The Philip DeFranco Show - PDS 1.10 DO5 Legal Update, HUGE Crisis in Mexico, Lady Gaga Apologizes For Controversy, & More

Episode Date: January 10, 2019

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Sup you beautiful bastards, hope you've had a fantastic Thursday. Welcome back to the Philip DeFranco show and let's just jump into it. And the first thing we're going to talk about today is actually just a brief update to a story we covered a long time ago. We tracked this story. If you've watched for a while, you're familiar with this story, but it is a story around Heather and Mike Martin, aka Daddy05, then Family05. They, of course, were the YouTube family channel that included videos like some of these videos where you just saw the kids breaking down Emotionally screaming crying the videos uploaded to the channel that include the kids being pushed hit There was one video where they had a little boy smack a little girl right in the face as part of a game It was like like I won't show that video today Even though the words really don't do it justice that They don't provide the rage seeing it does.

It was just a horrible thing to watch. I cannot scrub that image from my mind. And it was a situation that resulted in this couple losing custody of two of the kids. They were then put into the custody of their biological mother. A situation that ultimately resulted in their YouTube channels being removed from the site.

A situation that resulted in them being convicted of child neglect and being sentenced to five years of supervised probation. Also, it appears that after that they tried to continue things. It appears that on their own website they had paid subscriptions and a place where people could continue to watch vlogs. Although if you go to that page today, there's a message there that appears to contradict itself. It writes, Today we had our hands tied. In order to move on with the healing process from the 2017 events,

we have agreed willingly to remove our videos from even this site. I guess you could agree willingly to remove our videos from even this site." I guess you could agree willingly to have your hands tied. But also it appears that page might be connected to the update that we saw this week. And that update is that the Martin sentence has been reduced. With Scott Broom, a journalist from WUSA9 tweeting, "'Daddio5' convicted YouTube child neglect parents

get reduced sentence today despite apparent violation of 2017 court orders to stop uploads of videos featuring Cody slash Emma and their sentence was reportedly modified to probation before judgment which according to the reporting from WUSA 9 does not include supervision and which allows the couple to seek expungement of their child neglect convictions after three years. Although I will say looking into the reporting there they say quote parent Michael Martin apparently continues to operate additional, one of which features a video uploaded in August 2018 with archival footage of allegedly abused children Cody and Emma. Then they link to a video that appears to be posted by a fan channel, but really there's no way for me

to know who actually owns and runs that channel. But WUSA 9 does go on to quote the probation conditions from 2017, reportedly from Frederick County, Maryland Circuit Court Judge Teresa M. Adams, stating no videotaping of children Cody and Emma, no images of children on social media unless for family purposes. Which, if that extended to the other three children and in places off of YouTube, it appears that what they

describe as, and this is the Martins, the vlog subscription service, essentially even more so with the disclaimer on their site reading, the videos on this website are for entertainment purposes only, might not line up with those conditions, but it depends on the specific definitions from the judge. But ultimately, that is where we are right now. Obviously, my personal opinion is going to be

that I really do not hope that this gets expunged from their record. Also, the fact that there are still probably hundreds and thousands of their fans that will continue to defend them, say that nothing was wrong. That is, that's incredibly troubling. Yeah, that's the update to that story.

And of course, my opinion is my own. If you have the same or different or whatever opinion, I'd love to hear from you. And then we should talk about a few updates around the R. Kelly situation that we covered this last Tuesday. All of this, of course, following the release of Surviving R. Kelly, the six-part docuseries

detailing the singer's history of sexual assault and domestic violence allegations. And while following a lot of the stuff we talked about, there are reports that the police are investigating Kelly in both Chicago and Atlanta, where many of the allegations against him took place. Earlier in the week, we also saw Cook County State's Attorney Kim Foxx asking the public to come forward with allegations or information about Kelly. Foxx then followed up yesterday saying that her office received numerous calls and are now investigating the information they received. And those calls reportedly include accounts from two women that also contacted the Chicago Sun-Times who made allegations of inappropriate conduct.

And reportedly, Kelly is also under investigation in Georgia and authorities are speaking with families from the docuseries. You've also seen people organizing in real life. Yesterday, there were protests organized across the street from Kelly's studio space in Chicago. No justice! No peace! No justice! No peace!

You are Kelly! You are Kelly! As we are! We love you! Justice! We love you! Thoseocelyn! We love you! Those are the names of Kelly's alleged victims. We've also seen more and more people being outspoken and speaking out against R. Kelly. We need to realize that this person is a monster and stop celebrating this music.

