♪ Don't be suspicious ♪
- How odd.
If only this man had consistently shown us who he is
for the past four years.
Anyway, welcome back to "The Philip DeFranco Show."
It is Thursday, February 18th, 2021,
and let's jump into the news of the day.
For today's show I figured, you know,
because the news is inherently negative,
even if it's a negative story,
I'm gonna try and introduce it as a positive story.
Starting with a fantastic and very exciting news
if you're someone that is not a fan of life,
the US life expectancy has gone down.
With the New York Times reporting
that it is the largest single year drop since World War II.
With life expectancy falling by about a year
which brings us back to around 2006 expectancy.
Even better news is that the life expectancy
for men here is 75.1 years, women it's 80.5 years.
So for men, that's great news.
That's 5.4 years of not having to hear
"blah, blah, blah.
"Equal pay, equal rights."
And instead just peace and quiet.
I might get canceled for this show, let's continue.
Next up we have fantastic news for me
because I didn't know who I was gonna put
in the thumbnail today, but we had Rihanna facing backlash.
And this because she recently posted a photo
where she was posing topless
while wearing a pendant necklace of Hindu god, Ganesha.
With the post seeming to cause even more outrage
because it came less than a week after a model posed
in front of a Hindu temple wearing lingerie
from Rihanna's brand.
Though there we saw the model apologize,
saying the shoot was her own, not the company's.
Though you did have some outlets saying
that the photos were shared and later removed
from the brand's main social media accounts.
With the main issue for people seeming
to be this is kind of more and more
of using a religion as an aesthetic.
People finding that disrespectful and offensive,
and a number of people saying that Rihanna
and her brand are kind of repeat offenders of doing this.
She had previously had that controversy
with the Muslim community that we covered.
Then in, actually,
I'm going to abandon the whole framing stories
as a positive thing 'cause not even
'cause I'm going to offend people.
I just think there's, like,
a 3% chance that hell actually exists.
So I'm trying to avoid that.
Though I guess technically this could be seen
as a positive through struggle story.
If you didn't see,
the trailer for the new YouTube Originals documentary
"Demi Lovato Dancing with the Devil" came out yesterday.
The series is four parts.
It airs March 23rd.
And most importantly it deals with Demi Lovato's life
and her overdose in 2018.
What led up to that moment,
what her path afterwards has looked like.
And in the trailer,
we learned some shocking information about that incident.
Things like it resulted in her having three strokes,
a heart attack, and doctors telling her family
that she had five to 10 minutes to live.
With her also saying in a call to the press
that she's still dealing with the effects of everything,
explaining, "I was left with brain damage
"and I still deal with the effects of that today.
"I don't drive a car
"because there are blind spots in my vision.
"I also, for a long time, had a really hard time reading.
"I feel like they kind of are still there
"to remind me of what could happen
"if I ever get into a dark place again."
And, you know, with this,
it's hard to talk about it, like, it's just in this bubble.
We've seen a number of stories
where we kind of look back to the way
that celebrities have been viewed, how they've been treated.
This in large part I think led
by that new Britney Spears documentary that we talked about.
So it's been leading to more discussions
about mental health, the way that we treat it,
both individually and as a society.
And looking at Demi in this documentary,
it appears that this is gonna be something covered there
as well.
So, I know that I said I was abandoning it
because I was kind of going for comical effect earlier,
but I think this is actually a very positive story.
It is something that comes from pain and struggle.
But the key thing here is that a story is being shared,
something that is cautionary and hopefully educational.
Also kind of easy transition here regarding celebrities
and audiences.
We got the interesting business news
that Cameo has been proven to be both a successful business
on its own and a platform for creators to generate revenue.
And if you're unfamiliar,
Cameo is a site where you can buy personalized
shout out videos from actors, musicians,
athletes, YouTubers, and more.
And reportedly in a new interview with Variety,
the co-founder and CEO of the company said
that in 2020 the company made a gross revenue
of $100 million with 75% of that money going
to the pockets of talent.
Which, I mean, those are impressive numbers on their own,
and it also highlights significant growth,
being 4.5 times higher than the year prior.
As far as the top seller on the app,
it may be surprising to you.
It's Brian Baumgartner,
the guy who played Kevin on "The Office."
With reports saying that at the end of last year,
just from this app, he made a million dollars.
As far as those right behind him,
you have Brett Farve, Snoop Dogg, and Gilbert Godfrey.
Then in really interesting news about the consumption
and output of news, we should talk about Australia.
This in part
because Facebook has taken the unprecedented step today
of blocking news access in Australia
in a drastic escalation of a battle
over a proposed law in the country.
And so under this legislation,
which is expected to pass in the next week,
tech giants would be required to negotiate compensation
with news organizations for the content
that appears on their platform.
