With their #NeverTrump heads exploding, top officers of the Hawaii Republican Party hunkered down in their respective basements; including Honolulu county GOP chair Steve Lipscomb (the do-nothing liberal RINO masquerading as a ‘moderate’ who replaced longtime county chair Brett Kulbis six months ago).  Lipscomb wasted no time been circulating official ‘talking points’ to defend the despicable #NeverTrump direction taken by party leaders.

With the party in crisis, it’s now clear that these high-ranking GOP leaders have adopted the following NINE-STEP PUBLIC RELATIONS CRISIS PLAN to deal with the blowback of knowingly choosing anti-Trump RINO Chris Sununu as headliner for their upcoming event – an event designed to send a strong message to the vast majority of party members:   ‘YOUR PARTY BOSSES DESPISE YOU.  AND THEY DESPISE PRESIDENT TRUMP’.

*** Here below, with word-for-word quotes directly attributed to specific party leaders in recent days, are NINE actual examples of the NINE-STEP crisis management plan now being utilized by Tamara McKay’s team at HRP to deal with their insane decision to provide a high profile platform in Hawaii for #NeverTrump radical Chris Sununu . . .

FIRST, attack HIRA News’ accurate and fully documented reports by shamelessly alleging that 90% of HIRA’s story is a lie . . .

SECOND, deny the accurate HIRA News reports that Tamara McKay is even bringing in a Trump-hating keynote speaker . . .

THIRD, use ‘spin doctoring’ to change the subject; simply keep attacking the accurate reporting of HIRA News . . .

FOURTH, acknowledge the obvious truth of HIRA’s reporting and overwhelming evidence once HRP’s credibility is totally shot . . .

FIFTH, divert blame onto a completely different (and even more unpopular) party officer in order to protect Chair McKay . . .

SIXTH, when all else fails, provide state chair and RNC member Tamara McKay the excuse of being ignorant of party politics . . .

SEVENTH, combine intimidation, extortion and unsolicited threats with modern direct messaging through social media to silence the accurate reporting of HIRA News . . .

EIGHTH, target HIRA News posts on social media in order to leave whiny, pitiful comments (such as those by HRP rules committee vice-chair Tammy Ash Perkins) that only serve to confirm the accuracy of HIRA’s reporting . . .

NINTH, double down on inviting #NeverTrump Chris Sununu to headline the Hawaii GOP fundraiser by pretending that all is well . . .

Folks, this is how badly the RINOs in control of the Hawaii Republican Party apparently want to help Joe Biden.  They’ve spent all their time since the last election trying to justify their #NeverTrump outlook while doing absolutely NOTHING to put state, local or national Democrats on the defensive just one year before the 2024 General Election.  Yes, island Democrats are sleeping really well at night, sensing zero threat to their power coming from the inept liberals at Hawaii GOP headquarters.

Reportedly, former state chair turned current HRP finance chair Signe Godfrey wants this #NeverTrump event to be canceled NOW because it has become a looming disaster that exposes party leaders as RINOs at a time when the state party’s finances are in the red nearly $100,000 and continuing to bleed profusely.

IS THERE ANY HOPE??:   This Tuesday, the Hawaii GOP’s Executive Committee is meeting to discuss this scandal, as well as how to pay down the nearly $100,000 in party debt that accumulated while Tamara McKay was on the Executive Committee of the state party.  Maybe these RINO party officers on the Executive Committee will wise up and pull the plug rather than continuing to insult the intelligence of the vast majority party members.  Unfortunately, since these inexperienced RINO infiltrators have repeatedly shown a preference to be “defiant” rather than successful, they probably won’t cancel.  #NeverTrump = Hawaii GOP.  Auwe!

State Chair Tamara McKay and Vice Chair Teri Savaiinaea

With 15,000+ Republicans in Hawai’i already having watched the HIRA News video exposing RINO Tamara McKay and #NeverTrumper Chris Sununu (and with so many party members having read the thoroughly sourced article on the HIRANews.com website), it’s no wonder their heads are on fire.  Their dirty little secret is out !!

#     #     #     #     #

The “revive and thrive” fundraiser, which was apparently envisioned by McKay as an opportunity to impress potential State Committee voters before announcing her campaign for state chair, was operated illegally as an under-the-table, off-the-radar fundraiser which clearly violates state laws designed to ensure transparency in the world of campaign finance.  McKay, the sixth individual since the start of 2023 to lead the troubled party, knowingly failed to register the event as required by law with the CSC before the event was to take place.

