- 'Sup you beautiful bastards.
Welcome back to the Philip DeFranco Show.
Buckle up, hit that like button,
and let's just jump into today's news.
Meet Willard Miller and Jeremy Goodale.
They're two Iowa teenagers,
and the reason they're dressed up
like Dollar Store Hannibal Lecters
is that they've been charged with
murdering their high school Spanish teacher, Nohema Graber.
And this all reportedly happening
in the small town of Fairfield.
One year ago to the day tomorrow,
Graber's body was found in a Fairfield park
hidden under a tarp, wheelbarrow, and railroad ties,
with the teacher reportedly having been
beaten to death with a baseball bat.
And the big news today is that prosecutors this week
say they know the motive
for why these two allegedly did this
and they say it was because of a bad grade.
Now, Miller's lawyer, according to the AP,
is trying to invalidate forced search warrants
and suppress evidence from Miller's home,
comments that he made to the police,
and information taken from his cell phone
and the social media platform Snapchat.
But this isn't court,
I'm not the judge, you're not the jury,
so let's talk about what we think we know.
Investigators say that they found that Miller
had actually met with his high school Spanish teacher
at the high school on the afternoon of the second.
This is to discuss the bad grade that he had in her class.
Authorities saying the Graber later drove her van to a park
where she was known to take daily walks after school,
with witnesses claiming they later saw her van
leaving the park less than an hour later
with two males in the front seat.
That van then gets abandoned.
Investigators saying that Goodale then makes a phone call,
with a witness he called later picking up those two
as they walked to town on that same road.
And one of the likely reasons that Miller's lawyer
doesn't want the police interview included
is because in that interview, Miller talks about
being so frustrated with the way Graber taught Spanish
and how his grade was bad in her class,
how it was lowering his GPA.
Also regarding the murder, he initially said,
"I had no involvement."
But then quote, "He later stated
he had knowledge of everything but did not participate,"
reportedly saying, no, he didn't kill this teacher.
It was a quote "roving group of masked kids"
who also he claimed forced him to then get involved
by providing a wheelbarrow and driving the van.
And as far as why Miller's lawyer
doesn't want the Snapchat evidence included?
Well, I mean, as the AP reported,
the documents say a witness provided
photos of a Snapchat conversation
that identify Goodell's admissions that
he acted in concert with another person
to bring about Graber's death.
But as far as what happens from here,
we won't know everything until sometime next year,
with Goodale's trial set for December
and Miller's trial scheduled for March.
Though a key thing with the trials is that
this murder happened when both were 16 years old.
They are now 17,
but they are still going to be tried as adults.
And if they're convicted for first degree murder in Iowa,
they could face life in prison.
Though, key thing, as the AP notes,
Iowa Supreme Court rulings require
juveniles convicted of even the most serious crimes
to be given a chance for parole.
But that said, if everything is as it is and it is true
that they killed their teacher with a fucking baseball bat,
hopefully chance for parole
isn't actually a chance for parole.
And then, when should your own words
not be allowed to be used against you in the court of law?
That is a central question
and debate at the core of this story,
because right now we are seeing rap lyrics
being used in court against artists.
You have rappers like Young Thug
and members of the Young Stoner Life label
currently facing dozens of charges,
including ones that accuse the label of
being a criminal gang.
And there, prosecutors are using their lyrics
as confessions of criminal intent,
lyrics like "I get all type of cash, I'm a general."
And this, not a random outlier.
Experts have found over 500 cases
where rap was used as legal evidence,
and that is likely an under-count.
But also, here's a key thing.
Those same experts found only four instances since the 1950s
where non-rap lyrics were used as evidence,
and three of the four cases were tossed out
while the other was overturned after conviction.
Which is why you have a lot of critics saying
that rap is being unfairly targeted.
Rather than looking at rap as free artistic expression
like other forms of music,
police and prosecutors are very eager
to interpret it literally,
saying that they ignore
the storytelling, figurative language, and hyperbole
that's often used in rap.
And among those critics you actually had
California Governor Gavin Newsom, who signed a bill
limiting the use of rap lyrics as evidence last month.
Also New York and even at the federal level,
legislators are weighing similar bills.
