The Philip DeFranco Show - PDS 6.1 Johnny Depp Wins Defamation Case! Amber Heard Ordered to Pay Him $15 Million! Verdict, Reactions, &

Starting point is 00:00:00 Sup you beautiful bastards, welcome back to the Philip DeFranco Show. Hit that like button to help spread some common sense news coverage and let's just jump into it. Y'all, obviously the first thing that we're going to talk about today is the Johnny Depp-Amber Heard defamation trial is officially over. The verdict came in today. Jury selection started April 11th, closing arguments May 27th, and today the jury decided. Do you find that Mr. Depp has proven all the elements of defamation? Answer, yes. With the jury finding that to be the case with all three of Depp's claims against Heard, as far as Amber Heard,

Starting point is 00:00:29 she lost two of her claims and won one. And so with all of that, the jury awarded Depp $10 million in compensatory damages and $5 million in punitive damages. But per Virginia statute, Depp's punitive damages are capped at $350,000. And then as far as Heard, she was awarded a total of $2 million. And as you'd expect, there's been a massive reaction online. Among those happy with the verdict, you had people saying, this is so, so heartwarming. We love you, Johnny. Finally, your name is cleared. Male victims of domestic violence gained a voice today. May this be a watershed moment in our understanding of abuse and its consequences. Abuse has no gender, does not care how rich or poor you are. No matter who you are, your story matters. And well, Amber, you told him to tell the world. He did. We heard him. So did the jury. And among those against the verdict, you had

Starting point is 00:01:07 people saying, literally nothing about this trial has been surprising from the treatment of the accuser to the eventual verdict. She certainly did face our culture's wrath. Amber Heard had more evidence than 99.999% of domestic abuse survivors have to support her claims of abuse, and a jury still found her guilty of defamation. Meanwhile, the person she accused could not be bothered to even show up to court. We hate women so much in this country. And like in the trial at large, the format of this verdict reading will shape how people will remember it. Johnny Depp's sweeping victory being read first will certainly completely overshadow the fact that Amber Heard also made a successful claim of defamation against Depp. We've also gotten

Starting point is 00:01:36 responses from both parties here with Heard putting out a statement saying she is disappointed her evidence was not enough, but adding, I'm even more disappointed with what this verdict means for other women. It is a setback. It sets back the clock to a time when a woman who spoke up and But now with all that said, right, the verdict coming in, reactions rolling through, what are your thoughts? Do you agree or you disagree with the verdict? Why, why not? Any and all thoughts you have, I'd love to hear from you in those comments down below.

Starting point is 00:02:12 And then, you know, with the rise of remote work, there are people that love it, there are people that hate it, and among that latter group, you have Elon Musk. Because emails have now leaked that appear to show Elon Musk threatening to fire Tesla executives unless they show up to the main office in person full time. With him saying, anyone who wishes to do remote work must be in

Starting point is 00:02:28 the office for a minimum, and I mean minimum, of 40 hours per week or depart Tesla. This is less than we ask of factory workers. And adding, if there are particularly exceptional contributors for whom this is impossible, I will review and approve those exceptions directly. While this was a leaked email, Musk is not private about this opinion. When someone asked him on Twitter any additional comment to people who think coming into work is an antiquated concept, he replied, they should pretend to work somewhere else. This isn't exactly a new opinion for Musk. He tweeted last month,

Starting point is 00:02:52 All the COVID stay-at-home stuff has tricked people into thinking that you don't actually need to work hard. Rude awakening inbound. Though, there would be a fair share of people who would disagree with that. For example, you had three economists telling Insider that remote work during the pandemic did not damage worker productivity with evidence even suggesting that productivity has in fact increased as people went remote with the belief being it's because remote workers spend less time commuting and more time sleeping and being with their families which makes them happier and more productive though the one caveat there is that people with children at home might see a dip in productivity but overall seems very positive which is why other big tech companies like amazon apple

Starting point is 00:03:23 google and facebook still allow at least some remote work, depending on the employee's position and location. You've also had Musk in the past ripping into workers trying not to come into the office in person last month by comparing them to Chinese workers, whom he said don't even leave the factory and keep going until 3 in the morning. Also, just so everyone understands, he is not being hyperbolic there. By the same day that he said that, Fortune published this article detailing how Tesla workers in Shanghai work 12-hour shifts, six days a week, even sleeping on the factory floor. And in the leaked emails, it appears that Musk tries to get ahead of people saying, you know, other companies don't do this. With Musk writing, there are of course companies that don't require this, but when was the last time they shipped a great new product? And personally, I agree with Elon Musk. It's why I keep my writers, researchers, and editors locked in cages right next to the studio. And before all

Starting point is 00:04:02 you woke leftists get all up in arms, I water and feed them on a semi-regular basis. Now, with this story, I would, of course, love to know your thoughts on work from home. Have you done it? Do you love it? Are you glad about the switch? Has there not been a switch? Insert questions here. I personally love it, but I also understand that, you know,

