- So let's act like yesterday didn't happen.
Let's, can we all, let's all agree to just do that.
Holy God, I have not gotten
that bad of a reaction to a video in a while,
but here's what I will say.
I am actually thankful
for like 98% of your criticism and responses.
Like two percent were just like, very mean.
Like some, I love you Phil,
but I'm gonna be brutal and bully you,
but if anyone else tried to bully you
I'd fight for you, kind of energy.
While a lot of you not liking the episode,
it hurt my ego a little bit.
I actually, I looked back to Tuesday's episode,
which I think is one of the better episodes
I've put out in like the past few months.
Right, I thought back to xQc's response
and how everyone was like,
why is this guy acting like a child?
It appears that these people are actually concerned
and they're just offering advice.
Why is he attacking them?
And it reminded me like, oh yeah,
this is not a personal attack, check the ego.
That said, I'm not gonna say sorry for yesterday's show.
I'm not going to stop testing things now and then.
I think that's important.
Yesterday's test was specifically to see like,
could I do a show that was almost all graphics,
in case, you know, I went on vacation
and I could just record audio and send it to the editors.
But yeah, I still see yesterday's show as a win
because I think there are 70%
of people that would still like a not fantastic show
over getting no show
which is what the other option would have been.
And two, now I know.
(light piano music)
You take the L which can stand for loss,
but also ideally stand for learning and you move on.
But yeah, that said, let me clip this on
to free up my hands to say
sup you beautiful bastards.
Welcome back to the Philip DeFranco show.
A quick friendly reminder.
You only have now four days left
if you want to snag some of the awesome
from this exclusive August drop
over at BeautifulBastard.com.
Yeah, hit that like button
otherwise I will punch you in the throat
and let's just jump into it.
And the first thing that we're going to talk
about today is this absolutely insane story
about Thomas Castleberry.
Except this is not Thomas Castleberry,
but he was thought to be Thomas Castleberry.
And instead as it turns out,
this is a guy by the name of Joshua Spriestersbach,
a man who was wrongfully arrested by Hawaiian officials,
thought to be someone else.
Locked up for that other person's crimes.
Locked in a state hospital
for more than two years,
forced to take psychiatric drugs
because every time he was like
I am not Thomas Castleberry,
they saw that as him just being delusional and psychotic.
And according to the Hawaii Innocence Project,
when this mistake was discovered
they tried to cover it up by quietly setting him free
with just 50 cents to his name.
With the Innocence Project filing a petition this week
saying that the police,
the state public defender's office,
the state's attorney general, and the hospital
all share in the blame of this gross miscarriage of justice.
Because across the board there's a question
of how did no one do the work needed?
Filing saying that in 2017
Josh was houseless and hungry, was waiting in a long line
for food outside of a Honolulu shelter on a hot day.
He ends up falling asleep,
a police officer rouses him awake.
He thinks that he's gonna be arrested
for the city's ban on sitting or laying down
on the public sidewalks.
Instead, even though he doesn't look like this guy,
he doesn't have the same fingerprints,
they don't seem to be connected in any way,
he's misidentified as this other man.
Right, Josh says, I'm not this man.
No one believes him even his own public defenders.
Right, it's not until a hospital psychiatrist goes
okay, let me just make a few phone calls
and do a few Google searches and boom mistake found.
And then as if they didn't steal two years
of this man's life, they're like,
ah, let's consider this a woopsie.
Get outta here.
Just looking through all of this,
like you can tell this guy is traumatized.
Reportedly at this time he like refuses
to leave his sister's property.
He's horrified that they're gonna make him go back.
And like plainly put my opinion is
the people that just did not in any way
do the right thing,
they need to be punished.
This guy at the very least,
he needs to get fucking check.
And I think among other things it highlights
how our system really doesn't think of the people
that are kind of economically
on the lower end as even people.
Who we are in times of struggle,
how we treat the vulnerable
and those that have less than us,
that highlights who and what we are.
But yeah, the question I have off to you,
if you were the judge and jury,
what sort of retribution and punishment should we see here?
