- It's today again, so let's talk about the news,
starting with these two's YouTube channel
just got them arrested.
Right, meet Christopher and Kimberly Phelps of California.
They were posting dashcam videos on YouTube,
reportedly showing crashes, near misses,
and some road rage incidents.
There were reportedly over 160 videos like this,
and it got the attention of the authorities.
And after our buddy Chris got into a suspicious accident,
seemingly stopping for no reason,
causing a truck to hit him,
the California Department of Insurance
opens an investigation, and according to the DA's office,
Chris has been involved in over 23 car accidents
connected to 17 insurance claims,
all of which were posted on the YouTube channel.
So Chris was arrested and slapped with six counts
of assault with a deadly weapon
and 11 counts of insurance fraud.
And not only were they allegedly
causing accidents on purpose,
Chris and Kimberly's kid was reportedly in the vehicle
with them during many of the collisions,
so for good measure, both Chris and Kim
got a couple of felony child endangerment charges.
And y'all, it could be applied to so many
of the stories we talk about today and just in general,
but today, I gotta say it here: don't be stupid, stupid!
And then, somehow, this teenage slumber party
led to a Nazi arson attack.
Right, so earlier this month,
a 13-year-old girl in Queensland, Australia
got invited to a sleepover by three other girls
age 12, 13, and 14, whom she thought she was friends with.
She goes over, and then, according to her account,
they lock the door and threaten to kill her and her family,
with them then, over the next five hours,
allegedly slapping, stabbing, stomping, and beating her,
all while they're spewing disgusting hate at her
and filming the whole thing,
and one of the girls, at the end of the video,
even saying, "We basically just tortured someone."
Quote, "It was funny as fuck."
Right, so unsurprisingly, when this gets out,
people are horrified, and all three girls get charged
with crimes like assault and deprivation of liberty,
but for many Australians, that wasn't enough,
and we saw an explosion on online hate directed their way,
including calls for violence,
with hundreds of posts exposing the girls' names,
photos, addresses, ethnicities, and phone numbers,
as well as the location of the house
where they allegedly committed their crimes,
with all of that leading to yesterday.
Someone actually burned the property down to the ground.
Now, with that, one, it was unoccupied at the time,
and two, this comes after a streak of arson attempts
and vandalism there, with police still unsure
who the perpetrator is, though.
They believe it's an outsider to the community.
But we did get one potential clue,
with flyers distributed in mailboxes around the neighborhood
depicting two of the girls with a racial slur
and the name of a neo-Nazi group,
with all this also coming at the height
of panic in Queensland over a perceived epidemic
of youth crime, which we've talked about before.
Right, the authorities recently warned that unrest
could lead to vigilante justice,
and now, it looks like they may be right,
though also, this isn't the first time Queenslanders
tried to take the law in their own hands.
Right, back in January, after media reports
incorrectly identified a residential care home
as a halfway house for young criminals,
the children living there received a storm of death threats
on social media, including calls for neighbors
to storm the place and hang whoever's inside.
So last time, we talked about a set of laws
the state government passed seeking to clamp down
on youth crime through criminalizing breach of bail
and other measures.
And now, today, another bill known as Jack's Law
just passed, allowing police to search people for weapons
using handheld metal detectors in nightlife precincts
and on public transport for at least the next two years,
which, like the prior laws, has been heavily criticized
for violating civil and human rights,
since this lets people search people
without a reasonable suspicion.
And then in political news, I can't believe I'm saying this,
but (gags) Senator Rand Paul
actually just made a really good point,
but before we give him too much praise,
I'm putting this in the broken clock twice a day category.
But this, because last night,
Senator Paul actually blocked an attempt
by his fellow Republican Senator Josh Hawley
to fast-track a bill that would ban TikTok
by unanimous consent, right, a process that allows a measure
to be passed without a formal vote
as long as there are no objections.
And while realistically, someone else might have stood up,
the fact that Rand Paul did it is a key thing to take away
because it shows that there is division
among the Republican party and bipartisan opposition
to the hot-button issue.
Right, we're in weird waters right now.
You got, like, Rand Paul and AOC kinda on the same page,
but specifically with Paul, he argued on the Senate floor
that Hawley's ban amounted to a violation
of free speech under the First Amendment
and also adding that it violates constitutional prohibitions
on bills of attainder, right.
