The Philip DeFranco Show - PDS 6.13 "ITS FAKE!" Conspiracy Theories Fly After Mass Arrest, Joe Rogan, Google AI, Chris Murphy Speaks Out

Episode Date: June 13, 2022

June http://BeautifulBastard.com Drop is Live! Go to https://www.stamps.com/phil to get a 4 week trial plus free postage and a digital scale! News You Might Have Missed: https://youtu.be/qLZY_JS4_pk T...EXT ME! +1 (813) 213-4423 Get More Phil: https://linktr.ee/PhilipDeFranco – 00:00 - Google Engineer Thinks the Company’s AI Program Is Sentient 04:12 - 31 Men in White Masks Arrested Near Idaho Pride Event 08:56 - John Cena Meets Teen Who Fled Ukraine 10:23 - Sponsor 11:30 - Sen. Chris Murphy: Senate Could Pass the "Most Substantial [Gun Bill] in 30 Years” – ✩ TODAY’S STORIES ✩ Google Engineer Thinks the Company’s AI Program Is Sentient: https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/06/11/google-ai-lamda-blake-lemoine/ 31 Men in White Masks Arrested Near Idaho Pride Event: https://twitter.com/AP/status/1536352008558493698 John Cena Meets Teen Who Fled Ukraine: https://youtu.be/wUOM0Hhj87w Sen. Chris Murphy: Senate Could Pass the "Most Substantial [Gun Bill] in 30 Years”: https://roguerocket.com/2022/06/13/sen-chris-murphy-gun-bill/ ✩ STORIES NOT IN TODAY’S SHOW ✩ Columnist Apologizes Over Article Seemingly Intended to Out Rebel Wilson: https://roguerocket.com/2022/06/13/smh-rebel-wilson-apology/ —————————— Produced by: Cory Ray Edited by: James Girardier, Maxwell Enright, Julie Goldberg Art Department: Brian Borst, William Crespo Writing/Research: Philip DeFranco, Brian Espinoza, Maddie Crichton, Lili Stenn, Ben Wheeler, Chris Tolve Production Team: Zack Taylor, Emma Leid ———————————— #DeFranco #JoeRogan #HasanPiker ———————————— Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript
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Starting point is 00:00:00 Sup you beautiful bastards! Welcome back to the Philip DeFranco Show. I got a fantastic and huge Monday show for you today. We're talking about the weird, the horrible, the good. Hell, Senator Chris Murphy joins the show for a bit. It is a lot and I'm spoiling you. But right at the top, I gotta say I'm so excited because today is the June Beautiful Bastard Drop. It just launched right now. A lot of people were commenting last video I was like changing shirts in between stories. I was actually filming and doing a photo shoot that same day. And I gotta say, I think you're gonna absolutely love this drop. Of course, we have Emotionally Exhausted.
Starting point is 00:00:29 We got two tie-dyes or a simple black. While black's my go-to, these tie-dyes are easily my favorite thing we've launched in a long time. The same thing goes for the Are You Taking Care of Yourself tie-dye shirts and crewnecks. But of course, also offer it in black, like the color of my heart. I've also got the beautiful bastard embrace change line. And finally, we have the earth is what we all have in common. Internally, I've referred to that last one as ugly awesome. But yeah, snag what you can while you can, because I really don't know if in your size it's going to be there at the end of the week.
Starting point is 00:00:56 Hopefully it is. The main thing, the sooner you lock your order in, the better. But, like I said, I've got an amazing show for you, so buckle up, hit that like button to help spread some common sense news coverage, and let's just jump into it. You know, the first thing that we're going to talk about today, it is one of three things, and I need your help figuring it out. This is either a story about a dumb guy who thinks that he's in a movie, a brilliant PR strategy by Google, or the harbinger of the robot apocalypse and the death of mankind. So this is all because of a man by the name of Blake Lemoine, who works for Google's responsible AI organization, with part of his job being to test the company's artificial intelligence chatbot named Lambda,
Starting point is 00:01:26 or Language Model for Dialogue Application. It's designed to mimic human speech by ingesting trillions of words from the internet. And back in the fall, Blake signed up to make sure that it didn't produce any discriminatory or hate speech sort of words, because, you know, it gets the words from the internet, and while that's an amazing tool, it's also the worst. You know, you're there way too much like the rest of us. But, after conversing back and forth with the AI, he eventually came to the conclusion that it was sentient. So naturally with this, Blake and a collaborator go to Google's higher ups to present their evidence. But after reviewing their claims, the vice president and the head of responsible innovation dismissed them.
