The Philip DeFranco Show - PDS 1.17 Hasan Piker "Platforming Terrorists" Scandal, TimHouthi Chalamet, Terrifying Raid Gone Wrong

Episode Date: January 17, 2024

Click here https://www.seed.com/defranco and use code DEFRANCO25 to get 25% off your 1st month’s supply of Seed’s DS-01®️ Daily Synbiotic + Free shipping! Catch up on the last show: https://youtu.be/2ACF8363L5U?si=O52OesiE8txDoTNa –✩ TODAY’S STORIES ✩ – 00:00 - Mother Says Baby Was Injured by Police Flashbangs During Raid 03:29 - Hasan Piker Faces Backlash For Interviewing Viral “Timhouthi Chalamet” 07:09 - Sponsored by Seed 08:15 - Senate Launches Review of “Walkaway” Deaths at Assisted Living Facilities 11:35 - India Investigating Scam Luring Men to Impregnate Women 13:48 - 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 #HasanAbi #Destiny ———————————— Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Sup, you beautiful bastards. Welcome back to the Philip DeFranco Show. We got a lot of news to talk about today. We've got the Hassan Piker, Tim Houthi, Chalamet scandal, with people saying he's platforming a terrorist. We've got this bizarre baby-making scam. We just got exposed with these assisted living facilities. We'll shock you.

There's even more, so buckle up and let's just jump into it. Starting with this mom in Ohio says police flashbanged her damn baby after raiding the wrong house, which they did even after being told it was the wrong house. So this is the mom, Courtney Price. And for the past 17 months, she's been doing her best to take care of her infant son, Waylon. He's a little baby who was born premature, just one pound, two ounces. And now he suffers from a serious lung disease, pulmonary hypertension,

as well as having a hole in his heart. So while they're waiting for this surgery related to his heart defect, his mom and her little son, they're staying with her aunt, Rita Jennings, who lives in Elyria, Ohio. And as it turns out, a former tenant, who lived in the house a year ago, was wanted by the police. And at that time, she says the cops have shown up

at her door five times looking for the suspect. She keeps telling them they do not live here. But apparently, the cops just don't believe them because they showed up again this month. Except this time, Jennings was at work. The only people inside were Courtney and Waylon. Thanks to body cam footage, we see the cops rush up to the front door,

guns drawn, and they yell this. Police! Cirque War! Come to the door!. Police! Search warrant! Come to the door! Police! Search warrant! Come to the door! Giving Courtney about five seconds to even think, much less open the door before they then do this. Stocks! Stocks! Stocks! Police! Search warrant! Coming down the stairs! You're good, man! Come in the door!

That loud explosion you heard, it wasn't the battering ram smashing in the door. It was an officer detonating a flashbang grenade, which if the name didn't tip you off, produces this blinding flash and a loud bang. You also heard some glass shattering because the cops broke two windows. And that included one outside the room where Waylon was sitting below in his swing,

hooked up to a ventilator. So this is where things get very messy. Because while Courtney claimed that the grenade flew through the window, video actually shows the cops setting it off right outside. But still, you had Courtney claiming the glass showered down on her baby and smoke filled the room with her telling 19 News.

I didn't know what to do because there was guns pointed at me. I wanted to run to him, but I knew if I ran to him, they could have shot. They drugged me out of the house, put me in handcuffs. I kept screaming, my baby, my baby, he's on a ventilator. My baby's in here. So eventually the cops unhandcuff her.

They let her back inside. A police statement saying, Elyria police detectives, Elyria fire paramedics, and the mother assessed the condition of the child, confirming that the child did not sustain any apparent visible injuries. Going on to say that the child's mother informed detectives that she intended on taking the child to the hospital due to the child's preexisting illness unrelated to the tactical operation. So according to the police, an ambulance arrived, paramedics assessed Waylon, and they took him to the hospital. Courtney is saying that he was sent home that night, but the next morning, his blood oxygen level dropped dangerously low, so she rushed him back. And according to her, Waylon was diagnosed with chemical pneumonitis from the chemicals in the flashbang. The Jennings telling WJW, the baby is now in the ICU.

He's got burns all over him. Inside of his lungs are burned. He was on his ventilator and saying they let the baby lay there for about 35 to 45 minutes in the smoke. But then in response to all this, the police department put out a statement defending itself, saying diversionary devices, right, flashbangs, do not produce a continuous burn, and they do not deploy or contain any pepper, gas, or chemical agents. And saying any allegations suggesting the child was exposed to chemical agents, lack of medical attention, or negligence is not true.

