The Philip DeFranco Show - PDS 4.25 James Charles $500 "Con-Tour" Backlash, Joe Biden Jumps Into It, & More

Starting point is 00:00:00 Sup you beautiful bastards, hope you're having a fantastic Thursday. Welcome back to the Philip DeFranco Show and let's just jump into it. And the first thing we're gonna do today is congratulate some of the stupid people in the world today. Congratulations to the incredibly stupid anti-vaxxers of this world, you did it! As of Wednesday afternoon, reminder, we're not even fully four months into the year. The number of measles cases in the United States has risen to 695. That's the highest annual number on record since the year 2000 when the disease was declared to be eliminated. This according to a statement from the CDC who have confirmed that the cases have been reported in 22 states. Yeah, that's where we are

Starting point is 00:00:33 with the situation now. Unfortunately, it's very likely we're going to see more and more of these measles stories in the news and it's just it is exhaustingly infuriating. To echo Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar, we have the ability to safely protect our children and our community. Vaccines are a safe, highly effective public health solution that can prevent this disease. The measles vaccines are among the most extensively studied medical products we have and their safety has been firmly established over many years in some of the largest vaccine studies ever undertaken. But still there's a good group of people that are like, "'Nah, Granola Mom 713 on Facebook "'said that vaccines are poison.' "'I'm feeling like she's probably got a point.'

Starting point is 00:01:09 "'I wish I could just look away and ignore your stupid, "'but unfortunately what you're doing with your kids "'is affecting all of our kids.'" Yeah, that's where I'll leave that one today. And then let's talk about some who are people pissed off at today news, the somehow lightest bit of news on the shows these days because the world is that stupid and or dark.

Starting point is 00:01:25 And the contestant today is the massive makeup influencer that is James Charles. James on a bad day pulling six million views per video when he goes to like Morphe openings that looks like Black Friday 10 years ago. And actually on that note of people going out to see him, on Tuesday he announced that he's gonna be going on a 24 city tour over the summer.

Starting point is 00:01:41 And this is obviously something a ton of his fans are incredibly excited about. And when fans went to look at ticket prices before they go on sale Friday, some ended up being shocked to see the cost of VIP tickets. Which of note, before moving forward, general admission is expected to be around $60 depending on the venue.

Starting point is 00:01:55 VIP, which is set to include a better seat, signed tour laminate, and early access to merch for 99.50. VIP plus is $250 with a better seat than VIP, the laminate early merch access, a goodie bag, and a photo with James. And then finally you have the Sisters VIP ticket, which is set to be $500. And that is supposed to give the purchaser

Starting point is 00:02:11 a better seat than General, VIP, VIP Plus, all the previous stuff mentioned, and access to an exclusive hangout. And these prices, especially for the Sisters VIP and the VIP Plus, had some upset. Some including, James Charles has the audacity to charge $250 to $500 for VIP tickets, which you know his 10 to 15 year old fans

Starting point is 00:02:26 can't afford on their own. Kinda gross in my opinion. Sister extortion. The way James Charles is charging $500 for a VIP ticket knowing full well that the majority of his fans aren't going to be able to afford it on their own, but that his young impressionable fans will still be whipped enough to break their bank accounts

Starting point is 00:02:39 just for a hangout with him. Recent ones like, James Charles charging $500 for a meet and greet? Now that's what I call a contour. Although I do want to note before moving forward, it's not like everyone was angry. There was a sizable amount of backlash, but you also had people who were supportive.

Starting point is 00:02:51 People tweeting, LOL, PSA. If you don't have the money to buy a VIP ticket, then just get a regular one. Another writing, it's not up to you to cater to everyone else's financial needs unless you want to. And yesterday, James Charles responded to the backlash on Twitter, saying he was currently talking to his team

Starting point is 00:03:03 about ticket prices, saying, "'I understand the frustration "'and want everyone to be able to attend, but please understand that it's very expensive to drive across the country with an entire team of tour staff and put on shows at huge venues all summer long. Then going on to say, trust me, I wish I could see everyone. It is physically impossible to meet thousands of people daily, which is why there has to be different ticket packages. I promise you that I'm trying to lower them to be as affordable as possible. And then saying, I personally am doing this tour for fun and to say thank you, but please remember there is a huge team and company working hard on this tour that have to be paid and have to make a profit as a business.

