- Today, we're talking about reports
that OceanGate had ignored employee safety concerns
for years before its Titanic tourist sub went missing,
Utah banning the Bible in schools,
why and how Kick's absolutely devastating Twitch right now,
why Texas is taking away water breaks
for construction workers working in dangerous heat.
We're talking about all that and so much more
on today's brand-new "Philip DeFranco Show,"
your daily dive into the news, also your second video today.
But that said, a lot to talk about,
so let's just jump into it
starting with you need to brace yourself for the pivot
that we're about to see in this Titanic submersible story,
right, 'cause the search is still ongoing
for those five people who went missing on Sunday,
but in the next 24 hours is gonna be one of two results.
Either this group is miraculously found,
there is a rescue, or they are all but certainly dead.
But they believe that if there was not an implosion
and they have not already frozen to death,
their oxygen is expected to run out by tomorrow,
and at that point, almost everyone will then be focused
on the questions of, "How the fuck did this happen?"
People are already asking that,
but it will become the singular question,
with many people questioning the sub's safety,
and with that, we now know that two former employees
from OceanGate, the company that owns the sub,
rang the alarm over its safety years ago,
the first reportedly being David Lochridge,
OceanGate's former Director of Marine Operations,
who sued the company in 2018 for wrongful termination,
claiming that they fired him after he raised concerns
about the design of the sub's hull,
because it was made of carbon fiber
instead of a metallic composition.
He also reportedly disagreed with plans to deploy the sub
without first conducting non-destructive testing,
which he said would've tested three key things,
the hull's "Delaminations, porosity,
"and voids of sufficient adhesion of the glue being used
"due to the thickness of the hull."
And then another former employee
echoed Lochridge's points to CNN,
in fact, claiming that even more concerns were raised
by contractors and employees during his time at OceanGate,
and that CEO Stockton Rush became defensive
and shied away from answering questions
during all-staff meetings, with him also claiming
he resigned after Rush outright dismissed his concerns
that OceanGate might be violating laws relating
to Coast Guard inspections.
And also of note with all this,
the same year OceanGate fired Lochridge
it also sued him claiming he breached his contract
by disclosing confidential information
to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration
when he filed a whistleblower complaint,
with both sides there later settling the dispute
out of court, though, now, of course,
the media is digging it back up.
But again, with all this,
we're not fully set on just this conversation,
because, of course, search teams are continuing
to race against the clock right now,
especially as, I mean, we talked about it
on the morning show, we found out that sonar devices
have picked up banging sounds every 30 minutes.
So as of recording, nothing has turned up from that,
and now we're seeing US military,
commercial, and Coast Guard assets
as well as the New York Air National Guard,
the Canadian Armed Forces and Coast Guard
all swarming the ocean surface, even being joined
by a French research ship with an underwater robot.
But ultimately, that is where we are right now
as the clock keeps ticking,
and with this being a developing situation,
if anything happens, of course, you'll hear from me soon.
And then if you believe in psychics,
I just, I need to let you know
it makes me irrationally angry.
Like it's your life, it shouldn't matter to me.
But it just, when someone tells me that,
"Oh, I went to a psychic," it just, ah, I hate it.
But also understand, I don't hate the person
who believes in a psychic.
I think it's a very, very human thing
to wanna believe in something that's bigger than yourself.
We're all lost in this world.
We need something that like tethers us to this,
or makes us feel some sort of hope,
or like that maybe there's a path.
Rather my anger is more focused
on the people saying they're psychics,
like this one guy who's in the news right now,
because he swindled over $175 million out of people
over 20 years.
Meet Patrice Runner, a French and Canadian citizen,
who's now been convicted of running a mail fraud scheme,
and found guilty on 14 charges.
We're talking wire fraud, mail fraud,
and conspiracy to commit money laundering.
That's because Runner spent 20 years siphoning money
from people by sending out millions of letters posing
as European psychics, and investigators finding that
these letters were mass produced,
sent out thousands at a time, but stylized to seem personal
with coffee stains and handwritten notations
offering psychic guidance for a small fee.
