The Philip DeFranco Show - PDS 10.12 It’s Even Worse Than We Thought. Adriana Chechik, Corruption Exposed, Stocks, S&P 500 & More News

Starting point is 00:00:00 Sup you beautiful bastards! Welcome back to the Philip DeFranco Show. Buckle up, make sure you hit that like button, otherwise I will punch you in the throat. And let's just jump into the news. Adriana Cechik was actually way more injured than previously believed. We talked on Monday about her injury at TwitchCon. She's doing what seems to be some fun foam jousting. She wins, she jumps, and she reportedly breaks her back. You see her just laying there, obviously in pain.

Starting point is 00:00:22 She tweets that she's gonna have to have surgery to get a metal rod for support. Notably, she was just one of several people that got injured at this thing. But now we know even more because Adriana tweeted late last night, surgery went well, five and a half hours, more fusions than expected, bones completely crushed, and nerve damage to my bladder. Hopefully, I'll be able to pee again in the near future. Had some bleeding around the bone, but overall doing good. And adding she's gonna have to have a brace on for a long time. So with her recovery now started, one of the biggest questions is who is going to fucking pay? Are you people pointing the finger at Lenovo, Intel, the venue, Twitch itself, or possibly a sharing of fault? Also regarding whether she or other people have a case, I think something that's incredibly important is a number

Starting point is 00:01:01 of attorneys are now saying, yes, she probably does have a case. With creators and injury lawyers like attorney Tom over on YouTube saying, even if this person signed a waiver, that would not protect the parties responsible from negligence. And saying that the foam pit here is the definition of negligent design. And hey, when it comes to the United States, I'm not a fan of how overly litigious our country can be, but this seems pretty fucking straightforward to me. Isn't it the bare minimum expectation that if you're going to have a thing where people, the intended thing is for people to fall, that a design would be used to absorb the fall, ideally in a way that doesn't result in broken bones? Yeah, we'll see what happens. And then,

Starting point is 00:01:38 tax the cow farts, and while you're at it, tax their burps as well. That is apparently what they're going to be doing in New Zealand. Are the countries trying to combat climate change, promising to go carbon neutral by 2050? To do so, they've been looking closely at their greenhouse gas emissions. And they found in a study from 2019 that 88.4% of methane emissions came from livestock. And 65% of that number just came from cattle digestion, cow farts. And so the prime minister has proposed taxing farmers for the emissions their livestock produce, saying, the proposal would see New Zealand farmers lead the world in reducing emissions, delivering a competitive advantage, and enhancing our export brand. And a key thing here is this would be the first tax on livestock emissions in the world. Though the EU

Starting point is 00:02:16 and United States have made plans to lower greenhouse gas emissions within the farming industry, though not related to livestock specifically. Now, New Zealand is home to about 10 million cows, and farmers so far are less than satisfied with the idea of paying extra for the flatulence of their cattle. And while the taxation rate starting in 2025 has not been released yet, according to the government, if it goes through, farmers could see a loss of 5% of total profit and output. With at least one farmer responding, if they apply this price, you're going to find people who think it's just too much for them, and it's hampering their ability to have a decent life. Also, as far as why the fuck are you going to tax cow farts? What are you going to do

Starting point is 00:02:47 with that money? Is it going to cow butt plugs to stop the farts? I don't know. That's not how that works. I don't think, but I don't know. Rather, the prime minister said the money would go towards research and new technology and the reduction of farming greenhouse gas emissions. But as far as if this will be passed, if it will be effective, what the reaction will be, we're going to have to wait to see. And then you may be going through a midlife crisis right now, even if you haven't reached your midlife. Let me explain. So reportedly, according to a new paper

Starting point is 00:03:10 from the National Bureau of Economic Research, people in their 40s and 50s in rich countries are prone to a rise in suicidal thoughts, job stress, depression, and alcohol dependence, which looking back actually makes a lot of sense because when I was in school, adults would always tell me I seem mature for my age. Apparently, according to this study, when you reach the maximum level of work stress is around

Starting point is 00:03:28 45 years old. But we're also seeing reports that the midlife crisis is happening earlier in life, in part due to the pandemic. And the super fun thing about all of this is it's an indiscriminate shotgun blast. Probably shouldn't talk about firearms with a depression story. But reportedly, major indicators of mental duress peaked in midlife regardless of income, nationality, gender, or whether or not people had kids. So that's all the information, but the main thing I want you to take away from this story, motherfucker,

Starting point is 00:03:53 if you're feeling any of this stuff I'm talking about right now, you're not weird or some fucking random outlier. You are human. You're not alone in this. People are experiencing it. Just talk it out. And that's something for everyone,

Starting point is 00:04:03 but I also especially want to talk to guys here. I feel like, and maybe it's just because of certain algorithms, it's very easy to fall down this hole of thinking like, men, the only thing that's expected of them is to provide and no one fucking cares about them. That can be a very easy thing to buy into, but how many of us that feel like that actually try and fucking communicate those feelings to another human being?

