Most people in Hawaii have no idea how greedy chiefs and kings and other royal hangers on spent a fortune and ran up enormous debt from the early days of the Hawaiian kingdom because they wanted to buy imported luxuries for themselves, such as silks, satins, china, furniture, and other goods that the chiefs desired, including guns, powder, cloth, glass, whiskey and New England rum.  In addition, gambling debt was also a factor for Hawaiian royals.

In the late 18th and early 19th centuries, sandalwood (a.k.a. “iliahi”) became Hawaii’s first major export, in high demand in Asia for incense and other goods. Hawaiian chiefs and Kamehameha I, quickly realized they could trade this valuable fragrant wood for highly desired Western goods.  In the late 1700’s into the 1800’s, the unsustainable sandalwood trade grew and grew until the supply was gone.  But the consequences of these high maka makas chasing greed during these many decades were painful and numerous for the average Hawaiian citizen.

Forced Labor: To meet the immense demand, chiefs forced commoners (a.k.a. the makaainana) to abandon their traditional farming, fishing and hunting duties to harvest sandalwood from the mountains. This was brutal, back-breaking work involving treks into the mountains which did lead to sickness and death.  These enslaved commoners had to carry heavy bundles of wood (up to 133 pounds each) down steep, rugged terrain; eventually depleting 90% of Hawaii’s trees on orders from the kingdom.

Destruction and Famine: The over-harvesting of sandalwood at the direction of the alii led to widespread deforestation and contributed to famine, malnutrition, and disease as commoners neglected their food crops, their fishing and their hunting since their labor was diverted to helping enrich the royals. The trade was driven by the alii’s desire for Western goods, which included everything from luxuries and iron tools and furniture to booze and firearms and ships. These items, particularly the weapons, were crucial for King Kamehameha I to unify the islands, but they also fueled the chiefs’ personal accumulation of wealth under several kings.

Debt and Indulgence: After Kamehameha I’s death, the sandalwood trade spiraled out of control under Kam II and Kam III.  Many chiefs ran up massive debts to foreign merchants in exchange for luxury goods. This led to a state of economic crisis, where the entire kingdom was plunged into debt, further burdening the common people who had to pay a tax in sandalwood to settle the chiefs’ debts. The extravagant spending on foreign goods was a result of both a desire to project power, impress fellow chiefs and the unchecked pursuit of personal indulgence.  Reparations from the alii to the commoners was never paid.

Destruction of Traditional Hawaiian Life:  The unsustainable focus on fulfilling the demand for sandalwood took precedence over all other aspects of traditional Hawaiian life, leading to the enslavement of all island people and the collapse of their self-sufficient economy and social structure so that the greedy rulers could buy fancy imported goods for themselves.  Sandalwood gave way to whaling which gave way to sugar; all approved and encouraged by the Hawaiian Kingdom.

Yes, there’s a lot more to Hawaii history than aloha, hula, rainbows, and luaus.  Endless wars caused by Hawaiians.  The violent Tahitian conquerors who stole Hawaii from the original Marquesan inhabitants of these islands.  Documented and systematic abuse of commoners by Hawaiian leaders.  Feudal savagery.  Human Sacrifice and Slavery.  Seeing the whole picture of Hawaii history is vital to understanding the past and crucial to navigating the future.  Merely absorbing a few select nuggets of history which are repeatedly watered-down and advanced by the media, the activists, and the influencers only serves to advance a political agenda which is dangerous for all the people of the Hawaiian Islands.

99% of people in Hawai’i don’t know

REAL Hawai’i history.  Now YOU do!

From sources below and more, HIRA News and Keep Hawaii United urge you to learn more about Hawaii’s Sandalwood Trade and visualize the greed and brutality involved during this 50 year period under the Hawaiian Kingdom.  You simply won’t hear about this from any other news source during “Hawaii History Month” or any other month because it doesn’t advance the separatist sovereignty narrative and doesn’t propagandize using the ‘our kingdom was great in every way’ narrative; both of which are essential in keeping the money flowing to single-ethnicity programs, quotas, discounts, set-asides, subsidies, and freebies while attempting to systematically destroy Hawaii’s enviable melting pot in favor of the disintegration and ‘Balkanization’ of the Aloha State.

