Some dates are permanently imprinted on our memory banks; the Fourth of July, 9/11 and January 6th probably all fall into this category – perhaps Boxing Day, too, due to the tsunami of 2004. The more senior amongst us may include November 22nd and July 20th, the dates of JFK's assassination and the first, manned moon landing, but I'm willing to bet that 8/8 isn't ever going to be among the ones that are impossible to forget, although one could make a strong case for it. However, unlike every other day of infamy or celebration, the Maui wildfire tragedy has been almost completely memory-holed. An explanation as to why that might be could be highly instructive.
A quick recap of the events of August 8th, just past. The authorities had plenty of warning. Hurricane Dora was offshore and, on 4th August, four days before the disaster, satellites reported that a handful of small fires on Maui had started at the same time. There has been no official cause given by the authorities.(1) The wind that ripped through the landscape on 8/8, downing power lines in its wake and then fanning the fires that followed, is far more likely to have been an extreme example of a local phenomenon caused by a strong high pressure system called the North Pacific High. Dora was far offshore, but the high pressure system (whose usual effects were well known) passed clean over the island.(2)
Whichever way it's sliced though, the island had plenty of notice,(3) as the National Weather Service was warning of dangerous fire conditions as early as August 3rd.(4) It is noteworthy that the primary conflagration was far from the only fire that day and explanations are still a little hard to come by:
“Though experts say the early evidence suggests multiple blazes may have been ignited in and around Lahaina on Aug. 8, there were no recorded lightning strikes or other apparent natural causes for the fires.”(5)
The story is that the high winds downed power lines and wildfires resulted. In total, 29 fully energized poles are said to have come down in Lahaina that day (6) and there is certainly evidence (both visual and via sensors) to show that lines did indeed come down and a fire did result,(7) but this was in the early morning, not the afternoon – a distinction that may be crucial in understanding the origin of the primary blaze. Firefighters attended this Morning Fire and did the necessary, first declaring the fire contained and then reporting that it had been extinguished.(8) They had left the scene by 2pm, at which point Hawaiian Electric emergency crews arrived to make repairs.
“The area where flames were first spotted is full of electrical infrastructure, mostly operated by Hawaiian Electric, the state’s monopoly electricity supplier. This included a substation and a multitude of power lines.”(9)
However, the utility company notes that by 3pm the power lines had been de-energized for more than six hours and, if the original Morning Fire had been put out, the Afternoon Fire could not be the fault of their infrastructure.
The fact that the official responsible for the release of water spent most of the day balking at requests for the provision of additional water to prevent the fire from spreading wouldn't have helped, either - (10) this is a man whose motto is “let water connect us, not divide us”(11) and who, entirely coincidentally, I'm sure, is an Obama Foundation Leader. But, once again, this issue was not unanticipated – in 2022, two Maui senators had introduced a bill that would have required the use of reservoir waters to fight fires, but it died without a hearing.(12)
The response from the rest of the emergency services unaccountably made matters far worse. There no activation of the world famous warning sirens – Hawai'i has the largest integrated outdoor warning system on the globe -(13) because the administrator concerned thought that people would assume it was a tsunami warning and flee inland towards the fire; or so he said. The police blockaded the only exit route, turning people back into the flames and bringing traffic to a standstill.(14)(15)(16) Only those who disobeyed instruction, or who jumped into the ocean as the fire approached, managed to survive. Others were incinerated in their vehicles. The damage was immense. Over 2,000 buildings were destroyed and 11,000 people were evacuated.
There are some substantial problems with the origins of the fires themselves – because it is 'fires' plural, not 'fire'. The geographical origin of the one fire the authorities will acknowledge, was close to ideal if destruction was the aim, given the prevailing winds. (It started just to the left of the highway to the right of the map and swept downhill towards the sea).
Figure 1
Perhaps 85% of Lahaina lay in its path. A further anomaly – if the Morning Fire was 'contained' by 10am, are we to believe that it was still smoldering and, given the high winds that assailed the town all day, how is it that it took five hours to re-ignite? And Lahaina wasn't the only victim of wildfires that day. There were at least five different fires, all blazing away at the same time. And, in Lahaina, several different fires, as there are at least two burnt areas that are to the north-east of the Afternoon Fire, which is a neat trick when the wind was gusting up to 80 miles per hour from that very direction. There is burnt acreage a mile behind the town.(17)
“Fires started in the agricultural lands upcountry first, the bread basket of Maui, and resources were sent there first, so Lahaina, when it happened, had few resources to fight the wall of fire that swept through the entire area trapping hundreds who could not get out and sadly perished.”(18)
It is also known that the many different fires started over a very short time frame, none of which could have been caused by sparking power lines; firstly, because they had been de-energized since the early morning; and secondly, because some of them were nowhere near power lines anyway. So, at least one was started by an arsonist. In which case, it's difficult to believe that the others weren't. And, lest we forget, 2023 was the summer of wildfires around the world. The US, Rhodes, Italy, Greece, Croatia, Portugal...firebugs were everywhere and many of them were caught by police. But, strangely perhaps, other than the arsonist on 4th August and these fires, there were only two others in the entire month of August.
Figure 2
Figure 3
A different image, from space, is instructive. Doesn't look much like a single fire, does it? It looks like at least two.
Figure 4
So far then, we have some reasonably outlandish coincidences. Firstly, we have a firebug (or firebugs) on the loose, whose latest known activity only preceded the disaster by four days. The authorities should, by their own estimation, have been on high alert. Then, a fire breaks close to housing in upper Lahaina. The fire brigade are dispatched and they deal with the fire.
We are then asked to accept that they didn't, in fact, deal with it, even though the new fire is not in the same spot and is one of several, at least some of the others having been set. This last fact shouldn't be in the least surprising; it is estimated that, in the course of a typical wildfire season, around 84% of blazes are the result of human agency - whether by deliberate act or otherwise.(19)
No explanation is given as to why this fire starts, although there is an attempt at misdirection (there was a substation in that location etc). The electricity has been off for hours at this point, so the presence of a substation is irrelevant. The school has, therefore, been closed and the kids are now home alone. Officials do not release water with which to fight the fire, they do not use the state-of-the-art warning system, they direct people to shelter in place even as the fire reaches the town and they attempt to re-direct those who are fleeing back into the blaze and block others from leaving along the coast road. The reasoning was that they didn't want people driving over downed power lines; except none of them were live anyway, and the police knew that. They'd been told multiple times throughout the day.(20)
The fire moved so quickly that, by the time one saw the smoke, it was almost too late. Many individuals climbed over the sea wall and floated in the sea for hours on end, before being rescued by firefighters or the Coast Guard. Many more perished in the vehicles as they were blockaded in on Front Street.
