- 'Sup you beautiful bastards.
Welcome back to the Philip DeFranco show.
Buckle up, make sure you're subscribed
because I'm splitting $10,000 across 10
lucky subscribed beautiful bastards this month.
And let's just jump into it.
Drugs money and religion,
two outta three of grandma DeFranco's favorite things
but all connected through these stories.
The first being about
The Zide Door Church of Ethneogenic plants,
it's nondenominational and they support the safe use
of cannabis and magic mushrooms among other substances
which can establish a direct connection with God.
And for a while they could do this because, of course,
California made recreational marijuana legal,
and in 2019 Oakland effectively decriminalized mushrooms.
Though while you can smoke with joint from the pews,
you cannot consume mushrooms on site,
which, while a little questionable,
seems a lot more fun than communion.
Reportedly members of the churches have to pay
a $5 monthly fee plus donations for the psychedelics,
and around 200 reportedly come to get them every day.
And because of course services are held every Sunday
at 4:20 PM.
(horns blasting)
Also the church's founder
is a guy by the name of Dave Hodges.
He's an activist for drug legalization.
He also says the highest single dose of mushrooms
he's ever taken is 30 grams, which what the fuck?
I once took 10 grams and got stuck
in a black and white anime for two hours.
I don't even wanna think what 30 would do,
but he believes that mushrooms are the way
that humans evolved to have religious experiences.
- But leaving your body, interacting with entities
Gods, aliens, all sorts of things.
You can get to these places through intense meditation.
You don't have to take a bunch of mushrooms to get there,
but that's the shortcut,
and we believe it's the first way
that we ever actually experienced this.
- But the reason we're talking about Dave
is what happened back in August of 2020.
You had Oakland police suddenly raiding the church
seizing around $200,000 worth of cash, cannabis
and several strains of magic mushroom.
And that's because despite the lax laws
it was still illegal for them to sell the drugs
and undercover cops reportedly bought some from the church.
But now the Zide Door Church is seeking justice
not from the Lord, but rather the courts.
With them filing a lawsuit against the city and local police
in federal court this week for allegedly infringing
on its constitutional and religious rights.
Which arguably is backed by some laws.
Right, some religious groups
are actually exempt from drug bans.
Like a couple churches of Brazilian origin can use ayahuasca
and the Native American Church can use peyote.
And so this church is seeking damages
for the harms that it suffered,
as well as a permanent injunction allowing it to operate.
So we'll see what happens there.
But that was only the drugs and religion,
what about money and religion?
- See that's how I know you still poor, broke,
busted and disgusted because of how you've been honoring me.
I'm not worth your McDonald's money?
- [Congregation] Come on.
- I'm not worth your Red Lobster money?
- [Congregation] Hallelujah.
- I ain't worth your St. John knit?
Y'all can't afford it no how.
I ain't worth y'all Louis Vuitton?
- [Congregation] Come on.
I ain't worth your Prada?
- [Congregation] Come on.
- I'm not worth your Gucci?
- So that right there is another pastor in Kansas City
named Carlton Funderburke.
And as you can tell, he is not happy with his congregation
because while he's blessing them with prayers
they are not blessing him with those dollar dollar bills
which by the way, quick question,
since when did the Lord want his people blinged out?
Like there was a recent story about a Brooklyn pastor
who got $1 million worth of jewelry stolen
off of his and his wife's bodies in the middle of a sermon.
But my guy Funderburke, here's the thing,
he is more humble, he's only asking for a watch.
- Mother, Ooh, I'm saying this and I promise you,
you can hear that it's not with disrespect and want,
I'm saying it because I want you to understand
just what God is saying.
Even found out that Movado,
you can buy a Movado watch in Sam's.
- [Congregation] Yes, you can, yes, you can.
- And y'all know I asked for one last year,
here it is the whole way in August.
I still ain't got it.
Y'all ain't saying nothing.
Let me kick down the door
and talk to my cheap sons and daughters.
- With that clip going viral,
Funderburke coming under fire.
He's also since apologized, but I'm not gonna play the clip.
Like those words are worthless,
this is a grifter protecting his grift.
And the thing that's annoying is,
you know he is gonna get away with it.
Like snake oil salesman, plus religion,
that is a money printing machine.
