- 'Sup you beautiful bastards!
Welcome back to the Philip DeFranco Show.
Buckle up,
make sure you hit that like button,
otherwise we'll punch you in the throat.
And let's just jump into it.
(animation whooshing)
The Adriana Chechik situation
has somehow gotten even worse again.
With Adriana now revealing
some absolutely devastating updates
about her TwitchCon injury.
Early in October,
she broke her back in two places
after jumping into the TwitchCon foam pit,
which is reportedly shallow and had a concrete floor.
She's now had to have multiple surgeries.
Luckily, she's recovering at home right now.
She actually did a stream over the weekend,
but then during that stream,
she dropped a bomb.
- And then also like,
I don't care everyone's gonna know,
but I was pregnant.
And I didn't find out until I was in the hospital.
So I also have like crazy hormones.
I'm not pregnant anymore because of the surgery.
I couldn't keep it.
But my hormones are just also through the fucking roof
because of that.
- And of course, the major reaction being,
"Oh my god, this is fucking heartbreaking."
This also seemingly made more people say
that she should really file a lawsuit.
You had some speculating that if she does sue,
or she maybe even is suing right now,
we might not hear about it publicly.
And personally, I agree with those people.
I would be shocked if there's not a lawsuit
or a threat of a lawsuit right now.
It might just be me,
and I don't doubt that Adriana
is like just kind of keeping people in the loop,
but every time she talks about what she's going through,
it really does feel like it's a paper trail
and documentation of the damage it has caused her life.
That said, with most things in life,
I am an overthinker and analyzer,
but I think it's accurate here.
Since Adriana cannot break the backs
of those responsible here,
run their pockets.
And then, I got message
that there was a new Pokimane controversy.
I thought two things.
One, easy thumbnail.
Thank you so much.
And two, "Oh no, it's Halloween.
"What was the costume?"
But no, it turns out that's not the controversy.
The controversy was that she paid
for her parents' retirement?
Y'all, more people need to get off Twitter.
But for the sake of discussion,
let's walk through it.
But she tweets, "Paid for my parents' retirement."
Some people responded, "Hey, that's great.
"Good for you."
With Poki adding, "As an immigrant,
"I've always felt indebted to them.
"Now, nothing makes me happier
"than repaying them for their sacrifices."
But all of that also resulted in a number of responses.
Like, "When did I ask?"
Others saying she was kind of doing this for clout.
Someone else asking,
"Whatever happened to good deeds done in silence
"without the need for praise.
"We know you're mega rich
"and have been for many years.
"Weird flex."
And here's the thing,
I can understand some of the frustration
around kind of things that are parallel to this.
You remember that period of time
where like every prank YouTuber was like,
"Everyone thinks I'm an asshole
"'cause I'm just harassing people in public.
"What if I gave a homeless person a thousand dollars
"and filmed it and monetized it,
"and then everyone thought I was a good person?"
But for like this thing specifically,
I think it's a dream for many of us
to give back to the parent or parents
that we love and do not hate.
Like for me personally,
I'm so grateful that I've been lucky enough
to live a life where I can make my my stepmom's life easy.
Or my dad got sick when I was growing up.
He used to be the breadwinner,
then all of a sudden she did.
My dad's also a hard dude to live with.
I love you, Dad,
but I think you're also aware of that.
And so I like,
yeah, it's not a thing that I've publicly talked about.
Now, I'm also mentioning it now
because I don't think that people should shy away from this.
Like I think that it's an achievement like she's said,
like she's not gonna have to work ever again.
And it's kind of that mindset that makes me glad
that Pokimane kinda actually responded
to some of the people like throwing shit in her face
for posting this,
by also providing some background,
explaining, "My parents left behind their entire families,
"friends and lives they built in Morocco
"just so my brother and I could have better opportunities
"in another country.
"If you don't understand/relate,
"just move on."
And adding, "I grew up painfully aware
"of how much they missed their parents, siblings, friends,
"back in Morocco,
"but they were always so happy
"that their sacrifices allowed my brother and I
"to get a great education
"and pursue whatever we wanted.
"If I didn't grow up in Canada,
"I wouldn't have the same access to internet,
"peripherals, et cetera,
"that allowed me to become the cc I am today."
And the key thing that I'm gonna end on
is y'all who have watched me for a while,
you know I'm one of the most cynical motherfuckers
on the planet,
but even I think it's stupid to get angry about this.
