The Philip DeFranco Show - PDS 6.25 The Dr Disrespect Situation Just Got Worse... & Today’s News

Episode Date: June 25, 2024

Go to http://getsuperbeets.com and use code DEFRANCO to get a free 30 day supply of SuperBeets Heart Chews on all bundles and 15% off your first order! Go to https://saily.com/Phil and use the code Phil to get an exclusive 15% off your first purchase. Get in on the https://BeautifulBastard.com Flowers Drop before your size sells out S-5XL! ==== ✩ TODAY’S STORIES ✩- – 00:00 - DrDisprespect Confirms He Messaged a Minor 05:34 - Julian Assange Will Walk Free After Plea Deal 08:25 - Sponsored by SuperBeets 09:30 - Texas Infant Mortality Rises After Abortion Ban 11:55 - Israel’s Supreme Court Says Military Must Draft Ultra-Orthodox Jews 14:39 - 5 Dead in Kenyan Protests Over Finance Bill 17:07 - Sponsored by Saily 18:17 - Are 401K’s a Mistake? 24:38 - Comment Commentary  ——————————   Produced by: Cory Ray Edited by: James Girardier, Maxwell Enright, Julie Goldberg, Christian Meeks, Matthew Henry Art Department: William Crespo Writing/Research: Philip DeFranco, Brian Espinoza, Lili Stenn, Maddie Crichton, Chris Tolve, Star Pralle, Jared Paolino Associate Producer on 401K’s: Brian Espinoza ———————————— #DeFranco #DrDisrespect #Hasanabi ———————————— Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Now this Dr. Disrespect situation just keeps getting bigger and bigger, and it's now busted into the mainstream. Because what started as a small but meaningful part of another story yesterday blew up right as we were uploading. Because in case you missed it, Dr. Disrespect, aka Guy Beam, he was in the news because two former Twitch employees came forward and said that his mysterious 2020 ban from Twitch, that that was over him allegedly inappropriately messaging a minor. Now for his part, Dr. Disrespect was saying, you know, he could only say so much. But in a handful of tweets, he wrote, This has been settled. No wrongdoing was acknowledged. And they paid out the whole contract.

I didn't do anything wrong. With him then doing a live stream on Monday saying, you know, he's not going to talk about any of this. Though that stream ended with him saying that he was going to take a break. With many then left wondering, you know, what is going to happen next? And literally as we were uploading yesterday's show, Midnight Society, the gaming studio he co-founded, they cut ties with him and released a statement saying, On Friday evening, we became aware of an allegation

against one of our co-founders, Guy Beam, a.k.a. Dr. Disrespect. We assumed his innocence and began speaking with parties involved. And in order to maintain our principles and standards as a studio and individuals, we needed to act. For this reason, we are terminating our relationship with Guy Beam. While these facts are difficult to hear and even more difficult to accept, it is our duty to act with dignity on behalf of all individuals involved, especially the 55 developers and families we have employed,

along with our community of players. Notably, that Friday evening, the date that the Midnight Society gave, it was the same day that one of the former Twitch staffers came forward. Now, of course, with all that, as you might expect, there were a lot of different reactions. Tons of people just demanding that they share the proof or the evidence that led them to this decision. With the same time, you had others kind of confused as to why there was backlash to Midnight Society's decision, with a number of people arguing

that it's pretty cut and dry. Or with gamers in the space like Nadia Amin writing in a since-deleted tweet, "'I don't understand how this is even controversial.' His own company said, "'We assumed his innocence, spoke with parties involved. "'These facts are difficult to hear.'" And then writing,

"'Why are so many people defending a pedo? Meanwhile, you had other big names in the space speaking out, the likes of Ninja, for example. Did their own investigative research behind the scenes, right? And found enough, right? Found enough evidence to let him go from the company, right? Not administrative leave, not we'll address this later. Like they found something is what I'm trying to say, okay? Meanwhile, you had others saying Midnight Society doesn't need to share its evidence publicly. Saying it's clear based on this

decision they found something serious. Others also speculating that part of the reason evidence hasn't been shown is to protect alleged victims. Because if what is being alleged here is true, it involves a minor. And this is other big creators in the space have noticed like this is such a big decision for a company like the Midnight Society to make. There's so much at stake. And they came to the conclusion, starting with the belief of Doc's innocence,

that it is better, it's more in their self-interest to terminate their relationship with basically the guy who was going to guarantee their game was at least a little bit successful because he was going to market all of it, which is a big fucking decision to make.

