The Philip DeFranco Show - PDS 4.16 Bretman Rock's RIDICULOUS Problem, Operation Gridlock, & MORE Stimulus Check Problems

Starting point is 00:00:00 Sup, you beautiful bastards. Hope you have a fantastic Thursday. Welcome back to the Philip DeFranco Show. Buckle up, hit that like button, and let's just jump into it. And the first thing we have to talk about today is what we're seeing in Michigan. Our community is struggling. My husband is on unemployment for the first time in our life. And it's unwillingly that we're taking unemployment. We want to go back to work. We have employees. We have paychecks to issue. We have bills to pay. The only stores open are Walmart. That's ridiculous. That's why we're here. It's time for our state to be opened up. We're tired of not being able to buy the things that we need, go to the hairdressers, get our hair done. It's time to open up.

Starting point is 00:00:46 The sick are being taken care of. So that is from yesterday, but the story actually begins last week when Governor Gretchen Whitmer signed an executive order extending her previous stay at home order through April 30th. Though it is important to note, she didn't just extend that order, she also added several major new rules that included

Starting point is 00:01:00 no gatherings of any people who are not part of a single household, no travel to in-state vacation or second home. Large stores can only have four customers for every 1,000 square feet of customer floor space. They also have to shut down sections for carpeting, flooring, furniture, gardening, and painting. So after this order was issued,

Starting point is 00:01:15 you had a lot of people upset, many saying that it went too far. In fact, on Tuesday, four Michigan residents filed a lawsuit against Whitmer, arguing that she was violating their First Amendment right to assembly, as well as their Fifth Amendment right that private property should not be taken

Starting point is 00:01:27 for a public use without just compensation. Notably there, they're trying to get a temporary restraining order to keep Whitmer from enforcing the order. However, Whitmer has of course defended that order, arguing that yes, it is strict. In fact, it's one of the strictest laws in the country right now,

Starting point is 00:01:39 but she also argued that it's necessary to contain the virus. This is because Michigan currently has the fourth highest infection rate and third highest death count in the country. As of recording this morning, Michigan had just under 28,000 cases and about 1,900 deaths. Right, but with all of that said,

Starting point is 00:01:53 it brings us to Operation Gridlock, a protest yesterday where several thousand cars shut down the streets around Michigan's Capitol building in Lansing. Total chaos. Green light. Everybody stopped off the semis. There's campers. At Michigan Capitol, it has been like this for a while. There's actual militia walking down the sidewalks.

Starting point is 00:02:19 And here, while many people still maintained social distancing rules by staying in their vehicles. Others notably did not. According to NPR, at least 200 people broke the instructions from organizers of the protest, getting out of their cars, congregating around the steps of the Capitol building. So you have tons of these photos and videos going viral, showing these people standing next to each other, walking around, not wearing masks. There were also reports that people there were passing out candy to kids with their bare hands.

Starting point is 00:02:40 Some of the protesters also sported firearms, which is why you had that guy talking about militia walking down the sidewalks. You also have people waving Confederate flags, Trump banners, a number of the reports noting that it looked like a pseudo Trump rally. With all that said, whatever your opinion about this protest is, your feelings on the way

Starting point is 00:02:53 that this was conducted aside, we should still look further into the specifics of why these people are upset. You know, today we're seeing nationwide another 5.2 million Americans have filed for unemployment. I mean, here, specifically with Michigan, Michigan has been devastated. And notably here, because Whitmer banned home-to-home travel

Starting point is 00:03:07 that means people who have jobs like landscapers, they will now also find themselves out of a job now. So because of that, you have a lot of Republican politicians in the state arguing that workers should get exemptions because they can socially distance while working. However, Whitmer has refused to grant that exemption. You also have people angry because while Michigan does have one of the biggest outbreaks in the country,

Starting point is 00:03:23 that outbreak currently is mainly concentrated in Southeast Michigan and Detroit. So you have some people, especially small business owners and workers arguing that there should be regional and industry based exemptions. For example, you had one worker at a greenhouse saying, "'I don't think she's listening to petitions "'and people who are trying to communicate

