The Philip DeFranco Show - PDS 5.27 IT’S GETTING WORSE! Pokimane Goes After Parents Exploiting Kids, David McBride, & Today's News

Episode Date: May 27, 2024

Go to https://prizepicks.com and use code DEFRANCO to download the PrizePicks app today for a first deposit match up to $100! New 3-Packs & Cyber Lime Collections NOW LIVE @ https://BeautifulBastard.com ==== ✩ TODAY’S STORIES ✩- – 00:00 - Creepy Parents Are Selling Their Kids’ Photos & Clothes on Social Media 04:52 - Furiosa Crashed & Burned at the Worst Memorial Day Box Office in Decades 09:44 - Sponsored by Prize Picks  10:50 - Whistleblower Who Blew Open Afghanistan War Crimes Goes to Jail 19:41 - Israel Condemned by World Leaders after Rafah Strike 23:05 - 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, Jared Paolino Associate Producer on David McBride: Chris Tolve ———————————— #DeFranco #Pokimane #Moistcritikal ———————————— Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Sup, you beautiful bastards! Welcome back to the Philip DeFranco Show, your daily dive into the news, which we have a lot to talk about today. But first, I'm incredibly excited to announce that the biggest drop we've done over BeautifulBastard.com just went live right now. There's two very different but awesome things going on. The first is that after being sold out for months and months, we're bringing back our core collection with even more colors. Those are top-of-the-line custom blend, cut and sew teas. A lot of people have compared them to $80 plus teas, but you can snag some right now for $20 a tea in our three packs. We've got them in black, the classic color tea pack, the new amber,

blueberry, and moss, and chocolate blush and bone. If this is anything like last time, get that right now. These sell out very fast, and this has only dropped two of those. We've also now expanded the core collection to include cruise, cropped crews, and joggers. And then secondly, still fantastic quality, but a completely different vibe, we're also dropping the super limited Cyber Lime collection, which includes our Embrace Change zip hoodie, Beautiful Bastard, a death tee,

have a great fucking day tee, and this wild, emotionally exhausted crew and jogger. So grab any and all of that goodness while you can over at beautifulbastard.com. With all this new stuff, I stand by, we have the best gear in the game out there right now. But like I said, we have a lot of news to talk about today. So thank you for the support, but let's just jump into it. Starting with, you're so hot. Mama mia. Take that bikini off. I'm going to give you a second to guess

which one of these three photos those comments are from. Are you ready? And trick question. This is not the Philip DeFranco show from 15 years ago where we had a lovely lady of the day segment. We got a real problem to talk about today because those comments came from under the post of a nine-year-old, a literal nine-year-old. And very notably, the reason we're talking about this, it's not the kid who's posting these photos. Instead, her Instagram account is reportedly run by a team of adults. And she is far from the only kid in this situation because there are seemingly endless amounts of parents out there trying to turn their kids into kidfluencers to make a quick buck. And even without the stuff that people would call alarmingly suggestive, you still have a massive question of can children ever truly consent to becoming social media stars, even if they think that's what they want. And if they can, I mean,

what's it going to be like them five or 10 years down the road when they're in high school and every other kid in school knows them for what they posted when they were six, seven or eight. And part of the reason this conversation has gotten a big spotlight again is because you actually had a huge creator by the name of Pokimane asking the same question on a recent episode of her podcast. But they're saying parents need to have these questions in mind anytime they're posting something with their kid in it. But also at the same time, really digging into the ones who are pretty obviously exploiting their kids for clout. Are you really a parent if you're being so goddamn irresponsible? And you'll see on these tiktoks the video will have like a hundred thousand saves who is saving a video of like a