With an unlimited supply
of get outta jail free God forgiveness cards.
And then he likes 'em young.
(person gasps)
When I just said that phrase,
whose name and or face popped into your head?
There might be a range there,
and those specific situations
they may range from illegal to creepy to questionable.
And the reason that we're talking about this today
starts with Demi Lovato.
She just put out a song called "29,"
which signifies not only her age
but many believe that it's a nod to the age
that Wilmer Valderrama was when he met Demi.
With reports saying they met
when Demi was 17 and Wilmer was 29.
They start dating later when she turns 18.
Reportedly they're on and off for six years,
and this is not kind of an outlier.
Wilmer has famously dated younger women
Lindsay Lohan when she was 18 and he was 24,
Mandy Moore when she was 16 and he was 20.
While Lovato never specifically names him,
there are lyrics like
"Far from innocent, what the fuck's consent?"
"Numbers told you not to, but that didn't stop you."
"Finally twenty-nine, funny,"
"just like you were at the time."
"Thought it was a teenage dream, just a fantasy,"
"but was it yours or was it mine?"
"Seventeen, twenty-nine."
Seems very obvious.
Also possibly in reference to the other girls saying
"This person is quite the collector."
With Lovato also later saying to the Los Angeles times,
"I didn't understand it at the time."
"I was like, I just like older guys"
"and now I'm like, Hey, that's not okay, that's weird."
And also adding that, it's not a one way street saying
they have a guy friend who also relates to the song.
So following this online you had people
specifically going after Valderrama
some talking about the situation
and older guys who date younger women in general.
With this also seeming to connect
to the growing conversation
about the predatory behavior around child stars
or just young women in Hollywood in general.
Though I would say it's not just limited to Hollywood.
And all I'll really add to this story
because if you look at the social conversation online,
everything's being said
my only thing is, if you are bothered by this
be bothered by this equally, like the other week,
I saw everyone losing their mind
that 50 year old Dane Cook is now engaged to a 23 year old.
And I believe rightly so, especially because it appears
that he met her when she was a teenager.
Like when I was back in Atlanta
watching Dane Cook perform the Vicious Circle tour,
his now fiance was probably learning
addition and subtraction.
I wish that was hyperbolic,
I think the math on that adds up.
Yeah, talk about and be disgusted by that.
But don't do it just because Dane Cook
is like no longer popular
and he got, has that like weird plastic surgery face.
Talk about Valderrama, talk about Leonardo DiCaprio,
talk about Zach Baff.
I loved "That 70s Show," "The Departed," oh my God amazing,
"Garden State" helped me emotionally evolve as a young man.
But unless these men
have some sort of like medical condition,
allergic reaction to having sex with women
who like witnessed 9/11 happen,
it's at the very least weird,
and some of these situations
sound very very much like grooming.
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(intense music)
You need to drink more alcohol.
(crowd cheers)
That is currently what the Japanese government
is telling its young people,
or rather that's what they wanna tell their young people
but they want your help.
Right, so their national tax agency
is launching the Viva Sake campaign,
applicants have until September 9th to submit their ideas.
With winners going into a final tournament arc
in November with the grand prize being for their plan
to be implemented and commercialized.
And like most things in this world,
they're doing this because of the money
and specifically taxes.
Right, because since the pandemic began,
nearly half of the country's versions of a pub have closed,
and the tax revenue that they brought in, went with them.
Now, luckily for them during the pandemic
at home drinking skyrocketed during the pandemic
except that wasn't the case for young people.
With the government, finding that only 7.8%
of people in their twenties drink three or more times a week
compared to 30% of those between 40 and 60.
And this trend has meant that alcohol taxes
which are a major source of revenue for the government
have drastically declined.
Back in 1980 it was about 5% of the total budget,
but in 2021, it was only 1.7%.
And personally, I think this is fucking insane.
Like I get that money moves mountains it puts on blinders
and I enjoy the occasional drink or two,
but you're telling people
because they're drinking two times or less a week,
that is not enough.
- Another one.
- Like you're actively pushing people to be heavy drinkers
at the same time as your health ministry has done campaigns
in the past discouraging heavy drinking.
Like you literally know it's bad
to the people that you're now trying to promote it to.