Yes, state law requires that all political fundraisers be registered in advance with the Hawaii Campaign Spending Commission in furtherance of transparency.  Voters have a right to know which politicians, which political parties, and which special interest groups are holding fundraisers, along with when, where, and how much tickets sell for, and who is paying for the fundraiser (and who is benefitting from the proceeds).  McKay knows this registration is required and has done it before, such as she did for this GOP fundraiser last year:

Now, there’s no question that McKay knows she must notify the CSC in advance of a fundraiser, that it was her responsibility and that she already knew how to do so.

Well, the event’s organizer, HRP finance chair (now HRP State Chair) Tamara McKay, broke that law.  Hawaii Revised Statute §11-342:

Following interim chair Laura Nakanelua’s takeover of the vacant state chair position (departed by Lohi Goodwin who assumed power briefly after the resignation of Tom Dilhouse), Nakanelua quickly moved to fire Brett Kulbis as chairman of HRP’s powerful rules committee.  However, despite their frosty relationship, Nakanelua opted to retain HRP finance chair Tamara McKay in that fundraising position, as McKay had already taken charge of the ‘revive and thrive’ event and the pressure was building to pay HRP’s $70,000 in unpaid bills.  As the law reads:  “The person in charge of the fundraiser shall file the notice with the commission prior to the fundraiser.”  That ‘person’ is the “Event Organizer”:  HRP’s new state chair Tamara McKay.

To be sure, at this point in 2023, there are three different ‘noncandidate committees’ which have given notice to the CSC about fundraisers since the last election:  Hawaii Democrats, Hawaii Republicans, and RINO Women on Oahu.  All five of the group’s registered fundraising events have been held in 2023.  Two fundraisers in question were organized by HRP:  the “Kuhio Day” fundraiser on March 26th and the Oahu county GOP’s “painting party” on July 22nd.  HOWEVER, as you can see, HRP’s August 19th “Revive and Thrive” fundraiser is nowhere to be found as a legally registered fundraiser.  That’s because the event was kept secret from the CSC and from the public.  A deliberate and knowing violation of §11-342.

https://ags.hawaii.gov/campaign/nc/nc-view-reports/fundraiser-notices-2024-election/

Under Tamara McKay’s, HRP knowingly failed to file a notice of this fundraiser before the HRP microfundraising event and that failure continues to this very day, nearly one month later.

Just ask RINO and fake ‘hate crime’ victim Andria Tupola about the $1,150 fine her campaign committee was forced by the CSC to pay for the exact same violation.  Just like HRP finance chair (now state chair) McKay with last month’s HRP event, Tupola didn’t bother to register her secret February 2021 fundraiser in advance with the CSC.  It wasn’t until HIRA News alerted the CSC about Tupola’s secret fundraiser that Tupola finally complied with the law . . . and was fined $1,150 for her violation of §11-342.  By the time the civil component of this lawbreaking was adjudicated, Tupola belatedly registered her February fundraiser at the end of September that same year.

Tommy Waters and Rail Transit Cabal Leaders all showed up for the Tupola fundraiser

That’s right.  Tupola’s fundraiser, held ostensibly to shakedown the rail industry and other special interests (which enjoy being showered with taxpayer money by Tupola and her equally ‘generous’ big spending pals on the Honolulu City Council), was held in February.  But the suddenly pro-rail councilmember didn’t get around to notifying the CSC about the fundraiser for seven months.  SHE WAS FINED $1,150, as shown in this never before published screenshot from her campaign finance report on file with the CSC.

That’s the price for failing to uphold transparency and failure to obey the law.

But that’s the least of the fines that HRP needs to worry about, because that’s not Tamara McKay’s only problem.

The stated goal of HRP’s August 2023 ‘revive and thrive’ fundraiser was to sell 200 tickets at $75 each and raise $15,000 for HRP.  One week before the event, only 15 tickets had been sold.  Then, on August 8th, the Maui wildfire ravaged Lahaina.  With ticket sales for McKay’s HRP event stalling and the fundraiser about to become a total flop, the Lahaina wildfire disaster hit the news and sparked an idea.  This tragedy gave McKay and her finance committee the notion to adopt a predatory fundraising strategy which exploited the public sympathy for Maui wildfire’s devastation to put money in HRP’s coffers.

