The Philip DeFranco Show - PDS 10.31 The Adriana Chechik Situation Got Even Worse, Pokimane Backlash, Brazil, South Korea Stampede & More

Starting point is 00:00:00 Sup, you beautiful bastards. Welcome back to the Philip DeFranco Show. Buckle up, make sure you hit that like button, otherwise we'll punch you in the throat and let's just jump into it. The Adriana Cechik situation has somehow gotten even worse again, with Adriana now revealing some absolutely devastating updates about her TwitchCon injury. Early in October, she broke her back in two places after jumping into the TwitchCon foam pit, which was reportedly shallow and had a concrete floor. She's now had to have multiple surgeries. Luckily, she's recovering at home right now. She actually did a stream over the weekend, but then during that stream, she dropped a bomb. And then also like, I don't care, everyone's going to know, but I was pregnant and I didn't find out until I was in the hospital. So I also

Starting point is 00:00:38 have like crazy hormones. I'm not pregnant anymore because of the surgery. I couldn't keep it But my hormones are just also through the fucking roof because of that, of course the major reaction being oh my god This is fucking heartbreaking It's also seemingly made more people say that she should really file a lawsuit though There you had some speculating that if she does sue or she maybe even is suing right now We might not hear about it publicly personally. I agree with those people I I would be shocked if there's not a lawsuit or a threat of lawsuit right now. It might just be me, and I don't doubt that Adriana is like just kind of keeping people in the loop. But every time she talks about what she's going

Starting point is 00:01:13 through, it really does feel like it's a paper trail and documentation of the damage it has caused her life. That said, with most things in life, I am an overthinker and analyzer, but I think it's accurate here. Since Adriana cannot break the backs of those responsible here, run their pockets. And then, when I got messaged that there was a new Pokimane controversy, I thought two things. One, easy thumbnail, thank you so much. And two, oh no, it's Halloween, what was the costume? But no, turns out that's not the controversy.

Starting point is 00:01:41 The controversy was that she paid for her parents' retirement? Y'all, more people need to get off Twitter. But for the sake of discussion, let's walk through it. She tweets, Paid for my parents' retirement. Some people responded, Hey, that's great. Good for you. With Pokey adding,

Starting point is 00:01:55 As an immigrant, I've always felt indebted to them. Now, nothing makes me happier than repaying them for their sacrifices. But all of that also resulted in a number of responses. Like, when did I ask? Others saying she was kind of doing this for clout. Someone else asking, Whatever happened to good deeds done in silence without the need for praise? We know you're mega rich and have been for many years. Weird flex.

Starting point is 00:02:11 And here's the thing. I can understand some of the frustration around kind of things that are parallel to this. You remember that period of time where like every prank YouTuber was like, everyone thinks I'm an asshole because I'm just harassing people in public. What if I gave a homeless person $1,000 and filmed it and monetized it and then everyone thought I was a good person. But for like this thing specifically, I think it's, it's, it's a dream for many of us to, to, to, you know, give back to the parent or parents that we love and do not hate. Like for me personally, I'm so grateful that I, I've been lucky enough to live a life where I can like, I can make my, my step-mom's life easy. Or my dad got sick when I was growing up. He used to be the breadwinner,

Starting point is 00:02:45 then all of a sudden she did. My dad's also a hard dude to live with. I love you, dad, but I think you're also aware of that. And so while like, yeah, it's not a thing that I've publicly talked about now, I'm also mentioning it now because I don't think that people should shy away from this. Like, I think that it's an achievement, like, that she said. Like, she's not gonna have to work ever again. And it's kind of that mindset that makes me glad that Pokimane kind of actually responded to some of the people, like, throwing shit in their face for posting this, by also providing some background. Explaining my parents left behind their entire families, friends, and lives they built in Morocco just so my brother and I could have better opportunities

Starting point is 00:03:14 in another country. If you don't understand slash relate, just move on. And adding, I grew up painfully aware of how much they missed their parents, siblings, friends back in Morocco. But they were always so happy that their sacrifices allowed my brother and I to get a great education and pursue whatever we wanted. If I didn't grow up in Canada, I wouldn't have the same access to internet, peripherals, etc. that allowed me to become the CC I am today. And the key thing that I'm gonna end on is, y'all who have watched me for a while, you know I'm one of the most cynical motherfuckers on the planet,