Starting point is 00:04:22 It ends up being this self-fulfilling prophecy of like, I need to suffer and silence and endure and then be also angry that I'm doing that. And I'm not saying that for some of you that the people around you don't care. If that's the case, you just need new people. But at the very least, try to talk to someone. You may be shocked how much some of the people around you care. And then the kids are not all right. A panel of medical experts just recommended for the first time that doctors screen children as young as eight years old for anxiety. The panel is called the U.S. Preventative Services Task Force, and it issued this guidance as part of the official final recommendations for mental health screening. And a key thing here in that final version, the group also reaffirmed its position that primary care providers should

Starting point is 00:04:59 also screen children as young as 12 years old for depression. And it shouldn't be surprising the ongoing mental health crisis among young Americans is a serious epidemic and it's only getting worse. According to the CDC, around 5.8 million children have been diagnosed with anxiety and about 2.7 million have been diagnosed with depression. But the thing is, the real numbers are very likely higher

Starting point is 00:05:16 because there are many kids who have likely been missed in these figures and they're also from before the pandemic. Like that was its own horror show, especially on young people. But according to a March study from the HHS, from 2016 to 2020, the number of kids three to 17 diagnosed with anxiety rose by 29% and depression by 27%.

Starting point is 00:05:33 And unsurprising, especially given the last story we talked about, that same panel just last month also recommended for the first time that all adults 65 and under be screened for anxiety as well. Though notably here, those recommendations for adults have not yet been finalized. But back to the kids, because while experts have applauded this formalization of the recommendation for them,

Starting point is 00:05:49 a number are pointing out flaws, like first of all, even if pediatricians opt to follow this guidance. Experts note that the screening tools don't actually provide a diagnosis, but only indicate if a child may need additional care, which, a key thing here, is where we run into some trouble.

Starting point is 00:06:00 Because right now, there is a massive nationwide shortage of mental health professionals who are trained to help these kids. We're going to have to wait to see if the industry changes to meet this new demand. Though, I think it's an important demand to take seriously. Having an idea of a kid's mental health, a battle that they're going to face their whole lives. You do that at an early enough age, that's going to help a ton of people. I mean, if I was given the tools when I was a kid that I didn't really get until I was like 32, I can't even fully comprehend the

Starting point is 00:06:24 quality of life changes I would have experienced along the way. And then I want to take a second to thank a sponsor of today's show, Established Titles. Established Titles is based on a historic Scottish custom where landowners are referred to as lords and ladies in English. It's a fun gift to give anyone,

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Starting point is 00:07:14 And then, Mark Zuckerberg wants to stare directly into your eyes and he's gonna make you pay for it. Is the weirdest way I could bring up the MetaQuest Pro and the future of VR and mixed reality. But when it comes to VR, there's been this debate of of is it this random side thing or is it genuinely the future? I've used some of the higher end VR stuff for gaming. I also have something kind of more casual, which was the Quest 2. I've used it to play some games during the pandemic. Me and a few guys would get together and watch like a horror movie every week. There's this one program that like has you in a

Starting point is 00:07:41 virtual movie theater. But there is this belief that this could be also not only the future of gaming, but also socialization and work. And that's largely where the mixed VR comes in. And so with that, Meta just announced the Quest Pro. It's got a new processor, new screen. The design's different. It also has inward facing cameras for eye and face tracking as well as a color video feed for mixed reality.

Starting point is 00:08:01 With the idea for that being, hey, you could sit down at your desk at home. You put on this thing, and maybe you can see your laptop screen in front of you, definitely your keyboard, and then everything else perhaps is maybe VR. So instead of needing real world extra monitors, all of a sudden you're moving stuff in virtual reality, you got 17,000 screens,

Starting point is 00:08:17 and then with a swipe of your hand, all of them go away, and you're at a meeting, or you're at a table with the other writers, or editors, or whatever the fuck your job is. There was even an announcement that Microsoft partnered with Meta to bring Teams, Office, Windows, and Xbox to VR. And all of this notably happening before Apple announces their rumored VR AR device in 2023. Also, on that note, I gotta give some props to the interviewer at The Verge that talked to Zuckerberg around this.

