The Philip DeFranco Show - PDS 2.25 This Insane Lady Gaga Robbery, Jschlatt, Twitter Fights OnlyFans, Cuomo Allegations & More

Starting point is 00:00:00 So the first thing that we're going to talk about today is, yes, a story about investments in the stock market, but even if you don't care about that world, this is really a story about classism. And I'll actually, I'll preface this story by saying I understand where some of the concern is, but it is also elitist, condescending, and I think disrespectful of just people. Like just everyday people that are trying not to drown while other people get to be in yachts. If you're unfamiliar, let me introduce you to Charlie Munger. He's Warren Buffett's longtime business partner.

Starting point is 00:00:32 He's vice chairman of Berkshire Hathaway. And in an interview with Yahoo Finance on Wednesday, he blasted retail investors, right? Everyday people. Places like Morning Brew explaining, Munger criticized the quote, "'Momentum trading by novice investors lured in by new types of brokerage operations

Starting point is 00:00:46 like Robinhood. I think a lot of this activity is regrettable. I think civilization would do better without it.' Calling the culture really stupid." Now here's the thing, I think that people should be very careful and wary when it comes to things like day trading or something that is close to that,

Starting point is 00:01:00 where you're trying to ride waves and people are telling you, oh, this is a sure thing. Oh, we're going to the moon. But you're still talking about people that are grown ass people getting to choose what they're gonna do with their own money. And to me, this just feels like an old rich guy

Starting point is 00:01:13 spewing disgusting elitism. Angered that everyday regular people get to touch the levers that used to be reserved for old rich dudes and coked out Wall Street bankers. Like y'all have a perfect track record and never made really bad decisions and had to be bailed out. In fact, and this is where I said, I have a bias here. I'm such a believer in opening the door for regular people

Starting point is 00:01:33 that retail investors are a massive part in the future. Not only have I brought on fantastic companies like Public as a sponsor, in the last week I became an investor in Public because I believe in the general movement and out of everyone that's doing it right now, I think they are doing it the best and most ethically. So what I actually wanna do right here

Starting point is 00:01:51 is pose a win-win-win. If you wanna start thinking about your future today, investing in your tomorrow, you wanna give a middle finger to the mongers of the world who apparently think you are a child that shouldn't be able to touch the controls. And you wanna use a service unlike other free commission services

Starting point is 00:02:07 that sell your data to keep fat cats understanding what you're doing with your trades? Go to publicphil.com, sign up. They'll actually give you a free stock just for signing up. And also if you happen to be established at other places that I don't even want to name anymore, if you have more than $150 in there, you can transfer your portfolio for free.

Starting point is 00:02:24 And because you use my link, they know that I sent you and they pay me. Hence, it's an awesome win-win-win that stems from a story that starts with what I think are elitists spitting down on regular people. I'll get off my soapbox now. Then in a different kind of celebrity story, we should talk about this Gaga situation.

Starting point is 00:02:38 So while Gaga is in Rome right now, she's shooting a movie at around 9.40 p.m. last night in Los Angeles, Lady Gaga's dog walker was shot by thieves who stole two of her French bulldogs. The around 9 40 PM last night in Los Angeles, Lady Gaga's dog walker was shot by thieves who stole two of her French bulldogs. The victim, 30 year old Ryan Fisher, was transported to the hospital in unknown condition, though he appeared responsive

Starting point is 00:02:52 when he was talking to authorities at the scene. Several outlets initially reported that he was shot four times, but TMZ just released horrifying surveillance footage of the entire ordeal. And it shows Fisher being grabbed by the robbers who appear to shoot him once before driving off in a white car with two of the three bulldogs

Starting point is 00:03:06 he was walking. And in this video, you can hear Fisher heard calling out for help saying that he was shot in the chest. While some tabloids are reporting that he is recovering well, authorities have not confirmed details about his current condition. Also, the authorities have said that it is not yet clear

Starting point is 00:03:17 if the suspects knew that the dogs belonged to Gaga. And if you're wondering, well, why would someone just steal random dogs? French bulldogs are actually often targeted because they're expensive and in high demand. And as far as Lady Gaga herself, reportedly she is extremely upset and is offering a $500,000 reward

Starting point is 00:03:32 for the safe return of her pets, no questions asked. Even launching an email for anyone that may have information about the case. Then, because we've had to talk about so much of the darkness with this, we should talk about the positives regarding COVID-19. Starting with the fact that in America, we're seeing the number of new cases fall.

