The Letter to the Prosecutor that Finally Did the Job

May 3, 2017

To County of Maui Prosecutor John Kim 

Six months after the vicious, unprovoked assault that landed me in the hospital for two weeks there still have been no charges filed against the known assailant Michael Best. In fact, there has not even been a proper investigation. No one from your office or the police department has visited the crime scene, looked at the evidence, let me walk them through the crime, or talked to the third-party witness. Moreover, there has been no enforcement of the court's injunction against harassment (several instances of which I have on video) and I have to endure harassment and death threats every day. 

It seems you never intended to pursue the case, and I want to know why. Is it a racial thing? A prejudice against low-income people? Or age discrimination? Your office violates my crime victim's rights every day by not protecting me, not informing me about the progress (or lack thereof) in the case, and not enforcing the injunction.

Some years ago when I was falsely accused of violating a TRO (a trivial offense compared to the vicious assault on me) there was no six months of investigating or pretense of investigating. I was immediately arrested and spent 30 days in jail before being fully exonerated. But I didn't get justice as the con artist thief, whose perjured TRO petition and false reporting to the police caused my arrest, was never prosecuted for her serious crimes.

I am fed up with this insane crap and I demand equal justice under the law. The county is systematically, deliberately and maliciously denying me the normal services and protections generally afforded to residents. I demand to know why. I believe I could sue the county for this denial of services. 

I have enclosed a copy of an article about the Taliah Nelson case. There is no doubt that Michael Best is capable of this type of crime. I have to constantly be on guard and watch my back. You are on notice that if this were to happen to me, my survivors -- three siblings -- would sue this county into bankruptcy. There is simply no excuse for your malicious indifference to the danger. 

(signed)  Kurt Butler

(In the case referred to Nelson, a resident in a group home for the mentally ill, stabbed to death another resident.) 

Note: The day after I hand-delivered this letter to the prosecutor's office Best was finally arrested and charged for assaulting me. We will soon see how vigorously and competently he pursues the case. 

Maui Mayor and Prosecutor are Trying to Have Me Killed

In 2008 the County of Maui government showed that it is a corrupt and criminal entity utterly devoid of the rule of law. While lawfully demonstrating on a public sidewalk near a health fraud store, protesting its criminal activities (such as claiming its supplements could cure advanced cancers and HIV/AIDS and urging people not to get vaccinations because they are deadly and its products could prevent all the common childhood diseases), I was brutally assaulted by the store's security guard. I suffered severe injuries including four cracked ribs and a shredded rotator cuff which, in spite of surgery still causes pain nine years later. Two cops witnessed the assault. Nevertheless, the assailant was never arrested or prosecuted. When I sued the store and its owners the two cops refused to truthfully testify to what they witnessed, which constitutes the crime of obstruction of justice. See Case #4 below. Now history is nearly repeating in this, Case #5. 

Case #5 (See other posts for #1-4)

On November 6, 2016, I was viciously assaulted by a drunken maniac who lives across the hall from me in a rooming house. I had done absolutely nothing to provoke the attack. I sustained several cracked ribs and a collapsed lung, and I was hospitalized for 15 pain-filled days. The surgery to insert a tube into my lung was one of the most painful experiences in my life. Just after the assault I managed to call 911 and the ambulance and police arrived at the same time. I was in no condition to talk to the police and the medics rushed me to the hospital. 

After a couple days I felt well enough to talk to the police, so I called them and requested that an officer come to my bedside and take my statement about the incident. The officer I spoke with on the phone denied my request because, she said, it had already been determined (by speaking with the assailant after I had been whisked away) that it was a case of disorderly conduct, not assault. I was stunned and tried to explain what had happened, but she was adamant and very condescending. She refused to hear me out, saying I did not understand the law and she would have a sergeant call me later and explain it to me. 

The sergeant never contacted me and I proceeded to call and repeat my request every day for the next 12 days, only to be denied each time. The hospital is only about two blocks from the police station, but they couldn't be bothered. I asked my social worker to call them and see if she could persuade them to come take my statement, but she had no success. Finally I angrily threatened to sue them for obstruction of justice. Only then did they send an officer to come talk to me. 

The officer was competent and thorough and seemed sympathetic. He recorded my half-hour statement on his cell phone and also took the 8-page statement I had managed to hand print on paper given to me by hospital staff. He later told me that it was an assault II case and it would be sent up to the prosecutor. He (or another officer -- I don't recall) also suggested that I file a petition for an injunction against harassment (like a TRO, temporary restraining order)  because the assailant would not be arrested right away, as the prosecutor would take some time to consider and process the case. 

When I was discharged and returned home the mad dog who had assaulted me subjected me to a barrage insults, threats, and vile harassment. For example, while in the parking lot he would swerve his moped at me, trying to make me lose my balance and fall (I was weak and wobbly on my feet, using a cane, and I would have landed back in the hospital if I had fallen). He drenched my socks (which I kept just outside my door to air out) in his stinking piss. He stole and tossed my mail, including my new cell phone that I had been waiting weeks for. (All tenants share one big mailbox.)  He dumped about a half cup of termite dust on my computer keyboard when I foolishly left my room unlocked to go outside for a few minutes.  

