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    Locked Down by Politics, Not Pandemic

    Joan Wilder
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    Locked Down by Politics, Not Pandemic

    This week has been a series of dog-and-pony shows featuring the faces of Gov. David Ige, DOH Director Bruce Anderson (he who is not a medical doctor) Honolulu Mayor Kirk Caldwell and their pet dog, Council Member Joey Manahan. For stage props, they used and abused Lt. Gov. Josh Green and United States Surgeon General Jerome Adams, who has come to Hawaii to intercede amidst the rising surge of Covid-19 infections that threaten to overrun our tiny, little medical system.

    And here we are.

    Let me start this rant with recognition that the VERY FIRST order Ige enacted regarding the pandemic COVID-19 was to SUSPEND HAWAII’S OPEN GOVERNMENT law. As recently as this week, Ige’s office has declined to provide copies of communications about the coronavirus between his staff, the state’s DOH, the tourism industry and other businesses.

    It is now a documented fact that our government failed. We have reached a dangerous turning point in the fight against COVID-19. Our hospitals are on the verge of becoming overwhelmed with coronavirus cases. We have no effective contact tracing, we have a shortage of nurses and we have weak and ineffective leadership to steer us out of this pandemic.

    The US Surgeon General had to COME TO HAWAII to see that these failures cease; that the tools at hand are being meted out judiciously; that we have contact tracing, tracking, isolation, testing, PPEs and appropriate closures to curb the spread of this disease – BECAUSE GOV. IGE, DOH DIRECTOR ANDERSON AND OAHU MAYOR CALDWELL FAILED.

    We all knew that the closures were insane. You can go to the gym and the movies, but you get a $5,000 ticket for walking through the park. You can play golf but you can’t go to the beach. You can go to a public school (private schools had distance learning in place) and go to church services, but you can’t have more than five at dinner in a restaurant.

    As far as I can tell, you can still go to church services (thank you Pres. Trump for that avenue of contagion when online worked just as well), but on Thursday, the DOE finally acceded to extended “Learn from Home” orders through Oct. 2 after union members clamored for common sense.

    But it is the failure of government and the condescension and obfuscation by the mainstream Hawaii press and politicians that is breathtaking! I know I am not alone as I watch in jaw-dropping suspense for someone to put a hook around Anderson and his sidekick State Epidemiologist Sarah Park and pull them off the stage!

    Since the joining of HNN – Hawaii News Now – when three stations banded together to “save money” to produce news, our news outlets have become one voice. The once- bad-boy Civil Beat is now a mainstream media regular and with the struggling Star Advertiser they are lending their voices to the chorus. All are the same. All refuse to state the obvious. The Fifth Column is dead in Hawaii, unless you count the offbeat, like Hawaii Reporter.

    Here I can state without fear of breaking ranks that Hawaii’s residents have been ripped off. That $50 million that was supposed to be spent on tracking and tracing? Where did it go?

    The state auditor released a report on DOH contact tracing that is riveting. A report by KITV on the audit Thursday said that, “”Instead of cooperation and assistance, we encountered barriers, delays,” wrote State Auditor Leslie Kondo. The state auditor’s report described the same BS we have all seen as the state has failed and failed and failed again – to do the most basic things to stem the coronavirus.

    Here is a sample:

    During an August 18 interview, we asked the Health Director if the department makes arrangements for people who are unable to self-isolate or self-quarantine in their homes. He replied that, while the figure may vary day- to-day, around 40 individuals are residing in hotel rooms secured by DOH to accommodate those who were not able to self-isolate or self- quarantine at home. When we questioned the Health Director about the number of rooms that DOH had available to house so many people, he replied, “Believe it or not, for the cases we have, in the vast majority of cases, self-isolation or self- quarantine can be accomplished in the home.”

    But what people want to do may be contrary to what they can do. Assuming just 100 new cases per day and, on average, 2 close contacts per each person who tested positive, 300 people may be asked to self-isolate and self-quarantine each day. Over the course of 14 days, that’s 4,200 people who may be self-isolating and self- quarantining. We question the Health Director’s assumption that, out of such a large number of people, only about 40 people are unable to self- isolate or self-quarantine in their homes. And, if the average number of cases is more than 100 and/or the average number of close contacts is more than 2, the number of people who should be self-isolating and self-quarantining only raise more questions about the department’s ability to provide needed support services.

    The report shows a pattern of insanity that amounts to gambling with the public’s health as a career move:

    “We intended to report on DOH’s contact tracing process, primarily to filter through the varying, confusing, and often conflicting information and to provide a clearer, objective,
    and up-to-date understanding of the department’s efforts. However, instead of cooperation and assistance, we encountered barriers, delays, and ultimately were denied access to those responsible for leading the department’s contact tracing: theDisease Outbreak Control Division (DOCD) Chief and the Disease Investigation Branch (DIB) Chief, who recently took over that task. While the Health Director spoke with us, failing to respond to numerous requests until a few hours before the interview, he repeatedly directed us to speak with the DOCD Chief for answers to specific questions about the department’s contact tracing process. At the end of our discussion, the Director said he would ask the DOCD Chief to talk to us and would provide us with documents we had requested in multiple letters to him, including the department’s policies and procedures relating to contact tracing. However, the DOCD Chief did not contact us, and the Health Director did not provide the requested documents.”

