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Space Force to do major cleanup of diesel fuel spill on Hawaiian mountaintop

Space Force officials yesterday announced that it will to do major cleanup of the diesel fuel spill that occurred on the top of the mountain Haleakala on the Hawaiian island of Maui last week.

The plan is to remove about 200 cubic yards of fuel-tainted soil, test the base of the dig, and then determine if more soil has to be removed.

The official making this announcement apologized repeatedly for the spill, so much so it was almost as if he was on his face on the ground, kow-towing. It of course made no difference. The leftist race-baiters in Hawaii made it clear where they stood on the matter.

On Friday, the Hawaiian rights group Kākoʻo Haleakalā called for the removal of all telescopes from the peak of Haleakala. The military “showcased their incompetence and lack of human decency when they allowed more than 700 gallons of diesel fuel to be spilled atop Haleakalā,” the group said in a statement.

“This is just the most recent example of how U.S. imperialism and military hegemony is protected in the Pacific while Hawaiians are ignored and our ʻāina is violated,” the statement said, using the Hawaiian term for land.

Let me translate: “We hate whites and America, and we want you out of Hawaii, now. And if you don’t go, we want you to cede all control to us, so that we treat you as the inferior beings we consider you to be.”

Note too that this group’s agenda is identical to the agenda of the race-baiters on the Big Island who are blocking construction of the Thirty Meter Telescope and are forcing the removal of telescopes there.

Genesis cover

On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.

 

The print edition can be purchased at Amazon. from any other book seller, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.


The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
 

"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News

15 comments

  • M Puckett

    Let’s leave, we can re-build in Chile or space. Just make sure every imperial and hegemonic dime comes with us.

  • M Puckett: Why is it now always the first reaction of Americans to run away? It infuriates me.

    For astronomers, going to Chile is an utter defeat, because it then blinds them from doing any observations in the northern hemisphere.

    We must always stay and fight these ugly racist thugs. There is no other option, because they will only follow us if we run from them, and they will do it having been empowered by us by our fear of them.

  • James Street

    “The military ‘showcased their incompetence and lack of human decency when they allowed more than 700 gallons of diesel fuel to be spilled atop Haleakalā,’ the group said in a statement.”

    Almost as much incompetence and lack of human decency as serving chicken and waffles on first day of Black History Month.

    “New York school, food vendor apologize for serving chicken and waffles on first day of Black History Month”
    https://twitter.com/FoxNews/status/1622165671856455686

    Mmmmmmm… chicken and waffles…. ~(_8^(I)

  • Andi

    What, no watermelon? :)

  • Shortly after arriving in Hawai’i, I took a look at Hawai’ian history, and King Kamehameha became a personal hero. He demonstrated the blueprint for how an indigenous people should deal with a technically-superior invader: you co-opt them. Realizing the futility of resistance; in a practical demonstration of ‘hold your enemies closer’, he put Europeans in high court positions, and generally integrated the invaders into the social and political fabric. The King is held in high regard in the Islands, but the present generation of Polynesians dishonors his memory and work.

  • Dave

    I’ll venture this: probably most (well grounded) persons on visiting the spill sight would probably be unimpressed by the matter. Like a spill in the kitchen, time to clean it up and get back to work.

    Some don’t see it that way, and I suggest they come in two camps:
    1) not a grounded perspective on what 700 gallons is, and what diesel fuel is, and
    2) extortionists looking for the next chance to make a buck provided (1) above is sufficiently prevalent.

  • john hare

    200 yards of material to be hauled off. That’s ten dump truck loads for people not in construction. One day for a loader and two trucks if hauling within 25 miles or so. Total of four people for one day. One operator, two drivers, and one supervisor. Use it for fill dirt under a building as 700 gallons of contamination is less than 90 cubic feet and has likely penetrated about as far as it’s going to into the ground.

    Or just use it in the parking lot where vegetation isn’t supposed to grow anyway. You know, the area that normally has oil based asphalt by the truckload.

  • M Puckett

    The proper remediation technique for petroleum contaminated soil is to spread it and let the sun, wind and time take care of it. Likely at a staging area at a landfill somewhere in the active working cell which is contained by the leachate liner system. After a while, the landfill will use it for daily cover material applied at the end of the working day as a vector and wind control.

    Robert,

    I tend to want to de-fund ingrates and let them live with the full consequences of their mal-actions. I speak rhetorically as much as literally in this case. I guarantee you that given a choice between getting their way and losing Uncle Sugar and his golden checkbook, Kākoʻo Haleakalā would fold like a cheap lawnchair. I always see screeds like this as a tantrum by some group looking for a payout. “Please pay me so I will stop calling you the white devil for a while…”

    Sometimes, I just want the dog to catch the car and be the example, even when I really don’t want the dog to get smushed. A Schrodignernarian conundrum.

  • pzatchok

    Why is the space force doing this instead of NASA?

    Why even ask? I realized that the US government slush funds everything when I found out the US forestry service in some way handled refueling the Shuttle Carrier craft.

  • pzatchok: This facility has zero to do with NASA, or astronomy. It is a Space Force base (formerly Air Force) specifically doing tracking of orbiting space objects, for defense reasons. It has never been NASA’s job to do this, and never should be.

    You might want to click on the links sometimes and read the stories before commenting.

  • Edward

    Robert Zimmerman,
    You asked: “Why is it now always the first reaction of Americans to run away?

    It is because Americans know who is in the right. If the Space Force has an accident and spills some chemicals, it should be punished by banishment. It is only fair.

    Of course, when the ugly racist thugs intentionally and illegally blockaded the road for the astronomers, they were not punished but rewarded, which is only fair, so I change my answer:

    It is because Americans know who is in the right. It is always the ugly racist thugs. The white man is always in the wrong. Obama suggested that it was in the genes. Didn’t you see the movie Little Big Man? It explained it all. Skip the book, because it has a different, less racist message.

    john hare wrote: “One day for a loader and two trucks if hauling within 25 miles or so.

    Except that those Hawaiian mountains take a while to go up and down, so it may take more trucks and personnel. Depending upon the width of the trucks, they may have to have one-way traffic on the road while the trucks are traveling.

  • BLSinSC

    Why not just chunk the dirt in one of their VOLCANOES??? It would simply burn up and BE GONE!! No biggie!! Use COMMON SENSE! OR, use it to roast a big pig!

  • sippin_bourbon

    Roasting a pig over diesel?? Yech!

  • wayne

    john hare, M Puckett, et al:
    Good stuff.
    –700 gallons is not-a-whole-lot. if this was crude-oil it would be a bit more messy, but this is akin to a gasoline spill.
    I love the idea of waste-disposal via volcanos, anyone have any insights? I’m sure this has been studied.

    (sippin_bourbon- yes, no cooking with diesel residue. tangentially, what sorta taste does lava impart to meat?)

  • Andi

    disposal via volcano – most likely the locals would object to their “god” being fed trash.

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