UNIVERSITY OF HAWAII RESEARCH

https://www.hawaii.edu/uhwo/clear/home/HawaiiLaborHistory.html

PETER YOUNG RESEARCH

https://imagesofoldhawaii.com/sandalwood-era/

Advertisement

https://imagesofoldhawaii.com/?s=sandalwood

MARK “UMI” PERKINS RESEARCH

https://theumiverse.wordpress.com/2020/12/10/hi-lalele-%CA%BBiliahi-the-sandalwood-trade/

ADAM KEAWE MANALO-CAMP RESEARCH

https://adamkeawe.wordpress.com/2011/09/28/part-4-the-hawaiian-class-system/

KHON’S WATERED-DOWN STORY (2022)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YbnMFZW5GjI

#    #    #    #    #

 Honolulu, Hawaii – More details are emerging about how the new leaders of Hawaii’s distant second place political party intend to seek retribution on perceived internal enemies at the now homeless party which only meets via Zoom meetings since losing its longtime headquarters a year ago.  Yes, a circular firing squad is how the tiny organization’s donor dollars and precious campaign time are being spent.

As HIRA News just reported on Monday, the Hawaii GOP’s state chair Art Hannemann (Mufi’s cousin) is pushing forward with a plan to launch a “Disciplinary Committee” to conduct actual trials of party officers and party members who are not to the liking of the old guard establishment which recently retook control of the party after nearly two years in the wilderness.

Even though no such committee exists anywhere in the party’s rules and hasn’t for the party’s hundred twenty-five year history in Hawaii – since the state GOP was established in the year 1900 – that simple fact hasn’t stopped Mufi’s cousin or his eager and starstruck enabler Boyd Ready from plucking six easily manipulated people from relative obscurity so they can sit in judgement over fellow party members that Hannemann has explicitly told a state judge he is coming after to obtain justice for convicted felon Christina Everett and her increasingly widely disseminated criminal record for smuggling many tons of illegal aerial fireworks into Hawaii, reportedly in a criminal conspiracy with Art’s cousin Mufi Hannemann according to Ms. Everett herself.

While such news probably helps Democrats to sleep even better at night here in the islands, the very first meeting is being held TONIGHT according to our source.

We are sworn to secrecy.  But our source says it’s one of the six Disciplinary Committee members that was overheard discussing their new role in the party with glee, who are in no particular order:

NEW HAWAII GOP DISCIPLINE COMMITTEE
a.k.a. “The Six Executioners”

Sylvie Madison
Larie Manutai
Rich Harper
Scott Smart
Dalene McCormick
Steve Bond

Art Hannemann flunkie Boyd Ready will be on hand to tell them what to do, what to think, and how to vote.  Most importantly, Mr. Ready will help select the targets for Hannemann’s purge.  As we’ve previously reported, immediate past state chair Tamara McKay and her supporters are at the top of the list for removal or, as they like to say, “discipline”.

Mind you, this party which you’d expect would spend some time between elections putting Josh Green, Mazie Hirono, Brian Schatz, Jill Tokuda, Ed Case and other Democrats on trial so that the public might make different choices when their ballots arrive in the mail.  However, ousting Democrats is NOT the priority.  As time gets closer to the 2026 election, ousting Republicans IS what truly matters to Mufi’s cousin.

This move comes after Art Hannemann and three others were publicly censured in recent months; with those censures still posted on the official website for the Honolulu County GOP:  http://www.OahuGOP.com.  Art and his enforcers have been trying to get those censures taken down ever since they went up on that county website.  But it looks like they’ll need to sick the Disciplinary Committee on Oahu county chairman Nolan Chang and purge him from the party in order to sanitize the website and maybe replace those censures with a prominent “Nolan Chang is no longer associated with the Hawaii GOP” message for all to read.

