- Sup you beautiful bastards.
Welcome back to the Philip DeFranco show,
your daily dive into the news
except for Fridays and Saturdays.
We've got a lot of news to talk about today,
including a number of stories from earlier this week
that I wanted to get to, but I wasn't able to for time.
But before that, I wanted to let you know
tomorrow morning, Monday morning,
the beautiful bastard June drop will be going live
and it has some of the most requested restocks ever,
as well as a bunch of new stuff we've never released.
We've got a restock of those candles that you love so much.
I sold out so quick last time
and we've even added our lace and leather skull candles.
We also tweaked all the scents so they throw even better.
Also, after years of the request,
we're finally launching key chains and stickers,
but easily what we have the most limited stock of,
we're dropping our badass new backpack.
It's battle tested.
I take it on a few trips, love it.
As well as our brand new limited release of cargo pants.
Yeah, like I said, it goes live tomorrow morning
and if you wanna be the first to get a shot at grabbing it,
you can go to BeautifulBastard.com right now,
sign up to the mailing list, and/or text 813-213-4423
and I'll text you right early in the morning.
With that said, we got a lot of news to talk about,
so let's just jump into it.
Starting with,
so it appears that Netflix actually knows
what the fuck it's doing
because despite the near universal negative reaction
to their password crackdown,
numbers are going their way right now.
With early data from the research company Antenna
showing a massive spike in new subscriptions.
Right, because on May 23rd, Netflix warned
hey, if people use your Netflix account
but they live outside your home,
they're gonna need to get a new account
or they're gonna get blocked.
And then reportedly Netflix average daily signups
reached 73,000 from May 25th to 28th.
Notably a 102% increase from the prior 60 day average
with variety adding the context
that was more than the spikes in subscribers signups
during the initial US COVID-19 lockdowns
in March and April of 2020.
Now with that said,
the negative reaction we saw online was not nothing
with Netflix subscription cancellations
also increasing during this time period,
but reportedly the number of cancellations
was still pretty minimal,
with Antenna saying the ratio of signups to cancellation
since May 23rd increased 25.6%
compared with the previous 60 day period.
And all this looking great for Netflix,
especially paired with their other win
regarding ad supported accounts
with Netflix previously sharing
they had attracted nearly 5 million of these subs
in the first six months.
And while obviously what we're talking about here
is short term, we're gonna have to wait
to see the long term implications of everything.
The way the story currently sits
is this may be another example of what you see online
is not what actually happens when people are deciding
will I keep this or not. Whether they don't like the change,
but it's not enough to make them actually change anything,
at least to a degree that would hurt the company
and make them rethink what they're doing.
And then Colorado just became the first state to ban courts
from sending children
to so-called family reunification camps.
And honestly, more states absolutely need to do the same
because these places sound fucking evil.
And I know for those watching,
some of you have some background, some are unfamiliar.
I actually touched on these programs before on the show.
In a story about two teens in Utah who went viral on TikTok
were posting live streams where they barricaded themselves
in their mother's house
with them doing that to avoid a court order
putting them in the custody of their father
who they said was abusive
and sending them to a reunification camp
called Turning Points for Families.
And the judge overseeing this,
making that decision despite the fact
that back in 2018,
state authorities had substantiated the children's claim
that their father had abused them sexually and emotionally.
And despite the fact that the father was also
under investigation for new allegations.
Now the father for his part denied the 2018 allegations
claiming they were made up as part of a ploy
by the kid's mother to turn them against him.
And the judge somehow agreed with him
ruling that the children had been victims
of what they refer to as parental alienation,
which is a psychological theory
where one parent brainwashes and manipulates a child
to cut off the relationship with the other parent.
And very notably, that theory has been widely disputed
by mainstream psychology
and the vast majority of the field doesn't even recognize it
as a diagnosable condition,
but that has not stopped judges all around the country
from sending kids to these so-called therapeutic camps
that try to treat parental alienation.
And of course, that is in no way the only horror story
of kids being sent to these camps
because of a theory that's widely considered to be bogus.
With ProPublica, which did a huge report
on those kids in Utah also extensively covering the issue
and reporting on a range of different cases
with a lot of it deep diving
into the Turning Points program.
In fact, lawmakers in Colorado even explicitly said
that the outlet's coverage was the catalyst
for bringing this new law about.
