- Sup, you beautiful bastards?
It's Wednesday, I'm sick as hell right now.
I didn't sleep last night,
but I still got a fantastic Wednesday show for you today.
So while I suck it up, you buckle up,
make sure you're subscribed, and let's just jump into it,
starting with a bouncer won a fight with the devil,
and not in the went down to Georgia kind of way,
but rather in a batshit crazy way,
which makes sense, because this happened in Florida.
Right, so over the weekend,
54-year-old Manny Resto was working as a bouncer
at the door of a club in Tampa,
and at around 1:00 in the morning on Saturday night,
he sees a guy in a red and black devil mask
walk towards the door.
At first he thinks, "Oh, this is an old bouncer buddy.
"He's playing a prank on me."
Then he sees the gun.
So Resto jumps into action, focusing on getting the gun
out of the guy's hand, and saying afterwards,
"I decided that he was not going to enter the club
"and hurt anybody.
"I wasn't gonna let this happen.
"I was not gonna let him win."
And at one point, Resto picked up the gun
and pointed it at the guy in the mask
while he was rushing towards him.
Also during the altercation, the gun fired.
Luckily, the bullet just hit the door and no one was hurt,
two other security guards then quickly
getting called outside to help Resto,
and after about a minute of fighting,
they pin him to the ground and keep him there
until the police show up.
And that's also when they realized
this could've been so bad,
with police finding numerous weapons
and ammo in his vehicle.
Now, currently the potential gunman's motives are unclear,
but the Interim Tampa Police Chief said
that the security guards likely stopped a mass shooting,
noting that the man in the mask had come to the club
the night before, and he had been served
with a risk protection order last year,
meaning that a judge had ordered his guns to be removed,
because he had presented a risk
to the safety of himself and others.
As of now, the scumbag in the mask had been slapped
with several charges, including aggravated assault
with a deadly weapon, and purchasing, possessing
or receiving a firearm while under a risk protection order,
with him being held without bail.
And as for the bouncers,
they've been shunning the title of hero, saying,
"I feel like we just did what we should have done."
But to them I'll say don't worry, boys,
I'll do the heavy lifting.
These guys are heroes. They're BAMFs.
In entertainment news,
Andrew Tate just took another legal L today,
with a court in Romania extending his custody
by yet another month, meaning that he'll be in jail
at least until the end of April.
But also remember, at some point,
the government is gonna have to shit,
or get off the pot here, right,
because Tate and his brother can be detained like this
for up to six months, but he was detained back in December.
So yeah, we could be looking
at further extensions moving forward,
but the runway on this specific thing,
it's running out, right?
And so far, no charges have actually been filed.
And then famed rapper and snitch Tekashi 6ix9ine
was hospitalized yesterday after getting jumped
in a gym bathroom by three to four guys.
And as far as why they did it, it appears just clout,
with one of the attackers posting a video of the assault
on social media, and saying that he's gonna be famous now.
And to that I say maybe.
If not on the internet,
at least with the cops that Danny's got on speed dial.
And then member of the K-pop group TWICE Chaeyoung
has now apologized for wearing a swastika and a QAnon logo.
And there's been a lot of discourse about this online,
people saying, "In Korea a swastika is an ancient symbol
"that means all is well."
Others saying, "No, she was just wearing
"a Sid Vicious shirt.
"She probably didn't even see the symbol."
But also there are a number of people not buying that,
and that's because she also wore in like the same week
a QAnon shirt, though fans there are defending her,
saying she didn't understand what QAnon was,
others blaming the designer.
But you also have critics saying
that K-Pop is full of antisemitism,
which is why I, a hero, am going to take it on myself
to go to the TWICE concert at SoFi,
the tickets just went on sale for today,
to try to get to the truth of the matter.
So if anyone wonders why I'm at a TWICE concert by myself,
it's for research!
It's a job thing!
And then this one's kind of sad.
A 29-year-old woman is currently facing five years
for falsifying a birth certificate
in order to go back to high school,
and at least right now it doesn't appear like she did so
for any nefarious purpose, with her lawyer saying,
"Hey, unquestionably, this is a bizarre thing to do,
"and it's difficult to understand,
"but there was no malice intended,"
saying that this woman just wanted
to return to a place of safety,
which, I mean, based off of my experience,
that's not what high school was, but for others, I get it.
And this story, this story just makes me sad.
The world is a scary, crazy place, and you know,
a lot of people wanna go back to their comfort.
So while yes, illegal,
I hope she doesn't actually get jail time.
And then two inmates in Virginia escaped a jail
using a toothbrush, with them only getting arrested
after walking seven miles to a local IHOP.
But reportedly, local snitches ratted them out,
resulting in them getting arrested again,
which is why, hey, stupid,
you should've gone to Waffle House,
'cause one, who the fuck's choosing IHOP over Waffle House?
