- Keeping up with the news all day sucks,
so let me do it for you. (sighs)
"Do not cook your chicken in NyQuil,"
is a very real thing people are having to say right now
and this, because that is the latest version
of the never-ending list
of "why the fuck would people even do that" challenges.
But yeah, people on social media
are cooking their chicken breasts in NyQuil
for the "sleepy chicken challenge".
And my only reaction is the question of,
"If you do this, what happened?
Who dropped you on your head
and have they apologized for it yet?"
And I don't even wanna warn people not to do this,
because if you're stupid enough to actually do this,
maybe we should just let it happen.
But the FDA doesn't have the same mindset.
The agency now having to release a statement warning people
that messing with over-the-counter medicines
for social media challenges, can have consequences.
Also, even if you're doing this,
like for a meme and you're not gonna eat the chicken,
it could still mess you up,
with the FDA saying that, "Boiling a medication
can make it much more concentrated
and change its properties in other ways."
And adding, "Even if you don't eat the chicken,
inhaling the medication's vapors while cooking
could cause high levels of the drugs to enter your body.
It could also hurt your lungs."
And you could accidentally, "Take a dangerously high amount
of the medicine without even realizing it."
But y'all, I don't know how much longer
you're gonna be able to keep this up.
I think the FDA is like, two challenges away
from being like, "Fuck it, Nike, 'just do it.'"
- Don't let your dreams be dreams.
- There's probably no crossover
between people who consider FDA warnings
and people who want to cook chicken with NyQuil.
Just gonna make a little educated guess there.
And then quick reminder, if you're new here,
make sure you're subscribed,
because I'm splitting $10,000
across 10 lucky subscribed Beautiful Bastards this month.
And also whether you're subbed or not,
this is your friendly reminder
that you only have five days left if you wanna get in
on the brand new beautifulbastard.com drop.
You got the "Keep Going" tie-dye's,
the exclusive "Bringer of Sadness" world tour gear,
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and finally this slew of awesome posters,
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Some are signed, some are unsigned.
Some are incredibly low on stock.
So get what you want, while you can, 'cause it's going away.
Then, schools have a swatting problem right now.
Awesome, as if it wasn't scary enough to go to
or send your kids to school already, right?
Schools nationwide have been dealing with fear
and chaos this week.
There's been this massive trend,
since the start of the school year,
for fake calls reporting threats of violence on campuses.
So you have police showing up to these schools
for no reason,
oftentimes resulting in a lockdown or evacuation.
On Monday in the Washington DC area,
there were three schools targeted by hoax calls.
Nearby in Virginia, same thing in multiple schools,
with one 911 call specifically reporting an active shooter.
San Antonio officers were dispatched
to Jefferson High School after a report
of a shooting in progress.
And while obviously in all of these incidents,
this was swatting, this was all a hoax,
during the process of the last one
where they're clearing out the students,
they're assessing the situation,
there actually was a massive altercation with the parents.
They rushed to the school,
wanting to get their kids out ASAP.
They ended up clashing with police,
there's tons of screaming, some shoving,
parents obviously having the horrors of Uvalde
on their mind.
You had one guy breaking a window
with a nearly one-foot-long knife, injuring his wrist.
That same man later getting thrown
down to the ground by an officer.
That one, not only highlighting the chaos,
but also a lack of trust between parents and school police.
And we're not done right, remember, this is just a few.
Like, in Colorado, several high schools got prank calls
or they got swatted.
In fact, it's been reported that,
"At least 30 active shooter false alarms and threats
were made at schools last week."
And while there's always an expectation
of there being an uptick at the start of the school year,
reportedly the last several days and weeks
have been unusually high.
And my reaction to this is, maybe it's overkill,
but I think that if you SWAT a school,
every single parent gets to take a bat
to whatever part of their body they want.
Because not only is this taking a real toll on the parents,
the students, the teachers, where you're calling your kid,
you're not able to get ahold of them.
You're in the situation, you're wondering,
"Oh my God, am I going to die?"
But then even on the opposite end, even worse.
What if we start getting into situations
where people just don't believe that the threat is real,
where people don't make immediate defensive actions
because they're like, "It might be fake."
But yeah, let me know, bad or no bad? (laughs)
And then let's see how many stories
we can transition together.
Starting with, the YouTube button does not do
what you think it does.
Or when you hit that Dislike button,
maybe you're telling YouTube,
"I don't want videos from this person or this channel,
or on, even on this topic."
But a new Mozilla study of YouTube found
that the Dislike button only stopped 12% of recommendations.
Even when people hit the Don't Recommend Channel button,
you're just plainly saying what you want,
it only stopped 43% of unwanted video recommendations,
which has people wondering,
"Is the YouTube system just broken?"
