The Philip DeFranco Show - PDS 10.31 Israel Just Bombed Gaza’s Largest Refugee Camp, Selena Gomez Slammed for Israel-Hamas War Comments

Episode Date: October 31, 2023

Go to https://get.aspr.app/SH9Gz to get 35% off your first order of Sundays. Download EarnIn today and type in Philip DeFranco under PODCAST. https://wakeandmakecoffee.com We Just RESTOCKED! Up to 50% OFF Your First Bag! Catch up on our latest PDS: https://youtu.be/GKo5gpFerKI?si=W9asPbmpiaPMnatc –✩ TODAY’S STORIES ✩ – 0:00 - Israel Attacks Gaza Refugee Camp 02:38 - Selena Gomez Faces Backlash For Saying Post About Palestine Won’t Help 04:28 - Labels Are Trying to Change Contracts After Taylor Swift’s Re-Recording Success 06:50 - CA To Dump Millions of Sterile Fruitflies to Combat Fruitfly Infestation 08:03 - Sponsored by Sundays For Dogs 09:06 - FDA Issues Alerts on OTC Eyedrop Products, WanaBana Fruit Puree Pouches 10:36 - Homeschooling Rates Have Gone Up 50% Since 2017 13:30 - Biden Admin. Proposes New Student Loan Forgiveness Expansions 16:22 - CVS & Walgreens Pharmacy Staff Across the Country Stage 3-Day Walkout  18:39 - Sponsored by EarnIn 19:37 - Behind the Efforts to Classify Fentanyl as a WMD 25:45 - Yesterday, Today FDA list of recalled eye products: https://www.fda.gov/drugs/drug-safety-and-availability/fda-warns-consumers-not-purchase-or-use-certain-eye-drops-several-major-brands-due-risk-eye#eyedrops ——————————   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 #SelenaGomez #TaylorSwift ———————————— Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today, we're talking about Israel carrying out an airstrike on Gaza's largest refugee camp, with a recent and shocking rise in homeschooling exposes, why the internet's going after Selena Gomez's throat, and we've got to talk about all the misinformation we're seeing around fentanyl and weapons of mass destruction. We're talking about all that and so much more on today's brand new, extra-large Philip DeFranco show. You daily dive into the news, so just make sure you're subscribed and let's jump into it. Starting with... In huge international news, Israel carried out an airstrike on Gaza's largest refugee camp today, with the IDF

claiming in a statement, IDF fighter jets acting on ISA intelligence killed Ibrahim Biyari, a commander of one of Hamas's battalions, and they said he was one of the leaders responsible for sending terrorist operatives to Israel to carry out the murderous terror attack on October 7th. And saying with that, numerous Hamas terrorists were hit in the strike. But then at the same time, you have Gaza's health ministry and the director of Gaza's Indonesian hospital saying this strike killed and injured hundreds of people. And CNN reporting the head of the nearby Indonesian hospital where large numbers of the dead and wounded have flooded in estimated that scores have been killed in the blast. Saying the hospital is the nearest major medical facility to Jabalia and is one of the most damaged in Gaza due to multiple strikes in the vicinity. Going on to report videos from the hospital showed a long line of bodies lying on the floor of the hospital as well

as large numbers of wounded people, including children, as doctors rushed to treat their injuries. And regarding civilian casualties, with what's being said and what's being justified with all of this, it sounds like it's only going to get worse. Right, because, for example,

you have reporting saying, Israel's Defense Forces spokesperson, Lieutenant Colonel Richard Hecht, told CNN's Wolf Blitzer on Tuesday, the Hamas commander, who was the target of the airstrike at the refugee camp, was hiding, as they do, behind civilians. And when Blitzer asked them about innocent civilians in the refugee camp, he responded.

But you know that there are a lot of refugees, a lot of innocent civilians, men, women and children in that refugee camp as well, right? This is the tragedy of war, Wolf. I mean, we, as you know, we've been saying for days, move south. Civilians that are not involved with Hamas, please move south. But again, with that, critics saying, how are they supposed to receive that message? How are they supposed to get to somewhere safe where even refugee camps are being bombed? Because whether Hamas is lying or not here, right, they claim that their leader wasn't actually in there. Innocent civilians died, or died's not even the right word. They were killed.

