PAHALA

60 years ago, for my first job, I became a sugar engineer with C. Brewer in Naalehu within Kau on the Big Island of Hawaii.  

• Next door 12 miles away was Pahala, where I found my wife, Pearl.  
• 34 miles further was The Volcanoes National Park.
• Hilo was another 22 miles (66 miles from Naalehu), and at my arrival in this southernmost point of the U.S., there was no television nor radio reception in these two sugar cities.  Not sure if there was any area in the continental USA where this was possible.  The reason was Mauna Loa, which blocked signals.  At night you could with the right equipment listen to some radio static.

About the history of this region, not  much happened in Kau until in 1868 when there was a 7.9 Richter quake which produced a tsunami devastating coastal villages, and five days later triggering a Mauna Loa eruption (yellow spot below), forming an 18-mile fissure, and fountains of 1000 feet, where lava entered the sea just northwest of South Point (black flow) .  This is partly why the entire coastline from South Point all the way north to the Puna region never developed, the only exception being an attempt near the Punaluu Black Sand Beach, where in 1971 C. Brewer built a golf course to start a resort.  Course closed in 2018.

Such a coincidence, but also in 1868 the Hutchinson (owner was Alexander Hutchinson) Sugar Company at Naalehu, where I got my first job, began operations.  

• The Volcano House first welcomed guests in 1877.  I have tended to stay there every decade or so for the past half a century.

• 
  Hawaiian Agricultural Company in Pahala also began producing sugar, but in 1880.  I worked there in the mid-1960's, and that photo of their hospital is where Pearl served as a nurse.
• A census of the labor population in 1884 showed 568 Chinese, 933 Portuguese, 116 other Caucasians and 1543 Hawaiians and part-Hawaiians.  476 Japanese laborers arrived in Kau by 1890.
• Hawaiian Ag's mill in 1890 was one of the two largest in the world, rivaled by one in Jamaica.

• 
  1906 saw the arrival of first Filipino workers.
• All told, eventually 140,457 came from Japan, 125,810 from the Philippines and 45,064 from China.  Portugal with 14,670 brought what became the ukulele, malasadas and ranching.  Interesting that 2,356 workers arrived from Russia and  110 were Blacks from the U.S.
• 
  Hawaiian Volcano Observatory was established in 1912 by Thomas Jaggar (right) of MIT as the first continuously monitored volcano.
• Kilauea Military Camp was established in 1915, and including me a couple of times, this facility, built as a rest/recreation site for the military with Navy cooking, has hosted American presidents and other world leaders.
• In 1916 the U.S. Congress established Volcanoes National Park.

• 
  The Volcano Golf Course opened for play in 1922.
• It was on 3 January 1993 when golfing there, the ground shook, and we saw only a few miles away fountains of lava.
• This became known as the Pu'u'o'o Eruption, which continuously vented for 35 years until 2018.  When the winds came from the Big Island, Honolulu was among the worst in the world for air pollution, many times exceeding the extreme of Delhi and Beijing.

The history of Naalehu and Pahala reflect the evolution of a sugar town in Hawaii, which sprouted throughout the major Hawaiian Islands.  The sociological make-up of Hawaii resulted from these sugar villages.  C. Brewer bought both plantations in 1910.  I left Hutch in 1968 and both companies in 1972 merged into the Kau Sugar Company.

I've written numerous times of our volcanoes, and a lot about Naalehu, for that is where I most lived in my 6 years of Kau life.  So today I'll focus on Pahala, which today has a population of around 1400.  Not much there to see, except sugar has become macadamia nuts and coffee.  Their signature attraction today is the Kau Coffee Mill tour.

Pahala is at an elevation of nearly 1000 feet.  The weather there can be confounding.  On 27 April 1931 the temperature reached 100 F in Pahala, the hottest ever recorded in the State of Hawaii.  You would think elevation brings cool.  The monthly record high of the town is 89 for June, but in the 90's for the other eleven months.  More expectedly, the monthly record low is 59 in August and 48 in December and January.

