The Philip DeFranco Show - PDS 12.5 Hawk Tuah Girl’s “Scam” Scandal is Crazy, CEO Killer Updates, “Deny Defend Depose”, & Today's News

Episode Date: December 5, 2024

Big News Today so I'm ending the week with a Huge Show for you... Visit  https://www.cozyearth.com/defranco and use my code DEFRANCO to get 40% off your purchase! Free shipping if ordered by 12/13!�� Go to https://buyraycon.com/defranco to get up to 25% off sitewide! Brought to you by Raycon. Buy yourself a comfy present @ https://BeautifulBastard.com  – ✩ TODAY’S STORIES ✩ – 00:00 - Hawk Tuah Crypto Launch Leads to Backlash 03:20 - Updates on the United Healthcare CEO 05:41 - Study Finds Leaded Gasoline Exhaust Caused 150M Excess Mental Disorders in US  08:21 - Sponsored by Cozy Earth 09:32 - What Trump’s Deportation Plans Could Look Like When He Takes Office 18:56 - Sponsored by Raycon 19:58 - DOJ Report Details Excessive Force and Mistreatment by Memphis PD  24:04 - Dozens of Countries Hit by Chinese “Salt Typhoon” Hacking Campaign 27:10 - No-Confidence Vote Collapses French Government After Only Three Months in Power 30:13 - Comment Commentary   ——————————   Produced by: Cory Ray Edited by: James Girardier, Maxwell Enright, Julie Goldberg, Christian Meeks, Matthew Henry Art Department: William Crespo Writing/Research: Philip DeFranco, Brian Espinoza, Lili Stenn, Maddie Crichton, Chris Tolve, Star Pralle, Jared Paolino Associate Producer on Trump Deportations: Jared Paolino ———————————— For more Philip DeFranco: Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-philip-defranco-show/id1278424954 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6ESemquRbz6f8XLVywdZ2V Twitter:   https://x.com/PhillyD Instagram:   https://instagram.com/PhillyDeFranco Newsletter: https://www.dailydip.co TikTok:   https://www.tiktok.com/@philipdefranco?lang=en ———————————— #DeFranco #HawkTuah #Coffeezilla ———————————— Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Sup, you beautiful bastards. Welcome back to the Philip DeFranco Show, your daily dive into the news. Today is Thursday, December 5th. There is a lot we need to talk about today, but let's start, let's start with you hitting that like button and talking about the Hawk to a Girl controversy.

Real name, Hayley Welch, but everyone calls her Hawk to a Girl. Spit on that thing. Unfortunately, in this situation, the thing that she is apparently spitting on is in people's faces. Allegedly, allegedly, allegedly, I'm stealing that from Desus and Mero.

So here's the deal. Hawk to a girl is the most recent. Influence her to launch a crypto meme coin. It's called the Hawk coin. It went live yesterday after a lot of promotion. And she even did an interview with Fortune about it, claiming that it wasn't just a cash grab. Saying, you know, she used to view crypto

as just a scam and an easy way for you to lose money. But then claiming that her opinion changed after attending crypto conferences. Saying, I don't really see it as like a scam and an easy way for you to lose money. Then claiming that her opinion changed after attending crypto conferences, saying, I don't really see it as like a gambling thing. I think it's like a fun way to get my fans to interact. With their manager then also claiming that the Hawk token, it'll be different from other previous celebrity crypto endeavors

because they're not telling people to buy it and will give free tokens to her followers and people who have purchased merch. And with that also claiming that Haley will own 10% of the supply, but can't sell for a year. But seemingly one of the immediate responses to this coin was a lot of skepticism. Some saying, you know, it seems like she's maybe gonna be

talking to a judge. But also huge influencers in the space like CoffeeZilla adding, please do not put your money in hock to a coin. Meme coins always benefit A, insiders, B, trading bots. Don't be exit liquidity. And then with all of that, Hailey ended up trending this morning. With a lot of people discussing how the coin

had already plummeted substantially. So with that, some have accused her and insiders of a pump and dump scheme, though Haley's denied that anyone on her team has sold yet and said no leaders were given free tokens. But according to the Independent, at least one investor has already filed a complaint. You also had others online talking about how much money

they ended up losing. Though there, I will say it appears that there's like a mishmash if you look online of some people that seem to have legitimately lost money and other people just kind of memeing and making fun of those who did. Because really whoever is losing money on this, if you look online, there's not a lot of sympathy for them.

