The Philip DeFranco Show - PDS 11.10 This is an absolutely insane mess...

Episode Date: November 10, 2020

Go to http://www.vessi.com/defranco to get Vessi’s Early Black Friday Sale and use code ​DEFRANCO to get $25 off of your Vessi shoes if you miss the sale! ​Free shipping to CA, US, AUS, NZ, JP, TW, KR, SGP Follow me off of Youtube: https://linktr.ee/PhilipDeFranco -- WATCH Full “A Convo With” Podcasts: https://www.youtube.com/ACW  LISTEN On The Podcast Platform Of Your Choice: http://LinksHole.com WATCH the ACW Clips channel!: https://youtube.com/ACWClips -- 00:00 - Spotify and The Podcast Arms Race 03:14 - EU Antitrust Goes After Amazon 07:24 - Sponsor 08:19 - Latest Attack On The ACA 11:48 - What Georgia's Runoffs Could Mean & Pompeo's Insane Statement -- ✩ SUPPORT THE SHOW ✩ ✭ BUY our GEAR, Support the Show!: http://ShopDeFranco.com ✭ Lemme Touch Your Hair: http://BeautifulBastard.com ✭ Paid Subscription: http://DeFrancoElite.com  ✩ TODAY’S STORIES ✩  Spotify to Buy Podcast Ad Platform Megaphone for $235 Million: https://roguerocket.com/2020/11/10/spotify-megaphone/ EU Says Amazon Has Engaged in Antitrust Activity https://roguerocket.com/2020/11/10/amazon-eu/ Early Reports Suggest SCOTUS Will Hold Up ACA: https://roguerocket.com/2020/11/10/scotus-affordable-care-act/ Two Georgia Runoffs Will Decide the Fate of the Senate:  https://roguerocket.com/2020/11/09/georgia-runoffs-senate/ ✩ STORIES NOT IN TODAY’S SHOW ✩ Election Crimes Director Resigns After AG Barr Orders Voter Fraud Inquiries: https://roguerocket.com/2020/11/10/doj-election-resigns/ Ceasefire in Nagorno-Karabakh Celebrated in Azerbaijan, Called 'Betrayal' in Armenia https://roguerocket.com/2020/11/10/fourth-ceasefire-in-nagorno-karabakh/ ——————————     Edited by: James Girardier, Julie Goldberg, Maxx Enright Produced by: Amanda Morones Art Director: Brian Borst  Writing/Research: Philip DeFranco, Lili Stenn, Maddie Crichton, Cory Ray, Neena Pesqueda, Brian Espinoza Production Team: Zack Taylor, Luke Manning  ———————————— #DeFranco #Amazon #GeorgiaRunoffs Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Sup you beautiful bastards. Hope you've had a fantastic Tuesday. Welcome back to the Philip DeFranco Show. Buckle up, hit that like button, and let's just jump into it. And the first thing we're gonna talk about today, let's start today off on a slightly less intense vibe than the past few weeks.

You know, we've got some interesting entertainment business news we should talk about. Starting with the podcast world, which of course has been now around a while, but has gotten really interesting these past few years. Or you have things recently like that huge Joe Rogan deal, also deal struck with people like Kim Kardashian, Michelle Obama, entire companies being bought

like The Ringer, Gimlet Media, and others. And if you're not aware, all those deals I just mentioned involve one single company, and that is Spotify. And they've been such an incredibly interesting and important company to watch over these past few years because they are buying every part of the ecosystem. Yes, we've been talking about deals that involve content, right?

Have face and name value, but we've all seen them in the past buying companies like Anchor. Fantastic and easy way to create, distribute and monetize your podcast. And on that last note, right? Monetize. Today we saw big news with Spotify

buying a podcast hosting company called Megaphone. Buying the company for a reported $235 million and among the reasons, because the company offers technology for podcasts, publishers, and advertisers seeking targeted slots on podcasts. Also, now Megaphone hosted podcasts for publishers like ESPN, The Wall Street Journal, and others

who'll have access to Spotify's proprietary ad insertion technology called Streaming Ad Insertion. And that system, very interesting, it makes real-time decisions about which ads a specific listener should hear based on their data. And also based on the goals of various ad deals, Spotify is currently running. And that's what makes this deal so interesting.

They've now built out this fully rounded out podcasting ecosystem, a network of exclusive shows, a podcast player, podcast creation software, a hosting company and its own ad sales team. And that may also be the reason we're seeing reports this week that they might be considering launching a separate paid subscription just for podcasts. Which I mean, would be incredibly notable

because I mean, as of right now, you can listen to podcasts on Spotify for free with ads or without ads if you're one of the 150 million people who pay for its music streaming membership. And of course with this, there would be the question of, you know, would this impact all podcasts, only Spotify originals, only select from the Spotify original.

