It’s the last Sunday in July and time to “flASHback” on the month’s news that amused and confused:
>> Gov. David Ige deflected accusations of waffling in his delay of reopening Hawaii tourism, defending his decision-making as deliberative. He puts his right foot in, he takes his right foot out, he puts his right foot in and shakes it all about …
>> Ige said he has ideas for closing the state’s $2.3 billion budget deficit caused by the new coronavirus. The most promising is a GoFundMe page for Hawaii.
>> State Sen. Donovan Dela Cruz questioned the governor’s priorities in leaving counties to enforce COVID-19 safety. Lectures on priorities mean a lot from legislators who gave public workers $150 million in pay raises in a budget collapse.
>> A Trump administration attempt to overturn Hawaii’s visitor quarantine was dismissed by Honolulu U.S. District Judge Jill Otake, who was appointed by Donald Trump. He’ll appeal by sending secret police in battle gear.
>> After preaching social distancing, Mayor Kirk Caldwell sponsored “Open Street Kalakaua” events in which hundreds of people — many without masks — crowded Waikiki. He hopes to defeat COVID by super-spreading hypocrisy.
>> Veteran pols Mufi Hannemann, Colleen Hanabusa and Kym Pine attacked newcomer candidates Keith
Amemiya and Rich Blangiardi in a mayoral debate, arguing unproven leaders will fail in a crisis. You know we’re in trouble when our choices are proven failure or unproven failure.
>> Political insiders are unsure how Hawaii’s first all-mail balloting will affect Aug. 8 primary election turnout. They’re worried our majority of nonvoters will get confused and accidentally vote.
>> State legislators are widely contributing to the campaigns of fellow lawmakers. Our elected officials are so rich from being bought by special interests that they can now afford to buy their own politicians.
>> A Department of Education survey found 70% of children learned “much less” or “somewhat less” during the schools shutdown. The real story is the 30% who learned more.
>> Hawaii bankruptcies surged 22% in the pandemic, with half of households suffering a significant drop in income and unable to pay bills. I’m sure they’re happy to suffer a little more so public workers can have pay raises.
>> Young Brothers wants a 30% rate increase for interisland cargo, blaming the pandemic. With more income, it can afford diving gear to retrieve your containers from the bottom of Hilo Bay.
And the quote of the month … from Caldwell on his midnight bar curfew: “We believe that people, as they hang around a bar for a long period of time and drink alcohol, they get more lax in their actions, and therefore we have examples that we don’t want to see.” I’ll bow to the expertise of the guy who wanted to open a bar at Ala Moana Park so he could enjoy cocktails with his sunsets.
Reach David Shapiro at volcanicash@gmail.com.
