The Philip DeFranco Show - PDS 11.16 6-Year-Old Shoots Teacher, Mom Going to Prison, Taylor Swift Travis Kelce Controversy Exposes A Lot
Episode Date: November 16, 2023Visit https://www.cozyearth.com/defranco and use my code DEFRANCO to get up to 40% off your purchase! Click here https://bit.ly/469urJb and use code DEFRANCO to get 30% off, plus free shipping, on y...our next Liquid I.V. order. 30% off valid November 16 - November 27th 2023. shhh this is a secret link: https://youtu.be/UrAu5ev2Sa0?si=lLaHFY39Kzb1RQRT –✩ TODAY’S STORIES ✩ – 00:00 - Cop Punches Woman on Ground for Resisting Arrest 02:47 - Mother of Child Who Shot Teacher Sentenced 03:30 - Taylor Swift Fans Resurface Travis Kelce’s Old Tweets 05:41 - Backlash Mounts as Brad Pitt Among Producers Up to Adapt Britney Spears Memoir 07:30 - Sponsored by Cozy Earth 08:35 - Airline Cancels Flight After Claim That Crew Was Robbed 10:13 - George Santos Used Campaign $$$ to Buy OF Accounts 12:04 - YouTube Launches Test of AI Music Generator That Can Mimic Pop Stars 14:10 - Thousands of Starbucks Workers Strike Today for ‘Red Cup’ Day 15:39 - Sponsored by Liquid I.V. 16:44 - Even as Prescriptions For Opioids Declined, Overdoses Remained 22:13 - Your Thoughts on Yesterday’s Stories —————————— Produced by: Cory Ray Edited by: James Girardier, Maxx Enright, Julie Goldberg, Christian Meeks Art Department: William Crespo Writing/Research: Philip DeFranco, Brian Espinoza, Lili Stenn, Maddie Crichton, Star Pralle, Chris Tolve ———————————— #DeFranco #TaylorSwift #DemiLovato ———————————— Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Transcript
Discussion (0)
Today, we're talking about George Santos
using campaign money on OnlyFans.
We've got a YouTube AI controversy
with Demi Lovato and Troye Sivan, among others.
This new Taylor Swift-Travis Kelsey controversy
has people divided.
The mom whose six-year-old shot that teacher
is officially going to prison.
And America's opioid crackdown isn't stopping overdoses,
but that's not even the most concerning thing.
We're talking about all that and so much more
on today's brand new, extra-large Philip DeFranco show.
You daily dive into the news,
so just make sure you hit that like button
and let's jump into it.
Starting with, I got a question for you. Was this a case of excessive force or
were the cops justified? Because that debate is playing out online right now. And at the center
of this, we have a man and a woman by the name of Anthony Lee and Christina Pierre. And according
to the police's version of events, officers approached them because they were smoking
marijuana at a bus stop. Reportedly, both of them were employees at the nearby Bojangles
restaurant. And then the police said that they told the pair that they were under arrest,
at which point Pierre allegedly punched one of the officers in the face.
Though notably, some witnesses claimed that the officer actually punched her.
But either way, none of it was caught on camera.
With both her and Lee resisting arrest, according to the cops,
who also said they took Lee into custody and found a concealed loaded 9mm handgun in his bag.
And they also said Pierre kept resisting,
with police claiming that she tucked her arms underneath her body so they couldn't handcuff her.
And that is actually where the video starts, with several officers seen
restraining her face down on the ground, and one cop who arrived as backup repeatedly striking her
with downward blows. Right here, the police say that the officer had issued several verbal commands,
but when she didn't comply, he struck her thigh seven times with his knee and ten times with a
closed fist. Though as others have noted, Pierre appeared to have marks on her face, suggesting
that her thigh wasn't the only place that she was injured. You can also hear bystanders reacting to the violence.
And eventually, the cops managed to arrest Pierre, and they charged both her and Lee with several different crimes,
including marijuana possession, resisting arrest, assault, and possession of a firearm.
And so with all this, the video has gone absolutely viral, provoking a stunned response online.
People saying things like,
beating the shit out of people for smoking weed.
Great job, guys.
Everyone feels super safe now.
Or if marijuana was legal,
this entire interaction could have just been,
good morning, officers.
