The idea of parachute lawyers and Wall Street banks coming into Maui to take advantage of the Hawaiian citizens following the devastating wildfire is absolutely disgusting. Mike Papantonio & Farron Cousins discuss more.
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Transcript:
*This transcript was generated by a third-party transcription software company, so please excuse any typos.
Mike Papantonio: The other thing I’m seeing is we saw with the hurricanes, of course, the idea of parachute lawyers coming in. It was disgusting to me. People that don’t have anything in common with this area. Parachute lawyers from California, New York, all over, all over the country. It was disgusting. And the same thing’s happening here. The Hawaii bar is smart enough to say, if you don’t have a license, you can’t practice here.
And what I love about that is you have some really good, good lawyers in those islands. Now. It’s not just Maui, but Honolulu, all the islands around, they’ve got really talented lawyers. And it’s just like I tell everybody in one of these situations because, it is, hire a local lawyer. Hire somebody that you, they may be in Honolulu, but that’s local there. I mean, for all practical purposes. They may be in Maui, but hire a local lawyer and understand, to me, the Hawaii Bar Association has a great system. Call in and we’ll help you get a lawyer. Now these lawyers might go out and hire experts. We get hired all over the country, literally all over the world. We have cases all over the world in our specialty.
But that can’t happen unless the person goes out and hires a local lawyer that they got a good reputation. You understand who they are. But there’s some great lawyers. We’re working with a guy named Sergio Rufo down there. He’s a huge, huge practice from the standpoint of just quality. And so that’s another thing that really bugs you about it. What else? As I’m talking about this story, I’m just kind of going through a checklist as I’ve watched this. What else comes to your mind?
Farron Cousins: Well, on the whole lawyer issue too, another benefit of the local lawyers there is these are the people who also suffered losses. They’re not just somebody who says, oh, let me, I’m here for the moment. Let me take your case. I’ll work on it. And then they fly 4,000 miles back home and you hear from ’em once every two or three months.
Mike Papantonio: Right.
Farron Cousins: You need somebody where you can walk into their office and say, hey, I haven’t heard from you in a week, not that that would happen, but you know what I mean? Like, you can talk to them face-to-face as frequently as you want.
Mike Papantonio: Well, in Hawaii, Hawaii’s a little different. I mean, somebody on Honolulu, of course, would get to Maui to make sure that there’s that personal interaction.
Farron Cousins: And that they understand it. They know the community. They know the loss suffered. You can’t replicate that.
Mike Papantonio: Right. And then when it comes to saying, okay, well we need help. I mean, we help lawyers all over the country, all all over the world actually. And so, but you gotta start with that local lawyer, I think. You know, to me, kind of to land this discussion, what does Biden, how does he recover from this issue? Does he just say, well, I have FEMA people there. I couldn’t send Kamala Harris there. We didn’t want to get in your way. Does that sell to you, really?
Farron Cousins: It really doesn’t. The moment passed. The moment passed. You cannot recapture it. He could come out tomorrow and be like, listen, we’re gonna give you $5,000 per household per month until you rebuild. And at that point, all it’s gonna do is look like a PR stunt.
Mike Papantonio: What about the Wall Street carpet baggers? Another parachute. The Wall Street carpet baggers. Here’s people, this is their life. Okay. It’s burned to the ground. Not just a structure. It is their life. It’s their family, it’s their relatives, it’s their associations. It’s their memories burned to the ground. Wall Street comes in, hey man, we can pick up some property really cheap here because these people need the money now. What do you say to them? Resist, resist.
Farron Cousins: Yep, that is, you and I are on the same page with that because I’m terrified, because we’ve already had that happening all over the United States.
Mike Papantonio: Oh yeah.
Farron Cousins: You’re BlackRocks your other big equity groups saying, oh, look at that. You’ve got nothing but the shirt on your back. Wouldn’t this check for $200,000 for your waterfront Hawaii, wouldn’t this help you out right now? Don’t give them the time of day. Use whatever language you want to make them go away, but do not fall for their scams because they will snatch your property, jack that price up 8000% and make millions off it.
Mike Papantonio: If you’ve spent any time over there, I’ve spent a little time. You can’t help but love these people. I mean, it’s just, they choose to live. It’s a simple life. It’s a great life. It’s a quality life. And now Wall Street, there’s just something real ugly about Wall Street parachuting in and saying, hey, we’re gonna build big condos here. Thanks for joining me. Okay.
Farron Cousins: Thank you.
