The Philip DeFranco Show - PDS 4.20 IT GOT WORSE?! Ethan Klein H3 Podcast Scandal, Melissa Lucio, Why Netflix Really Collapsed, & More

Episode Date: April 20, 2022

Go to http://partner.bokksu.com/defranco and use code DEFRANCO to get $15 off your Bokksu Japanese snack subscription box! News You Might Have Missed: https://youtu.be/H69rEOZ_OL8 TEXT ME! [phone] Get More Phil: https://linktr.ee/PhilipDeFranco – 00:00 - Woman Tricked Man into Embezzling Millions to Save Her From Fake Mobsters 02:56 - Ethan Klein Loses Sponsors After Backlash For “Homophobic” Comments 06:02 - Netflix Stock Falls After Reporting Subscriber Loss 09:12 - Sponsor 10:04 - Ezra Miller Arrested in Hawaii, A$AP Rocky Arrested in LA 11:46 - Texas Woman on Death Row Makes Last-Ditch Effort to Stall Sentence – ✩ TODAY’S STORIES ✩ Woman Tricked Man into Embezzling Millions to Save Her From Fake Mobsters: https://www.thedailybeast.com/kaslov-evans-family-sentenced-in-dollar4m-embezzlement-scheme-over-fictitious-new-york-mobster-prosecutors Ethan Klein Loses Sponsors After Backlash For “Homophobic” Comments: https://youtu.be/yd6_HqM4wy0 Netflix Stock Falls After Reporting Subscriber Loss: https://roguerocket.com/2022/04/20/netflix-subscriber-loss/ Ezra Miller Arrested in Hawaii For The Second Time in a Month: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/19/arts/ezra-miller-arrest-hawaii.html A$AP Rocky Arrested at LAX: ​​https://www.nbcnews.com/news/crime-courts/ap-rocky-detained-lax-connection-november-2021-shooting-rcna25200 Texas Woman on Death Row Makes Last-Ditch Effort to Stall Sentence: https://www.cnn.com/2022/04/20/us/melissa-lucio-texas-death-row-inmate/index.html ✩ STORIES NOT IN TODAY’S SHOW ✩ No More Federal Mask Mandates on Planes, Trains, And Other Public Transit, Judge Rules: https://roguerocket.com/2022/04/19/mask-mandate-judge/ Lawmakers and Brands Push for Marijuana Legalization: https://roguerocket.com/2022/04/20/lawmakers-brands-marijuana-legalization-420/  ——————————   Executive Producer: Amanda Morones Produced by: Cory Ray  Edited by: James Girardier, Maxwell Enright, Julie Goldberg Art Department: Brian Borst, William Crespo Writing/Research: Philip DeFranco, Brian Espinoza, Maddie Crichton, Lili Stenn, Ben Wheeler, Chris Tolve Production Team: Zack Taylor, Emma Leid ———————————— #DeFranco #EthanKlein #A$APRocky ———————————— Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

So for you, I have a question and a story of lies, deceit, unrequited love, and a good old-fashioned extortion racket. So it begins the way any healthy romance did back in the olden days, on Backpage. A Maryland man meets a New York woman, and we don't know their names because they haven't been released publicly yet. And things in the relationship ultimately take a strange turn when the woman goes, Hey, did I ever tell you, uh, I'm deeply indebted to a mob boss? Huh? I owe money to the worst people you could owe money to and the man apparently goes Wow, that's wild. Definitely not a red flag Why don't I embezzle millions of dollars to help pay him off?

That's exactly what he did between January and March 2017 stealing more than four million dollars in gold bars and cash from his employer Which quick question where the fuck do you work? Who has gold bars? Do you work at fucking Fort Knox? But regardless of where he actually works He ends up dropping off the funds at various locations at New York City, including a hotel room. But then, guess what? The New York angel that he was risking life and limb for was lying.

