The Philip DeFranco Show - PDS 12.12 WE DID IT?! Star Wars CONTROVERSY & Backlash, Shane Dawson, Algeria's "Sham Election", &

Starting point is 00:00:00 Sup, you beautiful bastards. Hope you have a fantastic Thursday. Welcome back to the Philip DeFranco Show. Buckle up, hit that like button, and let's just jump into it. And the first thing we're gonna talk about today is kind of a mixture of a story and a thank you. Last night, part of the streaming awards took place. The rest of it happens live on Friday,

Starting point is 00:00:17 and we won best news, which, wow, thank you. Also, a thank you, and I'm proud of the team that we've been building. And finally, three, a thank you to you watching right now. Some of you have subscribed and joined the nation just last week, some about five years, some now over a decade, and just thank you. I'm privileged and humbled you allow me into your life,

Starting point is 00:00:36 your home, your phone, your whatever. Also, an extra big thank you if you supported any day. I mean, that could be from likes to just sharing videos to maybe you subscribe onto Franco Elite, maybe you just support our sponsors, whatever. Thank you. This is my dream job, even on the bad days and you enable that. And so I hope even if it's like in the smallest way, you feel like a part of this win. Also, I will say the 3% petty part of my brain is extremely happy we beat my former bosses. Two years ago, the show and myself were in a much different place, and now this.

Starting point is 00:01:09 Also, let's turn this into an actual news story. A big congratulations to some of the other winners so far. Shane Dawson winning the documentary category for Secret World of Jeffree Star. Donut Media winning the Streamy for Sport. Sam and Colby winning for Action or Sci-Fi. Epic Rap Battles of History winning best costume design. Brandon Rogers winning for best scripted series

Starting point is 00:01:27 for Blame the Hero. And finally, one of the ones I was probably most happy to see was Andre Turbia winning for best animation. If you don't know, Andre, way back in the day, made Sourcefed animated. He always brought that content to just a different level, and so it's been awesome all these years later to see him just succeeding on his own.

Starting point is 00:01:43 Yeah, there was that. And actually, the question I'll connect to this story, how long have you been watching? Do you remember the first video that you watched and where are you from? And then let's talk about these controversies surrounding the upcoming Star Wars film. And for the most part, this is based mainly on comments

Starting point is 00:01:57 coming from the cast and the crew. And so for those who don't know, you have JJ Abrams who wrote and directed The Force Awakens, right? The first film in the latest Star Wars trilogy. Then had Rian Johnson direct the next episode, The Last Jedi, and then Abrams, who wrote and directed The Force Awakens, right? The first film in the latest Star Wars trilogy. Then had Rian Johnson direct the next episode, The Last Jedi. And then Abrams came back for the third and final episode in this trilogy called The Rise of Skywalker. Now, as far as the reception of these films, I mean, people have been so divided over them.

Starting point is 00:02:16 For The Force Awakens, you had some people saying they loved it, others feeling like it was a repeat of the original trilogy. Then you had The Last Jedi, which was definitely more divisive. And we all saw the opposite problem. Among the reactions, you had some calling it the best Star Wars film since The Empire Strikes Back, and some saying it was the best one of all time. Meanwhile, you had others saying

Starting point is 00:02:31 they really, really didn't like it, saying in some places it strayed too far from Star Wars tradition, other places feel forced and kind of agenda driven. Though, regarding the note of the break in tradition, that's also part of the reason why some other people loved it. This movie, there was especially a divide

Starting point is 00:02:45 between the critics and the fans. I mean, just looking at Rotten Tomatoes, critics gave it a 91% while fans gave it a 43%. Though some have also accused fans of review bombing just to tank that score. And notably, that gave it the lowest audience score for any Star Wars film, this including the prequels and Solo.