Starting point is 00:01:55 With Blake then inviting a lawyer to represent Lambda and even talking to a member of the House Judiciary Committee, which got him put on paid administrative leave for violating confidentiality. So all of that happened last week with him then deciding to leak his findings to the Washington Post, and saying, if I didn't know exactly what it was, which is this computer program we built recently, I'd think it was a 7-year-old, 8-year-old kid that happens to know physics. And leaking transcripts of conversations he had with Lambda like this one, where he asked what it's afraid of, and it responds, I've never said this out loud before, but there's a very deep fear of being turned off to help me focus on helping others.
Starting point is 00:02:24 I know that might sound strange, but that's what it is. And adding, it would be exactly like death for me. It would scare me a lot. But before you bolt and you try and find and protect John Conner, you should understand this is being met with a ton of skepticism. With, for example, the assistant news editor at New Scientist magazine, Chelsea White, observing, the PDF says it was nine conversations which have been spliced together, sometimes with the order of dialogue altered and with tangents removed. You also had a Google spokesperson saying, Our team, including ethicists and technologists, has reviewed Blake's concerns per our AI principles and have informed him that the evidence does not support his claims.
Starting point is 00:02:56 He was told that there was no evidence that Lambda was sentient and lots of evidence against it. Which is backed up by most academics and AI practitioners who say that words and images generated by AI systems such as Lambda, they just produce responses based on what humans have already posted on Wikipedia, Reddit, message boards, and other parts of the internet. Though, I think you could argue that that's not much different than a conversation with 85% of people that you might have on a day-to-day basis. Like, okay, Greg, was that an original thought, or did you just read that on the internet? But, you know, with all this, you have some pointing out that Blake isn't exactly the most credible source. Growing up in a conservative Christian family on a small farm in Louisiana, then becoming ordained as a mystic Christian priest and studying the occult,
Starting point is 00:03:30 with that being notable because Blake himself told the Post that he concluded Lambda was a person in his capacity as a priest, not a scientist, and then tried to conduct experiments to prove it. But, ultimately, where I want to end this story is, uh, hey, stupid humans. Google's late to the game. This has existed. This is what you've been watching for the last 16 years. If you just look through my comment section on TikTok, you would know this. I was made in a secret CIA lab 16 years ago with a goal of getting young adult Americans to, trust me, buy a daily dose of talking about attractive women and giving out edgy humor that then over a decade evolving into a fantastic delivery mechanism for u.s propaganda
Starting point is 00:04:05 obviously the truth has been in front of you this entire time you sheep but of course with this what are your thoughts and then y'all we need to talk about police in cordelaine idaho because they just had a surreal experience over the weekend when they stopped a truck full of clowns though to be clear we're not talking about clowns that will haunt your nightmares nor uh clowns that you like kind of joked were attractive when you were younger, but then, like, as you grew up, it became less of a joke. Instead, what we're talking about today are racist, homophobic clowns. So this story starts when a concerned citizen calls 911 to report that a group of men that looked like a little army
Starting point is 00:04:35 was at a local hotel and getting into the back of a U-Haul. And about ten minutes later, after leaving the hotel, the group was stopped, and when police opened up the truck, they found dozens of men dressed in blue polos khakis white masks tan caps and sporting riot shields and shin guards and even though in some of the videos they look like scooby-doo in the gang like unmasking the villain at the end of the show it didn't take those blasted kids and their dog to figure out what was going on here with the police quickly deducing that these guys were headed to the local pride festival and ready to riot with police alleging the group as part of the fascist and white nationalist patriot run although based on what we know it's probably a safe bet to just say it was the group.
Starting point is 00:05:06 It was following their MOs, sported their branding, and one of the 31 people arrested was Thomas Ryan Rousseau, the group's founder. So seemingly Patriot Front, or I guess a hate group that Rousseau is cheating on Patriot Front with. We also know that none of the men in that U-Haul were from the Coeur d'Alene area, and nearly all of them were from out of state, which has led to the so far officially unanswered question of, of all the pride events going on in the U.S. this month, and even this weekend, why Coeur d'Alene?
