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Monthly Archives: August 2022
Don’t judge a book by its cover
I love this. Once in a while, I think of this beautiful moment of sheer joy.
Remember this huge surprise? Enjoy this beautiful vocal talent of Susan Boyle – giving the world a pleasant surprise. Dreams do come true.
She also put the caustic Simon in his place.
We can all help protect the children
Through the ages, children have been exploited in one form or another. We collectively need to do what we can to speak up or report. We adults can find opportunities to protect the children in our sphere of influence. It could be something as simple as saying a kind word or help in our communities through volunteering, labor laws, healthcare, trafficking, drugs, domestic violence and so on.
This is one of the historical photos that is so compelling.
Oyster shuckers from South Carolina in 1912. Josie (6 years old), Bertha (6 years old) and Sophie (10 years old) would start work at 4am at the Maggioni Canning Co. PC: Lewis Wickes Hine
Elections 2022: “There’s a special place in hell for women who don’t help each other!”
As hilarious as it sounded, it was a memorable line.
Remember when the late former secretary of state Madeleine Albright introduced trailing Hillary Clinton against Bernie Sanders at a rally in New Hampshire on Saturday in 2016?
Hillary Clinton ended up losing to Senator Bernie Sanders in New Hampshire. But Clinton would cinch the Democratic Party’s Nomination only to lose to Donald Trump.
Enter Vicky Cayetano a woman candidate for the 2022 Gubernatorial Primary in Hawaii. She faced relentless discrimination, unlike her male opponents.
By all indications, the 66-year-old Vicky Cayetano has led a remarkable, principled, and compassionate life with much to show for and contribute to Hawaii. An immigrant from The Philippines to Los Angeles to Honolulu, she and her family worked hard and succeeded.
Vicky was an single mother of two who started a successful laundry service business that eventually employed about 1,000 workers. She would meet Governor Ben Cayetano, married him on May 5, 1997 and become the First Lady of Hawaii.
At the age of 66, she felt the need to leave a legacy to help Hawaii get out of its doldrums. She self-financed her gubernatorial campaign with about $3 Million.
Just the ability to “walk the talk” by spending her own money should had caused voters to pause. To think that this was one candidate who was not beholden to massive corporate funding like her opponent Lt. Governor Josh Green was.
It didn’t matter that Vicky Cayetano was a serious and no-nonsense executive who had successfully ran a successful business for 32 years. Start-up entrepreneurs like Vicky Cayetano have innate and unique traits – imagination, can-do mindset, independent, and quick study. These traits are needed to prosper Hawaii.
Vicky Cayetano was not a career politician who had carefully mapped out her political ladder. Otherwise, we would seen a methodical and cultivated of social media presence or like posting photos of serving food to the homeless or the like.
However, she had a good record of genuine interest and compassion in helping Hawaii through her own unique ways like serving on business boards, forming a scholarship for college students or helping the Hawaii Humane Society with rescue animals or helping to save the 64-member Honolulu Symphony and so on.
Instead of looking into the great possibilities and capabilities of this authentic candidate, the opposition focus was on very superficial but persistent fallacies like:
“ Ben Cayetano is going to control her “. This was a insult to public intelligence and to an independent, intelligent and capable woman. It implies that a successful woman like Vicky Cayetano cannot be her own person with her own mind.
Ben Cayetano served as the fifth governor of the State of Hawaii from 1994 to 2002. That was a long time ago. Ben Cayetano had an independent and maverick record that include shaking the established BIG 5 and also the Bishop Estate Trust.
How unfortunate. The State of Hawaii missed a good opportunity to create a paradigm shift for the better. Vicky Cayetano has the credentials, skills, experience, mindset and compassion to lift Hawaii. But she was a woman whom a focused social media campaign painted as someone who would be a puppet of her husband or not qualified or capable of being a Governor.
The only woman Governor Hawaii had was Linda Lingle, a Republican.