Starting point is 00:03:46 This week compared to last week, we saw a 20% drop. And even better, this isn't an outlier, it is the continuing of a downward trend. And while the number of hospitalizations remain steady, the number of deaths dropped 24%. Also regarding the specific categories of deaths, you have the New York Times noting, "'Nursing home deaths are way down,

Starting point is 00:04:01 "'falling by more than 60% between late December "'and early February.'" With it noting that one of the main reasons for this is that nursing home residents have been among the first people to be vaccinated. We're also seeing the news that yet another vaccine is getting extremely positive results. This, thanks to the FDA releasing a report

Starting point is 00:04:14 about the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, which has yet to be approved. And even saying that they're positive results feels like I'm underselling it. Reportedly about 20,000 people received this vaccine in the trial and not a single one was hospitalized with COVID-19 symptoms a month later. And as far as, hey, why do we need another vaccine?

Starting point is 00:04:29 One, I think it's just good to have more, especially because we're seeing the number of vaccinations temporarily stalling in America. It's still a lot, but obviously if given the choice, you want to pump those numbers up in case there's another big setback like last week's snowstorm. And with the Johnson and Johnson vaccine,

Starting point is 00:04:42 unlike with the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines, you only need one shot. Though, notably the FDA has also said that it is not as effective as the other two, with Johnson & Johnson's vaccine providing about 66% efficacy after four weeks compared to Moderna and Pfizer, which provide about 94 and 95% respectively

Starting point is 00:04:58 after the second dose. So as far as what are the next steps here, you have the Food and Drug Administration Committee meeting on Friday, and it's possible that they could approve the vaccine a little after that. Also, in a different kind of COVID news, we should talk about Gwyneth Paltrow.

Starting point is 00:05:08 And that, because you actually have health officials in the UK urging people against the recommendations that Gwyneth Paltrow shared for dealing with long haul COVID-19. In a recent post on Goop, the premier destination for not science, Paltrow said that she actually had the coronavirus a while ago that left her with long-term brain fog

Starting point is 00:05:24 and fatigue, something that is fairly common. Also adding she had high inflammation levels in her body. So to deal with it, she started working with a get ready for the bunny ears with a so-called functional medicine practitioner who is a doctor of natural medicine and is doing his intuitive fasting protocol which is reportedly a keto plant-based

Starting point is 00:05:41 but flexible diet that requires her to fast every day until 11 a.m. And with this, she shared product and food recommendations that fit this diet, including sugar-free kimchi and sugar-free kombucha, as well as $32 sugar-free, calorie-free, alcohol-free cocktails. She also, to no one's surprise, touted some of Goop's own vitamins and super powders,

Starting point is 00:06:01 and sharing the very relatable information that she has been using an infrared sauna and feels like it is a gift to her body. So because of this, you have the BBC reporting that a senior national health service official, Professor Steven Powis is cautioning against her advice. Saying in the last few days, I see Gwyneth Paltrow is unfortunately suffering

Starting point is 00:06:17 from the effects of COVID. We wish her well, but, best start to a sentence ever, but some of the solutions she's recommending are really not the solutions we'd recommend in the NHS. We need to take long COVID seriously and apply serious science. All influencers who use social media have a duty of responsibility

Starting point is 00:06:31 and a duty of care around that. With numerous health experts just noting that there is a lack of evidence to support what she's saying. And here's what I'll say, maybe Goop and Gwyneth Paltrow, they might end up being right on some things. But when it comes to those two,

Starting point is 00:06:42 you should keep a nice chunk of skepticism around. I mean, this is the same company that pops up in the news because they have to settle lawsuits because they made baseless health claims about vaginal eggs. Then in big social media news, we should talk about Twitter. Because Twitter made a big announcement today, but also they're doing something that seems to be going

Starting point is 00:06:58 after several different market shares. So one, if you haven't seen it, but you're interested in kind of the evolution of audio content, you should follow Twitter's Spaces. Well, they haven't given me access. They've been giving access to several creators, essentially an audio to audio experience, very much like a Clubhouse.

Starting point is 00:07:14 But I will say after testing Spaces, it feels like Twitter has a far better product, at least right now, though that doesn't necessarily mean that it will automatically defeat Clubhouse, right? Something that thrives over here doesn't necessarily work in a place that's already established for a different thing. But that's only a third of the story because Twitter made two massive announcements today.

Starting point is 00:07:29 One, Twitter announced that they're going to start allowing users to charge their followers to access additional content. And they're calling this new payment feature super follows. As far as the extra content that these people will get access to, you're talking about bonus tweets, access to a community group subscription,

Starting point is 00:07:42 to a newsletter and or a badge indicating your support. Twitter sharing a screenshot of an example where a user is charged $4.99 for a series of perks. So obviously this is a big swing at companies like Patreon and maybe even OnlyFans. Though, and it's likely for even more reasons, OnlyFans may be different because it is so specifically about one thing, kind of.