And maybe it's just like the,
"I didn't grow up having much in my life
"and then when I had it,
"it brought me so much joy
"that I could like take care of those who took care of me."
But for me, I don't know,
this isn't a story to get angry about.
If anything, I could see it as being somewhat inspiring.
And then,
a disabled woman allegedly had to crawl off of a plane
after the airline asked her to pay for an aisle wheelchair.
Right, so reportedly Natalie Curtis,
a wheelchair user,
was flying on Jetstar Airlines
for a birthday trip to Bangkok.
She boards the flight with an aisle wheelchair, no problem.
It then comes time to get off the plane
but there's not a wheelchair available.
And according to Natalie,
the staff actually asked her to pay to use one.
- When we arrived,
there was a lady with a notepad,
saying that we had to pay something for a chair.
- She then says she refused,
saying that she's never been expected to pay before.
And so they bring her own wheelchair to the plane
but it was too large to fit down the aisle.
And so then,
reportedly seeing the staff didn't actually have a plan,
Natalie began crawling down the aisle,
a length of just over 13 feet,
with her friend who was traveling with her,
filming Natalie making her way down,
also reportedly unable to carry her
because of a knee injury.
Natalie also sharing her story with a local news outlet,
saying she'll never fly with Jetstar again and-
- That was, yeah, extremely humiliating.
So I definitely don't want anyone else to go through
what I had to go through.
- And as far as the response from the airline,
they released a statement to the same news outlet,
saying they offered Natalie a refund
and additional compensation.
But they also deny asking her to ever pay
for the use of a wheelchair,
saying, "A miscommunication resulted in the delay
"of an aisle wheelchair being made available
"at the gate on arrival.
"At no point was an aisle chair withheld
"due to a request for payment."
So that's the story.
Either way,
a terrible way to start a vacation.
And where I'll leave this is I've never flown Jetstar.
To those who have,
how does this story sound to you
and he is already spreading anti-LGBTQ conspiracies.
It's honestly like he's trying to speed run this shit.
So the conspiracy in question
is centered around Nancy Pelosi's 82-year-old husband, Paul.
He, if you didn't see over the weekend,
according to law enforcement,
was hospitalized with a skull fracture
and other serious injuries,
after a man broke into their home
and violently attacked him with a hammer.
And while many across ideological
and political lines have condemned the attack,
plenty of others,
largely on the far-right,
have begun to push misinformation about it.
But this,
now apparently including Twitter's new owner
who responded to a tweet Hillary Clinton posted
about the attack and wrote,
"There is a tiny possibility there might be more
"to this story,"
while also linking to an opinion article
from a website called, "The Santa Monica Observer,"
with that article in question claiming
that Paul Pelosi had been drunk at the time of the assault,
and was quote, "In a dispute with a male prostitute."
And I know this is gonna shock some of you,
absolutely zero evidence was presented to back this up.
What? I can't believe it!
Right, not only did the author site zero sources,
he explicitly wrote that the alternative version of events
that he presented were what happened in his quote,
"Humble opinion."
But also, like this kind of reporting
is something you should expect
from the Santa Monica Observer.
Like looking into it,
fact-checkers have described it
as a low-credibility, far-right source.
And I really feel like that undersells
the level of bullshittery we're talking about.
I mean, this is literally the same outlet
that falsely claimed back in 2016
that Hillary Clinton had died
and been replaced with a body double.
But apparently for Musk,
this was a trusted source,
and he decided to amplify this lying bullshit
to his more than 100 million followers yesterday.
And while he did eventually delete the post,
several hours later,
according to reports,
it had already gained more than 24,000 retweets,
over 86,000 likes.
It kinda also took on a life of its own.
More and more people latching onto it,
regurgitating it.
And so with this,
you had places like the Washington Post noting
this isn't the first time he's used the platform
to promote false or misleading claims.
But noting that willingness to spout misinformation
or to boost it by using the tactic of quote,
"Just raising questions,"
could create major conflicts for him
and for Twitter,
now that he owns the company.
Also, because up to this point,
we've only talked about the misinformation.
I do wanna note that law enforcement officials say
that the attacker was actually seeking Nancy Pelosi,
who was in Washington at the time.
With sources familiar with the case also telling reporters
that the man had a list of people he planned to target.
And according to CBS News,
their review of suspected social media posts
from this attacker,
it turned up conspiracy theories about Holocaust denial,
pedophiles in the government,
and claims that democratic officials run child sex rings.