The problem is that this clever rebranding of HRP’s fundraiser into a Maui Wildfire Relief event is completely illegal.  State regulated political parties, operating as ‘noncandidate committees’ are prevented from raising monies and then spending monies on unauthorized expenditures which are unrelated to the political mission of the committee.  The rules are even tighter for political parties than for candidates.  So when McKay promoted last month’s party fundraiser with the promise that “a portion of the proceeds from this event will be donated to Maui Wildfire Relief”, that placed HRP in the position of engaging in fraud – using an illegal tactic to sell political fundraiser tickets.  Sources at the CSC tell HIRA News that HRP treasurer Jodi Beaty inquired ahead of time with CSC about the legality of using this event to raise money for HRP and for Maui and was told “not legal”.  Clearly, HRP went ahead anyway and exploited the tragedy to sell tickets which weren’t selling well before the rebranding.

Suddenly, it’s no longer a mystery why HRP’s leaders attempted to keep a lid on the illegality by forging ahead with an under-the-radar, unregistered fundraiser in the hopes that law enforcement would never find out.  Such lawbreaking constitutes a deliberate and knowing violation of §11-342.  This gets into felony territory . . . but more about felonies later this week.

Ultimately, just 50 people showed up which brought in a little over $6,000 . . . most or all of which could very well be seized from HRP by law enforcement agencies to cover fines.  Even if the rumors are true and that HRP has disbursed some of this money to the Maui County GOP for charitable purposes, the party is stuck with having illegally raised monies from this unlawfully unregistered and fraudulent event.

In her campaign speech on Saturday night, McKay boasted about the fundraiser, stating: “We showed what we could do on a small scale . . . We raised $5,000 for the party and we raised over $1,200 to give to Maui county.”  Members of HRP’s State Committee probably don’t recall approving any expenditures from this event because they didn’t.  Just like they didn’t approve laws being casually broken by rookie party leaders desperate to show that they ‘know’ how to deal with a desperate financial situation . . . and hoping they wouldn’t get caught.

This is just the tip of the iceberg of the campaign finance violations and other laws broken by HRP in just the last few months.  In the days ahead, HIRA News will present Part Two of the self-inflicted Tamara McKay financial scandal and related lawbreaking which will consume time and money and energy from HRP – time and money and energy which was supposed to be put into ending the dominance of Democrats in Hawaii since 1954, 70 years ago next year.

Will the Hawai’i GOP become infamous before Election Day for being led by a criminal?  Someone who knowingly broke the law and will soon cost the Hawaii GOP more in BRAND NEW FINES than was raised in its recent fundraiser??  All we can tell you at this point is that Saturday night’s celebration has quickly turned to scandal, as HRP treasurer Jodi Beaty and chairman Tamara McKay are embroiled in more financial scandals than meets the eye.  And HRP simply doesn’t have the funds to mount a criminal defense of McKay, Beaty and other implicated officers.

HRP State Treasurer Jodi Beaty celebrating her official nominee Tamara McKay upon her election as new HRP Chair on Saturday night

As the focus of a new criminal investigation by the Hawaii Attorney General, the Honolulu Prosecutor and the State Campaign Spending Commission, Ms. McKay’s recent, poorly-attended HRP fundraiser is likely to cost the party more money in fines than the piddly $6,000+ it raised off the backs of Lahaina victims.

The chronically uninformed and uninvolved State Committee – which should have been performing due diligence as the oversight and governing body for HRP – was instead so busy imitating immature teenagers in high school cliques picking a class president, that they didn’t bother to do any vetting of the candidates for State Chair.  When Tamara McKay boasted of raising $30,000+ for the Maui County GOP (which has no headquarters, no infrastructure, no utilities, and no overhead), they didn’t bother questioning her next claim that all Maui candidates got funds for their campaigns.  Okay, according to campaign finance reports, six candidates got a mere $500 each.  That’s just $3,000 total.  SO, WHERE DID THE OTHER $27,000 GO?!?  Merely having legitimate contempt for McKay rival Cheatin’ Sheila Walker doesn’t excuse failing to pursue answers to this or any legitimate question before electing a new state chair.

