The Philip DeFranco Show - PDS 2.27 “YOU’RE DRUNK!” The War on Andrew Tate, Jenna Ortega Fallout, Wendy’s Surge Pricing, Cop Slams Chief

Episode Date: February 27, 2024

10 Things you should know today... Go to www.babbel.com/defranco to get 50% off a one-time payment for a lifetime Babbel subscription! Beam’s Dream is clinically shown to improve sleep. Click https://shopbeam.com/defranco and use code DEFRANCO to get up to 35% off. Enjoy the Phil is An Idiot https://wakeandmakecoffee.com/ 50% OFF sales!Restocks are in @ https://BeautifulBastard.com Grab some now or wait at your own risk for the new drop Monday. –✩ TODAY’S STORIES ✩ – 00:00 - NJ Police Chief Retires After Being Slammed Into Car by Own Officer 02:04 - UK Labour’s Plans to Combat Misogyny in Schools Include Anti-Tate Mentors  05:26 - Wendy’s to Test Surge Pricing 08:01 - SAG Changes Intimacy Coordinator Rules After Remarks on Jenna Ortega Film 09:47 - Sponsored by Babbel 10:47 - Australian Police Commissioner Quotes Taylor Swift While Discussing Horrific Case 14:28 - South Korea Fines Twitch For Leaving the Country… After Forcing it Out 16:58 - SCOTUS Appears Skeptical of FL, TX Social Media Laws That Impact Free Speech 20:38 - Sponsored by Beam 21:35 - NATO Split Over Possibility of Sending Troops to Ukraine 24:37 - Toxic Vinyl Chloride Industry Still Thriving One Year After East Palestine Derailment  29:37 - Your Thoughts on Yesterday’s Show ——————————   Produced by: Cory Ray Edited by: James Girardier, Maxwell Enright, Julie Goldberg, Christian Meeks Art Department: William Crespo Writing/Research: Philip DeFranco, Brian Espinoza, Lili Stenn, Maddie Crichton, Star Pralle, Chris Tolve  Associate Producer on Toxic Vinyl Chloride: Lili Stenn ———————————— #DeFranco #AndrewTate #Jenna Ortega ———————————— Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Sup, you beautiful bastards. You're watching the Philip DeFranco Show, and we got a lot of news to talk about today. So hit that like button to let YouTube know you like these big daily dives into the news, and let's just jump into it. Starting with, you've gotta be the craziest or bravest bastard on the planet

to slam your own boss onto the hood of a car. But that's exactly what was caught on video in Bradley Beach, New Jersey. With all of this reportedly going down back in November, but local news outlets tap into just recently released the body cam footage. And in it, you have Sergeant William Major attending to a car crash

with the driver suspected of driving under the influence. And in this, Major doesn't realize that the real drunken mess that he's gonna have to deal with is actually stumbling and swaying up to the scene from somewhere else. Right, and that mess goes by the name Leonard Guida, and he's actually the police chief for Bradley Beach.

With him having worked in law enforcement for over four decades, he's this big respected figure. But on this night, he shows up in plain clothes and he is apparently inebriated. And immediately he begins angrily questioning Major about why the lettering on his jacket is peeling off. It's a Major, you know, he takes the jacket off mildly annoyed and continues back to the car. LaGuida apparently is not satisfied and he calls Major back over. Chief, I'm on a DWI. I'm over here.

Chief, I'm on a DWI. Get over here. I'm on a DWI. With Major just ignoring him, but Aguita apparently did not like that, so he tries to grab Major's arm, which led to this. Chief, I'm working. I don't have time to argue about a jacket, okay? Don't you touch me.

Don't you touch me. Don't you touch me. Whoa, whoa. You have a problem? You grabbed me. Don't you touch me. Don't you touch me. You're in for a problem. You grabbed me. Now get out of here before you get a problem. He grabbed his own police chief by the lapels and slammed him onto the hood of a police cruiser and lifting Guida off the car and shoving him away, muttering that his boss is drunk again. And immediately the chief tries to tell other officers to take him in, right? Apparently trying to arrest Major, though Major retorted, get out of here. Chief, get out of here or you're going to get locked up. But then the chief suspending him right on the spot. But

things have not gone his way because while Majors has since been put on active duty, Guida was investigated and suspended. And the department now announcing that the chief will retire this Friday, six months earlier than planned. You know, the regular punishment for drunkenly putting your hands on a cop. And then the labor party in the UK wants to create anti-Andrew Tate influencers. And this, apparently, is part of a much broader plan to combat misogyny in schools that the party would introduce if it wins the next election. Actually, regarding all this, you had Bridget Philipson, the shadow education secretary, doing an interview with The Guardian, saying Labour wants schools to develop role models who can be a powerful counterbalance to figures like Tate. And as far as how this would

