The Philip DeFranco Show - PDS 3.3 Popular Female Streamers Attacked Live By Stalker, Hasan Banned, Trump Zelensky Fallout, & More News

Episode Date: March 3, 2025

The news today is crazy... Lets talk about it. Go to https://sundaysfordogs.com/phil to get 50% off your first order of Sundays for Dogs! Go to http://rocketmoney.com/pds to cancel your unwanted subscriptions with Rocket Money. Subscribe for New shows every Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, & Thursday @ 6pm ET/3pm PST & watch more here: https://youtu.be/KvuKSYarOe0?si=uVMW8WGt4S4x2vwe&list=PLHcsGizlfLMWpSg7i0b9wnUyEZWI-25N3&index=1   – ✩ TODAY’S STORIES ✩ – 00:00 - Valkyrae, Cinna & Emiru Stalked On Stream; Amouranth Alleges Gunpoint Robbery 06:18 - Hasan Banned From Twitch After Rick Scott “Death Threat” 08:21 - Sponsored by Sundays For Dogs 09:19 - Europe Doubles Down on Ukraine Support After Trump-Zelensky Meeting 18:52 - Sponsored by RocketMoney 19:58 - Trump Announces “Strategic Crypto Reserve” with BTC, ETH & More 24:16 - Texas Company Completes Successful Commercial Moon Landing  26:42 - Australian Blood Donor Credited With Saving 2 Million Babies  29:01 - Comment Commentary  ——————————   Produced by: Cory Ray Edited by: James Girardier, Maxwell Enright, Julie Goldberg, Christian Meeks, Matthew Henry Art Department: William Crespo Writing/Research: Philip DeFranco, Brian Espinoza, Lili Stenn, Maddie Crichton, Chris Tolve, Star Pralle, Jared Paolino  ———————————— For more Philip DeFranco: Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-philip-defranco-show/id1278424954 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6ESemquRbz6f8XLVywdZ2V Twitter:   https://x.com/PhillyD Instagram:   https://instagram.com/PhillyDeFranco Newsletter: https://www.dailydip.co TikTok:   https://www.tiktok.com/@philipdefranco?lang=en ———————————— #DeFranco #Hasanabi #Valkyrae ———————————— Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Y'all, the full fallout from that crazy Trump-Zelensky Oval Office meeting on Friday is now materializing. We've had a horrifying slew of female streamers being stalked, harassed, and attacked over the past 24 hours. Hasan Piker just reportedly got banned over his Rick Scott comments. And we need to talk about a man

you've likely never heard of, James Harrison. We're talking about all that and much more on today's brand new Philip DeFranco show. You daily dive into the news, how it's being covered, and how people are reacting to it, starting with this. Y'all, a whole slew of streamers have been dealing with harassment and threats and violence over the last 24 hours. And we'll start with Valkyrae, Cinna, and Emmiru.

Because you see Valkyrae and Cinna, they'd been doing a streaming marathon dubbed Assistathon. And yesterday during that, they went with Emmiru to Santa Monica Pier. And as they were getting off the Ferris wheel, a man who was sitting on the ground outside the ride asked for Emmi's number. Can I sing for a change?

A change for the better, as you would say. Okay. And a change for her number. Oh. If you like it, can I get your number? I don't have a phone. Put your number in mine. I don't know how to use a phone.

I'm sorry. Wait, wait, wait. So I'm just going to, I'm going to use a phone. I'm sorry. Wait, wait, wait. So I'm just going to, I'm going to keep following her. I'm going to keep following her. Oh, another one. No! You're going to have to get in line. There's too many stalkers.

Right, and at first, the group's sort of just trying to roll with the punches, deciding to walk further down the pier to get some churros. But as they're in line, they pull out sunglasses to cover their faces. Incognito time. Stand behind me. You're so weird. I mean, I don't like... I'm going to keep their faces. Incognito time. Stand behind me. I don't like, I'm gonna keep following her. But the thing is, the guy had still followed them and was watching them wait in line for churros from the other side of the pier.

The report's also saying that he had gone up to them earlier in the night to ask for a photo, so he may have potentially been following them for a while. And so you see the girls eventually start to feel more uneasy and they decide to ditch the churro line. Maybe we should just go. Oh, yeah, maybe we should. Yeah, yeah.