And the other shit that ProPublica has uncovered
is fucking wild, right.
According to the Outlet,
yes, these camps are very controversial
and while there's very little independent research
in how effective they are,
experts say they do not properly address
the underlying issues at play.
I mean just as the get go at face value,
many of these programs are entirely set up
around denying children's abuse allegations.
Right, some advocates of the parental alienation theories
say there cannot be any abuse or neglect to make diagnoses,
but plenty of others, including Linda Gottlieb,
who operates Turning Points except cases
that involve accusations of abuse,
even when those claims have been substantiated,
which is exactly what happened to the two kids in Utah
who were ordered to be sent to Turning Points.
So basically the system
has literally predicated on gas lighting
with Gottlieb even explicitly telling ProPublica
she believes a parental alienation usually starts
when people begin to believe children's claims of abuse
and saying everyone knows children lie.
Lying is so instinctual,
children love to make up stories.
Why on earth do we believe
that children are reporting accurately?
Which just to interject,
that is an absolutely fucking insane thing to say.
Yes, children lie,
but then to use that as a justification of yes,
and they lie about everything is such a leap.
It genuinely sounds like you're trying
to make a smoke screen to keep the predators free, right.
So it makes sense that when you have a program
that is structured on that belief,
you're not gonna be set up for success.
But then also to make matters worse,
these programs are given a ton of control
over the welfare of the kids that they oversee
and can put them in dangerous situations
with their alleged abusers.
For example, under the Turning Points program,
children are sent to an undisclosed location for four days
for what they refer to as a sequestration period
where they meet with a parent
that they allegedly alienated during treatment.
And after that they're sent to stay
in the custody of that parent
and are banned from contacting their other parent
or other related family members for a minimum of 90 days.
But notably there are courts
that often give Turning Points the power
to extend that period indefinitely
until the children have been treated.
And at this point,
if you're like there's no way I'm hearing Phil correctly,
yes you are.
Children are literally taken away from the protective parent
who expressed concerns about abuse or neglect
in the first place.
And they are put in the care of a parent
who they say abuse them and then banned from reaching out
to other family members for help.
That's what these people fucking call therapy.
And as a result, unsurprisingly,
these programs have led
to some absolutely horrible situations.
For instance, ProPublica detailed the story
of a Colorado mother who had sole custody of her two kids
because an arbitrator restricted the father's parenting
after hearing testimony from the children's therapist
where the arbitrator arguing that not doing so
would endanger the kids' health
and significantly impair their emotional development.
But in August, the judge ruled fuck all that,
ruling that the children were victims
of parental alienation, and ordered them
to do the Turning Points reunification program.
And the mother, again,
who claims that she was just trying to protect her kids
from a dangerous situation with their father,
was forced to foot the $15,000 bill for the four day camp.
And after the four days,
the kids moved in with their father for the 90 day period
during which they both ran away
and reported that their dad
was verbally and physically abusive to them,
but they reportedly the police didn't charge the father.
State officials closed the case
with no findings against him,
even though this man reportedly didn't even deny the claims.
And even after that,
the father was still granted an extension
on the no contact period after the initial 90 days were up.
But the kids also being ordered
to stay in the Turning Point treatment
with an unlicensed psychotherapist
who has taken off Colorado's roster
of approved custody evaluators
for violating certain standards.
And even beyond that,
some children who attended the Turning Points program
have said that the program itself is abusive, right.
In another recent report published a few weeks back,
ProPublica detailed the experience
of a pair of 12 and 16 year old brothers
who were court ordered
to attend a Turning Points reunification camp
with their estranged father in Texas.
And according to people who participated
in the four day session, a Turning Points counselor
had instructed adult family members
to physically force the boys to cooperate
recorded therapy sessions despite their objections
and repeatedly threatened them,
even telling the teenage brother he would go to jail
if he didn't participate
and might not ever see his mom again.
They also had family members claiming
that when the boys refused to leave their bedroom
and participate in what these people referred to as therapy,
the counselor ordered that the door be taken off its hinges
and their bedding, shower items,
food and clothing be removed.
And the first day after the boys came back
from their session were placed in their father's custody,
the 16 year old was hospitalized
over fears he would hurt himself.
And there he told doctors he had been physically assaulted
at the Turning Points program.