With Ludwig also adding that innocent until proven guilty, it's one thing in the court of law, but online people are just going to have to base their conclusions on what's out there, knowing that some of these receipts may never get published. And so all day there's just been this growing conversation, updates coming in, it even got mainstream attention,

with outlets like Bloomberg speaking to sources who backed up the reason behind Dr. Disrespect's ban. And all of it actually leading to Doc responding again this afternoon, saying, Let's cut the fucking bullshit. Everyone has been wanting to know why I was banned from Twitch, but for reasons outside of my control, I was not allowed to say anything for the last several years. Now, the two former Twitch employees have publicly disclosed the accusations. I can now tell you my side of the story regarding the ban.

Were there Twitch whisper messages with an individual minor back in 2017? The answer is yes. Were there real intentions behind these messages? The answer is absolutely not. Also, I'll say a note here, because there's been a lot of discourse about this as well. He edited that tweet to instead say individual minor to just individual,

but he then later changed it back to individual minor. But then in the rest of his statement, he went on to call the conversations mutual and casual, saying they quote, sometimes lean too much in the direction of being inappropriate, but nothing more. Claiming nothing illegal happened. No pictures were sent. He never met them. There was a lengthy arbitration, but no criminal case was filed. With that saying, he took moral responsibility and should have known better as an adult. But adding, now with all this said, don't get it fucking mistaken. I've seen all the remarks and labels being thrown around so loosely. Social media is a destruction zone.

I'm no fucking predator or pedophile. Are you kidding me? Anyone that truly knows me fucking knows where I stand on those things with those types of people. Fuck that. And all of that has resulted in an explosion of responses. Some fans saying they stand with him. Meanwhile, elsewhere, there was a lot of attention to him editing In-N-Out Minor. Meanwhile, Robert Bowling, aka 402, the Midnight Society studio head,

he tweeted, this is a statement for me personally. It does not reflect any of my companies and has not gone through any legal or PR approvals. If you inappropriately message a minor, I cannot work with you, period. I promised to only act on facts, and I did. And of course, there's been no shortage of other commenters chiming in.

Zahn Piker saying he doctor disrespected the age of consent. And Voice Critical responding, that's actually shocking. Confirming messaging a minor inappropriately but saying there wasn't any real intent is almost verbatim what people used to say to Chris Hansen. As well as another aspect we're already seeing are more people cutting ties. With for example, Turtle Beach now appearing

to have removed all of Dr. Disrespect's merchandise from their site, including from their partners section. And seemingly all previous links to Dr. Disrespect products now take you directly to the homepage of Turtle Beach. Like I said earlier, who knows if even more is coming, we're waiting to see. And of course in the meantime, I gotta ask you,

what are your thoughts with all this? While you leave that comment or you're sitting back trying to take in everything we just talked about, I gotta say, hey, welcome back to the Philip DeFranco show. You daily dive into the news, and today we got a lot to talk about. This has been a busy week so far. I'm gonna try to make it consumable for you.

So you sit back, maybe hit that like button, otherwise it will punch you in the throat, and let's jump into it. This is a news show. It actually happened. I never knew if this day was gonna come. After nearly 12 years on the run, after so many legal battles, Julian Assange is free.

The founder of WikiLeaks, making a deal with US authorities and flying to a US courthouse in Saipan for the final steps. With it notably being one of the most remote US courthouses in the Northern Mariana Islands, which is close to Australia and also isn't in the continental US, which Assange doesn't want to risk going to.