    Did you see this on HNN Thursday? No. Did you see this in the Star Advertiser? No. Did you see this in your morning report on CB? No. It was on the outlier – as critical as this information is – KITV reported on it.

    Why Contact Tracing? Because it is effective. It informs the exposed they should isolate and get tested. It keeps the virus out of circulation. It curbs community spread, which is what is rampant now on Oahu.

    The CDC recommends that a “close contact,” defined as any individual who was within six feet of an infected person for at least 15 minutes, be notified of their exposure by phone, text, email, or in-person (if appropriate) in the primary language of the individual within 24 hours of the health department first obtaining information about a contact.

    That BASIC FUNDAMENTAL element has been totally absent from our local response by the state’s Department of Health to control the spread of the disease. Hence, people who are exposed and may be infected are wandering around as if nothing has happened, infecting others.

    Remember those warnings about venereal disease from high school? Every time you have unprotected sex you are exposing yourself to every partner your partner and his/her partner ever had… and such it is with every time you are in close contact with someone within six feet for fifteen minutes.

    One other thing – about that unemployment? Yeah. You got it. They moved all the people who were supposed to be getting you your unemployment out of the convention center and moved the contact tracers in their place. The department head quit. The whole shebang is run amuck and there is no one there again. What about that? And yes, Ige did decide that he was not going to attach that lifeline to add to those fortunate enough to get unemployment. He took it out of the budget in the hopes that the president will provide it instead. Nothing comes from Washington without steel strings attached, as we have seen with the PPP loans.Many of those who received PPP are being asked to pay it back – but their businesses have closed yet again – or they have had to close permanently. Now they are on the hook to the feds for a loan that was supposed to be forgiven. So yes, they kicked out the unemployment people without solving that problem and put the next problem, contact tracing, in there in a gesture of pure BS.

    Politics drives the anonymity of information, too. Why don’t they tell us which gym has a cluster, or which restaurant? Which unions or businesses do you think are influencing those decisions? The DOH certainly won’t call you and tell you that you’ve been exposed because there are no contact tracers. Politics.

    And what is Joey Manahan doing out there with Caldwell? He is Caldwell’s new pet dog, a hand-selected candidate for higher office, to follow Caldwell! Joey doesn’t have the most effected district.That distinction goes to Ewa Beach, Kym Pine. But Caldwell and Pine clash, so he selects his buddy, Manahan. Really? Politics? This is life or death! WTF?

    What Manahan does have is OCCC in his district. United Public Workers HGEA are calling for the resignation of Public safety Director Nolan Espinda after 242 prisoners and 51 staff have tested positive and the department took days to test the prisoners. It’s not clear if they have finished testing the whole population yet. The courts had to order them to release prisoners. Two staff members at the Women’s Community Correctional Center in Kailua tested positive, as well. This, because there was no guidance on safety measures and operating procedures and a lack of PPEs. “To this day, only vague generalities and Department of Health and CDC guidelines have been provided,” said HGEA ED Randy Perreira.

    It is downright ridiculous that our government has behaved this way. As UH Professor Ken Lawson (Facebook: FIND JOSH GREEN! MAYOR KOOKY KIRK’S CONFUSING COVID19 RESTRICTIONS) has pointed out, until Wednesday’s press conference, when Lt. Gov. Josh Green was present, LG was kept off the stage. For those whose heads may be in the sand, LG is likely to be the most popular candidate to take the governor’s office in two years. That means he will be in a race with Caldwell, who, believe it or not, thinks he is ordained to be the next governor.

    While most of us look at Caldwell askew and wonder how someone who has f-cked up things this much could ever imagine that he could be elected to higher office, Caldwell must think he can deflect the federal government’s involvement in the rail, the investigation of the Kealoha scandals and now this, the handling of COVID. We have the highest rate of infection per capita in the nation.

    Thank you very much, Mayor Caldwell.

    But this is why he kicked out LG again. He doesn’t want him to have any air time. And Green, being the gracious guy he is, soft petals his criticism of the administration. He seems to have pulled back from when he called for the removal of Anderson and Park.

    So, without any proof, but knowing LG as a proficient and meticulous professional emergency room physician, I wouldn’t have put it past him to have reached out into his professional community of fellow physicians, including the Surgeon General (again, DOH Director Bruce Anderson is a Ph.D. and not a medical doctor) to point out that we are about to see our hospitals overrun with COVID patients and the state is in dire need of help. With a scientist’s eyes, looking at the facts, no responsible person could possibly deny that we are in grave trouble here.

    While that is my unsupported presumption, it is also evident that the Mayor and the Governor could not have continued to ace Green out of the picture with the Surgeon General here, remaining to oversee the surge testing, the implementation of hiring contact tracers and the leasing of vacant hotels to house people who need to be in isolation.

    It should also be noted that, with the free testing at multiple sites throughout Oahu, residents have flocked to get tested in droves. They are literally standing in groups, lined up waiting for hours to get tested… another super-spreading event right there because of systemic mismanagement. After all, aren’t people there because they suspect they have been exposed or they are experiencing symptoms? So why are they allowing them to congregate?

    Stay home as much as you can. Wear a mask. Do not expose yourself to anyone. If you think you have been exposed, or feel ill, isolate and get tested. Be your own advocate and don’t trust the press or the government. DO WHAT YOU NEED TO DO TO KEEP YOUR FAMILY SAFE!

