- S'up you beautiful bastards? You are watching the Philip DeFranco show and we got a lot of
news to talk about today so just hit that like
button to let YouTube know you like these big daily
dives into the news. And let's jump into it starting with, we should talk about this
P. Diddy situation, right? Sean Combs, rapper, mogul
and accused monster, right, 'cause he's actually been in
some hot water for a while now. Back in November he was
hit with three lawsuits, two from women accusing him of s
exual assault and revenge porn, and then another from his ex accusing him of rape, sex
trafficking and physical abuse, though that was settled for an
unknown amount the next day, and in December another woman
accused him of raping her. And now today we've got
yet another lawsuit, though this one coming from Rodney Jones, a producer who worked
on Combs latest album with Jones on Monday suing
Combs in federal court for $30 million and accusing Combs of sexually harassing,
assaulting, drugging, and
threatening him for over a year. And according to this suit, Jones lived and traveled with Combs between September of 2022
and November of 2023. And during that time, Jones claims that Combs
groped and touched him without consent. Which according to Jones, Combs' chief of staff just
called friendly horseplay and Combs his way of
showing that he liked it. Jones also claims that he was
forced to solicit sex workers and perform sexual acts
with them to please Combs. At one point Jones alleges
that
he was drugged, saying he woke up dizzy and disoriented, naked in a bed with
Combs and two sex workers and all of that was on top
of threats of bodily harm if Jones refused to agree
to whatever Combs wanted and specifically the lawsuit saying that Combs would leverage his influence to intimidate and threaten Jones. Reading, "Mr. Combs
consistently made it clear that he has immense power
in the music industry and with law enforcement." With this, Jones says that
he has some video evidence to sup
port some of these allegations and saying in the suit that Combs constantly wanted to be recorded. So Jones actually has hundreds
of hours of video and audio of the illegal activity performed by Combs and his associates. The lawsuit also contains screenshots of parties Combs allegedly hosted that included minors and sex workers, some of whom Jones says were given drinks laced with drugs at Combs order. Though very notably in
response to all this, Combs attorneys have taken
the deny, deny, deny r
oute, accusing Jones of quote, "reckless name dropping about
events that are pure fiction and simply did not happen in nothing more than a transparent attempt
to garner headlines." And in fact saying they have quote, "overwhelmingly indisputable proof that his claims are complete lies and promising to address
them directly in court." Though also notably in this lawsuit, it wasn't just Combs name, it
also included his son Justin, his chief of staff, the CEO
of Universal Music Group, and the forme
r CEO of Motown records with Jones accusing the
CEOs and their companies of failing to quote "adequately monitor, warn or supervise the actions of Diddy, his son and his chief of staff." And while as of recording
we haven't seen a comment from the CEOs, or the staff chief. chief attorneys for Diddy's
son put out a statement saying they are all lies. This is a clear example
of a desperate person taking desperate measures
in hopes of a payday. And you know, since this news broke, this lawsuit has
gotten a
lot of attention online. And with that, among some of
the most notable reactions, you have, streamer DJ Akademiks, well if you're unfamiliar, in addition to being like
the biggest Drake stand in the world, covers
a lot of hip hop news, though also at times has been somewhat of a controversial figure. Notably, while he was
looking over Jones' lawsuit and its footnotes on stream, he came to the conclusion
that two of the redacted names mentioned in Jones' suit belonged to rapper Meek Mill
and Usher. - Rapper five redacted, but they tell you exactly who he is. Oh yeah, he's a Philly rapper who (beep) it's like Jeopardy. He's a Philly rapper who
dated Nicki Minaj, beep, who is Meek Mill, like come
on bro, what the (beep)? And then the next person,
RB singer six redacted. Look, he performed at the Super Bowl and had a successful
Vegas residency, Usher. - Now here it is incredibly
important for me to mention that we have absolutely
no confirmation whatsoever that Meek Mill and Usher
are those two people, but that is in no way stop people online from blowing it the fuck
up and running with it. Which is why you may
have seen both singers trending on US Twitter this morning, with Meek actually shooting up to the top. Though there, if you actually look at
what people are saying, it's just kind of a lot of people memeing about the entire situation. However, also with that, this morning we did see
Meek responding saying, "Akademiks, didn't I tell you
to stop playing with my name
? I don't know what I'm gonna
do when I actually see you. It's gonna have a
combination to it though." With him then casting further
doubt on his connection to this lawsuit by trying to suggest that people were looking at a
computer generated document. But you know, with all of this, one of the additional reactions
we've seen to all of this are people that are pissed
off that a lot of the kind of the prevailing
narrative has become haha, some rappers might be closeted. "Saying it's truly astonis
hing how the prevailing narrative is saturated with Diddy and Meek Mill same-sex
coitus memes and opinions while the serious allegations concerning underage
girls are overshadowed." You know, everything in this situation, it is developing, it is moving forward. So we have our eyes on it,
we'll see what updates come. But in the meantime, what
are your thoughts here? And then we need to talk
about Willy Wonka's lies. So, don't worry, this isn't about Timothy
Shamalama Dingdong, which by the way, t
he new Wonka movie, went in with low
expectations, it's phenomenal. What a joy it was, granted, I like musicals so we might
not see eye to eye there. But this is also not about
the other Wonka movie, which by the way, if you don't think that Gene Wilder one is better, what? Instead I'm talking about the Willy Wonka from Glasgow, Scotland,
