The Philip DeFranco Show - PDS 4.11 "THEY ARE DISGUSTING!" The LaBrant Fam Youtube Parents Hit a New Low, Elon Musk's Twitter Mess, &

Episode Date: April 11, 2022

Go to http://ridge.com/defranco  and use code DEFRANCO to get 10% off site-wide!  News You Might Have Missed: https://youtu.be/DF9U7Ll6v5g TEXT ME! [phone] Get More Phil: https://linktr.ee/PhilipDeFranco – 00:00 - Manhole Explosion Prompts Panic in NYC 00:57 - TX District Attorney Says Charges Against Lizelle Herrera Will Be Dropped 03:31 - IGN Faces Backlash Over Lowe Freelance Rates 05:16 - Sponsor 06:00 - Elon Musk Will Not Join Twitter Board 08:22 - Ukraine Updates – ✩ TODAY’S STORIES ✩ Manhole Explosion Prompts Panic in NYC: https://abc7ny.com/times-square-manhole-fire-explosion-new-york-city-nyc/11734926/ TX District Attorney Says Charges Against Lizelle Herrera Will Be Dropped: https://roguerocket.com/2022/04/11/district-attorney-drops-charges-texas-case/  IGN Faces Backlash Over Lowe Freelance Rates: https://twitter.com/The_Katbot/status/1511098765913985027?s=20&t=ZF6L3rxKWhdxOOdE3NOcmA Elon Musk Will Not Join Twitter Board: https://www.cnbc.com/2022/04/11/musk-backing-off-twitter-board-opens-door-to-hostile-takeover.html Ukraine Updates: https://www.nytimes.com/live/2022/04/11/world/ukraine-russia-war-news ✩ STORIES NOT IN TODAY’S SHOW ✩ Etsy Sellers Strike Amid Increased Transaction Fees and Mandatory Offsite Advertising:  https://roguerocket.com/2022/04/11/etsy-seller-strike-fee-increase/  ——————————   Executive Producer: Amanda Morones Produced by: Cory Ray  Edited by: James Girardier, Maxwell Enright, Julie Goldberg Art Department: Brian Borst, William Crespo Writing/Research: Philip DeFranco, Brian Espinoza, Maddie Crichton, Lili Stenn, Ben Wheeler, Chris Tolve Production Team: Zack Taylor, Emma Leid ———————————— #DeFranco #LaBrantFamily #MoistCr1TiKaL ———————————— Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Sup you beautiful bastards, welcome back to the Philip DeFranco Show. I got a week of roadshows for you, so buckle up, hit that like button unless you want me to punch you in the throat, and let's just jump into it. Y'all, first up today, you know, I'm in New York this week, which made me extra concerned when I saw this damn video pop up on my timeline. What the f***? What the f***? What the f***? Yes, what the f*** indeed, right? So that's Times Square. With everything peaceful yesterday until this sudden explosion that could be heard for blocks and blocks,

sending hundreds of people running away in a total panic. With people fearing, you know, is this some sort of terrorist attack? First responders show up to the scene, they try to figure out what happened. And as it turns out, it wasn't some disgruntled government employee or Al-Qaeda or Putin. It was just a manhole fart. With Con Edison saying that what happened was there was a power cable failure that sparked a fire and then an explosion at a manhole. With two other manholes also set on fire,

but only the first erupted. So essentially the sewers had some unexpected taco farts. Or Con Edison doesn't want us to know that the Ninja Turtles maybe are cooking meth down there. And then we need to talk about this absolutely insane case out of Texas that got a ton of attention over the weekend. So on Saturday, a local sheriff's official for Starr County said a 26 year old woman named Lysel Herrera had been arrested

