Aloha Reader,

Thanks to all who showed up for the social get-together, postcarding at Kahalu'u Beach park and the pop-up event this week. Condolences to all who tried to follow the daily news. This week was heavy.

Editor's note: We are continually improving our formatting to ensure that each newsletter is easy to read and skimmable. This way, you can quickly find the information that interests you most. Look for clear distinctions between national, state, and local news. Now, let’s dive right in.

National news

Iran war: dementia on display 

Long ago, Trump was described as "an id with a social media feed". This week, the feed was deafening while the id descended into hell. Trump repeatedly promised genocide, the mere threat of which is a war crime. And he repeatedly about-faced, chickening out again.

Then Trump bizarrely accepted Iran's maximalist demands for negotiations, including a $2 million toll on access to the Strait of Hormuz, lifting sanctions, allowing uranium enrichment, paying for reparations, and withdrawal of the US military from the Middle East.

Is there a silver lining in any of this? 

Congressional Republicans and the Cabinet continue to hide from their accountability: no War Powers resolution, no Impeachment, no 25th amendment. But the hairline cracks in his MAGA base are widening. He is starting to lose many of his most vocal supporters: Tucker Carlson, Megyn Kelly, Alex Jones, Laura Loomer, Candace Owens, and others have recently joined Marjorie Taylor Greene in denouncing their clearly unfit leader.  

But don't be fooled. To get any real accountability, we need to flip both houses of Congress blue in November. Get ready to do lots of postcarding, textbanking, phonebanking, and canvassing soon.  

It is Netanyahu, Stupid

Thursday, the New York Times reported what many have suspected, that Bibi Netanyahu suckered Trump into attacking Iran against the advice of his advisors. Former Secretary of State John Kerry, who had negotiated the 2018 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) agreement with Iran to limit uranium enrichment, confirmed that Netanyahu has been pitching a “preemptive” attack on Iran to all presidents since George W. Bush. In Trump, Bibi found one who was dumb, impulsive, or evil enough to comply. 

Meanwhile, Netanyahu is jeopardizing the Iran-US ceasefire. In defiance of the terms, he continues to wage a war on Lebanon, displacing a million Palestinians from their homes. It looks like another nakba, Israel’s 1948 expulsion of indigenous Palestinians from the new state of Israel. 

Epstein File Update

Trump’s attempts to push the Epstein files out of the news aren’t working. And now, Melania has come forward with a strange statement denying any relationship with Epstein and Maxwell and calling for Congress to hold hearings on the files to allow victims to testify. No one knows why she did this, but she just raised the profile of this issue again. Noticeably, she didn’t mention or defend her husband in her statement. Like him, she only seems to care about herself.  Jimmy Kimmel had a field day with Melania’s stunt.

End warrantless mass domestic surveillance

Meanwhile we’re concerned about an obscure measure in Congress. Section 702 of the Federal Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) was designed to facilitate warrantless electronic surveillance of non-U.S. citizens in other countries. Unfortunately, courts have ruled that information gleaned “incidentally” about U.S. citizens' communications can also be searched, without any warrant. Despite being a clear civil liberties disaster, Congress has routinely reauthorized Section 702 with bipartisan support. Don’t let them do it again!

TAKE ACTION: Tell Congress to say no! Indivisible makes it easy, simply click here.

State News

Hawaiʻi stands with the Epstein Survivors

At the No Dictators event two weeks ago, Indivisible East Oʻahu organized a banner for the community to sign in support of the Epstein victims. Despite being disrupted by a bomb threat, they got it done. On Friday, US House Representative Jill Tokuda joined Indivisible and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) to announce that she will carry it to the US Capitol and present it to the Epstein victims. We are very grateful to our Oʻahu friends.

Hawaii is leading the nation in restoring sane campaign finance

Friday was the last day of committee hearings in the Legislature. We have an extraordinary number of bills moving forward. The next gauntlet is the conference process, in which Senate and House leaders need to reconcile differences between their versions of the bills. The Public Policy Team will continue pressuring legislative leadership to keep bills moving through and then back for final votes.

Last week, we wrote about SB2471, a bill that will effectively override Citizens United in Hawai'i by prohibiting corporations from making political donations to candidates. Mahalo nui to the Indivisibles who testified in force to get the bill passed its final committee hearing. Now we need to ensure it survives the conference process and is signed by Governor Green.

Tom Moore of the Center for American Progress gives a good explanation of this effort. State House Representatives Della Au Belatti and K. Kanani Souza explain the bill in a guest essay today in Civil Beat.

TAKE ACTION: Sign up for the Public Policy Team to stay informed of what you can do during the conference process.

Local Happenings

No postcarding or pop-up events are scheduled for the coming week, but we are preparing another peaceful, sign-waving protest.

Mark Your Calendar: "Workers Over Billionaires" - Friday, May 1, 2026, 4:00 PM 5:00 PM at the usual place

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We believe a lot of powerful people are flying to close to the sun, so let's keep up the pressure.
Stay tuned, keep fighting.
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Warmest Aloha,
Sam and the leadership team

- The Kona Indivisible Team ​konaindivisible.org​ ​info@konaindivisible.org​

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