Starting point is 00:03:36 but even I think it's stupid to get angry about this. And maybe it's just like the, I didn't grow up having much in my life, and then when I had it, it brought me so much joy that I could, like, take care of those who took care of me. For me, I don't know, this isn't a story to get angry about. If anything, I could see it as being somewhat inspiring. And then, a disabled woman allegedly had to crawl off of a plane after the airline asked her to pay for an aisle wheelchair. Right, so reportedly, Natalie Curtis, a wheelchair user, was flying on Jetstar Airlines for a birthday trip to Bangkok. She boards the flight with an aisle wheelchair, no problem. It then comes time to get off the plane, but there's not a wheelchair

Starting point is 00:04:07 available. And according to Natalie, the staff actually asked her to pay to use one. When we arrived, there was a lady with a notepad saying that we had to pay something for a chair. She then says she refused, saying that she's never been expected to pay before. And so they bring her own wheelchair to the plane, but it was too large to fit down the aisle. And so then, reportedly seeing the staff didn't actually have a plan, Natalie began crawling down the aisle a length of just over 13 feet with her friend who was traveling with her, filming Natalie making her way down, also reportedly unable to carry her because of a knee injury.

Starting point is 00:04:36 Natalie also sharing her story with a local news outlet saying she'll never fly with Jetstar again and... That was, yeah, extremely humiliating. So I definitely don't want anyone else to go through what i had to go through as far as the response from the airline they released a statement to the same news outlet saying they offered natalie a refund and additional compensation but they also deny asking her to ever pay for the use of a wheelchair saying a miscommunication resulted in the delay of an aisle wheelchair being made available at the gate on arrival at no point was

Starting point is 00:05:01 an aisle chair withheld due to a request for payment. So that's a story, either way, a terrible way to start a vacation. And where I'll leave this is, I've never flown Jetstar. To those who have, how does this story sound to you based off of your experiences? And then, I wanna take a second to thank a sponsor of today's show, Established Titles.

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Starting point is 00:06:13 was hospitalized with a skull fracture and other serious injuries after a man broke into their home and violently attacked him with a hammer. And while many across ideological and political lines have condemned the attack, plenty of others, largely on the far right, have begun to push misinformation about it. With this, now apparently including Twitter's new owner, who responded to a tweet Hillary Clinton posted about the attack and wrote, There is a tiny possibility there might be more to this story, while also linking to an opinion article from a website called the Santa Monica Observer, with that article in question claiming that Paul Pelosi had been drunk at the time of the assault and was, quote, in a dispute with a male prostitute. And I know this is going to shock some of you. Absolutely zero evidence was presented to back this up.

Starting point is 00:06:46 What? I can't believe it. Not only did the author cite zero sources, he explicitly wrote that the alternative version of events that he presented were what happened in his, quote, humble opinion. But also, like, this kind of reporting is something you should expect from the Santa Monica Observer. Like, looking into it, fact-checkers have described it as a low-credibility, far-right source. And I really feel like that undersells the level of bullshittery we're talking about. I mean, this is literally the same outlet

Starting point is 00:07:08 that falsely claimed back in 2016 that Hillary Clinton had died and been replaced with a body double. But apparently for Musk, this was a trusted source. And he decided to amplify this lying bullshit to his more than 100 million followers yesterday. And while he did eventually delete the post several hours later, according to reports, it had already gained more than 24,000 retweets, over 86,000 likes. It kind of also took on a life of its own, more and more people latching onto it, regurgitating it. And so with this, you had places like the Washington Post noting, you know, this isn't the first time he's used the platform to promote false or misleading claims, but noting that willingness to spout misinformation or to boost it by using the tactic

Starting point is 00:07:40 of quote, just raising questions could create major conflicts for him and for Twitter now that he owns the company. Also, because up to this point we've only talked about the misinformation, I do want to note that law enforcement officials say that the attacker was actually seeking Nancy Pelosi, who was in Washington at the time, with sources familiar with the case also telling reporters that the man had a list of people he planned to target. And according to CBS News, their review of suspected social media posts from this attacker, it turned up conspiracy theories about Holocaust denial, pedophiles in the government,

Starting point is 00:08:04 and claims that Democratic officials run child sex rings, with CNN reporting that he posted memes and conspiracy theories on Facebook about COVID vaccines, the 2020 election, and the January 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol. So we have all of that, and we have to wait to see in the coming days and weeks what other information comes out. But connected to all of that, now you have people very concerned about what the fuck is the future of Twitter going to look like? Elon Musk officially took control of the company, and just mere days later, he was promoting politically charged misinformation. Right, all social media platforms

Starting point is 00:08:28 have to deal with misinformation, but it's very rarely the main person that owns the company actively promoting it. This isn't just a concern for like the public good, but also part of the reason social media companies care about it, and some would argue one of the only reasons they care about it is because they need advertisers.