And personally, I find myself on the side of those that are not sympathetic here. Because I think that if you lost money on the Hawk to a girl meme coin, you're either dumb, greedy, or some mixture of the two. Who's out there going out of everyone in the space, Hawk to a is the girl that's figured it out. I looked at her track record of talking enthusiastically

about blow jobs and a man on the street video. And then she took that fame and partnered with Jake Paul's sports betting company to launch a podcast. And I said, this is the one. And with this, I'll say I'm very interested how Hayley Welch is gonna navigate this situation. Because really, if you look out there and for me personally, to some extent,

she is burnt through some goodwill. And that in part because how she's dealing with the criticism. Because she and some of the people involved here went live and they ended up allowing CoffeeZilla to speak. And this is how the interaction started. I'm really happy to answer any questions. I have questions.

I'm raising my hand. Hey guys. What CoffeeZilla? Hey, this is one of the most miserable, horrible launches I've ever seen in my life. Okay, then why the fuck are you on? I've been tracing it on chain for a while. Oh, Haley, what are you doing? But hey, we'll see what happens.

If I was a betting man, given my 18 years in the space, the way I imagine this is going to play out, at least from a PR perspective, people are going to infantilize Haley and allow her to use her ignorance in this space, the way I imagine this is gonna play out, at least from a PR perspective, people are gonna infantilize Hailey and allow her to use her ignorance in this space as a shield. And while she is a young woman and a lot's been thrown at her, she's not a fucking baby. But obviously social and PR concerns are different than any potential legal fallout. So for now, we'll have to wait and see.

And of course, in the meantime, I'd love to know your thoughts in those comments down below. But then we gotta talk about updates around the killing of the CEO of United Healthcare. Because among other things, the social media response has only grown since yesterday. Because yesterday we touched on the fact that people online were, let's say, not very sad about the news, to put it politely. And since then, we've seen outlets like Axios doing a piece noting that this murder, quote, unleashed a wave of social media fueled rage against health insurers.

With the outlet adding there, experts say the lack of sympathy reflect "'an inherent truth about Americans and their health plans. "'People tend to like their own insurer, "'but distrust the industry, "'and indeed the health system at large.'" And that outrage only grew when Anthem Blue Cross, Blue Shield decided that yesterday of all days would be a good day to announce that it was limiting anesthesia coverage in three states.

They will no longer cover the full length of anesthesia if the surgery exceeds a certain amount of time, depending on what the procedure is. With the initial news stating this would impact those in New York, Missouri, and Connecticut, the local outlets in Connecticut have since said that at least in that state, the policy was backtracked. Now, currently, it is not clear if the backtracking will extend to the other states, but the point stands that as the initial news broke, people were pissed, right? You had medical groups slamming the potential decision, as has big political figures like the governor of New York. But also what we've seen is the biggest response, given the timing of this coming the day of the

murder of UHC CEO Brian Thompson, is people deciding to share the name of Blue Cross's CEO. And so with that, some openly hoping for a take two, some saying that this stain for the health insurance industry seems to be the only thing uniting both sides of this country. And I don't think that it's crazy to think, given the reaction we have seen online, that this could spark copycats in the future. And right now, it really doesn't look like their response is changing. And if anything, it's really only growing

as we get new updates into the manhunt for the suspect. Which, speaking of those, we'll touch on some of the big ones. This morning, the NYPD shared new photos of a person of interest wanted for questioning. Officers have also said that they found shell casings at the scene of the killing that had the words deny, defend, and depose written on them. While the gunman is still at large and

the motive is technically unclear, some have started speculating about what those words might mean. For example, the New York Times saying that some of those words could be a reference to the ways insurance companies seek to fend off claims. Starting a 2010 book on the topic delay, deny, defend argues that health insurers claims departments try to increase their profits by not honoring the terms of insurance policies. With the Times also reporting that police in the Minnesota town that Thompson lived in actually investigated bomb threats

into his residence around 12 hours after he was shot. And while any connection to the killing is still being looked into, NBC News did report this afternoon that the threat may have been a hoax. But for now, that's where we are and we'll have to wait to see what happens with this suspect and the manhunt in general.

