- 'Sup, you beautiful bastards.
Welcome back to "The Philip DeFranco Show."
This is the final road show for a while.
I'm back in the studio on Monday.
So to celebrate our successful week of road shows,
hit that like button, make sure you subscribe
for these daily dives into the news,
and let's just jump into it.
Yoh first up today, the unthinkable has happened.
Dave Chappelle got canceled.
But like not in the social media way,
but like actually in real life.
Right, so yesterday he was scheduled to perform
at the First Avenue Theater in Minneapolis.
And if you don't know, it's a significant theater.
Dave has performed there before.
It's also in Prince's "Purple Rain" film.
Many believe that it should be declared
a historical landmark.
But just hours before Chappelle was supposed
to take the stage, the theater canceled his gig at the venue
and said it would be switching it to a new location.
And though they did not explicitly say why,
it appears to have to do with the backlash and criticism
the comedian has faced over transphobic remarks.
With First Avenue saying in a statement,
"to staff, artists and our community,
we hear you and we are sorry.
We know we must hold ourselves to the highest standards
and we know we let you down.
We are not just a black box with people in it,
and we understand that First Avenue is not just a room
but meaningful beyond our walls."
And adding that the theater and its supporters
have worked hard to make the venue a safe space.
Continuing, "we believe in diverse voices
and the freedom of artistic expression,
but in honoring that we lost sight of the impact
this would have.
We know there are some who will not agree
with this decision:
You are welcome to send feedback."
And then telling ticket holders they would get an email
about their tickets being transferred to the new location
Varsity Theater.
With Varsity Theater, then confirming and following up
by letting fans know that their tickets would be honored
at its doors.
And notably Varsity had already scheduled
to host Chappelle today and Friday.
So it was the logical switch
as the venue had already given him the green light.
And as you'd expect, this has prompted
a ton of conversation and questions online
about why First Avenue chose to ditch the event so suddenly.
Some claiming that the staff at First Avenue
called out in protest so there were actually no workers
to work the gig.
Though notably no official reports yet have confirmed
and mentioned that.
Others have pointed to a change.org petition that said
Dave has a record of being dangerous to trans people,
and First Avenue has a duty to protect the community.
That petition only had around 126 signatures,
so it wasn't big.
But clearly in some capacity,
whether it be from staff or supporters,
the venue was facing backlash big enough
for a last minute cancellation.
And so now with these two venues
doing two drastically different things,
both are receiving heat online.
Some accusing First Avenue of embracing cancel culture
saying they're hypocrites,
picking and choosing what voices they support.
But on the other side you have people upset
and pointing the finger at Varsity
saying they're platforming transphobia
With Star Tribune even reporting that a few dozen protesters
went to the theater before the show chanting
"trans lives matter."
And so far as the recording,
Chappelle has not released a statement about the situation,
but my thinking, well he may have feelings
to a certain degree about that venue. I'm not sure.
I have to imagine in general he's fine with this.
Like, I mean really think about it.
What has the net effect of this been for Dave Chappelle?
More money, more attention, more audience?
But with all that said,
yeah, I do wanna know your thoughts on everything
but also specifically regarding First Ave and Varsity.
And then in very exciting or concerning news
about the future of the creator space
and the organizations that are built in it
we should talk about FaZe Clan.
Right, because if you don't know
FaZe Clan is a massive, massive creator company.
It has a major online grassroots names
like FaZe Rug and FaZe Rain,
but also over the years has gained interest
and brought in people like Kyler Murray and Snoop Dogg.
And the company just went public yesterday
following a merger with a Special Purpose
Acquisition Company or a SPAC,
with that deal having valued FaZe at $725 million.
It's currently trading on the NASDAQ under FAZE.
It opened at $13 per share.
But, and this is why I said it was exciting for some
and concerning for others,
the stock has not been met with a ton of excitement.
So far having plummeted roughly over 30%,
now selling closer to a $9 share price.
Right, you're talking about an instant devaluation
of hundreds of millions of dollars.
With some outlets noting that while SPAC mergers
were hot during the pandemic,
they quickly lost popularity.
With CNBC noting "that market has dried up,
many planned deals remain on hold or were canceled,
and many companies that went public using a SPAC merger
in the past few years have performed extremely poorly."
With other outlets also noting that
there may have been kind of an understanding
that the market wasn't really interested.
Noting that the $735 million valuation that it came out with
is less than the $1 billion it had
when it first announced its intent to go public last year.