With CNN reporting that he posted memes
and conspiracy theories on Facebook about COVID vaccines,
the 2020 election,
and the January 6th, 2021 attack on the capital.
All right, so we have all of that
and we have to wait to see in the coming days and weeks,
what other information comes out.
But connected to all that,
now you have people very concerned
about what the fuck is the future of Twitter
going to look like?
Elon Musk officially took control of the company
and just mere days later,
he was promoting politically-charged misinformation.
Right, all social media platforms have to deal
with misinformation.
But it's very rarely the main person that owns the company,
actively promoting it.
And this isn't just a concern for like the public good,
but also part of the reason
social media companies care about it,
and some would argue,
one of the only reasons they care about it,
is because they need advertisers.
And along with the concerns of allowing misinformation,
there's also concerns about hate speech.
Which already there,
watch dogs and experts have reported massive swells
of racist and offensive tweets,
since Musk took over.
With one group called, The NCRI,
the Network Contagion Research Institute,
which analyzes hundreds of millions of posts
in social media reporting,
that use of the N-word skyrocketed nearly 500% on Twitter,
just in the 12 hours after Musk's deal was finalized.
Though I do wanna note there,
that doesn't appear to be the result of any change
in Twitter content moderation policies.
But more I think it shows a mindset of people going,
"Oh, I bet the policies are gonna be more lax."
And actually, regarding this topic,
Musk, himself, said on a tweet on Friday,
"We have not yet made any changes
"to Twitter's content moderation policies."
And also sharing an earlier post
where he announced that quote,
"Twitter will be forming a content moderation council
"with widely diverse viewpoints.
"No major content decisions
"or account reinstatements will happen
"before the council convenes."
But that said,
according to reports,
we are seeing some changes already.
Musk already firing a number
of long-time Twitter executives.
Now reportedly, people involved in the matter
are saying that he and remaining executives
huddled this weekend
to discuss content moderation strategies,
and plans to lay off 25% of the company's employees.
And in a securities filing made public just today,
it was revealed
that Musk dissolved Twitter's nine-person board of directors
and became the sole director
when he officially purchased the company last week.
Also, beyond that,
The Verge reported that people familiar with the matter
and internal documents seen by the outlet,
indicate that Twitter is planning
to start charging $20 a month for verification.
But as far as if that fully publicly becomes a thing,
we'll have to wait and see.
And that's kind of the situation in general,
regarding Twitter.
I think we're just having to see
how everything is going to play out.
And in the meantime,
I feel like people are kinda left with the question,
and you can answer this one if you want to.
Do you look at what happened over the weekend
and you think,
"This is just a small bump in the road for Elon"?
Like mistakes happen,
which, hey, mistakes do happen.
Or does this seem like something with Elon
that it feels very on trend,
and this is just kind of a small taste of the chaos
that we're all going to experience?
And then, this will surprise most of you,
but one of the most competitive races
that we're seeing in the midterms right now,
is actually happening in New York.
Specifically, several contests in New York's Hudson Valley
could decide whether the House flips or not,
with one of the most closely watched contests
involving representative Pat Ryan.
And if his name sounds familiar,
it's because we talked about him back in August
when he won an incredibly tight special election
for a vacated seat in New York's 19th District.
But what also made that special election national news
is that Ryan won his race
because he centered his campaign
on a platform of defending abortion rights.
So as a result,
Ryan's race was largely viewed as an important test case
to see if abortion actually was a topic
that would get voters out to vote.
Especially in swing districts,
which are expected to play a heavy role
in the battle for control of Congress.
But that was a special election,
and so Ryan still has to win another election this fall
to keep his seat.
But key thing this time,
he's actually running in the 18th district
because of the redistricting from the 2020 census.
So now, almost half a year since Roe's reversal,
will abortion rights still mobilize voters?
When we reached out to Representative Ryan,
he still thinks that this will drive voters.
- So before our special election,
no one thought we were gonna win. (chuckles)
All the polls had us down.
Everyone I think,
didn't give enough credit to people in our district
and in our country,
who recognized that when a fellow Americans'
fundamental freedoms are taken away,
all of us stand up
and say that's not who we are.
And we saw that here.
We did see it in Alaska.
I think that was a big part of Mary Peltola's win.
And we're going to see it again.