And then, this might be hyperbole, but I will let you be the judge. The decision to put lead in pretty much everything has to rank as one of the worst things the United States did during the 20th century, which is saying something, if you know anything, about US history. Because lead is a neurotoxin that wrecks your brain

and poisons nearly every organ system in the body. I mean, there's a reason that the CDC says there is no safe amount of it. So thankfully, we banned lead paint in 1978, lead pipes in 86, and leaded gasoline in 1996. But what that doesn't mean is that we are free of its effects. In fact, more than half of the current US population

was exposed to adverse lead levels in childhood from leaded gasoline alone. But of course, that begs the question, well, what does that actually mean for those people? How are they really affected? Well, to answer that, now we've actually got a peer-reviewed study from researchers at Duke University, Florida State University,

and the Medical University of South Carolina answering that exact question. Or with it analyzing childhood blood lead levels from 1940 to 2015, and singling out the effect of leaded gasoline in particular. And according to their findings, Americans suffered an estimated 151 million

excess mental health disorders that they wouldn't have had if they didn't breathe in all those exhaust fumes. Though this is if you were born closer to 1940 or 2015, you have less to worry about. Or because the brunt of the damage it hit Generation X, those born between 1966 and 1986, with the people born between 1966 and 1970

getting impacted especially hard since they grew up at the peak of leaded gasoline's use. And so for all of them, they could expect higher rates of depression, anxiety, and ADHD, as well as altered personalities. The study's co-author even telling CNN, "'We believe that lead exposure makes people "'a little less conscientious, so less well-organized,

"'less detail-oriented, less likely to be able "'to pursue their goals in an organized way, "'and more neurotic.'" Possibly some of your parents and extended family are coming to mind right now. And according to a previous study by the same authors, exposure to leaded gasoline lowered the IQ of half the present day population of the United States.

Or more specifically, costing an estimated 824 million IQ points in total, or 2.6 per person on average. Which I would say, you know, for most people probably isn't noticeable on an individual level, but on the population level, it's like we took the entire bell curve of America's IQ

and shifted the whole thing to the left. Right, and specifically for people born in the 60s and 70s, the loss was definitely noticeable, with them losing up to six or seven IQ points. And so you have the study's co-author telling NBC, "'We're not at all concerned that we have in any way "'overestimated the harm.'" In fact, the estimate might be an undercount

since the study didn't measure all possible sources of lead exposure, because as mentioned, lead still contaminates water pipes, house paint, children's toys, and soil in many parts of the country. Plus, this study only considers mental health effects, but physical ailments are a big thing too, which is why you had the co-authors saying to CNN, "'Millions of Americans are walking around

"'with an unknown, invisible history of lead exposure "'that is likely influenced for the worse "'how they think, feel, and behave.'" So yeah, wasn't that a fun thing to learn about? But then, taking a quick breather from the news, it is the season of giving. And I love sharing my favorite finds when they come with amazing discounts.

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And if you fill out a post-purchase survey, let them know the PDS sent you. But then for this next deep dive, I'm gonna do it at my standing desk because my legs are falling asleep. Okay, here we go. So we should talk about Donald Trump and immigration because he's been making some big promises.

And so we've talked a little bit about what to expect, but we should really deep dive into it. And so to start, we should actually go back to the first time that Trump was elected. In 2017, he started his presidency pledging to deport millions of immigrants as well. And in the end there, he really found that it wasn't that simple. There were all sorts of logistical, financial, and legal obstacles. And finally, there was a public outcry when he began separating migrant families at the border, all of which eventually led to him reversing course and signing an executive order that ended the practice. But here's the thing. Even though that happened, there's a reason to believe that things will be different this time.

It's why we're seeing people like Lee Gelerne, an ACLU lawyer who challenged some of Trump's first-term immigration policies, saying, As bad as the first Trump administration was for immigrants, we anticipate it will be much worse this time. And this in part because not only did Donald Trump win the presidency, he has the House and the Senate on his side. And while it's true that he had that as well in 2016, the makeup of the Republicans there, it's different. There are actually a number of Republican senators that push back more. Like, for example, nearly a dozen GOP senators once opposed his attempts to use emergency powers to take funds to build the border wall.

Whereas now, it doesn't really seem like we should expect numbers like that to pop up. And then on top of that, he's also now starting his term with the conservative Supreme Court majority that he was able to put into place near the end of his first term. A Supreme Court that has also potentially emboldened Trump with its decision on presidential immunity. And more notably, connected to the immigration issue specifically, it ruled in 2022 that lower courts cannot issue injunctions on immigration enforcement policies. With that meaning, whatever potentially illegal policies Trump implements, they can stay in place even as challenges work their way through the system. And notably, all of this is a lot of people believe what Trump's been putting out there. But like,

according to a recent poll, 64% of Americans wrongly believe immigrants receive more in welfare and benefits than they pay in taxes. And similarly, more than half wrongly believe unauthorized immigration is linked to rising crime. Though of course, this also is people have argued that any extra crime being done by people that are not supposed to be here, that's unacceptable. And so with all that, half of Americans reportedly support mass deportations of undocumented immigrants. And notably, that includes 42% of Democrats. And to that point, we've seen that shift at the local and state level as well, especially as border states started busing migrants from the border to blue cities back in 2022. Many of them were so-called sanctuary cities.