But with that said and all of this happening, it appears that R. Kelly is still actually making appearances. Late last night, it appears that Kelly was at a Chicago nightclub where he performed multiple songs for the crowd. Looking at these videos, it appears that he is still being well-received. People at the club can be heard singing along. Overall, the crowd seems happy to have him there. So there's that. Also, someone that the focus had shifted to for a little bit in this situation was Lady Gaga. A lot of people pointing out that she worked with R. Kelly while allegations about him were out there.

And even back in 2013, she defended the choice to work with R. Kelly while allegations about him were out there, and even back in 2013 she defended the choice to work with him? Both R. Kelly and I have sometimes very untrue things written about us. So in a way this was a bond between us, that we were able to say the public, they can have our bodies, but they cannot have our mind or our heart. It was a really natural collaboration. But in a statement last night, she reversed her position and said that she'd actually be removing the song from streaming services. Writing, Saying, as a victim of sexual assault myself, I made both the song and video at a dark time in my life. My intention was to create something extremely defiant and provocative because I was angry and still hadn't processed the trauma that had occurred in my own life. Saying she'd tell her younger self to go to therapy. And closing with, I'm sorry both for my poor judgment when I was young and for not speaking out sooner.

I love you. But also following the news that she was going to do this, that song that she was talking about that she did with R. Kelly, it has now jumped into the top 20 songs on iTunes for the United States as a recording right now It's number 12 and so kind of a continuation of when we were talking about this last time It appears that this controversy has resulted in higher sales and higher streams But ultimately that is where we are right now It will be very interesting to see if other artists people in the industry follow Lady Gaga's suit Which I think is also a bigger question because even chiming in on this it creates a bigger target on your back

For example, even though many people appreciated Lady Gaga's response, there are also a lot of people not buying it. With some tweets on social media saying, she was a grown woman of 27 who was cognizant of R. Kelly's long history of abusing black girls and women. And then of course, there's just the question in general of what's going to happen with R. Kelly, both with public perception, where it appears that there are places where he's completely fine. And then of course, what's gonna happen next from a legal standpoint. But, like with everything I cover on this show,

any and all parts of this, I'd love to know your opinion on. And then something I wanted to touch on in the midst of this almost now historic government shutdown all pretty much based around disagreement about funding a southern border wall. Right now I find it very odd that there is even any remote debate

about who Donald Trump said would be funding this wall. Given the sheer amount of evidence that is out there, it is incredibly troubling, it is not surprising. Feels a little bit like, welcome to the US political system where the truth doesn't count, the facts don't matter. Many people, of course, have pointed to the countless times that Donald Trump said at rallies.

And who's gonna pay for the wall? Mexico! Who's gonna pay for the wall? Mexico! Who's gonna pay for the wall? Mexico! And as I've referred to it in the past, I said, well, Donald Trump and his administration,

you know, their messaging evolved. They said that Mexico will pay for it indirectly. And here's the thing, I think strategy and messaging can evolve, it can change. Sometimes you have to pivot. But this morning, myself and many other Americans saw Donald Trump say this. I know the fake news likes to say it.

When during the campaign, I would say Mexico's going to pay for it. Obviously, I never said this and I never meant they're going to write out a check. And my response to that is what a very specific way to deny reality. Whether he wants to refer to it as a check, a direct deposit, they're going to hit him up on Venmo. He did say that Mexico would pay for it directly. Want proof? Easy easy He even sent a campaign memo to the Washington Post that reads ahem It's an easy decision for Mexico make a one-time payment of five to ten billion to ensure that 24 billion continues to flow into their country year after year adding there are several ways to

Compel Mexico to pay for the wall including the following then we scrub down to on day three tell Mexico that if the Mexican government Will contribute the funds needed to the United States to pay for the wall, including the following. Then we scrub down to, on day three, tell Mexico that if the Mexican government will contribute the funds needed to the United States to pay for the wall, the Trump administration will not promulgate the final rule and the regulation will not go into effect. This is also not something that was just sent to what he'd probably call the fake news Washington Post. Thanks to archive.org,

we know this was also on his official campaign website. And the headline for that page where they talk about Mexico paying five to $10 billion, is called Compelling Mexico to Pay for the Wall. Also in the document that Trump released called Donald Trump's Contract with the American Voter, he puts out there that the country of Mexico will be reimbursing the United States

for the full cost of such wall. And the reason I point this out is because there's almost no reason for him to lie. He's now attributing the funding for the wall to a trade deal that hasn't even been approved by Congress yet, alleging that the potential increases in tax Revenue will be used for the wall