work, Labour would send what they call regional improvement teams to schools to introduce a peer-to-peer mentoring program. Places like the Telegraph explained that under the program, older boys would be trained to coach and work with younger students. And Phillipson telling The Guardian that you'd like to see some of these mentors become leaders in their schools and then even online influencers. Explaining, I would hope that the young male mentors involved would then also be able to share their experiences more widely. To kind of shift the discussion around of what it is to be growing up as a young man today in modern Britain. And adding, I do think it is incredibly important that if we are going to tackle misogyny in our schools and in wider society, then we need to start making progress with children and young people.

And adding that it just can't be on girls and women to call out misogyny and harassment when they see it. But it's actually more powerful if men speak out too, if they say it's wrong. And saying that with the online influence of people like Tate, we need to teach young people to be critical of what they see online, how to spot disinformation or other bad actors. And actually, so far, it looks like the schools have been receptive to this. With the General Secretary of the National Education Union telling the Guardian that schools would welcome this support and saying that this is actually an overwhelming and constantly changing issue. And while, of course, there's been a lot of focus on like the anti-Tate aspect of all this, it is important to

know this is actually just part of a much bigger effort. With the Labor Party putting out a petition saying that it plans to tackle misogyny in education by helping schools work together to establish best practices, embed digital literacy in the curriculum, make sure all schools have access to mental health counseling, and empower the Office for Standards and Education to conduct annual safeguarding checks. And with this, arguing, quote, Under the Tories, there have been shocking reports of sexual harassment in schools by male pupils influenced by misogyny spread online. Misogynistic content is having a lasting and damaging impact on boys and young men, and it makes pupils feel unsafe in schools. And with all this, you have many politicians pointing to the fact that mentions of sexual harassment and abuse have risen over the last several years in reports from the Office of Standards and Education. The Telegraph also

pointing to other research finding that 70% of teachers saw a rise in sexist language in the classroom over the last year and a similar amount of boys encountering post-promoting misogyny. Now, as far as like if any of this can even remotely be successful, it's going to come down to what this actually looks like. As far as the mentor, how natural or organic will this be? Because I mean, kids can tell when things are just forced on them. They can feel lame and stupid and push people even further away. Obviously, not like a one-to-one comparison, but I think of past failures like the old D.A.R.E. program. And like, I wonder, does this take on a situation

where you have like an older student sitting down with a 10-year-old and they're like, be nice to girls or else. Being fake doesn't work. Scaremongering doesn't work. Exaggerating's not gonna work, nor should it. But I don't know, it feels like if there was anything that like might actually work,

is if the morals or the anti-misogyny stuff was still there, but secondary. Because i think there are a lot of toxic influencers out there that i mean to their credit one of the reasons they've been able to thrive so much is that they've co-opted actually beneficial things for you and then in addition to that they sneak in toxic horrible bullshit and often for their own financial gain but you know it's shit like uh trying to be a self-starter getting in, trying to be the best version of yourself. Well, then also, you know, not just treating women as things or like things that only or primarily have value to be a vessel for a baby of a high value man. You know, we'll see how things play out.

And the way things normally play out is that there's a there's a there's a pendulum swing back and forth over the years. I mean, even the fact that labor is polling fantastically right now, that is part of the pendulum swing. And then pricing structures have gotten out of hand. They're ridiculous. They are stupid. You got things that shouldn't be a subscription, now a subscription.

You get price gouge, but hey, it's because demand's up. So it's surge pricing. And now I want you to imagine a world where you're paying extra for a fucking Baconator because you rolled up to Wendy's during the lunch rush. Because that could actually be a reality sooner than later. With the news that Wendy's is introducing surge pricing, absolutely dominating headlines.

Well, the first time I heard about this, it came from the New York Post and I was like, okay, this is bullshit. This news isn't coming out of nowhere. With Wendy's CEO, Kirk Tanner, dropping this bomb in a recent earnings call. With him laying out plans for a $20 million investment in digital menus and adding,