But now we've seen them clearing encampments and evicting migrants from public shelters. And with that, you have people like Chad Wolf, who is Trump's acting Homeland Security Secretary, claiming that Trump will have more leeway to make major changes, saying voters have repudiated what he called the chaos at the border under Biden,

and adding, I think the American people as a whole are much more open to his policies because they've seen what's happened over the last four years. And to that point, while Trump is planning a border crackdown, Biden arguably already started one, or at least continued what began under Trump before. And actually, in their campaigns, both Trump and Harris were pledging to impose some of the most restrictive immigration, asylum, and border policies in decades. But with that, one of the big ways that it's going to be different from Trump last time and this time is that he's just way more prepared.

With us, for example, seeing the likes of immigration lawyer Hassan Ahmad saying, the Trump administration's incompetence during the first term was the silver lining that allowed many of his policies to be stopped. And adding, I'm not expecting that to happen nearly as much during his second term. They eventually figured it out how to program the machine. And with that, the man behind a lot of it is Stephen Miller. He was the primary architect of Trump's first term immigration policy and will be Trump's deputy chief of staff for policy this time around. And he's not hiding any of his cards. He is told the New York Times that

the incoming administration is planning a blitz designed to overwhelm immigrant rights lawyers and saying any activists who doubt President Trump's resolve in the slightest are making a drastic error. Trump will unleash the vast arsenal of federal powers to implement the most spectacular migration crackdown. And as far as specifics, Miller said Trump would move away from the ICE practice of arresting specific people of interest and instead carrying out workplace raids and other sweeps in public spaces aimed at arresting many unauthorized immigrants all at once. Trump's also reportedly planning to reassign other federal agents and deputize local police officers and National Guard soldiers voluntarily contributed by Republican-run states. And then with that, Miller has also claimed Trump would invoke the Insurrection Act of 1807 at the border,

enabling the use of federal troops to apprehend migrants. And then, just because of the sheer number, right, the magnitude of arrests and deportations being contemplated, they plan to build vast holding facilities that would function as staging centers. We're also seeing Miller saying that he would try again to overturn something known as Flores Settlement, which is a long-standing court order that says that the government cannot indefinitely hold children. And to that point, Trump has repeatedly declined to rule out restoring detention for migrant families. And he hasn't given a clear answer on whether he would again try to separate migrant parents and children. Although very notably there, right, Trump's new border czar, Tom Homan,

he championed the family separation policy in the first term. Though more recently, he's talked about expelling the entire families. And then, with all this, right, Trump's new border czar, Tom Homan, he championed the family separation policy in the first term. Though more recently, he's talked about expelling the entire families. And then, with all this, right, moving forward, Trump would reportedly significantly expand a form of fast-track deportations known as expedited removal, which denies undocumented immigrants

of the usual due process. He's also repeatedly pledged to invoke the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, which empowered the president to quickly deport foreign nationals without a hearing. And that would reportedly be specifically to expel suspected members of drug cartels And criminal gangs also without due process which for a lot of people on the surface They're not gonna care right if they're members of a drug cartel if they're members of a gang

Most people think fuck them, but the concern and criticism is without due process How do you make sure that they're actually members of a gang or a cartel and this notably as people say if you look at the History of the law it's very telling. Because reportedly, it's only been used three times. The War of 1812, World War I, and World War II, when it was employed to justify internment camps for people of Japanese, German, and Italian descent. Things normally associated with just historical shame

for the states. And this, as people pointed out, that Trump has admitted that his plan is to carry out the largest domestic deportation operation in American history that's modeled on the Eisenhower model. With that, referring to a controversial 1950s deportation program where hundreds of thousands of Mexican immigrants were rounded up, separated from their families, and sent back to Mexico on buses, planes, and boats. Now, with all that, you know, Trump and his allies said, as far as the priority, that'll be the deportation of criminals and national

