- 'Sup your beautiful bastards!
Welcome back to the Philip DeFranco Show.
I got a week of road shows for you,
so buckle up, hit that like button,
unless you want me to punch you in the throat,
and let's just jump into it.
You know, first up today,
you know I'm in New York this week,
which made me extra concerned
when I saw this damn video pop up on my timeline.
(loud crash)
- What the (bleep)? What the (bleep)? What the (bleep)?
- Yes, what the fuck indeed, right?
So that's Times Square with everything peacefully yesterday
until the sudden explosion that can be heard
for blocks and blocks,
sending hundreds of people running away in a total panic,
with people fearing, you know,
is this some sort of terrorist attack?
First responders show up to the scene.
They try to figure out what happened.
And as it turns out,
it wasn't some disgruntled government employee
or Al Qaeda, or Putin, it was just a manhole fart.
The Con Edison was saying that what happened
was there was a power cable failure
that sparked a fire and then an explosion at a manhole,
with two other manholes also set on fire,
but only the first erupted.
So essentially the sewers had some unexpected taco farts,
Or Con Edison doesn't want us to know
that the Ninja Turtles maybe are cooking meth down there.
And then we need to talk about this absolutely insane case
at a Texas that got a ton of attention over the weekend.
So on Saturday, a local Sheriff's official for Starr County
said a 26-year-old woman named Lizelle Herrera
had been arrested and charged with murder for quote,
"intentionally and knowingly causing the death
of an individual by self-induced abortion,"
with an abortion rights org, Frontera Fund, saying
"she was released on $500,000 bail later on Saturday."
Well, you may be thinking,
"Okay, well, you know this is Texas,
the state that notoriously
has one of the strictest abortion bans in the country."
A key thing here is that the circumstances of her arrests
were almost entirely unknown, including really basic facts,
like whether Herrera was accused
of having the abortion herself or aiding someone else,
as well as how far along the pregnancy was.
It was also unclear the legal statute
that she was accused of violating, right?
Because while Texas's abortion law bans the procedure
in almost all instances after six weeks,
it also explicitly exempts the individual
who received the abortion
from being charged with murder
in connection with what they refer to
as the death of an unborn child,
with the law leaving enforcement to civilians
who can bring civil lawsuits
against anyone who they believe aids or abets in abortion.
But Herrera didn't face a civil lawsuit
brought by a civilian.
Instead, she was arrested and detained
by law enforcement and indicted on criminal murder charges,
which is why you had a lot of people saying
she shouldn't have been arrested,
and ultimately, the district attorney ended up agreeing.
Now having announced that he was dropping the case
and saying in a statement,
"in reviewing applicable Texas law,
it is clear that Ms. Herrera cannot and should not
be prosecuted for the allegation against her,"
and adding, "It is my hope
that with the dismissal of this case
it is made clear that Ms. Herrera
did not commit a criminal act
under the laws of the state of Texas,
and acknowledging "the events leading
up to this indictment
have taken a toll on Ms. Herrera and her family.
To ignore this fact would be shortsighted."
So overall, a pretty fucking insane thing
that this woman and her family had to go through.
But honestly, it's all the guarantee
that this is going to happen again, right?
Because experts say that these kinds of improper arrests
and charges are just what happens
when abortion protections are dismantled and confusing,
and restrictive abortion laws are put in place.
With Steve Ladik,
a professor at the University of Texas School of Law,
explaining that this case is showing us
what things are going to look like on the ground
in states that have aggressive abortion restrictions.
And while we're at the end of this story,
since we're already on the topic of abortion,
it would feel like a missed opportunity not to mention this,
I wanna give a quick shout out
to Savannah and Cole LaBrant.
If you don't know, they're the the head
of a very popular YouTube family channel.
I mean, they're also massive on pretty much every platform.
And the reason I'm shouting them out is
because over the weekend, they took a break
from exploiting their children's lives for monetary gain
so they could put out what they refer to as
a documentary about abortion,
where in the first three minutes,
they compare abortion to genocides,
including the fucking Holocaust.
You know, how you do
when the average age of your audience is, what,
probably 10 years old.
So you know, congrats on doing something more disgusting
than clickbaiting your daughter potentially having cancer
for views, fucking disturbing weirdos.
And then in entertainment slash gaming journalism news,
we need to talk about this IGN situation.
A lot of people have been sending me this story
wanting to know my opinion.
If you haven't seen yet, it's pretty simple.
You had Kat Bailey, Senior Editor at IGN tweeting,
"IGN is looking for new freelancers
to assist with the daily flow
of stories and games, entertainment, tech, and science.
$20 base rate per story.