Right in there, Assange will be pleading guilty to a single felony count of illegally obtaining and disclosing national security material, which is far less than the 18 counts a grand jury originally slapped him with. And barring the judge there deciding to ignore the plea deal, which is very rare, he'll be sentenced to five years,

which is about the same amount of time that he served in a British prison while he was fighting an extradition to the US, which means that he'll be credited with time served and set free, right? And while a lot of this may come as a surprise to kind of everyday people, we've kind of had hints that this could be

the conclusion for a while now. Earlier this year, the Australian government said the case needed to be concluded. The Biden administration saying it was open to a quick resolution. With that then apparently kicking off negotiations for a plea deal and considering Assange had already spent more time in prison than most people who were convicted

of a similar offense do, it seemed pretty obvious to just let him go. And also keep in mind, that's just time officially in a prison, because before that he was effectively locked in the Ecuadorian embassy for seven years. You know, with this overall, the Australian government's very happy with the news. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese tweeting,

The case has dragged on for too long. There's nothing to be gained by his continued incarceration and we want him brought home to Australia. And that is apparently the plan. After the hearing, he's set to go to Australia. Though notably here in the States, there's been a mixed reaction, let's call it. Or you've got former director of national intelligence,

James Clapper, seeming to be happy with the plea deal, saying that Assange has sort of paid his dues already with one caveat. Saying, I think another issue here, speaking on behalf of the intelligence community, is you can't have a system where people on their own, unilaterally decide, well, I just think it's okay to expose all this classified information

when they've made a commitment to protect it. That, to me, is a very important principle to bear in mind here. But again, where I began, I think justice is served. Though there, you have people saying, well, the issue is that Assange didn't make that commitment. Right, noting instead, Chelsea Manning had made that commitment before she leaked it to Assange, so he wasn't beholden to that standard. Which is also why we've seen civil rights groups like the Electronic Frontier Foundation and its head of civil liberties say, The United States has now for the first time in the more than 100 year history of the Espionage Act,

obtained an Espionage Act conviction for basic journalistic acts. These charges should never have been brought. You know, with that, for years the US has maintained that Assange and WikiLeaks went too far, saying they went beyond normal journalistic investigations, and arguing instead they put out information they knew would be dangerous to US service members and national security. But again, barring some sort of thing with the judge, Assange is headed home. Though his wife also claims even that's not gonna

be easy street. Tweeting Julian's travel to freedom comes at a massive cost. Julian will owe 520,000 US dollars, which he has obligated to pay back to the Australian government for the charter flight. Saying he wasn't permitted to fly commercial flights and saying any contribution big or small is much appreciated.

And then- Trust me when I tell you that heart health is not something to mess around with. I mean, heart disease is way more common than some may think. You know, especially in recent years, I try to do all the things we're told to do to stay healthy. Everything from changing my diet, to adding more cardio, to getting better sleep.

With today's sponsors, Superbeat Heart Chews, I feel like I found a fantastic tasty way to support my health goals. I mean, seriously, with just two tasty chews a day, you get your daily blood pressure support while promoting heart-healthy energy without the stimulants. Superbeads also help boost nitric oxide production, as well as help to reduce oxidative stress and damage, which is huge.

When paired with a healthy lifestyle, the antioxidants in Superbeads are clinically shown to be nearly two times more effective at promoting normal blood pressure than a healthy lifestyle alone. And Superbead chews make it easier for me to confidently maintain heart health matters, especially since they're small and I can take them on the go. I mean, it really couldn't be easier. And they're the number one doctor, pharmacist, and cardiologist recommended beat

brand for cardiovascular health support. So double your potential with Superbeat heart shoes, and you can get a free 30-day supply of Superbeat heart shoes on all bundles, and 15% off your first order by going to getsuperbeats.com and use code DeFranco. That's getsuperbeats.com, code DeFranco. And then, yo, it's been two years since the Supreme Court killed Roe v. Wade. And as we get more distance day by day from that landmark decision, we're starting to see the real world impacts. With now one of the most shocking coming from a new study out of Johns Hopkins, right? And they looked at infant mortality in Texas, which is a state, by the way, that is home to 10% of all women of reproductive age in the United States. And the data showed that between March and December of 2022, infant