four-year-old eating a hot dog what are you saving that for exactly i don't give a how many dollars you make from tiktok views i know it's not even that crazy. So what are you doing? You're selling your kids mental well-being for a few hundred bucks. Right, Pokimane here, she's not saying that kids should never be online, but instead calling out this massive problem with content that's about kids, but still aimed at adults, which some experts have dubbed as cute bait. But I'm also saying that for brands, children can be a very lucrative form of engagement. I mean, how many times have we already talked about people like Ruby Frankie or that mommy vlogger who forced her kid to cry on camera because their new puppy got sick? But as one New York Times investigation pointed out, what often starts is a parent's

effort to jumpstart a child's modeling career or win favors from clothing brands can quickly descend into a dark underworld dominated by adult men, many of whom openly admit on other platforms to being sexually attracted to children. And the Times easily finding thousands of accounts of girls similar to the one that I showed you at the beginning of the story. But that's not even the worst of it. In some cases, it went way beyond public facing posts with parents selling exclusive photos, chat sessions, or even their kids worn clothing to unknown followers. And all of that, of course, feeding the pockets of those parents.

The damage this can have for kids is just, it's almost unfathomable. And all of this is we're just coming off the heels of that insane Quiet on Set documentary and all the shit that went down at Nickelodeon in the 90s and 2000s. But now I just wonder if in 10 years from now, these kinds of stories are going to be Gen Z's version of Quiet on Set. I mean, already we're seeing stories like this heartbreaking one of a mom who has a 17-year-old daughter and is worried that, quote, that a childhood spent sporting bikinis online for adult men had scarred her.

And actually telling the Times, she's written herself off and decided that the only way she's gonna have a future is to make a mint on OnlyFans. And of course, that is not to say that everyone who makes an OnlyFans is a victim, but this is a child feeling like sex work is her only viable career path forward.

And actually, because of that investigation specifically, the Minnesota House went from proposing a bill that would protect the bank accounts of child influencers under 14 to passing a bill earlier this month that would ban anyone under 14 from making money off of their social media, including ads. And for minors 14 to 17, part of the money they earn would need to be set aside in a trust similar to laws in most states for child actors. And that could become a law as soon as next year. But unfortunately, that is just one small specific positive change. and the general growing trend that we're seeing is getting worse.

But for now, one, we'll have to wait and see, and two, of course, I'd love to know your thoughts in those comments down below. And then, are movie theaters as we know them officially dead? That's what people are asking after witnessing the worst Memorial Day weekend at the box office in 40 years. And getting a lot of the focus right now are the two extremely different movies that ended up in very similar places. With the first being the very poorly reviewed Garfield movie starring Chris Pratt. Which I will say, if you have young kids, they'll like it. It's a pretty garbage movie.

My kids walked out saying, hey, that was an 8 out of 10, which sounds great. Literally almost every other movie, they're like, that was a 15 out of 10. Best movie I've ever seen. So, you know, the kid rating scale is very different. But, you know, despite grossing barely more than $30 million, it still did relatively good for itself, considering it only cost Sony $60 million before marketing and distribution. But then also, you had the film that everyone expected to blow Garfield out of the water and just steal the weekend, the Mad Max prequel Furiosa,

which DeFranco, review there, it is fucking phenomenal. And not just because I may or may not be in love with Anya Taylor-Joy, but with a production budget of $168 million, it only grossed $31 million over the four-day weekend. Or to put it another way, half of what Mad Max Fury Road made in today's dollars over a normal weekend. With IMDb pointing out this marks the lowest debut for a number one Memorial Day release since Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom in 1984. That's even though on the surface, it had everything going for it. It was a new installment in a beloved franchise after the six-time Oscar winning Fury Road. It had an impressive cast, right? Not only Anya Taylor-Joy, but also Chris

