The Philip DeFranco Show - PDS 3.23 “Deeply Shaken By The Horrible Lies” Mixed Roiland Reactions, Jake Paul vs SEC, & Today’s News

Starting point is 00:00:00 Charges against Justin Roiland have been dropped and people are sounding off. Romance is dead and scamming you. TikTok went to Capitol Hill today and it got ugly. Things are getting crazy in Australia and India. We're going to talk about all of that and so much more on today's brand new, extra, extra large Philip DeFranco show. So buckle up, make sure you're subscribed, and let's just jump into it. In entertainment news, prosecutors in California dropped the domestic violence

Starting point is 00:00:20 charges against Rick and Morty creator Justin Roiland yesterday. Now, as you might remember, the news of those charges broke back in January, though they were actually filed back in 2020, and he pleaded not guilty at the time. And as those reports came to light this year, as well as other accusations that were out there, he was dropped by Adult Swim, as well as his projects on Hulu. But now, a spokesperson for the Orange County District Attorney told the Associated Press yesterday that the two felony counts against him have now been dismissed, quote, due to a lack of sufficient evidence beyond a reasonable doubt. And you had Roiland responding to this news on Twitter,

Starting point is 00:00:45 saying that he always knew that these claims were false and knew this day would come, adding, I'm thankful that this case has been dismissed, but at the same time, I'm still deeply shaken by the horrible lies that were reported about me during this process. And with this, saying that he wants to move forward on his creative projects and restore his name.

Starting point is 00:00:59 And while in response, you did have people supporting Roiland, you also had many saying no, with many noting the specific language of without a reasonable doubt, as well as saying the charges here being dropped only address one set of his issues. There was a whole slew of other allegations that ended up coming up, with someone on social media accusing him of grooming and sending inappropriate messages, including to underage fans. Meanwhile, others alleged that he created a toxic workplace. It

Starting point is 00:01:18 was also interesting to see what certain specific people had to say. You have podcasters like Ethan Klein, who actually had a personal relationship with Roiland, responding to this, thinking that his statement didn't really get to the core issues at hand. He's not really addressing the accusations that were the most serious, right? That's what I'm seeing here. In fact, he's not even trying to refute them, is he? He's just said they were horrible lies,

Starting point is 00:01:40 just generally not very specific, so. Creators like Moist Critical also chiming in, saying he understands why some people are apprehensive in believing Roiland just because we know so few details about what led to the charges and what led to them being dropped. That innocence wasn't proven to the public. And in fact, the public has never even known exactly what the fuck even happened in the first place with the incident. All of the evidence and everything has been kept under lock and key. So even though the charges got dropped for a lot of people, that's not good enough. You know, this news just broke yesterday.

Starting point is 00:02:08 It's still technically a developing situation. So we'll see if Roiland has anything else to say regarding the other matters. You know, let me know your thoughts in the meantime. But if you're not already, be subscribed so I can keep you in the loop. And then the Securities and Exchange Commission just charged Lindsay Lohan, Jake Paul, and a whole slew of other celebrities for promoting cryptocurrency without disclosing that they were getting paid to do so. And these charges stemming from a much wider investigation into crypto entrepreneur Justin Sun, who the SEC said orchestrated this scheme to induce investors into purchasing Tronics, or TRX, and BitTorrent, or BTT coins. Right on top of Jake Paul and Lindsay Lohan, that list includes some of the

Starting point is 00:02:39 most trusted voices online, Soulja Boy, Austin Mahone, Kendra Luss, Lil Yachty, Neo, and Akon. In fact, the group of celebrities except for Mahone and Soulja Boy agreed to pay a total of over $400,000 in disgorgement, interest, and penalties to settle the charges. But the key thing being they get to do this without admitting or denying what is alleged in the complaint. And so far, the only celebrity seeming to address this was Lindsay Lohan's spokesperson who told the Los Angeles Times that she was just not aware of the disclosure requirement. And then, the heart wants what the heart wants. And unfortunately, that led to Americans losing over a billion dollars to romance scams last year. And I'm not including the existence of Valentine's Day in that. Rather, what I mean is that according to an FTC report, the combination of the pandemic, the crypto boom and online dating, it's led to an incredible spike in fraud.

