- Hey, I'll be right with you.
Perfect. 'Sup you beautiful bastards.
Welcome back to the last week
of the Philip DeFranco Show for the year 2021.
Don't worry, after that I'll only be gone
for about a month and you know,
nothing bad ever happens while I'm gone.
Nope, it's always so chill.
Hey, let's end the year in stride.
Hit that like button if you want me
to punch you in the throat and let's just jump into it.
And you know, the first thing
that we're gonna talk about today,
let's get in the Christmas spirit and talk about better.com
and its CEO Vishal Garg.
We've both of them in the news right now,
because of this now viral TikTok,
where we see Vishal and what appears to be a Zoom call
with around 900 employees.
And this happens.
- This is the second time in my career I'm doing this,
I do not, do not wanna do this,
the last time I did it I cried.
This time I hope to be stronger.
But we are laying off about 15% of the company.
(person recording deep breaths)
- [Person Recording] Mother (beep)
(beep) - The market,
efficiency
and performances,
and productivity.
If you're on this call,
you are part of the unlucky group.
- [Person Recording] (beep) you, dude.
- That is being laid off.
- And reportedly, the 900 people who were just fired
weren't so much sad that they lost their jobs,
were rather more impressed that Vishal didn't cry this time.
Didn't need to use any of those dollar bills
from his $25 million bonus last year to wipe away tears.
Now notably, in addition to the clip I just shared you
of Vishal saying, you know, "The market is changing
we need to move along with it in order to survive."
But after this video went viral
and people started looking into the story, they went,
"Wait, wait, what do you mean the market's changing?"
Reportedly, better right now
they're positioning to go public,
and they just got, I mean, literally last week,
750 million new dollars from investors.
So apparently if Vishal who doesn't wanna do this,
especially because he doesn't wanna cry and people asking
why is he firing all of these people before Christmas?
And actually it appears that we got an answer though,
from an unlikely place.
That's because according to Fortune,
Vishal posted a series of anonymous messages
on a professional network
days after he fired all these people,
writing and claiming at least, 250 of the people terminated
were working an average of two hours a day
while clocking eight hours plus a day in the payroll system,
and with that accusing them of stealing from you
and stealing from our customers.
But Fortune reporting that Vishal confirmed
that he made those comments.
Also reportedly telling Fortune
"I think they could have been phrased differently,
but honestly, the sentiment is there."
People also sharing a number of other alleged comments
that he's left in the past, kind of aggressive.
And so ultimately following all of this,
you had some defending Vishal saying,
"Hey, we don't know what it's like to be a CEO."
"We don't know if his claims about the employees are true."
"We don't know what the performance of these 900 were."
But, overall and in general, people were like
"Fuck this guy. He's a clown. He's a corporate monster
that once again proves that you don't care
about the employees, you care about the bottom line."
He has the gall to somehow make this about him
and how hard it is for him,
but 900 plus people are now not gonna have jobs
going into the holidays.
Ultimately where I want to end this story
is asking you, what camp do you land in?
Are you defending Vishal?
or are you in the "Fuck Vishal" camp?
maybe you're somewhere in between?
Either way, let me know what you're thinking and why
in those comments down below.
Then, let's talk about a controversy
that I really don't think should be a controversy.
And what I'm talking about is the luxury brand Chanel
being bombarded with hate and criticism
over the past few days
after people on TikTok began unboxing
it's $825 advent calendar.
One of the most notable people going viral
for these videos about the calendar being Elise Harmon.
In the video, she shows off the exterior packaging,
before discovering things inside
like stickers, stickers, and more stickers,
along with an empty dust bag, flip book,
a magnet, a really cheap looking bracelet
and more disappointing items.
Though, there were also boxes inside
that had lipstick, nail polish
and a perfume bottle, but still,
people were quick to comment, "What the fuck is this?"
How are they justifying the price here?
Some people calling it
"The fyre festival of advent calendars",
saying that it looked like Chanel
just included random samples and junk they had lying around,
but then, the whole situation got even more viral
because Elise posted this.
- Hey, I just wanted to check in and let everyone know,
Chanel just blocked me (laughs)
They blocked me!
What's not clicking Chanel? Something's wrong.
- But they're later saying that Chanel
ended up deleting it's TikTok account entirely.