Hemsworth. You know, it's got exceptionally good reviews from critics and audiences alike. Furiosa is extraordinary. While of course, meaning that iconic DNA that Mad Max has become known for of beautiful action set pieces, practical effects, combustion engines that rattle your testicles in your seat, pumping gasoline into your veins as you watch the film, pumping your fist at the set pieces. All of that is still very much intact, and it now has a much deeper lore-rich world and characters to accompany it. Plugging Furiosa into the Moist Meter, I'd easily give this a 90%. Which is why you have some people frustrated by the poor box office numbers. Tweeting things like, everyone complains about regurgitated formulaic dogshit boring movies being most of what comes out, but then refuse to go see the actual good ones like this. With that, as is what usually happens with an unexpected

flop, you have people all of a sudden coming out and going, hey, here are the different reasons why it happened. Some claiming that Anya Taylor-Joy just doesn't bring the star power needed to anchor a big budget summer blockbuster. Adding that the absence of Charlize Theron, who played Furiosa in the last film, and especially Tom Hardy as Max, disappointed some fans of the franchise. And box office analyst Scott Mendelsohn saying, You also have some saying maybe the prequel came out too late after 2015's Fury Road and too soon after Dune Part Two, which had a similar aesthetic. And then in addition to that,

there's this greater debate of, you know, was this weekend's performance just an outlier or is it a doomsday sign for the movie theater industry? Because this is not coming out of nowhere. Marvel had multiple flops last year, more recently the Fall Guy bomb, despite good reviews and an all-star cast. And all this playing out while not commenting

on those particular films, John Musker, right? The guy who directed The Little Mermaid, Aladdin, and Hercules. He just accused Disney of putting political messaging ahead of its story and recent projects. With him saying, the classic Disney films didn't start out trying to have a message.

They wanted you to get involved in the characters and the story and the world. And I think that's still the heart of it. You don't have to exclude agendas, but you have to first create characters who you sympathize with and who are compelling. Also, underlining all this is the simple factor of money. A movie going now for a lot of people, it is expensive. And a lot of people, they're just not willing to spend what

disposable income they have on it, which then gets into a little bit of a chicken or the egg debate. Because in recent years, the amount of time it would take for a movie to go from the theaters to something on demand, that is shrunk. Like they gave the fall guy a four Mississippi count before they took that thing and threw it on demand. But as to whether this is a blip or something longer standing, we'll see. We have big summer sequels coming up. You've got Inside Out 2, Despicable Me 4,

Deadpool and Wolverine. But also with this regarding streaming versus going to the theater, you have people arguing about something that many young men have thought in their lives. Does size matter? With that, you recently had Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos telling the New York Times

that he thinks Barbie and Oppenheimer, that they would have definitely been just as big on Netflix. Saying there's no reason to believe that the movie itself is better than any size of screen for all people. My son's an editor. He's 28 years old and he watched Lawrence of Arabia on his phone.

Though to that, I would say that the size of the screen does sometimes matter. But what I find to be a bigger pull is the experience. There are very few things like watching an awesome movie in a crowd full of other people that are excited to see this awesome movie. Like I'm not saying it is the peak of cinema in any way, but like watching the end of Endgame in a fully packed movie theater, that is drastically different than if I'm just watching it on my phone at home. Or, you know, more recently going to Barbie with a fully pinked out movie theater or

going to see Oppenheimer and everyone's there just going like what are we about to witness? But as far as what that means for with the longevity of the movie theater industry, I don't know. Because examples of those over the past two years, that's really more a lightning in a bottle rather than something standard. But as far as where the industry is actually headed, time will tell. Though I hope theaters are not going to die. It is, it's my, it's one of my favorite things. And then I'll have more news for you in just a second, but I got to take a second to pay the bills and thank our fantastic sponsor, PrizePix.

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use code DeFranco, pick more, pick less, it's that easy. And then we really, really need to talk about David McBride because this news about one of the most notorious yet tragically misunderstood whistleblowers in Australian history is wild. Because on the surface, this story looks like one thing, but by the end of it, you'll see that it's something so much more complicated.