or rather an entrepreneur that wanted to capitalize
on the Wonka hype and set out to recreate
the chocolate factory but in real life. And he called it Willie's
Chocolate Experience, which I mean honestly just
from that name alone red flag, that's a van with blacked out windows and free candy written
on the side ass name. But they described it as an
immersive children's event and they advertised on their
site with detailed images of the world it had to offer, including an enchanted garden full of giant lollipops,
swirls of vibrant color, and beans of all different
colors, shapes and sizes. An imagination lab
promising a visual spectacle where you'll en
counter
mind expanding projections, optical murals, and exhibits
that'll transport you into the realm of creativity. And even a twilight tunnel adorned with captivating projections, enigmatic sounds and surprising turns that'll immerse you in
suspense and excitement. In short, a world of pure imagination. But, you were waiting for it, when parents bought these $45 tickets and they traveled for hours
with their kids to come and see, what they found was a world
of pure desolation, right? Immediate
ly they realize something is off when they see the entrance, just a makeshift golden
gate simply labeled factory. But then they step inside and that is when the real wonder begins. They find a barren event hall
with gray floors, white walls, and folding tables. With them then getting passageways covered in black tarps and
an occasional oversized candy themed prop or plastic mushroom, though at least some of
it reportedly was edible with the candy station dispersing a single jelly bean to each ch
ild with them then serving
lemonade to wash it down. To be fair, they did technically
get a small bouncy castle. And as far as like what
the hell any of this has to do with Willy Wonka, well they did technically
have a few small posters, maybe a half a bed sheet
hanging on the walls printed with images
advertised on their website. Also to be extra fair, disappointment is not the only emotion that was experienced there, but that is 'cause there was also fear, the strange character
wearing a black
robe, chrome mask, and wig popping
out from behind a mirror and scaring kids so
badly some of them cried. As well as this actress dressed as an unimpressed Oompa Loompa standing by a mock chemistry
set with fumes billowing out with some online have since labeled, "meth lab Oompa Loompa lady." Though in her defense she
explained to the Daily Mail, "I got stuck to the jellybean bit and by that point I felt awful. There was a part where they were saying it was like a science lab and you were suppo
sed
to hand out jelly beans and by that point they had
run out of jelly beans. So I was just trying to make it slightly exciting for the kids. Then I walked off scene
because I was so embarrassed" and understandably she
was not the only person to walk out of this shithole with one father telling
the Washington Post, "everyone was just walking in disbelief, shaking their heads" and adding, "the worst part is
there was no chocolate." And so to no one's surprise, the event ended early at around 1:0
0 PM after people started demanding refunds, the main organizer seen trying
to get a handle on the crowd of extremely pissed off parents. But then this as more families who booked later time
slots started arriving and things just got really awkward, right? Because at that point they
didn't get their lemonade or single jellybean. And then when police
officers actually showed up, all they could do was give
advice to the attendees. And as right now it's all
unclear what went wrong, if it was doomed
from the beginning, if it was meant to be a scam, right, 'cause we actually know very little. We know that the organizer,
House of Illuminati, first registered as a company
only back in November. And while after this whole
ordeal, they apologized, promised to refund everybody
and pay the actors. As of today, many if not all of them, say they haven't been paid or refunded. And this as you have the
company's director explaining that the event was
hampered by what they said were unforeseen circums
tances, claiming that they
ordered holographic paper that didn't arrive in time. Which I gotta say, my man, I don't know if there is
enough holographic paper in the world to save whatever
this was supposed to be. Not to mention that literally
the day before the event you had organizers posting photos of a van full of props and writing, it's all coming together nicely. And so now the director's
apparently deleted his LinkedIn profile in shame. And as for those beautiful images advertising the who
le thing, it appears that there were just probably AI generated. Not only that, you also
have this college student who was hired to play Willy Wonka saying. - The script was 15 pages
monologue, pretty much, of AI generated gibberish. Anyone who looks at me
and thinks Willy Wonka and not Oompa Loompa is out of their mind. I give off major Oompa Loompa energy but not like a good Oompa Loompa. Not like one of like, like
one that's at the back during the dance numbers
like falling over, like your au
nt line
dancing class on holiday. - So fun times, fun, fun times. And then entertainment and drama news. Did Ariana Grande just play the victim or does she have a
massive mic drop moment? Because Ariana Grande is calling out lies and biases and tabloids, but also a lot of people
weren't having it. Also to explain, if you
are not chronically online, a lot of people have accused
Ariana of having an affair with her wicked co-star SpongeBob, who also goes by the
name Ethan Slater I hear, with people
learning that they were dating just after the news broke that
she split from her husband. And articles noted that Ethan
was separated from his wife who just had a baby a few months earlier. And even those sources
maintained that Ariana and Ethan started dating after each
couple had broken up. You had tons of people
questioning that timeline and assuming that there was an affair and that this affair actually caused both of these couples to separate. And all this created a
massive tabloid frenzy
where her facing tons of backlash for being a supposed man stealer. And she even referenced some
