The Philip DeFranco Show - PDS 6.22 The Titanic Sub Imploded, 5 Major Pieces of OceanGate Debris Found, & Today's News

Episode Date: June 22, 2023

Use code PHIL for $20 off your first SeatGeek order. https://seatgeek.onelink.me/RrnK/PHIL Go to https://babbel.com and use code PHIL for an additional 3 months free when you purchase a 3-month subscription. Catch up on the latest PDS: https://youtu.be/mFwK7ZQds9c See yesterday’s bonus morning video: https://youtu.be/7aArbn0qzRI Check out our daily newsletter! http://dailydip.co/pds  –✩ TODAY’S STORIES ✩ – 0:00 - Titan sub found in pieces after believed implosion 03:21 - Tfue, Other Creators Open Up About Burnout 06:39 - Restaurant Used Fake Priest to Hear Staff Confessions 08:08 - Sponsored by SeatGeek 08:55 - Wheelchair Users Fight for Easier Air Travel 11:02 - House Republicans Censure Schiff, Duel to Impeach Biden 14:01 - Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg Float Cage Fight  14:53 - Ukraine Attacks Bridge Between Kherson and Crimea 17:05 - Sponsored by Babbel 18:02 - Justice Alito Reportedly Took Undisclosed Luxury Trip With Megadonor  ——————————   Produced by: Cory Ray Edited by: James Girardier, Julie Goldberg, Maxx Enright, Christian Meeks Art Department: William Crespo Writing/Research: Philip DeFranco, Brian Espinoza, Lili Stenn, Maddie Crichton, Star Pralle, Chris Tolve  ———————————— #DeFranco #Titanic #MrBeast ———————————— Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today, we're talking about the breaking news of what actually happened to those five people who were on board the Titanic submersible that disappeared. We've got restaurants hiring fake priests to hear employees' workplace confessions. We've got massive creators dealing with massive growing problems. And networks of insanely rich people who are molding this country from the shadows being exposed. We're going to talk about all that and so much more on this brand new extra large Philip DeFranco show. You daily dive into the news, so buckle up, hit that like button, and let's just jump into it. Starting with, the main thing that I've learned from this Titanic submersible disaster is that when I die, I need to die in a historically common and cost-conscious way.

Otherwise, motherfuckers on the internet will meme me to death. People have believed that there is a decent chance that there were five people at the bottom of the ocean slowly waiting to suffocate to death. And over those 72 to 96 hours, every possible joke that could be made has been made. People threw too soon out the window and said, what about during? But also that's not where it ended because a number of the places that were covering this news story stopped treating it like news and instead kind of turned it into this television drama. Like News Nation, for example, gave viewers a live countdown to when they thought there was going to be zero oxygen. Also at UK's Channel 5, taking some heat for their decision to make a documentary

titled Titanic Sub Lost at Sea, and they're rushing it out tonight. Though given the intense fascination around this story, it's possible that, you know, a lot of people say, hey, that's not okay, and then they do crazy numbers. Also, I'll say it's weird that people are trying to politicize this disaster. You have some reporting like,

oh, the CEO of the company, he donated to Republicans. Then on the other side, you have people saying and putting out content saying, this all happened because they went woke. But with all that said, regarding the Titanic submersible itself and the five people on board, we did actually get some breaking news that gave some closure. Because in the lead up to the news today, it was believed that the oxygen was projected to

run out, with rescue teams ramping up their search over the past 24 hours, even putting a remotely operated vehicle on the ocean floor. We learned that this afternoon they found the wreckage of the sub, with fragments of the craft scattered around a good distance from the Titanic and Ocean Gate, saying the passengers, quote, have sadly been lost, as well as the Coast Guard explaining, In consultation with experts from within the Unified Command, the debris is consistent with the catastrophic loss of the pressure chamber. On behalf of the United States Coast Guard and the entire unified command, I offer my deepest condolences to the families. And so now it appears that this part of the situation is over. But of course, like we talked about yesterday, people are wrestling