Starting point is 00:04:16 not everyone's jobs like mine, like, almost pretty much everyone at my company can be work from home. And also of the notion of, like, people faking working from home. Like, I know that is a thing for some people, but I lot of jobs there's an open secret of like so much of the day is just empty hours they have an eight hour day maybe the amount of work that they actually have to do is like three to five hours it just you know that's just the way some jobs are and personally

Starting point is 00:04:36 i'm of the mindset of as long as you accomplish the thing that we were trying to accomplish perfect and while some of you let me know your thoughts there i do have to say this isn't even my favorite elon musk story my favorite elon Elon Musk story this week is that he randomly got into a fight with a video game satire website. I mean, let's just walk through it. Elon Musk puts out a tweet that he has now deleted. The company Hard Drive responds, Hey, I'll give you a horse if you stop cropping our name off our articles. To which Elon Musk replies,

Starting point is 00:05:00 Well, if you make something that looks like a meme and someone not me crops off your name, so it goes. Also, this is only a 6 out of 10 meme, so maybe step down from that high horse. The selfless art of anonymous meme creators is something to be admired. Twitch Hard Drive responds, Okay, well let me know what you think about this one. Linking him to an article titled, Elon Musk admits he wants to travel to Mars because no one hates him there yet. Elon responds,

Starting point is 00:05:19 Less funny than SNL on a bad day. This could make a drunk person sober. Try harder. Twitch Hard Drive responds, Well, you're the expert on SNL's bad days. With Elon going on to write, the reason you're not that funny is because you're woke. Humor relies on an intuitive and often awkward truth being recognized by the audience, but wokeism is a lie, which is why nobody laughs. Also, it should be noted regarding the nobody laughs part, the entire time Elon Musk is being ratioed by Hard Drive. With him then posting the article

Starting point is 00:05:43 Elon Musk offers to buy rake he stepped on then finally the article hard drive Apologizes to Elon Musk for dunking on him too hard with him going on to detail the various Controversies Musk has been involved in over the last few years and going on to write We hope that mr. Musk will accept our sincerest apologies We should have known that it was unwise to go toe-to-toe with a billionaire who's famous for his ability to deliver epic clapbacks to his critics like when mr. Musk called a diver who rescued children from a flooded cave a pedophile. And adding, from now on, we vow to put aside petty quarrels and use our platform to highlight issues that

Starting point is 00:06:12 really matter, like the reportedly nightmarish conditions in Tesla factories, which have been likened to modern-day sweatshops. Oh, Jesus. Anyway, congratulations to Hard Drive for their future acquisition by Elon Musk. But from that, I want to take a second to thank the fantastic sponsor of today's show, Squarespace. I've been partnering with Squarespace for years now. And I have to say, if you're getting your business off the ground or creating a place to share your homemade goods, new favorite hobby, current obsession,

Starting point is 00:06:33 or even a personal blog to get all those thoughts out of your head, no matter what you're doing, Squarespace is there to help. It's all so easy. There's nothing to install, patch, or upgrade ever. And creating a beautiful website with Squarespace's all-in-one platform has never been so simple. It's extremely intuitive and easy to use. Plus, with their mobile optimized sites, your content automatically adjusts, so your content looks great on any device. Plus, with Squarespace, you get access to all their marketing tools and analytics and their

Starting point is 00:06:55 award-winning customer care team via email or live chat 24-7. So if you want to check it out, see why so many others have loved it, see if it is right for you, go ahead and start your free trial today over at squarespace.com slash phil. And when you realize you love it, make sure you enter in offer code phil to get 10% off your first purchase. And then in major tech slash social media news, we have to talk about the surprising decision from the Supreme Court to block a Texas law. The law in question aimed to prohibit social media companies from removing posts based on political viewpoint while the matter plays out in lower courts. It's a law that's similar to another in Florida, and it would apply to only social media platforms with more than 50 million active monthly users

Starting point is 00:07:25 like Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. Meaning that it would only regulate the top sites but it doesn't seem to impact the smaller conservative platforms like Getter and Trump's Truth Social. Now, Republican supporters of the measure which was initiated after Trump was banned from some platforms following the insurrection say that it was an effort to fight against what they claim is an attempt by Silicon Valley to censor conservatives. And back in December a federal judge in Austin issued a preliminary injunction blocking the law on the grounds that it violated social media companies' First Amendment right to moderate content on their sites. But then, that law was allowed to go into effect after a split panel of the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals stayed that injunction without providing any legal reasoning or ruling on the merits of the appeal in a move

Starting point is 00:07:58 that shocked the tech industry. After that, two trade groups representing Google and Facebook and other tech giants filed an emergency request asking the Supreme Court to block the law while they went through the appeals process, calling it an unprecedented assault on the editorial discretion of private websites that would fundamentally transform their business models and services, and claiming that it would compel platforms to disseminate all sorts of objectionable viewpoints, such as Russia's propaganda claiming that itsism is warranted, neo-Nazi or KKK screeds denying or supporting the Holocaust, and encouraging children to engage in risky or unhealthy behavior like eating disorders. Like I said, this was an unusual decision because it was a 5-4 decision. The high court agreeing with tech companies and blocking the law for now. And the reason this was an unusual decision is you didn't just have conservatives joining the liberals on the court,