Starting point is 00:03:19 And specifically with romance scams, where someone talks to a victim online, forms a romantic relationship and then ask them for money. You know, sometimes the story's, oh, I'm having legal issues and need some cash, or I need money for an important delivery. Since the dawn of online dating, the scammers have been playing the long con. With one expert saying that some are feigning the relationship for six months or more before even asking for money. And we're not talking about like a few people. Last year, 70,000 people reported being romance scammed. And the median loss for those 70,000 was $4,400,

Starting point is 00:03:45 with the grand total loss being $1.3 billion just last year. Keep in mind, a key thing, most of these cases go unreported, so 70,000, that's probably just a fraction of the actual number of people scammed. Also, it's not just, I love you, send cash. Some romance scammers are also using the rise of cryptocurrency to wring more money out of these people. With a scammer saying things like, I love you, let me show you how to invest. There's this great new crypto that's about to take off.

Starting point is 00:04:07 With one of the most common types of these scams being called pig butchering, where scammers convince victims to invest more and more money into fake cryptocurrencies that they, the scammer, are actually controlling, fattening the pig. And then all of a sudden, they cut off all contact and they take the money, butchering the pig.

Starting point is 00:04:19 And with this, you had one investigative analysis firm putting the amount lost to schemes like this in the tens of billions of dollars. And as far as why people are falling for this, they're lonely. That's it. It's simple. When you look around, it's not hard to find studies showing people are lonely. Like this one Harvard study that found that nearly half of all American young adults reported increased loneliness since COVID. And a similar survey in the UK finding that 82% of adults experience loneliness or social isolation at some point.

Starting point is 00:04:42 And 20% felt lonely every single day. With Stacey Wood, an expert in forensic neuropsychology saying, Psychological validation is a human need and these scammers do a lot of validation. And going on to say that these scammers they keep their victims engaged and they reward behavior that's compliant with the request and punish behavior that's not. Saying it's terrible but it's effective. So as far as how can you protect yourself from this? Well, you can cut yourself off emotionally from the world because people will always let you down. Or everyone needs to try to be a little more careful and a little more diligent when you're meeting people. You're not being a nosy little bitch by googling and

Starting point is 00:05:10 researching someone. You're keeping yourself safe. But also, Woods, is that there's more that can be done. Asking social media platforms to flag suspicious activity and allow other experts to step in to minimize the damage. Which makes sense because according to the FTC report, 29% of scammers use Instagram to reach out to victims and 28% use Facebook. Another recommendation we've seen is educational content being targeted towards usually elderly people to protect them from these types of scams. But in the meantime, maybe it'll give you some relief to know that some of these scumbag scammers are being held accountable. With the Associated Press reporting that Kofi Osai, this 30-year-old Massachusetts guy, just got sentenced to four and a half years in prison. And that after he and a group of accomplices scammed people out of around $8 million with $4 million going to him.

Starting point is 00:05:47 With him reportedly mainly targeting the elderly. And one of his alleged stories is that he needed funds to get out of government custody after his oil rig exploded. So yeah, I guess just your daily unneeded reminder that human beings are not to be trusted. And then, I'm aging myself with this question, but do you remember an episode of Seinfeld where Elaine lost her trip to Kenya because she tested positive for opiates from eating too many Poppy seed muffins well as it turns out that's not as far-fetched as you may have thought right and I say that because in New Jersey there are two new moms that are bringing civil rights suits against two hospitals that drug tested them without their permission and those tests Came back positive turning their lives into nightmares, but they say all they did was eat bagels topped with poppy seeds So here's what we're looking at the complaint saying one of the women, ate a poppy seed bagel the morning of a routine appointment.

Starting point is 00:06:25 Appointments that she attended throughout her pregnancy and provided a urine sample for each time. But this time she's told, hey, your protein levels are too high. The doctor says you need to go to the hospital immediately. So she does. She gets checked into the hospital. She provides another urine sample,

Starting point is 00:06:36 which the staff ended up testing for drugs and it came back positive for opiates. But Kate and her husband weren't informed of that until days later. And in the meantime, Kate goes into labor. She has an emergency C-section the following day, giving birth to a daughter on September 21st. They're then scheduled to take their daughter home a few days later on the 25th. But the evening before, Kay and her husband are told that the hospital can't send the baby home with them the next day

Starting point is 00:06:54 because of her positive drug test. With this notably the first time they even heard that she was even tested. And so the next few days, there are a whirlwind. Testing on the baby came back negative. Kay provided another test, which came back negative. There were interviews with state officials, child protective services inspecting their home. But even after officials cleared the new parents' home, the hospital wouldn't release the baby into their care, reportedly not providing a medical justification for keeping her.

