Life And Death In A Blue Sinecure
By Mitch Berg
Even the mainland media is covering the complaints about Hawaii’s government’s response to the wildfires that, as this is written, have killed nearly 100 people:
Residents of Lahaina, the historic former Hawaiian capital that became an inferno, criticized what they called inadequate warnings of the sudden firestorm and said they are now being left to fend for themselves in its wake.
“I feel like the citizens of this island have been called upon, maybe by a higher power, to actually help because no one else is helping,” said Kai Lenny, a professional surfer.
Hawaii Attorney General Anne Lopez (D) said her department will launch “a comprehensive review of critical decision-making and standing policies leading up to, during and after the wildfires.”
One thing government did do was prevent people from deterring the worst among us.
While rescue crews make their way across the island with water, food, and first aid, locals told Insider supply drops are being diverted and anguished residents are taking matters into their own hands.
“There’s some police presence. There’s some small military presence, but at night people are being robbed at gunpoint,” Matt Robb, co-owner of a Lahaina bar called The Dirty Monkey, said.
“People are raped and pillaged. I mean, they’re going through houses – and then by day it’s hunky dory. So where is the support? I don’t think our government and our leaders, at this point, know how to handle this or what to do.”
Reports of gunpoint robberies and supplies being hijacked are filtering out – which just can not be, as Hawaii has “comprehensive gun safety laws”.
August 14th, 2023 at 11:16 am
Things that make you go, Hmmm
🚨 Locals in Maui Were Refusing To Sell Their Land To The Elites 🚨
⚠️ The Part of The Island Mainly Destroyed By The Fires Was Prime Area Right Next To Lavish Mega-Mansions ⚠️
⚠️ Now, A Lot of Those Locals Are Forced To Sell Their Land and Many Tragically Died in The Flames ⚠️
Oprah Winfrey Has A Luxury Mansion in Maui; It’s Completely Fine
Jeff Bezos Has A Luxury Mansion in Maui; It’s Completely Fine
Lady Gaga Has A Luxury Mansion in Maui; It’s Completely Fine
Bill Gates Has A Luxury Mansion in Maui; It’s Completely Fine
Morgan Freeman Has A Luxury Mansion in Maui; It’s Completely Fine
Will Smith Has A Luxury Mansion in Maui; It’s Completely Fine
Julia Roberts Has A Luxury Mansion in Maui; It’s Completely Fine
HOW DID THE FIRE KNOW TO AVOID THE MOST EXPENSIVE MANSIONS?
August 14th, 2023 at 11:26 am
as jdm noted the locals in Lahaina were very resistant to efforts by Statestreet & Blackrock to buy up the business district, certainly this fire changes that dynamic.
It is worth noting that while the Kula fire missed Oprah’s 900+ acre estate it didn’t miss the adjacent properties that have refused to sell to her.
August 14th, 2023 at 11:32 am
Its also interesting to look at aerial views of the Maui burns and compare them with aerial views of CA & WA burns
August 14th, 2023 at 11:51 am
C’mon you conspiracy gooks! This is AGW at work, pure and simple. What else can it be? Fire sirens NEVER went off. Police were blocking the only road going in and out so residents could not do anything to help/salvage/etc. Nothing to see here… move along sheeople. Repeat after me: “We are from goobernment and we are here to help”.
August 14th, 2023 at 11:54 am
Another hmmm
Current Maui Police Chief John Pelletier was the incident commander during the Las Vegas massacre in 2017.
I’m sure it’s nothing.
August 14th, 2023 at 12:07 pm
Clearly, not only did Maui Emergency Management not believe fire was an issue, placing it tenth out of ten disasters that could occur, Fire Departments were not trained in Wildland fire mitigation and fighting tactics or have the equipment to fight wildfires. They had 65 firefighters across three islands and only 13 fire trucks and two ladder trucks with no Wildland vehicles. Needed vehicles and other emergency equipment could have been obtained from Federal Government Grants and volunteer firefighters and Civilian Emergency Response Teams (CERT) could have been recruited and trained.
Sounding sirens would not have helped, as no one in town would have known what to do, as they had not been trained over time on what to do if they hear the sirens. They would have thought a hurricane was coming or something else that could be prepared for. A different tone to the sirens would have needed to be employed, so people would know the problem was immediate. Mock events should have been conducted and advertised with civilians involved, so how to respond would have been better known.