With that said, the brand claims it has not blocked her
and it's not active on TikTok,
saying that it's page appears empty to anyone who visits.
So now you have people saying it's possible
Elise either lied, was confused,
or maybe duped by an account someone else made.
Either way, people online are still running around
with this idea that Chanel was mocked off of the platform.
But, here's what I wanna say,
and this is not me defending Chanel,
a lot of these fucking brands,
it's just cheap, cheap bullshit
and you're just feeding into the branding.
But as Chanel has now noted,
it's actually been very transparent
about what's in it's advent calendar.
Like literally, on their site,
detailing every product that's in this.
It's not meant to be a surprise for you,
but rather a surprise
for the person that you're buying it for.
That said, a number of people are like,
"Well, the price is still not justified."
Yeah, no shit.
But also understand
the margins for companies like Chanel are massive,
you're never getting a real value.
Products like these from companies like these,
it's all the weird exclusionary flex.
Like, the margins on cosmetics
and a bunch of the stuff featured in this, massive.
Even looking at something that normally
has a lesser margin, like clothes,
you have people that are gonna buy
a $500 shirt that has a specific logo on it,
even though it is usually the same quality
of something that was 20, 40 or $65.
Why? Because there's a lot of hype, fear of missing out.
You think that it says something about you.
Hell, even on our creator space,
we did some research to see,
you know, the quality of products and our space.
We found that some places literally use
the exact same hoodie
that we use for our $65 hoodie and charged $120.
And I don't think those creators are ripping anyone off,
because the price of something
is what people are willing to pay.
And in the case of this Chanel advent calendar,
unless you're just kind of willy-nilly
throwing around $825,
I don't think you got bamboozled,
you have buyer's rewards.
And honestly, you shouldn't,
and it brings me a little weird joy.
Like I'm not gonna go full set rogue, we all gonna be like,
"Hey, if you get robbed, you get robbed."
But when you willingly overpay for something
because of the brand name,
I'm not gonna feel sorry for you,
a fool is easily separated from their money.
Though, to be abundantly clear
when I say "a fool", I'm not talking about Elise Harmon.
Elise turned an $825 advent calendar
into tens of millions of views.
Unlike most everyone else who bought this,
she got a bargain of a lifetime.
Then in entertainment news,
it's almost that time of year again,
we're a bunch of people who hate Jake Paul,
buy a pay-per-view that benefits Jake Paul,
in the hopes of seeing him get knocked out.
But, now a last minute change of events, right,
He's been set to fight Tommy Fury,
but following the words, that Tommy was injured,
Tommy released a statement saying
he was heartbroken after having to withdraw,
but he had a bacterial chest infection and broken rib.
And so as far as what's happening this morning,
Jake addressed the news on Instagram
saying that not only had Tommy dropped out,
but Tyron Woodley would be replacing him for a rematch,
with Jake writing.
"When my team woke me up on Friday to tell me Tommy Fumbles
was pulling out, I told them,
I'll fight anyone on December 18th,
Troy, Trey, Trevor, Travis, I don't give a fuck who it is.
Tommy's pulling out because of a "medical condition"
called vaginitis.
Unlike the Fury's, Tyron actually has some balls,
is stepping in, and contractually is getting
an extra $500,000 if he knocks me out.
First time I outboxed him.
This time, I'm gonna punish him and leave no doubt.
And because as you might remember
over the summer Jake beat Tyron in split decision match,
following that in hopes of getting a rematch
Tyron actually got Jake Paul's name tattooed on him.
And so we'll have to wait until December 18th
to see what actually happens.
But I do wonder if Tyron Woodley
can get some sort of redemption
or if he's gonna lose and, or get knocked out
by a guy who he literally had to tattoo their name
on his body.
It's so weird and messy,
and I'm kind of here for it.
From that, I wanna take a second
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Then, you know, let's talk about this news around Latinx.
Let me just preface this by saying,
I will call you whatever you want me to call you.
Just let me know, I don't care if it's racial, gender,
maybe you got a praise or a degradation king.
I am here to please.
But that said, Latinx has been incredibly controversial
because there's been this big question of
who actually wants to be called Latinx?