You also have the local branch of the NAACP
pointing out the racial aspect of this,
with Lee and Pierre both being black
and most of the officers appearing to be white.
But also on the other side of this,
you had police chief Johnny Jeddings, who is black,
put out several statements defending the officers, saying he
believes the facial injuries have been sustained on an initial struggle with a single officer,
but saying that the cop's body camera was knocked off during the struggle. And adding there,
police use of force is never easy to watch. Officers are trained to strike large muscle
groups in order to gain compliance during an arrest. I watched the body worn camera footage
and believe that it tells more of the story than what is circulating on social media. But then
adding there that he can't release the footage without a court order, so the
PD's attorney has requested one and they'll put it out as soon as possible. Though very notably,
Jennings also acknowledged that the department may not have handled everything perfectly,
and he said that the department would consider changes to its policy, and that including its
response to marijuana offenses and the need to, quote, deliver body strikes if we have four
officers subduing an individual. So those are the details that we have available right now.
Obviously, we're waiting to see what else comes out,
but where do you land on this right now and why?
And then, we finally have some closure on that news
involving that six-year-old boy who brought a gun to class
and shot his own teacher.
As you might remember, that story happened back in January
when the Virginia boy retrieved his mother's pistol
from her purse at home and took it to school,
with him then, in class, pulling it out
and shooting his teacher, Abby Zwirner,
and the bullet hitting her in the hand and up her chest,
sending her to the hospital for two weeks.
This poor woman saying she has gory nightmares
and needed five surgeries to regain motion in her left hand.
And so pretty quickly, the blame fell on the boy's mother,
26-year-old Deja Taylor.
And then we saw in June,
she actually pleaded guilty to using cannabis
while owning a firearm
since police found roughly one ounce of cannabis
in her home after the shooting.
And so the big update and news now
is that a judge has handed down her full sentence
of 21 months in federal prison. Though notably, the situation isn't over because she's
still facing sentencing on a state charge of felony child neglect as well. And then, so in
online and celebrity drama news, let's talk about Taylor Swift and Travis Kelsey. That's because
Taylor Swift fans have been digging up Travis Kelsey's old tweets. And for the most part,
you know, they've been amused by them, right? People finding posts from like 2009 to 2012,
when Travis would have been like 20 to 23, roughly. And some are just like those old super mundane tweets about wanting Olive Garden and
Taco Bell. There's also a one where he's just like super pumped about a squirrel crushing a piece of
bread, all while misspelling squirrel. People saying it had himbo vibes. Or also things like
he misplaced his phone and tons about him loving Chipotle. And so with this, you had people saying
things like, it's so wonderful that there's nothing cancelable about Travis Kelsey's old
tweets resurfacing. He's just an ideal himbo having a good time. But then you also have people saying things like, it's so wonderful that there's nothing cancelable about Travis Kelsey's old tweets resurfacing. He's just an ideal himbo having a good time. But then you also have people
saying they found, you know, problematic ones. And it appears that those initially got a lot
less attention because like the himbo ones, they're still on his page for the most part,
but the negative ones have been removed. But the screenshots remain on Reddit, including some from
2010, where he said, as a man, you have something wrong with you if you're going for girls that weigh
more than you. As well as haha, when fat people fall, it's like slow motion entertainment because they never just fall.
They always tumble and gradually hit the deck.
Hashtag comedy.
And damn, the Clippers girls got to be the shitty girls that don't make the Lakers team because they always ugly.
And that, in addition to a few others that have popped up.
But also, with what we're seeing online right now, and of course, things may change.
This is still a developing situation.
Is that while you do have some people that aren't happy about those, you have a lot of Swifties actually very willing to give him some grace.
With him saying things like, y'all can repost and look at Travis's old tweets all you want,
but that doesn't make it his truth now. Do some research on Travis Kelsey 10 years ago to now.
And saying, if we're going to bring up his old tweets, let's celebrate the fucking character
development this man has had. As well as bringing up Travis being sexist, fatphobic 13 years ago,
like yeah, Taylor was also slut shaming on her song Better Than Revenge 13 years ago, and changed the lyric to make it less like that. It's almost like with 10 plus years, people
change. I'm not excusing any of his behavior, but it's just not relevant at this point. And so with
that, you know, you have some saying, you know, is this situation right now an example of like
people evolving online instead of like kind of just trying to cancel someone for something back
in the day? They're now more considerate to the idea that people change and grow and like learn
from their past.
