The Philip DeFranco Show - PDS 11.17 This is a strange interesting weird mess...

Episode Date: November 17, 2020

Start your free trial today: http://www.Squarespace.com/Phil & enter offer code “Phil” to get 10% off your first purchase!  WATCH My NEW Doctor Mike Podcast!: https://youtu.be/UK9UrckN5HM   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 - Twitter Launches Fleets 02:04 - Taylor Swift vs Scooter Braun 05:37 - Amazon Enters The Pharmacy Game 08:02 - TIA 09:57 - Democrats Plan To Forgive Some Student Debt -- ✩ 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 IN AWESOME ✩ ✭ Clip from iJustine on ACW: https://youtu.be/i_L1sAiW7jQ ✭ MrBeast’s Rewind: https://twitter.com/MrBeastYT/status/1328732169771114496?s=20 ✭ H3H3 Productions Eats the World's Spiciest Burger: https://youtu.be/81zgGhy8nDo ✭ TOM & JERRY - Official Trailer: https://youtu.be/kP9TfCWaQT4 ✭ Paul Bettany on Stir Crazy: https://youtu.be/EKkYJvsYME0 ✭ George Clooney Breaks Down His Most Iconic Characters: https://youtu.be/bYYb-zKaOco ✭ Secret Link: https://youtu.be/2PD1NT9RxZA  ✩ TODAY’S STORIES ✩  Fleets Now Available on Twitter: https://www.theverge.com/2020/11/17/21570368/twitter-fleets-disapeating-tweets-stories-launch-available-now Scooter Braun Sells Taylor Swift’s Masters: https://roguerocket.com/2020/11/17/taylor-swift-scooter-braun-update/ Amazon Launches Online Pharmacy, Potentially Shaking Up the Industry https://roguerocket.com/2020/11/17/amazon-pharmacy/ Democrats Push For Student Debt Relief: https://roguerocket.com/2020/11/17/biden-democrats-student-loans/ ✩ STORIES NOT IN TODAY’S SHOW ✩ Georgia Secretary of State Claims Lindsey Graham Suggested He Toss Legal Ballots: https://roguerocket.com/2020/11/17/georgia-lindsey-graham-legal-ballots/ A “Full-Scale Humanitarian Crisis” is Unfolding in Ethiopia Over Conflict in Tigray, UN Warns https://roguerocket.com/2020/11/17/ethiopia-tigray-crisis/ ——————————     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 #TaylorSwift #Amazon 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, let's just jump into it. And the first thing we're going to talk about today, let's jump through a few quick stories. Starting with Twitter today officially launching Fleets, a name that is so stupid most people just called them stories. Because, I mean, honestly that's what this is. This is Twitter ripping off Instagram who ripped off Snapchat. Which, by the way, it has been so normalized that Snapchat is just being robbed in broad daylight. Though I will say as far as places where stories could actually turn out to thrive,

I think Twitter is one of those places. On YouTube, I feel like it is underutilized and underappreciated. Facebook, it's an afterthought. With Twitter, I mean, honestly, it could work. And for those unfamiliar, a fleet essentially is a full screen photo, video, a reaction to a tweet, or just plain text that will automatically disappear

after 24 hours. But also, and this is a big thing, it should be noted that Twitter's expansion here is also broader. With Twitter also creating something called Spaces, which is a feature that'll allow users to join virtual rooms where they can engage in real time audio conversations with others.

Which, notably, is a feature that basically tries to mirror Clubhouse, which is another app that's gained popularity this year. However, Twitter has not yet released that, saying that they're still just in the early stages. Also, since this is a thing that we touched on, one of Twitter's product leads stressed that these new features aren't just about copying,

saying it's not a here's an interesting start of doing something interesting, let's try and replicate it. It's very fundamental for us. If we want Twitter to be a place where we can have thoughtful conversations, we need to support a wide spectrum of those conversations. But also the counter to that would be,

but it seems like it's something that another company already did. And notably that company is a startup. Also really quick, jumping back to fleets. I think it's weird how they're advertising it. Twitter announced fleets by saying, that thing you didn't tweet, but wanted to, but didn't, but got so close, but then we're like, nah, we have have a place for that now fleets. What are you talking about?