And this is according to medical records,
which also documented faint linear marks
on his upper arms where the teen claims
that his father had grabbed him.
And as he had expected this point,
this is not the only accusation against Turning Points
with ProPublica also reporting that another teen
had accused the program of abuse
during his 2016 therapy sessions in upstate New York.
And there, according to the police report,
officers have been dispatched to the House of Gottlieb,
the Turning Points director to investigate claims
that a 16 year old boy had been dropped off
at the therapist's residence and assaulted
and thrown in a closet.
There we saw no charges being filed
with the patient in question
also told the Outlet
that when he rejected Gottlieb's attempts
to record his sessions,
he was pinned to the floor by his father and another man.
And reportedly both Gottlieb and the counselor
in the Texas incident declined to comment on specifics
of that ProPublica piece.
But as the Outlet noted in the most recent story
about the new Colorado law,
Gottlieb has previously defended her methods
and called ProPublica reporting libelous,
but did not identify any inaccuracies in the reporting.
But all of that brings us back full circle
to the whole reason we're talking about this
in the first place, the new law.
With advocates now saying they hope
that this will encourage other states
to take similar actions.
And it does appear that there is something going on
because according to ProPublica,
lawmakers in California and Montana
are considering similar bills to the one passed in Colorado,
as well as a report coming from the UN Human Rights Council
published just this April recommending
the court ordered reunification camps be banned.
So there's a little more hope today for these kids
and these families in a really fucked up situation.
And then now figuring out what's for dinner
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And then it feels like everywhere you look right now,
people are cutting staff.
A lot of that going down in the news space
with the Los Angeles Times now cutting 13% of their staff.
But we're also seeing with platforms in the online
entertainment space with some of the major shifts happening
in podcasting happening over at Spotify right now
with that including layoffs
and some new creative strategies
with a company releasing a statement this week saying
going forward, creators will be at the front and center
of their vision,
but saying that'll come at a cost.
We are expanding our partnership efforts
with leading podcasters from across the globe
with a tailored approach
optimized for each show and creator.
This fundamental pivot for a more uniform proposition
will allow us to support the creator community better.
However, doing so requires adapting.
And as far as what that meant,
it meant making the difficult but necessary decision
to cut about 200 staffers.
And adding that the company is combining Parcast and Gimlet,
which are two studios that had acquired back in 2019,
and those will be rolled into a venture
called Spotify Studios.
News that had a wide range of responses,
but is seeing Parcast and Gimlet's Union
putting out a statement saying this is all a result
of mismanagement and that Spotify
wasted the huge opportunity it had
when it purchased the studios.
But then at the same time, you had outlets
like the Washington Post saying
this really isn't shocking news.
Noting that Spotify's choice to focus more on creators
align with its move in recent months
to focus more on individual personalities
rather than shows like news programming
or true crime series
with recent examples like Emma Chamberlain
just taking an exclusive podcasting deal
with Spotify in November.
And that currently sitting in the top 20
of Spotify's podcast charts.
And that in addition of course to the famous Joe Rogan
and Alex Cooper deals
with Joe still sitting at number one
and Call Her Daddy sitting at number four.
As you people arguing it makes sense
that they're leaning into this,
but at the same time, you have people saying
this isn't gonna be guaranteed success
with one professor telling the Post
that this space right now is kind of a bursting bubble
arguing podcasts can't defy the law of supply and demand.
Supply has proliferated, demand has not.
Pair that with a dip in advertising spending
and something has to give.
But as far as if this is gonna work out for Spotify,
time will tell.
And then a new nickname for Donald Trump is the two time.
Not only is he the only president to be impeached twice,
he has now been indicted twice,
though notably this time we're talking
about federal charges.
Also some of his other nicknames,
he could be evil Michael Scott
or the dumbest fucking man on the planet
because the indictment was unsealed on Friday.
And wow, so many things we're gonna need to talk about.
We're gonna end up talking about everything
when we stretch it across the week
and just in in bite-size sections
that make it easier to consume,
but easily one of my favorite things
in this whole situation where Donald Trump
was just indicted by a federal grand jury
in connection with his mishandling
of over 100 classified documents
is you know how he made that bullshit claim
where he was like hey,
when I took all those classified documents
from the White House, brought it to Mar-a-Lago,
I declassified them.
I just thought it, declassified.