of this in a music video for her latest single showing
people gossiping about her also singing the lyric,
your business is yours and mine is mine. Why do you care so much who's dick I ride? So it's been like a whole thing. And she seemingly addressed all this while on the Zach Sang
show with her being asked about all these narratives
that have been crafted about her life and saying. - The thing is, i
s that like we know this about the
tabloids and about the media and about like, am I crazy? Don't we know this? - Yeah, but nobody cares
for the sake of a good story or for curing one's
boredom on the internet. - Right, but that's what I'm saying. It's like we selectively remember that this is what the
tabloids do to people, especially women based on whether
or not we like the person. We selectively remember that, we selectively leave space
for humanness, for nuance. Like they don't leave space
for that. Well they do for their
friends and their family. It's selective, but when they turn it off, when that aligns with the version of a person that they have in their head, that they want to believe is true. - When asked if she wished
that there was something that the public knew about her and the drama surrounding her, she said she didn't wanna
go into specifics, but. - Of course there's like
an insatiable frustration, inexplicable, hellish
feeling with watching people misunderstand the pe
ople you love and you and the anything. - And so of course with that,
her fans loved this response, seeing it as this kind of mic drop moment bringing up other women
wronged by the press. But this also as a lot of other people weren't buying the response, accusing Ariana of playing the victim, trying to gaslight people
about the situation by playing the supposed
feminist or woman card. By saying that she's blaming the tabloids instead of taking personal accountability. But with all this, I gotta
pass the question off to you, what's your take on it? Which camp do you land in here or you have the mindset of not
interested, thank you, next. And then we have seen rain like we are not used to in California. Last week was so wet I feel like I should at least
get a discount on my taxes. What are we paying for out here? But despite everything being wet, you know my dog still got walks and my kids still played outside. And I think that's also because
we had our Vessi's right? Because in additio
n to being waterproof, another reason these sneakers are so great is because they're lightweight. So much different than stomping around in regular rain
boots and they look good. Not just rain but snow,
sand and mud, right? Like my Vessi stormbursts, they're perfect for my muddy hikes as well as strolling the beach. I just hose those suckers
off and I'm good to do just about anything else in the same shoes that I'm wearing, whether
it be out in the elements or one second, I wanted
to, I wanted t
o wear this, ugh, taking my beautiful
wife Lindsay out for a date. So thank you Vessi for
being a fantastic partner of the PDS and for making
great looking shoes I can wear in any weather. And again, in addition to looking good, it is amazing how lightweight they are. It's genuinely so surprising when you think about waterproof shoes and they're ideal for any
occasion that might find you around water, coastal walks,
exploring the city, forest, camping, snowy days, boating,
activity upon activity
, right? They are really the comfortably
stylish all day shoe. So what are you waiting for? Go get yourself a pair of stormbursts or some of their other fantastic shoes. Just go to vessi.com/defranco to get 15% off your first order. That's vessie.com/defranco. With that said, sorry Lindsay, I have to go get my hoodie back. It is freezing in here. And then I would like to apologize and this is an apology
to my friends, my family, pretty much anyone that I am close with. And notably, this is also
an apology in advance. And that's because as of
Thursday, right, February 29th, I will be ignoring you for
at least the next 72 hours. Your friend, your daddy, your husband, he doesn't exist anymore and in his place will be
a Philip DeFranco shaped couch potato playing
Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, a game that honestly it is the thing that I have been most excited about probably in the last decade, that doesn't have to do with
the birth of my children. Final Fantasy VII is literally my favorite gam
e of all time ever. Yes, I've made health changes in my life so I can see my kids grow up but also because I wanna
make sure I live long enough to see Spider-Man beyond the spiderverse and be able to play all parts of the Final Fantasy VII remake. But that also not the
only big gaming news today because this week we've
got Nintendo in the news and the reason for that is they're going after the people behind Yuzu, which is a successful
switch emulator project. Which if none of those words make se
nse 'cause you're not a lame
degenerate gamer like myself, plainly put, Yuzu lets you
play Nintendo Switch games on platforms outside of
a switch like your pc. And I'm not gonna get
into every little detail of the suit 'cause like
we'll be here all day, but Nintendo seems to
wanna go after Yuzu here after it was used by people to play the Legend of Zelda, Tears of the Kingdom, weeks before it officially released after a leaked copy made its way online. And the suit argues that Yuzu is able to de
feat Nintendo's encryption software and without it quote "unauthorized copies of games could not be played
on PCs or Android devices." Most notably there is
no legal way to use it but there are some
issues right off the bat. Yuzu itself does not
defeat the encryption. Instead it relies the user on getting something called prod.keys. And there are multiple ways to get those such as like from an older
Switch without certain updates. But regardless, the user
has to get these keys for Yuzu to do its
thing, to be able to read it just
like a Switch would do to a legitimate copy of a game, right? So Yuzu itself technically
isn't doing anything special to break the encryption though notably, that's not Nintendo's only argument. It also claims that Yuzu is part of the pirated game ecosystem because sites that offer pirated games point to Yuzu as a way to play them. And with all this it's asking the court to shut down the emulator as well as asking for $150,000 in damages in addition to all the
