The Philip DeFranco Show - PDS 10.17 Israel Slams Gigi Hadid, "Sexy" Homeless Calendar Scandal, Gaza Hospital Blast, & Today’s News

Episode Date: October 17, 2023

Go to http://KiwiCo.com/DEFRANCO and use code DEFRANCO to get 50% off your first month of any KiwiCo subscription! Go to http://zbiotics.com/DEFRANCO and use code DEFRANCO at checkout to get up to 15%... off your first order.https://beautifulbastard.com NEW DROP + FREE Shipping on Orders over $150 –✩ TODAY’S STORIES ✩ – 00:00 - Gigi Hadid Facing Threats After Israel-Palestine Posts 02:29 - “Sexy” Homeless Person Calendar Sparks Backlash 04:24 - Misfits Fight Brings in 1.3 Million PPV Buys 05:23 - Taylor Swift Breaks Record With Eras Tour Concert Film  07:14 - Sponsored by KiwiCo 08:14 - Virginia Lawsuit Challenges Whether Gov. Can Deny Voting Rights to Former Prisoners  11:12 - Biden Visiting Israel 13:46 - Jim Jordan Loses Speakership Vote 15:45 - Sponsored by Z Biotics 16:53 - Mortgage Rates, High Prices & More Impacting U.S. Home Sales 19:17 - Deadly Silicosis Cases Rampant Among Those Making Stone Countertops 22:28 - Your Thoughts on Yesterday’s Stories  ——————————   Produced by: Cory Ray Edited by: James Girardier, Maxx Enright, Julie Goldberg, Christian Meeks Art Department: William Crespo Writing/Research: Philip DeFranco, Brian Espinoza, Lili Stenn, Maddie Crichton, Star Pralle, Chris Tolve  ———————————— #DeFranco #TaylorSwift #GigiHadid ———————————— Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Starting point is 00:00:00 Today, we're talking about a family that says they were coerced to post for a sexy homeless person calendar. The Israeli government's going after Gigi Hadid and she's now getting death threats. Taylor Swift continues to be unstoppable. We break down the dumpster fire of the Jim Jordan house situation. The sizes of homes are shrinking because the housing situation's so messed up. We're talking about all that and so much more on today's extra large Philip DeFranco show, you daily dive into the news, all made possible by the October drop over at beautifulbastard.com. Sizes are already starting to sell out quicker than expected, so get what you want while you can. And since these are our own custom clothes, we went size inclusive. You can go small to 5XL. But with that said, we got a lot of news to talk about today, so let's just
Starting point is 00:00:36 jump into it. Starting with Israel's official social media accounts are going after Gigi Hadid and the Hadid family is now facing death threats. With Gigi specifically having already gotten a lot of heat online, but I have a lot of people looking at the situation even more because the Israeli government has gotten involved. Writing for some background here, Gigi and Bella Hadid's father, Mohammed, is Palestinian, and over the years, both sisters have spoken in support of Palestine. And last week was no different, with Gigi making a statement saying that her thoughts are with all the innocent lives taken in this tragedy, and adding that the terrorizing of innocent people is not in alignment with and does not do any good for the free Palestine movement saying that all that does is further violence and perpetuate the false idea that being pro-Palestine is equivalent to being
Starting point is 00:01:10 anti-semitic and then writing further that she shares condolences with both Palestinians and Jewish loved ones and that her hopes for Palestine do not include any harm to Jewish people also adding that people deserve basic rights no matter their nationality or religion and she has continued posting about this whole situation and recently she re-shared a graphic that said, there is nothing Jewish about the Israeli government's treatment of Palestinians. Condemning the Israeli government is not anti-Semitic, and supporting Palestinians is not supporting Hamas.
