- 'Sup, you beautiful bastards?
Welcome back to "The Philip DeFranco Show."
Buckle up, make sure you subscribe,
because I'm splitting $10,000
across 10 lucky subscribed beautiful bastards this month,
and let's just jump into it.
The first thing that we're gonna talk about today
is fantastic fucking news for about 20 million Americans,
and pretty great news for 23 million more,
though maybe I should pull back on the word fantastic,
because if you look on social media right now,
yes, you have people that are happy,
but also people are fucking furious,
with some on one side saying,
"Fuck you, this is nowhere near enough."
Whereas, on the complete polar opposite,
you have people saying,
"Fuck you, this shouldn't even be happening."
And what we're talking about and what they're reacting to
is the Biden administration announcing today
that they are canceling up to $20,000 in student debt
for Pell Grant recipients
and up to $10,000 for non-Pell Grant recipients.
And in both of those instances,
you're eligible for the relief
if your individual income is under $125,000 per year.
And in addition to that, they're extending the pause
on loan repayments by four months.
But also, once those repayments do resume,
many people are gonna benefit from the fact that Biden
also capped monthly payments for undergraduate loans
at 5% of a borrower's discretionary income,
which is half the 10% rate
that borrowers had to pay before under most plans.
And the White House is saying
that it'll lower the average annual student loan payment
by more than $1,000 a year.
Now, before moving forward,
if you are someone that this affects, you need to know this.
Reportedly, the Department of Education
lacks income data for most Americans with student debt.
In fact, the White House says
that it expects that only around 8 million
of the 43 million eligible borrowers
may be eligible to get their relief automatically,
because their income is available to the department.
But for everyone else, the administration says
that it's setting up a simple application process
for borrowers to claim relief, and saying that'll be ready
no later than the end of the year,
when the freeze on loan repayments expires.
You know, one of the most interesting parts of this story
is how are people receiving this news,
and so, this morning, I asked on Twitter,
"For those of you affected by this, what are your thoughts?"
And so, let's go through some of it together.
"Absolutely beyond relieved."
"It's not enough,
and there should be a tiered system, not income cap.
Shouldn't be punished
for succeeding in our careers since college,
especially those with significant debt
who went into competitive and/or high-yielding fields."
"Cried, this will take out most of my student debt."
"It's not even remotely a dent in my debt
for my two degrees."
"It's irritating.
My wife and I have worked our asses off,
skipped vacations, never upgraded our one car,
2008 with 250,000 miles,
and lived way below our means for years
to pay off our loans.
Our friends traveled, new cars, paying the minimum,
and now are getting those loans reduced."
Also, in addition to those, I've seen people online
saying they feel like they're being penalized
because they chose not to go to college,
and instead took on debt from, you know,
trying to start their own small business, stuff like that.
But, of course, all of that is just a small snapshot,
and so, I want to pass the question off
to y'all watching here, where I have my biggest audience.
What are your thoughts and feelings about this news today?
Then, you know, the famous Greek philosopher Aristotle
once said, "Girls just wanna have fun,"
but that's stupid.
Everyone wants to have fun, including felons.
(cameraperson speaking in foreign language)
- All right, so those are actually prisoners
and, yes, they're racing around the courtyard
of France's second largest prison,
which is a facility housing an estimated 2,000 men
and 100 women.
It's just south of Paris, which,
as a side note, kind of blew me away,
because, in America, Rikers is the second largest prison
in the United States and that has almost 14,000 inmates.
It's just a fun little fact about the country
with the world's highest incarceration rate.
But back to France, who had 25 minutes of video
coming to light last week,
showing guards and inmates competing against one another,
and even throwing water balloons at passing go-karts.
With other activities, including tug of war,
an obstacle course, all this stuff we saw
reportedly was meant to be a day of fun,
parodying a French reality TV show similar to "Survivor,"
with it being organized by a local man
who has reportedly done similar games for years,
like a sports competition
between police and youngsters back in June.
But with this, over the past several days
as the video has caught traction,
we've seen France's right-leaning political parties
slamming the prison administration,
as well as the government,
for allowing this to take place,
with center-right opposition lawmaker, Eric Ciotti saying,
"Our prisons are not holiday camps
where prisoners and guards make bonds of friendship."