The government can't use legislative action
to declare a person or a company guilty
of a crime and punish them without a trial,
with Paul then going on to make this point.
- I think we should beware of those who peddle fear.
I think we should beware of those who use fear
to coax Americans to relinquish our liberties,
to regulate and limit our First Amendment rights.
Every accusation of data gathering
that's been attributed to TikTok
could also be attributed to domestic big tech companies.
- Right, and while that's an argument
that we've heard before, it's mostly come from Democrats,
and that also, once again, these words feel so alien
out of my mouth, not the only solid point
that Paul made there.
- If Republicans wanna continuously lose elections
for a generation, they should pass this bill to ban TikTok,
a social media app used by 150 million people,
primarily young Americans.
The Republican strategy to ban TikTok comes simultaneously
with GOP complaints of domestic social media companies
canceling and censoring conservatives.
Without a hint of irony, many of these same conservatives
now rail against censorship while advocating for censorship
against social media apps they worry
are influenced by the Chinese.
Before banning TikTok, these censors might wanna discover
that China already bans TikTok.
Hmm, do we really wanna emulate Chinese speech bans?
Aren't we the ones that say it's wrong
for China to ban speech, so we're gonna be just like China
and ban speech we're afraid of?
- Y'all, who body-snatched Rand Paul?
His statements are making too much logical sense.
How did his head not explode? (explosion whooshing)
But all my joking jabs aside, (portrait squeaking)
like, it's super-important that he's doing this.
And another key takeaway is it comes
as more and more lawmakers have recently
been voicing their opposition to TikTok bans.
Right, recently, we've seen a growing list
of Democrats speaking out against a ban.
I saw AOC actually finally made a TikTok
and was talking about the possibility of a ban there,
but for now, we kinda have to wait to see
if Paul's remarks appeal to other Republicans.
Right, do more of them come outta the woodwork
to oppose a full-scale ban?
Yes, no, is there enough opposition
to ultimately push Congress to take up a more narrow version
of the bill that has more limited restrictions?
But honestly, who knows which way this is gonna go,
'cause I mean, (groans) just thinking back
to that embarrassing House committee,
where they were grilling the TikTok CEO
and just saying the dumbest shit.
- Mr. Chew, does TikTok access the home Wi-Fi network?
- Right, with just this showcasing
of genuinely stupid people and also, like, some,
"I remember when movie tickets
and a soda pop were a nickel," motherfuckers
deciding the future of technology.
And then, also, it's been a live one at Congress lately
because even in the past 24 hours,
Paul and Hawley weren't the only ones
on Capitol Hill going back and forth on each other.
We also saw this absolutely explosive shouting match
break out between Democratic Representative Jamaal Bowman
and Republican Thomas Massie,
with all this going down just outside the House chambers.
Right, so you had Bowman, who is a former school principal,
delivering very passionate, forceful remarks
condemning Republicans for not supporting
gun control measures after the Nashville shooting,
and that's when Massie crosses into frame,
and this whole thing goes down.
- Cowards! Pressure them.
Force them to respond to the question, "Why the hell
won't you do anything to save America's children?"
And let them explain that
all the way up until election day in 2024.
Let them explain it all the way up to election day on 2024.
They're freaking cowards.
They're gutless.
They're not here- - What are you talking about?
- I'm talking about gun violence!
- You know, there's never been
a school shooting. - I'm talking about
gun violence! - In a school
that allows teachers to carry.
- Carry guns? - Would you-
You think, more guns lead to more death!
Are you listening to what I'm saying?
- Yeah, calm down. - Yeah, that's a.
What, calm down?
Children are dying! - I know.
I've got a solution. - Nine-year-old
children. - Take it outside.
- I've got a solution - The solution
is not arming teachers. - for you.
That's worked - Have you ever worked
in a school? - in every school, like, in
every school that's done it. - Have you ever worked
in a school? - In every-
- Have you ever worked in a school?
Okay, I'll bring it down a notch.
- All right, folks, listen. - Have you ever
worked in a school? - I've got a bill to repeal
the federal- - I worked
in a school - I'm not talking
to you anymore. - for 20 years!