Starting point is 00:01:33 Within the state of Israel's official Instagram account, responding to her and publicly shaming her, saying, Gigi Hadid, have you been sleeping the past week? Or are you just fine turning a blind eye to Jewish babies being butchered in their homes? Your silence has been very clear about where you stand. We see you. And then sharing its own version of the graphic Gigi shared saying, there is nothing valiant about Hamas's massacre of Israelis. Condemning Hamas for what it is, ISIS is not anti-Palestine and supporting Israelis in their fight against
Starting point is 00:01:57 barbaric terrorists is the right thing to do. And so with that, you had many shocked about this very specific call out that an official government account was actually attacking a model who is half Palestinian, especially because her first long statement was relatively neutral and she expressed condolences for both Palestinian and Jewish people. But all that said, according to TMZ, now the whole family is apparently receiving death threats. With the outlet saying that the threats of Rijijiji and Bella, as well as their brother and parents, and that these ominous messages have made them fear for their lives. And notably, it's being said that they received these threats not only on social media and via email, but also even on their
Starting point is 00:02:24 own cell phones. With TMZ saying that several members of the Hadid family have actually been doxxed and had their numbers posted online. And then I'm going to ask you a question that, I mean, me just even asking it makes it sound like I should probably go to jail. But for the sake of this news story, I have to ask you, would you buy a calendar full of photos of sexy homeless people? Because while that is 100% not something that I am selling on BeautifulBastard.com, Nomad Alliance, an aid group for unhoused people in Salt Lake City, is about to release its third sexy nomad calendar
Starting point is 00:02:49 with a featuring, a 12-month spread of professionally photographed homeless people from the city rather than traditional models. Like one guy posing shirtless in a wheelchair, leaning forward and squinting his eyes like a fashion model. In his legs, cross which end in stumps just below his ankles after frostbite took his feet after he slept outside last year.
Starting point is 00:03:04 And then below his and every other picture, the calendar will include write-ups of their life stories, including their struggles and hopes for the future. Now, in response to this, some people have accused the group of being insensitive and even exploitative, with their argument being that it coerces desperate people who have a little ability to say no because of their situation. But then, on the other side, you have the group's founder, who is technically homeless but lives in a trailer parked on a friend's property, seeing it differently, saying, I never thought I was pretty until I was asked to step in front of a camera. It helped me realize that I have power and value and that I'm being seen and that I'm important. I wanted to give
Starting point is 00:03:30 that to my friends on the street. And arguing that the calendar highlights the beauty and humanity of a group that's often made invisible and treated with disgust. And also without the founder believing that all publicity is good publicity and the calendar has reportedly brought more attention and grants to Nomad Alliance, which allows the organization to do more of its other work like supply drives and workshops on everything from self-defense to art therapy. And that is arguably needed since Salt Lake City's unhoused population has grown significantly. But also with the situation, there have been additional controversies. Like back in July, reportedly the group took up the case of a husband, wife,
Starting point is 00:03:58 and their four kids who were living on the streets, with it setting up a GoFundMe for them so they could buy a trailer. But as the donations rolled in, eventually totaling over $36,000, Nomad Alliance asked the family to be on its calendar. And there you had the wife claiming they didn't actually want to do that, but felt compelled to do that because of all the group had done for them. And now she says that they still haven't received their GoFundMe money and the state's investigating a complaint filed against Nomad by a former volunteer. So with all that going on in this, let's call it unique situation, I'd love to know your thoughts. And then yesterday we talked about the Logan Paul versus Dylan Danis and the KSI versus Tommy Fury fights. One of the things I said there is I'm so fascinated to know what the pay-per-view numbers were. It just felt
Starting point is 00:04:33 like there was so much buildup to this event that there was no way it could be small. Well, according to Happy Punch Promotions, the event brought in roughly 1.3 million pay-per-view buys, which I mean, we'll have to wait to see if we get further confirmation there. But then of course, there's a question about money. Let's say we use this 1.3 million number. Even there, we don't have a full concrete figure on the money, but there are a few estimates out there. Because in the UK, it was reportedly priced at just under 20 pounds. So outlets like The Sun have said that based on that price, it brought in worth of 25 million pounds, which would be over 30 million US dollars. But also in the US, it actually costs $55 to watch. Which means
Starting point is 00:05:03 if that 1.3 million pay-per-view buys number is actually accurate, we'd be looking at a minimum of $30 million to maybe a maximum of 71.5 million. But based off of who's buying the pay-per-views where, the number would end somewhere in the middle. And so while we still don't know what Logan made from this event,
Starting point is 00:05:16 for his part, Dylan said that he made over a million dollars for the fight. Though notably, that was a flat fee compared to Logan, who's getting cash from the back end of the pay-per-view sales. And then Taylor Swift has yet to find a vertical she cannot conquer, with her breaking record after record in the most recent happening this weekend thanks to her Aris Tour film. Right, it opened over the weekend, raking in nearly $93 million domestically, getting another $30 million internationally, which notably marks the highest domestic opening weekend for a concert film ever.