I spoke with a deputy prosecutor at length on two occasions. I filed a petition for an injunction, as suggested by the officer. At the hearing before a judge I described the unprovoked attack and many instances of harassment, threats, menacing and criminal property damage. The mad dog did not deny a single one of my allegations and the injunction against harassment was granted, good for three years. 

However this did not stop the harassment, threatening and menacing. I even got several instances of these on video. I reported them to the police, who viewed the videos and agreed he had violated the order. They filed reports, but did not make an arrest. They suggested I report the violations to the prosecutor, which I did in writing. Still no arrest. Twice I wrote to the prosecutor that I feared I would be forced into a fight to the death and begged him to take action before someone got killed. Now I believe this is exactly what they want. 

I received no reply. My crime victim's rights to be kept informed about the case and to be protected have been grossly violated. And when I complained about this in writing the prosecutor did not reply. 

The mad dog is younger and bigger than I and quite vicious. He has bragged of having killed people. I used to think this was macho bullshit, but now I'm not so sure. I have experienced his rage and I was lucky to escape with my life. Now, in the event of another attack, if I were to successfully defend myself and kill him, the mayor and prosecutor would be happy to see me locked up for life. There is no chance I'd get a fair trial. 

Here are some of the crimes the mad dog could be convicted of: assault II; several counts of harassment; several counts of violation of a court order; criminal property damage (the socks and other items); reckless endangerment; disorderly conduct and terroristic threatening. But after six months the prosecutor has done nothing. In Maui's injustice system the victim of an assault has to show why he should not have been assaulted. It's beyond absurd. 

To understand why they want me to be forced into a fight to the death, you must understand the 8-year criminal vendetta the mayor and county have been conducting against me. It is an astonishing story of outrageous crimes by government thugs and lawyers, including brazen obstruction of justice, vengeance, and partnership with influential racketeers -- the Jones Crime Family. I tell this story in other blog posts. See some of the posts below in this blog, especially the one posted on April 19, 2014. Therein see especially Case #4. See also, www.SueMauiTyrants.blogspot.com. 

For a list of my other blogs, see www.KurtButlerBlogs.blogspot.com.  (Some are not related to this case.)


OPEN LETTER TO MAUI COUNTY PROSECUTOR JOHN KIM 

April 14, 2017 

Thursday afternoon, 4/13/17, Michael Best threatened to kill me. I called 911 and two police officers came to my address and investigated. See Report #17-015433, which they said would be forwarded to your office.

The officers said they could not arrest Best because he claimed he was just joking around with a buddy. But there was no one else in the vicinity. The officers did not ask him to name the buddy or make any attempt to find him and talk to him.

After the police left I tried to go back into the building, but Best stood in the doorway, blocking my way, as he has done before. Then he said to me, "I'm gonna fuck you up."

The court order enjoining harassment is obviously worthless, and your office clearly has no intention of defending my rights, protecting me, or enforcing the law. I am on my own and I will defend myself by all means necessary. I no longer carry the camera with me because no amount of evidence will move you to take action. Instead, I carry a weapon. 


Sincerely, 

Kurt Butler


OPEN LETTER TO MAUI COUNTY PROSECUTOR JOHN TAM

April 19, 2017

To Assistant Prosecutor John Tam:

Re case # 16-046369

I must strongly protest your failure to file charges against Michael Best by now. I suspect your office never intended to properly vet and pursue this case, but only to make a pretense and hope I would be killed or simply tire of the effort and resign myself to moving into homelessness.

How could it take almost six months (so far) to understand this case? Any middle-school “B” student could see the truth in less than an hour. If you are interested in knowing what really happened in the morning of November 6, 2016, come to the crime scene, just a ten-minute walk from your office. Let me walk you through the scene and the crime, and show you the evidence. (Of course, we would need a police officer along to keep Michael Best from interfering and going ballistic.) No one ever asked to see the evidence.

Your attitude seems to be the same as that of the police, who I had to beg, nag and pester for two weeks before they would come two blocks to the hospital to talk to me. This is yet another example in a long series, almost a decade old now, of County of Maui, especially the Office of the Prosecutor, obstructing justice in cases involving me. These cases are documented in my blogs. www.kurtbutlerblogs.blogspot.com. 

About 20 years ago I sat on a jury involving whether one young man had punched another during a dispute at a cockfight in Hana. The victim was not seriously injured, but we in the jury, like the prosecutor, took the case seriously and did our best to help render justice. Please give my far more serious case similar consideration. 

11/27/16

To Maui County Prosecutor:

Regarding Police Report #16-046369

Please heed my words, as this is literally a matter of life and death. I just spent two weeks in the hospital with cracked ribs and a tube in my chest to drain blood and fluids from my collapsed lung, a painful condition people can die from. My life was saved by great medical care at MMH. As I was being discharged I was told that it is important that I not be re-injured, as the complications could be very serious.

I returned to my residence with a police escort, but I cannot hide in my room forever. Now, as I make my way around the property to use the shared bathroom, etc. I move slowly with poor balance and the aid of a makeshift cane.

