The Philip DeFranco Show - PDS 5.29 DIDDY IS DONE! "All Eyes on Rafah" Controversy, Faker League Backlash, Deep Sea Mining & Todays News

Episode Date: May 29, 2024

Use code “PHIL” for $20 OFF your first SeatGeek order & returning buyers use code “PDS” for $10 off AND your chance at weekly $500 prizes! https://seatgeek.onelink.me/RrnK/PHIL    Daily Dip newsletter subscribers can double their entries for the chance to win up to $1,000 in SeatGeek credit so make sure you’re subscribed: https://www.dailydip.co/  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 - “Rolling Stone” Exposes Decades of Allegations Against Diddy 03:44 - Ariana Grande & Jenna Ortega Drive Fundraising for Rafah 06:32 - $500 League of Legends Skin Has Fans Outraged 09:16 - Sponsored by Seatgeek 10:13 - MLB Includes Non-White Leagues in Official Records 14:25 - Louisiana Lawmakers Pass Bill Requiring Schools to Display the 10 Commandments 16:38 - Pressure Grows To Let Ukraine Strike Inside Russia With US Weapons 19:26 - Sponsored by Prize Picks 20:33 - Lawmakers and Officials Push US To Ratify UNCLOS To Regulate Deep Sea Mining 27:05 - Comment Commentary Diddy Rolling Stone Article: https://twitter.com/RollingStone/status/1795629647960399970  ——————————   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 Deep Sea Mining: Jared Paolino Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Sup, you beautiful bastards. Welcome back to the Philip DeFranco Show. This is your Wednesday, evening, Thursday morning dive into the news. And we honestly just have so much to talk about, so I'm going to hit you with that monkey and just jump into it. So P. Diddy is back in the news today, which of course is bad news for Diddy, but also the specifics here are wild. Because right now there's a grand jury in New York hearing from his victims as well, as there now being a massive investigation by the Rolling Stone that alleges that he actually has a much longer history of abuse than the recent claims would suggest. Now to start with the grand jury out of New York, there's not a ton to say there yet. Though we do know that they're hearing from people who have sued Diddy for abuse,

although we don't know if they're hearing from all eight people who have brought lawsuits against him. But one thing that it definitely shows is that the government is ramping up its pressure on Diddy. Because a grand jury, it's one of the first hurdles they need to clear before they can bring formal charges against him. Although really, it's not much of a bar. There's an old legal saying that you can convince a grand jury to bring charges against anything since the bar is so low. But more interesting, at least, today is the news from Rolling Stone, which conducted a six-month investigation into Combs and spoke with a ton of people from his past. And because I say my job is trying to make everything consumable, I'm not going to go into every single detail here. You can click the link down below to

go into the full thing. But we're going to touch on some of it and know that it details a long history of anger and violence from Diddy. With, for example, colleagues telling Rolling Stone that back in 1994, they had to pull Diddy off a woman at their offices because they could hear him beating her. While in another incident, Diddy almost got into another altercation with another woman before being restrained. Then in 2000, he allegedly beat the shit out of a fellow music executive in a hotel room because he had a relationship with Diddy's ex. In 2001, he sexually harassed a freelance graphic designer who was at a party he was throwing to celebrate his acquittal in a shooting trial. Fortunately, at that time, it didn't escalate to complete physical violence

as the woman managed to slide away, but not before Diddy was allegedly a real creep by massaging her shoulders and saying things like, Oh yeah, you like that? No, you like that. But one of the worst allegations came from his time at Howard University. And, you know, at that time, he had a reputation for hosting crazy parties. You know, things got brought up, like an incident where he showed up at a woman's dorm and he was screaming for a girlfriend and acting belligerent. With multiple people telling the outlet roughly the same story, one alleged witness saying he screamed and hollered and acted a stone fool until she came downstairs. And then when his girlfriend finally went downstairs, he began beating her and was screaming at the top of his lungs and that he whooped her butt, like really