Starting point is 00:08:41 because in addition to the court's three most conservative justices saying, hey, let's let the law stand, liberal justice Elena Kagan also said that. Though she did not join the dissent, nor did she provide reasoning of her own decision. Now, as is typical with emergency applications, the court's ruling was unsigned and gave no explanation, but in the dissenting opinion,

Starting point is 00:08:58 Justice Samuel Alito wrote that the issues at hand in the Texas case were so unique that they needed to be considered by the court at some point in the future, with him also expressing skepticism over the tech company's argument that they are allowed editorial discretion similar to that given to newspapers and more traditional publishers under the First Amendment. But before you cheer or boo too soon, understand this is by no means the end of the legal battle here. With experts saying that the split decision and Alito's remarks signal that the court will likely want to make a decision on the merits of this kind of case, and they will almost certainly have the opportunity to do so soon. The Texas case is still pending in the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, and Florida's very similar law regulating tech companies is also

Starting point is 00:09:30 undergoing litigation. While the Fifth Circuit panel appears inclined to rule in favor of the Texas law, the SCOTUS decision comes less than two weeks after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit ruled unanimously that most of Florida's law violated the First Amendment. So, if the Fifth Circuit panel upholds Texas's law, it would put the two courts in direct contradiction, then likely leaving the matter to be resolved by the Supreme Court. But that's where we are. We're gonna have to wait to see what happens next. And then let's talk about the drug problem,

Starting point is 00:09:54 though I need to be more specific, the illegal drug problem, because there is a legal drug problem. You know, one of the questions when it comes to illegal drugs is having restrictive laws around that. Is it helpful? Does it have no impact? Or does actually make the situation worse and in the next little bit? We're gonna be able to see way more data on this because British Columbia just got permission from the Canadian government to run a three-year Test into decriminalizing most hard drugs. We're talking about things that yes, there is a range of MDMA But also cocaine opioids heroin meth

Starting point is 00:10:20 It's what this means is that starting January 31st next year, users found with small amounts of drugs, meaning 2.5 grams or less, won't be arrested or face charges. Instead, they'll be pointed to resources about how to get treatment. But also, to be clear, that does not mean this gives a green light for people to openly sell and distribute drugs. Also, regarding that 2.5 gram limit, even for those that are for decriminalization, they have criticized that as extremely low. And it's actually way less than the already low 4.5 grams that British Columbia had asked for. And as far as the why are they doing this, I mean, the timing is very notable. It comes as the country, and this province in particular, has faced a record number of overdose deaths. Officials like Canadian Health Minister Dr. Theresa Tam having pointed out that the fear

Starting point is 00:10:55 of criminal charges possibly discourages people from seeking help. Writing, stigma and fear of criminalization cause some people to hide their drug use, use alone, or use in other ways that increase the risk of harm. And saying substance use is a health issue, not a criminal one. So without needing to fear charges, the hope is that experiencing an overdose or those witnessing one will actually get help. Notably, this decision isn't seen as a complete solution to the ongoing crisis. And there are some who think that it actually doesn't go far enough. And that's because in part, many overdoses now are caused by people using substances without really knowing what's in them. So the normal dose may end up being way too much, or it may be laced with other substances like fentanyl.

Starting point is 00:11:27 Which is why there have also been calls for the government to open up the market even more and just regulate it, with Dana Larson, a drug policy reform activist, saying, I think we need stores where you can go in and find legal heroin, legal cocaine, and legal ecstasy and stuff like that for adults. The real solution to this problem is to treat it like alcohol and tobacco. Though obviously, opinions range wildly when you jump from decriminalization to legalization. But, whatever your opinion, the data from this three-year test,

Starting point is 00:11:48 alongside similar policies from a few jurisdictions around the world, it's gonna be vital. The big test of, is it viable to decriminalize even the hard stuff? I mean, we're seeing examples all over, including in the States, where back in 2020, Oregon decriminalized many drugs, making possession a Class E violation with just a $100 fine that can be waived

Starting point is 00:12:03 if a person just calls a hotline. And Portugal decriminalizing hard drugs way back in 2001 with somewhat mixed results. But while we wait to see how this plays out, I do want to pass the question off to you. What are your thoughts regarding decriminalizing and or legalizing harder drugs? I'm personally at least for the decriminalization of use or low-level possession. I just don't think that incarceration makes sense unless you're a private prison and you're like, Oh, yay, profits. I very much agree that use is a health problem, not a criminal problem. But as far as decriminalizing it for like people that are

Starting point is 00:12:30 selling it, actively pushing it into communities, I don't know about that. And I don't know about the legalization because you're talking about some really fucking crazy drugs with heroin and meth. Yeah, let me know what you're thinking. That is ultimately where that story and today's show ends. Thanks for watching. I love your faces. If If you want more news click or tap right there or in those links in the description My name is Philip DeFranco. You've just been filled in. I love yo faces, and I'll see you tomorrow

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The Philip DeFranco Show - PDS 6.1 Johnny Depp Wins Defamation Case! Amber Heard Ordered to Pay Him $15 Million! Verdict, Reactions, &

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