The Philip DeFranco Show - PDS 10.8 “YOU WILL DIE IF YOU STAY!” Monster Hurricane Milton Barrels Toward Florida, Ziklag Exposed, & More

Episode Date: October 8, 2024

Get Your Exclusive "Politics Will Mess w/ You" Tee: https://beautifulbastard.com/products/mess-with-politics-bars-tee  Just go to http://www.vessi.com/defranco for 15% off your first order.  To get 15% off Lumen, go to https://lumen.me/DEFRANCO and start improving your health today. 28 Days Until Election Day! Make Sure You Are Registered to VOTE: https://Vote.org  – ✩ TODAY’S STORIES ✩ – 00:00 - Florida Bracing for Hurricane Milton While Helene Misinfo Still Spreads   07:33 - Pokimane Reveals Disturbing SA Threats She Got After Her Number Leaked 08:52 - Logan Paul Beefs with TommyInnit Over Prime Ad in Gaza Segment  10:34 - Sponsored by Vessi 11:37 - FTX to Pay 98% of Customers in Cash To Finish Bankruptcy 14:21 - Doctor Poisons Mom’s Partner with Fake “Flesh-Eating” Vaccine  16:25 - Judge Cracks Open Google’s “Illegal” App Store Monopoly 18:02 - Supreme Court Ignores X’s Bid to Notify Trump of Special Counsel’s of DM Seizure 20:03 - Sponsored by Lumen 21:01 - The Secret Christian Organization Spending Millions to Purge Voter Rolls   ——————————   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 Associate Producer on Ziklag: Jared Paolino ———————————— #DeFranco #Pokimane #TommyInnit ———————————— 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. We have a lot to talk about today, but we have to start by talking about how Hurricane Milton could be the strongest storm to hit Florida in a century. And it's got people around Tampa,

especially either bracing or scrambling. In this, less than two weeks after Helene devastated parts of Florida, as well as Georgia, the Carolinas, Tennessee, and Virginia. And in fact, some of Helene's victims are in the path of this new storm, which at one point intensified from a category one to a category five within 24 hours.

With this being the third fastest intensifying storm on record in the Atlantic Ocean. And the National Weather Service in Tampa writing on X that if the storm stays on its current track, it will be the worst storm to impact the Tampa area in over 100 years. So also with that, the National Hurricane Center has predicted that the storm will weaken

to a category three by the time that it hits land. Plus even small shifts north or south in its course is gonna have a dramatic impact on how much damage these communities actually suffer. Though again, nothing's guaranteed. You have meteorologists saying that a storm stronger than a category three couldn't be ruled out. But even at a category three,

that is considered a major hurricane. And with that, Milton's actually due to become the 10th major hurricane to make landfall along the Gulf Coast since 2017. But Tampa, notably, it hasn't been directly hit by a major hurricane since 1921. Though this, as scientists have been warning for years that the city and the surrounding area

are especially vulnerable to rising seas caused by storm surges. And of course, with all this, you have experts saying that climate change probably has something to do with it. Which also brings us to this now viral clip of a veteran meteorologist being moved to tears while giving the latest update on Milton. It's just an incredible, incredible, incredible hurricane.

It has dropped. It has dropped 50 millibars in 10 hours. I apologize. This is just horrific. With him then going on to emphasize the role of climate change and later posting on X, extreme weather driven by global warming has changed me. And going on to say, frankly, you should be shaken too

and demand climate action now. But of course, in the meantime, the focus is on what can be done immediately. Which if you're my dad is not answering my calls. And then when you do answer my call, declining my offer to fly out of the state earlier in the week, because why take advantage of a resource you have

when you can hunker down and face the first hurricane to hit Tampa since 1921, or what many other Floridians are doing is partaking in the state's largest evacuation effort in years. Or with governor Ron DeSantis issuing a state of emergency for 51 counties with more than a million people being told to flee. And with that, you also had the city's mayor

issuing this shocking statement on CNN Monday. This is literally catastrophic. And I can say without any dramatization whatsoever, if you choose to stay in one of those evacuation areas, you're gonna die. And so with all this, the evacuation has also led to massive traffic jams and gas shortages, which is definitely something to keep an eye on,

but also you have experts saying it might also be a good thing. With for example, a FEMA spokesperson telling the BBC that he is encouraged by the amount of evacuation that's going on right now. But of course, there are still a lot of concerns about dealing with Milton, especially as Florida has been one of the state's

most at odds with the federal government when it comes to dealing with Helene. DeSantis has reportedly spoken to Biden about hurricanes Helene and Milton, but according to NBC, he has refused to take any calls from Kamala Harris with Harris saying this week, "'People are in desperate need of support right now "'and playing political games at this moment

"'in these crisis situations. "'These are the height of emergency situations "'is just utterly irresponsible and it is selfish.'" With that, DeSantis for his part claimed that he was unaware of Harris calling him, responding to her latest comments by calling her delusional and saying that she's the one who's trying to politicize the storm.

