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Bad news travels fast: The Sunshine Blog has resisted reporting on some of the crazy talk that has been spreading on social media about the origin of the Aug. 8 wildfires on Maui. You never know when someone might actually believe it.

First we heard that a ignited the landscape near Lahaina. Then came reports that so they could buy land at bargain prices.

But , a site that tracks and catalogs false narratives that spread online, and its extensive research debunking this tall tale is worth sharing.

Here’s the first paragraph of NewsGuard’s exclusive report published Monday, and the rest of the story is a fascinating read:

“Dozens of pro-China social media and blog accounts are spreading the false claim that an experimental U.S. military weapon caused the August 2023 Maui wildfires — in what appears to be part of a coordinated online campaign to portray the U.S. military in a negative light, NewsGuard has found.”

NewsGuard traced the first post, on Aug. 14, to a Chinese user in Gansu, then followed it as it spread around the world and on many platforms.

The social media accounts push the narrative that a U.S. “weather weapon” — a secret experimental weapon gone awry — started the fire and that the U.S. action had been discovered by MI6, the British intelligence agency, which even put out a statement “revealing the amazing truth” about what happened.

NewsGuard found none of that to be true. .

The fire this time: In case you missed conservative commentator Joe Rogan’s podcast the other day, the topic was the Maui wildfires and the guests were .

Gabbard, who represented Maui in Congress for eight years, sounded not a little like a member of the Civil Beat Sunshine Editorial Board, fulminating against the lack of transparency and accountability on the part of Maui County officials.

Gabbard, now a frequent Fox News personality, lambasted what she called a “total vacuum of information from government officials to the people.” That vacuum has led to all sorts of theories, she said, about what started the fire while people were left “without any communication from anyone in a position of authority to provide help for days and weeks.”

No wonder, then, that there is so much distrust in all levels of government, a government that should instead be “bending over backwards to answer our questions.”

Gabbard said she was not sure whether she had ever met Richard Bissen, but she does believe he did not do his job as Maui mayor.

“The result of their decisions left people and families and communities stranded in their most dire time of need, and the mayor didn’t go out and show his face until almost two weeks after the fire happened,” she said.

“That’s insane,” said Rogan.

“It’s crazy,” said Gabbard.

At that point Penn, the former MMA fighter and failed gubernatorial candidate, said this: “And then he says he wants to take the land for the state.”

No, Gabbard corrects him, that was Gov. Josh Green. Rogan and Gabbard then proceeded to discuss how the people of Maui might want to start calling themselves Ukrainians so that the federal government will give them money.

“How about give the fucking people their homes back,” Rogan adds, arguing that Green should not bother with workforce housing or a memorial to the victims.

“Exactly,” Gabbard agrees, adding that losing land to the state is the No. 1 concern of people in Lahaina.