- You're just screaming. - I was
a teacher. - I got a solution.
- I was screaming before you came
and interrupted me! - What we, every, every-
- I worked in a school - Go over there
and scream. - for 20 years.
- Go over there and scream.
- See, I worked in a school 20 years.
- In every school that allows - I was a teacher.
- teachers to carry- - I was a school counselor.
I was a middle school principal.
I was in cafeterias,
protecting kids - Every school that allows
teachers to carry. - every day of my career.
- There's never been - Try him!
- a shooting. - Try him!
- And all of that was fascinating to watch,
but, I mean, those two are never gonna be on the same page.
Right, Massie's the fucking guy who posted a Christmas photo
with his family holding guns, with the caption,
"Santa, please bring ammo."
I mean, my man right here is looking like a strong yes vote
for legalizing the Purge.
And all of it's disappointing 'cause I know
that there is a fucking common sense middle ground
that I think most Americans support.
Like, I feel like there are plenty of Americans
who go, "Yeah, I should be able to legally own a firearm
for home safety, but not this fucking Wild West, crazy,
insane bullshit that a lotta people push."
But it genuinely feels like there isn't gonna be a solution
when you're the people that don't want things to change,
or you want to open up gun laws even more,
acting like everyone that's against them is, like,
"Strip everyone of all their weapons."
That's not what the hefty majority of people
that want reforms want.
Yeah, until something that remotely resembles common sense
is able to enter Congress, I feel like we're just rinse
and repeat with this bullshit: horrible tragedy,
a lot of anger, thoughts and prayers, rinse, repeat.
And then, in news about news, we're finally ready.
Tomorrow, all you day ones who signed up
for the wait list are gonna get the first issue
of the rebranded and newly relaunched
"DeFranco Daily Download" email newsletter.
Right, about a month ago, I was proud to announce
that the newsletter would be rebranded as "The Daily Dip,"
and then just a few days after that announcement,
we got a nice, healthy, five-figure audience
of you beautiful bastards joining and waiting.
Starting tomorrow, "Daily Dip" subscribers
will receive quick tastes of the news
that you may have missed on the PDS,
along with bonus content that'll keep you informed,
maybe put a smile on your face, and let you get back
to your day in three to five minutes or less.
Just like the full PDS, it's news for people
that hate the news, and I will say one of my favorite parts
of this relaunch is that it's creating a new way
for me to hear directly from you
through our Daily Dipper poll, where you can, of course,
share your opinions but also more clearly see the opinion
of those that are watching the show,
which is also why you're gonna see some
of those results popping up here on the PDS,
just another reason to be subscribed.
And I really wanna see if we can get
to 100,000 email subscribers within the first 100 days.
So get in on the day one.
Go to DailyDip.co, or just click that link
in the description now to join for free.
In entertainment news, KSI and Logan Paul's drink Prime
just got banned from several schools in Australia.
Right, we've talked about the massive hype around Prime.
It's been very successful.
I mean, it's one of the biggest creator-launched brands
out there other than, you know,
the things that MrBeast has done.
And now that Prime Hydration has hit shelves
at major retailers in Australia,
it's selling out all over, but here's the thing:
there are different drinks.
You have Prime Hydration, which is an electrolyte drink.
It's available for purchase in Australia,
but Prime Energy is not, and that's not a sourcing issue.
It's a legal issue.
It reportedly has double the caffeine amount
that Australia legally allows for bottles that size,
but in a way, hasn't stopped young people in Australia
from buying it from online resellers,
with a number of the kids then taking those drinks to school
and then selling it to other kids on the playground,
which, while I do not endorse,
as a former myself, I gotta respect it!
In middle school, I was slinging marbles
'cause we were the lamest middle school
and had a competitive marble scene,
my father before me selling Flintstone vitamins
on the playground.
But with Prime here, it's why you have health experts
warning that these drinks can be addictive for children
and can make them restless, lead to insomnia,
and up their heart rate.