He's, uh, he's, you know, he's getting a little closer. And so they start walking out, but one of their friends approached him off camera and things escalate quickly from there. Hey, excuse me? No! Emily, Emily, no! Hey, stop! Whoa, whoa, whoa! Let's fucking fight right now. What? Get away from me. Hey, what's. No. Emily, Emily, no. Hey, stop. Whoa, whoa, whoa. Let's fucking fight right now.

What? Get away from me. Hey, what's going on? Security. He's harassing us. What's going on? What's going on? Right now. I'll kill you right now.

Fuck off. I'll kill you right now. Security, please, please. And after he threatened to kill them, the live then cut as they continued to call for security and Valkyrie later posted updates on the situation, writing, we are all okay and have been with police. We decided we are done with the marathon

and need time to process. Thank you for all the love and support this past week. We had so much fun and hope you all enjoy. And adding, they'll postpone their other streaming plans to another time. Senna likewise told her followers that everyone was safe, though they were rattled. And well, obviously different.

It rattled a lot of people online who saw the incident as well. With a bunch of people online also calling that guy out, trying to spread his image so the authorities could identify him. Meanwhile, others just said that it was horrifying he responded this way to someone simply declining to give out their number. And then also a lot of people just noting and calling out the danger and the threats and the bullshit that female streamers generally have to put up with. Writing things like, the reason why IRL streaming is dominated by men is because it is inherently dangerous for women due to deranged stalkers and creeps. And saying, anti-stalking laws need to be updated

to the modern age. Every single woman creator I know has or used to have multiple stalkers, many of them dangerous. And quote, just say no, men can't handle rejection without threatening women's lives. But female streamers have it easy, right? Fuck off, genuinely disgusting behavior. You also had big creators in the space

like Cutie Cinderella encouraging streamers to get security and adding. The worst part is now you go to the police and they won't do anything. You try to file a report. They tell you to do it online. You do it online and they reject it. Rinse and repeat. There's no help. It's terrifying. My heart goes out to everyone involved. And then others going further saying, you know, this isn't just a streamer problem. It's big because we have big streamers here, but it's also an issue for all women in general. You know, that's actually something that Valkyrie touched on herself this morning in response to people criticizing how she and the group responded to the situation, with the writing, honestly, fuck all of you for blaming our employees for, quote, not doing

enough. Our team worked so hard to help us with this marathon and did their best for being put on the spot. No means no. You're not entitled to anybody. The fact that this man threatened our lives after being rejected while we were in a group, in public, and live on stream just shows the harsh reality women live in. This happens off camera to women all the time. And saying, seeing accounts accusing my friends and I for faking this and blaming us instead of questioning the man's behavior has been embarrassing to see. I've learned it doesn't matter how much I accomplish in this industry or how much I try to gain respect. Some men will hate women and blame women no matter the situation. And notably, this also wasn't the only major incident

involving a prominent female streamer facing threats to her safety yesterday. Right in that, because you had another creator by the name of Amaranth saying she was the target of a home invasion, writing, "'I'm being robbed at gunpoint. "'I believe I shot one of them. "'They wanted crypto is what they were yelling.

"'They pulled me out of bed,' saying, "'This was a home invasion. "'Swat here, now I'm safe.'" With the then sharing footage, it would appear to be police presence outside of her home before adding, "'I'm covered in blood, "'but only some of it's mine. "'I'll update y'all later, but I'm safe. With the then sharing footage of what appeared to be police presence outside of her home before adding, I'm covered in blood, but only some of it's mine. I'll update y'all later, but I'm safe now.

With her also saying that she tweeted instead of calling 911, because she figured calling the cops in front of them would just be a death sentence. And then just this morning, she posted what appears to be security footage of the alleged incident, which starts with what looks like her running

towards something as they follow. Come over here, sit here. I'm still coming. Come on. Go, go, go, go. You then, we're in here, it's in here. I'm still fine. Come on. Go, go, go, go. You then can't really see much, but later hear banging noises followed by the men and masks running away,

with at least one seeming to say they got shot. With Amaranth writing in a caption, "'Three gunmen, I'm not supposed to post the scene itself, "'nor the casing, which are now evidence.' With her adding, "'They beat me before this video and pistol-whipped me.' The pummeling felt like it would never end and it protected my head by putting my arms up

like I learned how to do in boxing. Blood was streaming down my head and my hands were beat brown. Saying they brought duct tape and masks and were armed with handguns. Where they're also posting a photo of apparent bullet holes in a door, claiming they shot at her bedroom.

