The Philip DeFranco Show - PDS 10.17 WHO'S LYING? "Ceasefire" Declared, PewDiePie Snub, Kim Kardashian, Boris' "New" Brexit

Starting point is 00:00:00 Sup you beautiful bastards, hope you're having a fantastic Thursday. On that note, I am having a great one considering today is the first day I can keep something down other than crackers. I'm a huge fan of that, it's funny how a few garbage days will just make you appreciate the normal. With that said, buckle up, definitely hit that like button, otherwise I'm gonna throat punch you now that I have my energy back and let's just jump into it. And the first things we're gonna talk about today, let's knock out some quickie stories that have been going around. One of my favorite non-stories, especially because of the headline is, "'Bella Hadid is the most beautiful woman in the world according to science.'" Which I will say, if you have to say science,

Starting point is 00:00:32 it doesn't feel like science. The people listening to the podcast version of the show are very confused, I just used air quotes. Yeah, seemingly a number of the reports on this link back to the Daily Mail, which is of course the most trustworthy and legitimate of news sources. It appears to be connected to something called the Golden Ratio of Beautify,

Starting point is 00:00:50 references the Greeks' idea of perfection. And for their top five, they have Bella Hadid, then Beyonce, then Amber Heard, followed by Ariana Grande, and then Taylor Swift. Which really, if you think about it, was just their way of using science, air quotes, as a way to make a top 10 hottest celebrities list without it being kind of sexist. Then you have the story going around that Kim Kardashian was offered a million dollars to use likeness for virtual sex,

Starting point is 00:01:11 which just to clear the air on this, if you ever see a story like this, things like this, they're bullshit and they're orchestrated PR efforts. The company that's offering this is currently fundraising their project, right? And so it's trying to capitalize on the name value of someone who in the past

Starting point is 00:01:23 is one of the most notable sex tapes of all time. Who would obviously not accept this deal. I mean, she's got an estimated net worth of $350 million. And if she wanted to make a whole $1 million, she could do it in one or two Instagram posts. Then in another quickie, it's that time of year again, streaming nominations have been announced. This year is gonna be the ninth one.

Starting point is 00:01:41 It's one of the biggest internet award shows. We ended up actually being nominated for both audience show of the year year as well as news, which I will say, thank you, but also I will say having an internet award show, it's, I feel like it's kind of hard in general because there are so many massive people online that you just, you've never heard about.

Starting point is 00:01:56 Right, for example, there are times on this show where I'll cover someone that has like 20 times the audience that we have on this show, and around like 80% of the audience is like, who's that? But also, and I'm probably fucking myself by noting this, it is odd to me that you can have something like audience creator of the year, and you can have someone on there like a Tana Mongeau,

Starting point is 00:02:14 but no PewDiePie, or hell, a Shane Dawson for that matter. One coming off a historic year, over 100 million subscribers, the other seemingly part of this massive YouTube change. And so yeah, I really don't know how to feel about it. Also in quickies, we got new Juul news. Of course, over this past year, there's been this big focus on the e-cigarette market.

Starting point is 00:02:31 And since Juul owns such a massive part of that market, there's been increased focus on them. There's been huge criticism around their advertising practices, which as we covered, they recently suspended all broadcast, print, and digital advertising in the United States. But there was also an increased focus on their their flavors with many critics saying that their flavored products were targeted towards teens or at the very least Contributed to the massive spike in teen vaping. You know regarding those flavored products last year

Starting point is 00:02:54 We saw them remove all fruity flavors from retail shops Then more recently this year in September there were reports of the Trump administration might ban Flavored e-cigarettes and the news we're seeing today is that Juul has announced they will stop selling fruity flavored e-cigarettes. And the news we're seeing today is that Juul has announced that they will stop selling fruity flavored e-cigarette cartridges online for US customers. With those customers now only able to purchase tobacco, mint, and menthol flavors. And with this, we had Juul's new CEO saying, "'We must reset the vapor category

Starting point is 00:03:15 "'by earning the trust of society "'and working cooperatively with regulators, "'policymakers, and stakeholders to combat underage use "'while providing an alternative to adult smokers.'" Which on that note, on the other side of this, you have the American Vaping Association calling this a cowardly, self-serving move, saying that this is Juul saying