Or is this YouTube going, "Eh, what you say you want
and what you actually want are two different things."
Which, I mean, could actually be the case.
For example, we keep seeing quiet quitting in the news
or the idea of doing the minimum required to keep your job.
And recent polling found that 82% of young workers say
that is pretty or extremely appealing,
but only 15% are already doing it.
And interestingly, the desire,
or the people at least finding this appealing,
almost completely equal across a number of demographics.
79% of young men, 85% of young women, 82% of white people,
86% of Black people, 79% of Asian people,
even across Democrats, Republicans and independents.
But at the same time,
the number of people actually doing it, incredibly low.
And respondents said that on average,
they worked eight to nine hours per day.
Also, a weird job to have right now,
especially if you're working that eight to nine hours
is teacher slash librarian.
And that's because books are getting banned in America
at a crazy rate.
In 2020, the American Library Association
logged 156 attempts to remove books.
In 2021, that number jumped up to 729 attempts.
And it's expected that the numbers this year
are going to be even higher.
And according to reports, well yeah,
the news that a book is being banned,
it can actually help the sales.
The ALA believes that 82 to 97% of book challenges
aren't reported on, which is also part of the reason
we've seen things like the Brooklyn Public Library
launching Books UnBanned,
which allows anyone across the country
between the ages of 13 and 21 to get a free eCard.
And with it, access to 350,000 eBooks and 200,000 audiobooks
and multiple databases.
Because institutions in some states aren't banning things
that institutions in others are.
Also, in New York,
they care about kids getting their eyes on books,
but they also care about having their eyes on you.
With the governor of New York now announcing
they're going to install two surveillance cameras
in all 6,400 subway cars by 2025.
With the governor saying,
"You think big brother is watching you on the subway?
You're absolutely right. That is our intent.
But it is appearing to be connected
to just horrible subway ridership numbers
and reportedly underground crime becoming way more common
in the state.
But also in Iran, they're having to wonder what happens
when the crime's happening above ground,
in broad daylight, by the so-called police,
with Iranians flooding the streets yesterday
to protest the death of 22-year-old Kurdish woman,
Mahsa Amini.
She reportedly died last week after she was arrested
by Iran's morality police who enforce laws
like requiring women to wear a headscarf
and loose-fitting clothing in public.
And then, even more horribly,
seven people have been killed in the protest so far.
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And then Russia is sending 300,000 more soldiers
into the wood chipper, I mean you Ukraine.
That's what sad Vladi just announced
in an address to the nation,
saying the new batch of bodies
will be pulled from the military reserve.
So we're talking people with military training,
including some reserve officers over the age of 60,
who are getting snatched outta retirement.
This movement's set to roll out over a matter of months,
giving a signal that Putin is in this for the long game.
And to give you some perspective with that 300,000 number,
Moscow's initial invasion force in February
only counted around 190,000 troops,
plus the thousands of pro-Russian separatists in the east,
with more being recruited since then.
And there is some 25 million ordinary Russians,
whom could theoretically be drafted to fight.
But as of right now, Putin has stressed
that he will not conscript any soldiers.
Though there did not seem
to be universal trust in Vladi The Weak,
with a flood of Russians booking it to the airport,
with the price of flights outta the country soaring.
Like it reached as high as $9,000
for one-way economy class tickets
from Moscow to Istanbul or Dubai.
And flights to Belgrade have sold out
for the next several days.
And understand it's not like the current military
is all volunteers, Russian men aged 18 to 27 have to serve.
Usually for a year, but there are some exemptions.
And just last week, video came out
of the head of the Russian mercenary Wagner group
recruiting from a prison, promising inmates freedom
if they fight for just six months with his group.
Also, in a response to the criticism,
on social media he said,
"It's either private military companies and prisoners,
or your children, decide yourself."
But, really I think the key takeaway here,
is how desperate Putin is getting,
with many analysts seeing this move as an attempt
to renew the war effort following the Ukrainian military's
stunning counter-offensive, earlier this month.
And so it'll be interesting to see
if this move from Russia is effective,
because Russia has always had the numerical advantage.
They have more bodies, but Kiev,
they've been able to hold their ground,
largely thanks to impressive military strategy,
advanced Western weapons and superior troop morale.
But, and it is the mother of all buts,
one thing Ukraine does not have, is nuclear weapons.
Which brings us to the second important moment
of Putin's address that grabbed headlines,
his threat to start World War III, with Putin saying,
"If the territorial integrity of our country is threatened,
we will without a doubt use all available means
to protect Russia and our people. This is not a bluff."
Also accusing the likes of trying to destroy Russia
and engaging in nuclear blackmail
by discussing the use of nukes against Moscow.
