The Philip DeFranco Show - PDS 5.9 The Belle Delphine Stolen Money Scandal Is Actually Part of a Bigger Problem & Today’s News

Episode Date: May 9, 2024

Visit https://www.justmeats.com/discount/Defranco and use code DEFRANCO to get  $15 off your first purchase today. Beam’s Dream is clinically shown to improve sleep. Click https://shopbeam.com/defranco and use code DEFRANCO to get up to 35% off. You deserve a better shirt! Buy the New Limited https://BeautifulBastard.com Drop! ==== ✩ TODAY’S STORIES ✩- – 00:00 - Belle Delphine Says She Lost Money Selling Her Bath Water 04:08 - Microsoft Gaming in Turmoil 08:01 - Three Boeing Planes Narrowly Avoid Disaster & Another Whistleblower Speaks Out 11:07 - Sponsored by JustMeats 12:10 - Top FBI Official Urges Agents to Use Warrantless Wiretaps on Americans 15:15 - Biden Threatens to Cut Off Offensive Weapons if Israel Invades Rafah 20:50 - Sponsored by Beam 21:41 - Pandemic Gun Buyers Support Political Violence & They Have Some Crazy Beliefs 25:58 - 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 Guns: Chris Tolve ———————————— #DeFranco #BelleDelphine #Xbox ———————————— Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Sup, you beautiful bastards. You're watching the Philip DeFranco Show, and we got a lot of news to talk about today. We've got Belle Delphine dropping wet and wild bombshells. Government wiretaps on Americans are back in the news. We're already seeing the fallout of Biden's warning over Rafah to Israel. There's more and more terrifying bad news for Boeing, and the shocking news that's come out of gun owners post-pandemic. And then there's even more. So just buckle up, hit that like button to train YouTube to know that you like these big daily dives into the news. And let's jump into it.

Starting with... So do you remember that Belle Delphine situation a few years ago where she sold her bathwater? Where people generally had one of two reactions. One going, what the hell is wrong with everyone? Or two, where's my credit card? Well, I don't know if you've seen the news, but she actually ended up losing money by doing that. Though I would argue it's not as simple as that and it was still a genius move. Because Belle came out of the woodwork this week and she claimed in a series of tweets, since it's been a couple of years now, I can finally share the biggest L I've ever taken.

Not only did I not earn any money selling my bathwater, I in fact lost money doing it. PayPal, without any warning, closed my PayPal account and took the $90,000 that I earned from selling my bathwater. There was nothing I could do. And saying I knew it would be a better news story to say that I made so much money from selling my bathwater, so was nothing I could do. And saying I knew it would be a better news story to say that I made so much money from selling my bathwater, so I just kept this secret. Ultimately, I'm still glad I did it since it was a really funny time on the internet when it happened,

and I still did mail out the bathwater people bought from me. And then going further by adding that she apparently broke their terms of service, which resulted in $2,500 in penalties for every sale. But also with that saying, PayPal wouldn't even tell her what rules she broke for security reasons. Now, as far as some of the math there, right, you have outlets like NBC News saying

they reached out for comment, but she didn't respond to clarify if the $90,000 included the fines or it was just the money lost from sales or what. The key thing there is that they added that PayPal does have rules about sexually oriented goods, right, specifically limiting those sales to physical items like DVDs and magazines, and also saying they must be sold within the U.S. and balance, notably usually based out of the U. Right, and while the bathwater situation was a generally unique one for PayPal, the criticism of the company is not new. You know, they've often been criticized for its treatment of sex workers and adult performers in the past. But as far as what PayPal had to say about Bell, no specifics. They just said, for privacy reasons, we cannot

comment on specific accounts. But also, you know, I think there is an argument to be made that Bell really didn't lose money here. And understand, I'm not saying that she's lying. Or because the money that she lost there, that's essentially just a marketing expense. The value that she got from the spectacle that was her selling her bathwater before really anyone was doing something like that has to be in the millions of dollars. And given that she's an OnlyFans model that charges $35 a month, and that doesn't even keep into account like all the other ways OnlyFans models make money once they get you in, she very likely was incredibly net positive on this venture and even talking about it now looking back, another great marketing move. But to also make this a bigger

story about the industry in general, like Belle is far from the only person to recently call out financial institutions for harming sex workers. It's a problem that faces all kinds of sex work, whether it be on the OnlyFan side of things or escorts as well. We've seen some in the UK recently calling out banks for shutting down their accounts. With, for example, one National Health Services worker turned escort telling the Financial Times that she has been denied bank accounts or had them shut down on her 15 times. Saying, so you want me to pay taxes, but you want to take bank accounts off me? And the sex workers union has actually found that 80% of its members have experienced some form of financial discrimination.