So it's definitely off to a rocky start,
but the news of it going public is still major
because it's a big step,
not only for the creator in eSports economy,
but also because it's a young company
that appeals specifically to Gen-Z.
With CEO Lee Trink telling the Washington Post
"we've placed ourselves in the top echelon
of a youth culture company.
And now, and not just this minute,
we have started to shift our focus
to monetizing that massive audience.
I think that's really critical for this moment
of going public."
And adding to NBC,
"we think we're the first Gen-Z native brand to go public.
We're certainly the first creator based brand to go public."
With FaZe Clan claiming that 80% of its audiences
is between the ages of 13 and 34,
which is a very young lean,
but also not surprising considering its content.
But for now, we're gonna have to wait to see what happens
with this company, but also the stock.
Is this slow rocky start indicative of a much larger problem
or is it just kind of a early kink?
Little snag in the plan that they're gonna bounce back from?
Who knows? Maybe you do.
So while we wait to see what happens
I'll pass the question off to you.
What are your thoughts with this story?
And then are you a normie over the age of 40
or a weirdo under the age of 40?
Or rather my question is, do you use Facebook?
Because well you or if there's someone you know that uses it
is about to have a drastically different experience.
And it's gonna be something more along the lines of TikTok.
And that's because over the next few weeks,
Facebook is transforming itself
to more closely resemble TikTok
in a bid to claw back some of the younger demographic.
With the default Home tab on its app
set to give you videos and posts
the algorithm thinks you'll like
effectively promoting outside content creators
over friends and family.
As well as providing very easy access
to its short form video service known as Reels
in the Stories feature.
And if you wanna use Facebook in a more social
non algorithm-driven way,
you have to visit the new Feeds tab,
which will show the most recent posts
from friends, family, and favorite pages and groups.
But this being something you could do before,
but to get a reverse chronological view
you had to fiddle around with the settings
and deliberately prioritize most recent
leading to some very maddening calls
from grandma and grandpa.
But I mean if you look at this, giving this Feed its own tab
and splitting it off from the new Home tab,
which is now front and center in the app,
it represents an obvious move by Facebook
to focus more on its TikTok-esque features
while streamlining the traditional stuff elsewhere.
You understand these changes aren't coming out of nowhere.
They're coming after Facebook lost daily users
for the first time in its history
during the final months of 2021,
which tanked its stock price.
Whereas TikTok on the other hand has seen
its American user base surpassing 110 million people.
With a new survey also finding that
it's the fastest growing source of news
among adults in the United Kingdom.
Being used now by 7% for news compared to just 1% in 2020.
Which just to self promote,
if you're on TikTok, you should follow me.
We've essentially gone from zero to 2 million
and it's awesome to have a community over there too.
You know, all of this could be part of the reason
why Facebook is reallocating resources away from news
and toward video and entertainment content
in the hopes of building out a creator economy.
And understand, Facebook's not the only platform
being displaced, right?
It's been estimated that 40% of Gen-Z Americans
prefer TikTok and Instagram, notably,
over traditional search tools like Google and Maps
to find stuff like places to eat
or things to do.
Which to that point, I will say
there is nothing worse than finding a TikTok
that's gone viral of one of your favorite places to eat.
It's like, okay, I can't eat there for three months
without a crazy line.
But the main question with this story is
what happens to Facebook following these changes?
Can it save them from being a platform
that's really only used by the angry olds?
Or are these changes doomed from day one
and it's just gonna alienate their existing audience?
And while we wait to see what actually happens
I'd love to know your thoughts and predictions
in those comments down below.
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And then we should talk about how
a bipartisan group of senators
have introduced legislation
that would modernize the Electoral Count Act of 1887.
I know, a sexy sounding story.
Is it possibly too sexy for YouTube?
It just might be.
But this is actually important news, right?
Because the ECA is the law that Trump tried to use
to overturn the election on January 6th.
And so now this legislation,
which comes after months of negotiations,
broadly aims to ensure that there is a peaceful
transfer of power between presidents.
Something, I guess in the past they were like,
"we're not gonna need that.
This is a no fascist zone baby.
And there never will be because history doesn't repeat."
But among the measures, the proposal would clarify
that the Vice President's role
in Congress's certification of the election
is purely ceremonial
with no authority to just reject electors,
as Trump had pressured Pence to do,
to prevent Biden from assuming power.
The bill would also make it harder for members of Congress
to challenge state election results
when they are finalized in the chambers
by raising the threshold for objections.