And those remarks were later followed by the Editor In Chief
of "Russia Today", the state propaganda channel,
tweeting, "Judging by what is happening
and what is about to happen,
this week marks either the eve of our imminent victory
or the eve of nuclear war. I can't see any third option."
Now, the thing is, no one's trying to take over Russia,
but the problem is what Moscow considers it's territory,
They just announced that four enclaves
in occupied Eastern Ukraine will hold referendums
from Friday to Tuesday on whether to join Russia.
Which, just to be clear, this is a total sham.
This is the same thing that was done with Crimea in 2014.
But, those votes will pave the way
for Moscow to claim, "Hey, that's ours."
With them set to formally annex
parts of Ukraine the size of Hungary.
Though, notably in this case,
those areas are far more contested than Crimea was.
And I'm just left feeling like,
"Man, it is true, history rhymes and repeats."
You see instances of fascists marching through the streets,
the threat of nuclear war in the air,
low-rise jeans came back.
And I'm not sure which of those is the scariest.
And then what the fuck is happening with Twitch right now?
Like many of you, I've just been watching from afar,
going like, "What the fuck?"
It's just been back-to-back stuff.
It started with gambling addiction and scamming friends
and fans, and then sexual assault accusations
and cover ups of it, and a gambling ban,
and Twitch messing with the money of their creators.
Let's try to slice through it,
simplify it and make it consumable.
So on Monday we talked about the Sliker scamming scandal.
He would fake needing the money for things,
and then he'd ask and get money from fellow creators,
fans, someone that was going through chemo.
And so in addition to the reaction online
being, "Man, fuck that guy."
People also used it as an effort to say,
"Hey, we should ban gambling on Twitch."
Saying that while Sliker wasn't streaming his gambling,
he was an example of what happens to people
who get hooked on it.
And so we saw streamers like Pokimane and Mizkif
organizing efforts to boycott streaming
the week before Christmas,
which is a major time for ad revenue.
And on places like Twitter, launching 'like' campaigns
saying, "Hey, if you don't want gambling
on Twitch, like this."
With all that leading to this huge breakthrough yesterday
where Twitch announced that it was banning gambling,
kind of, sort of, some of the time.
Under the new rules, starting October 18,
creators are prohibited from the,
"Streaming of gambling sites that include slots, roulette,
or dice games," that are not licensed,
"in the U.S. or other jurisdictions
that provide sufficient consumer protection."
And even going on to name the big players in the space,
Stake.com, SorryDrake, Roobet, and others,
while clarifying that that's not the end-all be-all
of the list, but also saying that sports betting,
fantasy sports and poker sites
will still be allowed on the platform.
This move is Twitch mainly taking aim at crypto casinos
located in places like Curacao,
due to the lax regulations there.
And following the news, you had some loving it,
some hating it, and post ban it'll be interesting
to see what large gambling creators
like xQc and Trainwreck do, right?
Do they find a loophole? Do they stream somewhere else?
Because I mean, these gambling sites have poured
an ungodly amount of money into the sponsorship deals.
Like, we're talking numbers that even people
who are morally against gambling
would be like, "Well, maybe."
And so it'll be interesting to see how all this plays out.
But, this was only part of all the chaos.
While all that was playing out,
we also saw the potential downfall of Mizkif, right?
He and Trainwreck got into an argument
in AsmonGold's tweet about Sliker.
In the now-deleted tweet, Miz said
that if Sliker was banned for scamming people,
then Trainwreck should also be banned
for shilling a failed crypto at one point.
To which Trainwreck shot back with, brace yourself,
"are you going to send Maya and Mitch to railroad
and blackmail me like you did those girls
to cover up all those sexual assaults you fucking
scumbag piece of shit, you want to come at me
and make shit up, then you better be sure you don't live
in a glass house you insecure pussy.
With him then going on to clarify that Mizkif
did not sexually assault anyone himself,
but instead, helped cover up a sexual assault
a buddy allegedly committed.
With that being a pretty clear reference to people
in this space, to allegations made by streamer AdrianahLee
against CrazySlick, another streamer, last year.
Also because we're throwing out all these names
that many of you don't even know,
this is a different Slick, this is a different person.
Last July, a streamer that used to be friends with Adrianah
accused Slick of sexually assaulting Adrianah,
with this said to have occurred while she was blackout drunk
at a party in January of 2020.
With Adrianah saying of the situation in a TwitLonger,
"Slick was acting weird, he only went into the room
to check if she was still alive,
by seemingly checking her pulse
by touching her neck and chest.
At the time she described it as an uncomfortable situation,
but not rape or assault.
