The Philip DeFranco Show - PDS 11.1 Megan Fox Pissed Off Christians, Takeoff Dead at 28, Jair Bolsonaro, MoistCr1TiKaL, Elon Musk's $8

Starting point is 00:00:00 Wait, is that real? Megan Fox disrespected Christianity by taking a sexy communion? That is horrible. Show me. So I can truly be disgusted and angry. There's video? Oh, this is not okay. Oh, it's replaying again. So a number of celebrities are currently under fire for their Halloween costumes this year. This photo dump getting a lot of hate from people saying it mocked Christianity. Because while it received 3.4 plus million likes, a lot of the top comments are saying, how dare dare you though I will say And you will rarely ever hear me say this in MGK's defense if he was actually a priest This is the least worst thing a priest who has come under fire has ever done

Starting point is 00:00:35 But also that said I would nod my head in agreement with the the one of the top comments that read imagine the outcry if They mocked literally any other religion and notice how Christianity is the only religion that is openly mocked and people find it comical. And personally, as a dirty, evil non-believer, I think making fun of any faith should be fair game, but you know the reaction would be different if MGK wasn't dressed as a priest or the Pope, but instead was dressed as a different religion's leader. There are plenty of examples on it, but for me, the most meaningful is, I remember when the Charlie Hebdo shooting happened, and I had friends that actively would dunk on Christians and Christianity and they were like, well, what did those artists expect? They crossed a line, which just as a side note, if you think that justifies murder, you're a fucking psychopath. But yeah, main things, there is a double standard. And also don't worry if Megan Fox deletes that

Starting point is 00:01:16 video. I saved it as evidence. You also had Kim Kardashian getting some heat for her daughter, North's Michael Jackson costume because North wore Michael Jackson's actual smooth criminal hat. Side note, and I feel like this just is not talked about enough. Do you remember that Michael Jackson had a video game? It was called Moonwalker. You could play one or multiple Michael Jacksons and your job was to save children. I played that shit on the Sega Genesis. Sometimes I feel like we live in weird times, but stuff's always been weird. Anyway, you also had Billie Eilish and Jesse Rutherford in the news who went as an old man and a baby, some seeing this as a joke about the age gap in their relationship. He's 31, she cannot legally buy alcohol. You also had The View doing a segment with kids in news and pop

Starting point is 00:01:52 culture costumes, people getting angry there because they did a take on the Will Smith Oscar slap, people finding it to be offensive, saying they were turning violence and assault into entertainment. Others saying that a red hand mark across the face, specifically around the mouth, is used to raise awareness about missing and murdered indigenous women. But yeah, that's what people are angry about. No one's going to remember it in 24 to 72 hours. And then, absolutely shocking and heartbreaking news, Takeoff was shot and killed this morning. Some just learning from tweets, others because people have been sharing insanely graphic video of his dead body online. And for those that don't know him, he was a member of the group Migos. As far as this incident,

Starting point is 00:02:23 it happened at a bowling alley in Houston with reports saying that fellow Migos member Quavo was also there. They were attending a party and two other victims were injured and taken to the hospital. As of recording, their names have not been released. But as far as what happened, sources told TMZ that an altercation broke out during a dice game with a Hollywood reporter saying that no arrests have been announced yet. While we wait to find out more, hopefully get some answers, one of the big aspects that people are discussing right now is the footage of the incident that's been floating around online. It appears to show the aftermath of what happened, where Takeoff's body is visible as well, as people saying you can see and hear Quavo in shock, grieving. So of course you have people

Starting point is 00:02:54 calling the circulation of the footage disrespectful, others saying, I don't know, but seeing a video floating around of Takeoff's lifeless body and a screaming Quavo isn't something any of us needed to see. Are we so desensitized that we have to record absolutely everything? People also slamming TMZ for including that video in some of its coverage. But yeah, that's where we are right now with this horrible story. We're obviously going to keep our eyes and ears open to see what comes next. But in the meantime, of course, we'd love to know your thoughts. And then Elon Musk may have just broken Twitter. It's been an interesting less than a week where he bought the company, dissolved the board, promoted politically charged misinformation, deleted it, then made fun of the people

Starting point is 00:03:25 that were calling him out for promoting the misinformation. Then we started seeing reports that he was going to start charging people for the blue check mark, but people were like, maybe that's not gonna happen. And then today, as I was recording, Elon announced from the top of his hill, Twitter's current lords and peasants system

Starting point is 00:03:38 for who has or doesn't have a blue check mark is bullshit. Power to the people, blue for $8 a month. And then going on to add an addition to the check mark, you'll get priority in replies, mentions, and search, which is essential to defeat spam and scam. Ability to post long video and audio, half as many ads. Noting this will also give Twitter a revenue stream to reward content creators. Well, of course, the reaction to anything Elon tweets is mixed. This seemed to be getting a lot more pushback. Good people like Marques Brownlee tweeting, my number one rule on the internet that's never been successfully broken is to charge for something that was previously free.

