The Philip DeFranco Show - PDS 3.11 H3 Ethan Klein CPS Situation is Disgusting, Russia Ukraine 30-Day Ceasefire Agreement & Today's News

Episode Date: March 11, 2025

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What's better than a well-marbled ribeye sizzling on the barbecue? A well-marbled ribeye sizzling on the barbecue that was carefully selected by an Instacart shopper and delivered to your door. A well-marbled ribeye you ordered without even leaving the kiddie pool. Whatever groceries your summer calls for, Instacart has you covered. Download the Instacart app and enjoy $0 delivery fees on your first three orders. Service fees, exclusions, and terms apply. Instacart. Grocer $0 delivery fees on your first three orders. Service fees, exclusions, and terms apply. Instacart, groceries that over-deliver. This Ethan Klein child protective services situation is genuinely insane. The Trump Canada tariff rollercoaster is raging on with new

threats, tariffs, and suspensions you've got to know, including updates that happened just as I was uploading today's show. You've got huge Russia-Ukraine updates, both regarding war and peace. We've got a new BAMF of the day I'd like you to meet. We're talking about all that and much more on today's brand new Philip DeFranco show, your daily dive into the news, how it's being covered, and how people are reacting to it, starting with this.

We need to talk about this Ethan Klein CPS situation because it's genuinely insane. And I wanna preface the rest of this by saying, you may have noticed this year that we've largely kind of stepped away from things that could be deemed drama in the community. There's so many things in the world right now being torn down, set on fire. We've really tried to pivot and focus on most of those things.

But this, it's not drama. It rises above. And so for those unfamiliar, Ethan Klein is a longtime YouTube creator, very big podcaster. And while the story is heavily centered on a video that he posted yesterday, the actual story goes back a little bit further than that. Because Ethan first said that CPS, Child Protective Services, visited his house during an H3 podcast episode on Friday, explaining. An anonymous call went into them on the 3rd, saying that they were,

somebody that works at the house. And they wanted to report us because our kids are crawling around eating dog shit and getting viruses. With Ethan then going on to say that a CPS agent had to visit their house, talk to both he and his wife, Hila, look around the home, see the kids, and the agent eventually needs to return

to interview the kids because of the call. And then after that, he went into more detail on that incident, the context around it, and what he believes is the root issue in a video that he posted yesterday titled, This is So Fucked Up. Not only have they called CPS on us, now they're starting to try to call in a 5150 to get me committed. It's really gone on too far, and at this point, I'm ready to take no prisoners,

take the gloves off, and call out everybody who needs to be called out. The thing is, once you target my children, then a line's been crossed that cannot be walked back. With even noting that while he held nothing against a CPS agent who visited their house because he was just doing his job, he still found the whole ordeal to be invasive and overwhelming. He's called the pediatrician that takes care of the kids.

He talked to them. Pretty much sifted through every angle of our life, having to do with our kids in an extremely violating, insulting, unbelievable way. You can't believe that you, as somebody who has done nothing wrong, has taken care of your kids to be subject to this forcible investigation

because of some freaking freaks online. And as far as who did this, he said that his digging brought him to snark subreddits. With the first one being dubbed H3Snark, though it looks like it's now moved over to a new page called H3H3 underscore productions. And for those that don't know, a snark page or subreddit is essentially devoted to criticizing or making fun of that topic, right? There are

general snark pages for calling out influencers, ones about not liking certain celebrities, and it goes on. And so an H3Snark page would be anti-H3, anti-Ethan and Hila, and Ethan doesn't think that Reddit's doing enough about this overall problem. But also, he thinks that major creators are allowing them to thrive. The problem is, is that this subreddit, this community, is being legitimized by creators such as Hasan, such as Denim, such as Mike from PA, and all these leftist commentators who think they can get one up on me by sickening and participating and legitimizing the most crazed psychopaths on the internet. With Ethan specifically accusing Hassan and other creators of, at the very least, minimizing what the subreddit has done, and at one point appearing to suggest that Hassan's

fans were responsible for the CPS call and other targeted harassment towards him. And that, as Hassan and Ethan have been at odds for a long time now. They're former friends, former podcast hosts, and there are a lot of recent tensions that are tied to their opposing views around the war in Gaza. Their relationship and the fallout, it's long and storied. But going back to Ethan's video, he then went on into more context

as to why the CPS call specifically accused him of letting his kids eat feces off the floor. And he showed a stream from the beginning of the month where a creator by the name of Denims reacted to a creator by the name of Bad Empanada. The house is just like covered in dog shit. And he has kids and his kids like crawl into the dog shit. And God forbid, I don't know what they do with it. I don't know if they eat it. How is it? How is it that like, maybe once a week, I look into what Ethan Klein's been up to.