Now with this, we've seen a lot of different reactions. Some just wishing her well, others telling her to take a break from the internet. You also saw a good number of responses of people questioning why she would tweet in that kind of situation. Though also separately at outlets like Forbes noting that this appears to be the latest in a series of tax

against crypto investors with a Madding. Security experts warned that crypto investors face increasing risks due to the recent surge in Bitcoin prices. Right in this, as it's known that Amaranth is well established in the space and she's even tweeted a screenshot of her Bitcoin and Ethereum balances a few months ago.

You know, for now that is where we are. We're gonna have to wait to see if any more information comes in the space. And she's even tweeted a screenshot of her Bitcoin and Ethereum balances a few months ago. You know, for now that is where we are. We're gonna have to wait to see if any more information comes from the situation, if there's an investigation, arrests, any follow-ups. And of course, in the meantime, I'd love to know any and all thoughts you have on these two situations. So remember, while this is, yes, a news show,

I also want it to be a conversation. But then some big news in the news and commentary space, commentator, Hasan Piker just got banned on Twitch. With it being reported, it may be because of this moment on a stream late last week. There's about $50 billion estimated that are lost every year in Medicaid,

just in fraud alone. If you cared about Medicare fraud or Medicaid fraud, you would kill Rick Scott, okay? The reason why I'm saying if you cared about Medicare or Medicaid fraud, you would kill Rick Scott is because, and not him uh a prominent part of the republican party is because he to this day is still also known as committing the largest medicare fraud in u.s history and shortly after that we started seeing a number of reactions and with that asman gold really pressuring twitch to take

actions against these types of comments that's's crazy. Absolutely crazy. Totally indefensible. The thing is that it's so obviously a call to violence. It's so obviously not something that you should say. You're obviously wrong for saying it. There's no justification at all to say something like that in any capacity. And all of that then bringing us to this morning when we finally saw Twitch handing Hasan a ban. With this channel just displaying the message, this channel is temporarily unavailable due to a violation of Twitch's community guidelines or terms of service. And you know, with all that, it's unclear right now how

long the ban is or how long it'll be in effect. In fact, as a recording, Twitch also hasn't confirmed the reason for the ban. Though notably, we did see Hasan himself attributing the decision to the Rick Scott comments with him writing on X, "'I'm sorry, I'll choose my words carefully next time "'and say if Mike Johnson cares about Medicare fraud, "'since he wants to cut $800 million from Medicaid Medicare, "'he'd call for max punishment "'for current Florida GOP Senator,

"'former Governor Rick Scott, "'who has done the most Medicare fraud in US history.'" With him then also adding in a follow-up post, "'Big shout out to the right-wing free speech lovers "'who took time out of their day screaming about DEI and immigrants to cry about this.'" With him then also responding to commentator Tim Pool, claiming he will defend the wealthy robbing you blind

just as he'll defend Mike Johnson gutting Medicaid with lies, saying he's not independent, he's a bald partisan hack. But for now, we'll have to wait to see if more information comes in and how this plays out. And then we'll get to more news in just a moment. But you know, has your dog's definition of fetch changed? You get it, I'll supervise from here.

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A lot has happened since we last talked. I mean, one, there's that whole Oval Office meeting between Trump and Zelensky that's been described as the 139 minutes that upended the US-Ukraine alliance. Then two, partly coming from that, there's European leaders, again, stepping up their efforts to take charge in peace talks. And then three, there's the question of

where all this leaves us now in terms of the situation between the US, Ukraine, and Russia. And where I'll start is with something you've probably seen at least a piece of, and that is Zelensky arriving in Washington to sign a preliminary deal giving the US, Ukraine, and Russia. And where I'll start is with something you've probably seen at least a piece of, and that is Zelensky arriving in Washington to sign a preliminary deal giving the US access to Ukraine's raw materials in exchange for possible aid in the future.

But first, he and Trump, along with JD Vance, held a televised meeting in the Oval Office to answer questions from reporters. With among other things, a Polish reporter asking Trump what he would say to those who were worried that he aligned himself too closely with Putin. And there we saw Trump defending his approach and then Vance jumping to his aid as well.

What makes America a good country is America engaging in diplomacy. That's what President Trump is doing. And with that, Zelensky chimed in, briefly going over Russia's history of aggression in Ukraine and emphasizing Putin's violation of a 2019 ceasefire and saying, What kind of diplomacy, J.D., you are speaking about?