Michael Best immediately resumed his harassing, threatening ways. He giggles and cackles at my obvious pain. He growls like a mad dog as I pass the chair near the building entrance where he spends 90% of his waking hours drinking beer. On 11/22 I obtained an ex parte TRO (hearing on Dec 5), but it says nothing to restrain this kind of harassment. It also says nothing to forbid the following type of behavior:

Shortly after Best was served the Order, on 11/25/16 at about 8:35 a.m., I was walking in the Bungalow parking lot toward the property exit. I walked near the parked cars, far from the center of the driveway. Best, on his moped, came speeding onto the property (he always speeds), and as he approached me he sharply swerved to within a foot of me. Startled, I almost lost my balance. If I had fallen it would have been a disaster. I called 911. An officer arrived quickly, talked briefly to both parties, and called his supervisor, who felt no arrest was warranted.

About the Evidence 

The large political poster with the 8-foot pole that Best used in his assault on my door and on me has been recovered. One of the residents apparently realized it was material evidence and managed to hide it in a corner of the foyer behind a cabinet so Best could not dispose of it. It speaks volumes about his rage and violence.

The photos I took just before the assault clearly show that I was standing in my doorway (the doorframe is visible), while Best was in the foyer half-way to my room.

I have heard Best brag that he has killed people. I used to think this was macho BS, but now I’m not so sure. I have experienced his rage and the power it gives him. I was lucky to escape with my life. He has been in scraps and heavy arguments with several other people. In ten years I have gotten along with all tenants and never had a serious argument, much less a physical altercation. Best is something else. I’ve rarely experience his level of hate.

Failing to arrest and prosecute Michael Best is, in essence, granting him a license to assault and possibly murder. And I am # 1 on his list.

OPEN LETTER: Governor Ige, You Will Be Held Accountable

September 28, 2015 

Dear Governor David Ige: 

This is to alert you to a situation you should know about because the buck stops at your desk and when catastrophe strikes, in the form of an epidemic of vaccine-preventable diseases, you will be held responsible. 

For 15 years I have repeatedly informed the Department of Health about the dangerous criminal activities of a racketeering enterprise that endangers the public health and welfare, and violates state and federal laws every day. Several months ago I sent Dr. Pressler all the information she needs to take action, but she has completely ignored me just as her predecessors have. To them my serious concerns are not even worthy of the courtesy of a reply. 

Instead of doing his job, Dr. Lorrin Pang, Maui’s DOH District Health Officer, has spent years campaigning against the alleged horrors of such GMO crops as rainbow papayas and seedless watermelons, wonderfully nutritious and delicious fruits that have never harmed anyone. Dr. Pang also spends time chasing the phantom environmental hazard of “chem trails”, a delusion favored by UFO true-believers and anti-government conspiracy buffs. Maybe next he’ll campaign to get jet planes banned from Maui County skies because they are dumping weather-controlling, mind-controlling toxins on us.

The enclosed flyer, an excerpt from my blog post

KillerLies.blogspot.com,

sums up the situation.

Thousands here on Maui have been indoctrinated with lies by Alive and Well Health Emporium owners to believe that all vaccines are deadly and that their store has safe and effective nutritional supplements that prevent the diseases vaccines are intended for. This is criminal fraud, but it is only a small fraction of the frauds they perpetrate. They also illegally claim to have cures for HIV/AIDS, various deadly cancers, and whatever else ails you. Still DOH and the Attorney General do nothing. By ignoring these crimes the government gives tacit approval and endorsement to the illegal, fraudulent claims. 

To make matters worse, I recently learned that Alive and Well has, for many years, been illegally accepting EBT payments for their snake-oil supplements and for ready-to-eat juice/sandwich bar products. I informed DOH and the AG, but they have done nothing. So the taxpayers subsidize the scams of people who defraud them. It's loony land.

Why is the Alive and Well Health Emporium above the law? Who are they paying off?

Someday government officials will be held responsible and, unless you do something, you will be among them. 

If you do not reply I will post this as an open letter in my blog.

                                      Sincerely,

Kurt Butler 

Links to all my blogs: www.KurtButlerBlogs.blogspot.com. 

For more detailed critiques of various forms of quackery, including naturopathy, see my book A Consumer’s Guide to “Alternative Medicine”. It was expertly edited by legendary quack buster Stephen Barrett, MD.  The critics say:

"Superb!" -- Dr. Victor Herbert in the New England Journal of Medicine.

"Excellent" -- National Council Against Health Fraud.

"Five Stars" -- Cooking Light.

"Thought provoking; a great book" -- American Journal of Health Promotion.  

When the book was published almost 30 years ago it was strongly praised by responsible health experts and the rare responsible media, but trashed by new-age critics and even vandalized in bookstores by new-age fanatics. It is as true and relevant as ever, and has been mostly vindicated by time. Yet my courageous and far-sighted publisher, the venerable Prometheus Books, is still sitting on lots of copies. Please help validate their integrity by buying a copy. Or two or more as gifts. Perhaps 10 for your local school library and health classes. See their website for assorted discounts. Make them an offer. (My royalties are insignificant; this little promo is for the benefit of one of the world's great publishers, Prometheus Books.) 

Maui's future foretold: Barbarians In Paradise -- Terror Comes to Maui. This is a prophetic flash novel about a future police state and those who rebel against it. Available in paperback and ebook at Amazon.com. 

Open Letter to All Commercial Media

Open Letter to All Commercial Media 

            In 2014 I wrote a letter to Jen Russo, an editor at the weekly MauiTime. I objected to her earlier article that uncritically promoted a very questionable profession. It wasn’t personal; my beefs with her are my beefs with 90 percent of the commercial media. It all about their gross deception: they pretend to be professionals who do real journalism while they routinely and knowingly violate The Society of Professional Journalists’ Code of Ethics and exploit their readers rather than inform them.