And every time I managed to find more and more terrible shit. With Ethan also pointing out that the chat was encouraging CPS to be called. But also, Ethan said that the idea that his kids eat feces, it's been taken out of context from a story that he told around a month ago. Right, and that because he previously talked about how his dog had an infection that caused it to have diarrhea. And then their baby, who's crawling around the house all the time, also started having diarrhea.

So they assumed that the baby might have caught the dog's infection. Right, not from eating the dog's poop, but from constantly touching or licking any surface that the dog and its shedding fur came into contact with. So there you had Ethan saying that it turned out that the baby didn't actually have the same infection as the dog, just some general baby diarrhea. But that's also where the whole notion started with Ethan adding. And that's why they called CPS because my 10 month old baby who's just starting to eat

solid food had diarrhea. In the video, we then see Ethan go on to post a story from the creator, Bad Empanada, where he claimed he was behind the CPS call and then accused Ahsan of supporting him and other streamers who feed into this snark. In there, accusing other creators like Denim's of being insensitive about how serious the CPS call was and pointing to a moment where Denim said it wouldn't impact his kids because they're so young. Create any bad memory for them. You're not forming memories at three years old. And it's very rare that you're forming memories at five years old. There's a wide variation across

about the mean across methods, cohorts. The average age of adults earliest memories is three and a half years old. You're not really forming memories at three. You literally just read out of your mouth that the average adult starts forming memories at three. You literally just read out of your mouth that the average adult starts forming memories at three. What is happening? Her defense for sending the CPS to break up our family and to interrogate our three and five year old is that don't worry, kids don't remember stuff. But then from that, Ethan goes on to focus on how he thinks that snark pages at large have just gone too far. Saying that they knowingly spread false rumors, accusing the mods of doxing his office and adding,

has Reddit done anything despite us complaining, making noise, reaching out for the past two years about this snark community? With him going on to say that not only has Reddit not helped but he believes they're protecting these snark groups. And that in part because he's tried to get these pages taken down, but that's resulted in no long-term success. And this is other major creators have been able to get them removed for

harassment. So he thinks there's a double standard with him also explaining. This is one of my favorite examples. We made a subreddit called snark snark to make fun of snark subreddits in general. And the community was actually starting to pick up steam and become pretty active. Well, it was removed. Why was it removed? For harassment. With Ethan then claiming that the community is reopened, but the new moderator was also a moderator for one of the H3 snark pages. And with that, arguing that these platforms are protecting people who go after it. So here we are, where it's acceptable to call child protective services on people as an act of political protest on a website, Reddit, in which

they do not care. They protect it, they enable it. At what point has this gone too far? And how much worse can it get before something is done about it? Right, and as far as the reaction to that video, I mean, if you go into the comments, you have a lot of people agreeing with him that it's just gone too far, that targeting children is not okay. Right, and that sentiment appearing to come from both people that support him as well as people who have historically not liked him.

Folks writing things like, "'Regardless of people's opinions on Ethan, "'you would think everyone could agree "'that getting CPS involved is unhinged.'" Others focusing on the fact that whoever called CPS diverted resources away from someone who may have actually needed them. Though then all of that,

while on the opposite side of the internet, including on some of those snark pages, you have people questioning the validity of Ethan's CPS story. You then also had some people that Ethan called out responding, or BadEmpanada posting these on his Instagram story, but then also calling out Ethan saying

that he encourages his fans to go after his ops online and reveals their personal information too. Additionally, you had Hasan reacting on stream to the claim that his fans were behind the CPS call by saying, why in the ever loving would I ever do that? Or even one of my fans would ever do that? He said that? Is there a thing that happens on the planet to Ethan that I am not responsible for let me tell you why I would

never do that because I'm not Ethan Klein okay that's right I would never in a million years entertain such a thing never Never, ever, ever. The fact that people have done that is also insane. I don't know who did it. I don't know what they did. But the notion that I would ever entertain that is insane. It's pure projection. It's quite literally projection.