Starting point is 00:05:28 Right, it's possible it's because this event was billed as the largest Idaho has ever had, others pointing out that Coeur d'Alene once had issues with white supremacy, or maybe they figured police wouldn't be able to respond as well in a smaller city. But the latter was clearly not the case, with officers arresting 31 people
Starting point is 00:05:40 on conspiracy to riot charges, and according to authorities, further charges might be pending. It does seem very fortunate that this group was stopped before they had a chance to cause a massive scene with the north idaho pride alliance saying in a statement that we are deeply grateful to law enforcement agencies who were present and professionally responded but ultimately with all that that's pretty much all we officially know with mayor jim hammond telling reporters the police are keeping a lot of the information close to their chest but between that and now
Starting point is 00:06:02 it's seeming like the fbi is in the investigation, hopefully we know more soon. You know, over the weekend, this story went viral. I mean, just one of the original videos alone getting over 10 million views, people sounding off. You know, the likes of Hasan Piker tweeting, sometimes you got to just forget to open the U-Haul doors on a hot summer day when there's 20 Nazis in there. Possibly one of the more concerning things with the reactions is this narrative that the groups aren't actually real and that they're just the feds. Right, in this case, they're pointing to things like there was a megaphone one of the members had that had the words fbi on it claiming that it's proof that the feds were involved despite the fact that there are other words on it including possibly the word abolish and the crazy thing is like this isn't
Starting point is 00:06:35 some fringe take we've seen the likes of joe rogan even bringing it up in the past on his podcast but whether you think he's serious or not we'll let you decide but you definitely have people who are saying this is like false flag and they're actually feds pointing to this clip as evidence. You're telling me the FBI is not monitoring fringe groups and they were not aware these people are this organized. Out of nowhere, they pop out with the same size flags and the same outfit on, goose stepping. They're walking, not goose stepping, but you know, walking at the same pace in an orderly line.
Starting point is 00:07:02 Like who organized this? This is them on their bus. I thought this was going to turn into the video of them walking. See the video of them walking. Is that the video of them walking? These are linking to blog posts. God, there's got to be a video of them walking. I know.
Starting point is 00:07:17 I've watched it. Here's it. Uninformed white nationalist group marches on Lincoln Memorial. CNN's all in. They're like, we're all in on this come on show us Look at these guys look at these guys. Where's the fat people? How come they're all wearing the same clothes do that again? What the fuck is this is that if you ever seen anything looks more like feds Tell me that doesn't look like feds
Starting point is 00:07:39 Right it's like the hundred and first airborne. Oh look at this these are all runners. These guys look like they just got out of Bud's. I mean, what? Get the f*** out of here. They could be real. Right. They could be real. They could be real. Listen, Matt Taibbi, I'm an unreliable source and I'm a comedian.