Starting point is 00:08:42 And along with the concerns of allowing misinformation, there's also concerns about hate speech, which already there, watchdogs and experts have reported massive swells and racist and offensive tweets since Musk took over. One group called the NCRI, the Network Contagion Research Institute, which analyzes hundreds of millions of posts on social media reporting that use of the N-word skyrocketed nearly 500% on Twitter just in the 12 hours after Musk's deal was finalized. Though I do want to note there that doesn't appear to be the result of any change in Twitter content moderation policies. But more, I think it shows a mindset of people going, oh, I bet the policies are going to be more lax. And actually, regarding this topic, Musk himself said in a tweet on Friday,

Starting point is 00:09:14 we have not yet made any changes to Twitter's content moderation policies. And also sharing an earlier post where he announced that, quote, Twitter will be forming a content moderation council with widely diverse viewpoints. No major content decisions or account reinstatements will But, that said, according to reports, we are seeing some changes already. Musk already firing a number of longtime Twitter executives. Now, reportedly, people involved in the matter are saying that he and remaining executives huddled this weekend to discuss content moderation strategies and plans to lay off 25% of the company's employees. And in a securities filing made public just today, it was revealed that Musk dissolved Twitter's nine-person board of directors and became the sole director when he officially purchased the company last week. Also beyond that, The Verge reported that people

Starting point is 00:09:49 familiar with the matter and internal documents seen by the outlet indicate that Twitter is planning to start charging $20 a month for verification. But as far as if that fully publicly becomes a thing, we'll have to wait and see. And that's kind of the situation in general regarding Twitter. I think we're just having to see how everything is going to play out. And in the meantime, I feel like people are kind of left with a question, and you can answer this one if you want to. Do you look at what happened over the weekend, and you think this is just a small bump in the road for Elon? Like, mistakes happen, which, hey, mistakes do happen. Or does this seem like something with Elon that it feels very on

Starting point is 00:10:17 trend, and this is just kind of a small taste of the chaos that we're all going to experience? And then, this will surprise most of you, but one of the most competitive races that we're seeing in the midterms right now is actually happening in New York. Specifically, several contests in New York's Hudson Valley could decide whether the house flips or not, with one of the most closely watched contests involving Representative Pat Ryan. And if his name sounds familiar, it's because we talked about him back in August when he won an incredibly tight special election for a vacated seat in New York's 19th district. But what also made that special election national news is that Ryan won his race because he centered his campaign on a platform of defending abortion rights. So as a result, Ryan's race was largely viewed as an important test case to see if abortion actually

Starting point is 00:10:51 was a topic that would get voters out to vote, especially in swing districts, which are expected to play a heavy role in the battle for control of Congress. But that was a special election, and so Ryan still has to win another election this fall to keep his seat. But, key thing, this time he's actually running in the 18th district because of the redistricting from the 2020 census. So now almost half a year since Roe's reversal, will abortion rights still mobilize voters? When we reached out to Representative Ryan, he still thinks that this will drive voters. So before. When does fast grocery delivery through Instacart matter most? When your famous grainy mustard potato salad isn't so famous without the grainy mustard. When the barbecue's lit, but there's nothing to grill.

Starting point is 00:11:26 When the in-laws decide that, actually, they will stay for dinner. Instacart has all your groceries covered this summer. So download the app and get delivery in as fast as 60 minutes. Plus enjoy $0 delivery fees on your first three orders. Service fees, exclusions, and terms apply. Instacart. Groceries that over-deliver. Our special election, no one thought we were going to win. All the polls had us down. Christmas exclusions and terms apply. Instacart, groceries that over-deliver. Our special election, no one thought we were going to win.

Starting point is 00:11:49 All the polls had us down. Everyone, I think, didn't give enough credit to people in our district and in the country who recognize that when a fellow American's fundamental freedoms are taken away, all of us stand up and say that's not who we are. And we saw that here. We did see it in Alaska. I think that was a big part of Mary Paltola's win. And we're going to see it again. I think the energy is only built as we've seen how even more extreme Graham and others in the party are willing to go and taking away these rights. Ryan also went on to talk about his opponent, New York State