whooped her butt, with then other women from the dorm intervening before the attack eventually stopped. During this investigation, the Rolling Stones spoke with about 50 people connected to Diddy in his past, and they found that some suggested that he was like this due to abandonment issues. So sometimes it was so bad that he wouldn't let the women in his life move on, like when he and J-Lo broke up. He apparently had his staff stand outside MTV's TRL studios with signs to win her back. Though clearly, that did not work there, and it also seems to have escalated from there because later on, exes like Cassie Ventura, or the one whose beating was caught on camera in a hotel, she said that Diddy would have his cronies hunted down and

pressure her to come back, with sometimes that pressure including things like threatening to not release her music. And all of that lining up with statements made by his ex, Kim Porter, who said that in the past, Diddy would call her 50 to 60 times a day. And a lot of these new allegations, such as the Howard University incident, they'd probably be interesting for prosecutors who might want to speak to witnesses or the victims. And not because they could use it to bring more charges since they're past the statute of limitations in most cases, but because it can still help their case. So notably, there's a small problem there because in many of these cases, the victims themselves didn't want to talk to Rolling Stone. And then even when they would speak in other cases,

witnesses spoke on the condition of anonymity, right? Either because they didn't want the spotlight or they feared repercussions. You know, with all that said, the big thing that just, I think it's hard not to wonder, is how many victims are there? Because we now have the video of one beating and we hear all these other situations of him just acting like a maniac. And you just can't help but wonder how many other skeletons are in his closet. If he's just been like this, how much has he swept under the rug over his lifetime? And then, all eyes on Rafa. That is the message that more than 37 million people have shared online since those devastating Israeli strikes on Rafa that we covered on Monday. Those strikes seeming to be the catalyst for a number of A-list celebrities now directly speaking out.

Though this, of course, after all the criticism we've seen around celebrities and silence and even perceived silence to the strikes. And so now we're also seeing many more asking, does them speaking on it really make a meaningful difference? If so, how much? You know, all of this playing out as we're seeing specifics like Jenna Ortega and Ariana Grande yesterday sharing this link to the Palestine Children's Relief Fund and their Instagram stories. Also before that, it had been posted by Bridgerton actress Nicola Coughlin around five days ago. And in that time, it managed to raise roughly $176,000, which notably was more than double the $85,000 that our last campaign with medical aid for Palestinians made. But notably now, just a day after Ariana and Jenna spotlighted the Children's Relief Fund, it jumped past the $1 million mark. With Jenna also doubling down on support for

Palestine in several more stories in a post where she said, Mass is debating over a ceasefire while thousands upon thousands of children continue being slaughtered. Where is the humanity? While both Ariana and Jenna signed the artist for ceasefire petition months ago, you have many saying this is the most blatant support that they have shown on their social media. Right, and they're definitely not the only ones. For example, you had Dua Lipa recently saying in a story on Instagram, burning children alive can never be justified.

The whole world is mobilizing to stop the Israeli genocide. And so with that, you know, we've seen a lot of support for these three, some saying things alike. It is important to recognize how severe of an impact one story post can have. And no celebrity is going to stop the war, yes. But their voices impact thousands to help those in need. After Ari posted the donation link, there was a surge in the amount.

This is how it works. So with that, you had many saying, you know, there was one star that's notably silent here, right? With many pointing the finger at Taylor Swift. But that in part because her fans have made that known, with Swifties or Palestine becoming the number one trending topic in the U.S. on X this morning. And many there encouraging people attending her Eros tour to bring posters demanding action and for her to speak out. Also penning a letter titled, Speak Now, Taylor, and saying, your voice has the ability to impact and

draw attention to crucial problems affecting millions of people worldwide, right? Citing Rafa and then adding, your smallest action could make a significant difference in amplifying these pleas for pressing for real change. And many fans reiterating that this isn't about stopping the war. People do not want Taylor to speak up to single-handedly stop the genocide. People want Taylor to utilize her 400 million plus followers social media platforms to raise awareness to the uneducated, encourage people to donate to help Palestinians evacuate in safety. With many also citing a post from Paramore, which is opening for her,

