The Philip DeFranco Show - PDS 10.30 Deadly Subway Surfers Trend is Crazy, Valkyrae Drama, Kamala Harris’ Biden Problem, & Today's News

Episode Date: October 30, 2024

Go to http://partner.bokksu.com/defranco and use code DEFRANCO to get $15 off your Bokksu Japanese snack subscription box! YOUR NEW https://BeautifulBastard.com DROP is LIVE! 7 Days Until Election Day! Make Sure You Are Registered to VOTE: https://Vote.org  – ✩ TODAY’S STORIES ✩ – 00:00 - Teens Die After Surfing Subways in NYC 02:49 - Valkyrae’s Ex-Boyfriend Speaks Out After She’s Given Voodoo Doll of Him 05:02 - Reports of YouTube Removing View Counts Are Inaccurate 06:05 - Russia Fines Google $2.5 DECILLION 08:31 - Sponsored by Bokksu 09:38 - Mail-in Voting Applications Extended in Bucks County, PA, After Outrage 14:45 - Biden Appears to Call Trump Supporters “Garbage,” Walks It Back ——————————   Produced by: Cory Ray Edited by: James Girardier, Maxwell Enright, Julie Goldberg, Christian Meeks, Matthew Henry Art Department: William Crespo Writing/Research: Philip DeFranco, Brian Espinoza, Lili Stenn, Maddie Crichton, Chris Tolve, Star Pralle, Jared Paolino ———————————— #DeFranco #Valkyrae #MKBHD ———————————— Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Sup, you beautiful bastards. Welcome back to the Philip DeFranco Show, your daily dive into the news. There's a bunch we gotta talk about today, so I'm just gonna hit you with that monkey and jump into it. This is a news show. Subway surfing is killing kids.

Also, no, I don't mean the mobile game that you've played or you've seen on TikTok videos because no one has an attention span anymore. Instead, I'm talking about real life teenagers riding on top of real life trains going full speed. I mean, even just this week, a 12 year old and a 13 year old saw this subway surfing trend online.

They decide, hey, let's do it ourselves. And then they were literally riding on top of a moving train in Queens, jumping between cars and running along the top of it. But then when the train came to a stop, the girls lost their balance and they fell between the cars. As far as the younger one, they suffered a head injury and they're in critical condition

with a fractured skull and a brain bleed. And that teenager, they fell underneath the train and died. Now here's the thing, people have been surfing trains in New York since at least the 80s. But now in the age of the internet and social media, kids have taken it as a way to try to get views online and it's becoming an incredibly dangerous trend

in recent years. With countless videos popping up online, showing people on top of trains or even buses going full speed. And this latest tragedy, it brings the subway surfing death toll up to six just this year, with the fact just last week,

one of those six being a 13-year-old boy from Brooklyn. And then earlier this year, there was a 15-year-old boy who hit his head on a beam and fell between the cars and died. And so with this, you have a number of people, parents, and organizations, including New York City officials, trying to make this stop.

Right last year, the MTA launched a public information campaign in an effort to deter teenagers from hopping on top of moving trains. And the NYPD, they've stepped up their efforts as well, announcing their plan to use drones to catch surfers earlier this month. And then, as social media platforms have reportedly started pulling down

popular subway surfing videos. But really, there's only so much that New York officials specifically can do. We even saw the MTA New York City Transit President saying that and then adding, "'We just have to implore parents, teachers, schools, friends, anyone that knows someone that is involving themselves in subway surfing, even thinking about it, to talk about the consequences. That should be the first part of the discussion. This is no game. There's no reset at the end. There's no restart

when a person falls. With also Mayor Eric Adams adding, we are doing everything we can to raise awareness against this dangerous trend, but we need all New Yorkers and our social media companies to do their part too. No post is worth your future. But for now, we'll have to wait to see what happens from here though. I will say, as someone who has covered current events for 18 years now, which includes a lot of just

what the fuck stories, I don't know how successful outside of social media companies cracking down on this content, what can really be done to dissuade people from doing stupid shit. It's especially horrifying and heartbreaking when you're talking about kids, right? They're so impressionable. But I just think back to the countless number of people

we've covered on this show, adults who just are recipients of Darwin Awards because they try to do something to be famous on the internet. And as long as that incentive or the perceived incentive is there, you can't stop stupid and dangerous. Though also in covering this horrible story,

you know, there is a hope in the back of my head that maybe even just one life is saved that would not have otherwise been. And then in internet drama news, let's talk about Valkrey. She's a streamer, a content creator. She just put out a new episode of her podcast. And in it, Valkrey opens up a box of gifts

given to her by her co-host. And in that box was a voodoo doll made to look like Ray's ex-boyfriend, Michael Sherman, AKA Sunny, who is also a streamer. Is this a voodoo doll? I made a voodoo doll made to look like Ray's ex-boyfriend, Michael Sherman, a.k.a. Sonny, who is also a streamer. Is this a voodoo doll? I made a voodoo doll of your ex. Oh! I hate that man.