And this notably as we're seeing things like a UN human rights official leaving their job over what he called a genocide in there. Innocent civilians died, or died's not even the right word. They were killed. And this notably as we're seeing things like a UN human rights official leaving their job over what he called a genocide in Gaza, one that he says that the UN has failed to stop. And with that, accusing the United States, the United Kingdom, and European countries of giving political and diplomatic cover for Israel's atrocities. And we need to be able to talk about these horrors without someone saying, hey, when you criticize Israeli attacks, that's somehow anti-Semitic. Because we talked about anti-Semitic issues that are on the rise, that are very concerning yesterday. These are not the same two things.

But ultimately, that is where we are with this situation right now. Of course, it is all still developing. We're waiting for more details to come in. But in the meantime, of course, I'd love to know your thoughts here. And then a chunk of the Internet is pissed off at Selena Gomez right now. Because over the past month or so, we've seen a ton of big names speaking up about Israel and Palestine. some getting praise, some getting backlash, some getting honestly both. And for a while with that, people have been upset that Selena Gomez hasn't

said anything. Because with 430 million followers, she is the most followed woman on Instagram. And she has spoken out about other crises before, with people pointing to Ukraine, gun violence, mental health, and more. So you have this growing group frustrated that she was staying silent on such a major global issue, and that ultimately leading to her last night addressing that with a statement that has only now made people angrier. Writing on her Instagram story that she has been taking a break from social media because her heart breaks to see all the horror, hate, violence, and terror. Adding people being tortured and killed or any act of hate towards any one group is horrific, and saying we need to protect all people, especially children, and stop the violence for good.

I'm sorry if my words will never be enough for everyone or a hashtag. Then adding, she just can't stand by innocent people getting harmed. It makes her feel sick. And then closing with, I wish I could change the world, but a post won't. And a few hours later, she followed that up by saying that having a little sister has made her tragically sick and she would do anything for children and innocent lives. And so with that, you had a number of people livid with that statement saying things like, she is downplaying her massive following and being hypocritical. If a post can't help change the world, why call yourself a philanthropist? Why post about mental health, BLM, women's rights, American elections, et cetera, et cetera. As well as people saying,

shame on you, Selena Gomez. You have 430 million followers, yet people with less followers be doing so much more. Her voices are being heard. You are just ignorant. People saying there are so many people she could inform. A post will make a difference. And arguing, this is why I'm annoyed when celebs make a neutral statement. They do it only because of their reputation, not because they genuinely care. Some also accusing her of liking Zionist posts from Amy Schumer, others calling her a coward, saying she is a selective activist. And I mean, her recent posts have been completely taken over by people that are angry. People even calling for others to boycott Rare Beauty by Selena Gomez.

With all that, I got to pass the question off to you here. What are your thoughts? And then Taylor Swift has broken records and changed the game in a number of verticals, a number of fields, and that's been fantastic for her. But for industries that are scared that other people are going to do it, we're seeing them try to shut the door behind her. With, for example, record labels absolutely terrified of the success Taylor Swift has had with her re-recordings.

Which, if you're unfamiliar, you need a little refresher. Taylor Swift started an effort to re-record her first six albums a few years ago after the rights to her masters were sold to music mogul Scooter Braun. And so these new recordings are called Taylor's Version, and they have been incredibly successful so far. And the now most recent, 1989, getting released over the weekend to huge numbers. Breaking records on Spotify, even on track to outsell the original release of the album, which was in 2014. And of course, the record labels aren't a fan of this because those new versions of the album devalue the original recording significantly,

especially when a musician has as loyal a following as Taylor does. I mean, so many fans won't just go, yeah, I'll autoplay whatever. They will fully cut ties with the old work and make them a thing of the past. So it just ends up being a massive L for whoever owns the original release. So the industry has responded like, hey, hey, hey, hey, we're the one that do the fucking. We don't get fucked. And so outlets like Billboard are reporting that record labels are trying to take steps to prevent artists from re-recording their work. And they're specifically doing this by using new contract language. And some of that language saying that artists cannot re-record their work until 10 or even 30 years after their contract ends.