I think the energy's only built
as we've seen how even more extreme Graham
and others in the party,
are willing to go in taking away these rights.
- Ryan also went on to talk about his opponent,
New York State Assembly member, Colin Schmitt.
- My opponent is diametrically opposed.
He cheered on the Dobbs decision.
He's been endorsed by the most extreme anti-choice groups
in the country,
including National Right to Life.
In a debate earlier this week,
he literally looked the moderator in the eye
and said, "Even if a doctor told a woman
"that her life was at risk,
"he would not support her having access to an abortion."
It's just disgusting
and it's not who we are as a country.
- With Ryan saying he absolutely believes
that Schmitt would vote
to further restrict reproductive rights
at the federal level if he is elected to Congress.
But also Ryan said that abortion,
it is one topic,
it's a big one,
but it's also not the only one
where Schmitt's views could seriously hurt the people
of New York's 18th district
and America at large.
- My opponent is a direct threat to freedom,
to safety, to democracy.
He cheered on insurrectionists on January 6th.
He's taking campaign contributions from Rudy Giuliani
and the head of the Oath Keepers in our New York state.
He has an A+ rating from the NRA
at the same time we're seeing more of the deadly weapons
I carried in combat on our streets.
He is really a force that has to be stopped.
Also, and speaking about a 2024 election, right?
Let's say a Democrat actually won in 2024.
He responded-
- My opponent would blindly follow McCarthy
and all of these other election deniers,
because again,
this is a person
who's put their personal power ahead of our democracy,
and ahead of our community.
So I have no doubt
that he'd be part of that dangerous caucus of folks
who almost overthrew our government on January 6th,
and certainly have not been trying to hide the fact
that they would do it again.
- Because this is the last interview that we're gonna do
with a candidate in a close election
before the midterms next week.
Which by the way,
I know we talk about November 8th being election day,
but a key thing with early voting being a thing
in so many places,
just consider November 8th the last day you can vote.
Get out there,
be a part of the process.
But main thing,
because this is our last one,
I wanted to close out today with a comment that Ryan made,
that I think could resonate with a lot of voters.
And key thing,
not just those in his district.
- As we get down the last few weeks here,
we're hearing a lot of the same punditry
and supposed hot takes that we can't hold the House
is the same things I heard before my special election.
We kept our head down,
we focused on fighting for these rights and freedoms,
we ignored all the polls and all the the pundits,
and we just did the work.
And we showed people that we would fight for them.
We have to do the same thing down the home stretch here
in the next few weeks.
Stand for these values,
fight for these values,
ignore all the other things,
and I'm confident we are gonna hold the House
come November 8th.
- And then, y'all language is important.
Some would say (speaking Spanish language),
or (speaking Japanese language).
Personally, a big thing for me this year
has been trying to learn Spanish again.
I hated the experience in high school.
I failed Spanish too, twice.
But now thanks to a sponsor of the show,
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And most importantly, it's not just Spanish.
Yes, you can do PhilSpeaksSpanish.com.
That's what I'm doing.
But you can also do Phil speaks any of these languages.com,
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And then, over 150 people were crushed to death,
and nearly 100 more we're injured
by a massive crowd in Seoul during Halloween celebrations.
Which makes this their worst domestic disaster since 2014
when a ferry sank and killed 304.
And so all of this occurred
in the popular Itaewon neighborhood,
which is known for its drinking spots and Halloween events.
And this weekend was no exception.
Upwards of 100,000 people turned up
for the first major party
since the pandemic restrictions were lifted,
leading to an extremely large crowd in these narrow streets.
And it's unclear exactly what triggered the crowd to surge,
but when when people are this dense,
they kind of act like liquid.
Right, so the little bumps of the back of the group
can turn into massive, massive pressure
for those in the front of the group.
And at some point,
the crowd managed to get stuck
in one of the many choke points in Itaewon.
The area, I think to kinda like best explain it,
it's like a handful of normal sized streets
with a ton of alleyways branching between them.
And so the pressure there was absolutely insane,
leading to people near the front of the crowd
being completely unable to move,
and those in the back trying to push forward
'cause they didn't know why people stopped.
And so some began to fall over,
causing the person behind them to also fall,
as the pressure forced them to fill the gap,
with it all leading to people literally being crushed death
even if they were just standing there.
Also, it's likely the reason why most of the people
who were injured or died were women in their twenties.
Generally speaking, they had smaller frames,
less muscle to withstand the crushing pressure.