But under the current law, only one member of the house
and one member of the Senate are needed to challenge
any state's slate of electors.
But this proposal would require objections
from at least 20% of the members from each chamber.
Beyond that the legislation takes steps
to protect election certification at the state level,
by including provisions that would ensure Congress can
identify one conclusive slate of electors from each state.
Additionally, it would get rid of a provision
in a separate 1845 law
that state legislatures could potentially use
to override the popular vote of their voters
by declaring a so-called failed election.
A phrase that isn't even defined in law.
And while it's overwhelmingly fucking sad and ridiculous,
we even need this legislation to clarify
the basic tenets of democracy.
It would be very significant
because as Axios explains
"the bill, if passed by the House and Senate,
would mark the first major legislative response
to the January 6th Capitol attack
and the events that preceded it."
And Barry notably, unlike every other federal attempt
to provide basic protections to the election system,
since the insurrection, this bill could actually pass.
Right? Of the 16 senators that introduced the bill,
9.7 are Republicans.
And by that I mean, nine are Republicans,
and one is Joe Manchin.
Now that said, of course,
at least 10 members of the GOP would need to join
all the democrats to break the filibuster.
But it seems like it could get there, right?
While minority leader Mitch McConnell
has yet to endorse the plan,
he has signaled he's open to reforming the ECA
and echoed the need for it to be changed
in comments to reporters earlier this week.
This proposal is coming just ahead
of the January 6th committee hearing
which is set to be the last one scheduled
for the panel this summer, during Prime Time Tonight.
And while the committee has said
that it's continuing its investigation
and could hold more hearings in the future
before the final one when it releases its report,
today's hearings have been described as a sort
of closing argument for the case against Trump.
And so as far as what happens both for the January 6th panel
and this legislation, we're gonna have to wait to see.
But till we see, right now, it does appear that Congress
is very, very close to actually maybe doing a thing.
And then we have President Biden in the news
for two reasons.
The first being that he just tested positive for COVID.
I imagine after VP Harris blew it into his face
like she was gold dust,
then turning to the camera and saying,
"now is my time,"
which by the way if you were wondering where she's been,
she's been in a lab putting COVID into glitter.
Also President Biden please don't die
because then people are gonna come for me for these jokes.
Also, 'cause you're the President.
But mainly the first thing.
Oh, and also I have a heart.
And two because President Biden announced
a series of executive actions regarding climate change.
And among other measures,
Biden said that he would allocate 2.3 billion in funding
to FEMA's building resilient infrastructure
and communities program.
This to help communities increase resilience
to climate change-driven weather and disasters,
expand the federal low income home energy assistance program
to set up community cooling centers,
and pay for people to cool their homes,
as well as direct the interior department
to take steps to boost the domestic offshore wind industry
in the Gulf of Mexico.
But very notably here
while Biden described the climate crisis as an emergency
he also stopped short of actually using his authority
to officially declare a national climate emergency,
which would expand his power on this front.
This including by giving him the ability
to significantly ramp up renewable energy projects
and transition away from fossil fuels, right?
As many have noted while Biden's latest actions will help
Americans impacted by climate change,
it does almost nothing to actually offset it.
And saying that his failure to announce an emergency
comes amid increased pressure from activists and lawmakers
in his party to do so
after Joe Manchin said last week,
he wouldn't support climate change legislation
in the Senate.
With essentially just Manchin single-handedly
undermining Biden's climate agenda
and seriously gutting his broader economic package
being debated in the Senate right now.
All of this is also coming after
a recent Supreme court ruling
that massively limited the environmental protection agency's
ability to regulate carbon emissions from power plants,
making it much harder for not only Biden,
but also future administrations to curb emissions.
Notably here, multiple administration officials
and other top lawmakers who have spoken to Biden
have said that he would likely declare an emergency
at some point,
and he's just figuring out the scope of it right now.
And the scope there matters
because pretty much any action he takes on that front
is almost certainly going to face lawsuits
from Republican held states,
which could effectively undermine them entirely.
But at the same time, there is a lot of pressure here
from the party and its voters ahead of the midterms
and with Biden right now having record low approval ratings
and facing criticism for lack of executive action
on other key topics like abortion,
it's gonna be very important to watch what he does here.
But ultimately that is where that story
and today's show ends.
As always thank you for watching,
liking and being a part of that conversation down below,
being subscribed to these daily dives into the news.
And if you want some more news
you can click these floating boxes around my head
or in the links in the description 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 next time.