What this Jenna Ortega Fallout Really Exposed, Amouranth, Netflix, People Furious with iShowSpeed, &

- 'Sup, you beautiful bastards? Welcome back. I got a fantastic Sunday show for you today. We're gonna jump into all the news that mattered most to you this week, as well as talk about some stories that we didn't get to. But first, we should take a quick look back at the week we all lived through together with some help from our frustrated recap correspondent, Zaid Tabani, with this and all of the previous songs now available on Spotify and Apple Music. Link down below. Zaid? ♪ Hey ♪ ♪ Wait a mi

nute, wait a minute, wait minute ♪ ♪ Put me in the cloud ♪ ♪ Picture off of Skynet ♪ ♪ Artificial mindset, how I look now ♪ ♪ Steal a couple ideas, how it look now ♪ ♪ 51 49, how it look now ♪ ♪ What about the laptop, now you up for tax fraud ♪ ♪ Elon let the bag drop, how it look now ♪ ♪ That's it, Matt, shit, how it look now ♪ ♪ Good Morning America, how it look now ♪ ♪ Ey, ey, ey, have a good time ♪ ♪ See your co-host baby on the sideline ♪ ♪ Britney outta prison, trading Russia with a bad gu

y ♪ ♪ Chris's niece fighting the police on Spirit Airlines ♪ ♪ On brand ♪ ♪ We be fucking with the wrong plans ♪ ♪ No coup up in Peru, they get the backhand ♪ ♪ Run 'em for the Senate and gerrymand who you can't stand ♪ ♪ Packing up the SCOTUS and voting to get the right klan ♪ ♪ Oh shit ♪ ♪ Focus on the work ♪ ♪ Take a chill pill, found it with the nurse ♪ ♪ Heard the power burst, Carolina hurt ♪ ♪ Trying to find the perp, getting worse. ♪ ♪ Motherfuckers sleeping in they office ♪ ♪ When they a

t the bird ♪ ♪ Elon, Elon about to be Tom, be Tom ♪ ♪ Now he need a, need a loan to keep this shit on ♪ ♪ Well, everybody trying to get the numbers ♪ ♪ When they act strange ♪ ♪ I been getting sicker ♪ ♪ Dancing round 'em like it's Wednesday ♪ ♪ Take a bigger cut, baby, how it look now ♪ ♪ Profits going down, Twitch, how it look now ♪ ♪ Saying it's a raw diet, how it look now ♪ ♪ You were taking all the 'roids, boy, how it look now ♪ ♪ Drama on a Twitch set, Kick is like a train wreck ♪ ♪ Meghan

up on Netflix, how it look now ♪ ♪ Take away the princess, how it look now ♪ ♪ Way before you take away Andrew, wow ♪ ♪ Who the favorite ♪ ♪ Gameplay trailers, that's a long speech, Kratos ♪ ♪ But a W ♪ ♪ Social security in danger ♪ ♪ Waiting to one claim for a year with no savings ♪ ♪ Eviction going crazy, era now changing ♪ ♪ Working for my kitchen while my office kind of lazy ♪ ♪ Student loan forgiveness got the judges looking shady ♪ ♪ Get an education and then fuck you, pay me ♪ ♪ Stupid,

Teflon Don is in illusion ♪ ♪ Fired like apprentice, you really the biggest loser ♪ ♪ Now you up on Truth like "Abolish the Constitution" ♪ ♪ Kim Un need a loan payment from his student ♪ ♪ Yes, now you it's the mess ♪ ♪ Like whoever Kanye interviewing next ♪ ♪ Kinda like you Biden when he pardoned MBS ♪ ♪ Motto here for 2023, ♪ ♪ Oh you thought that was a flex ♪ ♪ Well, House pass gay marriage, how it look now ♪ ♪ Meta got a news problem, how it look now ♪ ♪ Couple people said I had a cringe fr