Starting point is 00:05:42 And you have outlets in the space like Variety noting that there are a lot of different takeaways for theaters to see with the success. Starting off with, I mean, just ticket prices, right? For the right movie with certain audiences, they will spend more money. Because ticket prices for Taylor's film were $19.89 for adults and $13.13 for kids, which is higher than the national average ticket price. But that clearly didn't scare people away from the theater. And while not every star or director could get away with pricing something like that, if they can, that opens a really big door. On top of that, you also had people noting how well cultural events are doing at movie theaters right now. Because this wasn't like a, hey, let me buy a ticket and sit in my seat for three hours sort of movie.
Starting point is 00:06:13 This was a, hey, Swifties, let's dress, sing, dance, trade bracelets, go crazy sort of movie. Kind of a more concert twist on the thing we saw with Barbie and Oppenheimer. People turning that into this sort of event, doing a double feature, wearing all that pink. And so there's a question whether it be with Barb and Heimer or we saw with the Aris tour movie, can this be repeatable? And I think the answer to that is maybe, but probably not for most. First off, regarding Taylor Swift, I mean, there's only one Taylor Swift level person right now. Taylor Swift. Anyone else puts a concert movie out right now, it doesn't do these numbers. And then as far as Barb and Heimer, I mean, that really felt like lightning in a bottle. That was't everything coming together because people were
Starting point is 00:06:47 memeing and then the studio is really just kind of amped it up. They added the stuff on top. They weren't the originator of it. And then finally, I think it is all of our civic duty, whether it is true or not, to say we will not pay more for movie tickets. That shit is already so expensive. We don't need to be actively giving the studios and theaters the green light to do that. But also with us, I got to ask if anyone went and saw that movie, what was the experience like? Was it fun? Also, how would you compare it to if you went to the concert, or did you go because you couldn't afford the concert? And then, I've noticed as my kids get older, different things become even more fun to do with them. And actually, thanks to the sponsor of today's show, KiwiCo, I found projects being one of them.
Starting point is 00:07:22 KiwiCo makes hands-on projects for kids, but the adults can have fun too. Seriously, we've been using these for years, and I see my kids' brains functioning differently as they get older. Really intrigued about how things are put together, how they function. It's pretty cool. And crates are designed to teach kids about educational concepts like engineering, science, art, and math, all while having fun. KiwiCo is a monthly subscription for all ages, but also offers one-off crates in their Kiwi store, from robots to light up haunted houses and more. Each crate's designed by experts, tested by kids, and KiwiCo includes everything you need, plus a kid-friendly magazine empowering them to complete the projects on their own and dive deeper into the subject. You know, we love how it provides hours of entertainment for the kids and provides us opportunities for special moments with them as we do projects
Starting point is 00:08:00 together, or like recently watch them take over. Also, KiwiCo is a great option for holiday gifting. They work really hard to create, whoa, awesome moments. So it's really the gift that just keeps on giving. So y'all head on over to KiwiCo.com slash DeFranco and use code DeFranco to get 50% off your first month. And then y'all, a legal battle is raging in Virginia right now over whether the governor has the power to deny the right to vote to tens of thousands of former inmates. And specifically this fight centers around a man by the name of George Hawkins, who first asked the state to restore his ability to vote last spring after he completed a 13-year prison term for attempted murder.