security threats. But there, you have people noting that's already policy. And in fact, one former advisor said he expects Trump to repeal Biden's policies that limit deportations mostly to serious criminals and recent border crossers. And actually, you know, with all that, you have some saying that Trump's efforts here, it's gonna make it harder to tackle crime. And this because about half of ICE's 21,000 employees

are part of its Homeland Security Investigations Unit, which is a unit that focuses on transnational crime, things like drug smuggling and child exploitation rather than immigration enforcement. But several Trump allies said that the unit would need to spend more time on immigration. And notably that's as the unit has reportedly distanced itself from ISIS immigration work in recent years. But I'm saying fear of deportation made it harder for its investigators to build trust in immigrant communities. And at that point a recent analysis from the Cato Institute, which is a libertarian think tank, concluded that Trump's agenda might actually make the country less safe, with it saying that it would shift

focus away from the removal of immigrants who do commit crimes. And with that, arguing that we already saw that in Trump's first term, claiming that while Trump was prioritizing prosecutions of migrant parents, separating families, and banning asylum, it also released criminals, including those who went on to commit crimes. And the Institute ultimately arguing that Trump's policies actually led to far more attempted illegal crossings by individuals with criminal convictions. Though, with all that, I do not wanna act like nothing is happening at the border.

There has been an uptick in border crossings, and that comes with real challenges. Right, for example, unlike past migrant influxes, people coming over the last four years have more often been people without relatives already living in the US, meaning that they've been relying more on cities and towns to provide shelter and food at a cost of billions of dollars. But this also, as many argue, that the

more math that you do on this, it actually shows that the immigration is a net positive for the country. With the same things, like for example, the American Immigration Council, which I should say is an immigrant advocacy group, estimating that the cost of deporting 13 million immigrants in the U.S. illegally as being $968 billion over a little more than a decade, which is just the deportation part. They also argue that there's value that the immigrants bring to the economy, right? Trump campaigned on the idea that the mass deportation of undocumented immigrants would lead to more jobs and higher wages. But studies of large-scale deportations have found that these expulsions

actually do the opposite. And with that, a report from the Congressional Budget Office found increased immigration is expected to drive higher economic growth and labor supply, grow federal revenues, and shrink deficits over the next 10 years. Whereas Trump's immigration policies could lead to higher prices, low job growth, lower pay, and threaten funding for social safety nets like Social Security and Medicare. With Robert Lynch, for example, a professor emeritus of economics at Washington College saying, 8 million undocumented people are currently earning hundreds of billions

and spending hundreds of billions on food, clothing, shelter. And adding, if you remove those people from the economy, American businesses will sell less. When they sell less, they're going to produce less and will need fewer workers and lay off workers. Incomes will fall. And then, you know, with all that, people's big problem isn't necessarily with immigration, but rather what's considered illegal immigration. 65% of Americans reportedly think that the U.S. should make it easier for anyone seeking a better life to enter legally so they don't need to enter illegally. And 58% say they support expanding legal pathways

for orderly immigration. And this is 46% said asylum seekers should be protected if their cases are legitimate. And while Trump has said that he supports certain legal immigration, notably he also may pave the way for the deportation of hundreds of thousands of migrants who are actually authorized to be here.

Because his transition team is reportedly considering ending two Biden programs that have allowed more than 1.3 million immigrants to enter the United States legally, making those who entered but have not yet received asylum eligible for deportation. But hey, ultimately, here's the deal. January 20th, he is going to be president and he is going to have the House and the Senate. We know that moves are going to be made, but how it's going to turn out, that remains unknown right now. Both sides have been and are currently preparing for this. But for now, we'll have to wait and see. But of course, in the meantime, I'd love to know your thoughts here. As you know, it is a very divisive topic. And as we discussed, it is a very complicated one

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or somebody else for the holidays. But then, we need to talk about the Memphis police just being on some wild shit. Because I know that this isn't news to anyone that actually lives there. And the rest of us actually got to see for ourselves what was up when the cops beat Tyree Nichols to death during a traffic stop.