However, Adrianah now claimed that she initially intended
to be more forceful in her accusations, revealing-
- The TwitLonger is a diluted version of the story
that was proofread by Maya OTK.
It was Maya, Mitch and Barry were there with me.
- With her then clarifying that due to the power dynamic
between her Maya and Mizkif's OTK organization,
she felt pressured to allow them to proofread her stuff
and downplay what happened over fears
that she'd lose access to the group,
which also eventually happened anyways.
And adding salt to the wound, there were also clips
like this one where Mizkif downplays what happened.
- [Mizkif] Well, what you can deem of it,
it's sexual harassment, whatever, at a low scale,
it's not really a big deal.
(monster roars) (Mizkif burps)
I don't think people really gave a shit and really cared.
- And based on that,
it seemed like there was a plan to protect Slick,
because he faced essentially no repercussions for all this.
But also things may be a little more complicated, right?
To be clear, no one except Slick denies Adrianah's claim
that she was sexually assaulted.
But Maya, Mizkif and others, are claiming
that they were working with imperfect information
at the time and Adrianah somewhat backs that up.
- I've only recently figured out and found out,
especially without sitting, that it's sexual assault.
Because even yesterday, we looked up the definition
on stream and that's what it was.
- [Person] Well it's like, even you know,
when that stuff happens to you, you don't immediately,
your first reaction is like, that didn't actually happen,
like, it's not as bad as, it's not that bad.
- Exactly. - 'Cause like, you try
to gaslight yourself,
so of course you're gonna say that at first.
- And a number of experts would say
that her friend is right, that it's not uncommon
for victims to take some time to come to terms
with what happened to them.
So with that in mind, Maya's claiming that they only
went over to hear Adrianah's side of the story
to see if they had to kick Slick out.
And so if Adrianah hadn't even come to terms
with what had happened to her, it makes sense
why she may have agreed to Maya's request to include
that it wasn't sexual assault.
But, whatever the situation may be,
Maya has since apologized and said that she should have
never inserted herself into the situation.
In general online, it feels like whether people believe
Mizkif intentionally tried to cover it up or not,
many have assumed that at best,
Slick's just a fucking creep.
But then, because when it rains, it pours,
a ton of women have come out about their experiences
with Slick, with people showing his DMs to them,
showing that he sent unsolicited dick pics to them,
even when told to stop.
But also, Slick has not been happy about the allegations,
denying them and nuking his social media.
But in addition to Slick,
the biggest spotlight right now is on Mizkif.
And sticking with the idea of when it rains, it pours,
things kept piling up against Mizkif,
where you had people like streamer Ice Poseidon,
who seems to have been kind of laying low for a while,
due his crypto scandals,
but here seeing a chance to come back and release DMs
from Mizkif that show outrageously racist language.
So all of that combined, led to calls
for him to be kicked from OTK.
Though, notably, Mizkif has some ownership in the company
as an initial founder, so that might be unlikely.
However, the company has since come out
to address Mizkif's actions, saying,
"Due to the seriousness of what's been brought forward,
we have begun the process of contracting a third-party
legal organization to investigate the issue in detail.
In the meantime, Mizkif has been placed on leave
and will be stepping away from his organizational duties
pending the results of the investigation."
With Mizkif himself also addressing the controversy,
writing that Slick is kicked out of the house
and apologizing for his actions, and adding,
"A little while after Slick's misconduct
came to light last year,
I made some inexcusable statements on an alt-stream
after some chat messages got to me.
To Adrianah and all those affected by sexual harassment,
I am sorry for those statements.
Sexual harassment, regardless of degree,
can never be considered 'small', and while my intention
was to clarify a misleading chat message,
I chose my words poorly,
and my response came off as downplaying
what should have never been downplayed.
And of the racist DMs, Miz also said,
"I was a dumb, edgy guy who said a lot of stupid things
to my friends to try and come off as funny and cool.
I can't change what I've said,
but I can change who I am and how I conduct myself.
I'm proud of how much I've grown these past 4 years,
but I know that there is always room to improve."
And finally, going on to clarify that he made his decision
to back Slick based on information
that he was given at the time.
And so right now, you have people wondering,
is there going to be a serious investigation into Mizkif,
or is all of this just an excuse
to hide Mizkif away for a bit
until the next big controversy drops.
Oh, and like I said, Twitch just changed their revenue share
at the cost of the top creators.
So, I don't know,
that whole platform seems like it's on fire right now.
But that is where that story, and today's show, ends.
And hopefully you enjoyed your daily dose of news poison,
so you can do something else with your life
for the other 23 hours and 40 minutes.
My name's Philip DeFranco, you've just been filled in.
I love your faces and I'll see you tomorrow.