And reportedly, they would target vulnerable people,
some with dementia, others who were struggling financially,
and they would even include personal information
that they purchased from data brokers to prove clairvoyance.
And so, once a recipient made a payment,
they'd be bombarded with letters offering more visions,
predictions, and guidance for another payment,
and then if the person ever stopped responding,
the letters would reportedly turn aggressive,
with one victim saying, "When I wrote to say
"I didn't have that kind of cash,
"the letters got even more frightening.
"I was so scared I couldn't eat, or sleep
"worrying whether I'd be hit by more bad luck,"
and this international scam going on from 1994 to 2014
with more than a million Americans sending money
to Runner's operation and losing more than $175 million.
And so, as far as Runner,
he's set to be sentenced at a later date,
but he's currently facing up to 20 years in prison,
and there are also four other defendants
who have pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit mail fraud
for assisting in the scam.
But yeah, I guess the main thing I wanna stress here
is just be careful out there.
There are a lot of people that wanna exploit
people feeling vulnerable and loss,
and then the streaming wars right now
have gotten absolutely crazy,
and I'm not talking about Netflix versus Disney+,
but rather YouTube versus Twitch versus Kick, right?
And a lot of this involves just Twitch facing
endless backlash this month, like just a fire hose of it,
and with all that, they've made other platforms look
very, very appealing.
Like in less than a month, one of their competitors, Kick,
went from, "Oh, is that the place
"where Adin Ross brings Nazis on to talk,"
to, "Oh, this is a legitimate alternative
"with big names coming, better splits,"
with them in recent days even picking up
some absolutely massive streamers,
those including Amouranth,
and arguably one of the biggest streamers in the world,
xQc, with his two-year deal reportedly being in the realm
of $100 million,
and it's not even an exclusive contract,
though, of course, we don't know how much of that is cash
versus equity, what hoops you have to jump through
to take it from, you know, this amount of money
to this amount of money.
But those are absolutely impressive numbers
being thrown around,
and they're possibly scary numbers if you're Twitch.
Also, I will say the non-exclusive aspect of the deal
I think is very smart, right?
It opens up the opportunity for these Twitch streamers
to start a stream on Twitch, build up that audience,
and then say, "Hey, second part of the stream over here,"
or more specifically with some of the talent they've signed,
"Hey, I can't do this over here on Twitch,
"but I can do it over here on Kick,
"so come over to see that content
"that would otherwise get me banned."
And while we saw a lot of creators reacting to this news
by saying, "Hey, I could also have a livestream,
"maybe throw some of that Scrooge McDuck money at me,"
there's also one major creator
who's gotten a lot of attention,
because she says she has no plans of jumping ship.
We're talking about Pokimane,
with her citing ethical standards for staying on Twitch.
And so, when asked if she would ever go to Kick,
she recently said- - I'm good as I am.
Why would I (clears throat) compromise my morals
and ethics for more money when I have money?
Something about that is so cringe to me personally.
- Right, saying it's one thing
if you really, really need the money,
but considering that she's all set in that regard,
she wouldn't be enticed by some big contract.
And with that you saw two drastically different reactions,
some agreeing, and/or praising her,
but on the other side, you have people saying
she sounded bitter, or salty
that other people were getting these deals.
Also with the situation, you had places like Forbes
questioning the sustainability of the deals
being offered by Kick, right?
Not only these blockbuster deals that are being reported,
but asking is it likely that Kick's 95/5 split with creators
will last forever?
But also noting there, "It doesn't matter
"if Kick ends up collapsing, because at least right now
"it's a PR disaster for Twitch,"
though there also could be a completely different thing
at play here, and that is that 95/5 splits
kind of don't matter to them,
because a big part of the reason Kick even exists is
because stake.com streams were banned on Twitch,
and God only knows how much money they were raking in
from all the promotion to their gambling site.