So let's start at the beginning, 2011. That's when McBride, an Oxford Law graduate and an ex-British Army captain, began work as a legal officer for the Australian Defense Force, or ADF. And during his first tour in Afghanistan that year, he says he first began to have doubts about the mission there, with him observing how military leaders kept telling the public that they were winning the war, when he could see with his own eyes that just wasn't true. Meanwhile, rumors floated around about soldiers murdering innocent people. And then during his second tour two years later, everything changed for McBride. I saw things that really made me become a whistleblower

in 2013 on my Special Forces tour. We were suddenly investigating people who are just defending themselves. And we were trying to put them in jail. We are suddenly running around trying to find scapegoats. We had become incredibly cynical where we would make heroes when they weren't heroes. We would make villains when they weren't villains.

We didn't care about whether we were actually in the war. We put out false messages. The Afghan people meant nothing to us. It was all a political pantomime, an ad. And so he returned home, and for the next few years, he mulled over what he had seen, sinking into a dark place. Drinking liquor every day, abusing ADHD medication, suffering from undiagnosed PTSD.

But then slowly, he came to the conviction that he needed to blow the whistle, which, as it turns out, is a bit of a family tradition. See, David's father, the obstetrician Dr. William McBride, he blew the whistle on birth defects caused by a pregnancy drug in the 1960s. Concern over the tragic effects of the new sedative thalidomide prompts President Kennedy at his press conference to call for stronger, better administered drug laws. So working late in the night at an army base near Canberra, the younger McBride began copying hundreds of classified documents, smuggling them home in a backpack batch by batch over the course of 18 months. And at first, he tried the official channels, with him filing an internal complaint and then going to the police and then the defense minister, but neither worked. So in 2017,

McBride took his stash of papers to the press, specifically to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, or the ABC. He pitched them a story of army leadership so worried about the perception of war crimes that they went after honest soldiers. When the reporter Dan Oaks reviewed the evidence, he saw a different story, with him later telling the ABC's Four Corners program that not only did he find actual war crimes, but the army tried to cover them up. The more I looked into it, I couldn't conceive of how anyone would claim that these guys were being too tightly monitored. It was precisely the opposite. I mean, the picture that became clear

was just one of Afghanistan being a black hole in which events occurred. What happened out in the field stayed out in the field. So using those documents, the ABC published a series of reports known as the Afghan Files, which did include some cases where soldiers genuinely seemed like

they may have acted in self-defense or made reasonable mistakes. But there were also cases that looked murky at best and downright inexcusable at worst. Like when special forces guys allegedly shot a man and his six-year-old son while they were sleeping together under a blanket. Or when others allegedly shot and killed a teenage boy who was collecting figs in the early morning and then they just left his body there without reporting it to any authorities. And all of this went on and on with a document from 2014 describing a warrior culture within special forces. And that would actually be later corroborated

years later by a federal inquiry known as the Brereton Report, which found credible evidence that Australian special forces unlawfully killed 39 civilians and prisoners between 2009 and 2013, with General Angus Campbell explaining at the time. This shameful record includes alleged instances in which new patrol members

were coerced to shoot a prisoner in order to achieve that soldier's first kill in an appalling practice known as blooding. Further to this, throw-down weapons and radios were also reportedly planted to support claims that people killed were enemy killed in action. But when the government apologized for all those killings and the misconduct, it was also busy going after McBride. Because it didn't take police long to figure out it was him behind the leak. When they ended up swarming his apartment, they found plastic tubs full of classified documents, but no McBride. And that's because he actually fled to Spain, where he hid for about a year.

But being the family man that he was, he couldn't help but risk getting caught by returning to Australia for a father-daughter school dance. With that actually being how he was ultimately discovered and interrogated with him confessing to everything. And so with that, federal police charged him with stealing Commonwealth property, breaching the Defense Act, and disclosing confidential information. But they also didn't stop there. No, they also began building a case against the reporter Dan Oakes, his colleague on the Afghan files Sam Clark, and the ABC news director Gavin Morris. With all three men's names

being listed on a search warrant for the ABC's Sydney headquarters. And in 2019, police actually raided the building, seizing documents and shocking the whole world, with media outlets, activist groups, and politicians alike condemning the move as a threat to press freedom. And this is the police never actually found the classified materials there. And facing intense public pressure, prosecutors eventually decided to not charge the journalists, saying that although a case against them could have been made, doing so would have not been in the public interest. But their case against McBride, they said that was an altogether different story.