With a representative for the campaign group, Decrim Now, telling the Financial Times, we need financial authorities to stop conflating sex and sex work with criminality and reinforcing the isolation and marginalization already facing sex workers. Now, for their part, banks maintain that they have to watch out for financial crimes, including sex trafficking. But the spokesperson for the trade body, UK Finance, saying that the risks are high here, and that's often why these decisions are made to shut accounts. But still, you have plenty arguing that that still just plays right into and worsens the stigma surrounding sex work. This news also, thankfully, coming as we're seeing stories about progress being made for sex workers. Like with Belgium, for example, they just approved a labor law for employment contracts for

certain sex workers without giving them things like insurance, holidays, maternity leave, and more. And then over here in the States, you have people pushing for legislation in Massachusetts that would partially decriminalize some aspects of sex work. And in Illinois, activists and nonprofits are pushing for sex work to be decriminalized. And like we've talked about on the show, these industries will exist, whether they are illegal or not. So decriminalization at the least, regulation, those things seem to benefit everyone. Keeping the workers safe or trying to limit or completely eliminate exploitation and abuses in the system. You know, with all that said,

of course, with any aspect of what we just covered, I'd love to know your thoughts. And then in the entertainment gaming space right now, we have people pissed the fuck off right now. We'll start with Microsoft, which is getting a lot of heat right now. There are accusations that it's acting like a monopoly after it announced layoffs two days ago of a ton of its gaming studios, including completely shuttering a few, with the most impacted studios being under Bethesda's banner and including Arkane, Austin, Tango, GameWorks, and AlphaDog Games, all of which had plans to develop and release new titles. And so this move has generated a lot of questions about Microsoft's gaming strategy, and also whether these shutdowns were to help offset the cost of buying up studios like Activision Blizzard last year. And that's amid other hiccups in the

gaming industry. Are we seeing things like the sale of Xbox's Game Pass? Those have really begun to slow, which if you're unfamiliar, it's essentially a subscription service that gets you access to a ton of games for a flat monthly rate. As well as the fact that Xbox is floundering, leading Microsoft Gaming to reconsider how it handles exclusive titles and making them available across many platforms in order to increase sales. And what's been especially frustrating for fans and former employees is that there isn't a clear reason for why these studios were hit. You know, they were all working on projects and either recently had massive hits or had in the past.

Plus, in some cases, such as Arkane Austin's Redfall, there was supposed to be a massive update coming up. Now, with that, you could argue that Redfall bombed hard, so a shutdown makes sense. But it's also made amazing games in the past, like Dishonored, and it was looking to go back to those roots. But Tango Gameworks was far less of a mixed bag. It made the massively successful Hi-Fi Rush,

which Microsoft even praised last year, saying Hi-Fi Rush was a breakout hit for us and our players in all key measurements and expectations. We couldn't be happier with what the team at Tango Gameworks delivered with the surprise release. And they were reportedly even well on their way to working on a sequel when this news came, shocking everyone.

We've also seen fans critical of the optics of the layoffs, given Microsoft's recent comments. We have the head of Microsoft Gaming, Phil Spencer, on record saying that acquiring studios is a good thing for Microsoft. And the company also argued in court with Sony that buying Activision Blizzard didn't make them a monopoly

since they couldn't control the market. But these recent shutdowns have critics saying things like, why buy game studios just to shut them down? And going further saying, Microsoft doesn't buy game studios hoping they'll make money. They buy game studios to eradicate competition and build a monopoly because that's how they make money.

This is also the reason why Game Pass exists. In addition to Spencer defending Microsoft's acquisitions to only then lay off staff, former president of Blizzard, Mikey Barra, tweeted out a defense of his colleague and his decision saying, saying, I see a lot of shots at Phil over today's Xbox announcements. I get it. But knowing him as a human, I know this hurts him as much as anyone else. I can't speak for all of the leadership there, but I do know him and I do know what he is likely going through. As well as, but he's a good human and he cares deeply for the creative process and developers. That's my first-hand experience in working closely with him for 8 plus years and knowing him for 24 plus. All of which did not go over well.