Right, of course, all this talk about politicizing natural disasters, I mean, that's been a discussion with Helene too. But you know, in general, it's something that people say was less politicized in the past. Like for example, you had a Republican strategist who worked with Bush during Katrina

telling the Washington Post, "'Historically, hurricanes are a time "'where politicians like to put partisanship aside "'and show they're focused on the greater good.'" And going on to say, "'Tr Trump does not have that instinct at all, and he's so controversial, the Democrats don't have that instinct with him either. And to that point, while speaking in Florida on Monday, Trump said that the response to Helene has, quote,

been very weak, unbelievably weak, and adding, nobody's ever seen such a weak response. With him also claiming the Biden-Harris responses received universally poor grades. Right, but a very key thing with that is, right, that's not a criticism from Trump. If you say Trump criticized, that's not accurate. What he's doing there is he's just lying, right? And understand, I'm not saying the Biden-Harris response is above criticism, but notably,

contrary to Trump's statement, some Republican governors have praised the administration for its response. The South Carolina governor, for example, said federal assistance had been superb. The Virginia governor said he was appreciative of the rapid response and the cooperation from FEMA, with him specifically thanking Biden and other officials.

In fact, Donald Trump kept lying so much about the Biden-Harris response that Laura Ingraham had to fact check him last night. And yet they're offering people $750. For immediate needs. For the worst, yeah. But for the worst hurricane that anybody's seen. But she shouldn't be there anyway.

She should be, I would say that North Carolina is so bad. She was there today for three hours, I believe, Kamala Harris. But also the lies around Helene go way beyond just vague criticism. With Samantha Montano, for example, an assistant professor of emergency management at the Massachusetts Maritime Academy saying,

"'I have been doing disaster work for nearly 20 years and I cannot think of another acute disaster where there has been this much misinformation. Right, I mean, you have Marjorie Taylor Greene out there claiming that some mysterious they can control the weather. With some of her crackpot defenders going, oh, so you're saying cloud seeding's not a thing? That is not what she is talking about.

She is talking about weaponizing hurricanes. You've got prominent right-wing voices out there like Grant Cardone saying, I grew up on the Gulf of Mexico, been watching storms since I was a young boy. I have never seen a storm start here and go east. Do you think government is using technology to manipulate weather patterns and storms?

All right, with that then getting community noted because that's just absolutely not true about there not being storms like this in the past. There's also this whole conspiracy theory about the government trying to seize land in North Carolina to mine lithium. And then there's just been a lot of lies directed at FEMA and the federal government specifically.

Like for example, the agency has been forced to deal with claims that it's stealing donations, diverting disaster aid to Ukraine, or refusing help from others, which is actually a lie Elon Musk has helped spread. And this of course, is Trump has been helping spread some as well. Though it's definitely not the first

or most ridiculous way he has lied about a hurricane. Like I don't know if you remember, but when he was president, he once showed a fake hurricane map altered with a Sharpie to retroactively justify a previously incorrect tweet that he shared about the storm's path. It's just that now his lies are more insidious and more obviously meant to appeal to voters, right?

I mean, he suggested that Democrats were withholding hurricane aid to Republican areas of North Carolina. He also falsely claimed that disaster relief funds were being diverted to house undocumented migrants. And so with that, we've had Harris calling Trump's role in the spread of misinformation extraordinarily irresponsible.

And this is you also have the head of FEMA warning that these lies affect the disaster response with her saying, the fact there are a few leaders having a hard time telling the difference between fact and fiction is creating an impedance to our ability to actually get people the help they need. And to that point, as one example,

there have reportedly been calls for residents to form militias to defend against FEMA staff members, as well as antisemitic and misogynistic threats against them. And that's a problem considering that many places, such as in Western North Carolina, they're still without a water supply, electricity, and navigable roads or vital supplies.