I was there several months ago and it looked like a disaster waiting to happen, with tall, dry grass high on the hills with normal winds coming from the northeast and high fuel loads in town (trees, bushes, wooden buildings tightly packed together) with little open space once one got into town. If you look at the burn areas in town, the fire stopped east and west when it hit canals/drainage ditches where there were existing breaks where there was no fuel. Rebuilding the town will need to take into account how to mitigate Wildfires.
August 14th, 2023 at 12:16 pm
“Rebuilding the town will need to take into account how to mitigate Wildfires.”
No, no! That’s exactly the wrong approach.
Wildfires are Mother Nature’s way of cleansing the Earth, of renewing its life-giving force. We need to Stop development to give the planet room to breathe. No rebuilding, at all.
The fact that only the super-rich who own giant mansions will be left, the area devoid of low-rent riff-raff, is entirely coincidenal.
August 14th, 2023 at 12:21 pm
One of the buildings burned was Fleetwoods on Front Street — the restaurant and bar owned by Mick Fleetwood (who lives on Maui). It had a lovely rooftop terrace bar where one could look back at the West Maui Mountains, or out to sea. At sunset, with a cocktail in hand, one was “serenaded” by a bagpiper who would pipe the setting of the sun. This and many other venues, shops, livelihoods and homes have all been destroyed. Memories will live on, but all the people there need help and support.
August 14th, 2023 at 12:29 pm
In addition to jdm’s list of elites we are now informed that known depraved pedophile Emery frequents the island paradise and has a plan for fixing things
August 14th, 2023 at 12:39 pm
” . . . but all the people there need help and support.” Again, no! That’s exactly wrong.
Look up the term “moral hazard” (don’t panic, it has nothing to do with morals as in right-and-wrong, it is an economic principle concerning consequences of your own actions).
If people who built on flood plains get flooded out, government’s the proper response is to shrug and say, “Well, that’s what you get. We warned you it was a flood plain. We’re not paying you to repeat your mistake by rebuilding there.”
Same here. Build in a wildfire area, get burned out, not government’s problem.
Now, if you want to dig into your own pockets, Emery Collective, and donate money to help one of the most successful rock musicians of all time rebuild his restaurant, that’s entirely your business. Just keep your hands out of my pocket.
August 14th, 2023 at 12:43 pm
Emery, OK, you’ve got a town surrounded by super dry tallgrass, and nobody figures out it could be a fire hazard? Why not?
I don’t know that it was corruption per se, but there is a set of questions that we ought to be answering. It might be that the big mansions had staffs who saw the risk and acted accordingly (that’s what I’d expect of my staff if I owned such a thing), but even that raises the question “OK, we like the town, too, so why wasn’t anything communicated to local disaster planners?”
August 14th, 2023 at 1:00 pm
Wait for the investigations to be complete. Hawaii is politically organized like no other state. Everything is done at the state and county level, not the city or town level. Lahaina is a tourist mecca, but the seat of Maui County is Kahului, on the opposite (wet) side of the island.
All of the Hawaiian islands are disasters waiting to happen. The threats come from earthquakes, fires, floods and hurricanes. Also military attack. They’ve been very lucky for a very long time.
August 14th, 2023 at 1:02 pm
Hawaiian urban renewal, as old as Nero.
August 14th, 2023 at 1:03 pm
Re the raping and pillaging, look for the Blue response to be the same as Katrina: round up all the registered hand-guns, rather than the thugs.
August 14th, 2023 at 1:17 pm
The Hawaii state government absolutely hates guns in private hands. There is no commercial shooting range on the Big Island (or there wasn’t three years ago). I knew some guys who bought some ranch land and set up a private range in Kohala, and just about every time they had a meet, the cops would show up, search cars and people, double check everyone’s paperwork, and if their was the slightest doubt that all the paperwork was in perfect condition, their gun was was confiscated never to be seen again.
I had a friend who moved to the big island from Cali. He took a cowboy carbine with him (legal). Someone saw it in his house, on a gun rack, called the cops. He got hit with a felony charge for not registering it in the state of Hawaii within the allowed time.