And so far, the leading messaging is that
if you are a patriotic Japanese person go drink.
Like y'all according to research harmful use of alcohol
causes over 3 million deaths per year.
Drink too much or too often increases risk of injuries,
liver damage, cancers, heart disease, mental illness.
Like do you know how fucking stupid your idea is
to make me go into daddy mode?
NFTs are the future.
You've probably heard some celebrity say that
in the past year or two, hell even fucking 84 year old,
Sir Anthony Hopkins released an NFT collection yesterday.
They often seem inescapable as the market
has become so saturated
with so many influencers pushing them.
And because it's been so saturated, it's easy to forget
you know, who is pushing this?
What has been successful?
What has failed just horribly.
Luckily you have creators like Coffeezilla
who's a creator who's done a lot to educate people
about the influencer crypto space.
And just recently he put out a video looking
at nearly two dozen celebrity NFT ventures.
Starting with Justin Bieber
who still actively supports his NFT venture,
which is currently down 30% from its mint.
Which in the sphere of celebrity NFTs
Coffeezilla kind of explains is not actually that bad.
Especially since it's hard to keep people interested,
to keep hype alive.
Also turning to the likes of the NELK boys,
as an example of people who've actually done
a relatively good job of that.
- The price has only dipped like 20%
in the last several months,
which frankly really surprised me.
I mean, I guess the NELK fan base
just won't let this one die
- And actually you have examples
like entrepreneur Gary Vee doing quite well.
- They're selling for the price of an economy car.
With a mint price between 2.5 Ethereum and 0.5 Ethereum
early investors are very happy.
Their investments are up several hundred percent.
I think they're selling for like over six Ethereum now.
And I think the X factor is obviously Gary Vee himself
and the project's exclusive access to VeeCon
which is an NFT event he throws every single year.
- But also noting that just because an NFT goes up in value
doesn't mean that it's going to stay that way.
And with that pointing to Reese Witherspoon's
World of Women project as an example.
Right there noting that if you got in at the beginning,
you still probably are happy,
but pointing out that it's really dipped
since it's high peaking point
a few months after it's release,
but notably it appears
that these are kind of like the exceptions.
- [Coffeezilla] Even so called real artists like Grimes
will release stuff like,
you know this Earth collection she did.
Originally it'll cost $7,500, and now it's selling for $200.
A$AP Rocky faced the same problem with his project,
which initially sold for $2,000 and is now selling for $400.
- With Coffeezilla noting that this is a pattern
turning to Mike Tyson's NFT collection
which is down from its all time high and explaining.
- Projects have a boom and then a bust.
They initially get hyped, they get sales,
then over time, the celebrity and the holders
just kind of lose interest in the NFT.
And that kinda makes sense,
it's hard to maintain that initial hype.
- When comes to celebrities just losing interest, right?
Some just quietly distance themselves from those projects
Right Lindsay Lohan promoted the Canine Cartel NFT, but.
- Fast forward to today
Lindsay has deleted her tweet promoting it,
and the project is down 90%.
- Then adding that basketball player John Wall
just deleted the website for his NFT venture.
Coffeezilla also putting Jake Paul in his sights.
- [Coffeezilla] He releases the Sacred NFT project
or partners with it,
and now he abandons it and it's down 90%.
- And so ultimately I think the main point of this story
is be careful out there.
I know that with my audience
it's kind of preaching to the choir,
but it's also a reminder that many of these celebrities
could give a fuck about you.
They at most kind of risk part of their reputation,
even though if you look at like an NFT project
there's only gonna be several hundred
or a few thousand holders.
But still those are real people who believed
and supported you, and are gonna lose money possibly.
Most of the creators promoting this shit
don't even think about the why,
at least like the Gary Vee and NELK ventures
there's supposed to be some sort of utility.
Like there's at least an idea that
maybe there is some sort of value
rather than just give me money
and then try and fucking schlop it
to some other random person.
I don't know why I said schlop meant sling.
But ultimately that is where that story and today show ends.
Thank you for watching and subscribing
to my daily dives into the news.
Also, if you want more news, I got you covered here
or in those links down below, but as always
my name's Philip DeFranco, you've just been filled in,
I love your faces, and I'll see you next time.