eestyle ♪ ♪ So I put it on a wall bitch, how it look now? ♪ ♪ Ey, ey ♪ - Tell me how you really feel, Zaid. ♪ It's a good life ♪ ♪ It's a good, ey, ey, ey ♪ ♪ It's a good life ♪ ♪ Wait a minute, wait a minute, too soon ♪ - No, fantastic as always. Well, let's take that energy and look back to Monday because on Monday there was a lot of focus on the Liver King or rather, the liver liar, the fitness influencer who made ungodly amounts of money selling everyday solutions to be as fit as him. Though

turns out, shocker, he was on steroids. But I feel like everyone except the young boys he indoctrinated, like, were aware. This is like finding out water's wet. And when looking through the comments, I think people like Chantal hit it right on the money saying, "Us normal folk need to just accept that these fitness influencers are doing the same exact thing that large fitness companies are doing. They sell pipe dreams, they are deceptive and they are predatory." And on the other side, there rea

lly wasn't another side. (laughs) The rest of the reactions were people just laughing at his apology. It just reeked of bullshit. Oh, you did this to save the young men? Had nothing to do with the millions and millions of dollars you likely made? But then on Monday, the story that was kind of a surprise to me that it got the most attention was that streamer Amouranth getting that getaway kit from a fan, right? It was 60 grand, or actually ended up being $69,000, so there might be a sense of humo

r there, as well as a taser, a new phone, and some security groups on retainer. And with this, you have people like Amy Daniels saying that the person sending the help is kind of in a lose lose when it comes to how they're being perceived, writing "People: why won't anyone do anything to help her?" And then "people after someone gives her tools to live safely and options for support should she need it: Why are people being so creepy towards her? Like do you want people to help or not? What are p

eople supposed to do? Pray for her but then never actually offer real assistance 'cause it might be seen as perverted?" I will say actually a majority of the comments were very supportive, with people saying things like, "That guy sent 70k and phone. To be honest, not creepy. It's a legit a fan with a lot to give and probably a history of abuse in their own family. Honestly, with anyone going through abuse with no way out, this would be a god-sent miracle." And there I will say there did appear

to be this widespread general theory that the person that sent this money must have faced abuse in their own life, though going through the comments, there were a few people that said, like, maybe she's faking it. And that ranged from the abuse allegations to the $70,000 kit, which I would say, you know, I'm not the person in question. But I just can't imagine a world where that would be the case, right? She didn't need the attention. She was making millions and millions of dollars every month b

efore this. And I can say as someone that has seen it on the outside, abuse can happen in any relationship, no matter how rich or successful a person may be. Also, I saw people pointing to the fact that she still does, like, hot tub streams and stuff like that, which to me felt like there's this group of people that fails to grasp like there is a difference between being forced to do something, or heavily pressured to, and just doing something when you want to. But those are drastically differen

t scenarios, even if they're functionally the same thing. But then finally on Monday we have people talking about China shifting to zero-Covid policy, one of you apparently living there and detailing how this system's working, writing, "I live in Hangzhou, China." We no longer need to test every three days and no longer need to show our QR code when on public transport. Those who work at schools still need to scan their QR health code but still don't need to test. Test stations are still set up

and if someone near you is confirmed to have Covid, your health code will turn yellow and you'll need to go test. But also, the general sentiment was just a shock at how much zero-Covid fucked up entire cities, and in particular how they dealt with things like that man who just didn't wanna leave his apartment. And then on Tuesday, we talked and asked about Jenna Ortega. Is it her fault? Should she be held accountable or not for filming while having Covid? And essentially in the conversation, no

one actually was blaming her, with Corbin describing the situation as, "Going against higher ups is scary. I get why, when told to go finish filming the scene despite having covid symptoms, she would just go do it rather than facing potential backlash for not listening and being quote, 'difficult to work with.'" And Beth, also on the same page, writing, "The reason I think Janet Ortega is less at fault than the higher ups is I remember being 19. Imagine being 19, breaking into your desired fiel