Starting point is 00:03:30 to their ex-smoker customers, drop dead, with AVA president Gregory Conley saying, "'There is a reason many adults aged 21 and over "'went through the hassle of purchasing flavored pods "'from Juul's website. "'Flavors are critical to helping adult smokers quit "'and many ex-smokers get attached to particular flavors. "'While we hope that Juul users will visit "'their local vape shop to find an alternative, "'this doesn't change the quit and many ex-smokers get attached to particular flavors. While we hope that Juul users will visit

Starting point is 00:03:45 their local vape shop to find an alternative, this doesn't change the fact that some ex-smokers will likely respond to this by choosing to return to combustible cigarettes. We are sure Altria, which owns 35% of Juul, will be pleased with any bump in Marlboro sales that follows this announcement. And adding that this move will only open them up

Starting point is 00:04:00 to questions about why they are continuing to sell mint, which is their most popular flavor with both youth and adults by virtue of it being the only non-tobacco jewel flavor available at retail aside from menthol. And yeah, around this story, I'm really fascinated to know what you think. I personally have no experience with nicotine, thus no experience trying to quit. What are your thoughts on this? Do you think it's good? It's bad? It's not going to do anything? Let me know what you're thinking in those comments down below. And then, as you may have realized, thanks to memes and or extremely stressed out teenagers,

Starting point is 00:04:27 it is PSAT season. Right, something that people say is a great primer for the SAT and even the ACT. Actually, regarding the ACT, we have a story about a woman by the name of Marjorie Clapper. And Marjorie is in the news because she reportedly paid $15,000 to cheat on her son's ACT,

Starting point is 00:04:42 with prosecutors saying that she made out this $15,000 payment to a fake charity that the scam's mastermind, William Rick Singer, created called Key Worldwide Foundation, with Singer then paying a proctor to correct her son's test which resulted in him scoring a 30 out of 36. And reportedly Clapper agreed with Singer to lie about her son's background

Starting point is 00:04:57 by saying that he was African American and of Hispanic Latino origin. And also, if that wasn't enough, she also said that he was a first generation college student even though both of his parents had actually graduated from college. Right, and so Clapper ends up pleading guilty to conspiracy to commit fraud back in May. And the reason we're talking about her now is her sentencing. Prosecutors had pushed that she be sentenced to four months in prison and fined $20,000 while her attorneys pushed for no jail time. Instead asking for one year of supervised release including four months of home confinement,

Starting point is 00:05:22 300 hours of community service, and a $20,000 fine. And the judge ended up hitting Clapper with a three-week prison sentence, one year of supervised release, including four months of home confinement, 300 hours of community service, and a $20,000 fine. And the judge ended up hitting Clapper with a three-week prison sentence, one year of supervised release, 250 hours of community service, and a $9,500 fine. And the sentencing here, I mean, a lot of people had issue with this. For example, US Attorney Andrew E. Lelling

Starting point is 00:05:37 said that he disagreed with the three-week sentence, given Clapper's bribe and her false claims about her son's background, saying, "'Ms. Clapper thereby not only corrupted "'the standardized testing system, but also specifically victimized the real minority applicants already fighting for admission to elite schools. Meanwhile, Clapper's defense team argued

Starting point is 00:05:51 that she was motivated by what they called her child's legitimate and documented disadvantages, as well as a recent violent assault, saying that Clapper chose to doctor his exams because she, quote, wanted him to feel like a regular student. Her attorney writing, Mrs. Clapper's motives were maternal, but her execution misguided and illegal. And also following this, we saw a number of people online

Starting point is 00:06:08 criticizing this sentencing, calling it leniency towards white or wealthy parents. You know, we've kind of seen similar reactions surfacing when we saw Felicity Huffman handed her 14 day sentence back in September for that case. Or people pointing to situations like that of Tanya McDowell, who was a Connecticut woman who was sentenced to five years in prison

Starting point is 00:06:23 for lying about her address to get her son into a better school district. Reportedly at the time, she was homeless and living out of her van, shelters, and an apartment she only had access to at night. Others pointed to the case of Kelly Williams-Villar in Ohio, where she used her father's address to get her children into a better school district.

Starting point is 00:06:36 She was initially handed two concurrent five-year sentences, though she was later able to reduce that to just 10 days. Yeah, ultimately that's where we are with this. It's been very interesting to see kind of the reaction and sentencing with Clapper being now the ninth parent to be sentenced from that huge college admissions scandal. And yeah, around this, I'd love to know your feelings on this.