I have not done a fraction of what he has done to me. With Hasan then saying that he's made it clear that he thinks snark pages are problematic, right, he ended up echoing a lot of that in a statement to us today, writing, I think random people calling CPS on a content creator is insane, it's completely unacceptable. I assume he has nannies and maids to take care of the kids when he's working. Wasting government resources and possibly freaking out little kids of a YouTuber

you don't like is gross behavior. I hope Ethan and his family are okay. Now, ultimately, as a recording, that is where we are. Of course, keep in mind, with the people that we're talking about being content creators, it's moving at the speed of the internet. But for now, what I want to do is say, you know, that is a story, that's the news, I'd love to know your thoughts, and I do want to share a bit of my opinion here. You know. I can't speak to the back and forth between Ethan Klein, Hasan Piker, or any of these other creators involved. But what I can say is that to call CPS

to harass a creator or someone you do not like is genuinely fucking insane. It is disgusting. It is wrong. It's not just a waste of government resources. I would argue this is just a different version of trying to swat someone. If someone gets swatted, you want to harass, you want to scare them. Worst case scenario,

someone gets fucking killed. If someone knowingly calls CPS to harass, they're trying to harass you, they're trying to scare you. And then worst case scenario, the system is fucked and you lose your family. And I'd want to see the people responsible for fake CPS calls punished in a similar fashion to swatting calls. I mean, how many stories have we covered over the years where there are children that are genuinely being abused and mistreated and need help and you're fucking taking resources away because you wanna harass a YouTuber?

That's not warranted. It doesn't get validated or get a pass whether I like the person or I fucking hate the person. You know, ultimately that is the story and then separately, my opinion. And then of course, I'd love to know your thoughts in those comments down below. Because remember, yes, this is a new show

but I also want it to be a conversation. I wanna hear from you. And then of course we'd talk about things at the end of the show and comment commentary from the previous show. And then we'll get to more news in just a moment. But first, you know, it's been really cool working with SeatGeek on the $500 weekly giveaway

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get $10 off future purchases and you can be one of our lucky weekly winners. That's $500 in credit towards any of SeatGeek's 70,000 events. Because again, SeatGeek Vets, if you used it before, you can still add code PDS, which gets you $10 off any purchase. And again, you'll be entered for your chance at the $500 SeatGeek credit, no purchase necessary. Then next up in the news, we need to talk about how, you know, while Trump may have paused most tariffs on Mexico and Canada again for now, that hasn't stopped a trade war from escalating.

Or with among other things, yesterday that war hitting more than a million American victims when Ontario Premier Doug Ford announced this, Play the clip. Until these tariffs are off the table, until the threat of tariffs is gone for good, Ontario will not relent. We will not back down, pausing some tariffs, making last-minute exemptions. It won't cut it. We need to end the chaos once and for all. That's why today we're moving forward with a 25% surcharge on electricity exports. For the 1.5 million American homes and businesses that Ontario powers, homes and businesses in Minnesota, Michigan and New York.

This surcharge will cost families and businesses in these states up to $400,000 each and every single day. On an average, this will add around $100 per month to the bills of hardworking Americans. Let me be clear. I will not hesitate to increase this charge. If necessary, if the United States escalates, I will not hesitate to shut the electricity off completely. Right, and this doesn't necessarily come as a surprise. Ford has been threatening this move for weeks in response to Trump's on-again, off-again tariffs. But now he's saying this new tariff on energy exports will remain in place despite the current pause, arguing the back and forth just creates more uncertainty. With the men going on to make it abundantly clear that he's only doing this because of Donald Trump

and that this whole situation will only get worse from here. Believe me when I say I do not want to do this. I feel terrible for the American people because it's not the American people who started this trade war. It's one person who's responsible. That's President Trump. None of this makes sense. Costly tariffs against your

closest friends and allies do not make sense. The U.S. markets have lost trillions in value. Companies are second-guessing investments into the American economy. American workers' jobs are at risk as we speak right now. Costs of of hardworking American families will only go up. It doesn't have to be this way. Now, notably here, besides the totally preventable costs on Americans and U.S. companies, the total impact that this move is actually going to have, at least in terms of energy disruption, that's expected to be fairly minimal. None of the three states impacted actually imports a ton of electricity from Canada. The Mid-Continent Independent System Operator, which runs the regional electric grid

in parts of Minnesota and Michigan, said that it expects very minimal effects, noting that less than 1% of its total energy came from Ontario last year. And Minnesota Power, the main electrical utility that serves the part of the state bordering Ontario, said it got a very small proportion of its power from the province.