What do you mean? I'm talking about the kind of diplomacy that's gonna end the destruction of your country. Yes, but if you are not strong... Mr. President, Mr. President, with respect, I think it's disrespectful for you to come into the Oval Office to try to litigate this in front of the American media. And of course, from there, it just escalated.

You should be thanking the president for trying to bring an end to this conflict. Have you ever been to Ukraine that you say what problems we have? I have been to... Count one. I have actually watched and seen the stories and I know what happens is you bring people, you bring them on a propaganda tour, Mr. President.

Do you disagree that you've had problems bringing people into your military? And do you think that it's respectful to come to the Oval Office of the United States of America and attack the administration that is trying to prevent the destruction of your country. And with that, it wasn't long before Trump put in his two cents, quickly shutting down an attempt by Zelensky to respond to Vance and kind of just piling on.

Right now, not in a very good position. You've allowed yourself to be in a very bad position and he happens to be right about it. From the very beginning of the war, Mr. Brown, I was arrested. You're not in a good position. You don't have the cards right now. With us, you start having cards. I'm not playing cards. Right now, you're playing cards. I'm very serious. You're gambling with the lives of millions of people. You're gambling with World War III. You're gambling with World War III. And what you're doing is very disrespectful to the country,

this country. That's back to you. Far more than a lot of people said they should have. Have you said thank you once this entire meeting? No, in this entire meeting have you- And so in the end, Zelensky was reportedly asked to leave the White House. A news conference set to take place after the meeting was canceled and that minerals agreement,

it was never signed. Zelensky did, however, go on Fox News afterwards, declining to apologize, but also thanking Trump and the American people for the aid provided so far. Something he's notably done many times before, despite Vance's claim, including during that meeting with him,

then also saying that the argument has been bad for both sides and acknowledging it would be difficult for Ukraine to defend itself without US support. And this is on the other side of the situation. You had Trump taking to social media and claiming that Zelensky is not ready for peace and adding that he, quote, "'Disrespected the United States of America and its cherished Oval Office. And with that, we saw other

Trump administration officials and allies quickly jumping on the bandwagon and echoing Trump's criticism. With us, for example, seeing Secretary of State Marco Rubio, whose visible discomfort during the heated exchange caught social media's attention, accuse Zelensky of disrupting American efforts to bring Putin to the negotiating table, saying, Zelensky found every opportunity to try to Ukraine-splain on every issue. With then people like National Security Advisor, Mike Walton, Director of National Intelligence,

Tulsi Gabbard, similarly accusing Zelensky of being disrespectful and prolonging the war. Y'all are the likes of House Speaker, Mike Johnson, piling on and claiming Zelensky berated and interrupted his host instead of expressing gratitude. With us also seeing Johnson and others suggesting that Zelensky should resign if he doesn't change his tune.

Though a big key thing is that on the other side of this, there's been a lot of pushback, some even describing the meeting as an ambush. For example, Bernie Sanders saying the calls for Zelensky to resign were horrific and adding, "'Zelensky is leading a country trying to defend democracy "'against an authoritarian dictator, Putin, "'who invaded his country.'"

And then, yet Hakeem Jeffries saying in a statement, "'President Trump and his administration continue "'to embarrass America on the world stage. And Chuck Schumer claiming, Trump and Vance are doing Putin's dirty work. And you know there, I'll say very notably, you had the editor of a major Russian newspaper backing that up, claiming the Republicans' comments

fit Russia's narrative perfectly. And adding, we don't even have to step in. We can just retransmit what the Americans are saying. The public will conclude that our leaders were correct in their assessment of Zelensky as a leader of Ukraine. This is a huge gift for them. And with that, the response from the Kremlin has been elation.

Or with one senior official describing the exchange as historic and another boasting over the proper slapdown of the insolent pig Zelensky. With easily the most telling statement coming from an official Kremlin spokesperson who said the Trump administration's foreign policy shift, quote, "'Largely aligns with our vision.'" And so with that, this meeting,

it's been seen by some as a pretty decisive moment marking this drastic shift in US foreign policy that we've been talking about for weeks, which brings us to part two of this whole thing, right? What is Europe doing about it? Well, there, just a day after being yelled at by Trump and Vance, Zelensky received a very, very warm welcome in London

for a meeting with leaders from not only the UK, but several other European countries as well as Canada. While this meeting was already set to take place ahead of the Oval Office incident, it's safe to say that what happened was on people's minds. And so with that, you had British Prime Minister Keir Starmer announcing that the UK and France would lead a so-called coalition of the willing