Starting point is 00:06:53 Do you feel like people are being held accountable or no, these sentences, you view them as light and kind of just an extension of the wealthy feeling like they can do whatever because they're just treated different even when they get caught. Then in international news, we had an update around Turkey and Syria. We've been covering the story for a little while now. It was our main final story yesterday.

Starting point is 00:07:10 And the update today is that there is a ceasefire that is also not a ceasefire. And I'll try to unpack that confusing sentence. Today we saw US Vice President Mike Pence say That today the United States and Turkey have agreed to a ceasefire in Syria. The Turkish side will pause Operation Peace Spring in order toed entirely on completion of the withdrawal. Also, reportedly as part of the deal, Penn said that the United States would not implement any more sanctions on Turkey and that it would revoke all economic punishments once a permanent ceasefire takes effect. Penn's also reportedly saying that Turkey agreed to recommit to countering ISIS and to cooperate with the United States on securing ISIS detainees and guarding prison camps in Syria. Right, so there's that.

Starting point is 00:08:07 But the reason this has been referred to as not a ceasefire, well, it's for two reasons. One, as Axios explains, the agreement just gives Turkey what it wants, the removal of sanctions and support for a, quote, "'safe zone' free of YPG forces that they view as an extension of a group they consider terrorists."

Starting point is 00:08:21 I see people saying that Turkey started the operation in the first place to clear the YPG from the region. And so really this is just a retreat window for allies the United States had previously unexpectedly abandoned. Right, even with this reportedly hundreds of Kurds have been killed, thousands have been displaced, and at least 1000 ISIS prisoners and supporters

Starting point is 00:08:36 have escaped prison camps. And the second reason that people are saying that this is not a ceasefire is that Turkey's foreign minister literally said, "'This is not a ceasefire. "'We will pause the operation for 120 hours "'in order for the terrorists to leave. not a ceasefire is that Turkey's foreign minister literally said, this is not a ceasefire. We will pause the operation for 120 hours in order for the terrorists to leave.

Starting point is 00:08:49 We will only stop the operation if our conditions are met. And adding, as a result of our president's skillful leadership, we got what we wanted. Also something else we're seeing reported, in Pence's announcement he specifically says that Turkey agreed to not take action against Kobani, but on the other side of that, the Turkish foreign minister denied

Starting point is 00:09:04 that they agreed to that. And so, you know, just some notable discrepancies in a situation that it's hard to argue that the Trump administration created by unexpectedly abandoning an ally. The president is now trying to tout as a win by getting a ceasefire that once again is also not a ceasefire apparently.

Starting point is 00:09:18 It seemingly gives the Turkish president everything that he wanted. So yeah. And then let's talk about the big updates around Brexit. One, because it's interesting and important, and also two, the only way I can feel a sense of normalcy these days is to look at others' chaos. And the big news and update around this

Starting point is 00:09:34 is that British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has agreed to a new deal with the European Union, and this has been a long time coming. You know, we saw Johnson saying that he would negotiate a better deal than the EU offered the last Prime Minister Theresa May, but also at the same time, you had the EU saying that they wouldn't negotiate a different deal than the EU offered the last prime minister Theresa May, but also at the same time, you had the EU saying that they wouldn't negotiate

Starting point is 00:09:47 a different deal. And all of that happened among other things as Johnson lost his majority in parliament, he was kicking out members of his own party, and as parliament voted to prevent him from leaving the EU without a deal. Which notably, removing the United Kingdom from the EU had been one of Johnson's major promises,

Starting point is 00:10:00 and he originally said that this would happen by the current October 31st deadline with or without a deal. Okay, but now that there is a proposed deal, let's take a look at some of its key differences from May's deal. First, this deal scraps the Irish backstop, which has been a massively contentious issue. And for a little oversimplified context,

Starting point is 00:10:15 the United Kingdom is made up of four countries, England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland. And specifically here, we're looking at Northern Ireland because it's on the same island as the independent Republic of Ireland and right now now there is no hard border between those two countries meaning that there are no custom checks for goods crossing between the border and under May's deal that soft border would have remained but this was actually one of the big reasons that our deal failed three times in Parliament because members of Parliament believe that this would have essentially kept the UK in the EU. Secondly this deal would reportedly create a new Northern Ireland only backstop