Or two, others arguing this is just bias.
Arguing that if this had been someone else,
not a Travis Kelsey,
then maybe they'd have a different reaction.
Maybe because Swifties are so into Taylor and Travis,
they don't want to cancel them.
But yeah, ultimately with that,
I want to pass the question off to you.
Where do you land on this?
Are we seeing a changing mindset
or do you think that the reaction
that we're seeing right now is bias?
And then, do you think that Britney Spears' memoir
should be turned into a movie? And I ask that because in the news right now,
you have a lot of big names wanting that to happen, but also you have people saying it doesn't sound
like a good idea. For some background, Britney's memoir, The Woman and Me has been a massive
success. It details her life, her career, the exploitation that came with it. And of course,
the conservatorship that controlled her life. And now according to page six, there is a planned
screen adaptation that is in its very early stages as interest mounts. As far as who's interested,
according to reports, they've named Brad Pitt, Reese Witherspoon, and Margot Robbie, all of whom
have reportedly expressed interest in taking on the project with their respective production
companies. What you've seen are people having problems with these reports for a couple of
reasons. Some think that there should be no film or TV adaptation of this at all, arguing that
people should stop trying to profit off of a woman who has been constantly exploited, you know,
saying that the entertainment industry just stood by as she was dragged left and right. Now they want to step in and make some money off of her.
Though there, of course, it is worth noting
that it doesn't look like this is going to happen
against Britney's will.
With reports claiming that she is involved
in the meetings about the adaptation,
which is actually why some of the biggest backlash
stems around the fact that Brad Pitt
is putting his name in the hat as a potential producer.
The number of people think this is completely unacceptable
because he himself has been accused of abuse.
Right, if you didn't know, Angelina Jolie
claimed in a lawsuit that he choked one of their children and struck another in the face,
also claiming that he physically assaulted her. And since so much of Britney's story has to do
with abuse, people think that an alleged abuser shouldn't be involved in telling it. And people
saying things like Brad Pitt biopics about mistreated women are not a vehicle for you to
repent or mend your public image. Go find something else. And the way Brad Pitt gets himself so
involved in abused women's stories, considering what he did to his own wife and kids, feels extremely uncomfortable. And there,
people bring up some of his past projects, right? Like his production company produced Blonde,
a Marilyn Monroe biopic that was widely panned for exploiting Marilyn's life and legacy. With
people saying things like Brad Pitt constantly throwing his name on stories about the exploitation
and abuse of women is a different type of evil to me. And in general, people think that the project
would be in better hands with either Reese or Margot. And so with all that, I go back to the original question.
Should Britney Spears' memoir be turned into a movie?
And then to add to that, if yes, who do you think should make it?
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And then, y'all, what happens in Rio stays in Rio, especially when you literally cannot leave.
So back in September, three British Airways flight attendants were out on the town in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil,
the night before a return flight to Heathrow.
When they were finally ready to wrap things up
and head back to the hotel,
two of them said they got into a taxi,
but that it took them to a disused gas station
in a rough neighborhood instead.
And there they said armed men stole two cell phones
and other belongings.
But fortunately, one of the crew members
said they had a third hidden cell phone,
which they used to hail a taxi to the hotel
once the gunman left.
Except then on the way there,
they said a man on a motorcycle robbed them a second time, stealing the remaining cell phone, which they used to hail a taxi to the hotel once the gunman left. Except then, on the way there, they said a man on a motorcycle robbed them a second time, stealing the remaining
cell phone. And only after that did they spot a military police vehicle and get help. Meanwhile,
the third crew member who stayed behind went through a whole ordeal of his own, saying that
he met a woman and after chatting and drinking for a few minutes, he blacked out, remembering
nothing before waking up lying in the street. So naturally, all three of them were traumatized,
right? They were just grateful to escape alive. And understandably, they were in no condition to work,
and the return flight was canceled.
Except all of that, the police now say it is complete bullshit.
Because according to the cops,
the crew members actually just had a wild night of drugs and drinking,
and they invented this whole story to cover up their antics.
And it's not just a tale of different stories.
