The Philip DeFranco Show - PDS 3.2 Why Pokimane Exposed a Predator, But Some Say She Didn't Go Far Enough... & Today's News

Episode Date: March 2, 2023

Thanks to Keeps for sponsoring this video! Head to https://keeps.com/defranco to get a special offer Snag Some of Our NEW Beautiful Bastard Gear! https://BeautifulBastard.com Catch Up on the Most Recent Show Here: https://youtu.be/GWXb5BA63N8 Check Out Sunday’s Show: https://youtu.be/uFFFmszmrZQ – 00:00 - Pokimane Said Man Faked Relationship With Her to Manipulate Fans 03:45 - Whiskey Fungus Lawsuit Forces Jack Daniels to Pause Building Project 06:10 - Sponsored by Keeps 06:54 - Labor Unions Say East Palestine Cleanup Site Workers Are Falling Sick – ✩ TODAY’S STORIES ✩ Pokimane Said Man Faked Relationship With Her to Manipulate Fans: https://gamerant.com/pokimane-exposes-industry-pro-pretending-date-her-manipulate-women/ Whiskey Fungus Lawsuit Forces Jack Daniels to Pause Building Project: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-64819400 Labor Unions Say East Palestine Cleanup Site Workers Are Falling Ill: https://www.axios.com/2023/03/02/labor-unions-ohio-cleanup-site-ill-claim —————————— Produced by: Cory Ray Edited by: James Girardier, Julie Goldberg, Maxwell Enright, Christian Meeks Art Department: William Crespo Writing/Research: Philip DeFranco, Maddie Crichton, Lili Stenn, Brian Espinoza, Chris Tolve, Star Pralle ———————————— #DeFranco #Pokimane #MoistCr1TiKaL ———————————— Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Sup you beautiful bastards welcome back to the Philip DeFranco show a friendly reminder this week We switch to daily videos so every single day all seven days a week you come back to the channel new video for you But that said buckle up hit that like button and let's just jump into it This is a creepy and weird story. So Pokimane who's a massive streamer online She uh, she exposed and highlighted this this very. Explaining that apparently someone in the industry pretended to be in a relationship with her to gain access to and manipulate other women in the streaming community. To my face, this person was always very professional and kind. He is well networked in the industry. He knows many streamers.

He has helped us with many things. This was someone that we were genuinely grateful for their help. That is until a few months ago when a few girls in our community presented some concerns and asked to speak to Pokimane's manager. Then sending screenshots and pieces of interactions they had with this man with Poki adding. So basically he would reach out to girls that he knew were like in my chat or viewers of mine. He would approach them and because of his connections with streamers and the company he worked at, he seemed like a very trustworthy individual. He would then tell the girls that he's suicidal and deals with mental health issues, which of course would garner him a lot of sympathy.

He claimed that his relationship with me made him suicidal. And he used this to make the girls feel like they couldn't turn their backs on him, and to think that, like, I was an evil person. The pokey then saying that after he felt like he had gained these girls' trust, he would share Photoshop Discord messages that made it seem like he was speaking to pokey, also making up stories about her. He acted like he knew and hung out with me and my friends in person. This is someone I've never met.

And the scope of this is wild, because this potentially could have been going on for two entire years where she worked adjacent to him. He would use like inappropriate photos like nudes that weren't of me and he would send them to the girls and say that it was me. She also claimed he would share real confidential information about Pokey with them like how much she made from brand deals and saying it was kind of this combination of plain lies and real behind the scenes information. Afterwards, he would then try to develop romantic and sexual relationships with these girls after gaining their trust. With this leading to where you probably think it's gonna lead, even asking them for explicit photos. But Pokimane saying that the good news is that she was able to prompt an investigation at the company that he worked at and he's since been let go. Though also adding he has essentially disappeared since then.

And at this point, you might have noticed we have not said his name, and that's not because I was like, time to protect a scumbag. I personally think the Predators need to be outed, but Poki said that she chose not to reveal the name in order to protect the privacy of the victims. One of the reasons that I wanted to talk about it was in hopes that it could help me and the girls that he manipulated, like move on from this. Just anger that someone would use my name, my reputation, my trust, and the trust that these girls had in me to then manipulate them for his own benefit. You know, in response to this, you had tons of people thinking this is absolutely sickening. It's absolutely disgusting.