Alyssa! That is the most deranged... Oh, my God. I was in my room watching an ADHD documentary making the voodoo doll in bed. It's so ugly. Why does it actually look like him, bro? This is so troll.

I actually am so scared. Like, what if it actually harms him? Um, should we test it? Oh my God. And so that moment got clipped and shared on the podcast X page. And it currently has over 16 million views. With it blowing up for a number of reasons. But among those views was Sonny himself.

Who notably responded with a long post calling the clip disturbing. And saying that he and Ray haven't spoken in three years. And with that saying their relationship was toxic on both sides. And while they weren't abusive and they didn't cheat. They were each hurt in their own ways. But him going on to say, and I absolutely understand if all of this behavior is an attempt for you to heal from our toxic past. And then there was some words out about how she's using her platform to spread hate because of the issues they had in their private relationship, right? Him saying that he wouldn't expect that from her, but people change, I guess. With him

then closing, truly hope we can be above the direction in which things are currently going. I have no way of contacting you, but you are more than welcome to message me if you need any more closure." Now with all that, Ray has not responded directly to what he said or that specific tweet, but one, during a live stream, she said, "- I actually am curious how both sides were toxic.

Like the only toxic thing I did was get back with him over and over and over again. Yeah. And not become a housewife." And two, it appears that the next chapter of whatever the hell this is will be dropping soon because her podcast just announced cheater and liar episode coming soon.

With her and her podcast host then responding to that and Ray saying, let's have the girl on as a guest, question mark. So yeah, I guess fantastic news for all you messy Marthas that have broken out the popcorn and love you some internet drama. But then is YouTube about to make a horrible fucking decision?

That's what a lot of people were asking after vidIQ, a tech channel with nearly 2 million subscribers, shared an image on X of YouTube's homepage looking a little different. Or with notably there being no view counts or dates on any of the visible videos. With that saying, the big YouTube is testing out this new look.

And it immediately gained traction. Places like Dexerto also reporting this was seemingly happening. And so with that, you ended up with a lot of people sharing their thoughts. With one of the biggest complaints seemingly being the removal of dates. With people saying things like, I don't like that.

I want to see how old the video is. View count doesn't bother me, but if I'm looking for up-to-date information on something, I don't want a six-year-old video, you know? And notably, this wasn't just random internet people responding, you had other creators in the tech space also sharing their two cents. For example, you had Marques Brownlee saying,

stop chasing Netflix and just be YouTube.'" But it turns out that all that reporting was fake or maybe not fake, inaccurate. With Team YouTube chiming in and clarifying at this new look, it may happen, quote, "'If viewers are watching YouTube "'with certain browser extensions enabled.'" Which some people took to mean ad blocks

and YouTube then went on to say that, "'If the issue keeps up after these extensions are disabled, "'file a report and they'll investigate. But then in my favorite news of the day, just for the fact that I learned a new number, a Russian court has now fined Google $2.5 decillion for censoring pro-Kremlin propaganda. Which if understandably, you're like,

Phil, what the fuck is a decillion? Let me enlighten you, one second. That's two comma five and then zero zero zero zero zero zero zero zero zero zero zero zero zero zero zero zero zero zero zero zero zero zero zero zero zero zero zero zero zero zero zero. Fuck, was that? I don't know if I got it. That's two comma five and then zero, zero, zero, zero, zero, zero, zero, zero, zero, zero, zero, zero, zero, zero, zero, zero, zero, zero, zero, zero, zero, zero, zero, zero, zero, zero, zero, zero, zero, zero, zero.