And just hopping onto Kick as I was filming this story,
right now, their most popular category, Slots & Casino.
So it might be economically sustainable for them
to just build a complete Twitch competitor
just so they can take all the viewers that are watching
those streams and funnel them to their online casino,
'cause remember, the money being thrown around right now,
it's not coming outta nowhere,
and understand, I'm saying this not as a critique,
but as a just a pure marketing move,
that might be just fuckin' genius,
though, again, I'm on the outside looking in,
so I have no idea regarding
the actual dollar for dollar numbers.
And then the other day,
a bunch of y'all actually got angry at me.
You said I was gatekeeping, right,
'cause I gave that health and fitness update,
and I shared a still from what's actually this video,
but the good, or dare I say amazing news is the reason
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And then the Bible was banned,
and in all of the places that it could have happened,
it happened in Utah, and the situation has just gotten
progressively messier, right?
So last year Utah passed a law allowing parents
to request the removal of books containing,
quote, "Pornographic, or indecent material" from schools
with this pretty clearly meant to continue the trend
that we've seen in a number of places of banning books
that mention gender, LGBTQ content, right?
We've seen a number of book bans in other red states
across the country.
But then back in December, one anonymous parent complained
to the Davis School District north of Salt Lake City
that the King James Bible was, quote,
"One of the most sex-ridden books around,"
and saying, "If the books that have been banned so far are
"any indication for way lesser offenses,
"this should be a slam dunk."
And so, a committee reviewed the complaint,
and they found that even though the Bible didn't violate
the law, it was nevertheless inappropriate for elementary
and middle school students.
So it was essentially banned,
the book removed from all those libraries in the district,
and people lost their shit, 'cause one, of course they did,
and two, it's Utah.
Have you ever been to Utah?
Generally lovely place, very religious.
So we saw 70 people appealing the decision
and hundreds protesting both the district
and the state capitol for letting this happen,
and even the Republican lawmaker
who sponsored the book ban bill, Ken Ivory,
jumping in to protest his own law,
with him now arguing the review committee
also needs to be overseen by elected officials
to make sure standards are applied properly.
And so, after all of that,
last night the appeals committee voted unanimously
to put the Bible back on school shelves,
and saying, "The appeal committee determined
"that the Bible has significant, serious value for minors,
"which outweighs the violent,
"or vulgar content it contains."
However, the situation is not completely over,
'cause the district is still considering
a separate complaint about violent content
in the Book of Mormon,
which, I mean, if you thought backlash
against the Bible ban was bad,
just imagine touching that book in Utah.
And then workers in Texas are about to lose
their water breaks just as the state is facing
record-breaking heat waves,
with Governor Greg Abbott just now signing a bill
that'll overturn many local regulations,
forcing cities and counties to adhere to state codes instead
in areas like labor, agriculture, business,
and natural resources.
But the big issue that people have with this law is
in regards to workers' protections,
and specifically water breaks,
right, 'cause Texas is currently facing days
of record-breaking triple-digit temperatures,
and many people, namely construction workers,
are outside in the heat all day,
and this bill specifically targets ordinances
in places like Austin and Dallas where water breaks
for construction workers have been mandatory for years,
and there's a reason those safety standards
have been in place, right?
We're not talking about like,
"Oh, we gotta bubble wrap people."
Texas, put on your gold medal,
number one in heat-related deaths of workers,
and even with being in first place,
it's believed that number is an under-count,
with unions saying heat-related deaths are often recorded
under a different primary cause.
So unions are saying that with the loss
of mandatory water breaks,
deaths will become more and more frequent,
and one union official saying,
"Construction is a deadly industry.
"Whatever the minimum protection is, it can save a life.
"We are talking about a human right.
"We will see more deaths,
"especially in Texas' high temperatures."
But at the same time, you have supporters of the bill saying
governments making water breaks mandatory is unnecessary,
and arguing that OSHA already requires businesses
to maintain safe environments for their employees.