where they urge people to donate to Doctors Without Borders. But with all that, where I want to end this is about what we're actually seeing in Rafah right now. Because this morning, the New York Times reporting that the bombs that were used in the strike, they were made in the U.S. This also notably is the White House has said that the strike, it didn't cross Biden's red line in supporting Israel. And this is Israel has continued to enter the city, sending tanks on rage just today. Of course, all of this is developing in real time. And as we have been, we'll keep our eyes on this as all of it continues. And then massive business and gaming news. Let's talk about League of Legends, because you got a ton of gamers right now shouting $500 for what at Riot Games after they announced a new event and package to

commemorate one of the game's most successful players. And that'll be coming out in a couple of weeks as part of its Hall of Legends, which is essentially a league hall of fame alongside an in-game battle pass to commemorate this year's winner, Faker. But this next part is where things go off the rails. Because on top of that, Riot's also recognizing Faker's skills with a unique skin for Ahri, his most iconic character. Technically, it's a series of bundles that range in price from like $43 to $450, and Faker gets 30% of the revenue. So the cheapest version is a slightly altered version of a re, while the more expensive versions have unique animations. And the most expensive version not only includes all of that, but also special skins for four other characters and a ton of other perks. But all anyone is really focused on is the $500 version, because it seems insane.

Lots of people doubting its value and saying 400 to 500 euro for in-game cosmetics? Man, Riot milking Faker's name. Faker is literally the only person with so much pull to sell this. Crazy marketing. League is a free game, LOL. Whereas others have reacted by vowing

to automatically ban Ahri in every game they have so that people who bought the skin won't be able to use it. And also one of the biggest ironies of all this is that Faker himself doesn't even use in-game skins. In his entire career, he apparently has only ever used a unique skin once and it was due to a misclick. You know, with this, we've also seen creators like Asmongold react to the situation. I'm noticing how League was pretty clever on Twitter to hide how negative the reaction's been. Oh, this is smart. This is real smart. So what

League of Legends is doing is they're replying to tweets that are positive. That way, nobody can see the popular tweets that are negative, that are below this. While others have mocked the effort put into this entire package, pointing out that it looks really similar to ones done by Dota 2, which is League's biggest competitor. That game had an entire red, gold, white, black aesthetic as part of its international 2016 battle pass. And ever since then, it's had a series of items every year called Crimson Witnesses, which are given to players who attended the International. And ironically, these can go for well beyond what the Faker skin costs. But a likely difference is that skins in Dota rarely exceed $35. They go beyond that. There are technically ways to get them in-game, or it's because they're a random item from a $2.50 pack and players can sell or buy them on Steam for

Steam credit. With all that said, you know, I want to know what you think. Do you get the outrage? Are you against it? You know, because for me, as an outsider looking in, I'm like, I get being annoyed by it and even mocking it. But as long as, you know, it doesn't offer in-game power, which these don't, I personally don't care. There are always going to be whales out there ready to be milked. I mean, if anything, I wouldn't buy them because I'd be embarrassed. Because if you have that skin, you're saying, yes, I don't care about money. I make poor financial decisions. That's what this skin says about me, which also I will say the movement to ban the character from any game. Hilarious. Troll the whales. Why not? But hey, people in the community, people out of the community, I'd love to know your thoughts.

And then, so I got to admit, this is one of my favorite segments of the PDS. And it's in part because y'all have such an eclectic taste in entertainment from Disney on ice to comedy shows in Vegas. And our weekly SeatGeek $500 giveaway lives on and you beautiful bastards are crushing it. Because as you probably know by now, SeatGeek is the number one rated live event ticketing app with over 28 million downloads and access to a wide array of entertainment to get you and a loved one out of the house. And my team just worked with SeatGeek to extend the $500 weekly giveaway and entering honestly couldn't be easier. You just simply add code PDS to your SeatGeek account, get $10 off, and you could be one of our lucky weekly winners. That's $500 in credit towards any of SeatGeek's 70,000 events. And if you're new to

SeatGeek, you can also add code Phil for $20 off your first purchase. SeatGeek veterans can add code PDS, which gets you $10 off any purchase. And again, you'll be entered for your chance at the $500 SeatGeek credit, no purchase necessary. Plus, if you're interested in a chance to win a $1,000 SeatGeek credit, Daily Dip newsletter subscribers can earn double entry and double winning. So keep up with the PDS in your inbox and subscribe right now. And then pretty much every sport in America has some sort of racist pass. It's just a matter of like how horrible or weird was it? You know, whether it be just not allowing certain races to play at the highest levels, or my favorite is that the NCAA actually banned dunking in basketball for a while. Largely because people were like, oh my God, those tall black men are dunking on our white boys.