Then in entertainment news,
if you are a fan of Trey Parker and Matt Stone,
and the goodness they put out, rejoice
because they just signed a massive deal with ViacomCBS.
According to Variety the duo will make 14 South Park films
for the studio streaming service Paramount Plus
and the series is now also renewed
on Comedy Central through 2027.
With it all reportedly being worth
a whopping $900 million over the next six years.
Also Trey and Matt, not the only ones in the news
because of massive paydays.
You had Corinna Kopf back in the news.
Between popping up in the news
because she was trying to make herself look to be a victim
because she won't be vaccinated
and people have negative reactions to that.
You saw her previously saying she made a million dollars
in the first 48 hours after launching an OnlyFans.
And now it's more.
- It's actually not as crazy as you think.
Well, it's crazy, but like
- [Man Offscreen] Just say it.
- 4.2 million.
My first tit pic ever made $165,000.
- So the main takeaway from this story
is I am very excited to announce PDS Plus,
the premium Philip DeFranco Show experience
It is a pay subscription service,
giving you these show that, you know, you love,
but in the top right corner,
there's also a camera that's just pointed at my feet.
Subscribe now over at PhilsFeet.com.
That's P H I L S
then what you would like to put in your mouth .com.
Then on the note of celebrities
we also had Kendall Jenner in the news
for one of the three reasons she's always in the news
or anyone from this group are in the news,
there is a multi-million dollar lawsuit.
And this because Jenner who is reportedly
the highest paid model in the world
didn't model when she was supposed to.
And according to a legal complaint that was filed
Jenner signed a contract for at least had to be paid
$1.5 million plus a 20% service fee
in exchange for two planned photo shoots.
She did the first photo shoot
with the brand saying that
they already gave her $1.35 million.
The second shoot ends up getting pushed because of COVID.
They reschedule.
But the brand's saying that when they went
to finally confirm the date
Kendall stopped responding.
However, Kendall's modeling management company says
no that's not true.
Saying the complaint is without merit
and that they continually offered alternate dates
and locations to fulfill the agreement.
So ultimately there's just this weird and messy situation
where it appears that someone is lying.
Yeah we'll have to wait and see what happens there
for what essentially is pocket change for Jenner.
And then in news highlighting how companies
are having a hard time attracting and retaining workers.
You had Target in the news,
announcing that starting this fall,
Target will cover the cost of tuition, fees, and textbooks
for full-time and part-time workers
who pursue degrees or certificates
at more than 40 participating institutions.
And reportedly they'll have at least
250 different business aligned programs
to choose from including business management,
computer science, design, and more.
Target will also fund advanced degrees,
paying up to $10,000 each year for Master's programs
at those schools,
as well as offering up to $5,250
for those pursuing non-Master's degrees
or business aligned programs at one of the select schools.
But Target's saying that ultimately it plans
to invest $200 million into the education program
over the next four years,
and employees in the US will qualify
as soon as their first day.
And while notable this also just makes Target one
of the most recent companies
to offer incentives and kind of perks.
Places like Chipotle and Starbucks have already had
similar programs in place,
but more businesses have been introducing
or expanding these incentives.
Like Walmart for instance recently announced
that they'll cover the full cost
of college tuition and books for their employees.
And while many have applauded these businesses
you also have others saying
they're just doing what they have to do.
It's just gotten tougher and tougher
to hire people and get them to stay at your company.
And they also have to compete
with smaller businesses
that don't have the same resources as them.
So that's why you have people going, yes, this is fantastic.
People are also concerned that this could change
the business landscape so that only a few handful
of companies can dominate their sectors.
But of course the counter to that is
that was already happening.
Like no small business is super pumped
when a Walmart comes to town.
So the people arguing the main thing is that
this is a net good for the workers at these stores.
But yeah, with that I would love to know your thoughts.
So from that, I want to take a second to thank
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Remember when there was a ton of people
being exceptionally racist?
And also just saying that
I know there are a lot of you that are like
oh yes, the one time, Phil?