money
that it's made from Patreon, which at $30,000 a month
is not a lot for Nintendo but obviously for a small dev team, it is a massive chunk of money. However, a big thing here is
that a lot of legal experts aren't sure if the court's
going to agree with Nintendo. And that's because we have
decades of legal precedent that emulators are largely
protected under US copyright law. That is as long as they
aren't offering pirated games or ways to break protections and overall you're allowed to
back
up and access your data how you like with the Nintendo's lawsuit actually appearing to go
against this and saying, that users do not have
control over how slash where they can play their games as part of the terms of service. But like with any of these lawsuits you have to see how it pans out. The one thing Yuzu could
potentially get dinged on is the fact that while the emulator itself doesn't break encryption, the user manuals and devs on its discord are more than willing to
give you a step-by
-step guide on how to do it. And so depending on how things play out, I mean we could see things
like no more emulators even for older consoles that
are no longer supported. And also there could be a world where there's no longer any doubt that the software you
bought isn't actually yours and you can't store it or use it. How you'd a like though
all of this as some think that Nintendo is just
trying to flex its muscle against a small team
with a massive lawsuit. Possibly the goal just
being to d
rag it out and bankrupt them but
ultimately time will tell here. And then, so this could
be really good news, really bad news or maybe
even a bit of both. Kinda depends on how you look at it because we got the news
that the employment rate among Americans with disabilities actually reached a record high last year climbing from a low of around 17% in 2014 to an impressive 22.5% in 2023. Or to look at it another way, for disabled men and women aged 16 to 64, the labor force participation
rate rose
steadily and at the same time, the rate for non-disabled
men actually fell. Now with all this you might be going, well why isn't this just
cause for a celebration? Well the possible caveat
here is we're looking at a chicken or the egg situation because it's places like Axios noted, it is unclear whether
people with disabilities are simply finding more work or previously abled body
workers are becoming disabled. And a big reason that second
explanation might be true is long covid, which is
we've
talked about before, has severely incapacitated
millions of Americans for months or even years. I mean so much so that it's led to some declaring the pandemic
a mass disabling event. But then on the other
side of the situation, there are a few reasons to believe that the data reflects genuine employment. Things like a general
improvement in the economy and labor market over
the past couple of years. Also, the spread of remote work has been an absolute blessing for many
with disabilities, right?
Because if you're blind you can't drive, and ride sharing apps
are fucking expensive. And obviously if you're
mobility impaired in some way it can be tough to commute
back and forth every day. So for many disabled
people working from home now they can more easily
configure their work set up to meet their specific needs. But regardless of why
employment's gone up, it's still well below the
rate of non-disabled people with the unemployment
rate for disabled workers sitting at 7.2% last year. More
than double that
of non-disabled workers and those disabled
workers who do have jobs are also more likely to work part-time and receive lower wages. While of course I'd love to hear any and all thoughts on this new data, I would especially love
to hear your reactions and your experiences if you
have a disability yourself. And then Arizona Republicans
are currently advancing a bill that would let people
legally murder migrants who trespass on their property with the bill in question being introd
uced by Republican state
Representative Justin Heap. And this bill would make changes
to the state's existing law that allows people to use deadly force against home intruders, right, 'cause currently the
law requires an intruder to be both on the property
and in the home of a resident to justify that force. But Heap's bill would expand that so intruders can be killed
just for trespassing on another person's land. And with that, Heap
arguing that this is needed to address the quote, "increasingl
y larger numbers of migrants or human traffickers moving
across farm and ranch land." And notably this proposal
also comes amid an ongoing high profile case involving
an Arizona rancher who was charged with murder
for shooting an unarmed migrant who crossed onto his property. But all of this as law
enforcement officials are worried that this bill just goes too far. Not only endangering
the lives of migrants, but also American citizens as well with Pima County Sheriff Chris
Nanos telling local ou
tlets, "wow that's using deadly force
on a misdemeanor offense. This is just crazy. Our legislature has
just gone off the rails. Think of a dad or a boy playing
ball out in their front yard and the ball goes into your yard. I may go and retrieve the
ball and you can shoot me. It's not just nuts, it's absolutely ridiculous
and totally unnecessary. I think it's racist, I
think it's targeting, this is just ridiculous. We don't need a law like that." And that was also echoed by
Santa Cruz County She
riff, David Hathaway, who criticized the bill for being way too broad. Saying, "the way the bill
as written is so vague. If you owned a store, a Circle K, and somebody came in, you
can just blow them away, and say after the fact,
well I didn't want them here and there's nobody to tell
the other side of the story." And going on to know that many
of these ranches along the border are massive, we're talking
thousands of acres, right? So it's not unrealistic
to think that people, I don't know who ar
e bird
watching or something, might wander onto the property
and Hathaway adding there. "Maybe they don't know
it's private property and just to say you can kill that person, they may not even know