With prosecutors arguing that the way that he gathered, stored, and then leaked the documents, that endangered Australia's national security and foreign policy. So at first, McBride appealed to the Attorney General, Mark Dreyfuss, to drop the charges, which you know is what the AG did in 2022 for another whistleblower.

Right, Bernard Cleary, he exposed how in 2004, Australia allegedly bugged the government offices of East Timor to gain the upper did in 2022 for another whistleblower. Bernard Cleary, he exposed how in 2004, Australia allegedly bugged the government offices of East Timor to gain the upper hand in negotiations over lucrative oil and gas reserves. This time, Dreyfus wouldn't budge, so McBride, he rolled up his sleeves for a fight in court, with his lawyers arguing that he acted with honorable intentions and out of a sense of personal duty. And in pretrial hearings, the central debate was over the meaning of that one word, duty. Because the prosecution claimed that a soldier's duty is to simply follow orders. But the defense countered that it entails something higher, serving and protecting Australia, even if that means breaking the rules. But in the

end, we saw the judge side with the prosecution. Putting the final nail in the coffin, he granted their request to bar McBride's defense from using certain crucial evidence because they said it was too sensitive. And so with that, McBride's lawyers broke it to him that he had no choice but to plead guilty, which he ended up doing last year, but as he explained, that wasn't the worst outcome. That kind of sacrifice, getting sentenced to prison, has been a possible aim for me because it brings into stark relief the idea of someone standing up for what they believe is right for Australian values. I felt like a winner when I came out of the court on that Friday after entering the guilty pleas. For some reason,

I felt that we had put a fatal blow to the security state and that they'd had to commit themselves to unquestionable following of orders in order to beat me. And all of that, it brings the story full circle because his father, William McBride, also fell from his whistleblowing heights. Right that, after he was found guilty of falsifying research and other pregnancy drugs and forced to stop practicing medicine. But that's not to say that David's goodbye wasn't also sad.

I'm trying to spend the last weekend with my daughter. So I'll make it short. I just want to thank everybody that supported me over the past five years, six years. As I say, I may have broken the law, but I did not break my oath to the Australian people. So now at the age of 60, he's been sentenced to five years and eight months in jail with the possibility of parole after 27 months. As a judge left the bench, some in the public gallery reportedly shouted shame on you at him. All McBride was left hugging his friends and family for the final time before he was let off into custody.

And so now we're seeing advocates amplifying complaints that they've long made Australia's whistleblower protections too weak. Pointing out that they make whistleblowers meet onerous requirements before disclosing information. Which ironically makes it easier for the authorities to catch them. And what's more is that the government's already put McBride in jail, but none of the alleged war criminals that he exposed have been convicted and only one's even been charged. Then again, that also gets to a deeper, even messier contradiction at the heart of McBride's story, because the media, the public, politicians, activists, even his own lawyers lifted him up as a martyr who was persecuted for speaking up about war crimes. But to turn him into that, a martyr, a hero, a symbol, they had to paper over the real flesh and blood David McBride,

a man whose goals were much different than those of many of his supporters. Because remember, he wasn't just trying to expose some war crimes. To McBride, the war crimes were just a symptom of rotten leadership at the highest levels of the military. By overzealously investigating them, the generals washed their hands of any blame. They could go on waging a war that had less to do with actually winning and more to do with saving face, which is exactly what the Washington Post's Afghanistan papers confirmed about the American side of all this in 2019, revealing that for two decades, while the war in Afghanistan

bumbled along disastrously with no end in sight, U.S. government and military covered up the truth and presented a rosy picture to the public they knew was a lie. Yet the ABC put out a documentary just weeks before McBride's sentencing, claiming he only wanted to defend alleged war criminals. He never at any point, I believe,