Surveillance video actually showed the first two crew members
simply drinking for several hours as late as five in the morning.
And as for the third guy, he allegedly consumed so many drugs and so much alcohol that he just fell unconscious. With later construction
workers reviving him and they had to wait for an ambulance, he allegedly showed them a white powder
suspected by police to be cocaine. And then at the hospital, police say that he actually admitted to
spending the night taking drugs with a pair of women in an unfamiliar neighborhood. So allegedly,
the only part of their story that is true is that one of their cell phones did appear to have
actually been stolen. And the situation is still not over because the police in Rio are considering
charges against the trio, but also they're planning to
summon British Airways representatives to establish whether the crew cooked up this lie themselves or
if they were actually instructed to create this fabrication by airline management. And then,
y'all, how does every story about George Santos just sound more and more ridiculous? Because today,
the big news is that George Santos used campaign funds for OnlyFans. And that is just the tip of
the iceberg of damning evidence the House Ethics Committee found against Santos. According to
the 56-page report released today, Santos used campaign funds for personal purposes, defrauded
donors, and filed false or incomplete campaign finance reports. The report also finding that
Santos reported hundreds of thousands of dollars in fake loans to his campaign, which he then
repaid himself with actual money. They also found a bunch of expenditures that had nothing to do
with his campaign, including hotel stays in Vegas, thousands of dollars in spa treatments,
and even Botox. But this is Santos, so it does not stop there. Georgie Boy also reportedly used
a company called Redstone Strategies to skirt around campaign contribution limits. And
investigators also found that Santos transferred himself $200,000 from Redstone throughout 2022,
and then used that money to pay off personal credit cards, shopping at Hermes and Sephora,
and last but not least, purchases on OnlyFans. Now, notably, the committee has sent their
findings off to the DOJ, but did not recommend any punitive action against Santos in the House,
with the committee's chairman, Representative Michael Guest, notably saying that recommending
punishment would have actually taken the committee several more months. But also,
the Washington Post reports that a source confirmed that Guest will be filing a motion
to expel Santos on Friday to be considered when the House returns from Thanksgiving break on the
28th. And all of this is, of course, Santos is already
facing a 23 count federal indictment. He's pleaded not guilty to that, and he's already survived one
expulsion attempt out of concern regarding due process. But also very big news. Following this
report's release, he announced on Twitter that he will not be seeking reelection after all,
saying if there was a single ounce of ethics in the ethics committee, they would not have
released this biased report. But none of this answers the most important question, and that is,
who is George Santos subscribed to on OnlyFans? I demand people to make freedom of information
requests now. And is he paying for like vanilla stuff or is it like stuff with feet and or cakes
or what are we talking about? The people need to know because if the house is going to let that
fraud stay there, we might as well get some gossip. And then, you know, when it comes to AI and music, we're seeing some artists openly condemning the use, but you actually have others leaning into it.
With now, for example, big names like Demi Lovato, Troye Sivan, Charlie Puth, John Legend, T-Pain, and more partnering with YouTube for a new experiment on this whole front.
They're calling it Dream Track and YouTube Shorts. And it allows creators to type in a prompt for a song, select one of the participating artists,
and then receive a 30-second track
with an AI-generated version of that artist's voice
that can be used for a YouTube Short.
With YouTube here also providing an example, right?
If you tell it you want an upbeat ballad
from Charlie Puth about how opposites attract,
you'll get something like this.
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Maybe we've got nothing in common, but I know that I wish you'd been wanting for so long now.
And this tool, which was made in partnership with Google DeepMind, will initially only be
available to a small group of creators who will give feedback. And in addition to that,
we're seeing the artists involved in this project speaking out about why they chose to be a part of
it. But Demi Lovato here is saying in a statement that the development of AI technology is rapidly
changing the way we navigate the landscape. And I believe as artists, we need to be a part of
shaping what that future looks like. Though, of course, some are also expressing some hesitation.