Specifically what I'm talking about is, you know,
a few weeks ago we talked about
English soccer players facing serious
crazy racism after their team lost in the Euro 2020.
There are three black players just being
on the receiving end of a shocking number
of racist fans after they missed their penalty shots
against Italy,
but the situation getting so bad,
Prime Minister, Boris Johnson
and his government announced plans
to actually ban individuals from football matches
if they racially abused players on social media.
- So that if you were guilty, Mr. Speaker
of racist abuse online of footballers
then you will not be going to the match.
No ifs, no buts, no exemptions, and no excuses.
- Also leading the call is by the likes
of Idris Elba for online users
to lose their anonymity
in order to be held far more accountable.
And well, regarding accountability
today you had the United kingdom's football policing unit
announcing the arrest of 11 individuals
who engaged in racist commentary against the players.
With the unit saying that they requested data
from social media companies to identify users,
passing it on to local police.
Cheshire Chief Constable Mark Roberts
who leads soccer policing
for the National Police Chief's Council saying
"there are people out there who believe they can hide
behind a social media profile and get away
with posting such abhorrent comments.
They need to think again."
And as of right now 34 people
within the UK were identified as posting comments
with authorities waiting to identify 50 more.
So it is possible we may see more arrests happen.
But of course with this news
it sparked questions and debate online about anonymity
and also holding people accountable for their speech.
And while in the United States
the first amendment largely protects you
from government reprisal if you're a racist douche bag,
that is not the case in the UK.
And so with this story
I do want to pass the question off to you.
What are your thoughts there regarding freedom of speech
and the differences we're seeing in the US and the UK,
and two, I mean, it's a slightly different version
of when we talked about Elba in the past,
but I mean do you think that social media companies
should make it so you cannot be anonymous?
Why, why not?
Is there a solution in between?
I'd love to know your thoughts here.
Then in a mix of domestic and international news,
we have the Department of Homeland Security today announcing
that today President Biden issued a memorandum
to defer for 18 months the removal
for Hong Kong residents presently in the United States.
Essentially offering a safe haven
for those that fear going home.
Because I mean, it's a scary time right now.
Over the past few years
we've seen Beijing cracking down harder and harder
and harder on democracy
and what is supposed to be a semi-autonomous territory.
And while this is a big and meaningful move right,
the people affected here actually will also be allowed
to seek employment authorization through US citizenship
and immigration services,
you also have people like Senator Ben Sasse saying,
"today's move is a solid step,
but we need to go further.
We need to offer full asylum to Hong Kongers
who flee chairman Xi's brutal oppression."
Also, while we're already talking about China,
we should definitely talk about what's happening
with China in the tech sector.
Because they, for example,
maybe you've already seen the news
or passed some headlines
noting that Tik Tok owner ByteDance has had
to lay off now hundreds of employees today in response
to new Chinese regulations
that prohibit private for-profit tutoring
in core curriculum subjects,
With those specific employees working
in ByteDance's online education businesses,
which was effectively killed by the new the rules.
But the reason this story is actually very important
and should stand out isn't just because, you know,
you have ByteDance and the Tik Tok connection,
but rather because they are hardly the only company
to be hit so hard recently.
Some firms like Yuanfudao,
a $15.5 billion startup,
essentially had to shut down all marketing
while they figure out what to do now.
Or the entire education industry out there,
which is absolutely massive in China,
was gutted by last month's new rules,
which not only banned private tutoring
in the most important subjects,
but also gave preferential treatment
to public school students trying
to enter China's top universities.
Now with this China says that the move is supposed
to help combat inequities currently within China,
especially between poor and more rural students
who struggle to get into top universities
because of their need to go to public schools
and not have access to private tutors.
But a lot of the moves that they've
been making recently really seem
to be more about control.
Because with these new rules
they also banned most foreign investment
into the Chinese education market.
They banned foreign curriculum,
and also they banned most foreign teachers working in China.
Also earlier in the week, for example,
on Tuesday with Chinese state media
calling video games spiritual opium,
calling it an electronic drug,
which seemingly caused shares
for the Chinese company Tencent,
the world's largest video game maker, to plunge.