Totally fabricated story, right? The mob boss is actually one of the sons in a family conspiring with the New York woman to dupe this guy into funneling money to them. You've got the father, Archie Kaslov, the mother, Candy Evans, their three sons, Tony, Corey, and Robert and Robert's common-law ex-wife, Gina Russell. And these bunch of assholes put those gold bars to good use.

Archie reportedly spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on Rolex watches and a Rolls Royce Phantom drophead, which he later sold. While her husband was living it up, Candy was handling the practical stuff, like trying to stay out of prison. Right, she knows there is a federal investigation into her family, so she tells both the Maryland man

and New York woman to lie to agents trying to interview them. And when that doesn't work, she whips out the next weapon in her arsenal, marriage. Right, because she has heard about that thing, that wedded couples cannot be forced to testify against one another. But if you take a second to actually look at it, it's only kind of true.

That does not work when you're testifying about stuff that happened before the marriage. So the New York woman and Gina Russell, right, Robert's ex-wife, they get married, which, hey, let's take a second. That's progress, y'all. But in this instance, it was progress meant to try to cover up a criminal activity.

But of course, because of the specifics of the law, that doesn't work, so what we see is Candy just panic and throw the couple she married off under the bus, getting them to sign a notarized, handwritten confession absolving her and her family of any guilt. That doesn't work either, with federal agents executing search warrants on their houses, and it gets even crazier, because Candy now straight-up

rats on her own son, Tony, telling investigators that he was the one that ran the whole scheme with Russell and the New York woman. With everything then crashing down in 2018 when a federal grand jury indicted the whole crew on various charges, though it's still unclear if the New York woman is in any trouble. And since then, we've seen Tony, Russell, and Robert

pleading guilty with Tony getting five years in prison and the other two still awaiting sentencing. Which then brings us to yesterday where you had Archie and Candy getting sentenced. Archie having to serve two and a half years behind bars, plus three years of supervised release. Candy just getting a one year prison term with the same supervised release.

Meanwhile, Corey still says that he's innocent, but I'm just wondering what happened to the Maryland man? Like on one hand, he is a victim of fraud and extortion, but on the other hand, he also embezzled $4 million. So like, is he not in any trouble? And if so, where can I get a job where I'm just around gold bars all day? Not asking for any particular reason. Stop asking questions. But in the meantime, this is my job. So welcome back to the Philip DeFranco Show. Buckle up, hit that like

button, and let's keep this thing going. And then over on the text line, which of course you can text me at 813-213-4423. One of the most requested stories from you beautiful bastards were for updates around Ethan Klein. Since we last talked about about this we've seen more fallout around Ethan Klein's comments about James Charles last week on his h3 podcast with Ethan announcing on his April 18th podcast today, we have no sponsors because I am an existential threat to Gay rights and all progress. So of course our wonderful fans have taken upon themselves to write all of our sponsors wonderful fans have taken it upon themselves to write over our sponsors and to have them can't not sponsor or not to support us.

Right, so if you don't remember Ethan made what many found to be offensive comments about James being a bottom. Comments that many of Ethan's fans later criticized as homophobic and based on stereotypes. With many also pointing to a moment where he had someone calling into the podcast trying to explain to Ethan why those comments

were so damaging with with Ethan responding, Do you find it offensive if I say, by being like, oh, he's probably a bottom? Is that the problem? Absolutely. Can I guess what is your preference? You can. Will you tell me if it's right, if I guess right? No. But, that said, like we talked about, Ethan did later apologize, noting that he pressed the caller inappropriately and saying,

"'Hope you guys know I always mean well.'" Also addressing it on the next podcast, it seemingly was over until, of course, it wasn't. With Ethan making the announcement about his sponsors on the 18th, but then also adding, I'll just say this, I'm very thankful to our members. It makes this show kind of bulletproof to stuff like this, even though it's painful and emotionally,

it just doesn't, it's just painful that, you know, people would do that. You expect a little more of the sponsors in a way, but I get it. There is, you know, it's just transactional for them, but you know, I feel like I put so much into the good, our good partners and it's kind of crazy when they just drop you like a bag of dirt,

one over some bullshit. Following this, we've seen a number of different reactions from all sorts of people drop you like a bag of dirt, running over some bullshit. And following this, we've seen a number of different reactions from all sorts of people. You had a number of people saying, hey, this is just gonna make me double down my support on Ethan. I'm gonna be a paid member. I'm gonna buy more Teddy Fresh.