If I were to paraphrase it, most of the responses were, fuck your feelings, rich boy. Don't care about your friendships when tons of people are losing their jobs. But more specifically, you had responses like, Mike, I have a lot of fondness for Phil and don't doubt he's incredibly bummed about this, but CEOs can handle some shots amidst people having their lives destroyed. Your sympathetic post should solely be directed at those who've lost their jobs. And Mike, I know you're writing this from a place of good intentions,

but read the room, my guy. Historically successful studios are being shut down and people are losing their jobs to inflate the bottom line and make shareholders happy. Who cares if Phil hurts? He still has a job. I mean, even people at studios associated with Microsoft have shared their anger with Denga Bacaba, for example, the head of Arcane Leon, another branch of Arcane, tweeting, this is absolutely terrible. Permission to be human. To any executive reading this, friendly reminder that video games are an entertainment cultural industry and your business as a corporation is to take care of your artists and entertainers and help them create value for you. Don't throw us into gold fever gambits.

Don't use us as strawmen for miscalculations, blind spots. Don't make our work environments Darwinist jungle. You say we make you proud when we make a good game. Make us proud when times are tough. We know you can. We've seen it before. And overall, there's just this feeling of frustration and anger over what's going on, which is also why instead of just vocalizing frustrations, we're seeing some now calling for a boycott of Game Pass. Because really, the only way you can ever get a company to do what you want, and it's never guaranteed,

is to go after the money. But as far as if that's going to happen or happen at a meaningful enough level, that remains to be seen right now. And then it's been a crazy couple of days for Boeing, because we've got three jaw-dropping emergency videos and a new whistleblower with one terrifying message. So let's start with the first video, which came out of Turkey yesterday morning. There you had a Boeing 767 FedEx Airlines cargo plane coming down for a landing at Istanbul's airport. But reportedly its landing gear failed to lock into place, meaning they just had to retract it and raw dog the landing with no front wheel. So you had rescue and fire teams prepping the runway, air traffic control giving the go aheadahead, and the pilots went for it.

With the planes, let's call it mouth giving that tarmac a nice long smooch. And it must have been love at first sight because it ground up sparks and smoke as it scraped along that runway. With the workers immediately running over and smothering it in firefighting foam. And hey, thankfully, there were no reported injuries with everyone climbing out safely. But unfortunately, the same can't be said for the passengers in the second video from this morning, with his Boeing 737-300 about to take off from Senegal when it skidded off the runway. Video showing one side of the aircraft engulfed in flames as passengers scream and jump down the emergency slide to escape, with photos appearing to show one engine broken apart and a wing clearly damaged. And out of the 85 people on board, at

least 10 were reportedly injured, some of them seriously. But then to top it all off, we had a third video this morning, once again, from Turkey, with a Boeing 737-800 landing at a different airport when one of its tires burst. And you can see the damage here, it's pretty wild. But thankfully there, the plane was stopped safely and everyone was evacuated. Now with that said, all of this is still developing. We don't know what went wrong in those incidents or whether Boeing's at any fault here. Because manufacturing is only one of the reasons stuff like this happens. You also have operation and maintenance. You know, with the seemingly endless mishaps and near disasters piling up in the months since the Alaska Airlines door plug blowout, it's hard not to

wonder, especially when we have yet another whistleblower who also happens to be alive right now, breaking his silence on CBS News yesterday. How often did you find issues? Every day. I'm finding over 100 defects in every day. Were these defects that if they weren't fixed could be a safety issue down the line? Some of them were because some of them were missing fasteners. And a fastener holds parts of the plane together. Yeah, this is a recipe for disaster, really. His name is Santiago Paredes, and for about a decade, he worked as a 737 MAX quality control manager for Boeing's largest supplier, Spirit Aerosystems. And he says that he often found problems while inspecting the area around the same door plug that blew out on the Alaska Airlines flight.