with a few unresolved questions. With one of the big ones that's emerged being whatever went wrong, was it preventable? Right, not just in, you just don't go down to the seafloor to see the Titanic, rather operator error or was there something wrong with the vehicle itself? With that, will there be some kind of legal recourse for the victims' families? Because again, remember, one of the people inside the sub was OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush himself. We talked about yesterday his alleged dismissal of safety concerns being a big part of the lawsuit filed by a former employee back in 2018. And while obviously he's not here to be held accountable, it's possible that his company will be. We've also seen other questions pop up,

like why weren't they able to find the sub in time? Though to answer that, you have to understand just how impossible a mission like this is. They were searching an area twice the size of Connecticut and two and a half miles deep. Not to mention that the wreck is several hundred miles off the coast. It's extremely cold and dark, and the pressure down there is about 6,000 pounds per square inch.

Just for reference, the deepest known rescue mission happened back in 1973, and the submersible in that case got towed out of an abyss just 1,600 feet deep. And hell, when the Navy salvaged the wreckage of an F-35 fighter jet from the same depth as the Titanic last year, it took them 37 days to pull it off. But with all that said, I gotta pass the question off to you.

What are your thoughts regarding this whole situation? And let me know in those comments down below. And then, huge online creators right now are burning out, and more and more people are talking about it. With the most recent example of this being the massively successful streamer Tfue putting out a video called Goodbye. And that saying that he's leaving, streaming,

saying he'll come back someday, but it seems like it's gonna be a very long, serious break. And in this, describing how he spent so much time making content that he hasn't had time for his hobbies or his personal life outside of gaming. I've been doing this since I was like eight years old, content creating. I just feel like, I need to go like, of gaming. reality. And I feel like now, like I use like reality to escape from like fucking work, you know?

I just feel fucking like kind of trapped sometimes, you know? And I say he's the latest because I mean, on this show, how many people have we talked about? That burnout's real. And I think the fact that high profile creators have spoken out about it, it's huge. I mean, you have the likes of YouTube OG, PewDiePie speaking about it last week, saying it took his move to Japan to better balance his life. For my entire 20s, I did nothing but YouTube. That was my life. And that's okay. But I also think it was a little toxic, probably. You know, if I wasn't making videos, I sure as hell was thinking about making videos. I uploaded videos during our honeymoon. And it feels really good to finally be free from it, you know, and I can discover other things in life. There are other things in life. But also, you know, the burnout, it's not a one size fits

all sort of thing. On the other end of things, you have people like Mr. B is talking about how prioritizing mental health is very important, but also saying for him, the best thing for him to do is to work a lot. Weirdly enough, the best thing for my mental health was giving into my innate nature to work. And the most depressed I get is when I try to restrict it and like, I don't work weekends or I don't work this day. What's best for me is just to work when I feel like working and then just not work when I don't. Which I mean, also going on to say that some nights

when he doesn't feel like sleeping, he just wants to go through it all. So sometimes he'll go for seven or eight days in full grind mode, be totally happy. Which I i mean i hear and i immediately think well that doesn't sound like something that's sustainable but it seems obviously to work for him though maybe the differences that we're seeing there could be connected to the kinds of content being produced because for a lot of creators that experience burnout they're typically making a lot of the same content over and over again in the same field whereas a lot of the mr beast content is all over

the place challenges things that are experiences. But who knows, really the only person I could ever speak for in this facet is myself. You know, I've done this for 15, or is it 17 years at this point? I've honestly lost track of time. And obviously my content in the show, it's had different forms over the years,

but all I can say to younger creators is it does get easier. I've dealt with burnout. It still pops its head up now and then. Through experiencing it, you learn, oh, this is kind of the, this is where the warning light's going off. We've got to do something, otherwise the pipes are going to burst. You may take a temporary hit when it comes to, like, paid subscribers or numbers of views, but you get no views if you explode.