But also we did see tons of people wishing she had said the guy's name. With the main general argument being that by exposing this person, that's the only way to actually prevent it from happening again in the future. With that not being an opinion just from, you know, like fans or passerbys, but also other large people in the community like Moist Critical. If this is a powerful, prominent figure in the industry, I feel like it would have been a great service to actually name and shame them so that way people know to avoid them in the future.

But notably, Charlie also giving her the benefit of the doubt on why she chose not to disclose it. Maybe this is the right way of playing it to keep it clean and safe for everyone. I don't know. It's a sticky situation, and so it's one that I want to pass the question off to you with. What are your thoughts on this story in general, but also what are your thoughts on not or actually sharing the person's name? Because I really do see the validity of both arguments. I just don't know which supersedes the other. And then, the Jack Daniels distillery is attacking its neighbors

with fungus. People in Lincoln County, which neighbors the county Jack Daniels is in, have complained that the booze maker is fueling massive fungal growth all over their homes, cars, roadside, just about anything you can think of. Turns out it's called whiskey fungus, and it's extremely common around distilleries across the world. These factories put out tons of ethanol, and the fungus feeds off of that and just goes wild. But to clarify, it's not that there's alcohol just spewing from the factory in the air. Instead, the issue is the storage warehouses, with Jack Daniels having built six of them in Lincoln County with plans for more, and they store an obscene amount of barrels there. Because these are oak barrels to age the whiskey, they're not completely airtight, and that's how the alcohol gets out into the air. There's even a name for the

phenomenon of losing alcohol while aging called the angel's share but also it's not lost at least not for the fungus and in fact it's now such a problem that residents such as christy long who owns a mansion used as a wedding venue have sued the county claiming the fungus is causing massive damage by blackening the magnolia trees and the 4 000 square foot house itself long also claiming that the neighboring warehouses lacked the proper permits and she's had at least partial victories with last week a judge ruling that at least one warehouse being built lacked the correct paperwork. But, very key thing, that paperwork doesn't have one of the big concessions that Long and others want from Jack Daniels. A commitment to install massive filter systems to help stem

how easily the ethanol that fuels the fungus gets out. And honestly, unless the court forces them, Jack Daniels is probably not going to do it. The company claiming those filters would ruin the aging process. And overall, just saying everyone needs to chill the fuck out, saying the fungus is not a big deal. Specifically, claiming that whiskey fungus just isn't dangerous to human health and doesn't really cause property damage. With one higher up telling local officials, Could it be a nuisance? Yeah, sure. And it can easily be remedied by having it washed off. But also, to be fair, that makes it sound way easier than it really is, right?

This actually requires residents to have to wash their homes with bleach and water every three months, and even then, the stuff comes back. And hell, even an expert that helped give the fungus its scientific name disagrees about its effect on property damage, saying plainly it wrecks patio furniture, house siding, almost any outdoor surface. Adding, I've seen trees choke to death by it. And describing it as just a small mercy that it doesn't also appear to have a negative impact on human health. But it remains to be seen what's actually gonna happen here. Not only because of the direct impact, right, the things that we've been talking about, but of course because of that other controlling factor, money.

Big companies like this are often able to disrupt the people around them because there's money. With them not only offering nearby jobs with a tiny county of just 35,000 people, but the properties that Jack Daniels currently has and plans to build there bring in over a million dollars in property taxes. Which I mean, considering how small the county is,

that's meaningful. But for now we're gonna have to wait to see how the lawsuits work their way through the courts. And in the meantime, local residents get to play with a solid black wall of fungus all over their stuff. And then, did you know that two out of three guys will experience some form of male pattern baldness by the time that they're 35? Or maybe you have that friend or that family member that's dealing with hair loss. And well, thanks to the sponsor, Today's Show Keeps, you don't have to just sit around and wait for that to happen to you. Whether you're looking to prevent hair loss,