    These are tough times and thanks to politics, they just got a lot tougher.

    Learn how to run longer, further & better

    Guest Contributor
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    Learn how to run longer, further & better

    By Fabian Patterson

    There is this craze notion about running, that in order to run better you just need to do it a lot. Although, there’s truth to that. There’s more that goes into running than the motion of picking up and putting your feet down faster. Things such as body position, form, to rotate or when to not rotate the hip, also foot placement. Where should your feet be when running.

    To be precise, in order to run better you must first cultivate a good run form. So, without delay let’s jump into understanding what a good run form is.

    To fully understand this, we will break the body down from the head to the feet.

    With a good run form your head is neutral, sort of parallel to the ground. If you can see the horizon when you’re running this is one way to tell that your head is parallel to the ground. Neutrality releases tension in your neck. Another benefit of running with head parallel to the ground is that it prevents you from restricting your airway, which makes it a whole lot easier to breathe.

    Your coach, Fabian Patterson

    Moving on to the shoulders. Shoulder positioning is something that should be simple. But, shoulder positioning is one of the biggest mistakes people make when running. So many times, I see people running with their shoulders hunched over, only because this is their natural body position. However, we must understand that our lungs are located inside your rib cage, and running with rotated shoulders puts pressure on your chest cavities, which in turn restricts the full expansion of our lungs. So, it is imperative to practice and adapt running with your shoulders straight and back.

    Positioning of our hands is next on the focus. There are so many different techniques that are being taught, and honestly most of them aren’t wrong. However, when it comes to positioning our hands the best practice is whatever is comfortable for you. Given that your hands are always relaxed and free from tension.

    One way to achieve this is the egg method. Basically, closing your hands and gently placing the tip of your thumb. index and middle fingers together but, without applying pressure as if you were carrying an egg and not wanting it to break. You would also bend your elbows to the 90-degree position while allowing them to naturally swing back and forth.

    Fabian works with a a student on the finer points of running

    Next, hip position. There are two distinctive forms when it comes to hips positioning. One, is with no rotation and the other, you guessed it is with rotation. But first, no rotation means your hips are stable underneath your upper torso. This form is typical for long distance running. It allows you to conserve energy so that you can run further – longer.

    The second position is with rotation. This type of hip positioning when running is typically for shorter distance. This gives you the runner an extended range of motion, which allows you to cover more ground with faster left to right foot turnover.

    Heading down to the positioning of your feet. There are a few things to keep in mind for this. (1) Keeping your feet directly underneath your body is important, because it prevents you from over reaching with your stride.

    Let’s look at this closer. If you over extend one foot forward, this means the other foot is also over extended behind you, forcing you to waste energy to bring that foot back forward. (2) Keeping your feet directly underneath your body. If your feet stay directly underneath your body all you would then need to do is pick them up and put them directly back down without having to use more energy than needed.

    Practice is always part of the formula

    Now, you’re probably wondering if I’m picking my feet up and putting them back down in the same position how do I go forward? Well, that’s where the next body position comes into play. Leaning forward.

    When you lean forward gravity takes over and does what it does. You just then need to move your feet to prevent falling on your face. Which, your body will do automatically to prevent you from falling on your face. And in this instance, you will eliminate half the work that’s required to run. Remember, just lean forward and let gravity do the rest.

    Finally, and most important – breathing. I’ve heard so many different techniques for breathing from breathe through your nose only; breathe through your mouth only; you have to breathe in through your nose and out through your mouth; you have to take one breath every three steps and the list goes on.

    I don’t know about you but, all that just seems confusing. Breathing is actually simpler than that. It’s as simple as doing what’s comfortable for you. If you breathe better through your nose only, then do that. If you breathe better through your mouth only, then do that. The only way to run further, longer is to build up endurance to running. You won’t do it by conforming to some un-natural breathing technique.

    Where ever you live make running a part of your fitness regime

    Don’t get me wrong when running you do want to do your best to maintain somewhat of a steady in and out breath to prevent labored breathing. Labored breathing is the number one reason why most people get tired early into running, and once your body uses up the oxygen levels in your blood it’ll takes a while to build it back up and it won’t happen while running. Therefore, it’s important to understand, practice and adapt a good run form as it will undoubtedly make you a better runner.

    Fabian Patterson is a Certified Personal Trainer, Certified Nutritionist and owner of Change-iz Fitness a local personal training business located in the Kapolei area. For more information about this article, his business or anything fitness related please contact him via email changeizfitness@gmail.com or his website www.change-izfitness.com

    Photos by Captured Imagery

    Is Our Share of CARES Act Money Disappearing?

    Tom Yamachika
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    Is Our Share of CARES Act Money Disappearing?

    Two weeks ago in this space, we wrote about a generous genie known as Uncle Sam who is making available $1.25 billion under section 5001 of the CARES Act.  The catch is that the money can be used only to cover costs that (1) are necessary expenditures incurred due to COVID–19; (2) were not accounted for in the government’s budget when the CARES Act became law; and (3) were incurred between March 1 and December 30, 2020.

    We wondered out loud if several categories of moneys appropriated in the State’s recently passed budget bill, SB 126 (significant parts of which were line-item vetoed by the Governor) would be eligible for section 5001 federal money.

    Buried on the U.S. Treasury’s website is a document that provides several answers.  We certainly hope our lawmakers and government officials know about it – because having to forgo, or pay back, a bunch of that money is not going to be a happy thing.