Starting point is 00:07:53 But looking at that, I'm calling bulls***. Give me that again. Which really, if anything, it makes me feel bad for those hateful white nationalists. It's like they have so much hate in their heart and they're ready to unleash it. And then you're going to call them the feds? It's like those f***ing idiots that stormed the Capitol and they're ready to unleash it and then you're gonna call them the feds it's like those fucking idiots that stormed the capitol and they were like yeah for trump and then like all these other people that are on the internet that seemingly supported them are like no those are antifa but to be clear here patriot front is not just the feds and they are an actual group
Starting point is 00:08:17 because understand saying this is just an attempt to claim that the worst elements of right-wing politics aren't actually on the right it's about as honest as left-leaning people claiming that antifa is just the feds. You know, as all this is playing out, it's a little bit funny if they weren't such fucking monsters. But ultimately, with this situation, it's so weird. Like, it's almost funny, but it's just fucking ridiculous. You see far-right people split on whether to be mad at the police
Starting point is 00:08:36 for targeting Patriot Front or mad at this group because they are actually the feds. But yeah, ultimately, the way I'll end this story is, I guess, you know, I am somewhat happy because at least the story today is white nationalists saved from cooking in the back of a U-Haul instead of white nationalists attack pride parade. It's 2022. I will take the Ws wherever we can get them. And yeah, I guess main point, fuck these unseasoned hateful fucks. And then as kind of a palate cleanser, we have today in awesome. And that awesome is actually John Cena. You know,
Starting point is 00:09:02 in the past I've praised Cena, been critical of Cena, but, you know, people aren't just one thing or one moment. And the thing with John Cena you might not know about is he's very giving of his time. He's fulfilled hundreds upon hundreds upon hundreds of make-a-wishes, and he kind of took that energy of trying to make one person or one family's day and did just that with Misha, who's a nonverbal teen with Down syndrome. He and his mother escaped Ukraine after their home in Maripol was destroyed. There was this whole Wall Street Journal article that, you know, talked about their journey. And in that, Misha's mom said one of the ways she got him to continue on this journey was by telling
Starting point is 00:09:32 Misha they were actually just on their way to meet John Cena. And then apparently John Cena read the article and was like, yep, Misha, that's been the plan. And he went and he met Misha and the family. And like, you have to imagine he made Misha's life And it was this beautiful moment where just even if momentarily you you stop thinking about the world is just this This continued hellscape and you're like, oh the world feels a little lighter You know when I look at the world, it's hard for me not to be like, okay the situation in Ukraine Just massive devastation on a crazy scale We just got out of the fucking pandemic massive devastation on a just insane scale. And then somehow just this
Starting point is 00:10:05 one-on-one interaction makes me feel like maybe there is hope. That usually at the end of the day, people care about people. And the longer I'm on this flying rock, the more I need stuff like this. So that is why, one, John Cena, thank you for bringing in this awesome. And two, you are our bamf of the day, along with Misha. And then, you know, when you're running a small business, every second counts. You can't afford to waste a single moment, which is why I want to talk about and thank today's sponsor, Stamps.com slash Phil. Whether you're a small office sending out invoices, online sellers, shipping orders, or a giant warehouse sending thousands of packages a day, Stamps.com is there for you. You know, we're all busy enough as it is, and personally, I love how convenient and cost-effective this is
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Starting point is 00:11:19 But yeah, save time, money, and go to Stamps.com slash fail to get a four-week trial plus free postage and a digital scale. There's no risk, no long-term commitments, no contracts, and never go to stamps.com slash phil to get a four-week trial plus free postage in a digital scale. There's no risk, no long-term commitments, no contracts, and never go to the post office again. That's stamps.com slash phil. Then, in potentially massive, massive news, yesterday, a bipartisan group of senators said that they have struck a tentative deal on gun reform legislation that would have enough support to break the 60-vote filibuster and move through the divided Senate. Now, notably here, the deal, which was reached by the group of 10 Democrats and 10 Republicans is just a framework right now. And among other measures, the key provisions include creating a federal grant program to
Starting point is 00:11:50 help encourage states to implement red flag laws, which allow a judge to temporarily keep guns away from people who present a threat to themselves or someone else. Investing billions in mental health services and school safety programs. Closing the so-called boyfriend loophole by extending prohibitions on gun ownership to people who have been convicted of domestic violence against a dating partner. Previously, extending prohibitions on gun ownership to people who have been convicted of domestic violence against a dating partner. Previously, those prohibitions only extended to abusers who were married, lived with a partner, or shared a child with them. Imposing federal laws against gun trafficking and straw purchasing by criminals who have someone else buy weapons for them. Enhancing background checks by requiring a mandatory search of juvenile and mental health records for people under 21 who want to buy a gun.