And the outrage intensified after it was reported
that two of the inmates playing tug of war
had been convicted of murder and rape.
But then, with that, the organizer says
that it was made clear that anyone
convicted of a violent offense could not take part,
and a prison official saying none of them
were convicted of murder or rape.
And so, in response, you had prison's governor
at first defending the event,
but then later saying that it was a mistake,
with most of the anger then being directed
at France's justice minister, Eric Dupond-Moretti,
because reports claimed that the approval
was granted from the highest levels of his ministry,
which he actually denied,
saying, "The fight against re-offending
involves rehabilitating,
but certainly doesn't involve go-karting.
Had I known there'd be a go-karting contest,
I would've imposed a very clear ban."
And so, he orders an investigation,
and yesterday, that produced a nine-page report
saying that the ministry did give permission,
but that it didn't have specific details about go-karting,
with the minister adding that new conditions
would be circulated to prisons
on the type of rehabilitation projects
that could be allowed,
which overall feels like the very involved
and random backstory to why, if you went to a prison,
there was a sign that says no go-karting,
which someone would then read and be like,
what the, what happened?
Why is a go-kart ban necessary here? Because of this.
But, you know, with all of this,
it does raise important questions
about how we should treat our incarcerated population,
because a lot of people have seen pictures
of those luxurious prisons in countries like Norway,
Sweden, Switzerland,
where rehabilitation is the focus instead of retribution,
and advocates argue that recidivism rates are then low.
But, of course, on the other side of this,
you have people saying prison is meant to be a punishment.
Don't reward them or pamper them.
And personally, I understand why there's a debate
and I get the concern, because, look,
like, that looks better than my regular day.
You're telling me that if I commit a crime,
my punishment is a roof over my head,
a bed, three meals a day, and go-karts with the boys?
I don't know, that sounds pretty fucking dope.
And then I want to talk about this political controversy
out of Finland because, oh, wouldn't it be nice
if this could be our fucking political controversies?
You know, when it comes to politicians and parties,
politicians can get in trouble.
Justin Trudeau, I hear, is a fan of costume parties,
Boris Johnson,
parties that are worth losing your job over, apparently.
But now in the spotlight,
you have Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin,
with her apologizing this morning after a topless photo
was being circulated on social media,
though, notably, it was not a photo of her.
Instead, it was a Finnish social media influencer
and a friend kissing and flashing the camera,
though covering it up with a Finland sign,
but all of this reportedly taking place
at the prime minister's residence,
where there was a party last month
where Marin had invited guests over after a music festival.
We've also seen her trying to distance herself
from the photo,
saying "I think the picture is not appropriate.
I apologize for it.
Such a picture should not have been taken."
Also saying that,
despite what the photo may make it seem like,
the event was actually not that eventful,
saying that it was more of a kickback
where they went to the beach, hung out in the sauna,
and where otherwise nothing extraordinary happened.
This is actually the second time she's apologized
in the last week for partying.
Right before this, she had made headlines
when videos came out of her drinking
and dancing at a private party,
with allegations that there illicit drugs being used,
followed by another night of her dancing at a nightclub.
Marin has denied taking any drugs at any point in her life
and passed a drug test, but, still, regarding drinks,
her opponents claimed that her drinking
could impair her judgment, which she countered by saying
that she kept her drinking to a minimum at such parties.
Her opponents also claiming that her choice of friends
left much to be desired,
and that such videos could expose her to blackmail.
But, notably, at the same time,
she actually has a lot of supporters
with all of this happening,
and the actual impact of these controversies
has been very minimal.
Across social media, we've seen tons of Finnish women
posting videos of them dancing and drinking to show support,
and in her government, key allies have mentioned
that this is really nothing to write home about,
or they were confused and tired of people asking questions
about the photos and videos.
And this is likely not gonna be the last of it,
with Marin also openly admitting
that other photos and videos likely exist,
and saying, "I feel like footage is being shot of me
all the time, everywhere, and it doesn't feel good.