and charged with murder for, quote, intentionally and knowingly causing the death of an individual by self-induced abortion, with the Abortion Rights Org from TerraFun saying she was released on $500,000 bail later on Saturday. Well, you may be thinking, okay, well, you know, this is Texas, the state that notoriously has one of the strictest abortion bans in the country. A key thing here is that the circumstances of her arrest were almost entirely unknown, including really basic facts like whether Herrera was accused of having the abortion herself or aiding someone else, as well as how far along the pregnancy was. It was also unclear the legal statute that she was accused of violating. Right, because while Texas's abortion law bans the procedure in almost all instances after six weeks,

it also explicitly exempts the individual who received the abortion from being charged with murder in connection with what they refer to as the death of an unborn child, with the law leaving enforcement to civilians who can bring civil lawsuits against anyone who they believe aids or abets in abortion. But Herrera didn't face a civil lawsuit brought by a civilian, instead she was arrested and detained

by law enforcement and indicted on criminal murder charges. Which is why you had a lot of people saying she shouldn't have been arrested and ultimately the district attorney ended up agreeing, now having announced that he was dropping the case and saying in a statement, "'In reviewing applicable Texas law, "'it is clear that Ms. Herrera cannot

"'and should not be prosecuted "'for the allegation against her.'" And adding, "'It is my hope that with the dismissal of this case, "'it is made clear that Ms. Herrera did not commit "'a criminal act under the laws of the state of Texas.'" And acknowledging, "'The events leading up to this indictment "'have taken a toll on Ms. Herrera did not commit a criminal act under the laws of the state of Texas. And acknowledging the events leading up to this indictment

have taken a toll on Ms. Herrera and her family, to ignore this fact would be short-sighted. So overall, a pretty fucking insane thing that this woman and her family had to go through, but honestly, it's all but guaranteed that this is going to happen again. Because experts say that these kinds of improper arrests and charges are just what happens

when abortion protections are dismantled and confusing and restrictive abortion laws are put in place. With Steve Ledeck, a professor at the University of Texas School of Law, explaining that this case is showing us what things are going to look like on the ground in states that have aggressive abortion restrictions.

And while we're at the end of this story, since we're already on the topic of abortion, it would feel like a missed opportunity not to mention this. I wanna give a quick shout out to Savannah and Cole LeBrand. If you don't know, they're the head of a very popular YouTube family channel. I mean, they're also massive on pretty much every platform.

And the reason I'm shouting them out is because over the weekend, they took a break from exploiting their children's lives for monetary gain, so they could put out what they refer to as a documentary about abortion, where in the first three minutes, they compare abortion to genocides,

including the fucking Holocaust. You know, how you do when the average age of your audience is what, probably 10 years old? You know, congrats on doing something more disgusting than clickbaiting your daughter potentially having cancer for views. Fucking disturbing weirdos. And then, in entertainment slash gaming journalism news, we need to talk about this IGN situation. A lot of people have been sending me this story wanting to know my opinion. And if you haven't seen yet, it's pretty simple. You had Kat Bailey, senior editor at IGN, tweeting, IGN is looking for new freelancers to

assist with the daily flow of stories and games, entertainment, tech, and science. $20 base rate per story, sliding scale for heavier reporting. And later clarifying for the higher rates, $50 for slightly more involved stories, finding us a fun community angle that's not sourced from another outlet,

and $300 and up for in-depth multi-source reporting. And rightly so, that struck a lot of people online as incredibly too low. With people tweeting things like, I'm never being mean to an IGN article ever again. Yeah, I'd rush that shit if I was given 20 bucks in article two. Another saying this is an appalling rate,

arguing no, you can't use, but if they're starting out, especially if they vet the topic, story, article beforehand, even as a base, it's appalling. If you assume 10 cents per word, that'll net you 200, barely any summary, but an average article ranges from 1,500 to 2,500 words, by the way.

And the tweet I most agreed with, I can't believe they're publishing this pay rate as an advertisement and not as a whistleblower type indictment. The story got bigger and bigger to the point you had people like Moist Critical chiming in. I can't believe they actually even posted that information in the initial tweet here. That feels like a detail that'd be on the fine print of a contract that the devil would have you sign. By the way, you're only getting $20 for your work.