And as we've seen in places like Springfield, Ohio, for example, when the lies start affecting their own communities, many Republicans themselves are trying to set the record straight. Like this one Republican mayor in Tennessee, for example, when the lies start affecting their own communities, many Republicans themselves are trying to set the record straight. Like this one Republican mayor in Tennessee, for example, dispelled the rumor that government agencies were confiscating supplies,

writing, please quit spreading those rumors as they are counterproductive to response efforts. And to North Carolina, one Republican state representative pleaded on Facebook, identifying some of the conspiracy theories and saying, please help stop this junk. And so unfortunately, where I'll end this today is, we have another major storm about to hit.

And there's little reason to think that we're not gonna see the same types of lies continuing to spread. And ultimately it's literally people's lives that are being put at risk because of all this. But then shifting gears to social media news people are talking about, imagine picking up a call from a friend,

but instead of their voice, you hear a stranger threatening to rape you. Because that is an actual experience that online creator Pokimane says she was forced to live through. Because in a recent episode of that online creator Pokimane says she was forced to live through. Because in a recent episode of her podcast, Pokimane and her co-host Lily Pichu were talking about phone leaks.

With Poki saying that at one point, both her personal number and the personal number of her friend Ray were leaked online. And then saying that someone who got ahold of the leaks spoofed their number to call her. So when she looks at her phone, looks like her friend, but when she picks it up, definitely not. So I pick up the phone, I'm like,

hey, like what's wrong? And I hear this deep, weird voice go, Pokimane, I'm coming to rape you right now. And the thing is, this is just her most recent story around stuff like this. Right back in September, she shared another story of a stranger calling her, saying one night she got a weird text from an unknown number.

She ignored it. Two days later, she gets a phone call from an angry wife because as it turns out, that weird message Poki received, it was from a married man. Right, so she says that this woman just laid into her and she's also insinuated she's gotten even more phone calls like these. She just starts going off.

She's like, you have no idea how bad of a person he is. Are you a prostitute? Are you a whore? Yeah, she just starts going in on me. It's gotten to the point where like, even when I meet someone and like start talking to them, I have to tell them like, please don't call me. Like I have trauma from phone calls.

But then in less serious social media news, we have some drama. With this time it being Logan Paul and Minecraft YouTuber TommyInnit. Right, and this actually starts with an episode from Logan's podcast back in June where he was interviewing Trump. And at one point they were discussing the war in Gaza,

but then just immediately switches to Logan plugging Prime, right, his drink company that he founded with KSI. With Tommy then pointing this out a few days ago, tweeting, right, I'm done. With that then leading to others calling out Logan for the ad and then Logan responding by posting screenshots of text messages Tommy sent him a year ago,

where he appeared to be offering support for Logan's boxing match with Dylan Dannis, which then resulted in a lot of people jumping into the replies on that one and ripping Logan apart, saying things like, dude, these are from a year ago. What does this prove? As well as the fact that he had to go back a year to find anything is wild, bro.

He's trying so hard. But then it also doesn't stop there, because yesterday Tommy responded to the leaked messages by saying, if the same week I had a daughter, I also lost to a beef with Tommy in it, I would kill myself, which then prompted Logan to leak even more old private messages of Tommy reaching out to him trying to hang out or chat and saying, Tommy is lashing out because I've been neglecting him. Sorry I didn't chill with you

buddy. Which Tommy replied, why do you keep posting private messages of me being kind to you? Are you stupid? And many have dogpiled even more on Logan for sharing even more private messages which mostly just feature him blowing off Tommy at every opportunity. All of this then leading to Tommy posting a video today where he took some jabs at Mr. Beast, Logan Paul, and KSI, or where he noted that he was inspired by these creators offering products to their young audience,

Feastables, Prime, now Lunchly, and with that, launching Baepley to his audience, which just to be clear, is not a thing. It just links to a Rickroll. And this is over on X. He posted what appears to be a is not a thing. It just links to a Rickroll. And this is over on X. He posted what appears to be a screenshot of a text from Logan Paul that says, "'Call me back.

I think we should handle this like adults.' And Tommy captioning that, "'You man child, leave me alone.'" So yeah, drama, drama, drama. But then taking a 60 second breather from the news, you know, we all know that weather doesn't care about your schedule, but with Vessi, you don't have to worry.