And as always, like, when we talk about stories like this in recent days, I do want to say that I do feel good because it does seem like in general audiences understand more. Back in the day, it's like if you took a sponsorship, you were the biggest sellout in the world. And if you took a break, you're the laziest son of a bitch on the planet. But now, whether it be because more conversation has happened on this topic or to a certain degree because social media has us all performing, everyone kind of understands. There's more acceptance and support. And then I think we all have work horror stories. Some are absolutely horrible. Some are just more weird And so with that I guess I need to ask you the question of what would you do if your boss hired a fake priest? To get you to confess your workplace sins because despite how ridiculous that sounds that was the reality for one restaurant chain here in california

The department of labor investigating the chain for allegations that employees weren't being paid overtime wages But with that they ended up finding that one of the owners had hired a priest to, quote, get the sins out of his employees. Reportedly, this priest would begin meetings with a prayer and then ask employees if they were loyal to the owner, if they had ever stolen from him, and if they harbored bad intentions toward him, with him then pushing employees to confess any workplace-related sins. But also, the insanity doesn't stop there because it seems the restaurant owner was guilty of his own work-related sins, with him reportedly asking the employees to lie to investigators about the number of hours they worked and even asked them to change their time cards to reflect only five eight-hour shifts per week, and even threatening employees with,

quote, adverse immigration consequences if they cooperated with investigators. Also, there were things like employees reportedly weren't allowed to sit at a table to eat, but rather had to hide in the cooler during their meals. And it's just a cherry on top of this shit Sunday. The employees pulled tips were even taken and used to pay management. Now, when all this came out, the Catholic Church confirmed, hey, we didn't, this isn't us this time. This guy ain't ours. You had the Labor Department calling it one of the most shameless acts of intimidation they had ever seen. Specifically saying, this employer's despicable attempts to retaliate against employees were intended to silence workers, obstruct an investigation, and prevent the recovery of unpaid wages. So ultimately,

the restaurant was ordered to pay $140,000 in back wages and $5,000 in civil penalties. And then, y'all, it's summer and there's so much to do out there and everyone deserves to have some fun. Whether it's concerts, baseball, comedy, theater, there's always an event for everyone and you don't want to miss out. And even nicer, how about getting $20 off by using my code PHIL for tickets for any of those events? And that's actually why I want to thank a fantastic sponsor of today's show, SeatGeek. With over 28 million downloads, SeatGeek. With over 28 million downloads, SeatGeek is the number one rated ticketing app. And with Blink-182, Taylor Swift, Ed Sheeran,

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So when you're on the app, look for the green dots. Green means good deal, red means bad. And every ticket is backed by their buyer guarantee. And SeatGeek is the only site that lets you return your tickets ahead of the event wants to make sure that you're getting a good deal. So when you're on the app, look for the green dots. Green means good deal, red means bad. And every ticket is backed by their buyer guarantee. And SeatGeek is the only site that lets you return your tickets ahead of the event with swaps. So remember, that's $20 off your first purchase with promo code Phil. And make sure you click that link in the description to download the app. And then where is the care for other human beings, right? That's a question that pops in your mind when you see this woman,

Natalie Curtis, a 35-year-old mother, having to drag herself down the aisle of a plane. And that's just one example of the center of an argument being made right now by accessibility advocates in D.C. Because countless wheelchair users have faced terrible experiences at the hands of airlines. Things ranging from damages to their wheelchairs, degrading experiences, and even canceled travel plans. And in fact, according to the Department of Transportation, more than 11,000 wheelchairs and scooters were mishandled last year.

And it's important we remember that when wheelchairs are damaged or lost, the people who depend on them lose their independence. And as one advocate who uses a wheelchair herself put it, it's just a lack of empathy sometimes when mistakes are made and just a lack of recognition for the weight of the situation. It's not just a wheelchair. It's literally our legs and how people like me function in the world safely. And oftentimes, the people that have these issues,

they find themselves in degrading situations due to the lack of accessibility. Or like that 35-year-old mom, Natalie Curtis, that I mentioned. She crawled down the aisle to get off the plane for her birthday trip to Thailand after staff told her she had to pay extra for a wheelchair. Or poor Jenny Berry, who had to drag herself across the plane just to go to the bathroom because the plane didn't have an aisle wheelchair on board. And advocates have centered that in their argument airlines should allow wheelchair users to travel in their own chairs. With Paul Melmeyer, the VP of Public Policy and Advocacy at the Muscular Dystrophy Association, arguing that it is a feasible solution. Saying the size of the doors on airplanes are wide enough. The aisles once

