The Philip DeFranco Show - PDS 10.26 What This New Hack Exposes! MrBeast, NASA, Borat, Among Us, Voting Records, & More News

Starting point is 00:00:00 Sup you beautiful bastards. Hope you had a fantastic Monday. Welcome back to the Philip DeFranco Show. Buckle up, hit that like button, otherwise we'll punch you in the throat. Let's just jump into it. And the first thing that we're gonna talk about today is this absolutely horrifying second wave news,

Starting point is 00:00:15 though not of coronavirus, which according to President Trump, over the past 24 hours, we are rounding the corner on, despite the fact that we have now surpassed 225,000 plus dead Americans from COVID-19. And last week, 13 states set single day case record. And that's on top of the fact that over the weekend, the US broke its previous record for highest number

Starting point is 00:00:33 of new cases in a single day with more than 83,000. Not that, but rather the real threat, people doing Borat impressions again. My wife, I get it, no, stop it. And this because the Borat sequel was released over the weekend on Amazon Prime, which I will say it's been very interesting to see how this movie has been received.

Starting point is 00:00:49 Now on Rotten Tomatoes, it has an 84% with an audience rating of 71%. Though as far as the general audience reaction everywhere on the internet, it's been pretty divisive. This is likely because Sacha Baron Cohen not only takes aim at American culture, but specifically the Trump administration. Though as far as notable reactions are concerned,

Starting point is 00:01:05 one of the most notable ones was Kazakhstan itself. Right, when the original Borat movie was released back in 2006, as the New York Times noted, the authoritarian Kazakh government banned the film, threatened to sue Mr. Cohen, and took out a four-page advertisement in this newspaper defending the country's honor. But what we're seeing this time around

Starting point is 00:01:21 is the country, at least publicly, singing a very different tune, with the country instead creating tourism ads Adopting Borat's catchphrase Kazakhstan very nice According to the times the deputy chairman of the tourism board hadn't seen the movie before its premiere But he said he wasn't concerned either saying in COVID times when tourism spending is on hold It was good to see the country mentioned in the media not in the nicest way, but it's good to be out there We would love to work with Cohen or maybe even have him film here."

Starting point is 00:01:45 With Sacha Baron Cohen also releasing a statement of his own after this saying, "'This is a comedy and the Kazakhstan in the film has nothing to do with the real country. I chose Kazakhstan because it was a place that almost nobody in the US knew anything about, which allowed us to create a wild comedic fake world. The real Kazakhstan is a beautiful country

Starting point is 00:02:00 with a modern proud society, the opposite of Borat's version.'" Yeah, that's the Borat news today that I wanted to touch on. Though, we may see more things in the future. Either one, because we learn new things like a deleted scene showing Borat's daughter actually getting into the White House, which wow.

Starting point is 00:02:15 Side note, if there is a thing I can say about the movie, I hope that Maria Bakalova who plays Borat's daughter, this is her breakout role. She is fantastic. I think she stands out the most in this movie. But also too, we may see more of this in the news because of fighting, whether it be words or legal. You know, with words, we've seen Trump and Cohen,

Starting point is 00:02:29 but as far as legal, today you have Fox News reporting that CPAC has threatened legal action against Borat 2 production company over a KKK scene. Yeah, we'll keep our eyes and ears open for any and everything. Also, a quick question for those that have seen the movie, what were your thoughts, both as a movie on its own and if you try and compare it to the original,

Starting point is 00:02:46 and also what were your opinions of the original? Has that changed? Then let's talk about more Among Us political news. Right, last week we talked about Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez playing her first ever Twitch stream, featuring huge streamers like Pokimane, Valkyrae, Jacksepticeye, and others.

Starting point is 00:03:00 It was widely seen as one of the largest and more successful get out the vote campaigns. So that happened Tuesday. And by the end of last week, what we started seeing were reports that among us had started facing hacks. You had users complaining their lobbies were turning completely black.

Starting point is 00:03:11 Some being disconnected from games. Others reported spam chat sections that told users to subscribe to Eris Loris on YouTube. Otherwise this hacker would quote, kill your device. That hacker also reportedly sharing Twitter links, Discord links and other pro Trump messages. With all of this, you have the developers responding, saying they were aware of all this.