A very special record was set when sugar strikes occurred.  Because of the cooler weather at elevation, sugar cane, which normally has a two-year growth cycle in Hawaii, was kept in the field for four years, and subsequently broke the world record for most tons cane/acre.  Today, no more sugar in all of Kau and Hawaii.

Particularly troubling is a recent report released by the USGS Hawaiian Volcano Observatory that the number of earthquakes in the Pahala region has increased 70-fold since 2015.  Note in particular that the location is nearby where that cataclysmic 7.9 earthquake occurred in 1868.

This summer Helen Janiszewski of the University of Hawaii is leading a team to hike across this region and deploy seismic nodes to better understand why these quakes are occurring.  Many living in Kau anxiously await the results.  So do others on the Big Island.  One of my books looked closely at part of the Big Island falling into the sea, creating a mega-tsunami headed for Seattle, Anchorage or Los Angeles.   In 2018 I visited those sites,  leading me to re-focus my attention to Los Angeles.  This latest potential warning has now adjusted my thinking to Chile.

-

ETC

Ah, a three-day weekend.  Monday is July 4th, our 246th birthday.  A Capitol Fourth from the Mall starts at 8PM EDT on your PBS station.  I started working for the U.S. Senate in 1979 and went to the very first of this annual show, before the event was televised.  Well, actually this performance was cancelled in 2020 and 2021 because of this pandemic.  But it's back this year. 

On this absolutely sparkling Honolulu day I thought I'd just toss out interesting stuff I've been accumulating.  First, Japan is just about opening up to tourists with only tours these days, but you get 136 yen to the dollar today.  

• Two years ago the exchange rate was at 105, or our buck can get 23% more value these days.

• 
  After World War II the rate was fixed at 360 yen to the dollar to stabilize the Japanese economy.
• In 1995 the dollar hit a low of 80, but zoomed up to 144 in 1998, but crashed in one week from 136 to 112.
• So get ready to go back to Japan as soon as it truly opens, for who knows when the rate will shift, and how swiftly.

On June 13 the FDA approved Olumiant (Baricitinib) oral tablets to treat adult patients with severe Alopecia areata, a disorder that causes patchy baldness to 300,000,000 in the U.S. each year.

• About a third of trial patients achieved adequate scalp hair coverage.
• 5% of placebo patients did the same.  Notice how a placebo regularly helps by around 5% no matter what the trial?  There were all kinds of side effects that would give you pause.
• 
  You wonder how two sources can be so different, but Smithsonian indicated that the FDA approved its first drug to treat hair loss caused by Alopecia, but this report said half of 1200 patients grew hair back after a year, and after effects were mild.  The first study above was said to have around 350 patients.
• Olumiant, from Eli Lilly, was approved in 2018 for treatment of some forms of rheumatoid arthritis.

• 
  You also see ads for minoxidil (Rogaine), HairOmega, other supplements and special shampoos.
• The FDA in 1988 did approve certain formulations for minoxidil.
• From Consumer Reports:
• Normal to lose 150 hairs/day.
• In men, hormones called androgens cause strands to fall out too early.
• Thyroid problems can cause hair loss.
• 
  Minoxidil seems to work, especially together with Finasteride (Propecia, etc.).  But Finasteride can cause erectile dysfunction and birth defects.
• Spironoplactone (Aldactone) is a blood pressure drug, and is worth trying for women.  But has caused tumors in lab animals and can affect blood pressure and kidney function.

• 
  Platelet-rich plasma injections?  Maybe.
• Dietary supplement with high levels of Vitamin B biotin is questioned.
• What about low-level laser or light therapy.  Maybe.

I don't have this problem, but, apparently tampons are having a supply chain problem.  Why?