The lack of due diligence by the State Committee has everything to do with why Republicans keep losing in Hawaii and why the party is broke and why HRP is getting into legal hot water, right after a shocking $60,000 fine was assessed by the FEC without waking up these sleepy party officers that they need to wake up and pay attention.  With debt up to their eyeballs in unpaid property taxes, unpaid maintenance fees, unpaid legal bills, unpaid printing bills and more, top party officers need to wipe the sleep out of their eyes and take a look at the unfolding scandals which are increasing in number, rather than decreasing.  Voters and the media are sure to take notice.

When the full picture of wrongdoing and corruption emerges, it’s unlikely that HRP will either ‘revive’ or ‘thrive’ in the wake of Tamara McKay’s questionable leadership and illegal acts, not to mention McKay’s colleagues on HRP’s Executive Committee.  Members of HRP’s governing State Committee and the Executive Committee, expected to meet this week, may or may not care about obeying the law.  But they definitely need to care about what voters will surely see as reckless disregard for lawbreaking.  

As HIRA News pursued this story, McKay told us she has “nothing to hide” and that she’s “very aware of the laws”. Then, threateningly added “But there is liable for lies and slander. Ask CNN.”  With facts being facts, HIRA News is more interested in finding out what the liability is for HRP when the misdeeds of its officers, such as those of its new chairman and treasurer, end up costing the party a bundle of money as well as goodwill with voters. With one year until the election, we’ll find out soon enough.

STAY TUNED FOR PART TWO

#     #     #     #     #

The only remedy against such lawbreaking by state officials who swore an oath to follow the law — but don’t do so — is the threat of legal action against the state officials themselves.  HIRA was successful at having a candidate thrown off the ballot in 2018 who was not even a U.S. citizen.  You won’t be surprised to learn that the corrupt troika of Andria Tupola, Gene Ward and Shirlene Ostrov were trying to put this illegal noncitizen on the ballot, after years of that same individual admitting to illegally voting in our elections.

Enter the RINO-controlled Hawaii Republican Party (HRP), already inclined to break the law as a matter of habit.  HRP simply can’t help itself but look for laws to break, large and small.  Hawaii state law requires all political parties to prove their viability by (among other requirements) annually filing their updated list of officers and their updated party rules with the Chief Election Officer.  Easy right?  Should only take five minutes with a quick e-mail message to the State Elections Office.  Naturally, the incompetent boobs at HRP dropped the ball for three straight years and then relied on their crooked friend, Hawaii’s Chief Election Officer Scott Nago to let them slide, since you can’t count on RINOs to obey the law.  Again, these RINOs are the same closet Democrats posing as Republican Party officers who nearly succeeded at running the above-referenced illegal noncitizen on the ballot for state house in 2018 until caught by HIRA.

When patriots and reformers inside HRP caught on to the cozy connection between these RINOs and the Democrats at the State Election Office, these reformers had no choice but to demand that the law be obeyed.  Only when Crooked Scott Nago failed to follow the law (to protect his closet Democrat buddies at HRP), these same reformers had no choice but to do what conservatives nationwide are often forced to do:  SUE THE BUREAUCRATS OR SUE THE BENEFICIARIES OF THE ILLEGAL ACTS OF THOSE BUREAUCRATS.  That meant suing our crooked and incompetent state party organization to enforce the law.

As linked above, the Hawaii laws in question leave zero room for interpretation:  Turn in certain documents by certain deadlines each and every year.  Soooo simple, even a caveman can do it.  Any caveman. except for Maryann “Mele” Songsong or other RINO party leaders who set this legal brouhaha into motion through ineptitude followed by corruption.

The process of submitting a list of current party officers and a copy of the current party rules should only take five minutes, right?!?  That’s sooooooo simple.  And THIS simplicity combined with the indisputable clarity of the laws in question are WHY critics of the lawsuit against NEVER tell this crucial part of the story.  These RINO insiders only obsess over the 100% unlikely yet hyperdramatic and unrealistic outcome of the lawsuit which could (but won’t) decertify HRP as a political party during the years it failed to obey the law.  Those years in question are 2019, 2020, 2021.  Said years are in the PAST, not the future.

