Aloha Reader,

Today we are grateful for the disaster preparedness and emergency crews cleaning up after Lala, especially on the Big Island. Our hearts go out to all who have experienced damage. We are thankful that the worst predictions of landfall did not occur.

Lala has weakened to a tropical storm and continues moving west, still bringing heavy rain, gusty winds, and rough surf to Maui, Oʻahu, and Kauaʻi. While the Big Island has seen the worst of it, please keep those on the other islands in your thoughts as the storm moves through — stay safe and heed local advisories.

Lala reminds us that there is no Planet B. The earth is seeing effects of global heating everywhere. Similarly, it's easy to think Hawaiʻi is too far away for the chaos and corruption coming out of DC to matter. But they do. A surveillance company in downtown Honolulu and a health insurer breaking its word to the Governor say otherwise — it's why healthcare costs keep climbing and our data isn't safe.

We can have nice things — if we elect lawmakers who serve us, not themselves. This November's midterm election is our real chance to shape a better future.

In this issue

• Shining light on the Palantir panopticon
• Flipping U.S. Congress Blue: refocusing our efforts
• The lawmakers we're fighting for — and against
• Midterm General Election kick-off webinar
• Stop HMSA from making Hawai’i's healthcare worse
• Website woes
• On the radar

Shining light on the Palantir panopticon

Mahalo nui to all who showed up to protest at Palantir on Monday; it was a fantastic turnout. This protest was sparked by 15-year-old Zane Dalgamouni, a Punahou student who dug into Palantir's local job listings and sounded the alarm. Since then, we've been telling Palantir to stop vacuuming up our personal data.

More than two centuries ago, philosopher Jeremy Bentham imagined the panopticon — a circular architectural design that would let a single guard observe every inmate, all the time, without them knowing whether or not they were being watched. George Orwell expanded this idea into the Big Brother concept— that someone is watching all of us, all the time, so you’d better behave. Now the Trump administration's Department of Homeland Security, under Secretary Markwayne Mullin, is paying Palantir to use its Artificial Intelligence (AI) to build exactly that.

Based on the level of press response, we are not the only ones worried about the attacks on our privacy. Here's a sample of the coverage you generated:

• Hawaiʻi Public Radio: Local groups want public to know software giant Palantir is in Hawaiʻi​
• Hawaiʻi News Now: Civil rights groups protest Palantir surveillance software in Honolulu​
• Aloha State Daily: Palantir protest draws mid-sized crowd to Bishop and Queen streets​

We applaud Zane for speaking up in his Aloha State Daily guest essay: Community Voices: Punahou student raises concerns about Palantir Technologies in Honolulu. He's paying more attention — and showing more courage — than a lot of adults. He can see that the alliance between tech companies and an authoritarian government threatens to undermine our basic constitutional rights, embodied in the 1st, 4th, 5th, and 10th Amendments.

Flipping U.S. Congress Blue: refocusing our efforts

With our state primary behind us, we're turning our energy to flipping Congress blue — in both the House and the Senate.

This year, our Blue Wave team is targeting six states where a Senate or House seat is within reach: Alaska, Iowa, Maine, Michigan, Nebraska, and Ohio. Canvassing in these areas — normally a core part of Blue Wave work — isn't an option from here, so our volunteers focus on what does work across the distance: postcards, phone calls, texts, and social media outreach. In close elections, turnout is the difference between victory and defeat. You can help drive voter turnout. See who's running and how to get involved on our Blue Wave page.

Postcards and stamps aren't free. If you can chip in to help cover the cost, you can help us reach more voters. Donate here.

The lawmakers we're fighting for — and against

Take Michigan's Dr. Abdul El-Sayed — a public health doctor who just won a hard-fought Senate primary running on Medicare for All and making everyday life more affordable. In his victory remarks, he said people are worn out by division and want leaders focused on the basics: healthcare, housing, and a government that actually works for them. Watch his victory speech and his explainer on Medicare for All to see the kind of lawmaker we're fighting to send to Washington.

Contrast that with Ohio, where Representative Max Miller is running for reelection while under a House Ethics Committee investigation into allegations — from his own ex-wife — of domestic abuse and drug use. This is exactly the kind of lawmaker we don't need shaping our laws.

Midterm General Election kick-off webinar

We're thrilled to be co-hosting an Information Zoom with Congressional District 2 (CD2) Representative Jill Tokuda, kicking off an intensified push for the November midterms — covering the state of democracy, voting rights, and the fight to flip Congress blue.

On the agenda:

• Restoring democracy and voting rights, with Jill Tokuda and a guest U.S. House Representative
• Flipping the U.S. Congress blue, with Younghee
• Getting Hawaiʻi voters to the polls, with Jill's Campaign Manager

TAKE ACTION: Wednesday, August 26, 2026, 5:30–6:30 pm HST - REGISTER HERE ​

Stop HMSA from making Hawai’i's healthcare worse

Healthcare in Hawaii is expensive and can be hard to access. This latest move should concern everyone in Hawaiʻi.

The Hawaii Medical Service Association (HMSA), which controls 70% of Hawai'i's health insurance market, is changing how it pays primary care providers (PCPs). Independent primary care practices face losing large numbers of patients and shutting their doors. One Hilo clinic has already closed, citing HMSA actions. As a result, our state's shortage of medical care, especially dire on Neighbor Islands, will become even worse. We will all feel the results when we cannot find a doctor who will take new patients, or we experience long waits for critical appointments, diagnosis, and treatment. Civil Beat has a very thorough discussion of the proposed changes and the potential impacts of them.

Governor Green intervened in May 2026 to negotiate a transition deferral to January 1, 2027. Deferring the changes doesn’t stop or reduce the impacts on Hawaiʻi residents. HMSA’s proposed changes would still result in thousands of people in Hawaiʻi losing the freedom to choose their own doctor.

This isn’t the only rule change HMSA is implementing. They’ve also restricted reimbursement for chiropractic treatments and changed how it reimburses physicians when patients see more than one doctor.

If you have a subscription to Honolulu Star-Advertiser, read more from Hawai'i Island Nurse Practitioner Kaleo Correa: Island Voices section published on July 26, 2026, and titled “HMSA's policies put healthcare at risk.” If you do not have a subscription, you can find out more at the Hawai'i Healthcare Task Force's site.

You don't need to be a health expert to know something is wrong here and it needs to be fixed.

TAKE ACTION: Please raise your voice and email the Governor ASAP through his official contact form. "Governor Green: Call HMSA back to the table! Protect our healthcare system, our cherished local medical providers, and our freedom to choose our own Primary Care Providers."

We made it easy and prepared a template: HMSA action email template​

Website woes

If you tried to visit our website this week, you may have run into trouble — it was hacked and taken down. There's no evidence it was targeted for political reasons; some evidence suggests the perpetrators are sophisticated and are using our domain for financial schemes based outside the US.

Our host, Dreamhost, is working on restoring service but hasn't given us a timeline for full restoration. We'll share more as soon as we know more.

On the radar

• Hawaiʻi National Guard troops are still deployed to DC, and we won't let up until they're home.
• We've started analyzing the primary turnout to get a clearer picture of what happened — more on that soon.
• Our inexhaustible Marlene Thom volunteered as an election observer during the primary and has a fascinating report to share very soon.

We'll be at our local postcard parties. See you there!

Warmest Aloha

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