Starting point is 00:08:30 But twice now, the administration of the state's Republican governor, Glenn Youngkin, has turned down that request with basically no explanation. And this is notably a very unique situation, right? Because Virginia is one of just three states where the governor is given the power over voting under the state constitution, with the other two being Kentucky and Iowa. But in both those states, the current governors have issued
Starting point is 00:08:47 executive orders that restore voting rights to at least some prisoners, putting them in line with other states. Right, and as places like the New York Times have noted, most states either automatically restore the voting rights of former prisoners or have written guidelines on the matter. Now, Virginia actually used to have an automatic restoration policy under its last Democratic governor, but when Youngkin took office, he scrapped it, making Virginia the only state that still places all voting rights decisions in the governor's hands. So Hawkins' lawsuit, which was filed on his behalf
Starting point is 00:09:08 by a voting rights group, alleges that Youngkin's authority is actually limited by the U.S. Constitution. And specifically, the suit accuses Youngkin of arbitrarily silencing Hawkins' voice in political matters in violation of the First Amendment and calls for the state to set rules for restoring voting rights.
Starting point is 00:09:20 Arguing that without such rules and guidelines, governors could claim that their decisions on voting rights are impartial while secretly basing their decision on information or informed speculation on the applicant's political affiliations or views. And there's actually high stakes here because according to one criminal justice advocacy group, as of 2022, there are more than 66,000 people on probation or parole in Virginia who remain unable to vote, which is especially significant given that Virginia is a swing state. What's more, Hawkins' case isn't the only legal challenge on this front that we've seen. There's also a very similar case in Kentucky,
Starting point is 00:09:47 where the state's Democratic governor signed an executive order that restored the right to vote for 190,000 former inmates. But the suit there claims that the order excluded 55,000 people who committed high-level felonies like murder or who were convicted in courts outside the state. And in arguments this summer in court, Kentucky argued that the only standard for restoring voting rights for people who weren't included under the executive order is whether the governor decides that someone who applied to get voting rights is worthy. Notably, according to the Times, both the Kentucky and Virginia suits argued that a government can't justify its decision to limit a person's rights, quote, when a criterion like worthy can encompass people's skin color, political views, or even
Starting point is 00:10:18 their deference to authority. As the outlet explains, courts have long ruled that efforts by the government to censor people because of their opinions or behavior violate the First Amendment. That's something called viewpoint discrimination, and while the Supreme Court has often upheld that government entities can't just randomly deny First Amendment rights, it's unclear if that extends to a governor's decisions on the right to vote. Now, an important thing to understand is that some experts have cast doubt on whether courts will agree that those constitutional protections cover a governor's ability to refuse to restore voting rights. With one, for example, saying that plaintiffs will likely need to show that a
Starting point is 00:10:43 governor actually denied those rights based on random factors like race or politics. And not just that a situation could happen hypothetically, which these cases argue. And that is actually something we've already seen in the Kentucky case, where an appeals court ruled this summer that those First Amendment protections
Starting point is 00:10:55 do not extend to a governor's pardon power. But of course, we're talking about the legal system, right? The group that brought the case as they planned to appeal the matter to the Supreme Court. Meanwhile, you've got the Virginia case still trucking along with a judge last week ruling that the case can proceed. But everything is still very much at play here.
