- 'Sup, you beautiful bastards.
Welcome back to "The Philip DeFranco Show,"
the news show for people who hate keeping up with the news.
Buckle up, make sure you're subscribed,
and let's just jump into it.
Y'all, Kanye done goofed.
Remember when yesterday I showed you
that what I thought was overlooked clip
from that now removed podcast where Kanye said-
- The thing about me and Adidas,
it's like, I could literally say antisemitic shit
and they can't drop me.
I could say antisemitic things and Adidas can't drop me.
Now what?
- Well that has aged like milk left out in the sun
'cause Adidas this morning
terminated their partnership with Kanye,
with Adidas saying they, "Do not tolerate antisemitism
and any other sort of hate speech.
Ye's comments and actions have been unacceptable,
hateful, and dangerous,
and they violate the company's values
of diversity and inclusion, mutual respect, and fairness."
And a key thing, they are ending
their partnership with Kanye
and, "ending production of Yeezy branded products
and stopping all payments to Ye and his companies.
Adidas will stop the Adidas Yeezy business
with immediate effect."
And then just hours after that Gap,
which ended their partnership with Kanye last month
but were still selling products,
announced they would immediately be removing Yeezy products
from its stores and even shutting down Yeezygap.com.
It just goes to the Gap website now.
and this is absolutely massive news for a few key reasons.
The first of which is yes,
there was pressure on Adidas to cut ties with Kanye,
but I really can't help but stress how much it shows
Kanye fucked up that Adidas did this.
It's being reported they're going to lose out on
$250 million by terminating this deal with Kanye.
And that's not gross sales.
That is net profit.
Kanye fucked up so much by spouting hate
and disinformation and then leaning into it
that a major company was willing to shoot themselves
in the dick for a quarter of a billion dollars.
And as far as for Kanye,
it's being estimated by "Forbes"
that without the Adidas deal,
his net worth has dropped to $400 million,
meaning he'd no longer be a billionaire
because his deal with Adidas
was being valued at $1.5 billion.
And I also don't know what this means
for the future of Kanye and releasing products,
especially if it's under the brand of Yeezy,
because Adidas was sure to include in their statement
that they are the sole owner of all design rights
to existing products as well as previous
and new colorways under the partnership.
But maybe Kanye's already thinking of new brands
to tap into his new market.
Or you just look at the social reaction to Kanye right now,
it looks like he's just like fuck up
a lot of the good will from his old fans.
And so maybe soon he drops the The Blood and Soil 23s,
maybe some Air Himmlers.
Yeah, ultimately that's where we are.
We'll have to wait to see what happens next.
In the meantime, let me know your thoughts on this.
And then Taylor Swift is fatphobic
according to a number of people online
following the release of her new album.
Also to use preface the next part,
I do wanna say I do think those people are stupid,
but here is the explanation.
So along with Taylor Swift's album release,
she released a music video for "Anti-Hero"
and it includes this moment of Taylor stepping onto a scale,
and instead of a number, it just says fat.
And this sparks some outrage from some on the internet
who wrote things like,
"Taylor Swift saying, 'Imagine if I was fat.
That's a nightmare,'
is fatphobic even if it was unintentional
and that's why people are upset
she used her enormous platform to display fatphobia
and think about who a majority of her fans are,
teenage girls."
"In Taylor Swift's music video
where she looks down at the scale where it says Fat
is a shitty way to describe her body image struggles.
Fat people don't need to have it reiterated yet again
that it's everyone's worst nightmare to look like us."
You know, when I read to that, I thought
I think two can play this game.
I've been watching people participate
in the outrage Olympics for 15 years now.
So to this I say, how dare all these people
say with their full chest publicly,
fuck Taylor Swift's struggles.
How dare they dismiss this woman's struggle
who has had the word fat used against her as an insult,
who has been very open about her struggles
with eating disorders and body dysmorphia.
Rather than keeping an open mind, you wanna muzzle her
so she can't share her own experiences and struggles.
And that's in addition to these people just being fucking-
This is a critique of fatphobia.
I'm not even a Taylor Swift stan.
I'm just anti fucking stupid people.
And I think part of the reason I'm so frustrated is that
so much of the conversation around weight is fucking stupid.
Whether it be this or what,
months ago when we talked about people getting outraged
at a company because they had a plus size models
and people were saying they were promoting obesity,
so much of this has become
nonsensical, overly emotional bullshit.
But hey, this is "The Philip DeFranco Show."
That's the story, my opinion,
and now I'd love to know yours.
Whether you agree or disagree with me,
let me know what you're thinking
in those comments down below.
And then your rent is too fucking high.
And as it turns out,
very likely part of a unified effort
to fuck you where it matters the most, your wallet.
So in massive news this week
nine of the largest property management companies
and a price setting software are now facing a lawsuit
for allegedly colluding to keep rent prices high.