arriving within the airplane can be wide enough. There's space on there. There's fasteners that could be included. However, Melmeyer and others are skeptical whether airlines are actually willing to sacrifice potential profits to make the necessary accommodations. Especially if that means even having to take out a single seat. But also with this, advocates have flooded out to D.C. as Congress is set to reauthorize the FAA's funding and programs for the year. And it also seeming like Congress may be listening, with them introducing the Bipartisan Mobile Act last month, which, among other things, will require the DOT to publicly report

on damages to wheelchairs and mobility aids as well, as mandating research about how a wheelchair user could be able to safely travel in their own chair. And there's actually also some progress in that department, with the Delta subsidiary recently introducing a patented wheelchair-friendly prototype seat, something that would allow the wheelchair user access to the headrest, tray tables, and cocktail tables, and can be converted into a regular seat if no wheelchair user is on board. However, we're talking about a situation with real-world impacts, and it's still

more than a year away from seeing implementation in cabins. So while we wait for that, we'll keep our eyes on if there are more developments in Congress. And then you nasty little bitch are words you might expect to find in Regina George's burn book or maybe words said between two consenting adults because, you know, they're into that sort of thing. But instead, today, the reason we're talking about those words is because they were said on the House floor. So if you're not aware, shit's been popping off in the House of Representatives. Yesterday, the GOP made the very major move of voting to censure Democrat Adam Schiff for his actions in the investigation into Trump's alleged ties with Russia while he was the chair of the House Intelligence Committee. Normally, a censure is just a very strong and formal denunciation that doesn't really carry any tangible consequences. But this specific resolution also directed the Ethics Committee to open an investigation into Schiff's behavior, specifically claiming that

Schiff spread false accusations that the Trump campaign colluded with Russia, abused his privileged access to classified information, and behaved dishonestly and dishonorably on many other occasions. Also beyond that, the censure itself is very significant because this is very rare. In the entire history of the House, the Chamber has only voted to censure its members two dozen times, and only two of those are from the past 40 years. And of course, this measure passed as you might imagine it would, a narrow margin of 213 to 209, with all Democrats voting against it. Very notably here, this only passed after another resolution to censorshipor Schiff failed last week. And that's because 20 Republicans then killed it

because of provision that would have also fined Schiff $16 million. But 16 million, no 16 million, this move still pissed off Democrats. Many of whom spoke on the floor in defense of Schiff, also Schiff himself denied the allegations as false and defamatory, saying Republicans were only doing this

as petty political payback to censor Trump's critics. Also when House Speaker Kevin McCarthy read the censure resolution out loud, the chamber broke out in total chaos. With six answering present, the resolution adopted. Without objection, the motion to consider is laid on the table. House will be in order. Truck Month is on at Chevrolet.

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for being hypocritical. Referencing Republican George Santos, who is currently under both criminal and ethics investigations. The Republicans yelled back at the Democrats and egged them on with one screaming, you are all jackasses. Though that nasty little bitch comment, that was not Republican to Democrat or Democrat to Republican. That was some infighting. And reportedly it involved attempts by far-right Republicans to bring impeachment articles against Biden to the floor for his handling of the U.S.-Mexico border.