Starting point is 00:11:08 It's gonna be very interesting to see how these things play out, especially if this goes to the Supreme Court like it probably will. And then, after some questions about whether it was actually gonna happen, President Joe Biden is now scheduled to visit Israel and meet with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Starting point is 00:11:19 Right, because despite Israel being a close US ally, there were some questions about whether Biden would actually stop by as Secretary of State Anthony Blinken made it clear that a prerequisite for Biden's visit was Israel allowing humanitarian aid into Gaza. And so some kind of deal seems to apparently have been struck, although details there are sparse. Blinken said that the U.S. and Israel had agreed to develop a plan
Starting point is 00:11:36 that will enable humanitarian aid from donor nations and multinational organizations to reach civilians in Gaza. And for Israel, they say one of their biggest concerns is not letting the aid convoys be used to smuggle in weapons from Hamas. And there are real concerns over whether Hamas will purposefully waste the aid to keep its grip on the civilians there. However, even if the aid manages to get into Gaza,
Starting point is 00:11:52 there's also a large amount of concern for the people living there and whether they can get out. And that's looking increasingly unlikely. And that's because not only has Egypt been dodging, taking in any people, and as we've discussed before, it doesn't want to due to logistical and ideological reasons, but also because the King of Jordan, which already has a large Palestinian population, had this to say.
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Starting point is 00:12:34 Instacart, groceries that over-deliver. Just a part of the question on the issues of refugees coming to Jordan, and I think I can quite strongly speak on behalf not only of Jordan as a nation, but of our friends in Egypt. That is a red line. He also went on to say that he believed that the quote usual suspects wanted them to take refugees to create issues on the ground and ended with no refugees in Jordan, no refugees in Egypt. But that's all something that Biden seems like he wants to change, saying in a tweet on Wednesday, I'll travel to Israel to stand in solidarity in the face of Hamas's brutal terrorist attack.
Starting point is 00:13:05 And adding, I'll then travel to Jordan to address dire humanitarian needs, meet with leaders, and make clear that Hamas does not stand for Palestinians' right to self-determination. So the Biden administration really feels like it's trying to straddle the line between supporting Israel's right to defend itself from Hamas's attacks, while also trying to limit the suffering of the civilian population. Not to mention its continued support of Palestinian self-determination, which it has spent quite a bit of money trying to support, which was something that was also called into question when news came out about how much the U.S. was seemingly willing to back up Israel
Starting point is 00:13:30 in the lead up to its retaliation against Hamas. And that support might increasingly come under scrutiny of stories like the one that just came out as we were wrapping up the show today keep popping up. I'm talking things like U.N. staff on the ground saying that an Israeli airstrike at a school they run that's being used as a shelter, or this other situation where Hamas officials said that an Israeli airstrike at a large hospital with a civil defense chief saying at least 300 were killed, while the health ministry claims it was over 500. With that said, the IDF has put out a statement blaming the attack on a failed rocket from Islamic Jihad, which is another militant group in Gaza that's independent of Hamas. So again, and I cannot stress this enough, when
Starting point is 00:13:59 we're dealing with fog of war in a developing situation like this, it is very hard to figure out exactly what happened, especially in the immediate aftermath. But also the heartbreaking reality is that regardless of who did this, hundreds of people at the hospital are dead. And that is horrific, no matter how you break it down. Of course, as always, this is still a developing situation and we'll have to keep our eyes on it. And then welcome to the brand new segment of the show. Is everything in the House of Representatives still stupid? It is. Spoiler alert, it is. It's still really dumb. Because we still do not have a Speaker of the House. Because as I was recording today's show, Jim Jordan failed to get enough votes to be elected Speaker of the House in the first round of votes.