I'm maybe even gonna boycott the brands that dropped him. But on the other hand, there were people out there that were happy to see this. With a number of them saying this is something that Ethan's done to other content creators in the past. And then you see people yelling at each other, debating this, you know, is that an apt comparison? People also digging up and sharing a tweet from Jordan Peterson back in January where while he was talking about and to Ethan he

Said I should warn you that those who engage in cancel culture generally live to regret it I'm not going to come after you except politely in this Twitter stream But the chickens will definitely come home to roost You will be held to higher and higher and soon impossible to maintain ethical standards by the very mob you currently wish to please then You will make a mistake and they will devour you with glee." And actually, last night, that's something that Hasan Piker touched on. Hasan, of course, a political commentator, also, he's in the unique position of having been, or is still, I'm not sure the status of the show, but having been a co-host with Ethan, with him tweeting,

"'Right-wingers will always keep winning. We treat people trying to learn and do better worse than we do right-wingers. We have no power over the system slanted in their favor. This kind of shit is just about feeling control and power. It's not about progress or justice." And sarcastically adding, "'It's okay though. All the weirdo right-wingers are celebrating the left eating its own again, while Republican legislators are passing abortion

and anti-LGBT bills.'" And so now with all of that said, I want to pass the question off to you. What are your thoughts with how all of this has played out? What camp do you land in? What are you thinking and why? Do you think it's overblown? Any and all things, let me know.

And then the king is bleeding. We got to talk about this Netflix mess. So for the first quarter of this year, Netflix was projecting that they would add 2.5 million new accounts, right? 2.5 million subscribers. And yesterday we learned that they kind of missed that number by 2.7 million.

They lost 200,000 subscribers, their first loss in over a decade. The reigning king of streaming, the blockbuster beater, the streaming service that ushered in what we have today, taken a massive hit. And not just with their subscriber numbers, the market reacted by throwing Netflix off a cliff with the stock dropping as of recording 37% today.

Now with all of that said, as far as what led to all of this, you have the company and experts alike pointing to a handful of factors. With Netflix saying in a letter to shareholders, "'COVID clouded the picture by significantly increasing our growth in 2020, leading us to believe that most of our slowing growth

in 2021 was due to the COVID pull forward." But adding, "'Now we believe there are four main interrelated factors at work. The first being that its access to broadband homes is dependent on the uptake of connected TVs and on-demand entertainment, though it claimed that those factors will improve over time.

Also pointing to new streamers on the rise and then other macro factors like inflation, continuing COVID issues and geopolitical events. Right, and regarding that last one, Netflix withdrew from Russia, which many analysts are saying was a significant factor here. But one area that's getting a lot of attention right now

is password sharing. With Netflix claiming that in addition to the 222 million paying households, passwords are being shared with another 100 million, which I say makes it harder to grow membership in many markets. But now a major focus for the company is monetizing these people Netflix see as moochers.

With Netflix noted, this is a big opportunity as these households are already watching Netflix and enjoying our service. Sharing likely helped fuel our growth by getting more people using and enjoying Netflix. Further adding that they tried to make it easy to share within families, but claiming that the flexibility in its features created confusion about when

and how Netflix can be shared with other households. Which, no, Netflix, there was never any confusion. People out there still using their roommates, aunts, ex-husbands Netflix account. But now you've actually got Netflix already starting testing tools aimed at curbing password sharing in three Latin American markets. While there aren't a ton of specifics

when it comes to the role offer of global plan here, you had Greg Peters, Netflix's chief product officer, saying they are working on a balanced and consumer centric approach, which I think is awesome because I love sentences that have buzzwords that mean nothing. You also had CEO Reed Hastings simply saying, it was over 100 million households are already choosing to view Netflix.