Which is a lot longer than what's standard right now, which is a waiting period of five to seven years after the album came out, or two years after the contract set. Though with all this, in response to it, Universal Music Group, which actually owns the label Taylor works with now, they claimed it had been making contract changes since 2021, just as a re-recording effort started before we saw the full scale of its success. And while she's not the first major artist to ever re-record her work, Taylor's versions have been undeniably successful. So successful that it's made other artists want to follow in her footsteps. With a board member of the Music Artists Coalition previously speaking to the Wall Street Journal after Taylor re-released Red saying, What Taylor did is a game changer, not just for her fans, but for other artists. She is inspiring

artists to re-record their songs and control their music. Taylor is leading by example, showing fans and artists that it's possible to take control of their future. And so understandably, tons of people seeing this news are pissed. Because obviously this isn't what Taylor wanted to accomplish with her re-recordings. In addition to take control of their future. And so understandably, tons of people seeing this news are pissed, right? Because obviously this isn't what Taylor wanted to accomplish with the re-recordings, right? In addition to take control of her own work, she was trying to expand artists' control, you know, not destroy it. And so you had people saying things like, God forbid artists own their work. And this is genuinely evil. Artists deserve the right to take back their work if it's stolen from them under predatory practices. But really, I would argue that this was kind of inevitable. Because once again, it's not like the labels were going

to see this and go like, wow, those guys lost a lot of money because she did that thing. We should just continue doing nothing about it. And then, y'all, very soon, a plane's going to be taking off from a military base in California. And once it is directly above Los Angeles, it's going to open its doors and unleash a swarm, specifically of millions of fruit flies. They'll be pouring from the belly of the beast and descending upon the city in droves, either as a way to usher in or if you believe Gavin Newsom, it is just a temporary measure to combat invasive species. And that's because wild Mediterranean fruit flies were

recently discovered in Los Angeles and they damage over 250 fruit and vegetables by laying eggs in them. And with that, it's believed that if their population spirals out of control, it could cost the state up to $1.8 billion per year. So as far as, well, why do we want more fruit flies? Why are you going to dump more fruit flies if the situation is too many fruit flies bad? It's because these new fruit flies are reportedly sterile, meaning that they'll fire blanks into the existing females until they all die off. And this is actually a method that's been used effectively to manage invasive species since 1996. And at this time, officials say that they've set up a quarantine area of 69 square miles covering parts of Culver City, South LA, and Central LA. With a spokesperson saying planes

will drop around 250,000 fruit flies per square mile there every week for six months or longer. So yeah, if you're in LA, very likely you're going to see more and more fruit flies, at least for the short period. And it'll be interesting to see how effective this is because looking into it, a female can lay 500 eggs. And then, you know, my dogs are a huge part of our family, and nutrition is very important for their life and well-being. But it can also get costly, so I wanna thank the sponsor of today's show, Sundaes.

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And it's nice having it on a schedule because I think, you know, we've all been there where we're like, oh crap, I've been doing so much. I forgot to grab a bag at the store. And you have to resort to like sliced bread. You're like, do you like that? Is that okay? Plus get this, Sundays costs 40% less than other healthy dog food brands because Sundays doesn't waste money shipping frozen packages. Instead, they spend on what matters, sourcing the best all natural ingredients for your dog and their vet founded vet run. So if you're ready to make

the smart decision, you're ready to try it, go get 35% off your first order of Sundays today. Just click that link in the description and your dogs will thank you. And then we've got to talk about eye infections and lead exposure, because those are just a couple of things that we as American consumers need to worry about these days, especially now that the FDA has issued an alert flagging 26 different eye care products for potential risk of eye infection that could lead to partial vision loss or blindness. You know, these are major brands we're talking about. Target, CVS, Rite Aid, and Velocity Pharma all had some of their over-the-counter eye products flagged. Right, and what we know is that according to the news release,

FDA investigators found unsanitary conditions in a manufacturing plant and bacterial tests came back positive, although the agency didn't also say what bacteria they found. And while there haven't been any reports of infection, the FDA is recommending consumers get rid of these products if they have them, either by taking them to a drug take-back site or checking the FDA's flush list to see if the product can be safely discarded at home. They're also recommending that the manufacturer recall the products in the big stores like Target, Rite Aid, and CVS are already removing them from shelves and online stores.