    For example, Treasury says that we can spend our allotted dollars for actions taken to respond to the public health emergency, such as by addressing medical or public health needs, or by responding to the emergency’s effects, such as by providing economic support to those suffering from employment or business interruptions due to COVID-19-related business closures.  They say that these funds may not be used to fill shortfalls in government revenue to cover expenditures that would not otherwise qualify under the law.

    Treasury also says that for a cost to be incurred, the goods and services the money is spent on would need to be performed or delivered by December 30 (with payment up to 90 days later).  Put another way, although our state government usually considers a cost to be drawn against the budget for the year the money was contractually obligated, or “encumbered,” it is not sufficient if the money is encumbered before December 30.  The delivery or performance called for by the contract must occur before December 30.  It is okay if durable goods that are necessary to deal with COVID-19 are delivered before the end of the year even if those goods are not used before the year is out.

    Some examples of costs that won’t be reimbursed are:  (1) expenses for the State share of Medicaid; (2) damages covered by insurance; (3) payroll or benefits expenses for employees whose work duties are not substantially dedicated to mitigating or responding to the COVID-19 public health emergency; (4) expenses that have been or will be reimbursed under any federal program, such as reimbursement of contributions by States to State unemployment funds; (5) reimbursement to donors for donated items or services; (6) workforce bonuses other than hazard pay or overtime; (7) severance pay; and (8) legal settlements.

    After all that, do we have a better idea of what cost items to avoid?  Then, lawmakers, it’s time to come together and figure out how to use the genie’s largesse to do the most good.  Let’s not make the mistake of leaving tons of money in limbo land – or in some special fund, which would have the same effect on these dollars.

    The Abject Ridiculousness of the Left

    Frank Salvato
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    The Abject Ridiculousness of the Left

    House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (P-CA), who because of her decades in political office is getting pummeled by the AOC/Marxist youth-fringe of her party, is flailing at anything in an effort to find the message that sticks going into the 2020 General Election. Her attempt this week focuses on voter suppression.

    In a rare Saturday news conference, that obviously took her away from martini-time at the club, Pelosi floated this absurdity. From FOX News:

    “Now they say Trump is deploying more voter suppression tactics by suggesting he’ll send law enforcement to polling places to monitor the election.

    “‘Why would he do that, except to scare people off?…It’s in their playbook that they’ll have people intimidated to vote by having ICE agents … or other law enforcement there to instill fear in people as they show up,’ she said.”

    Of course, there is a gigantic problem with this, and it is two-fold.

    First, those who are legally registered to vote wouldn’t be intimidated by the presence of any type of law enforcement at a polling place. In fact, the overwhelming majority of voters would see it as a ballot security measure and welcome the presence.

    Second, the only people who are shopping the idea that people should fear law enforcement are the Marxists and Fascists who are literally burning down cities like Portland, Seattle, Minneapolis, Chicago, New York, etc. and their Progressive handlers who need that narrative to stick for ideologically motivated political purposes.

    In-depth examination of the statistics shows that the “Be Scared of the Police” movement is nothing but a narrative. There is no systemic racism in law enforcement, and, in fact, there are more racists in the Black Lives Matter and ANTIFA movements, because of their race-based ideology, than in any other demographic calculable.

    When a political party puts all their political capital into one avenue of attack against their opposition as the Progressives and Democrats did with impeachment, and that avenue fails, there is a panic to find a deflective narrative from their lack of accomplishment going into an election.

    There will be no voter suppression because there is law enforcement visible at polling places. That’s a flat out lie and Pelosi knows it. The only votes a police presence at the polls will suppress are the votes cast by people who don’t have the right to vote.

    And that’s a great thing for the country.

    Those Concerned About Education Are Missing a Golden Opportunity

    Frank Salvato
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    Those Concerned About Education Are Missing a Golden Opportunity

    The debate rages on. Do we open schools in the face of the threat COVID-19 poses or do we keep schools closed? There are compelling arguments on both sides of the issue and ones not strictly based in politics. But those concerned with the quality of education in the United States, and especially those who believe our educational institutions have become indoctrination mills, are viewing this debate with a stunning amount of short-sightedness.

    To say that the Progressive ideology is prevalent in our education system is to state the obvious. All you must do is utter a favorable statement about one of our nation’s Founders on any campus and you will be assailed as a heretic. “How can you glorify a slave owner,” you will almost instantly hear as you are pressured off the campus. Or bring up the name Christopher Columbus in any high school and you will immediately be confronted with the false narrative that he slaughtered legions of Native Americans. You will be castigated as a racist.

    The truth of the matter where both of those points are concerned is this. Our Founders, including Thomas Jefferson and John Adams – two of those who crafted the Declaration of Independence, were abolitionists and laid the groundwork for the United States to be one of the first countries in the world to abolish the slave trade (as an aside, the slave trade thrives in Asia, Africa, and the Middle East still today). Columbus? All this Italian explorer did was to unwittingly expose Native Americans to the same diseases that the Mongols unwittingly brought to Europe during their campaigns of conquest.