And surprisingly, some of the schools have even had issues
with the approved Hydration electrolyte drink,
with one principal at a Queensland school saying,
"We had a student who had just the sports drink,
not the energy drink, and this is a child who's quite shy,
retiring and quiet normally,
and it was like someone had shaken him up
and made him fizzy," and with that, some outlets noting
that the Energy drink says that it's not suitable
for children under 18, and the Hydration drink
actually says it's not suitable for kids under 15,
which I will say was shocking news to me
'cause online, that's literally all who seems
to be consuming the drink, which is also why some schools
have even made social media posts this week,
warning parents to not allow their children
to bring those drinks in.
And then, Mickey Mouse just pantsed Ron DeSantis,
right, 'cause King of Florida DeSantis
has been waging a war against Disney
ever since the company spoke out
against its Don't Say Gay law.
And as one of the ways to retaliate,
DeSantis took control of Disney's special status
that allowed it to operate as a self-governing district
with autonomy over the land encompassing
and surrounding Walt Disney World.
That district was called
the Reedy Creek Improvement District,
but after DeSantis took it over, it was changed
to the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District,
and there's a board that would have control
over infrastructure, property taxes, issue bonds, road,
and fire services and more,
and the key thing there being the board consisted
of people DeSantis appointed himself.
So you had many noting that it could basically be used
to force the company to keep quiet on social
and cultural issues, potentially even extending
to their content, so that's why this was seen
as a massive, massive L for Disney,
or rather, it would've been if they didn't make a good,
old-fashioned loophole for themselves
to essentially strip the new board of its powers.
Right, because on February 8th,
the day before the Florida House passed the bill
allowing DeSantis to stack the board,
Disney and the previous board signed an agreement
that put the power in Disney's control,
giving the company broad veto powers
over changes to the park and making any changes, quote,
"subject to Disney's prior review and comment
to ensure consistency with the overall design
and theming of the park," among other powers.
It also prevents the board from using Disney's name
or trademark characters like Mickey Mouse,
and it turns out, the new board members didn't even realize
that Disney had done this until recently,
with members reportedly opening the meeting
they held yesterday by discussing the fact
that there's nothing they can actually do,
with board member Ron Peri saying,
"This essentially makes Disney the government.
This board loses, for practical purposes,
the majority of its ability to do anything
beyond maintain the roads
and maintain basic infrastructure."
And another key thing is that this agreement
has some serious staying power because it will remain,
quote, "In effect until 21 years after the death
of the last survivor of the descendants of King Charles III,
King of England, living as the date of this declaration."
So basically, as long as there are members
of the royal family still kicking, so is this deal,
and according to BBC News, this is a totally real thing
dating back to the 17th century.
It's called a royal lives clause,
though it's rarely used in the United States.
Now, all that said, of course, with this,
the board already plans on pushing back
and has voted to hire outside legal counsel
to evaluate their options, with member Brian Aungst, Jr.,
saying, "We're going to have to deal with it and correct it.
It's a subversion of the will of the voters
and the legislature and the governor.
It completely circumvents the authority
of this board to govern," and a spokesperson
for DeSantis likewise saying that "These agreements
may have significant legal infirmities
that would render the contracts void as a matter of law."
But for its part, Disney has said it did nothing wrong,
claiming in a statement, "All agreements signed
between Disney and the district were appropriate
and were discussed and approved in open,
noticed public forums in compliance
with Florida's Government in the Sunshine law."
A.K.A. maybe if you weren't so busy trying to ban books
and put LGBTQ+ people in a fucking tiny box
that you could throw away, maybe you woulda noticed,
but you didn't, and you got caught
with your pants around your ankles like the schmuck you are.
- Bam, I'm the pants queen! (clothes rustling)
- Though I will say this is probably
like a good distraction for DeSantis
'cause if he's not busy fighting Disney
and an imaginary mouse,
he's gonna have to fight with Trump, but Ronnie, being busy
is not gonna stop Donnie from swinging.
And then in international news,
will you nerds please have sex?
That is essentially what the higher-ups in China
are yelling at their people right now,
which is why we're seeing news like nine colleges in China
are now giving students a week off in April
so they can go fall in love.
Right, and while the idea of a spring break is not new,
this year's theme is centered on love:
love of nature, love of life,
and most importantly, love of each other,
with students being asked to keep travel diaries,
to film videos of their trips, write growth reports,
and this, notably, as China is struggling
to lift its plummeting birth and marriage rates,
which, notably, caused its population to shrink last year
for the first time since the 1960s,
which, if you're unfamiliar with Chinese history,
that was their great leap forward
that left some 30 million dead.