to help end the fighting by coming up with a plan for a lasting ceasefire to deliver together to the US. Without ironing out all the details, those present reportedly agreed to sustain or boost military aid flowing to Ukraine as well, as insists that Kiev be directly involved in any negotiations with Moscow to end the war. You also separately had Starmer doubling down on the U.K.'s individual support for Ukraine, announcing a new $2.8 billion loan for Ukraine backed by frozen Russian assets, as well as $2 billion in export financing to help purchase air

defense missiles manufactured in Northern Ireland. With Starmer there saying that the goal was to arm Ukraine sufficiently so that it could begin any peace talks from a position of strength. And a very big thing with that is that Starmer also announced for the first time this weekend that he was ready to put British boots on the ground

in Ukraine as part of a deal if necessary. And in fact, with that, while the Trump administration has ruled out having American troops in Ukraine, it reportedly has not ruled out the possibility of supporting a European force. In fact, the White House has reportedly asked what kind of US backing might be necessary,

with the European requests including intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance capabilities and potential air cover or help with air defenses. Also, notably as you know, we're talking about European troops in Ukraine, European leaders are also worried about the potential withdrawal of American troops from other parts of Europe.

But with all that, the UK is now saying several ceasefire proposals are on the table with France, even suggesting a one month truce to get the ball rolling, so to speak. But ultimately, and this is kind of the third part of this whole discussion, no one is really claiming that a deal can be reached without the US being on board, which is why it appears Zelensky,

even after his treatment in the Oval Office, was issuing yet another statement thanking the US for support. With him also saying this weekend that he believes that he can salvage his and his country's relationship with Trump and the US, and saying that he was still willing to sign the deal, granting the US access to Ukraine's rare earth minerals.

So, notably there, Trump's treasury secretary has said that the deal is no longer on the table after Zelensky chose to, quote, blow that up. And with that, Trump has reportedly been meeting with members of his team to consider the suspension of US military aid to Ukraine. And this is at the same time Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has ordered the Pentagon

to stop offensive cyber operations against Russia. Now, notably there, this order was issued before Trump's outburst in the Oval Office, and it's reportedly part of a larger reevaluation of all operations against Russia, which I will say is standout, but is not necessarily unusual. Because according to former officials, it's common to order pauses in military operations during sensitive diplomatic negotiations. But at the same time, given the scale of Russian influence and sabotage operations, including in the US, there are concerns that this could leave the country vulnerable. Right in that, because even though they're described as offensive, they reportedly include efforts to expose or disable Russian malware and block Russian hackers. But despite that, Trump has continued his pattern of criticizing Zelensky while being silent on Putin, with him responding to President Zelensky saying the end of the war is very, very far away with a

post-untruth social writing. This is the worst statement that could have been made President Zelensky saying, the end of the war is very, very far away with a post on Truth Social writing, this is the worst statement that could have been made by Zelensky and America will not put up with it for much longer. Of course, with that, Zelensky has pushed back hard on the idea that he or Ukraine is an obstacle to peace. With him, for example, claiming today that in the previous week,

Russia launched more than 1,050 attack drones, almost 1,300 bombs and more than 20 missiles and saying, Ukraine is fighting for the normal and safe life it deserves or a peace that is just and reliable. We want this war to end, but Russia does not want it and continues its aerial terror and adding, those who seek negotiations

do not deliberately strike civilians with ballistic missiles. You know, ultimately that is where we are for now. And of course, I'd love to know your thoughts on just everything that we've seen since Friday. Cause I will say, you know, that's the story. This part is now my opinion. Watching Friday, seeing how everything escalated, see it just fucking pop off. It surprised me, which I was surprised I could still be surprised. I felt embarrassed. I feel like we showed our ass on the international stage. I've been disgusted

at all the victim blaming I've seen regarding Ukraine. Like seeing Musk and others meme their way or just directly saying that Ukraine's at fault or Zelensky's at fault for all the Ukrainians dying, even though they're defending against a fucking unwarranted, insane, violent invasion. As if Russia wasn't the one that started this and actively invaded and brought the violence to Ukraine. All while Zelensky's hangup

isn't that he just really, really wants a forever war, but it being that Putin has repeatedly lied and broken ceasefire. So unless it's a security guarantee, Russia is just going to pause, rearm, and then continue its reign of terror and murder against them. And while it's definitely not a universal thing, it's been very interesting to see so many people that are a part of like the Republican party or the conservative movement, people that you'd normally be like, hey, Russia is the bad guy. Like you got to watch out for Putin fucking murderer. Now increasingly repeating Russian propaganda

and echoing Russian talking points. But again, that's the news, then separately my opinion, and whether you agree or you disagree with me, I'd love to hear from you in those comments down below. Then with more news in just a moment, but you know, signing up for free trial subscriptions, it has become the norm for most of us. And what's also common is forgetting about them