But also of note, it's not just Spotify. In fact, this week we saw reports that Apple and Sony are reportedly eyeing a 300 to $400 million acquisition of the podcast network Wondery. According to reports, there have been at least two other companies that have joined them in negotiations, though they have not been identified and nothing has been finalized. But a key thing here is that it's being reported that Spotify is not one of the bidders. So in addition to this, if it goes through being one of the priciest agreements in the industry, it also, I think, shows the escalation of the arms race in the podcast world.

And while I do get excited with a number of these stories because we see big money being thrown around or systems being put into place that can help creators, the big question mark and kind of the concern is at what point does that turn into something where we wall off content for money? Especially in a world and an entertainment medium that I believe has primarily succeeded

because it is so accessible thanks to its free but ad supported format. So I guess with this story, if there is something I can kind of tag onto the end of it, is there a singular or a batch of five or 10 podcasts that if they got put behind a paywall, you'd be like, fine, that's enough of a reason for me to go Spotify premium or whatever service.

Or especially because what we're talking about are not newly launched podcasts, you would resent it and not pay for it. Or I guess maybe even more practically, just don't want another paid subscription service. And then in a different kind of business news, we should talk about the European Union hitting Amazon with antitrust charges.

Specifically, those charges being filed today in relation to France and Germany, which are Amazon's biggest markets in the EU. And there we're seeing the European commission accusing Amazon of abusing its dual role as both a retailer and a merchant. Right, so essentially Amazon hosts vendors on its website, allowing them a place to sell their products

while at the same time selling their own products on that same site. Now that by itself has been a frequent target of controversy surrounding Amazon, especially since many small businesses will sell their products on Amazon simply because it's such a dominant force in online retail. You know, a shopper is a lot more likely

to find your business on Amazon than they are to find and then go to your website. But also, a thing that Amazon tends to do is if they notice a product is becoming popular, they will then start making their own version of that product and sell it at a cheaper price. A move that unsurprisingly can really damage small businesses that do not have the same level of resources Amazon does.

Which, I mean, it's Amazon, no one does. So a lot of small businesses are essentially like, I'm in a damned if I do, damned if I don't situation. And that is where the EU charges are coming in because according to the commission, Amazon has fed non-public seller data, things like the number of products sold or how much a seller's made into its own retail algorithms.

This in order to decide which new products to launch and what the price of each item should be. And that accusation is based on a review of data of more than 80 million transactions and 100 million products. With the top antitrust official from the European commission saying, "'We do not take issue with the success

"'of Amazon or its size. "'Our concern is the very specific business conduct "'that appears to distort competition.'" And adding, "'Data on the activity of third-party sellers "'should not be used to the benefit of Amazon Amazon when it acts as a competitor to these sellers. Also alongside those charges, the commission has now announced that it has started

a separate investigation to Amazon's policies around its buy box. Right, those sidebars that make it incredibly quick and easy to add items to your cart. And as that commission official explains, the buy box is essential. It prominently shows you offers for one single seller of a chosen product with the possibility

for the consumer to purchase it directly. So winning the buy box is crucial for the marketplace sellers as it seems that more than 80% of all transactions on Amazon are channeled through. And there the commission is specifically looking into whether Amazon preferentially lists their own products in the buy box,

as well as products from sellers that pay to use Amazon's logistics service. With that commission official saying, "'Our concern is that Amazon may artificially push retails "'to use its own related services, "'which may potentially lock them deeper "'into Amazon's own ecosystem.'" And as far as Amazon here,

they have pushed back against these findings, saying, "'No company cares more about small businesses "'or has done more to support them "'over the past two decades than Amazon.'" And as far as where we go from here, I mean, that's unclear, but what we do know is it will likely be very slow. For one, these charges are just preliminary.

The commission's actually needing to finish this investigation first. So, I mean, this could take months or more likely years before a fine or other penalties are announced. It's also possible that these charges could be dropped if the commission reaches a settlement with Amazon. But if the commission does agree that Amazon violated EU competition law,

I mean, then you're talking about a situation where Amazon could face fines up to 10% of its annual worldwide turnover, which I mean, that's $37 billion. Which also, wow, 10% doesn't sound like much until you say 10% is $37 billion. Now, with all that said, another big thing, next month, the European Commission is expected

to unveil a new package of laws in what could be one of the world's most sweeping set of regulations on the tech industry. Notably that can include rules prohibiting self-preferential treatment and requiring massive companies like Amazon to share data with smaller rival. And I mean, this is an important topic worldwide. It is not just Europe.