The points I make in the letter apply to all (pseudo) journalists, so here I’ve made it public as an open letter to all those working in media outlets that profiteer from health fraud.

Dear Jen Russo and Other Writers, Editors and Broadcasters:

Back in the 1980s when the HIV/AIDS epidemic was picking up steam and the media were doing lots of stories on it one of the major Honolulu dailies carried a full-page story about naturopathy in Hawaii. Top NDs were interviewed and they all said that AIDS could be cured with “natural” remedies: good diet, lots of garlic, various medicinal herbs, special baths, fasting, acupuncture, “de-tox” regimens, etc. To a man, they blasted the anti-retroviral meds being tried by MDs. They will kill the patients, they all said.

Unless you’ve been in a coma for 30 years you know how that turned out. Magic Johnson is alive and well, as are millions around the world, thanks to anti-retrovirals, which dramatically reduce viral load and prevent mother-fetus transmission. None of the so-called natural remedies does anything to fight the infection. NDs have contributed less than nothing to fighting HIV. They have obstructed progress and harmed patients with their ignorant, lying propaganda. This story has been repeated over and over with infectious diseases (they’re anti-vax nuts), cancers and other serious ailments.

 As the story of naturopathy and the law heats up, please remember that the SPJ Code of Ethics calls for honesty, fairness, and disclosure of economic interests. Your paper makes lots of money from NDs and other questionable practitioners, so you owe it to your readers to guard against a temptation to promote their causes by uncritically parroting their claims in your stories.

Some years ago I wrote a book titled Lying for Fun and Profit: the Truth about the Media. Part of my research was to survey media coverage of fringe medicine. I found that over the last 30 years or so the media (print and broadcast, not including internet then) coverage has been about 100 to 1 in favor of scores of modes of bogus medicine, from ridiculous cure-all fad diets to acupuncture and chiropractic for serious diseases to an endless flood of herbal drugs sold as “supplements” as if the body has some daily requirement for the drugs. They do this because the quackery peddlers buy ads and this influences editorial policy.

I assume you are a person of integrity, and you want to do real journalism and provide your readers with truth rather than dangerous fiction, so I have enclosed some material that may interest you. If you want, you can borrow the book from the Wailuku library or from me. And I would be happy to discuss these things with you – just call or email me to set up a meeting. (The book, which I wrote, is A Consumer’s Guide to ‘Alternative Medicine.

Now to a different but related subject, the other side of this same coin. Imagine the following hypothetical situation:

 A group of anti-vaccine protesters stand on the sidewalk near the Maui Medical Group in Wailuku. They carry signs denouncing vaccines as worthless and dangerous. They are peaceful and quiet, and they are all obeying the county laws regarding sign waving. They had done this several times months earlier. MMG had repeatedly gone to court for a restraining order to stop the demonstrations, but five judges on separate occasions had ruled for the demonstrators. Having exhausted its legal remedies, MMG simply ignores the rulings and resorts to force. It orders its security guards to bodily keep the sidewalks near the clinic free of demonstrators. In an ensuing scuffle a demonstrator is severely injured, resulting in years of pain and disability.

Police officers witnessed the assault, but do not arrest the known assailant. The Prosecutor refuses to prosecute the assailant or even investigate the role of MMG in the entire episode. Later when the victim sues MMG, the police witnesses refuse to testify and the victim loses the case.

Now, I think you would agree that all the media would jump on this story, and the attention would force hearings on the episode, lawyers would jump in on both sides and the issues would be fully aired for months, even years. Whose fault was this outrage to the Bill of Rights? And was it ignorance, corruption or both?

Contrast that scenario with what actually happened to me in the inverse situation. Maui Time is well aware of the case, so I won’t repeat it here, except to enclose the Pussy Riot flyer that sums it up. Fringe medicine, even when it clearly endangers people and blatantly violates state law, is a Sacred Cow, sacrosanct, above reproach, above criticism, above honest journalism, and above the law. This mania for anything that its purveyors label as natural, organic and alternative is a social psychosis reflected in my ten-year struggle for free speech. For, in contrast to how the media would certainly treat vaccine (or GMO) protesters whose rights are violated, not one publisher or broadcaster has made the slightest mention of the travesty in my case, though fully informed of it.              

See also, www.nogivetohawaiipublicradio.blogspot.com, which protests unethical promotion of naturopathy by public radio.

 Sincerely,

              Kurt Butler 

Links to all my blogs: www.KurtButlerBlogs.blogspot.com. 

For more detailed critiques of various forms of quackery, including naturopathy, see my book A Consumer’s Guide to “Alternative Medicine”. It was expertly edited by legendary quack buster Stephen Barrett, MD.  The critics say:

"Superb!" -- Dr. Victor Herbert in the New England Journal of Medicine.

"Excellent" -- National Council Against Health Fraud.

"Five Stars" -- Cooking Light.

"Thought provoking; a great book" -- American Journal of Health Promotion.  

