On Saturday, December 16, 2017 at 6:43:42 PM UTC-6, RichA wrote:
Worthless. The consortium has agreed to a number of things (including tearing down a few perfectly GOOD, working telescopes already on Mauna Kea), but the savages (natives) and enviro-kooks are still wailing about this. Apparently, their (the primitive's) god is an idiot who opposes learning about space. Honestly, it might be better to just say f--- Hawaii, it's natives and idiot liberal population of dope-addicts (plus, more people on welfare in Hawaii by percentage of population) than the the other state. A mother of 2 gets $60,000 a year, untaxed, in welfare benefits. You'd have to earn $85,000 to net that much as a worker. Maybe it's time to move major astronomy projects solely to Chile or elsewhere?

They are not leftists blocking the construction. The University of Hawaii is on that island and all the "leftist" professors and students and other professionals that I know all want this telescope constructed up on Mauna Kea.. The people opposing this are the conservative monarchists who want Hawaii to become a kingdom again with the Hawaiian royalty as rulers, and to re-establish the old religion. They are radical rightists who never accepted the overthrow of the monarchy by US business interests back in 1893 (Dole pineapple and sugar cane interests).

They don't want to be part of the USA and some of the fiercest of them fly the old Hawaiian flag over their properties with warning signs that anyone trespassing on their ancestral lands will be hunted down and shot. It is an old simmering rebellion that has taken on a new more dangerous turn for the worst. A lot of us who have property there are more than a bit worried.

" Hawaii Independence Party
The Hawaii Independence Party is one of a few non-ethnic groups supporting the independence of Hawaii. It split from the Nation of Hawai'i in 2015. The party is centre-right-winged and holds conservative and libertarian values, such as making Hawaii a banking and trade center for the Pacific Rim."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawaii...ignty_movement

Razzy