Starting point is 00:12:21 Assemblymember Colin Schmidt. My opponent is diametrically opposed. He cheered on the Dobbs decision. He's been endorsed by the most extreme anti-choice groups in the country, including National Right to Life. In a debate earlier this week, he literally looked the moderator in the eye and said, even if a doctor told a woman that her life was at risk, he would not support her having access to an abortion. It's just disgusting. And it's not who we are as a country. With Ryan saying he absolutely believes that Schmidt would vote to further restrict reproductive rights at the federal level if he is elected to Congress. But also Ryan said that abortion, it is one topic. It's a big one, but it's also not the only one where Schmidt's views could seriously hurt the people of New York's

Starting point is 00:13:01 18th district and America at large. My opponent is a direct threat to freedom, to safety, to democracy. He cheered on insurrectionists on January 6th. He's taken campaign contributions from Rudy Giuliani and the head of the Oath Keepers in our New York state. He has an A-plus rating from the NRA. At the same time, we're seeing more of the deadly weapons I carried in combat on our streets. He is really a force that has to be stopped. Also, in speaking about a 2024 election, right, let's say a Democrat actually won in 2024. He responded. My opponent would blindly follow McCarthy and all these other election deniers. Because again, this is a person who's put their personal power ahead of our democracy and ahead of our community. So I have no doubt that he'd be part of that dangerous caucus of folks who almost overthrew our government on January 6th.

Starting point is 00:13:55 And certainly I've not been trying to hide the fact that they would do it again. Because this is the last interview that we're going to do with a candidate in a close election before the midterms next week, which by the way, I know we talk about November 8th being election day, but a key thing with early voting being a thing in so many places, just consider November 8th the last day you can vote. Get out there, be a part of the process. But main thing, because this is our last one, I wanted to close out today with a comment that Ryan made that I think could resonate with a lot of voters. And key thing, not just those in his district. As we get down the last few weeks here, we're hearing a lot of the same punditry and supposed hot takes that we can't hold the House. It's the same things I heard before my special election. We kept our head down.

Starting point is 00:14:37 We focused on fighting for these rights and freedoms. We ignored all the polls and all the pundits, and we just did the work, and we showed people that we would fight for them. We have to do the same thing down the home stretch here in the next few weeks. Stand for these values, fight for these values, ignore all the other things, and I'm confident we are going to hold the house come November 8th. And then, y'all, language is important. Some would say muy importante, molto importante, or hijo ni julio. Personally, a big thing for me this year has been trying to learn Spanish again. I hated the experience in high school. I failed Spanish 2 twice.

Starting point is 00:15:09 But now, thanks to a sponsor of the show, Rocket Languages, and more specifically, philspeakspanish.com, I'm doing so good. I think it's because it's just built around whatever learning style you have. If you're a visual learner, you're covered. Auditory learner? Awesome. It's all built so I can squeeze it into my day, whether it be just five minutes or two hours. I can just rock it out on my desktop, my laptop, my phone, whatever. Most importantly, it's not just Spanish. Yes, you can do philspeakspanish.com. That's what I'm doing. But you can also do philspeaksanyoftheselanguages.com. Korean, Mandarin, Chinese, German,

Starting point is 00:15:35 French, Arabic, Russian, Portuguese, Japanese, sign language, Italian. There's so much more. So hey, all you got to do, I'm linking to everything in that description down below. Click and start because not only can you start a trial version of the course that is yours forever without even entering in a credit card, if you use one of my links in the description, you'll get 60% off. So get in on it now and start opening up

Starting point is 00:15:54 a whole new world today. And then, over 150 people were crushed to death and nearly 100 more were injured by a massive crowd in Seoul during Halloween celebrations, which makes this their worst domestic disaster since 2014 when a ferry sank and killed 304. So all of this occurred in the popular Itaewon neighborhood, which is known for its drinking spots and Halloween events. This weekend was no exception. Upwards of 100,000 people turned up for the first major party since the pandemic restrictions were lifted, leading to an extremely large crowd in these narrow streets. It's unclear exactly what triggered the crowd to surge,

Starting point is 00:16:22 but when people are this dense, they kind of act like liquid. So the little bumps at the back of the group can turn into massive, massive pressure for those in the front of the group. And at some point, the crowd managed to get stuck in one of the many choke points in Itaewon. The area, I think, to kind of like best explain it, it's like a handful of normal-sized streets with a ton of alleyways branching between them. And so the pressure there was absolutely insane, leading to people near the front of the crowd being completely unable to move, and those in the back trying to push forward because they didn't know why people stopped. And so some began to fall over, causing the person behind them to also fall as the pressure forced them to fill the

Starting point is 00:16:50 gap, with it all leading to people literally being crushed to death, even if they were just standing there. Also, it's likely the reason why most of the people who were injured or died were women in their 20s. Generally speaking, they had smaller frames, less muscle to withstand the crushing pressure. Because this happened in Itaewon, which is extremely popular with foreigners, there was quite a few of them among the victims, including at least two Americans. Also, when we say that people were crushed to death, I'm kind of just talking about general deaths because the exact causes varied. Some died of broken bones and ribs.