With the argument being here
that newspapers have been steadily declining
while big companies like Facebook and Google,
which have become major distributors of news,
continue to make billions of dollars
from digital advertising.
You have those who support the law,
saying these massive companies, right,
the Facebook and Googles of the world,
they have a responsibility to help support media companies
whose links they profit off of
by driving traffic to the sites.
But you also have Facebook and Google fighting very hard
against it saying that it is unworkable
for a number of reasons.
And arguing that it would incentivize the news organizations
to jack up prices during negotiations.
So now with it being all but certain
that Australia will approve the law very soon,
Facebook has doubled down.
And not only does their current ban block Australians
from sharing news from both domestic
and international sources on the platform,
it also prevents all Australian publishers
from being seen on Facebook everywhere else in the world.
With it also going beyond news.
According to reports,
pages for state health departments were wiped clean
just three days before the launch
of a nationwide COVID-19 vaccination program.
Emergency services were also taken out,
including the Bureau of Meteorology
which has been providing essential weather data
in the middle of a fire season.
Pages for nonprofits and charities were also taken away.
But at the same time,
groups dedicated to spreading conspiracy theories
about vaccines, 5G, Bill Gates,
and the end of the world remained up.
And Facebook for their part blamed the disappearances
on the proposed legislation
with a spokesperson telling reporters,
"As the law does not provide clear guidance
"on the definition of news content,
"we have taken a broad definition
"in order to respect the law as drafted."
Now with this, they did eventually promise
to revive the public service pages,
but the move still prompted a ton of backlash.
Many politicians in Australia condemning Facebook
for blocking health information in a pandemic
and censoring news.
Communications minister Paul Fletcher accused the company
of creating what he called a "public safety issue."
Prime minister Scott Morrison also taking aim
at the platform on the platform writing,
"Facebook's actions to unfriend Australia today,
"cutting off essential information services
"on health and emergency services were
"as arrogant as they were disappointing.
"These actions will only confirm the concerns
"that an increasing number of countries are expressing
"about the behavior of big tech companies
"who think they are bigger than governments
"and that the rules should not apply to them."
With him adding that the government would not back down
and urging Facebook to be more like Google,
work constructively with them.
Because you have Google
essentially taking the opposite approach as Facebook.
Google who, yes, just a few weeks ago
threatened to make their search engine unavailable
in the country,
started the day by announcing
that they had made a three year agreement
to pay Rupert Murdoch's News Corp
for its content in Australia
as well as the United States and the UK.
And notably,
this is just one of several multi-million dollar deals
that Google has recently struck
with other Australian publishers.
And the company has said
that it will announce more partnerships soon.
And while, yes, you had many people praising Google
for their approach here,
you also had some media watchdog groups worried,
saying these deals further the ability
for large tech companies
to make news organizations beholden to them.
With others also specifically expressing concern
about Google's deal with Murdoch,
who notably has been lobbying the Australian government
to push tech companies to pay news organizations
for years now.
And who the New York Times described as quite cozy
with Australia's conservative government.
But still at the same time,
you have people saying this is a net good for journalism
and likely a model for other countries.
And personally, I will say I'm torn on this situation
because while I do think that there needs
to be more money in news,
the money, in my opinion, doesn't need to be going
to the massive big organizations.
The Murdochs of the world.
Rather something needs to be put
into place that gets more money to local news
because local news is struggling right now.
And that's struggling because that's where a lot of people
who don't watch shows like mine can get their news.
It's also where a lot of the stories
that end up getting national attention start.
Yeah, ultimately that is where we are
with the situation right now.
We're gonna have to wait and see what the government does,
what the organizations do.
And then let's take a second to pay some bills
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And then let's talk about the state
that Ted Cruz apparently is too busy to help on the ground,
Texas.
So starting with good news, bad news,
power outages in Texas Thursday morning fell
to under 500,000 which is a lot of people
but still way less than the 3 million
that we talked about in yesterday's show.
According to the state's main grid operator,
the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, AKA ERCOT,
those remaining outages are largely weather related
and not connected to problems related to forced outages.
While the return of power to millions is significant,
Texans are still facing a host of problems.
For one, there've been numerous reports
of carbon monoxide poisoning
as people without power have tried to keep warm
in their cars or through other means.
In fact, an adult and a child were found dead Tuesday
after running their car inside of their garage,
which prompted Houston police
to issue a statement saying cars, grills,
and generators should not be used in or near a building.
However, as people struggle for warmth there,
this is not an isolated incident.
Last night, for example, six children
and four adults were rushed to the hospital
for carbon monoxide poisoning
after setting up grills inside their home.
And in addition to all of that,
even for those with power now,
water has become a major issue.
Yesterday seven million Texans were placed
on a boil advisory with about 263,000
also without functioning water providers.
