TMT - Contested Case Hearing Status - Hilo

[punaticbychoice]

MarkP: Yes indeed.
Even a restored Hawaiian State (Kingdom or otherwise) will need income and economic activity.
OHA just attempting a ripoff operation?

[kalakoa]

Even a restored Hawaiian State (Kingdom or otherwise) will need income and economic activity.

No, I'm sure all subjects of the reconstituted Kingdom will work the land to provide food and shelter, just like they did in the pre-contact days.

[MarkP]

You mean they will welcome back the brutal caste system that existed, right? I find the image of every single one of the protesters lining up to be recognized as ali'i and no one in the commoner line amusing. Wonder how that conversation is gonna go.

[Guest]

I'm waiting for the 'protectors' to drag a dead horse into the proceedings. That is the level of serious discourse at this point.

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You can't fix Samsara.

[Eric1600]

Well the 2nd and 3rd hours were more interesting, but that was all I could bear watching. They actually had some redirection discussions, but mostly were trying to trap the environmental experts in some kind of redefinition revolving around the project site vs the observation management area. While they admit things will be harmed (endemic animals - bugs) they kept stressing there is mitigation for this to minimize any environmental damage. I don't see really how the outcome of this hearing will be much different. I read some of the testimony (some people wrote a long 20+ page thesis) but there's nothing really new in there that really suggests their right to practice their beliefs will be impaired or that the TMT itself will permanently harm anything.

[HereOnThePrimalEdge]

The protestors have filed a lot of motions, multiple times, trying to throw out everyone from UH to the judge to PUEO or just to delay everything. They've spent much less time trying to argue their position.

I'm not very familiar with courtroom proceedings, but I would think petitioners would devote themselves to presenting their strongest arguments to the judge. Anything else would be a distraction from their main point, and lessen the impact of that argument when made to the court. The judge and people in the courtroom are not Facebook supporters who will believe Protestors claims based only on belief.

Delay of the proceedings is not an argument, and when faced with presenting actual evidence petitioners are being asked to prove their claims:

* The TMT is too big (I thought it would be bigger, are you sure that string connected to the balloon is long enough?)

* It will interfere with our religion. How?

* The observatory will have dangerous military applications. Based on what?

We'll probably never know, but perhaps their attorney, Mr. Wurdeman, quit representing his clients not specifically to delay the proceedings, but because he just gave up on trying to get them to present credible arguments to the court.

Something is wrong, I know it, if I don't keep my attention on eternity. Mary Oliver

[punaticbychoice]

The whole whole position of the "protectors" is disingenuous and dishonest.
And Harry Kim's comments didn't help. Another panderer to ignorance and total irrationality.
Such resources that we have in the middle of the Pacific have to be developed and leveraged.
Discussions I have had with "protectors" and their allies and sympathizers, have been an impossible,
unfocused and irrational experience.
I and others don't want to pay the price that the "protectors" are willing to impose on ALL of us.

[Guest]

Some interesting video's being shared by BigIslandvideo.

http://www.bigislandvideonews.com/

[kalakoa]

I and others don't want to pay the price that the "protectors" are willing to impose on ALL of us.

I believe this requires relocation to a State with no natural resources of its own (eg, no oil), nor proximity to adjacent resources (eg, nobody wants to run an oil pipeline through it).

[punaticbychoice]

kalakoa:
But we're there already aren't we?