But a key thing is that these issues go beyond eye infections. We've got to talk about lead as well. And that's because in a different notice posted this week, the FDA warned parents to have their children checked out after extremely high levels of lead were found in the Wannabana Apple Cinnamon cinnamon fruit puree pouches following an investigation by North Carolina public health officials. And the FDA and North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services are advising parents not to give the pouches to their kids and to throw them out immediately. Which of course makes sense. Lead exposure can seriously harm a child's health and cause damage to the brain and nervous system, or potentially slowing down growth and development as well as contributing to learning, hearing, and behavioral problems. With Wannabanna also reportedly agreeing to voluntarily recall all the Apple cinnamon pouches

regardless of expiration, but we also haven't gotten a statement from them yet. Though the FDA is saying they are, quote, continuing to work with state officials and the firm, collecting additional information and taking steps to remove all contaminated product from the market. So yeah, be careful out there.

And then the numbers we're seeing in the US education system right now are pretty damn wild. With a new Washington Post analysis finding that in 18 states, the number of homeschooled children has risen by about 50% over the past six years, without mirroring similar increases across the country. And so you have the Post estimating that there are now between 1.9 and 2.7 million homeschooled children in the United States,

which is even more than Catholic school students. And that increase outpacing the 7% rise in private school enrollment, as well as the 4% drop in public school enrollment. And that's been a change that many opponents of public education have celebrated, because many have been promoting homeschooling as part of a broader politics of so-called school choice. But notably there, the Post found no correlation between school district quality as measured by standardized test scores and homeschooling growth. In fact, high-scoring districts had some of the biggest spikes in homeschooling early in the pandemic.

And one reason for that is the shifting reasons people are pulling their kids out of school, where the new crop of post-pandemic homeschoolers are compared to their predecessors more likely to make the switch for reasons of circumstance rather than ideology. But according to the Post, 34% of survey respondents now name religious instruction as a reason for homeschooling, with about half the share who did before the pandemic. But now more common reasons include the desire to escape bullying, to ensure special needs are dealt with properly, and even to protect their kids from school shootings and other violence. And with all that, the highest statewide increase that we saw was in New York. And in New York City, 24 of 33 school districts saw the number

of homeschooled children rise by at least 200%. Though notably, homeschoolers still lean more conservative and religious than the general public. And so with that, of the 10 districts with the most homeschooled kids in the Post database, nine are in Florida, with about one in three homeschool parents nationally saying the Bible is the literal word of God and nearly half saying liberal influence on public schools is a reason they homeschool. Which has led to a big criticism of the system, that parents have near absolute control over what ideas their kids encounter and most states have very little oversight. Reportedly, homeschooled kids don't have to submit to any form of testing for academic progress in most states and even states that require assessments often offer loopholes. You end up getting these cases where you have parents teaching their kids that the earth is several thousand years old or climate change is a hoax. Or you see more extreme cases like the Nazi homeschooling network

in Ohio that distributed lesson plans with quotes from Hitler. And it's not just the quality of the education that critics are upset about, it's also the effect on the community. With, for example, Eddie Campbell, president of the Kentucky Education Association, arguing, if you go to any public school, it's the heart of the community in which it is situated. People gather there for football games, they gather there for concerts, they go to celebrate the academic success of their students. We have many of these homeschooling families saying they have recreated those communal functions through stuff like co-ops, micro-schools, and Facebook. So you have homeschooled kids from the areas socializing and playing sports together as well

as putting on plays, having proms, and due graduation. But then the counter-argument is that those groups often cluster by shared ideologies, so students rarely get exposed to people with different perspectives or backgrounds. And you also have critics saying that public schools help report students who show signs of child abuse and neglect. Though then homeschool advocates argue that public schools themselves

are where much of that abuse happens. And so now some activists, particularly among conservatives, are pushing for homeschooling voucher programs. And then you have others, particularly advocates of public education, going as far as to call for a ban on homeschooling entirely, which is actually, for example, something that Germany has done.