d, and you're playing one of the most iconic characters of all time and working with Tim Burton. I sure as hell wouldn't be going against what production told me to do in that situation, regardless of how much it harmed me." Well, people like Joshua gave some insight into how this could happen, saying, "I currently work in the film industry and have worked through the pandemic. Time and time again, I have watched productions ignore their own rules when faced with a positive result," with him goi

ng on to describe a situation where people began testing positive onsite and instead of just shutting things down, the top brass began to merge production days in order to get more work done before they were required to test people, key thing, even though they knew people had been in contact with positive cases and that it had probably already spread. We also had a lot of conversation around AI-generated art and it was contentious. Artists like Rebecca saying, "AI art is hurting us a lot. I alre

ady have a hard time getting people to understand why I charge the amount that I do for my art. Now AI can crank out 10 different images in varying styles in a matter of seconds? How the hell do we compete with that? This is going to devalue our work to the point that people will look at it and say, 'I can get an AI to do the same thing for me for way cheaper, so why should I pay you?' It's not fair, Phil." But also at the same time, there are a lot of takes that AI won't kill art at all. People

saying things like, "My view on AI art is that it doesn't really take away from real artists. In fact, it will probably benefit them. People will be able to tell the difference and that will increase demand for real art. And art has value because it gives you something unique. This will force artists to be more creative, original, and make art with new mediums. If a computer or a machine can do your work faster, better, and for less money, then you don't bring anything unique to the table. Art

didn't die when cameras and photographs were invented and it won't die now," with some saying that real artists, it'll kind of turn into an artisanal craft, right? People making comparisons that, you know, like there are companies that mass produce diamonds, but saying real diamonds are still valued more by many. Which I will say, I don't know if I necessarily agree with that angle. That's just 'cause the diamond industry, like that's a whole fucking 20 minute story on its own. However, with all

that we've talked about, none of that really resolved the concerns about how the AI is trained, right? In one hand you had people arguing that the AI learning from artwork is the same as students learning from pieces of art and being inspired, but someone's saying, "If I uploaded a picture I drew in the style of Junji Ito that was pretty much spot on, but nonetheless original, would I get sued by Junji Ito? I don't think I would, even though they did not give me permission. But when an AI looks

and does the same thing, that's a problem? You're a drop in the ocean of what the AI is learning from. If you could show that a piece of generated image was directly taken from something you drew, then that would be an argument, but I really don't think that's the case. Not with the AI I've seen. Although I have seen evidence that This Person Does Not Exist only makes small changes to existing images, kind of like a deep fake and that's a problem." But anything goes. And others pointed out that

AI images do sometimes directly take pieces from existing works, writing, "It's a fact that in many generated pictures, you can find fragmented signatures or traceable snippets of specific individual art pieces. AI art generation is a gnashing maw, shoveled full of existing works and it spits out a mouthful of mush and distinct fragments. If an artist didn't consent to their art being used, it's very likely that the AI generation will eventually use a distinguishable part of an existing work. T

hat new image is passed off as a uniquely generated image when in fact it's partly copied. And if an artist didn't agree to the use of their work, then you're taking an artist's personal property for commercial use without their consent. This is quite literally theft." So this AI art is more akin to someone taking a bunch of snippets of other people's work and slamming them together, which is why you have people defending it saying essentially this is then transformative. And honestly, looking a

t all the conversation and debate, I feel like I'm just as lost on this topic as before. It's a messy, weird new space. Personally, I'm not looking at using AI art for, like, our clothing or posters, anything like that. We'll still be working directly with artists. Yeah, I completely understand why artists are freaked out about this. And then, you know, I love sipping wine during the holidays, but I hate the stress that comes with picking out bottles I may or may not like. But thanks to a sponso

r of today's show, I can just chill and let Bright Cellars be my personal wine service. Whether you're new to wine or not, Bright Sellers offers fantastic wine curated to your taste, delivered straight to your door. You just answer a seven question quiz and they match the wines to your taste palette. Based on the results of my quiz, Bright Cellar has provided me with wines that had like tropical and floral notes and black fruit notes. It's my two favorite things, easy and awesome. And each box i