But notably after that body cam footage of that killing shocked the country, Biden's Justice Department opened a civil rights investigation to the Memphis Police Department. And now 17 months later, the DOJ has revealed its disturbing findings in a 73 page report. So let's go down the list of allegations, starting with the systemic use of excessive force

in violation of people's rights. Because reportedly, officers punched, kicked, and used other force against people who were already handcuffed or restrained. Acts which were nearly always approved after the fact by supervisors. Also, officers resorted to force likely to cause pain or injury almost immediately in response

to low-level nonviolent offenses, even when people were not aggressive. They also reportedly fired at moving cars and resorted to intimidation and threats as well as detaining people without adequate justification and conducting invasive searches of people in cars. And this is you with the DOJ saying they relied on traffic stops to address violent crime

and didn't understand the limits of their authority resulting in dismissed cases and dropped charges. Yet even when doing all of that, the department also wasn't even good at solving violent crime, right? They only made an arrest in 14% of the murders last year compared to 50% on average for the country. With also this report detailing several specific cases

of brutality that exemplify the patterns that they're talking about. Like for example, when officers hit a handcuffed man eight times in the face and torso with a baton, or when they pepper sprayed another handcuffed man inside the backseat of a squad car and left him inside with the doors closed despite his pleas that he couldn't breathe. Or how about when they pepper sprayed another handcuffed man inside the backseat of a squad car and left him inside with the doors closed despite his pleas that he couldn't breathe. Or how about when they pepper sprayed, kicked, and tased an unarmed, mentally ill man who shoplifted a $2 soft drink from a gas station, with ultimately 9 squad cars and 12 officers responding to the scene there.

With the man reportedly putting the drink down, trying to leave, but then the cops shoved him against a squad car, kneed him, pulled him to the ground, and then stunned him with the taser repeatedly, even after he was handcuffed. And all of this as the report also concluded that the MPD treated black people more harshly than white people committed the same crimes. With them finding statistically, the department was 21% more likely to cite black drivers for driving violations and 17% more likely to arrest

or cite black people for drug-related offenses. And on the note of race, they found that over a nearly six year period, officers arrested 180 black children for curfew or loitering violations, but only four white kids drug-related offenses. And on the note of race, they found that over a nearly six year period, officers arrested 180 black children for curfew or loitering violations, but only four white kids for the same offenses. And for disorderly conduct, the ratio of white to black was a staggering 120 to one.

Regarding black children specifically, they said that they were in particular experiencing aggressive and frightening encounters with the officers. And there they pointed to examples like this one eight-year-old boy with behavioral health issues who had at least nine encounters with the officers over roughly a 20-month period, during which this says he was repeatedly threatened, pushed, handcuffed, or thrown.

And so with all this, you have the DOJ listing some potential reforms, including new force training, required documentation of stops and searches, better discipline practices for misconduct, and improved transparency. And the agency wants to enforce these changes through a consent decree, which would have to be approved by a federal judge, agreed to by the MPD itself, and overseen by an independent monitor. But shocker, that does not look like it's gonna happen. Because in a letter to the DOJ, the Memphis city attorney said that they would not accept a decree until they could review and challenge the report.

With her saying, from what we understand, consent decrees remain in place for an average of more than 10 years, with absolutely no controls to ensure timely completion or consideration for the financial impact of the affected community. Such a proposal is not the right solution for Memphis." Right, so what she's referring to there

when she mentions the financial impact or the fines that Memphis would have to pay for every violation of the decree, which notably opponents of this move argue would cost the city tens of millions of dollars and ultimately hurt the poor communities that it's meant to help. But really, either way, what I would say is

we should not actually expect anything to happen here. Because the Trump Justice Department is obviously gonna be different than the Biden Justice Department. And to understand why, you really only have to look at recent history. Obama used decrees, then Trump didn't, and then Biden did, and now Trump's expected not to again.

Which is gonna be incredibly consequential, not just for Memphis, but a dozen other cities under DOJ scrutiny as well. Because the feds have already released similar reports detailing systemic police misconduct in Minneapolis, Minnesota, Louisville, Kentucky, Phoenix, Arizona, Lexington, Mississippi, and Trenton, New Jersey. With probes ongoing in six other police agencies though,

none have locked into consent decrees yet. So I guess the point of talking about this is one, to know something is happening, and two, if you wonder why nothing's being done about it, there you go. It's not the only, but it's gonna be one of the reasons. But then we gotta talk about what's being described as the worst telecom hack in our nation's history.

Right, because it's very possible that you're someone that's been affected to some degree. But it's now seeing the White House confirming that at least eight of the country's telecommunications companies have been infiltrated by a Chinese hacking group dubbed Salt Typhoon. Though also, if you're one of the international folks

that watches, this could affect you as well because companies in dozens of other countries have also reportedly been targeted as well. And so with all that, right, the details about Salt Typhoon's cyber espionage campaign actually started coming out a few months ago. For example, Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile, and Lumen were identified as companies that may have been hacked. Although among those companies you had T-Mobile saying it doesn't believe that hackers got access to customer information, and Lumen also saying there was no evidence of customer data being accessed on its network. But Verizon, on the other hand, said that it became aware that a highly sophisticated nation state actor accessed its and several other companies' networks.