Tencent also seeming to react to this
by limiting kid's playing time now
to just an hour per week day.
We've also seen a trend of US listed Chinese companies
coming under fire.
Last month, for example, DiDi,
which is essentially think of it as Uber in China,
they got banned from app stores
after they went public in the US.
Then in COVID-19 news
reportedly the Biden Administration is developing a plan
to require nearly all foreign visitors to the US
to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19
once the travel restrictions lift.
Currently, if you don't know,
the US prevents most non-US citizens
from entering the country if they've traveled
within a number of countries
including China, India, South Africa, Iran, Brazil,
and most of Europe within the last 14 days.
But no, this is really more of a forward looking story
because it's not even known when the current restrictions
will be lifted especially with COVID surging again.
Which actually, on that note,
the world has now surpassed 200 million reported COVID cases
throughout the pandemic.
Then we had President Biden
unveiling a new multi-pronged policy today aimed
at reducing vehicle emissions that has been described
as one of the administration's most significant efforts
to combat climate change.
First part of the plan directs relevant agencies to restore
and strengthen mileage standards that were implemented
under Obama but rolled back
during the Trump administration.
With the second part of his new plan Biden aims
to address a more longterm goal
by signing an executive order that sets a new target
to make electric vehicles half of all new vehicles sold
by 2030.
And there's a fact sheet and really interesting information
and notably with this, of course, 2030 is just a target,
though, one that America's big three automakers,
Ford, GM, and Stellantis, formerly Fiat Chrysler
seem to agree with,
issuing a joint statement announcing their shared aspiration
to achieve sales of 40 to 50% of annual US volumes
of electric vehicles by 2030.
Which I mean, regarding that aspect of the story
is probably more important
because nothing's going to ever get done it feels like,
and I know that I'm a cynic,
but to put it bluntly or simply, I mean,
Biden doesn't even have his whole party on board, right.
Joe Manchin is still a person that exists.
And specific to this story,
he has already signaled that he will not support some
of the measures in this.
And so if it ever feels like I'm a little bit frustrated
when talking about stories like this,
it's because it's like,
we're talking about like plans and cool ideas.
Like, it just feels like anytime anything has
to go through Congress someone's like,
guys, we're going to Wet and Wild.
We're going to the water park.
But you know that at the end of the day
you're either going to just still be home
or you're gonna end up in the backyard
with like an inflatable pool.
And so it ends up just kind of being like,
well, I hope that private industry
and the market decide that yes,
we should actually care about the planet.
That is economically in our best interests.
Then in a story connected in no way,
we have the town
of Greenville, California permanently altered
after this Dixie fire rolled
through the city's historic center.
And I mean, we're talking about immense damages,
estimated that 75% of the structures
in Greenville were lost to the fire
with one local telling the New York times that quote,
"it took maybe 30 minutes before all
of Greenville was literally flanked by fire."
For the state of California,
the loss of Greenville is more than just the loss of a town,
but a significant chunk of California history.
It was a gold rush town that still has many
of the original structures from the 19th century.
And as Dixie fires also stand out so far this year,
the Dixie fire is the largest to date
burning more than 320,000 acres
and is so far only 35% contained.
Well, the silver lining,
if you can even call it that right now,
is that there have been no fatalities.
The fire has been in general located
in a sparsely populated area of the state.
One, the people it impacted are still important,
and two, it now threatens some of the local towns,
leaving officials worried that many more are
in danger right now as the fire makes its way
towards other population centers in the region.
But ultimately with this story,
or honestly, anything else that stood out to you today,
I'd love to know your thoughts
in those comments down below,
because yes, this is a news show,
but it's also a conversation.
And to keep that convo going,
make sure you like the video, subscribe to the channel,
blahbity blah, all the good stuff.
Also remember you only have a few days left if you want
to snag something over at BeautifulBastard.com,
but as always, my name's Philip DeFranco,
you've just been filled in.
I love your faces and I'll see you next time.