Quote
Bart Dame's Comments:


Bart Dame
Some of these comments here are so completely disingenuous, posted by people who know Kainoa Penaroza very well. Penaroza has been appointed despite his lack of qualifications for the job exactly because he is "an insider," having grown up in the same secretive cult as Tulsi and some of the people posting here:

Scroll down to the third entry on this webpage, filled with postings by former members of the Science of Identity cult:

[forum.culteducation.com]

My quote in the article reflects my genuine surprise that Tulsi, after having brought top-notch professional people into her operation as Chief of Staff, first Amy Asselbaye and then Jessica Vanden Berg, would forsake professionals in order to hire from the tiny pool of kids she grew up with inside the cult.

The chief of staff is an incredibly difficult job and requires a level of competence this kid does not have. OK, she can feel comfortable talking with him not having to worry that her secret past life will become revealed, but what about her obligation to provide service to the people of Hawaii and functioning as a working congresswoman rather than just as a globe-trotting celebrity, darling of the media?

I have been asking, very publicly, why David Ige thinks Carleton Ching is qualified to run the DLNR despite his lack of background in protecting natural resources. The answer appears to be, Ching has a background in business and land development which Ige sees as more important than preservation of nature or historic sites.

Similarly, Kainoa Penaroza has not background in understanding the congressional legislative process and is clearly unqualified for this job by commonsense criteria. But Tulsi thinks his background growing up sharing the same secrets and mantras is more important than the core mission of running a congressional office. The Carleton Ching appointment should be opposed. But so should the Kainoa Penaroza appointment. Neither is qualified for the job taxpayer money is being asked to fund.

Kainoa IS "an insider." That's exactly why he got the job. What is better for the people of Hawaii, having an experienced political hand as Tulsi's Chief of Staff or a cult insider get a high-paying job? It really is a kind of "nepotism" at work here, a form of corruption whereby people unqualified for a job get it through their personal connection to the elected official. There is nothing "new and refreshing" about old-style nepotism. "Meet the new boss, same as the old boss."
Like · Reply · 16 · Feb 25, 2015 8:51pm · Edited

Greg Harris ·
Honolulu, Hawaii
Civil Beat/Bart Dame Hinduphobia: “Let's get Tulsi, she's of the wrong religion.” Every time I read Bart Dame's hateful, bigoted comments, I feel like I need to take a bath.
Like · Reply · 11 · Feb 25, 2015 8:59pm

Jan Mitchell ·
School Of Communication Electronics
Bart Dame has now moved from "chief anti-Tulsi bigoted" commentator, to an official Civil Beat "political observer." It must have been his latest anti-Hindu tirades on Civil Beat's previous smear article on Tulsi that convinced the Civil Beat staff of his main "qualification" --an undying, unreasonable, phobia and hatred of Tulsi and her religion.
Like · Reply · 11 · Feb 25, 2015 9:20pm

Bart Dame
Greg Harris, your posts are predictable. There is nothing "Hinduphobic" about my comments. I think some variants within the Hindu tradition are a source of great wisdom. But the cartoonish pop Hinduism of Chris Butler's Hare Krishna cult, now in alignment with the nasty rightwing communal bigotry of Narenda Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party in India, are worth exposing to public scrutiny and, yes, ridicule, where appropriate.

I know Chris, I know his family. That you folks can take Chris Butler, the Kailua surfer boy and stoner, seriously as a Pure Disciple of Krishna and the most spiritually advanced being in the Manifest Universe is a suitable target for ridicule.

And there are a lot of Hindus who feel the same way. Nothing "Hinduphobic" about such a view.
Like · Reply · 19 · Feb 25, 2015 9:58pm

Greg Harris ·
Honolulu, Hawaii
Bart, you just underscore my points even more. You have a lot of hatred/dislike in there and that's what motivates your posts obviously. You don't like Hindus/Krishna devotees. So in your mind anything Tulsi does is wrong. That is called "BIGOTRY". You judge everything about a person negatively because you don't like their religion.
Like · Reply · 2 · Feb 25, 2015 10:15pm

Bart Dame
Greg Harris, actually, I don't hate Tulsi and don't take Chris Butler seriously enough to waste that emotion on him either. What I find laughable is the devotion people like you give to him. You take yourselves so seriously that you want to ennoble yourselves as if you are martyrs against "bigotry." Excuse me, where were you when Chris, the Gabbards and the rest of the cult were crowding into meeting rooms to denounce anti-bullying programs in the schools designed to protect gay kids? Absent from any discussion of Tulsi's "evolution" on gay rights has been any indication the rest of the cult has abandoned, or apologized, for their actions against gays. Have you guys also "evolved"? Or did Chris grant Tulsi a special dispensation allowing her to change her views, which does not apply to the rest of you? I would love for some of the devotees posting here to admit to their past actions against gay equality.

Chris Butler has directed a decades long political operation to elect devotees to political office. I am sharing that obvious story, a story the Butler-bots want to suppress. From the Independents for Godly Government campaign in the 1970s, to the following campaigns of Kathy Hoshijo, Wayne Nishiki, Rick Reed and the Gabbards, sometimes as Democrats, sometimes as Republicans, this is a highly relevant narrative.

One cannot understand Tulsi's rise, nor her choice of Bill Penaroza's son as her Chief of Staff, without seeing this network of donors and dedicated volunteers. Nor her choice of husband, for that matter.

If I recall correctly, Kainoa's father, Bill, was not only a Congressional Candidate for the political party Chris controlled, the Independents for Godly Government, I believe he was its public spokesman? True? False? Relevant for understanding the decades long Butler political strategy or irrelevant?

I offer links for the "facts" I introduce, so people can decide for themselves whether I am just making things up or not. Some of you folks posting here know I am sharing "inconvenient facts." You cannot dispute the facts themselves, so you try to get people to avert their eyes by claiming any examination of the Chris Butler religious/economic/political enterprise is inherently "bigoted." BS.

Carleton Ching can be understood through his longtime association with Castle and Cooke, the Building Industry Association and the Land Use Research Foundation. Anyone trying to understand him and anticipate how he will perform as Chair of the DLNR should consider those connections. Anyone trying to understand Tulsi Gabbard cannot ignore her life-long involvement with the Chris Butler religious group, even if they prefer to remain secretive. It is the one narrative with the most powerful explanatory power to understand her rise, her base of support and, here specifically, her selection of a blatantly unqualified young man as her Chief of Staff. Unless you understand--and I have no doubt YOU and others here objecting to my posts DO understand-- unless you understand they are both members of this very secretive network, the appointment does not make sense.

So you raise the specter of religious bigotry in your effort to deny the truth, to suppress facts from public view. I call BS on your outrage. It is your group with a proven history of bigotry.