What would the late Madeleine Albright say about this lost opportunity for Hawaii – this candidate who happened to be a woman?
Guerrilla Planting
It may not be a bad idea if you remember and prepare. Bring some seeds with you and just throw them in the areas that you hike or visit. Be a Johnny Appleseed.
A raw truth from a reliable source
This is a raw truth to think about.
“Garry Kimovich Kasparov is a Russian chess grandmaster, former World Chess Champion, writer, political activist and commentator.
Kasparov became the youngest ever undisputed World Chess Champion in 1985 at age 22 by defeating then-champion Anatoly Karpov.
In 1997 he became the first world champion to lose a match to a computer under standard time controls when he lost to the IBM supercomputer Deep Blue in a highly publicized match.
Since retiring, he devoted his time to politics and writing.
He formed the United Civil Front movement and joined as a member of The Other Russia, a coalition opposing the administration and policies of Vladimir Putin.
In 2008, he announced an intention to run as a candidate in that year’s Russian presidential race, but after encountering logistical problems in his campaign, for which he blamed “official obstruction”, he withdrew.
In the wake of the Russian mass protests that began in 2011, he announced in 2013 that he had left Russia for the immediate future out of fear of persecution.
Following his flight from Russia, he had lived in New York City with his family. Kasparov is currently chairman of the Human Rights Foundation and chairs its International Council. In 2017, he founded the Renew Democracy Initiative (RDI), an American political organization promoting and defending liberal democracy in the U.S. and abroad.”
Elections 2022: Are Corporate Media nasty copycats?
It appears Civil Beat’s Nick Grube first broke the story of Congressman Kai Kahele’s “proxy” votes on April 11, 2022. Unfortunately, this “proxy” report spun out of control without much verification and undermined Kahele’s campaign.
Grube wrote that: “Kahele’s absence has not gone unnoticed, according to two Washington-based lobbyists who spoke to Civil Beat on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to do so by their firms.“
” . . . on the condition of anonymity” caught my attention. My first instinct was to google-search Congressman Kahele’s voting record. Voting by “proxy” is still a vote. Remember we’re undergoing a COVID19 pandemic.
Public information shows Congressman Kahele has a good record. Why was this critical public information not part of Grube’s reporting?
From Jan 2021 to Aug 2022, Kahele missed 6 of 869 roll call votes, which is 0.7%. This is better than the median of 2.1% among the lifetime records of representatives currently serving.
Unfortunately, the Civil Beat’s negative reporting of Kahele’s “proxy” lit like a wildfire. Other corporate media jumped on the bandwagon and added their own headlines. Social media comments and trolls continued the negative connotations against Kahele.
One has to ask if this was an intended negative politicking, the first salvo to undermine Kahele.
Does Civil Beat not like Congressman Kahele as it obviously does not like former Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard?
Or did this article about Kahele’s “proxy” vote (with the assumption of no intended malice) simply spun out of control?
Should the public should be alarmed with this type of reporting?
Should readers be less dependent on corporate media for facts and information?
Are corporate media copycats of each other without verifying first?
Unfortunately, this was one negative salvo that Congressman Kahele could not contain.
Social media perpetuated the “proxy” vote as if Kahele had gone AWOL. Congressman Kahele is our District Representative. We were impressed and pleased with his “boots in the ground” style for Hawaii residents. He’s been present at Honolulu city council and other community meetings. This may be unconventional but he certainly could not be described as having a “chronic allergy to Capitol Hill“. Proxy votes are allowed.
Additionally, the reporting of Congressman Kahele’s job with Hawaiian Airlines was negatively skewed as well. in 2021, Kahele has had a total of 14.2 flying hours and made less than $2,861.90.
This reduction of Kahele’s salary is not as alarming as the increased income of Hawaii’s Lt. Governor Dr. Josh Green, another gubernatorial candidate.