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we're also seeing him moving to make the government a major player in the market with a massive crypto reserve. And according to a post on Truth Social, the five currencies that he plans to include for the reserve are XRP, Solana, Cardano, Bitcoin, and Ethereum. With him also adding, I will make sure the US is the crypto capital of the world. We are making America great again. But then the news causing three of the currencies to bounce back a bit after massive drop offs as nearly all of them have been on the back foot lately. The notable exceptions being XRP,

which has been having a good run lately, and Ethereum, which has been struggling to maintain its image after a massive North Korean hack stole over a billion dollars worth of it. Now with all this, an interesting aspect has been one of the things that the outlets have been pointing to is that this is the first time Trump has voiced his support for a reserve versus a stockpile.

Or with the apparent difference being that a reserve implies the US government would be actively buying coins regularly, whereas Trump has said in the past that a stockpile means the US would keep 100% of all the Bitcoin the US government currently holds or acquires into the future. You know, with this, I'd tell you more about the reserve, except for the fact that no one really knows how it would

work. The only semi-plan we've seen is a Republican-authored bill that would allocate enough money for the feds to buy 1 million Bitcoins, which is currently worth about $90 billion of current prices. You understand, when I say current prices, I mean as of recording, it could be different the moment I upload, an hour after, weeks, days, whatever. Fluctuations are very common in the crypto world. Now with everything said on the surface, this seems like a massive W for crypto, but many advocates are also not super impressed. You see, because there's a general sentiment

in the crypto world that the government holding crypto undermines the entire point of it. It's supposed to be decentralized, but if the government holds tens of billions of it, then it has the power to sell it off and heavily affect the markets. Which is why you have people like Adam Blumberg, who runs an advisory services company saying,

I just don't like the idea of the US government or any government owning the most decentralized asset ever. Saying that's not what it was created for and puts too much power in the hands of the federal government, which is always in a four year or even two year cycle. And the divides on this were very interesting, where you even had people on the right saying

they didn't like the idea. With for example, Joe Lonsdale, an associate of Musk tweeting, taxation is theft, it should be kept to a minimum. It's wrong to steal my money for grift on the left. It's also wrong to tax me for crypto broski. And then going on to clarify that he supports crypto, just that it's not the government's place to mess with it. Also, another major critique of the plan is why these five currencies specifically were chosen. Because if there was to be a reserve, most feel that it should just be Bitcoin as it is the largest, most stable, and most decentralized

of the coins. And while there, some have looked deeper and accused Trump's crypto czar, David Sachs, of being invested in these coins. Now with that, notably, he has denied that, said that he sold off his holdings. But there, you have people saying that even if he sold off his personal holdings, what about him being invested in a company that has massive positions in Bitcoin, Ethereum, XRP, Cardano, and Solana? So it's widely expected that Sachs is going to fall under more scrutiny as the administration continues with its crypto plans, which also reportedly have him chairing the government's first crypto summit

at the White House this Friday. But all of that is just half of the major news that's coming out from the administration in the crypto world right now. And that, because while the government seemingly wants to have a hand in profiting off of crypto, it's been making moves to completely abandon regulating it. Because you see, under the Biden administration,

there were major moves by agencies like the Securities and Exchange Commission to go against crypto scammers. But the Trump administration just effectively undid all that with ongoing lawsuits against platforms like Coinbase and ConsenSys as well as investigations into Gemini, OpenSea, Uniswap Labs, all being paused or dropped. Now with that, generally speaking,

the agency told the courts that this was because it wants to review its own policies on crypto and then revisit the lawsuits. But you have many saying it would be surprising if those lawsuits were actually brought back as recent statements made by the agency made it clear that it's not interested in regulating the space.

You just need to check their statement about meme coins, which are notorious for essentially always being a scam of some kind. With the SEC now saying that meme coins typically are purchased for entertainment, social interaction, and cultural purposes, and their value is primarily driven by market demand and speculation.