mentioned war crimes or showed any desire to uncover war crimes or have people punished for war criminals. Which is why McBride has since accused Dan Oakes of essentially working for the government. And so if we can't deliver David McBride actual justice by setting him free, at least we can do him the justice of remembering the bigger picture that he's been trying to show us from the start. And then we've got to talk about the latest news coming out of Gaza. Because last night, an Israeli airstrike killed dozens of displaced Gazans sheltering in a makeshift tent encampment in the city of Rafah. You've got the Gaza health ministry reporting that at least 45 people were killed and dozens injured.

But I'm saying about half of the victims were women and children. And notably, the area where this strike took place was especially densely populated, with families having taken shelter there in belief that the area would be safer. Because residents were reportedly not ordered to evacuate ahead of the strikes. There was actually confusion on the ground as to whether Israel had designated the area as one of its humanitarian zones. For example, a leaflet distributed by the Israeli military reportedly said that the humanitarian area would extend to a block labeled 2371, which is where the attack occurred. But at the same time, a map on the same leaflet apparently didn't show the block highlighted in yellow like

the other humanitarian zone. So with that you have Israeli officials saying the strike was not within the humanitarian zone while Palestinians said they believed that it was. And of course all of this happening while more than 800,000 people have fled Rafah since the Israeli military ordered an evacuation of the eastern part of the city on May 6th. And many remain in the city as they struggle to find shelter elsewhere. Right when Palestinian man, for example, told journalists that he had been sheltering in a tent with his seven children near the site of last night's attack, saying that he had tried to take his family

to one of the clearly marked humanitarian zones, but he had been unable to find a place to stay. So that's why with that, we have a lot of people continuing to say that there is no such thing as safe in Gaza. That including everyone from Doctors Without Borders to French President Emmanuel Macron. And this is in general condemnation

of the Israeli government's actions have been growing, as well as seeing the United States being criticized for its relative silence. As well, world powers and international agencies criticized last night's attack, with the U.S. State Department only saying at this point that it was aware of the reports and is gathering more information. Now, as far as Israel, for their part, they said that the target of the strike was a Hamas compound, saying that the strike used precise munitions and was based on intelligence, saying that two Hamas officials who had been behind deadly attacks against Israel in the past had been killed. But also with that, you had the Israeli government acknowledging that there were civilian casualties, with

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu calling the strike a tragic mistake, also saying the case will be investigated. And actually with that, the Israeli military's top legal official also noting that the Israeli military police have opened around 70 criminal investigations into potential misconduct during the war, where they're specifically saying, in a war of such scope and intensity, complex incidents occur. Some of the incidents, like last night's incident in Rafah, are very serious. And with that, adding that the Israeli military regrets any harm to uninvolved civilians during the war.

But of course, all that's being said is Israel has plowed on with its offensive in Rafah despite the urging of Biden and other world leaders and the orders of a UN court. With that, we should also note that Hamas also attacked Israel. With yesterday, Hamas firing rockets at Tel Aviv for the first time in months, though with that, no injuries were reported. And you would bet against a member of Israel's war cabinet saying, the rocket shot from Rafah today proved that the IDF must operate in every place Hamas still operates from, and as such, the IDF will continue to operate wherever necessary. The world must know those who still hold captive are hostages, shoot at our cities,

and continue to propagate terror are responsible for the situation. With that, this morning, the Israeli military reported that it had struck 75 targets across Gaza in the past day, claiming that the targets included weapon caches and other militant infrastructure. That's also as Gaza's health authority said that 190 civilians had been killed over that time.