So now you have the city's mayor saying the allegations are extreme and deeply concerning, and he's ordered a complete review of the incident. But either way, regarding, like, what actually happened during the raid, the family is saying they're moving to a new home next week because they don't feel safe anymore, and adding that they're also planning to take legal action against the department. But all in all, we're gonna have to wait to see how things play out, because while this is all one thing, there's actually two things at play. Just by itself, there is the raiding of the wrong house. There's even audio where you hear one of the cops say, and then secondly, there's a situation about what actually happened with the flashbang

and the health of the baby. And so with all that said, I gotta ask you, what are your thoughts here? And then in social media news connected to real world news, there are people fighting about a question. Is Hasan Piker platforming terrorism? That's what a chunk of the internet is fighting about right now,

and it's all because of a person that the internet has dubbed Tim Houthi Chalamet. Right, we've talked in greater detail about the Houthis in TikToks, even in yesterday's show and others, but the oversimplified TLDR, in case this is the first video that you've stumbled upon where I'm talking about it,

is that they're a Yemeni rebel group, and they recently attacked ships in the Red Sea in response to Israel's attacks on Gaza. Very notably, that has included US vessels. So actually, as of this morning, Biden has re-designated the Houthis as terrorists, which is very big, because he previously removed them from that list.

But this is the Houthi leaders have defended their actions, saying they're doing what they're doing to support the Palestinian people and to pressure Israel and its allies to end the war. And so all of that brings us to Tim Houthi. You might actually recognize him as viral videos like this one. With one person sharing it on Twitter with a caption, Yemeni pirates posting casual TikToks while the entire Western Imperial Corps are having a meltdown about their blockade on their ships is the funniest shit of 2024, surely. You would buy us actually doing a piece on it. Identifying him as Rashid Al Haddad,

noting that in that clip, he's on the Galaxy Leader, which is a cargo ship seized last year by the Houthis. But they also said that there's no clear evidence that he was actually part of the raid that captured the ship, but he did post photos of him in gear and carrying weapons, so people online have called him a pirate. And yesterday, political commentator, Hasan Piker,

actually interviewed him on his stream, saying in a later post, "'I interviewed the Yemeni quote pirate yesterday "'and all he cares about is freeing Palestine.' "'Turns out he's not part of any militancy, according to him, and is 19. Spent most of his life being bombed, says he welcomes all who defend Palestine, no matter their background. And right off the bat, with the way that Hassan started the interview, you had people accusing him of trying to baby girlify a terrorist. Because Hassan asks him if he's seen the anime One Piece,

and then actually comparing the Houthis to the show's main character. We think the Houthis, inshallah, is doing what Luffy would do. Hassan also asking if he's part of a militancy or just a TikToker, which he said through his interpreter. His answer is a Yemeni who stands with Palestine. Hassan then asking him what compelled him to actually go on the ships, as well as other questions about news coverage about the situation and motivations behind it. Says he likes adventures and he is a big supporter of Palestine. Just reiterating that the cause is to cause disruption to the shipments that Americans have interest in

until they stop bombing Gaza, and that if they weren't affected by it, then they wouldn't retaliate on Yemen. And in this, there are also other bits unrelated to the conflict, or things like what is life like in Yemen, what other TV shows that he watches, stuff like that. And so with all this, depending on where you went online, you had people having drastically different reactions.

There was a lot of backlash, people saying Hassan was platforming a terrorist, people honing in on that whole one piece comparison saying that's brain rot. Actually, one of the most viral reactions of that being from political commentator Destiny. Dude, we think we think the Houthis, Ansar Allah, is doing what Luffy would do. You should tell him that. God, he's so cringe. He's like such a cringe loser i would pay so we raise a million dollars to send this dude to go fight in yemen and then all of us would volunteer for the navy holy shit he's such a cringe larping loser i cannot believe like nobody

in the history no fascist ever could have dreamed of such an amazing representation of socialism as the most anti-American, like pro-Islamic terrorist, you know, Turkish immigrant loser that is like cheeringan is actually doing the public an enormous service by speaking to a regular Yemeni guy with regular hopes, dreams, and hobbies, and asking where were you for the past 10 years when the Yemeni people lost lives and limbs just for the crime of existing. Another saying that the interview is actually amazing, with Hassan humanizing him and wanting us to understand that he is just a normal Yemeni teen. But with all that said, I gotta pass the question off to you. Where do you land on this? I know there's two camps. I don't know if there's a third where you're landing somewhere in between. What do you think about the platforming and interview? What do you think about the