Saying in this regard, meme coins are akin to collectibles. And saying because of this, meme coins, quote, do not involve the offer and sale of securities under the federal securities laws. And so that just so happens to mean that things like the meme coins Trump and Melania would not be subject to SEC oversight since they were just memes after all. Now I will say it is not uncommon for administrations to change gears with how they handle regulations, but it is actually rare for agencies like the SEC to abandon ongoing litigation. Moves that unsurprisingly left people like Cameron Winklevoss, who co-founded Gemini, saying things like, this marks another milestone to the end of the war on crypto and saying, I'm glad to be turning the page here. Then on the

other end of the spectrum, you had people like CoffeeZilla, who's made a career out of calling out and investigating crypto scams, saying it is the best time in history to be a white collar criminal. But then next up in interesting news, there is a ghost on the moon. Though specifically, I'm talking about Firefly Aerospace's Blue Ghost Lander being on the moon. Because if you don't know, Firefly Aerospace is a private American firm based out of Texas.

And early yesterday, their unmanned Blue Ghost Lander touched down on the moon, making it what Firefly called the quote, "'First commercial company in history to achieve a fully successful soft landing on the moon.'" With the descent taking just over an hour and the lander reportedly using its autonomous system to analyze the area for boulders and slopes

before it landed firmly upright. With Firefly's CEO, Jason Kim saying, "'Every single thing was clockwork, even when we landed. We got some moon dust on our boots.'" And the landing was met with an avalanche of applause and excitement from within the company. With Ray Allensworth, Firefly's spacecraft program director saying,

"'We were all dreaming up until now "'that you look up at the moon and you just imagine like, "'that's where it's gonna be. "'But now you know it's there "'and that's a totally different feeling. "'So yeah, the next full moon, I just won't sleep. "'I'll just stare at it all night.'" And CEO Jason Kim adding,

"'You never know where you're gonna land. "'We just landed on the moon. "'We hope that Fireflies today inspire a whole generation.'" Saying there's space for everyone in space. Also an interesting thing here is that the timing was very deliberate because Blue Ghost actually launched back in January and everything was timed so that Blue Ghost would land

at the beginning of the two week long lunar day. Right in that, because it's outfitted with 10 NASA sponsored science instruments and technology demonstrations. And so it's gonna be spending the next 14 days conducting those demonstrations and collecting lunar samples, drilling into the subsurface,

conducting x-ray imaging, and taking high definition pictures. Also, side thing, if you're wondering why this private moon lander has NASA stuff on it, the answer is simple. NASA forked over a ton of cash, with them reportedly paying Firefly just over a hundred million dollars to carry these tools

as part of the agency's Commercial Lunar Payload Services Initiative, which was actually started with the aim of encouraging private companies to take NASA's payloads to the moon in order to collect necessary data before Artemis astronauts begin work on the lunar surface later this decade.

Also, I will say you're gonna hear similar news like this again in the future. And that is because Blue Ghost is actually just the first of three commercially developed landers launched in 2025 to make it to the moon. In fact, on the exact same rocket that launched Blue Ghost was Resilience, which is a lander built by the Tokyo-based iSpace.

So that is taking a different approach to the moon, literally, because Resilience is on a low energy trajectory, which uses lunar gravity to help reach their spot for descent. So it won't be landing until early May. And where Firefly's contract was with NASA, iSpace is working with the Luxembourg Space Agency. And then as far as the third lander,

that's gonna be Athena, which was built by the Houston-based Intuitive Machines and launched just last week. With that, largely funded by NASA's COPS program, agreeing to pay over $62 million for Athena to carry a sophisticated drill and mass spect last week. With that, largely funded by NASA's COPS program, agreeing to pay over $62 million for Athena to carry a sophisticated drill and mass spectrometer. So yeah, more cool, nerdy news to come in the future, hopefully.

But then, next up, this is very different from the rest of the news today. A lot of y'all seemed to really enjoy hearing about Dr. Lin last week, so I thought, every now and then, let's talk about a different person you might not know of. And today, that person is James Harrison and his special blood.

Because if you haven't heard about James, when he was 14 years old, he had a major chest surgery where he received life-saving blood transfusions. And at that time, he made a promise that as soon as he could, he was going to donate blood himself to show his gratitude for that. And so in 1954, when he turned 18, he started donating blood. And after a decade of consistent donation, James learned that he had a rare antibody in his blood that's used to make a medication called anti-D, which if you don't know, is given to pregnant women whose blood might attack their unborn baby. And without that medication, the baby can develop hemolytic disease of the fetus and newborn, which is potentially fatal. And James, he just kept on donating for decades and decades.