Starting point is 00:07:14 With it not being until October 1st, 10 days after the birth, that Kate got to take her daughter home. And then you had a similar situation happening at a different hospital a month later. There's other mom, Caitlin, eating an everything bagel the morning that her water broke. So she goes to the hospital.

Starting point is 00:07:25 They take a urine sample. They drug test it without permission. And then later that day, when she delivers her brand new baby boy, the hospital informs her, hey, here's your positive result, and we have to report you to Child Protective Services. With officials interviewing Caitlin,

Starting point is 00:07:36 her seven-year-old son, her sister-in-law, as well as inspecting Caitlin's apartment. And even though they were allowed to go home that day, they were subject to a full investigation for the following two months. And so now both cases are being represented by the American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey, which is accusing both hospitals of violating anti-discrimination law by testing the women without their permission. Also, of big note, if you were like, I thought

Starting point is 00:07:53 the whole poppy seed defense thing that it was a myth. No, it turns out that's true. Poppy seeds can and do turn a positive results for opiates on drug tests. And according to the University of Florida Health, while poppy seeds do contain opiates, it's not even close to enough to affect or intoxicate you. Drug tests, they're very sensitive, meaning the poppy seeds can lead to a positive result for codeine or morphine. With the Journal of Analytical Toxicology also backing that up with a recent article from last October. There's even a study from 2003 that says that poppy seeds may trigger false positives as long as 48 hours after consumption. I mean, it's why the US anti-doping agency has encouraged athletes to avoid poppy seeds before and during games for years. And there was even a memo in the Department of Defense last month telling service members to avoid foods with poppy seeds entirely because they're subject to

Starting point is 00:08:30 random drug testing. Though I imagine the other possible lesson you could learn here is that if you are addicted to opiates, just carry an everything bagel around and be like, oh no, it was this and not my debilitating drug habit. Though ideally, that is not your takeaway with this story. And then we can put a man on the moon. We can harness energy from the sun and use it to charge our magical little device that gives us access to all of recorded history. But there is something that apparently humanity will never accomplish.

Starting point is 00:08:53 And that is consistently splitting an Oreo in half where you get cream on both sides. Also, before you say, Phil, that's not serious science or technology. I'll have you know that money and time was spent by MIT researchers trying to solve this problem. And after twisting apart more than a thousand Oreos, fast, slow, pushing, twisting, doing whatever the hell, it just couldn't be done with the filling sticking to one side 80% of the time.

Starting point is 00:09:17 Though they did find this to be a specific American problem, with a physicist in the Netherlands having a teamwork on it there, and they actually got an even split, with the belief being that the formula used in European Oreos is different. Which could make sense, because our FDA is kind of fine with us eating insulation here. Whereas a number of other countries seem to not try to actively make its people sick. But hey, now you know, one, a little bit too much information about an Oreo. And two, who's funding these programs? Where they're like, yeah, team of MIT scientists, put them on the Oreo problem. And then, you know when you're not feeling your best and you're just trying to

Starting point is 00:09:46 hold it together? There's just nothing worse than taking up all your energy to find great care. And well, that's where a fantastic sponsor or partner of today's show comes in, ZocDoc. Using ZocDoc's free app that millions of users rely on, you can find the right doctor that meets your needs and fits your schedule. And you can choose from thousands of medical professionals, doctors, dentists, dermatologists, eye doctors, and many more that specialize in the care that you need. And ZocDoc frees up even more of your time by showing you when doctors are available. So no more running around and trying to fit your appointment during your lunch break, which I'll say before this, it felt like that was the only time doctors could ever see me. And ZocDoc is the only free app that lets you find and book doctors who are

Starting point is 00:10:19 patient reviewed, take your insurance, are available when you need them, and treat almost every condition under the sun. It's all so convenient. It makes finding quality care so much easier, saving hours that you would have spent trying to find the right doctor. I mean, that means even more when you're already not feeling well. So go to ZocDoc.com slash Phil and download the ZocDoc app for free. Then go find and book a top-rated doctor today.

Starting point is 00:10:40 Many are available within 24 hours. That's Z-O-C-D-O-C dot com slash Phil. ZocDoc dot com slash Phil. And then in political news. So the CEO of TikTok spoke to Congress today at a House committee. And if you just want to not have faith in our elected officials, it's a great watch. Does TikTok access the home Wi-Fi network? Only if the user turns on the Wi-Fi.