Even normal things are made to look bad."
Yeah, my reaction to this is,
really, this is your controversy?
Our last guy inspired a mob to attack the capitol.
And before that guy, we had another president
that had an employee blow him at work,
and then he used the political muscle around him
to villainize her.
Whereas, from what I'm seeing from these accounts
with this prime minister,
this is just someone blowing off steam
with other consenting adults.
This is nothing, and if you live there,
you should count yourself lucky that this is a controversy.
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Then Sony is currently facing
a nearly $6 billion lawsuit in the U.K. right now,
and that, for allegedly ripping off its consumers
and violating the country's competition laws.
So the lawsuit was filed at the competition appeal tribunal
and is led by consumer rights advocate, Alex Neal
who notably has a 14-year history
with these kinds of suits.
And the suit claims that Sony
used the PlayStation Store's position
as the only digital marketplace for the platform
to abuse developers and publishers
by charging excessive fees,
including a 30% commission.
And that, in turn,
allegedly led to customers being unwittingly overcharged
for digital purchases on the platform,
with the lawsuit estimating the customers overpaid
a total of 5 billion pounds over the past six years.
And it's estimated that individuals in the claim,
which is just about any U.K.-based PlayStation owner,
could get between roughly the equivalent of 80
to $660 U.S. depending on how much stuff
they bought in the store.
Now, notably, this type of anti-competition
class action lawsuit is actually fairly new in the U.K.,
with it only beginning to allow them in 2015.
And in fact, with this case, there are still a lot of steps
before any consumers see the money.
For the first big hurdles
that the competition appeal tribunal needs
to certify this as eligible to proceed to trial,
there, then, being the matter of,
well, actually winning the trial itself,
which, according to some, may be a long shot.
The crux of the claim is that Sony
is abusing developers and customers with its fees,
but commission isn't unique to Sony.
It's an industry standard across the board
and seen on the Apple Store, Android, Play,
Steam, and Nintendo Shop,
so you have some saying it's unclear
why Sony in particular is being singled out here.
And we've also seen massive creators in the gaming space
like Cr1TiKaL pointing out
some other big issues in the case.
- They kind of hint that it's Sony's fault
that the consumers didn't know they were being overcharged,
like Sony was doing underhanded business tactics,
when I just don't know if I believe that,
because Sony doesn't really do anything
besides just have a platform
with a game and the price next to it,
and you choose whether or not to buy it,
But it's not like it was Sony
that was doing anything to mislead them,
at least not that I've ever seen.
They just put the games on their service
with how much they cost, and it's up to the consumer
if they find it to be a reasonable price or not.
- But he also highlighted some things
that help Neal in her claim that Sony's ToS
allows Sony to set the price of digital games
and in-game content and charge of 30% commission
on every purchase of digital games and in-game content
from the PlayStation Store, and that, quote,
"This results in excessive and unfair prices to consumers
for their digital games and in-game content,"
such as the fact that Sony screws U.K. consumers
by making a $70 game cost 70 pounds,
which is like a $12 difference.
And that would be outside the industry standard,
where the practice is to adjust their prices
so that they're almost the same after conversion.
But, also, you have people saying
that's not always the case,
pointing to things like "Elden Ring"
as $60 on the U.S. store and just 50 pounds on the U.K. one,
but also, that discrepancy might actually
end up helping the case,
because games like "Elden Ring"
are made by independent publishers,
meaning they get to dictate their price
on the PlayStation Store,
whereas you have games like "God of War"
that are made by a Sony-owned studio,
and thus the case of Sony directly dictating the price
in a way that screws U.K. consumers.
But you also have people saying that Neal
makes it seem like Sony dictates all prices,
which just isn't the case, so she's like half right.
But, ultimately, that's where we are right now.
We're gonna have to wait to see what happens,
but, of course, I want to know
everyone's thoughts with this,
but especially if you live outside of the U.S.
and you play games, what are your thoughts about this?
'Cause, for me, with this specific story
I'm like an outsider looking in, trying to understand it,
whereas it's something that's directly impacting you.