But also, even in countries
that didn't have a Communist Revolution,
they are plagued by the same problem,
with places like South Korea and Japan
having low birth rates and growing elderly populations
putting a lotta stress on their economies,
with East Asia right now claiming the lowest fertility rate
of any global region at just 1.2 births per woman
compared to 2.3 worldwide, a.k.a. people ain't fucking.
So in China, we're seeing local governments and companies
trying different methods of getting people to get busy,
offering 30 days of marriage leave for newlyweds,
launching a campaign pushing city women
to date older, rural bachelors.
One city started its own state-sponsored dating app,
and all of this, of course, in addition
to what we saw on the national level,
with the government raising the number of children couples
can have from two to three a while back.
Right, trying to make up for that one-child policy
that had ended back in 2016, but it's just not happening.
And then, our dystopian future with AI overlords,
it's already here, or at least, we're getting a taste of it
because a judge in India just used ChatGPT
to decide bail in a murder case,
with him reportedly asking the AI,
"What is the jurisprudence on bail
when the assailant assaulted with cruelty?"
To which, ChatGPT responded that if cruelty was a factor,
then, quote, "they may be considered a danger
to the community and a flight risk.
In such cases, the judge may be less inclined to grant bail
or may set the bail amount very high to ensure
that the defendant appears in court
and does not pose a risk to public safety,"
with the AI also emphasizing the presumption of innocence,
but at that point, the judge was like,
"I already got my answer," and denied the bail request.
And so for you, maybe this sparks some questions or thoughts
regarding the morality of this, the ethics of this,
but the one uncontested positive here is that this was fast.
I'm not saying it's good fast.
I'm not saying it's bad fast.
It was just fast, which is a big thing there
'cause India is notorious for backlogs,
and judges have long sought ways to keep things moving.
Right, reportedly, there are currently six million
pending cases, but also, here's a thing:
this is not the first time that ChatGPT
has been used in the courtroom.
Last month, we saw a Colombian judge use it to decide
whether an autistic minor should receive medical coverage,
and it's believed that it may become a commonplace tool
in the courtroom relatively soon.
And then, Russia arrested and charged
a Wall Street Journal reporter
with spying for the United States government.
Right, so his name's Evan Gershkovich.
He's a correspondent based in Moscow,
and this is huge because a key takeaway
is that this marks the first time an American reporter
has been detained there for espionage since the Cold War,
with the Russian Federal Security Service saying,
"It was established that E. Gershkovich,
acting on the instructions of the American side,
collected information constituting a state secret
about the activities of one of the enterprises
of the Russian military-industrial complex,"
and Putin's spokesperson adding,
"We're not talking about suspicions.
He was caught red-handed," but the outlet
has strongly rejected that accusation
and demanded the immediate release of its journalist.
We also saw the White House condemning the arrest
and the State Department saying
that it was in touch with Moscow.
But y'all, if he is convicted,
which will be all but inevitable unless there's some sort
of political settlement with Washington,
Gershkovich could go to prison for up to 20 years.
In business news, (air whooshing)
in the least surprising finance business news of the week,
Swiss bank Credit Suisse has now been accused
of hiding money from the IRS,
with the revelation that $700 million in taxable money
was hidden from the US coming after a two-year investigation
over suspicions that it was violating a 2014 plea agreement
'cause unsurprisingly, it had already been
in trouble once for doing something similar,
the bank allegedly using a variety of methods
to hide the money, including things as simple
as just moving $100 million to offshore accounts
without telling the Justice Department.
And according to a Senate Finance Committee spokesperson,
that $700 million may not actually be all of the money,
saying, "It could be much higher than that.
We just don't have much visibility into those accounts."
And the accusations are a case of when it rains,
it pours for Credit Suisse.
Right, because it's been facing a collapse
and buyout from UBS, and now, UBS is likely on the hook
for any penalties that Credit Suisse would've faced.
But with that, I wanna say thank you
for being a part of another daily dive into the news.
I love yo faces, and I'll see you next time.