Needless to say, what is the true purpose of a political party but an audition for the public to see how its members would run the government if given the chance.  Putting enemies on trial is probably not what island voters crave in their politicians with so many very real problems.  And Hawaii voters probably won’t be impressed by GOP priorities in Hawaii while the cost of living continues to spiral out of control and politicians care more about posting selfies on social media than about delivering real victories for struggling taxpayers.

Ultimately, after only three months in control of the Hawaii GOP, you can clearly see the REAL priorities of Art Hannemann’s new regime as they explicitly promised to have advertising running for the past two months and spend $1 Million between now and the end of 2025 turning the Hawaii GOP into a political juggernaut which raised $2 Million during the same six month period.  But, instead they totally lied.  There’s no advertising.  There’s no case being made for better leadership and real solutions vis-a-vis the Democrat supermajority.  There’s no ‘unity’ in the party.  Instead, we just see lots of time spent infighting and now purging.  Helping to pervert priorities, GOP politicians like Lauren Matsumoto,  Diamond Garcia, Garner Shimizu, and Samantha DeCorte attend party meetings and blindly vote in support of Hannemann’s every move.

Fortunately, this party is leaky, so we have information to share.  Unfortunately, the party is also sinking, so it’s just more bad news all around.  There’s still a $750,000 lawsuit against the party by the convicted felon mentioned earlier.  And Hannemann did promise the judge in an unsolicited communication that the new Hawaii GOP would discipline those responsible for discussing that plaintiff’s criminal record.

The BIG QUESTION arising from this sudden interest in ‘justice’ is this:  If this party knows that Robert’s Rules of Order calls for hearings and trials to take place whenever the membership of a party member is on the line, where was any committee before under some of these same recycled party leaders?  Heck, Art’s right hand thug Shirlene Ostrov ran over justice repeatedly during her two terms as state chair before she resigned over allegations of anti-Semitism (and her embrace of Capitol rioter Nick Ochs).  AND NOW SHE’S BACK — HANDPICKED BY HANNEMANN.  Ostrov was directly involved in two money laundering scandals with party funds.  She even fired her own executive committee for not going along with her insane agenda; later bringing them back into the fold when it was too late to prevent the 2018 election disaster.  And Ostrov unilaterally banned the party from protesting failed Democrat policies while using her position as state chair to support liberal politicians and even an illegal noncitizen for state office.

Advertisement

Will the Discipline Committee start with Ostrov?  Probably not.  But the selective enforcement and selective use of a ‘just process’ casts doubt on any possible good reason for what Hannemann, Boyd Ready and the Six Executioners are planning to do in the days, weeks, and months ahead.  Auwe!

#    #    #    #    #

Honolulu, Hawaii – In a devastating development for immediate past GOP state chair Tamara McKay, past vice chair Sheryl Bieler and other defendants being sued along with the Hawaii GOP organization by 2026 Republican candidate Christina Everett for defamation, tortious interference and conspiracy back in May 2025, McKay’s successor Art Hannemann (a.k.a. ‘Mufi’s cousin’) has filed a highly damaging letter with circuit court Judge Steven Nichols accusing the defendants of being 100% responsible for committing each of the misdeeds that McKay and associates – including current Honolulu GOP chair Nolan Chang – are accused of in the civil complaint.  In fact, Hannemann charges these former party officers including McKay and former vice chair Teri Savaiinaea and current district chair “Bingo” with doing far more harm to Ms. Everett and to the party than the plaintiff herself originally charged in her lawsuit.