However a point there is these so far Unexisting tax revenues aren't even allocated for the wall I mean really looking at this situation Well out of all the things that Donald Trump is saying it's not true right now This is one of the smallest things and part of the reason I wanted to talk about this today was just once again I just I hate seeing lies But also too I think it hits on a really important point that if Donald Trump cannot concede to his position

changing, his messaging pivoting, you should look at that as a fantastic example of when the president talks about bigger, more important things of why you should take a beat and fact check it first. For example, actually talk about something I wanted to include in yesterday's show, but we had to do so much fact checking

because there were far more misleading claims than we thought there were going to be. In the president's address to the nation, there were things where at best it was misleading, if not just an intended flat-out lie. For example, the president hit on drugs crossing the border. Our southern border is a pipeline for vast quantities of illegal drugs, including meth, heroin, cocaine, and fentanyl. Every week, 300 of our citizens are killed by heroin alone, 90% of which floods across from our southern border. More Americans will die from drugs this year than were killed in the entire Vietnam War." So it's true that large amounts of drugs, especially heroin, cross the border.

But according to the 2018 National Drug Threat Assessment Report from the DEA, it's only a tiny amount that crosses the border illegally between points of entry. The agency saying, in fact, the most common form of trafficking is hiding drugs in passenger vehicles or tractor trailers as they drive into the United States through entry ports. The report also citing buses, cargo trains, and tunnels,

meaning a wall, which was the whole point of this speech, wouldn't help stem the flow of it. The same is true of methamphetamine and cocaine through point of entries rather than elsewhere on the border. Additionally, the other drug he names, fentanyl, really doesn't even come to the United States from Mexico, but rather China, and that is information, according to the president's own report

on the opioid crisis. Instead, it largely enters via the postal service, meaning a wall wouldn't stop it either. Once again, that's just another example. There are other places where he's seen inflating numbers, manipulating numbers, and through those use of numbers, that's why we've seen people saying that Donald Trump is fear-mongering,

kind of classifying illegal immigrants as this kind of violent horde. That, despite multiple studies that have found that natural citizens actually commit crimes at a higher rate than both legal and illegal immigrants. And of course, there are many more things that we could touch on for the sake of time I kind of wanted to just at least reference it and it kind of pushed us even further because it is more of a Trump thing but at the same time I don't want to create some false equivalency.

We all need to try to do a little bit more when we see the headline that we either super agree with or super disagree with. Most human beings are unfortunately misled by their emotions and unfortunately most human beings think they are above that. Most human beings find themselves to be exceptions to the rule, despite not being exceptional. And I say that as someone who has noticed some of those things in myself at one time or another. But yeah, just a few notes that I wanted to hit on there, and of course I pass the question off to you

regarding your opinions on it. But boys and girls, the talk about Mexico today is not over, although it is not so much US related. Well yes, Mexico has been in the headlines due to the talk about the border wall, the shutdown, Trump heading down to Texas today. Mexico's president, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who I'm gonna call AMLO because I cannot say that

every single time, he's called the wall debate an internal US matter. But also a large factor as far as why he and the Mexican government aren't talking about the wall so much is they have bigger problems, namely a massive gasoline shortage. And this shortage is so bad, there are lines consistently going around the block

like those faced by Americans back in the 1970s. There are even videos from some states that show that there are lines stretching for miles, with some being upwards of three miles long. In some areas, like in the state of Guanajuato, there are reports that 84% of the gas stations are closed. Even in major cities like Guanalahara, over half the gas stations are out of gasoline.

While in others, they're dealing with situations like most public buses having stopped running. And with all of that said, of course, it brings us to the question of, well, why is there such a huge shortage of gasoline in Mexico, which is the 12th largest producer of oil in the world? Well, it's theft, or at least because theft

has led to a response from the government that has caused a shortage. And to take a step back for a second, for years, Mexico has been dealing with gasoline theft from gangs and cartels of varying sizes. And in the last two years, it has just spiraled out of control. Between 2016 and now, $7.4 billion worth of gasoline

has been stolen, with $3 billion being stolen just last year alone. Now the last administrations in Mexico largely ignored this problem, but AMLO's has made it a point in the first couple of months that this presidency is going to tackle it. Now with that being said,

there of course is also the question of, well, how are billions of dollars of gasoline being stolen? Right, in Mexico, are they just stealing gas like that scene from the Fast and the Furious 4 movie, which I'm not gonna show right now because I don't want to get hit with a copyright strike? Well, while that would make this story far more interesting, no, it's actually a lot more stationary.