August 14th, 2023 at 1:23 pm
Lol, there are a lot of hunters on the Big Island & they need to sight in their guns, so the police sort of unofficially set aside an area off of saddle road (mile marker 18, IIRC) for hunters to sight in their weapons. But you had to have not only a hunting license to use it, you had to be “actively hunting,” which was interpreted by the cops to mean that you had to have a dog with you. Any dog. A Chihuahua would do.
August 14th, 2023 at 2:03 pm
This wildfire is a direct result of landowners and homeowners planting Fountain grass on lava fields — it is one of the few plants which can be established on dried lava and while it transforms a barren landscape into an attractive meadow, it also transforms a former fire break into a fire corridor. Fountain grass and other non-native invasive species now cover over 1 Million Acres.
This 2021 report from Maui County says the spread of non-native grass contributes to wildfire risk.
https://www.mauicounty.gov/DocumentCenter/View/129493/Report-on-Wildfire-Prevention–Cost-Recovery-on-Maui—Part-1-Report–Exhibits-A-B-33-MB
August 14th, 2023 at 2:14 pm
gosh emery, for an acknowledged depraved pedophile you sure are an expert in a lot of subjects
would you mind sharing your CV?
August 14th, 2023 at 2:36 pm
King: “Everyone said it was daft to build a castle in a swamp but I built it anyway. It sank into the swamp. So, I built another one. It sank into the swamp. I built a third one. It burned down, fell over, and sank into the swamp.”
Emery Collective: You must all pay higher taxes so I can give him money to rebuild.
August 14th, 2023 at 2:44 pm
The Vultures are already swooping in trying to buy up Maui property before the bodies are cold
August 14th, 2023 at 3:17 pm
It will be interesting to compare how a Democrat governor responds to a disaster (Hawaii wildfire) versus a Republican governor did (DeSantis hurricane).
Early signs are not looking good for Hawaiians.
August 14th, 2023 at 4:16 pm
^ Big, if the media doesn’t report on how the HI governor responds doesn’t that mean it’s all good? You know, no news is good news.
I mean, Biden set the tone with his “No comment” when asked about the fires. The DemoCommies will just no-comment those fires until ‘mericans lose interest. 10, 9, 8,….
August 14th, 2023 at 4:21 pm
Or create a distraction. Like this. Pure genius.
August 14th, 2023 at 5:43 pm
The government of Hawaii is so corrupt and incompetent, the idea that they could carry off a conspiracy to burn Lahaina (which will cost Maui county millions in RE taxes) is laughable. Be real. Historically, extensive extensive seasonal wild fires have been the norm both in Hawaii and the continental US. Lack of wildfires is an artifact of modernity.
August 14th, 2023 at 5:47 pm
jdm – and people wonder why Affirmative Action Hire is a stereotype for Raging Incompetent
August 14th, 2023 at 5:54 pm
“Disaster relief plane flies over Hawaii on way to Ukraine..”
America’s newspaper of record
August 14th, 2023 at 8:11 pm
the idea that they could carry off a conspiracy […] is laughable
I think that’s fair, but they just have to agree to get out of the way of those who can.
Maui fire survivors describe nighttime looting and rerouted supply drops as they say local leadership botches emergency response. Just stay outta the way.
August 14th, 2023 at 8:25 pm
Btw, conspiracy theories have historically been fun to imagine… right up until the present where they all seem to be coming true.
August 14th, 2023 at 8:47 pm
JDM, they couldn’t even get out of the way properly.
Every local firehouse has a political “fireman” whose job is to make the rest of rest of the guys donate the max the can to the approved candidate for state governor / county mayor / local councilman, and host fundraisers for the right candidates. This leads to these political operatives, who rightly understand that their job is not to be a fireman, but to engage in hijinx because they are politically protected. Hawaii government is incredibly corrupt. It is baked into the cake. Today that government is Democrat, but until statehood (1959) it was all Republicans and it was still corrupt. read Land and power in Hawaii (Cooper and Daws, 1990) If you want to know why Hawaii is one party corrupt state.
August 14th, 2023 at 8:54 pm
The best example I can think of to explain Hawaii politics is Oracle’s Larry Ellison purchasing the entire Island of Lanai about 15 years ago. lanai is a small island, part of Maui County, with a population of about 4,000 people. Ellison had to deal with the management of the only resort on lanai, as well as the union that served the resort.
The head of resort management and the head of the union were cousins.
