Kawakami's Representative job when Derick goes to be Mayor in 3 years. He may make a stab at Council. Just think, Big Fistee and Little Fistee giving it to Kauai in tandem. The obvious Fistee analogies of this hyperbolic duo, boggle the Christian moral sensibility.
Mel will be Derick's Administrative Assistant. There will also be some County shuffling as Mayor Bernard tries to stuff as many of his friends into hi-pay jobs so they can max their pensions.
There will be at least a couple of open seats. Felicia will be on Council. Bynum may come back.
There are no real candidates out there except Atta Brun. Mr Brun would be a good councilman, but what chance will he have in the Felicia/Big Fistee/JoAnn Club sandwich...now that'll be some real smoked meat.
Unless Like Evslin joins the battle. He is smaht, cares for the people and the blallahs like him.

Anonymous said...

KKCR says: "We provide a forum for overlooked, suppressed, or under-represented voices."

Sounds like only a portion, a minority, of the community to me. Typical liars who say they "speak for the people of Kauai". Nope, only some people. Fakes!

Anonymous said...

These ecoterrorist are complaining about tactics they actually use. I can't figure out how many of them are misguided vs. truly evil in their intent.

Anonymous said...

@4:05 pm- Why would any intelligent person assume all commenters have read everything Joan has written and thus know her opinion about everything? Making assumptions about people one does not know may put one upon very thin ice. 2:05 did not say that they think Joan trusts any companies. Such an assumption may only exist in the mind of Mr/Ms Dawson. I myself do not know Joanʻs position. Does that make me unintelligent if I agree with 2:05ʻs opinion??

Anonymous said...

Any chemist with no ties or funding by the food industry/chemical companies would disagree.

Anonymous said...

@12:50 pm...if you're worried about pesticide residue, don't. Please check this out: http://safefruitsandveggies.com/pesticide-calculator

Anonymous said...

"And now Syngenta is being sued by corn farmers across the country. Why would any intelligent person trust companies like these?"

Do you understand what the lawsuits are about? There's nothing harmful about the genetically enhanced corn in question - about 3% of US corn crops. China doesn't acknowledge intellectual property rights as it has its own biotech industry. It refused some corn sales from the US in an economics motivated move by claiming that it hadn't yet approved the 3% corn which hasn't been proved to be in the exported corn anyway. Because China was manipulating corn prices, farmers expect Syngenta to cover their losses. And they might win. But it's not because the corn has been shown to be harmful.

Manuahi said...

Thanks 8:26 PM - You've shown one of many distortions of the facts that the Anti's use to dupe the ignorant and unread. In case anyone wants to see the actual factors being sued over, go to the plaintiff's attorneys website and read what they're saying. It's vastly different from what the Anti's like the one above misuse to twist the truth into something different. Typical Hooser/Lukens dirty, lying tactics.

http://yourlegalhelp.com/unsafe-products/syngenta-gmo-corn-seed-lawsuit-agrisure-viptera-gmo-corn-seed?gclid=COP8l_3EuMgCFcOBfgodUm0ICw

Anonymous said...

GMO's are dangerous on many levels. Health, economic, environment and political. The ownership of life by corporations driven by profit motives, the unintended long term health consequences to sensitive populations, the ownership of seeds and consequently the food supply by a handful of corporations and the resulting increase use of herbicides and then the creation of super weeds. Direct here and now impact on human health is only one of the dangers.

Anonymous said...

Joan, you have unleashed the crazies. They are flooding the field. Trolling the comments. Going ad hominem. LOL. Keep up the good work. You must have hit home and scared these alarmist profiteers.
Always remember. The comfortable lifestyle of the antis is off the livelihood of farmers worldwide, the lives of the poor throughout Africa and Southeast Asia.

Anonymous said...

For all who claim gmoʻs are safe, here are 40 studies from around the world to consider: http://naturalsociety.com/over-40-rodent-feeding-studies-show-gm-food-is-disastrous-to-health/. Have fun debunking all of them!

Anonymous said...

Joan, I am interested in your answer to a previous commenter asking if you trust the biggest seed/chemical companies in the world. Someone else said everyone should know your answer, but unfortunately, I am not one of them.

Anonymous said...

I disagree with you 5:17 PM....the comfortable lifestyle of the antis is off the livelihood of all of the rest of us. Not just the hardworking farmers. Why are we allowing our leadership to put up with this?

Anonymous said...

The new "manifest destiny" . Save the poor with poison.

Anonymous said...

The same old "manifest destiny" -- let us affluent white folk tell you poor ignorants no, you can't have that because we don't think it's good for you.

Anonymous said...

at 8:55 AM

And yet you can post no peer reviewed studies that support your claims. The scare tactics are effective, but ultimately they fail. In time, you will be relegated to the dust bin that includes people who opposed the horseless carriage.

Anonymous said...