Starting point is 00:03:36 "'in a less extreme way that there are small businesses "'that are suffering.'" So there's that, but on the other side of this, you have Whitmer. And while Whitmer has said that she thought about people like that when she was signing the order, she also said she feared the economy would be worse if she didn't sign it. Also yesterday, responding to Operation Gridlock, saying,

Starting point is 00:03:51 But we know that when people gather that way without masks, they were in close proximity, they were touching one another, that that's how COVID-19 spreads. And so the sad irony here is that the protest was that they don't like being in this stay-at-home order, and they may have just created a need to lengthen it, which is something that we're trying to avoid at all costs. Over on MSNBC, we also saw Whitmer criticize the protest. It wasn't really about the stay-at-home order at all. It was essentially a political rally, a political statement that flies in the

Starting point is 00:04:25 face of all of the science, all of the best practices, and the stay-at-home order that was issued. You know, this looks like a lot of people, and it felt like a lot of people, but in the bigger scheme of things, Michigan's a state of 10 million people, the vast majority of whom are doing the right thing. Also going on to say the protesters in cars actually blocked an ambulance from being able to get into a hospital. On a related note, we also saw a video that was reportedly from a healthcare worker who was trying to get to work. How can I do my job if y'all idiots are blocking up the way to get to the hospital? There are

Starting point is 00:04:58 people dying every minute. And you guys, Trump supporters, want to block up everything and don't care about nobody else. What if it was your mother? What if it was your father? What if your infant son or daughter gets sick?

Starting point is 00:05:20 This is ridiculous. And it's unfair for the people that have to go to work every single day, especially in the hospital, to do their job. If y'all don't take your asses home, this is what I'm mad about. All y'all want to sit down there and pump your horn, hang out the window, throw your flag out because y'all don't like what somebody told y'all to do? Y'all some idiots. But then back on the other side of this, we also saw four county sheriffs opposing her order,

Starting point is 00:05:49 saying, While we understand her desire to protect the public, we question some restrictions that she has imposed as overstepping her executive authority. As a result, we will not have strict enforcement of these orders. We will deal with every case as an individual situation and apply common sense in assessing the apparent violation. And so with that, there's also speculation that some businesses might just reopen anyway and pay the fine for doing so.

Starting point is 00:06:08 According to Matt Seely, a spokesman for the Michigan Conservative Coalition, which organized the protest, if something isn't put in place soon, you'll see in the form of a protest, businesses just opening. Because truthfully, for the $1,000 fine, most businesses could sustain that fine

Starting point is 00:06:20 because they'll at least be able to make a living. Now with all of that said, while Operation Gridlock is certainly the biggest protest against stay-at-home orders, it's not the first we've seen, right? This is not an isolated incident. States like Ohio and North Carolina have witnessed similar protests. Also in Kentucky yesterday, you had protesters chanting,

Starting point is 00:06:33 "'We want to work' over Governor Andy Beshear as he was providing coronavirus updates at a news conference. We currently have the ability to track that, but what it does say is that there is significantly more of the coronavirus. There are also reports of planned protests in states like Texas and Oregon.

Starting point is 00:06:48 And so for now, we'll have to wait to see if and where these pop up. But with this story, I really wanted to pass the question off to you. What are your thoughts on this whole situation? Do you think Whitmer is completely in the wrong? Do you think the protesters are completely in the wrong? Or do you land somewhere in the middle

Starting point is 00:07:01 where you understand their frustrations, you agree with them, but you don't like the way they went about the protest? But from that, I want to share some stuff I love today and today in awesome brought to you by NordicTrack. You know, just because the gym is closed doesn't mean you can't stay healthy or get into better shape. And NordicTrack offers fantastic at-home workout machines like the NordicTrack RW900 Rower. And so thanks to NordicTrack, I've got an at-home Olympian personal trainer and motivating workouts like rowing on a lake in Switzerland. And the machine even adjusts itself to the environments chosen on