it's private property." But for now, we'll have to wait to see what happens here though
a very interesting insight into what the state of play with immigration politics
is in the US right now. And then are you a YouTuber,
a general online creator an artist, creative? Well if you're looking for some ex
tra cash or to turn this into your full-time thing, you should a hundred percent use the sponsor of
today's show, Fourth Wall. In fact, I love 'em so much, not only do I use them,
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should be using a Spring, a Red Bubble, any of those
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out, you are going to love it. Fourthwall.com. And then could Biden's position on Israel and what's happening in
Gaza lose him the election? That is a question that's been out there for the past weeks and months, right? As we've
seen more and
more progressives furious at his policies on the issue. And now thanks to yesterday
we have electoral evidence of how this could sway
the election, right? 'Cause yesterday Michigan
held its primary elections and ahead of Tuesday, Arab American and Muslim organizers organized an effort to push Democrats to cast their ballots as uncommitted in a protest vote against
Biden's handling of the war. And it turned out very,
very successful for them with nearly all ballots counted, more tha
n 101,000 people voted uncommitted making up just over 13% of the vote. And while of course
not every single person who voted uncommitted did so in protest, but when you compare the number of people who voted uncommitted this
year to data in years past, it seems pretty obvious that
this drove a lot of the turnout for uncommitted votes, right? I mean in the last three
Michigan presidential primaries, uncommitted got around 20,000 votes. And this could be massively consequential because Michigan i
s an
essential swing state right? And part of the reason
there was such a big turnout of uncommitted voters is because Michigan actually has the largest Arab American and Muslim population
in the entire country with the most recent census
saying the state is home to more than 300,000
people of Middle Eastern and North African descent. While that survey doesn't gather data on religious affiliations, advocacy groups have reported over 200,000 Muslim
registered voters in Michigan. And this is incre
dibly meaningful. I mean Trump in 2016, he won Michigan by just under 11,000 votes with then Biden in 2020, beating him by around 154,000 votes with Arab and Muslim voters being credited with helping secure that win. And we're talking about numbers that could absolutely make or break Biden with recent pollings showing
Trump beating out Biden among registered voters, 47 to 45%. And it's generally believed that Michigan is absolutely imperative for Biden, right? A loss there would make
it incredib
ly difficult, if not outright impossible for
him to secure the presidency. But you know, all of
this as Biden's campaign and his allies have tried to downplay the success of the protest vote. Though again, this as others say this is a very serious warning and politicians should
be paying attention. This including the mayor
of Dearborn, Michigan, which is home to the largest
Arab American community in the country, tweeting, "if you wish to take that calculated risk of discounting the results, you
risk unraveling the entirety
of our American democracy." And you had other organizers echoing that saying they do not
want a Trump presidency, but they will vote against
Biden if they have to. And all this, as notably, there
are other key swing states with large Arab populations
like in Arizona for example, where Biden won by just 10,500. They have an estimated
60,000 Arab Americans there as well as with Georgia. They have a population
there of at least 57,000, which is way higher
than the 11,8
00 ballots that Biden won to beat Trump. Now all that said, when
you have people looking to the Republicans here
you have some saying that Trump's decisive win
over Haley in Michigan, it's not all rainbows and sunshine. 'Cause you have people arguing that the reason Haley is still in this, that it's not just in hopes
of like Trump goes to jail before the election or
she's got her fingers crossed for like a heart attack. Or rather that it's meant to highlight that not all Republicans
are on board
with Trump. And that could be a
potential vulnerability for Trump in a general election. Though there I would note a few things, Republican turnout in the primaries was much higher than for Democrats, though of course to a certain degree that was expected even with
there being a protest vote, like Biden's not really competing against anyone polling close to him. And of course all this is playing out so far from election day, right? Depending on how things play out, the progressive divide
may sh
rink, it may grow. Some of that will be
affected by America's action or rather inaction regarding Gaza, how things continue to play
out there from here to then as well as do sentiments change the closer we get to a general election and the closer we get to a potential Trump presidency, right? Trump is arguably way more
pro-Israeli government. I mean he is the guy that
officially recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel,
relocated the US Embassy there. As far as what's gonna happen,
we'll ha
ve to wait and see. And in the meantime, if you
have any thoughts on all this, I'd love to hear from you in
those comments down below. And then things are popping off and getting messy with the
President of Mexico right now. We're talking about
Mexico's far left President, Andrés Manuel López
Obrador or AMLO for short. And it all started last week after the New York Times
reporter, Natalie Kitroeff, she asked AMLO's office for a comment about a scrapped US investigation into potential ties that
he has with drug cartels. And as is common practice, she included her phone number
so that she could be reached. Now AMLO already has a
contentious relationship with you know, traditional media
claiming that it's just full of conservatives that only bash him. So instead of just like fucking
denying the allegations, he went on to show her
letter at a press conference and read it aloud. Big problem though, it had Kitroeff's phone