And that's also one of the things
that's cool with this show is I'm just me,
but I get to have you as this funnel of information.
And then, we should definitely talk about
yesterday's primary elections in New York and Florida,
because, while there are still a few more primaries
left this season, these were the last
of the major multi-state contests.
And so, we should talk about some of the key takeaways
from these final big races.
Right off the bat, there was one overarching factor
that shaped both of these primaries, gerrymandering.
Both Florida and New York are states with legislative maps
who are among the most radically redrawn
after the 2020 census to favor one party over the other.
In New York, it was for the Democrats.
In Florida, it was the Republicans.
But, also, it illustrated two very different possibilities
of what can happen when a map is insanely gerrymandered.
It's either tossed out by a court
or it's allowed to stay in place.
In New York, the state's highest court
ordered the map to be redrawn again
because the Democrats' initial draft
would've flipped many house seats in their favor
and undermined vulnerable Republicans.
And we ended up seeing the more balanced redrawn map
lumping several of the state's most high profile lawmakers
into one district,
resulting in an incredibly chaotic and bitter primary
that pitted members who were previously close allies
against one another and ultimately ousted
some longstanding prominent representatives.
Meanwhile, in Florida, we saw the exact opposite,
with the state supreme court there
refusing to block an insanely gerrymandered map.
And when I say insanely gerrymandered,
I mean insanely gerrymandered,
with King Florida-man Ron DeSantis
vetoing a congressional map passed by his own party,
seemingly because it did not include
enough gerrymandering in his favor,
with them then making Republicans in the state legislature
approve a different map that he drew
that was way more partisan
and gave Republicans a much bigger advantage.
And while that move, of course,
shows DeSantis' power over his party,
it also isn't the only place
that he really demonstrated his muscle yesterday,
because, while he did not have a primary challenger,
the candidates that he endorsed had very strong showings,
and that including candidates that he backed
in school board races
that he put a massive amount of funding into
in the final weeks of the primary.
With at least 21 of the 30 people that he backed
for school boards winning their elections yesterday,
and that's incredibly significant,
because school board elections in Florida
have been nonpartisan for the better part
of the last three decades.
And the good fortune for Republicans didn't just end there.
In addition to wins from DeSantis' candidates,
his congressional map is also expected
to give the GOP new House seats,
and very notably there, as The Washington Post reports,
most of those will be held by Trump-supporting Republicans,
including some of the most far-right
congressional candidates anywhere.
Which, side note,
Laura Loomer almost won her fucking primary,
only losing at this point by 7%,
which is infinitely closer than she should ever be
to holding a public office.
But also, with this news today,
we should talk about the Democrats,
who recently have been having stronger showings,
including in districts that Trump beat Biden in
since Roe v. Wade has been overturned.
And the boost that Roe's reversal has given Democrats
was also on display in a closely watched special election
for a congressional seat in a New York swing district.
There, we saw a Democrat Pat Ryan,
who campaigned on a platform of defending abortion rights,
soundly defeating his Republican opponent,
with many seeing Ryan's race as an important test case
to see if abortion will drive out voters
in the general election, especially in swing states,
which will play a heavy role
in the battle for the control of Congress.
Though, I do want to note there that Democrats
are still slated to most likely lose the House,
it's just that they may not get as spanked
as once believed, but, of course, polls are just polls
and what ends up happening from here to Election Day,
we're gonna have to wait to see.
Also, notably for Democrats,
we saw another interesting trend continuing
with moderate Democrats
beating out left-leaning challengers.
In addition to establishment Dems
fending off progressive challengers in New York,
we saw Florida Democrats picking Charlie Crist,
the state's former Republican governor
who switched to become a moderate democratic
to challenge DeSantis this fall.
So a lot of moving parts on both sides of the aisle
as we head into the general,
and a lot of different ways
this incredibly consequential election can go.
So keep your eyes open,
pay attention to registration and mail-in voting deadlines,
and, of course, vote, vote, vote.
But, ultimately, that is where that story
and today's show ends.
Thank you for watching,
being subscribed for these daily dives in the news.
Also, if you're looking for more news,
I got you covered here or in the links down below,
but, 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.