Figure 5
One further element, which isn't yet widely known and which, I suspect never will be, is the part played by the utility company, the softest of targets for those determined to evade accountability. Given the state government's long-standing obsession with 'renewables', it is perhaps unsurprising that the main Hawaiian utility company took its eye off the ball. Lahaina is (was) very susceptible to fire, as the town is surrounded by grasslands – mostly state owned and overtaken by highly combustible, non-native grasses.(21)(22) The risk had been known and documented for nearly a decade.(23)
In addition, while Hawaiian Electric had identified (in 2019) the need to spend $190 million in upgrading the safety of its infrastructure and managing vegetation, it needed to be able to finance it and the Hawaiian Public Utilities Commission refused to grant rate rises to cover the work.(24) And who was the state senator responsible for all things renewable between 2008 to 2018, who mandated that “a substantial portion of Hawai'i's future energy production come from renewable energy sources”?(25) The current governor, Josh Green.
So, the focus was on meeting renewable energy goals,(26) and mitigating risk in the existing system came a distant second – instead of millions, the utility company spent a mere $245,000 on wildfire-specific programmes. Consequently, the area around Lahaina was not only as dry as a tinder on August 8th, it was also neglected and mismanaged.
The town's mayor, the execrable Richard Bissen, was gracious enough to accept that, perhaps, there were one or two things that could have been done differently; "...better preparation. That's what everybody is pointing to. Better response." So, everything then. Unfortunately, and inevitably if one spends any time examining the man's persona, he immediately revealed himself to be a typical Leftist. When asked how blame should be apportioned, he replied "...we all should take responsibility. All of us."(27) I think not.
Lahaina had a near miss in 2018, when three separate wildfires during Hurricane Lane scorched over 2,800 acres and nearly reached the town, which was only saved by the sudden absence of wind. It was apparent then that the evacuation routes were inadequate, that active downed power lines were a danger and that the failure to sound the emergency sirens (again) was wrong-headed.(28) But nothing was done to address these issues and the town authorities refused to publish an after-action report, despite widespread pleading. It is conceivable that this near-disaster was a previous attempt to destroy Lahaina; failing to release the report isn't an action that inspires confidence.
But all of Hawai'i is a Leftist nirvana. The Governor is a Democrat (only once has there ever been a Republican one); the Lieutenant Governor is a Democrat, every state-wide official is a Democrat. Democrats have controlled the Senate since 1963; the Republicans currently hold only 2 of the 25 seats. In the House of Representatives, they hold 6 of the 51 seats. Both US Senate seats and both House seats are held by Democrats, the former since 1973.
These facts are significant for two reasons – firstly, untrammeled long term one-party rule is unlikely to be a good thing and, secondly, as I have noted on many an occasion, politics is downstream from personality and modern Leftists are Leftists precisely because they are the sort of person that the right-thinking amongst us could never be; they lack a moral framework (not that they would acknowledge it), they are brimming with pathological care for those they view as oppressed and they cannot wait to tell everybody what to do.
A useful litmus test, on this occasion, would be to examine what the Governor's response (the previous one; Green was Lieutenant-General at that and a passionate advocate of all the 'mitigations' that were enforced) to the 'pandemic' was and how vigilantly everyone downstream of him enforced the protocols. You already know what we're going to find.
A prominent lawyer endured the lock-down protocols when arguing in federal court in 2020. She had this to say:
“My perfectly healthy clients were not allowed to travel from one island to another to visit their own property. American citizens were turned away at the airport because they got the wrong COVID test on the mainland. The hotel gave me “parole” from the one way card key rule only to do my legal business and leave. I could not call an Uber or take a taxi at the airport. The National Guard met me at the gate to escort me to Hawaii COVID immigration to provide my information, which they verified with the hotel. I was to keep my phone on at all times so that they could track my location.”(29)
The state pushed the 'vaccines' and the boosters and were still pursuing an emergency response in April 2022.(30) The government insisted that all state and county workers be 'vaccinated' or take weekly tests, ignoring the logical fallacy that the 'unvaccinated' were only a potential danger to themselves and their fellow neophytes, as the jabbed ought to have protection. They introduced all the usual contradictory, nonsensical and ever-changing social distancing rules, curfews, mask mandates – the whole nine yards.
Hawai'i is almost certainly the most progressive state in the Union. It banned sunscreen (to protect the coral reef, apparently), it raised the minimum smoking age to 21, it wants to raise the minimum wage to $17 (from $10.10, which I'm sure can be accomplished painlessly),(31) and it's brought in laws allowing for same-sex marriage, medical marijuana and assisted suicide. Naturally, it's also all-in on climate change.
When Trump withdrew from the Paris Climate Accords in 2017, Hawaii doubled down and signed two bills into law that would reduce greenhouse gas emissions, becoming the first state to do so. Apparently, the poor lambs were suddenly enduring “...intense cold that we’ve never had before, we are having intense heat. It’s a matter of survival for us.”(32) It didn't seem to occur to them that they were alone in that analysis and that one might have thought that global warming should be expected to have a slightly wider effect than a small group of islands in the north Pacific.
The green agenda and the progressive mindset are the backdrop to the tragedy of 8/8. In signing up to the Paris Accords, the Democrat administration on Hawai'i was also signing up to the 'sustainable development' movement, encapsulated by the UN's Agenda 21, the least referenced but most autocratic element of The Great Reset. As a general rule of thumb, any policy position which touts 'sustainable' as an outcome is designed to curtail freedoms, while shaming you into non-resistance; I mean, who can object to 'sustainable' as a preferred outcome?
And so, firstly, there's the obsession with renewable (sustainable) energy and, as has been amply demonstrated elsewhere, the climatistas proceed solely on the basis of ideology; reason, affordability and any other factor that may lie within the realm of the sensible isn't jettisoned, so much as never even contemplated. Whether the solutions will work is a subject that is wholly outside the purview of the Democrat mindset.
Whether new solutions are even needed is not a question that is ever addressed in any detail either, as progressives are constantly, restlessly pursuing change, regardless of the consequences. Leaving well alone is anathema to them; they always have to be tinkering. Sometimes, at least, there is some minor resistance to their madness, but not in Hawai'i. There, they have the sand-pit to themselves, seemingly in perpetuity.