We just got to get paid at some degree for them. Which brings us to a very notable point. Hastings said he is quote, "'Quite open to offering even lower prices "'with advertising as a consumer choice.'" So after all these years, potentially going the Hulu peacock strategy. Honestly, who knows what their numbers are gonna look like

for Q2 and moving forward through the rest of the year. I will say it's been very interesting to see people react to all this news online. I've seen a number of people saying this Netflix news is an example of go woke, go broke. And at the same time, you have people over here saying, oh, the people are probably unsubscribing because of the Dave Chappelle controversy.

And I'm sitting here scrolling through it like, but those are two different, like sure, that could be part of it, but I think a lot of it comes down to the content. Unlike in the past, there are now a number of premium streaming options. When a majority of your top trending content is a bunch of mid-tier garbage, I mean,

I don't know what to tell you. And that's not to say that like all of Netflix is garbage. There's a lot of stuff on that that I love, but I've already seen it. And when it comes to subscription services, there's no loyalty. It's all, what have you done for me lately? Especially as just adding more streaming services

become more and more expensive and people have to watch the dollars in their wallet. But that said, I wanna pass the question off to you. Why do you think we're seeing this drop for Netflix? And also when it comes to streaming, do you have a new king? Or what's your favorite non-social media streaming service? But from that, I wanna take a second to thank the fantastic sponsor of today's show, Bokksu.

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through every month's featured theme. The first Bokksu you'll receive is Seasons of Japan, curated by their snack experts to bring you a taste of Japan's four seasons, and what a year of Bokksu would look like. Each month you'll receive a new themed box. April's is Tanjubi, which I'm probably mispronouncing, like I do with any word that has any sort of seasoning on it.

You know, I've loved my time in the past in Japan, and I love that each Bokksu teaches you a few Japanese phrases and comes with a culture guide that takes you through the theme, the origins of the snacks, and details on the flavor. So if you wanna try some awesome Japanese snacks and support the show, just click that link in the description down below and use code DeFranco

to get $15 off your first Bokksu order. And then we've got celebrities getting arrested left and right. You've got Ezra Miller seemingly having learned zero lessons from a number of instances, including going back to 2020, when that video went viral of them seeming to choke a woman and take her to the ground. And then more previously with Miller yelling obscenities,

grabbing a mic from a woman at a karaoke bar, then lunging at a man playing darts. With that leading to disorderly conduct and harassment charges. And two people filing a temporary restraining order against Miller claiming that Miller threatened them and stole some of their belongings, like a passport and a wallet.

And now you have the Hawaii police department releasing a statement saying that Miller was arrested shortly after 1 a.m. on Tuesday for second degree assault. And understand this is not like a late charge from what I just talked about. This is a separate incident. Reportedly during an investigation into an incident at a private residence, officers determined that Miller became irate after being asked to leave and reportedly threw a chair striking a 26 year old female on the forehead resulting in an approximate half inch cut.

And I'm just left feeling like, do you remember that Shia LaBeouf song where he's even in the music video? So it even feels like he's in on the joke. It feels like that song's about Ezra Miller. And I'm just kind of wondering what is happening with Ezra Miller? But as of recording, Ezra has been released and currently they're out. So to anyone watching, be careful. You never know when Ezra Miller might be around the corner. And in addition to Ezra, this morning, when arriving at LAX, ASAP Rocky was arrested

in connection to a 2021 shooting. With TMZ reporting that he was told he was arrested for assault with a deadly weapon with a gun and reporting that cops say that he knew the alleged victim and that the alleged shooting happened after an argument between the two with officers also serving a search warrant at Rocky's home in LA using a battering ram to get through his front gate But as far as other details regarding this incident are concerned victim in the shooting reportedly sustained minor injuries with police accusing ASAP Rocky of firing the gun and claiming that he and two others ran from the scene after the gunfire so far his reps have not

Issued a public comment, but we're gonna be obviously keeping our eyes on this to see what happens next. And then finally, you know, on this show, I usually talk about things that happened today or yesterday, but we're gonna talk about something that's about to happen. Right, so this is a story about a 53-year-old woman by the name of Melissa Lucio.