Beginning as early as 2025, we will begin testing more enhanced features like dynamic pricing and day part offerings, along with AI enabled menu changes and suggestive selling. Well, obviously there is a lot to unpack there. The big thing that got a lot of people's attention was dynamic pricing. We're at a business strategy that allows companies

to set flexible pricing that fluctuates up and down throughout the day, depending on demand. Probably the most common example of this being Uber. They charge more during certain times a day because demand is higher. And we've also seen similar dynamic pricing systems in other spaces like entertainment, hospitality, and travel. You know, think airline tickets or hotel rooms. But that often hasn't been applied to fast food or restaurants. Though apparently part of the reason for that isn't it just sounds insane, but rather the ability or practicality of it. Because

the work that the employees would have to do to change the price on the menu each time. But, thanks to Kirk's plans for digital menus, prices could just be changed on the fly. But ultimately, here's the biggest thing here. Currently, we have zero details regarding how this dynamic pricing system will work. Nor what it would actually look like throughout a day. But, like we've seen in other spaces, it's ultimately going to come down to, does this impact their customers? If this is implemented, will you stop going? Because the reality is that if they see success here, 100% other chains will adopt this. And again, while different, it is very much like the Disney news we've talked about in the past. While everyone was making a big deal that Disney Plus went down

like a million subscribers, so many people were overlooking the fact that it brought them in so much more money, that it was actually a resounding success. So it becomes a math problem of if they actually lose business because of this, does the equation work out based off of like order sizes and costs where it ends up being more profitable? Right now, if you look online, the reception to this news has been a bit frosty. People saying things like, look, Wendy's surge pricing works for Uber because they're the only choice. Rest assured, I won't be returning to your restaurant even for my beloved biggie bag if this is something you move forward with. As well as surge pricing is just price

gouging by another name. We really don't have to put up with these companies price gouging us. Go anywhere else. But again, like we've seen in a lot of situations, people can sound off online or say things. But what actually happens, how things play out, it doesn't always match. The angriest are the loudest and people who sound off don't always follow through on their threats. And even then, it becomes a math problem. So just to be clear, I fucking hate this idea. And then, so do you remember that whole Jenna Ortega sex scene controversy? Well, apparently it became such a big deal that the Screen Actors Guild has just changed its rules, though not how you might've expected. Because specifically, the Guild's

rolling out new guidelines about how intimacy coordinators, right, the people who work on the logistics and safety of sex scenes, how they publicly talk about their job. And these updated protocols now saying, intimacy coordinators should maintain the confidentiality of an actor's work and experience in performing highly sensitive scenes unless they have the actor's permission to publicly share this information. The public release of details about an actor's scene work or confidence is entrusted to the intimacy coordinator without the performer's consent is unacceptable. And notably, this is coming now just a few weeks after that whole Miller's Girl sex scene video controversy on X, which I think was viewed about a million more times than the number of people

that actually went to watch that movie. I know there was a lot of backlash to those clips. People sounding off on the age gap between her and her co-star, Martin Freeman, the fact that they had those explicit scenes together. So seemingly, the intimacy coordinator was trying to defend the film and Jenna, speaking to the Daily Mail to assure audiences that everything was okay, saying there were many, many people throughout the process engaging with Jenna to make sure that it was consistent with what she was comfortable with, and she was very determined and very sure of what she wanted to do. While seemingly she had the best of intentions, SAG wasn't happy. And a SAG source telling Deadline, members have to feel safe, comfortable, and confident in engaging with intimacy coordinators.

And actually very notable to that specific situation, Deadline noted that that specific intimacy coordinator actually signed a confidentiality agreement in NDA. So those remarks were potentially in violation of those contracts. Well, neither Lionsgate or Jenna's team have made any further comments to talk about the situation or the rules. SAG very much appears to be in business here. They're being reported that coordinators who violate the rules could be booted from SAG's registry after an investigation. And this is something that is going to affect things in the future,

especially because, you know, these intimacy coordinators are not necessarily like new, but it is a developing field and they are becoming more and more commonplace. In fact, because of the actor strike, the actors won the right to request them on set without retribution. And then, you know, any kind of win each day, big or small, can do wonders on your mood and your outlook on life. What if I told you that there's a way that you can achieve this and gain a new skill? Well, with Babbel, that's exactly what you're doing. So muchas gracias,

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days later, at which time police had already found discarded bloody clothes and launched a missing person probe. When they searched Barrett's home, they found both him and Davies missing. But this also as there was a lot of blood and upturned furniture, so they know something bad had happened. And according to police sources, Barrett had actually told friends that he would wake up in recent months to find a shadowy figure at the end of his bed, who then fled from the house. But for whatever reason, he didn't report it to police at the time. And actually, last Friday, the killer turned himself in, with 28-year-old Beau Lamar Condon, who, as we now know,

had some sort of romantic connection or infatuation to Baird, with there being conflicting reports on whether they were actually dating, or if Lamar Condon was making unrequited advances. Very notably, he was actually a serving police officer in New South Wales, with the detectives matching ammunition found at the crime scene to his Glock service pistol, which was allegedly returned to a locker at a police station after being fired. Reportedly, Lamar actually signed out the gun three days before the murders, claiming that it was for protest activity, though it's unclear whether he actually worked at that event.