ncludes wine education cards with tasting notes, pairing suggestions, wine origin, and even the best serving temperature for each bottle. Well, the Abash Dry White and Lost City Malbec were big hits at Thanksgiving this year, and the Lost City paired with some roasted duck, the Abash dry white going with some risotto. Oh my God. And you know, I just rate the wines I receive and they send me wines I enjoy. And with any questions about a bottle, their concierge team is quick to answer. So give you

rself the gift of self-care this holiday season or gift Bright Sellers as a gift. Definitely makes for a great last minute gift card. So yeah, thank you, Bright Cellars, for giving these beautiful bastards a limited time offer of $50 off of their first six bottle box. Just click that link in the description to get started. You can thank me later. And then this actually connects to Wednesday, 'cause I was a glutton for punishment/liked everyone arguing and we brought up AI again, though this time

not just focusing on art, instead having AI write a story. And so with that, we saw Sam I think saying what a lot of artists are feeling saying, "As a concept artist myself, this whole AI art development is honestly terrifying. If companies have the option to use AI over paying actual visual development artists to cut costs, they will. I just graduated from art school six months ago and seeing people already start to dunk on artists who have developed their skills for years is very discouraging

and makes me wonder if this career choice was a mistake. I'm hoping that AI becomes more of a tool for artists than a complete replacement. No computer could ever replicate the kinds of creative decisions that real life artists make." Which, I would never say never, but in general where things are right now, I agree with that last statement, right? AI will take you 70, 80% of the way there maybe, but then most would actually need a human artist to get it across the finish line. And I mean to a

point, that's almost like what we do at Beautiful Bastard. Like some designs are all made in-house, but others we use other artists somewhere else, then we bring the design in, we tweak it, we liked elements or themes of it. And I mean, hey, to the idea of maybe it could be used as a tool, yeah. If you're an artist and you have one of those clients that's like, yeah, I can't give you any notes, you could maybe have AI make a bunch of images that show off, like, different kinds of color theory an

d then different styles, and then maybe the client goes like, oh, I like this and this, and that way it potentially saves you time. You do fewer rounds of just like pointless work. Though I would ask artists if that makes sense. I've only been the annoying client. But yeah, that's the last we're gonna talk about AI today, especially because a big chunk of the conversation where y'all having a lot to say about the interview we had with Alex, with a big focus being on that four day work week, star

ting with NoDrinkTheBleach, which by the way, great advice, talking about how great their four day work week was, even though specifically it was four days of 10 hours, and adding, "Having the three day weekend was life altering. The extra time I suddenly had to get through the mundane and fun tasks alike more than made up for the time lost. And working four, eight hour days would be wonderful because I would then feel less rushed to get to and from work, and the shorter time at work would likel

y result in less clock watching and hiding from management." You also had a teacher saying that a four day work week would actually make classes easier, saying, "Oftentimes you see teachers not wanting to teach new content on Fridays or start with a test on Monday. Students and teachers across the board have issues staying motivated to grind through all the days anyway, and that has been well documented and reported. And even if teachers had five but students had four, we could use the fifth day

to do all the other stuff that's usually not seen, like IEP meetings, parent-teacher conferences, and calls, and planning for lessons that is usually left to do on our own, unpaid time. Which if that's the case, I'm all for teachers not having to take their work home with them. There was also unique solution that maybe some of you would prefer. Instead of Monday through Thursday, it would be Monday, Tuesday, have Wednesday off, then work Thursday and Friday, with some saying it would offer a ni

ce little break in the middle of the week to sleep in or just get things done so your weekends aren't all crammed with your personal tasks." But then finally on Wednesday we talked about the situation of backlogged Social Security claims, with people like Molly telling us, "I'm a social worker based in Chicago and it has gotten so bad not only with the SSA's lack of organization, I've had some of my patient's applications with medical information just fully go missing, but the representatives ar