When the book was published almost 30 years ago it was strongly praised by responsible health experts and the rare responsible media, but trashed by new-age critics and even vandalized in bookstores by new-age fanatics. It is as true and relevant as ever, and has been mostly vindicated by time. Yet my courageous and far-sighted publisher, the venerable Prometheus Books, is still sitting on lots of copies. Please help validate their integrity by buying a copy. Or two or more as gifts. Perhaps 10 for your local school library and health classes. See their website for assorted discounts. Make them an offer. (My royalties are insignificant; this little promo is for the benefit of one of the world's great publishers, Prometheus Books.) 

Maui's future foretold: Barbarians In Paradise -- Terror Comes to Maui. This is a prophetic flash novel about a future police state and those who rebel against it. Available in paperback and ebook at Amazon.com. 

Why I Do This and Why He Can't Stop Me

For about ten years before the year 2,000 and ten years after, The Maui News, the only daily paper on the island, frequently engaged in sensationalist, dishonest promotion of postmodern healing miracles and other “new age” fads and frauds. Disease diagnosis by aura photography, the wonders of astrology, miracles of ancient herbs, and feng shui “science” to make you rich – such BS was standard fare in the paper, as it was in hundreds of dailies in those days. This type of quackery is not as fashionable now, so the papers run fewer ads and puff pieces (ads disguised as articles) promoting the frauds.

Over almost a quarter century I have clashed repeatedly with The Maui News about its corruption and dishonesty. It claims to abide by The Society of Professional Journalists’ Code of Ethics, but this is patently untrue, a most brazen lie. Though it violates the code by promoting health quackery and anti-science less often than it once did, it violates the code in other ways more stubbornly than ever.

The sins of the paper are now more of deliberate omission than of commission. As is true of most dailies, the loyalty of The Maui News belongs to its advertisers, not its readers. The island’s economy is almost entirely tourism dependent, so the paper plays cheerleader and propagandist, always projecting an image of paradise. Show the beauty and hide the ugliness.

However, the SPJ code stipulates that ethical journalists investigate and report on issues of importance to the community and do not collude with government officials or industries to ignore, bury or cover up the issues. This is Maui, not Putin’s Moscow where Pravda does the will of the Boss. Yet The Maui News rarely deviates from the county government’s line or reports anything likely to embarrass Mayor-Forever Alan Arakawa or put Maui in a bad light. This means total silence on our most important issues – the rule of law and the protection of constitutional rights of common people and poor people.

For years the editors of The Maui News have refused to publish my letters and commentaries exposing the county’s crimes or to investigate for itself. The facts are not in dispute and are mostly matters of public record, but they are taboo to the paper. Meanwhile it devotes acres of print to trivia (a big front-page story this morning is a slight change in the shape of Oreo cookies)  and puff pieces, including articles about awards and promotions for local cops, some well-known bullies and criminals. This kind of self-censorship and propagandizing is unethical and should be exposed. Thus my demonstrations.

No doubt Mr. Bradley hates my little protests, but there is nothing that he can do to stop them. Any legal action would give me an opportunity to show, in a court of law, that the paper routinely violates the SPJ ethics code. Its pretense of journalistic competence, honesty, integrity and fairness would be blown away. Bradley can’t allow that, so he tries to ignore me. But his inaction might lead some to think the accusation on my sign is true. And so he is trapped.

Similar reasoning holds regarding my signs accusing, “under penalty of perjury,” the mayor, the chief of police, the prosecutor and other county officials of various heinous crimes.

This is another example of a tactic I call “dirty tricks for clean government.” It’s too early to say whether it will prove effective in this case, but it is fun to get big shots into a kind of checkmate where, because of their own stupidity, dishonesty, corruption and arrogance, you get to defame them to the world in the nastiest possible ways with total impunity. That way, if you never get justice at least you get a little revenge. 

Links to all my blogs: www.KurtButlerBlogs.blogspot.com. 

For more detailed critiques of various forms of quackery, including naturopathy, see my book A Consumer’s Guide to “Alternative Medicine”. It was expertly edited by legendary quack buster Stephen Barrett, MD.  The critics say:

"Superb!" -- Dr. Victor Herbert in the New England Journal of Medicine.

"Excellent" -- National Council Against Health Fraud.

"Five Stars" -- Cooking Light.

"Thought provoking; a great book" -- American Journal of Health Promotion.  

When the book was published almost 30 years ago it was strongly praised by responsible health experts and the rare responsible media, but trashed by new-age critics and even vandalized in bookstores by new-age fanatics. It is as true and relevant as ever, and has been mostly vindicated by time. Yet my courageous and far-sighted publisher, the venerable Prometheus Books, is still sitting on lots of copies. Please help validate their integrity by buying a copy. Or two or more as gifts. Perhaps 10 for your local school library and health classes. See their website for assorted discounts. Make them an offer. (My royalties are insignificant; this little promo is for the benefit of one of the world's great publishers, Prometheus Books.) 

Maui's future foretold: Barbarians In Paradise -- Terror Comes to Maui. This is a prophetic flash novel about a future police state and those who rebel against it. Available in paperback and ebook at Amazon.com. 

Huge Scandal: Key Hawaii Legislators Bribed by Racketeers for More than a Decade

As we have documented in previous blog posts, an ongoing dangerous criminal enterprise, DBA “Alive and Well Health Emporium”, with millions in annual ill-gotten revenues, has been allowed to brazenly operate openly and even advertise heavily on radio. County and state officials could have put a stop to the group’s rackets and crime sprees a decade ago, but they have refused to act.