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model case for how to deal with a very complex chapter 11 bankruptcy proceeding. And that because its proposal to repay upwards of $16 billion to creditors and customers was just approved by the court. Because to give you a short version refresher, FTX was a crypto exchange owned by Sam Bankman-Fried. And alongside that, he had a failing hedge fund called Alameda Research. With Bankman-Fried later being sentenced to 25 years in prison because he was using customer deposits at FTX to fund Alameda Research and lied to customers about it. And since then, US courts have put new people in to lead FTX as it navigated the bankruptcy process.

And so what this new deal means is that 98% of its customers, so anyone with 50 grand or less on the exchange, would be getting their money back. And on top of that, they'd be getting at least 118% of their accounts within 60% of the plan start date. Right, and this entire thing was only possible

because of a series of deals with both the US government and creditors. Right, for example, federal regulators agreed to deprioritize their fees and penalties against FTX so that customers could get paid first. And all of this, I mean, it's standout. Deals like this are not common. Because usually what we see in bankruptcy proceedings

are the customers with deposits getting royally fucked. Also, it's not just customers who are getting some relief. FTX is also trying to make a deal with the US government over $1 billion it seized from Bankman-Fried. And if that's successful, upwards of $230 million of that could be used to pay shareholders back at least some of what they gave the company.

Now with all this, one thing that stands out is that if FTX had $16 billion, or even more if they can get the money seized from Bankman-Fried, how the hell did they go belly up? And well, what it ends up being is that most of their cash was tied up in illiquid investments that it has since taken the time to cash out. Not to mention that customers were depositing crypto,

which FTX didn't have on hand. Right, when it died, the exchange only had 0.1% of the Bitcoin customers had deposited, which brings us to one of the most controversial things about this plan. It's paying customers back in cash instead of crypto. And on top of that, it's valuing their crypto as of November, 2022,

which key thing was an especially low point in the market because of all the massive exchanges dying over the prior year. And since prices of things like Bitcoin have skyrocketed from $16,000 in 2022 to about $63,000 right now, which is even less than its peak of over $70,000, that's left some creditors and customers upset. When they're pointing out that the claim

that they're getting 118% of their accounts value back, it's just not true, right? Since things have changed so much since November of 2022. And that's a major reason why some creditor groups are asking to be repaid in crypto. But FTX pointed out that buying crypto on the open market would have wasted billions of dollars since they don't have any on hand.

And there we saw the judge agreeing, pointing out that many customers' crypto accounts held FTT, which is FTX's own token, which notably hasn't been worth anything in years and would leave them worse off. Right, so for some, this is gonna seem like a massive win, for others, a massive loss, and for those in between, just a way out.

Something is better than nothing, but it's not gonna make you feel any less fucked. Well, maybe slightly less so, but still fucked to some degree. But then we've gotta talk about this Mission Impossible-style heist slash plan to kill in-laws news. Right, so let me set the stage. This is the Tom Cruise of the story,

53 year old Thomas Kwong. Right, and he is, or was a doctor in England who was really looking forward to inheriting his mother's home in Newcastle. Thing is though, she revised her will so that her partner, 72 year old Patrick O'Hara would actually be the one to get the house before Thomas did, assuming that she died before him.

So Thomas, he did the logical thing. He devised an elaborate plan to make sure Patrick died first. And here's how police said he did it. First, he forged fake medical letters telling Patrick that he was eligible for an at-home COVID vaccine. Then after this old man accepted, Thomas checked into a hotel under a false name, drove to the home in a car with fake license plates,

and showed up in disguise. Which you can see in part here, that he had a wig and fake facial hair. He also had a protective clothing, a face mask and tinted glasses. And impressively enough, he remained there without blowing his cover for a full 45 minutes, even using a fake voice.

Though reportedly Patrick did get a little suspicious after his partner commented about how the nurse was the same height as her son. What ended up happening is Thomas conducted a fake medical questionnaire. He took Patrick's blood pressure and then injected his arm with the vaccine. Except it definitely wasn't the vaccine.

In fact, we still don't know what the hell was in that needle. But we know that it wasn't anything good because Patrick immediately complained about pain in his arm, which then prompted Thomas to reassure him, hey, things are gonna be fine, and then very quickly leaving the property.

