- Today we're talking about Colleen Ballinger's lawyers
speaking out responding to accusations
around "Toxic Gossip Train" saying they're false.
Tucker Carlson and Andrew Tate
has even angered some Tucker fans.
New concerning news around Sugar Baby Clarence Thomas.
How false Nazi accusations resulted
in a guy getting doxed and forced to flee his home.
We're talking about all that and so much more
on today's brand new "Philip DeFranco Show,"
your daily dive into the news.
So buckle up, hit that like button,
and let's just jump into it.
Starting with some massive updates
to the whole Colleen Ballinger
"Toxic Gossip Train" situation and accusations.
Right, yesterday, we talked about the reporting
and the accusations coming from creators
saying they were hit for copyright
for including that response song in their videos,
with one of the biggest coming from the H3 podcast,
as well as there being reports
about the song being uploaded to iTunes.
Some suggesting that she did this
in some massive intentional effort
so she could have this copyright protection.
But then, after yesterday's show went up,
we saw Colleen's legal reps telling Pop Crave
that she didn't upload the song to iTunes and Apple Music.
And the outlet adding that the song,
which was reportedly attached to her official profile,
has now been removed.
And actually after that we got a statement from her team
further explaining, "Ms. Ballinger did not upload
"the video slash song to Apple Music
"or to any other streaming platform
"for sale or for any other purpose.
"Ms. Ballinger has not monetized the video slash song
"in any way.
"We don't know how it got published on those platforms.
"It was done without Ms. Ballinger's knowledge
"or authorization,
"and we have taken measures to have the content removed.
"Likewise, Ms. Ballinger has not issued
"any copyright infringement claims
"to channels that featured the video slash song."
Aright, and so with that, it's unclear how it got there,
who was able to upload it,
since, yes, independent people can put music on iTunes,
but also with that you have reports
saying you have to have a partnership
with an Apple preferred distributor to do so.
Also with this, you have some speculating about users
trying to pose as Colleen on music platforms like Spotify,
but also nothing about how it got on those platforms
right now has been confirmed.
And as of last night you had Ethan Klein saying
that his podcast was still being claimed.
So we have to wait to see if that situation gets resolved,
what's actually happening.
But that's ultimately where we are and now you know.
And then, Andrew Tate and Tucker Carlson
just did a two and a half hour interview
and that has sparked a lot of different reactions.
Right, Tate, of course, has been charged with rape,
human trafficking, and forming an organized crime group
in Romania.
Of course, with that,
he has denied those allegations repeatedly.
And in this video, Tucker essentially starts off
by claiming that masculinity is now a crime,
bemoaning the state of men in America.
With him then just basically saying
people need to hear Tate out.
- We think Tate's views about men
very much deserve a hearing.
So we flew to Romania to talk to him.
We're posting the entire interview here on Twitter
because we've been assured it will not be taken down
for ideological reasons
as so much of his content has been.
The video is long, but if you can
take the time to watch it.
Make up your own mind about Andrew Tate.
- And from there you have people saying
it's kind of clear that Tucker's just on Tate's side.
He laughs with Tate, he agrees with Tate's points.
He plays right into a lot of the rhetoric he's using.
With Tate, again, in this interview denying the allegations,
blaming the woke agenda and media for how he ended up here.
- When you finally end up the enemy of the matrix
and they used the legal system as a weapon
to punish you for having an opinion,
you realize how subjective the law is.
If I had to estimate, I think that the overall intention
was just to throw me in a cell,
use the media machine to drum up something real.
- With Tate also trying to minimize the charges against him
claiming that he is basically just being accused
of forcing women to make TikTok videos.
Though notably there, prosecutors among other things,
alleged that he forced women
to make explicit content for OnlyFans.
The interview also veering into politics and global issues.
- I think we should all give Putin credit
for curing COVID, right?
(Tucker laughs)
Because when his invasion happened, COVID went away.
- Hadn't thought about that.
- Think about it.
It's almost to the day. - Now, keep in mind, right,
we're just talking about broad strokes here.
This is a two and a half hour video,
which is also why one of the biggest takeaways
we've seen from this interview were the responses.
People pointing to Twitter's public metrics
saying, "Look how many people watched this,"
or rather quote unquote, "watched this"
with as of this morning people saying the number 46 million.
It was incredibly important to note
it's unclear how many people actually watched all of it
or even a chunk of it or just briefly passed by it.
Also around this video, we had a lot of Tucker
and Tate's fans very happy, people applauding it,
the likes of Elon Musk sharing it
and calling it interesting.
But also we've seen a ton of backlash and criticism
with people saying things like
"And I'm losing respect for Tucker.
"Not a good look for a supposed Christian
"and conservative when Tate is the antithesis of that."
As well as, "As the father of a little girl,
"I can't rock with this.
"Anyone who takes someone's daughters
"and convinces them to perform sexual acts on camera
"for strangers is not someone we should be elevating
"as some kind of hero."
The likes of Joe Walsh saying, "Two and a half hours
"defending and singing the praises
"of an accused rapist and human trafficker.