Like, it's literally part of the reason Kareem Abdul-Jabbar perfected his sky hook. Because a bunch of baby-brained assholes that jerk off to the idea of segregation were like, that's not the beautiful game I know. But we're not talking about basketball today. Instead, we're talking about baseball. Because now some 75 years after the sport's desegregation, Major League Baseball is finally correcting its racist past. With the organization now including games from the so-called Negro Leagues in its official records. And so what that means is in total, you've got seven professional Negro Leagues comprised of 2,300 black and Latino players from 1920 to 1948. Many of whom, by the way, have long been considered among the greatest of all time by fans with 35 players actually eventually entering the Hall of Fame. And all of

that, of course, going back to the historic moment when Jackie Robinson crossed the color line in 1947 by playing for the Brooklyn Dodgers in a major league game. And so then, as more non-white players followed him, the Negro Leagues disappeared. But for decades, their history was either ignored or they were treated as separate from the history of regular baseball. But interestingly, after the murder of George Floyd, the MLB recognized the Negro Leagues as having Major League status. Though notably, their stats weren't actually integrated with the existing MLB records, though that is until now. Which means that because of this data being added back in, we're gonna see black players knocking down white legends like Babe Ruth and Ted Williams from their pedestals. With Josh Gibson, for example, taking the career slugging percentage and other records from Ruth, as well as the career batting average record from Ty Cobb.

And others like pitcher Satchel Paige, center fielder Cool Papa Bell, and slugger Cristobal Torriente are expected to surpass white players on the leaderboards as well. And with all this, we saw the president of the Negro League's baseball museum telling WGN News. grocery delivery through Instacart matter most? When your famous grainy mustard potato salad isn't so famous without the grainy mustard. When the barbecue's lit, but there's nothing to grill. When the in-laws decide that, actually, they will stay for dinner. Instacart has all your groceries covered this summer. So download the app and get delivery in as fast as 60 minutes. Plus enjoy $0 delivery fees on your first three orders. Service fees, exclusions, and terms apply. Instacart, groceries that over-deliver.

But the likes of Monty Irvin and Larry Doby, who spent a little bit more time in the Negro Leagues, their numbers will grow substantially. Jackie Robinson will get a few more hits added to his hit total. But you'll also see names like Bill Greeson, who is still with us. He'll be 100 years young this year. Willie Mays picks up, well, yeah, he will. He'll pick up a few more years because he was there in 1948. With these updated stats, there are only one way that Black history is now being fully appreciated. For example, a new virtual reality game called Barnstormers lets

you play in the Negro Leagues alongside the legends that we've been talking about. Also, MLB The Show on PlayStation, Xbox, and Switch recently unveiled a Negro Leagues game mode. And you've also got a new documentary about the history, as well as replica jerseys and caps from the era becoming increasingly popular. And as one might expect, the reactions to this have been mixed. To just use one post from the MLB on X as an example, you saw drastically different popular reactions to this side by side. As I'm saying, not a fan of this. We understand they weren't allowed to play and that sucks, but they didn't account these stats in the majors and it shouldn't count towards MLB records.

But this right next to great move by MLB. You can't accurately portray the history of baseball without including these players in their stats. Some of the best players ever in the sport who were sadly denied the opportunity at the time. Long overdue. But then finally others landing in the middle saying this is something I don't know how to feel about.