With then Patrick's injection site only getting worse and worse, developing burns and blisters. All right, so he goes to the hospital and doctors diagnose him with a fast moving, life-threatening flesh eating disease known as necrotizing fasciitis, which then required weeks of intensive care, doctors cutting flesh from his arm to combat the disease,

leaving him with life-changing injuries. But thankfully, he ended up surviving and he showed hospital staff the fake letters that Thomas had sent him, prompting police to get on the case. And after some investigating, they arrived at Thomas's front door where they found totally normal stuff

that any law abiding citizen would have. You know, a poisoner's handbook guidance for murder investigations as well as files on deadly poisons and poisons to use when evading detection. Now with this, in court, he initially claimed that he was trying to give Patrick, quote, "'No more than mild pain and discomfort.'"

But yesterday he ended up pleading guilty to attempted murder and some other crimes. So he's set to be sentenced later this month. And then Google just got kicked in the balls. With the news we're now seeing marking the climax of Epic Games' lawsuit accusing Google of monopolizing the Android app store market. An accusation which notably the jury found persuasive

last December. But then the only question left being, well, what is the judge gonna do to crack open this monopoly? And well, we finally have our answer because the judge just told Google what it can and can't do for the next three years, starting with what it can do. First, the company must distribute

rival third-party app stores within Google Play. Second, it must give those rivals access to the full catalog of Google Play apps unless developers opt out individually. Third, it must let Android developers inform users about alternatives to Google's payment system. Fourth, it must let developers link to ways to download their apps outside of the Play Store.

And fifth, it must let developers set their own prices for apps irrespective of Play billing. And then there's all the things that Google can't do. First there, it can't require apps in the Google Play Store to use its payment system. Second, it can't share app revenue with any person or entity that distributes Android apps or plans to launch an app store or app platform.

Third, it can't offer developers money or perks to launch their apps on the Play Store exclusively or first. Fourth, it can't offer developers money or perks not to launch their apps on rival first. Fourth, it can't offer developers money or perks not to launch their apps on rival stores. Fifth, it can't offer device makers or carriers money or perks to pre-install the Play Store. And sixth, it can't offer device makers or carriers money or perks not to pre-install rival stores.

And while all of that is set to take effect in November, possibly not if Google has anything to say about it. Because the company reportedly plans to appeal the verdict underlying these orders, which could get paused pending that appeal. But also last week, Epic Games filed another antitrust lawsuit against Google, as well as Samsung, for allegedly conspiring

to make it hard for users to download third-party app store. And this is Google's also still facing lawsuits from the DOJ over its alleged monopoly of search engine and advertising technology. And so while this news is huge, it is not final. And I mean, we've got a lot more to see in the coming years. And then Elon Musk's ex just tried to white knight for Donald Trump at the Supreme Court and lost.

I'll explain, right? Ex has been fighting a battle on behalf of former President Donald Trump against special counsel Jack Smith over a search warrant to grab Trump's presidential era DM. With ex initially trying to say no, but then they were fined $350,000 and eventually handed them over.

The biggest issue they had was that Smith's team also included an order that barred X from letting Trump know that they complied with this warrant. And they argued that this violated X's free speech rights and also prevented Trump from even claiming that the contents of the DMs were privileged. Because normally Trump could try to claim executive privilege over the communications, but if he didn't know the records were being sought, then X argued it was effectively a workaround for prosecutors. And they tried to make the analogy that it would let prosecutors get things like patient information from doctors, although the difference there is that X is under no obligation to protect Trump's privilege unlike a doctor and patient. Instead, their alternative was for the special counsel to appoint a

representative who could look over the DMs and determine what would be privileged or not, which is how it works with the official documents under the Presidential Records Act. And X's lawyers also made it seem like they were doing this for an altruistic reason, claiming that a similar situation wouldn't happen to other companies in the future. And to be fair here to X, their claims weren't entirely unreasonable and unsupported. In fact, the Electronics Frontier Foundation agreed with them, writing in a supporting brief that the government has, quote, far too much authority to shield its activities from public scrutiny. With them even going on to say, even a meritless gag order that is ultimately voided by a court causes great harm while it is in effect. And adding that a disclosure, quote, ensures that individuals whose information is searched

"'have an opportunity to defend their privacy "'from unwarranted and unlawful government intrusions.'" With all this, we had Smith's team arguing to lower courts that quote, "'The Fourth Amendment permits the government "'to obtain a warrant to search property "'belonging to an innocent third party "'as long as the warrant is supported by probable cause'

