- 'Sup, ya beautiful bastards!
It's Wednesday, March 10th, 2021.
Welcome back to "The Philip DeFranco Show."
Hit that like button.
And let's just jump into the news of the day.
Starting with possibly the most important thing today,
it is time to expose Markiplier for who he really is
by having an in-depth conversation
with him for about two hours,
and then uploading that to YouTube.com/ACW
in a podcast format.
Which, oh wow, shocker is actually something I did
just before this video.
So definitely go subscribe to that channel and check it out.
We talk about a lot of serious things, fun things,
business things, personal things, bonking.
- Try to hit me.
I dare you to hit me.
- Yeah, give it a watch or listen after today's show
or you will get double bonked.
Mark on one side, me on the other.
He has not agreed to this, but I'm speaking on his behalf.
But from that awesome,
let's talk about the polar opposite, our d-bag of the day.
I don't know if you've seen this.
There's this video that's gone viral showing an altercation
in San Francisco, California
between an Uber driver and three passengers.
- (beep)
What you gonna do?
(people shouting over each other)
- Yeah, now you 'bout to get beat the (beep) up.
Now you 'bout to get beat the (beep) up.
- You don't touch my property!
- This incident reportedly happened on Sunday
when the driver picked up the women
but noticed that one wasn't wearing a mask.
The driver later telling reporters
that he ended up driving them to a nearby gas station
so that one of the masked women could buy her friend
her own face covering.
But saying that by the time that friend returned,
the other two passengers were taunting
and berating him for picking them up in the first place.
He decides, okay, you know what?
I'm gonna end the ride.
And he asks them to leave his car.
We also see that the woman who snatched his phone
in the viral dash cam video recorded some
of the exchange herself and posted that footage
to her Instagram,
arguing that they refused to get out
because he wanted to drop them off in what she called,
"the middle of the hood and the freeway."
And in her own clips, you can hear the women argue
that they will not get out of the car at the gas station
until their next Uber arrives.
- [Woman] We just said we're waiting for our Uber!
We just called a Uber!
- [Uber Driver] You get out and wait.
- [Woman] No!
You're not about to let girls get out where we are!
- The argument continues, and then according to police
who were investigating the incident,
when the group did finally leave,
one of the women reached into an open window
to spray what is believed to have been pepper spray
into the vehicle and towards the driver before fleeing.
With the driver saying that the spray was so suffocating
it forced him out of the vehicle
and it left a lingering smell and colored residue behind.
But we have also not gotten to the best part of the story,
the woman who he saw assaulting the driver went
on Instagram live to stand by their behavior.
- And he lucky as hell I didn't have nothing on me on mama's
'cause if he would've played with me, bruh,
it would have been a whole different story.
For real, you not 'bout to kick me out on the freeway.
All I did was smack, take his mask off
and cough a little bit,
but I ain't even have corona so at the end of the day...
Okay, yeah, I ain't gonna lie.
That was disrespectful as (beep).
I was (beep) wrong for that.
But it could've been avoided.
Period, point, blank.
It could've been avoided.
You could've just waited and made sure we was safe.
This (beep) stupid (beep) Uber, bruh.
Oh mama's, that's why I take Lyft!
- And with all this you also had the woman saying
that she was going to sue Uber,
who of course condemned the group's behavior,
also banned the rider from the service.
And as far as that whole, "that's why I take Lyft" thing,
apparently Lyft saw the video and was like, nah.
Coming out with a statement.
"Although this incident did not involve the Lyft platform,
"the unacceptable treatment of the driver
"in this video compelled us to permanently remove the rider
"from the Lyft community.
"Driving in a pandemic is not easy.
"Please wear a mask, respect one another,
"and be a good person."
Which I will say amazing job, Lyft.
Also as far as the driver,
he ended up actually opening up to local reporters
about how Uber only offered him $20 to clean his car
after the altercation.
Though they eventually raised that to 40
and then $120 after a bunch of pushback from him.
But you also have the driver saying
it really doesn't make up for the cleaning cost,
as well as the lost wages
from all the hours he was unable to use his car.
But kind of a happy ending to the story,
even though it had to come from other people
and not the company that this guy was working with.