reactions? What do you think about any and all of it and why? Let me know in those comments down below. And then there's even more news that we got to talk about today, but I got to take a second to pay some bills. Because let's face it, after all the holiday indulgence, traveling, maybe not sticking to your routine, it might be time to get back on track. Your gut health is so important, especially when it comes to your immune system. With all the viruses on overdrive right now, this is a great time to start a healthy habit with a fantastic sponsor of today's show, Seed and their DSO1 Daily Symbiotics. Seed's DSO1 is a two-in-one prebiotic and probiotic,

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and use code DEFRANCO25 at checkout to get 25% off your first order of Seed's DS01 Daily Symbiotic plus free shipping. And then horrific neglect and a violation of trust. Those are the words being used right now to describe this assisted living nightmare. And all of this ties back to the Washington Post because they published an absolutely devastating investigation last month that found that dozens of seniors in dementia care, they died in the last five years after leaving facilities unnoticed or being left unattended outside.

And around 2,000 of those incidents involved residents who had Alzheimer's and other kinds of dementia. This including many who lived in specialized so-called memory care units, where they charge for extra attention and security. And understand that 2,000 number, that's an undercount, because nearly 20 states don't even have public records available online. We're talking about the big boys like New York and Texas, places with lots of people.

In fact, after this investigation got published, readers reached out to share more information and stories, and it pushed the total number of known deaths above 100. And it being reported that most of the people who died, died because of prolonged exposure to extreme heat or cold. Also noting, others drowned in retention ponds, were hit by vehicles, and wandered into woods, rivers, and swamps. And infuriatingly, there's been little to no accountability for these horrific situations.

And that's in part because unlike nursing homes, America's 30,000 assisted living facilities are not regulated by the federal government. And so because of that, there's no federal record of deaths or injuries or how the failings of the facilities contributed to them. And so not having that national public data, it's undermined government accountability. Without that federal management, any kind of oversight's been left to the states, which as we often see has resulted in this kind of patchwork of regulations and enforcement. Well, percentage-wise, this could seem small. This is a massive problem that affects a lot of people, right? There are currently over 1 million Americans who live in these kinds of facilities. In fact, it's almost as many as live in nursing homes. And many of them in these facilities, they pay money for specialized care. We're talking

about an average of $6,000 a month. But despite those price tags, investigators frequently found inadequate staffing and training as factors in these deaths. In fact, the Post found that only two states, Alabama and Indiana, actually mandate minimum staff to resident ratios, require more than six hours of dementia training as recommended, and keep a public website disclosing inspection reports and enforcement actions. The Post also then detailing multiple examples of staff sleeping at work, falsifying records, skipping check-ins on residents, and ignoring alarms that indicated the doors to dementia care units had been open. Sometimes it was found that relatives weren't always told the truth about what had happened. And beyond that, the report found, oh my gosh, you're going

to be so shocked by this, greed may have been a massive factor. Finding that corporate investors seeking profits resulted in lower wages and fewer employees at some facilities. And very notably, the representatives for the assisted living industry, they didn't try to dispute the post-finding. Instead, responding by saying, hey, okay, these hundred deaths, they're just a small fraction of a growing population of residents. But there you had some, including Senator Bob Casey, calling bullshit. He's the chair of the Senate Special Committee on Aging. And yesterday, he sent letters to the three biggest assisted living chains in the country demanding information regarding their practices.

And specifically, we're talking about Brookdale, Atria, and Sunrise. With Senator Casey describing the Post's revelations as horrific neglect and a violation of trust, and adding, you have a set of cascading crises, the staffing problem, the oversight problem, a lack of information the family members need, and at a fundamental level, you have the quality of care problem. But then going on to ask how many of these incidents occur and how many families are told about them among other issues. But the key thing here, Casey also said that his committee will be looking into actions that the federal government should take and is setting a hearing for January 25th, which is a move that would mark the panel's most substantial review of the industry in more than two decades. But as we always say, words are words and actions are actions. And it remains to be seen