But with this very complex issue that many are so passionate about on both sides, I gotta ask you, what are your thoughts here? And then we gotta talk about the student loan situation right now, because we're seeing new news, but also this whole situation's kind of ping-ponged back and forth.

But the first thing up is that the Biden administration is now proposing new expansions to debt forgiveness, with a new proposal announced by the Education Department yesterday aiming to provide debt relief to four different categories of borrowers, including people who now owe more in student loan balances than what they initially borrowed due to interest, borrowers who have been paying off their loans for 25 years or longer, those who took out loans for career training programs leading to high debts or low earnings, as well as those who attended

institutions with unacceptably high student loan default rates, and folks who are eligible for other loan forgiveness programs but haven't yet applied. And in addition to all that, the department also said that it's considering providing student loan relief for a fifth group of borrowers, people who are experiencing financial hardship that the current student loan system does not currently adequately address. But as far as what happens next, a big key thing is none of it's locked down just yet. But the plan will still have to go through the administrative approval process, meaning we could see some changes. And to that point, the administration didn't provide an estimate of how many people this would actually help. So hopefully we'll know more

soon, especially because, you know, the Supreme Court struck down Biden's much more sweeping plan to cancel up to $20,000 in student loan debt for up to 40 million Americans. So you have the Biden administration still trying to figure out where it can help. And you know, that hasn't been nothing. According to the Education Department press release yesterday, the Biden administration has so far approved $127 billion in relief for almost 3.6 million borrowers. Which, hey, great, but also, unfortunately, it's just a fraction of the tens of millions of student loan borrowers who collectively owe more than a trillion dollars when repayments began earlier this month. Which actually brings us to the second piece of student loan news. The Education

Department also announced yesterday that it had taken the very unusual move of punishing the biggest federal student loan servicer in the country after it failed to properly send billing statements to millions of borrowers in a timely manner. And that servicer in question being the Higher Education Loan Authority of the state of Missouri, otherwise known as MOHELA. According to a press release, the education department said that this past month MOHELA failed to meet its basic obligation by failing to send billing statements on time to 2.5 million borrowers. That including some statements that were sent within just seven days of the payment date, resulting in more than 800,000 borrowers failing to pay their loans on time. So as a result, the education department said

that it would withhold a $7.2 million payment to Mohella for October, as well as directing the loan servicer to put the accounts of all the affected people in forbearance until the issue is resolved, meaning that those people won't have to pay their loans during that time. But then also beyond that, the agency said in the press release that it had additionally discovered errors from loan servicers, resulting in a small number of borrowers receiving incorrect payment amounts on their billing statement. And so those, in fact, will also be placed in forbearance until the matter is fixed. And the department also going on to say that these actions aim to hold servicers accountable and that the

agency will continue to monitor their performance to ensure that they are meeting their basic contractual obligations. And adding that additional action may be warranted if they fail to meet those obligations. But also a key thing is that these failures are just one of the many, many issues that we've seen since the student loan pause ended. Since student loan payments have resumed, the system has essentially buckled under the pressure. There have been so many reports of loan servicing errors, borrowers waiting on hold for hours and widespread unresolved mistakes by servicers. So this whole thing's a complete mess. And pretty much all that people can do is hope that the education department's efforts to crack down and clean it up are going

to be successful. Because hey, call me a cynic, but I don't think you can count on these companies to actually hold themselves accountable. And then the farmageddon is upon us. And as far as what the hell is a farmageddon, you have pharmacy workers right now at Walgreens and CVS locations across the country in the middle of a three-day walkout that started yesterday. Though notably, this isn't the first labor action that we've seen from pharmacy workers recently in protest of harsh working conditions that put customer safety at risk, with their focus mainly being on the dangerously low staffing levels of pharmacies across the country. And pharmacy workers saying that low staffing levels prevent them from being able to do their jobs properly and safely fill prescriptions, which presents a serious risk to patients. With, for example, one pharmacist saying she would fill hundreds of prescriptions during her shift with no technician to help.

