Volatile times: The stunning murder of conservative political activist Charlie Kirk in Utah on Wednesday threw many people for a loop. But aside from an initial sharp response from Sen. Brian Schatz, Hawaiʻi political leaders settled into their usual aloha messaging.

On Thursday, Schatz had this to say in a post on X regarding all the breathless speculation on social media about the possible motivation of the shooter:

“What fucking difference does it make if this murderer was left or right. Pull yourself together, read a book, get some exercise, have a whiskey or walk the dog or make some pasta or go fishing or just do anything other than let this algo pickle your brain and ruin your soul.”

The Blog figures that calmed everybody right down.

In another post Friday, Schatz paid homage to Republican Utah Gov. Spencer Cox for his measured response to the shooting in his state. Setting a far different tone than President Donald Trump’s flame-throwing effort to blame the political left, Cox said at a media briefing that “there is one person responsible for what happened here, and that person is now in custody and will be charged soon and will be held accountable.”

“If there’s one GOP pol best situated to try and take down the temperature after Charlie Kirk’s assassination, it might have been Spencer Cox,” Schatz wrote. “He’s seized the moment.”

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Gov. Josh Green, meanwhile, issued a statesmanlike denunciation of all the recent political violence in America, including the Kirk assassination and the killings of a Democratic legislator and her husband in Minnesota in June, as well as two attempts on Trump’s life last year.

“We have come to accept some amount of violence against one another as though it’s normal or acceptable,” Green said in calling for a national healing. “It’s not normal. It’s not acceptable.”

Green also authored an op-ed piece published Friday by U.S. News & World Report beneath the headline, “Our Country’s Failure On Gun Control Killed Charlie Kirk.”

To be fair, Green almost certainly didn’t write the headline, and except for a first paragraph reference to Kirk, the piece was a general call for gun control, echoing the governor’s past statements. It’s likely that piece was in the works long before the attack on Kirk and the magazine updated the top to reflect the news of the day.

But the headline had The Blog cringing a bit.

The rest of Hawaiʻi’s congressional delegation also spoke out about last week’s violence:

“From Denver to Utah, our country experienced two preventable & horrific public shootings today,” Sen. Mazie Hirono posted on X, referring to a Colorado school shooting that occurred almost simultaneously with Kirk’s killing.

“We cannot continue to live alongside gun violence & accept that losing lives every day is normal,” Hirono wrote. “Thoughts & prayers are not enough. Congress must pass gun safety legislation now.”

Congresswoman Jill Tokuda posted on X: “No matter what side of the aisle we’re on, we are all human—speaking our truth, standing for what we believe in, connecting with others.

“When someone is taken by political violence, it tears at the fabric of our democracy and our shared humanity,” Tokuda wrote. “My heart breaks for Charlie Kirk’s wife and young children. He did not deserve to die.”

And Congressman Ed Case issued a statement saying, “I am deeply saddened that this life of passion and contribution was cut short by an act of senseless violence in the exercise of his rights as a fellow citizen to free belief and speech.”

Close encounters of the police kind: The Honolulu Police Department is the subject of another lawsuit, this time because officers allegedly roughed up a news photographer who was taking pictures of them arresting a woman at Ala Moana Center in 2023.

According to the filing, Barry Markowitz, a photojournalist who lives in Honolulu but shoots for the Samoa News among other outlets, was at the mall to have work done on his cell phone when he saw unmarked police cars and plainclothes officers taking a woman into custody. Wearing his press credentials on his shirt, he took a few photos but was soon hassled by the cops.

One officer punched him in the shoulder while another was swearing at him, the complaint says.

Markowitz says he showed them his press badge and one of the officers grabbed his hand and yanked the badge away. Markowitz needed medical treatment for his hand and shoulder and is still receiving treatment to his shoulder two years later, the lawsuit says.

The case was filed late last month by Honolulu attorney Eric Seitz, who is no stranger to suing the HPD and other government agencies who allegedly overstep their authority.

What caught The Blog’s eye, besides alleged bad behavior toward a fellow journalist, was that state Rep. Della Au Belatti’s name appears under Seitz as the No. 2 lawyer on the case. She is, of course, a lawyer in his law firm.

So perhaps this is what prompted Belatti to introduce House Bill 595 this past session, clarifying a citizen’s right to photograph police and creating a right of action against police who interfere in the photographing.

HB 595 passed the House Labor Committee and then the House Judiciary and Hawaiian Affairs Committee, where Belatti is a member but appears to have had little to say about it — such as declaring a conflict of interest if Markowitz was a client by then. Then it died the usual politically mysterious death in House Finance.

Its companion measure, Senate Bill 307, made it out of the full Senate and back over to the House where it once again passed the Labor and Judiciary committees and then also died in House Finance with no reason given.

Pardon The Blog’s raised eyebrows here. Someone in the House clearly wanted this bill stopped. It appears to have no fiscal impact on state or local government and thus no reason to go to House Finance. The Senate version was never referred to Ways and Means.

As we’ve reported, bills with no impact on state spending are frequently sent to the money committees where they are often killed without explanation. They go in but they never come out.

Making Hawaiʻi great again: A new super PAC has formed in the islands with the goal of uniting conservatives who feel unheard by other political parties. Its priorities include “fair and transparent elections, sustainable growth that respects heritage,” parental rights and participation in education and government budgeting, says the political action committee’s chair.

“We aim to promote practical, commonsense solutions that advance faith, family, freedom and responsible stewardship while honoring Hawaiʻi’s culture and the U.S. and Hawaiʻi constitutions,” Tamara McKay told The Blog.

The Aloha Conservative Alliance, formerly known as the Hawaii Republican Club, was registered in late July with the Hawaiʻi Campaign Spending Commission. Its first report is due Feb. 2, just as the election season is getting underway and smack dab in the middle of the legislative session.

“We want to educate communities about policy issues, how to participate in the civic process, and how to testify effectively at the local and state levels,” said McKay, a former chair of the Hawaiʻi Republican Party and an unsuccessful state Senate candidate.

According to the ACA PAC’s website, it has alliances with Moms For Liberty, For Liberty & Justice and Convention of States Action, conservative groups active in national politics.

Super PACs, also known as independent expenditure committees, can support or oppose candidates as long as the effort “is not made in concert or cooperation with or at the suggestion of” the candidate, according to the Campaign Spending Commission. There is no limit on contributions to noncandidate committees making solely independent expenditures.

Hawaiʻi currently has 20 super PACs.