The Office of the Lt. Governor is a full-time position paying $165,552.00 a year. Dr. Green has continued to practice his medical career for the past 18 years. His recently formed Green Health International LLC reportedly saw an increase of about $1M. This gubernatorial candidate has thus far stone-walled calls for answers to these sources of income to his LLC.
Election 2022: Hawaii’s Democratic Party has no Mandate from the public
August 13 Primary Elections is over. The General election to finally choose the candidates is Tuesday, November 8, 2022. Voters receive their ballots in the mail for the General Election by October 21, 2022
Considering it’s a mail-in elections, the Primary results are disappointing. Over half a million registered voters (515,397 60.4%) did not vote in the Primary.
To put the Primary Results in context, there is no mandate from the public at large for the Democratic Party:
Elections 2022 PRIMARY FINAL TALLY
853,874 Registered
338,477 (39.6%) voted
515,397 (60.4%) did not vote
EXAMPLE: The Gubernatorial Race Results
157,476 votes for Dr. Josh Green divided by registered voters (854,874) is ONLY about 18.44% of Hawaii’s registered voters.
This percentage can hardly be claimed as a mandate for the Democratic Party in Hawaii.
Providing a multi-party choice is good and a must for democracy. For the public interest and public good, our political culture ought to be one of encouraging ALL candidates with diversity of thoughts and ideas to participate.
I would encourage Republicans to reassess and work hard to offer a viable choice for the people of Hawaii.
In the next 2024 elections, hopefully Aloha Aina, Green Party, Independent, and others will regroup and try again!
Another interesting point to consider is this: It was reported early in the August 13, 2022 Primary Night that about 730.000 ballots were mailed out.
But the final tally for the August 13, 2022 was 854,874 registrations count.
That was an increase of about 124,874 registration. It appears to be a very accelerated amount in a very short time.
Elections 2022: PASSIVE-AGGRESSIVE trolling to confuse and control public conversations
Here is an example of PASSIVE-AGGRESSIVE and insidious trolling against political opponents. This is the context article of what I perceive to have electioneering trolling in its Comments Section. I’m willing to be corrected if I’m wrong. But I’ve seen many trolls coming out of the woodwork against Vicky Cayetano and Kai Kahele during the Primary Gubernatorial Race.
This article above was written on August 12, 2022. Primary Elections was August 13, 2022. Enter this commenter about Kai Kahele in this article continuing the “proxy” smear:
I was curious and checked. It turned out that watchfuleye was born on August 12, 2022, the same day of this article:
I took the time to respond to watchfuleye for clarifications and posted the following comments on the Civil Beat article. But my comments below were apparently censored and did not appear in the comments section:
” From Jan 2021 to Aug 2022, Kahele missed 6 of 869 roll call votes, which is 0.7%. This is better than the median of 2.1% among the lifetime records of representatives currently serving.”
Congressman Kahele has a good record. It was lobbyists who complained about Kahele being inaccessible to them in DC!
Watchfuleye just joined this forum on August 12 to post his pilau comments. This passive-aggressive political stagecraft insults the public intelligence.
No politician has to be a cookie-cutter, especially during these past COVID years. Kai Kahele has been our District Congressman. We have been impressed with his “boots in the ground” style. Kahele has been to city council and community meetings working on issues these past two years.“
I vigourously encourage you to look out for possible trolling. Ask them if they’re trolling politely. Let’s question them. If we’re wrong, we’ll apologize.
Democracy is best served through honest and intelligent dialogue in the open public square. Trolling and hiding behind fake names to attack opponents with falsehoods or smearing is despicable and unethical.
Elections 2022: COVID19 funds commingled with campaign donations questioned
Dr. Richard Creagan, a retired and board certified emergency medicine physician and farmer speaks about Lt. Governor/Dr. Josh Green’s questionable record
Aloha,
My name is Richard Creagan, M.D. I served as a state representative in District 5 on the Big Island from 2014-2020. District 5 is part of Senate District 3 which was Josh Green’s Senate seat so I know Josh very well.