Starting point is 00:03:31 To which some people had an issue with that explanation. Some comparing him to other YouTubers, saying, But Tana, Tana Mongeau, can do a bus tour and have M&G tickets $40 a piece. James, stop. Another writing, I'd like to direct you to Colleen Ballinger. She sells out huge venues, drives across the country, and has a team and equipment. Her general admission is $40 and her VIP meet and greet guaranteed is $80. Maybe fact check before you claim it can't be done." And another saying, Dan and Phil went to the same venue as James Charles. My ticket cost me like $30.

Starting point is 00:03:55 Ultimately what we saw is that James Charles ended up deleting his tweets. When asked why he would do that, he responded saying, Because I'm talking to my team about ticket prices and wasn't in the mood to read negativity and rude comments. No, not including constructive criticism, when I'm already dealing with a lot. I personally don't think that James Charles or his team did something wrong or are bad people for how they price their tickets.

Starting point is 00:04:11 If the demand for whatever the hell a James Charles live event is, is there, then the market will appropriately throw their money at it. If it turns out that he priced out of demand, then his tour and he will suffer. I guess here's the thing that always throws me off around this, no one is forcing anyone to buy a ticket. No one is just inherently owed this experience.

Starting point is 00:04:28 It is a transaction. But it's also not surprising when you see reactions like this, I mean if you look at pretty much every creator out there, almost all of us started in a way where people were getting our content for free. And all of a sudden, even if something is new and different and it's not stopping the output of all the free stuff, there are people that are always gonna have an issue with the thing that costs money. And then the number of

Starting point is 00:04:47 people that are going to have issue with it is going to increase based on the price. And with all that said, would I pay for a James Charles VIP ticket? No, but I'm not a James Charles super fan. I do find it odd, although I've been guilty of it in the past, is sometimes having massive reactions to how other people spend their money. I will say to this situation, I think there's an asterisk on that because people are pointing out that he has very young fans. At that point, it's gonna be in the parents' hands and they're an adult. But with all of that said,

Starting point is 00:05:09 I pass the question off to you. What are your thoughts on this? Then, while we're not gonna fully dive deep into it today, we've been waiting for the field to develop and see where the numbers actually are. Today, Joe Biden officially announced that he will be running for president of the United States, making him, I believe it's the 20th Democrat.

Starting point is 00:05:25 He comes into the field currently polling the highest. Also he and Bernie Sanders, who are currently the top two in polling, are the two oldest candidates. Bernie is currently 77, Biden is 76. If he was elected president, he would be 78. And I mention that not only to compare that to Donald Trump, who is currently 72 years old, but also because it's somewhat different

Starting point is 00:05:41 than what we saw in the midterms, which definitely went younger. But that may end up just being more of a health issue rather than a get young people excited and vote issue. Because you know, as we've seen in the past, Bernie Sanders, while very old, is someone that got a lot of young people excited. And that's really where I'm gonna leave it for now

Starting point is 00:05:55 because the polling now, it doesn't matter. I mean, it matters, but it doesn't matter matter. It's gonna be interesting to see if Joe Biden's popularity, his name value maintains, if we're gonna see it degrade more. As all these candidates start debating one another more and more, potentially going after one another. Also, once those debates happen, where you have people tuning in because they want to see the people with the bigger name value, the bigger popularity, it opens up the possibility for those with lower polling numbers to potentially just shoot up.

Starting point is 00:06:19 I mean, you have candidates like Buttigieg that definitely shook the field up. But also, at the same time, and this is something that I'm going to try to avoid as everything becomes more and more real, national polling kind of doesn't matter. And I don't mean like polling in general. In my opinion, the only polling that really matters is the polling in battleground states. Battleground states in general, and more specifically, the battleground states that Obama had won that then Trump won. I mean, that's it. Thank the electoral college system. I mean, in a number of states, it kind of just suppresses and de-incentivizes opposition votes

Starting point is 00:06:45 I mean hell, look at my state, California If you're a Republican you probably feel like you're just throwing your presidential vote into a fire. Yeah, we'll see Also on the note of Joe Biden and debates we had Donald Trump chime in. President Trump tweeting Welcome to the race sleepy Joe. I only hope you have the intelligence long in doubt to wage a successful primary campaign It will be nasty. You will be dealing with people who truly have some very sick and demented ideas. But if you make it, I will see you at the starting gate." But yeah, that's just a kind of quick update on the reality show that we are all living here in America.