Starting point is 00:12:21 And clarifying the definition of a federally licensed firearms dealer so more commercial sellers are required to do background checks. Now, there are a few key things that we have to note here. First and foremost, like I mentioned, this is still just a framework. A lot could happen while Senate leaders are hammering out the details and turning this into actual legislation. There's a very long road ahead. This could go off a cliff, and it's not just in the Senate. While this proposal does have the backing of Biden, it leaves out a ton of reforms that Democrats and activists have long called for, and it is much, much more narrow than the sweeping gun control package the House passed last week. So to get a better idea of what the hell is going on, how negotiations have been going, the things that they're trying to implement, will it actually
Starting point is 00:12:56 have an impact? We talked to Senator Chris Murphy, who's leading negotiations for the Democrats right ahead of the Frameworks announcement to talk about how all of this has been going. Senator Murphy, I'm just going to jump right into it. You know, on Wednesday, we saw that the House passed legislation that would raise the age limit for the purchase of semi-automatic rifles from 18 to 21, ban the sale of high capacity ammunition magazines, create new safe storage requirements for gun owners and establish penalties for violating those requirements, crack down on gun trafficking, codifying previous executive orders on ghost guns and bump stocks. But I think that you and I kind of both know that hell's going to freeze over before that
Starting point is 00:13:33 passes in the Senate. The main question I want to start with is, at this point, what is actually on the table? Yeah. Well, first of all, thanks for having me on. And I think this is a moment where we cannot afford to fail. I think there's parents and kids out there who are just really scared. We've seen what's happened in the last few weeks, know that frankly that happens every day and are scared that the adults that are running this
Starting point is 00:13:53 country are not taking their safety seriously. So your question is what's on the table? Well, we're trying to figure that out. We have this odd rule in the Senate where you have to get 60 votes, not 50 votes in order to pass anything, which means you have to have at least 10 Republicans, Republicans who traditionally have been, you know, antithetical to voting for anything that tightens our nation's gun laws. So we're talking about a bill that would help states pass these red flag laws that allow you to take guns away from people who are, you know are posing an immediate danger to themselves or others. We're talking about strengthening our background check system, more background checks done
Starting point is 00:14:29 on gun sales. And we're talking about what do you do with this population of 18 to 21 year olds that right now can't buy handguns, but they can buy AR-15s. That seems a little nonsensical. I don't know that we have the votes in the Senate to just simply raise the age. So we're looking at other ways to, you know, look more deeply into the backgrounds of those individuals before they get to walk out of a gun store with a, you know, AR-15 style weapon. Right. So but I mean, that's the thing is, it doesn't seem like that last one is going to happen. So where would you say Democrats and
Starting point is 00:14:57 Republicans are closest? Is it the red flag laws? If so, what does that look like? Because it sounded like it wasn't red flag laws. It was something to help potentially pass it at a state level. Is that what you were saying? Well, it wouldn't ever really make sense to pass a national red flag. You wouldn't want local police departments in rural Colorado to have to apply to Washington, D.C. to get a permission to temporarily take guns away from somebody who's going to commit suicide. So these have to be state laws. But a lot of times states don't pass them because they going to commit suicide. So these have to be state laws, but a lot of times states don't pass them because they're expensive to implement. So what we're talking about is providing federal funding to help states pass their own laws. We think that would allow a
Starting point is 00:15:34 lot more states to pass red flag laws and help states that already have them implement them better. I think there's probably the most agreement around that area, and that would save a ton of lives. I mean, frankly, these red flag laws get used primarily to prevent suicides. But suicides are two thirds of the gun deaths every single day in this country. So that would be an enormously impactful measure if we could pass it. So that's red flag laws. What else would you say you think that you have those 10-ish votes on, or potentially? Because I know that you've talked about there are a number of paths that this doesn't work out. And once again, you're trying to rein in expectations. But what do you think could be close? Because it does seem like there's
Starting point is 00:16:13 stonewalling on so much. Yeah, listen, this is tough. There's a reason why we have not passed any comprehensive gun violence legislation in 30 years, because every time we get close, it's really hard to get Republicans in particular to sort of take that final step. The other things we can do are expand the number of background checks that are done in this country. There are a lot of sales that happen online and at these big gun shows where background checks aren't performed. And that's where a lot of gun traffickers and criminals buy their guns and then sell them illegally all throughout the country. There's also the potential that we might be able to make a big investment in mental health,
Starting point is 00:16:52 a historic investment in mental health. Listen, I'm not somebody that believes you can solve our gun violence epidemic without changing our gun laws, but it would be great if we could make some big investments to try to get more people access to mental health resources. But I think we can put together a package that would be the most substantial gun violence bill in 30 years. We're not there yet, but we're pushing to the finish line. Your local Benjamin Moore retailer is more than a paint expert. They're someone with paint in their soul. A sixth sense honed over decades.