Starting point is 00:08:39 He asked this question to Zuckerberg that was essentially like, do you find it strange or like kind of random that, you know, Apple kneecapped your ad business right before you guys dove into this new space together? And initially Zuckerberg gives, you know, the PR answer of like, there's no way to know. But then it's certainly plausible that, you know, that they kind of see this competition in the future and want to hinder us. I do think that, I think one thing that's been pretty clear is that their motives in doing the things that they're doing are not as altruistic as they claim them to be. You know, I'm sure that they believe at some level

Starting point is 00:09:17 in the things that they're doing and think that they're good for their customers, but it can't just be a coincidence that it also aligns very well with their strategy. But ultimately, as far as is this specific device the future, I don't know. The interviewer even mentions to Zuck, they tried the device, the mixed reality,

Starting point is 00:09:33 their keyboard was fuzzy, which isn't a great thing to hear. I tested some of the mixed VR on the Quest 2 and that was a little clunky. The price tag is obviously a massive jump. I think Quest 2 is $399. This is coming in at around 1500. Though Zuckerberg in the interview talked about the hundreds of millions of people that buy a new PC every year, so they're

Starting point is 00:09:48 kind of seeing it in that price point, which I think could make sense except for one fact. Even with this being the Pro, the battery life is actually worse than the Quest 2. Clocking in at just one to two hours, though I guess the pushback there would be you could just keep it wired while you're at your desk. So will I try this out? Yes, but that's because the price point for me specifically isn't intimidating, but I'm not everyone. And I'm in a position where I get to try it out and then convey my opinion to you. So we'll see. I'm of two minds when we talk about mixed reality and work. There's part of my brain that loves it because while I love most of the things about work from home, I do actually miss seeing people in person and having in-person conversations. Zoom or any kind of thing like that is a subpar

Starting point is 00:10:24 experience where you can't get that eye-to-eye connection. Your eyes are usually like darting from webcam to screen, webcam to screen. But also the idea of wearing this fucking headset all day, it seems horrible. I don't know. Time will tell and Zuckerberg and Meta have made a massive bet, which either is going to play out for them or be absolutely fucking devastating. But when only the olds are using your social media service and all these new companies like TikTok are eating your lunch, yeah, it makes sense why you'd try and pivot. And then if you're a gig worker or you use gig workers, everything might be about to change for you. Because yesterday, the Labor Department announced a proposed rule that would pave the way for millions of workers to be classified as employees instead of independent contractors.

Starting point is 00:10:59 And if the rule gets approved, it would grant sweeping federal protections like minimum wage, overtime, and healthcare benefits to tons of people. I mean, we're talking ride share, delivery drivers, to janitors and construction workers. And specifically what this proposal would do is basically create a test to determine whether certain workers should be classified as employees or contractors based on a series of factors.

Starting point is 00:11:18 This includes things like how much control and autonomy a worker has over how they do their job and the opportunities they're given to make more money, such as offering new services. Notably, this new rule would also reverse another put in place by Trump that made it easier for gig companies to classify workers as independent contractors, with Biden's rule effectively lowering the bar for who could be classified as an employee, which if it goes through, I mean, that's absolutely massive. That'd be one of the biggest shifts in federal labor laws in my lifetime for millions of Americans, and it also has the

Starting point is 00:11:42 potential to seriously disrupt the companies that they work for. Because this has been a raging debate for years now. You've had industry leaders like Uber and Lyft repeatedly arguing that being a contractor, it gives people more flexibility and that the model is flexible among their workers, and claiming that if they had to treat their drivers as employees, it would completely fuck them. Saying they wouldn't be able to pay their drivers, the cost would get too high. But some officials estimating that the cost of labor could rise as much as 20 to 30 percent. But on the other side of this, you have many labor activists and experts arguing that the only reason those labor costs would go up so much is because these companies are exploiting their workers and denying them protections to reduce their own costs. While also at the same time paying hundreds of millions of dollars that they could use to pay those workers