And in addition to that, yesterday we saw a massive stand
from dozens of artists and major music companies,
with the likes of Megan Thee Stallion, Drake, Jack Harlow,
Future, Coldplay, and more signing an open letter,
a letter reading, "More than any other art form,
rap lyrics are essentially being used as confessions
in an attempt to criminalize Black creativity and artistry,"
saying, "What's happening is
an obvious disregard for free speech,"
and calling it "a racially-targeted practice,"
with them then calling on prosecutors
to voluntarily end this practice
and on politicians at state and federal levels
to finally enact legislation
that would limit the use of rap lyrics in court.
With that said, I do wanna pass the question off to you.
What are your thoughts on this?
Do you think it should be allowed to be used?
No, it shouldn't?
By all of a sudden making this move that the artists want,
are you accidentally creating a loophole?
But also, if legislation gets put in place,
are we really gonna see like a rise of people
admitting to crimes in rap?
Are OJ and Harvey Weinstein gonna drop an album together?
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And then, Benjamin Netanyahu is back.
(campy sinister music)
He's like the political version of Jason Voorhees.
Just when you thought he was done, uh-uh.
So Israel just had its fifth election since 2019,
and I've been covering this ridiculousness since it started,
so that the TLDR is that the government there
keeps falling apart
as minority parties leave the coalitions.
And the key thing is that as all of this is happening,
Netanyahu has actually been fighting corruption charges
tied to gifts between him and telecom moguls.
But the fact that there was this most recent election,
it wasn't shocking,
especially when you consider the election prior.
Because at that time. the weirdest coalition of parties
joined together as essentially the Fuck You Bibi coalition,
groups that would literally never work together otherwise.
And they tried and then no, it fell apart.
But then you fast forward to about 80% of the votes
now counted as of this morning, and it looks like
Netanyahu's party is gonna take the top spot.
But of course that alone wouldn't be enough
to just give him the job.
So in order to form a government, his bloc is going to need
the help of the rising far-right coalition
run by Itamar Ben-Gvir to to win enough seats.
And currently, that far right coalition is likely to end up
as the third biggest bloc in the legislature,
which I mean, that alone is a huge deal because
Ben-Gvir's party barely got into the legislature last time
and this time, they're gonna be
one of the most powerful blocs.
And this is a coalition that wants things like
having an exclusively Jewish state
and removing what autonomy the Palestinians still have.
He also reportedly wants to make
the type of corruption that Netanyahu is accused of legal,
grant legal immunity to Israeli soldiers
who shoot Palestinians,
and deport rival lawmakers that he thinks are terrorists.
Now, that said, when it comes to Netanyahu's opposition,
his biggest rival is current Prime Minister Yair Lapid.
His left center party is
the second biggest group in the government.
However, just like Netanyahu,
Lapid is relying on allies to form a government.
And for Netanyahu's opponents,
this is where things kind of fall apart.
Many of the right wing voters that were like
"Netanyahu's too much, we gotta leave him" last time
are now returning.
And a lot of the minority parties
are just not doing well at the polls.
In fact, some are teetering on the threshold
to get seats at all in the legislature.
And if any of them end up failing, Lapid's coalition has
absolutely no hope of pulling off a miracle and winning.
But also with this dramatic shift happening
in the polls and voting,
one of the biggest questions outside of Israel is
how did Lapid's coalition lose so much support?
Well, there are a lot of factors,
but some of the biggest include
Lapid allegedly had his canvassers target
voters from allied parties rather than undecided voters,
a practice that reportedly didn't stop
until a week before the election.
There were also accusations and frustrations that
Lapid didn't give enough support to the Arab party,
which was a key ally in the bloc
and required to form a government.
And then possibly the thing with one of the biggest impacts
came from Lapid's seeming decision to
abandon surplus agreements.
Those are deals that allow
parties who pass a certain threshold
to share votes with others, allowing smaller parties to get
enough votes to get a seat in the legislature,
or as one unhappy lawmaker put it,
"He behaved like a cannibalistic pig
who tried to eliminate other parties
in order to be the biggest party,
and this is the result."
Now, this is still a developing situation,
it's updating as I'm recording, so I do wanna note,
there is a small chance that
Lapid's coalition could still pull through
if every single member of the coalition does weigh better
in the last few percentages of the vote.
But seemingly every hour we move forward,
it seems less and less likely that's going to happen
and that Netanyahu will instead end up with
65 of the 120 seats.
And then we get to see
how long this government will work together
because Itamar Ben-Gvir
has been described as a dangerous wild card by many.
There are even indications that
the Biden administration won't work with him
because of how extreme he is, and that may cause tension.
Reportedly, he's pushing for minister positions
that would help further his policies.