I blacked out for a second, I think I got it. 32 zeros, we're talking 34 digits in total. Or another way to put it is $2.5 trillion trillion trillion dollars, which then to do some other fun math, if you take Google's total revenue last year, $306 billion. For the sake of cleanliness, we say, hey, they're just gonna keep making that amount of money

and they're just gonna give literally all of it to Russia. That means it would take them 8,616,969 quintillion, 934 quadrillion, 640 trillion, 522 billion, 875 million, 816,993 years, and five months to pay off the fine. Think I blacked out again. And so as far as how this court arrived at just such a freakish number, it has to do with a weird quirk in Russian law.

Because originally the fine for censoring two Russian outlets YouTube channels back in 2020, it was just 100,000 rubles. With Google getting more fines since then for banning other outlets, but even taken 2020, it was just 100,000 rubles. With Google getting more fines since then for banning other outlets, but even taken together, they're just normal penalties. Thing is though, for whatever reason, those fines double every single week.

So you give them four years, and by the law of exponential growth, you end up with 2.5 decillion dollars. Now of course, with this, Google doesn't give two fucks about it, nevermind 2.5 decillion. Or with them saying in their quarterly report yesterday, it doesn't believe that its legal issues in Russia

will have a quote, material adverse effect. And this is its parent company, Alphabet, enjoyed a nice 5% rise in its stock price the same day. And although the company's free services still operate in Russia, Google doesn't show ads to users and recently deactivated AdSense accounts there. With also Russian authorities

seizing Google's bank accounts there in response and forcing its local subsidiary to file for bankruptcy. But yeah, main point being, I covered this story specifically for the numbers stuff. But the just general shit show that is our news cycle. This one put a smile on my face and I hope it did the same for you. But then taking a quick break from the news,

let's talk about something that I love and that is snacks. Because if you're looking for something new or you're the type of person who likes to make an adventure out of your food, you're gonna love our fantastic friend and sponsor over at Bokksu. Because Bokksu is a premium Japanese snack box that works with family owned businesses across Japan to deliver a new theme of handpicked treats every month.

Now the first box that you'll get is Seasons of Japan, right, it's packed with the most popular snacks and unique flavors from each season. Which I will say, trust me, there are some real gems in here, and actually I'll show you a couple of my favorites. Starting with the Yokohama butter sandwich cookies. These are sneaky good. At first you're like, oh, I get a little bit of taste

of salt and then, oh my God, so much good sweet flavor. Oh my God, it's like two second gin. This is making me happy to a questionable level. And then the one bite sesame mochi. It's gonna sound questionable when I say this. Perfectly nutty in my mouth. I mean, we've actually gifted Bokksu to friends and family before and they were blown away.

It's a really unique and fun thing. And you kind of bond over tasting all the different snacks and learning about their origins, which is also easy because it comes with a booklet that tells you all about each snack and shows you where they're made. So if you want to treat yourself or others to some authentic Japanese snacks,

click the link in the description and use code DeFranco to get $15 off your first Bokksu order. Then, election day is now less than a week away, but more than 50 million people have already cast their ballots during early voting. And according to the University of Florida's early vote tracker, those millions of early voters are split pretty evenly between registered Democrats

and Republicans, around 39% and 36% respectively. And part of the reason we're seeing such high numbers of Republicans voting early this time is in large part due to the fact that Donald Trump has been encouraging his supporters to vote early, which of course is a complete 180 from the 2020 election, where you continually attack the exact same system. But also because of this massive influx of early voters, which has been historic in some of the key swing states,

this process hasn't always gone smoothly. For example, Pennsylvania found itself at the center of backlash and controversy after a very messy situation that left people in Bucks County waiting for hours. They bring in about confusion and frustration, widespread misinformation, and allegations of voter suppression. Now to be very clear here,

Pennsylvania does not technically have early voting. Instead, they have a process that is very different from most states. And actually it's a system that notably was passed by the state's then Republican legislature back in 2019. And here is how it works. Instead of allowing people to vote early using voting machines like many other states do,