    But we don’t hear the full stories about these issues because our education system has become agendized politically to the ideological Left and in that realm the United States – and all Americans – are colonizing bastards who have sucked the wealth from every culture they have ever engaged. Never mind that the American Capitalist system created – created for the world – what we now recognize as the Middle Class; a way for people to break out of the class culture that before the American advent was impossible. Never mind that technology from the United States has revolutionized life for every person on the face of the planet. Ignore the medical, agricultural, engineering, and communication advances that the United States has brought to the world. As the Left believes it, we are horrible people who should be in a constant state of apology.

    And why do so many from Generation X to present think this way? They believe because that’s what they were taught in school.

    The Progressive movement, with a genesis circa the turn of the 20th Century, understood as fundamental that to erode the truth of what the United States has to hold they needed to change the narrative about the United States; from opportunity to hopelessness, freedom to oppression. To achieve that goal, they knew they had to capture both the education system and the media complex. Today, they have succeeded, and we are seeing the fruit from this poison tree.

    But from the ashes there is an opportunity for a phoenix to rise and this phoenix would be the recreation of the American education system courtesy of the Coronavirus.

    As the politicians and ideological activists disingenuously debate whether schools should re-open in the Fall, there is a gigantic opportunity for the private sector to destroy the union-owned, Progressive-captured, state-run education system. This opportunity won’t last long so those who love our country who have deep pockets might want to stow their megalomania for a bit and realize the two-fold opportunity presented by this moment in time.

    Never before have so many parents been exposed to the idea of home schooling and/or remote learning outside of a formal school setting. School children across the country have been out of the formal school system since Spring break of last year and many in several states face the prospect of continuing this existence.

    Never before have so many parents been in need of educational materials with which to engage their children. They are in need of easy-to-use albeit potent educational vehicles and curriculum that will allow them to both effectively educate their homebound children and execute their duties to either their households or employers or both.

    And, never before has there been a transformative moment in time when a need and a market were so obviously presented along with an opportunity for the private sector to achieve influence and wealth even as it did a tremendous public service in the immediate while saving the Republic for the future.

    The opportunity that presents is one in which a non-politicized, non-ideological, modular educational curriculum software is created. This easy-to-administer educational curriculum and software would, no doubt (and with the appropriate marketing) save our children from another quarter in which education was sacrificed to political opportunism. It would also super-charge the question of why we allow others to have control over our children’s education when we can more efficiently do so, at a fraction of the cost, and with a more desirable outcome: the institution of critical thinking skills without the indoctrination.

    After the pandemic sequestration is exhausted, this curriculum could continue to be executed either in the home (bolstering the numbers of the home school demographic) or be instituted at public libraries or learning annexes, administered by librarians and/or technical aids with a clear instruction aid only with the technical execution of the lessons via the software.

    By engaging one opportunity we eliminate:

    • The ideological indoctrination of our children
    • The stranglehold the school textbook industry has on the historical narrative
    • The radical influence the teachers’ unions have in politics
    • One of the more intrusive taxing bases in our tax bills

    By engaging one opportunity we achieve:

    • An education system that allows a student to succeed at his/her own pace
    • The independence of our education system from the tyranny of the minority
    • The reduction of education debt over a student’s lifetime
    • The preservation of history in a fact-based, unmanipulated manner
    • A new industry where costs will be mandated by product superiority and market-based competition

    Today’s “deep thinkers” and “deep pockets” of the political Right are missing an opportunity to set Progressivism back a century, but to date not one of them has had the vision or the courage to execute. One must wonder, with the immense level of wealth and influence that executing on this issue would achieve, why isn’t there a race to this market?

    It was once said to me back in my non-profit days, “No one invests in ideas anymore.” The more I contemplate that reality, the more I am delivered to this fact. That’s exactly what is wrong with our country today.

    Thousands infected, no contact tracing – and Ige calls senate visit “inappropriate”?

    Joan Wilder
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    Thousands infected, no contact tracing – and Ige calls senate visit “inappropriate”?

    UPDATE: Two days of press conferences and an announcement of further restrictions. From gathering of 10 to now, five. Ok. But nothing is being done. Today, Ige’s dog and pony show was about how they are using the convention center for contract tracing. Well, what happened to all the space they needed for the unemployment people? Ok. I guess they went away and now the stars of the show are the tracers that are not there. Bruce Anderson reported 126 contact tracers and 400 trained. So if 400 are trained, why aren’t they there? Is anyone else getting this disconnect?

    Questions were asked about where is LG Josh Green? What about him saying that Park isn’t fit for the position? That ended up being a major dance around the answer. We know. He would tell the truth, albeit diplomatically. But it would not match the lies coming out of the Governor’s and Mayor’s offices. This crap is literally killing people. Two more died today (Aug. 19). -JW

    In the Wall Street Journal (Monday, Aug. 17), there is a compelling article explaining how Chinese officials derailed their own CDC, failing to contain the outbreak of the COVID-19 virus that has sickened the world, because they were concerned about the poor publicity it would bring to Wuhan and to China.

    Party officials tried frantically to suppress information about the mystery illness, fearing it would hurt Wuhan’s carefully crafted public image and chances for national partyrecognition. They worried about an international sports event, an upcoming political conference and the millions of Chinese that would soon be traveling for New Year’s celebrations.

    Their behavior led to a world-wide pandemic that has crippled the world economy, sickened millions of people and caused untold economic damages across the globe. Nothing could have been worse.

    On a smaller scale, Hawaii is experiencing the same myopic behavior by our governor with the same results, albeit on a smaller scale.

