Letters to the Editor

Mahalo nui for your cogent and insightful articles; hopefully, your thoughts will land on someone's fertile ground and take root.

Like you, I bemoan our increasingly steep slide into societal suicide, which now begins in elementary school indoctrination and cripples further independent critical thinking.

[{"type":"text","text":"Kaleo Elia, Lāʻie "}]

Tree on fertile soil in Hana Maui

<title>Letter to the Editor: Reader thanks ASD opinion columnist Sterling Higa for ʻike</title>

A reader from Lāʻie writes in to Aloha State Daily to thank Higa, who has opined on the stateʻs "increasingly steep slide into societal suicide."

Letter to the Editor: Reader thanks ASD opinion columnist Sterling Higa for ʻike

Aloha, Mr. Higa! Mahalo nui for your cogent and insightful articles; hopefully, your thoughts will land on someone&#039;s fertile ground and take root. Like you, I bemoan our increasingly steep slide into societal suicide, which now begins in elementary school indoctrination and cripples further independent critical thinking. Malama pono, Kaleo Elia, Lāʻie 

IMG 1445

Rick Hamada

Government & Politics

Columnists

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"On the arrests"}]

The second in command of the 50th state in our nation has been indicted by a grand jury for bribery, fraud, messy campaign spending stuff along with four others of questionable character. 

This headline made national news for one day and now it's gone. But here at home? This is only the beginning. I know that underhanded double dealing takes place throughout our government. Always has, always will. Why? Because humans are fallible. Imperfect. 

There are two elements that either promote or prevent corruption. The first is basic economics — ROI (Return on Investment). If I am going to offer a bribe, I have to ask myself, "What's the return on my investment?" 

In other words, if I bribe this or these officials, what's the multiplier effect back into my pocket? Let's look at what's before us. Covid-19 had so many layers of suspect policies, actions and spending. The spending! There were millions upon millions of federal dollars dropped into the lap of our state and counties. Combine cash windfall with fallible humans and it the perfect recipe for those bereft of any moral fiber to manipulate the situation for their personal gain, and I mean money. Lots and lots of money. Millions. 

But reports indicate that the bribers only gave the bribees collectively thousands of dollars. Now, that's max ROI. 

The other element is Risk and Reward. Is it worth the risk of getting caught when the profits justify the consequence? Corruption is so pervasive that until now there has not been such high-level prosecution nor legal actions, meaning it's sure worth the risk because you're never gonna get caught. Whoops. 

Conversely, the bribees allegedly accepted the bribers' money and did their thing. But their ROI was paltry and the risk was greater because the reward was a joke. You mean you can get bought off for a miniscule amount of cash? We're talking reportedly $5,000 maybe $10,000 in "campaign donations." And you cheapened and sold your political and administrative souls for chump change? More than that. You sold your constituents and citizens of this state down the gutter for nothing. You all knew it was wrong and importantly illegal. But still. Now, I know I did not use the word "allegedly" enough. Yes, there were indictments and that's pretty bad. But each of these five must be presumed innocent until proven so or guilty at trial. 

As my momma would say, "If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, well..."

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Flow of Waters stopped"}]

City Council Chair Tommy Waters got dealt with a blow in his pursuit of a third term as a city council member when a state judge ruled that he was ineligible to seek re-election. His political opponent and council candidate Trevor Ozawa filed the lawsuit that led to this ruling. Even lay folk can read the City Charter and glean that the limit for a councilman serving is two terms. There is voter precedent in affirming only two terms and when asked if there should be an extension to three terms, voters decidedly say no. 

Trevor, who is an attorney and represented himself, laid out a case that was focused on the specifics of the charter language. Tommy's team did not make a compelling case and as of this writing have not filed the fully anticipated appeal to this ruling. But there are remaining questions regarding process, procedure, administration, perceived or actual outside influences and more. Soon, my friends, soon.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Hāna beefs"}]

between locals and tourists. OK, I get it. For those who live Hãna side it's a tough road. Period. We've all hopefully have taken the drive and to do so daily is a grind. And that grind can be exacerbated by those driving who are sightseeing, inattentive to those behind and ignorant to what has become a certain etiquette developed over the years. This last case had some or all of those elements. However, the local boy scared the coconut milk out of the tourists he confronted. See the video from the newscast at the link.

Bruddah jumped out of his ride and was scary monstah charging the tourist's car, yelling profanities and taking out his frustrations on this unsuspecting guy. In any other scenario, this was road rage. 

But wait a second. A spokesperson for the group Hāna Highway Regulation responded, and I'm paraphrasing, the Hāna resident communicated the problem and how the visitor needed to correct himself. Ummm. She then stated that yes, he used strong words and verbal profanity. Really? No kidding! There are calls for traffic management. 

Here's how you manage it. Just like with Hanauma Bay, you put a limit on the number of tourists who can take the Hāna Highway. Oh, but what about businesses? Then allow things to remain the same and just deal with the congestion and the tourists. It's one way or the other but if this kind of action against tourists is condoned and, heaven forbid physical violence is committed then you may not have to worry about overcrowding on the Hāna Highway. Or anywhere in Hawai‘i. Viral video will take care of that.