The role of corrupt police and Maui County officials has already been described. But why hasn’t the state stopped the racketeers? Once the Attorney General failed to take action why didn’t the house and senate committees on health hold hearings? The committee members are fully aware of the racketeers’ activities and the dangers they pose to public health, but their silence has been deafening.

Now we know why. Reliable sources have informed me that every house and senate health committee chair and vice chair for the last seven years has accepted cash bribes from the Alive and Well racketeers in exchange for keeping the matter off their calendars. This includes current House Health Committee Chair Della Au Belatti and Vice Chair Richard P. Creagan; and Senate House Health Committee Chair Josh Green and Vice Chair Glenn Wakai. The amounts of the payoffs have ranged from $4,000 to $10,000.

There are indications that some of the more influential members of the two committees may have also received bribes to exert their influence and help keep the lid on. We are still investigating, so we won’t name them. However, we can name all members of the health committees and warn that they should all be considered corrupt or potentially corrupt.

On the House side we have Representatives: Hashem, Jordan, Kobayashi, Morikawa, Oshiro, Chang, and Tupola.   

On the Senate side we have Senators: Baker, Gabbard, Riviere, Ruderman, and Slom.

The Alive and Well Body Count   The racketeers have done more than scam millions of dollars from the public. Their criminal activities have injured and killed people. Corrupt government officials and legislators have aided and abetted these deadly crimes. The body count will be difficult to estimate because of the many ways the fraudsters inflict sickness and death, but it is surely in the hundreds. See www.killerlies.blogspot.com.  In any case, there is no doubt that several state legislators have blood on their hands.

There is generally no discernible pattern to the suffering and death of most of Alive and Well’s victims. An HIV/AIDS patient here, a stage 4 breast cancer patient there. These cases are difficult to document without legal action because neither Alive and Well nor the officials they bribed will cooperate. However, if there is a cluster of cases, as there is in mass food poisonings, the source of the problem can usually be identified.

For many years the Alive and Well racketeers have been vigorously and fanatically denouncing all vaccines, including those that prevent childhood diseases. They tell fantastic lies that scare parents from getting their kids vaccinated and opt instead for Alive and Well’s fraudulent vaccine substitutes consisting of toxic doses of vitamins and herbal drugs. Even in the face of the Wakefield scandal, the Disney measles and other outbreaks, and a flurry of studies debunking the horror stories and strongly supporting vaccinations, Alive and Well continues its anti-vaccination lies. They are practically the only ones doing this in the mass media (naturopaths are quieter about it), so any outbreak on Maui could probably be linked to these racketeers and their corrupt government allies. 

Links to all my blogs: www.KurtButlerBlogs.blogspot.com. 

For more detailed critiques of various forms of quackery, including naturopathy, see my book A Consumer’s Guide to “Alternative Medicine”. It was expertly edited by legendary quack buster Stephen Barrett, MD.  The critics say:

"Superb!" -- Dr. Victor Herbert in the New England Journal of Medicine.

"Excellent" -- National Council Against Health Fraud.

"Five Stars" -- Cooking Light.

"Thought provoking; a great book" -- American Journal of Health Promotion.  

When the book was published almost 30 years ago it was strongly praised by responsible health experts and the rare responsible media, but trashed by new-age critics and even vandalized in bookstores by new-age fanatics. It is as true and relevant as ever, and has been mostly vindicated by time. Yet my courageous and far-sighted publisher, the venerable Prometheus Books, is still sitting on lots of copies. Please help validate their integrity by buying a copy. Or two or more as gifts. Perhaps 10 for your local school library and health classes. See their website for assorted discounts. Make them an offer. (My royalties are insignificant; this little promo is for the benefit of one of the world's great publishers, Prometheus Books.) 

Maui's future foretold: Barbarians In Paradise -- Terror Comes to Maui. This is a prophetic flash novel about a future police state and those who rebel against it. Available in paperback and ebook at Amazon.com. 

Our Criminal Mayor Left Me to Die Rather than Agree to the Rule of Law

On October 13, 2014, I commenced a protest hunger strike. For almost four weeks I sat in a lawn chair on the grassy area of the Wailuku courthouse, Hale Hoapili, on Main Street across from McDonald’s.  Next to me was my 8-foot high sign that said “Hunger Strike to Death (if necessary) for Justice.” It stated the date the fast started, my weight then, the current day of the fast and my current weight. I stayed there for about five hours each week day through November 7. The fast lasted 26 days. Scores of people read my flyer, visited my blogs, and had conversations with me, some lasting more than an hour. No one disagreed with me and most people strongly agreed and offered their support. Some offered me money to print more flyers. Even attorneys, and lower-level state and county employees expressed support.

I hand-delivered a letter to the Office of Corporation Counsel of County of Maui, the county’s lawyers, explaining my protest and making one simple demand, the same one I have been making for 20 years: end the county’s illegal perjury decriminalization policy, which harms victims of perjury and undermines the integrity of the justice system.

I demanded that the mayor or the chief of police, speaking for the county, take three concrete steps to initiate the reform.

1) Issue a press release informing or reminding the public that perjury is a felony and we all have a right to complain to the police about perjury that harmed us, the same as we would if we had been assaulted or robbed.