• Has to do with the standard excuses:  staff shortage, Omicron variant, transportation bottlenecks, the Ukraine War and rising cost of key raw materials.
• Proctor and Gamble (leading supplier) makers of Tampax products, says they are working 24/7 to meet this demand.
• Women blame men, for they typically run supply companies and have other priorities.
• 
  There are stigmas and taboos around menstruation, making it difficult to garner national attention.
• Advise NOT to resort to unsafe methods.
• Don't sweat it, as supply apparently seems to be gaining, but you can expect to pay a lot more.
• Go to Amazon, which sells 84 for $0.37 each at a total cost of $31 with free delivery.

The largest bacterium ever was found.  50 times larger than the previous largest, Thiomargarita magnifica is up to 0.4 inches long (1 centimeter).  

• First discovered as far back as 2009 in the shallow mangroves of Guadeloupe in the Caribbean as a eukayote, they did not realize until last month that it was a bacterium.
•  Turns out this one is a single long cell.
• Contains three times more genes than most bacteria.
• Robert Wadlow at just about 9 feet is the tallest person ever.  50 times longer would then be 450 feet.
• The largest animal to ever live is the Blue Whale, at only 90 feet long.
• A giant sequoia is less than 300 feet tall.
• Much longer than the common fruit fly.

In 2019 a bacterium, Shewanella oneidensis, that eats and breathes electricity was found in pools of hot water up to 200 F, like in Heart Lake Geyser Basin, Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming.  

• Could this bacterium be genetically engineered to eat pollution, converting toxic matter into useful electricity?
• This microorganism is also found in the deepest part of the ocean.

I can go on and on, but a good story to end with is that recent government UFO report that couldn't explain 143 of 144 sightings it examined.  The one they could identify was a deflating balloon.  Turns out the Chief Scientist for this congressionally-mandated study was astrophysicist and TV personality Travis Taylor.  The report is thus being discredited:

• Has previously made a bunch of extraordinary claims, like having seen more UFOs than I can count.

• 
  Taylor is associated with Ancient Aliens that promotes far-fetched UFO narratives.
• Mind you, he does have five degrees and published two academic textbooks and numerous peer-reviewed papers.
• However, a supernatural kook should not have taken such a role in that study, and the Federal government should not have released that report.

-

THE PERFECT POLITICAL STORM: Part 2 - The Trump Effect

      From Worldometer (new  COVID-19 deaths yesterday):

          DAY  USA  WORLD    Brazil    India    South Africa

June     9     1093     4732         1185        246       82

July    22      1205     7128         1293      1120     572

Aug    12      1504     6556        1242        835     130

Sept     9      1208      6222       1136       1168       82

Oct     21      1225      6849         571        703       85

Nov    25       2304    12025        620        518      118

Dec    30       3880    14748       1224       299      465

Jan     14       4142    15512        1151       189      712

Feb      3       4005    14265       1209       107      398

Mar      2       1989     9490        1726       110      194

April     6        906    11787         4211       631       37

May     4        853     13667        3025      3786     59 

June    1        287    10637         2346      3205      95

 July    7         251      8440        1595        817      411

Aug     4         656    10120        1118        532      423 

Sept   22      2228      9326          839        279     124

Oct      6       2102      8255          543       315       59

Nov    3        1436      7830         186        458       23

Dec     1       1633      8475          266        477       28

Jan     7        2025      6729         148         285     140

Feb     2        2990   12012          946        991      175

Mar     2        1778     7756          335         173       28 

Apr     1          439      4056         290          52        12

May    5          225      2404         151            ?        64 

June    2         216      1413         130          10        31 

           9          195      1526         148          24        24 

         15          305      1382         289          11        26

         22          390      1577         176          38        57

         29          326      1608         294          39        19

         30          228      1517         274          23        29

Summary:  Looking better.

Just when you thought the Supreme Court had done enough damage for a generation, they announced that at the end of this year, or in 2023 at the latest, they will take on a case that could bring victory to Donald Trump for the presidency in 2024.  What?  Read this.  Should you be worried about him?