Starting point is 00:11:01 I'm sorry, I may not understand that. So if I have a TikTok app on my phone and my phone is on my home Wi-Fi. I'm sorry, I may not understand that. So if I have a TikTok app on my phone and my phone is on my home Wi-Fi network, does TikTok access that network? It will have to access the network to get connections to the internet, if that's the question. There was the expected fair share of moments where you had representatives asking questions that their aides obviously wrote for them, where they're like, uh, does this sentence make sense? There's also a fair share of people on the committee that weren't really asking questions. They were just like throwing out accusations.

Starting point is 00:11:26 And the CEO was saying that's not true. There's also mention of the bipartisan push for TikTok to sell to an American company. So there we saw TikTok CEO respond. I don't think ownership is the issue here. With a lot of respect, American social companies don't have a good track record with data privacy and user security. I mean, look at Facebook and Cambridge Analytica. Just one example. Which if you've watched my show for a while, you know I'm incredibly anti-CCP. Right. Fuck the Chinese Communist Party. And while I'm concerned and skeptical

Starting point is 00:11:52 of anything that has a whisper of a concern to the CCP, it really does appear that the bigger thing here should be data privacy in general. How many times have we talked about on this show just how fucking scary data brokers are? And as others have pointed out, other social media platforms have connections that you can see as concerning With reporters like ben collins reacting to what we saw today saying every major social app We use was either seed funded by russian oligarchs facebook insta twitter or has current ownership stakes with the saudis twitter Also, if I was a republican i'd be fucking hyped right now with how many democratic lawmakers want to ban tiktok with them Just absolutely not realizing what a self-own it is going to be. Especially in the last election, it was such a motivator and

Starting point is 00:12:30 mover for young liberal voters. But that's kind of as far as I can dive into this. I'm filming while it's happening. I'm not gonna be able to do a full recap. But the final thing I will say is it really did seem like the committee wasn't, it wasn't a fact-finding mission. This was like a dog and pony show. They had their minds made and they were doing it for the media and their media teams to clip and put out on their socials it just feels like to me if congress actually wanted to do a good for the american people they would move forward with a national privacy law rather than just take aim at one specific company and i say that as someone that would probably benefit from tiktok being banned because i could move the audience from there to a platform like youtube where i'm going

Starting point is 00:13:02 to be able to monetize so much better and And then, an appeals court just ruled that one of Trump's lawyers must hand over key records to prosecutors investigating the classified documents found at Mar-a-Lago. And like me, you may think that sounds like boring procedural litigation, but it's actually potentially a very big deal. Because the lawyer in question, Aaron Corcoran, had argued he did not have to turn over the records because they were protected under attorney-client privilege. But attorney-client privilege can be broken while there's what's called a crime fraud exception, which is when there's a reason to believe a lawyer's advice

Starting point is 00:13:27 or services were used to facilitate a crime. Or in other words, it appears that federal prosecutors have enough evidence to show that Trump may have committed a crime. So the crime fraud exception can be applied here. Also, in other Trump legal news, if you're constantly refreshing the news to see if Trump's been arrested,

Starting point is 00:13:39 one, just find a better use of your time. I try to make a whole day of news consumable in 20 to 25 minutes, so you're not just losing your life on social media. But either way, if you have been interested, you're probably gonna have to wait a little longer to see something actually happen. Or because while last weekend,

Starting point is 00:13:52 Trump explicitly said on Truth Social that he was going to be indicted and booked in the case involving hush money payments to porn star Stormy Daniels, and while it was reported that the grand jury had been prepping for a possible indictment as soon as this week, no one, including Donald Trump's own team, knows where the fuck he got Tuesday from.

Starting point is 00:14:06 And with it being today, that obviously didn't happen. But now we're seeing reports that the grand jury isn't going to make a decision on an indictment this week at all. And according to sources, the jury will meet today after an unexpected day off yesterday, but they're expected to discuss other matters separate from the Trump case.