"'that quote, evidence of a crime will be found.'" And in the end, multiple DC and DC circuit courts agreed with him, not to mention that the Supreme Court declined to hear about it. One thing that definitely hurt X here is that Trump isn't claiming executive privilege on the DM. So seemingly X is trying to fight a fight that he's not even interested in,

which Smith's team pointed out, writing, "'No executive privilege issue "'actually existed in this case. "'If review of the underlying legal issues "'were ever warranted, the court should await a live case "'in which the issues are concretely presented.'" But then, step away from the news for a second, you know, healthy metabolism is flexible, switching between fuel sources, fats, and carbs based on availability

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That's L-U-M-E-N dot me slash DeFranco for 15% off your purchase. And thanks to Lumen for sponsoring the show. But then, so you already know that the 2024 presidential election is arguably one of the most consequential ones in American history. But for some people,

like it is on a completely different level, right? It is good versus evil. It is light versus dark. It is God versus Satan. And that brings me to the topic of today's deep dive, an organization by the name of Ziklag. With that name unsurprisingly coming from the Bible and the people in this group reportedly believe that they are in a spiritual battle and locked in a terrible conflict with the

powers of darkness to quote, redirect the trajectory of American culture toward Christ by bringing back biblical structure, order, and truth to the nation. Or at least that is a quote from a document laying out the group's 30 year vision. That also being a big thing, they have a 30 year vision. It's not just a group of fanatics. We're talking about a highly coordinated, well-funded effort by some of the richest and most powerful people in the country. And in fact, an example is that the group has reportedly claimed that it played a quote,

hugely significant role in the selection, hearings, and confirmation process of Amy Coney Barrett for a Supreme Court seat in late 2020, right? And with that, Ziklag actually describes itself as a private, confidential, invitation-only community of high net worth Christian families. And for them, the way of achieving the Christian America

that they dream of, it's getting Donald J. Trump elected. All of this, according to an amazing investigation from ProPublica and documented, with them getting hands on thousands of Ziklag's members-only email, newsletters, internal video, strategy documents, and fundraising pitches, none of which had been previously made public. And so with that, what we know is that Ziklag

reportedly started with a guy by the name of Ken Eldridge. His name also might sound familiar because he reportedly once called the COVID-19 virus a gift from God. But I'm saying there, the kingdom of God advances through a series of glorious victories, cleverly disguised as disasters. But in any case, he reportedly made his money

in Silicon Valley starting back in the 70s. And since then, he's been writing books about business and faith. He's started a foundation that quote, "'Exists to serve Jesus Christ'.", he's been writing books about business and faith. He's started a foundation that, quote, exists to serve Jesus Christ. And he's been involved with a number of different churches and Christian nonprofits. And you possibly have heard of one

called United in Purpose because they famously organized a major meeting between hundreds of evangelical leaders and Donald Trump all the way back in 2016, right back when he was running for president for the first time. And that organization reportedly spawned Ziklag. Right after Trump won the election,

Eldridge reportedly told a friend that he wanted, quote, all the wealthy Christian people to come together. With him specifically imagining setting something up like a Christian version of the Koch network. Right, that right-wing web of donors, political organizations, and non-profits set up by the Koch brothers, which is often credited with fundamentally changing American politics today. And so Ziklag, it's seemingly well on its way. With the group reportedly having more than 125 members now, including business executives, pastors, media leaders, and other prominent conservative Christians. And reportedly at a minimum,

potential new members must have a net worth of $25 million or more. Though there, I should say that a lot of these people are very much in the or more category. But I mean, the group's donors have included some of the wealthiest conservative Christian families in the nation. I mean, for example, you have Richard and Elizabeth Uhlein.

I mean, they're not well known, but their net worth is around $6 billion. And they have been absolutely pumping that money into right-wing politics. And then you have David Green and his family, right? They're the people behind the retail chain Hobby Lobby. And to give you an idea of their money and headspace, they spent $500 million to set up a museum of the Bible

in Washington, DC, without also then getting them into trouble when they purchased thousands of ancient artifacts looted from and smuggled out of Iraq. But in any case, right, with those kinds of resources, Ziklag has grown rapidly. And this, as Ziklag may very well be the first coordinated effort to get rich donors to fund an overtly Christian nationalist agenda. Right, Mary Ziegler, for example, is a legal historian and law professor at the University of California, Davis, and you have her saying, it shows that this idea isn't being dismissed as fringe in the way that it might've been in the past.

