The Philip DeFranco Show - PDS 11.3 "I'm In A Terrible Place" Disturbing New Ruggs III Details, Valkyrae RFLCT Fallout, & Dems Lose BIG!

Episode Date: November 3, 2021

Go to https://buyraycon.com/defranco for up to 20% off your order! Brought to you by Raycon! More PDS: https://youtu.be/C-onPscSn5U TEXT ME! [phone] Get More Phil: https://linktr.ee/PhilipDeFranco -- 00:00 - Henry Ruggs III Released From Raiders and Facing Charges After Crash 02:11 - Valkyrae Addresses RFLCT Fallout, Says She’s In A “Terrible Place” 05:36 - Sponsor 06:32 - Pfizer For Kids 5-11 Gets the Greenlight 07:36 - SCOTUS Hears Second Amendment Case 09:19 - Republicans Win in VA While Democrats Narrowly Cling to NJ Governor Race -- ✩ TODAY’S STORIES ✩ Henry Ruggs III Released From Raiders and Facing Charges After Crash: https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/32538903/las-vegas-raiders-release-wr-henry-ruggs-iii-fatal-crash Valkyrae Addresses RFLCT Fallout, Says She’s In A “Terrible Place”: https://www.dexerto.com/entertainment/valkyrae-seeing-therapist-over-trauma-from-rflct-drama-1690152/ Pfizer For Kids 5-11 Gets the Greenlight: https://www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2021/s1102-PediatricCOVID-19Vaccine.html SCOTUS Hears Second Amendment Case: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/03/us/supreme-court-guns-second-amendment.html Republicans Win in VA While Democrats Narrowly Cling to NJ Governor Race: https://roguerocket.com/2021/11/03/va-2021/ ✩ STORIES NOT IN TODAY’S SHOW ✩ Attorneys for “Rust” Armorer Speak Out on Today Show: https://roguerocket.com/2021/11/03/attorneys-rust-armorer-sabotage/ Facebook to End Facial Recognition System, Delete Facial Data of 1 Billion People: https://roguerocket.com/2021/11/03/facebook-facial-recognition-system/ —————————— Executive Producer: Amanda Morones Edited by: James Girardier, Julie Goldberg, Maxwell Enright Art Department: Brian Borst, William Crespo Writing/Research: Philip DeFranco, Cory Ray, Brian Espinoza, Maddie Crichton, Lili Stenn, Neena Pesqueda Production Team: Zack Taylor, Emma Leid ———————————— #DeFranco #Valkyrae #HenryRuggsIII ———————————— Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Let's just jump into it today with our douchebag of the day, the now former Las Vegas Raiders wide receiver, Henry Ruggs III. So reportedly Ruggs was driving at a high speed in a residential area when he ended up rear-ending another vehicle. But understand, when I say high speed, he was allegedly driving at 156 miles per hour.

And when I say rear-ended, reportedly he slammed into this woman in this other car at 127 miles per hour. With a 23-year-old woman's car bursting into flames, killing her and her dog. Meanwhile, Ruggs and his passenger, who he shares a daughter with, were hospitalized with serious,

but not life-threatening injuries. Also, if you're wondering, yes, he was driving under the influence. In fact, his blood alcohol level was twice the legal limit. So now you have this guy, Ruggs, who seemed to be destined for greatness. He was a first round NFL draft pick in 2020, now getting kicked from his team and facing felony charges.

The report's saying that a conviction for his reckless driving charge could earn him one to six years in prison with the possibility of probation, as well as the DUI resulting in death charge, meaning that he could face a sentence of anywhere between two to 20 years in state prison with no probation.

And if I'm being honest with you, when I first heard those numbers, I was kind of shocked because I was like, so he could get convicted and only serve three years? He was driving a car at 156 miles per hour, drunk out of his mind, obliterated this woman and her dog, and he could serve three years? Like if you want to kill someone,

why hire a contract killer? Just pay someone to drink some booze and run someone over. And honestly, if he's a first time offender and these are the only charges he ends up with, he'll probably avoid the maximum sentences, especially since he's a guy with a lot of money who can hire the best lawyers. And I know some people are gonna say,

"'Hey, it was an accident,' but I very much agree with, I saw someone say, "'It wasn't an accident, it was an inevitability.'" You chose to drink that much, you chose to get in your car, and you chose to put everyone's lives at risk around you. There's already no excuse to drive drunk,

but motherfucker, you're rich. You've got all the options in the world to save you from making the worst choice ever, and you still do it. And the only person that's really going to suffer from your actions is this woman, who's no longer here. Even if you're behind bars, you're still breathing, you're still living.