Starting point is 00:08:01 Don't want to put everyone in the same box, but you know. Also, a thing to keep in mind with Twitter launching this is that they did not say what their fee will be. How much, how little they take will likely be a big factor. And the final thing that Twitter announced and I kind of mentioned it in passing were communities. And that kind of appears to be their take and swing at Facebook groups.

Starting point is 00:08:18 You can create and join groups around specific interests, which I will say, I'm very interested to see if that'll sink or float because I like the idea of groups, but up until this point and actually still, outside of publishing my newest videos there, I hate the Facebook experience. Yeah, this is still early stages, early announcements, and time will tell if this is a winner or a fail.

Starting point is 00:08:37 Though I will say specifically regarding super followers, I've seen a lot of creators very excited. And I'm talking about creators of all sizes, whether it be small, medium, medium, large, large, or extra large people like Jay Schlatt, who tweeted, ha ha, I'm gonna make so much fucking money off of this. Though I will say with him specifically,

Starting point is 00:08:53 I'm not sure if he's genuinely excited or just trolling. Yeah, of course, with all of these features and announcements, I would love to know your thoughts. So do you think this is gonna be a win, a fail, somewhere in between, what? We also had Australia in the news because the government there has now passed a law requiring big tech companies like Facebook and Google

Starting point is 00:09:08 to pay for news content on their platforms. You know, this is a big story because it's really not just Australia. Because this law has been widely viewed as a litmus test for similar future legislation in other countries. You know, there was a big question of what's going to happen. Things got messy last week. In opposition to the law, Facebook made good on their threat

Starting point is 00:09:24 to block all forms of news in Australia on their platform. However, what we ended up seeing is after several days of discussions, Facebook CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, and Australian treasurer, Josh Frydenberg, managed to agree on several changes to the original draft of the law. And among those changes,

Starting point is 00:09:37 big tech companies will now get more time to lock down deals with publishers instead of being forced into immediately making payments. Also, for example, the original draft of the law would have required tech companies to pay for content based upon terms set by a government appointed arbitrator. But now Facebook and others can essentially escape those forced prices indefinitely

Starting point is 00:09:53 as long as they keep securing deals. However, if they don't do that, the arbitrator has the power to rule in favor of either party with no room for middle ground agreement. With treasurer Frydenberg also having the power to invoke mandatory arbitration if a company tries to ignore striking deals with local and regional outlets. We also having the power to invoke mandatory arbitration if a company tries to ignore striking deals with local and regional outlets.

Starting point is 00:10:07 We also had CD Projekt Red in the news, which like 99% of the times in the past year is not good. This latest news is that they're being forced to delay a promised Cyberpunk 2077 update, with the company saying on Twitter, it's not the news we enjoy sharing, but we want to make sure we launch this update properly. And according to Bloomberg,

Starting point is 00:10:23 this is related to that ransomware attack we talked about earlier this month. With most of the company's employees reportedly being locked out of their workstations for the past two weeks. That because CD Projekt Red refused to comply with the hacker's demands and quote, cut off remote access to internal network resources

Starting point is 00:10:35 and isolated the internal network from the internet. So as a result, employees have been unable to log into the company's VPN, making it impossible to access the systems and tools needed to do most of their jobs. And the details only get worse from there. There is this growing fear that the hacker who reportedly sold the stolen data on the dark web

Starting point is 00:10:50 may have also gained access to the employee's personal information. We're talking about things like their personal ID as well as passport detail. And so with that, the employees have actually been asked to ship their computers to the company's IT staff to have them scan for things like malware. As far as when CD Projekt Red expects

Starting point is 00:11:03 to release the delayed update, they're saying right now, it looks like the second half of March. And the last thing that we're gonna talk about today comes from the world of US politics. And this because a former aide to New York governor, Andrew Cuomo published an essay yesterday, accusing him of sexual harassment, expanding on allegations that she made back in December.