6:55 Anything from GMO Free USA is automatically suspect. Here is a list of scientific groups that agree on safety of GM foods.

http://www.axismundionline.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/GMAuthoritiesnew1.jpg

Anonymous said...

Lives claimed by GMO foods over the last year. Zero. Deaths by malnutrition in last year 350K. Lives saved by GMO foods in last twenty years. 1B.
Case over. The anti are scammers, profiteers, and idiots.
Source. The Economist. About as liberal a magazine as one can find outside of cult headquarters.

Anonymous said...

Better watch out Joan. I think Terry Lilley has called the cops on you.

Joan Conrow said...

@9:51 -- Yes, I saw his kooky Facebook post. Speaking of "grand delusions…."

Anonymous said...

So Lilly proclaims, "The facts are I have several degrees in biological sciences...."

But he won't list them or the schools from which he received them. I'd be proud of my scholarly achievements. He seems to want to tout his (mythological) degrees as long as they cannot be verified by anyone. That's because he's a story-teller; not a scientist. But his fantasies on causation are most entertaining.

Manuahi said...

Just because it's organic doesn't mean it's safe

Recall: Disgusting Organic Cheese Infested with Listeria

http://www.hawaiifreepress.com/ArticlesMain/tabid/56/ID/16103/Recall-Disgusting-Organic-Cheese-Infested-with-Listeria.aspx

Anonymous said...

Organic food is disgusting. Can you imagine growing food independently of foreign influence? Who would want complete food soveregnty? Only idiots who cannot understand why we all need gmoʻs and poisons to grow our food, even if they are created and controlled by foreign countries. I love eating food which has been grown with poisons because I know that food has no worms or strange insects or bacteria in it. And it looks much better also. Have you ever noticed the nice shiny apples produced with pesticides- they are so much more appealing than those dull splotchy organic apples with the holes in them. We would really be in a fix if we didnʻt have these poison companies to help feed us. We certainly are not capable of feeding ourselves.

Anonymous said...

Well, 10-10 7:31 PM who asked the probing question "Joan, I am interested in your answer to a previous commenter asking if you trust the biggest seed/chemical companies in the world" Perhaps if you get one of the deep pockets anti GMO spenders to comp you to a $9K seance at the HAPA Halfwit Hootnanny/Kuleana Krapout all will become apparent to even you. Wheedling twits are never attractive additions to serious discussions.

Anonymous said...

To 3:41 PM:

No one is stopping you from growing your own food. Please do.

And quit your childish sarcasm.

Anonymous said...

Income inequality is a much bigger threat to the people of Kauai than GMOs but I doubt the 2491 realtors want to address that issue.

Anonymous said...

Colorado’s monthly marijuana sales top $100 million
Yahoo News
Dylan Stableford 6 hours ago
Marijuana sales blazed past the $100 million mark for the first time in August, the Denver Post reported over the weekend.

According to sales data from Colorado’s Department of Revenue released Friday, sales of recreational pot topped $59.2 million for the month, while medical marijuana dispensaries pulled in $41.4 million, for a combined $100.6 million — the highest monthly total since legal recreational cannabis sales began there in January 2014.

“It means that $100 million is going to licensed, taxpaying businesses, creating jobs and helping to build new schools,” Dan Riffle, director of federal policies for the Marijuana Policy Project, told Yahoo News, “instead of going to cartels and drug dealers — as is the case in the 46 states that don’t regulate marijuana.”

It was also the seventh time in eight months that marijuana sales in Colorado have exceeded the previous month’s total. In May, combined recreational and medical sales ($74.31 million) fell marginally from April ($74.64 million).

In Washington state, retail pot sellers had been enjoying month-to-month jumps until July, when revenues from recreational marijuana were $31.1 million, or down about 6 percent from June, according to data from the state Liquor and Cannabis Board. Despite the dip, Washington’s recreational pot sales are on pace to surpass $300 million this year.

And in Oregon, where legal recreational sales began earlier this month, pot retailers pulled in an estimated $11 million — or more than double the $5 million worth of recreational marijuana sold in Colorado the first week it was legal to do so.

Combined, marijuana sales in Colorado, Washington and Oregon will easily surpass $1 billion in 2015 — and may hit $1 billion in Colorado alone.

Dawson said...


^ What 4:04PM said.

End the hypocritical insanity of the War on Marijuana, and Hawaii can have a cash crop unmatched anywhere in the world (and kick its out-of-control housing costs and legions of developers into the ocean).


Anonymous said...

Joan:

Your thoughts please:

http://stabmag.com/the-lost-coast-the-deep-lines-of-kauaian-localism/

Anonymous said...

Good source material on Tokioka scandal. People should read and decide for themselves. http://www.disappearednews.com/2015/10/report-reveals-details-of-ag.html?m=1

Joan Conrow said...

Thanks for that good laugh, 7:26. I shall enjoy skewering it.