At the same time, we're also seeing that India has opened an antitrust case against Google. This over allegations that it unfairly promotes Google Pay on Google Play. And I mean, just last month here in the States, we saw officials taking aim at big tech companies. With the House Judiciary Committee accusing Apple, Amazon, Facebook, and Google of engaging in anti-competitive

monopoly tactics. With that report hitting on a very similar note to what we're seeing from the European Commission. Saying, by controlling access to markets, these giants can pick winners and losers throughout our economy. They not only wield tremendous power, but they also abuse it by charging exorbitant fees,

imposing oppressive contract terms, and extracting valuable data from the people and businesses that rely on them. But with all of that said, it ultimately comes down to a question that I'm gonna pass off to you. Is Amazon the devil? No, we believe based off of the allegations

that we are seeing, there does need to be a crackdown on Amazon, or for that matter, a number of the big players we just talked about. And then let's talk about the Affordable Care Act, a number of the big players we just talked about. And then let's talk about the Affordable Care Act, AKA Obamacare and the Supreme Court. And this because as I'm recording this video,

the Supreme Court is hearing the latest challenge to the ACA. Notably, this is the third time the issue has been brought to the Supreme Court with the first two attempts being shut down back in 2012 and then 2015. But what we're seeing today with this challenge, which is being brought by Texas and other GOP led states is a focus on the individual mandate, which is the part of the ACA that requires all Americans

to either have some kind of health insurance or pay a penalty. It's easily been one of the most controversial parts of law and when it was brought before the Supreme Court back in 2012, the court upheld the mandate five to four. But then what we saw in 2017 was the Republican held Congress passing a sweeping tax bill

that tweaked the individual mandate by setting the penalty for not having healthcare to zero. And so now you have these GOP led states arguing that because the mandate is now zeroed out and no longer raises revenues, it is no longer a tax and thus is unconstitutional. And incredibly notable, this is the key part here. They are also arguing that the individual mandate

is so ingrained in the ACA that it cannot be separated from the law without scrapping the entire thing, which is a massive argument with massive consequences. First and foremost, if the Supreme Court scrapped Obamacare overnight, more than 20 million Americans, including roughly 12 million low-income Americans, would lose their healthcare, which is a horrifying prospect in general

without even considering the fact that this is happening during a pandemic where we're seeing hospitalizations going up right now. Then on top of that, you have to think of preexisting conditions. If the entirety of Obamacare was rolled back, health insurers could start denying coverage to an estimated 54 million Americans, right?

Almost one out of every four who have preexisting conditions. What's more, because everything of course comes back to the pandemic, it is very possible that COVID-19 could become a preexisting condition. Additionally, if you're a young adult, you could be impacted because one of the parts of the ACA

is that you can stay on your parents' healthcare until the age of 26. And then, of course, you'd have older Americans being forced to pay more for prescriptions. All while, once again, you have a President Trump who is, I guess, just for the past four years, been several days away from having this amazing healthcare plan, right?

This best and beautiful healthcare plan that he constantly talks about just hasn't materialized. And so, you know, with all of that said, and this specific challenge has been the question of, well, what could happen because you do have a new Supreme Court makeup? Trump has appointed three Supreme Court justices, now including Amy Coney Barrett,

who notably has openly criticized the Supreme Court's previous rulings of the ACA in the past. But what we're seeing today from some of the initial reports regarding the oral arguments, what the Supreme Court justices are saying is that the Affordable Care Act may actually survive. This because while the states are arguing

that the individual mandate should be cut out and thus it shouldn't validate the rest of the ACA, today we heard from Justice Kavanaugh who said, "'It does seem fairly clear that the proper remedy "'would be to sever the mandate "'and leave the rest of the law in place.'" With Justice Roberts also saying, "'Here, Congress left the rest of the law in place. With Justice Roberts also saying, "'Here, Congress left the rest of the law intact.

"'That seems to be compelling evidence "'that Congress did not intend to repeal the rest of the law.'" And while those words do not let us know definitively how they will rule, it seems like a telling sign. Because if you have two conservative justices that want to save the rest of the thing, then the other three liberal justices would likely join them.

Additionally, as Axios explains, the justices' questioning also pointed toward another potential as Axios explains, the justices questioning also pointed toward another potential avenue to rule against Texas and leave the ACA intact. Several justices, including Roberts, questioned whether Texas had the legal standing to bring this case to begin with. This because Texas doesn't have to pay

the individual mandate, right, the entry point into this argument, but also saying it's burdened by other parts of the law. That theory, Justice Kagan said, allowing challengers to invalidate a whole law by challenging a specific provision that doesn't harm them, it can kind of explode the court's approach to standing. But for now we have to do that very fun thing.