And this after Representative Lauren Boebert used a procedural tactic to try and force an immediate vote on a resolution impeaching Biden. That prompted McCarthy to hold a closed-door meeting where he reportedly urged his members not to back Boebert's bill. And in fact, many Republicans in both the House and Senate speaking out against the move. But then also the members who do support impeachment were fighting amongst themselves. With Marjorie Taylor Greene throwing an absolute tantrum on the floor because she wanted to be the one to impeach Biden. And to be clear, I am not joking. Greene literally accused Boebert of copying her articles of impeachment and then steamrolling her to get the copycat version to the floor first. And the fight between

the two boiling over yesterday into an angry public exchange. With the two clearly seen arguing on the floor and according to the Daily Beast, during that fight, Greene called Boebert a little bitch to her face. Which, you know, if you don't want to believe that happened, you could try to dismiss it. Except for that in an interview with Semaphore, not only did Green seemingly confirm that she had indeed called Bovert a little bitch during the exchange, she said it again, telling the outlet, She has genuinely been a nasty little bitch to me. And honestly, this is just a beautiful thing to watch. It's like the two worst people hating each other.

Right, democracy and decency seem to be falling, but at least this is fun to watch. Also, on the note of maybe two of the worst people fighting We should talk about Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg because maybe you've seen the headlines the two are talking about having a cage match It's been the case, but oh, baby. We're living in idiocracy over this starting because Musk responded to a tweet That said better be careful Elon Musk I heard he does the jujitsu now with I'm up for a cage match if he is without getting its fair share of attention But then things got kicked up a notch when Zuckerberg posted to his story, send me location. And things just kind of continued from there. And personally, yeah, I hope it happens and they both knock each other out at the same time. But as far as who would actually win the fight, I mean, well, Elon Musk has a size advantage.

Zuckerberg is oddly strong. He recently did the Murph Challenge in under 40 minutes, which if you don't know what that is, it's kind of fucking insane. He also does Brazilian jiu-jitsu. Whereas Musk, yes, he has a size advantage, but also he is in his 50s now. And from my understanding, his training has been limited to jabbing his leg with an ozempic needle and then working out those Twitter fingers.

And then things in Ukraine are heating up right now with their long awaited counter events of making progress. The most recent update includes Russia claiming that Ukraine managed to target and damage a major bridge in the Russian occupied part of Southern Ukraine that connects the mainland to Crimea. And it's actually could be very significant because it's one of the few routes connecting Crimea and southern Ukraine and is expected to slow down Russian reinforcement efforts as Ukraine's making progress in the region. However, that progress,

even by President Zelensky's own admission, has been slow going. And Ukraine's prime minister also expanded on that, saying in London, as the president said yesterday, the counteroffensive is not a Hollywood movie. It's not an easy walk. Explaining the counteroffensive is a number of military operations. Sometimes it's offensive, sometimes it's defensive. Sometimes it could be tactical pauses. But also admitting, unfortunately, during our preparation for this counteroffensive, Russians were preparing too. And with that, mentioning minefields, which really make it slower. But even with all that caution, headway is reportedly still being made, with villages over the past two weeks slowly being liberated in southern Ukraine. And it's believed that this offensive is still in the early stages,

with Ukrainian forces probing Russian defenses to see where a breakthrough might actually happen before committing its large reserves. And it's widely believed that Ukraine does plan to make a serious effort to either make it to Crimea or other major cities nearby. Which if they do, they could cut off the peninsula from Russia itself, other than the vulnerable Kerch Bridge. And of course, with all this, one of the things that seems to be a very noticeable help to Ukraine is the influx of Western arms and money. Where the UK and France have been helping provide missiles, while many NATO countries and others have provided armor vehicles and artillery. And it's such a problem for Russia that it's

trying to dictate where those weapons can be used by threatening to target Ukrainian cities with heavy strikes if Western weapons are used in places like Crimea. By the way, Western support is not expected to change, with even Germany, which has long been criticized for not doing enough, vowing to continue spending money and arms to Ukraine. They're even expanding their defense budget to 2% of its GDP, which, yes, is something that NATO countries are kind of supposed to do anyway, but many haven't. Also, Germany expanding anything militarily post-World War II is kind of unheard of. But obviously, the situation they've existed in has changed. There's only so much power and safety to be had by being an economic powerhouse, but really not having a strong military. And in addition to all

that, there are even efforts to start setting up funds to help rebuild Ukraine, showing that many partners are in it for the long haul. However, a very key thing here is if this counteroffensive is not a big success, it could very much be a sign that this war will just continue to grind on for quite some time. Though, of course, part of our strategy here might be to just try and keep this going for another year and a half, because the U.S. has an election coming up, and if someone else gets into that White House, things may change as far as the U.S. commitment. And then there are so many reasons to have more than one language under your belt. Traveling abroad, connecting with family, party tricks.