We're bringing in just about $300,000 worth of electricity from Ontario last year and only for four months. What's more, one of the larger Canadian suppliers Minnesota gets energy from is Manitoba Hydro, and the province of Manitoba hasn't announced a surcharge on electricity, at least yet. But regardless, we still saw Minnesota Governor Tim Walz condemning the move, describing Minnesotans

as the first victims of Trump's trade war and later acknowledging that while the impact may be minimal, it's about the principles, saying, "'So look, even if it were one megawatt, "'this is totally unnecessary. And the fact of the matter is, it doesn't impact Donald Trump one bit. It impacts rate payers in Minnesota.

For what? These are our friends. With that said, as far as Ontario's other US neighbors, Michigan actually does get a decent amount of electricity from the province, but the chair of the Michigan Public Service Commission said that the state doesn't actually consume most of it. Instead, the power flows through Michigan into several other states before returning to Canada as part

of an electric grid that connects central Canada and states east of the Rocky Mountains. But that begs the question, who will pay for Ontario's new electricity surcharge? But if Michigan is passing most of it off to other states, it seems like the consumers in those other states would bear that cost, which would indicate that this will reach beyond just these three border states. And then beyond that, you have other experts raising concerns about the impact this will have on the reliability of the electric grid. With the saying,

the information officer for the Michigan Public Service Commission explaining that electricity flows between the US and Canada as part of an interconnected grid and adding, any action to limit or disrupt these flows would remove a layer of protection

and make all of us, Canadians and Americans alike, more vulnerable to grid scale outages. And then finally with this, for New York, we saw Governor Kathy Hochul announcing that she has ordered state energy officials to review how much the 25% surcharge will drive up costs in the state.

And they're accusing Trump's tariffs of being poorly conceived from the start and having no clear economic rationale. And notably with all this, the New York Independent System Operator, the nonprofit corporation that manages the state's electricity, reported back in 2023 that electricity imported

from Ontario made up around 3% of total energy use. But like officials in Michigan, the operator has also previously raised concerns about the potential these measures have to disrupt the highly interconnected systems between the two countries, a situation that could ultimately cost New York

tens of millions of dollars a year. But then with all that, of course, we get to the point of, well, how has Trump responded to all this? And while it's been a real fucking doozy even for him. With a saying in a late night Truth Social post, Trump slamming the 25% surcharge and asserting without any explanation, you're not even allowed to do that.

And I'm not even gonna try to debunk that cause I have literally no idea what he's talking about. Cause by all accounts, he started a trade war with our biggest allies and I'm not sure what he thinks is illegal or is not allowed to happen here. With him then going on to say, because our tariffs are reciprocal,

we'll just get it all back on April 2nd. Canada is a tariff abuser and always has been, but the United States is not going to be subsidizing Canada any longer. With him also claiming that Canada is charging the USA from 250% to 390% tariffs on many of our farm products. And what he appears to be referring to here specifically is Canadian tariffs on dairy products, which is something that he's been railing against

a lot recently. And while it is definitely true that Canada imposes a tariff of around 250% on US exports of certain dairy products, experts say those high tariffs only kick in after the US has reached a certain quota for tariff-free dairy sales to Canada each year. A quota that, this is a big, key, notable, significant thing, Trump negotiated under the United States-Mexico-Canada

agreement. But this also, as the dairy industry acknowledges that the U.S. never actually hits that quota for any category of dairy product, meaning they don't export enough dairy goods for the high tariffs that Trump is referencing to kick in. A fact that the U.S. dairy industry has blamed on various protectionist measures put in place by Canada. But again, despite all that, Trump repeated the misleading claim again on Truth Social today in a wild post, where he also made a massive announcement with him declaring that in response to Ontario's electricity surcharge starting tomorrow,

he will be doubling the tariff on all aluminum and steel coming into the US from Canada, raising it from 25% to 50%. Trump then also adding that he'll declare a national emergency for the three states Ontario targeted while threatening to substantially increase tariffs on cars imported into the US on April 2nd if Canada doesn't drop the quote,

other egregious long-time tariffs. With him claiming that the move will essentially permanently shut down the automobile manufacturing business in Canada. But then Trump, yet again, going on to assert that he wants to make Canada the 51st state. And with that, I think it's important that I read a lot of what he said here.