Starting point is 00:14:34 And if you're thinking, wait, wait, wait, wait, what happened? The last time you talked about this, Phil, Jim Jordan lost the nomination to the other guy. What's his face? Well, yeah, this is a shit show, but it is a fast-moving shit show. Because last Thursday, old What's-His-Face Steve Scalise announced that he was withdrawing from the race for Speaker. That being just one day after Republicans nominated him for the role over Jordan. So with Scalise no longer running, Republicans said, let's try it with the other guy. Old turn a blind eye to sexual assault Jordan. With the Republicans then holding a vote for
Starting point is 00:14:56 Jordan on Friday, where he won their nomination 124 to 81. And then, very notably, when Republicans held another vote shortly after to see if Jordan would get enough support on the floor, only 152 members said they would back him, while 55 said they would not. Now, that said, Jordan was able to shore up some of those 55 members, but it still wasn't enough to secure the speakership. Because Jordan's hope was when this vote actually went to the public floor vote. Those holdouts would just fold due to public pressure. What we ended up seeing in the first round of votes was Jordan winning just 200 votes, 17 short of the total votes he needed. And that's because 20 Republicans voted against Jordan, while all 212 Democrats voted for Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries in the first round. But of course, the key thing is first round, because this is far from over. I mean, even
Starting point is 00:15:32 Jordan himself seemed to indicate that he knew that he wouldn't have enough support in the first round. With him saying before the vote today that he was willing to hold multiple rounds of voting, and he would do whatever it takes to get a speaker today. Now that said, as of recording, the House went to a recess, with members leaving the chamber telling reporters that Jordan is now going to spend more time trying to whip the 20 holdouts before holding another vote. And with this, while some Republicans have said they expect there to be another vote later today, some of the members who voted against Jordan in the first round have already issued statements saying they will not change their stances. So it might be a little while before they actually convene again. And if they do, it's also very
Starting point is 00:16:00 possible that Jordan will fail to get the vote again, which again, wouldn't be unique. Don't forget that it took McCarthy five days and 15 rounds of voting before he was elected. And even that only came after he gave major concessions to the far right faction of the party that they then used to oust him. Yeah, there is your occasional update on our totally normal and functioning government. And then, y'all, let's face it. After a night with drinks, I do not bounce back the next day like I used to. So I have to make a choice. I can either have a great night or have a great next day. That is until I found the fantastic sponsor of today's show, Z-Biotics. Z-Biotics pre-alcohol probiotic is the world's first genetically engineered probiotic. It was
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Starting point is 00:17:17 So head to zbiotics.com slash DeFranco and use code DeFranco at checkout for 15% off. And thanks to ZBiotics for sponsoring today's show. And then, you know, it's not a secret that buying a house in the States right now is a nightmare, if not an impossibility for many. But one of the big important questions here is how deep do the problems go? Right in there, I mean, we can start with the big problem, the price tag.
Starting point is 00:17:36 Houses are hitting record high prices and home affordability has fallen further over the last several months, hitting its lowest level since 1985, according to the National Association of Realtors. And now with rising mortgage rates, many current homeowners don't want to sell their homes that they purchased when the rates were low just to battle it out in the market today, which means that the supply of homes for sale is well below the historical average. I mean,
Starting point is 00:17:54 we're looking at a world of 8% mortgage rates in the near future, which we haven't seen since Bill Clinton was in the White House putting cigars in places you don't put cigars. And with this, I know some might think the difference between 3% and 8% is relatively small, but let me give you an example. I want to demonstrate the difference that we've seen just over the last few years. A $500,000 house with a 30-year mortgage would cost borrowers $1,972 per month with a 2.8% mortgage that we saw in early 2021. But when you use the 7.9% average rate of today, that payment goes up to $3,488. That is more than 70% higher. And keep in mind, that's just the monthly payment. You also have to consider the down payment that many homebuyers have to contend with. So actually,
Starting point is 00:18:29 one of the things we're seeing is monthly payments are on the rise and high down payments have become expected. New homes are being built smaller and smaller as builders fight to make them more affordable. So you're talking about shrinking down on yards, foregoing the extra bedroom, cutting the square footage out of living rooms and kitchens, all to try and make these new builds reasonable on the current market. In fact, in a recent survey of architects, John Burns Research and Consulting found that around half of them expected their average house size to decline. With John Burns, the company chief executive saying, the monthly payment matters more than anything else and builders have responded with smaller, more efficient homes.