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go to babbel.com and use promo code Phil. Again, that's B-A-B-B-E-L.com, promo code Phil. And then, they're just straight up lying to that beautiful face of yours right now. Unfortunately, that statement could probably pertain to a number of people in your life, but rather I'm talking about Supreme Court justices today. Because wouldn't you know it, this week we got more allegations about a conservative high court justice failing to disclose a luxury trip with a major Republican mega-donor who had business before the court. Only this time, it wasn't Clarence Thomas. Instead, we got new hot tea on Samuel Alito.

Because according to a report from ProPublica, back in July of 2008, Alito took a vacation at a luxury fishing lodge that charged more than $1,000 a day. ProPublica really painting the picture, saying at night the lodge's chefs served multi-course meals of Alaskan king crab legs and Kobe filet. And according to one of the lodge's guides, fuck like $1,000 a day. On the last evening, a member of Alito's group bragged that the wine that they were drinking cost $1,000 a bottle, with Alito also taking a private jet that could have cost more than $100,000 one way if he had chartered it himself. But of course, he didn't pay for any of it, and per ProPublica, a planning document prepared by Lodge staff describes Alito as a guest of the Lodge's owner, with another guest and two Lodge employees also confirming that the trip had been a gift Alito had not paid for. And notably, that jet was covered by the hedge fund

billionaire and GOP mega-donor, Paul Singer. And Singer is a key figure here, because in addition to numerous ethics experts saying, by failing to report this trip on Singer's jet and his financial disclosures, Alito violated federal law, that's not the craziest part of the story. Rather, it becomes so much sketchier when you take a deeper dive into Singer himself. This man is incredibly influential, not just among conservative circles, but also in the judicial system itself at the highest levels. And when we call him a mega-donor, like, put that shit in caps.

This guy has donated more than $80 million to Republican groups just in the last 10 years. And that doesn't even include the millions he's given to the Manhattan Institute, which is a conservative think tank that he's chaired for around 15 years, which very notably frequently files briefs with the Supreme Court supporting conservative cases. And another important aspect here, a person familiar with the Alaska trip told ProPublica that was the first time Alito and Singer had met. That, after Leonard Leo, another massive conservative power player

who attended and helped organize the trip, reportedly invited Singer to join and asked if both he and Alito could fly in the billionaire's jet. Also, just a quick aside here, like we could do a whole other deep dive into Leonard Leo himself. He is an absolute giant figure

with an insane amount of power in influencing the judicial system and pushing the court to the right as the leader of the conservative Federalist Society. I mean, this is the man who helped handpick Trump's list of possible Supreme Court nominees. Like, that's the shit we're talking about. And he also has sketchy connections to Clarence Thomas' wife and deep ties to Alito. Ray Leo's firm ran an ad campaign supporting Alito and his SCOTUS confirmation, and reportedly, he was part of the team that prepped Alito for his confirmation hearings. And what's more, both Singer and the owner of the lodge were major donors to Leo's various groups at the time of the Alaska trip.

Right, his connection is really important to note because it's a big part of the ProPublica article and it further illustrates the same key takeaway from ProPublica's report on Clarence Thomas. How this small group of wealthy men with so much influence over America's legal system are so deeply connected, not only one another, but also some of the most powerful people in the world at the highest level of the judiciary. And on the note of the connections, while the Alaska trip was the first time Singer and Alito met, it was not the last, with the two appearing at a number of events together in the years since. But arguably, the most explosive part of this story that really emphasizes how fucking scary it is