e so backlogged. Denial without even an interview is super common now. It's so disheartening to work with terminally ill children and not be able to promise them relief. Despite the long wait times, I cannot even find them private financial aid because it can cause them to be denied as well. The system just is not working. Even marking a case as urgent and terminally ill doesn't help as much as it used to." Well, Amelia expanding on this and saying, "I work with unhoused individuals and my cowor

kers sole job is applying people for disability. And let me tell you, it is soul crushing work. The amount of hoops that people have to jump through just be denied are astounding. My coworkers even receive the response of reapply when they get sicker. It's such a broken system, but I don't ever see it getting better. And then that brings us to Thursday, where I think Adolfo pointed out a huge connection that I can't believe we missed regarding this tech from China to hide you from cameras, sayin

g, "China working on invisibility technology and John Cena being fluent in Mandarin Chinese. Coincidence? I think not." And if anything, I'd like to just apologize for not talking about this very obvious, clear aspect to the story. But in all seriousness, most of the comments were about the iShowSpeed situation. A lot of you were super angry at iShowSpeed, saying that he was being blatantly racist in this clip. - Bro, come back, come back, come back. Come here, come here, come here. Come back. W

hy you got a Argentina, bro? - English, no. (speaking in foreign language) - No, no Chinese. Chinese! - (speaking in foreign language) Argentina. - Chinese! No (speaking in foreign language). (iShowSpeed crudely imitates Chinese language) - Speed later apologized, saying you didn't realize, that he was just trying to connect with him, but no, none of you really bought that, right? Belladonna, for example, saying, "I feel for that Chinese dude being screamed at with (speaking in foreign language)

, and then Ching Chong Chang, all because he had an Argentina jersey on while being Asian. Racism is so gross. I hope that kid Speed gets the education he needs." With a number of people in the conversation talking about how people who aren't racist or don't think they're racist can still do racist things. With Tash expanding on that and adding, "Speed doesn't have to be a racist for his words and actions to be racist. He doesn't get to mock Asians to his millions of followers then try to hide b

ehind his age and assert that what he did wasn't racist. It's hurtful, perpetuates stereotypes, and teaches his young audience that this type of behavior is okay if it's an Asian person at the other end of it." With someone also writing, "I had a friend correct me once when I got defensive. I admired his patience. He calmly sat me down and said, 'Whether or or not you're racist isn't the point. Your character is completely separate from the action itself.' I was like, oh shit. Blew my mind. I th

ink folks unknowingly make it about them." Then moving on, we had our interview with Gayle Stever about parasocial relationships, which I will say, I'm very happy we ended up releasing, 'cause I almost didn't 'cause some of the audio issues that we managed to fix. And with watching that piece, a lot of you commented about your experiences with parasocial relationships, saying things like, "They've always fascinated me. There have been dozens of fictional characters, whether on screen or in writi

ngs, that have quite literally been the reason I continued going on in life, namely in high school. I had friends, but I think the relationship between fictional media and myself not being mutual is what helped so much. They lived in a world that didn't have my specific problems, that I didn't have to talk about what was wrong. I could just feel better by consuming the content." And there were also people who learned something about their friends who engage in these relationships. We even heard

from a researcher who's looking into how parasocial relationships are used by political campaigns, with them noting, "My case study is focusing on the 2022 Filipino elections, but it is drawing on results found in Israel and The United States as well, which have all found that parasociality can be used as a means of tracking voter behavior." And then, all right, online banner ads, sidebars, and popups are everywhere, especially with the holidays here, whether they be mainstream news sites to les

s than legal torrent hubs. And while most are just colorful distractions, some are malvertising ads created to infect your device with malware and viruses. So how do you block the dangerous sites and help get peace of mind? Well that is where a fantastic partner and sponsor of the PDS, NordVPN or, more directly, NordVPN.com/Phil comes in. Hackers will create a convincing advert containing hidden lines of malicious code and find a way to feature their content on a legitimate website. Then when yo