Something that resulted in many experts going
no, that's not how it works.
But here's the thing, we know Donald Trump
doesn't actually believe the words
that were coming out of his face
because I'll just read part of page 15 of the indictment.
"On July 21st, 2021, when he was no longer President,
Trump gave an interview in his office at the Bedminster Club
to a writer and publisher in connection
with a then forthcoming book.
Two members of Trump's staff also attended the interview,
which was recorded with Trump's knowledge and consent.
And upon greeting the writer, publisher,
and his two staff members, Trump stated look what I found.
This was the senior military officials plan of attack.
Read it and just show. It's interesting."
And at one point in the recorded conversation
that Donald Trump is on Trump talking about these documents,
say they're highly confidential,
staffer responds while laughing.
Yeah, Trump specifically says secret.
This is secret information.
Look, look at this.
And then later on in the conversation,
you see a staffer say, I don't know, we'll have to see.
Yeah, we'll have to try to.
Trump says declassify it
with him specifically going on to say
see, as president, I could have declassified it.
Now I can't, you know, but this is still a secret.
Staffer says, yeah, laughter.
Now we have a problem.
Trump says isn't that interesting?
And notably, when this happened, the writer,
the publisher, and Trump's two staff members
did not have security clearances
or any need to know on any classified information
about a plan of attack on country A.
There's also another instance mentioned
in August or September of 2021
with Trump not only showing off a classified map
to a PAC representative,
but even commenting that he shouldn't be showing him this
with that representative reportedly
having no security clearance or any need to know.
And again, those are just two of my quick favorite moments,
just Trump being exposed in a baldfaced lie.
And most importantly by himself.
And like I said, we're gonna talk
about more and more specifics as the situation develops.
And this is, it's gonna be one of the key stories this week.
And we'll have constant updates
like his two lawyers on the case resigning,
and now the firm representing him
in a New York business fraud case
is taking up the mantle.
And beyond just that,
things aren't looking particularly good for Trump,
especially because as we learned going into the weekend,
Trump's not facing seven charges.
He is facing 37.
31 counts of willful retention
of national defense information, right.
We're talking about the Espionage Act.
One count false statements and representations.
And in addition to that, both he and his aid
Walt Nauta face one count of conspiracy to obstruct justice,
one count of withholding a document or record,
one count of corruptly concealing a document or record,
one count of concealing a document
in a federal investigation,
and one count of scheme to conceal.
And Nauta by himself,
also facing an additional count of false statements
and representation.
And again, most importantly,
this is all connected as the indictment notes
to the classified documents Trump stored in his boxes,
including information regarding defense
and weapon capabilities of both the United States
and foreign countries, United States nuclear programs,
potential vulnerabilities of the United States
and his allies to military attack
and plans for possible retaliation
in response to a foreign attack.
But as this situation develops,
it's gonna be very interesting to see
what the public reactions are,
because before the specifics came out,
you had Republicans saying this was a targeted attack.
Nikki Haley saying
this is not how justice should be pursued in our country,
saying the American people are exhausted
by the prosecutorial overreach, double standards,
and vendetta politics.
And Mike, Trump's supporters wanted to hang Mike Pence
saying that he was deeply troubled by the indictment.
Meanwhile, you had Trump saying that Biden
should also be indicted.
But regarding that, your Republican Senator Mitt Romney
explaining why those two situations are in no way related,
saying in a statement "by all appearances,
the Justice Department and special counsel
of exercise due care, affording Mr. Trump
the time and opportunity to avoid charges
that would not generally have been afforded to others.
Mr. Trump brought these charges upon himself
by not only taking classified documents,
but by refusing to simply return them
when given numerous opportunities to do so,"
which of course is the key big difference.
Trump kept hiding documents
and to our knowledge, Biden has turned over the documents
he wasn't aware he even had.
And I mean same with the likes of Mike Pence.
And again, that was even before the indictment
was unsealed and we got more damning evidence against Trump.
But like I said, we're gonna be talking more
about the specifics, the fallout, the reaction,
the domino effect here throughout this week.
So that's where I'm gonna actually end today's show,
whether it be this final big story
or anything I talked about today.
Of course, I'd love to know your thoughts
and those comments down below.
But as always, my name's Philip DeFranco,
you've just been filled in.
I love your faces and I'll see you tomorrow.