Starting point is 00:07:25 that beautiful screen so it feels like you're really there. And not only that, but NordicTrack's iFit Interactive Trainer makes recommendations based on your personal goals and actually records your progress. Every mile, every minute, accounting for calories burned using the data to guide future workouts and nutrition. And personally my favorite thing about the iFit is it has what I want for pretty much any time. Whether I want to do something that's kind of longer distance or something short and sweet that I'm trying to fit in between shoots. Hence the pants in the B-roll footage you've been seeing. So if you're ready to step up your at-home workout game, just click that link in the description down below

Starting point is 00:07:53 and snag yourself an order track with iFit Personal Trainers today. The first bit of awesome today is after today's show. If you're looking for more to watch, I got some brand new video clips with Casey Neistat. Casey talking about the very real issue of burnout, which I think a lot more people are feeling these days as well as advice to creators.

Starting point is 00:08:07 Then we had Fran Drescher breaking down 13 looks from 1993 to now. Then we had the K-pop girl group G-IDLE doing TikTok dances better than anyone else. The Atlantic gave us what social distancing looks like across the world. How to Drink gave us a very timely video with top five three ingredient drinks.

Starting point is 00:08:21 Then we had the Bella Twins playing Truth or Dab. You also had Grimes breaking down her album. If you want to see the full versions of everything I just shared, the secret link of the day, really anything at all, links as always are in the description down below. And then let's talk about a story that is yet another daily example

Starting point is 00:08:34 that common sense may be common, but it is not universal. And at the center of this story, you have Bretman Rock, right, very successful creator known for kind of weird, wacky videos, but after something recently happened, he had to make a more serious video. Please do not show up at my house and ask me for a picture, especially during this time

Starting point is 00:08:52 when everyone is supposed to be staying home. Right, and adding that two days ago, there were two men who knocked on his door and they asked Rock's boyfriend if he was home. Also later leaving a note on his car, and he also added, can y'all not do that please? Because next time I really will be calling

Starting point is 00:09:06 the mother cops. And here's the thing, this is a story that a lot of people that have any sort of limelight, they can relate to. This happens, it's an invasion of privacy, it sucks. But this story today really stands out to me for two reasons. One, I feel bad for Rock especially because it seems that this keeps happening at the worst times.

Starting point is 00:09:20 Reportedly in November of last year, people showed up to his father's funeral and took photos of the family. But also two, specifically here with this incident, given the timing, like it already takes a special kind of idiot to think that it's okay to go to someone's house because you watch them on the internet.

Starting point is 00:09:34 It is then a whole different level of stupid to do so during the coronavirus pandemic, at a time where a good chunk of the population isn't even supposed to go to work. Now you're like, well, I guess I have the free time. And here's the thing, I understand that 99.9% of the people watching me are not this ignorant, and they are not that inconsiderate. But I feel like maybe if we share these stories and this sentiment and give the PSA of,

Starting point is 00:09:55 don't do this, then maybe someone like over your shoulder that might do it will overhear. Once again, I know that there's no way to truly stop stupid, but maybe we can kind of limit it. Or this is ultimately a futile effort, but at the very least it's cathartic for me. You know, with this, I want to jump from a negative to a positive. And we had our don't be stupid, stupid, douchebag of the day story.

Starting point is 00:10:15 What about our bamfs? And there, I want to talk about two people specifically, starting with one, Michael Che. Che, if you don't know, is a co-host of Weekend Update on SNL. He also recently lost his grandmother to COVID-19 and he took to Instagram last night to announce that for the 160 apartments in his grandmother's building, he will be covering an entire month of rent for them. And with this announcement he also noted,

Starting point is 00:10:35 I really hope the city has a better plan for debt forgiveness for all the people in public housing. De Blasio, Cuomo, Diddy, let's fix this, page me. So he's using this moment to call for help and highlight the issue people are gonna have with paying rent while so many people are out of work right now. You know, over the past few weeks, we've been talking about the rent and the mortgage crisis. So there was that, but in addition to Michael Che,

Starting point is 00:10:53 our other Banff is 99-year-old war vet Captain Tom Moore. And Moore is just an absolute Banff. He started a fundraiser on April 8th, hoping to raise a thousand pounds for NHS charities together, and raising money for UK hospitals, including staff, volunteers, patients affected by the coronavirus crisis.