u click the ad, you'll be directed to a dangerous server from which the rest of the attack will be launched. But with NordVPN's threat protection service that can block dangerous sites and limit advertising, giving me a cleaner, safer browsing experience. Though also a healthy dose of skepticism will go a long way in keeping you safe, so also slow down and exercise and caution. But hey, help protect yourself from malvertising and head on over to NordVPN.com/Phil to get a huge discount off a two-

year plan and, wait for it, four extra months free. That is an incredible deal. That's NordVPN.com/Phil. It's all risk free with Nord's 30 day money back guarantee. And then Minnesota Pharmaceutical Board filed a lawsuit this week against Northland Vapor, and this because they were allegedly selling edible products with 50 times the legal limit of THC content. This including their aptly named Death by Gummy Bears, as well as their Wonky Weeds edibles and their Wonky Weeds THC syrup. In fact, the

se things are so strong that the board reports that at least one person died after consuming them, though there a key, key thing. The FDA has not confirmed that the adverse reactions reported were actually caused by the edibles or something else entirely. But by the way, the board's lawsuit is calling for a court order for the destruction of all edible products sold by this retailer and demands they stay within the state's legal limits. And then apparently instead of bonuses or fair working cond

itions, Amazon has decided to offer a Thank Your Driver feature this holiday season. All right, so when you say to your in-home wiretap, Alexa, "Thank My Driver," Amazon will give the driver who delivered your packages five bucks at no cost to you. Now with this, it does look like they do stack, but they are finite, with Amazon saying they'll only give that crisp Abe Lincoln for the first million thank yous with the added bonus of 10 grand to the top five most thanked drivers, plus an additional

10 grand to a charity of their choice. Hey, that is something you can do. But also it feels kind of shitty. I mean, how many times have we talked on this show about the shit that Amazon drivers have to go through. You got motherfuckers peeing in bottles 'cause they're scared that they don't have time for bathroom breaks. And there was that study that found in 2021, nearly one in five Amazon delivery drivers suffered injuries. And let's not forget their union busting efforts this year. But then

also you have people saying, okay, put that aside. Let's do some math. Amazon has reported 275,000 drivers. If they're offering $5 for the first million thank yous, that's $5 million. Meaning that even if every driver got their thank yous right away, that comes out to a total of less than $20 per driver with their first million cap. But then on the other side of things, let's say, you know, one driver gets 100. For them, that becomes 500 bucks. But that also means that there are drivers out ther

e that are gonna get less. So that's why to me, this feels more like PR, like trying to be seen as doing something for your employees rather than actually trying to do something for your employees. And then we saw the New York Times going on strike. Over a thousand staffers, including journalists, designers, news assistants, and security guards, staging a 24 hour walkout, notably making this the first major work stoppage to hit the paper in 40 years. And as far as why it's happening, workers and

management have spent months struggling over pensions, health benefits, and remote work requirements. But above all, the biggest dispute was over pay, where you've got the union demanding 5.5% average pay raises for 2023 and 2024, with the company refusing to budge past 3%. Plus it couldn't come to an agreement on minimum salaries and retroactive bonuses for the period since the last contract expired, with employees arguing that they need more money to keep up with the rising inflation and hous

ing costs in New York City. Also pointing out that in their latest earnings call, executives projected total adjusted operating profit of up to $330 million by the end of the year. So some staffers argue that they should get a bigger cut of the success, especially since they've endured stagnant wages and belt tightening during leaner times for the company. And this, as they pointed out, that much of that cash has been poured into executive compensation, share buybacks, and dividends. And so, wha

t the Times did without a huge chunk of that staff? It did still put out a news report and even added an unsigned article about the strike. And then Ted Cruz's daughter is eviscerating the media right now. Here's the situation. You have 14 year old Caroline Cruz. She made headlines earlier this year when she posted on her TikTok account that she was bisexual and that she disagrees with her dad on most political issues, which is also why we saw a lot of people jumping to conclusions when police s