Starting point is 00:11:18 The aide, Lindsay Boylan, first made her accusations in a Twitter thread about women being harassed in the workplace writing, "'Yes, New York governor Cuomo sexually harassed me "'for years. "'Many saw it and watched.'" And at that time, Boylan didn't provide any more details to the media and we saw Cuomo deny the allegation,

Starting point is 00:11:32 saying, "'I fought for and I believe a woman has the right "'to come forward and express her opinion "'and express issues and concerns that she has, "'but it's just not true.'" But fast forwarding to now with this essay, which he published on Medium, Boylan accused Cuomo of subjecting her to several years of deeply uncomfortable situations,

Starting point is 00:11:46 including one time after a meeting in 2018, when he kissed her on the lips without her consent, with her claiming that Cuomo would go out of his way to touch me on my lower back, arms, and legs, and that over the years, his inappropriate gestures became more frequent. This, including one time in October of 2017, where she said that he sat across from her on a jet

Starting point is 00:12:03 and said, let's play strip poker. But then also going on to say that her fears really got worse after the kiss in 2018 saying she came to work nauseous every day until she eventually resigned in September of that year. Voiland also listed other instances that made her uncomfortable in the essay, which I'll link down below, as well as what appear to be screenshots from emails

Starting point is 00:12:19 and text messages that she says supports her story. With her also going on to claim that Cuomo's what she called pervasive harassment extended to other women as well, saying that he would make unflattering comments about the weight of female colleagues and ridiculed them about their romantic relationship. With her going on to say that this kind of behavior was part of the culture that Cuomo created in his administration,

Starting point is 00:12:36 where sexual harassment and bullying is so pervasive that it is not only condoned, but expected. And adding, he uses intimidation to silence his critics, and if you dared to speak up, you would face consequences. And notably, she also said that after she first tweeted the accusation back in December, two other women reached out to her, but were too afraid to speak.

Starting point is 00:12:53 One who allegedly told Boylan she lived in fear of what would happen if she rejected Cuomo's advances. And another who said that he had instructed her to warn people who upset him that they risk losing their job. Now, as far as how Cuomo has addressed this account, his press secretary responded to the allegations in a statement yesterday saying, "'As we said before, Miss Boylan's claims

Starting point is 00:13:09 "'of inappropriate behavior are quite simply false.'" With the spokeswoman also disputing Boylan's story about the jet ride. There, sharing a statement from four current and former administration officials who were on one or more of the four flights in October 2017 that Boylan had taken with Cuomo. With those officials saying,

Starting point is 00:13:22 "'We were on each of those October flights "'and this conversation did not happen.'" But also Boylan had taken with Cuomo. With those officials saying, "'We were on each of those October flights "'and this conversation did not happen.'" But also Boylan's allegations come as numerous other officials have spoken out over the last week alone, accusing Cuomo of intimidation, bullying, and fostering a toxic workplace. Last week, for example, New York Assemblyman Ron Kim claimed that Cuomo threatened to destroy him on a call.

Starting point is 00:13:39 This because Kim was one of the many legislators who had condemned Cuomo's administration for withholding nursing home data on COVID-related deaths. And there, Cuomo said that Kim was lying about that conversation, but shortly after, many current and former aides gave the New York Times similar accounts of aggressive behavior and intimidation.

Starting point is 00:13:53 In fact, just yesterday, another ex-Cuomo staffer published an op-ed in the New York Daily News that echoed many of Boylan's claims about a toxic work environment for women, a claim that seemed to be backed up by three people who worked in the governor's office at the same time as Boylan

Starting point is 00:14:04 and told the Times that it was true that Cuomo would make inappropriate remarks and comments on people's appearances. But ultimately that is where we are right now. We have to wait to see if more people come forward, if there are more instances where a defense can be made. Also, once again, there is still the nursing home scandal, but for now we have to wait and see.

Starting point is 00:14:20 And I guess if there is one final note here, this is kind of more just from a news coverage, but maybe even a news consumption angle. We need to make sure that we treat stories like this about an Andrew Cuomo, the same way we would treat a story about a Kavanaugh or a Donald Trump. I understand that the last four years have really pushed

Starting point is 00:14:34 and maybe even forced people into having to be in certain camps, but serious allegations should be treated like serious allegations, no matter the team or the hypocrisy you might see when it's someone that's not on your quote unquote team. The goal in every one of these situations should be the truth and accountability.

Starting point is 00:14:52 And I mean that both ways with this situation. If you're a Republican that you dismissed claims against other Republicans, but you're dunking on Cuomo, or if you're a Democrat who went after Republicans, but you're kind of skittish and being quiet about this. But ultimately this is where I'm ending the show. Of course, as always, thank you for being a part of these daily dives in the news,

Starting point is 00:15:09 hitting that like button, subscribing, all the good stuff. Maybe leaving a comment down below. Also, if you're looking for more to watch, I got that brand new podcast with Matt Mercer, or maybe you just missed yesterday's show. You can click or tap right there to watch either of those. But with that said, of course, as always, my name's Philip DeFranco.

Starting point is 00:15:22 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 2.25 This Insane Lady Gaga Robbery, Jschlatt, Twitter Fights OnlyFans, Cuomo Allegations & More

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