And so of course, all of this, it's impacting so much, but also especially it's impacting the hopes that ceasefire talks would resume this week. There's now having to wait and see what kind of impact we're gonna see from all this violence, especially because as that's playing out, we're seeing protesters in Israel continuing to demand ceasefire,

actually clashing with police this weekend. But there's also seeing a potential flare-up in tensions between Israel and Egypt, with an Egyptian soldier actually being killed this morning in an incident at the border that we're still waiting for more details on. But then that brings us to the final bit of today's show, comment commentary. We dive into the comments on the previous show to see what y'all had to say and talk about it. You know, looking at it, there was

definitely a lot of conversation about our deep dive into just that just horrific VA situation, with beautiful bastards like Zelmi sharing their own stories, like my stepdad was a veteran. He spent years complaining to the VA about headaches and sudden loss of hearing in one ear. They literally wrote drug seeking in his chart for years. It wasn't until he suddenly started to lose vision and went to an eye doctor where they saw a shadow when they dilated his eyes. Turned out he had a massive brain tumor. To add insult to injury, they botched his surgery leaving him completely disabled at only 32 years old. For the three years he lived, the VA refused to approve more than 20% disability

despite him needing around-the-clock care. The VA is constantly too little too late at best and grossly neglectful at worst, which leaves vets even more vulnerable to getting taken advantage of. And there was also just like a general shock at the US healthcare system, with Jules saying, The USA, where healthcare requires half a dozen middlemen before your first appointment. And adding, Australia, where you turn up, get an appointment, and come back half an hour before it starts,

just in case everyone before you just needed their script renewed. Though with that, you also had some like Travis replying, let's not forget the best part, pay two small annual fees for Medicare and ambulance coverage, and healthcare is basically free. I've been hit by a car, tripped and fell on a sidewalk, dislocating my knee, was bitten by a spider, and had an adverse reaction, and not once did I have to pay a cent.

One time there was going to be a $40 fee for one of those special boots, but they waived it because I didn't have any money on me at the time. Australian healthcare ain't perfect, but it's pretty bloody good. Then, in other news, you know, you had a lot of people with the news around the Live Nation lawsuit and then Live Nation's response, like, rolling their eyes so hard that they might have dislocated a retina. Y'all saying things like, Live Nation accusing the DOJ of depriving people of entertainment is a joke. There have been multiple venues corroborating the retaliation claims and artists slamming them for screwing over their fans. While I admit the jury trial is a bit

of a weird choice, I hope that the company is forced to break up for all the shit they've put regular people and fans through. Then, regarding the whole controversy around foreigners and other countries and how a lot of places are changing rules because foreigners and tourists are kind of doing too much. There are a lot of different takes in the comments. Some, right, agreeing with PewDiePie. Some saying it's weird because he's a foreigner himself in Japan. There, I would argue, he is seemingly trying to treat the country in a very respectful way. You know, all of this is others are saying things like, Tokyoite here, I think the main issue with tourism in Japan is the infrastructure is not set up for an additional several million people in the cities. Kyoto, for example, is a bus city, not a train city. So one person with a suitcase can ruin everything for everyone, tourists and

locals alike, because the city just isn't set up to handle everyone. Also, the speed at which tourism has bounced back after COVID restrictions lifted last year has us all on edge with how crowded everything has become so quickly. Well, 2019 was our most visited year ever. 2024 is expected to surpass that by millions more people. 99.5% of tourists are very nice and mostly just a bit lost. Again, infrastructure issues, including language barriers, but they drive me nuts because of the sheer number of them roaming around

when I'm just trying to go to work, which I will say, just to add to that, there are a lot of reasons someone might recommend going to Japan. I also think a decent chunk of it and why we've seen such a rise is the power of the dollar compared to the yen. Like post-pandemic, there's been a noticeable shift. So again, by no means is Japan the only place where we've seen a lot of rules and things changing regarding tourists. I think it's just gotten a lot of the attention

because of some of the bullshit that's happened with streamers. But that is where today's show is going to end. I hope you enjoyed this Memorial Day show. Also, a big thank you to the team members who came in on Memorial Day to make sure that we could actually have a show for you. With that said, as always, my name is Philip DeFranco. You've just been filled in. I love your faces, and I'll see you right back here tomorrow.