August 14th, 2023 at 8:59 pm
“Government is so stupid that they can’t even tell that a dead person can’t request his own death certificate.”
–Also–
“Government is so wicked it can use space lasers to burn Lahaina to the ground so Black Rock can buy Maui land for cheap.”
August 15th, 2023 at 4:18 am
[…] Shark Tank: Frost Whines Suspension Of Worrell Is “Fascism” Shot In The Dark: Life & Death In A Blue Sinecure, also, Their Best Interests This Ain’t Hell: “Oh, My Stars, My Linda’s Gone to Mars” […]
August 16th, 2023 at 9:23 am
Islands tell their own story. They have been described before as a mass of land surrounded by advice. An apt description in this tragic instance. A forest fire on an island is like a fire on a boat on a larger scale. The problem is ultimately the same. Nowhere to run. The rule at sea is to never get into a life raft unless you have to step up into it. Up until that point you are always safer on the distressed vessel. The one exception being fire, in which case you get everybody into life rafts or the water immediately. Further, it is a rule of firefighting to never put yourself into a situation there is no escape from. A fire fighter is not allowed to become a casualty themselves.
August 16th, 2023 at 9:39 am
Regarding getting into the life raft, by the time most ships are down to the gunwales, they’re at serious risk for flipping over and trapping everyone inside as they sink. Emery, if you ever go to see, encourage you to change your source of emergency advice. You leave the ship when it becomes apparent that the ship will not continue floating, not when it’s already half sunk.
August 16th, 2023 at 1:20 pm
Here’s a bit more about this: the meadows that burned ferociously were significantly state land, and yes, local officials were indeed warned about the issue.
https://mises.org/wire/thanks-government-mauis-lahaina-fire-became-deadly-conflagration
August 16th, 2023 at 9:57 pm
Looks like once again I am proven correct. The person directing Maui’s emergency services was a political appointee with no education or experience in disaster management. He had a political science & law degree. Typical Hawaiian bullshit. But they keep getting voted back in, year after year, decade after decade.
This is your future, America. Get used to it.
August 17th, 2023 at 10:58 am
If insurance companies, underwriters and investors finally start thinking seriously about the negative economic consequences of climate change, and pricing accordingly, then there suddenly becomes the incentive for taking the sort of expensive action on climate that is required.
Trust the Actuaries to be doing serious thinking.
Though it isn’t surprising they are onto this since they are numerate, usually scientifically literate, curious and spend much of their time their lives looking far beyond the end of their noses. The insurance companies are the canary in the coal mine.
August 17th, 2023 at 2:47 pm
If Insurance companies, underwriters, and investors finally start thinking seriously about the negative economic consequences of rogue governments and pricing accordingly, then there suddenly is an incentive for taking the sort of cost effective action against rogue governments that is required.
FIFY, Emery. The fires started on government land, were aided and abetted by government established utility monopolies that didn’t upgrade power distribution for wildfire zones, warning was withheld because the government didn’t operate the sirens, and then the consequences were far worse because government officials withheld water that could have been used to put the fires out.
That’s a lot of damned blood on the government’s hands, and it has nothing to do with climate change.
August 17th, 2023 at 9:58 pm
US grid operator haven’t invested in their assets for 40 years. The US transformer fleet has already an average age far its expected lifetime. The wildfire looks to be a policy failure.
August 18th, 2023 at 9:47 am
Oh, no, Emery, you were arguing that the problem was climate change. So climate change prevented grid operators from improving their operations?
No, it was, again, government at play. In places where goverment gets out of the way and takes care of power reliability, there have been a lot of improvements in the past 40 years.
August 18th, 2023 at 4:40 pm
Now for someone trying to help, look at Minnesota’s own Hormel Foods, which is sending five truckloads of SPAM there for relief.
August 19th, 2023 at 12:26 pm
BB — They call it climate change, not local weather.
Have any of the naysayers noticed yet another smoky week here in Minnesota caused by fires in northern Canada due to extremely dry and hot conditions?
Florida ocean records reached unprecedented temperatures similar to a hot tub.
The 90-100F ocean temperature readings add to previous warnings over warming water putting marine life and ecosystems (and US) in peril. But let’s just keep changing the subject and ignoring it because our weather here still gets cold in the winter… My favorite “the climate has always been changing” still holds. Nothing compares to when earth was a glowing ball of molten metals.