And adding there that the incident was focused on a very small subset of individuals in government and politics. But now, this is the most substantial public acknowledgement by the government concerning the scale and reach of the operation. With it also being the first time officials are confirming the number of US carriers known to be affected.

With one senior official also saying that the global tally of countries impacted was currently believed to be in the low couple dozen. And notably adding that the hacking activity dates back to at least a year or two. With the unnamed official also not providing specifics about the number of individuals affected, but saying, we believe a large number of Americans metadata was taken. We do not believe it's every cell phone in the country, but we believe it's potentially a large number of individuals

that the Chinese government was focused on. And so with that, let's talk about metadata, right? Because as explained here by the Guardian, the metadata that we're talking about here is sometimes described as the who, what, when, and where a phone call, right? It doesn't include the content of a call, but it can tell someone who you called,

how long it lasted, and where you made the call from. And so with that, even without the content, it can reveal a lot about a person's life, work and intimate relationships, especially if they have a lot of it. But then beyond that, in this case, the metadata reportedly may have been a way of identifying the phone lines

of senior government officials, which the hackers then targeted to actually steal unencrypted text messages and even listen in on some phone calls. And specifically there, it's been reported that Donald Trump, JD Vance, and the Kamala Harris campaign have been among the targets. And this is you had Biden's deputy national security advisor

for cyber and emerging tech simply saying that the hacking group had gained access to communications of senior US government officials and political figures. But also adding there that classified communications had not been compromised. So notably also saying, we do not believe any have fully removed the Chinese actors

from these networks. And another senior official claiming that it was impossible for the agencies to predict the timeframe on when we'll have full eviction. And so with all that, we're seeing the FBI and the cybersecurity and infrastructure security agency issuing new guidance to the country's telecom companies to help root out the hackers

and prevent attacks in the future. With that, including tips like ensuring the traffic is end to end encrypted to the maximum extent possible. You also have officials recommending that Americans use encrypted messaging apps to ensure their communications stay hidden from foreign hackers. Which if you're not familiar,

some of the most popular messaging apps out there include WhatsApp and Signal. But what's really interesting about all this is that the FBI and other federal law enforcement agencies, they have long and repeatedly advocated against end-to-end encryption. They've said that it keeps them from accessing the information they need

to prosecute crimes and prevent terrorism. So a bit of a change of tune, we'll call it. But for now, we're gonna have to wait to see what happens. This issue has been brought before the Senate with them bowing to do something about it. But whatever else there is to do, I mean, that remains to be seen right now. And then, I don't know if you've noticed,

but political chaos seems to be just the name of the game internationally right now. With now the most recent spotlight being on France right now. And that because yesterday, lawmakers there passed a no-confidence measure against Prime Minister Michel Barnier forcing him to resign. Which was a standout thing in general, but also it was the first successful no-confidence vote in France in over 60 years. Not to mention that it made the Prime Minister's three-month-old government the shortest lived in the history of France's Fifth Republic.

But to understand this, what triggered the vote was the Prime Minister forcing through a budget proposal without the approval of Parliament's lower house. Which is an executive power that the prime minister is given under article 49.3 of the French constitution. It's a so-called nuclear option. It's rarely ever actually used and almost never popular. And this time it was exactly the excuse that the opponents in the national assembly were looking for.

And that notably included both the assembly's left-wing coalition and the far right national rally party. They voted together to pass a no confidence vote. Though also with that, this is especially being seen as a victory for the National Rally Party and its leader, Marine Le Pen. She and her father before have been fixtures of French politics for decades now.