But when people learned about this part of the story,
a GoFundMe campaign was created for him,
and it's raised well past its $20,000 goal.
Which I will say that the GoFundMes
in situations like this are always interesting
because you know there there's a certain amount
of limited real cost, right?
But it also often feels
like these GoFundMe campaigns are like,
"Here's a giant tip for having to deal
"with the worst of humanity, buddy."
Like, we're all sitting down at that same restaurant,
and the person that's serving on us is getting chewed out
by just a horrible monster person over there.
And you get the check and you're like, "I got you, man.
"That's ooh."
But yeah, I guess where I'll end the story is
with that tried and true advice, don't be stupid, stupid.
I'm not gonna ask you to not be an annoying,
disrespectful monster person.
I'm sure we're well past that line,
but don't be stupid enough to do it
while you're in an Uber where you're being filmed.
You're not gonna be able to lie your way out of this.
They got you in 4K.
Then let's talk about some money/business news
starting with Roblox.
My son last week actually for the first time asked
if I would buy him Robux.
And I was like, "Oh, okay, so we're at this point."
Though he is in no way the only person wanting
to throw money at Roblox right now.
With the company going public
on the New York Stock Exchange today.
The reference price was $45.
Though it actually started trading at $64.50.
Where it ends at the end of the day
it'll be interesting to watch.
But yeah, wow.
Also in the world of entertainment,
it's definitely worth mentioning that Disney Plus announced
that they hit 100 million subscribers
just within 16 months of launching.
Which I mean, that's a huge number on its own,
but for comparison sake,
Netflix didn't reach that number until 2017
which is around 10 years
after it launched streaming in 2007.
Though they still have Disney Plus beat by a lot
with 200 million subscribers of their own.
Still, this is massive,
and it's better than what Disney thought.
They had an initial subscriber goal of 60 to 90 million
by 2024.
Now in that same timeframe,
they're aiming for 230 to 260 million subscribers.
And while, yes,
there are a lot of different factors at play here
including their February launch on India's Star platform.
And also, I mean, at the end of the day,
it comes down to content.
One of their strongest things right now is gonna be
their Marvel pipeline
which is heavily focused on direct to consumer.
"WandaVision" was the most stream show in the United States
in January even reportedly outpacing viewership
of Netflix's "Bridgerton."
Which is incredibly notable because Netflix said
that it was on track to become
the platform's most viewed series ever.
Also significant is that
in January there were only a handful of episodes
of "WandaVision" compared to a full season of "Bridgerton."
And on top of that, you have movie quality.
I mean, Disney Plus had the most watched title
of December with "Souls."
While a few years ago, I think for a lot of people
that it was laughable to think
that anyone could actually compete with Netflix.
Disney is knocking at the door.
And while they're doing it fantastically,
they're also not the only competition there
that's looking strong. The last thing that I'll talk about
in this section are NFTs.
So last week I tried to break down what NFTs were
if you're unfamiliar with them.
I would highly recommend you watch that video.
But yeah, the reason we're talking about NFTs today,
AKA non-fungible tokens,
is that over the weekend we saw Taco Bell rolling
out a series of their own
with some minted themed gifts and images,
with Taco Bell saying
that all 25 of it's available tokens sold out
within 30 minutes.
While reportedly each NFT started out at just under $2,
subsequent bids have now put some pieces at over 3,600.
And in fact, one piece is now for sale for over $20,000.
And actually something interesting is
that with each subsequent sale of these NFTs,
Taco Bell will actually get 0.01% of the profits.
With Taco Bell saying that all the proceeds
that it raises will go to the Live Mas scholarship.
But you know, this is kind of just one
of the latest versions of the NFT story.
We have a big company here, but I mean, for example,
you had Twitter CEO, Jack Dorsey in the news.
The NFT of his first ever tweets now going for $2.5 million.
Last week, we also talked about Logan Paul
who's raked in nearly $6 million in NFTs.
You also have the whole top shot ecosystem.
And I kind of want to elaborate
where I left things last time we talked about this space.
It's a very fascinating and interesting space
to look at right now.
The more that I've looked into and I researched NFTs,
I think that there is a future there
that is going to primarily be based around utility.
There will also of course be winners and losers
if people are just buying things
because they're like collectors items,
and it's a whole ecosystem based on speculation.