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This including the Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and Ohio Governor Mike DeWine, as well as a handful of federal agencies. And in the letter, the American Rail System Federation of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters said that workers reported no forks Southern had neither offered nor provided these workers with appropriate personal protective equipment, such as respirators, eye protection, and protective clothing, such as chemical-resistant suits. In saying, when some workers did ask about the appropriateness of their personal protective equipment and the safety of their working conditions, they would receive little or no response from Norfolk Southern. With the letter going on to say that many employees reported that they continue to experience migraines and nausea days after the derailment,

and they all suspect they were willingly exposed to those chemicals at the direction of Norfolk Southern. And a key thing, adding that this lack of concern for the workers' safety and well-being is, again, a basic tenet of Norfolk Southern's cost-cutting business model. So these are some very serious and very alarming allegations. Norfolk Southern, for its part, has responded in a statement to the media by denying the allegation that proper protective equipment was not used. But these claims of people near the site of the derailment are not new. We've seen repeated reports of residents in the area also reporting similar symptoms, including headaches, sore throats, rashes, and nausea. But there is a piece of good news here, or at least

as good as you can get in a horrible situation like this. Federal lawmakers are finally stepping up and working to prevent this kind of catastrophe from happening again. And the effort is, let me see if I'm pronouncing this correctly, bipartisan. With just yesterday, three Democrat and three Republican senators joining together to introduce a bill that would tighten rail safety rules. And that legislation, which is dubbed the Railway Safety Act of 2023, according to a summary of the proposal, the bill creates new safety requirements and procedures for all trains carrying hazardous materials, including trains that are not subject to the current regulations for high-hazard flammable trains. And that's actually incredibly significant here, because as we've talked about before,

the Norfolk Southern train that derailed was not being regulated as a high-hazard flammable trains. And that's actually incredibly significant here, because as we've talked about before, the Norfolk Southern train that derailed was not being regulated as a high hazard flammable train. Even though we absolutely know that it was carrying chemicals that were so flammable, officials decided to do a controlled burn so they wouldn't cause a more dangerous explosion. Also, among the other new safety requirements, it would require rail carriers to make emergency response plans and provide state emergency response commissions with advanced notifications and information about what they're transporting, as well as direct the Transportation Department to create new rules to prevent blocked railroad crossings and mitigate derailments by targeting train size and weight, increase rail car inspections for trains carrying hazardous materials, and would also impose new requirements

to reduce the risk of wheel bearing failures, including creating federal regulations for the installation and placement of automated sensors that track passing trains from the side of the tracks. And that last part is actually very significant here because federal inspectors found that a wheel bearing on the East Palestine train was in the final stage of overheat failure. But the crew wasn't alerted until the train passed a sensor near where it derailed. Also beyond that, there are more forward-thinking provisions. Things like raising fines for safety violations and increasing research and development funding for rail safety priorities. So some potentially pretty solid changes and in fact they seem to fall in line with proposals

from Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg. You know, with the bipartisan sponsors, there is actually hope that this could get enough support to go through the Senate. But the big question is, can it get through the Republican-controlled House? And that's because a part of the situation has remained annoyingly partisan.

Many Republicans criticizing the way the Ohio derailment was handled by the Biden administration. Some even calling for Buttigieg to resign. Meanwhile, you have Democrats blaming the Trump administration for rolling back train safety rules. Right, and that after the 2016 election cycle where the railroad industry gave Republican campaigns the single highest amount of donations they ever have given to any party to this day. And that part is actually very noteworthy because a huge part of the reason that we're even having to deal with this is because of all the money and the lobbying the rail industry has put into

fighting safety measures. Right, according to Open Secrets, the rail industry has spent over $24 million lobbying the federal government just last year alone. And over the last three decades of election cycles, they've donated more than $108 million to members of Congress. And while that money is being spread around because politicians are going to politic, 64% of that money has reportedly gone into the pockets of the Republican Party. But as far as now, we're going to have to wait to see how this bill fares against the odds. Will public pressure and perception be enough to overcome all that damn money? And that's where today's show ends. So let me know your thoughts on any of the stories that mattered the most to you today. But also good news for the first time in probably seven

years, there's going to be a Friday, Saturday and Sunday show. So just come back to the channel tomorrow. I'm also going to use the opportunity to talk about some heavier stuff than how we have been. With that said, my name's Philip DeFranco. You've just been filled in. I love your faces and I'll see you tomorrow.