As the highest ranking Republican Party officer in Hawaii, Hannemann told the judge in no uncertain terms:  “The body of officers who represent the Hawaii Republican Party presently are appalled at the unprofessional, abusive and dismissive interactions by the former Party officers,” while refusing to deny that McKay, Bieler, Chang, “Bingo”, and Savaiinaea committed “the alleged acts of defamation, tortious interference and civil conspiracy alleged in this complaint.”  Moreover, though the Hawaii GOP is presently a co-defendant in the $750,000 lawsuit, Hannemann appears to acknowledge that the named defendants engaged in “Defamation & Character Assassination, Neglect of Duty and Political Retaliation, and Failure of Leadership Response.”

Hannemann’s Letter to State Judge

This is where non-lawyer Art Hannemann significantly expands on Everett’s more narrow lawsuit – a complaint which provided hundreds of pages of evidence to support her charges but didn’t actually connect the dots to show how the defendants allegedly manipulated processes to deny Everett from participating in the recent state convention at which new party officers were elected three months ago, such as Hannemann ousting defendant Tamara McKay for the top spot.  Hannemann’s court filing unmistakably referred to that manipulation as “conspiratorial gridlock at the highest level of our local party leadership at the time,” an allegation which takes Everett’s case well beyond the defamation issue.  Indeed, should Everett file an amended complaint which incorporates the same arguments levelled by Hannemann concerning the alleged rigging of the state convention through manipulating Everett (and presumably others), the defendants might be less confident that her lawsuit as presently constituted will be thrown out.  Perhaps this letter was meant by Hannemann as a stalling tactic for the court’s deliberations on Everett v HRP as well as a signal from Hannemann to Everett to file a stronger and more comprehensive lawsuit to go with the hundreds of pages of documentary evidence already provided to the judge which illustrate far more questionable activity by the defendants than mere defamation.

The Lawsuit That Started It All:  Everett v. HRP (2025)

In any event, with HRP formally taking the position that past party officers named in the civil suit are all guilty of everything Everett is claiming – including the alleged election interference leading up to and including the state convention which appeared to incite the alleged defamation –- it’s entirely possible that Hannemann’s declarations could have two outcomes which put the defendants at greater risk.  First, Everett’s case stands a better chance of succeeding in court than before.  Second, the alleged wrongdoing could lead to the ouster of these same defendants from their currently held positions in the party as well as the termination of their party membership should the allegations documented by Everett be used in internal disciplinary processes being put in place by Hannemann and his loyalists.

Could this happen?  DEFINITELY.  In his letter to Judge Nichols, Hannemann tries hard to impress the judge with a ‘breaking news story from inside the party’ which makes no bones about HRP itself acting on the specifics of Everett’s complaints about McKay and the other defendants – problems previously dismissed and ignored by those party officers – to help Everett get justice from the party.  Mufi’s cousin Art writes:  “In reality, the new HRP leadership has moved quickly to establish a new Discipline Committee (with 6 members already appointed and ready to strike), whose charge it will be to address matters just like this case, beginning with the formal complaint filed internally by the Plaintiff on May 23, 2025 . . . (T)he actions taken by the HRP’s new leadership very intentionally create a pathway for the due process that was denied the Plaintiff back in late May.”  In other words, both the state court and the state party should punish these defendants.

THE PURGE BEGINS:   One of the defendants who might be in trouble with Hannemann’s new “Discipline Committee” is high-ranking party officer Nolan Chang who holds two top posts simultaneously; as chairman of the Honolulu county GOP as well as national committeeman for the state GOP, one of two representatives of Hawaii Republicans on the Republican National Committee.  Chang’s counterpart is national committeewoman Laura Nakanelua, whom Hanneman claims has been persisting in “holding leadership accountable” by utilizing “her connection to the Republican National Committee to seek guidance on behalf of the Plaintiff” after suffering from actions which Nakanelua deems to be “not acceptable.”  From what HIRA News has learned, there is no love lost between Chang and Nakanelua, both of whom were elected to their current four-year terms on the RNC in 2024.