Starting point is 00:14:19 And then because the grand jury doesn't usually meet on Fridays, they probably won't make any moves until next week at the earliest. So I guess all that's to say, just don't hold your breath here unless you're into that sort of thing. And then, abortion is legal in Wyoming again,

Starting point is 00:14:30 at least for now. Or because yesterday, a judge temporarily blocked the state's new ban until legal proceedings against it can play out. With this move coming just days after the ban took effect on Sunday, where under the law, abortion is prohibited at all stages of pregnancy,

Starting point is 00:14:40 except in cases of rape or incest that have been reported to the police or to save the pregnant person's life. But, very notably here, the Republican law also declares that abortion is not considered health care. And that specificity matters because that's in order to skirt around the fact that the Wyoming Constitution explicitly guarantees adults have a right to make their own health care decisions. And so in her ruling yesterday, the judge argued that lawmakers don't have the power to make that decision, saying the state cannot legislate away a

Starting point is 00:15:03 constitutional right. It's not clear whether abortion is healthcare. The court has to then decide that. Also of note here, there have been conflicting reports on whether this rule applies to an even newer law that the governor just signed that would make Wyoming the first state to explicitly ban medication abortion. With that one set to go into effect on July 1st.

Starting point is 00:15:17 And here you have the Associated Press saying the judge did not weigh in on the matter, but the New York Times reported that both bans will be considered at a hearing where the plaintiffs will seek an injunction to suspend both laws until the full lawsuit can be heard. And then attempts to ban books nearly doubled from 2021 to 2022. And that according to new data from the American Library Association, which said that the attempted bans hit an

Starting point is 00:15:34 unparalleled 20-year record, with a report specifically finding that there were 1,250 book challenges at schools and public libraries in 2022. And when we look at unique book titles, we're looking at 2,571 individual books that were the targets of censorship last year. That's a nearly 40% increase from the year before. And the data also showed that the vast majority of these books were written by or about people of color or LGBTQ plus folks. And then also Ron DeSantis doesn't want any public school kids to learn about sexual orientation or gender identity ever, period. With the King of Florida now moving to massively expand

Starting point is 00:16:05 the state's infamous don't say gay law, the banned instruction on those topics for kids in pre kindergarten through third grade. Reportedly, this new plan would extend that ban to all students from pre-K to 12th grade unless explicitly required by existing state standards or as part of reproductive health lessons, which students are allowed to opt out of. One of the biggest things with this is that this proposal doesn't even require approval from the state legislature, right? And that's because it was technically put forward by the state education department under the leadership of a DeSantis appointee, and it just has to be approved by the state board of education, which is also led by a DeSantis appointed minion. Meanwhile, all of this coming as we've gotten the absolutely shocking news that the former Republican lawmaker

Starting point is 00:16:38 who sponsored the Don't Say Gay bill is a bad person, with former state leader Joseph Harding now pleading guilty to COVID relief fraud, with Harding resigning back in December one day after he was indicted for lying on his applications to get a loan for businesses struggling during the pandemic and fraudulently obtaining more than $150K in federal aid, some of which he transferred to a bank and used to pay off a credit card, with him now facing up to 35 years in prison for one count of wire fraud, one count of money laundering, and one count of making false statements. And then, some very bad news for you, if you deal fentanyl. I know a huge portion of my audience, this is you, this is unfortunate.

Starting point is 00:17:11 Not only because if hell is real, you're going to be a s'more, but also because the federal government is actually seeming to crack down on fentanyl entering the U.S. illegally. I know, the only thing more shocking than finding out that people that watch my show are a secret ring of fentanyl dealers is that the federal government actually did something. But as unlikely as that last part sounds, it appears to be the case with the Department of Homeland Security announcing this week that they've already stopped 900 pounds of fentanyl from entering the U.S. just in the first week of a new initiative called Operation Blue Lotus, which also should not be confused with the HBO series White Lotus. Rather, Operation Blue Lotus is this new multi-agency campaign to prevent fentanyl trafficking at the southern border. And under this initiative, DHS and Border Patrol are, among other things, increasing inspections

Starting point is 00:17:47 by officers, using scanning technology, and deploying more drug-sniffing dogs. And so far, this has clearly been successful, with the DHS saying in that press release earlier this week that in addition to the 900 pounds of fentanyl, Operation Blue Lotus has also led to 18 seizures, 16 federal arrests, and two state arrests, as well as the seizure of around 700 pounds of methamphetamines and over 100 pounds of cocaine. Prayer is up to the YouTube and TikTok community here in LA. I'm kidding, or am I? But as far as how successful this is going to be, we're going to have to wait to see this play out even longer, because right now we can only do like an initial comparison. According to reports, the 900 pounds of fentanyl was almost double the 575 pounds seized on average each week