For the latest news of Hawai‘i, sign up 

Sylvia Luke 16x9 Large

<title>Hamada: Hot takes on bribery, Tommy Waters, Hāna Highway confrontation</title>

With so much in the news, ASD opinion columnist weighs in on the state's bribery scandal, Tommy Waters' attempt at a third term and a recent ugly confrontation between locals and tourists in the Hāna Highway.

Hamada: Hot takes on bribery, Tommy Waters, Hāna Highway confrontation

Kam Napier Headshot

A. Kam Napier

You wouldn’t know it from local media, or even from much of the mainstream Mainland news, but Dr. Anthony Fauci is back in the spotlight, six years after his Icarus flight into the sun of international media attention during Covid-19.

 at the Honolulu Star-Advertiser about Anthony Fauci is from April 3, 2020. It’s an Associated Press wire story, “

Dr. Fauci’s face will soon be on a bobblehead

How appropriate. It would hilariously ironic, if it weren’t for the needless panic and suffering that man caused as he reveled in his Covid-era fame.

In April, Hawaiʻi News Now did carry an AP story earlier this year, “

Former Fauci adviser indicted for allegedly concealing communications related to COVID-19 research

.” It was a small glimpse into an overdue reckoning.

The last article on Fauci at Hawai‘i Public Radio was from Jan. 23, 2021, “

The gist of that piece is that Fauci was thrilled to be working for former President Joe Biden — as well he should be, since Biden, or his autopen, would go on to 

The text of the pardon itself reads: “For any offenses against the United States which he may have committed or taken part in during the period from January 1, 2014, through the date of this pardon arising from or in any manner related to his service as Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, as a member of the White House Coronavirus Task Force or the White House Covid-19 Response Team, or as Chief Medical Advisor to the President.”

[{"type":"text","text":"Why would he need such a thing?"}]

We might soon find out. On Wednesday, July 29, Sen. Rand Paul will be grilling Fauci in front of Congress. In advance of that hearing, Paul has been publishing online thousands of pages of Fauci’s own diaries and notes, all kept in his government files. Read them all 

This is what local and national media, once so eager to lionize Fauci, now seem to be working so hard to ignore.

I looked at the Star-Advertiser, as well as Honolulu Civil Beat, and 

, to see if anyone locally was covering, or even picking up from Mainland sources, the news coming out about Fauci’s diaries.

[{"type":"text","text":"Nothing, at least as of Tuesday."}]

Maybe you loved the man. Maybe you bought the Fauci candle and hung on his every word. Prepare to be disappointed.

Maybe you loathed the man on sight, with his suspicious eagerness to be the ringleader of a calamity circus.

[{"type":"text","text":"You were right. Fauci’s own words prove it."}]

For a summation of the diary, it’s hard top the highlights published this week at 

, which doubted the Covid lockdown madness from the get-go — and was demonetized and censored for not going along with the groupthink.

In March 2020, went on TV, gave the day’s death toll of 9,800. Then he wrote in his diary, “It is not hyperbole to say that today I am the most famous and talked about person in the country and one of the most recognizable persons in the world.”

I could go on and on with examples from the diary of Fauci loving his fame, because Fauci himself sure did. But I’ll just let that one ghoulish example stand for them all.

Publicly, Fauci claimed he never advised lockdowns. His diaries tell us he bragged to himself about convincing New York and California leaders to close schools and businesses. In the climate of fear of the time, policymakers marched like lemmings off the lockdown cliff to do likewise.

[{"type":"text","text":"As for that fear, it was needlessly stoke by Fauci himself."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"And he was lying."}]

He told us, via the media, the Covid fatality rate was 2 to 2.5% — that’s 10 times higher than the typical death rate of the average flu season. One might panic over such a thing. Except, the real rate, as he noted privately, was “

.” That’s double the fatality rate of the flu, but it isn’t 10 times the rate, and we might have asked better questions about a more targeted approach to Covid if he had been honest.

When other experts criticized the lockdown strategy as doing more than harm good, Fauci worked with the government and social media companies to silence them. In crisis, we need more communication and more questions, not fewer. Fauci would not be questioned at all.

Publicly, Fauci touted mask-wearing as the key to safety and a “return to normalcy.” Privately he knew there was no evidence to support that.

While we were being told we couldn’t so much as take a walk alone in a park, Fauci was having dinner with CNN’s Jake Tapper, at Tapper's house.

Remember when it was forbidden, even considered racist, to suggest that Covid-19 was the result of Chinese lab leak? The only acceptable belief was accidental transmission from animals to humans in a Wuhan wet market.

Well, the overwhelming consensus of a team of international experts was that there was no way this virus was entirely natural, parts of had to be inserted. Fauci knew this because he assembled the experts and summarized their consensus in his diary — in January, 2020. Yes, that early.

