- Sup you beautiful bastards.
Welcome back to the Philip DeFranco Show.
It is Monday.
More importantly, it's Martin Luther king Jr. Day.
Yes, a day to look back and respect the man, his words,
his actions, what he stood for,
but also, I think a day to remember, he was just that.
He was a man.
A man who affected many, because much like with fear,
hope, and the ideas for progress, they're contagious.
And today there was a thing I wanted to open with
because yes, I'm very much a cynic.
And I feel like a lot of the time on this show,
I'm talking about how the world is a dumpster fire,
but in the words of Martin Luther King,
"We must accept finite disappointment,
but never lose infinite hope."
That is as important to remember now,
as it was then, as it will be in the future.
But with that uncharacteristically positive intro aside,
welcome back to the Philip DeFranco Show.
Hit that like button,
if you wanna help spread some common sense news coverage,
and let's just jump into it.
And the first thing that we're gonna talk about today
is this latest wave of creators
openly getting incredibly angry, pissed off,
or at the very least,
increasingly annoyed about NFT stunts.
And this is in part, kind of a continuation
and somewhat connected to artists getting pissed off
about NFTs, specifically with theft of their work.
People like Jim Caddick raising awareness on this
pointing to just the latest instance of it, right?
And NFT of his channel was listed on Opensea,
seemingly by a username StakeTheWeb.
The featuring a digital card of the channel logo,
and when you look at the listing for the NFT,
the unique URL is actually just the channel link.
With Jim adding, at least if you stole my shit
and tried selling it off,
make it a T-shirt, a mug, a clock,
a thing that you can use and enjoy.
Showing off a profile picture for a collection
you can just make yourself on a Facebook photo album
is honestly a new level of pathetic.
The same thing happening with Stephanie Sterling
also known as Jim Sterling, who tweeted,
"Frankly, not surprised that some free loading leech
turned my channel into an NFT.
As gross as it is, I find it justifying
I did not consent to this,
I do not want this,
and it demonstrates everything I've said
about how disrespectful and exploitive
this market is, scum."
Then the final example of this
is I guess someone decided,
"I wanna steal this creator's image,
sell it as an NFT,
but let's also throw harassment into the mix."
The Photoshopping the creator, Alanah Pearce
on a porn magazine cover and selling it as an NFT.
With Alanah sharing on her Twitter,
"In extremely predictable news,
I've just been informed that somebody
has taken an image of me, that I own,
added a trademark porn logo to it
and minted it to sell for profit as an NFT.
Naturally, I was not asked for permission.
I cannot wait for the lawsuits."
And as all this started to blow up,
you had a spokesperson for Opensea telling the gamer,
"OpenSea supports an open and creative ecosystem
in which people have greater freedom and ownership
over digital items of all kinds.
One of our operating principles is to support creators
and their audiences by deterring theft
and plagiarism on our platform.
And adding to that end,
it is against our policy to sell NFTs
using plagiarized content,
which we regularly enforced in various ways,
including delisting, and in some instances,
banning accounts, as was the case in this instance.
But many are saying that OpenSea needs to do better
at the very least so they can be more mainstream.
But also, they really have no excuse now.
But the number of people pointing to the fact
that they just raised hundreds of millions of dollars
at an over $13 billion valuation.
And then we need to talk about YouTuber
and entrepreneur, Mr. Beast beating a child,
like, absolutely destroying a child,
which maybe you've seen the news pop up, and the headlines,
so it's not getting as much traction
as I would expect it would.
But obviously, you hear that and you're like,
Okay, I got questions, one, why?
Two, where did he get the strength?
He's been knocked out with COVID for the past two weeks.
Which is why you should probably clarify that
when I say Mr. Beast beat a child,
I mean, in revenue, in dollars.
The forum's reporting that Mr. Beast
unseated the previous king, "Ryan Toys Review"
as the highest paid YouTuber in the world.
With Ryan dropping from first to seventh,
so Mr. Beast wasn't the only one beating him.
before it was reporting
that Mr. B's brought in $54 million,
Jake Paul monetizing your hate against him for $45 million
followed by Markiplier, Rhett and Link,
Unspeakable and more.
According to Forbes,
the top paid YouTubers earned a collected $300 million in
2021, which yes is a big number on its own,
but notably it's also a 40% increase
from the total last year.
And the other revealing thing with these numbers
is that you had Forbes noting that there is an overlap
between the top on YouTube and mainstream media.
Putting out that Mr. B's actually would have been
in the top 40 of their last celebrity 100.