As we've been talking about for a little while now
it's become more and more apparent
that no one asked the Hispanic community
what they actually wanna be called,
because according to a new nationwide poll
of Hispanic voters,
only 2% of those polled refer to themselves as Latinx,
while 68% of them call themselves Hispanic
and 21% favored Latino or Latina.
And in fact, according to this poll,
40% said Latinx bothers or offends them to some degree
and 30% said they would be less likely to support
a politician organization that uses the term.
And several Spanish speaking friends
have pointed out in the past
Latinx is very likely just some white people shit.
Noting like politico did though using different words.
Spanish words do not end with the letter X,
which is pronounced "eh-kees"
and some Spanish speakers argue it's tricky
to know how to pronounce Latinx in their native tongue.
Yeah. Main thing.
That's the story, now you know. Moving on.
And then, let's talk about, over the weekend,
CNN announcing that it was firing
anchor Chris Cuomo effective immediately.
we've been covering this story for about a week,
it began Monday when New York's attorney general
released documents indicating that Cuomo
was far more involved
than previously known in helping defend his brother,
former governor Andrew Cuomo
against sexual misconduct allegation.
Among that, the documents alleged
Chris Cuomo offered to draft PR statements for his brother,
that he used media sources and other journalists
to look into the women who had accused his brother
of sexual misconduct,
and that even kept tabs on other reporters
who were working on pieces about his brother.
And because of those allegations, CNN suspended Cuomo
pending review of his conduct with it,
then later terminating him on Saturday with a statement
saying, "While in the process of that review,
additional information has come to light."
And adding, "Despite the termination,
we will investigate as appropriate."
And a few hours later, the New York times
gave us more insight
into what that additional information was.
Reporting that on Wednesday,
a prominent employment lawyer informed CNN
of a client with an allegation of sexual misconduct
against Chris Cuomo.
Also reporting that by Friday,
the lawyer was in talks with CNN to provide evidence
and make her client available for an interview
with a network's outside counsel.
Now, as far as what Cuomo himself has said,
on Saturday he issued a statement reading
"This is not how I want my time at CNN to end."
Cuomo then following up today in calling that end hard.
Also adding, "While I have a thick skin,
I also have a family, for whom the past week
has been extraordinarily difficult."
And so with that,
going on to say that he's taking a step back
and announcing that he'll no longer be hosting
his SiriusXM radio show.
And following the new sexual misconduct allegation,
a spokesperson for him said,
"These apparently anonymous allegations are not true."
"If the goal in making these false and unvetted accusations
was to see Mr. Cuomo punished by CNN
that may explain his unwarranted termination."
And ultimately, that is where we are
with this story right now.
We're gonna have to wait to see what else comes
from this investigation, if we learn about it.
Also, what we learn, who the accuser is,
also what the specific accusations are.
While we wait regarding that aspect of the story,
I do have a question regarding the other part.
What are your thoughts regarding Chris Cuomo
helping his brother the way that he did
using his position like he did?
And are you happy with the actions that CNN took here?
Because, the actions of Chris Cuomo
really do strike at the idea of journalistic integrity.
And then let's definitely talk about
some major updates from this weekend
around the Michigan school shooting
that left four dead and seven others injured,
and specifically the updates
are around the suspect's parents.
And that's because on Friday,
the prosecutors in Michigan took a very rare step
of charging the parents of the 15 year old shooter
who carried out the mass shooting at Oxford high school
with four counts each of involuntary manslaughter,
one for each student that was killed.
With Oakland county prosecutor, Karen McDonald,
arguing in a press conference on Friday,
that the boy's parents were culpable
in the most deadly school shooting this year,
because they allowed their son access to the murder weapon
and actively ignored obvious warnings
that he was considering violence.
During that briefing, prosecutor said
that the shooter's father
had purchased the gun used in the shooting four days before
as an early Christmas gift for his teenage son,
and kept " unlocked in a drawer
in the parents' bedroom".
McDonald claiming that the shooter
had total access to this weapon
and the parents didn't secure the gun
and they allowed him free access to it.
Though, lawyers of the parents have disputed that
claiming that the gun was in fact locked,
but still prosecutors noted that there were a number
of incredibly alarming warning signs
that the suspect's parents ignored.