2) Send a memo to all police officers informing or reminding them that it is their duty to log and investigate complaints of perjury the same as they do other crimes.

3) Change the TRO Petition form with one or two sentences emphasizing that lying on the form is perjury, a felony which will be prosecuted to the full extent of the law.

Deputy Corporation Counsel Moana Lutey replied with the same brazen lie they have told for two decades: there is no perjury decriminalization policy. In 2012 Lutey suborned perjury in federal court by ex-chief of police Thomas Phillips who swore under oath that the county does not maintain a perjury decrim policy.

They apparently feel justified in saying this because there is no such written policy. But it has been firmly established in law that if a county has a long and consistent habit, custom or pattern of handling an issue in a certain way, it is thereby maintaining a policy, whether or not the policy is stated in an official memo or policy manual. It does not have to be in writing to be an official policy.

Lutey and her bosses, including the mayor, have repeatedly shown themselves to be arrogant, ignorant, ruthless and contemptuous of our basic rights. Their strategy on this issue is to simply lie about it – brazenly, preposterously and stubbornly lie. They cannot name a single case of prosecution of perjury in the last several decades, yet they want the public to believe the lie they repeatedly told the federal court, that perjury is investigated and prosecuted the same as any other crime. They have to say this because without this pretense there cannot be an appearance of the rule of law. And that is all we have here, an appearance of the rule of law.

I have tried to get the media to investigate my allegations and cover the story, but they are unanimously silent. They rushed to report the announcement that a Hong Kong protest leader was commencing a hunger strike, but ignored my announcement of my protest fast. They believe that the rule of law is important in China, but not in Hawaii.

This is an example of the Flower Curtain that the local media maintain around the island to minimize bad news from spreading. Information that tarnishes the image of “the world’s best island” is self-censored in the interest of advertisers. The papers and broadcasters are capitalists, but the end result is akin to that of the old Soviet Union. Think Pravda and Izvestia, spouting the party’s sunny line and keeping quiet about the big problems.

We should all keep in mind that Hawaii’s nice climate and beautiful scenery do not guarantee a bright future. Haiti also has a nice climate and beautiful scenery, but few people would call it a great place to live or even visit. It has long been an environmental and human disaster area, thanks to poor governance, corruption, tyranny and overpopulation. Maui especially seems to be moving in the same direction.   

My Letter to Lutey

 Here is the text of my letter to Maui county attorney Moana Lutey in reply to her latest lying claim that there is no perjury decrim policy.

Dear Ms. Lutey:

This is regarding your recent letter to me claiming that perjury has not been decriminalized in Maui County. Saying it does not make it so. You and the county have been lying about the issue of perjury for many years.

In order for the county to maintain the illegal policy it must deny that the policy exists. You have done this so brazenly that you insult our intelligence. Maria De Leon’s perjured TRO petition (and the automatic ex parte order) followed by her false police report landed me in jail for 30 days. The judge who finally heard the case called her a liar, dissolved the ex parte order and denied the petition. I tried for two years to have her prosecuted for the perjury and false reporting that led to my arrest. I was always either ignored or told that the police do not investigate complaints of perjury. That was only one of four cases in which the county refused my attempts to have perjury prosecuted. Are you claiming that the county investigates all complaints of perjury except mine? Surely you know that would amount to an illegal vendetta. 

When I filed a lawsuit in federal court over the issue you and Richard Rost suborned perjury by Chief Phillips, who swore to the court that perjury is investigated and prosecuted the same as other crimes. The time limit for prosecution had not yet expired in the De Leon case, and I continued to urge an investigation throughout the federal court proceedings and for months afterward. But all my appeals to the chief and to the prosecutor fell on deaf ears. You and Chief Phillips spit in my face and in the court’s face. And when I requested examples of perjury prosecution the county supplied none. But you know all this. Who do you think you’re fooling with your preposterous lie? 

The problem is that you are a pathological liar and almost certainly a genuine psychopath as clinically defined by psychiatric criminologist Robert Hare in his classic book Without Conscience. Your crimes against me, especially your felonious obstruction of justice in Kurt Butler vs. MDDR, stole my First Amendment right to free speech, ruined me financially, and condemned me to live in abject poverty and pain (I won’t be able to afford more shoulder surgery) through my senior years. And they cost the taxpayers more than one hundred thousand dollars. All this to save MDDR’s insurance company about the same amount. But you are utterly oblivious to the harm you caused, completely unrepentant and lacking remorse, a defining characteristic of the psychopath. 

I don’t know to what extent you act on your own, but surely the mayor and your boss in the department are aware of your actions and are therefore, at the very least, complicit in your crimes. I strongly suspect bribery in the MDDR case, but I don’t know who was paid off. Was it the two cops, you, your boss, or the mayor? Or all of you? I know MDDR, which mints money with criminal lies that rip off and endanger the victims of its scams, can easily afford to make very generous payoffs. 

One last point: if the county does not maintain a perjury decriminalization policy, why not agree to my demands? What harm could come from issuing a memo reminding police officers that it is their duty to investigate complaints of perjury the same as any other serious crime, something they are obviously unaware of? 

Why not remind the public, with a press release, that people have a right to have their complaints of perjury investigated, and prosecuted if warranted by the evidence? To save face you could say that there has long been a misunderstanding about it. And why not tweak the TRO petition forms to warn potential perjurers and to inform respondents of their rights? The county’s refusal to meet these demands supports my contention that there is a perjury decriminalization policy, and that the county wants to keep it and keep lying about it.