Yesterday I provided the total package of why I think Democrats will add members to both houses of Congress on November 8.  The primary reason was, I said, the Trump-effect.  While he still could again become President of the USA on 5 November 2024, his influence over the next few months will be why the Republican Party will decline this year.  Here is a full profile as to why.

According to Mary Trump, the daughter of Donald Trump's older brother, her uncle practiced cheating as a way of life.  Regarding acceptance into Wharton from Too Much and Never Enough:  How My Family Created the World's Most Dangerous Man, Donald paid Joe Shapiro to take his SAT, and her father talked the admission person, a close friend, to admit his nephew.  Shapiro and Trump became golf buddies.

Cheating on taxes, his family, the American public and the Federal government, he was a sociopath who never accomplished anything worthy.  There is even a Wikipedia entry about Trumps legal affairs.  He as been involved in 3500 legal cases, involving contract disputes, defamation claims and sexual harassment.

From ABC News, the ten most common words describing Trump are:  "incompetent," "arrogant," "strong," "idiot," "egotistical," "ignorant," "great," "racist," "a------" and "narcissistic."  Amazingly enough, they missed LIAR, racist, misogynist, clown, and many more choice terms, like, for example:

...abhorrent, amoral, anti-democratic, arrogant, authoritarian, autocratic, avaricious, backward, base, benighted, bloated, blubbering, blundering, bogus, bombastic, boorish, bullying, bungling, cheap, childish, clownish, clueless, common, confused, conniving, corrupt, cowardly, crass, creepy, cretinous, criminal, crowing, crude, cruel, dangerous, delusional, demagogic, depraved, devious, dim, disgraceful, dishonest, disloyal, disreputable, dissembling, dog-whistling, doltish, dull, elitist, embarrassing, erratic, fascist, foolish, gauche, gluttonous, greedy, grudging, hate-filled, hateful, haughty, heedless, homophobic, humorless, hypocritical, idiotic, ignoble, ignominious, ignorant, immature, inarticulate, indolent, inept, inferior, insane, intemperate, irresponsible, kakistocratic, kleptocratic, laughable, loathsome, loud-mouthed, low-life, lying, mendacious, meretricious, monstrous, moronic, narcissistic, needy, oafish, odious, orange, outrageous, pampered, pandering, perverse, petty, predatory, puffed-up, racist, repulsive, rude, sanctimonious, semi-literate, senile, senseless, sexist, shady, shameless, sheltered, slimy, sluglike, sniveling, squeamish, stupid, swaggering, tacky, thick, thin-skinned, thuggish, toadying, transphobic, trashy, treasonous, twisted, ugly, unappealing, uncultured, uninformed, unprincipled, unread, unrefined, vain, venal, vicious, vile, and vulgar.

In 2017, his first year as President of the United States (PUS), he was already at the top of worst presidents since World War II:

In 2018 Canadians (left) compared Trump to Barack Obama.  About all-time worst U.S. president, in 2019 he was at #2 to James Buchanan.  In 2022, CSPAN upgraded him to only the fourth worst, to #1 James Buchanan, #2 Andrew Johnson and #3 Franklin Pierce.

I got a little carried away with the above, but all that is background for my spontaneous free stream of thought chronology taking Trump from November 2016 to today, borrowing from the House January 6 Committee hearings as necessary.

• Trump did not expect to be victorious in 2016.
• While Vladimir Putin's shenanigans no doubt helped the Donald prevail over Hillary, there just has to be something more in their past for him to play puppet to that despot.

• 
  Clearly, Trump's attitude and mismanagement messed up the U.S. response to the COVID-19 pandemic.  From avoiding mask-wearing to everything else but accelerating vaccine development.
• His advisors carefully warned him months before the 2020 presidential election that he was destined to lose.  They determined that Democrats tended to use mail-in ballots, while Republicans showed up on voting day, so Trump did everything possible to screw that up for Democrats.
• 
  Just in case, he set in motion a plan to use the U.S. House and state legislatures to control the electoral votes. 
• Went to bed on 3November2020 astonished that he had done it again and was victorious.  A few hours later I too went to bed, and I agonized that Biden was losing to Trump.
• True to predictions, though, the later counted mail-in votes gave a clear victory to Joe Biden.