if anything meaningful is going to happen here. And I also say that because government officials and advocates have actually been warning about safety issues and poor oversight in the industry for decades. In fact, back in 2001, the same Senate committee even set up a working group that spent two years creating a list of recommendations. But that group, it was so full of disagreements, they literally couldn't even agree on how to define assisted living. So while I have hope for change, I'm not going to hold my breath here. And in the meantime, if you've had any experiences on whatever side in the assisted living world, I'd love to hear from you. And then this bizarre baby making scam that just got exposed, it makes

me sad. Because the easiest way to trick men is to tease their dick and or wallets. And in India, this network that just got exposed did both. Because they were offering huge sums of money to get women pregnant. With authorities saying they believe hundreds of men got tricked by these ad scams. Because the scammers, they'd place ads on sites like Facebook. And they'd have pics of these absolutely gorgeous women. And they're offering these guys who on average make $180 a month. Huge sums.

There was this one guy interviewed by the BBC. They offered him $6,000 to sleep with a woman. And he'd get nearly $10,000 more if she actually conceived. But of course, there was a catch. You had to pay to be a interviewed by the BBC. They offered him $6,000 to sleep with a woman, and he'd get nearly 10 grand more if she actually conceived. But of course, there was a catch. You had to pay to be a part of the service. You also had to pay to get certain court documents. Also, when I say court documents, it's not court documents. Like in some ways, yeah, okay, they look legit.

But then the signature is literally Oprah Winfrey's. And in the case of this one guy, right when he started pushing back, the scammers claimed, hey, we forwarded most of the money, but your bank, they're holding it until you pay us income tax. And so really, like, this is just one of the more unique ways that this really common practice has been packaged. Well, this specific guy, luckily, he bailed on the whole project after telling the agency that he couldn't afford the taxes. There have been numerous other victims, though we don't know the actual number. And that's because it's been so hard to investigate because the victims are uncooperative.

Which makes sense. I mean, you listening to me right now, you're probably thinking, are these the dumbest motherfuckers on the planet? Which I would say possibly, but you also have to understand that desperation, I think it knocks out some IQ points. I mean, even the guy, the BBC interview, he didn't want the outlet using his real name. And experts have noted, right,

that desperation that I just talked about is part of the reason why these scams are so shockingly successful over in India. Because in general, you have poorer individuals who are desperate financially, but also they're far more trusting of information they see online. So all of this has resulted in calls for not only the Indian government to do more to fight this, but for the private companies

that are inadvertently facilitating these scams to actually stop them. But with that, I will say, because I have no faith in private companies or the government to do the right thing, just remember this advice. If something seems too good to be true, it is. You and I, we are not special. We are not the main character in a simulation. It's one of the reasons I have never accepted any compliment anyone in my life has ever given me. Even this show. I know none of you are real. I'm not that talented.

It's far more likely that 17 years ago, someone as a joke decided to pay a bot farm to get comments and views on my video, and then they accidentally left autopay on. None of you are real. Someone just tricked me into talking to myself in a room by myself for the last almost 20 years. But main point in all seriousness, just be careful. Desperation makes people so easy to manipulate. And then finally today, you asked for it. You demanded it. You honestly called me some things that hurt my feelings. I thought we were friends. I'm not your dancing monkey. This monkey is going to dance because let's talk about yesterday today. We take a look back at yesterday's show. We dive into those comments and see what y'all had to say, and wow, the dive into our own weapons being one of the biggest threats to our troops had a lot of people talking.

We all sharing things like, I was a field artilleryman in the Marine Corps and had pretty much every one of those symptoms and was only diagnosed with PTSD. I think I need to get re-evaluated now after seeing this, thank you. People disgusted how the government treats veterans, saying the military being its own worst enemy and saying, no, that can't be it when given the data is really and truly an accurate representation of all of America, it's gutting itself while denying hurting itself. With Woofie1988 writing, And Kenti7 sharing, Trauma due to blast story hit me hard. I spent seven years as a mortar man in the US Army. I was subject to tens of thousands of blasts and I never even deployed to a war zone. Now that I'm out and I need to make my medical claims

at the VA, they insist that because I didn't go to see a doctor for head trauma while I was in the Army, they can't cover it as it isn't related to my service. And really, this is just a small taste of the numerous, numerous comments and claims we saw. And it's all just disheartening and concerning. But I thank everyone for their comments and sharing their stories.

So for today, that is where we're going to end today's show. As always, thank you to everyone for being a part of these daily dives into the news. And of course, remember, my name's Philip DeFranco. You've just been filled in. I love your faces and I'll see you tomorrow.