BJ Penn & Tulsi Gabbard — BJ Penn is a Hawaii-born former two-division UFC champion; Tulsi Gabbard is a former Hawaii Congresswoman, Army veteran, and 2020 Democratic presidential candidate.
The gist
Joe Rogan hosts Hawaii natives BJ Penn and Tulsi Gabbard for a sprawling, politically charged conversation anchored by the August 2023 Maui wildfire and what they describe as a catastrophic failure of local, state, and federal officials. They contrast the slow response and the $700 FEMA payments with the billions sent to Ukraine, and air fears the state may seize burned Lahaina land. The discussion ranges widely into water rights on Maui, '15-minute city' plans, COVID masks and vaccines, Hunter Biden's laptop, election integrity, media propaganda, and Gabbard's account of being smeared during her 2020 presidential run. Throughout, the trio argues that fear is used by those in power to erode civil liberties and that people-helping-people, not government, carried Maui through the disaster.
Big reveals
- Gabbard says Hawaii's governor publicly floated having the attorney general explore the state taking ownership of burned Lahaina land for workforce housing or a memorial.
- FEMA reportedly offered a one-time $700 payment to those impacted by the Maui wildfire, which they call insulting given Hawaii's high cost of living.
- Maui County's emergency-management head was at a FEMA conference on Oahu when the fire broke out and didn't appear publicly for days.
- Hawaii's state-of-the-art warning sirens were never sounded during the fire; the official said he didn't regret it, then resigned the next day.
- Gabbard says Instagram has been shadow-banning her account under a 'disinformation' label, showing warning screens to users who try to follow or tag her.
- Gabbard recounts that the 2020 letter from 51 former intelligence officials calling Hunter Biden's laptop 'Russian disinformation' was instigated by a Biden-campaign call.
- Gabbard argues the timing of multiple Trump court hearings around Super Tuesday is deliberate 'banana republic' political weaponization.
- Gabbard says from day one of her 2020 Democratic primary run she was deemed unacceptable by the party and media, who labeled her a 'Russian asset.'
Things worth remembering
- The first listed use of the term 'conspiracy theorist' is tied to the 1881 assassination of President Garfield.
- The Zapruder film of the JFK assassination wasn't broadcast to the public until 1975, about 12 years later, via Dick Gregory on Geraldo Rivera's show.
- Lahaina was historically a lush wetland called the 'Venice of Maui' before plantation corporations diverted its water in the 1800s.
- BJ Penn says the Hamakua Coast on the Big Island has roughly 70 'rivers' (streams) across 50 miles, many diverted at the top.
- Penn claims Hawaii law bars planting fruit-bearing trees on public lands.
- Wild pigs can begin breeding at six months and have up to about 12 piglets per litter, three litters a year.
- As of May 12, 2023, non-citizen non-immigrant air passengers no longer needed proof of COVID vaccination to fly into the U.S.
- Hawaii and Utah are the only two U.S. states that allow no legal gambling of any sort.
- A report cited puts Hawaii's living wage around $133,000 a year, the highest cost of living in the country.
- At DEFCON hacking conferences, kids aged 12-14 have demonstrated breaking into electronic voting systems within minutes.