#1706 - Billy Corben

Billy Corben (0:04)

The Joe Rogan Experience.

Joe Rogan (0:14)

Always good to see you, my friend.

Billy Corben (0:15)

I'm just here so you can give COVID back to Florida.

Joe Rogan (0:19)

I wonder if it works like that.

Florida gave it to me, I've got something for it. I'll have to figure out how to pay Florida back.

Billy Corben (0:25)

Don't say Florida never gave you anything.

Joe Rogan (0:27)

Listen, man, I had a good time down there. It was a rough few days, but I had a good time.

Billy Corben (0:34)

I feel like everybody has the same Florida story and it's just that.

Joe Rogan (0:37)

Well, Florida is just Florida. You know, I mean, one of the things that Florida has gotten a lot of positive reviews since the pandemic. You know, Florida came up during the pandemic, right?

I mean, a lot of people were negative on it. They thought that the restrictions were terrible and, you know, he needs to do more and DeSantis is killing people. But a lot of people were like, you know what? At least I can go to restaurants. Florida lets you go out. Florida doesn't want to have mandates and the tax situation. Florida came up. You gotta admit. Florida became a more attractive place during the pandemic.

Billy Corben (1:13)

August was the deadliest month in Florida in the history of the pandemic.

Joe Rogan (1:19)

This past August?

Billy Corben (1:20)

Yeah, one in five COVID deaths in the United States occurred in Florida. Now it's almost as many as one in four COVID deaths.

In the United States are occurring in Florida. We've had 13 Miami-Dade County Public Schools employees die of COVID. That includes teachers, bus drivers, people, die of COVID since mid-August.

Last month, we had, I think no less than 20 police officers in the state of Florida die. We had a 10-day period in which we had a police officer a day dying of COVID. If you go to the Officer Down Memorial page, the executive director there, a sergeant from Fairfax, Virginia, says that we, by the end of the pandemic, it will overtake the terror attacks of September 11th, 2001 as the single deadliest incident in the history of United States law enforcement. I mean, if I told you that there's a killer out there in Florida killing a cop a day, there'd be fucking martial law. There'd be tanks in the streets, there'd be guys in tactical gear and assault rifles, rightfully so, and there is, and it's COVID-19. And these people are interacting with the public, of course, to boot, and it's a tragedy. It's a human tragedy.

Joe Rogan (2:31)

What is the difference between the way Florida is treating it and the way other states are treating it? So Florida is having these, like so many cops in particular dying in Florida. Is that the case everywhere? Is that the case with all first responders that they're all at risk? Or is it just, is Florida uniquely dangerous?

Billy Corben (2:51)

The short answer is yes. And by the way, what the fuck is happening in Florida is an evergreen question.

Joe Rogan (2:57)

Right, that is the question.

Billy Corben (2:59)

Yeah, but the answer, you know, the COVID-19 for the last two years is the single largest cause of death for law enforcement officers, more so than all other causes combined.

Joe Rogan (3:13)

That's crazy when you think about the amount of violence and the amount of crime that takes place.

Billy Corben (3:18)

Yeah, COVID-19, number one cop killer for two years running and counting.

Joe Rogan (3:24)

And this is just everywhere or just in Florida?

Billy Corben (3:26)

That's true nationally, but Florida is uniquely because we're open for business, that kind of pro-business, pro-freedom attitude. You know, listen, Florida has no indigenous industry, okay?

We don't produce anything but oranges and machine guns. That's what Florida makes. We sell the sunshine.

Joe Rogan (3:48)

Do you guys make machine guns?

Billy Corben (3:49)

Yeah, we have gun manufacturers in Florida. We sell the sunshine, okay? And that just means we have to, what we sell, we're all just tourism people, right? We knock down the old shit, we build new shit, we build it taller, we build it bigger, so we can attract a thousand newcomers tomorrow. It's a Ponzi scheme.

The economy is a Ponzi scheme. It's not self-sufficient. It relies solely on new outside money and investors coming in the next day. So we subsist from hustle to hustle. So our pandemic hustle was, come here. Everybody else is on lockdown, come to Florida. And a lot of people did, and a lot of people died as a consequence of that. So some businesses did better and people died. I mean, that's the reality.