Another VERY IMPORTANT oversight is that the lawsuit filed by reformers is both motivated by and purposed to deal with the flagrant breaking of party rules, over and over and over again, by the RINO party officers who have turned HRP into the dumpster fire that it is today.  One of the defendants is Steve Holck, the corrupt and morally bankrupt HRP state treasurer who was found liable for breaking campaign finance laws involving a secret, offshore bank account which only a few top HRP officers even knew existed.  This resulted in HRP being fined $60,000 by the Federal Elections Commission.  Such corruption by sworn party officers (including Holck and many others) is only the tip of the iceberg.

Malfeasance by corrupt party officers who swore to uphold our party’s rules is at the heart of the matters raised by the lawsuit:  “the multiple and continuing violations of HRP rules, regulations, and by-laws” . . . “a very small group of the HRP . . . has exceeded their authority by continually disregarding HRP by-laws, Rules, and Parliamentary Procedures while routinely committing violations that usurp the authority of the State Committee” . . . “infringements have occurred impeding due process, depriving members of their rights, and engaging in acts of discrimination, nonfeasance, misfeasance, malfeasance, and other rights not specifically listed.”  Any reader of HIRA News will not be surprised by these claims or the facts supporting such claims.

Unless you haven’t been paying attention, you already know that scumbags, liberals and losers have run the Hawaii GOP into the ground over the past few years, if not decades.  HRP is definitely NOT the squeaky clean, conservative Hawaii chapter of the RNC.  It is a complete and filthy mess of do-nothingness about Hawaii problems and do-nothingness about the Democrat politicians, bureaucracies and unions which cause those problems.  For apologists of these RINO’s to pretend that they are innocent victims of the lawsuit’s plaintiffs and to pretend that these plaintiffs are REALLY hoping to abolish the Republican Party in Hawaii from today forward (or that they could actually achieve that feat) is A RIDICULOUS AND INSINCERE SCARE TACTIC TO MAINTAIN RINO CONTROL OF HRP.  PERIOD.

Congenital buffoon and nincompoop interim state chair Laura Nakanelua might have had a little too much to drink or smoke when she exaggerated about the risk posed by this lawsuit in an embarrassing e-mail a couple days ago to other party leaders:  “This litigation is still on-going and if successful could make it impossible for ANY of our Republican Presidential candidates  to be eligible to run for President in the State of Hawaii in 2024.  Not Trump. Not DeSantis. Not Ramaswamy… not any Republican.”  Nakanelua unironically added that anyone who is not a current fan of her terrible leadership is “only looking to burn our party down to the ground”.  Okay, psycho.  Let’s get you back on your medications and into that special jacket in a padded room.  Most of the worst problems with HRP’s finances and corruption which led to this lawsuit happened right under Laura’s nose with her consent during the past three years since coming out of nowhere to be National CommitteeLoser.  SHE is at this moment living in total denial and needs to look in the mirror.

Any fair reading of the lawsuit reveals that it’s merely TACTICAL in nature, designed to use the court to FORCE these crooked RINO’s to follow party rules rather than constantly breaking those rules and getting the party into deeper trouble, financially, legally, and in too many other ways to list here.

Remedies called for by the plaintiffs include hearings by the Elections Commission, arbitration, possible removal from office of abusive HRP officers, and (sure, the big hammer) “possible decertifying of HRP as a party in good standing”.  No Democrat judge in Blue Hawaii, where Democrats like to pretend we have a two-party system because Fevella is in the Senate and Ward is in the House, is going to eliminate the social club run by RINOs masquerading as a party.  It won’t happen.  The illusion of a two-party system is too important for Democrats to maintain while they continue their march to socialism.  Thank goodness (for Dems) that Hawaii’s majority party has cooperative miscreants like those photographed below (Nakanelua, Yoder, Ready, and Walden) who are always willing to fight back against REAL Republicans who have the nerve to call for new and better leadership.  With 300 days completely wasted since the last election while HRP blows endless opportunities to educate voters on the desperate need to vote incumbent bums out from county, state and federal offices, Democrats can feel confident that the same RINO party officer chumps will fritter away the remaining 428 days until the November 2024 elections.