And so, rather than aiming for Net Zero, the Democrats of Hawai'i want to one-up the world and aim for Sub Zero, sequestering more CO2 than is emitted,(33) using technology that doesn't even exist yet. They are a member of the US Climate Alliance, a 'bipartisan' coalition of 25 Governors (only one of whom is even nominally Republican, the Governor of Vermont, a Never-Trumper who actually voted for Biden in 2020 and wasn't even by his local party censured for so doing) who must, perforce, all be committed to the de-industrialisation of America and the destruction of its middle class.(34)
Thus, the state government wants to achieve Net Zero across vast swathes of its infrastructure, as well as 'encouraging' the public to fall in line. The 'High Impact Actions' that the Climate Alliance members seek to enforce are suitably euphemistic:
“Promote sustainable communities that provide a range of affordable housing and transportation options that increase access to opportunity and reduce vehicle miles travelled (VMT).”(35)
Translation – 15 minute cities and towns, chock-full of multi-tenant apartment buildings, no parking spaces, but lots of electric buses.
“Consider utilizing the social cost of GHG emissions across relevant policy-making and decision-making processes.”(36)
Translation – introduce a carbon based social credit score.
“Explore the adoption of zero-emission standards for space and water heating equipment...Explore the adoption of clean heat standards like those enacted in Colorado and Vermont.”(37)
Translation – ban boilers, gas stoves and air-conditioners and force people to use unreliable and expensive heat pumps instead.
You get the picture. Naturally, all impediments to 'progress' must be swept away and, to that end, the previous Governor (in collusion with the Senate) declared a climate emergency in 2021, in a drive towards “STATEWIDE COLLABORATION TOWARD AN IMMEDIATE JUST TRANSITION AND EMERGENCY MOBILIZATION EFFORT TO RESTORE A SAFE CLIMATE.”(38) Yes, the crisis is so urgent that it needs to be described in capital letters. The self-delusion would be startling if it was, in fact, self-delusion, rather than simply a cover story that allows the ruling party the opportunity to go full authoritarian; I suspect that true believers are less numerous than many believe. They are pressing ahead regardless, bringing ugly to beautiful as swiftly as possible.
Figure 6
The state slathers itself with yet another justification, which a reasonable person would have no quarrel with, were it to be what the state is actually doing:
“The concept of intergenerational equity specifies that each generation has the right to inherit the same diversity and cultural resources enjoyed by previous generations and to have equitable access to the use and benefits of these resources.”(39)
Which sounds remarkably similar to the prose of Agenda 21, the stated purpose of which is to "to protect the rights of future generations and all species against the potential crimes of the present".(40) I guess it's therefore important to make sure the disfiguring and unreliable 'renewables' infrastructure is preserved, so that future generations can also be appalled by the waste and futility and the despoilment of the natural habitat.
But Green himself, while keen to mangle the English language and propagate half-truths and obfuscating statements, is desperate to avoid explicitly mentioning SMART cities, although he does come perilously close to it at times. This from yet another neurotic press release, a month prior to the fire:
“Public, private and community recommendations contributed to the smart sustainable communities’ goal which measures affordable housing, economic prosperity...and mobility.”(41)
Figure 7
In truth, Governor Green has picked up the green baton with alacrity. He campaigned primarily on the issues of climate change and homelessness, promising to build 10,000 units in his first term.(42) He used his first State of the State speech in January 2023 to outline a plan to set aside $1 billion for affordable housing in that year alone.(43) He wasted no time in indulging his hubristic, Big Brother instincts by signing an emergency proclamation in the middle of his speech.
There is no doubt that the housing situation in Hawai'i is disadvantageous to the locals, a natural consequence of a confluence of effects; a beautiful location, whose residents (or 80% of them, at least) earn lowish wages from the tourist industry; an influx of wealthy outsiders buying up residential property; the consequent increase in property values and rents; and the pricing out of locals, who subsequently up sticks and head for the mainland. It is not a problem unique to Hawai'i, although the islanders do seem to suffer more than most.(44)
The average house price is Lahaina is $1,111,815,(45) which is 2.7 times the national level. The median rent is also the highest in the nation at $1,755.(46) It is the most expensive state to live in; total average annual expenditure is $55,491 and residents have the lowest amount of disposable income of all fifty states.(47)
Green sees himself as the man to sever the Gordian Knot and, after months of preparation, he dropped yet another emergency order on the Hawaiian people on 17th July. The emergency was, once again, the housing crisis. For context, there have been regular housing crises, roughly once a decade since the 1930s. And the vast majority of islanders rent – the state has one of the lowest home ownership percentages in the country. Plus, only 4% of land in the state is zoned for housing and only 0.3% for multifamily homes.(48) Hawai'i also has the lowest property taxes in the nation, thus enticing property developers who have deeper pockets than the locals.
The proclamation came in the midst of a dispute about land use in the state between the Governor and the people's Representatives, who had deep-sixed a bill (House Bill 676) that would have loosened planning controls and allowed local councils to re-district tracts of land as large as 100 acres.(49) The bill ran afoul of what seems to be the perennial problem, one which has prevented solutions being embraced; a distrust exists between the state legislature and the county planners, a distrust that results from concerns about two specific issues – the malign influence of developers and, further, an unresolved conflict between modernity and indigenous culture. However, the legislature did pass HB365, which “expands exclusions from the definition of "development" as it applies to special management areas to reduce the need for special management area permits for certain activities.”(50) Green immediately signed it into law.
But that wasn't enough for the governor. Green's proclamation reversed the legislature's decision on HB676 unilaterally. The power-grab was in the finest traditions of the Democrat (and, on occasion, Republican) canon. It's one that presidents have used for decades and it's one that governors fully exploited during the 'pandemic'. However, an emergency, whatever else it is, must have a degree of inherent immediacy. A pandemic, a volcanic eruption or a tsunami, perhaps. A long-standing housing problem that is simply grinding along as per usual doesn't fit the profile and Hawai'i has had a housing problem for generations.
Having said that, the blame must also be shared by the state government. It seems that Green's various emergency orders are a function of the ridiculously broad State of Emergency statute passed by the legislature. This states that the governor is “sole judge of the existence of the danger, threat, or circumstances giving rise to a declaration of a state of emergency”.(51)
Expecting a Democrat not to abuse what is, effectively, a dictator's charter is wantonly naïve. The opportunity to unleash one's inner Napoleon is not likely to be spurned by that personality type, especially as the governor gets to usurp the legislature, suspend laws and creates new ones with a mere stroke of the pen.
However, once again, all is not what it seems. If, initially, one might have a degree of sympathy with Green's attempt to cut through the red tape and get things rolling - even if his proposals include some specifically rejected by the people's representatives - that sympathy ought to dissipate swiftly when one examines the actual effect of his order. Considering Green had been consulting the ubiquitous 'stakeholders' for months, one might expect his proposals (or, rather, instructions) to be, at the least, capable of tackling the problem at hand. But that would be to ignore one vital factor – the man's a Democrat. Which means that what he says he is trying to achieve isn't actually what he's attempting.