that this small group of powerful, rich conservatives is so closely tied to the justices is the revelation that Singer has repeatedly had business before the Supreme Court. And this is the kicker, Alito never recused himself. As ProPublica notes, Singer's interest in the courts is more than ideological. His hedge fund, Elliott Management, is best known for making investments that promise handsome returns but could require bruising legal battles. And his most famous case, which involved his purchase of debt from Argentina in the early 2000s, eventually made it to the Supreme Court. A case where if Singer won, he stood to make an absolute fortune. We're talking about a payout that ended up being $2.4 billion. And get this, Singer had tried to get the case before the Supreme Court back in 2007, before the Alaska trip, but the court declined to hear it. And then,

in the six years after the trip, the parties involved in the case asked the high court to step in eight times. So key thing, ProPublica noting that in most instances, it was Singer's adversaries filing an appeal because a lower court had ruled in Singer's favor. And then finally, in 2014, the court agreed to take the case up. And also of big significance here, one was Singer's adversaries filing an appeal because the lower court had ruled in Singer's favor. And then finally, in 2014, the court agreed to take the case up. And also of big significance here, one of Leo's groups filed a brief supporting the case before the high court, which was apparently the first and only time they ever made such a move. And ultimately, we saw the high court ruling in Singer's favor with Alito, of course, in the majority. An expert saying that Alito absolutely should have recused himself there. But this is also not where the

story ends, because as far as how Alito responded, he declined ProPublica's request for comment when the outlet sent him a detailed list of questions. But then, he actually did respond to the allegations in a completely bizarre Wall Street Journal op-ed, with the title ProPublica misleads its readers, and I really cannot understate how fucking weird this is for a number of reasons. First of all, as places like Slate have explained, it is rare and may in fact be unprecedented for a sitting court justice to attack a media outlet in print or to engage in any kind of published advocacy at all. But beyond that, maybe the weirdest part of all this

is the op-ed was published several hours before the ProPublica report even came out. And the Wall Street Journal editors noted that it was literally a response to the questions that ProPublica had sent. All of that then trending big on Twitter, getting a ton of backlash from people who slammed both Alito

and the Wall Street Journal for effectively leaking major parts of an unpublished ProPublica article. Right, and in that op-ed, the Justice argued that he didn't need to recuse himself from the business Singer had before the court because his relationship with Singer didn't meet recusal standards. Claiming he's only met Singer on no more than a handful of occasions that mostly consisted of what he referred to as brief and casual comments at events attended by large groups. Alito also going on to claim that he wasn't even aware Singer was involved in the 2014 case that he ruled on, saying that his name wasn't on the filing. Though, to that point, ProPublica specifically noted that the case was litigated for more than 13 years, during which Singer drew extensive media attention for his personal involvement. But maybe he's not a TV or a newspaper guy.

Alito also argued that he didn't violate disclosure laws by not reporting the trip, because the disclosure instructions he was subject to at the time didn't require him to report hospitality-offered facility owned by an individual and an airplane is a facility. Though there, you had lots of people saying, to use their language, that's a stupid fucking argument. Because when have you ever heard an airplane described as a facility? But ultimately, you had the justice concluding by disputing some of ProPublica's reporting about the trip. Implying that it wasn't as fancy as the report made it sound. Instead, describing the lodge as a comfortable but rustic facility. I mean, yeah, it was a facility that didn't even fly. And while he disputed that the group bought $1,000 bottles of wine, he didn't dispute that it was $1,000 a night

for three nights. And in regards to Singer's jet, Alito said he accepted the seat because it would have otherwise been vacant, and he believed it would not impose any extra costs on Singer. And actually arguing that if he had flown commercial, it would have cost taxpayers. So you had tons of people mocking that specific claim, like Chris Hayes tweeting. I love the notion that the seat on the private jet would have been empty, so it doesn't count. That's how you know you're dealing with a straight shooter with good judgment. But hey, that's the situation. And while there can be calls for, you know, change, the system is such bullshit. I don't ever see someone watching the Watchmen. And that is where today's show is going to end. Also, a little final update. There is not going to be a

Sunday video this week, which means I'll see you right back here on Monday for another week of diving into the news. But as always, my name's Philip DeFranco. You've just been filled in. I love your faces, and I'll see you Monday.