Another describing working 14-hour shifts completely alone. One former Walgreens pharmacist and one of the coordin get the attention of the corporations about those issues, their inability to respond properly, and their skillful ways to shift blame and lie to the public about the true essence of their practices, which have eventually led to this public crisis and unsafe conditions, employees really had enough. And so the walkout's been dubbed Pharmageddon on Facebook, where most of the organization has taken place. And one of the coordinators, Shane Jaraminski, he said that there will be over 5,000 pharmacy workers participating over the three days. And then to wrap up their walkout, the organizers have a demonstration planned for tomorrow outside the Walgreens headquarters in Deerfield, Illinois, with the big goals of the pharmacy workers being to pressure the companies into hiring more workers and establishing mandatory training hours, among other things. And with all this, we've seen them get support from established unions and adjacent fields. And among those, you have the American Pharmacists Association backing the walkout as well, with their CEO saying,

Quotas on the number of prescriptions filled per hour or vaccines administered per day, or even time to answer the phone, simply fail to recognize that the pharmacist-patient relationship is not transactional. It is a special covenant, and supervisors who distill everything down to numbers and time metrics are destroying that relationship in the name of profitability. This must stop immediately. Now, also, one of the big things here is the majority of Walgreens and CVS pharmacy workers are not unionized, which has made walkout organization more complicated, and it's unclear just how far-reaching the impact is and what the actual numbers will look like.

And so far, you have a Walgreens spokesperson saying that only two of their 9,000 stores have actually been affected as of yesterday afternoon, and a CVS spokesperson said that it's, quote, business as usual. But then you have Jaraminski telling CNN that there have been at least 25 store closures. So right now, we're not really sure the true scale of the walkout. Though you also have CBS saying there has been, quote, continuous two-way dialogue with the pharmacists to address their concerns. And Walgreens has said they have many efforts focused on recruitment and retention of pharmacy staff. But for now, we'll have to wait and see.

And if you happen to see this at your local CVS or Walgreens, let us know. And then, you know, life doesn't happen biweekly, so why should your payday? And the money you earn can be in your hands today thanks to the sponsor of today's show, Earnin'. Earnin' is the app that gives you access to your money ASAP. You can access up to $100 a day or up to $750 per pay period, just like that. You just download the Earnin' app, verify your paycheck, and access your money in minutes. You can also leave an optional tip if you'd like, and don't worry about scheduling payments.

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Earning is a financial technology company, not a bank. Bank products are issued by Evolve Bank and Trust, member FDIC. And then, should fentanyl be legally classified as a weapon of mass destruction? That is a real genuine debate that's happening at the highest levels of government right now. And some key agencies like the DOD, Homeland Security, and the FBI are actually already preparing. In fact, as far back as 2018, you had the FBI's weapons of mass destruction directorate issuing an internal bulletin on this. With that report, which wasn't officially made public and was given to the intercept by a former federal law enforcement official saying that fentanyl was very likely a viable option for a chemical weapon attack by extremists or criminals. But it also added that the FBI found that the likelihood of that threat is a low probability

because there's no known credible threat reporting on the use of fentanyl as a WMD in the U.S. But the FBI still went on to explain that it had assessed the drug to be a likely viable option for a WMD because it is so toxic. In that bulletin, specifically warning that even just short-term exposure to fentanyl, including through accidental skin contact or inhalation, can result in serious complications and even death. But very notably here, that statement was drawn from a DEA fentanyl briefing guide for first responders that has since been removed because of factual inaccuracies. That guide including a big red warning that said that just having skin contact with or inhaling even a small amount of fentanyl can result in death. The DEA actually eventually

revised its guidance after the American College of Medical Toxicology and the American Academy of Clinical Toxicology published a study back in 2017 that firmly concluded the risk of clinically significant exposure to emergency responders is extremely low, with the experts saying that at the time of publication, they hadn't seen any reports of emergency responders developing signs or symptoms consistent with opioid toxicity from incidental contact with opioids,