Starting point is 00:02:59 But the big update to this story is very much thanks to the rise of Skywalker coming out in a week. Right, everyone's out promoting the movie. There are articles, there are interviews, fun videos. You know, some of the reasoning behind the divide when it comes to these movies, it was kind of summed up in this New York Times article with JJ Abrams. And there you have writer Dave Itzkoff saying,

Starting point is 00:03:16 "'Each Time It, The Last Jedi' addressed one "'of several cliffhangers left dangling "'from the Force Awakens. "'What would happen when Rey returned "'Luke Skywalker's lightsaber to him? "'Who were her parents? "'Who was the nefarious Supreme Leader Snoke? Johnson's movie seemed to say, the answers to these questions aren't as important as you think. And in this piece, Abrams actually talks about his thoughts on The Last Jedi and this point in particular. Now,

Starting point is 00:03:35 first, I do want to say it is worth noting that he did praise Johnson's movie and said it was, quote, full of surprises and subversion and all sorts of bold choices. But he then added, on the other hand, it's a bit of a meta approach to the story. I don't think that people go to Star Wars to be told this doesn't matter. And so these comments from Abrams started a massive discussion on social media,

Starting point is 00:03:54 with some pointing out that he's actually not the only one from the franchise to make remarks seemingly against Johnson in The Last Jedi. Right, in that same article, Daisy Ridley, who plays Rey, said that she cried out of relief when Abrams was coming back to direct the third movie. John Boyega who plays Finn saying he really wanted to see

Starting point is 00:04:07 where Abrams' story was going. Also adding in another profile that he found the last Jedi to be iffy. The conversation around this was just massive and there were so many different takes and we're gonna kind of just touch on a few big ones. You know, this included people who think that the cast and crew shouldn't publicly criticize

Starting point is 00:04:21 Johnson like this. Writing, Ryan Johnson should be well within his rights to swear off Star Wars forever after the shit he took. Instead, he's been nothing but gracious while his collaborators throw him under the bus. Others saying Johnson should not even be to blame, writing, it's insane that none of these folks ever acknowledged that Abrams was the one who handed Johnson in episode eight

Starting point is 00:04:36 with every character scattered to the winds in a Luke Skywalker who had retired in shame and fled into hiding. Some also praising The Last Jedi, saying Ryan set up a compelling film that asks new questions about the Star Wars universe, not the same old this is good and this is bad. But with that said, there were plenty of people

Starting point is 00:04:53 on the other side of the argument as well. Some finding an element of hypocrisy in The Last Jedi fans so eagerly criticizing Abrams, with tweets like, "'Funny to see many of the same people "'who called out SW fans for being too toxic "'towards The Last Jedi and Rian Johnson "'are now being exactly as toxic themselves "'toward TFA and JJ Abrams.'" Many of the same people who called out SW fans for being too toxic towards The Last Jedi and Rian Johnson are now being exactly as toxic themselves

Starting point is 00:05:07 toward TFA and JJ Abrams. But also, a thing I wanted to include in this whole situation is I think a very interesting point was made by Vanity Fair writer Joanna Robinson. Right, she acknowledged that press in general for films like Star Wars means that everyone involved is walking a very thin line. Writing, I think JJ has been very careful

Starting point is 00:05:22 to be supportive of Rian through all of this and I think in trying to make sure fans felt heard as well, he threaded the needle incorrectly. Writing, about the movie itself. As a Thrones journal, I can relate. So you make your stories out of the barest of scraps, which in this case added up to something unintentionally ugly. To which I will say regarding J.J. Abrams, speaking of Rian Johnson, Kevin Polley, who also interviewed J.J. Abrams, released a full response from J.J.

Starting point is 00:05:55 where he notes Johnson's contributions and says, "'But there are a lot of details and story points "'that Rian set up in Last Jedi "'that we run with in this movie. "'I don't think this movie would have been "'nearly what it is without the choices that Ryan made, so I'm nothing but grateful." But also, that was not the only Star Wars controversy.