So at the center of this,
you have software made by RealPage.
It's supposed to use a variety of metrics to figure out
what rent should be for an apartment.
But one of its most powerful tools
is the information that its clients provide the software,
key things like lease renewal dates and actual rent rates.
Because that information is then
aggregated along other factors
and used to pop out a rental rate for the area
with RealPage boasting that using all this information
can give the most accurate rental prices for an area,
and that 90% of the time it's recommended rates are used.
But key thing, that is where the issue lies.
All this normally private information sharing
allegedly turns all these entities into an illegal cartel.
"But Phil," you may ask,
"How is sharing this private information allowing
these companies to fuck me in my tight little wallet?"
It's a weird, pervy way to ask, but I'll explain.
Normally, if an apartment building
wanted to set a competitive price,
it would have to look online or call other buildings,
get an idea the going rental rates.
At which point they could decide
if they wanted to undercut the competition.
But instead, what we're seeing are these apartment buildings
all agreeing to just use RealPage's price
which uses the actual rent people pay to figure out prices.
And in addition to that,
RealPage's software apparently uses other schemes
to help smooth out prices to keep them higher on average.
This including things like staggering lease renewal dates
to make sure that they're not all clustered
around January and July.
Because God forbid there was more availability at one time,
people might be able to go,
"Hey, I won't pay a lower price."
This is not a random side effect.
This is something that RealPage brags about,
boasting that by doing all of this
it can help clients experience rental rate improvements
year over year between 5% and 12% in every market.
Which, I mean that doesn't mean that
you are getting screwed by this,
but there is a solid chance,
especially considering that together
these property management companies own
hundreds of thousands of apartments in the country.
And this problem is allegedly huge in areas
like downtown Seattle where 70% of the apartments
are owned by the same 10 companies,
all of which use this software.
Now as expected, all of these companies deny the allegations
but this is something that
we're gonna need to keep an eye on,
and especially as America has become more and more
year over year becoming a renter nation.
But for now, we wait to see if the lawyers
and the courts can figure it out.
And then American optimism is at a record low.
- My disappointment is immeasurable.
- So there's this poll where Gallup asked,
"In America, each generation has tried to have a better life
than their parents with a better living standard,
better homes, a better education, and so on.
How likely do you think it is that today's youth
will have a better life than their parents?
Very likely, somewhat likely, somewhat unlikely,
and very unlikely."
And they found that optimism dropped 18% since just 2019
with just 13% saying very likely,
29% saying somewhat likely,
and 57% saying somewhat to very unlikely.
We're talking about a drastic change
that is now being referred to as the vibecession.
And the breakdown
by demographic is actually very interesting.
As "Insider" explained,
"Republicans drove the drop in optimism
with just a third saying they think
the next generation will fare better.
And among Democrats,
the majority of whom do think things will get better,
still saw their optimism at its lowest ever."
And then when it came to dollars,
confidence in the economic future
is actually higher among low earners
with a majority of households
with an annual income below $40,000
saying they're optimistic.
Though Gallup senior editor Megan Brenan said
that could be because higher income Americans
do seem to have more of a Republican lean.
But main point, hope is hurting right now.
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And then are innocent Republicans just getting attacked
in Florida for being Republican?
That is a question that's being asked
after Senator Marco Rubio dropped a bomb
on Twitter Monday writing,
"Last night one of our canvassers wearing my T-shirt
and a DeSantis hat was brutally attacked
by four animals who told him Republicans
weren't allowed in their neighborhood in Hialeah, Florida.
He suffered internal bleeding, a broken jaw,
and will need facial reconstructive surgery."
So this immediately goes in the big if true category.
A lot of people very angry,
but also a lot of people very skeptical.
So Hialeah is a well known Republican stronghold
with a Republican mayor.
So you have people saying
the idea that a gang of people would beat up a guy
for being Republican isn't impossible.
It's just a little strange.
And then the skepticism with this story
grew more and more intense when local media
picked up a police report on this,
and the account of what happened in that report was that
the victim was handing out flyers
when he came upon the house of Javier Lopez,
who apparently approached him and said
"You can't pass by here.
This is my neighborhood."
So then says the victim crosses the street to avoid Lopez,
says he's on public property,
then argues some more until Lopez allegedly runs at him,
grabs him and slams him to the ground,
punching him repeatedly.
The police adding that a second unidentified suspect
kicked him in the face,
but it's not clear whether anyone else was involved.
But here was a key kicker.
Police added that there was no indication
that Lopez was actually politically motivated,
though the investigation is still ongoing.
So for many of the question became,
okay, well, if it's not politically motivated,
why did this allegedly happen?
Well, one thing that we have since learned is
who the victim is.
Meet Christopher Monzon,
a man who reportedly earned his very own article
on the Southern Poverty Law Center's website.