Sliding scale for heavier reporting,"
and later clarifying for the higher rates,
"$50 for slightly more involved stories,
finding us a fun community angle
that's not sourced from another outlet,"
and "$300 and up for in-depth multi-source reporting."
And rightly so, that struck a lot
of people online as incredibly too low,
with people tweeting things like,
"I'm never being mean to an IGN article ever again.
Yeah. I'd rush that shit
if I was given 20 bucks an article too."
Another saying, "this is an appalling rate,"
arguing, "No you can't use
'but if they're starting out,'
especially if they vet the topic/story/article beforehand.
Even as a base it's appalling.
If you assume 10 cents per word,
that'll net you 200, barely any summary,"
but "an average article ranges from 1500 to 2500 words
by the way."
And the tweet I most agreed with:
"I can't believe they're publishing this pay rate
as an advertisement
and not as a whistleblower-type indictment."
The story got bigger and bigger
to the point you had people like MoistCr1TiKaL chiming in.
- I can't believe they actually even posted that information
in the initial tweet here.
That feels like a detail that'd be on the fine print
of a (bleep) contract that the devil would have you sign.
"By the way, you're only $20 for your work."
No good freelance journalist
is going to be excited about $20.
- And personally, you know,
I understand why everyone's so focused on the $20 number.
I agree with the Moist,
one another that's complete dogshit,
but personally I'm more fascinated about
what in-depth multi-source reporting
they're getting for $300.
Because for me, this feels bigger than IGN,
though, you know, take your swings there.
But I really agree with this comment that read,
"this is something that goes beyond journalism, and IGN.
A lot of large companies are abusing the freelance loophole
to avoid paying fair wages and actually hiring people on."
Notably, "they can get away with paying under minimum wage,
and providing benefits by working with the freelance system.
It's disgusting."
But from that, I wanna take a second
to thank the fantastic sponsor of today's show: Ridge.
You know, I've had a Ridge wallet
before they were even a sponsor.
I love that Ridge is a minimalistic front-pocket wallet,
that slim RFID blocking,
and comes with a lifetime guarantee.
Because let's face it, men's wallets just get so bulky.
They just aren't practical
for the modern man or woman.
And the Ridge, it helps you carry less,
but always what you need.
It comes in titanium, carbon, fiber, and aluminum.
And on top of that, there are tons
of different styles and colors to choose from.
And with Father's Day on the horizon,
it makes for the perfect gift.
The main thing, it's awesome sleek design
has to be what I love most.
It is two metal plates bound together
by durable elastic band.
So it's easy to get out what you want,
easy to put in something new. You know, there is a reason
they have 50,000 five-star reviews.
So head on over to Ridge.com/DeFranco
and use code "DeFranco" for 10% off sitewide.
And then, let's talk about the major twist
in the "Will They, Won't They" saga
that is Elon Musk and Twitter.
So after all the craziness last week,
we saw on Twitter saying that Elon Musk
will not actually be joining the company's board.
The whiplash, which is a massive reverse laughter.
It was confirmed last week that Musk
could become Twitter largest shareholder,
raising questions about how much power
he would have on the platform.
The next day, that seemingly answered
when it was announced that he would be given
a seat on the board,
but in a tweet yesterday, Twitter CEO, Parag Agrawal said,
"The Board and I had many discussions about Elon
joining the board, and with Elon directly.
We were excited to collaborate and clear about the risks.
We also believe that having Elon
as a fiduciary of the company
where he, like all board members,
has to act in the best interest of the company
and all our shareholders, was the best path forward."
Going on to say, "We announced Tuesday
that Elon would be appointed to the Board
contingent on a background check
and formal acceptance,"
saying the "appointment was supposed to become
officially effective four-nine,
but Elon shared the same morning
that he will no longer be joining the board,
with Agrawal adding,
"I believe this is for the best.
We have and will always value input from our shareholders,
whether they are on our Board or not.
Elon is our biggest shareholder
and we will remain open to his input."
But then seemingly warning the world
and/or Twitter employees,
"there will be distractions ahead,
but our goals and priorities remain unchanged.
The decisions we make and how we execute is in our hands,
no one else's. Let's tune out the noise
and stay focused on the work and what we're building."
Now as of recording, Musk has not commented on the matter,
though it comes after Musk posted
a series of bizarre tweets over the weekend,
most of which have since been deleted,
though in one post that's still up,
Elon continued his ongoing narrative
that Twitter's becoming obsolete,
noting that many of the most followed accounts
on the platform don't post much
and writing, "is Twitter dying?"
Also proposing some ideas
or maybe just taking jabs at the company's employees,
saying the company's San Francisco headquarters
should be turned into a homeless shelter
because no one shows up anyway,
as well as polling users
if Twitter should remove the "w" from its name
and saying Twitter Blue subscribers
should be allowed to pay with dogecoin
and be given authentication check mark.