And with that, we should also clarify what people mean when they talk about Christian nationalism, right? Because some people hear that and they just go, oh, you mean people who are Christians who love America? Right, according to the Public Religion Research Institute, it's defined by agreement with the ideas that the US government should declare America a Christian nation,

that American law should be based on Christian values, that the US will cease to exist as a nation if it moves away from its Christian foundations, that being Christian is essential to being American, and that God has called Christians to exercise dominion over all the areas of American society. And notably, by that definition, true adherence to Christian nationalism

make up only 10% of the population. But of course, with what they wanna do, it would affect everyone. And so with that, let me introduce you to Lance Wallnau. He is a Christian nationalist. And to be clear, that is not me saying that. into our financial future. We expand into Europe in 2027, so I'm getting ready. Well, you can predict the future? I can predict you'll like that message. What message?

Oh, hey, we all got bonuses. You can save for college now. I don't have kids. Hmm, you don't say. SAP Concur helps your business move forward faster. Learn more at concur.com. What's better than a well-marbled ribeye sizzling on the barbecue?

A well-marbled ribeye sizzling on the barbecue that was carefully selected by an Instacart shopper and delivered to your door. A well-marbled ribeye you ordered without even leaving the kiddie pool. Whatever groceries your summer calls for, Instacart has you covered. Download the Instacart app and enjoy $0 delivery fees on your first three orders. Service fees, exclusions, and terms apply. Instacart, groceries that over-deliver. It's him. People say, oh, Lance, I don't know.

You sound like a Christian nationalist. Yes, I am a Christian nationalist. And he's not just any Christian nationalist. He is one of the most influential figures in the movement. And in addition to being all that, he's a pretty diehard Trump supporter. And he's actually one of the first major evangelical leaders that endorsed Trump back in 2015.

With him then just a year later, publishing a book entitled God's Chaos Candidate, Donald J. Trump and the American Unraveling. And still all these years later, he has not stopped campaigning for Trump. And when he speaks, he is blurring the line between preaching and political activism. Unless you learn how to mobilize

and how to move in at a local level, then you're letting the devil dominate your culture. And with that, he regularly implies demonic influence and witchcraft are at work for Kamala Harris and the Democrats. You see, the left is loaded with demons and those demons project on everyone else what they secretly are all about. I don't think it's people anymore. I think you're dealing with demons talking through people. And honestly, just warning you now, there is a rabbit hole that you can fall down with this guy just saying the most outrageous, racist, sexist, homophobic, and just otherwise wild fucking shit you can think of. But what's really scary for a number of people is the fact that this guy isn't just supporting Trump. He's rubbing shoulders with it. Last November,

for example, he went to a black tie gala event at Mar-a-Lago, with also people like Mike Pence, Ted Cruz, and other current or former members of Congress reportedly appearing at Ziklag events. But then, you know, beyond all that, this is about more than just preaching or networking. Right back in 2013, Wall now published a book that popularized an idea, at least in Christian nationalist circles, known as the Seven Mountain Mandate. Right, and that is basically a framework wherein each mountain represents a major industry or aspect of public life. For example, three of them being government, arts and entertainment, and education.

And notably, the Seven Mountains, unlike some others, is a revolutionary model, right? And that's according to Matthew Taylor, an expert on Christian nationalism at the Institute for Islamic, Christian, and Jewish Studies. What I'm saying is the idea is that, quote, you need to conquer these mountains and let change flow down from the top. And adding, it's an outlined program

for Christian supremacy. And that's what we see with Ziklag, right? I mean, let's look at the education mountain, for example. One of Ziklag's leaders said in 2021 that their goal is to, quote, take down the education system as we know it today, which many have connected to Donald Trump saying he wants to shut down the Department of Education. Then for the arts and entertainment mountain, they want 80% of movies to be rated G or PG and have a, quote, moral story. They also want people working in the industry to operate under a biblical moral worldview. And then finally, right, that government mountain,

that's a big one for Ziklag. Right, and according to one document, they believe that quote, the biblical role of government is to promote good and punish evil and that quote, the word of God and prayer play a significant role in policy decisions. And with all that, heading into this year,

the organization's executive director reportedly warned members about an evil force manifesting itself above and beyond the mountains. Or with him saying that his presence was concentrated in the government mountain. So therefore he claimed that saving the country from the powers of darkness meant focusing the group's energy on conquering the government mountain.