This woman didn't have a choice and she's no longer here. Also, hey, this is the Philip DeFranco Show. That's a story, my opinion, and I'll pass the question off to you. Like, are you right there with me? Do you disagree? Do you strongly disagree? Also, what sentencing is the Philip DeFranco show. That's a story, my opinion, and I'll pass the question off to you. Like, are you right there with me? Do you disagree? Do you strongly disagree? Also, what sentencing or punishment do you think

that he will get and or should get? And then, because it feels like we need to close out this story because we covered it previously, we should talk about Valkyrae and Reflect. Right, if you're unfamiliar, Valkyrae, one of the biggest streamers on YouTube, also co-owner of the eSports org 100 Thieves. And last month, she came under fire

for launching this skincare line, which claimed to protect skin against blue light exposure from digital screens. And immediately we saw critics accusing her of promoting a scam or at the very least pseudoscience after pointing out there's not a lot of credible research supporting the need for such products. And Val for her part tried to address the backlash

in a live stream, but a lot of people felt like she was shifting blame or not fully understanding the issue. At one point she even said that she thought she was gonna be a part of something revolutionary and still stood by the products because she saw the company's research, which she even said that she thought she was gonna be a part of something revolutionary and still stood by the products because she saw the company's research, which she had assumed that they would share at launch.

However, Reflex parent company later told her they couldn't release the research because it could be stolen by other companies. Right, so some took that as, oh, you know, they're just trying to protect trade secrets. Others going, oh, this brand is just misleading Ray, saying they're not releasing the data because the data might not be trustworthy.

There were also some DMs leaked between Ray and a fellow streamer by the name of Ludwig, who seemed to expose that Rae was very frustrated by trusting the wrong people, as well as giving people insight into how much money was involved with this. With Rae appearing to say in these DMs that beauty retailer Ulta had invested $4 million

into the line, so also saying she didn't understand why they would do that if they didn't believe in the research. And this whole situation continued to snowball over until the last week, and when Reflect announced that they were shutting down. And since then, we've seen Ra Rae go live admitting that she messed up, that she was naive, saying that she shouldn't have done her first livestream response when she was in such a bad mental space. And in this, talking more about the brand's termination. They pulled all the products out of 400 stores.

So that, that happened. Uh, it was a clean break. Took long time lawyers and stuff but we did it i got really lucky that um there were there wasn't a lawsuit but i do think that i have mental damage from all of this for sure with that also assuring fans that she is getting help. I'm going to therapy. I have a therapist. And I've, I have a lot of trauma. I've been going through it.

I have depression. But yeah. I have depression. But yeah. But I'm hopeful. So while this whole situation seems done, there's also been this different narrative that's been floating around. With people like Joanna Coles, the co-founder of Ideovation Labs,

which helped create Reflect, attributing a lot of the criticism Ray received to sexism, telling reporters, it's hard enough for young women to start a business in a male dominated economy. I am confident that if a male gamer had come up with Reflect, he would have been roundly applauded.

And to that, I say, as someone that has befriended a number of women in this space, employed a number of women in this space, like it is at times horrible, like so much more horrible for them than it is for me. But this specific situation feels way, way, way, way more about the misleading claims.

And if anything, it feels kind of disgusting or at the least ignorant and wrong to weaponize sexism, which is a very real problem in the industry. And conflating it with, or using it to dismiss, the very legitimate concerns that a lot of people had. Hey, I'm just one guy, right? My opinion isn't irrefutable. And so I've given you the story,

I've given some of my opinion, and now I pass the question off to you. What are your thoughts regarding this? Regarding that last note, do you think this is a case of sexism? What do you think about Ray's handling of the situation? And really just any and all thoughts, I'd love to hear from you in those comments down below.

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voting on Tuesday to approve the use of Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine in kids aged five to 11. It's a two shot regimen that will now be available to the 28 million kids in that age group. Technically vaccination sites across the country have been prepping to give shots as early as today But the full vaccination effort isn't expected to be up and running until next week The doses for the kids are also different coming in at only a third of the size given to adults With Pfizer's data saying that the kid size vaccine is 90.7% effective against symptomatic illness

With the hope being that this will be significant for curbing new infections and thus prevent disruptions to schooling, hospitals, and more. But the biggest question that comes with this news is whether parents will actually get their kids vaccinated. And I say that because in an October poll, the Kaiser Family Foundation found that only about 27% of parents with kids in that age group would get them vaccinated right away. With 33% saying they would wait and see and 30% saying outright they were definitely not. Though, that's why you have people like FDA acting commissioner, Janet Woodcock saying, "'As a parent, if I had young children in this age group, "'I would get them vaccinated now. "'I would not want to take the risk "'that they would be one of the ones

"'who would develop long COVID, "'who would develop multi-system inflammatory syndrome, "'or have to be hospitalized from the virus.'" And then in news that just maybe, just possibly might be divisive, let's talk about guns and gun rights. And this because today, for the first time in more than a decade, the Supreme Court is hearing

its first gun rights related case. Right, so here are the basics. The case is called New York State Rifle and Pistol Association v. Bruin and it revolves around New York's concealed carry law. And in particular, gun owners are very frustrated at how difficult it is to get a license in some areas of the state and meet the vague standard

of showing quote, proper cause for needing a license. Arguing there that the Second Amendment applies to concealed carrying as well. But you have New York arguing that the restrictions fall within the scope of the limitations allowed within the Second Amendment and are supported by legal precedents that restrict carrying firearms in, quote, sensitive places.