Starting point is 00:03:27 What we ended up seeing was that by Saturday evening, the developers said they had rolled out wave two of anti-hacks and by Sunday, they noted there were some bugs they were already aware of. Now, with all this, you had a number of people thinking this hack was done in an effort to bring support for Trump in front of the same audience that AOC reached. But as far as the actual motive,

Starting point is 00:03:43 all we really know is that both Eurogamer and Kotaku claim that they made contact with the hacker who has since been doxxed and threatened. Telling Eurogamer they design and sell in-game cheats and consider this a publicity stunt, claiming to have affected 1.5 million matches. Also saying, I'm a college student and I support Trump, adding that they hope that this generated publicity

Starting point is 00:04:00 for the president as well. But then when speaking to Kotaku, they made it sound more like a trolling effort saying, "'I was curious to see what would happen "'and personally I found it funny.'" The anger and hatred is the part that makes it funny. If you care about a game and are willing to go and spam dislike some random dude on the internet

Starting point is 00:04:13 because you can't play it for three minutes, it's stupid. But ultimately, whatever the real intent or goal was, I mean, one of the main things we're seeing here, just like we saw with the big AOC stream and event, even this, though far different, it's an example of how this whole weird experiment is evolving. Then in news that resulted in far too many people

Starting point is 00:04:31 on Twitter saying the moon got that WAP. No, stop it, Greg. You're making everyone feel uncomfortable. But the reason Greg was saying that is NASA made a big announcement today saying that water has been found on the moon. NASA dropping a press release saying NASA's SOFIA, AKA Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy,

Starting point is 00:04:48 has confirmed for the first time water on the sunlit surface of the moon, noting previous observations of the moon's surface detected some form of hydrogen, but were unable to distinguish between water and its close chemical relative, hydroxyl. And as far as why this matters, you had Paul Hertz, director of the Astrophysics Division and the Science Mission Directorate at NASA saying,

Starting point is 00:05:04 "'We had indications that H2O, the familiar water we know, "'might be present on the sunlit side of the moon.'" And adding, "'Now we know it is there. "'This discovery challenges our understanding "'of the lunar surface and raises intriguing questions "'about resources relevant for deep space exploration.'" Right, this could be key for those kinds of projects, also potentially expediting that timeline.

Starting point is 00:05:23 Because yes, if you had water there, yes, you could treat it and use it for drinking. But also if it's already there, you know, you could separate it into hydrogen and oxygen, use oxygen for breathing, use hydrogen as a rocket propellant. Though to be clear, what's been seen as of right now, and as the press release explained,

Starting point is 00:05:37 as a comparison, the Sahara desert has 100 times the amount of water than what SOFIA detected in the lunar soil. But also noting, despite the small amounts, the discovery raises new questions about how water is created and how it persists on the harsh airless lunar surface. And adding, under NASA's Artemis program,

Starting point is 00:05:52 the agency is eager to learn all it can about the presence of water on the moon in advance of sending the first woman and next man to the lunar surface in 2024 and establishing a sustainable human presence there by the end of the decade. So awesome news though, depending on further research, we don't know the full extent of the awesome.

Starting point is 00:06:09 Yeah, as it turns out, positive and cool news, it still actually exists. And then let's talk about some election news, which is very important. It is actually very interesting. And at the same time, I can't wait to not have to talk about this ever again. And by ever again, I mean, you know, a year and a half.

Starting point is 00:06:25 You know, like we've seen over the last few weeks, there are a number of stories here. Things like in Boston, we're seeing reports that someone set a ballot drop box on fire yesterday. Photos from around 4 a.m. showing a man walking up to the box seemingly lighting a fire. Firefighters arriving to the scene, only being able to put out the fire

Starting point is 00:06:38 by flooding the ballot box with water. Right, very similar situation to something we talked about last week out of California. Then this morning we saw police saying that late last night they arrested a man who matched the description of this suspect with that man, 39 year old Worldie Armand, now being charged with willful and malicious burning. You know, with this incident,

Starting point is 00:06:53 you had Boston mayor Marty Walsh in a joint statement with Massachusetts secretary of state, William Gavin, calling this act quote, a disgrace to democracy, a disrespect to the voters fulfilling their civic duty and a crime. Adding, we ask voters not to be intimidated by this bad act and remain committed to making their voices heard in this and every election.