Y'all know people can still screenshot and screen record right like there are things in your drafts that should stay there. Yes Stories go away in 24 hours, but really the internet is forever Know that also give us the ability to edit tweets in like the first five minutes Oh, yeah Moving on then we have a quickie story that kind of brings us to the end of something that we've ended up talking about over the past year. With that being the Taylor Swift Scooter Braun feud that essentially deals with hundreds of millions of dollars. To simplify it if this is your first time, Scooter Braun purchased Big Machine label group back in June of 2019. Meaning Scooter got a hold of the master rights to Taylor Swift's first six albums,

which she recorded before signing with Universal Music back in 2018. Taylor Swift at that time called it her worst case scenario, calling him the definition of toxic male privilege in our industry, going on to describe him as a bully, and she was very upset about the idea that he could own her life's work and earn revenue from her music as people continue to stream it, sample it,

or use it in film and television. But now, the news that we've gotten in the last day is that Scooter actually sold the master rights that he had to all of her music, selling them to an investment fund named Shamrock Holdings. And while we don't know the specifics of the worth of the deal, it is believed to be north of $300 million.

With some insiders saying that it could actually be as high as $450 million once certain earned backs are factored in. Which if accurate would be a huge win for Scooter Braun since he bought the entire record label for about $300 million. Right, and that's a label that still has a pretty solid roster of clients like

Sheryl Crow, Rascal Flatts, Lady A. Now, with all this, as far as Taylor Swift's response, she actually released a lengthy statement saying she had been actively trying to regain ownership of her music, saying she had her team try to enter negotiations with Scooter, but saying Scooter's team wanted me to sign an ironclad NDA, stating I would never say another word about Scooter Braun unless it was positive

And then she said all before we could even look at the financial records of Big Machine label group Which is always the first step in a purchase of this nature with her saying that her legal team said this is absolutely not normal Saying they've never seen an NDA like this presented unless it was to silence an assault accuser by paying them off and going on to say He would never even quote my team a price these "'These master recordings were never for sale to me.'" She also went on to say that Shamrock Holdings let her know when they had bought her music. Also saying they apparently wanted to let her know before the sale was final,

but Scooter Braun actually required them to make no contact with her, otherwise the deal was off. Also saying she was hopeful about potentially having a now partnership with Shamrock, but after communicating with them, she learned that under the terms of the deal, Scooter would continue to make a profit off of her old catalog of music.

And since that was the case, Taylor Swift was essentially like, and so for those reasons, I'm out. Officially announcing that she had already started re-recording her music. And she explained that in a letter to Shamrock, which she also shared online saying, "'I know this will diminish the value of my old masters, "'but I hope you will understand that this is my only way

"'of regaining the sense of pride I once had "'when hearing songs from my first six albums "'and also allowing my fans to listen to those albums without feelings of guilt for benefiting Scooter. And Shamrock Holdings then actually released a statement that was very nice. Ultimately, you know, that is where we are now, but I don't know what the lesson learned with this story is. Because, I mean, looking at all the factors of this story, it feels like everybody won except possibly Shamrock Holdings. Even though Taylor Swift's fans went after Scooter Braun

or even people that weren't fans of what was happening with Taylor Swift's masters went after Scooter Braun, it still appears they got a massive return on this investment. Taylor Swift, for her part, has a really strong story, a really strong narrative, a reason, essentially a rallying cry for her fans to support the re-release of the song,

something that will obviously greatly benefit her. And then once again, right in the middle, you have Shamrock holding, which I mean, we could dedicate an entire video to what this means for the value of what they just purchased. But you know, I would love to know your thoughts on the situation while we wait to see what happens. For you, as maybe a fan of Taylor Swift,

is this gonna impact how or where you listen to her music? Because obviously there are different levels of fans or people that are like, oh, it's that new Taylor Swift song. Then of course you have like the concert goer level and the pre-order and the, everything I do is Taylor Swift related, right? So how many of those tiers of fans are like,

we're in this fight with you related to Scooter Braun. Yeah, I'd really love to know your thoughts there. Then in absolutely massive news, let's talk about Amazon because I guess Amazon was like, we do not own every single aspect of every human being's life, let's keep working on that. Which is why today we saw Amazon announcing Amazon Pharmacy, their jump into the pharmaceutical industry.