Consequently, the emergency powers dismantle any form of public scrutiny of housing policies, while doing nothing to ensure that new housing would be for locals:
“...the proclamation’s housing policies are controversial at best and harmful at worst. The proclamation lacks any affordability requirements, income limits, or a meaningful definition of “Hawaii resident.” Nothing would prevent the predictable outcome, where new arrivals with cash in hand quickly snap up new homes — placing even more of our limited developable lands and resources into the hands of the most fortunate, further widening our wealth gap, and driving more kama‘aina off-island.”(52)
What it would do is remove oversight of the budget and of housing decisions by Congress, the public, the Land Use Commissioner and even the proposed working group that would advise the new, all powerful housing czar known as the lead housing officer (LHO). It would also allow for the summary re-designation of agricultural lands, imperiling food security.
“It also suspends the statutory procurement processes for competitive bidding that safeguard against waste and corruption. In other words, money set aside for any other purpose could be redirected behind the scenes to hand- selected corporations, for anything remotely related to housing.”(53)
So, what would actually be achieved is a complete hijacking of state housing policies. One individual, the LHO, would have the power to authorize any project she deemed appropriate, without any form of oversight. The state budget - taxpayer's funds - could be used as a slush fund and contracts could be handed out without even the semblance of a bidding process.
Green's theory, disingenuously, was that if a huge tranche of new housing hit the market, prices would drop (at least, momentarily) which would allow native Hawaiians, teachers and nurses and the like to afford a home. At least, that's what he's claiming. As a scheme, it's harebrained and almost certainly a false construct. The overseas market, cash rich, would still at the front of the queue. It is far more likely that Green is in the pocket of the likes of the Land Use Research Foundation, comprised of landowners and developers, who were the not-so-hidden hand behind the failed HB676. They had a seat in the proposed working group, after all.
There are alternative solutions that wouldn't involve proclamations and which should have been implemented first. Back in the day, Lt-Gov Gill came up with a suggestion that seems, logically, to be the only workable solution even now. He proposed that the state contract directly with developers and use “land acquired through condemnation, purchase or exchange” to build housing. He believed this was the only way to make a housing programme work because “...the industry is geared toward charging all that the traffic can bear.”(54) There's more low hanging fruit, also:
“Addressing Section 8 discrimination [which involves landlords refusing to house those receiving government housing welfare], tackling our ongoing short-term rental problems, and regulating private equity firms that buy and flip rental housing are just some of many, many strategies that would target actual, direct causes of local residents’ housing woes.”(55)
But none of these solutions are sexy and they might actually work (nor are they lucrative for developers), so they've been ignored. Nonetheless, Green's pre-emptive strike engendered immediate resistance, but not of the full-throated variety. That all changed three weeks later, when Lahaina was consumed by the flames. So, let's have another go at listing all the factors that had to come together to make 8/8 a day of opportunity for some, rather than occasioning mourning.
On 17th July, Green issues his proclamation, which attempts to do an end-run around democracy and hijack housing planning into the bargain. Three weeks later, the schools are closed and the kids are home alone. The long-anticipated storm arrives. A fire is started inland and is put out. Then, around 1500 hours, several more take hold and the conflagration sweeps towards town. Officials do not release water with which to fight the fire, they do not use the state-of-the-art warning system, they direct people to shelter in place even as the fire reaches the town, they attempt to re-direct those who are fleeing back into the blaze and block others from leaving along the coast road, ostensibly due to the danger posed by live, downed power lines. But the police knew that none were live.
The head of the Maui Emergency Management Agency (now ex-head aka scapegoat), despite being warned of a serious fire risk on 8/8, isn't even on the island. He's decided that, in an emergency, he could best direct the response from a conference in Waikiki. (He didn't return to Maui until the next day.) This might explain why, having made his fateful decision not to activate the sirens, he then instructs his staff to fall back on the secondary system – mobile 'phone alerts, calls to landlines and broadcast messages. He claims that no-one told him that the power was out and that this methodology was, to all intents and purposes, useless.(56) Lahaina is then burnt to the ground. 80% of the town is destroyed.
A remarkable sequence of coincidences, a long run of coin flips that all come up tails. And yes, I'm cognizant of the fact that there are different levels of incompetence, but this level is positively subterranean. I'm also aware that progressives aren't noted for their patience. And, conveniently, the entire affair can be blamed on climate change – ye olde double whammy.
And so, when miraculously given a clean slate in Lahaina, what do you think Green and Bissen would want to do? Rebuild the old town as accurately as possible, as the people would no doubt prefer? Or use the housing 'crisis' and a fistful of executive orders to fashion a smart city, the culmination of all Green's stated schemes? Literally, Building Back 'Better'. Especially as single family housing is now increasingly viewed as 'racist' in municipalities across America?(57) Lahaina had a lot of single family houses.
Figure 8
But it doesn't any more.
Figure 9
Whatever plans they may have harbored may have to be substantially altered, but I wouldn't bet on it. Green has lately been forced onto the back foot, somewhat. He's been sued by all and sundry, mostly on the grounds that he'd exceeded his authority.(58) He's therefore had to reach for his Montblanc once more, but this time he's been obliged to walk back all the provisions that had removed oversight.(59) Interestingly, the order specifically doesn't cover Lahaina.
Green says that any new construction will primarily house locals and that the rebuilding will be a collaborative effort, involving the local people and the mayor.(60) So, the polar opposite of the approach demanded in his proclamation, then. But Green (and Bissen) are out-and-out liars who cannot be trusted. We know this because of their other actions post-fire. That's when things get really weird.
Genuine empathy was in very short supply. The authorities (Bissen, particularly, but Green, too) were so matter of fact that it almost seemed like business as usual. It was apparent, in the immediate aftermath, that their need for control was extreme and that it was impeding the survival of those affected. Biden, too, didn't seem to give a rat's ass. The first couple of times he was asked for a response he mumbled “No comment”. I kid you not. This, after spending the day at the beach - again.(61) Bissen managed to get in a fight with a reporter at a press conference.(62) The police chief, the same guy who was incident commander at the Las Vegas mass shooting in 2017 when over 50 concertgoers were killed, has been practically invisible.
Two weeks after the fire, Biden finally managed to find a slot in his busy vacation schedule and visited Lahaina, whereupon he told the locals that, while he didn't want to make comparisons, he felt for them because he nearly lost his Corvette in a minor house fire in 2004. He then mispronounced politicians' names, appeared to fall asleep and hasn't said a word about the disaster since. These people are not nice people.