Pennsylvania does what's called on-demand mail voting. And to participate in that, registered voters go to their county government offices, request a ballot, and fill out an application. That application is then reviewed on the spot to make sure that the voter is eligible, and once they're approved, the ballots printed. It's a process that usually takes like 10 to 12 minutes

if all goes right. Then, once the ballot is printed, the voter has the choice to fill it out and return it immediately on the same trip, take it home, or have it sent to their house. But when you have this huge surge of voters, 10 to 12 minutes a person, it adds up. Especially when given the fact that each election office has just one single printer for the early in-person ballots. And many lacked

the resources needed to cope with this surge in early voters, with Bucks County officials explaining that they had a fixed number of staff and a fixed budget. And so unsurprisingly, these elections offices were completely overwhelmed and unprepared to deal with the massive influx of people for many of the days that the on-demand process was underway. With offices at times even then turning people away if they got into line too late because staff wouldn't be able to process their applications before closing,

telling them to come back again the next day. But of course, big thing, there are only so many next days, and everything really came to a breaking point yesterday, the final day for on-demand mail voting. And so you have these election officials in a super tight spot, right? They only had until midnight

to process all the applications for mail-in ballots. And the Pennsylvania Department of State had asked every county to make sure that every voter who was in line by 5 p.m. could at least submit an application for a mail-in ballot. And so to make sure that they could process everyone who got in line by 5 p.m. and still reach that midnight deadline with their limited staff and resources, Bucks County election officials had to make a game-time decision. And specifically, what they did is they decided to cut the line of the people who wanted to receive their ballots immediately at 2.45 p.m. But, and this is the key thing here,

those people could still apply for ballots. They just couldn't get them at that exact instant, which also meant they couldn't fill them out and return them on the spot. But Bucks County later clarifying on X yesterday that instead, they were only given the option to receive their ballot by mail or pick it up later this week. And with that adding, we are aware

that due to a miscommunication, individuals in line to apply for on-demand mail-in ballot were briefly told they could not be accommodated. In fact, these voters were given the opportunity to submit mail-in ballot applications on Tuesday, noting that everyone who is still in line by 5 p.m. still was able to apply for their ballot as requested by the Department of State.

But all of this, it's still made for a very confusing situation with all the chaos and poor communication prompting allegations, mostly from conservatives here, that people were being denied the right to vote early with Trump supporters and even top Trump campaign officials claiming that officials were cutting the lines early and preventing people from voting with that also alleging that Democrats were Suppressing voters and accusing them of interfering in the election to prevent Republicans from voting We also saw a lot of Trump folks claiming the Democrats were going around pretending to be cops or election officials and telling people to Get out of line though

None of those allegations have been verified and obviously we'll keep our eyes open for that But those main claims of voter suppression and election interference and telling people to get out of line, though none of those allegations have been verified. And obviously, we'll keep our eyes open for that. But those main claims of voter suppression and election interference, they were amplified by tons of people all the way at the top, with this including the Republican National Committee, which wrote a letter to the Secretary of the Commonwealth

alleging numerous concerning reports from voters about polling sites closing early, not accepting voters, and not counting ballots. The county officials have repeatedly said that these allegations of voter suppression fundamentally misunderstand how the system works and what the county is actually obligated to do under the 2019 law.

With the Bucks County spokesperson explaining, "'The Board of Elections Office is not a polling place. On-demand, in-person mail-in ballots are not early voting. This service is offered as a courtesy to voters because we have the equipment to do so. We are happy to accommodate as many voters as we can, but the fact remains that this is not a polling place and our staff needs to be allowed time

to fulfill their other duties and furtherance of carrying out the election." But then also another top county official echoing that and explicitly saying that the confusion here has arisen because quote, political parties and organizations across the political spectrum have been misinforming voters about what on-demand mail-in voting is and is not.

But literally as I was recording, a judge has also now hit back on the county's version of things. Right, because just this morning, the Trump campaign filed a lawsuit against Bucks County seeking to extend the mail-in ballot application deadline. And just hours later, a judge granted that request, extending the deadline to 5 p.m. this Friday.

And in that ruling, writing that Bucks County violated the Pennsylvania election code after, quote, turning away voters who sought to apply for a mail-in ballot and receive one in person before the deadline, and ordering the county to allow anyone who wishes to apply for, receive, vote, and return a mail-in ballot

before the close of business on Friday. So it seems like there are contradictory understandings of how Pennsylvania's on-demand mail-in system works and what county officials are obligated to do, specifically whether they need to provide people with ballots immediately or not. Though personally, I think at least with the extension, this is a good thing.

Hopefully it'll help voters who are confused or got wrong information by giving them more time. Because regardless, everyone deserves the right to vote and for that vote to count. But then let's talk about how last night Joe Biden was doing a get out the vote event, targeting Latinos, that was supposed to help Kamala Harris.