And also adding that Boeing knew for years Spirit was delivering defective fuselages, which notably Boeing didn't entirely deny, saying it's long had a team that finds and fixes defects in Spirit fuselages during final assembly. But Paredes went on, alleging that Spirit pressured him to minimize his reports of defects. However, his boss is allegedly calling him showstopper because his reports would delay deliveries. So his production targets grew, so did the pressure. By 2022, he says that he was being asked to speed up his inspections

by being less specific about the exact issues. Explaining, quote, they always said they didn't have time to fix the mistakes they needed to get the planes out. And claiming when he complained, he got demoted and only returned to his leadership position after filing an ethics complaint with HR. But by that point, he had already had enough

and he quit that year. And while he was finishing the CBS interview, he did it with words that you're not gonna forget the next time you're at an airport. Working in spirit, I almost grew a fear of flying. You think there are planes out there that you wouldn't wanna fly on? Knowing what I know about the 737,

it makes me very uncomfortable when I fly in one of them. And then I'm going to tell you about the amazing smoked Texas brisket we had last night. I mean, aside from the amazing flavor, I mean, one of the best parts of the dinner was the time it took. Because it was like no time. Or I guess however long cross-cut fries take. And it's all because of the fantastic sponsor of today's show, Just Meats. You know, I talk about the brisket a lot, but Just Meats has premium grass-fed beef with no artificial colors or flavors, pre-seasoned and pre-cooked, delivered to your door.

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to use a warrantless foreign surveillance program to spy on Americans. It's known as Section 702, and it's been at the center of controversy before when it's been used to target protesters, journalists, and even some politicians. It's part of the controversial Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act,

which was just reauthorized. And Section 702 allows the feds to conscript companies into recording a database of your calls, texts, messages, emails, smoke signals, pretty much any form of communication. With this making a massive database that the FBI is then able to access, which caused the first stir over the program. Because when Congress was debating about reauthorizing FISA or making any adjustments, Section 702 was saved after FBI Director Christopher Wray promised that the agency was dramatically reducing how often it's used. But this April 20th email that Wired just published shows otherwise. As a matter of fact, it encourages ways to appropriately use U.S. person queries to advance the mission with the added confidence that this new pre-approval requirement will help ensure that those queries are fully compliant with the law. And his emphasis

on being, quote, fully compliant with the law, that's a bit misleading because he's really following the letter, not the spirit of the law. It is meant for use cases like getting information on potential terror suspects abroad who are using platforms like Facebook to possibly recruit or communicate plans. Not target Americans and journalists. But the only major hurdle to recording someone is that the company has to reasonably believe that the person is a foreigner not currently within the U.S. But let's say they're speaking to an American. Well, tough luck. That conversation is being tracked.

And it's because of this that lawmakers like Representative Zoe Lofgren came out and said, the deputy director's email seems to show that the FBI is actively pushing for more surveillance of Americans, not out of necessity, but as a default. This directly contradicts earlier assertions from the FBI during the debate over Section 702's reauthorization. She's not alone with this, as many lawmakers and civil liberty proponents have come out against Section 702. But there's also a lot of people who celebrate it, and I mean literally celebrate it. The likes of Mike Turner and Jim Himes sending out invitations last week to FISA Fest to celebrate 702's extension, which one, okay, I got to admit that is a very good name. What happens at FISA Fest is very well documented and put in a database for later use. But also too, it's not surprising.

Both of those guys were instrumental in not only getting 702 extended, but also killing amendments that would have required agents to get search warrants for any queries that included Americans who were recorded on the sign. But probably the most concerning thing about all this is that a lot of questions about 702's authority are still up in the air because the law is currently very vague. For example, it is unclear exactly what type of businesses the U.S. government can force into working for them. Is it any platform that facilitates communication or specific categories like social media platforms? Which is why some lawmakers are trying to make the changes happen. But it is insanely concerning that it'll take stories and leaks like these for changes to actually happen. Also, I say that knowing there is no guarantee that changes will actually happen.

And then, we need to talk about the specifics and the fallout following President Joe Biden issuing his harshest warning to Israel yet. Because yesterday he revealed in an interview with CNN that the US will stop sending bombs and artillery shells to Israel if it launches a major invasion of Rafah. With one of the key takeaways being that he acknowledged that U.S. weapons have been used to kill civilians in Gaza. Have those bombs, those powerful 2,000 pound bombs been used to kill civilians in Gaza? Civilians have been killed in Gaza as a consequence of those bombs and other ways in which they go after population centers. And I made it clear that if they go into Rafah, they haven't gone on Rafah yet. If they go into Rafah, I'm not supplying the weapons that have been used historically to deal with Rafah. Also notably with that, Biden clarified that by going