Green, when asked whether he bears any responsibility for the omnishambles said that “the world has to apologise...we've become a world that turns our back on global warming.”(63) No mention of the complete lack of prior preparation and the impression that there was an obscene level of incompetence that characterized the official response on the day, factors that have no connection whatsoever to co-called climate change. Green's response is the most tin-eared and self-serving reply I've heard from a Democrat since the last time I listened to anything Biden said.
Even so, none of this ought to be a surprise. The leadership is simply behaving in the typical high-handed fashion that is an integral part of the Democratic character. One of the pretenses that they struggle with is mimicking the appearance of compassion, which they do in fact possess, but only for their own immediate family/close friends. Beyond that, they simply don't feel it and they find it tiresome to even have to try and pretend that they do, because that would necessarily mean that they were, in some way, obliged to behave in a manner that didn't appeal to them and that, in turn, suggests that there are limits to their power, which is something that they are extremely reluctant to countenance.
The state further distinguished itself in the immediate aftermath of the disaster. Locking down the scene took precedence over anything else. Police checkpoints sealed off the town, preventing non-official traffic from entering. Green wasted no time in issuing yet more proclamations, including an umbrella clause which stated that any rule that Bissen or Green imposed had to be obeyed, lest a fine of up to $2,000 be imposed. Thus, even parking by the side of the public highway above Lahaina in order to film a piece to camera or take a 'phone call suddenly became 'unlawful'; allegedly.(64)
A black wall was erected around Lahaina and the overflying of drones was banned.(65) There are some mitigating circumstances – as the scene is an open-air crematorium, it's not unreasonable to restrict access. An argument could also be made on safety grounds. But preventing drones from overflying, prohibiting parking on a public road outside the zone and erecting a curtain-type fence aren't necessary precautions. Those actions are specifically designed to prevent scrutiny of activities within Lahaina.
Figure 10
If only the same effort had been put into assisting the survivors in the immediate aftermath but, predictably, it wasn't. FEMA weren't activated until Biden had authorized their deployment, an act he did not perform until two days after the fire.(66) Perhaps $5.6 billion of damage and thousands displaced was only a borderline disaster that required some thinking before a decision could be made.
The response was instead led by neighbors, local businesses and community groups. One lady's experience of officialdom was typical. Having lost her home, her vehicle and her job she received the princely sum of $700 from FEMA, who then denied her request for housing assistance.(67) The agency, in a typical exhibition of mindless bureaucracy, wanted those in need of assistance to register online, despite the fact that there was limited power for weeks after the fire and not much in the way of connectivity.(68) Nearly a week after the fire, small boats were still bringing in donations, because it was the only way to access the residents.(69)
Additionally, there are fourteen military establishments on the Hawaiian islands, with 36,000 troops near Pearl Harbor alone. They would not have been short of rations and other much needed resources, but neither they nor any other military were ever deployed to provide assistance.(70) In short, the authorities demonstrated where their priorities lay and the people were not at the top of the list. Things got so bad that when Biden finally showed up, the heavily Democrat-voting residents wanted him to leave again; immediately.(71)
But the lack of transparency on site is simply one element of a state response that feels off on several different levels; particularly, on the subject of casualties. The Lahaina fire is the only disaster that I can recall where the death toll is continually revised downwards, and where the disconnect between those unaccounted for (officially) and the evidence of one's eyes is so jarring.
By the beginning of September, the local medical examiner confirmed 115 dead, 74 of whom had been identified.(72) By mid-September that number had dropped to 97, allegedly because the viral incompetence that seems to afflict every other official on the island had now infected him, too. Apparently, before making his previous announcement, he hadn't checked whether some of the dead had been counted twice, or even whether some of the bodies might be animals, rather than humans. The number currently stands at 99, I believe. At that stage, the Police Chief had revised the number of missing down to 31. By mid-October, only seven individuals were allegedly unaccounted for.(73) However, these official figures are utter dreck.
On 8/8, Lahaina was packed with tourists; there were an estimated 15,000 of them in West Maui.(74) Lahaina also had a problem with homelessness; a snapshot count taken in January 2022 found there to be 157 homeless persons in Lahaina, a number that is likely to have risen given the passage of another eighteen months and the fact that August is mid-season.(75) But nobody really knows how many extras, beyond the resident population, were in the town that day. Further, the fire was so intense that there will be some casualties who will have vanished without trace.
The number of missing people was initially in the region of 2,000. By 20th August, 12 days later, officialdom decreed that the total had fallen to 850. Green gave an interview during which he conceded that many of the (at that time) alleged 114 victims were likely to be children, as were many of the missing.(76) However, the list of names on the 'Missing List' was not disclosed – that information was known only by Maui officials and federal agencies.
And the FBI was still going with a much higher number of 'unaccounted fors', between 1,000 and 1,100, not counting minors.(77) Astonishingly, by October 7th, that number had dropped to 7, with no commensurate rise in the number of dead which, at that time, stood at 98.(78) But it's all lies. Some Maui residents have noted this. One who saw all the trucks loaded with the dead estimated at least 600 bodies.(79) Another had this to say a week after the fire:
"We live by the forensic facility. There are four reefers [refrigerated trucks]. One container, easy, 100 bodies in there. They don't even have enough body bags."(80)
And those are bodies that hadn't been completely incinerated. The investigative journalist James O'Keefe visited the island in mid-September and had a conversation with a National Guardsman who thought there were around 1,000 missing at that point.(81) So, Bissen and Green have been lying from the very beginning. Then there's the absent schoolchildren.
On 25th August, there were still 2,000 kids unaccounted for within the Maui school system. Of the 3,001 students in the Lahaina schools, 2,025 had not re-enrolled or opted for distance learning.(82) Additionally, a private school that had a student body of 200 was also destroyed by the fire. However, another private school on Maui had received an additional 1,000 applications; one might do some back-of-an-envelope maths and arrive at a figure of around 1,200 missing. And, indeed, by mid-September, that was the number still unaccounted for, according to the school system.(83)
It's reasonable to assume that some of the children may have moved out of state, but there are well over 7,000 Lahaina residents staying in hotel rooms, which would suggest that the vast majority of families are still living locally.(84) However, Governor Green would have us believe that, by the end of October, 2,746 of the 3,001 had been accounted for which, even in the unlikely event that he was breaking the habit of a lifetime and telling the truth for once, would still leave 252 unaccounted for.(85) He also stated that only three of the 99 dead are children. And only one of the casualties is a tourist.(86) These are clearly lies, as one Maui father can testify - his family ran into one their son's playmates:
“The kids just don’t have a filter. So their son ran up and was just telling our son, you know, ‘This kid is dead. This kid is dead.’ And it’s like, all my son’s friends that they come to our house every day,” he said. “And their parents were at work, and they were home alone. And nobody had a warning. Nobody, nobody, nobody knew.”(87)
Another Maui resident, fleeing towards the sea from a neighborhood directly in the path of the fire, stated that “hundreds of people were trapped in that neighbourhood, just eaten alive by flames.”(88) So, none of the claims made by Green and Bissen are credible. Given the number of Lahaina locals that remained, as against those that left the island after the fire, the number of children who weren't even distance-learning a month later (1,200), yet were still somehow on the island, is ridiculously high. Parents typically do not want their children to abandon their education and I would imagine that they might believe that a return to at least a partial normality would be a positive.