It was specifically Trump saying that making Canada the 51st state is the only thing that makes sense and claiming this would make all tariffs and everything else totally disappear. Canadians' taxes will be very substantially reduced. They will be more secure militarily and otherwise than ever before. It would no longer be a northern border problem and the greatest and most powerful nation in the world will be bigger, better, and stronger than ever. And Canada will be a big part of that. And adding, the artificial line of separation drawn many years ago will finally disappear and we will have the

safest and most beautiful nation anywhere in the world. And your brilliant anthem, O Canada, will continue to play, but now representing a great and powerful state within the greatest nation that the world has ever seen. And I am, I'm just going to let you digest that for a second. Okay. You know this, it's really just the beginning of the trade war that seems like it's inevitably going to just continue to play out despite the pauses that Trump keeps putting in place. I just don't know what the hell is going to happen, but there's no way Canada is going to let the U.S. make it a state. And if Trump's not going to back down, like how, where do we go? How do things not continue to get worse? I mean, even before all of the events over the last 24 hours, we saw reports that Quebec is also considering stopping US energy exports. And that's just one of the many areas that could be impacted,

especially if provinces continue to act on their own accord, separate from the Canadian federal government, which will also likely continue its own retaliation. But yeah, all in all, it's a rapidly developing situation. We've got eyes on it. And in the meantime, I'd love to know your thoughts. Actually, wait, apparently this situation

is developing so rapidly that, as I was getting up to show today, all of this just started crumbling apart. First, the news broke that Ford has now agreed to suspend the 25% surcharge after a conversation with Trump's commerce secretary. With the two issuing a joint statement saying that they'll be meeting Thursday to discuss

a renewed USMCA ahead of the April 2nd reciprocal tariff deadline. And adding, in response, Ontario agreed to suspend its 25% surcharge on exports of electricity. And then when Trump was asked at a press conference if he would now be walking back his 50% tariffs on steel and aluminum, he responded, probably. With it also being reported

that Trump's trade representative has now told CNBC that the 50% tariffs will not be going into place tomorrow as Trump initially promised. Yeah, on and on the rollercoaster goes. But then switching gears from that, supporting Ukraine is now an act of treason, at least according to Elon Musk. Or with the world's richest man and senior advisor to President Trump,

letting that accusation against Democratic Senator Mark Kelly. With Kelly having recently visited Ukraine and expressing his support of the country in a series of posts on X, writing in one, for example, what I saw proved to me, we can't give up on the Ukrainian people. Everyone wants this war to end, but any agreement has to protect Ukraine's security and can't be a giveaway to Putin. To which Musk then responded, you are a traitor. Within Kelly, who just by the way, is a decorated Navy pilot and former NASA astronaut,

replying, asking, traitor? And adding, Elon, if you don't understand that defending freedom is a basic tenet of what keeps America great and keeps us safe, maybe you should leave it to those of us who do. And you know, with all that, we've seen Musk's comments sparking outrage among Democrats and others, including notably that, we've seen Musk's comments sparking outrage among Democrats

and others, including notably some, but very few Republicans. And so while it's kind of just a blip on the radar in terms of shit that Musk does that pisses people off, the whole incident and response, it really ends up being representative of just how much and how quickly the Trump administration has turned away from Ukraine. Which you know is very notable today because Ukrainian and American officials have now begun meeting in Saudi Arabia for the two countries' first high-level talk since the Trump-Zelensky Oval Office showdown. Although with all that, we've seen the two parties coming together quicker than expected with Ukraine agreeing to accept an offer from the Trump administration for a 30-day interim ceasefire.

With this notably seeming to go beyond the aerial and maritime drew suggested by Zelensky last week and Secretary of State Marco Rubio saying the offer is to simply stop the shooting. With that, the U.S. has also agreed to restart intelligence sharing and security assistance to Ukraine immediately, with a joint statement from the two parties saying the United States will communicate to Russia that Russian reciprocity is the key to achieving peace. With then Rubio putting it more bluntly saying the ball is now in their court and that if Russia doesn't agree, quote, we'll unfortunately know what the impediment is to peace here. With that, of course, there are big questions about how willing Russia is to actually play ball.