"So Brave."
Mehdi Hasan tweeting, "Fresh from interviewing
"accused rapist and trafficker, Andrew Tate,
"Tucker Carlson will host The Family Leadership Summit
"in Iowa.
"Can't make this stuff up."
But with all that said,
I gotta pass the question off to you:
what are your thoughts here?
Whether it be around the metrics
or the promotion and platforming of it,
or even just the reactions that we've seen.
I'd love to hear from you.
And then we gotta talk about this guy Ben Brody,
'cause his life got completely flipped upside down
because of the insanity of the internet, right?
So, Ben is a 22-year-old recent graduate from California.
He just got his degree in political science.
He has his whole life ahead of him.
However, recently everything got crazy for Ben
because on June 24th, nearly 1,000 miles away,
two far right groups got into a fight
at the Oregon City Pride Festival.
And at the festival, two neo-Nazis
of the Rose City Nationalists had their masks pulled off
and their faces were caught on video.
With internet detectives then taking that,
running with it, and someone eventually
finding a photo of Ben
and claiming he was one of the people in the video.
So, you saw his name making the rounds on the internet,
finding its way into MAGA groups
and proud boy supporters.
With them then finding a blurb written about Ben
on his Jewish fraternity's Instagram page
where it said that he wanted
to work for the government someday.
And so for them it was confirmation
of one of their favorite theories
that federal agents were posing as neo-Nazis
to make them look racist.
And so with that, you had Ben's name
continuing to gain traction,
his face being shared everywhere,
side by side with that of a neo-Nazi from Oregon City.
Even Elon Musk tweeting about it, boosting the accusation
to his tens of millions of followers.
With Ben telling "Vice" in an interview published yesterday,
"Obviously Elon Musk has a huge following
"and it amplifies stuff,
"so it definitely made the situation much worse."
Also, talking about how the day
after the fight in Oregon City
Ben was at a baseball game in California
when his Instagram comments were just blowing up,
people calling him a Fed.
And by the time that he and his mom left the game,
their address had been leaked online
and it wasn't safe for them to stay at home.
With Ben saying in the car,
"I was freaking out and very nervous, very anxious
"like 'oh my God, I can't believe this happened.
"You know, my life is over.'
"Everything that I tried to work for
"and all this is just completely gone.
"And I genuinely felt very anxious, very nervous,"
and adding, "I felt like I was going to have a panic attack,
"I couldn't sleep."
But eventually after pressure from his family and friends,
Ben decided to respond to the situation.
He tried to clear his name
by posting timestamp receipts of him in stores
at the time of the confrontation in Oregon City.
And it was also later confirmed to "Vice"
by multiple sources that Ben is not the man in the video
and has no ties to the Rose City Nationalists.
Though that still was not enough for some people online
with many still calling it suspicious.
And in the weeks following the incident,
online conversations have now moved away from Ben,
but many of those posts still remain viewable,
which is why I felt really important
to talk about these updates.
And then, in "Today in Awesome."
God, I haven't done that in forever.
Only some of you are gonna care about this,
I promise I am not getting paid to say this.
Even if you are the most casual of gamers,
I cannot recommend the video game "Dave the Diver" more.
It's available for Mac and PC and it's the weirdest,
most fun thing I've played in a while.
You play a diver who catches and spears fish during the day,
then you take it to a sushi restaurant at night.
You then run that sushi restaurant
and you hire employees and you get back into the ocean,
and all of a sudden there's like sea people
and then there's monsters you're fighting
and then you're turning them into sashimi at night again.
And that's not even everything you can do or happens.
Like some of it you just wouldn't even believe me.
And I haven't even finished the game,
but it's one of the few things
that has put a smile on my face recently.
And Switch fans, don't worry,
reportedly they're gonna try and get it out for the Switch
by the end of the year.
Yeah, that that's something nine outta 10 of you
probably don't care about.
But for the one outta 10, you're gonna love it.
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And then, the heat right now is getting crazy.
And I know a lot of you watching right now
are like, "No shit, Phil."
But with that, we need to talk about the scale of this thing
because things have gotten so concerning
that yesterday, the National Weather Service
issued heat alerts for more than 108 million people
and notably the southwest of the United States
is gonna be most effected
with Axios reporting that "a heat dome
"will become centered over the Southwest,
"but maintain an influence
"from the southeast to the south central states
"and into the Great Basin in California."
The National Weather Service saying,
"Unfortunately, the long-term outlook for the region
"shows a continued heat wave through this weekend
"and into next week."
Right, and obviously a big part of this news
is we're talking about extreme numbers,
we're also talking about extreme lengths.
With Axios reporting that in Phoenix, Arizona,
they could see temperatures
at 120 degrees Fahrenheit this weekend.
As well as reporting Phoenix is on track
to either tie or break its record of 18 straight days
with highs of 110 degrees or above.
So please, please, please be careful out there,
because we're talking about temperatures
where it's not like, "Oh, that's really uncomfortable."
Like people die.
