Monday, June 13, 2016

Musings: Shock, Shlock and Outrage

I never check news on Sunday, so when I glanced at Facebook yesterday afternoon, and saw first one post — “We have to teach our children to love, rather than hate” — and then a second — “I hardly slept, the TV was on all night” — I knew without knowing: another mass shooting.

They're becoming almost common place, even as they break new records. Each time, we express shock, outrage, say enough is enough, call for changes. And then life resumes, business as usual. Lock and load.

I don't know what Trump means, “Make America great again.” Shoots, we already excel at gun violence.

My nephew, a naturalized New Zealand citizen, characterized the race between Trump and Hillary thusly: 

Ho hum... Now in November the US can choose between the knife and the gun...

He has a point, though I'd be more likely to characterize Trump as a loose cannon.

And while I am glad that we don't have two men running for President, it is kinda hard to get excited about anyone seeking the nation's highest office, when you consider the job requirements:
Yet the election grinds on, lurching between shlock and outrage.

Gosh, you think there's a pattern here?

Meanwhile, Sunday's SHAKA shindig snared, as predicted, a meager turnout of aina warriors and wannabees in Honolulu yesterday. Can't imagine they burned through either 500 pounds of cooked kalo or 500 red tee shirts, unless they shared with the homeless .Which would be a good thing.
But Kauai Councilman Gary Hooser doesn't mind if the flock is few, so long as he gets to bleat:
Oh, and in response to the dreamer who hopefully opined that the Joint Fact Finding report on Kauai ag pesticides would finally, at long last, limit the litany of lies — sadly, that ain't happening. 

Why, just the other day Gary's HAPA group posted a video, in anticipation of Wednesday's hearing on the appeal of the three Hawaii GMO/pesticide bills. It's an older video, filled with discredited claims about the biotech seed industry: birth defect rate 10x the national average; 18 tons of pesticides used annual; pesticide experimentation; one of the most toxic landscapes in American agriculture; school kids collapsing, etc., ad nauseum.

Yet Hooser and HAPA still share it with no corrections or caveats, as if it were legit.

But then, facts just get in the way of an emotion-based campaign that elicits responses such as this, from someone, somewhere, in the U.S. of A:

Charles Reading
Why oh why would Hawaii need GMOs or Pesticides? Ever.... Stay strong Hawaii...‬

Yes, why oh why would a tropical landscape loaded with invasive weeds and insect pests ever need GMOs or pesticides? Hana hoe! (And please, before you fire off a correction, it's an intentional play on words.)

Still, Gary's not the only one out there fibbing:
How is that Ashley, director of the Center for Food Safety, feels even remotely qualified to be telling “Hawaii's Story?” 

Even to someone like Teri Tico, whose falsehoods I've documented twice on this blog, and that was only on one topic — pro bono representation of the county in its appeal of Bill 2491 — without even trying.

Teri would actually be a lot more qualified to do a film, say, documenting the explosion of oceanfront vacation rentals in North Shore Kauai, seeing as how her four-lot subdivision at Naue spawned three TVRs and her own luxe house.

But then, that hits just a wee bit close to home. Much better to point a finger at the westside, way over yonder. Divert attention from what's going down on in your own hood.

Returning to shlock and outrage:
Oh. My. God. Imagine. Chemical companies and Hawaii “aina warrior” nonprofits sharing the same astro-turfing strategy!

What's the world coming to?

Whatever it may be, these two SHAKA founders — now scammin' to give comrade committees control of private ag land through taxpayer-funded condemnation proceedings — hope to have the last laugh:
Joe Marshalla, left, and Bruce Douglas

17 comments:

Anonymous said...

I just dont understand peoples ignorance....Here you have these flew heres on Maui and everywhere in the state but Maui right now trying to get hold of Our land thru condemnation....and people born here whos family probably had to leave because prices are so high now...thanking them for taking care of our land.....OMG!!!!

Anonymous said...

This is an excerpt from the commencement address given last week to the graduating class of California Institute of Technology by Atul Gawande, MD:
“ Science’s defenders have identified five hallmark moves of pseudoscientists. They argue that the scientific consensus emerges from a conspiracy to suppress dissenting views. They produce fake experts, who have views contrary to established knowledge but do not actually have a credible scientific track record. They cherry-pick the data and papers that challenge the dominant view as a means of discrediting an entire field. They deploy false analogies and other logical fallacies. And they set impossible expectations of research: when scientists produce one level of certainty, the pseudoscientists insist they achieve another.”

The full transcript is here at the New Yorker’s online site: http://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/the-mistrust-of-science and it is worth reading if only to put context to our discord on Kauai.
Sound familiar? It’s a veritable check off list for the behavior of people like Hooser, Lukens and their fellow travelers and the people who supply them with their version of science. However, it should be suspect since it’s, after all, the commencement address at one of the world’s preeminent institutions of scientific instruction and irrelevant to their cant.

Anonymous said...

Sounds like the anti's are gaining ground.

Anonymous said...

barca posted that all planes should have been banned after 9/11.... and yet he is soliciting $$ to pay for his airfare for the march that happened this past Sunday...and for what, to support those two guys in your photo? yikes

Anonymous said...

The Anti's aren't always wrong.


Bayer Admits It Paid "Millions" in HIV Infection Cases -- Just Not in English

JIM EDWARDS MONEYWATCH
Last Updated Jan 28, 2011 5:47 PM EST

Anonymous said...