number clearly displayed. So she has since received a
ton of threate
ning messages. An AMLO has received a lot
of criticism for the stunt, especially because Mexico is already one of the most dangerous
places on the planet for journalists outside of war zones. Also with this here, the country's agency that's
in charge of protecting people's data and personal
information announcing shortly after that it was
launching an investigation, which then brings us to last Friday where AMLO defended his actions saying "above that law is moral
authority and political authori
ty and I represent a country and I represent a people
who deserve respect." With him then doubling down Monday morning after showing her letter again, although this time with
a blurred phone number and arguing there that quote, "journalism is a public
activity like politics and we all have to act with transparency." However, the head of Mexico's
own data protection agency took issue with AMLO's defense tweeting, "all authority must comply with the constitution and the law. Absolutely no one is a
bove it. We regret that the
presidency didn't realize how serious the disclosure of information about any person can be, especially of a journalist." And the country's opposition candidate also agreed and added. "By the way, if there is so much
transparency in public life, let the president publish the contracts he has reserved and even
his cell phone number so that all Mexicans can write to him. And since then things have just
continued to get outta hand because that's not just
Kitroeff's phone
number that's been leaked now, but
also the president's son, the ruling party's presidential candidate, the oppositions candidate,
and other leading figures. And with this on Twitter, the
president's son made it seem like this was an act of revenge writing, "In the last few hours, I have been subject to an
act of invasion of my privacy through the leak of my phone number. This act, which I understand
is a form of revenge and an attempt to harm
not only affects me, but also endangers my family
a
nd the security they deserve." But then he also went on to
say that Kitroeff deserved to have her phone number
leaked because she was being what he described as slanderous and that it was already publicly
available on the internet with him then going on to say, :why are they seeking revenge
by exposing my phone?" And the others affected
were also similarly annoyed. Although to be clear, we have no idea who actually leaked their phone numbers and information. And I say this as there are
actually
so many weird twists and turns in this story, right? Because on top of everyone's
personal information getting leaked left and right, we also had AMLO squaring
off against YouTube. And that's because YouTube has
rules against doxing people, which is arguably what AMLO did. So YouTube actually took his video down, but then the president's
office having to re-upload an edited version this
weekend and AMLO adding, "this is an arrogant and
authoritarian attitude. They are in full decline." All of wh
ich is is kind
of funny for two reasons. Firstly, because AMLO originally loved social media platforms, right? Because they hosted media outlets outside of the traditional space. And in fact, he hates
traditional outlets so much that during press conferences he often only fields question from places that call social media
platforms their home. And then the second reason is because despite calling
YouTube authoritarian, AMLO himself has actually
taken steps to be just that. Remember that governme
nt
agency we mentioned that protects private data? Well, it's just one of a
few autonomous agencies that exist in Mexico with
them being largely outside of the president's control and existing to keep everyone accountable
and AMLO fucking hates them. So much so that he's pushing Congress to eliminate these agencies altogether. And all of this made even more interesting because they're having
an election this year where you have a key
AMLO ally going against a much less well-known candidate. So i
t's gonna be important to watch how this situation evolves and how it might impact the election. Especially because in addition
to this mattering for Mexico, they're a key US partner. Like there's so much
intertwined between Mexico and the US through security, immigration, trade, and tourism. But hey, also, I just
wanna say congratulations to the New York Times for apparently being an evil conservative outlet. Who knew, not even them probably. And then finally today
we have announcements. And ye
sterday, today, starting
with congratulations again to Sasha G and Sydney B, our
first two beautiful bastards to each win the weekly $500 credit towards their choice of SeatGeek tickets. And remember, you could be our next winner just by adding code PDS to
your SeatGeek app profile. Because not only will you
get $10 off any purchase, you'll be entered for your
chance at a $500 credit, no purchase necessary. And then as far as yesterday's show, I dove into those comments. And there's a lot of int
eresting
conversations happening with a lot of y'all chiming in on that toxic vinyl chloride story, right? Especially as there was a
lot of focus on the lobbyists and the regulations. And Chilly1495 sharing,
"I work at an oil company and years ago we had a huge oil spill that leaked into a river, completely destroying part
of that ecosystem forever. Even after the cleanup,
it will never be the same. After that, spill regulators
forced stricter regulations and more frequent inspections to ensure
that wouldn't happen again. Skip ahead five years and on the very day that the stricter regulations expired, our boss held a company-wide pizza party and then followed the party with an email stating that all those safety rules we had to put in place were
now just safety suggestions and we should just do what's best for the company going forward. If the government doesn't
regulate these companies and force them to be safe and
not emit dangerous chemicals, they will absolutely kill people and the
environment for profit,"
which yeah, makes sense. You know, when it comes to companies, the Messiah that they pray
to is shareholder value. Also, I guess kind of on that same note, there was a lot of