And to do that, the plan reportedly involves handing out millions of dollars to various groups working to shift the 2024 election in Trump's favor. And as one example, that includes the Alliance Defending Freedom, which may sound familiar because that's the Christian legal group that led the effort to overturn Roe v. Wade,

but that also being considered by some to be an anti-LGBTQ hate group. But of course, again, that's just the tip of the iceberg. According to the Ziklag files, the group has divided its activities into three different operations targeting voters in swing states. There's Operation Watchtower,

and the aim of that one is to get voters fired up over the issues of parental rights and opposition to transgender rights. Then there's Operation Steeplechase, and that's all about using churches and pastors to get out the vote. And finally, there's Operation Checkmate, and that one's focused on the so-called

election integrity movement. And there's reportedly two key objectives with this one. First, they're securing 10,640 additional unique votes in Arizona, with that notably being almost the exact margin of President Joe Biden's win there in 2020. And second, there's the goal of removing what they say is 1 million ineligible registrations and around 280,000 ineligible voters

in Arizona, Nevada, Georgia, and Wisconsin. And to give you an idea of how they're pursuing those objectives, we now have to meet Kletta Mitchell. She is a lawyer and Donald Trump ally who joined the January 2021 phone call when Trump asked Georgia's Secretary of State to find enough votes to flip the state in his favor.

And now she actually leads a network of so-called election integrity coalitions and swing states that have spent the last several years pushing for changes to voting rules and how elections are run. And a big thing here is that Ziklag may have actually been one of the first groups to fund Mitchell's activism.

And as far as what she's doing, we're seeing things like Mitchell promoting something called Eagle Eye. And with that being a data tool that's supposed to use artificial intelligence to help challenge voter registrations en masse. And that's also sparked concerns that legitimate voters are gonna get knocked off the rolls

in the process. And actually on top of backing Mitchell, and that's also sparked concerns that legitimate voters are gonna get knocked off the rolls in the process. And actually on top of backing Mitchell, Ziklag also reportedly planned to invest $800,000 directly into EagleEye's Clean the Rolls project. And notably, that would be one of the largest known donations to the group to date. But even more than that, Ziklag's funding and strategy arguably represent one of the clearest links yet

between the Christian right and the election integrity movement that emerged from Trump's baseless claims about voting fraud. Now, of course, with all this, right, donating money, it's not illegal, right? Except in this case, it kind of is, right? Because however you think of Ziklag, a secret society, a spiritual organization, a political group, what it really is, according to the law, is a 501c3 tax-exempt charity. So according to the IRS, that means they do not have to publicly

disclose their funders and donations are tax deductible. But in exchange for that, they are, quote, absolutely prohibited from directly or indirectly participating in or intervening in any political campaign on behalf of or in opposition to any candidate for elective public office. And so with that, nonpartisan lawyers

and legal experts told ProPublica that Ziklag might be violating the law or at least pushing the envelope. For example, a professor at Catholic University's Columbus School of Law saying that the investigation cast serious doubts on this organization's status as a 501 organization. But also another professor, this one from Notre Dame, arguing it's across the line without a question.

But in the meantime, the damage may have already been done. Right, the lies and the hate that they've helped fuel, they're not going anywhere. And of course, the big thing is that Ziklag is just one of a dozen, dozen different entities that could move the needle on this election. But regardless, right, seeing this type of religious extremism anywhere near mainstream politics,

I mean, for most of us, that's at the very least an alarming trend. And if you are not a fan of that, it's something that should light a fire under your ass. So here is your friendly reminder, go to vote.org or vote.gov, make sure you're registered. And if you're not registered, get registered to vote, and look into early voting, come up with a voting plan,

and get out there and do something. Because remember, you, your friends, your family, whoever around you may not fuck with politics, but if you do not do something, politics will fuck with you. 30 year game plan secret society kind of fuck with you. With that my friends is the end of your Tuesday evening, Wednesday morning dive into the news. For more news that you need to know this week

that you might've missed, you can click or tap right here to watch that. Also to snag this week's limited mess with politics, tea or hoodie, I got you here, or top links in the description. But no matter what, as always, remember my name's Philip DeFranco, you've just been filled in,

I love yo faces, and I'll see you right back here tomorrow.