    Residents of the state of Hawaii living on Oahu are, once again, pawns in the political games of muckity-mucks with their own agendas.

    It’s been a few weeks since we heard Lt. Gov. Josh Green call for new leadership at the Department of Health, stating that, “This job is too great” for State Epidemiologist Dr. Sarah Park.

    U.S. Rep. and former presidential candidate Tulsi Gabbard called for the resignation of Park and Health Director Bruce Anderson in April. By August, she was calling on Gov. David Ige to fire the duo.

    “This is your responsibility,” she told Ige. “Your Health Director is keeping hundreds of trained contact tracers ‘on the bench’ because he doesn’t think they’re needed. Meanwhile we have the highest infection rage in the nation. This is gross negligence. Anderson & Park need to go.”

    When Senators made a spontaneous visit to the DOH they found five tracers with hundreds of cases they could not possibly resolve in any meaningful time frame.

    Ige has defended the duo, reprimanding the senate saying their visit to DOH was “neither respectful nor appropriate.”

    Instead of admitting guilt in this grizzly case, where HUNDREDS, and now THOUSANDS of residents have become infected because we have no contact tracers, the governor sought to belittle the state senate and imply that the group were wandering around randomly. Indeed, Park herself had invited them. She was their tour guide.

    This failure of government is simply insane. The pair, Anderson and Park, simply lied to the public. We were told we had 100 contact tracers and hundreds more being trained. Though the 100 is not enough, clearly, it is better than five.

    Finally, the truth was out. We could see exactly what is actually going on and confirm what the evidence was telling us. Of the over 500 contact tracers recommended for a population our size, we had 5.

    In the video of the event, Park smugly said that she had to train people, which is what we, the public, had been told was going on all that time. She was dismissive of the senator’s questions, giving the impression she thought they were all morons.

    Maybe she is a micro-manager. Maybe she has an IQ so high that everyone is an imbecile. It doesn’t matter anymore. She failed.

    Anderson, by the way, is not a medical doctor. He has a Masters from Yale in public health and a Ph.D. in biomedical science from UH. This is the second time he has held this position.

    They lied and now, people are paying for those lies with their lives. The entire State of Hawaii will pay for it by lost jobs, a failed economy, the renewed blow to tourism, another lockdown, schools that won’t open and the list goes on.

    As we watch our hospitals filling up, medical staff becoming infected and our jails releasing criminals – we sit on the edge of a precipice that is defying gravity for the moment.

    But soon, we all know, there will be a new stay-at-home order that will drive the nail into the coffins of some of our most treasured businesses and service providers. The glimmer of hope we had in May has faded into memory. Bit by bit, we are losing what we had gained.

    Another hit to residents is the end of PPP, the end of the $600-up, the end of any substantial assistance from the Federal Government – and Ige’s insistence on dropping any additional Unemployment monies.

    Our governor has not made any provisions for the eventual end to the moratorium on evictions either. In other states, like California, they have fashioned a payback that allows renters and mortgage holders some flexibility and time in paying back rents and mortgages, guaranteed by the state. California is going further by adding to their unemployment to make up for the Congressional failure to make a deal.

    Perhaps the saddest headline is in today’s Star Advertiser – “No longer the safest place.”

    That is for sure. No longer safe.

    It is not just that people are not wearing masks, holding large gatherings and patronizing businesses that are open. That is surely where community spread happens. More importantly, it is that we do not have efficient contact tracing. Our testing turnaround is too long. Quarantine enforcement is poor. And most of all, we have officials in powerful positions who are lying to us who are being protected by other officials.

    The Doomsday Rules in the General Excise Tax

    Tom Yamachika
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    The Doomsday Rules in the General Excise Tax

    Now that the economy is down and tax revenues are in the tank, we are now seeing cases of our Department of Taxation using some particularly nasty provisions in the tax code.

    In 2010, lawmakers enacted Act 155, which the Department named the “General Excise Tax Protection Act.”

    The Act has two draconian provisions.  The first says that if you don’t file your GET annual return within a year after it’s due, you lose the benefit of all exemptions, deductions, and reduced rates.  This means, for example, that if I had wholesaling income of $1 million and didn’t file my annual return within a year after it was due, even though I paid the $5,000 in tax when it was due, I could now owe $40,000 more.

    The consequences are severe, but the idea is not new.  The federal tax code says that if you are a non-resident alien or a foreign company, you’re not entitled to take deductions, credits, or other tax benefits unless you file a return.  Federal regulations specify a “doomsday date” after which the tax benefits are disallowed.  The federal law has been around for a while so there are court cases as well as regulations and rulings giving us guidelines on when the full force of these provisions can be applied.  Not so with the state provision, which has been in existence only ten years.

    Indeed, one feature of the GET that isn’t found in the federal system is that periodic (monthly, quarterly, or semiannual) returns are required, with the same information called for in the annual returns, but the periodic returns don’t count for purposes of this doomsday provision.  Many states with a sales tax also require submitting detailed information with a periodic return, but no annual return is required in those states so some taxpayers are genuinely surprised to find that we have an annual return requirement with severe consequences in addition to the doomsday provision (for example, the statute of limitations never starts to run) if it is not followed.

    The second provision in the GET Protection Act says that if GET is owed by a business entity and the entity doesn’t pay it, the department can go after “responsible officials“ of the company, basically meaning anybody who could’ve signed a company check, and collect the tax as a personal debt of any of those individuals.  