and adding that accidental absorption through skin contact is unlikely to cause opioid toxicity. And all of that has since been widely backed up by medical experts who agree you cannot overdose on fentanyl just by touching it. But one of the key things here is that before the DEA updated its guidance, it blasted that briefing with incorrect information to law enforcement agencies and other first responders all over the country. And in fact, still today, that initial guidance has caused widespread misinformation, with three different studies showing that about 80% of police surveyed still believe that touching fentanyl can cause an

overdose. Right, I mention that because it's those misconceptions that have directly contributed to the growing support for categorizing fentanyl as a WMD. For example, back in 2019, the military news website Task and Purpose obtained an internal DHS memo that was sent to the head of DHS by the assistant secretary in charge of the agency's newly created office for countering weapons of mass destruction, or CWMD. And that memo, which was titled Use of Counter-WMD Authorities to Combat Fentanyl, specifically cited the FBI report from the year earlier that had relied in part on now-debunked information, directly quoting the part of the report that said the FBI had assessed that fentanyl is very likely a viable option for a chemical weapon attack by extremists or criminals.

But as The Intercept notes, the memo oddly left out the next sentence, which warned a fentanyl WMD event was low probability. Now, the DHS, for its part, didn't respond to the outlet's questions about why that essential piece was not included, but you had The Intercept speculating that the omission appears to be part of a bureaucratic turf grab, noting that if fentanyl could be designated as a WMD, it could fall under the jurisdiction of the DHS's new CWMD office. And experts have backed that up, arguing that the officials pushing for WMD classification are intentionally whipping up a frenzy over an already highly politicized drug to get more funding, with this including Dan Cazeta, a WMD expert and former advisor to the White House on chemical and biological preparedness, who told Task and Purpose back in 2019 that the DHS memo

reads like somebody is laying the administrative background for trying to tap into pots of money for detecting WMD and decontaminating WMD. And adding it's an interdepartmental play for money. That's all it is. And also saying that is still true today with him telling The Intercept that the effort to treat fentanyl as a WMD involves emergency responders giving fentanyl mythical properties that toxicologists and anesthesiologists who use the stuff all the time refute. And even asking the question, is it the next anthrax scare, a way to beg for budget, training, and equipment? And notably there, we've already seen that effort working for DHS.

Right in the 2019 memo, the assistant secretary of the CWMD office said that by looking at fentanyl as a WMD, his office could develop and deploy a number of technologies, including sensors to detect the drug. And sure enough, later that same year, the DHS's science and technology director announced that they were working with a private firm to develop a device capable of detecting fentanyl. And very notably here, in that announcement, the agency also repeated the false claim that fentanyl can be absorbed through the skin, and saying it puts many first responders at risk of a fatal contact overdose. And then the next year, the CWMD office gave a government contractor $1.7 million to produce another detector to screen for small amounts of fentanyl outside of parcels. But also here, it's not just law enforcement and government agencies that have been pushing this effort. As the fentanyl crisis gets worse and worse, and understand, it is, and it's killing more and more people, politicians are under increasing pressure to act. And recently, we've seen an increasing number of them doing this by echoing those same

calls. For example, back in June of 2022, Representative Lauren Boebert introduced the Fentanyl is a WMD Act with the backing of nearly a dozen other Republicans. And in a press release detailing the bill, Boebert argued that fentanyl could be weaponized by citing, you guessed it, that faulty 2018 FBI bulletin that said that fentanyl is very likely a viable option for use as a WMD. And very notably, like the 2019 DHS memo, which she also cited, Boebert specifically left out the next line where the FBI explicitly says that it has a low probability of happening. But in addition to the possibility of weaponization, the press release also argued that the designation would actually help them get the fentanyl crisis and opioid epidemic under control. That was also echoed a few months later

in a letter signed by a group of 18 state attorneys general urging President Biden to categorize fentanyl as a WMD or encourage Congress to if he determines that he doesn't have the sole power to make the decision. And again, like Boebert, the group argued that this classification be made both to avert the possibility of fentanyl being used as a weapon and to address the crisis at large. But importantly, experts have pushed back against this idea, with many, in fact, arguing that it's only going to make the situation worse. With, for example, an emergency physician and medical toxicologist at Johns Hopkins Hospital telling Vice, that sounds like a dumb idea. It's not a terrorist weapon.