Like I understand how there were super talented players in the Negro Leagues, but now Ty Cobb and Babe Ruth records are just erased without being broken per se. Josh Gibson was obviously a great player and well-deserving. It just seems like we're wiping out guys who earned the records in the league. Granted, I also realized that Josh Gibson wasn't given the opportunity to play in the MLB, and that is obviously wrong. However, no one today has control of changing that. Just paradoxical is all. And seemingly, a lot of the people that are torn on this are going, OK, the people that, you know, had the records, obviously there's an argument to be had of they wouldn't have necessarily those records if other people

of different races were allowed to play. But also the people that weren't allowed into the league, they weren't going against the caliber of player at the time that was allowed into the league. But personally, I'll say I don't care about the records being updated. I mean, honestly, I don't think many of those guys would have records like they had if they were going against the caliber of player that's out there now. Like, I don't know how Babe Ruth's faring against Mariano Rivera. So I guess part of that's just to say you end up in this infinite number of what if arguments. All in all, the only thing we 100% know for sure is that you had numerous, numerous high caliber players that weren't allowed into the league because of the color of their skin. And we'll never really know

how either side would have done if they were integrated at that time. There's no clean, clear, easy way to accommodate for that. This is arguably the closest thing to that. But that's also my opinion. So whether you agree, you disagree, I'd love to hear from you in those comments down below. And then let's talk about it. Louisiana is set to become the first state to require the Ten Commandments to be posted in public schools. Or perhaps more accurately, I should say Louisiana is set to become the first state to test whether the ultra-conservative Supreme Court will allow for explicitly Christian displays in public schools. And that's because yesterday the Louisiana State House passed a bill requiring the Ten Commandments to be printed on a poster no

smaller than 11 inches by 14 inches and displayed in every single classroom in every single school and college that receives public funding. Because the legislation's already been approved by the state Senate, it just needs to sign off by the Republican governor, though even if he vetoed it, Republicans who broadly voted in favor of the bill, they have a veto-proof majority. Notably, even when it does become a law, it's unclear if it'll be enforced because it's all but certain that it's going to face lawsuits immediately. Or with numerous civil rights groups like the ACLU, as well as Democrats who oppose the measure, arguing that it is a blatant violation of the First Amendment. Because, you know, it explicitly prohibits the government from establishing a religion under the Establishment Clause. Or with many saying this is

basic separation of church and state 101. But that, as supporters of the bill believe, that it'll stand up to the legal challenges. With them arguing that the Ten Commandments have historical significance and they helped form the U.S. legal system. The bill's sponsor, State Representative Dodie Horton, arguing the Ten Commandments are the basis of all laws in Louisiana. She also later went on to shoot herself in the foot in regards to the whole, the government can't establish a religion thing, saying, I'm not concerned with an atheist. I'm not concerned with a Muslim. I'm concerned with our children looking and seeing what God's law is.

She's not really proving the point that she thinks she is. But, very importantly here, it doesn't seem like she thinks that she needs to have a particularly good case. Because in remarks on the House floor ahead of the vote on her bill, Horton spoke about the ultra-conservative Supreme Court and argued that the landscape has changed. They're specifically pointing to the landmark 2022 Supreme Court ruling Kennedy v. Bremerton School District, which is where the justices ruled that a former public school football coach had the right to pray at the 50-yard line after games. And that decision was absolutely massive because it signaled that the court's conservatives embraced a much looser interpretation of the First Amendment's Establishment Clause, which

effectively overturned nearly 50 years of precedent. And since then, many Republican lawmakers in red states have been proposing and even enacting legislation to test the limits of everything. In fact, just in the last year or so, we've seen Republicans floating similar bills to display the Ten Commandments at schools in Texas, Utah, Arizona, and Oklahoma. And actually, Texas last year enacted a law allowing school districts to hire chaplains. And they're not alone. At least 13 other states have introduced similar bills this past legislative session. And then, if you talk about recent developments that could dramatically impact Ukraine's ability to fight back against Russia. And specifically, I'm talking about the mounting pressure we're seeing the U.S. face from NATO and European allies to allow Ukraine

to use Western weapons to attack military targets inside Russia. Because as we've talked about the U.S., as well as allies like Germany and Italy, they've so far only sent long-range weapons to attack military targets inside Russia. Because as we've talked about the U.S., as well as allies like Germany and Italy, they've so far only sent long-range weapons to Ukraine on the condition that they not be used across the border. Because there's this genuine fear that it could escalate the conflict. Especially because Putin has repeatedly warned that the West's direct involvement, it could put the world on a path to nuclear conflict. But at the same time, it is without a doubt a huge disadvantage for Ukrainian forces. And in fact, some have blamed that specifically for the success of Russia's ongoing offensive in the Kharkiv region. With the deputy head of Ukraine's National Security, Defense, and Intelligence Committee telling Newsweek, we had information before the