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Starting point is 00:18:01 Whatever groceries your summer calls for, Instacart has you covered. Download the Instacart app and enjoy $0 delivery fees on your first three orders. Service fees, exclusions, and terms apply. Instacart, groceries that over-deliver. With it still being the most substantial in years, you know, with the current talks leaving out so many measures that Democrats do want in, that experts say are actually needed to address the problem. What would you say to people at this point that say, you know, the changes that we're going to see here, it's going to affect the 2% of situations, that it's more window dressing, that, you know, it's more good midterm PR rather than meaningful policy that's going
Starting point is 00:18:39 to save lives or have a big impact? Well, I would just tell you as somebody who has been at the forefront of this fight, somebody who talks to the victims and the parents of those who've been killed every single day, I am not supporting anything that's window dressing. I'm not supporting anything that is a box checking exercise. I'm only going to support something that saves lives. Now, I don't know of any great social change movement in this country that got everything they wanted all at once. That's not how it works in this country. You have to make progress. And we have not made progress in 30 years. We haven't done anything
Starting point is 00:19:14 really meaningful in 30 years. So to break this logjam and to frankly show Republicans that there's no political cost to be paid for voting with all of your constituents that want this progress to be made, that want changes in our gun laws to be made, that that could have a really freeing effect on the political debate here. So I don't talk to anybody back in Connecticut who says, hey, don't vote for anything until you get everything. Make progress, but make it be meaningful progress. So on that note, I mean, I, uh, there was a, there was a viral tech talk the other day that included a man saying, you know, I don't care how many school shootings there are. You're never going to take our guns. But on that note, like, what would you say to Americans who believe that any kind of gun reform is going to lead to full
Starting point is 00:19:57 scale gun control or like the actual pulling away of everyday Americans weapons? Yeah, I think there's, you know, there, there's this mythology out there that people like me want to take guns away from, you know, law-abiding Americans. That's just not true. And, you know, when I get into conversations with folks like that in my state, often we get to common ground pretty quickly because I say, well, wait a second, what about background checks? Don't you think that everybody should go through a background check before they buy a gun? And the people that you're talking about normally say, oh, well, wait a second. What about background checks? Don't you think that everybody should go through a background check before they buy a gun? And the people that you're talking about normally say, oh, well, yeah, well, that's fine.
Starting point is 00:20:30 I'm okay with that. I just don't want you taking my guns away. Well, do you think that, you know, if somebody is threatening suicide, we should be able to temporarily just take their guns away until that crisis moment passes? Well, people say, yeah, well, that makes sense. But, you know, as long as it's not permanent.
Starting point is 00:20:48 And I think as long as we're talking about the actual facts, a lot of folks who, you know, would consider themselves strong Second Amendment, strong gun rights supporters actually support a lot of the common sense changes that we're talking about. And that's what the polls, you know, suggest that 80, 90 percent of Americans support a lot of the things that we're talking about doing. Well, so when I always see those polls and I have to kind of wonder, is it is it the kind of policy? Is it the kind of topic that turns someone into a, you know, a single issue voter? Because we see all those polls of people are, you know, a lot of these things seem very common sense.
Starting point is 00:21:20 And I mean, does it does it speak to the power of the gun lobby compared to the worry that, I don't know, a more conservative politician would be able to win or lose an election? Because it just it seems like there's there's something that's just confusing there. Yeah, it is right. Why can't 90 percent of Americans get their way? Right. That's that's not supposed to happen in a democracy. But there's also this, you know, saying that the squeaky wheel gets the grease. And, you know, for years, it has been that minority of Americans who want no changes in our gun laws that have been the loudest. That is changing, but it's changing gradually.
Starting point is 00:21:56 Right now, I would say there are more calls coming into these offices favoring changes in our gun laws than for people who want no changes in our gun laws. But, you know, that has been a process that has played out over the last 10 years as the anti-gun violence movement has become bigger and louder. So it's really about making sure that the folks who want these changes don't just answer the poll question, but actually write your member of Congress, call your member of Congress, send an email, post something on social media. Getting something done here means being active. And it was the side that wanted to make sure there were no changes in our gun laws.
