- 'Sup you beautiful bastards,
hope you've had a fantastic Tuesday,
welcome back to the Philip DeFranco show,
the first show of 2020.
As I often say, buckle up,
hit that like button
otherwise we'll punch you in the throat.
But I also, I don't know how to jump into it.
There is a seemingly impossible amount of news
to catch up on since I went on my extended
Christmas break.
I'm not saying it's connected,
but it does seem like the world just goes insane
whenever I'm gone for a little bit,
and so what I'm opting to do today
is for today's first story
is trying to condense a lot of the chaos
while I was gone as quickly as possible
because they're also still developing stories,
that this is not the last time
that you're gonna hear about them.
And so, with all of that said,
let's just jump into it.
And the first thing we should talk about is
while I was gone there were massive,
and not completely unfounded fears,
that there was going to be a World War III.
Something that people found out about thanks to the news
and, or memes on TikTok.
Which I will say the cynic and dark humor lover in me
feels less lonely because the world is so chaotic
and ridiculous and just scary,
that now we have the youngest generation that's consuming
and making content online,
just using dark humor as a comfort blanket
to try and just get on to the next day.
But as far as why there were these concerns,
I mean you've probably heard about it by now,
this was largely based around the death of
Iranian General Soleimani.
He was killed in a US drone strike on January 3rd
in Baghdad,
notably here,
the strike here being approved by President Trump.
You know, and there were serious concerns that the
United States would go to war with Iran.
Right after the attack you had Iran vowing to retaliate,
then Donald Trump saying that the United States
was targeting 52 sites in Iran, including cultural sites.
Though, the Defense Secretary Mark Esper later said
that the United States would not target cultural sites.
But then, what we eventually saw a few days later,
was Iran responding by bombing two US bases in Iraq.
And notably, no Americans died in that strike.
But, on the same day,
two Iranian missiles reportedly mistakenly hit
a passenger plane killing all 176 people on board,
including 63 Canadians,
with Iran's military labeling this incident an accident
caused by human error.
With the situation, you got a lot of people
in two different camps.
Either one, going the route of Soleimani was a bad guy
who led to the deaths of a lot of Americans
and deserved to die,
or two, agreeing that Soleimani was a bad guy
but also saying that it was illegal for Trump
to order that strike without approval from Congress.
And with all of this happening,
and with the Trump Administration justifying its decision
by saying that it had evidence that a strike was imminent.
Saying, quote,
"General Soleimani was actively developing plans
"to attack American diplomats and service members in Iraq
"and throughout the region."
And adding that the strike was aimed at deterring
future Iranian attack plans.
But of note, there are many that have concerns and doubts
about those claims,
especially after Secretary of Defense Mark Esper
went on CBS's Face the Nation and we saw this set.
- Why was there a difference?
- Well, what the President said was he believed
that it probably and could've been attacks against
additional embassies.
I shared that view,
I know other members of the National Security team
shared that view,
that's why I deployed thousands of American paratroopers
to the Middle East to reinforce our embassy in Baghdad
and other sites throughout the region.
- Probably and could have been, that is,
that sounds more like an assessment than a specific,
tangible threat with a decisive piece of intelligence.
- Well the President didn't say it was a tangible,
he didn't cite a specific piece of evidence.
What he said is he probably, he believed--
- [Margaret] Are you saying there wasn't one?
- I didn't see one,
with regard to four embassies.
- You also had Secretary of State Mike Pompeo
saying that the threat was imminent,
but they didn't know where or when,
and to that you had people like Tulsi Gabbard,
Congresswoman, Veteran of the Iraq War, saying,
"Well, if you don't know when and if you don't know where,
"that is not 'imminent'."
Yeah, this is gonna be an interesting one to watch,
obviously it's not the end of US-Iran escalation.
Hell, this morning we saw reports from local media, quote,
"Iranian MP announces $3 million dollar bounty on Trump."
This, according to the report,
not something he just kinda said offhand,
but literally in front of Parliament.
With him also being quoted as saying,
"If we had nuclear weapons today,
"we would be protected from threats.
"We should put the production of long-range missiles
"capable of carrying unconventional warheads on our agenda.
"This is our natural right."
And all that massive, metaphorical US-Iran fire was burning,
over in Australia, there was an actual, horrific fire.
In fact we first talked about these back in November,
and since, things have only gotten worse.
So far we've seen more than two dozen people
reported dead,
thousands of homes lost, millions of acres affected,
and in fact,
they estimate that more than one billion animals
on the continent have died as a result from the fires.