Are you talking about being ahead
of people like Billie Eilish
and then is this incredibly smart or incredibly stupid news?
Let's talk about the trusted driver program
that as of this last Saturday is being tested
in a city just outside of San Antonio.
And the question that the center of this program is,
would you rather be pulled over
for a minor traffic violation
or what do you want the police officers
just to text you the ticket.
With Val Garcia, the CEO of the program saying,
"If we minimize those interactions
just for minor traffic violations,
police have more time to dedicate to serious crime like,
individuals driving while intoxicated that are on the road,
reckless drivers racing",
but the key thing here is that all of this is voluntary.
Drivers in the area actually have to sign up to be involved,
otherwise they're just going to get pulled over like normal.
And of course with this, you have Garcia really pushing
for people to sign up.
Also adding that that can include information like,
whether they have autism or deaf.
So the police know before an interaction starts.
With some also arguing,
this could be beneficial for minorities
that are nervous of interactions with the police
that they could escalate.
So, "Hey, just send me the ticket."
But of course, on the other side,
you have a number of people saying
this is incredibly stupid.
And if anything, it's just a cash grab from the government.
Saying this isn't really about police officers
having to deal with the heavy crime,
but rather just a way to increase revenue
through more tickets.
And so of course, with this story,
I wanna know everyone's thoughts, but also,
especially if in the United States,
you're a part of minority group, that statistically
has a higher chance of facing police brutality,
which often stems from normal traffic stops.
But also two, to close this story,
I don't think there's a world where
I would ever sign up for this.
Like if you're gonna inconvenience me,
you are going to find me.
I'm gonna make you work for it.
I'm not gonna make it easier for you to make my life harder.
But also that's just one man's thinking,
and that's not what this show is about.
So I'd love to know yours, but from that,
I wanna take a second to thank the sponsor
of today's show, Stamps.com/Phil.
Whether you're a small office sending out invoices
and online sellers, shipping orders, or even
a giant warehouse sending thousands of packages a day
Stamps.com is great for any size business.
Personally, I love how convenient and cost effective
this is for my business, I mean.
I can get all the mailing and shipping done
without even leaving my home for more than 20 years.
Stamps.com has been indispensable
for over a million businesses,
hidden brain official us postage from your computer 24/7,
no special supplies or equipment needed.
And with Stamps.com/Phil, you've got exclusive discounts
on post office rates like 40% off USPS
and 76% UPS rates.
Using stamps.com just make sense,
especially if your business sends more mail
and packages this time of year,
it saves me time and money freeing me up
to produce the show.
Work on the new studio, create fantastic clothes,
for the next beautiful bastard draw.
Save time and money and go to Stamps.com/Phil,
to get a four week trial
plus free postage and a digital scale.
There's no risk, no long-term commitments,
no contracts and never go to the post office again,
that's Stamps.com/Phil.
And then with it being MLK Day
and voting rights legislation,
seemingly set to die in the Senate,
because two or a few Democrats
will be joining the stonewalling Republicans
and not getting rid of the filibuster.
I think it's important to note,
this is not a new issue in.
MLK actually spoke on this back in 1963.
- The tragedy is that we have a Congress with the Senate
that has a minority of misguided senators,
who will use the filibuster
to keep the majority of people from even voting.
They won't let the majority senators vote,
and certainly they wouldn't want the majority of people
to vote because they know they do not represent
the majority of the American people, right.
- With that clip and just people being aware
of where Dr. King stood on the issue of voting rights,
being part of the reason we've seen
a number of Republican lawmakers getting backlash
on social media today, right?
With a number of those Republicans in question
quoting and praising Dr. King with people saying, okay,
so you're doing this,
but you're also voting or standing
against voting rights legislation.
And personally, I agree with those
who say that these are just deceitful politicians,
cherry-picking quotes from Dr. King
will actively working to destroy his legacy,
but being a disingenuous bullshitter, isn't illegal.
And if anything, it's a historic American tradition
when it comes to politicians.
And then let's talk about how Europe is on high alert.
As a potential invasion of Ukraine is imminent.
Brushes in the US were initially making progress
during talks in Geneva.
But on the last day,
Russia seemed to have stonewalled the United States
causing the talks to fall apart.
US representative said after the talks,
they quote the drum beat of war is sounding loud
and the rhetoric has gone rather shrill
and US Senator Chris Murphy said that ,
US intelligence believes in invasion could be eminent.
US has revealed intelligence
showing the Russia is planning a false flag operation
to justify an invasion of Ukraine within the next month.
Meanwhile, Poland warned that Europe
is at the greatest risk of war in 30 years,
and that members of the OSCE
must take their security obligations seriously.