Because this happened in Itaewon,
which is extremely popular with foreigners,
there was quite a few of them among the victims,
including at least two Americans.
Also, when we say that people were crushed to death,
I'm kind of just talking about general deaths
because the exact causes varied.
Some died of broken bones and ribs,
many just were unable to breathe.
And among the survivors,
most of whom are in extremely delicate conditions,
there are reports of things like rhabdomyolysis,
which is when you muscle tissue begins to break down
and gets into your kidneys,
which can eventually be deadly.
But also like a key thing here,
I cannot undersell how dense this crowd was,
and I'm not gonna show you the video.
If you search on Twitter,
there's no shortage of people
that were there experiencing it,
that were filming at the same time.
But just before you watch
know it's horrifying.
Some of the people that you're watching
may literally be dying right there.
It's just heartbreaking,
which is also why since Sunday,
mourners have gone to Itaewon and other places of mourning,
to share their condolences.
With the president also declaring an entire week
of national mourning.
And so as far as what happens next,
it'll likely be a while before more answers are given.
But reportedly,
there's been a 475-man task force put on this,
to try and figure out what exactly happened.
And so far,
they say it doesn't look like anything criminal
explicitly took place.
Though in the meantime,
all of this has led to questions
about how this could have been prevented.
You have people asking,
were more officers needed?
And I mean, if you look at the situation,
reportedly, 200 were already deployed,
although they were focusing more on sex crimes,
not crowd control.
But let's say,
they shifted focus,
they alongside the 150 civil servants in the neighborhood
would still not be enough to control nearly 100,000 people.
And so others have been suggesting things like,
in the future,
cars should be forced out of the neighborhood
so people have more room.
Or that a limit be placed
on how many people can actually go into the area.
As we wait to find out more
and see if anything can be done to avoid this in the future,
I do wanna share my condolences with the people of Korea,
and hope that an event like this never happens again.
And then Brazil voted to shift back to the left,
after voting to elect Lula da Silva
back into the presidency.
But a key thing here
is that this was a very, very tight race,
with Lula getting 51% of the vote
to beat right-wing poster boy, Jair Bolsonaro.
And the electoral breakdown was exactly what you'd expect.
Right, you had Bolsonaro doing well in the South,
which was counted first and gave him an early lead.
But then Lula quickly caught up
as the votes in his stronghold started to come through.
Also, if you're not familiar with politics there,
Lula has had a few crazy years,
we'll call it.
He was convicted of corruption,
he spent 580 days in prison.
But that sentence was then annulled by the Supreme Court,
there opening the door for the former president
to come back.
And so in his victory speech,
Lula mentioned all that drama,
saying, "They tried to bury me alive and I'm here."
And adding that starting on January 1st, 2023,
I will govern for the 215 million Brazilians,
not just the ones who voted for me.
There are not two Brazils,
we are one country,
one people,
one great nation.
But here's the key thing.
There are fears
that Bolsonaro will not concede the election.
Especially since with no evidence,
he's been claiming even before the election took place
that electoral fraud was going to happen.
And as I'm recording this,
he has still not conceded.
And so we're seeing the conspiracies already starting.
Right, some claiming
that Lula's release from prison was illegal,
and he should be ineligible for office.
Or trying to open one door to deny him his win.
You also have people looking for any signs
of there being voter fraud.
But this, likely including people just making shit up,
but there have been election officials saying on Sunday
there have been no signs of fraud.
However, because this is the closest election
they've had there in 34 years,
there are serious concerns
that this could push Bolsonaro to feel comfortable
in denying the results.
And this is gonna be a big one to watch,
even for the international community.
Because if Lula does manage to get into office,
there are huge implications.
Right, things like he's aiming
for a zero deforestation policy,
meaning he wants to completely stop deforestation
of the Amazon,
not just targeted illegal deforestation.
He's also promised to stop illegal mining
on indigenous land,
which is an issue
that communities there have complained about for years.
And Bolsonaro largely turned a blind eye
to indigenous issues.
But for now, we'll have to wait and see.
But ultimately,
that is where that story and today's show ends.
As always, thank you for watching.
Like and please subscribe
to these daily dabs into the news.
If you missed the weekly recap,
cannot recommend that enough.
Check or click that.
But as always, my name's Philip DeFranco,
you've just been filled in.
I love yo faces and I'll see you tomorrow.