Starting point is 00:10:42 which may sound confusing because as we said, Northern Ireland is part of the UK. Right, but basically the idea is that this would set up a special arrangement where Northern Ireland would still remain subject to certain EU regulations, those including agriculture, value added tax on goods, excise duties and state aid rules. And that in turn would prevent a hard border between Ireland and Northern Ireland,

Starting point is 00:11:00 but it would also result in a new border between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK, which means there would be custom checks and different regulations between the two, meaning some new big trade costs for the United Kingdom. But there's also a big caveat here. This deal would also eventually give Northern Ireland lawmakers the chance to decide on whether they stay so closely aligned with the EU in the future. And thirdly, while the UK would leave the EU,

Starting point is 00:11:19 it would still continue to apply EU rules until the end of next year. And so this is being seen as a transition period meant to soften the split, especially since this deal doesn't really look to the future relationship between the UK and the EU. And so that transition period's meant to give them time to work out a trade deal among other things. And it could also be extended by up to two years if both sides agree that they need more time.

Starting point is 00:11:36 So this part of the deal is actually similar to May's agreement, but unlike May's deal, this deal is non-binding, meaning that the EU has the ability to change its mind. Now all that said, the all important question is of course, will this deal pass? Parliament's expected to vote on the deal on Saturday and if it does pass, the UK could actually meet

Starting point is 00:11:51 that end of the month deadline. But, like all things Brexit, it's not gonna be that easy. Right, a few things. The removal of the Irish backstop is expected to be a sticking point for a lot of pro-Brexit conservative MPs, but you still have a lot of MPs from other parties already saying that they'll refuse to back the deal.

Starting point is 00:12:04 Your Labour Party leader, Jeremy Corbyn say, "'From what we know, it seems the Prime Minister "'has negotiated an even worse deal than Theresa May's.'" Though, of note, some Labour MPs have expressed support of the deal. We've also seen the Liberal Democrats say that they're opposed to the deal. Also, Brexit Party leader Nigel Farage

Starting point is 00:12:18 said that he's not voting for the deal, even referring to this new deal as Boris Johnson putting lipstick on a pig. And if that was already not enough, you have the Democratic Unionist Party of Northern Ireland opposing the deal. And this could really be a make or break moment because they are a key ally for Johnson.

Starting point is 00:12:31 And specifically here, they're not at all happy that there might be a border between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK. And they said in a statement, "'These proposals are not, in our view, "'beneficial to the economic well-being of Northern Ireland "'and they undermine the integrity of the Union.'" Though the deal has been well received outside of Britain. The president of the

Starting point is 00:12:46 European Commission, Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel and France's president Emmanuel Macron all calling the deal fair. You also have the Prime Minister of Ireland saying that it solves the issue with Northern Ireland. And also creates a unique solution for Northern Ireland, recognizing the unique history and geography of Northern Ireland, one which ensures that there is no hard border between North and South. But ultimately right now we're looking at two main possible outcomes.

Starting point is 00:13:10 If the deal does pass, the deal will need to be approved by the EU leaders in the European Parliament to bind them to the agreement, or it fails and Johnston may be forced to ask the EU for an extension until the end of January. And though there, there's been a lot of talk about whether he would actually do that, a secretary for Johnson has now said

Starting point is 00:13:23 that he will comply with the law. But yeah, ultimately that's where we are with this story. It's gonna be interesting to see how it develops. And of course, while I love everyone's opinion on this topic, and please give them, I'm especially interested if you live in an area that is directly affected by this. What are your thoughts on this new deal?

Starting point is 00:13:39 What do you think will happen? What do you hope will happen? It has been an interesting one to watch for sure. And that's where we're going to end today's show. And hey, if you like diving into the news with me, let me know, just tap that like button. Also, if you're new here, be sure to subscribe and tap that bell to turn on notifications.

Starting point is 00:13:51 Also, if you're not 100% filled in, you can watch that brand new podcast with Mia Khalifa or our brand new Rogue Rocket deep dive by clicking either of those right there. But with that said, of course, as always, my name's Philip DeFranco, you've just been filled in, I love yo faces, and I'll see you next time.

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The Philip DeFranco Show - PDS 10.17 WHO'S LYING? "Ceasefire" Declared, PewDiePie Snub, Kim Kardashian, Boris' "New" Brexit

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