And I think if we try to treat it like a terrorist problem, if we try to treat it like a weapon of mass destruction, we're handling it the completely wrong way. And that was echoed by Eric Reinhart, an anthropologist of law and public health and resident physician at Northwestern University, who said that classifying fentanyl as a WMD would take away solutions that are actually proven to help opioid addiction, explaining we have a mass casualty event in the U.S. already. And it's not because of Russia or Colombia or any foreign nation. It's because of U.S. criminal legal policies that have manufactured an absurd opioid overdose epidemic. And adding, we've been investing almost all resources into policing systems and military

suppression of illicit substances. It doesn't work. If it did, we would be a country with one of the lowest opioid overdose rates in the world. And instead, we're the leading opioid overdose country. Right. And to that point, it's been reported that the director of the National Drug Control Policy at the White House, they suggested during a call with reporters last year that the president isn't considering designating fentanyl as a WMD. But still, as this crisis continues to get worse and worse, it'll be really interesting to watch if the pressure grows for the president. Or perhaps more importantly, pressure on Congress, right, to take some sort of action, especially as fentanyl and border control, which go hand in hand with the opioid crisis, are such a hot button issue heading into the 2024 election season. But with all of that now said and broken down, I got to pass the question off to you. What are your thoughts here? And then let's

talk about yesterday today, where we take a look back at yesterday's show. We covered a lot of news. We dive into those comments to see what are you saying? What are your opinions? Maybe sometimes what are your experiences connected to the stories? Starting with the comment, hey, Phil, the 0000 in the description is ruining the chapters. Needs to be 000 for it to work. Matt, know that the proper people were punished, beaten, shamed, and none of that actually happened. I just changed it in the description really quick,

but thank you. But the show is as long as they have gotten. I know that those time codes are very helpful. Though as far as conversation about the stories, there was a lot of people talking about that detective, saying if you're going to openly help someone whom you believe to be a murderer simply over a petty squabble,

then you shouldn't be a police officer in any capacity. People calling the situation mind-blowing, and saying the fact that the precinct kept him on the job is not surprising, but infuriating. Some also asking, why doesn't the officer get treated like every other witness that refuses to testify? Saying, subpoena him and force him to testify. Why do we act like there are special people with special privileges and special status? No. Rule of law applies equally to everyone. Force them to pick testify or jail.

Then, regarding the Charli D'Amelio controversy and debate, we saw someone claim, proceeded to take selfies with the kid and his friends. I explained to a tour guide that I need to close the door, and they have the oblivious audacity to tell the kids, okay, 15 seconds for photos, then we've got to go. What? That was 15 extra seconds where my hand was stuck in the door pull, and my shoulder injury was being aggravated. They're actively delaying the operation of the tram for everyone, ignoring basic safety rules. My shoulder is in immense pain, and they're taking selfies? I ended up on modified duty for three days because of it. It's now a running joke in the break room that Charli D'Amelio broke my shoulder. Influencers who have never had a real job need to get a grip. Just because kids want to take a picture with you wherever you go does not make you better or more

important than anyone else, and I'm actually embarrassed for her putting selfies over safety and not even realizing it was a problem. Also adding, before anyone comes for me, I think it's nice that Charlie was engaging with her fans, but not at the expense of safety. The fans got their pictures, but I got hurt, and that's not okay. And others adding, I work as a cashier in a grocery store. If the D'Amelios tried to do my job, they'd be ugly crying in the dairy cooler within an hour. Also adding, 100% agree with you on there should be a requirement to work a year in fast food or retail to graduate high school. But that is where your daily dive into the news is going to end today. Though, for more news you need to know, of course, I got you covered right here. You can

click or tap or I got links in the description down below. And of course, as always, my name's Philip DeFranco. You've just been filled in. I love your faces and I'll see you right back here tomorrow for more news.