into Rafah, he was talking about an attack on, quote, population centers, right? Because Israel has already launched an offensive on the city. U.S. officials have described that as limited in scope. With that said, limited or not, it's already led to 100,000 people fleeing Rafah and exacerbated the humanitarian crisis there. But in any case, what Biden is saying here is significant for a number of reasons, starting with the U.S. is by far the biggest supplier of weapons to Israel. And in fact, weapons deliveries have only increased in the past seven months. And until now, Biden has unflinchingly resisted calls to condition aid to Israel. So in some ways, this past week has been a complete 180, you know, because in addition to Biden's comments yesterday, we also learned on Tuesday that his administration halted the

shipment of 3,500 bombs to Israel last week. And that reportedly had a concern that those bombs would be used in a major assault on Rafah. Also, in addition to all this, his administration is reportedly reviewing other planned deliveries, with that including 6,500 joint direct attack munitions, which basically converts so-called dumb bombs into precision guided weapons. Though with all that said, there are a few other things to keep in mind, like Biden's support for Israel's right to exist, defend itself, and go after Hamas has not changed. And to that point, Biden says that the U.S. would continue to provide defensive weapons to Israel, including for its Iron Dome air defense system. The second thing is that the Israeli military reportedly has enough weapons from the U.S. and other partners to already

carry out a full-scale invasion. And finally, it appears that none of this applies to the billions of dollars in aid for Israel passed by Congress last month, which, and it's a key thing, included $827 million worth of weapons and equipment for Israel. And so with all that, the response in the U.S. has been very mixed. Democrats and progressives have by and large been supportive, with AOC taking to Twitter to call Biden's statements a historic shift, saying that he's simply holding the Israeli government to the same bar that we hold our other allies. But this is there have been some Democrats who are critical.

Senator John Fetterman, for example, described Biden's position as deeply disappointing, while New York Representative Richie Torres accused Biden of pandering to the far left. And then, you know, in general, the backlash from Republicans has been the harshest. With, in addition to the tweets, them actually organizing a press conference, basically just taking turns to attack Biden for what he said. With Iowa Senator Joni Ernst going so far as to call Biden a mouthpiece for Hamas. And actually with that, historically, we have seen some limitations put on Israel for certain things in the past. Like, for example, with famed Republican Ronald Reagan. He actually imposed a six-year ban

on cluster weapon sales to Israel after it was discovered that Israel had used them in populated areas of Lebanon. But again, aid is still going to Israel, and Biden has reiterated his commitment to the country's defense. Now, beyond that, you have people arguing that there are other key facts to keep in mind.

With the Gaza health ministry saying that more than 34,600 people have been killed, saying that more than 20,000 of them have been women and children, with another 8,000 others reported missing or under the rubble. On top of all that, you have 1.7 million people that have been internally displaced, and 1.1 million potentially facing, quote, catastrophic levels of food insecurity. With UN reports also finding that a number of women and girls have been forcefully disappeared by the Israeli military.

And the list of alleged crimes go on and on and on. So when you have people saying you're against all that, that's not saying that you're on the same side as Hamas, you know, or vice versa. But also with that said, it's notable that the opposition to an Israeli offensive in Rafah is also based on the argument that it just wouldn't actually work. With the White House saying that a major Rafah operation would not defeat Hamas, saying in fact, it may just embolden the group. But spokesman John Kirby also saying that the argument that somehow we're walking away from Israel or we're not willing to help them defeat Hamas just doesn't comport with the facts. In fact, both Biden and Democratic Senator Chris Murphy have compared Israel's war in Gaza to U.S. wars that dragged on in Iraq and Afghanistan, with Murphy saying this.

