101 thoughts on “As Heads Roll + No Hawaii Travel In Sight, Now What?”

  1. My wife and I thinking about visiting our son in Kapolei in Oct. We are both 73 are worried about covid 19. Given what is going on in Hawaii should be concerned? We stay at his house don’t venture out much.

  2. Please watch Mel Rapozo and Charlie Iona on FB M-Sa at 7 pm for conversations with doctors, legislators, and others concerning/relating to the pandemic. Last night Josh Green expresses optimism about opening sooner rather than later because cheap tests are coming soon. Past videos are on Mel’s YouTube page.

  3. So, yeah, though the state and counties refuse to actually accept or acknowledge their guilt and complicity in the complete and utter failure that has so far been Hawaii’s COVID19 response, we can certainly piece it together from the tea leaves on the side of the cup. And that’s a huge part of the problem STILL–continued denial and complete lack of accountability at the highest levels of state and county government. Which leads to the obvious question: Is there NO ONE–in the ENTIRE State of Hawaii bureaucracy–that is competent? The virus has simply exposed the extreme incompetence and unprofessionalism of one or two key departments–but surely the rot is obvious from top to bottom. (The so-called light rail project is a prime example as well.)

    And that begs the question–if everyone at the top “resigns”, gets fired–or is allowed to retire in shame and guilt–who is left to run things? The governor is clearly one of the least competent members of the current administration–but how do we get HIM out of office if he won’t go quietly himself?

    I was hiking along the Ala Kahakai National Historic Trail near Kawaihae last night with a woman who works at the 4 Seasons Resort and she said something like “I think the islands will be reopened to tourism by December 1 and I’ll be able to go back to work,” and I replied (incredulously)–“Really? Based on what? There’s no testing system in place and new cases have been surging for weeks–what makes you think any of that is going to change in the next 60 days???” She–and apparently the government as well–has this idea that things are going to magically change for the better on their own. But change can’t happen without competent PEOPLE–doing competent things. And we simply do have any competent people working for the State of Hawaii right now.

    I told her what I’ve told everyone else: tourism will not return to Hawaii and the state will not “re-open” without a vaccine. Period. Which means sometime in 2021. Maybe.

  4. Another issue to come up soon is higher property taxes for those who own and rent out their condo. On Maui you pay 4 to 5 times more to Maui County in property taxes if you rent unit out during the year compared to it being owner occupied. As we get closer to end of year, property owners can appeal to have a different tax classification. Why pay the higher tax rate if you can not rent out your unit? Just asking.

  5. Wait, there is no mandatory mask policy in Hawaii? We will be waiting for a very, very long time for travel to return to Hawaii if people are not doing the basic things to decrease the spread of Covid 19.

  6. I wonder what it would cost to hire PM, Jacinda Ardern of NZ to come over and fix us. Look forward to seeing if anyone in the Hawaii government has reached out to Abbot labs regarding the $5, 15 minute test that will work similarly to a pregnancy test.

    1. She would fail miserably. too many people in this country are too selfish to do what needs to be done and what they did in NZ.

  7. It seems as though the entire state government is being run by high school Junior Achievement students. No real leadership anywhere. Even when a vaccine is ready, it will be years before COVID it may be eliminated. That’s the nature of the beast. We all must learn and plan accordingly. Hawai’i can not hide from it forever. New leadership at every level is needed there to open the economy and have the situation under control. So sad right now. Nevada economy is booming with great leadership. Hawai’i could take note.

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