Russia denies, it has plans to invade Ukraine.
However, intelligence shows their troops
moving closer to the Ukrainian border.
And on Friday Russian's foreign minister
began his press conference by threatening Ukraine,
the US, Finland, Sweden, all NATO members.
And Russia is also suspected to have been behind,
Friday cyber attacks on Ukraine.
So with all that, it's easy to see why NATO members
and other nations near Russia,
have grown increasingly worried about their actions.
So obviously we're going to keep an eye on this,
and I'd love to know your thoughts on it.
Because unfortunately there's no reason to think
that this thing is far from over.
And then finally, today let's talk about the hostage crisis.
The Beth Israel, synagogue in Colleyville, Texas,
that took place over the weekend.
We've got some new information today,
but to start at the beginning,
during the Saturday morning service,
an armed man entered the congregation,
taking four people hostage,
including Rabbi Charlie Citron Walker.
According to law enforcement officials,
the man brandished a gun claiming he had explosives,
though no explosives were found.
Also notably because the service
was being live streamed on zoom and Facebook audio.
The hostages was broadcast for some of the ordeal.
And according to people who heard the live stream,
the man entered the synagogue by knocking on the glass door,
pretending that he needed shelter,
so Citron Walker let him in.
One member of the congregation
who was listening to a live stream,
telling reporters that the suspect kind of bounce back
and forth between being apologetic
and screaming hysterically talking repeatedly,
about how he hated Jewish people,
others saying that it could be heard making an escalated
series of threats repeatedly saying that
he would set off a bomb.
At one point, while speaking to negotiators,
he implied that children of the hostages would be orphaned.
But finally, after hours of speaking with negotiators,
police said that one hostage was released unharmed,
but the Colleyville Police Chief also saying,
that at around 9:00 PM,
nearly 11 hours after the congregants
had been taken hostage,
the FBI's elite Hostage Rescue Team breached the building
and rescued the other three hostages.
Though, notably here,
the hostages have disputed that account.
Rabbi said John Walker telling reporters
that he threw a chair at the suspect
and then escape with the other two hostages,
with one of the other hostages,
Jeffrey Cohen also appearing to back up that account,
writing in a Facebook post.
"First of all, we escaped, we weren't released or freed".
With Rabbi also saying in a statement that
security trainings, including some specifically
intended to help synagogues and Jewish communities
to develop safety plans,
help the hostages survive the crisis.
While it is officially unclear how the hostages got out.
Video from a local news station
does show them fleeing the building,
right before a man holding a gun
could be seen on the entrance.
With that man seen going back inside.
Groups of law enforcement personnel,
then swarming the building followed by the sounds of gunfire
and allowed blast.
The suspect was ultimately killed during the standoff,
though authorities at this time,
if not said whether he was shot or he shot himself
saying the matter is still under investigation.
And as far as what we know about this suspect,
the FBI identified him as a British national
who entered the country through New York two weeks ago.
No officials have not yet said why
he targeted this Texas synagogue, some 1600 miles away.
But reportedly only people who heard this livestream
saying the suspect had chosen this synagogue
because it was the closest assemblage of Jews
to a prison in Fort Worth,
where convicted Pakistani terrorist
was serving an 86 year sentence.
The suspect reportedly is saying that
he wanted the woman in question released,
that he wanted to see her.
And then they would rise together in Jannah,
the Muslim concept of heaven
where people devotees go after judgment day.
So with all of this on Sunday,
with the FBI describing the crisis
as a terrorism related matter
in which the Jewish community was targeted,
adding of the matter was being investigated
by the joint terrorism task force.
And notably the agency said that there was no indication
that other people were involved in this incident,
but then late yesterday, the news broke
that in England, the greater Manchester Police Department
had detained two teenagers for questioning
in connection with the investigation bill
not providing any additional information.
All of that said,
while we wait for more information to come in, I will say,
I think the lowest bar of entry here,
is to just call this terrorism.
And this morning I saw a few articles popping up saying,
you know, someone close to him said, you know,
there were mental health problems.
And to that, I would argue, okay, we can look into that.
But I also think you could argue that
a lot of people who try to inflict violence
for extremist reasons, probably not all okay up there.
Imagine the majority of people with mental health problems,
aren't like, you know what?
I should make the Jews, my hostages,
but ultimately that is where that story
and today's show ends.
Do you wanna watch some full of shows
or some of the new shorts you can click or tap right there,
but as always, thank you for watching.
I love yo faces and I'll see you tomorrow.