Starting point is 00:18:19 in February. And that is an even bigger increase than the weekly average in 2022, when around 283 pounds a week were seized. And that's something notable because Operation Blue Lotus is just one part of the Biden administration's multi-pronged strategy to combat fentanyl smuggling and overdoses. In fact, according to DHS, in the last two years, the agency has both seized more fentanyl and arrested more people for fentanyl-related crimes than in the past five years combined. Although, and keep in mind, this is me just trying to temper things just in case, we need to wait to see the long-term numbers. And we also have to keep in mind, like has the the amount of fentanyl crossing the border increased and so it just makes sense and more is getting caught at the border at the same time i don't want to diminish the fact that it does look like something positive is being done here i just don't think we you know we don't go mission accomplished flag yet and then by now i'm sure

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Starting point is 00:19:50 five travel packs with your first purchase of a G one in business news, former Twitter CEO, Jack Dorsey is now being accused of helping facilitate a fraud or at the very least his payment processing company block is, which if you don't recognize that name, it's just a rebranded square or their flagship products, cash app. And these accusations are coming from Hindenburg Research, which revealed a large short position in Block and claimed that it overstated its user numbers

Starting point is 00:20:11 and understated its customer acquisition costs. Now I'll link to their full report down below, but for anyone who's unclear on what a short position means, it's that Hindenburg Research borrowed shares of Block, sold them at a higher price, and is betting that when they need to give the stocks back, they'll be able to rebuy them at a lower price. And the group says that they're not just pulling these claims out of their ass. They claim that Block relies on a transacting active metric that looks at just the total number of transactions. Even going as far as to reportedly speak with former Block employees who claim that between 40 and 75% of the accounts were either fake, committing fraud, or duplicates. Or quote, that many users have dozens or even hundreds of accounts associated with them vastly

Starting point is 00:20:43 inflating user metrics. And to try to prove just how easy it was to make a fake account, they had zero issues setting up a Donald Trump account and getting a card. There were also saying they had a problem with Dorsey bragging about Cash App being called out and rap songs writing. Block even paid to promote a video for a song called Cash App, which described paying contract killers through the app, and saying the song's artist was later arrested for attempted murder. And they went on to highlight Cash App's frequent occurrence in DOJ complaints against sex traffickers. Although it should be noted they didn't say how many times that happened, and it could be argued that with apps of this size, it can be difficult to uncover

Starting point is 00:21:10 these kinds of things, even with the best efforts. But those claims are also easier to believe when you consider that they did provide some numbers for how often Cash App was used for fraud. With just Massachusetts alone trying to get back over 69,000 suspect pandemic relief payments from Cash App accounts four months into the pandemic, with that being far more than way bigger banks with the exception of Bank of America. And Hindenburg Group claims that this research is the reason that it took this short position in Block. And these claims appear to have helped them because Block stock dipped 20%, although it has since regained some of its position. Notably, though, this isn't the first hit to Block stock recently.

Starting point is 00:21:39 Since at least last year, there have been deep concerns about consumer spending due to rising costs. And that, alongside a crash in the crypto market that Block was heavily involved in, leading to the stock tumbling like 60%. And in international news, we've got the Aussies in the news because on July 1st, the Australian government's due to cut $65 million from a program that funds homelessness support services. But they're doing it because for the first time in history, homelessness there has been completely and utterly eradicated from society. That's not what happened. In fact, right now, Australia is going through its worst housing crisis in over a decade. With housing affordability there reaching its lowest level since the Great Recession of 2008, the average

Starting point is 00:22:12 two-income households spending 30.9% of their salary on February's mortgage repayments alone. And in certain areas, it's even worse, like in Sydney, where couples spend over 40% on their mortgages. But as jumping costs of living also partly caused by food and utilities inflation, household power bills are projected to spike 20 to 30% in some states in a few months. And so with all that, you have experts saying this is actually the absolute worst time to cut federal funding. It could strip about 650 homelessness support workers of their jobs. And as one woman who was forced to live in her car explained to Vice, these workers are a godsend. Saying about the one dedicated to her case, she was, for 18 months, that rock we needed. And adding