Starting point is 00:18:57 Right, and so you're seeing things like one construction company in the Pacific Northwest, Hayden Homes, focuses on building middle-class homes in smaller communities. Two years ago, the average Hayden home was a 1,900-square-foot, three-bedroom house selling for half a million dollars and would cost about $2,000 a month, assuming 5% down on a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage and a 3% interest rate. But now, their average build is 1,550 square feet, costing about $400,000 with a $2,100 monthly payment, and buyers are required to put 10% down and maybe, if they're lucky, get a 6% interest rate on a 30-year mortgage. And so all of these factors and much, much more are contributing to what is likely going to be the slowest year of home sales in more than a decade. And the unfortunate thing is that many
Starting point is 00:19:31 experts say there doesn't appear to be much hope on the horizon for any change anytime soon, or at least positive change. But with all that said, where I want to end this is I'd love to know about your experiences and your thoughts on the situation, especially if you've been buying or selling over the last one to four years, or if you're a realtor, a builder, an architect, because I'm just fascinated by the situation. And then, are you a homeowner wanting a nice new stone countertop at a great price? Also, I'm not selling them.
Starting point is 00:19:53 That's not what this is. But what if I told you that while it may be cheap, it comes at a human cost? And I say, and I ask all that because there's been a dramatic increase in cases of silicosis due to the cutting of engineered stone for things like quartz countertops. That's a manufactured stone that's extremely dense in silica. Because of that, it not
Starting point is 00:20:07 only makes cost-effective and durable countertops, it also shoots out a ton of dust when it's cut that is inevitably inhaled. And the issue there is that the dust is made up of tiny particles of silica, which is essentially just sand and rocks. And over time, this stuff builds up in workers' lungs and causes massive scarring, leading to silicosis. And the worst part here is that there's not a cure for it. Now, it's not always fatal, but silicosis has a shockingly high mortality rate. At UCLA and UCSF, physicians recently looked at dozens of California workers who got silicosis and found that nearly a fifth of them had died.
Starting point is 00:20:32 And tragically, because the average age of construction workers, this meant that the median age of death was just 46 years old, which is really, really notable because in the past, silicosis would often crop up in people in their 60s and 70s after decades of exposure, right? Not considerably younger people like we're seeing here. A part of that could be that many victims' physicians
Starting point is 00:20:47 aren't expecting such a diagnosis in someone so young that they assume it's bacterial pneumonia and similar diseases first, meaning that their patient would then keep cutting and grinding away at this artificial stone and breathing in the dust. But really, the biggest reason is because of how much dust is being spewed out, right?
Starting point is 00:20:59 This engineered stone has way more silica than its natural counterparts because of just how dense it is compared to natural versions, right? The density of silica alongside the natural counterparts because of just how dense it is compared to natural versions. The density of silica alongside the resin to adhere it all together make it less porous and way more uniform, which is often ideal for uses in homes and in kitchens. But of course, now we know the big drawback is that you're killing people. And that is an important thing to look at. And understand, the stone itself isn't inherently dangerous.
Starting point is 00:21:19 If you have a house full of engineered stone, don't freak out. But the cutting and the sanding is a problem, the most common way to breathe it in. And actually, California, specifically the San Fernando Valley, has become a hotspot for silicosis cases. With that likely because of just how many homes are constantly being built and the fact that many engineered stone manufacturers are based there. With work safety regulators expecting that in California alone, between 485 and 848 people will get silicosis. Y'all, that's 10 to 20% of the 4,000 person workforce. And of those, a decent chunk of them are going to die from it.