I mean, you had Charli XCX saying she was and still is cautious about the idea, but is interested to
see what comes out of these endeavors as AI grows. Troye Sivan also expressing similar feelings. But overall, a lot of the
artists participating felt that it was important for musicians to be involved with AI developments
instead of just backing away from them. And a big thing is all of this coming just a few days after
the platform did a broader rollout of AI guidelines, right? Like requiring creators to disclose and
label AI use when they've made any kind of altered or synthetic content that's realistic. Also
allowing YouTube's music partners to request the removal of AI generated songs that mimic an artist's voice. Because while
the artists in this project are willing to play with AI, a lot of artists really hate it. I mean,
you've had the likes of Drake, Bad Bunny, and Ed Sheeran speaking out against it. And this is
going to be one of the biggest points of friction in the music industry for some time regarding
creativity, ownership, copyright, and more. I mean, if you really think about it, AI is kind of the
only thing that is like as disruptive as other key points in time, like the rise of LimeWire and Napster, how that changed the
music industry. With all that said, like, what are your thoughts here regarding AI music in general,
or this new YouTube tool? If you were a musician or you are a musician, are you more scared of it?
Or do you think that it makes sense that artists are like, you know what, let's dabble, let's try
it out. And then, y'all, the Red Cup rebellion lives on, which, if you don't know what I'm talking about,
that is the strike by thousands of Starbucks workers taking place today.
Because for those unfamiliar, today is Red Cup Day at Starbucks,
where you can get a free reusable cup with a purchase of one of their holiday drinks.
And notably, it is also one of the busiest days of the year for Starbucks
and a point of contention between the workers and the company.
So this is now the second year in a row that the unionized Starbucks workers
have staged a widespread walkout in protest of the company's staffing and scheduling policies. And with this, they're asking the
company to shut down mobile orders on promotional days, saying that the volume of orders is
unmanageable, resulting in overrun employees, angry customers, and wasted drinks and food.
And according to the organizers, today's strike will be the largest in the two years workers have
been organizing, with the Starbucks Workers United Union saying that they expect 5,000 workers to
take part in today's walkout. One barista in Oklahoma City saying, understaffing hurts workers and also creates an unpleasant experience for customers. Starbucks has made it clear that they expect 5,000 workers to take part in today's walkout. One barista in Oklahoma City saying, Understaffing hurts workers and also creates an unpleasant experience for customers.
Starbucks has made it clear that they won't listen to workers,
so we're advocating for ourselves by going on strike.
And this as Starbucks has been staunchly opposed to the unionization efforts of their workers
and has yet to reach a labor agreement with the more than 300 stores that have unionized.
In fact, regional offices of the National Labor Relations Board
have issued 111 complaints against the company for unfair labor practices, including refusal to negotiate.
Now, with this, though, Starbucks has claimed that the union is refusing to schedule negotiations and said about today's strike, quote,
We remain committed to working with all partners side by side to elevate the everyday, and we hope that Workers United's priorities will shift to include the shared success of our partners in negotiating contracts with those they represent.
And then also kind of rubbing salts in the wound, saying that this strike will have very little impact on their operations today, saying it will
only be affecting a small subset of their stores nationwide. And then staying hydrated can actually
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And then, this is really interesting.
Imagine there's no opioid crisis.
There is no heroin crisis.
There is no fentanyl crisis.
Rather, instead, imagine that for the past two decades,
we've actually been looking at one massive massive cascading addiction crisis spanning all these
drugs and more. Because that is the big lesson being taken away from a Washington Post analysis
of 760 million opioid transactions detailed in a DEA database that ends in 2019. With the Post
there looking at shipments of oxycodone and hydrocodone pills in particular, which accounts
for three quarters of total opioid pill shipments to pharmacies.
With that, finding something relatively positive,
that shipments of the two drugs peaked back in 2011
at 12.8 billion and then plummeted almost by half
to around 7 billion by 2019.
And shipments of 80 milligram oxycodone pills,
which are especially potent,
dropping 92% over the same decade.
