'sup you beautiful bastards, hope you're having a fantastic Friday. Welcome back to the Philip DeFranco show and if you're new here on Fridays
We do things a little bit different. On Fridays
I try to cover more viewer requested stories from the week that we never got to, stories that we were going to include in the show
But we ended up having to cut for time, or never got to film because of timing. And with that said let's just jump into it
and the first thing we're gonna talk about today is why
Pepe is back in the news. Pepe's creator Matt Fury, if you do not know, has not been very happy about who's been using
his character. Matt made the character back in 2005
He often just did things like hung out with friends, ate pizza, got high very quickly became meme. It was all fun
While a general memeing continued
It was used for trolling and then around 2015 things started changing
In addition to people just using this as an everyday meme there was also a tiered group that seemingly was using it for a different reason
I say tiered because it is important to create separation. You have
neo-nazis, the alt-right, and then people just trolling to fuck with people and they started to depict Pepe with racist stuff
Nazi stuff and also while this happened became part of the, the meme Trump movement
Which then as you might remember led to that weird situation where the anti-defamation league
listed Pepe as a hate symbol
Even Hillary Clinton's team jumping on this angle
what I'll say about this and what I said about it in the past is that
It- Pepe is not a hate symbol. When people are making a Pepe meme, it's not the image itself
that is horrible or a hate symbol. It's the intent messaging of the person making it that matters
While you did have actual Nazis making Pepe memes, a lot of people that were just part of a counterculture movement or just trolling
embraced Pepe not because they were like yeah
we love Nazis, but because they wanted to mess with people that were
labeling something a hate symbol based off of what some people were doing with an image
And then we've talked about in the past how Matt Fury went down a legal route, sent cease and desist orders to Richard Spencer
Mike Cernovic, the Donald, other websites. He sued Eric Houser, a Texas man who made a children's book with Pepe in it that was reportedly
Islamophobic and settled. Houser ended up being forced to donate profits from the book to the Council on American-Islamic Relations
Fury also sued a woman in Kansas City, that case is still pending. Now the most recent target for Fury is
Infowars, this because they were reportedly selling a poster that depicts Pepe the Frog along with Trump, Kellyanne
Conway and many others. According to reports 1,000 copies of the poster sold meaning that there was a
3,000 in revenue. And the lawsuit alleges that the poster infringes on Fury's copyright and Fury is seeking a permanent injunction and damages
against Infowars and their parent company Free Speech System. And since this was announced, Alex Jones released a response which rather than playing his video
I will just read
Also mentioning that he was going to countersue this individual and others but as of now
That's where it is
It'll be interesting to see how far this goes because it ultimately in my eyes becomes a fair use case
and then let's talk about the continued fallout of Fyre festival
You remember that 26 year old Fyre media founder Billy McFarlane partnering with Ja Rule last year organizing the now notorious
failure that was the Fyre festival. An event that had promised a glamorous weekend in the Bahamas
Calling it the cultural experience of the decade. Ticket packages range from
$1,200 to over
$100,000 it's supposed to give guests access to luxurious
accommodations, gourmet food, musical acts like Blink 182 and Migos. It was also promoted by models like Kendall Jenner, Bella Hadid, Emily Ratajkowski
But the day arrived when the event was supposed to start and social media ripped it to shreds
This because instead of delivering that amazing experience, uh, there were, there were photos released of what appeared to be FEMA like tents also these gourmet cheese
sandwiches. And very quickly
performers pulled out, the event was canceled, guests were seemingly left stranded and the whole thing looked like a disaster and there continued to be
spectacle and controversy
But it became even more troubling for McFarlane himself. It ended up coming out that he and associates were under a federal criminal investigation
by the FBI, this for possible mail fraud, wire fraud, and securities fraud
this led to June of 2017 where McFarlane was charged with two counts of wire fraud and the big update now is that he
has plead guilty to those charges, admitting to a federal court that he defrauded investors
he falsified documents to secure more funds for the 2017 Fyre festival. The first count alleged that McFarlane
misrepresented his company's financial health in order to secure investments for Fyre media. For example
MacFarlane provided falsified documents that claimed millions
in income earned from talent bookings, but in reality the company had only actually earned around fifty seven thousand dollars for that period. McFarlane also
presented documents claiming more than 2,500 confirmed town bookings in one month, but turned out
it was only around sixty confirmed for the entire year and the US Attorney's Office said that these misrepresentations
created losses for at least 80 investors totaling more than
24 million dollars. And the second count alleged that McFarland provided false income statements to a ticket vendor in order to get two million dollars for
a block of advanced tickets to future festivals. McFarland saying in court
Yeah, yeah, yeah
We get it
Now those two counts of wire fraud, each carry a maximum of 20 years in prison but under the plea agreement
It's being reported that McFarland is likely to face a sentence of around 8 to 10 years with a fine of up to three hundred
thousand dollars and also as part of his plea
he agreed to a forfeiture order of 26 million dollars. And as far as what his sentence will be, we have to wait and see it's
not scheduled until June 21st, but even after finding out that prison time
it's not over, reportedly McFarland and Fyre Media are facing more than a dozen civil suits and an ongoing bankruptcy liquidation of the company
But that said it will be very interesting to see what happens next
then let's talk about these super sexy topic that is tariffs
(voice over sex noise) Calm down
At some point this week if you were passing through news, you've seen or heard steel and aluminum or aluminium
(voice over sex noise) That was all of Britain
you should see what happens when I call soccer football. That said, let's talk about the tariff for those of you
who don't know, tariffs are taxes placed on imported goods and earlier in February Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross
recommended new tariffs on steel and aluminum and Ross gave three options
one across the board tariffs 24% for steel 7.7%
for aluminum. Two target tariffs for countries that have higher tariffs on the United States for steel
that would be a 53% tariff for 12 countries for aluminum
That would be 23.6% tariff for five countries. Or three limit imports for steel 37% less than current amounts in
aluminum 13% less. Then last Thursday Trump says I like those tariff numbers, but they're not huge enough
I want 25% on steel at 10% on aluminum
And it was later confirmed by the White House that this was universally applied, so it looks like he took option 1
But then up the ante
Trump then tweeting
then later tweeting
and then in rolled in the reactions
a spokesperson for Paul Ryan saying
senator Ben Sasse saying
senator Orin Hatch saying
Chrystia Freeland, the Canadian Minister of Foreign Affairs saying
the company MillerCoors then came out with a statement saying
then the American International Automobile Dealers
Association said in a statement
and it seems that a big part of the backlash at least domestically
Let's say we're talking about just steel. In 2015 steel mills, which would be the main benefactor in the situation employed
140,000 Americans, but using that same year 6.5 million Americans work for companies that use steel to make products
So just that alone is why there are many people saying that this is going to actually hurt more people than help just in the United
States based off of this, that's not even fully considering other countries then engaging in a trade war with us
We also saw reports that Gary Cohen had been saying that if these
tariffs were imposed that he was going to resign, Sarah Huckabee Sanders denied that rumor
But then it came out later the week that Cohen is actually leaving. There are reports coming out of the EU saying they're going to put
tariffs on t-shirts, whiskey motorcycles, ladders, targeting around 3.5 billion dollars in goods imported from the United States
But now several days after this announcement
We're seeing some pull back from the president. The President did sign two proclamations yesterday that go into effect March 23rd
But it is no longer Universal, the president confirming that Mexico and Canada are exempt from these new tariffs
And It appears the reason for this are ongoing NAFTA negotiations
And this change is massive for two reasons - one because there's been a big conversation about just a universal
alienation of US allies with this, right? Now
we're seeing at least a temporary step back for a
negotiation
And two, Canada and Mexico are some of the largest exporters of steel to the United States
Based on metric tons, Canada is number one, based on weight
they make up a quarter of American imports. The Trump administration also saying they're open to negotiations with countries on a case-by-case
basis. Trump saying he'll show great flexibility and cooperation towards nations
who are really friends of ours both on a trade basis and on a military basis
Which then personally makes me look to South Korea
Who is an ally, they are also one of the largest exporters of steel to the United States
But we haven't heard about them getting any sort of special deal, and interestingly enough
this is happening while South Korea and North Korea are are seemingly trying to have a conversation
It's all very interesting
but it is also a little bit terrifying if you are in the industries that this is affecting because
this could result in a lot of lost jobs. Like if you look at the history of this, which I have done recently when
I cannot sleep, this goes one of two ways. One - you have a situation like around the
1980s where America talked about tariffs with Japan. Japan back down was a big win for the United States
But also there are more examples where tariffs resulted in an economic downturn, people losing jobs
And it also appears that we're, we're in a time where more and more countries are becoming nationalistic
which I believe would make it more likely that many of these countries would push back, and we would see a really rough trade war
also
I kind of have to call bullshit on people like Paul Ryan who are speaking out against this. Congress could keep him in check but
we're not seeing Congress do that right now. Trump is doing all this through a thing called clause
232, it's part of the trade expansion Act of 1962 and it allows an administration to unilaterally set tariffs
But it has to be in the name of national security and as several Republicans have pointed out
It's really hard to argue that doing this is, is
a matter of national security. And as of right now Congress could pass legislation to rein in those
presidential powers, in fact Senator Mike Lee of Utah introduced a bill in January
but we've seen no movement on it. It would require 2/3 support to make it veto proof, obviously the Democrats not the biggest fans of Trump
We're seeing all these people speak up but no movement and it kind of makes me wonder
where people really stand here. Then in other massive international news reportedly North Korea has invited
Donald Trump to meet Kim Jong-Un. South Korean officials visiting the White House reportedly had a letter from
Kim Jong-Un. A senior US official reportedly saying North Korea has offered to suspend their nuclear missile testing alongside their invitation for talks and soon
after that came out it was announced that Donald Trump said yes
Yes to a meeting and reports were saying that it would happen by May. And while this is really big news
I think it is also very important to be very
skeptical of North Korea. There were also reports this week saying that North Korea is open to denuclearization. Once again
I think it is important to be very skeptical. Unless something has changed, which is possible
I feel like we should expect the same from North Korea where they say oh, yeah
let's have a conversation, and then it just turns into them making a ton of demands to the point that it gets ridiculous
Talks have to stop and then they act like well
we tried, the American Devils aren't listening, but we are also at a different point. In the past
they were working towards having nuclear weapons, and it was a what-if, now
it is a much more real threat
And it also makes you question would they actually be willing to give up their nukes. It is literally their strongest
negotiating tool
Donald Trump has also since tweeted
and in a situation like this
I always hope for the best, but I expect the worst
And that's where I'm going to end today's show. And remember if you liked this video, you like what I'm trying to do on this channel
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actually if you did miss yesterday's show, you want to catch up, click or tap right there to watch that or if you need something
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but that said, of course, as always my name's Philip DeFranco. You've just been Phil'd in. I love yo faces, and I'll see you Monday