And so what we've seen as far as the reaction,
the Australian government has approved more than
two billion dollars in bushfire recovery efforts.
Also during this time, seeing people rush to donate
either their time, resources, or money.
Some in more creative ways than others.
Earlier this month we even saw a woman by the name of
Kaylen Ward raise over one million dollars
by selling her nude photos on her social media,
money that reportedly went to charities
like the Australian Red Cross and World Wildlife Fund.
One of the worst things about this catch-up story, right?
The things that we missed,
is that it doesn't seem like the fire season
is even near over yet.
Australia is actually in the middle of its summer,
and while yes, we've seen heavy rain in certain areas
over the last few days,
those dry and windy days that help start these fires
are expected to return later this week.
And so to those beautiful bastards out there,
you have family out there,
obviously my well wishes to you.
Please be safe.
To anyone watching that wants to help,
they want to donate, I'll link down below.
No nude photos of me,
but that seems like more of a positive.
How 'bout this? I'll do the opposite of what she did.
If you don't donate, I will send you nude photos.
I won't really.
Then in other international news,
we also saw Brexit taking massive step forward,
passing a second reading in Britain's Lower House,
the House of Commons, back in December.
And notably, unlike the last vote,
this was a clear victory for Prime Minister Boris Johnson,
winning 358 to 234.
Also, notably,
this was because of another victory for Boris Johnson,
the UK elections.
And there not only did Boris Johnson beat Jeremy Corbyn
to keep him Prime Minister position,
but Johnson's Conservative Party also gained
an 80 seat majority in Parliament.
Now Johnson's Brexit agreement with the European Union
was then debated in the House of Lords where,
yesterday,
the Lords passed three amendments to the agreement,
meaning that it will be sent back to the Commons.
And in fact just today,
the Lords passed another amendment that would allow
unaccompanied refugee children to be reunited
with their families in the UK after Brexit goes into effect.
However, because of its large majority,
the Commons is expected to overturn those amendments.
And all of this as the UK rapidly approaches
its latest Brexit deadline, just 10 days from now,
on January 31st.
And then, of course,
there's Donald Trump's impeachment trial.
All right, so just before we left,
the House of Representatives voted to impeach Trump
on both abuse of power and obstruction of Congress.
We then leap over a lot of the chaos
and Congressional fighting to this past Friday
when we saw members of the House
delivering impeachment articles to the Senate,
where Trump will be basically tried to determine
if he is guilty of abusing power and obstructing Congress.
And there, while he would be removed if he was found guilty,
that's incredibly unlikely because Republicans
still hold the majority in the Senate.
And as of right now,
arguments for or against his removal
have still yet to be heard,
with today largely being dedicated
to laying the ground rules for how this trial
is going to go down.
And of course as things get underway, they move along,
we'll be keeping an eye on it, reporting it.
Because regardless of your opinion on Trump
and the impeachment itself, this is a historic moment.
Even though we 99.9% know what will happen,
how it happens, what happens in the process,
it could have really longstanding effects in this country.
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And the first bit of awesome today
is if you want more news after today's show,
we've been testing something a little bit different
over at YouTube.com/RogueRocket.
Go check it out, go subscribe.
Instead of just deep dives
we're testing the mixture of that
as well as more daily content.
And today's piece involves China investing in Africa,
Putin, a ton more.
If you're looking for more news,
kinda try and treat it as a one-two punch, PDS, RR.
Then for fans of the Shane Dawson makeup series,
he just released 36 minutes of other footage,
it has bloopers, covers a security scare, and more.
We have Binging with Babish,
giving us marmalade sandwiches from Paddington,
we've got the trailer for Horse Girl,
we have, just a recommendation,
if you have not watched the DocuSeries Cheer on Netflix
I highly recommend it.
I went into it not giving a damn about cheerleading,
and it is, it's just really well done.
Also, Jerry Harris from that series,
you are who I wanna be on the inside.
I'm too much of a cynic, but you are an aspirational figure.
TedEd gave us What Was So Special About Viking Ships,
the Action Lab gave us the invisible air umbrella.
If you wanna see the full versions
of everything I just shared,
the secret link of the day, really,
anything at all, links, as always,
are in the description down below.
Then we should mention a new concern coming out of China.
I know that there are a number,
but specifically I'm talking about a medical concern,
that may turn international.
According to reports, there is an outbreak of a new
Coronavirus strain.
This outbreak is said to have started in early January
with now six dead and over 300 cases in general.