conversation around Wendy's and their dynamic pricing
plans with Carl Gannon sharing, "I worked at Wendy's during college. This new policy is a clear sign the CEO has never pulled
a shift in his life. The space between rushes is incredibly important
for several reasons. It's when you can take a
bre
ak, go to the bathroom, breathe a little. For the store, you can clean the lobby,
bathroom, stations. This is also when you
catch up on prep work, getting salads, potatoes, and chili ready. This plan doesn't just harm
consumers with higher prices. It doesn't just
fundamentally break the point of fast food convenience. It makes the job harder and more soul crushing as
well as makes the quality of the food in the store measurably worse. On every level, it is possibly the worst idea that could have
been put forward." This is so fucking funny. "On every level it is
possibly the worst idea that could be put forward short
of an oops, all rats menu. Carl, you're a funny fuck. Also, I actually wanna give
you a little update here. Wendy has actually issued statements since all the public backlash. And their general reaction is that what we said is being
misconstrued, saying quote, "we said these menu boards
would give us more flexibility to change the display of featured items. This was miscons
trued in
some media reports as intent to raise prices when demand is highest. We have no plans to do that." And then reportedly going
on to add that instead, this would actually allow
Wendy's to offer discounts to customers more easily, particularly in the slower times of day. Though there I would just
have to call bullshit because seemingly that is
what your CEO would then add after saying dynamic pricing. Or at the very least, wouldn't you refer to it as
dynamic discounted pricing? 'Cause real
ly, I think all
this sounds like to most people is you got your hand
caught in the cookie jar 'cause you announced to the world, I'm gonna put my hand in the cookie jar and now you're like, no, no, no, no, no. Because sometimes I'm gonna
wanna put my hand in the cookie jar to put in more cookies and I'd ask, you know, how
stupid do you think we are? But seemingly from this
response, you think very. But that is where your big daily dive into the news is gonna end today. But don't worry, I'm not g
onna leave you by
your lonesome for too long 'cause my name's Philip DeFranco, you've just been filled in. I love your faces and I'll see
you right back here tomorrow. ♪ You on my mind a lot ♪ ♪ Don't need no time watch ♪ ♪ I don't know how I got ♪ ♪ You in my parking spot, get us babe, ♪ ♪ Get you every day ♪ ♪ You like my oxygen ♪
Comments
I believe a lot of the criticism with Ariana is because of SpongeBob’s wife commenting on the matter. The wife characterizing her family as “collateral damage” and Ariana as “not a girl’s girl” really humanized the wife and newborn baby. After that, it was easy for people to recognize what appears to be a pattern with Ariana getting together with people who are already in relationships (and also finding lyrics in her songs that indicate she pursues people in relationships). Ariana is getting upset for what seems to be justified criticism. All of the commentary I’ve seen have criticized both Ariana and SpongeBob, but Ariana has gotten the spotlight because she is wildly more famous than SpongeBob. Her song “Yes And” just added fuel to the fire, with Ariana seemingly make it clear that she has no remorse for the damage and pain she’s caused. In this interview she makes it sound like she is the victim of unjustified hate, rather than justified criticism. I think most people see Ariana’s husband and SpongeBob’s wife and baby as the victims, not Ariana.
I have autism and ADHD. The WFH movement was heaven sent. Being able to avoid traffic, control the temp, light, and noise in my environment has made me happier and more productive.
Another reason to not be too happy about the disabled unemployment rate as it is presented is that it may also signify that people who should not be working are forced to work because aid is either no longer avialable or sufficient. It is like seeing unemployment rate of people 60+ go up. On the one hand, good for those people who were laid down just before they could get their last years before retiring, but the reality is that many elderly people can no longer afford to simply live out of their pension.
The "shoot a stranger on my lawn" story does my absolute head in. I'm not American so I have no skin in the game and can look at this without the emotions of being part of it, and it's just absolutely wild. Imagine having the thought pattern of "stranger walks into my yard, I should be allowed to kill them". Like how the hell does someone get to that point? The logic just makes 0 sense and will inevitably just mean more dead people for something so absolutely minor. Makes me glad to live in a country where guns in homes aren't a thing.
I’m gonna be brutally honest, I’ve been spiraling into a deep depression lately and have been struggling to get out of it, but when I saw those Willy Wonka pictures I burst out laughing so hard. I have not felt that genuinely gregarious in a long time. I feel bad for those scammed, but the dichotomy between the concept art and the actual images of the place is hilarious.
I have a few chronic conditions that make it impossible for me to work. I'm currently filing for SSI and I can tell you right now that the reason there are so many disabled people working is because the government is doing its best to keep as many people from receiving these benefits as possible. They deny you a lot in hopes you'll give up and just find a job you can manage to do, which is basically just unlivable wages. They want everyone to break their bodies in the workforce.
One overlooked issue with the AZ proposed bill is that many farms utilize unregistered immigrants. That law could allow those who employ unregistered immigrants to threaten people under the guise of trespassing if they don't get what they want. Law enforcement knows and understands that immigrants are a HUGE part of labor for those sorts of jobs. This honestly sounds like something a representative blurted out while they were drunk and they decided to draft it. Either that or political theater at its dumbest.