Starting point is 00:17:17 Many just were unable to breathe. And among the survivors, most of whom are in extremely delicate conditions, there are reports of things like rhabdomyolysis, which is when your muscle tissue begins to break down and gets into your kidneys, which can eventually be deadly. But also like a key thing here, I cannot undersell how dense this crowd was. And I'm not going to show you the video. If you search on Twitter, there's no shortage of people that were there experiencing it, that were filming at the same time. But just before you watch and know it's horrifying, some of the people that you're watching may literally be dying right there. It's just heartbreaking, which is also why since Sunday mourners have gone to Itaewon and other places of mourning to share their condolences, with the president also declaring

Starting point is 00:17:47 an entire week of national mourning. So as far as what happens next, it'll likely be a while before more answers are given. But reportedly there's been a 475-man task force put on this to try and figure out what exactly happened. And so far they say it doesn't look like anything criminal explicitly took place. Though in the meantime, all of this has led to questions about how this could have been prevented. You have people asking, you know, were more officers needed? And, I mean, if you look at the situation, reportedly 200 were already deployed, although they were focusing more on sex crimes, not crowd control. But let's say, you know, they shifted focus. They, alongside the 150 civil servants in the neighborhood, would still not be enough to

Starting point is 00:18:18 control nearly 100,000 people. And so others have been suggesting things like, in the future, cars should be forced out of the neighborhood so people have more room, or that a limit be placed on how many people can actually go into the area. As we wait to find out more and see if anything can be done to avoid this in the future, I do wanna share my condolences with the people of Korea and hope that an event like this never happens again. And then, Brazil voted to shift back to the left

Starting point is 00:18:39 after voting to elect Lula da Silva back into the presidency. But a key thing here is that this was a very, very tight race. Lula getting 51% of the vote to beat right-wing poster boy Jair Bolsonaro. And the electoral breakdown was exactly what you'd expect, right? You had Bolsonaro doing well in the South, which was counted first and gave him an early lead. But then Lula quickly caught up as the votes in his stronghold started to come through. Also, if you're not familiar with politics there, Lula has had a few crazy years, we'll call it. He was convicted of corruption. He spent 580 days in prison. But that sentence was then annulled by the Supreme Court there, Lula has had a few crazy years, we'll call it. He was convicted of corruption, he spent 580 days in prison, but that sentence was then annulled by the Supreme Court there,

Starting point is 00:19:09 opening the door for the former president to come back. And so in his victory speech, Lula mentioned all that drama, saying, they tried to bury me alive and I'm here. And adding that starting on January 1st, 2023, I will govern for the 215 million Brazilians, not just the ones who voted for me. There are not two Brazils, We are one country, one people, one great nation. But here's the key thing. There are fears that Bolsonaro will not concede the election, especially since with no evidence, he's been claiming even before the election took place that electoral fraud was going to happen. And as I'm recording this, he has still not conceded. And so we're seeing the conspiracies already starting, right? Some claiming that Lula's release from prison was illegal and he should be ineligible for office.

Starting point is 00:19:45 They're trying to open one door to deny him his win. You also have people looking for any signs of there being voter fraud. With this, likely including people just making shit up. But there, I mean, you had election officials saying on Sunday there have been no signs of fraud. However, because this is the closest election they've had there in 34 years, there are serious concerns that this could push Bolsonaro to feel comfortable in denying the results. And this is going to be a big one to watch, even for the international community. Because if Lula does manage to get into office,

Starting point is 00:20:06 there are huge implications. Things like he's aiming for a zero deforestation policy, meaning he wants to completely stop deforestation of the Amazon, not just targeted illegal deforestation. He's also promised to stop illegal mining on indigenous land, which is an issue that communities there have complained about for years. And Bolsonaro largely turned a blind eye to indigenous issues. But for now, we'll have to wait and see. But ultimately, that is where that story and today's show ends. As always, thank you for watching, liking me, and subscribing to these daily dives into the news. If you missed the weekly recap, cannot recommend that enough. Check or click that.

Starting point is 00:20:33 But, 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 10.31 The Adriana Chechik Situation Got Even Worse, Pokimane Backlash, Brazil, South Korea Stampede & More

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