But regardless, he was charged with two counts of murder, and he didn't bother applying for bond. So then with that, the second phase of the investigation kicks off, finding the body. And it's during this part that New South Wales Police Commissioner Karen Webb comes into the mix. First off, some criticized her for describing the murders as a crime of passion rather than a hate crime. Though to be fair there, it doesn't right now appear to have been motivated by bigotry, since the suspect himself had some sort of romantic connection or infatuation to bear. But then he had more criticism hitting the commissioner for taking so long to speak publicly about this. Because she waited three whole days after Lamar turned himself in to hold her first press conference?

Three days to speak? Come on, it's still a live investigation. As I said, it's very complex. But there, saying that she was busy, that she had parliamentary budget estimates on Friday, public engagements on Saturday, and a personal meeting with Baird's family on Sunday. But then, as far as the third criticism,

many have called it inexcusable. And that's because she went on Seven's Sunrise program to talk about the search. And there, when asked about her alleged mishandling of the case, she responded. But there will always be haters. Haters like to hate. Isn't that what Taylor says?

And so with that, you had an LGBTQ advocacy group calling her response disgusting and appalling. With a member of parliament speaking for many when he told reporters. When a commissioner of police starts quoting Tay-Tay in the middle of a very serious murder investigation involving one of her own officers. That says it all.

With Webb also refusing to leave the studio for 10 minutes because a news crew was waiting outside. Though at least taking some of the heat off her, you had police announcing that they had finally found the bodies today. With the two reportedly wrapped in surfboard bags and hidden under rocks and debris on a rural property. And that discovery coming after the killer directed the police on where to find the remains. So in the wake of all this, we've seen multiple reactions. Some people grieving, others angry at the cops for several different reasons. The first being Karen Webb's alleged mishandling of the case. Second, there being doubts about the competency of the police, whether they would have found the killer or the

bodies had the killer not confessed everything to them. And then third, being the concerns around whatever procedures enabled Lamar Condon to sign out a pistol and murder two people with it off duty. Which if you're an American, you might be like, well, why that? But in Australia, this is kind of a rare fuck-up, because handgun ownership there is much more highly restricted than over here in good old America. And I mean, this case is such an outlier that this is the first suspected murder carried out by a New South Wales police officer in decades. And kind of touching on how shocking all this was for the community,

this is also going to be the first time in over two decades that the police will be excluded from Sydney's Mardi Gras parade, which is Australia's premier LGBTQ event and something the police have taken part in every year since 1998. But the events board asked the police not to march in it this Saturday, explaining, This decision was not made lightly, especially considering that many NSW police members who participate in the parade are also members of the LGBTQIA plus community and are navigating the impact of this tragedy alongside us. However, we believe that their participation at this year's event could intensify the current feelings of sorrow

and distress. And then Twitch is officially dead, at least in South Korea, with today being Twitch's last day there and their exit has been dramatic, with its users hosting adult content in protest and the government hitting Twitch with fines over their departure. Notably, it's not surprising that Twitch is leaving, with earlier this year, the CEO admitting it just hasn't been profitable. And that's actually even more true in South Korea, which has a so-called SPNP tax. Which to give you the quick version, that's where foreign tech companies like Twitch are actually required to pay a large fee to Korean internet providers for traffic that they deliver to the end user. And that's also notable for a different reason, because South Korea is actually the first country to implement this SPNP model. Though many others are also considering it despite warnings from experts that it could kill the internet. Now that said, Twitch has tried to delay leaving the country, cutting costs way

back in September of 2022 by reducing the source quality of streams from 1080 to 720p. But apparently that just wasn't enough, and they announced that this was going to happen at the end of last year. And also as a part of this shutdown, they're removing videos on demand from the platform, which then the South Korean government took issue with and fined them nearly $327,000. The Korean Telecommunications Commission claiming that the decision to cut VODs was, quote, undermining the interest of users, and they ordered Twitch to give evidence for why it was necessary. Also with this, there's a big question going around of can they actually fine Twitch for this? It's not like Twitch is operated in South Korea and they can't force them to pay a fine to stay in the Korean market if they already left. So the answer

