Dust-Up At The East Oʻahu Corral
Pay raises, missing bikis, and a lasso full of bad juju: the East Oʻahu Corral is fixin’ to get messy. Because, on this side of town, no one knows how to just ride off into the sunset.
The Burro, The Boss, And The Bullwhip
The tale of a saddlebag without bottom, a donkey without dignity, and a governor who seems much too comfortable with both.
Della and Goliath
Lo, the giant came forth clad in $12 million of polished steel, a beast of artifice piloted by the Prince of PACs. But Della reached for her slingshot. Thus saith the cartoonist: Let the rock fly; let the giant fall.
Pay No Attention
Pay no attention to the mayor behind the curtain! Honolulu wants a better police chief. The mayor wants to be the Wizard. And the only one pulling back the curtain is a tiny dog with a Civil Beat pin.
ICE Breaker
They said “law and order.” They meant “hoods and handcuffs.” Hawaiʻi is fighting back. My new cartoon pulls back the mask on America’s secret police, and its white supremacist lineage.
The Face of Democracy
Democracy should flow through a public hearing, not a private audience. Yet, in the people’s house, the most important conversations happen in the hallways—and they’re all off the record.
Poisoning The Well
The U.S. isn’t liberating Venezuela’s oil—it’s poisoning the nation’s future with debt to create a permanent financial slave.
Let Them Eat Cake
A tale as old as time: a tone-deaf leader, a pile of hoarded cash, and a starving child. Today's Marie Antoinette isn't in Versailles—he's in the White House.
Waters’ World
Honolulu City Council chair Tommy Waters is running for a third term thanks to a loophole in the county charter. But should we even have legislative term limits?
Bon Voyage
Rep. Kyle Yamashita is out as State House Finance Committee chair. Like Napoleon before him, will he make a comeback from his political exile and storm his way back into power?
Ain’t No Sunshine
The 2025 Hawaiʻi legislative session ended with an ignominious whimper when it comes to good government reform, or “sunshine,” bills—the last of which died in conference committee the week before this cartoon ran.
Sold Out
Between President Trump’s tariff chaos, haphazard cuts to government functionality via Elon Musk’s rogue agency DOGE, and Congress advancing $5.1 trillion in tax cuts for the rich on the backs of the rest of us, it’s looking like the U.S. economy and the empire that supports it are headed for a painful, stupid end.
The Curse Of Crossover Bridge
The Sunshine Boys return for this follow up at the halfway point in the Hawaiʻi legislature session, called “crossover.” Many, but not all, government reform bills have died already.
Bonfire Of Our Sanity
A state commission policing what journalists write about the state? What could go wrong?
Demagoguecracy
A reaction to the inauguration of Donald Trump as 47th president of the United States, ushering in the official age of American Demagoguecracy, a government ruled through fear.
The Sunshine Boys
To celebrate the relaunched Honolulu Civil Beat “Sunshine Sunday” accountability section, this cartoon riffs on the Hardy Boys to talk about efforts by the two legislative judiciary chairs, Sen. Rhoads and Rep. Tarnas, to reform the opaque legislature (square building).
Great Demarcations
There are always winners and losers in every proposed budget, but some of the guests at this year’s budget banquet might be consuming more than makes sense, while others could use more than breadcrumbs.
Price of Paradise
The Honolulu City Council is slated to vote on a new tax on homes that stand empty, a measure supporters say will force owners to rent the properties and help provide badly needed housing for local residents. Critics complain it’s unfair to the property owner.
Big Green Political Machine
The candidates with the most cash have an overwhelming likelihood to end up the winner in our current election system. That held true in 2024 as the Carpenter’s Union PAC “For a Better Tomorrow” spent more than $500,000 to ensure Tom Cook and Tasha Kama were re-elected to the Maui County Council over Kelly King and Carol Lee Kamekona.