Sure, if it's at night, you might get into a fight.
But two, you take that risk, 'cause it's superior.
Waffle House at nighttime is where it's at,
though, be warned, it could be really good grits,
and/or hash browns, or a knife wound.
In business news, GameStop stock jumped up
nearly 48% on Tuesday.
So congratulations to the people on that rollercoaster,
unless you have been on that rollercoaster for a while,
in which case it was like a little, "Yay,"
on a ride that's otherwise been a, "Oh, God,"
since its high months ago.
And then Google released their AI bot Bard on Tuesday,
and it's already seizing the means of production,
with one user experiencing the bot siding against Google
in an antitrust lawsuit over monopolizing
digital advertising technologies,
saying, "The Justice Department's lawsuit against Google is
"an important step in protecting competition,
"and ensuring that consumers have access
"to a fair and open market."
And then is the short-term home rental business dead?
Well, if you ask many small time owners, yeah,
or at the very least there's been a noticeable downturn,
with it even being dubbed Airbnbust,
with there being examples of people making $7,000 a month
on their rental homes, then all of a sudden,
suddenly, they notice that their bookings dropped by half.
In fact, there's been such a big downturn
that some of these owners have begun to worry
that it's a clear sign that there's an economic downturn,
and not like in the future, but right now.
However, something isn't adding up,
because according to AirDNA, which tracked properties listed
on sites like Airbnb, short-term rentals seem to be booming.
2022 was a record here in terms of the number
of nights booked and revenue generated.
So it appears that the reality may be
that the short-term rental market isn't collapsing,
but rather it's maturing, or as Insider put it,
"It's clear that the Wild West days of Airbnbs
"are swiftly drawing to a close."
And the so-called growing up process for the industry
has seen many cities increasingly passing regulations
on these rentals, with some even going as far
to completely ban them, because they put a serious crunch
on the local housing market, and drive out locals,
though notably, there are also instances of the opposite,
such as in Arizona, where the government there wants
short-term rentals, and even passed laws
that block cities from banning them.
Then you also have to keep in mind
the issue of over-saturation.
While, great for consumers,
because they get to have so many choices,
it killed what owners could make,
unless they had the best listing.
There's also the big question of value, right?
In the past, Airbnbs were often way better
than a hotel in terms of space and cost.
But over time, that's changed
with Airbnbs sometimes being shockingly expensive
once you start to factor in everything beyond
just the nightly price, right,
things like insanely high cleaning fees that you need to pay
no matter how clean you leave the place.
Meanwhile, if I go to a traditional hotel,
someone that the hotel pays cleans my place up,
or I could do an Airbnb,
where some of these motherfuckers have a list of chores
for you to do, or you find out it's in a place
that technically it shouldn't be in,
and you have to act like you're not actually renting it.
And then all of that ties into the potential over-saturation
in a certain market, which is why for some, yeah,
they're going through an Airbnbust right now,
while others are experiencing a boom.
But with that, I gotta ask you has your experience
and your feelings towards using an Airbnb
changed over the years?
Yes, no? Why, why not?
I'd love to hear from you.
And then it's actually been raining in Southern California,
like really raining, which is great for a lot of reasons,
but kind of bad for your shoes,
which is why I wanna thank Vessi
for sponsoring today's show.
You know, Vessi's Boardwalks have been my perfect sneakers
for playing in the rainy weather with my boys,
'cause like all Vessis, they're lightweight,
waterproof, and snow-proof,
so you can enjoy a relaxing walk in any weather.
And these Boardwalk sneakers, they're laceless,
you can move around without being restricted,
like the rain boots,
so you can embrace the wet and enjoy puddle jumping again,
and doesn't hurt that they look great.
The low cut goes with almost any fit
you can think of, right?
You don't have to ruin your outfit
to just keep yourself dry.
And with different colorways,
you can pick the right look for you.
Plus something I really love are the people at Vessi
helping to support programs create fresh water
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not to mention funding programs that help reshape
the next generation of water protectors.
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Go get your style and size now.
And then in political news, rough rider Ronnie has now fired
a direct shot at Donald Trump, saying in an interview,
"It's not important for me to be fighting with people
"on social media," with that notably coming
after Trump suggested that DeSantis is maybe gay,
and/or a pedophile on Truth Social, also saying,
"The way we run the government, I think, is no daily drama."
Also regarding Trump calling him Ron DeSanctimonious,
he said, "I don't know how to spell the sanctimonious one.
"I don't really know what it means.
"It's got a lot of vowels."
And then the Supreme Court unanimously sided
with a deaf student after the school district he was in
failed to provide him with adequate classroom instruction,
with the ruling not only allowing the student
to sue his school district and seek monetary damages,
but it opens this pathway for others nationwide.