An event that after all the Tony Hinchcliffe stuff should have essentially been like T-ball. Just walk up and be like, wow, that wasn't cool. But Joe then proceeded to strike out at Wiffle Ball and somehow in the process hit himself in the dick. Because when he touched on Tony Hinchcliffe calling Puerto Rico garbage as a joke during Trump's rally, he said, Just the other day, a speaker at his rally called Puerto Rico a floating island of garbage. Well, let me tell you something. I don't know the Puerto Rican

that I know or Puerto Rico where I'm in my home state of Delaware. They're good, decent, honorable people. The only garbage I see floating out there is his supporters. His demonization of Latinos is unconscionable. Now with that, pretty quickly afterwards, Joe Biden put out a tweet. Earlier today, I referred to the hateful rhetoric about Puerto Rico spewed by Trump's supporter

at his Madison Square Garden rally as garbage, which is the only word I can think of to describe it. His demonization of Latinos is unconscionable. That's all I meant to say. The comments at the rally don't reflect who we are as a nation." And so following that, people kind of had two main reactions.

One, people taking that explanation at face value, re-noting that Joe Biden flubbing and not clearly communicating his points is part of the reason he is not the candidate right now. With people then providing numerous examples, though this is definitely the best one. Look, if we finally beat Medicare. But then also too, you had people swinging at this softball that Joe Biden just lobbed up for Republicans. Right, politicians,

commentators, and just everyday people going after Biden over this comment. Right, Senator Tom Cotton saying Joe Biden called half the country garbage. That's not a gaffe, it's what he and Kamala Harris genuinely think about you. And J.D. Vance writing, this is disgusting. Kamala Harris and her boss, Joe Biden, are attacking half of the country. With those two reactions definitely being part of a trend of trying to tie Kamala Harris to Joe Biden's comments. So there, one, you had people noting

that even before this controversy, Kamala Harris has consistently said she is not Joe Biden. Two, there's seemingly a reason why Joe Biden hasn't been out there on the campaign trail with Harris, which then on that note brings us to three of what Harris was doing at pretty much that exact same moment. She was out on the National Mall giving her closing argument for why people should vote for her in front of about 75,000 people. And during that, she emphasized,

one, that almost on that exact spot, Trump did one of the most divisive things a president has ever done and helped push the January 6th insurrection while adding, Donald Trump has spent a decade trying to keep the American people divided and afraid of each other. That is who he is. But America, I am here tonight to say that is not who we are. You see, what Donald Trump has never understood is that e pluribus unum, out of many, one, isn't just a phrase on a dollar bill. It is a living truth about the heart of our nation. And then two, she hit on the complete opposite note and tone of Donald Trump calling those who don't support him the enemy within, and also whatever version of the Joe Biden garbage comment you believe. I pledge to you to approach my work with the joy and optimism that comes from making

a difference in people's lives. And I pledge to be a president for all Americans. and to always put country above party and self. But then also, after all that, Harris herself has responded to the controversy when answering questions this morning, telling reporters, I think that first of all, he clarified his comments, but let me be clear. I strongly disagree with any criticism of people based on who they vote for.

You heard my speech last night and continuously throughout my career. I believe that the work that I do is about representing all the people, whether they support me or not. And as a president of the United States, I will be a president for all Americans, whether you vote for me or not. And then as far as the less immediate reaction online, it's really hard to tell where people are because it's different depending on where you go. There's a lot of people saying that they're outraged, but also a ton of really popular posts making fun of Republican outrage over this. Reporting to the constant enemy within talk,

the anti-LGBTQ, anti-immigrant, often racist stuff that kind of just gets a pass. But realistically, the internet is the internet. It doesn't always follow suit with real life. And as far as if this is going to affect the election, we probably won't know until election day. We're now just six days away from the election. We got everyone throwing out predictions

based off of polls, fucking betting markets, just general vibes. Yeah, we will know soon enough, which actually on that note, on election day, I will have a Philip DeFranco show, but then also after I'm gonna be live streaming the election, so we can keep up with everything coming in together and just stew and anxiety together. All right here on youtube.com slash DeFranco.

That's the end of today's show. Thank you so much for watching. For more news that YouTube thinks you're interested in, you can click or tap right here. Also, if you wanna get a fantastic deal on one of the best shirts you'll ever wear in your entire life, you can click right here, get something over at beautifulbastard.com.

It also helps support the show. Thanks again. I love your faces, and I'll see you right back here tomorrow.