He never missed an appointment. And over the course of 60 years, James Harrison donated blood and plasma 1,1773 times before he retired in 2018, when he hit the maximum age for donation at 81. Donations that earned him the title of man with the golden arm. And at the time of his last donation, he said that he hopes that somebody eventually breaks his record because it will mean

they are dedicated to the cause. And as far as the impact that James has had, his blood has reportedly been used to make over 3 million doses of anti-D that were given to over 2 million Australian mothers since 1967. With the Australian Red Cross Lifeblood calling James a pioneer of the anti-D program,

and James even receiving the Medal of Order of Australia back in 1999. And while James recently passed away, he has left an amazing impact and legacy in this world. With the seeing Lifeblood saying, "'James was a remarkable, stoically kind "'and generous person who was committed to a lifetime of giving and he captured the hearts of many people around the world.

And his daughter adding, he was also very proud to have saved so many lives without any cost or pain. It made him happy to hear about the many families like ours who existed because of his kindness. He always said, it does not hurt and the life you save could be your own. Now notably with this, the antibody that James had,

it is very, very rare. As you have scientists looking to develop a synthetic version and in fact, Lifeblood is working with the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research on a project they call James in a Jar. With Lifeblood saying, using the blood of James and other donors, the team has successfully recreated and grown his antibody in the lab with the hope it will one day help prevent HDFN, not just for pregnant women in Australia, but also worldwide. And so for the good news segment of today's show, I just wanted us to be able to celebrate James

for the absolute bamf that he was. But then finally today, let's talk about y'all's comments on the last show, right? Because in those comments, the Canadians took over. Well, Trump has been talking about turning Canada into the 51st state. The comment section on the last video became Canada's 11th province.

Luckily though, it was not a French majority province, so I was able to understand what was being said. With the only even popular comments like Canadian viewer here, I can confirm when news of Trump's tariffs on Canadian goods was breaking back in January, I completely changed my purchasing behavior. I switched to grocery and retail chains

that stock more Canadian goods and checked to make sure I was buying Canadian companies and products made in Canada. And adding there, it's been tough, not just finding alternatives to American goods, but also watching as the strong diplomatic relationship between Canada and the US gets flushed down the toilet. Nearly every American I talk with is frustrated over this,

and everyone kind of realizes no one is going to benefit from increased tariffs. Some replying it wasn't the tariffs, it was the threats and lies behind the tariffs. Others echoing that Trump's threats have empowered them to buy Canadian goods, saying even grocery stores have begun labeling Canadian goods with the big maple leaf signs.

Also, some stores are having their employees wear t-shirts and pins saying, buy Canadian. Saying, over the past few weeks, I've noticed that Canadian goods are almost sold out while American products are growing mold. Makes me proud to be a Canadian again. To which I will say, I don't know if I said this on another show or it's just a thought in my head.

Donald Trump has an amazing ability to bring people together. Just so happens to be people largely out of the United States, specifically people we target, and a concerning number of our allies. Meanwhile, others said, "'Seeing the balance of politics change so much "'in such a short time has been wild,'

and saying, "'Hoping for more stability soon "'for both countries.'" Also, I'll say there were a few Canadians that said, "'If anything, you've undersold the level "'of anti-Trump frustration here,' saying, "'People are canceling U.S. vacations, "'changing their buying habits, "'and are looking for Canadian,

"'or at least very non-U.S. choices at every turn,' and And saying, we might be a small country compared to y'all and we might follow in American footsteps in a lot of ways, but a large chunk of why we exist is because we aren't American and we don't want to be. We are proud of our maple leaf and are ready to defend it when threatened. It's just sad that we have to defend ourselves from our Southern neighbors. With Blaze even claiming, the far-right members of my family, Freedom Convoy, MAGA Canadians, were emboldened by the conservative elite, saying they started speaking more openly about their support of Trump and Russia's war on Ukraine, basking in the despair of the, quote, woke left.

But then adding, when the tariffs hit and Canadian anger was stoked, those people slunk back into the shadows, and saying now they just grumble about trans ideology during our family dinners. Not too loudly, though. But that, my friends, is where today's show is gonna end. Of course, 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.