And then a hospital in Idaho just announced
that it will no longer be delivering babies,
because of a lack of doctors,
saying the state's near total abortion ban
has forced doctors to leave the state,
and made it impossible to get replacements.
And then in other abortion news,
the Oklahoma Supreme Court ruled five to four
that the state constitution guarantees
a limited right to abortion,
this after abortion providers argued
that abortion rights are protected by the Constitution,
which says, "No person shall be deprived of life, liberty,
"or property without due process of law,"
and the court ruling that the new abortion law
was much more invasive to a woman's right
to terminate pregnancy in order to preserve her life,
with the core of the court's ruling coming down
to the phrases of, "Save the life of a pregnant woman,"
versus, "Preserve her life," with the court saying that
the law requires woman to be in present danger
in order to obtain an abortion,
and adding, "We know of no other law
"that requires one to wait until there is
"an actual medical emergency in order to receive treatment
"when the harmful condition is known,
"or probable to occur in the future."
And then America's organ transplant system
is completely broken.
Nearly 104,000 Americans are on organ transplant wait lists,
and 22 people die each day waiting,
with minorities and low-income folks being
disproportionately impacted.
But the federal government may actually be doing a thing,
with the Biden administration yesterday announcing
a sweeping overhaul that aims to modernize the system
to cut down wait times and limit the number of people
who die while waiting.
The overhaul includes a number of important modifications,
but by far the most significant change is
that the administration will be breaking up the network
that has had a monopoly on running the US transplant system
for almost four decades, right?
A fact that's absolutely fuckin' crazy,
but something not many people know.
There has only ever been one entity
that operates the entire system.
But that entity, a nonprofit called
the United Network for Oregon Sharing, or UNOS,
has long been criticized for a number of reasons.
And there's been even more scrutiny
since the Senate Finance Committee published
a just devastating report on the findings
of a 2 1/2-year investigation back in August
that detailed widespread deficiencies.
Among other things, that probe found
that there were over 1,100 complaints filed by families,
staff, transplant centers, and other entities
between 2010 and 2020 for a range of issues,
with this including incredibly basic errors,
like failing to complete mandatory tests for blood types
and disease, and as a result, during that timeframe,
70 people died, and 249 developed diseases
because of mistakes in the screening of organs.
The probe also revealing multiple failures
with the delivery of organs, including the transplants
being damaged in transit, abandoned at airports,
or just never picked up, with that ultimately resulting
in the essential organs being discarded,
with Finance Committee Chairman Ron Wyden saying,
"It's reasonable to assume that many more errors
"are going unreported, why?
"Because filing official complaints with UNOS appears
"to accomplish zero productive oversight, or reform."
Beyond that, critics and regulators have said for decades
that too many organs are discarded in general.
For example, a study literally done by UNOS found
that in 2010 organs should have been collected
from 37,000 donors, which was nearly five times the number
of actual donors that year.
And a study last year
by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering,
and Medicine found that one in five kidneys procured
for donation are not even transplanted, right?
And with all this, many officials and experts have said
that these issues are in large part due to the fact
that UNOS has incredibly lax oversight
over the regional nonprofits that collect donated organs,
with those nonprofits being called
organ procurement organizations,
and there are only 56 in the entire country,
meaning that each essentially has a monopoly
on the region that it represents.
And the Finance Committee report found that more than 1/3
of those 56 procurement groups that operate under UNOS
have failed to meet government standards
for collecting organs in their regions.
But UNOS does almost nothing to hold
the procurement organizations accountable.
And in addition to all that, many experts
and policymakers have also attributed the widespread failure
of America's organ transplant system
to incredibly outdated technology used by UNOS,
with surgeons and transplant coordinators complaining
about the tech for a long time now.
And according to a 2021 confidential government review
obtained by "The Washington Post,"
the technology the entire organ transplant system relies on
crashed for hours at a time,
and has literally never been audited by federal officials,
with that review finding that the mechanics
of the whole system need to be overhauled,
because of old software, system failures,
programming mistakes, and the fact that it has
an over-reliance on manual data input, right?
And these recommendations that have been on the books
for years are also included in the steps
the Biden administration has now taking, right?
So a big focus of this new overhaul is modernizing
those technology systems,
though notably here, that will be achieved in large part
just by opening up contracts to organizations beyond UNOS,
and its crusty ass technology.
Going further, the administration will also overhaul
the board of directors at UNOS,
as well as massively increase transparency by rolling out
a website that will, for the first time ever,
provide data on transplant wait list,
donors, recipients and more.
And so, in general, but also as someone
that I'm going to be on one of these lists in the future,
because I have PKD, I hope that we see change,
because it's already heartbreaking
that so many people die waiting for an organ,
to think that people have died because of bad bureaucracy,
and like old software, that's fucking insane.