howed up at the Cruz home in Houston, responding to a report of a 14 year old with self-inflicted stab wounds on her arms. With that, you had Ted's office confirming it was his daughter and that she went to the hospital, but insisting she was okay and requesting privacy for his family. But in the wake of this, we saw some media outlets and a number of people online doing the exact opposite, claiming, without evidence, that the incident was related to her sexuality and her father's homophobic vie

ws, which then led to Caroline returning to TikTok with a scripted statement, accusing the media of completely altering the story and exploiting her mental health for their gain. - Honestly, I think it's sick that they're using a 14 year old as a publicity tool. I also don't enjoy the assumptions on why I did what I did. No, it had nothing to do with my sexuality or my father. - She then says she's not suicidal, but she is experiencing mental issues and is getting the help she needs, and adding

the most traumatizing part of all this is how public it's been. Which I will say on that note, it's why I deliberately avoided talking about this story last week. I try to be in the news business, not the speculation business, but now that she's spoken out for herself and she's talking about the coverage in the media, I think it makes sense to make her the central voice of the story. Not to talk or villainize others, but now it feels a little more appropriate to cover it. But back to her respons

e. She then soon uploads a second TikTok. It follows up on the first. This time it's not scripted. And here saying she's more than just Ted Cruz's daughter, that she has her own dreams and aspirations, and saying that she wants to be recognized for that. - And this had nothing to do with my father, and it's honestly dehumanizing how everyone has to relate everything back to my father. Yes, I've experienced hardships because of who he is, but I'm also a teenage girl and that's not the only thing

I'm going through. - And you know, with this, I'd love to know really any of your thoughts, right? There's a lot to talk about regarding journalistic ethics, as well as the way the children are often overshadowed by the celebrity parents and mental health issues. Yeah, let me know what you're thinking. And then Arizona Senator Kyrsten Sinema has left the Democratic Party, which yeah, it makes sense. She didn't seem like she was a Democrat. But notably, this just days after the runoff results fro

m Georgia, which gave the Democrats a majority of 51 to 49, and announcing this switch to being an independent in an interview with CNN. Now, as far as what this means, it reportedly doesn't look like a whole lot. The Democrats lead already includes two independents that formerly caucus with them, Bernie Sanders and Angus King. Although Sinema didn't say whether she would do the same, but she did mention that she hopes to keep her current committee positions. - I intend to maintain my position o

n my committees and keep doing the work that I've been doing for Arizona. So I don't think that things will change in terms of how I operate or the work that I do in the United States Senate. - She also seemed to indicate that her voting pattern won't change, telling Politico, "Nothing will change about my values or my behavior. I don't anticipate anything will change about the Senate structure." And as with the White House's response, it was pretty tame. The Press Secretary saying they have quo

te, "Every reason to expect that we will continue to work successfully with her." And another White House official saying that Sinema's switch doesn't change much. But where it might have a huge impact is with Sinema's reelection in 2024, with her saying to Politico here, "It's fair to say that I'm not talking about it right now. I keep my eye focused on what I'm doing right now, and registering as an independent is what I believe is right for my state. It's right for me. I think it's right for

the country." But this also doesn't touch on the fact that there are a number of people that don't think that she would actually survive a Democratic primary. But hey, we'll see. When I heard this news, I was surprised, but also not surprised. Sinema to me always seemed like this person that, like, loves being seen as unique and different, potentially likes the smell of her own farts. Commenting on the unique medley of aromas. But hey, good luck to you, Kyrsten. Excited to see what roadblocks yo

u and Manchin can come up with in the next two years. But that is where that story and today's show ends. As always, thank you being a part of this and all our daily dives into the news. Also, prepare yourself for four brand new shows this week, starting tomorrow. But as always, my name's Philip DeFranco, you've just been filled in. I love yo faces and I'll see you tomorrow.