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They're someone with paint in their soul. A sixth sense honed over decades. And if you have a question about paint, it's almost as if they can read your mind. I sense you need a two-inch angle brush for the trim in your family room. Regal selected an eggshell finish and directions to the post office benjamin moore paint is only sold at locally owned stores benjamin moore see the love it tells us that the application of overwhelming military force can in fact grow terrorist threats not shrink. Secretary, you've said today that Israel

has the right to defend itself. The United States supports Israel's right to defend itself. I agree. But if Israel's strategy is making it more likely, not less likely, that future terrorist attacks will occur, then it is not an effective strategy. But then with all that, we need to talk about the reactions in the fallout, starting with what Israeli officials are actually saying about all this. Netanyahu, for his part, has sort of reiterated comments he made earlier in the week, saying, if we have to stand alone, we will stand alone. If we need to, we will fight with our fingernails, but we have much more than fingernails. And you also had the Israeli foreign affairs minister

writing on X, Israel will continue to fight Hamas until its destruction. There is no war more just than this. And finally, with the Israeli ambassador to the UN actually explicitly commenting on the weapons shipment that was paused last week, saying it was a very disappointing decision, even frustrating. And all of that, interestingly, as a former Israeli ambassador is saying that Netanyahu is actually prolonging his assaults on Gaza for political gain, which ties into what we've talked about before, that you have people saying that far-right figures in the Israeli government actually want him to keep the war going. And in fact, Israel's national security minister has said that he warned Netanyahu

that Israel will not enter a ceasefire even if God forbids it. Which then makes it not so surprising that the news we're hearing about negotiations is that they're not going great. And in fact, we're seeing Hamas now saying that it will not compromise further with Israel. And we're seeing the talks in Cairo being put on hold again. With notably one official saying that anger had flared among participants over the incursion in Rafah. But for now, that's where we are, and we'll have to wait to see what happens from here. And then, you know, I used to struggle turning my brain off after a stressful day,

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And as it turned out, you know, those coronavirus times, it scared the shit out of a lot of people. During the first two years of the pandemic, Americans purchased nearly 60 million guns, according to The Trace. With that equating to about a fifth of all U.S. households, which meant that the percentage of our country living in armed homes shot up from 32% in 2010 to 46% in 2022. And that, as gun-related homicides, suicides, and mass shootings have all gone up as well. None of which, of course, was helped by the NRA promoting firearms as a pandemic safety measure.

I hope I survive the coronavirus. That's up to God. What's in my control is how I defend myself if things go from bad to worse. I know from history how quickly society breaks down during a crisis. But that isn't actually what I wanna talk about with this story. Rather, this is about how all those guns,

they mix into the upcoming election to create an explosive effect. And actually shedding some light on this is a study from the Violence Prevention Research Program at UC Davis. With it surveying almost 13,000 Americans from across the country in the summer of 2022. When they were asked whether they believe that violence is usually or always justified in the pursuit of at least one of 17 specific political objectives, about 39% of gun owners said yes compared to 30% of non-owners. Would you know that nine-point difference? It a meaningful, but it's not a huge gap. But notably, the numbers start to really widen

when you narrow it down to specific subsets of gun owners. For those who own assault type rifles, about 42% said political violence could be justified. And then specifically for those who recently bought a gun, like in the past few years, it nudged up to 44%. And then for those who always, or nearly always carry loaded guns in public, it shot way up to 56%. Though I should clarify that support for political violence itself isn't really the most concerning part here. I'm sure most of us could imagine a scenario like resisting

a literal dictatorship where we would support some form of political violence too. But what's scary about these numbers is that when you dig into them, a lot of the respondents have some crazy ass beliefs. Because as it turns out, pre-pandemic gun owners and non-gun owners aren't that different from each other, except for the gun owners being a little more conservative and expressing more pro-gun opinions. But when it comes to people who bought guns during the pandemic, they're off the fucking charts in a bunch of different ways. According to a separate study last year, pandemic gun owners were more likely to hold extreme beliefs, which, I mean, there was a whole range, but it also included support for QAnon. And 76% of them agreeing with a statement. The government, media, and financial worlds in the

U.S. are controlled by a group of Satan-worshipping pedophiles who run a global child sex trafficking operation. Right? And that compared to just 15% of other groups saying the same. And it's not just that. Pandemic gun buyers reported higher rates of suicidality, depression, substance use, and domestic violence, all of which are major factors for becoming a danger to themselves or others. Right, and like, I'm talking upwards of 50% who had suicidal thoughts in the past two weeks and or commit domestic violence regularly, and that compared to just 10% or less for pre-pandemic gun owners and everyone else. Also, as far as demographics, reportedly they're more likely to be young, white, male. But also, a big thing, for a good chunk of them, the prospect of having to use their guns in a political conflict, it's not just a hypothetical.