is, I guess, kind of. Because if Twitch ever wants to have the chance to reopen their service in South Korea, they need to pay. Though there, I mean, it's. Because if Twitch ever wants to have the chance to reopen their service in South Korea, they need to pay. Though there, I mean, it's really unclear if Twitch would want to do that because doing any business in South Korea as a foreign company is extremely difficult. Because once again, to oversimplify or give you the TLDR, every major industry in South Korea is run by one or two major players. And if you don't play by their largely arbitrary rules, expect the government to crack down on you. And so while obviously there were people that were not happy, we've actually seen a lot of people on Twitch's side regarding them leaving. With people saying, South Korea, Twitch needs to pay more or cease service. Twitch, we are leaving South Korea because it's too expensive. South Korea, we are fining you for leaving. The fuck? Government there also wanted to squeeze Twitch for all it's worth, it seems. Because it's just a little cherry on top. They also fined them

about $10,000 for failing to have a system in place to stop the distribution of illegal content, which is actually something that Twitch users and streamers out in South Korea have started to do in protest of Twitch. In some cases, blatantly showing adult content, which is very illegal in South Korea. Then another case is just pushing the boundaries of what's normally allowed on Twitch with how they dress and other content that they're showing.

And while some thought, you know, Twitch wouldn't do much considering they're leaving the country, they have actually been banning users for the violations. And while this specific instance, right, it probably doesn't affect you or I, one, it is big news because this is a very rough day for viewers and content creators and one of the largest gaming markets in the world. And two, it highlights what can happen to companies, even ones backed by fucking Amazon, following the implementation of the SPNP

model, which again, many other countries are considering. And then the Supreme Court may be about to fundamentally change or lock in how the internet as we know it works. And that's because the Supreme Court just listened to oral arguments for a pair of cases that have been described as the most important First Amendment tests in a generation. Those cases center around two laws enacted by Florida and Texas back in 2021 that would ban the biggest social media companies like YouTube, TikTok, X, and Facebook from removing certain content from their platform. With those two laws stemming from claims by conservatives that content moderation on those platforms, in part driven by efforts to fight disinformation and hate speech, has actually

targeted conservatives and amounts to censorship. And notably, this all coming after Trump was banned from multiple platforms following the insurrection. And while these policies, you know, they differ a bit, both have the same general gist, which is why they were grouped together. Specifically, the Texas law bans social media companies from removing posts based on the, quote, viewpoint of the user. Whereas Florida's law, which is much more broadly written, prevents big tech from permanently banning candidates who are running for political office in the state. Lawyers for Florida and Texas arguing that these social media companies are public forums that are not allowed to discriminate against political views, and

arguing that doing so amounts to violations of the First Amendment. But there, we've seen tech groups pushing back by asserting that the First Amendment applies to censorship from the government, not private companies, and instead claiming that Florida and Texas laws actually violate their right to free speech because the First Amendment gives social media companies the ability to make their own editorial choices about what content they can take down. The same way newspapers are allowed to publish whatever they want without the government or in this case, state governments interfering. So at the heart of this case, we have two competing claims about freedom of speech that center around this question. How should social media companies be classified in the context of

the first amendment, right? Are they newspapers and bookstores, places that are about to edit and curate information as they please with the highest protections under the First Amendment? Or are they more like telephone companies, right? Utilities that have to provide open access to everyone without filtering. What we've seen is that in their remarks, the justices across the board expressed open skepticism about the Florida and Texas laws, with the majority seeming to agree with the argument that the First Amendment prevents state governments from telling companies like YouTube and TikTok they have to host certain content. With Chief Justice John Roberts saying, It's truck month at GMC. Tackle the open road with added confidence in a 2025 Sierra 1500 Pro Graphite at 0% financing for up to 72 months. With an available 5.3 liter V8 engine,

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guaranteed fresh Canadian produce first. Restrictions apply. See in-store or online for details. First Amendment restricts what the government can do. What the government's doing here is saying, you must do this. You must carry these people. You've got to explain if you don't. That's not the First Amendment. And you also had a majority seemingly backing the argument that the First Amendment gives companies like YouTube and TikTok the power to moderate content on their platforms. Just as it gives newspapers the power to make editorial decisions and bookstores the authority to pick what content to promote. Very notably here, given their majority, we saw multiple conservative members appearing to make that point. With this including Justice Amy Coney Barrett, who questioned Florida's law by asking if the state could enact a policy. Telling bookstores that they have to put everything out by alphabetical order and that they can't organize or put some things closer to the front of the store that they think, you know, their customers will want to buy.