latest Russian offensive near Kharkiv about them assembling their troops, about their equipment, but we couldn't do anything. We couldn't strike and that's why we couldn't prevent this attack. That's why we lost some villages, some territories, and we lost our soldiers and civilians. This is ridiculous. I mean, to that point, a Russian strike killed 18 people in a Kharkiv megastore just yesterday. And according to Zelensky, Russia's dropped more than 3,000 guided aerial bombs on Ukraine this month alone. And saying in a New York Times interview, their ability to strike from a distance is such because they are stationed in the villages nearest to the border of Ukraine with Russia. They strike from there knowing that we will not return fire. And adding that they

proceed calmly, understanding that our partners do not give us permission. So what's really standing out is that Ukraine's allies do seem to be coming around to what Zelensky's saying, because they are becoming increasingly worried about Russia's advances in Kharkiv. I mean, this week, for example, we saw the NATO Parliamentary Assembly adopting a declaration urging allied governments to, quote, support Ukraine in its international right to defend itself by lifting some restrictions on the use weapons provided by NATO allies to strike legitimate targets in Russia. With that, we saw French President Macron and German Chancellor Scholz having said that Ukraine should be able to strike targets inside Russia. And that coming just weeks after British Foreign Secretary David

Cameron also said Ukraine should decide how to best use the weapons. Though also with that, Macron emphasized that only Russian bases used to launch missiles against Ukraine should be regarded as legitimate targets, right? Not other Russian bases or civilian infrastructure. But this also, as Macron has said, that Western countries shouldn't roll out sending troops to Ukraine. And there, we've also seen France now signing an agreement with Ukraine to send military instructors to the country. And with all this, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Spain, Finland, and Poland have also expressed their backing for Ukraine to attack Russian targets. And so, basically, this has left Joe Biden there all alone. And this is even Secretary of State Antony Blinken

is reportedly among those pushing Biden to loosen the restrictions on weapons sent to Ukraine. And that, as bipartisan representatives have also asked the DOD in a letter to lift the embargo, arguing Ukrainians have been unable to defend themselves due to the administration's current policy. But of course, all of this, as the threat of escalation remains real.

I mean, Putin even responded to this shift in European aid to Ukraine with a message for the US saying, this unending escalation can lead to serious consequences. If Europe were to face those serious consequences, what will the United States do considering our strategic arms parity? So, you know, just some fun, light international news. And then we've got more news that we're going to touch on in a minute, but we've got to pay some bills and thank the fantastic sponsor of today's show, PrizePix. Because there's always action on PrizePix, America's number one fantasy sports app.

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today, and use code DEFRANCO for a first deposit match of up to $100. Just click that link in the description, use code DEFRANCO, pick more, pick less. It's that easy. And then, you know, it's time we talk about one of the most consequential elections of 2024, an election that has the potential to shape the balance of power between the U.S. and its adversaries, that has the power to make or break efforts

to protect the environment and fight climate change. And it's actually not the U.S. election. Or actually an election taking place in any one country. Instead, I'm talking about the election for the Secretary General of the International Seabed Authority. The International Seabed Authority, or ISA, is an intergovernmental body created as a result of the United Nations Convention on the Law of Sea, or UNCLOS. See, it's in charge of setting rules for deep-sea mining in international waters. And in July, 168 member states, along with the European

Union, will decide on its next leader. Now, the the current one a man by the name of Michael Lodge Has criticized environmental opposition to deep-sea mining and has been criticized himself for cozying up to the contractors The isa regulates and his opposition is Brazilian oceanographer diplomat and environmental advocate Leticia Carvalho So with how different these two candidates are the outcome could have significant economic and environmental consequences, right? That's because you might not know the ocean floor is chock full of cobalt, nickel, and other minerals that are essential to green and renewable energy technologies, as well as having many defense and aerospace applications.