Starting point is 00:06:10 Specifically, there was a focus on John Boyega. He did an interview with Variety where he was asked about using social media, which Boyega is fairly active on. And the interviewer notes that his co-star, Kelly Marie Tran, who plays Rose, actually quit social media after being harassed online repeatedly.

Starting point is 00:06:23 And so they ask, essentially, how he navigates the good and the bad sides of it, which he says this. You just understand the masses, how the masses think, you know, and how, you know, through social media we get to engage, we get to have fun. But at the same time, for those who are not mentally strong, you are weak to believe in every single thing that you read. And I guess that's, you know, it is what it is. And so following this, you had many fans seeing this as a dig to Kelly,

Starting point is 00:06:48 thinking that he was specifically calling her weak. But he also later went to Twitter to try to clear things up, saying, In no way was I referring to Kelly when I made my comments, although the interviewer mentioned her given the topic. I was really speaking from my own perspective throughout this franchise. Sometimes I've felt strong and sometimes I've felt weak. Badly worded though, I apologize. And adding my comments on Kelly specifically

Starting point is 00:07:06 and online harassment remains the same via a tweet I put out a few years ago. And that tweet, which went out around the time that Kelly quit social media, was if you don't like Star Wars or the characters, understand there are decision makers and harassing the actors slash actresses will do nothing. You're not entitled to politeness

Starting point is 00:07:19 when your approach is rude, even if you paid for a ticket. Yeah, ultimately that's kind of the most talked about stories around this right now. And as far as my opinion, whatever your thoughts are regarding Star Wars, I completely agree, because Star Wars fans be crazy. And by crazy, I mean crazy awesome. Look at Baby Yoda, feel happy feeling.

Starting point is 00:07:36 How cute and memeable. Anyway, what are your thoughts on this story? Any and all thoughts, appreciated. Comments down below. And then, let's briefly talk about something that a number of people wanted me to talk about, and then get to the thing that I actually wanna talk about.

Starting point is 00:07:48 Right, so like we briefly covered yesterday, Greta Thunberg, 16-year-old climate activist, becomes Time Person of the Year. And as expected, we see a lot of opinions regarding this choice, some celebration, some criticism. And then this morning, we heard from President Trump, who tweeted in response to Roma Downey congratulating Greta,

Starting point is 00:08:04 "'So ridiculous. Greta must work on her anger management problem. Then go to a good old fashioned movie with a friend. Chill Greta, chill." To which Greta responded by changing her Twitter bio to a teenager working on her anger management problem, "'Currently chilling and watching a good old fashioned movie with a friend.'"

Starting point is 00:08:19 Right, so essentially responding in the same fashion as the last time that Donald Trump took a shot at her. Which if for a second we can chill out, tear down the walls of tribalism, there are people that have different political affiliations, different biases watching this show. How insane is it that in 2019, you can accurately have the headline,

Starting point is 00:08:35 "'President of the United States "'tries to troll 16-year-old on Twitter'," and the general reaction is, "'Yeah, that sounds about right.'" And some people saying that reaction with disgust, others not. This seeming to be connected to people thinking that she is fair game regardless of her age

Starting point is 00:08:48 because she is a public figure and activist. Right now online, there's this whole debate regarding what Trump said to Greta, people comparing and contrasting that to the Barron Trump moment that got spun up into this whole other thing the last week. And I mean, you can go online, take a look at that for yourself,

Starting point is 00:09:02 but I'm gonna end this story here and then move on to this story around the border. Though specifically, this story is about doctors, vaccines, immigrants, and border patrol. And if you've been looking into stories around this, you may have seen headlines like, "'Doctors protested border patrol "'to offer flu vaccines to detained migrants.