If we go back to that UC Davis survey, over a fifth of recent gun purchasers said that they believed that the U.S. would erupt into a civil war within the next few years. And keep in mind, that was two years ago. And I mean, now, perhaps reflecting the mood of our times, we literally have a movie out in theaters called Civil War. Which, by the way, great movie. You know, with this, you had the study's authors concluding that it was plausible that recent gun purchasers may be arming up for anticipated civil conflict But before you panic you should remember a few caveats most notably just because a fired-up gun owner says something to pollsters doesn't mean they're actually Gonna pull the trigger when the time comes in fact although gun owners showed more support for political violence

They weren't more willing than non-gun owners to engage in it themselves So of course just one person with a gun can cause a lot of terror with mass shootings and the like. You know, with all that said, it brings us to the four key facts that we shouldn't ignore. One, Americans have more guns than they know what to do with. Two, a hell of a lot of the people that have those guns support using them to achieve political ends and some would even do it themselves. Three, for a surprising number of people, those political ends include putting an undemocratic leader in power. And four, our political leaders are framing this election like the last one as an existential clash for the future of America.

So if all that stirred together doesn't produce one potentially explosive fucking cocktail, I don't know what does. With that, I'll leave you with a question of what are you expecting and feeling about this situation? Especially as we have now just months to go before the election. And then finally today we have comment commentary.

Where I dive into the comments on the last show, see what y'all had to say about the news. But also, today's first comment didn't touch on the news, but touched me inappropriately. With McKinley saying, Philip's mustache looks like when I start a video game, but the shaders haven't completely loaded in yet. Fuck you for being so funny. Just to speak on this BS. I had a shave last Thursday because I was doing a photo shoot for Beautiful Bastard for what's dropping in one and a half, two weeks.

And I haven't checked in a long time, so I want to see what happens when I don't touch it for one to three weeks. It's like my yearly check-in. But as far as other comments and conversation, there was a lot of talk about the baby reindeer scandal. Or the real-life Martha did that Piers Morgan interview with Aliens saying the lady outed herself as the stalker in an effort to sue when the show didn't even name her or anything. Goliath adding, most people have no idea who the lady and baby reindeer was. She Lady outed herself as the stalker in an effort to sue when the show didn't even name her or anything. Goliath adding, most people have no idea who the Lady and Baby Reindeer was, she just outed herself. And Mickey getting more specific saying, wild that she's focusing on the jail part, not the stalking and harassing part. With Mickey framing it as like, yeah, I stalked this man and harassed his family and partner, but I didn't go to jail. Which, as we talked about, is something Gad also touched on outside of the show.

And then in addition to that, there was a lot of disgust and conversation around what happened to Chris yesterday. It came out that one of his friends pushed him into the water and then they just watched him face down. Luckily, a stranger came by, saved his life. With YFK saying, I can't wrap my head around the nearly drowning case, especially when you think about how long a minute takes to tick by. To stand there minute after minute as your friend's underwater and for that to last ten whole minutes. Surely that goes past thinking it's a joke. At the very least, it's criminally negligent. Shout out to the BAMF who saw what was going on and jumped in to help.

I'm truly relieved Chris recovered. Perhaps in time, he'll be able to share his own story regarding what happened. Yeah, I don't understand it. The idea that Chris was playing around, that only makes sense if it's like, oh yeah, that's Chris. He fakes drowning almost every time we hang out. Otherwise, I don't know, it just seems monstrous not to act. We also had Dr. Sosh chiming in saying,

As someone who can barely swim and has been pushed into the water as a, quote, prank only to be rescued after nearly drowning myself, there's an absolute 0% chance that wasn't mentioned at the dock at least a few times. Pushing someone into deeper waters like that is a huge dick move at best and deadly at worst. I think there should be at least some consequences for people that do this. Odell Dell responded, At least is so crazy. She should go to jail. And finally with us speaking about how much the time matters. We had GameGo sharing, But that is where your Thursday evening Friday morning show is going to end. swimming at the bottom of the pool. I went in and got him. He had water in his lungs the first step before losing consciousness. Those friends are some real monsters. But that is where your Thursday evening,

Friday morning show is gonna end. But I'll see you soon, because of course, my name's Philip DeFranco. You've just been filled in. I love yo faces, and I'll see you right back here next time. You on my mind a lot Don't need no time to watch

I don't know how I got You in my pocket spot Yeah, that's babe, miss you every day You like my oxygen