So what is this? Well, right off the bat, this will allow Amazon customers and most of the United States to order prescription medication to their homes. And yes, for you Amazon Prime members, that also means free delivery. And in fact, according to Amazon, it also means savings on medications for Prime members,

up to 80% for generic drugs and up to 40% for brand name drugs. With those savings coming even if you do not have insurance. And as far as insurance, Amazon says that it will accept most forms. With Amazon also going a step further by saying, "'Before checking out, customers can compare "'their insurance copay, the price without insurance,

"'or the available savings "'with the new Prime Prescription Savings Benefit to choose their lowest price option. And as far as the rollout, like I said, most of the United States, 45 states, will have initial access, with Hawaii, Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, and Minnesota being the only states Amazon says

that it cannot deliver medicine to at this point, though they did say that they expect to eventually serve those states. Now, with all this, doctors will also be able to directly send prescriptions to Amazon Pharmacy, and there, Amazon says it has the tools in place to verify that a physician actually ordered a prescription,

which is to be expected. I mean, this is a new system, so there's likely going to be a heavy emphasis on stamping out fraud. Alongside that, Amazon said that it'll deliver a mix of medication, everything from birth control to insulin, steroid creams to metformin, though they did say they will not be delivering

schedule two controlled medications, right? Things like opioids. Also, in addition to having doctors send prescriptions to Amazon, patients will also be able to request transfers from their existing retailer, whether it be CVS, Walgreens, Rite Aid, et cetera, which is also probably the reason that we saw stocks for those companies falling this morning.

You know, if you're a CVS or Walgreens, this is a nightmare. We're in the middle of a pandemic and Amazon, which is already pretty much the hub for almost everything else was like, that looks pretty cool, I'll have some of that too. And meanwhile, CVS and Walgreens are like, but that's our whole thing though.

And as far as my opinion here, if this can kind of shake up the pharmaceutical industry, if this can offer cheaper and more accessible options for people, I think in general, this is a great idea. Is there always a concern with a company as massive as Amazon, since it seemingly mirrors like the big bad corporation in any kind of science fiction horror thing?

But as far as your thoughts here, are you excited for this? Do you plan to use it? Yes, no, maybe so. Do you like that just one site can handle all of these things? Or, you know, does that concern you? And then let's talk about student loans and student loan forgiveness,

which has actually turned out to be a very divisive topic as of late. As president elect Joe Biden's inauguration inches closer and closer, this has been a topic coming up more and more. And in fact, yesterday we saw Biden giving a press conference about the economy and when he was asked if student loan debt figured into his plans

and if he would take executive action, Biden said. It does figure in my plan. I've laid out in detail. For example, the legislation passed by the Democratic House calls for immediate $10,000 forgiveness of student loans. It's holding people up. They're in real trouble.

They're having to make choices between paying their student loan and paying the rent, those kinds of decisions. It should be done immediately. With the president-elect then referencing plans that he made in his campaign, including making education at public colleges free for families making under $125,000 a year

and forgiving chunks of debt for public servants. But notably here, he did not specifically say whether or not he would use executive action to get this done. Though we have seen a ton of pressure for him to do so coming from leading Democrats. Right now, student loan debt in the United States is at over $1.7 trillion.

And many Democrats already have plans on how to chip away at that. For example, in an interview with the Inc this month, you had Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer saying that in his first 100 days, Biden should prioritize student loan forgiveness saying, "'I have a proposal with Elizabeth Warren "'that the first $50,000 of debt be vanquished.

"'And we believe that Joe Biden can do that with a pen "'as opposed to legislation.'" You also have examples like representatives, Ilhan Omar and Ayanna Pressley, introducing the Student Debt Emergency Relief Act, which would cancel at least $30,000 in student debt per borrower. That has also been supported by other members of the squad

who took to Twitter to push their support for student debt forgiveness, including representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez saying it's a good thing and adding, "'We should also push for tuition-free public colleges to avoid this huge debt bubble from financially decimating people every generation. It's one of the easiest progressive policies

to quote, pay for, with multiple avenues from a Wall Street transaction tax to an ultra wealth tax to cover it. But like I said, this is not an idea that is just being universally loved and universally praised. You also had a ton of people against it with people saying things like,