Notably, Hannemann cites HIRA News’ investigation and reporting of this lawsuit as solid proof that McKay, Bieler, “Bingo” and other party officers negatively impacted Christina Everett in a number of ways.  The new state chair quotes Everett in her contention that, “The tone and content of (HIRA’s) media inquiry show that my past was deliberately re-circulated and weaponized by certain members of the Hawaii GOP leadership in order to damage my public image and candidacy.”  Speaking for the new leadership of HRP, Hannemann tells Judge Nichols that, “Once again, we call the Court’s attention to the Plaintiff’s own sworn statement that her past was weaponized by ‘certain members of the Hawaii GOP leadership.’”

Plaintiff and GOP candidate Christina Everett with Art’s Cousin Mufi Hannemann

Mufi’s cousin Art Hannemann seemingly had no forgiveness in his heart for one particular former party officer at the center of the controversy which led to this lawsuit.  “Perhaps the most egregious of the Plaintiff’s allegations,” Hannemann writes, “is when co-defendant (Sheryl) Bieler writes that she is ‘sure the news and Social Media would love to get their hands on’ a 2010 news article on the Plaintiff’s prior conviction (for smuggling illegal aerial fireworks into Hawaii), which was copied onto the email.  Later in the email thread, the Plaintiff asks, ‘who is responsible for monitoring this behavior? Who is holding people like Sheryl accountable?’  The answer to the Plaintiff’s question is, under the HRP’s organizational structure, co-defendant and former State Chair McKay was the immediate supervisor of co-defendant Bieler, who held the position of Vice Chair for Coalitions at the time.”  While Hannemann hopes the judge will absolve HRP of responsibility for paying damages to Everett, he definitely wants to see McKay, Bieler and the rest forced to pay up for exposing Everett’s criminal record and then (allegedly) jerking her around.

https://archives.starbulletin.com/content/Woman_gets_6_months_for_importing_illegal_fireworks

Advertisement

MEET THE NEW BOSS, SAME AS THE OLD BOSS:  Laughably promising the judge with mock sincerity that a Hannemann-led HRP would always empower “the Party’s governing State Committee” to deal with problem party officers, Hannemann insincerely decries how, “This conspiratorial gridlock among a tight circle of the HRP’s top leaders at the time kept a close hold on the challenges the Plaintiff was experiencing and insulating it from the general oversight of the Party’s governing State Committee, which could only convene subject to the call of co-defendant McKay.”  While Hannemann has yet to actually give the State Committee the very power which party by-laws grant that governing body – malevolently choosing since being elected state chair to hobble and restrict that power through his (and Shirlene Ostrov’s) own version of ‘conspiratorial gridlock’ even as Hannemann freely admits his knowledge to the judge that “the Party’s State Committee exercises general oversight of the Party’s affairs” – there’s no denying that Mufi’s cousin strategically aligns himself and the new HRP against this alleged abuse of power by McKay and her co-defendants – abuse which left aspiring candidate and convention delegate Everett feeling thrown to the wolves by party leaders.

As HIRA News has reported many times, when Tamara McKay and her team were in control of the Hawaii GOP, party officers spent much of their time refusing to do their jobs, while engaging in naval gazing, self-dealing and other corrupt and wasteful practices.  Not only does it appear Hannemann agrees with the assessment and reporting of HIRA News about McKay and company, the new state chair takes it several steps further by telling the judge that the “Hawaii Republican Party does not adopt an adversarial posture and is not institutionally aligned against the Plaintiff’s complaint.”  The letter to the judge goes even further to throw the defendants under the bus:  “(W)e do vehemently contend that the alleged misconduct is confined to the specific individually-named co-defendants, whose actions were conducted outside of the color of their authority as elected officers, were not authorized and are not condoned by the Hawaii Republican Party.”