Starting point is 00:07:13 Yeah, actually on this note, Democrat, Republican, whatever you are, I'd love to know what you're thinking of like kind of the top Democratic field that we're seeing right now. We haven't actually really talked about it much, so I'd be interested to hear from you. And then let's talk about the massive updates

Starting point is 00:07:24 around the story and tragedy in Sri Lanka. Of course, earlier this week, we talked about the devastating terrorist attack there that targeted churches and hotels on Easter Sunday. And since then, there have been major updates. So the death toll, unfortunately, has risen significantly, going from 290 to 359 people. Also, according to the government's news agency,

Starting point is 00:07:40 they have arrested 60 people in connection to the attacks. There have also been new developments as to who carried out the bombings. On Monday, as you might remember, the government said they believed a local extremist group called National Tawheed Jamaat, or NTJ, that they were behind the attacks, but they also suspected a larger group

Starting point is 00:07:53 must have helped them. This because they said they found it was unlikely that a group that small would have the capabilities to orchestrate such a massive attack. Then on Tuesday, we saw ISIS trying to claim responsibility, posting a video of people they claimed to be the suicide bombers. And one of the men in the media provided was identified as someone who authorities say is a known extremist in Sri Lanka with ties to

Starting point is 00:08:09 NTJ but a big note I want to hit here They posted no other evidence or links in this attack And of course it should be remembered that that group of moronic monsters has in the past claimed responsibility for things They had no hand but of course still authorities in Sri Lanka are reportedly looking into their ties to the events We've all seen the government there claiming that the attack was in response to the mass shooting in Christchurch, New Zealand. That, of course, where 50 people were killed at two mosques.

Starting point is 00:08:31 However, New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has said that she has seen no evidence to support this, but she also acknowledged that the authorities in Sri Lanka are still in the early stages of investigation. Look, I have seen reports of those statements. We haven't received anything officially, nor have we received any intelligence reports that corroborate what has been said in Sri Lanka. There are also investigations into whether or not more attacks might be carried out, particularly in the capital city, Colombo. In fact, today we saw the U.S. embassy there tweet

Starting point is 00:08:58 out, Sri Lankan authorities are reporting that additional attacks may occur targeting places of worship. Avoid these areas over the weekend starting tomorrow, April 26th, through Sunday, April 28th. Continue to remain vigilant and avoid large crowds. The Prime Minister has also said that the suspects of the attack could still be at large and that search operations are ongoing. And police have shut down streets in Colombo, searching for at least two people who they believe

Starting point is 00:09:17 were supposed to carry out suicide bombings on Sunday, but could still be out there planning potential upcoming attacks. But still at the same time, the government has been advising citizens not to be alarmed and to work with authorities as they investigate. With a police spokesperson issuing a statement saying,

Starting point is 00:09:29 Sri Lanka police advises the general public not to panic as security forces are conducting search operations across the country. The public is requested to cooperate with security forces personnel carrying out the searches. And along with that, the country is also reissuing a nationwide curfew that applies from 10 p.m. to 4 a.m. And that ban on social media sites to stop

Starting point is 00:09:44 what they said was the spread of misinformation is still active. Also, something else we should talk about, when we first talked about this on Monday, we also mentioned the warnings that officials received about these attacks seemingly going ignored. We then later saw reports saying that one of the suicide bombers had actually been previously arrested but was then released, which is why, as a result,

Starting point is 00:10:00 on Wednesday, the president of Sri Lanka, Matripala Siricina, asked for the resignation of the country's defense secretary and national police chief. The next day, the president of Sri Lanka. Matripala Siricina asked for the resignation of the country's defense secretary and national police chief. The next day, the defense secretary stepped down. As of right now, there is no word as far as what the national police chief is going to do, but we have seen President Siricina saying

Starting point is 00:10:14 that he's going to replace both positions within 24 hours. Also issuing the statement, "'I am confident that with such reorganizations "'of the security sector and with the assistance "'of foreign expertise, the threat of terrorism "'could be curbed soon Don't tell me that is where we are right now. Hopefully we have more information soon from these investigations Of course as with every story, I'd love to know your thoughts on this

Starting point is 00:10:32 That's where I'm going to end today's show and remember if you like this video you want to support the channel Just hit that like button if you're new here you want more hit that subscribe button Also, if you know 100% filled in here the last two videos you might have missed you can catch up But with that said of course as always my name is Philip DeFranco. You've just been filled in. I love yo faces, and I'll see you Monday

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The Philip DeFranco Show - PDS 4.25 James Charles $500 "Con-Tour" Backlash, Joe Biden Jumps Into It, & More

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