In fact, every prescription opioid declined
in the final five years of the data, except for one,
buprenorphine, the drug used to treat opioid addiction. And it turns out that's pretty telling because the
crackdown on opioids ironically spawned something even worse. Right around the late 2000s, early
2010s, two big shifts transformed the U.S. drug market. One, law enforcement clamped down on the
diversion of opioids into the black market. You know, the DEA began suing some of the largest
pill distributors while other agencies targeted pill mills and rogue doctors. And two, the medical
profession got more careful about how they prescribe opioids for pain relief. And this
was partly due to more awareness of the harms here and partly due to the CDC guidelines and
state laws limiting prescriptions. And while those measures were arguably effective, they did nothing
to help all the people who got addicted to pain meds. So with their doctors suddenly unwilling
to fill their prescriptions, they turned to local drug dealers instead. And then those assholes sold
them something that offered the same high for a fraction of the price, heroin. But pretty soon, even that and other plant-based drugs like cocaine
and marijuana that were cartel staples for decades got eclipsed by something 50 times more potent,
fentanyl, right? And this synthetic opioid comes in powder or pill form, just like the prescription
opioids consumers initially got hooked on. And for the cartels, fentanyl was actually easier both to
make and to smuggle. Whereas it took months and acres of land to grow poppy for heroin,
they only needed a small lab, some easily accessible chemicals, and a few days of time
to make fentanyl. Which is why people like a researcher at UC San Francisco School of Medicine
saying, we created a huge cohort of people dependent on opioid pills, and when we pulled
back on those, we created a heroin wave. And that quickly got replaced by fentanyl, and then people
really started dying. I mean, by 2017, fentanyl had become the leading cause of overdose deaths
in America, with fatal overdoses from the drug surging 94% from 2019 to 2021. And the CDC, estimating it and other synthetic opioids, made up
two-thirds of the more than 110,000 overall overdose deaths in 2022. And all of that now
making illegal fentanyl the leading cause of death for Americans aged 18 to 49, claiming more lives
than car accidents, gun violence, or suicide. I mean, to try to help you visualize this, to give
you some perspective, we're talking about nearly 200 people or a fully loaded Boeing 757 crashing and killing
everyone on board every single day. But also, a key thing here, in the shift from oxycodone to
fentanyl, we didn't just replace one crisis with another. Rather, we're literally dealing with the
same crisis, just deadlier. With a post-analysis finding that most of the counties with the highest
fentanyl death rates are the same ones that had the highest doses of prescription pills per capita years ago. And this concentrated in
hard-hit states such as West Virginia, Kentucky, and Ohio. So to try to sum it all up, greedy,
corrupt pharmaceutical companies created a huge market full of opioid addicts. And then,
as governments, lawsuits, and more prudent doctors forced them to pull out of that market,
drug cartels took their place. Then, those cartels formed their own underground pharmaceutical
industry and began supplying even more lethal versions of the original drugs. And then finally, bringing all this history full circle, we've seen
growing amounts of counterfeit opioid pills meant to look exactly like real pharmaceuticals, except
they contain fentanyl or other drugs. I mean, we've seen the share of overdose deaths involving
counterfeit pills more than double between mid-2019 and late 2021, even tripling in Western
states. So of course, the big question is, what do we do? Right now, and this is not hyperbole,
if you ask a number of Republicans, their answer is to bomb Mexico.
But then also, when it is not that, it is plug up our southern border.
And to be sure, most fentanyl is manufactured by Mexican drug cartels using Chinese precursor chemicals and smuggled into American markets.
So notably, most of it is coming not through illegal immigration, but rather official ports of entry,
with traffickers hiding drugs inside passenger vehicles and commercial trucks.
And so unlike Trump, who focused on building a wall that ignored the way narcotics actually enter the
country, Biden has worked to improve scanning technology at border crossings. But notably here,
CBP has failed to automate the process with AI software and centralized command centers. So you
have agents having to manually review each scan. And the big thing is that their jobs are exponentially
harder today than it was a decade or two ago because the drugs are harder to catch. But I mean,
a year's supply of pure fentanyl powder for the US market could fit in the beds
of just two pickup trucks.
And the precursor chemicals too
are far harder to confiscate.
They come through seaports buried underneath
a mountain of legitimate goods
or get packaged with false labeling.
And then even when they're discovered,
it's hard to distinguish the chemicals destined
for drug labs from those meant for everyday goods,
such as cheese, soap, and epilepsy medication.
And then even when regulators put specific
precursor chemicals on a watch list,
traffickers just import legally available substances,
basically pre-precursors,
and combine them to form the regulated one instead.
Whereas the poppy and coca needed to make heroin and cocaine
came from just a few countries,
fentanyl precursors come from all over the globe.
All of which is why the former associate director
of the Rand Corporation's Drug Policy Research Center remarked,
you can't stop this stuff,
otherwise you'd seriously disrupt the global economy.