Starting point is 00:22:43 that not only did the worker help her access things like funds, healthcare, and housing, she alleviated much of the stress that comes from having to repeatedly explain one's story. So with the expected funding cut, more people who would otherwise have a chance could fall through the cracks, and there's already a deficit in services. With about 16,000 people who need support getting turned away each year already, according to one expert. And this, as homelessness has been steadily worsening, most of all in Queensland, where it's tripled the national average, having risen 22% since 2017 compared to just 8% nationwide, according to a recent report. The numbers are one thing and the specifics with stories are another. You've got this guy who was once a carpenter with his own business, a home, multiple cars,

Starting point is 00:23:16 but he says the death of a child and a run of bad luck forced him and his wife to leave it all behind. And so now, since January, they've been living in a tent in Musgrave Park. As a 42-year-old man, to not be able to provide a home for your wife, like, that's hard for me, you know? I'm sorry. And the harms go beyond comfort and dignity, reinforcing hunger as well. With a 2022 survey finding 1.3 million Australian children

Starting point is 00:23:39 experienced severe food insecurity over the prior year. And one expert studying familial poverty saying, We see children arriving at the research hungry. We can tell the way children devour the food, that they are really hungry. And all of this affects several groups disproportionately. First, you have women who make up the vast majority of the newly homeless population, according to 2021 census estimates. Secondly, you have children and young adults with nearly a quarter of homeless people aged between 12 and 24. And thirdly, you have children and young adults with nearly a quarter of homeless people aged between 12 and 24. And thirdly, you have indigenous people who make up around 20% of all homeless people despite only being 3.8% of the general population.

Starting point is 00:24:11 That last group also suffering from countless historical crimes, namely racism, cultural and economic oppression, the dispossession of their land, and genocide. But fixing the problem for them arguably requires a more culturally sensitive approach since Western notions of home and homelessness don't really resonate the same way. In one report, researchers note how complex kinship obligations make overcrowding a particular issue for the unhoused indigenous population, and adding that Aboriginal women fleeing family violence find it especially hard to manage living away from family support networks. So to account for this, they recommend direct input from indigenous leaders on policy making. And to that effect, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese today unveiled the details for a referendum that Australians would vote on later this year, which, if it passes, would create an advisory body for Indigenous people to give their say on new laws,

Starting point is 00:24:49 calling it the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice, which could potentially help not just with homelessness, but a bevy of other hardships that hit Indigenous people the hardest. That including, but not limited to, a shorter life expectancy, poorer health and education outcomes, and higher incarceration rates. But, a thing to keep in mind, only 8 of 44 constitutional referendums have ever succeeded in Australia, and for this one, support is hardly unanimous. With some arguing that indigenous people already have proportional representation in parliament with 11 lawmakers. Though you have others counter that those MPs represent constituencies, not indigenous interests. And then some indigenous people themselves oppose the idea,

Starting point is 00:25:20 saying a legally binding negotiated treaty is a better policy priority. And another concern about this referendum is that by recognizing them in the constitution, does that amount to a concession on their sovereignty over land? So, of course, with everything I talk about, I want to hear from everybody on this specific story. I'd also love to hear especially from Australians. What are your thoughts on everything we just talked about here? And then the Indian government just threw its opposition leader into prison, with the lower court today sentencing Rahul Gandhi, leader of the Indian National Congress Party, to two years behind bars for defaming Prime Minister Modi. And that, stemming from a speech that he gave back in 2019, where he noted how both the PM and two fugitive Indian

Starting point is 00:25:51 businessmen share the surname Modi, calling them all thieves. And so with this, you have Congress preparing to protest the sentencing today, raising the alarm over the Modi government's slide into anti-democratic politics over the recent years, as well as the AAP party, two of whose leaders are also in jail on what they call trumped up charges, putting aside political differences to support Gandhi here. But it's party chief saying, we have differences with the Congress, but it's not right to implicate Rahul Gandhi in a defamation case like this. It is the job of the public and the opposition to ask questions. Now, before he is actually put in a cell, he's a month to appeal the decision to a higher court. But if he does get jailed or at the very least disqualified from

Starting point is 00:26:24 parliament, it'll deal a blow to his party in the 2024 general election, which I don't know, crazy thought, might be kind of the point. And that's where today's show is gonna end. Of course, with the stories that matter most to you, let me know what you're thinking in those comments down below. But as always, my name's Philip DeFranco.

Starting point is 00:26:37 You've just been filled in. I love yo faces, and I'll see you Sunday.

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The Philip DeFranco Show - PDS 3.23 “Deeply Shaken By The Horrible Lies” Mixed Roiland Reactions, Jake Paul vs SEC, & Today’s News

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