A situation that has resulted in videos popping up online
where you see people lining up at a park
to fill up buckets of water.
The Food and Drug Administration
and the National Weather Service
even citing melting and boiling snow as an emergency option
if people cannot find water elsewhere.
And for some, all these problems only seem to compound
in the form of burst pipes.
Pictures and videos circulating all over social media.
So as a result, a number of local media outlets
have begun to outline steps that people can take
once their pipes start to thaw or if they break.
I'll link down below to those resources.
And alongside the overwhelming amount of problems,
there has also been a large aid response.
Yesterday, a FEMA spokesperson said
that the agency had sent 60 very large generators
to help keep hospitals
and other critical infrastructure open.
FEMA also saying it sent millions of liters of water
and tens of thousands of blankets.
White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki adding
that FEMA is preparing to move diesel into Texas
to keep that backup power going.
Reportedly, Governor Greg Abbott
and President Joe Biden have also discussed the possibility
of extra funding for people's electricity bills,
as well as for burst pipes.
Because as we talked about when the first storm hit,
electrical demands surged.
Many Texans also have plans connected
with the wholesale price of electricity.
That in turn means that they were potentially set
to be hit with astronomical bills.
We also got the news
that federal regulators have launched an investigation
into this week's massive power outage,
which is notable because these two agencies did
pretty much the same thing back in 2011
when there was that other snowstorm in Texas.
They offered advice on how to keep such an event
from happening again in the future, but here we are.
And so because of that,
key questions in this investigation will include
what power plant operators did to protect equipment
from the cold, as well as what ERCOT did
to make sure that those plans were ready.
And that last part is key
because ERCOT is so incredibly important
because it controls one of the main power grids
in the United States.
And of course with Texas having its own grid,
that makes a transfer of energy
from these other grids very limited,
which means Texas is able to regulate its own grid in house.
It also means that it's largely
out of reach of federal regulations.
Regarding that specific angle of the story,
we saw people like former governor Rick Perry seeming
to say, even with this situation,
we want to keep federal regulations out of the state.
With Perry saying that "Texans would be okay
"without electricity for longer than three days
"to keep the federal government out of their business."
Adding, "Try not to let whatever the crisis
"of the day is take your eye off of having a resilient grid
"that keeps America safe personally,
"economically and strategically."
And then finally with Texas,
of course we'll talk about Ted Cruz.
The Texas senator has been facing a ton of backlash
after photos emerge and that it was later confirmed
that he flew his family to Cancun.
With many people essentially going,
"Wait, so the Republican senator
"who constantly tries to dunk on Democrats
"for being out of touch elitists,
"while millions of his constituents are suffering
"on the ground, he's flying to a vacation destination
"with his family?"
I've lost count on the number
of ways this guy should go fuck himself.
Yeah, the most recent update to this story is
that Cruz has now released a statement saying that,
"Like millions of Texans,
"our family lost heat and power too.
"With school canceled for the week,
"our girls asked to take a trip with friends."
And claiming "wanting to be a good dad,
"I flew down with them last night
"and am flying back this afternoon."
Which I will say has been called into question
if this has always been the plan.
This because the initials R Cruz,
Ted Cruz's real first name is Rafael.
It was reported that they briefly appeared
on a standby list on Thursday, though disappearing.
People also questioning
why he would have to chaperone his daughters
if his wife was also going.
People saying that doesn't look like a one day suitcase.
And ultimately, as far as my opinion,
while I do not 100% definitely know what the truth is
in this situation,
I am incredibly skeptical of Ted Cruz here.
Mainly because of all the Ted Cruz actions and words
from him over the years.
But yeah, take that as you will.
And to the people of Texas, please stay safe out there.
And that is where I'm going to end today's show
because I want to watch this NASA live stream.
If you didn't know, the Perseverance rover is set
to land on Mars today.
I'm finishing up today's show with just under seven minutes
to go before atmospheric entry.
And as much as I love you guys, this is very, very exciting.
In fact, if you didn't watch it live,
I'll link down below so you can check it out.
It's really interesting.
The mission primarily is about trying
to find signs of ancient life.
There's also more to it.
Like I said, link's down below.
I'm gonna go watch history.
Thanks for being a part of this.
Of course, if there's anything that stood out to you today,
let me know in those comments down below.
Your opinions, your thoughts, I love to see those.
Thanks as always for being a part of my daily dives
into the news.
Subscribe and hitting that like button, all the good stuff.
Also, if you missed yesterday's show, you want to catch up.
I think it got suppressed.
You can click or tap right there.
But with that said, of course as always,
my name's Philip DeFranco.
You've just been filled in.
I love yo faces and I'll see you next time.
- [Woman] Touchdown confirmed.
Perseverance safely on the surface of Mars.
Ready to begin seeking the signs of past life.
(everyone cheers)