Right, so you have some pointing to these saying,
"Okay, well, these tweets,
they're not in the fiduciary interest of the company.
Maybe he just wants to keep on memeing."
But you also have people saying,
"Maybe he just reversed course
because he actually wants to do something bigger."
Or because since Elon did not join the Board,
he's also now no longer legally bound
to an agreement that he signed with the company,
promising not to purchase more than 14.9% of Twitter
and take over the company.
So in other words, he could keep still adding
to his stake in the company and effectively gain more power.
To what point we don't know,
but if you're owning 15 to 20 to whatever percent
of the company, you're gonna have a lot of sway in control.
Or is it a third thing,
and he actually thinks that Twitter is dying,
or he can build a better competitor
and he is gonna offload it?
We don't know what's happening in Elon Musk's mind
because I mean, really, how could you?
But with that said,
we're gonna have to wait to see what happens from here.
And then finally, we need to talk about
updates with the war in Ukraine.
Militarily, things are shaping up exactly how we expected.
Russian forces have largely pulled away from Kyiv
with the intention of making a more concentrated strike
through the Donbas region.
With that lining up with their alleged aims
and securing the independence of the breakaway republics,
especially as both those republics lay claim
to the entirety of the Donbas region,
not just the parts they currently control.
Russia has shifted the war playing so much
that Kyiv is apparently now safe enough
for visits from world leaders, including a surprise visit
from Prime Minister Boris Johnson.
Without a doubt, there were discussions
between Zelensky and his visitors over weapons,
with Ukraine's foreign minister last week
telling NATO leaders in Brussels
they had a three-fold agenda: weapons, weapons, and weapons.
And Ukraine's not just looking for small arms.
They want tanks, artillery, large anti-aircraft weapons,
and other weapons needed to conduct open warfare,
which is expected to happen fairly soon
in the country's east.
And if the fighting goes down, as experts expect,
it'll be the first time in generations
that this kind of warfare
has really been conducted anywhere.
And so has the West responded to these pleas?
Kind of.
Some countries, such as the Czech Republic and Slovakia,
have already sent tanks, armored vehicles,
and anti-aircraft systems.
However, some NATO members, such as the UK and Germany,
have been on record as being
less than willing to send these kinds of weapons.
However, the situation has proven to be so fluid
that it seems more and more likely
that at least some of these countries
are willing to change their positions.
And you know, it's really easy to see
why Ukraine is so intent on fighting Russian aggression,
even if that means heavily escalating the war
because the other option is likely way worse.
I mean, in parts of Kyiv,
were occupied by Russian soldiers?
There are now over 1,200 reported civilian deaths.
And then there was the missile strike
against the Kramatorsk train station on Friday,
where at least 52 were killed and over 100 injured.
And it's not like the train station was being used
to move troops.
It was a focal point for civilians
trying to leave Eastern Ukraine,
especially as the government urged them to flee the region.
Also on top of the many civilian deaths
as Russia takes territory,
we've also seen allegation
that they're crafting legislation
that would allow Russians
to adopt orphaned Ukrainian children
who are forcibly deported to Russia.
And Russia's like, "We killed your parents,
displaced you, you have no home,
and now you can call us Mommy and Daddy."
Although, moving around entire populations
to reoccupy the place with ethnic Russians
isn't a new strategy for Russia.
They've been doing this for over a hundred years.
Also speaking of Russia itself,
they took possibly a very long term financial hit today
after they defaulted on certain aspects of its foreign debt.
But Russia has borrowed a ton of money from foreign lenders,
bought due to recent sanctions that only really
had access to rubles in order to pay them.
Even though, on paper,
it has hundreds of billions of dollars in foreign currency.
Although I do wanna note in this chaos,
it's unclear how much should default in all of this
is actually going to affect Russia's economy
in the short term.
But of course, credit score is kind of useless when
you're already largely blocked off from the world economy.
However, this could have long-term effects, right?
Eventually, or hopefully, or I don't even know at this point
things are likely to return to a somewhat normal,
whatever the hell that looks like.
Whether it be be months, years, or decades
and defaulting on a loan like this,
regardless of the reasons, can make lenders
very skittish about handing out cash,
which is also another thing
that just shows how little Putin cares about
the consequences of this war.
Beyond the genocidal rhetoric against Ukrainians
being spewed by his government,
he's also willing to completely tank his country's economy
and affect the lives of Russians everywhere,
who will be far worse off than before this war.
But ultimately, that is where that story
and today's show ends.
Thanks for watching! If you're looking for more news,
I got you covered right here.
I love you all faces, and I'll see you tomorrow.