Starting point is 00:04:05 Charlie Moyse Critical writing, Blue check marks on here are already silly, but imagine paying $8 a month for it. You get more value flushing $8 down a toilet. You're basically just paying for a badge that lets people identify you as an idiot. Cody Johnston writing, Power to the people if people pay for it. Dolan Dark tweeting, Anyone who willingly pays for this should be pointed and laughed at.

Starting point is 00:04:21 You also had Graham Stephan asking, How will you protect against impersonators who pay $8 a month for a similar username "'that appears indistinguishable from the real person, "'especially if they both have blue check marks?' Which I think is a very important question. I'd have to imagine there'd be some sort of ID verification system change. And for me, I'll just add to this,

Starting point is 00:04:36 I think Twitter's current system for the check marks, it's stupid, it's too restrictive, but this, at least how it's been pitched, genuinely feels like it's just a perfect setup for chaos and confusion. Now, more than ever, in the age of misinformation, it feels like checkmarks are more about security. I mean, I just think of how fucking horrid the YouTube system is. There's so many people in every one of my comment sections that are trying to scam people posing as me. And literally, one of the only defenses I have at this scale is the fact that I have a checkmark.

Starting point is 00:05:03 But hey, I will say, in the interest of fairness, one, I'd love to hear more about this plan if there is more to be fleshed out. And two, yeah, at the end of the day, it is a private company. He bought it, and it is his to build or burn down to the ground. Granted, Twitter is a huge part of international discourse. It is something that has real world impact as well, but it is what it is. While we wait to see whatever the fuck this is going to be, I'll pass the question off to you. What are your thoughts on this? You see this as a good idea, a bad idea? Are you somewhere in the middle that it's the idea of, you know, equalizing everything, but it's really just so he can make money? Any and all thoughts you got, I'd love to hear from you. And then, you know, online banner ads, sidebars, pop-ups, they're everywhere,

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Starting point is 00:06:42 seeing how China can access American data via TikTok that I don't believe there is a path forward for anything other than a ban. And saying he believes there's no way to put enough protections in place to ensure that the data isn't finding its way back into the hands of the Chinese Communist Party. With this being the most forceful language to date by anyone at the FCC about the platform, although, key thing, they have no actual power to ban the platform. But that's why he's trying to get the Council on Forward Investments in the U.S. to take action against the platform. Now, with as big of a deal as that is, TikTok seems right now to not be concerned about Carr's comments, pointing out that he, quote, has no role in the confidential discussions with the U.S. government related to TikTok and appears to be expressing views independent of his role as an FCC commissioner. And another key thing here is that Carr is just one of four commissioners currently at the FCC.

Starting point is 00:07:22 But something that doesn't help TikTok is the fact that Carr does seem to have some political weight here, because the last time he made a move against a Chinese tech company was Huawei, and it's now banned in most of the West. Also, the timing of Carr's comments is notable, because right now TikTok is trying to figure out if it can be divested from ByteDance to an American company as part of an ongoing negotiation with the CFI US. But easily the biggest roadblock there for some senior DOJ officials is that the deal currently in place doesn't provide enough distance between TikTok and Beijing. And that's going to sound familiar to you because the Trump administration actually tried to force TikTok to be sold to a U.S. company as well. But that push ended up falling apart and was widely criticized by progressives at the time.

Starting point is 00:07:53 But there's also been a big shift happening, and a lot of Dems are also on board with banning TikTok now. For example, you had Democratic Senator Mark Warner saying last week, This is not something you would normally hear me say, but Donald Trump was right on TikTok years ago. If your country uses Huawei, if your kids are on TikTok, the ability for China to have undue influence is a much greater challenge and a much more immediate threat than any kind of actual armed conflict. And with there being a statistically strong possibility that the Republicans win the midterms, they could then block any deal that's seen as too soft on China, paving the way for TikTok to actually die. So this may be one of the biggest changes on social media that we're

Starting point is 00:08:23 going to see in a while. And I mean, Elon Musk just bought Twitter and he just so happens to be talking about bringing back Vine, right? As one of the biggest platforms in the world, TikTok seems to be hanged by a thread in the US. I guess the main point of this story is, whoo, I'm really glad I started embracing YouTube shorts, both here and on the PDS News Clips channel,

Starting point is 00:08:40 which I'll link in the description. And then the election security versus voter intimidation, debate and chaos is well underway. With a major battle being waged right now in Harris County, Texas, which houses Houston and is also the state's largest jurisdiction. And this clash centers around a push by state and local Republicans to send election monitors

Starting point is 00:08:55 to watch how ballots are handled in the county, which is a Democratic stronghold with a majority non-white population. Republican officials, for their part, argue this is necessary to protect election security and ensure ballots are properly managed. With Texas's Republican Secretary of State announcing in a letter last month that monitors would be sent to conduct randomized checks and oversee ballot counting, and the top election official claiming that was necessary because a Trump-backed audit of the 2020 election in Harris County found alleged security breaches with the handling of 14 machines that stored vote tallies.

