Musings: High Drama

Kauai prison warden Neal Wagatsuma admitted yesterday in federal court to screening violent rape movies at the jail and calling women prisoners demeaning names like “whore.”

But according to Hawaii News Now's coverage of the whistleblower trial, Wagatsuma claimed the films had “therapeutic value” and his derogatory comments toward females inmates were taken out of context:

"When somebody does something wrong ... it's about chastising them. It's a good thing," he said.

Really, Neal? You're not a therapist. You admitted you don't even have any mental health training. Who the hell are you to be developing some homespun therapy that satisfies your own perversions and pornography addiction?

Former prison social worker Carolyn Ritchie filed the suit, claiming she was forced out of her job after she reported Wagatsuma's bizarre behavior. As Hawaii News Now reports:

Ritchie said it was wrong to show images of rape to women prisoners, who had often suffered from sexual abuse themselves.

No shit. That alone should get Neal fired, and as I've previously reported, there was way more going on than just that. What will it take to get him out of that job?

In other law enforcement news, the Hawaii Supreme Court declined to hear Kauai Mayor Bernard Carvalho's appeal of a ruling that determined he has no authority to suspend or otherwise discipline the police chief. Instead, the county charter gives that authority to the police commission.

And so ends four years of bad judgment and impulsive behavior on the part of the mayor, which resulted in a serious stain on the record of Police Chief Darryl Perry. Not to mention all the legal fees, along with the cascading domino effect among KPD personnel that tarnished several careers and most recently manifested in Assistant Chief Mark Begley's discrimination and retaliation suit against KPD and the county.

Meanwhile, Chief Perry is in South Carolina, being interviewed in the department's final phase of accreditation. It's been a long, nine-year process to improve standards at KPD, made all the more challenging by the mayoral drama.

Speaking of manufactured drama, Teri Tico and Keely Brosnan (wife of Pierce) have teamed up to produce more total bullshit on the GMO issue, a film called “Poisoning Paradise and the Revolution to Save Hawaii.” 

It manages to trot out every lie about the seed industry, thanks to the use of bogus "news reports" written by paid operatives and interviews with serial liars like Jimmy Trujillo, John Aana, Malia Chun, Fern Rosenstiel, Andrew Kimbrell and Alika Atay. 

They even have Gary Hooser and Dustin Barca making like it was a “grassroots movement.”

Well, except for all the money, bad legal advice and paid agitators supplied by Center for Food Safety, Pesticide Action Network, Earthjustice and other mainland groups.

I especially liked the part where Andrea Brower tried to whitewash the mob theatrics and utter failure of the movement:

When you're motivated by love... you're an unstoppable force.

Uh, until you get to court and your stupid bill is found to be illegal, along with all the other anti-GMO legislation in the state. 

And then the paid activists went home, and the voters rejected the instigators — candidates Fern, Dustin and Baby Hoos went down in flames, with Daddy Hooser circling the drain — and the supposed “revolution” was revealed as a total sham.

I especially loved seeing how the film now has the antis fighting with one another:

Katie is the one with the delusion. We all know the overwhelming majority of antis —including Teri and Keely — live on the Northshore, miles away from the fields. Perhaps that's why Teri and Keely abandoned their plans to screen their pulp fiction at the Waimea theatre, where it was sure to get blowback from those who know. 

Oh, yes, Hoku remembers how pilau Pierce showed his true colors, and his disdain for Hawaiians, when he stole Aunty Cathy Ham-Young's taro patch water. Just like the rest of us recall how Pierce got a TVR permit to increase the resale value of his oceanfront house, and then landscaped the public beach using chicken shit.

As for Teri, she started the beachfront development at Wainiha II, subdividing three lots by Camp Naue that now contain her house, with its illegal ground floor rental in the flood zone and for sale sign, and four TVRs. Plus she never took a stand on the Brescia burials or fought to protect the public shoreline there.

You know. A true “aloha aina warrior."

Of course, it's not surprising that Teri, who turned fabrication and victimization into a lucrative career as a personal injury attorney, is continuing on the same track in retirement.

Still, I'm not sure what's worse: Presenting a totally false impression of Kauai — "one of the most toxic agricultural environments in all of American agriculture" omg, wtf? — or pretending that a rag tag bunch of narcissists and borderline personalities were waging a revolution.

Meanwhile, another group of extremists is threatening more havoc: the feral cat people. In a new Outside article with the sensational title "Hawaii's Crazy War over Zombie Cats," Kauai Community Cat Project director Basil Scott is quoted as rejecting the feral cat ordinance process and saying:

“Believe me, there’s a bunch of junkyard dogs out there ready to pounce. We will bare our fangs and make life very difficult for them. My side is famous for that.”

Oh, joy. Another group of well-funded, fanatical loudmouths on the wrong side of science.

Once again, there's big money behind no compromise:

The crusade is led by several well-funded nonprofits like Alley Cat Allies and Best Friends Animal Society, the latter receiving $80 million in contributions in 2015, including donations from industry giants PetSmart and Petco. PetSmart Charities has given tens of millions to animal-welfare groups, and it has supported workshops on how to lobby local governments to adopt TNR.

And once again, it's using the same strategy as the anti-GMO crowd:

The problem with Scott’s arguments—aside from the pet-abandonment issue, which everyone agrees needs addressing—is that the majority of the evidence doesn’t support them. “Basil’s an engineer, so he knows all the lingo,” says Bill Lucey, who heads up the Kauai Invasive Species Committee and also sits on the ordinance-writing committee with Scott. 

“But basically he takes a lie and he repeats it over and over. ‘TNR works, TNR works, TNR works,’ like if he says it enough it will come true.”

Sound familiar?