And so, you know, the ISA is responsible for handing out contracts for exploration and mining these minerals. It's a big deal. In fact, the Secretary General is the one who personally negotiates the terms of confidential contracts with mining companies. And beyond that, the ISA is still in the process

of finalizing the rules and regulations for deep sea mining, including environmental protections. But also, here's the big kicker. The United States, the most powerful country on earth, doesn't get a say in any of it. Or the U.S. actually only has observer status at the meetings where these regulations are being discussed. The U.S. can't sponsor companies for licenses

to explore potential undersea mineral deposits, and it doesn't even get a vote on who the next secretary general is. And all of that is because the U.S. hasn't ratified UNCLOS and is therefore not a member of the ISA. In fact, UNCLOS has never even been voted on by the full Senate. But the U.S.'s adversaries, on the other hand, are party to the treaty and have taken full advantage. But seabed mining potentially starting as early as next year, and China in particular, is in place to dominate. With China already having a near monopoly on critical materials found on land, there are fears that the U.S. could end up even more dependent on China, and this would threaten

national security, which is why the concerns go way beyond mining. With many warning that China is taking advantage of America's absence from the treaty to pursue overall naval supremacy, which is why there's been a massive push for the U.S. to get on board with UNCLOS. I mean, this year, for example, hundreds of former national security, military, and political leaders sent a letter to the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations urging lawmakers to ratify the treaty. Notably, these people include former national security advisors, intelligence leaders, 50 admirals of the Navy and Coast Guard, more than 70 generals from other branches of the military, and nearly 200 U.S. ambassadors. And in that letter, they noted that in the decades since that committee had last considered unclosed ratification, China and Russia have taken advantage of America's absence to work actively to undermine critical United States economic

and national security interests. With that specifically emphasizing the rights of access to deep seabed mine sites containing trillions of dollars worth of strategic minerals that are quote, critical for both United States security dominance as well as the transition to a greener 21st century. With John Bellinger, a former advisor to George W. Bush,

supporting the letter and telling CBS, the United States probably has got the most to gain of any country in the world if it were party to the Law of the Sea Convention. And conversely, we actually probably have the most to lose by not being part of it. And a really key thing to note here is that it's actually a very small group of people keeping the U.S. out. Treaty ratification in the U.S. requires the support of two-thirds of the country's senators. So in 2012, for example, the last time the Senate held hearings on the treaty, just 34 Republicans promising to oppose the measure meant that it never even came to a vote. And that, despite the ratification reportedly having the support of the president, the intelligence community, big oil, major business groups, and the U.S. military. With this, you know, we see opponents of ratification saying

there's nothing in unclose that advances America's interests. With Utah Senator Mike Lee, for example, telling CBS, the U.S. needs to reject the constant impulse to cede sovereignty by allowing unelected and unaccountable global bureaucrats to regulate away new frontiers. Ratification today would be a win for the climate lobby and the global elites who feel entitled to govern from the shadows. But to be very clear with that, we are talking about participating in an agreement on how to share resources and territories belonging to no one. This has nothing to do with the land or waters that the US has sovereignty over. Notably with that,

UNCLOS declared the seabed to be common heritage of humankind. And it specifically requires royalties and other benefits from deep sea mining to be shared among ISA member nations with preference given to developing countries. You know, which is some sort of an effort to make up for colonialism.

But in any case, UNCLOS opponents also argue that American companies aren't investing in deep sea mining because it's not economically viable. Though to that point, Lockheed Martin's holding onto its rights to two Pacific seabed sites just in case the treaty does ever pass. And the company telling 60 Minutes that it can't begin operations if the U.S. doesn't ratify the treaty. And actually with that, there are clear signs that U.S. interest in deep sea mining is growing. With interestingly enough, Republicans often leading the charge there. Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski, for example, has been among those leading the push for ratification. Also, in its

most recent defense budget, Congress included a provision that requires the Pentagon to issue a report on the nation's capacity to process seabed minerals. And then also this year, Republican lawmakers have introduced the Responsible Use of Seafloor Resources Act of 2024, which would notably require the federal government to support domestic seabed minerals processing. And that brings me to the next key point with all this, because the most responsible use of seafloor resources may actually be to just leave them there. Supporters of deep sea mining claim that it would be far less damaging than mining on land. And they argue that it is necessary to fight climate change because it'll allow us to get the metals needed to make electric car batteries, wind turbines,

and other green technologies. But that is environmentalists say that it would wreak destruction on marine ecosystems. In particular, warning that deep sea mining could potentially lead to extensive and likely irreversible biodiversity loss and potentially make climate change even worse. At the very least, a 2022 peer-reviewed study found no or next to no scientific knowledge to enable evidence-based management.