Starting point is 00:21:45 And then even those who don't die may have debilitating after effects. Right? I mean, the only cure, if it can even be called that, is a lung transplant. While those are possible, they're risky and also are generally considered a temporary fix. And so because of all these major health hazards, right, this isn't an unknown thing. Places like Australia have actually just banned engineered stone. And while it hasn't been done yet, here in the States, California is actually currently heavily considering getting rid of this stuff. However, some industry groups argue,
Starting point is 00:22:05 hey, it's actually just the way that it's being cut. Arguing that workers are told they need to use a certain technique that involves having water constantly over where the worker's cutting, as well as how they're supposed to be wearing respirators that deal with these particles. So this has led to groups
Starting point is 00:22:16 like the Agglomerated Stone Manufacturers Association saying it is the workers who are messing up and claiming the stone can be cut with no safety issues or health hazards if it is performed according to the best practices. But then also investigations into manufacturing facilities in California have found that very few actually adhere to any regulations. Right, workers ignoring stuff here can only account for so much if management is constantly on their asses. Not to mention that even with wet cutting and respirators, it's argued that still so much dust gets in the
Starting point is 00:22:39 air that workers are still screwed. And on top of that, some argue that added regulations to try and help workers' health would be cost prohibitive. And that's because most of these workers are low-paid migrants, and there's not a ton of room to make money if costs go up. And that has led some to argue that it would then cause major issues in the housing markets of places like LA, which to be clear, it would likely just play a role. Are the housing markets so fucked here that missing some cheap quartz countertops isn't going to make or break it anymore? And then let's talk about yesterday, today, where we take a look back at yesterday's show, where we covered a lot of news. We dive into those comments and see what stories y'all were sounding off on giving your opinions
Starting point is 00:23:08 your feelings your own experiences and there we definitely saw a lot of conversation focused around the sniper wolf doxing scandal with people saying things like i remember when sniper wolf got run out of the gaming community for being a leech and an overall unpleasant person that was like eight years ago now she has 30 million subs somehow what the fuck also how sniper wolf can claim she didn't dox anyone and doesn't know how to dox is just insane to me. She's clearly using her fame as a weapon and hiding behind ignorance. Also, reporting the truth isn't defamation. Also, regarding if YouTube's going to do something or not, we saw people saying if nothing happens to Sniperwolf after this, it sends the clear message that if you are big enough, you can blatantly break the rules on the platform and
Starting point is 00:23:42 the law and get away with it. As well as Sniperwolf needs to be removed from the platform, period. What she did to Jag was actually really dangerous, not to mention doxing other creators is breaking TOS. We also saw RealSullyG, whose comment was used in yesterday's show, saying, I stand by my statement. This wasn't just an attempt to talk, this was a call to action. If someone gets hurt, YouTube will have blood on their hands, full stop. Also among the other conversation we saw, we had people talking about the Polish election.
Starting point is 00:24:03 Comments popping up like, thank you for speaking about the Polish elections. People were queuing even until 3 a.m. to vote, and people were scared they would still try to rig the voting. I wish the results were even better, but having them lose is amazing. Now, we just need to remove the president who could veto any changes we start. Then, regarding the push to remove race from the national census, at least one of y'all said, Phil, really dropping the we live in a society and the scientific race story, which I will say I stand by because again, race can be a social construct. But when people in the world and specifically our country have a different lived experience, when blatant, quiet and or systemic racism exists, you know, it needs to be seen. Me saying, hey,
Starting point is 00:24:36 race has no scientific footing. That's all well and good on paper. When real people are living real lives that are different based off of perceived race, what you do or don't do has very real consequences. So I think it belongs on the census. Until something changes, we live in a world of perceptions and actions that are based on those perceptions. And also, I will say, going through the comments, it seemed like I wasn't alone in that thinking. But again, even though in other situations it can sometimes be frustrating, it's one of my favorite things about the show. Differences of opinions playing out in the comments, conversation happening.
Starting point is 00:25:02 So thank you to everyone that takes part in that conversation, even if your comments don't show up here. And that is where your daily dive into the news is gonna end. But for more news you need to know right now, I got you covered right here. You can click or tap, or I got links in the description down below. And as always, remember, my name's Philip DeFranco.
Starting point is 00:25:14 You've just been filled in. I love yo faces, and I'll see you right back here tomorrow for more news.

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