We get to just wait and see what happens. And then finally today, and this story is actually somewhat connected, let's talk about Georgia. Like I mentioned briefly yesterday, there are two Senate races in Georgia that are officially headed for runoff elections on January 5th.

This after all four leading candidates in both races failed to secure more than 50% of the vote as is required under Georgia law. But having two Senate races in the same state at the same time is odd. Normally Senate elections are staggered, but Georgia was also having a special election. So what you had in the normally scheduled race

was Republican Senator David Perdue running to be reelected for the seat that he won back in 2014, with him facing off against Democrat John Ossoff, who's an investigative journalist and former House candidate. And in the special election, we have Republican Kelly Loeffler, who was appointed last year by Georgia Governor Brian Kemp, filling the seat of long-serving Republican Senator

Johnny Isakson, who retired before his term was up due to health reasons. And she is facing off against the Reverend Dr. Raphael Warnock, who's a Democrat and the senior pastor of Atlanta's Ebenezer Baptist Church, which was actually formerly Martin Luther King Jr.'s congregation. And these two runoffs are incredibly important

because they will almost certainly determine control of the Senate. Currently, the Senate has split 48 Democrats to 49 Republicans with three seats, including the two in Georgia not yet called. Though, notably the other uncalled seat, which is in Alaska, is held by a Republican who is expected to win.

So we're in this situation where the Republicans only really need to win one seat to maintain control. For Democrats, both seats are must wins if they want control, right? It would get to 50-50 in the Senate. And come January 20th with a then President Biden, a Vice President, Kamala Harris, Harris would become a tiebreaker vote in any 50-50 tie.

Which of course would be incredibly notable because Democrats would then have control of the presidency as well as both houses of Congress. But really, no matter the outcome, it will have a massive impact on things like, to bring it back around, the Affordable Care Act. Especially because healthcare and healthcare access is a massively important issue for Georgia voters

for a number of reasons. First of all, it is one of the few states that did not expand Medicaid to low-income adults under the ACA. And secondly, the coronavirus has been especially bad in Georgia, in part due to a lack of access to healthcare, which I think is why we're already seeing Democrats setting up these runoffs as a referendum

on the state of healthcare in America. But on the other side of this, we're seeing Republicans saying that this is the last opportunity to stop the Democrats' left-wing agenda. Yeah, ultimately these two seats will decide what will and won't be done in the coming years, which is probably not great news for the Democrats.

I mean, historically in the state, they've lost runoffs. Since the 1990s, Democrats have only won one of the seven runoffs there. Though if 2020 has shown us anything, you can't really predict anything. Though, I will say based on what's already been going down, we can expect this race and just the whole situation to be very messy, right?

As mentioned in the last show, yesterday both senators made the incredibly unprecedented move of asking Georgia's Republican Secretary of State, right, a guy in their own party to step down. Both senators making vague claims about election transparency, though not including a shred of evidence. But it's also not just those two.

According to reports, Republican leaders are worried that they risk alienating key Trump voters that they need to win these seats as well as elections in the future, if they stray from this Trump narrative that he and his key allies have been pushing. And it doesn't seem like they're gonna stop pushing this alternate reality anytime soon.

And I mean, today, for example, we saw this absolutely ridiculous and terrifying response from Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. Is the State Department currently preparing to engage with the Biden transition team? And if not, at what point does a delay hamper a smooth transition or pose a risk to national security?

There will be a smooth transition to a second Trump administration. Right, and so in this situation, you obviously have a lot of confusion, misinformation, outright lies surrounding all of this. And with the Senate at play here, all of this is getting amplified. But ultimately, if there is a place that I can close out on

is if you live in Georgia, and especially if you do not agree with what Trump and his goons are doing, you can vote in this January 5th primary. If you're already registered, you can also even request your mail-in ballot now. And if you're not already registered, you can actually still request your mail-in ballot now. And if you're not already registered, you can actually still register

as long as you do it by December 7th. And actually in the very specific circumstance, if you are 17 now, but you will be 18 by January 5th, you can actually register to vote in the run-on. But that is where we are with this one as of now. We have to wait to see what happens next. And I'm exhausted. And that is where I'm going to end today's show.

As always, thank you for being a part of my daily dives into the news, being a part of this family, which by the way, if you'd like to be adopted, feel free to hit that subscribe button and of course ring that bell. And hey, maybe even text me at 813-213-4423. 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.