Mexico largely uses pipelines to send gasoline throughout the country. And oil thieves would often siphon gasoline from the pipeline system. Some of the thieves who were backed by large cartels have sophisticated networks to steal the gasoline, like a two mile hose running directly from a refinery. Meanwhile others who have been described

to be kind of more in the minor leagues end up just using hammers, chisels, and buckets to break into the pipes to steal the gas themselves. However, AMLO has actually said that he's sure thieves stealing directly from pipelines and refineries doesn't actually account for the amount of gasoline being stolen. Instead saying he thinks that there is corruption

involved as well with the government and Pemex, which is the state-owned oil company. Last month he said, quote, "'There is a hypothesis that of all the fuel thefts, "'only about 20% is done by illegal pipeline thefts. "'It's a kind of smoke screen, "'and the majority is done through a scheme "'that involves the complicity of authorities

"'and a distribution network.'" And to look even closer at the numbers that are out there, by the end of 2018, it was estimated that thieves and corrupt officials stole about 60,000 barrels of fuel per day. Now that's obviously a ton of fuel, but that's also not enough to cause a gas shortage. To kind of give context, Mexico produces about

2.1 million barrels of fuel per day, so what we're talking about is around just 2.9% of daily fuel production being stolen. And so I know now some of you are thinking, okay, well if you're saying 2.9%, why are we looking at situations where we're seeing 80% having no gas, 50% having no gas? Well that's why you have people saying that the theft isn't the direct reason for the shortage,

but it is the root of the problem. Well in response to the situation at hand, AMLO made it so that starting January 5th, Mexico would largely stop using the pipelines until a system could be set up to stop the theft and corruption that comes with using them. And so instead, Mexico has been trying to distribute the gasoline via trucks and rail cars

guarded by federal police and forces, meaning that getting the fuel to the public has been incredibly slow. And also of note here, this is just really one of the main reasons, albeit there are smaller ones that are exacerbating the problem. With that said, of course it brings us to the question of well, okay, well what happens now?

Well first up, we had AMLO trying to calm people down, saying that there is enough gasoline, there is not a shortage, at least in the country, but that it couldn't be sent out through the traditional method of utilizing pipelines because of theft. But still, you had a lot of people not happy, including supporters of the crackdown,

many saying that at the very least, the policy just came too abruptly and without proper notice to everyday Mexicans to prepare for the possibility of less gasoline. And right now, it appears that his government is in damage control mode, trying to reach out to Mexicans to support the policy. Yesterday, Pemex tweeted out this video

to get support for closing the pipelines to stop the thieves, calling it a momentary annoyance for a permanent benefit. Additionally to help combat the shortage, AMLO asked private truckers yesterday to come out and help distribute the gasoline. Also in a speech this morning, AMLO stated that 4,000 troops will be deployed

to help protect 1,600 kilometers of pipeline, which should help get gasoline flowing again and help the crisis quite a bit. Also a thing that should be considered here is there is the worry of a violent attack. And that's because historically cutting off such a large amount of money to cartels has proven deadly for others.

You wanna talk about violence in 2018 alone, well over 132 politicians and candidates have been killed in Mexico, many of whom promised to end cartel corruption. One security expert in Mexico, Ruben Salazar saying, "'We need to worry about the safety of the president. "'This is a business with a lot of interest and they aren't going to take this crackdown lightly. But ultimately, that's where we are right now,

and it'll be very interesting to see what happens moving forward, specifically the public reaction, the access to actually get gas, the safety of the president and other public officials, and just in general what happens from here. And obviously, I always love to know everyone's opinion on this, but also especially if you're a viewer from Mexico what's it like right now what would what are people saying I think it'd be very interesting to hear from you that's actually where I'm going to end today's show and remember if you like this video you like our daily dives into the news let us know by hitting that like button also if you're new here

you want more of these daily dives in the extra morning videos hit that subscribe button ring that Bell to turn on notification but But with that said, of course, as always, my name's Philip DeFranco. You've just been filled in. I love yo faces and I'll see you tomorrow.