And in the past two presidential elections, she lost to current president Emmanuel Macron both times in the second round. It's also notably as Le Pen and members of her party are now accused of embezzling millions of euros of European parliament funds. The prosecutor is seeking a five-year ban on public office that would prevent her from running for president

in the next election in 2027. And the verdict there is expected in late March. And so Le Pen, she may be hoping that the chaos pushes Macron to resign. Because that, you know, would be an even bigger win because the next election would happen before the deadline, right before then. And in fact, last week she was telling journalists, quote,

"'He won't have very much choice but to resign "'if he's confronted with enough government instability.'" Though also with that, you have analysts and those around Macron repeatedly saying that it is unlikely that he will step down. Though also with that, you have analysts and those around Macron repeatedly saying that it is unlikely that he will step down. Though this also is there's really no doubt out there that he is as weak as he has ever been. Because this chaos that we're seeing right now,

it didn't just start this week. It's probably best to look back to last June, for example, where Macron dissolved the parliament and called a snap election. With his hope there being that his party would win big and prove that the national rally support was limited, but that clearly backfired. With in fact, what happened being that the national rally

ended up as the single biggest party in the assembly. And although a coalition of left-wing parties actually won more seats overall, no one had a majority. So Macron appointed the center-right Barnier to try and break the deadlock. With then the left bowing to bring down Barnier, basically leaving Le Pen with the power to topple the government at any time.

Something that notably she held off using until right now. And as far as what's next year, Macron reportedly hopes to name a new prime minister before Saturday's unveiling of Notre Dame. But as of making this video, it is not clear who that will be or if anyone will actually be satisfied enough to keep this from happening again.

And one of the biggest concerns being that the deadline to finalize next year's budget is just December 21st. And so now it appears virtually impossible that the deadline's gonna be met because parliament's supposed to have 70 days to examine the budget once it's submitted. Now that said, the government should be able to roll this year's budget over to 2025,

temporarily keeping public workers paid and operations running until a new budget can be adopted. But as places like the Washington Post have explained, there are debatable legal questions about what powers can be used by an overthrown government in an interim role. And so really, if someone puts up a stink or wants to cause chaos, this could sink the country even further into it. And so really, like if someone puts up a stink or wants to cause chaos,

this could sink the country even further into it. And so with that, and with France's economy growing slowly and burdened with a massive deficit, there is a real concern about the financial and economic fallout as well here. But then finally today, I wanna end with a thank you and to talk about yesterday. Starting with a massive thank you

to everyone that bought up stuff over at beautifulbastard.com over this past week and a half. It was easily our biggest and best drop of the year. I cannot wait to see you guys loving what you get. Also, I'll say if you haven't got anything yet, there's still some stock available. But with that said, let's talk about yesterday with some comment commentary.

Because unsurprisingly, a lot of the conversation had to do with the killing of that CEO. And as mentioned today with the general story and the updates there, there wasn't a lot of sympathy. Where they're seeing things things like the suspect is someone who has denied healthcare, do you have any idea how little that narrows it down? As well as my sympathies to the friends and families

of all the victims of health insurance companies. And when insulin costs $10 to make and yet they sell it for $700, which results in thousands of preventable deaths, I find it hard to shed tears for these people. Some others, including sadly for the CEO of United Healthcare, his death due to lead poisoning was deemed a pre-existing condition, so they can't pay out the claim. Sukay noting CEOs of healthcare will get more security now instead of addressing the abysmal state of healthcare in the US.

People also sharing their own stories, like my grandma's cancer wasn't found until she was a week from passing. Blood results were normal, so they kept throwing antibiotics for UTIs at her for two years. Insurance wouldn't authorize an ultrasound or anything past the blood tests. Right, and with those comments where you had people sharing their stories, they were there shoulder to shoulder with comments like, "'My thoughts and prayers haven't been authorized yet.' Damn, that 10K reward was put into play real fast, almost as fast as insurance claims are denied."

And the final comment, kind of just summarizing everything, reading, "'The fact that most of the comments aren't thoughts and prayers about the CEO speaks volumes of how Americans feel about healthcare.'" And while all of those comments were not completely universal, they were the overwhelming majority.

Which I will say, while I do not personally endorse them, they're not that shocking. There's always a conversation out there regarding greed and economic crimes actually causing real world harm, with people furious that no one is held accountable. And then when you pair that in the specific realm of healthcare, where if you haven't been fucked in the healthcare system,

you probably know someone who's been fucked because of the system. A cold people are numbers system that thrives when people do not get the healthcare that they need. And so while the system as a whole needs to be overhauled and this guy is just gonna get replaced by someone else, it's gonna very likely just do the same bullshit. I think what we're seeing right now

are people using him as an outlet for their rage. But yeah, on those notes, that is where today's show is gonna end. Thank you so much for watching today and this week. Also, if you missed any shows this week, YouTube thinks you'll wanna watch this one. But hey, I hope you have a fantastic weekend, and really, either way,

I'll see you right back here on Monday. Love you faces, see you then.