Governor mixes it up with typical complacency

It’s the last Sunday in June and time to “flASHback” on the month’s news that amused and confused:

>> Gov. David Ige is taking a leading role in fighting President Donald Trump on everything from travel bans to global warming to student loans. If this was a horror flick, it would be called “Pooh vs. Predator.”

>> Ige shrugged off the possibility that he’ll face opposition from his own Democratic Party in next year’s election. If he loses, he’ll just keep doing what he does now: pretend to be governor.

>> With legislators poised to cough up billions more to bail out Oahu rail, the city rail agency canceled an audit of project cost overruns after board member Ember Shinn argued it’s a waste to “figure out what we did wrong in the past.” Why learn from your mistakes when the Legislature rewards you for repeating them?

>> As the first rail cars were pushed onto the tracks for testing, Mayor Kirk Caldwell proclaimed, “We’re standing in what is the future of this island.” If that was technically true, he’d have worn swim fins.

>> Rail CEO Krishniah Murthy called it “a great day” as the rail cars were towed from Waipahu to West Loch, crowing, “This is like a child’s toys at Christmastime.” If only Santa Claus were paying for it.

>> The City Council granted Caldwell’s request for tax and fee increases on cars, parking and bus rides, which Caldwell refers to as “revenue enhancers.” As euphemisms go, revenue enhancers are in politics what a related profession knows as happy endings.

>> Caldwell turned a nice monthly profit for himself, receiving a 5 percent mayoral pay raise to $173,184 and cashing out $72,000 worth of stock from his moonlighting gig at Territorial Bancorp Inc. For him, revenue enhancement is a way of life.

>> Hawaii lawmakers are considering a futuristic plan to guarantee every resident a minimum income. The way it would work is everybody who is otherwise unemployable would get a seat in the Legislature.

>> Three of Hawaii’s eight long-delayed medical marijuana dispensaries have harvested crops and are ready to go, but are being set back by holdups in state testing. Are state honchos testing the goods personally?

>> University of Hawaii professor Camilo Mora said climate change will ultimately leave us “with a choice between bad and terrible.” How many reruns can we take of Clinton vs. Trump?

>> Hawaii’s most misspelled word in 2017, according to Google Trends, was “people.” We commonly confuse it with the word “me.”

And the quote of the month … from Ige about his critics: “It’s easy to charge ahead, it’s easy to spend money. It’s hard to spend it in the right way and in the right places.” Until he figures it out, we’ll just spend it all on rail.

Reach David Shapiro at volcanicash@gmail.com.