That was also echoed by Justice Brett Kavanaugh, who asked a similar question. Beyond that, we saw a handful of justices on both sides arguing that these laws, and especially Florida's, are way too sweeping and vague. Justice Sonia S Sotomayor saying, I have a problem with laws like this that are so broad that they stifle speech just on their face. Also numerous members said that because of how broad the Florida law is, it also seems to regulate big tech companies that don't even publish content like Uber, Gmail, and Etsy,

which is why we saw both liberal and conservative justices signaling they would send this matter back to the lower courts to flush out these kinds of issues. And while Justice Samuel Alito was among them, he, alongside the court's other two most conservative justices, all appear to be sympathetic to the state laws and argument that content moderation amounts to censorship. But as far as how they're going to rule,

we're gonna have to wait to see. And it's gonna be important because what the Supreme Court rules here will have massive political and economic implications. If they decide that social media companies are public forums and can't regulate certain content, it would give the government the power to force them to carry content they don't want. But if they rule that tech companies are essentially newspapers and they can make their own editorial decisions, it would give them a ton of free speech protection.

So much so that actually some legal experts are concerned that these huge corporate interests would then be given almost unlimited power under the First Amendment, which again is meant to protect free speech and press freedoms but for now we wait and then you know getting quality sleep so i feel energized the next day is incredibly important to me and also being a parent this is especially true when keeping up with the kids i know for a long time you've heard me share my experience with dreams i've been taking it for years now it's a delicious hot cocoa with five natural ingredients that helps me fall asleep and wake up feeling amazing to be honest it is the waking up feeling refreshed that I think I like the most.

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And in particular, we're talking about artillery shells. And even if they wanted to send them, the EU doesn't have nearly enough as they've moved more towards focusing on air power. And while the US does have the shells to send, Republicans have blocked any aid for months now. And at this point, Ukraine's desperately waiting for the F-16s they were sent to be done training

and ready to go, which I mean, that won't happen for another month or two, or until they're in a really, really rough spot. Also, we're seeing after months and months of waiting, Sweden has finally joined NATO. Because first, it was Turkey holding out, but after they dropped their opposition, it was Hungary causing a headache. And for them, it was likely because of close ties between the country's leader and the Russian government. But after facing serious pressure from NATO allies and the EU, they finally caved. But then there was also more drama within NATO

over the last day. There's been a conference of European and NATO states discussing how to best support Ukraine, during which French President Emmanuel Macron made headlines after he said that nothing was ruled out when supporting Ukraine, and that included sending troops. And that rhetoric has been seen as a major escalation from past comments, and actually led to Europe and NATO trying to do damage control, with reportedly a large argument breaking out over the comment. But then German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, he said that everyone else was unanimous in their position against deploying troops and adding, what was agreed among ourselves and with each other from the very beginning also applies to the future. Namely, that there will be

no ground troops, no soldiers on Ukrainian soil sent there by European countries or NATO states. But then McCrallin seemingly doubled down and said after the conference, nothing should be ruled out. We will do anything we can to prevent Russia from winning this war. But then pointing out that Russia is unlikely to stop with Ukraine if it wins. Especially as breakaway regions and places like Moldova are openly calling for Russian intervention and adding, This is a European war. It's our soil and our continent. And this is there are other ways Europe and even the U.S. are pushing to limit Russia's war capabilities and boost Ukraine's. Notably, many nations and even U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen are trying to get Russian assets and Western banks unfrozen.

Not because they want to send the money back to Russians, but instead just hand it over to Ukraine. This could be huge. Like this is not a small amount we're talking about. It is currently estimated that there is about $285 billion in Russian assets sitting in frozen accounts. And getting that much money

would be a huge boost to Ukraine as it's currently estimated that it would cost another $486 billion to rebuild. And that number just keeps going up and up. Though notably, this doesn't come without risks. With some economists worried here that if G7 nations confiscate these funds, it could undermine confidence in staple currencies

like the euro, dollar, and yen. We've seen Yellen pushing back against that, saying that it was extremely unlikely that any confiscations would result in currency problems. And she also stretched that a move like this is needed to support Ukraine because Putin's strategy is hoping he can simply wait out Ukraine and its allies,

saying we must prove him wrong and show the Kremlin that we will collectively stand with Ukraine for as long as it takes. But again, so many of the issues that we're talking about here is because Republicans are holding up aid for Ukraine. Though this, as we're also looking at a Republican held house that is very likely, according to more and more reports, not even going to be able to successfully fund itself. There being more and more fears that we're headed towards a government shutdown. And then, it's been a year since that train derailed in East Palestine, Ohio, which spewed over a million pounds of toxic vinyl chloride into the environment. And we got to talk about it, because despite all the pearl clutching in

the political theater from both sides of the aisle, the vinyl chloride industry has been thriving and expanding. Because if you don't know, vinyl chloride is a gas that's necessary to make PVC plastics, which are used for construction, medical devices, and plenty of other household items. Think furniture, car parts, even children's toys. And despite how incredibly common PVC is, environmental and health experts have been warning about its dangerous impacts for decades. And that's because the key ingredient, vinyl chloride, is a real nasty motherfucker. With the EPA listing it as a group A carcinogen to humans, right? The highest classification. And that's because it's been scientifically proven that inhalation of the gas, it causes an increased risk of cancer.