Starting point is 00:12:17 to instead lobby against legislation that would make them employees. Well, all these workers, they're not a monolith, right? They all have different opinions. Many have complained about long hours, irregular pay, changes to the apps that affect their livelihood without their say. And beyond that, some experts have also said there's nothing about full employment that would prevent these companies from still giving workers similar flexibility. And also, beyond that debate, there are a lot of criticisms around the current system that results in worker misclassification. With the National Employment Law Project, a pro-worker think tank, estimating that as many as 30% of workers may be wrongly categorized as independent. Which, hey, this is one way to get the government on their side. Not only does that lower the pay that workers get, it also costs states billions of dollars in tax

Starting point is 00:12:52 revenue. Where they just told the government, there's oil in them hills. So you have many applauding this proposed rule, but also the likes of Lyft and Uber kind of downplaying the proposal, expressing optimism that it wouldn't exactly undermine the gig economy model and claiming, hey, this is basically just to restore an Obama era rule that didn't reclassify drivers. But the market so far has apparently felt otherwise because gig economy stocks plummeted following this news, with Lyft and Uber both seeing drops of more than 10%, though some have recouped some of their losses as of recording. And as far as what happens next, it has to go through the regulatory process, which includes a 45 day period for public comment. And notably,

Starting point is 00:13:23 even if it does go into effect, it will likely be subject to legal challenges. And then, governments are corrupt. It's just a question of how corrupt. And when it comes to the United States, it turns out at least 20%, at least if we try to quantify it in this specific way. Because that percentage is the big takeaway from the Wall Street Journal, which obtained financial disclosure forms for around 12,000 federal officials between 2016 and 2021. They found that more than one in five senior officials or over 2,600 officials across 50 agencies disclosed investments in companies while those same companies were lobbying their agencies.

Starting point is 00:13:53 We've got FDA officials owning banned food and drug stocks, SEC officials owning banned financial stocks, EPA officials owning oil and gas stocks, all the way down the list. And to look at a very specific case, officials in the Pentagon's office of the secretary reported collectively owning between 1.2 million and 3.4 million of stock in aerospace

Starting point is 00:14:10 and defense companies on average each year. We also know that over 1,800 officials owned or traded stocks from Meta, Google, Apple, or Amazon just as the government had ramped up scrutiny of big tech. And if you're wondering, how could this happen? Are there not rules here, Phil? Well, the answer is yes, but sometimes when agencies discover a conflict of interest, they simply waive the rules. With a journal finding

Starting point is 00:14:27 that in most instances that it identified, ethics officials certified that the employees had complied with the rules, which have several exemptions that allow officials to actually hold stock that conflicts with their agency's work. And when ethics officials do see a potential violation, they refer to their agency's inspector general, who then refer to the Justice Department if they find evidence of wrongdoing. But a journal review found that inspector generals rarely investigated conflicts, and when something is referred to the DOJ, prosecutors usually decline to open an investigation. Now, on one hand, and it's an incredibly fucking shitty thing to say, but it is true,

Starting point is 00:14:57 this isn't exactly news, because we already knew that lots of high-level people were intimately tied to the industries. I just look one administration back, Trump's cabinet was notoriously full of fossil fuel lobbyists, Goldman Sachs executives, defense contractors, you know, people who know how to drain that swamp and I guess replace it with their own swamp. But also understand it wasn't just like a Trump administration thing. I think that was just kind of the most blatant example. But on the other hand, this is still incredibly important news

Starting point is 00:15:19 just because it's known fuckery doesn't make it not fuckery. And it puts numbers which are incredibly concerning numbers behind that either generally vague feeling or very specific feeling towards like a Nancy Pelosi type. And it shows us that shit's fucked up despite all the smoke and mirrors. Like you have a ruling class that doesn't give a fuck about like

Starting point is 00:15:35 what would be appropriate. And understand these numbers are probably optimistic. That is ultimately where that story and today's show ends. Thank you for being a part of my daily dive in the news and maybe even being a part of that conversation in the comments down below. If you need more news,

Starting point is 00:15:48 although who fucking needs more news? This is your daily dose of poison, but if you need more, you can click or tap right there. Hey, as always, my name's Philip DeFranco. You've just been filled in. I love your faces and I'll see you tomorrow.

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The Philip DeFranco Show - PDS 10.12 It’s Even Worse Than We Thought. Adriana Chechik, Corruption Exposed, Stocks, S&P 500 & More News

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