But I really think that the future for NFTs is utility.
For example, like with Taco Bell.
While the original owners of those 25 NFTs all
reportedly received $500 digital gift cards,
how awesome would it be if those NFTs
or maybe the next future NFTs that they release
you get exclusive access to, you know,
those Taco Bell experiences that are usually reserved
for big creators.
Maybe it automatically gets ya discounts
when you get Taco Bell stuff, maybe there's free stuff.
So in addition to it being something
that someone can go,
"that's mine, I have it, it's a collectible,"
they can actually get something out of it,
and they can also sell it if they don't want it
or they just want to make a profit.
I think that's awesome.
And if you're a creator,
I urge you not to kind of just rush into the space.
For transparency sake,
I'm currently talking to a group
about doing my own personal, small limited drop.
The utility of some of these NFTs being
like guaranteed access to live shows,
the new studio that I'm buying has a 60 person audience.
And I mean, that's where I'll leave it.
There are other perks, other cool things,
but I don't want to ruin that announcement.
Although I also want to release a one of one
kind of skeleton key hollow
that features the first video I ever made,
which isn't even public anymore.
I'll tell you down the road.
But if you're looking at this space,
I would just urge caution and research it.
But from that, let's take a second to pay the bills
and thank the fantastic sponsor of today's show,
Keeps.
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And then let's talk about those stimmies!
Where my stimmies at, Joe?
And when I say mine, I don't mean me
because I don't think I qualify nor should I.
But you know, everyone else's.
But actually regarding that,
the House just passed the final version
of the $1.9 trillion stimulus package today.
And it will now be sent off to President Biden to sign.
This of course happening after the Senate made changes
to the first House version,
the House then had to vote on the reconciled package.
Which I mean obviously this bill is huge,
but let's talk about some of the most significant measures
that this legislation had.
It gives $1,400 per person stimulus checks
to individuals earning up to $75,000 a year,
heads of households, such as a single parents
who make up to $112,500 a year,
and married couples who jointly earn $150,000 and under.
With the payments phasing out at 80K, 120K,
and 160K for each group, respectively.
This will also provide an additional $1,400
for each dependent regardless of age
of qualifying households.
It'll extend the $300 a week
in federal unemployment benefits
and a 15% increase in food stamp benefits through September.
It'll also temporarily expand the child tax credit,
so qualifying families can receive annual amounts
of $3,600 for children five and younger,
and $3,000 for those ages six to 17.
It'll also allocate $350 billion
for aid to state and local governments,
give $130 billion to help schools open,
as well as 123 billion for COVID related policies,
such as testing and vaccine distribution.
It'll also distribute billions
through multiple programs aimed at helping small businesses,
including $7.25 billion for the paycheck protection program
and 25 billion for a new program just for restaurants.
It will also provide 30 billion in rent relief
to low income houses and temporarily increased subsidies
for people who buy healthcare under the Affordable Care Act.
Though notably not included in this final version
of the package is the $15 an hour minimum wage increase
that was part of the House's first bill.
And that's because the provision was removed
by the Senate parliamentarian who oversees rules
and procedures in the chamber
and who decided that the hike could not be included
in a bill passed using the budget reconciliation process.
And while understandably
that is going to disappoint a large number of people,
it is important to know that this bill is massive
and is expected to help a lot of people.
And if anything, I think I'm kinda more just disappointed
that it's passing along party lines with no GOP support.
Makes you kind of realize, while, yes,
there had to be concessions that are made
because you do have moderate Democrats,
you have people like Manchin who just to say this,
I've seen a lot of Democrats going after Manchin,
which, hey, I get.
You should also be thankful that he's there
because that seat should not belong to a Democrat.
Like, if you look at his state,
it is amazing a Republican does not have that seat.
And with a 50/50 split, every seat matters.
I'm not gonna say give him a standing ovation
for kneecapping policies that you want,
but understand without him,
you get majority leader Mitch McConnell.
As far as what happens next, the White House has said
that Biden will sign this into law on Friday,
one day after he delivers his first prime-time address
on the country's coronavirus response,
where it's reported that he'll be discussing the bill
on the one-year anniversary
of the widespread pandemic closures.