In addition, no homeless persons are listed among the dead and they won't be reported missing either, as the criteria for doing so cannot be met. Yet both the governor and the mayor have now nailed their colors to the mast. They cannot go back unless they fully recant. The question is, why? It's such a big lie and impossible to hide from the critical thinker. Additionally, lying in such circumstances is bound to lead to a suspicion that perhaps that's not all they're lying about, and that widespread deception might be abroad. It certainly looks that way in other news, too.
Green, via his proclamation, swears he will rebuild Lahaina for local residents first.(89) Not that he could say any different, but it's the kind of statement that signifies nothing of substance. It's more a question of what's going to be built for the local residents. And Green, true to form, can't stop sending all the wrong messages:
“I’m already thinking about ways for the state to acquire that land so that we can put it into workforce housing, to put it back into families, or to make it open spaces in perpetuity as a memorial to people who were lost. We want this to be something that we remember after the pain passes....but we don’t want this to become a clear space where then people from overseas just come and decide they’re gonna take it. The state will take it and preserve it first.”(90)
He has an unfortunate habit of using 'we', when he really means 'I'. The play-it-by-the-numbers banality is also unconvincing. Quite how he's going to accomplish a state buyout is, as yet, unknown, but it certainly wouldn't be a surprise. In fact, it would be far more of a shock if he didn't make the attempt. Green's Bible, Agenda 21, contains the following words of wisdom:
“Land, because of its unique nature and the crucial role it plays in human settlements, cannot be treated as an ordinary asset, controlled by individuals and subject to the pressures and inefficiencies of the market. Private land ownership is also a principal instrument of the accumulation and concentration of wealth and therefore contributes to social injustice; if unchecked, it may become a major obstacle in the planning and implementation of development schemes.”(91)
Or, as Marx would have it, the abolition of private property. Green may still have his work cut out, as speculators and developers were circling like vultures within the first week.(92) It must be a racing certainty that some home owners didn't have home insurance, given the exorbitant living expenses on the island. Those who do will still have to jump through whatever hoops Green deems necessary, then build again while staying in temporary accommodation. The state now has almost total control over every aspect of life in Lahaina.
Green and Bissen have made that last option harder with their recent decision to relocate some Lahaina residents to Maui Lani, well over an hour away by car, a decision that was apparently made (characteristically) with zero consultation. Those who remain will still be charged day rates at short-term rentals, exacerbating inflation and ensuring that other residents face much higher rental costs; many of whom are now being evicted.(93) One must assume that the dynamic duo know this, but they're doing it anyway. At least some residents will now be out of sight, out of mind. And 'temporary', in this context, could mean years.
Green is also going to leverage local resentment at property developers to his advantage. By the end of August, he had already instructed his AG to get to work on a moratorium on selling fire-damaged properties because,(94) given his prior musings, he wants the state to have first dibs. He's a man on a mission:
“Green is in a hurry to pass a bill that will have the burned-out properties cleared for free if owners allow the state to start immediately. Otherwise, the home and business owners will have to pay themselves and will be fined if they don’t do it quickly. Native Hawaiians say “slow down” and that they need time to figure out what to do.”(95)
More huge dollops of empathy on display; the state taking control of everything by imperial decree and punishing those already dispossessed by imposing another financial burden from on high. There can be no real doubt that Green has ambitions for Lahaina (and Maui, in general) and he's not been shy in sharing them. In fact, he's given the UN the benefit of his expertise in September (he was also there in July), banging on about the 17 sustainable development goals, which naturally include “sustainable cities and communities”.(96)
Apparently, plans to turn Maui into an AI-regulated SMART island are already well advanced. JUMPSmartMaui was a initiative that was apparently live between 2011 and 2016, but its influence seems to have lived on; it talks in the usual coded language of 'sustainability' and 'advanced environmental and energy technologies',(97) because getting into weeds is not favorite. When the concept of Net Zero (or Sub Zero) is explained in any detail, the warm fuzzy feeling that people get when they think they're saving the planet soon dissipates; but it clear from the documentation that a SMART island is what is envisaged.
There are also annual digital government summits but, unless you're an attendee, you won't be able to determine what it is they are discussing.(98) Not from afar, anyway, but the locals seem convinced that it's 15 minute cities and digitization. Green himself will go nowhere near the subject, not that he's been put under any real pressure, thusfar. However, given the fervent nature of his fealty to the green cause, I would be very surprised if that wasn't exactly what he had in mind. There is even an unsupported rumor that a contract for the development of high-rise condos in Lahaina was signed in 2022, which would be (de minimis) 'unusual', given that new development was not permitted at that time.
So, much in the way of coincidences and little in the way of transparency. The AG is apparently in charge of writing a report on the state and county preparedness and response to the disaster and is
“...committed to an independent, unbiased, and transparent investigation into government actions during the fires. This type of investigation is a hallmark of a healthy democratic society and will lead to improved responsiveness and resilience in the future.”(99)
So committed, in fact, that before it's even finished its task, she's already holding back initial findings to “protect the integrity” of the ongoing work.(100)
So, how about this for a working hypothesis; something to nourish us while the AG and her team of experts work tirelessly on behalf of the people of Lahaina, steadfastly holding their bosses feet to the fire? The Democrat leadership in Hawai'i is the most radical, virtue-signalling bunch of climatistas in the country. To them, the ancient, sacred fishing village of Lahaina is a suppurating sore – the polar opposite of SMART. Impossible to 'develop' in their signature, utilitarian style, full of charm and racist single family dwellings.
The legislature, while also Democrat, was too squeamish to ditch trivial concerns such as custom and cultural history in favor of modernity. But, no matter. A solution is at hand. It is clear that, if certain essential tasks are forsworn, Lahaina (as it was) will be wiped from the map at some point. Regular outbreaks of wildfires will see to that. So, simply fail to maintain the grasslands properly, allow the electrical infrastructure to dangerously decay (while refusing to allow the utility company to up its charges, so that it might maintain them properly), appoint incompetent administrators to the appropriate roles and allow Nature to take her course.