And in fact, one Russian MP has reportedly already called the idea of a temporary ceasefire absolutely unacceptable, something that a Russian foreign ministry spokesperson also said last week. You know this, it's all happening in real time as I'm recording, so we're gonna have to wait to see what happens. But notably, even if a temporary truce could be agreed on,

there's still the massive question about what kind of long-term deal might be reached, especially as Russia has yet to show any real willingness to make concessions. And in fact, some unnamed Western security officials are reportedly telling Bloomberg that Putin knows that his terms won't be met and is prepared to keep fighting if he doesn't get his way.

With him claiming that he has no intention to compromise on his demands, that Russia keeps the land that it has illegally seized, that Ukraine formally commits to neutrality and abandons its bid for NATO membership, and that European troops not be allowed to act as peacekeepers. With that last one raising big questions

because we now have more than 30 nations taking part in talks regarding creation of an international security force for Ukraine, including along with the UK and France who are leading the effort, most but not all of NATO and EU countries, as well as Australia, New Zealand, Japan, and South Korea. With notably, of course, the US not being included.

The French military official reportedly telling the Associated Press that the U.S. wasn't invited because European nations want to demonstrate that they can take responsibility for a large part of the post-ceasefire security framework for Ukraine. And adding that the security force would aim to reassure Ukraine and deter another large-scale Russian offensive. And also noting that the plan might involve setting up additional weapons stockpiles that could be quickly deployed to support Ukraine's defense in the event that that happened. And then finally, with all that, you were the official claiming that after presenting a rough framework for the plan,

the talk's second part will include more precise and concrete discussions where the participants will be invited to say whether and how their militaries might be able to contribute. But with all that happening in parallel and not in conjunction with the US-led talks, it's still unclear if and how this could all come together. You know, in the meantime, the war is still just raging on. Russian forces have continued attacks recently, killing 14 and injuring 37, including five children in an attack

in the eastern part of the country, as well as taking back more and more territory in the Kursk region. And this is yesterday, Ukraine reportedly launched its biggest ever drone attack on the Moscow region, killing at least three warehouse workers and injuring 18 others, including three children.

With a senior Russian lawmaker there suggesting his country should retaliate by striking Ukraine with the hypersonic missile that only has been used once so far in the war. Or with that being last November when the US and UK allowed Kyiv to strike deeper into Russia with Western missiles. And so, you know, with all of that,

there's still so many ways that this could play out. And for now we have to just keep our eyes on it. But to kind of close this where we started it, and I'm gonna separate this from the news portion. If you're gonna call one of the most American motherfuckers on the planet, Mark Kelly, a traitor, there is a high probability, at least in this specific avenue,

that you are one of the dumbest motherfuckers, one of the most evil motherfuckers, or a traitor yourself. You know, this is the Philip DeFranco Show. That's the news, then some of my opinion, and whether you agree or disagree with me, I'd love to hear from you in those comments down below. And then we've got more news up in just a second, but first, you know, have you ever wondered

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slash DeFranco or scan the QRN-G.com slash DeFranco or scan the QR code on screen and use code DeFranco. But then next up, we should talk about the Washington Post now being accused of some of the most blatant and egregious censorship yet. And that because after four decades of working at the paper,

columnist and associate editor Ruth Marcus resigned yesterday. With Marcus claiming that Post chief executive and publisher Will Lewis, the former so-called Murdoch minion and Boris Johnson consultant, whom Jeff Bezos poached to head the paper, refused to publish her column critical of Bezos.

With the writing in a letter, Jeff's announcement that the opinion section will henceforth not publish views that deviate from the pillars of individual liberties and free markets, threatens to break the trust of readers that columnists are writing what they believe, not what the owner has deemed acceptable.

And then adding, Will's decision to not run the column that I wrote respectfully dissenting from Jeff's edict, something that I have not experienced in almost two decades of column writing, underscores that the traditional freedom of columnists to select the topics they wish to address and say what they think has been dangerously eroded. I love the post. It breaks my heart to conclude that I must leave. But also, notably, Marcus is far from the first to do this, right?