Also at the risk of making today's show just too sexy,
let's talk about some big juicy policy.
Because in addition to those stimmies we just talked
about today, you have the Biden administration set
to purchase an additional 100 million doses
of the Johnson and Johnson COVID-19 vaccine.
But understand this is actually a very big deal
because the Johnson and Johnson vaccine has
massively shifted the playing field
both for the short-term and the long-term.
And before this Johnson and Johnson had already promised
to give the United States a separate shipment
of 100 million doses.
So that initial shipment in combination with the Pfizer
and Moderna vaccines,
the US should have a big enough supply
to vaccinate 200 million people or all American adults
by the end of May, which is huge on its own.
But also when you consider that
with just Pfizer and Moderna,
there were only enough shots to cover all Americans
by the end of July.
So, I mean, you're changing the timeline here.
And in terms of the long game,
the additional 100 million doses that Biden is expected
to order today will actually be distributed
in the second half of the year.
A move that is key for both looking ahead to the future
and creating a fail safe if Pfizer and Moderna run
into manufacturing issues.
And actually as far as the rate of vaccinations,
right now Biden is well on his way of surpassing his goal
of administering 100 million vaccinations
in his first 100 days of office.
With the CDC reporting as of today
more than 93.6 million vaccine doses have been administered
and 123.2 million shots have been delivered.
So we have that, and then where we're gonna close today is
you have the US House of Representatives
passing a sweeping bill
that represents the largest expansion of labor rights
since the New Deal.
Legislation known as the Protecting the Right to Organize
or PRO Act was passed in a 225 to 206 vote
with five Republicans joining Democrats.
And while the bill does not create unions
or change the right to unionize,
it does aim to make the path to unionization easier
for new groups and strengthen unions that already exist.
And if this ends up getting approved as is,
among other things,
it would amend the decades old labor law to shield workers
who try to form a union from retribution or being fired.
Create tougher penalties for employers
who violate workers' rights,
prevent employers
from using an employee's immigration status against them
while determining the terms of their employment,
ban employer interference in union elections,
outlaw mandatory company sponsored meetings used
by employers to lobby against union organization,
override right to work laws that exist
in more than two dozen states
and weaken unions by letting workers opt out
and not pay dues while still being covered under wage
and benefit provisions in their union contracts,
and very notably, make it harder for gig economy companies
like Uber and Lyft to classify workers
as independent contractors
which would pave the way for them to unionize.
And so with this,
you had Democrats and unions applauding this bill,
arguing that it's necessary
to level the playing field slanted
towards big businesses and managers.
But Republicans who oppose this bill
and big business groups have condemned the move,
arguing the Democrats are just pandering to powerful unions
and saying that actually the act would
ultimately hurt workers, undermine state's rights,
and damage businesses at a time
that they are already struggling.
Though notably, not all Republicans
because among the five who voted in passage in the House,
three actually co-sponsored the bill.
But also if we're being honest here,
I think for this to pass the Senate
you're gonna need more Republicans
than I think are going to be on board.
And that because like we've seen with some
of the progressive bills that the House has passed,
it's hard to get through the Senate
because the Democrats only have a slim majority.
And they just don't have enough support
to overcome the 60 vote legislative filibuster.
I will say, there's always a part of me that's like,
should we talk about these things
even if it doesn't have a chance to pass?
And I kind of end up going, yeah, sometimes.
Because if you're a cynic like me
you can sometimes look to all of Congress and be like,
why aren't they doing more?
So it's important to take a look and go,
oh, there are actually a lot of people that are trying.
Then maybe more people look into why things aren't passing,
why things aren't happening,
and it affects the way they vote in the future.
Because as I constantly mention on the show
while yes, national elections super super matter,
local elections matter even more.
And that my friends is
where we're going to end today's show.
Of course, whether it be with this one
or anything else that stood out to you,
I'd love to know your thoughts.
Also, if you happen to be new to this channel
which doesn't really happen often
because YouTube doesn't recommend me to non subs at all,
but definitely hit that subscribe button.
Maybe even hit the like button, all the good stuff.
Also, if you're looking for more to watch,
I got that brand new podcast with Markiplier
or maybe you missed yesterday's show.
You can click or tap right there
or in the description down below.
But with 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.