No good freelance journalist is going to be excited about $20. And personally, you know, I understand why everyone's so focused on the $20 for your work. No good freelance journalist is going to be excited about $20. And personally, you know, I understand why everyone's so focused on the $20 number. I agree with the moist one and others, that's complete dog shit. But personally, I'm more fascinated about what in-depth multi-source reporting they're getting for $300. Because for me, this feels bigger than IGN, though, you know, take your swings there. But I really agree with this comment that read, this is something that goes beyond journalism and IGN. "'A lot of large companies are abusing the freelance loophole "'to avoid paying fair wages and actually hiring people on.

"'Notably, they can get away with paying under minimum wage "'and providing benefits by working "'with the freelance system. "'It's disgusting.'" But from that, I wanna take a second to thank the fantastic sponsor of today's show, Ridge. You know, I've had a Ridge wallet before they were even a sponsor.

I love that Ridge is a minimalistic front pocket wallet that's slim, RFID blocking, and comes with a lifetime guarantee. Because let's face it, men's wallets just get so bulky. They just aren't practical for the modern man or woman. And the Ridge, it helps you carry less, but always what you need. It comes in titanium, carbon fiber, and aluminum. And on top of that, there are tons of different styles and colors to choose from. And with Father's Day on the horizon, it makes for the perfect gift. The main thing, its awesome sleek design has to be what I love most. It has two metal plates bound together

by a durable elastic band, so it's easy to get out what you want, easy to put in something new. Oh, there is a reason they have 50,000 five-star reviews. So head on over to ridge.com slash DeFranco and use code DeFranco for 10% off site-wide. And then let's talk about the major twist in the will they, won't they saga that is Elon Musk and Twitter.

So after all the craziness last week, we saw Twitter saying that Elon Musk will not actually be joining the company's board. The whiplash. Which is a massive reversal after it was confirmed last week that Musk had become Twitter's largest shareholder, raising questions about how much power he would have on the platform. The next day that seemingly answered when it was announced that he would be given a seat on the board. But in a tweet yesterday, Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal said, The board and I had many discussions about Elon joining the board and with Elon directly. We were excited to collaborate and clear about the risks. We also believe that having Elon as a fiduciary of the company,

where he, like all board members, has to act in the best interest of the company and all our shareholders, was the best path forward. Going on to say, we announced Tuesday that Elon would be appointed to the board, contingent on a background check and formal acceptance. Saying the appointment was supposed to become officially effective for nine, but Elon shared the same morning that he will no longer be joining the board.

With Agrawal adding, I believe this is for the best. We have and will always value input from our shareholders, whether they are on our board or not. Elon is our biggest shareholder and we will remain open to his input. But then seemingly warning the world and or Twitter employees, there will be distractions ahead,

but our goals and priorities remain unchanged. The decisions we make and how we execute is in our hands, no one else's. Let's tune out the noise and stay focused on the work and what we're building. Now, as of recording, Musk has not commented on the matter, though it comes after Musk posted a series of bizarre tweets over the weekend, most of which have since been deleted. Though in one post that's still up, Elon continued his ongoing narrative that Twitter is becoming obsolete, noting that many of the most followed accounts on the platform don't post much, and writing is Twitter dying. Also proposing some ideas,

or maybe just taking jabs at the company's employees, saying the company's San Francisco headquarters should be turned into a homeless shelter because no one shows up anyway. As well as polling users if Twitter should remove the W from its name, and saying Twitter blue subscribers should be allowed to pay with Dogecoin

and be given an authentication check mark. Or so you have some pointing to these saying, okay, well these tweets, they're not in the fiduciary interest of the company. Maybe he just wants to keep on memeing. But you also have people saying maybe he just reversed course because he actually wants to do something bigger. Or because since Elon did not join the board, he's also now no longer legally bound to an agreement that he signed with the company promising not to purchase more than 14.9% of Twitter and take over the company. So in other words, he could keep still adding to his stake in the company and effectively gain more power. To what point, we don't know, but if you're owning 15 to 20 to whatever percent of the company, you're gonna