I mean, the post has been hemorrhaging readers and talent for months now, with reportedly more than 75,000 people canceling their digital subscriptions in the 48 hours after Bezos announced the paper's new editorial policy late last month, as well as associate editor David Maraniss and former senior managing editor Cameron Barr resigning after the news. With then-Opinions editor David Shipley also quitting after he reportedly failed to convince Bezos to change his mind. And Shipley himself stirred up some controversy late last year when he killed a cartoon

by Pulitzer Prize winner, Ann Telnaes, depicting Bezos and other business titans abasing themselves before Trump. With him claiming he only did so because the paper was already running similar content and he wanted to avoid repetition, but Telnaes still resigned. And then even before that,

numerous other people on the editorial board and in the opinion section also quit after Bezos killed a planned endorsement of Kamala Harris back in October. And that move reportedly prompted 300,000 people to cancel their digital subscriptions in the opinion section also quit after Bezos killed a planned endorsement of Kamala Harris back in October. And that move reportedly prompted 300,000 people to cancel their digital subscriptions in the following days. Now with that, as you might remember at the time, Bezos justified his decision by writing,

what presidential endorsements actually do is create a perception of bias, a perception of non-independence. But there we've seen some argue that that makes his new policy of defending free markets and personal liberties while excluding opposing views pretty damn ironic. That is, if it wasn't already ironic as NPR pointed out,

given how the term op-ed literally means pieces opposite the editorial pages that often conflict with a publisher's editorial line. But also notably with that, when NPR reached out for a response to the latest allegation made by Marcus, the Post reportedly didn't address it specifically. So we're still kind of waiting for some kind of explanation there, though for many,

the logic is obvious. But aside from it being in his self-interest to shut down dissent against his decisions, Bezos has also been accused of cozying up to the new Trump administration, with him among other things, traveling to Mar-a-Lago for dinner after the election, donating a million dollars towards Trump's inauguration fund,

attending the inauguration, and dining with Trump again late last month in Washington. And all of this as we're seeing things like Amazon Studios approving a documentary and a docu-series about Melania Trump, which included a $40 million licensing deal with her, according to Puck News. And so you have many saying it's not surprising that the Post took a turn toward the right with much of his staff jumping ship for other outlets like The Atlantic, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and CNN. But then from that next step, I want to give

you a little pop of positivity today. And with that, I want you to meet Elena Hershey and Sean Moyer. So back in the late 80s, Elena and Sean, they went to high school together in York County, Pennsylvania. And in fact, they even went to prom together in 1988 after Sean's original date bailed on him a week before the dance. Which, you know, dick move, by the way.

But Sean and Elena, they went to prom and they had a grand old time, right? And then they graduated with Sean growing up to become a doctor and Elena moving to Colorado and becoming a teacher. And they ended up losing touch for decades. But then Elena hears through a mutual friend that Sean needs a kidney transplant.

Because you see, when Sean was a teenager, he had an infection that led to his body rejecting both his kidneys. In fact, he had his first transplant at 16, another in his 30s, but kidney transplants only last between eight and 20 years. And so now at 55 years old, he was due for a new one. With Sean telling the Washington Post

that his renal function just kept getting worse and worse until he ended up on dialysis. And you know, with that, he was due for a new one. With Sean telling the Washington Post that his renal function just kept getting worse and worse until he ended up on dialysis. And you know, with that, he got added to a waiting list for a kidney from a cadaver, but I mean, it was looking like a seven to 10 year wait. But that is also when Elena reenters the scene, right? She had been considering a kidney donation for a couple of years and had done her research

and gotten approved. But through telling the Washington Post, I realized at some point that it was no longer a question of if I would donate a kidney, it was when I would donate a kidney. And saying if a couple weeks of downtime and a little bit of discomfort is all I need to do to extend someone's life, it's just such an easy decision to make. And so when she heard about Sean, she said that he felt like the right recipient, so she reached out. Which, you know, caught Sean way off guard with him telling the