    Again, the provision is harsh but is not new. The payroll tax has had a similar provision for decades.  So, the many precedents under payroll tax should be useful in giving us an idea of how this provision should be applied.

    Of special interest is the “willfulness” requirement.  It says that a company’s GET debt can’t fall upon you as an individual unless you made a conscious decision to pay another creditor before paying the State.  For example, if you paid the tax shown on the company returns and more was assessed later, you aren’t responsible to satisfy the assessment out of your personal assets — unless you, now knowing about the back tax assessment, then pay another bill (rent, electricity, etc.) while leaving the deficiencies unpaid.  Those with check signing authority could easily be put into a very tough situation if they don’t know how this law works.

    When the economy is down and cash is tight, businesses might be tempted to pay other priority items.  After all, if you don’t pay your taxes the water isn’t shut off, the lights don’t stop working, and the Internet connection doesn’t go dark.  (At least not right away.)  But, as we see here, the Department has some very scary tools to make sure that taxes keep getting paid.  The best we can do is know how the tools work and make sure they are being used responsibly and not arbitrarily.

    How We’re Going to Spend CARES Act Money

    Tom Yamachika
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    How We’re Going to Spend CARES Act Money

    Imagine what would happen if a genie came up to you and said, “Here’s a pot of money for you.  All you need to do is spend it by the end of the year.  If you don’t, whatever you haven’t spent will disappear.”  What would you do with it?

    Our State government just got that genie visit.  The genie is called Uncle Sam, and the pot of money contained $1.25 billion.  Our recently passed budget bill, SB 126, parceled it out – or tried to.

    The largest chunk of the money, around $560 million, was given to county governments.  Honolulu received about $387 million, the Big Island $80 million, Maui $67 million, and Kauai $29 million.

    Then, the Legislature called for $230 million to be spent on a State enhancement, or “plus-up,”to the weekly benefit to those now on unemployment.  The federal government’s extra $600 per week ran out at the end of July, and, as of press time, no deal was in place to extend the benefit.  The idea was for the State to kick in $100 per week from August 1 to December 31, but that won’t happen because Gov. Ige has line-item vetoed this appropriation.  According to the Governor’s office, he prefers to wait until the federal government reaches a deal on what to do on their end.  This reasoning, if true, would be strange because there is already a provision in the appropriation saying that the $100 per week isn’t payable if the federal government is kicking in more than $300 per week.  In the meantime, the unemployed need to survive without any plus-up at all.

    The bill appropriated $100 million to assist childcare, elderly care facilities, hospitals, small businesses, nonprofits, and schools in buying personal protective equipment.  The Hawaii Emergency Management Agency (HIEMA) is supposed to be on top of this program.  The Governor chopped the $100 million to $61 million.

    The bill also appropriated $100 million for a housing relief and resiliency program, administered through HHFDC.  There, the idea is to give assistance – 50% of rent payable up to $500 per month from August 1 to December 31 – to renters and homeowners impacted by COVID-19 and whose income level doesn’t exceed 100% of Area Median Income (which is about $101,600 for a family of four here).  The Governor slashed the $100 million to $50 million.

    The bill directed $90 million to the airports, specifically to augment airport screening and health assurance security initiatives.  On the Department of Transportation’s wish list is a thermal screening system, a Web-based traveler verification application, traveler verification rooms (sounds like interrogation rooms), a swab and testing facility, and a service contract for testing.  The Governor reduced the appropriation to $70 million.

    There are many other appropriations of lesser amounts.  Some of them were reduced.

    And, of course, there is a “slush fund” category.  $40 million is appropriated to the Governor’s office, supposedly to take care of any unanticipated needs.  That appropriation wasn’t reduced.

    Finally, there is a catch-all clause.  Any money appropriated but unspent as of December 28 is sent to the Unemployment Insurance trust fund, and hopefully that money will help soften the automatic increases in the unemployment taxes that otherwise are triggered at the end of the year, as we recently wrote about.  But a big question remains:  Are moneys dumped into the trust fund “necessary expenditures incurred” before the end of the year, within the meaning of section 5001 of the CARES Act?  If we can’t answer this question with a definitive “Yes,” we had better get some clarity from the federal government pronto, or risk having to pay that money back to the genie.  And the $366 million that was line-item vetoed is unappropriated money that won’t even be going to the trust fund.  Those dollars will be disappearing unless we do something about it ASAP.

    We don’t get a genie visit that often, so we had better make the best of it when it does happen.

    Unemployment Tax in the Nonprofit Sector

    Tom Yamachika
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    Unemployment Tax in the Nonprofit Sector

    Two weeks ago, in this space, we discussed the unemployment tax and insurance system and how employers are likely to be hit with a significant and automatic rate increase at the end of this year.

    For many nonprofit employers, the system works differently.  Tax-exempt 501(c)(3) charities (like the Tax Foundation of Hawaii) may “self-insure” against unemployment claims.  That means a nonprofit sector employer doesn’t need to pay the unemployment tax that for-profit employers need to pay, but if a nonprofit sector employee gets laid off and makes an unemployment claim that the State pays, the State bills the employer and doesn’t take the money out of its unemployment insurance trust fund.  Some of the larger nonprofits have cash reserves and can pay the bill.  Others buy unemployment insurance from insurance companies selling only to the nonprofit sector and find that their premiums are quite a bit less because they are not sharing losses with high-cost seasonal businesses.