have a lot of sway and control. Or is it a third thing, and he actually thinks that Twitter is dying, or he can build a better competitor, and he's gonna offload you? We don't know what's happening in Elon Musk's mind. Because, I mean, really, how could you? But with that said, we're gonna have to wait to see what happens from here. And then finally, we need to talk about updates with the war in Ukraine. Militarily, things are shaping up exactly how we expected. Russian forces have largely pulled away from Kyiv with the intention of making a more concentrated strike

through the Donbas region. With that lining up with their alleged aims at securing the independence of the breakaway republics, especially as both those republics lay claim to the entirety of the Donbas region, not just the parts they currently control, Russia has shifted the war plan so much that Kyiv is apparently now safe enough

for visits from world leaders, including a surprise visit from Prime Minister Boris Johnson. Without a doubt, there were discussions between Zelensky and his visitors over weapons. With Ukraine's foreign minister last week telling NATO leaders in Brussels, they had a threefold agenda, weapons, weapons, and weapons.

And Ukraine's not just looking for small arms. They want tanks, artillery, large anti-aircraft weapons, and other weapons needed to conduct open warfare, which is expected to happen fairly soon in the country's east. And if the fighting goes down as experts expect, it'll be the first time in generations that this kind of warfare has really been conducted anywhere.

And so has the West responded to these pleas? Kinda. Some countries such as the Czech Republic and Slovakia have already sent tanks, armored vehicles, and anti-aircraft systems. However, some NATO members such as the UK and Germany have been on record as being less than willing to send these kinds of weapons. However, the situation has proven to be so fluid

that it seems more and more likely that at least some of these countries are willing to change their positions. And you know, it's really easy to see why Ukraine is so intent on fighting Russian aggression, even if that means heavily escalating the war. Because the other option is likely way worse. I mean, in parts of Kiev Oblast that were occupied by Russian soldiers, there are now over 1,200 reported civilian deaths. And then there was the missile strike against the Kramatorsk train station on Friday, where at least 52 were killed and over 100 injured. And it's not like the train station was being used

to move troops, it was a focal point for civilians trying to leave Eastern Ukraine, especially as the government urged them to flee the region. Also, on top of the many civilian deaths if Russia takes territory, we've also seen allegations that they're crafting legislation that would allow Russians to adopt orphaned Ukrainian children who were forcibly deported to Russia. Russia's like, we killed your parents, displaced you, you have no home, and now you can call us mommy and daddy.

Although moving around entire populations to reoccupy the place with ethnic Russians isn't a new strategy for Russia. They've been doing this for over 100 years. Also, speaking of Russia itself, they took possibly a very long-term financial hit today after they defaulted on certain aspects of its foreign debt. Russia has borrowed a ton of money from foreign lenders, but due to recent sanctions, it only really had access to rubles in order to pay them, even though on paper it has hundreds of billions of dollars

in foreign currency. Although I do want to note in this chaos, it's unclear how much a default in all of this is actually going to affect Russia's economy in the short term. A poor credit score is kind of useless when you're already largely blocked off from the world economy.

However, this could have long-term effects. But eventually, or hopefully, or I don't even know at this point, things are likely to return to a somewhat normal, whatever the hell that looks like. Whether it be months, years, or decades, and defaulting on a loan like this, regardless of the reasons,

can make lenders very skittish about handing out cash. Which is also another thing that just shows how little Putin cares about the consequences of this war. Beyond the genocidal rhetoric against Ukrainians being spewed by his government, he's also willing to completely tank his country's economy and affect the lives of Russians everywhere, who will be far worse off than before this war. Beyond the genocidal rhetoric against Ukrainians being spewed by his government, he's also willing to completely tank his country's economy and affect the lives of Russians everywhere, who will be far worse off than before this war. But ultimately, that is where that story and today's show ends. Thanks for watching. If you're looking for news, I got you covered right here.

I love your faces, and I'll see you tomorrow.