Starting point is 00:09:19 But local Democratic leaders and voting right advocates say this is just a clear attempt to intimidate and scare both voters and election workers in a Democratic-held area where Republicans desperately want to make inroads. With Harris County officials also denying the accusations that came out of the so-called audit. This including the Harris County attorney who noted that while there were some problems with the 14 machines, the issues were properly recorded and witnessed by election judges from both parties. So the tallies were always accounted for. He also told the Washington Post that he and other top officials have responded by requesting that the Justice Department Civil Rights Division send federal election monitors to polling and counting locations in the county. The outlet noting there the result could be a partisan showdown in which two different sets of monitors face off on Election Day in this giant metro region. And that's not including the thousands of partisan poll watchers who were expected to fan out at voting locations across Texas. So that on its own is a situation we have to keep our eye on,

Starting point is 00:10:03 but there's also discord being spread by third party groups on both sides of the aisle. For example, some voters in five states received texts with false information on how to vote, but unlike past campaigns that had intentional misinformation, the organization behind these messages said in a statement that it sent them out in error,

Starting point is 00:10:17 that group being Movement Labs, which designs political text message campaigns aimed at progressive voters. And in a statement to the media yesterday, it said the three campaigns that used its services, Voto Latino, Black Voters Matter, and Voting Futures, had sent out mistaken texts in Kansas, New Jersey, Illinois, North Carolina, and Virginia.

Starting point is 00:10:31 Explaining, in some of our texts, we sent addresses and images of Dropbox locations when we intended only to include in-person early vote locations. We didn't specify in our text that we were trying to encourage voters to vote early. Some voters familiar with their election day location thought we were telling them to vote on election day

Starting point is 00:10:44 at an early vote location. So that's just kind of one example of the accidental things that we're seeing. But on the complete opposite end of the spectrum, we've also seen some far right groups creating chaos in a very different way. Extremely violent rhetoric. Just yesterday, an extremist gun rights group called the American Firearms Association asked supporters to donate money so the organization can figure out, quote, how much firepower we have to unload on gun grabbing candidates in Arizona, Nevada, Georgia, Pennsylvania, and Ohio as we head into next week's election day. You know, just some fun gun language as politicians are being attacked.

Starting point is 00:11:12 But notably, this comes just days after U.S. security agencies reportedly warned of a heightened risk of violent domestic attacks by political extremists in the lead up to the midterms. The agencies specifically flagging political candidates and election workers as possible targets of attacks. But with all that said, the note that I want to end on here is while you should absolutely be careful out there, do not let these tactics intimidate you into not voting. And remember, November 8th, yes, it is election day, but technically it is the last day to vote. So if you can, where you live, get in on it now. And then tensions remain high in Brazil as outgoing President Jair Bolsonaro is taking his sweet-ass time

Starting point is 00:11:44 to admit that he lost to President-elect Lula da Silva. And as many feared, his silence is being taken by many of his supporters as a sign to fight. So for two days now, truckers and other supporters have blocked off over 200 roads and highways across more than a dozen states to protest Sunday's results, which isn't the most surprising thing as Bolsonaro has long enjoyed the support of trucking groups and this form of protest is nothing new for them. But those roadblocks have already had some significant effects like near Sao Paulo. You had a ton of flights having to be canceled due to the protests. On top of that a major port was blocked and grocery stores are already reporting shortages. The Supreme Court also is not a fan of the protests with one justice ordering federal officers to clear the blockades and threatened fines of $19,000 per hour per

Starting point is 00:12:19 vehicle. However the head of the federal highway police is a Bolsonaro ally so there are fears he may drag his feet in actually implementing this order. But, as far as if things are really set to go off, or if things are gonna calm down, we should know relatively soon. Because actually, as I was recording this, Bolsonaro came out and spoke to the nation. Notably, he never conceded defeat in the election, but at the same time, his administration agreed to a peaceful transfer of power. So it looks like things are going forward, whether Bolsonaro wants to or not. And it's being reported that he may have come to this decision to not concede, but concede after speaking with his ministers and heads of the military this morning.

Starting point is 00:12:47 It's also not too surprising that Bolsonaro took this route as it seemed pretty clear that he was becoming increasingly isolated. Even his son, who's a senator, seemingly accepted the results when he tweeted out his thanks to all their supporters and promised not to give up on Brazil. And as far as Lula,

Starting point is 00:12:59 he has yet to make any comment about the protests and is focusing on setting up his transition team. But that's the show. Thanks for watching. I love your faces and I'll see you tomorrow.

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The Philip DeFranco Show - PDS 11.1 Megan Fox Pissed Off Christians, Takeoff Dead at 28, Jair Bolsonaro, MoistCr1TiKaL, Elon Musk's $8

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