And to go back to the beginning to try to get all the details, reportedly she had an awful childhood being sexually assaulted, abused, and raped by her mother's partners and others. At 16, she drops out of high school, marries her first husband, suffered even more abuse, having five children with him before the time she's 23.

He eventually abandons them, struggling to raise her kids with little food, water, electricity, sometimes going homeless. She then continues having children, and in 2004, the seven youngest were taken into foster care due to neglect. But after getting a job and staying off of drugs, she gets all of them back two years later.

But then on February 15th, 2007, things get worse. With her two-year-old daughter, Mariah, who had trouble walking due to a physical disability, opening an unlocked screen door and falling down a steep flight of stairs, according to Lucia's defenders. And finding her daughter seemingly okay, Lucia claimed that she didn't realize Mariah

had internal injuries that would kill her two days later. And while responding to the 911 call, paramedics said they found her with bruises and a bite mark on her back. Reportedly, Lucia tries to explain what happened, but the paramedics are they found her with bruises and a bite mark on her back. Reportedly, Lucia tries to explain what happened, but the paramedics are skeptical, seeing that there were only a few steps out front, but reportedly not realizing that she actually fell down

a different flight of stairs at a different home. And as Lucia's defenders put it, "'This critical misunderstanding set in motion an investigation plagued by tunnel vision, where the investigators continually assumed the worst about Melissa without investigating or considering alternatives. With interrogators just hours after her daughter's death

allegedly shouting at Lucia, calling her neglectful, showing her pictures of Mariah's corpse, and suggested that if she wasn't responsible, one of her kids would have to be. Lucia reportedly denied that she ever hurt the child over 100 times, only admitting that she sometimes spanked her. And then reportedly after being hounded endlessly,

she breaks down and says, "'I don't know what you want me to say. "'I'm responsible for it.'" So she gets charged with murder and put on trial. Just like that, Lucia is sentenced to capital punishment. Right, she's getting executed. And now, almost 14 years later, she's scheduled to be put to death on April 27th,

exactly one week from now. And as that date gets closer, her family, supporters, and politicians from both parties are calling for her release. Her attorney's asking the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles to send a recommendation to Governor Greg Abbott that she either be granted clemency or given reprieve for 120 days to review evidence.

Also some lawyers from the Innocence Project are taking up her case and arguing that her conviction stemmed from a false confession and that she was especially susceptible to the police's coercion because of her history with abuse. And pointing out that in over 1,000 pages of CPS records, there is not a single indication that she ever abused her kids.

There's one of her sons also telling CNN about their family. They have lived now for 14 years with this threat hanging over them after already losing Mariah to a tragic accident. Now that trauma has come home. You even have a representative from North Texas saying, "'As a conservative Republican who has long been a supporter of the death penalty

and the most heinous cases, I have never seen a more troubling case than the case of Melissa Lucia.'" With there even being a juror who voted to execute her now telling The Intercept, "'If I would have had the knowledge that I have now, Melissa would be free.'" Plus three more saying they wish

they'd been given this information before sentencing Lucia in, a fourth who thinks that she should get a new trial with an actual defense. With all of this, we've seen 100,000 people signing a petition to grant her clemency, with even Kim Kardashian joining calls for Lucia's release, with people sharing and pushing that if you live in Texas,

you can call the district attorney at this number or Greg Abbott at this number. And as far as what happens next, we will know sometime between now and the 27th. But ultimately for now, that is where that story and today's show ends. Thank you for watching. I love yo faces and I'll see you tomorrow.