And when vinyl chloride burns, like it did in East Palestine, Ohio, it creates even more harm because it releases dioxins, which are super toxic chemical compounds. And what's more is that the way the PVC plastics are produced is absolutely horrible. Not only releasing enormous amounts of greenhouse gases, but also exposing workers in nearby communities to asbestos and certain kinds of forever chemicals. And most of those PVC plants, like other petrochemical production facilities, they're largely based in the Gulf Coast region and often in marginalized communities. In fact, according to a 2023 report

by Toxic Free Future, people in at least four different low-income communities of color in Louisiana have been forced to relocate due to vinyl chloride and contamination from vinyl-slash-P slash PVC plants. And that including Mossville, where government-led toxicology tests found that the residents had higher levels of dioxins in their bodies. And of course, now, with all this, this is nothing new, but the East Palestine derailments brought a lot more attention to vinyl chloride and the trail of destruction that it leaves behind. And experts saying that as a result, there's been an increased effort to regulate this dangerous gas at both the state and national levels. But this, not only as the industry has begun fighting that effort, but also as it's been expanding and growing. It turns out in recent years, big petrochemical makers have been announcing huge investments in expanding PVC

facilities. And that has just continued even after East Palestine. Last June, for example, just four months after the derailment, the PVC compounder Manor launched a $54 million expansion in Illinois. Then just days later, the chemical manufacturer Orbia announced plans to complete a big PVC facility in the Gulf Coast region in the next five years. And then literally this year, Shintec, the single biggest PVC manufacturer in the world, announced an $18 million expansion to a Louisiana production center. Very notably here, that plant's actually located in one of the four low-income communities of color where people had to relocate that I mentioned. But oh boy, wait until I tell you about Westlake Chemical, because that company actually gained some attention back in 2022 after ProPublica published a just damning investigation into its PVC facility in Calvert City, Kentucky.

With them finding that regulators had failed to limit dangerous emissions, including of vinyl chloride. And that cancer risk to the community from those pollutants was way higher than the level considered acceptable by the EPA. Within three weeks after that report coming out, you had the DOJ announcing it had actually reached an agreement with Westlake to, quote, reduce harmful pollution at the Calvert plant and two others. That agreement including a $1 million fine and then another $110 million set aside for upgrades and compliance measures to, quote, resolve allegations that they violated the Clean Air Act and state air pollution control laws at the Calvert facility and another in Louisiana. But in January of this year, the EPA released a report drawing from air monitoring over the last year. And that report found that the same Calvert City facility had increased the risk of cancer for residents in the area. And all the while, Westlake has just been growing its operation. With the company announcing in November, less than a year after the East Palestine disaster,

that it's planning a $134 million expansion to its plant in Wichita Falls, Texas. And so in the wake of all this, not only are these companies continuing to grow and to pollute, they also have launched an effort to fight any new regulations that have been proposed in response to East Palestine, all in the hopes and the efforts that they can keep expanding and profiting. In fact, last year, the Vinyl Institute, which is one of the biggest lobbying groups for the industry, they spent more money than ever before to lobby federal lawmakers. In the same year, the group sued the EPA over an order the agency had made regarding a potentially cancerous chemical used in the creation of vinyl chloride. With that order, designating the chemical as a high priority to evaluate for potential risks, and directing

companies to perform toxicity tests on birds. But then even beyond that, the Vinyl Institute has also worked to fight PVC bans at the state level, something that it literally bragged about on its website, saying its lobbyists, quote, were close with state partners to slow down or stop PVC bans around the nation. Noting that in response to East Palestine, Maine, California, and New York introduced proposals to ban PVC and other toxic chemicals from being used in consumer packaging, and actually bragging that their team helped to stop this legislation from becoming law in those three states. Of course, if you've been watching this show or paying attention to anything, none of this is shocking, especially when you have a whole country and a government set up around