And while obviously we're talking
about the United States here,
this is an issue in many other places.
There was a study that was published on Monday,
they found that European heatwaves
killed 61,000 people last year.
Though, of course, that's not a one-to-one comparison,
not all countries are equipped the same way.
But definitely in my time in Europe in the past
gave me an appreciation for air conditioning.
Because as an American that is not as widespread
as I thought it was.
And the unfortunate reality right now
is that studies show that these heat waves,
they're going to be an increasingly more common thing.
Though more specifically right now,
reportedly a gathering El Nino event
in the tropical Pacific Ocean is beginning
to add even more heat to the global climate.
So again, people please be careful out there.
This is not a joke.
And then, we need to talk about judge shopping, right?
And that's because Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer
and 17 other Democrats wrote a letter
urging the policymaking body for the judicial system,
the Judicial Conference, to end the system
for assigning cases that basically
allows plaintiffs to select their own judges,
aka judge shopping.
With a group specifically pushing the conference
to change single judge divisions
which notably allows for all federal cases filed
in certain geographic regions
to be assigned to just one judge.
And even more specifically,
a judge that is sympathetic to the case.
Effectively allowing plaintiffs to pick the judge they want
by filing their lawsuit in a specific division.
And the senators explaining in their letter
that this creates an unbalanced system
because plenty of other districts
assign cases to judges randomly.
Writing, "Based on geography,
"some plaintiffs are able to guarantee
"that their claims will be heard before a specific judge,
"whereas others are left to chance.
"This inconsistency undermines Americans' faith
"in our judicial system."
With a letter going on to flag single judge districts
in Texas, pointing to the northern district of Texas
as an especially egregious example.
Noting that even though there are more
than a dozen judges in the district,
civil cases are filed in many divisions
that are always assigned to a single judge
or to one of just a few.
And that's very significant
because it goes beyond just cases that impact Texas, right?
This has major implications on federal policies
that affect all Americans.
And in an interview with "The New York Times,"
Schumer specifically identified a very high profile
and closely watched fight over abortion pills
that is making its way through the courts right now
where not only could that case seriously limit access
to abortion pills,
but also totally upend the way the FDA regulates all drugs.
And while the matter is currently playing out
in the US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit,
it originated in, you guessed it, Texas.
With the anti-abortion group that brought the case
literally incorporating itself in Amarillo, Texas
just weeks after Roe was overturned
and moving quickly to bring the suit there.
And this because the only federal judge
who hears new civil cases in Amarillo
is a Trump appointed judge who is infamous
for being sympathetic to conservative causes
and has been openly critical of abortions.
So, it's a very clear stack-the-deck-issue,
one that's not talked about nearly enough.
And as far as if the Judicial Conference
is gonna be willing to change its rules,
because some senators ask nicely,
I mean we're gonna have to wait to see.
Though, notably here, the senators did indicate
in their letter that Congress is considering
taking further actions to crack down on judge shopping
if the initiative is not taken
by the judicial system itself.
Also in other the American legal system
is totally fucked news,
we have everyone's favorite judicial baddie,
Clarence Thomas, making the rounds yet again.
Though this news is a little bit different
than Thomas's usual beep of pimping himself out
to GOP sugar daddy mega donors.
Because today "The Guardian" reported
that one of Thomas's top aides received Venmo payments
from several lawyers who have had business
before the Supreme Court.
And that notably including one who just successfully argued
in favor of ending Affirmative Action.
According to the outlet,
the Venmo payments appear to have been made
in connection to Thomas's 2019 Christmas party,
with them saying they were able to track that down
because the aide's Venmo account was literally public
until "The Guardian" requested comment for the article.
With the reporter saying
that those now private transactions showed
that the aide received seven payments in November
and December of 2019 from lawyers who had previously served
as Thomas's legal clerks.
And while the amounts being paid were not disclosed there,
the purpose of each payment relates to the Christmas party
and either explicitly mentions Thomas by name
or appears to use his initials.
Now, notably, according to the report,
all of the lawyers and aides in question
have declined to comment
or not responded to request to do so.
You have experts saying these payments
raised some red flags,
this including from Richard Painter,
who was the Chief White House Ethics Lawyer
in George W. Bush's administration.
With Painter saying that it was not appropriate
for private practice lawyers to essentially send money
to the Supreme Court and adding, "There is no excuse for it.
"Thomas could invite them to his Christmas party
"and he could attend Christmas parties
"as long as they're not discussing any cases."
But adding, "His Christmas party
"should not be paid for by lawyers.
"A federal government employee collecting money
"from lawyers for any reason, I don't see how that works."
And so we're seeing increased concerns here,
because if this is just one thing, it's one thing.
But this is just the latest story around Sugar Baby Thomas
that's raised eyebrows.
And that is where today's daily dive into the news ends.
But for more news you need to know
I got you covered right here on the links down below.
And if you've already watched everything, don't worry,
'cause my name's Philip DeFranco,
you've just been Phil-ed in.
I love your faces and I'll see you right back here tomorrow.