Starting point is 00:11:09 And on the fundraiser page with this thousand dollar goal, it said, Captain Tom Moore is aiming to walk a hundred lengths of the back garden, which is 25 meters in length, before he is 100 years old at the end of the month. So get behind Tom as he does 10 laps a day. And holy hell, people got behind Tom. As of recording this video, he has raised 15.6 million pounds

Starting point is 00:11:27 and these donations coming from over 769,000 supporters. I specifically love this story about Tom, not only because the amount raised is insane, but also I think because it shows that anyone, you don't have to be a celebrity, anyone in any position can try to help. Right at almost 100 years old, it would have been incredibly easy for Tom to be like,

Starting point is 00:11:46 it's someone else's problem. And here we witness a man who did what he could and what he could do turned out most likely to be far, far greater than what he initially thought. It's just a beautiful thing to see in these trying times. And I think we, myself included, need to have more of that Captain Tom Moore spirit. And then let's talk about stimulus checks

Starting point is 00:12:04 because you know, yesterday we talked about possible problems with a paper stimulus check, but now we're seeing tons of reports about problems with the direct deposit checks. And some of the most common problems being reported all center around the get my payment portal that the IRS rolled out yesterday. This portal is supposed to let people track the status

Starting point is 00:12:18 of their payments and provide a way for people who had not signed up for direct deposit to give the IRS their banking information so they don't have to wait for a paper check. But early on, people started having problems with the site. A lot of people saying that after entering their personal information into the portal, they were met with a message that read,

Starting point is 00:12:30 "'Payment status is not available.'" With text below saying, "'According to information that we have on file, "'we cannot determine your eligibility "'for a payment at this time.'" And you had tons of people sharing this experience, so much so that payment status is not available even started trending on Twitter.

Starting point is 00:12:42 And this coming from people that said that the IRS had their direct deposit information from their taxes. Others saying they couldn't get through to the IRS and that they didn't know what to do because the FAQ page didn't provide much information. When you go to the FAQ, at least right now, they do have a section on payment status is not available. There, all it does is provide four reasons

Starting point is 00:12:57 why people might be getting that message. One, they're not eligible for the money. Two, they were required to file taxes and didn't. Three, they filed recently or gave information through the portal for people who don't file and so their information is being updated. And four, they are a recipient of Social Security or Veterans Affairs benefits

Starting point is 00:13:11 and so their information isn't on the app yet. But also, yesterday afternoon a spokesperson for the IRS gave CNBC another explanation saying, "'What happened is instead of having an error message "'or a message saying the system is very busy, "'it just says your information isn't in here. "'That was the default.'" With a spokesperson saying it should be fixed now. And just says your information isn't in here, that was the default. With a spokesperson saying it should be fixed now.

Starting point is 00:13:26 And continuing, just be patient, check back later. If you filed last year's or this year's taxes, we have your information. Adding, go to the IRS website, literally 99% of all the questions are answered right there. Once again, in the outraged people's defense, which isn't usually a stance I take, the explanation that person gave

Starting point is 00:13:42 was literally not on the website because that explanation was explaining why it wasn not on the website because that explanation was explaining why it wasn't on the website. But that said, the IRS also posted an official statement around the same time saying, "'The GetMyPayment site is operating smoothly and effectively. "'As of midday today, more than 6.2 million taxpayers "'have successfully received their payment status,

Starting point is 00:13:57 "'and almost 1.1 million taxpayers "'have successfully provided banking information.'" And also saying that users will be sent to an online waiting room if too many people are on the site and adding adding media reports saying the tool crashed are inaccurate. Still, despite the fact that a spokesperson said that the problem was fixed and the IRS said