My mom ended up with long covid. She was previously a chef and worked in educating in the culinary world. After long covid she was left unable to exert any excess of energy, getting winded from walking up the stairs. Obviously no longer able to work in a kitchen setting where you stand and move the entire time. Now working wherever she can to fill the void of her once accomplished almost 15 year long career. She has to totally pivot and rework what she can do to make money. Often working a bunch of different small gigs while my step dad had to pick up extra jobs too. Not to mention my mom only just recent was granted diability benefits after fighting for it in court. It's great to know others were able to pivot online, but I feel for my mom knowing you can't make a virtual dinner for someone.
In regard to the AZ Bill, I live in rural eastern Oregon. We have TONS of BLM land mixed in with privately owned ranch land. You can EASILY accidentally end up on private land. IMO a lot of people who own acres and acres of ranch land ALREADY don’t play well with others. I think the last thing we need is these same people feeling like they’re justified to shoot someone for unknowingly ending up on private property. Just last summer a friend and I took a side by side out on private property that was owned by a friend. We accidentally crossed over onto someone else’s private land and didn’t have a clue. We turned around as soon as we noticed, but that could have gone incredibly bad had the land owner noticed/cared and thought they were justified to shoot us for something that was an honest mistake. It’s just disgusting to think there are people out there that see other human beings as nothing more than a raccoon that’s tipping your garbage can over every night and needs shot.
Willie's Chocolate Experience was Fyre, man.
I honestly did not see that Vessi plug coming when you started talking about the rain. lol Nailed it.
I'm one of the people who emulated Tears of the Kingdom at launch. I got a call from my local retro game shop saying they weren't sure if I had reserved a copy, but because I was such a good customer they set one aside for me. I bought it, dumped the game from my Switch, and played at a higher resolution and frame rate. I also know because I have it backed up to a file, even if my Switch breaks down 15 years from now, I will still be able to play these monumental games. The Video Games History Foundation found that 87% of all games unavailable to purchase or are simply lost. This is an art that is so difficult to maintain and companies continue to take game ownership away by making games digital only or subscription base. On top of that even if a game company like Nintendo offers official ways of playing these older games, they are subpar compared to what emulator developers have made without being paid most of the time. If Nintendo wins and the Yuzu team dissolves, it will be a massive loss in games preservation.
Former AZ AGO employee here: A LARGE part of my job was both teaching human trafficking education and taking constituent calls. I remember the rancher case vividly because I was on phone duty when the news dropped and received the most death threats on that day despite the fact that Santa Cruz County Attorney was to handle that case and cases like that are very rarely handled at the state level. Things to note about that case. 1. The migrant was unarmed. 2. There was speculation that the migrant and the rancher had known each other and 3. The rancher knew full well the migrant was unarmed. I don’t know much farther than that cause as I stated, my office wasn’t to handle that case BUT on the human trafficking argument the republicans are shoe horning in there it’s bs and they know it. Yes, Arizona last I checked was 12th in the nation for trafficking HOWEVER a larger majority of our trafficking happens to AZ residents by AZ residents and very rarely has anything to do with the traffickers being non us citizens. They are solely using this Human Trafficker argument to push their racist propaganda and demonizing Mexicans. Shocker to no one I’m sure. Since my departure from the office my old department had radically changed but I have all our old presentations and resources updated as of January this year so if anyone is interested in learning more about trafficking in AZ I am happy to supply the resources.
Wow, i live in arizona, me and my family live right next to large farm patches. When our dog ran away we spent hours looking through the farm land dirt roads for her and even spoke to some of the workers there. To know that we could have all been killed for something so innocent is just scary and terrible.
As a resident of Arizona, we already have laws in place to be able to protect ourselves when we are in immediate life threatening danger. Proposing a law to allow one to kill for the crime of trsspassing IS to far regardless of the justification. Imagine you are driving and make a wrong turn, now you get to die because some guy is scared of your mere presence? that is an absolutely insane idea.
the willy Wonka thing seems like the kid version of fyre festival. I dont know why but knowing that Phil likes musicals brings me joy
As someone who is legally blind and works remotely I can confirm that remote work has greatly improved my ability to work. Prior to remote work my options were get an apartment close to work so I could walk, get rides from coworkers, or dedicate part of my salary to uber. At one point I was walking across a really busy intersection to get to work. You know blind frogger.
I love these half-hour long episodes, Phil! Please keep this up!
Regarding the Arab-American protest vote in Michigan - one really needs to remember that this was a chance for them to get a voice in while there's nothing on the line. If they did this in November then the Biden policies they're protesting against will be replaced by Trump policies.
Not American (Canadian) but I have multiple disabilities. I work 1 hour a day at an elementary school, covering lunch and also occasionally as a substitute secretary there as well. I get about $200 a month, and it pays for my car insurance and gas. I probably couldn’t afford to own a car otherwise. It also makes a huge difference in my mental health, it’s a reason to get out of the house everyday and a sense of purpose. My little 2nd graders are the best kids ever ❤ and the staff are like a family. I will never be physically able to work a full time job and can’t imagine if I was financially forced to do so. Thankfully I am supported by my husband’s income but things are tight and we have sacrificed a lot.