What Sen. Paul has been chasing, and will likely grill Fauci about in these hearings, is what role Fauci himself and the U.S. government played in funding gain-of-function research on viruses overseas after such work had been banned at home. As the Senator notes, no pardon from Biden protects Fauci from the consequences of lying now.

We’ll see what he has to say for himself, but I expect a lot of memory lapses. “During a seven-hour deposition in December 2022, Fauci failed to recall pertinent information about his role in the federal government’s Covid weaponization 

And it also notes: “While regular Americans struggled to make ends meet and keep their small businesses afloat amid lockdowns, the bureaucrat made 

I think the man ought to be in prison. I fear the worst he’ll experience is a few more hours of pretending he can’t recall how he earned so many of our tax dollars.

In his monstrous and ego-driven campaign to milk Covid for all it was worth, Fauci had plenty of accomplices. Mini-Faucis ruled from coast to coast, basking in the glow of the local TV studio lights, not least of all here in the Islands, pushing maximum panic and maximum lockdowns. Gov. Josh Green likely owes his current job to being Hawai‘i’s Mini-Fauci.

My own industry played a huge role in amplifying both fear and the overreaction, so I’m not surprised they aren’t rushing to confront the ugly truth behind the St. Fauci narrative.

It was ugly, and we’ll be dealing with the fallout for years to come. Maybe you had a loved one die pathetically alone in a hospital as a result of insane visitation policies. Maybe your kid still struggles from lost schooling. Maybe your business never quite recovered, or you’re running a new one now because lockdowns killed your old one. 

We’re all certainly paying for the billions in fraudulent Covid-relief payments made as the Feds shoveled money at Americans to buy their patience with the lockdowns. We’re certainly all paying the price in inflation as the Biden administration borrowed trillions for that relief, inflation that peaked at 19% during his term, permanently resetting prices.

I’m stumped at how to quantify the psychic pain that came from learning just how many of our friends, family members, neighbors and colleagues turned out to be East German at heart — eager secret policemen, dropping a dime on curfew violators, wishing death upon the unmasked or the unvaccinated. There’s a thing you can’t unsee once you’ve seen it, and one can't help but wonder, did that part of them ever really go away or are they just waiting for the next excuse to go after people they don't like?

No one, anywhere, who brought all this about has ever been held to account.

[{"type":"text","text":"Fauci would be a good start. "}]

 Wow, that was fast. The hearing has already ended — with 

 repeatedly and refusing to answer questions, despite his presidential pardon. Paul has stated that this is illegal and there will be repercussions. We'll see.

A. Kam Napier is editor in chief of Aloha State Daily. His opinions in Pipikaula Corner are his own and not reflective of the ASD team.

Getty Images 2155919948

<title>Pipikaula Corner: Fauci revealed as fear-mongering, fame-loving fraud</title>

It's not getting much media attention, but the private diaries of Dr. Anthony Fauci have been published online by Sen. Rand Paul in advance of his hearings this week into Fauci and Covid-19. What they reveal across thousands of pages is man in love with the adulation he received, who privately knew that many of things he said publicly about the pandemic were wild exaggerations.

Pipikaula Corner: Fauci revealed as fear-mongering, fame-loving fraud

Kelli Shiroma Braiotta Headshot

Kelli Shiroma Braiotta

Food & Dining

A new bento and musubi shop recently opened in Downtown Honolulu.

, whose original location is in Kalihi, just opened another store in Downtown Honolulu. The store is located at 700 Bishop Street; it’s located next to Komala Curry (in the same building at Bar Leather Apron).

The business is known for its reasonably priced bentos. Popular options include grilled salmon ($8.90), nori bento ($6.99), and butterfish ($11.99).

The Downtown Honolulu store also has several exclusive bento options, like mochiko chicken ($10.50), chicken katsu ($10.50) and hamburg steak ($12). Chicken katsu curry ($12.99) is also a Downtown Honolulu exclusive.

Customers can also enjoy a variety of musubi, which is another Downtown Honolulu exclusive. Musubi options range from salmon ($2.99), spicy tuna ($3.19) and tuna mayo ($2.99) to mentaiko ($3.29), unagi ($4.79), kakuni ($4.39) and Spam egg ($3.39).

This location will eventually have sandwiches — including katsu ($10.95) and veggie ($9.45) options — pastas and more. The shop is currently open from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Mondays to Fridays.

Open 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Mondays to Fridays

U Kitchen downtown musubi 022726

<title>New bento and musubi shop opens in Downtown Honolulu</title>

U-Kitchen Hawaiʻi — whose original location is in Kalihi — is known for its affordable bentos, but the Downtown Honolulu store has several exclusive items, including assorted musubi, chicken katsu bentos and chicken katsu curry.

Letter to the Editor: Reader thanks ASD opinion columnist Sterling Higa for ʻike

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Letter to the Editor: Reader thanks ASD opinion columnist Sterling Higa for ʻike

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Representative Only

More in Letters to the Editor

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