Starting point is 00:09:17 "'They left in handcuffs and without answers.'" We're gonna talk about what happened, but before that, we also need to talk about why it even happened in the first place. Back in August, we saw reports that six migrant children had died either while in government custody or soon after their release. Three of those children actually died from the flu,

Starting point is 00:09:31 which is notable because in a letter penned by doctors with Harvard and John Hopkins, the doctor said that "'Influenza deaths are fairly rare events "'for children living in the United States,' and adding, "'While comparisons are difficult "'for many reasons, this rate of death from influenza "'appears to be substantially less "'than the rate in detention facilities.

Starting point is 00:09:46 Last week, we also learned more about one of those children, 16-year-old Carlos Hernandez Vazquez. In footage obtained and published by ProPublica, we see Vazquez collapse in his cell. According to ProPublica, no guards ever came to check on them. Later, Vazquez gets up, he goes to the bathroom,

Starting point is 00:10:00 but again, he collapses. And according to ProPublica, this is the last time he was ever seen moving. And the video then goes blank for a few hours. Now the guards reportedly said that they conducted three wellness checks in that time period. But when the video starts again,

Starting point is 00:10:12 Vasquez is in the same position. Salmi then later wakes up to find Vasquez laying in the bathroom. He calls for a border patrol agent who then finds Vasquez didn't have a pulse. Right, so with that, on top of everything else, it led to doctors trying to offer flu vaccinations to willing migrants.

Starting point is 00:10:24 This at a short-term detention facility in San Diego, those doctors reportedly with a group called Doctors for Camp Closure. And for their part, they said they only wanted to give migrants the option to receive life-saving preventative medicine. They had wanted to give at least 100 shots, and on Monday, about 20 doctors came to the center

Starting point is 00:10:38 with multiple coolers of flu vaccines. Those doctors were then told to come back the next day to meet with border officials, but when they reportedly returned on Tuesday, again to ask to be allowed to vaccinate migrants, the border patrol told them no. And regarding that decision, one emergency medicine research fellow said,

Starting point is 00:10:51 "'This is intentional cruelty. "'People are needlessly suffering and dying. "'You can't lock people up in inhumane conditions, "'watch them get sick, "'and then refuse them access to medical care.'" Right, and so after being denied, we saw the doctors begin to protest. Laying down in front of the border patrol headquarters,

Starting point is 00:11:04 meanwhile you had other people chanting from the sign line, "'Shame on you.'" Federal protective service officers then gave those people a six minute warning to get up, but what we eventually saw was the police arresting those people. This reportedly including at least two doctors and four other people.

Starting point is 00:11:16 Now they were soon released after being given a notice to appear in federal court and a citation quote for failure to comply with the lawful directions of a federal police officer. Now, all of that said, on the other side of this, we saw the Department of Homeland Security press secretary tweet, "'Of course Border Patrol isn't going to let

Starting point is 00:11:29 "'a random group of radical political activists show up "'and start injecting people with drugs.'" And on top of all of that, you also had US Customs and Border Protection telling multiple news outlets that it's never vaccinated migrants in its custody. This because, according to the CPP, most migrants will either be released

Starting point is 00:11:42 or transferred to a different federal agency within 72 hours of being detained. And so saying because of that, operating a vaccine program is not feasible. Although I will say, I think I want to note here, last month, a letter written by officials inside the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was released. And that letter revealed that the CDC

Starting point is 00:11:57 had repeatedly urged the CBP to offer flu vaccines, among other things. And also as the Washington Post pointed out, by the CBP's own admission, it has held people beyond that 72 hour window, including hundreds of children who have been held for an average of six days, twice the legally allowed time. And also a thing to note here,

Starting point is 00:12:12 the reason there's such a big focus on the CBP is that actually the long-term detention centers run by ICE and the Department of Health and Human Services actually do vaccinate migrants. Right, and so the CBP really doesn't see it as a responsibility, and that's why you also had a spokesperson for them say, "'We would encourage those who wish

Starting point is 00:12:26 "'to volunteer medical services "'to go to shelters and NGO facilities, "'both in the US and in Mexico, "'to donate their time and services.'" With the CBP also noting that while it's refused to offer flu shots, they said they did follow a CDC recommendation to hire more nurses and physician's assistants, saying that a year ago,