This after he was arrested in 2017
for attacking protestors with a Confederate flag
all while wearing a shirt reading League of the South,
which is a white nationalist group
that advocates a second southern succession
with him explaining-
- These people are committing genocide against the south.
The current events being the violence
instigated by these communist individuals
who seek to silence us
through means of violence and coercion.
- Though also here, Monzon claimed last year
that he resigned from this group years ago,
has stopped using racial slurs,
and is not, and was never a white nationalist.
But to that others have said he's only trying to
distance himself from his past
because he was actually running for local office in Florida.
And actually regarding that,
a review of his social media found that
he's still active in neo-Confederate communities,
which in part is why he had so many people saying,
"Hey, he may have been attacked on Sunday,
not for being a Republican,
but rather being a notorious racist in the area."
Not that that would legally justify
the violence against him.
It just puts Rubio's explosive tweet
in another possible context.
But for now, we'll have to wait to see
what comes from this investigation
if we get more information.
But in the meantime I'd love to know your thoughts.
And then your kids, the kids,
they're getting dumber,
and many are saying the students are failing
because schools aren't utilizing
billions of dollars in funding.
So here's the situation.
The Biden Administration gave $122 billion to schools
in March of 2021 to pull them out of the COVID slump.
But according to a Washington Post analysis,
schools across the country have spent less than 15% of it.
Specifically what we're talking about is a third round of
the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief,
or ESSER III. When you look at the numbers,
the spending rates vary wildly from state to state
and even district to district within states.
But key thing, the money's just collecting dust
in many places where it's needed the most.
All this as student math and reading scores have plunged
to the lowest they've been in decades
thanks to the pandemic.
And when the 211 districts
where the students are estimated to be
the furthest behind were examined,
they found that half of them
had used less than 5% of the ESSER III funds.
So of course the question is why?
Why is this money not being spent?
Well, in some places it's very straightforward.
The funds are just not immediately available
causing a delay in the spending.
According to education professionals in Baltimore,
state approval didn't come through until October of 2021
meaning the most of the planning for spending this money
was made for the '22 to '23 and '23 to '24 school years.
Also, other reasons for the delay include
the nationwide educators shortage
and the desire to make the money last as long as possible.
The ESSER III expires in September of 2024,
so some districts is trying to stretch it out.
That including an assistant superintendent in Washington
who said, "Rather than a huge fire hose of funding
in a single year or even two years,
we've been intentional to think about
how do we stretch this funding to have supports
for students as long as possible?"
Because the key thing I want you to take away from this
it's not like all these schools
are just abandoning their students
to a life of finger counting and illiteracy.
This problem requires careful planning
and tens of millions of dollars,
notably in a field where money is often a problem,
so much so that it's become standard
to see teachers doing fun little TikToks
as a way to try to get people to go to their Amazon wishlist
so they can actually do something for the students.
And regarding this new money,
according to the White House in an analysis
of thousands of school district spending plans
for the next two years,
the vast majority of these funds
are committed to critical needs.
We're talking about things like reversing learning loss
and addressing the mental health issues of students.
In Baltimore, for example, $9 million will be spent
to bring in outside organizations
and tutors to over 100 schools.
In Tennessee they're awarding extra funding to districts
that spend half their ESSER funds on academics
and participate in a multi-year tutoring program.
In DC, $40 million is being poured into a tutoring program
that will reach over 8,000 students
across the next two years.
But also as great as these plans in place are,
some districts are just behind on the spending
with one professional
from Education Resource Strategies saying,
"In some cases probably the plan review and approval
took longer than they assume.
I think the majority of cases though,
are about challenges getting management capacity
to get spending initiatives kicked off."
But then finally, with this,
I think it's incredibly important to know
that the data available for these funds
also might not tell the full story.
Education experts say that the number reported
for each district is the amount that
they have requested from the state,
because school districts when using ESSER money
actually spend local funds
and are reimbursed later by the state.
And so yes, with learning laws of setting students
back to the nineties
it's disheartening to hear that some districts
aren't spending the money available to them.
However, many are taking advantage
of these millions of dollars
and trying to solve the problems
the pandemic created for students.
And the hope is that in the next year,
two years, three years,
we start seeing the meaningful change happen on the ground.
But where I'll leave you with this messy, troubling,
but hopefully hopeful story is
I'd love to know your thoughts
regarding what you've been seeing.
Because while I can talk about this story
at a national or a state level,
and one person sharing a story that's anecdotal,
if a lot of people share, that's actually a snapshot of
what's happening across the country.
But ultimately, that is where that story
and today's show ends.
As always thank you for watching and subscribing
to my daily dives in the news.
If you're looking for more news,
you can click right here to watch yesterday's show,
or the brand new series we just launched
with those links also in the description down below.
But my name's Philip DeFranco.
You've just been filled in.
I love yo faces and I'll see you tomorrow.