Wow so millions of people around the world who just want to know and have a choice are wrong for questioning and thinking for them selves even if they don't work in a prestigious lab renown by the whoever or a Ph.D. and just like other countries who blackball American stories and products for and from there own people, this blog sounds more like its nit picking what it wants just to make discrediting makes to talk down on something by pointing the finger in the other direction too. Its about awakening a change to make our world sustainable for our children's children and on we cant keep this distinctive path and we want to know what we eat just label it and grow your own and share. Unfortunately these are only a few of the worlds problems and they just happen to be the ones in our country theres bigger ones but we have to start somewhere and as for Hooser, Barca, and Teri I commend them for standing up and being the voice for those who need one!!!

Anonymous said...

Wow. So many words, so little reasoning. A veritable diarrhetic stream of buzzword turdlets, June 13, 2016 at 10:46 PM. Do you let your fingers do the thinking and typing? I get you commend Hooser, Barca and Teri, but I'm afraid the rest is gibberish. You don't like people with advanced education from good schools; you prefer countries like Nigeria that ban GMO's, you feel only your ilk have a lock on a "sustainable" world (whatever that is in your fevered imagination);only you are on a "distinctive" path (huh?);and you can't figure out how to avoid GMO food by purchasing only food labeled organic. Move somewhere in the wide world that meets you standards- Nigeria or Uzbekistan, perhaps. Vote with your feet. You need not let the accident of your birth in this country keep you fettered any longer. Soon- the sky is falling as you type!

Anonymous said...

yah, easy to stand up in someother neighborhood while ignoring the pesticide use and abuse in places like Princeville and the Hyatt and the poison used in both the building and real estate industry. If they really cared, they would address all pesticide use, not just that used by one industry.

Anonymous said...

I remember the quote credited to Abraham Lincoln, "Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt." The antis have no problem speaking out, but they have put their foot in their mouths so often that they are developing a severe case of athlete's tongue. When it comes to statements about the effects of GMO and pesticides, please leave it to the experts. All the quacks that support the antis movement have no concrete evidence and merely revert to deflection and innuendos as their retort when presented with science that disproves their position. They want seed companies out of Hawaii and to them the end justifies the means no matter how many lies they have to tell. Sadly, a lot of good, unsuspecting people got caught up in their guerilla warfare tactics. Logic and reason have left the discussion and this in now about maintaining the course right or wrong. I have no doubt it will be proven wrong, but seeing how the antis don't respect science they simply won't accept that they could be wrong.

Anonymous said...

Trump is dangerous as a candidate. He's incited violence and made overt racism acceptable to his supporters.

Anonymous said...


6:09-7:30, buetifull bullseyes!

7:03 you ask a very uncomfortable question that is also nice to remind people of. But that would imply that logic and care for the children applied to everyone? Yea I get your point and it's a good one. Kinda like I don't really like using Raid the roach killer .. But I dislike roaches more. Skeeter juice? Don't even think of trying to anti that, I find skeeters much more dangerous than bug juice. And on and on---
----Gunie grass? Very simple answer , bring on the Round-Up! My feeling is king Gary Hoose and his followers have never took out a fence line of Guinie Grass with hand tools like so many of us do when we cannot afford Round-Up.(very expensive to the point where you don't over apply )

Hey Gary, you should do a shirts off photo op with you bustin ground the old fashion way? Now if you did that pal I would have to give you a three day pass! Common Big G you can huff one out for the cameras!!!

Anonymous said...

@6:09- Many more countries have gmo bans besides Nigeria. Donʻt forget about France, Germany, Russia and many other countries. Many gmo bans of all kinds around the world and more coming. Russia has pledged to go organic and wants nothing to do with growing or importing gmos. Research will easily reveal what kind of bans each country has. USA is losing billions of dollars in exports because of gmo bans around the world.

Joan Conrow said...

9:23 You appear ignorant of the fact that France, Germany and other European nations import large quantities of GM livestock feed. These bans are due entirely to deceptive, fear-mongering political campaigns, not safety.

Anonymous said...

9:26- Why do you call out someone as appearing ignorant for supplying factual information? Perhaps you are the ignorant one for making assumptions and failing to ask 9:23 what they actually know? There is a wealth of info available about what kind of gmo bans are currently in place in countries all over the world. Seems like Russia is taking the lead. Intelligent people do their own research and make their own decisions independent of opinions bloggers like yourself may hold. And of course, gmo companies are never guilty of fear mongering and deception, are they? Are you so naive to think only political campaigns rely upon fear mongering and deception?

Joan Conrow said...

I called them out as ignorant because it wasn't factual information.

Anonymous said...

Joan- Are you saying that France, Germany and Russia do not have any bans on gmos? Are you saying that other countries do not have gmo bans? I just checked the internet and you seem to be mistaken. Many European countries have gmo bans- do your research. I canʻt believe you would dispute this information as not factual. Where are your "facts" that prove there are no gmo bans in Germany, France, Russia and other countries around the world?? Who is ignorant here? Just google "worldwide gmo bans". The results obtained confirm what 9:23 says.

Joan Conrow said...

I'm saying exactly what I said. The "bans" are not always absolute and they were imposed not because of safety concerns but because of fear-mongering disinformation campaigns. Oh, and,ease don't pretend you aren't 9:23.