Noting that after the gun was purchased,
the authorities had answered
raised concerns about the shooter's behavior twice,
once the day before the attack, and again,
literally just hours prior
and an incident that required a meeting with the parents.
Well, we briefly mentioned that last week,
we've now gotten more details,
and they are incredibly alarming.
According to prosecutors,
the day before the shooting
the teacher saw him searching for ammunition on his phone,
school officials then called his parents,
who did not respond,
but his mother later texted her son,
"LOL I'm not mad at you.
You have to learn not to get caught."
And then the next day,
another teacher found a drawing of a gun
on the shooter's desk with images of a gun,
a person who was shot, a laughing emoji and the words,
"Blood everywhere", "The thoughts won't stop. Help me."
That drawing prompting a meeting with the boy's parents,
but prosecutor said that they refused
to take their son home,
and didn't ask him about the gun
and did not inform the school
that they had purchased one for him.
Yeah, according to prosecutors, a few hours later,
when the news of the shooting broke,
the suspect's parents were quick to believe
that it was their son,
his mother allegedly texting him, "Don't do it."
And his father calling the police to inform them
that a weapon was missing from their house
and that his son could be the gunman.
So with all that, you had prosecutors
arguing that the parents are clearly culpable here.
A claim that some argue was bolster,
when the two parents appeared to flee
after the charges against them were announced.
A few hours after the announcement,
authorities said that the police
were searching for the parents
who were scheduled to be arraigned that day,
but it stopped communicating with their attorneys.
A massive manhunt for the fugitives, then ensued,
including sheriff's deputies, Detroit police,
U.S. marshals, FBI officers, and even U.S. border patrol.
With police saying they then found them
at 1:00 AM on Saturday when they found the couple hiding
in a warehouse building in Detroit,
about 40 miles from where they live,
after someone tipped off police
that their vehicle was nearby.
Now, notably here, lawyers with the couple
disputed that they were hiding,
claiming that they believe that their arraignment
was on Saturday morning and had planned to attend
blaming this on a miscommunication
with the prosecutor's office.
But law enforcement officials and prosecutors
were skeptical of that claim,
with Oakland County sheriff Michael Bouchard saying,
"I think where they were and how they were
seems to support the position they were hiding
and they weren't looking for surrendering at that point."
That was also echoed by McDonald,
the prosecutor who noted that the two
also withdrew thousands of dollars in cash from an ATM,
which she cited is part of the reason
why they should be held in a high bond at $500,000 each,
saying, "They sought multiple attempts
to hide their location and were eventually tracked down
after they parked their car somewhere a witness saw it."
And adding, "These two individuals were found
locked somewhere in a room hiding.
These are not people we can be assured
will return to court on their own."
During that arraignment Saturday,
both parents pleaded not guilty to the charges against them.
A judge agreeing to that bond.
Currently the couple will be held
in the same jail that their son is in.
Though, of course they're being kept separate.
All three of those have been placed on suicide watch,
though officials say they passed
initial mental health screenings.
And as far as what happens next,
you have the two parents facing up to
15 years of convicted on the charges,
meanwhile, their son faces two dozen charges
including terrorism.
But ultimately, that is where we are right now.
This is potentially mess,
because in addition to the prosecution of the shooter,
as gun experts have noted,
McDonald's move to charge the parents
of a mass shooting suspect is almost unheard-of.
And if successful,
it has the potential to set a massive precedent.
You know, ultimately with this story, like many others,
I was interested in know your thoughts,
so I put out a poll on the YouTube community page and asked,
do you support the Michigan shooters parents
being charged with involuntary manslaughter?
And we found 94% of y'all think they should be charged,
with top comments that included,
"Buys a gun as a gift for their son
knowing that he has thoughts of harming others...
great idea."
As well as "Punish bad parenting.
We all need to be held accountable for what we do.
It's gross negligence."
And "Right to bear arms comes with a caveat.
Caveat is responsibility."
But also, that's just a portion of the audience,
so whether you agree, you disagree with the group,
I'd love to know your thoughts in those comments down below.
But ultimately that is where this story ends.
Today's show ends.
Of course, whether it'll be this final story,
the first one, anything in between,
I'd love to know your thoughts in those comments down below.
But of course, as always, my name's Philip DeFranco.
You've just been filled in.
I love yo faces and I'll see you tomorrow.