The vast majority of people who read my flyer, including many local lawyers, agree with me. The support for my protest and my demands is overwhelming.

I will continue my public protest and hunger strike until my demands are met. 

Sincerely,   Kurt Butler 

About My Fast

It’s easy to think about not eating, but hard to go very long without eating. You start out with I’ll-show-them determination and enthusiasm, but when hunger becomes constant you waver and all kinds of excuses to quit the fast pop into your head. In the beginning I thought about Gandhi and Bobby Sands, the IRA protester. At first they inspired me. Gandhi did protest fasts about 20 times over many years. His longest was 21 days, which he did three times. Bobby Sands went 66 days without eating.

After a week of hunger I dwelled more on the facts that I was 70 while Sands was 27 and he died of starvation; and even Gandhi was at least a decade younger than I during his last fast. I thought about the permanent damage I might do with a prolonged fast at my age and almost scared myself out of continuing.

What is fasting? Some people refer to a “juice fast”, which is really not a fast since you can get 1500 or more calories a day from juice. I don’t know whether Gandhi and Sands took any kind of supplements, at least a little salt with their water or something for fiber, but it is reasonable to define a fast as a period of extreme restriction of calories from any source while allowing water, minerals and vitamins. 

I drank plenty of water, sometimes with a pinch of salt, and, for vitamins and minerals I ate three to four sheets of nori and drank a half glass of V-8 Juice each day. During the last week I sometimes had a cup of near-zero calorie soup made with cabbage, onion, garlic, and various spices plus the half-glass of V-8. In the 26 days I never exceeded more than 5 percent of my normal calorie intake. For fiber I stirred a teaspoon of psyllium seed husk into a glass of water and choked it down.

At 3:30 a.m. at the beginning of what was to be the 27^th day of the fast, I was awakened by strange sounds coming from the kitchen-area sink. By the time I got the light on the sink was overflowing with bathtub water from upstairs (due to a drain clog downhill from my sink). My entire studio apartment was flooded and my carpets soaked.

I had no choice but to sop up some of the water. After an hour of strenuous work, sopping and squeezing a large towel into a bucket, I experienced symptoms that seemed to be typical signs of the beginning of a heart attack, though the pain in my left arm could have been from overexertion. In any case, I realized I had to eat or I could die, perhaps that very day. My determination and enthusiasm for my cause faded. My thinking changed from I’ll defy them by not eating to, they want me dead so I will defy them by eating.

I broke the promise of my protest, my promise to fast for justice, to death if necessary. I’m sorry for that, but I am sorrier that I failed in my effort to inspire a little reform, just a slight nudge toward the actual rule of law in Maui County.

However, I am not giving up. I have a new, even taller sign that I will be displaying around central Wailuku, mostly around the courthouse and the county building. It has a provocative message that is sure to ruffle some feathers. I don’t expect to ever personally get justice in my cases, but I do hope to inspire reforms that will spare others such injustices.

Finally, I must emphasize that I will never again voluntarily desist from normal eating for more than a day or two. I strongly advise against prolonged fasting because it causes the breakdown of healthy tissue.  This can damage any organ and disrupt every normal function of the body. It can take months or years to heal from the trauma. Several weeks after ending my fast I still feel a little weak and a lot fuzzy. My muscles have not fully recovered, and my brain and eyes have hardly begun to heal. My memory and vision are blurred and my emotions volatile. These functions seems to be recovering, but all too slowly.

Links to all my blogs: www.KurtButlerBlogs.blogspot.com. 

Maui's future foretold: Barbarians in Paradise -- Terror comes to Maui. This is a prophetic flash novel about a future police state and those who rebel against it. Available in paperback and e-book on Amazon.com.

Reviews, comments:

"Diabolical and outrageous. Should be banned." Linda Lingle, ex-Maui mayor, ex-Hawaii governor.

"A wet dream of vengeance for victims of government abuse." Anonymous reader.

"A prophecy too plausible to ignore but too terrible to contemplate." Anonymous.

"Maui's future? America's future?" Anonymous.

"Profound and potentially dangerous." Kirtus Reviews.

For detailed critiques of various forms of quackery, including naturopathy, see my book A Consumer’s Guide to “Alternative Medicine”. It was expertly edited by legendary quack buster Stephen Barrett, MD.  The critics say:

"Superb!" -- Dr. Victor Herbert in the New England Journal of Medicine.

"Excellent" -- National Council Against Health Fraud.

"Five Stars" -- Cooking Light.

"Thought provoking; a great book" -- American Journal of Health Promotion.  

When the book was published almost 30 years ago it was strongly praised by responsible health experts and the rare responsible media, but trashed by new-age critics and even vandalized in bookstores by new-age fanatics. It is as true and relevant as ever, and has been mostly vindicated by time. Yet my courageous and far-sighted publisher, the venerable Prometheus Books, is still sitting on lots of copies. Please help validate their integrity by buying a copy. Or two or more as gifts. Perhaps 10 for your local school library and health classes. See their website for assorted discounts. Make them an offer. (My royalties are insignificant; this little promo is for the benefit of one of the world's great publishers, Prometheus Books.) 

The cartoon below was contributed by Kai Lani.