Starting point is 00:14:11 that the site was operating smoothly, we still saw people on Twitter saying they were getting this message last night and even this morning. All right, so hopefully it is actually fixed and if you're one of the people that were having problems yesterday, try again today. But I also wanna note there have been reports

Starting point is 00:14:22 that if you try too many times, you'll actually get locked out of the portal for 24 hours. Now with that said, that's also not where the problems end. There's a whole other set of problems with the direct deposit checks that have been delivered. We're seeing multiple reports of people who were able to get through to the portal

Starting point is 00:14:34 found that their payments were sent to the wrong bank account. In some cases, the checks are being sent to people's old bank accounts, and this including people who said that they got their most recent refund in their new account. This is also something banks have reported as well.

Starting point is 00:14:44 JPMorgan Chase also told reporters that they got money for closed accounts. They're adding that when they recent refund in their new account. This is also something banks have reported as well. JPMorgan Chase also told reporters that they got money for closed accounts. And they're adding that when they couldn't locate a new account, they just sent the money back. And others reporting that their money is being sent to entirely different bank accounts altogether. And for those people, there is not a quick fix. According to the IRS website,

Starting point is 00:14:57 15 days after you receive your payment, the IRS will mail a letter to your most recent address on file and that letter will provide information on how the payment was made and how to report any failure to receive the payment. So for anyone whose payment got sent to the wrong account, recent address on file, and that letter will provide information on how the payment was made and how to report any failure to receive the payment. So for anyone whose payment got sent to the wrong account, they'll have to wait for that letter, and same with anyone who got a check for the wrong amount.

Starting point is 00:15:12 And to that point, we're seeing reports that some parents didn't get their $500 for their dependent children, with some saying they just didn't get the correct amount per kid, and others saying they just didn't get it at all. And on top of all of that, we're also seeing reports that checks have been sent to dead people as well.

Starting point is 00:15:23 This, even from the likes of Congressman Thomas Massey, who said a friend of his got a check for his dead father. Now here, the good news is that multiple financial advisors and former IRS employees have actually said that relatives will be able to keep the money sent to dead people. Though, I do wanna note here that the IRS itself has unsurprisingly not said anything officially yet.

Starting point is 00:15:39 So those are some of the main problems that we're seeing, but we're also seeing more and more coming out. I mean, even as I was recording this video, the Washington Post reported that millions of people who use tax preparation services like H&R Block, TurboTax, Jackson Hewitt, they haven't gotten their stimulus payments yet because the IRS doesn't have their direct deposit information.

Starting point is 00:15:54 And it appears that the reason for that is if one of those companies gave you an advance on your tax refund or they took the service fee out of your refund, that means that they actually got the refund first before giving the rest to you. And in order to do that, the company had to create a temporary bank account for the rest to you. And in order to do that, the company had to create a temporary bank account for the 2019 tax season.

Starting point is 00:16:07 Right, so now the IRS has that temporary account on file instead of your actual account information. But ultimately, that's where we are with this story right now. Obviously, we'll keep eyes on this to see if there are other issues or solutions. But the question I wanna pass off to you here is, are you one of the people that's been affected by an issue

Starting point is 00:16:21 or has everything run smoothly for you personally? And I ask because I've had a number of people emailing me kind of their horror stories of what's happening and I'm wondering just how widespread it is. And that is where I'm going to end today's show. And hey, if you like this video, you like the way that I try to break down the news, hit that like button.

Starting point is 00:16:35 Also, if you're new here, definitely subscribe, tap that bell to turn on notifications. That way you don't miss this daily news show, which actually, if you missed yesterday's show or you wanna check out one of those new clips, you can click or tap right there to watch one of those right now. But with that said, of course, as always,

Starting point is 00:16:47 my name's Philip DeFranco, you've just been filled in, I love yo faces and I'll see you tomorrow. I hope you like this video. Subscribe if you like it.

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The Philip DeFranco Show - PDS 4.16 Bretman Rock's RIDICULOUS Problem, Operation Gridlock, & MORE Stimulus Check Problems

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