• 
  So while on one hand Trump might have initially thought he had won, it was clear that he had lost, so followed through on his early plans for a coup to keep him in office.
• Was hoping that the courts would overturn a few states, and in any case felt confident that he would prevail to any judgment going to his Supreme Court.  This did not work, which internally stunned him.
• The killer blow was the letter signed by the 10 former secretaries of defense at the end of 2020, spearheaded by Dick Cheney to President Donald Trump, warning to the Department of Defense not not to participate in the electoral process.

• 
  Fortunately, General Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff had already earlier been embarrassed by the Bible incident of Trump, and was determined not to necessarily follow the required chain of command if the worst happened.  Trump thus knew he could not utilize the military to help overthrow the government.

• 
  So while all the above undermined the plan fashioned by John Eastman and Rudy Giuliani, Trump's team nevertheless had already coached the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers to attack the U.S. Capitol.  Some signal had to have been worked out earlier to cause mischief.

• 
  Trump's last hope was his lap dog Mike Pence on January 6.  However, in a phone call that morning, Pence showed uncommon resistance.
• So Trump's last ditch plan was to address a rally at the White House where he purposefully sent them to the Capitol to scare Pence.

• 
  Some say things just got out hand, but interesting that the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers, instigated by Trump, had left the White House at 10AM (Trump's address at the White House occurred at Noon), so by the time Trump ended his call to arms at 1PM, action was already beginning in the Capitol.
• At 2PM protesters broke windows and stormed into the Capitol.

• 
  The Senate went into recess at 2:20PM.
• At 2:24PM Trump tweeted, Mike Pence didn't have the courage to do what should have been done to protect our Country and Constitution.
• The Senate chamber was entered by the mob just before 3PM.

• 
  Trump supporters also began gathering around this time in Sacramento, Salem (a demonstration there went violent), Austin, Denver,  Minneapolis and other municipalities.
• President-elect Biden shortly after 4PM addressed the nation, calling on President Trump to defend the Constitution and end this siege.  
• So what does Trump do?  At 4:17PM he tweets to his supporters inside the Capitol and continued to encourage them.
• At 6:01PM Trump tweets again:

"These are the things and events that happen when a sacred landslide election victory is so unceremoniously & viciously stripped away from great patriots who have been badly & unfairly treated for so long. Go home with love & in peace. Remember this day forever!"

• 
  Facebook at 7PM removed Trump from using this platform.
• At 8PM Pence reopened the Senate after an absence of more than 6 hours.
• At 11:32PM the House and Senate resumed the joint session.
• At 3:42AM on January 7 Pence announced Biden's victory as the 46th president.

Will Donald Trump be indicted?  Almost surely, but primarily to maximize his notoriety in the late summer and early fall period.  Biden remains president no mater what happens on 8November2022.  For now, Democrats want to maximize the value to them of Trump weakening the Republican Party.  Of course the Party will remain mostly together, but just losing 10% of their votes and 20% of Independent votes in the general election will insure for a lot more Democratic House seats and several more Senate seats for the 2023 congressional year.

At this time, one Democrat strategy is to convict Trump to further taint him, for there is that matter of continuing our democracy, and the Republican Party cannot possibly be that imbecilic.  However, keep in mind that a convicted felon can still run for president.   All this becomes crucial if the Extreme Court does allow state legislatures to determine who will be the next president, for a Republican will then be inducted as president in January of 2025 because they hold a commanding lead in state legislative chambers (red is Republican):

The breakdown of chamber control after the November 2021 election is as follows:

•  36 chambers
•  62 chambers[1]
•   One chamber with power sharing between the parties

-