In this scenario, the failures on the day are the result of decisions, or non-decisions, made by individuals who were not fit for purpose. A variation on this theme might instead assert that the failure to tackle the fire effectively was intentional, as preventing the destruction of Lahaina was very much not the plan. Those that lost their lives were, therefore, simply collateral damage or, perhaps, a necessary part of the scheme – killing off owners and renters alike might be thought to provide predatory developers (or the state) with easier pickings.
Of course, the hypothesis rests on the assumption that Green and his henchmen were prepared to wait, which may well be an assumption too far. The timing of the July proclamation, the passage of HB365 (also in July), his campaign promises, the hubristic intention to remain at the tip of the green spear as evidenced by Green's speech to the UN and the annual SMART conferences, the $100 million Green pledged to tackle 'climate change' in January 2023;(101) coincidental, or suggestive of intent? We know that progressives are disinclined to let the grass grow under their feet. They much prefer to make things happen, to be in control, to leave nothing to chance.
At the beginning of 2020, I wouldn't have entertained such a theory, but after the 'pandemic' and the 'vaccines', I'm not convinced that any tactic is off limits. Compared to the death and destruction which that deception unleashed, the Lahaina death toll (whatever it might be) is a mere bagatelle. The same old play-book is also being deployed. The whole affair is implausible on its face; none of the questions that ought to be asked are actually being asked; official lies abound; the narrative is being ruthlessly imposed; and the media is running interference. It's all very familiar.
And, additionally, the regime may have come to realize that, counter-intuitively, it is easier to maintain a fiction when the sin is greater, because the vast majority of people cannot bring themselves to believe that the authorities could possibly be truly evil, rather than epically incompetent. There's another aspect that favors the liars; those that see through the deception, who come to the realization that Green et al really are that pathological, realize that expressing that belief will not recruit converts, but will instead lead to universal condemnation as a tinfoil hatter.
Here's what I think will happen next. There will be, quite literally, a fire sale of properties in Lahaina, probably to the state and at under market value, if that can be engineered. Zoning requirements and development regulations will be suspended. The 'emergency' that is the long-term displacement of residents will be constantly referenced as a justification for any and all peremptory decisions, regardless of other considerations.
The homelessness problem will also be leveraged, if there any homeless people still alive. Single family dwellings will be out and 'workforce' housing and multi-occupancy buildings will proliferate. Perhaps the quaintness of Front Street will be restored, but precious little else will look the same. I would expect the ocean-front dwellings to be replaced with resort hotels, or similar.
Green will never admit (or be forced to admit) the true death toll. That lie will simply hover in the ether, another chapter in The Great Pretending. The local population, who are in a tremendously vulnerable position by virtue of them being forced to rely on the state's largesse, will be (already are) cowed. The report of the 'independent' investigators will be a carefully crafted whitewash (delivered months down the line), which will avoid answering any of the important questions, will give all current office-holders a free pass, will contain 'learning' that will be implemented 'going forward', will lambaste the utility company without acknowledging the state's role in hamstringing its operations, but which the mainstream will, nonetheless, treat as holy writ, and Lahaina will limp into a digital future.
SMART technology will be ubiquitous; parking spaces for the residents, not so much. Green will put himself up for re-election; the police chief, Bissen and all the other ciphers will continue in post and leave as and when they please. There will be no reckoning. The world has already moved on, after all. And, let's face it, when has there ever been a reckoning for any other abomination inflicted upon the people?
The Fourth Estate will continue to do its bit. The contrast between media coverage of January 6th (when four people died, all of them Trump supporters) and the tragedy on Maui is stark. The mainstream cannot get enough of the 'insurrection' and neither can Biden; we're going to be bombarded with lies and propaganda about the riot incessantly for the next year. But news of Lahaina – there won't be a peep, unless its more Leftist propaganda.
It's a phenomenon that is being played out time and again – if nobody calls you out, you can get away with anything, no matter how egregious. An open southern border, constituting a de facto refusal to honor an oath of office? No problem. Three years in and neither Mayorkas nor Biden has been held to account and the border is still wide open. A judicial system that is patently two-tiered and a weaponized DoJ which targets Trump and his supporters, while dropping all charges against the Leftists who attacked the White House, prompting the Secret Service to take the president to the secure bunker? Not an issue. Carry on regardless.
An experimental gene therapy masquerading as a vaccine that the population is coerced (or mandated) into taking? Simply lie, lie again and then lie some more and rely on the mockingbird media to amplify your malfeasance uncritically. The same game is being played with Lahaina, only in reverse. The press is simply ignoring the story entirely, because they just can't go there. There are too many anomalies and too much blatant malfeasance. If they were going to do an honest job, they would have done so within the past five months. So, it's not going to happen now.
In some ways, it matters not whether the state commissioned the destruction of Lahaina, because they are equally culpable either way. If it was intentional which, to this writer at least, is the explanation that best fits the available evidence, then the fire may have gotten away from them. The AWOL emergency co-ordinator on Waikiki may not have known that the power was off, that the kids were home. It has that feel – it could be why Green is so desperate to conceal the deaths of all the children. While the plotters must have expected some collateral damage, the prime objective was surely the physical destruction of the town, not killing hundreds of kids.
Waikiki-man may have erroneously assumed that people had time to evacuate themselves, although that's a whole bunch of 'mays' that are mighty difficult to sustain. If it was simply willful neglect, then the state government and the local mayor played Russian roulette with the town over at least a decade, knowing that, at some point, the hammer would fall on a full chamber.
But it seems self evident that some of the fires were set. By 1500 hours, the power had been off for many hours, so how else could fires have started? And if some were started, are we then obliged to hold fast to the belief that the apparently extinguished Morning Fire that sparked into life after five hours was an act of God, instead? I'm not leaning in the direction of that explanation. It also seems curious that 8/8 was the only August day that witnessed multiple blazes across the island, thus stretching resources and reducing the likelihood that fires could be contained.
There is also the hugely suggestive backstory of Green and his green zealotry, the timing of the proclamation, of the passage of HB365 and the promotion of the SMART agenda; the razing of Lahaina has gifted him the means to break the impasse. Old Lahaina, a developer's black hole, is suddenly in play.