protecting corporate interests over human lives. It makes it incredibly hard to believe that whatever promises were made after a catastrophe like East Palestine will ever actually be fulfilled, no matter how sincere or well-intentioned. Because let me tell you something. I grew up a very rah-rah, America number one kind of kid, thinking of this country as the shining city on a hill. But as I got older and I allowed more reality to seep into my stupid brain, I realized that that's an ideal. That's a goal. That's a thing to aspire to be. Because when you really look at America, and there are a lot of places like this, it's not that. It's a goal. That's a thing to aspire to be. Because when you really look at America,

and there are a lot of places like this, it's not that. It's a pay-to-win game. It's also actually worse than that. Because you're not just having to deal with whales that have all this money that you don't. They actually get more money to spend on the game by spending money on the game. Hell, you spend the right amount of money in the right ways,

they'll even let you make the rules of the game. But that's the news. So that's my take on it. And of course, I'll now pass the question off to you. What are your thoughts here? And then finally today, we have announcements in Yesterday Today. Starting with the news, we just restocked several colorways on shirts, crews, and hoodies over at beautifulpastor.com.

Though they're a friendly fill advice. Just for shipping costs, you might want to hold off until next Monday. Because that's when we're doing our next mini drop of our brand new blank hoodies. In both clean black and LA sunrise tie-dye. It also includes one of my favorite emotionally exhausted drops, brokenhearted gear, and are you taking care of yourself goodness? But if you're impatient, you do you,

otherwise wait till next Monday. But as far as yesterday, today, y'all were popping off in those comments. I think it was the most comments we've gotten in months. Starting with the fact that there were several comments saying, you know, why didn't you talk about Aaron Bushnell today? Which we actually did, but I gotta explain something here.

We did upload that as its own video over on PDS News Clips. And that's because talking about the details of that story, it would have resulted in YouTube suppressing and age-gating the entire show yesterday. I personally hate that we have to section out those stories, but it's YouTube's platform, YouTube's rules, and we're trying to just navigate it. But what I will do moving forward is that if there is a story like this in the future, I'll make a mention of it after the first story in that video, as well as include a link to that video in the top pinned comment, which I'll also do today if you want to see that covered. Though in lighter news, I think part of the reason we got over 7,000 comments on yesterday's show was that about half of them just

appreciated the taking a huge load line because you're dirty degenerates, like me. So I love you. Also, there were a lot of comments about blood donations because, of course, we talked about the blood shortage, which I think was good to see for two reasons. The first being that it was so cool to see so many people going, hey, you know what? I'm going to donate blood now. With Anna Lamp saying, thank you for the reminder. My sons and my lives were saved thanks to blood donations, and I'll never forget that. It's so important to do our part, especially when it's easy. This also, as there was no shortage of people saying like, I want to give blood, but for several different reasons, either being turned away or just not wanting to wait through hours and hours, which, hey, is a legitimate reason. If you want people

to donate, you need to make it as easy as possible. Also, people like Chelsea sharing, I appreciate the coverage of the blood product shortage. My husband is a lead blood bank technician, and before he became the lead tech, there was an insane amount of blood products being wasted due to mismanagement of inventory and blood products expiring. It's unfortunate there may be people in positions where they should be aware of these shortages, but they are just careless with inventory management. Glad and proud to say, since my husband took over as lead blood banker at his hospital,

the number of expired blood products has significantly declined. And while it was great to hear about a positive outcome, like once again, there was no shortage of people saying like, hey, I worked in these settings. And you have people describing things like toxic leadership. And then finally, there was just kind of a lot of nodding heads on the lack of social battery story

that we started with yesterday, of different jobs being hard for different reasons. People like Jayco saying, "'As someone that's been a chef for 20 years, "'I totally relate to your toast and beans comment. "'After working 15 days in a row, 17 hour days, "'the last thing I wanna do is even so much "'as look or smell food, let alone walk into my kitchen.

"'I'd practically have to force myself to eat. "'It was horrible.'" Though this, of course, as people were pointing out, that having a social media type job and having to work in the service industry, while it can be similar in certain ways, still drastically different. With people noting the story after that,

saying the story with the coffee encapsulated how horrible people get treated in the service industry. Even though I know I can't afford to quit my job so many times, it's hard not to with how poorly me and my coworkers get treated. That is where your Philip DeFranco show is gonna end today. Though of course, don't worry, there's more on the horizon because my name your Philip DeFranco show is gonna end today. Though of course, don't worry, there's more on the horizon

because my name's Philip DeFranco. You've just been filled in. I love your faces and I'll see you right back here tomorrow. You on my mind a lot. Don't need no time to watch. I don't know how I got you in my pocket spot. Yeah, that's bad.

With you every day. You like my oxygen.