Starting point is 00:07:10 The Boston election department also working to reassure voters by saying that all ballot drop boxes are under 24 hour surveillance and emptied on a daily basis. Though now Galvin is also pressing officials to start emptying boxes more than once a day. And with things like this happening, that's why in the nearby town of Salem, we even saw Mayor Kim Driscoll saying that officials there

Starting point is 00:07:26 are using chemical fire suppressants inside the box to ensure ballots don't go up in flames. And noting that it's, yes, sad that we have to take these measures. Also, as far as what happened to the 122 ballots inside of that box when the fire started, of those, 87 were still legible and able to be processed. However, of course, that leaves 35

Starting point is 00:07:42 at least partially destroyed. Also, on that note, if you live in the area you think your ballot may have been affected or if you are anyone that is voting, link to resources down below so you can track your ballot online so you can have confidence that it's actually going to be counted.

Starting point is 00:07:55 And as far as with this particular incident, you have Galvin's office saying that the affected voters will be mailed replacement ballots. Also speaking of the mail, of course, there's been a major concern regarding that in this election. You know, can they handle the influx? Is the system compromised?

Starting point is 00:08:07 And there we've now seen US Postal Service officials saying they've already delivered more than 100 million blank or completed ballots. Also saying they've delivered more than 500 million pieces of election mail in total, which is a figure that is 162% higher than the last presidential election. So essentially the USPS here is saying so far, so good.

Starting point is 00:08:23 And part of the reason why we haven't seen any major bumps yet is because of just how much the USPS here is saying so far, so good. And part of the reason why we haven't seen any major bumps yet is because of just how much the USPS is prioritizing election mail. Also likely this is because it reversed some of the controversial policies that were instituted by Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, including things like no longer removing sorting machines and blue sidewalk mailboxes, no longer restricting overtime

Starting point is 00:08:40 or leaving behind late arriving mail from distribution centers. However, on that note, we've also now seen a federal judge in DC ordering the USPS to restore high-speed mail sorting machines. With this decision largely aimed at facilities that can't process first class election mail efficiently before November 3rd.

Starting point is 00:08:54 With Judge Emmett Sullivan saying, "'Available processing equipment will be restored "'to service to ensure that the postal service "'can comply with its prior policy "'of delivering election mail in accordance "'with the first class delivery standard.'" Also on the policy of delivering election mail in accordance with the first class delivery standard. Also on the note of the election voting and the court system, let's talk about on Friday,

Starting point is 00:09:10 big news out of Pennsylvania, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled that ballots cannot be rejected now based on signature comparisons alone, which is a major departure from a recent ruling in Texas that we talked about last week. Also last week, a federal judge in New Jersey dismissed a Trump campaign lawsuit

Starting point is 00:09:23 aimed at the state's mail-in ballot program. That lawsuit alleging that New Jersey's universal mail-in ballot system violated the constitution and that it opened the door to widespread voter fraud, especially since ballots mailed after election day would still be counted. However, the judge presiding over this case said that fraud claims rest on highly speculative fear

Starting point is 00:09:39 and are largely conjectural, hypothetical, and lacking in imminence. Also in North Carolina, a federal appeals court ruled that the state can accept ballots postmarked by election day until November 12th. That also coming as the US Supreme Court blocked a lower court ruling that allowed counties in Alabama to offer curbside or drive-through voting.

Starting point is 00:09:55 And then pretty much the opposite of that decision, the very next day in Texas, the state Supreme Court ruled to allow voters in the state's most populous county, Harris County, which houses Houston, to continue casting their ballots at 10 different drive-through polling places. Notably, that ruling came after both the Texas and Harris County Republican parties

Starting point is 00:10:10 challenged a June decision by the county to install these sites. With those parties arguing in a lawsuit filed on October 12th that the voters should only be able to access curbside voting if they cite a disability. With that lawsuit coming just hours before early voting was set to begin in the state the next morning. And while as is normal in these types of cases,

Starting point is 00:10:25 the court did not explain the reasoning. Looking at another case rejected by the court earlier this month, it seems that this decision is likely related to the timing of the lawsuit. Right, Harris County announced these drive-through sites months in advance of that lawsuit. As we awaited a ruling from the state Supreme Court, you reportedly had Harris County officials

Starting point is 00:10:39 extremely worried, wondering what would happen to the tens of thousands of votes that had already been cast at drive-through locations. I mean, the fear that these votes could be invalidated was so real that we even saw people reaching out to Governor Greg Abbott, asking him to assure them that no ballots would be thrown out,

Starting point is 00:10:52 though notably, they never heard back from his office. In all of this, remember, keep in mind, we are now literally eight days away from election day, and we are still seeing voting rules changing in multiple states. And you know, with all of that, you have the questions. How much confusion does this? So what is the fallout from these changes?