Or in other words, basically concluding that the effective regulation of deep sea mining is not even possible with the information that we have now. And to that point, in March, Denmark became the 25th ISA member nation to call for a pause or a moratorium on mining due to a lack of scientific knowledge about seafloor ecosystems. And I should also note that beyond the environmental aspect, opponents of deep sea mining have voiced alarm about how much this issue is being tied to national security concerns and competition between great powers.

With, for example, Greenpeace writing, as if it was not enough to plan to destroy fragile ecosystems, some deep sea mining companies are now marketing deep sea minerals as necessary to strengthen military power, exacerbating geopolitical tensions between world superpowers with worrying implications for global peace and stability. And so at the end of the day, there is a lot of debate about this industry. And so the election we're talking about for this summer, as well as the other ongoing negotiations to finalize regulations, they may very well determine what the future of this industry is. And for good or for bad, without ratifying unclose, the U.S. just doesn't have much of a say here.

Which is why in the meantime, I got to pass the question off to you. What are your thoughts with everything we just talked about here? And then finally today we have comment, commenter. We dive into the comments on the last show and see what y'all had to say. And largely there were two main reactions. One, a large number of you were clowning on me yesterday. And two, people were like, kids, there's no world where I'm having kids. Or which makes sense. One of the first stories yesterday was about that. Let's call them possibly problematic pronatalists. Is Chris saying a child in this economy? To which Ryan Cool said, kids aren't that expensive. That's anti-kid propaganda.

And then pretty much everyone was like, what do you mean anti-kid propaganda? Kids are expensive. To which, yeah, I have to co-sign. Kids are expensive. There's a range of how expensive, depending on a number of life decisions, but still expensive. there is an argument there of like, you're able to do so much more in life if you don't have kids. I love my boys and they fill my life with so much joy and I would have never made a different decision. Like, I understand why people have different feelings on this, especially as you people like Grace Lovely saying, America, have more babies now. Also, America, better wages, enough time off, affordable health care. Now, why should the government have to take care of your children? And then also you have folks like Carlos specifically talking about the couple in that story, saying that couple looks like a downright pair of sociopaths if I've ever seen some. Which I will say, part of me goes like, you never want to judge a book by its cover, but sometimes you judge a book by its cover when the person that made the book spent so much time

on that cover. Like there is part of me that wants to know how much time they dedicated to thinking, what kind of glasses should we both wear? How do we make ourselves look like a caricature of people that think that they're very smart and better than? Like they do look, they look like another casting option for like Get Out. But then finally today, and for this section, people clowning on me because yesterday featured this moment. But also, of course, there's financial stress of a car, as this girl in New York explained today. She makes some valid points, some calling it an extremely gripping statement. Gamer girl saying, damn, that girl had some solid takes on car culture. I'm about as speechless as she was. The silence, she speaks volumes. At 28 minutes, she makes a really good point. It's like no one hears us when we're speaking. Which one? It turned out there was a random export glitch. It wasn't a copyright

problem or anything. It was just, you know, sometimes when you release a 33-minute video, you accidentally miss a 10-second mess up. We also got a comment from Aaliyah in Progress saying, I was the girl from New York in the Today Show interview. I talked about having a car and getting classes as an unnecessary cost with student loans and rent. But then she also added, the interview also edited me out talking about the US need for high-speed rail and walkable communities. Also, updates, I got my license in March, job paid for classes, still no car. Which if all is true, I love that for you. Or you got the ability to drive when needed, but you don't have that weight of a car loan on you. Though again, just the idea of having a car in New York

sounds like a nightmare. But that is actually where today's Wednesday evening, Thursday morning show is going to end, especially because I got to get a head start on tomorrow's show. But with that said, you're not going to have to miss me for long, because remember, my name's Philip DeFranco. You've just been filled in. I love your faces, and I'll see you right back here tomorrow for more news.