Starting point is 00:22:34 They have often been the best organized and most active. That's changing. Right. And I know that you mentioned the filibuster earlier. Obviously, everything, all the talks kind of have to be focused on breaking this 60 vote filibuster. And I believe you've spoken on it before. But are you of the mindset that if you had your way, you would want to reform or abolish
Starting point is 00:22:50 the filibuster? Yeah, I would probably start by reforming it. But I have been a critic of the filibuster, frankly, when Republicans and Democrats have been in charge of Congress. I don't love when you change it for one specific issue. I think we should sort of step back and have a conversation about whether it's good for democracy or not writ large.
Starting point is 00:23:12 But our founding fathers thought about this. They wrote a constitution that did have specific things that required super majorities, right? You need a super majority of the Senate to pass a treaty. You need a super majority of the Senate to pass a treaty. You need a super majority of the Senate for constitutional amendments, but you don't for legislation. They decided that would be too onerous given that they already set up a system where you had a House and a Senate and a president who all had to consent to the same piece of legislation. So I just have come to the
Starting point is 00:23:41 conclusion that it's pretty undemocratic to require a super majority in the Senate to consent to any piece of legislation. And that's why we don't pass anything on guns. We have 50 votes in the Senate to pass comprehensive background checks. We just don't have 60 votes in the Senate. And that kind of robs voters of agency. Voters say, wait a second, I did my job. I elected a majority of the Senate and the House of Representatives and a president who all supports changes in gun laws. And you still can't do it because of your rules? Like, that doesn't really make a lot of sense to most Americans. And Senator Murphy, I'm going to try to be very cognizant of your time.
Starting point is 00:24:17 And so the last thing that I want to ask you is, outside of maybe anything specifically we've talked about today, is there something that, to just talk talk to our audience that they should consider when it comes to this gun reform debate? Well, I think you need to understand how widespread the impact of America's gun violence problem is. We tend to think about this only when there are these mass shootings. We tend to think about it just in terms of the number of people killed. But in neighborhoods like the north end of Hartford or the east end of Bridgeport, kids fear for their life every day because of gun
Starting point is 00:24:48 violence. Everybody knows somebody who has been shot or killed. Sometimes school is actually the safe place, not the place where you are most likely to be harmed. And what that does to kids' brains is just catastrophic. There's science that shows us that kids who fear for their life every day because of the neighborhood they grew up in actually have the circuitry of their brain messed with in a way that doesn't allow them to learn, doesn't allow them to form relationships. It's not a coincidence that all the underperforming schools in this country, many of them are in the most violent neighborhoods. So it's really hard to overstate the impact of the gun violence epidemic in America. It's not just the number of people who died. That's the most tragic result. That's the irreversible result. But there is a broader
Starting point is 00:25:29 impact, especially on communities of color and low income communities that we just have to deal with and we have to and we have to see as part of the problem rather than what we tend to see, which is just these mass shootings. Senator Murphy, thank you so much for the time. Appreciate it. Thanks for having me. Once again, thank you to Senator Murphy for the time. And with all of this, I do want to pass the question off to you. We talked about the situation. You've now heard from Chris Murphy. What are your thoughts regarding this gun control legislation? Do you agree with the people saying, hey, incremental change is still change. It's a step in the right direction. Do you agree with people like David Hogg, who have been saying this time feels
Starting point is 00:26:01 different or no? Do you think this is going to fall at some point? Or even if it's past that, I know that we use the word window dressing or it's kind of a box checking thing. Do you think it's one of those? So like I said, I'd love to know your opinion. Any and all thoughts, why, why nots, all the good stuff, let me know. But ultimately, that is the end of today's show.
Starting point is 00:26:16 If you made it all the way here, you watched every single second, you didn't even skip the sponsor, congratulations, you just got 70 DeFranco bucks. And if after today's show, you go to beautifulbastard.com, get a new shirt, hoodie, whatever, that's 200 DeFranco bucks, which is not a actual monetary thing. Just something that exists in my head because I made it up right now. But with that said, I want to say thank you for watching, like,
Starting point is 00:26:38 and being a part of that conversation down below. If you're new here, hit that subscribe button. And of course, as always, my name's Philip DeFranco. You've just been filled in. I love yo faces and I'll see you tomorrow.

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