Now both sides have faced scrutiny with justices navigating the arguments and really pushing the evidence each side was using to back up their claims. For example, there were questions for New York over why there's such a drastic difference in how easy it is to get a license in a rural area rather than an urban one, despite the latter of the two being far more dangerous. With New York arguing that while the risk to

personal safety may be higher in an urban area, the need to consider public safety is higher as well, so it balances out. But still, some justices seem concerned about letting public officials interpret, quote, proper cause. However, you also had the NYS RPA facing some scrutiny as well, with justices Roberts and Barrett pushing the Association to clarify what it thought reasonable time and place restrictions would be on carrying firearms. Things like whether firearms should be allowed on school campuses or other sensitive areas despite long-standing legal precedents that prevent it. And if not that then what about something like a Times Square on New Year's Eve? Essentially asking where do you think the line actually is? Well, we shouldn't expect a ruling here until spring of 2022. What happens here is gonna have massive implications.

Reconciled carry could become far more common in the few places of the country that don't allow it, or if it goes the other way, it could embolden states who want stricter regulations to feel like, hey, we can do this without the constant legal battles. But for now, they'll do their talky talk thing and we'll do our wait and see thing.

And then we should definitely talk about yesterday's elections because top level here, if you are a Democrat, you should be very, very concerned going into 2022 and 2024. And if you are a Republican, I imagine you are over the moon right now. Or the Dems need to learn as much as they can from these losses here,

or they're gonna be doomed to repeat them. Right, I'm saying that in part, of course, because of Virginia, where Republican Glenn Youngkin beat Democrat Terry McAuliffe, with Youngkin bringing in nearly 51% of the vote compared to McAuliffe's nearly 49%. And while that's only a two point difference, reminder, Biden in 2020 won the state by 10 points.

One of the things here is that yes, while this is the first time a Republican has won a statewide race in Virginia since 2009, Youngkin was not the only one. With Republicans also managing to secure the Lieutenant Governor and likely the Attorney General seats from Democrats. Now it's very much the theme of the night, right?

You have Republicans also expected to regain control of Virginia's House, with every single county in the state shifting more Republican, even the counties that McAuliffe won. And of course, it wasn't only in Virginia. If you look to New Jersey, there was a very, very tight race. It was not expected to be so,

with incumbent Democratic Governor Phil Murphy currently having the lead as of recording this, with 89% of the votes counted, only leading by less than a percentage point. Though there is still a lot of mail-in ballots that need to be counted, and those usually tend to lean Democrat, so it is possible the lead could grow.

But very important for most Democrats, New Jersey didn't seem like a fight. This is a state that Biden won last year by 16 points. Also of note, outside of the gubernatorial races, residents in Minneapolis voted down a major police reform measure. As I mentioned, yesterday had this passed, it would have dissolved the city's police department

in favor of a department of public safety overseen by city council. Though to be clear, the department would have still had police, it just would have scrapped a requirement for employing a minimum number of officers. However, that doesn't matter because it's not happening because 56% of residents said no to that proposal. Though that doesn't appear that they want no action.

It appears that most people in Minneapolis seem to agree that the current way that the city's police department operates does need to change, but this specific change was not the answer. And the vote here actually kind of ties back to the gubernatorial races, because right now you have a lot of Democrats going, okay, what can we learn from this?

Why did we lose? And there's potentially a number of reasons. One, it's possible that some Democrats and largely independents are seeing the Democrat party go far too left in their minds. Two, it could be the fact that Trump was not on the ticket. I know a lot of people who voted in 2020, not because they liked Biden,

but because they hated Trump so much. And or three, Republicans are just so much better at the culture war stuff. Like in Virginia specifically, there's been a lot of focus on schools, whether it be over CRT or vaccine or mask mandates. And at one point during a debate, McAuliffe said, "'I don't think parents should be telling schools

what they should teach. And man, it seems like he got hammered for that. With exit polling in Virginia asking the question, how much say should parents have in curriculum? Finding an overwhelming majority of both Republicans and Democrats saying a lot slash some. And then finally, four, you have a lot of people pointing to Biden himself

and his approval numbers. With places like Axios noting, Biden's approval at 42% is the lowest "'for any president in October of their first year "'going back to Dwight Eisenhower in 1953, "'except for Donald Trump, who was at 37%.'" And noting, and this is important going into 2024, "'Many in Biden's own party don't want him to run again,' noting that, in a recent poll,

"'just 36% of Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents "'thought they would have a better chance in 2024 "'with Biden on the ballot as opposed to someone else. Which brings us to my insane prediction of the next three years. The only way that the Democrats will win in 2024 is if Dwayne The Rock Johnson runs. Yep, that's how I'm ending this segment.

Democrats, your only chance is The Rock. But ultimately, that is where this story and today's show ends. Of course, I'd love to know your thoughts, whether it be on this last story, the first one, anything in between. Let me know what you're thinking in those comments down below.

But 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.