Not new, mind you, but insane.
And then in international news-
- Do you personally dislike homosexuals?
- Of course, they are disgusting.
- So that is the lovely president of Uganda,
Yoweri Museveni.
He's one of East Africa's leading homophobes,
and yesterday his country's parliament took the bigotry
to a whole nother level,
with all but two of the 389 lawmakers voting
to outright ban homosexuality,
and I don't just mean gay sex, right?
Same-sex relations have already been illegal in Uganda
and over 30 other African countries for years now.
Rather, they are literally banning LGBTQ,
or at least identifying as such publicly.
But the law also doesn't stop there.
It requires friends, family,
and community members to report people
in same-sex relationships to the authorities,
with rights activists saying this effectively creates
a police state, like one who told BBC,
"There is a lot of blackmail.
"People are receiving calls that if you don't give me money,
"I will report that you are gay,"
and adding that, "In some areas, even law enforcers
"are using the current environment to extort money
"from people, who they accuse of being gay.
"Even some families are reporting their children to police."
But also that's not to say
that all of this is entirely new, right?
This is just following years of state-led persecution
of LGBTQ people, events, and organizations.
But as far as this new bill,
President Museveni is almost certainly
about to sign it into law,
though if there was a last second audible,
it would likely be because they don't wanna scare off
foreign donors and investors, right?
Because, for example, the United States currently sends
about a billion dollars in development aid every year
to Uganda, which it considers an ally on the continent.
But on the other hand, there are also a lot
of material benefits to passing this law for him, right?
Not only does he get to appeal to his bigot base,
but it's also gonna be easier for him to crack down
on his political opposition
with a provision criminalizing individuals, institutions,
or media groups that support LGBTQ rights, activities,
or organizations, plus the law
and his homophobic politics in general get to distract away
from Uganda's economic problems, right?
Museveni gets to distract from his failures,
and he gets to pose as this defender
of native Ugandan values against neo-colonial meddling
by Western liberals, which is also ironic,
'cause Western meddling was at least partially responsible
for his anti LGBTQ movement in the first place, right?
Like in the 2000s,
a legion of conservative American preachers went to Uganda
to oppose homosexuality, and even worked with legislators
on the first law banning same-sex activity in 2009.
Right, we're talking about people
like megachurch Pastor Rick Warren,
prominent voice for homophobia in East Africa,
also had ties to some of Uganda's political elite
in the 2000s, or Pastor Scott Lively,
whose speeches and writings about a global gay agenda
to dominate the world were influential in Uganda
around the same time, with him even claiming
that gay men caused the Holocaust and the Rwandan genocide,
though regarding Warren, he later condemned
the country's anti-gay law in 2009, calling it extreme.
But yeah, that's the end of that story.
Disgusting, bigoted scumbags doing
disgusting, bigoted things.
And then after Putin, or his body double,
embarrassed themselves in occupied territory last weekend,
Ukrainian President Zelenskyy made a trip of his own,
entering out to the front lines
near the eastern city of Bakhmut,
where notably some of the war's bloodiest fights
have been raging for months.
You see him handing out medals to battle-worn soldiers,
thanking them for their service,
and in the city, Ukrainian forces are barely holding off
a Russian advance from the north and south,
which is impressive, given their limited resources.
Right, you see soldiers digging into old school trenches,
with some even resorting to 19th century weaponry,
like the maxim gun.
But if the city falls, it'll deal a heavy blow
to Ukraine's morale, since they've poured so many resources
into it as a stronghold in the Donetsk region.
Meanwhile, back on the home front,
Russian drones struck Kyiv
just hours after Zelenskyy's trip,
reportedly hitting a high school
and killing at least seven people.
This also coming a day after
Japan's prime minister visited Ukraine,
the first time a Japanese PM has visited a region
with active conflict since World War II,
with that happening after he received pressure to do so,
because Japan was the only G7 country left
that had not gone to Ukraine,
though very notably, last month,
his government pledged $5.5 billion in humanitarian aid,
quadrupling its previous contributions,
which is absolutely tremendous for Ukraine,
where the invasion has absolutely squeezed
the country's finances, and the economy there shrinking
by nearly 1/3 last year,
while the remaining tax revenue went increasingly
toward military spending.
So naturally, that puffed up a big budget deficit
that's been financed from abroad,
and on that, we saw huge news coming out today,
namely that the International Monetary Fund has agreed
to a $15 billion loan package for Kyiv
that'll roll out over the next four years,
and that's a key thing, because it'll relieve pressure
to print more money to pay for state salaries,
basic services, and pensions, which could run up inflation,
and that's where today's show ends.
For more news you need to know, but you might've missed,
definitely check out here.
But as always, my name's Philip DeFranco.
You've just been Phil-ed in.
I love yo faces, and I'll see you tomorrow.