However, right now there's actually no federal OSHA standard
for heat protection,
something former Assistant Secretary of Labor David Michaels
sounded off on, saying, "The better solution would be
"to have a national standard, but since we do not,
"local ordinances are very important for saving lives.
"Prohibiting these laws will result
"in workers being severely hurt, or killed."
But with that you shouldn't expect like a quick bandaid fix,
'cause Biden's OSHA has actually been tasked
with writing new rules regarding heat protection,
but new safety regulations take years to fully develop.
And so, in the meantime, there's just gonna be this gap
of protection for workers who were previously protected.
And so, an important aspect of this bill is
despite preventing local governments from doing so,
it doesn't stop state lawmakers from proposing regulations
regarding water breaks.
And so, we're actually seeing that play out
with two separate bills being filed regarding standards
to prevent heat sickness.
However, neither made it through the legislative process,
with one of the representatives
who authored a heat protection standards bill saying
she's hoping to reintroduce the bill next session,
and noting, "Texas has always been
"a really hard uphill battle on workers' rights,
"and you know, unfortunately the current climate is
"almost certainly going to exacerbate that."
And then there's real fears right now
that violence is about to get out of control
between Israelis and Palestinians,
and that's because over the last three days
there have been multiple deaths on both sides,
and there doesn't seem to be a real end in sight.
And to try to say where things started
in this conflict is hard, 'cause no matter what,
someone in the comments is gonna say,
"Well, what about that one time?"
And then thing on top of thing just builds
on top of each other for 120 years.
But what I can say here is that on Monday
Israeli forces raided the Jenin refugee camp,
which sparked violent clashes, even getting to a point that
Israel had to evacuate troops that were stranded
after their vehicles were disabled
with powerful roadside bombs,
though in the end, six Palestinians were killed,
and many were wounded.
And if that sounds familiar, it's because raids
on that refugee camp have become increasingly common,
with Israel claiming it's to target terrorists
that take refuge there, while Palestine says
they're just unprovoked attacks.
That said, though, Monday's raid then led
to two Palestinian gunmen allegedly affiliated with Hamas
to target the Israeli settlement of Eli in the West Bank
and killing four, that shooting only stopping
after a bystander shot one of the gunmen,
after which the other fled
before being killed by Israeli forces,
and anger over that has now led to carloads
of Israeli settlers flooding into the northern West Bank
to target Palestinian villages over the past day and a half.
And while the current scale of the damage is unclear,
videos and photos are surfacing of homes
and cars being on fire, windows smashed up.
There are even reports that some opened fire on Palestinians
who walked out of their homes during the events.
What's especially concerning is that
these back and forth attacks are seemingly becoming
more and more common, like back in February,
when dozens of Palestinian homes were damaged,
and especially as Israel increases to produce
what the UN describes as illegal settlements
within the West Bank, which speaking of that,
making more settlements is now part
of the official Israeli response,
with Prime Minister Netanyahu saying
the government plans to add 1,000 new homes to Eli,
and this can actually now be done very quickly,
because on Sunday, the finance minister was granted
sweeping powers that let him bypass measures
that have been in place for 27 years,
something that's been seen as widely controversial
and incredibly hostile.
And it's also why we've even seen Israel's closest allies
condemn the settlement expansions,
with even our own State Department saying
it was deeply troubled with a new plan,
and adding, "The United States opposes
"such unilateral actions that make a two-state solution
"more difficult to achieve and are an obstacle to peace."
But of course, words are words and actions are actions.
In fact, inactions are actions.
But ultimately, with all that,
I gotta let you know that may not be the end
for all the news you need to know today,
because this was actually the second news video
I uploaded to this channel,
with this morning's show covering four other big stories,
or maybe you missed yesterday's show.
We talked about a lot.
But hey, as always, my name's Philip DeFranco,
you've just been Phil-ed in,
I love yo faces, and I'll see you tomorrow.