Last night, I watched with shame as the Three Stooges of Hawaii — Gov. Josh Green, the mayor of Maui, and the head of Maui Emergency Management Agency (MEMA) — stuck together like a band of thieves sharing an alibi: It's not our fault. We did the best we could. That's our story, and we're sticking to it!

The MEMA administrator actually said he had no regrets about not using the emergency alert siren system. His lame excuse was that the sirens are primarily used to warn of tsunamis: "The public is trained to seek higher ground in the event that the siren is sounded." First of all, that's not true. The official Maui County website lists wildfires among the hazards for which the statewide warning siren may be used. Furthermore, everyone in Hawaii knows to turn on cell phones, TVs, or radios to get instructions following an alert. Second, what this buffoon is saying is that people would have reflexively headed to the mountains where wildfires were still burning, and because Hawaiians are as stupid as trained circus animals, they would have continued running right into the flames.

Many other tragic mistakes were made. Firefighters were frustrated by hydrants that were bone-dry because the state water official refused to release water to the affected area. The official is a woke climate activist who believes that water should be "revered" and distributed with "equity."

The Hawaiian Electric Company has also gone woke. Money allocated for maintaining transmission lines and clearing brush from areas vulnerable to wildfires was instead spent to fight "climate change."

Roads leading into Lahaina were blocked, presumably to protect the public, but it also prevented aid from being delivered. Volunteers from neighboring communities were forced to use boats and jet skis to circumvent the roadblocks in order to bring food, medical supplies, and potable water to the survivors. The good news is that the aloha spirit is still alive and well in Hawaii. The bad news is that our government leaders don't seem to understand the meaning of the word. Thus far, no one has accepted responsibility for any of these tragic mistakes.

Governor Green, a relative newcomer to Hawaii, made my stomach churn when he used the word "pono" (righteousness) to warn away real estate speculators trying to buy Maui land on the cheap. The word is part of the Hawaii state motto: "Ua Mau ke Ea o ka ʻĀina i ka Pono," which means "the life of the land is perpetuated in righteousness." Failure to take responsibility and telling lies to cover up criminal incompetence are not acts of "pono," Governor. Yet that appears to be what is happening.

So far, more than one hundred people are known to have perished in the fire. There are still thousands of people missing, but only a fraction of Lahaina has been searched. Are they hoping the bodies will rot, or be eaten by maggots or vermin before they can be discovered and identified?

From top to bottom, the failure of leadership is endemic in this country. The president of the United States can't even be bothered to comment, though he apparently plans to stop by after a vacation in Lake Tahoe. By the way, thanks for the lousy 700 bucks. If only Lahaina had been invaded by Russia, we could have gotten billions.

Image via Public Domain Pictures.