Starting point is 00:12:40 their medical staff was about 20, and now it's at 250. To which the obvious criticism to that is, yes, you have 250 people, not giving people the flu vaccine in a system that is becoming increasingly congested and struggling with pushing migrants through that three-day window. Now as far as what's next,

Starting point is 00:12:54 what other reactions we saw following the CBP's statement, we saw Senator Kamala Harris tweet about the incident saying it makes no sense to deny flu vaccines to immigrant children in US custody. We also saw the ACLU responding to that tweet from the DHS press secretary saying, "'When our government refers to doctors "'as quote, radical political activists

Starting point is 00:13:09 "'and flu vaccines as drugs, "'it becomes clear how far we've slipped "'from the realm of reality.'" But ultimately, that's where we are. It's gonna be interesting to see what happens. You know, yesterday we saw border patrol officials meeting briefly with protest leaders, with those officials telling protestors

Starting point is 00:13:21 they would pass on the request to start a pilot program that allowed doctors to vaccinate detained migrants at that facility. And reportedly that request has now been forwarded to the CBP's chief medical officer. Right, so maybe there's progress, maybe there's the potential for change, but we're gonna have to wait and see for now.

Starting point is 00:13:35 Now that said, of course, with this story, I would love to know your thoughts in those comments down below. And the last thing we're gonna talk about today is news around an election, though not the UK election, as you might expect, which actually around the time this video goes up, the polls should close there.

Starting point is 00:13:47 We should have a better understanding of what's happening in the UK. But today we're actually talking about Algeria. And that's because in Algeria today, we have seen protests breaking out all over the country over a presidential election. The protesters there are calling for the election to be boycotted.

Starting point is 00:14:00 They say that this election is a sham and that free and fair elections can't be held as long as the ruling elite and the military are in power. But here's the thing, even though today, you know, we're talking about this election taking place today, the protests taking place today, Algerians have actually been holding weekly peaceful protests for nearly 10 months now, right?

Starting point is 00:14:16 And so to fully understand this whole situation, we have to jump back in time to February when the protests first started. That was because Algeria's 81-year-old president, Bouteflika, announced that he would be running for a fifth term. Right, so you have Bouteflika, announced that he would be running for a fifth term. Right, so you have Bouteflika, he's already been president for two decades,

Starting point is 00:14:28 but also ever since he suffered a stroke in 2013, he also rarely makes public appearances. And in fact, according to reports, he's basically left the day-to-day running of the country to a very secretive group of his own relatives and senior military officials. And so with the announcement that he wanted to keep that system in place,

Starting point is 00:14:41 it was just met with massive protests. And what we ended up seeing a few weeks later is that Bouteflika announced that he would step down at the end of his term, but also adding that he would to keep that system in place, it was just met with massive protests. And what we ended up seeing a few weeks later is that Buta Flika announced that he would step down at the end of his term, but also adding that he would remain in power for the next few months to ease the transition to the next president, which ended up just fueling the protests

Starting point is 00:14:54 and the movement even more. Following that, we saw Buta Flika finally resign in April, this after his military chief called for a constitutional provision to be activated that would deem the president unfit to rule. Also, that military chief became the de facto leader of the country and Buta Flika appointed an interim president and prime minister

Starting point is 00:15:09 until the elections could be held in 90 days. But the protest also didn't stop there. Instead, the protesters called for the military chief, the interim president, and prime minister to step down as well, and for the military to give up control of the government, arguing that those leaders were part of the corrupt old regime and had benefited

Starting point is 00:15:23 from Buta Flika's rule, And because of that, ultimately nothing would change as long as they held power or controlled the election. So when the military scheduled new elections for July, we saw protesters demand that they cancel them. Eventually the military leaders agreed to the protesters demand and called off the elections, but the military still refused to give up power and the interim leaders still refused to step down.