As far as the symptoms, reportedly those include fever,
coughing and difficulty in breathing,
and the viral infection can also cause pneumonia.
And part of the reason for the additional concern is,
one, as far as the specific location of the outbreak,
it was in Wuhan, it's a big transportation hub in China,
and then there's also the concern around the timing.
The Lunar New Year, right, the Chinese New Year,
is January 25th, right?
There's expected to be a ton of Chinese travel,
a surge in the number of people,
and this week human-to-human transmission
has been confirmed.
And with that,
the international travel causes worries
that it could spread.
And in fact, this morning,
we just saw the first case confirmed in the United States,
in Washington State.
And so the concern around this is real,
you have the World Health Organization saying on Monday
that they will have an emergency meeting on Wednesday
to talk about this.
And as far as the Chinese government's reaction,
well wow, according to the BBC,
"The Chinese political body responsible for law and order
"said anyone who tried to cover up new confirmed cases
"would be 'nailed on the pillar of shame for eternity'.
This, "as the country tries to put the world at ease
"that it will be transparent
"in the handling of the outbreak."
Ultimately that's where we are with the situation.
Now there is heightened concern,
but really we're just gonna have to wait and see
what happens from here.
Then, let's talk about in US political news,
it was my belief entering the day that for the most part
the only thing we'd really be talking about
was the US Senate impeachment trial.
But the headlines this morning,
and social media in general,
was dominated not by the name of Donald J. Trump,
but rather Hillary Rodham Clinton.
And that's because in an interview with
the Hollywood Reporter that Clinton did
because she has an upcoming documentary about her
coming out on Hulu called 'Hillary',
she had a number of things to say about Bernie Sanders.
Some of the highlights here,
in the interview she is asked,
"In the doc, you're brutally honest on Sanders.
"'He was in Congress for years.
"He had one senator support him.
"Nobody likes him, nobody wants to work with him,
"he got nothing done.
"He was a career politician.
"It's all just baloney and I feel so bad
"that people got sucked into it.'
"That assessment still hold?"
To which she responds, "Yes, it does."
She's then asked,
"If he gets the nomination,
"will you endorse and campaign for him?"
To which she responds, "I'm not going to go there yet.
"We're still in a very vigorous primary season."
And then she does something that I've seen a number
of people compare to her basket of deplorables comment
from back in 2016.
She says, "I will say, however,
"that it's not only him, it's the culture around him.
"It's his leadership team.
"It's his prominent supporters.
"It's his online Bernie Bros and their relentless attacks
"on lots of his competitors, particularly the women.
"And I really hope people are paying attention to that
"because it should be worrisome that he has permitted
"this culture - not only permitted,
"he seems to really be very much supporting it."
As far as reactions to this online,
I mean there was a wide range.
The hashtag #StillWithHer trending,
as well as a number of people who're just furious
she's essentially inserted herself into the situation.
And I mean, she's not the first Democrat to do so,
but remember that time last year when people were like,
you know, with the Democrats going into the primaries,
let's talk about issues and not just, not kill each other,
let's not be divisive, because whoever get the nomination,
we all gotta stick together, gotta go against Trump.
And then you see the bait getting today,
and it's a little bit of a shit show.
While some people and politicians like Ilhan Omar tweeting,
"I like Bernie Sanders, pass it on."
We all saw the hashtag #ILikeBernie
trending all over Twitter.
As far as Bernie Sanders, his response to all of this,
according to White House correspondent Geoff Bennett,
"I just asked Senator Sanders for his reaction to
"Hillary Clinton saying no one likes him.
"He said, 'on a good day, my wife likes me,
"so let's clear the air on that one.'"
Adding, "He then pivoted to talking about impeachment."
Ultimately we'll wait to see the 24-hour,
one-week news cycle, what does this do to and for Bernie.
And I say for,
because the kind of candidate that Bernie Sanders is,
Hillary Clinton saying this is possibly more beneficial
than any kind of endorsement she could give him.
But hey, we wait and see,
and of course I'd love to know your thoughts on this one.
And then, let's talk about updates and news around
one of the most requested stories at the end of last year,
and that is around Onision.
Onision, who is also known as James or Greg Jackson,
has been on YouTube for a long time.
If you did not see our previous coverage in December
of last year, I'll link to it down below.
He's faced accusations of inappropriate behavior,
grooming, and being a child predator.
These accusations, of course, are very serious,
and they span the course of close to a decade.
Though, it is important to note here,
that Onision has consistently denied accusations
against him and we have not seen charges filed.