Post that he was flabbergasted. But also, here's the thing with kidney transplants, right? The chances that Elena would actually be a match for Sean, they're pretty slim considering that Sean has an O blood type, which can be hard to find a match for in general. And it's true that Elena wasn't a match for him, but that didn't stop her. Because what a lot of people don't know is that the National Kidney Registry

has what's called a paired exchange program, meaning that after donating to a stranger, a donor can get a voucher to give to a recipient on the waiting list and they'll get prioritized for another living donor. With the transplant coordinator explaining, instead of donating directly to your recipient, you donate to someone else

and then you list your intended recipient on a voucher. And in fact, Sean's wife actually did something similar for him 20 years ago for his second kidney transplant when she wasn't a match for him. And what we ended up seeing in this case is that Alaina donated her kidney and she cut Sean's wait time from nearly a decade to just a year,

which was part of the reason that she was so enthusiastic on top of the idea of helping more than one person with just one kidney with Elena saying, it's kind of like planting two trees with one seed. So last summer, Elena gets the nephrectomy done and her kidney goes off to an anonymous recipient. In a while she was recovering, Sean and his wife checked in with her regularly.

They sent her flowers with Sean saying, she's just an amazingly generous person. She was very serious about trying to help someone else, which you don't hear about every day. With that then bringing us to just a couple of weeks ago with Sean getting the call that a kidney from an anonymous donor was available with Sean saying, "'Because of Alaina's generosity and willingness to do that,

"'I ended up with a match that was exceptional.'" And she was reportedly the first person that he called when he got the news with Alaina telling the Post. "'I got really emotional because it's coming full circle "'and the system really works. "'This is such a rewarding feeling "'to go through that with him,' and adding, "'This was an easy surgery.

"'It was an easy recovery. "'It costs nothing to donate. "'The recipient's insurance covers everything. I would do it again if I had another extra kidney. And so now Sean is at home recovering from his third kidney transplant that was made possible by his prom date from 1988. A prom date, Elena, who absolutely gets the title of BAMF of the day. And hey, if in addition to you being an organ donor in the case that you die, you want to look into living donations, I got resources for you in the description down below. But then finally today, let's talk about your comments on yesterday's show

and some common commentary brought to you by beautifulbastard.com, where right now you can snag any of this week's newest drops. Yeah, no, I'm fine, frog. Take me first. Despair is not an option. And we the people are like so over it.

And you can grab those along with any of our other bestsellers you haven't gotten your hands on yet. Again, all available at beautifulbastard.com, QR code, links in the description. But like I said, let's talk about yesterday. Right, and understandably, there was a lot of conversation happening around the Trump ICE scandal. The pro-Palestinian protester with a green card

getting arrested, they're trying to deport him. And so with that, you had comments like, the part about illegal protests scares me. Losing the right to speak out against government basically kills whatever remnants of democracy are left. With others replying, under a Democrat, these people would talk about this being what the second amendment is for.

And others adding, yet January 6th got a flyby. And actually one of the most liked comments on yesterday's show was, you can riot on Capitol grounds, but you can't protest on campus grounds? What the fuck? Meanwhile, others commenting, free speech, unless it's what I don't like, doesn't sound so free to me.

As well as, I'm a veteran. We used to be a country that was proud to fight to the death for the speech of people that disagreed with us. Now we're too fragile to even hear it. What happened, America? Though also one of the biggest standouts is people being surprised who they were lined up with shoulder to shoulder.

With Snake, for example, saying, Ann Coulter saying what ICE did is wrong. This timeline gets weirder every day. With Jess replying, she basically said, I'm a bigot, but there are still laws. But then the last thing I'll mention regarding the comments were the positive comments around the positive story yesterday.

With it largely being a mixture of people talking about how transplants have saved them or someone they've known, along with recommendations that people sign up to be donors. Her comments like, my father got a double lung transplant. We had him another 18 precious months. I cannot tell you how sad we were to lose him, but grateful to the man who lost his life. Him donating his lungs for my family and to have that precious 18 months, I wish I could hug his family. As well as another comment that claimed,

I work as a transplant specialist at the company who facilitated Jackie's lung transplant. She, the donor, the donor's family are absolute bamfs. Please consider registering as a donor. Even the elderly and those with some serious illnesses can donate, including skin, bone, and tendons for grafts. A single donor can help save and improve the lives of over 60 people. Thank you for highlighting the importance and beauty of donation, Phil. I always feel so weird reading a comment that's like,

"'Phil, you're awesome,' but if I don't read it, did it really happen?" But that, my friends, you beautiful bastards, is where your Tuesday evening dive into the news is gonna end. But remember, I got a brand new show for you every Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday at 6 p.m. Eastern, 3 p.m. Pacific. Thank you for watching. I love your faces,

and I'll see you right back here tomorrow.