“Lahaina has been at the center of this because it has extremely valuable land (it’s at the center of Maui’s tourism district) and until 1842 was the capitol of the Hawaiian Kingdom. Because of its historical ties to the native Hawaiians (e.g., they consider it to be a sacred site and many parts of their cultural heritage were located there) many Hawaiian families had lived there for generations and were not willing to give their land up to developers.”(102)
Generally, I'm not big on coincidences and I'm not about to make an exception here. The whole affair stinks to high heaven and has all the hallmarks of the Left – impatience, arrogance, amorality, mendacity and utter shamelessness. I am of the view that Green will show himself to be chronically incapable of resisting temptation and the locals, for the most part, will be obliged to engage in a collective omerta and pretend that they don't know what happened, because the state governor will continue to deal himself a royal flush on every hand. The latest information is entirely unsurprising in that context, although I would probably swap out 'the Biden administration' and insert 'Governor Green':
“The Biden administration is actively helping the banks steal land from these people. Here’s where it stands: US government won’t allow insurance adjusters to take pictures of [sic] visit homes, so they can’t approve insurance payouts to people who lost homes. The city won’t approve a single permit so people can rebuild. The banks are still charging a mortgage, and people are falling behind and the banks are going to take possession of the land. Is this building back better?”(103)
Yes, it is. But Hawaiians are a proud and feisty people – they won't forgive and they certainly won't forget and, at some point, there will be payback. They may even finally rid themselves of the reflex that makes them vote Democrat at every election and give the other arm of the uniparty their turn at the trough. But, in the short to medium term, I suspect that they will be obliged to suck it up, to see their heritage sacrificed by a progressive sleeper agent from New York in the grip of an obsession, while the world turns a blind eye.
Citations
(1) https://expose-news.com/2023/08/17/what-the-media-wont-tell-you-about-the-maui-fires/
(2) https://www.reuters.com/graphics/HAWAII-WILDFIRES/DRIVERS/gdvzwwgwrpw/
(3) https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2023/08/2000-children-missing-lahaina-schools-two-weeks-after/
(6) https://www.wsj.com/us-news/climate-environment/hawaii-maui-fire-risks-plans-government-e883f3a3
(9) https://www.wsj.com/us-news/climate-environment/hawaii-maui-fire-risks-plans-government-e883f3a3
(14) https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2023/08/report-those-who-disobeyed-road-barricade-survived-maui/
(17) https://rumble.com/v3ag7nd-maui-fires-starting-location.html
(18) https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/what-really-happened-maui-i-dr-kathy-j-forti
(19) https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/study-shows-84-wildfires-caused-humans-180962315/
(20) https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-67382947
(21) https://expose-news.com/2023/08/17/what-the-media-wont-tell-you-about-the-maui-fires/
(22) https://www.zerohedge.com/weather/thanks-government-mauis-lahaina-fire-became-deadly-conflagration
(23) https://www.wsj.com/us-news/climate-environment/hawaii-maui-fire-risks-plans-government-e883f3a3
(27) https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-67382947
(28) https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/maui-officials-warned-lahaina-wildfires-2018-critics-rcna101515
(29) https://twitter.com/pnjaban/status/1693846474520719567
(32) https://edition.cnn.com/2019/02/08/us/hawaii-progressive-laws/index.html
(33) https://climate.hawaii.gov/hi-mitigation/goals-and-progress/
(34) https://usclimatealliance.org/
(35) https://climate.hawaii.gov/hi-mitigation/goals-and-progress/
(36) Ditto
(37) Ditto
(38) https://www.capitol.hawaii.gov/sessions/session2021/bills/SCR44_HD1_.htm
(39) https://energy.hawaii.gov/what-we-do/clean-energy-vision/decarbonization-strategy/
(40) https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/content/documents/Agenda21.pdf pg 8
(41) https://californiaglobe.com/fr/hawaii-governor-green-puppet-for-the-united-nations/
(44) https://www.auw.org/alice-frequently-asked-questions
(45) https://www.zillow.com/home-values/39319/lahaina-hi/
(46) https://uhero.hawaii.edu/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/TheHawaiiHousingFactbook.pdf
(47) https://www.forbes.com/advisor/mortgages/cost-of-living-by-state/
(48) https://www.civilbeat.org/2023/09/hawaii-has-been-facing-a-housing-crisis-for-generations/
(51) https://www.capitol.hawaii.gov/hrscurrent/Vol03_Ch0121-0200D/HRS0127A/HRS_0127A-0014.htm
(52) https://sierraclubhawaii.org/blog/sa-072323
(53) Ditto
(54) https://www.civilbeat.org/2023/09/hawaii-has-been-facing-a-housing-crisis-for-generations/
(55) https://sierraclubhawaii.org/blog/sa-072323
(59) https://www.civilbeat.org/2023/09/hawaii-governor-is-changing-course-on-his-sweeping-housing-order/
(61) https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2023/08/no-comment-after-hanging-beach-hours-joe-biden/
(62)
(63)
(64)
https://twitter.com/OKeefeMedia/status/1702473468338405566
(66) https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-66529890
(67) Ditto
(68) https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/sep/02/hawaii-fires-aid-fema-biden-maui-lahaina
(69) https://scrippsnews.com/stories/boats-in-maui-deliver-much-needed-supplies-to-those-in-need/
(70) https://mybaseguide.com/military-bases-in-hawaii
(71) https://nypost.com/2023/08/16/hawaii-locals-lash-out-against-bidens-visit-to-maui-after-wildfires/
(72) https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2023/09/politicians_still_lying_about_the_dead_in_lahaina.html
(75) https://www.mauinews.com/news/local-news/2022/04/neighbor-island-homelessness-up-slightly/
(76) https://www.cbsnews.com/news/lahaina-wildfire-victims-children-hawaii-governor-josh-green-maui/
(79) https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2023/12/lahaina_temporary_school_will_cost_537_million.html
(80)https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-66529890
(81)
https://twitter.com/JamesOKeefeIII/status/1702472782385140042
(83) https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2023/09/politicians_still_lying_about_the_dead_in_lahaina.html
(84) https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2023/09/you-cant-make-this-up-fewer-people-died/
(85) https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2023/11/hawaii_gov_green_lies_about_lahaina_deaths.html
(88) Ditto
(91) https://jbs.org/assets/pdf/Agenda21YouBookletMay2012.pdf
(94) https://scrippsnews.com/stories/what-is-the-plan-to-rebuild-lahaina/
(95) https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2023/09/politicians_still_lying_about_the_dead_in_lahaina.html
(97) https://www.nedo.go.jp/content/100864936.pdf
(98) https://events.govtech.com/Hawaii-Digital-Government-Summit.html
(100) Ditto
(102)
https://twitter.com/Travis_in_Flint/status/1745227825760674224
Figure 2 https://metro.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/SEI_167087485-ba2e.jpg?quality=90&strip=all
Figure 5 https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-67382947
Figure 10