Now, when we last talked about this situation,
Onision had just been banned from Patreon,
of course an income source,
he's also now recently been banned from Twitch,
though there's not been a full explanation on this ban.
And as far as a simplified summary of the accusations
lobbied against him,
they also involve his partner Kai,
who had a number of girls speaking with journalist
Chris Hansen about their situation.
Which on that note, Hansen's also covered the accusations
again Onision and Kai extensively on his YouTube channel.
Hansen's also said that he's reported the situation
to the FBI, who he says is investigating the situation.
And actually, Chris Hansen will be at the center
of what we're talking about today.
And that's because for Chris Hansen,
this became more than just a digital thing,
it wasn't just YouTube videos.
Chris Hansen actually went to Onision's house
to confront him and get his side of the story.
Though, important to note,
it's not the first time he's tried to speak to Onision,
Hansen has reached out in the past.
Though,
just as Greg did when we reached out to him in December,
he said that he would exchange an interview for money.
This time around,
Hansen actually goes directly to Greg's home,
he knocks on the door, accompanied by a camera crew,
and his attorney Mike Morris,
which then prompted Onision to call the police.
Which on that note, on January 13th,
Hansen actually uploaded the 9-1-1 call
that Onision made where he calls Hansen his online stalker.
- [Onision] Hi, uh, there's a person who's been stalking me
online and they just showed up to my house.
- [Operator] And do you know if they have any weapons?
- [Onision] They have a bunch of camera people,
like they're YouTube, they're YouTube stalkers.
- [Operator] Okay, and what's,
do we know what their names are?
- [Onision] It's Chris Hansen.
- The police eventually arrived, no arrests were made,
though Hansen did say this of the incident.
- It quickly became clear that Greg was not unfamiliar
to the local law enforcement authorities here.
They were aware of his YouTube antics,
the allegations of inappropriate contact with young women.
- Hansen also adding that in line with the common
behavior of a predator,
Onision declined to share his side of the story
when given the opportunity to do so.
But the situation with Onision and Hansen does not end there
because Hansen confirmed in the video yesterday
that Onision had actually filed for a
court personal protection order in Washington State
against both Hansen and another YouTuber
by the name of Repzion,
another YouTuber who was has also extensively covered
the accusations against Onision
and has appeared on Chris Hansen's channel.
Newsweek also reported that Onision was filing
a civil lawsuit against Hansen and Repzion,
though they did not make it clear if this was related to,
or separate from the court order Hansen talked about.
Also, another thing that has come up in that video,
Hansen gave a disturbing update that he said he found
when working with police.
This specific update involves Onision, Kai,
as well as one of their two children.
- We've now obtained Pierce County Sheriff's Department
reports about a 9-1-1 call in September of 2019.
According to the transcripts,
Onision and Kai's young daughter fell from a second story
bedroom window, landing in the driveway.
- Hansen also adding that his report notes that Onision
actually took a video of his young daughter in the driveway
while she was injured and panned up to the window
that she fell from.
Right, now as far as the details of what happened,
we wanna be able to confirm ourselves,
we've requested a record of the report,
but what we've seen online so far,
and I do wanna not here we have not been able
to independently verify yet,
we're going through the process.
Several Twitter users posting
what appear to be excerpts of a records request.
Some of the information noted, though,
does line up with what Hansen said of the report.
Some screenshots coming from good citizen records
who said that they obtained a police report
where it says the incident did appear
to be just an accident,
but it also appears to show that the police
had previously done welfare checks at Onision's home.
And as far as what happens next,
obviously we have that request,
but also Chris Hansen has said that in the coming week
we'll learn more about the situation,
and that he'll share more related to this police report.
Which I will say, if you are interested in this story,
Chris Hansen's coverage on this has been extensive
and thorough.
But yeah, for now, that's where we are.
And of course, along with any story,
I would love to know your thoughts on this one.
And that is where I'm going to end today's show.
Thank you for watching my little daily weekday show.
Also, if you're lookin' for more to watch,
and you haven't already caught it,
check out that special bonus video I posted yesterday,
it was kind of a DeFranco rewind of sorts.
If you're a longtime viewer, it may give you some nostalgia,
or maybe make you feel old.
If you're new here, it'll make you realize,
wow, you missed the bad versions of the show.
But yeah, with that said,
of course as always, my name's Philip DeFranco,
you've just been filled in,
I love your faces, and I'll see you tomorrow.
- I hope you like this video.
Subscribe if you like it.