And it's entirely possible that Netanyahu, who is secular,
will fear driving away what secular votes he has left
due to being forced to court allies like Ben-Gvir.
Or, you know, maybe he just gives in
and fully embraces Ben-Gvir's vision of Israel.
But yeah, that is where we currently are.
And of course, I'll pass the question off to you.
What are your thoughts, especially if you're in Israel
or you have family there or around there?
Because while everyone might not realize it.
This is huge, massive news.
And then there could be a triple-demic this winter.
Just get me off this fuckin' rock.
I'm tired, I'm emotionally exhausted.
I hate that new words have to keep getting made
to describe how fucked shit is.
Yeah, right now you have public health experts
warning a triple-demic could happen.
This because, in addition to
the expected surges of the flu and covid,
there's another virus into the mix.
Respiratory syncytial virus or RSV.
And if you don't know, this is not a new thing.
This is actually a common seasonal respiratory infection.
While it usually presents like a cold
with very mild symptoms in healthy adults,
it can cause lung inflammation
or infections like bronchitis and pneumonia
in young children, older adults, and the immunocompromised.
Now, annually, it's estimated that
58,000 children under the age of five
are hospitalized with RSV,
resulting in between 100 to 500 deaths.
Also among Americans 65 and older,
around 177,000 are hospitalized each year
leading to around 14,000 deaths.
But the key thing is that this year the US is experiencing
a very, very, very large early surge of the virus,
especially among children.
In fact, according to the CDC, detected RSV cases
have tripled nationwide just in the last two months
and case numbers have already reached
peak levels seen in 2021,
with the preliminary numbers showing that
since the beginning of October,
nearly one in every 500 babies six months and younger
was hospitalized with RSV.
And it's believe that the real numbers across the board
are much higher
because many people who have been infected don't get tested
even if they've been hospitalized.
Also, as far as what is the reason why
so many more children than usual are becoming sick
and seriously sick with RSV?
Well, health experts generally believe right now
it's due to the broad rollback of covid restrictions, right?
Children who would've normally otherwise been exposed to RSV
and able to build up immunities to it
have been insulated because of covid precautions
like masking, social distancing, increased hand washing,
and other measures.
And so as a result,
we've seen what some doctors have described as
an unprecedented number of young children being hospitalized
in emergency rooms and pediatric intensive care units
all over the country.
And that massive surge in hospitalizations
is putting a serious strain on hospitals right now
that are already dealing with seasonal spikes
in respiratory viruses like colds, flus, and covid.
And as the New York Times notes,
it is particularly challenging
in regions where pediatric units have shrunk
or have even been shuttered in recent years,
creating bottlenecks in emergency rooms
and shifting the strain to children's hospitals
that focus on specialized services
like cancer treatment or heart surgery.
And we're already seeing the impact in some places.
Multiple pediatric hospitals are already at capacity,
including John Hopkins Children's Center in Baltimore,
as well as others in Seattle,
Lubbock, Texas and Orange County, California,
with officials in Orange County even going as far as
to declare a public health emergency yesterday
as the rapid spread of the viral infections
in part driven by RSV
have caused pediatric hospitalizations
and daily emergency room visits to surge to record levels.
Meanwhile, reportedly, Boston Children's Hospital
has postponed some elective surgery so it can make room
for more patients that have respiratory illnesses.
But where I'll leave you with this story
is with with two kind of final things.
The first is that, whether from this show or somewhere else,
you are now aware of what's happening.
Health officials say that the best way to prevent RSV is
through precautions you should already be taking,
things like hand washing, drinking water,
disinfecting services, avoiding touching your face,
which now that I've mentioned,
you wanna do 12,000 times in a minute.
Other experts have also said
that you should be getting your flu shot
and the updated covid boosters.
But also, big news regarding RSV is that
yesterday Pfizer announced that it's made an RSV vaccine
that is 81.8% effective
at protecting newborns from severe illness
in the first three months of life,
and then 69.4% effective for six months.
But that's not gonna be too helpful for you
right now most likely
because while the company says that
it plans to file for vaccine approval with the FDA,
it takes on average eight to 10 months
for the agency to issue a decision on a new vaccine,
which is great news for future you,
but for you right now might be like
throwing an oxygen tank at someone who drowned a year ago.
And that is where that story and today's show ends.
As always, thank you so much for watching.
For more news you need to know, click here or here.
But as always, my name's Philip DeFranco,
you've just been filled in.
I love yo' faces and I'll see you tomorrow.