We've essentially got this massive game of cat and mouse
between law enforcement and drug cartels, where the latter
keeps adapting to the former's moves, and hundreds of thousands of consumers just keep dying in the
meantime. But that's also where critics of the current policy argue that focusing on supply
hasn't worked, so we need to attack demand as well. And to try to do that through a host of
measures to help people suffering from addiction become clean without criminalizing them. While in
the meantime, using a harm reduction approach to make sure that those who are addicted have access
to clean needles, fentanyl test strips, and medical attention if they overdose. But also,
even all of that, that is a story for another show. I've tried to cram as much into today. So
that is where I'm going to leave you today. But of course, this is just one part of the thing.
This is supposed to be a conversation. So I want to pass the question off to you watching right now.
What are your thoughts on the situation? Also, if you or someone you know has experience with
addiction and this whole situation, I'd love to hear from you as well.
And then let's talk about yesterday today, where we take a look back at yesterday's show.
We dive into those comments and see what y'all had to say, your opinions, your arguments, sometimes even your experiences connected to the stories.
Yesterday, there was a lot of conversation around that horrifying first story.
Y'all saying things like first story is really scary as a teen.
Like how damn heartless are some kids?
Like they killed him and now his life is over and the life of his family and friends are changed for the worse permanently.
He went to school that day and never came home, and I hope they know that.
As well as saying, the lack of empathy, respect, and compassion teenagers have is actually terrifying.
It's like we're seeing the outcome of the already disastrous youth mental health crisis,
and it's not looking good.
My heart goes out to the boy's family.
He died a hero, and I'm so sorry for their loss.
This is something no one should experience.
Some of y'all also took issue with minimizing language,
saying things like,
I've been saying this for years and years.
We need to stop calling it bullying when it's harassment and abuse.
We need to stop thinking it's playground misbehavior when it isn't any less than workplace harassment or being assaulted in the street.
And some added on to that, saying,
And saying, I guarantee that at least for several of those teens, it wasn't their first time they've hit someone.
Some also saying,
There's no such thing as reverse racism, there's just racism.
And in general, people want all those teenagers to be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.
Also, regarding the FTC and influencers,
one of the most agreed with comments was, I think the influencer rules are fair.
But adding, I do find it hilarious that influencers are being held to a higher standard on disclosure of sponsorship
than our Supreme Court justices, senators, and Congress members.
Which, yeah, you know, I think that we need to make a law that if any of those government officials
get money from anyone over a certain amount of money,
I think they should have to wear, like, NASCAR uniforms.
They don't get to hide behind, like, nice-looking suits.
They gotta be like, yeah, Exxon Mobil.
They paid for the front patch.
And personally, I'd love McConnell or Pelosi to end a speech with,
hashtag Spahn.
And then finally, there were a lot of people that were split on the Indy story.
People saying things like,
the story with the baby girl almost brought me to tears.
If I saw progress and happiness in my child
and some doctor was ultimately the one
who forced my child to die, I don't know what I would do.
I can't even imagine that type of pain.
And as a new mother, the Indy story tears me apart
on so many levels.
Saying my own child who goes by the same name
as a nickname may be fortunately without complications,
but if I were in those parents' shoes,
I feel like I would wanna try to do the same as them.
I am pro-medical euthanasia on nearly every level and for personal autonomy regarding choice of death in the case of untreatable conditions that intrinsically harm quality of life.
But I don't think I could do that for my own child.
As being a parent, give me the right to be, quote, selfish if you look at it in that light, even if there's nearly no chance.
I would want to spend every little second with my child.
But are the costs of prolonging their suffering?
I don't know.
Just the thought alone hurts.
I really feel for those parents.
It's not an easy decision and there really isn't a right answer in my opinion.
But that is going to be the end of today's daily dive into the news. But fantastic news for those
of you here at the end. In addition to you being able to watch and catch up with more news you need
to know, I got another secret video for you. You can just click or tap or I got that link in the
description as well. It's been a fantastic secret side project. It's been, I just, it feels like an
escape for me. So I'm just going to keep doing them until I don't want to. But if you like them, go subscribe to that secret channel.
But with all that said, as always, my name's Philip DeFranco. You've just been filled in.
I love your faces and I'll see you right back here next time.