ALL IN THE FAMILY:  Mufi Hannemann with “Republican” Sen. Kurt Fevella and Mufi’s cousin Art

Of course, one serious problem at this point in the case is that Hannemann is not an attorney and no company or organization is permitted to be represented ‘pro se’ by anyone but a licensed attorney.  Seeing right through this gambit, the judge has every reason to toss out Hannemann’s ‘hail Mary’ pass as a cheap attempt to get HRP dropped as a co-defendant through dumping all the blame on individuals and accepting zero responsibility as an organization; not to mention the dubious ‘pro se’ filing of a letter from the financially-motivated party chair who doesn’t want to see Christina Everett bankrupting the party as she seeks $750,000 in damages.  The other problem is that companies and organizations often have a difficult time getting off the hook for bad management, since those very organizations put the bad leaders in charge . . . and the organizations usually have the deep pockets to pay plaintiffs in lawsuits, rather than the officers themselves.  Surely, Mr. Hannemann and his team would love to turn the page and start fresh.  But, frankly, inheriting problems (including legal ones) nearly always comes with the territory of being the new CEO.

Still, in his amusing courtroom cosplay as ‘general counsel’ for HRP, Hannemann tries to kick his fellow defendants while they are down with this unmistakable final summation:  “For these reasons, the Hawaii Republican Party actually supports the Plaintiff’s claim against the individually-named co-defendants, while strongly disagreeing that the HRP as an organizational entity was participatory or complicit, and therefore should not be included as a co-defendant.”  In case the judge doesn’t get the message, Hannemann calls the alleged misdeeds of McKay and associates “unsanctioned acts of rogue former leaders.”

Defendants Nolan Chang, Teri Savaiinaea and Tamara McKay in court recently

While HIRA News is far from impressed with the new Hannemann regime, it must be said that Tamara McKay’s tenure was marked by incompetence, internal sabotage, fraud, and appeasement of radical leftist groups, rather than building a strong Republican base in Hawaii.  Instead of standing up to corruption and advancing conservative policies, McKay enabled the same insiders who have long crippled the HRP’s credibility.  Whether Tamara McKay and her team were desperately rigging the state convention delegate roster to get McKay reelected and whether their dissemination of Everett’s criminal history amounts to defamation may or may not get adjudicated in state court before Judge Steven Nichols in the days and weeks ahead, you can be sure that the new Hannemann regime will be true to its word to seek ‘discipline’ against their predecessors and should be taken at their word.  Not because they want to do the right thing, but because the ‘reward your friends and punish your enemies’ culture is alive and well at the Hawaii GOP.  Otherwise, how could extremely corrupt and still unpunished political thugs like Shirlene Ostrov, Steve Yoder, Bob McDermott, Sheila Walker, Mary Smart and Boyd Ready get HANDPICKED by Art Hannemann to control the party for the next two years knowing the horrible things we all know about those people thanks to reporting from HIRA News?  Isn’t the pot calling the kettle black by attempting to differentiate between these rival factions led in 2025 by Hannemann and McKay?!?  If we’ve learned one thing from these party factions over the past few decades – there’s PLENTY of corruption to go around in running HRP.  That’s why Hawaii Democrats sleep so well at night.

What’s particularly tricky about the politics of this situation is that HRP’s Hannemann and McDermott have now politically embraced Christina Everett, no matter what.  Time will tell if the Hawaii GOP and its members are well served by enthusiastically backing a convicted felon, which could easily give rise to a Democrat counter-argument that island Republicans are fresh out of high quality candidates with impressive records of accomplishment which don’t include criminal activity.  We’ll see if lending the party’s ‘good name’ in court and political ‘clout’ in the community to 2026 state house candidate and convicted aerial fireworks smuggler Everett is the right way to unseat two-term Democrat incumbent Cory Chun; who represents a district just five short miles away from the New Year’s Day illegal aerial fireworks tragedy that took so many lives while disfiguring so many others.  All new political problems could lie ahead which make current legal problems seem rather small.  We’ll see.

Ethically challenged and progressive HRP Vice Chair “RINO Bob” McDermott supporting Everett at her recent fundraiser