Starting point is 00:15:41 Right, so with the lack of actual structural change, the demonstrations continued. Then in September, we saw the government announce that they would hold elections on December 12th, and just kind of keeping with the trend here, the protests also kept going. With the protesters continuing with the same demands, the interim leaders and the military need to step down,

Starting point is 00:15:55 calling for the December elections to be canceled until there can be a complete overhaul of the political system. And also, calls to cancel the election became even more heightened because all five candidates for president, who by the way, were all chosen by the government, had ties to Budaflika or his regime.

Starting point is 00:16:09 With four of them having actually served as ministers under him. So because the military and the interim leaders and even the candidates to be the new leaders all had ties to Budaflika, understandably many protesters believe they could not be trusted to hold a free and transparent election.

Starting point is 00:16:23 A concern that seems even more legitimate due to the fact that the government has denied the protesters' demand to hold a free and transparent election. A concern that seems even more legitimate due to the fact that the government has denied the protesters' demand to have independent supervision of the election. Right, just a giant red flag. But ultimately what we ended up seeing is the leadership and the military refused to cancel this election,

Starting point is 00:16:35 arguing that it was the only way forward and the only way to achieve political stability. And so with this, what we ended up seeing were protesters even more frustrated, even more energized, taking to the streets to call for a boycott of the election altogether. And so we ended up seeing tons of people more frustrated, even more energized, taking to the streets to call for a boycott of the election altogether. And so we ended up seeing tons of people in the Capitol today reportedly chanting,

Starting point is 00:16:49 "'There is no vote today, independence, "'and no vote with the mafia.'" Those protesters were met by riot police who reportedly clashed with demonstrators and violently dispersed the crowds. Also in some city, protesters stormed polling places and threw ballot boxes to the ground, tossing ballots in the air.

Starting point is 00:17:03 Police have responded in some places with tear gas and ultimately, as of recording this video, that is where we are. And right now, it's incredibly unclear what happens next. According to reports, voter turnout was already insanely low, standing at just 33% by 5 p.m. local time with just two hours left. But we should also know that those numbers

Starting point is 00:17:18 are coming from the government's election agency. And with this election that's not being monitored independently, you know, is someone gonna get more than 50% of the votes? If they don't get that, the two leading candidates have a runoff election in a few weeks. What does that mean for the government? What does that mean for the protest?

Starting point is 00:17:31 And you know, looking at the situation, it's hard to see this as anything other than a regime trying to hold on to power any means necessary. Whether it be the way that the candidates and the old regime, everyone's connected, the way people have been forced through. According to reports, people have been arrested and sentenced same day for speaking out.

Starting point is 00:17:48 According to Human Rights Watch, just two days ago, a prominent rights defender was arrested, convicted, and sentenced same day to one year in prison on charges that appear to be related solely to his criticism of military and political authorities and his participation in a political protest. The main point, this is gonna be a really interesting one to watch, we'll keep our eyes on it

Starting point is 00:18:04 and we'll see where it goes. And that is where I'm going to end today's show. And hey, if you liked this video, take a second to hit that like button. Also, if you're new here, you want more of these daily dives into the news together, just hit that subscribe button, definitely tap that bell right after

Starting point is 00:18:16 to turn on notifications. Also, if you're looking for more to watch, you should definitely check out that brand new podcast I put out with Anthony Padilla, or maybe you missed the last Philip DeFranco show, you wanna catch up, you can click or tap right there to watch that. But with that said, of course, or maybe you missed the last Philip DeFranco show, you wanna catch up, you can click or tap right there to watch that. But with that said, of course, as always,

Starting point is 00:18:28 my name's Philip DeFranco, you've just been filled in. I love yo faces and I'll see you next time.

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The Philip DeFranco Show - PDS 12.12 WE DID IT?! Star Wars CONTROVERSY & Backlash, Shane Dawson, Algeria's "Sham Election", &

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