I think Dems are wildly underestimating the intensity of anger college loan cancellation is going to provoke. Those with college debt will be thrilled, of course, but lots and lots of people who didn't go to college or who worked to pay off their debts gonna be bad. Because that argument kept popping up over and over, we saw the likes of AOC chiming in on Twitter saying, things were bad for me so they should stay bad for else, is not a good argument against debt cancellation, student, medical, or otherwise. And also, it wasn't just politicians. You had people like Kumail Nanjiani saying,

it took me over 10 years to pay back my student loans. I would be thrilled if fewer people had to live with that stress. You also had others bringing up the economic hardships many are facing during the coronavirus, saying things like, canceling student loan debt doesn't just help those in debt, it frees many of them up to help stimulate

a struggling economy during the pandemic. And actually that last note is something I want to look at more because while you, I, Kumail Nanjiani, politician A, B can have whatever opinion on this. What are the actual experts think? And while looking into this, I found that back in August, Forbes actually talked to a group of financial experts about the nuances of student loan forgiveness.

With people like entrepreneur, David Gokshine saying, there are merits. If debtors currently struggling to make their student loan payments. With people like entrepreneur David Gokshneid saying, "'There are merits. If debtors currently struggling to make their student loan payments have increased available income, that money will be spent in other places. This could create an increase in home loans, small business startups, tourism,

and general retail purchase increases. Though perhaps this should be on a case-by-case basis or through a qualified enrollment program." With others like Sam Singh, founder of CFO Base saying, "'Student loan debt hinders the start "'of a promising career. "'Many potential entrepreneurs put their spirit on hold "'for a corporate job based on salary to pay the debt,

"'while turning down offers from small businesses "'with less of a budget. "'This creates more failed startups "'and hurts our gross domestic product.'" But at the same time, you also had others arguing there might be other solutions, including interest-free loans or increasing financial literacy among young people.

Right, seeing as many accept these student loans when they're a teenager before they have any idea of what it really means for them down the line. Others also thinking that debt forgiveness will not fix the actual problem, which is how expensive college tuition has become. With people like Matthew Coupland of Midwest Financial Group also saying that forgiveness

opens up Pandora's box with regards to many questions. Who gets it canceled? What about those who made sacrifices and saved for this expense? Does it devalue the importance of the experience? Would students take it less seriously? And, you know, regarding this topic, as far as my opinion here,

and once again, keep in mind, like many of the people speaking on this issue, I am not an expert in this avenue, but where I'll start here is with the question of, does it devalue the importance of the experience? If that is in reference to being in debt, getting loans to pay for college, in my opinion, no. And I say this as someone that was in student debt.

I was on the receiving end of those aggressive predatory phone calls. That constant stressor and reminder that, hey, you're underwater. You may never get up again to get a gasp of air. Like I've said in different ways over the last 14 years, we constantly tell kids to shoot for the stars But we enable systems and we're okay with systems that essentially are like cinder blocks on their feet and as someone that I mean I'll remind you YouTube did not pay for a very long time in a meaningful way as someone that had that student debt and actually

Did not finish college so I didn't get the piece of paper to go Hey, it was maybe kind of worth it Just because I had a full-time job and a billion other side hustles and I was able to eventually pay off that debt, I don't, I'm not saying that other people should just have to deal with it. And personally, and once again, I understand this is not everyone's opinion.

This is my personal experience, my personal feelings on the matter. I personally would not get angry if those who have student debt don't have to do the same thing that I did to get out of it. Do I, in addition to that, think that we need to take a long, hard look at college tuition prices and that whole fucking messed up system?

Yes. But I do believe that if we can have a good faith conversation and discussion about this topic, we can chew bubble gum and walk at the same time. And understand because I know some people are gonna say, "'Phil, you're just being a bleeding heart here." As some other experts have noted, if we look at this from a purely business standpoint,

I think that the benefit for the we as an entrepreneur can also be a benefit for me. Right, you have the price of tuition going up significantly, the cost of living going up, but wages not really matching that growth. But with all that said, that is the story. Then of course, some of my opinion. And now you, I pass the question off to you.

What are your thoughts here? Also, I know that we have a huge chunk of 18 to 38 year olds watching. What is your student debt situation? Also, how does. What are your thoughts here? Also, I know that we have a huge chunk of 18 to 38 year olds watching. What is your student debt situation? Also, how does that factor into your opinion here? 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.

Also, if you're new here, you wanna join the family, hit that subscribe button and hey, maybe even text me something at 813-213-4423. It's the easiest way for me to communicate with you beautiful pastors as well as give you updates and notifications But with that said of course as always my name is Philip DeFranco. You've just been filled in I love yo faces, and I'll see you tomorrow