I have been made aware of the allegations below which are being actively investigated by the campaign spending commission. As a retired and board certified emergency medicine physician, myself, I have gotten to know Josh Green very well and was shocked by his claim to be an “emergency room physician” despite his inadequate training and numerous complaints against him.
I was also a state representative for seven years from Josh’s Senate district and saw his dishonesty and unethical behavior play out in the legislative arena.
In my view he would bring great shame to Hawaii if elected governor. He is however very good at fooling people and I have been saddened to see the press not realizing Josh’s many flaws.
This may be an opportunity to stop a disaster for our state.
I became aware of the allegations below and volunteered to help the press let the people of Hawaii know the truth about the “teflon” candidate.
I am writing as a concerned voter regarding the Campaign Spending Commission’s investigation of a COVID testing company.
As HNN published on August 8, the state Campaign Spending Commission is investigating one of the companies that was awarded a multi-million dollar COVID testing contract by former Honolulu Mayor Kirk Caldwell’s administration.
However, I believe there is another COVID testing company that should also be investigated: Nomi Health Inc. I would also like to reference this article by Politico, which states, “Various state officials across the country criticized Nomi Health throughout 2020 as it quickly started snagging state pandemic contracts worth tens of millions of dollars.”
Nomi Health and another company it owns called Artemis Health have donated to a major candidate in Hawaii: Lieutenant Governor Josh Green.
Below, I have provided donations from the company and its executives to the LG’s (Dr. Josh Green) campaign committee.
Meet and Greet Donations:
$2,917.64 Artemis Health, 6/17/22 (Meet and Greet Event)
$2,674.32 Artemis Health 6/17/22 (Professional Services Meet and Greet)
$2,083.99 Blake Waggoner, 6/17/22, Nomi Health Managing Director, (Meet and Greet)
Direct Donations
$5,000, Nomi Health Inc, 2/11/22
$1,000, Mark Newman, Nomi Health CEO, 2/11/22
$5,000, Mark Newman, Nomi Health CEO, 6/21/22
$5,000, Amber Newman, (wife of Mark Newman) 6/21/22
$2,500, Jonathan Lee, Nomi Health Government Affairs, 6/30/22
Total: $26,175.95
Given the national media attention and criticism of Nomi Health, I believe it is critical that there is some investigation of their contract with the State of Hawaii. And perhaps more importantly, given that Nomi Health and its acquired company Artemis Health have donated a substantial amount of money to the LG’s bid for Governor, I believe our voters need to have more information on this matter before the election.
There may be several campaign violations that the CSC should investigate. Per HRS §11-355, it is unlawful for campaign committees to receive contributions from state and county contractors.
If Nomi Health had an active contract with the state or county at the time of its donation to Josh Green, this donation was illegal.
Nomi Health is still operating across the state today. Nomi Health acquired Artemis Health.
Therefore, it is possible that their aggregate contributions to Josh Green exceed $6,000.00, the max donation allowed for 4-year statewide office.
The money donated on June 17 for a meet and greet ($8395.95), coupled with the nearly $50,000 in high-dollar mainland contributions to Josh Green on June 21, may be indicative of a fundraiser.
If so, fundraisers on June 17 and June 21 were not filed with the campaign spending commission.
Like the current investigation with Mayor Caldwell, the CSC may wish to examine if the donations provided by Nomi Health executives Blake Waggoner and Jonathan Lee were reimbursed by Nomi Health which would be a violation of Hawaii campaign finance laws.
I understand that the election is tomorrow. However, these are serious concerns voters need to know about immediately. It is gravely concerning if Josh Green accepted campaign donations from a company with an active state or county emergency COVID-19 contract, especially considering the LG’s role throughout the pandemic.
Please confirm receipt of this email, and please let me know if you will be inquiring with the Campaign Spending Commission.
Yours truly, Richard Creagan, M.D (808) 430-5715 rcreagan2021@gmail.com