Folks, BE CAREFUL what you allow yourself to believe about this lawsuit.  Crooked RINOs like Clueless Laura Nakanelua and her scumbag pals Crooked Steve Yoder, Doubletalking Boyd Not-So-Ready and Andrew “Why Doesn’t Anyone Like Me?” Walden are looking to distract you from HRP’s huge, huge problems by making you worry that the Hawaii GOP is on the verge of being eliminated from the ballot by external forces.  Nope.  Rubbish.  The Hawaii GOP is actually on the verge of being permanently irrelevant in Hawaii politics thanks to RINO’s who engage in endless corruption, incompetence and liberalism . . . and are unfortunately STILL running the party today and for the foreseeable future.  Their horrifying record truly speaks for itself.  HIRA News has been at the forefront of uncovering, reporting, and recording that sorry record of HRP failure.  It ain’t pretty.

BOTTOM LINE:  If HRP has done nothing wrong, it has nothing to worry about.  All HRP has to do to maintain its existing and untouched ballot status is to obey the law and follow its own rules.  This lawsuit forced HRP to finally meet important legal deadlines (Goodbye, “Mele” Songsong).  Today, after tens of thousands of donor dollars have been improperly expended by corrupt HRP leaders on lawyers to defend their indefensible misdeeds, and with a vote for a new state chair less than one week away, RINOs are today ratcheting up the B.S. machine several notches higher by pretending that Republicans won’t be allowed on the ballot in 2024 or ever again.

HIRA News calls “bullshit” on this RINO nonsense.  Nakanelua knows better, Walden knows better, Ready knows better, and Yoder knows better.  And the RNC and its lawyers know better, which is why they don’t get involved with HRP nonsense resulting from RINO misbehavior.  Again, once HRP starts following its own rules and starts obeying state and federal laws, there’s NOTHING TO WORRY ABOUT.  Republicans are on Hawaii’s ballot in 2024.  But that’s precisely why RINOs refuse to talk about the merits of this case and refuse to admit why it was filed.  HRP’s thug leadership cabal has had a long time to admit to the error of its ways and a long time to promise to do better.  But with RINO insiders cheating like crazy to retain control of HRP (which makes local Democrats giddy with excitement), the state party is getting further and further from an amicable solution to the lawsuit and a plethora of other self-inflicted party problems.

Mind you, HIRA and HIRA News have absolutely nothing to do with this case.  Karl Dicks of Klean House Hawaii (KHH) is the primary litigant and complainant in this matter.  High ranking party officers are the defendants.  But it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to know that party reformers were backed into a corner as RINO’s turned HRP into a dumpster fire and kept pouring fuel on the flames with endless wrongdoing.

Let’s be honest – the lawsuit only has merit if its allegations are true.  And the defendants (the crooked party officers, to put a fine point on it) are OPENLY ADMITTING that this case is legitimate by portraying a bleak future for HRP as a party which will no longer be allowed on the ballot in Hawaii due to this lawsuit.  Otherwise, to be clear, if HRP thug officers were really innocent, then two things would be true:  (1) The now expensive legal case would have already been thrown out by the judge months and months ago; (2) these RINO’s wouldn’t be obsessed with mischaracterizing this suit as a death blow to HRP.  They’d instead be proudly raising money off of winning the lawsuit just like it shamelessly tried to raise money recently off those poor souls killed in Lahaina.  If the Dicks v HRP lawsuit was indeed frivolous, wouldn’t RINOs simply be making fun of the litigation instead of portraying the entire situation as a hopelessly lost cause in which “The Hawaii Libertarian Party would theoretically become the ‘second party’ instead of the ‘third party.’”  [Won’t somebody please pull the theoretical meth pipe out of Andrew Walden’s drama queen mouth?]

THE BIG TAKEAWAY:  The only death blows being dealt to HRP are the self-inflicted wounds from the raging corruption, raging liberalism, and raging incompetence of the fake Republicans leading the party for years and years and years.  They should ALL RESIGN TODAY.  Every member of HRP’s Executive Committee and every member of the governing State Committee.  Every last one of them.  THEY are the reason things have gotten so bad.  THEY are the reason Democrats sleep so well at night.  THEY are the ones who allowed corruption, incompetence and liberalism to thrive unchecked for so long in Hawaii’s chapter of the RNC.  HRP needs to start over from scratch.  No crooked officers.  No lousy office suite.  Just a strong set of beliefs which inspire, mobilize, and energize Republicans in Hawaii to persuade voters to let Republicans rescue the Aloha State and its residents from the horrible Democrat Political Machine.  THEN, we can build a real party rather than merely fueling a dumpster fire.