Starting point is 00:11:07 Especially changes that may happen last minute that restrict voting efforts. But some good news out of all of that, right? Despite all of these obstacles, all of the confusion, it looks like people are voting in massive numbers. With some reports indicating that the 2020 election could see the highest voting rate in over 100 years. And those numbers so far are especially groundbreaking

Starting point is 00:11:26 when it comes to young people. We recently saw a report from Circle, a nonpartisan research organization from Tufts University that is focused on youth civic engagement in the United States. And according to their early and absentee voter tracking, as of October 21st, more than 3 million young people between the ages of 18 to 29 have already cast their balance

Starting point is 00:11:42 with 2 million of those coming from 14 key battleground states. How many people have likely turned in their ballots this weekend? I mean, those numbers have probably only gone up. Numbers that I will say just crush early in absentee voting turnout compared to this time in 2016. In Florida, for example, more than 257,000 people

Starting point is 00:11:57 in that age group have already cast their ballots, which is nearly six times the number of people who had voted at this point in 2016. In North Carolina, nearly 205,000 young people have voted, which is eight times as many compared to 2016. Virginia, over 178,000 have voted, more than seven times 2016. In Georgia, 170,000, five times the number of 2016.

Starting point is 00:12:16 And actually, the emerging battleground state, though I will say it feels weird to even refer to this as potentially a battleground state, though according to polls, it's within the range. The battleground state with the most young votes cast thus far is Texas, where nearly half a million young people have voted. Now, with all of this, you might be wondering,

Starting point is 00:12:31 well, are these numbers a true indicator of how active young voters will be this year? Or are these numbers just higher because early and absentee voting are both popular options this year, given the coronavirus? And actually, this is something that Circle acknowledged in the report, saying, "'In every state we're tracking,

Starting point is 00:12:43 "'the number of absentee and early votes cast "'as of October 21st, 2020, "'is far higher than the same date in 2016.' "'That's to be expected given the greater emphasis "'on mail-in voting this year due to the pandemic.'" But they continued to explain that these numbers still are very dramatic. "'In Florida, North Carolina, Minnesota,

Starting point is 00:12:58 "'Pennsylvania, and Michigan, "'early votes cast by youth have already exceeded "'the 2016 margin of victory in each state,' "'which is very substantial and significant. You know, it makes sense. A lot of the research, a lot of the polls show youth engagement tracking up, including a report from the Harvard Institute of Politics,

Starting point is 00:13:13 finding that the number of young Americans saying that they will definitely vote in November is up 16% from 2016. But with all that said, where I will end this story is kind of on two notes that I've hit on repeatedly in these past months. One, if you're gonna vote, make sure that you have a plan. Are you voting by mail? You doing a dropbox? You do an early in-person voting? What do you do? Among the resources I constantly link to, I'll link to vote.org and that should help you.

Starting point is 00:13:35 And two, actually vote. Don't get too comfortable, don't get too complacent, don't get cocky. No poll matters if you don't do the damn thing. And if you're one of those people that are like, ah, what would my vote even matter? A, I'll remind you of a story I actually covered back in 2018, where a Virginia Republican won a key seat after tying his opponent and getting his name randomly drawn out of a hat. Yes, that's how he actually won.

Starting point is 00:13:56 And two, keep in mind that if the number of people who could have voted in 2016, but didn't, did vote for me in the 2020 election, I would be the next president of the United States. Don't do that. Please, for the love of God, do not do that. But know that you have power, power that people purposefully try to make you think

Starting point is 00:14:14 that you do not have. But yeah, ultimately that is where I'm gonna end today's show. With that, as always, thank you for being a part of my daily dives into the news. Also, if you're new here, you wanna join the family, definitely hit that subscribe button, maybe tap that bell. Definitely give me a text at 813-213-4423.

Starting point is 00:14:28 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 tomorrow.

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The Philip DeFranco Show - PDS 10.26 What This New Hack Exposes! MrBeast, NASA, Borat, Among Us, Voting Records, & More News

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