    With employees in the nonprofit sector dropping like flies just as in the private sector, nonprofits have good news and bad news.  The good news is that the huge rate increase that is likely to hit at the end of the year won’t affect them.  The bad news is that they need to get out their checkbooks now to pay the unemployment claims that they are being charged with.

    One provision of the CARES Act, section 2103, is supposed to help with that situation.  It says that the federal government is going to cover half of the unemployment benefit costs that self-insured employers need to pay to the State for weeks of unemployment beginning on or after March 13, 2020 and ending on or before December 31, 2020.  But, according to the U.S. Department of Labor, the employer needs to pay DLIR first, the federal government reimburses half the cost, and then DLIR then repays or credits the employer for the federal money received.  (The CARES Act says that the state workforce agency can’t use the money for any purpose other than reimbursing the employers, so it can’t keep the money.)  The trouble is that these reimbursement processes “take a while,” and by the time the State receives the federal funds and gets around to repaying the nonprofit employer, the employer either may have closed for good or may be overwhelmed with penalties and interest if they couldn’t pay the full amount of the unemployment benefits when they were billed.

    When I spoke with the Employer Services Section at the DLIR, the good folks there were aware of the federal provision but hadn’t yet received guidance from their leadership on how the State was going to implement it.  (Translation:  They either haven’t figured out what to do or haven’t yet been convinced that they have to do anything.)

    I can’t help but wonder if the DLIR feels like it is being forced to do something it doesn’t want.  It’s certainly more work for DLIR to keep tabs on its self-insured employers, put together claims to the federal government, and then dole out the money to the employers when the federal money appears.  DLIR doesn’t get separately paid to do that.  And it does seem that they already have their hands full fighting the backlog on individual unemployment claimants.

    DLIR, please hang in there.  The public needs you and the nonprofits do too!

    6 Things You Never Knew Existed in Hawaii That Even Locals Scratch Their Heads Over

    Daniela Stolfi-Tow
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    6 Things You Never Knew Existed in Hawaii That Even Locals Scratch Their Heads Over

    If you think you know everything there is to know about Hawaii, you might want to think again.

    Blue Dragon

    1. Blue dragons

    These curious little creatures are known as Glaucus atlanticus and are quite beautiful. They are a sea slug that are rarely seen except during periods of on-shore winds which bring them in. They spend their entire lives drifting with the foot oriented toward the surface. They eat a variety of drifting prey including Portuguese man-o-war. They can actually absorb and store venom. If you think this guy is amazing, there’s another version that looks like Pikachu!

    2. Glass floats

    Glass floats are like hitting the jackpot for beach goers who find them on the shore.  They come in all sizes, as small as a lemon and as large as a beach ball.  The holy grail are the larger ones intact with rope netting, barnacles, even tiny little crabs. Most originated in Japan as early as the 1920’s because of its large deep sea fishing industry. They were used to keep fishing nets afloat. But when a float broke free, it would drift off on a long journey along Pacific surface currents, from Japan up to the Aleutians and down the West Coast. They have been washing ashore ever since.   You can buy them on eBay and in specialty stores ranging from $30-$3000!  Read more about them here.

    Photo: Patrick Ching

    3. Wallabies

    Yes WALLABIES! The brush-tailed wallabies normally from Australia that are similar to kangaroos. Someone in the early 1900s brought a pair to Oahu and they escaped. Since then, the marsupials have been reproducing in Kalihi Valley.Because they are elusive, hiding in the bushes most of the time, people rarely see them.

    Photo: Hawaii News Now

    4. Hummingbird Hawk Moth

    These guys are so fast, so most people don’t even know they exist.   If you are lucky you may spot one in Kaneohe or Moanaloa Valley. Hummingbird moths dart so quickly from flower to flower that you have to anticipate where they will be in order to photograph them. They behave much like bees, sucking on nectar.  These moths are also known as maile pilau hornworms after the host plant their catepillars prefer.

    By Charles J Sharp – Own work, from Sharp Photography, sharpphotography.co.uk, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=76891220

    5. Sea Aspargus

    This is also, known as sea beans, glasswort or samphire, is especiallypopular in Europe and widely used in the US market. The green ocean vegetable has a delicious crunchy, salty flavor. Nutritionally, it is an excellent source of vitamins and loaded with Dietary Fiber, Amino Acids, Minerals, and TMG, a super antioxidant that metabolizes homocysteine, an FDA approved treatment for cardiovascular disease. You can find it at local farmers markets and grocery stores in Hawaii.

    By Marco Schmidt [1] – Own work, CC BY-SA 2.5, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1516915

    Wholphin Sea Life Park Hawaii - Photographer: Daniela Stolfi

    6. Wholphin –  Part whale, part dolphin!

    Kekaimalu, the only Wholphin in the world, with long time pal Senior Trainer Keana Pugh. Kekaimalu was born at Sea Life Park. Her father was a 1000 pound whale and her mother an Atlantic Bottle nose dolphin. No one knows the life expectancy of a Wholphin since she is the only one in the world to survive over 20 years. In 2004 she gave birth to a calf. The pair has become part of the parks shows and educational programs and has been raised and trained since birth by Keana.

    By Daniela Stolfi- Tow – Sea Life Park Hawaii

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