mortality jumped 8% compared to just 2% for the rest of the country, meaning that there were 216 more deaths than expected during that time. With the main reason being that the state's six-week limit on abortions, that's well before tests are done to detect fetal abnormalities. Which is also why the number of babies born with birth defects in Texas spiked 23%. Meanwhile, there was a 3% decrease everywhere else. What makes those numbers even more disturbing is that many women know months in advance that their baby will likely or certainly die. When does fast grocery delivery through Instacart matter most? When your famous grainy mustard potato salad isn't so famous without the grainy mustard.

When the barbecue's lit, but there's nothing to grill. When the in-laws decide that, actually, they will stay for dinner. Instacart has all your groceries covered this summer. So download the app and get delivery in as fast as 60 minutes. Plus enjoy $0 delivery fees on your first three orders. Service fees, exclusions, and terms apply. Instacart, groceries that over-deliver. Why do fintechs like Float choose Visa? As a more trusted, more secure payments network,

Visa provides scale, expertise, and innovative payment solutions. Learn more at visa.ca slash fintech. Knowing that your child is gonna die and planning your child's funeral before your child's even here is insane. But these women usually have to wait until their own lives are in immediate danger, like for example, from an infection, before any doctor's willing to perform an abortion.

And even then, the physicians are extremely skittish about it because they know that they'll face life in prison if they accidentally run afoul of the law, which is why Texas only records about five abortions a month now, and that's also why a group of women who suffered serious complications during pregnancy sued the state, with them arguing that the law is just too vague about when an abortion is medically necessary. But there, we saw the all-Republican state Supreme Court unanimously rule against the women less than a month ago. And a month before that, Florida's six-week abortion ban went into

effect, tightening its previous 15-week ban and closing off a major refuge for women in the South. Now, with that said, while the number of abortions in states with bans has plummeted to near zero, the average number nationwide actually hasn't changed, according to estimates. In fact, if anything, it may have actually increased slightly in the year following the Supreme Court decision. And that because women are taking abortion meds through the mail or traveling to other states with looser restrictions. So that's not to say that the bans haven't stopped women from getting abortions that they would have. In the 14 states where total bans are in place, one report estimates that there would have been 120,000 more abortions between July and September last year.

With one of the biggest reasons a number of women haven't is that lots of people simply can't afford to travel because of the sheer distances involved. Over 700 counties are more than 200 miles from the nearest abortion clinic now. And in Southern counties, that number climbs above 700 miles. So one, interesting and important information in its own right. And two, it's going to be very interesting if this becomes a topic of debate come Thursday. Because yeah,

if you are not aware because you've actively been trying to avoid it, which, hey, I understand, the first Biden-Trump debate is set for Thursday. So, you know, there's that. And then we've got to talk about what's going down in Israel because their Supreme Court just made a big move. Right, because for those who don't know, over in Israel, military service is compulsory for pretty much all Jewish men and women. Though the notable exception there being ultra Orthodox Jews.

Right, they've actually been exempt since the founding of Israel way back in 1948. While that's long been a source of tension, anger over the group's special treatment, it's only grown since the start of the war in Gaza. Right, because while they've been studying the Torah, tens of thousands of reservists have had to serve multiple tours and hundreds have been killed.

But now Israel's Supreme Court said, that's done. The court's judges ruling that the country must begin drafting ultra-Orthodox Jewish men into the military. Writing, these days in the midst of a difficult war, the burden of that inequality is more acute than ever and requires the advancement of a sustainable solution to this issue. And with that, finding that the state was carrying out, quote, invalid selective enforcement, representing a serious violation of the advancement of a sustainable solution to this issue. And with that finding that the state was carrying out,

quote, invalid selective enforcement, representing a serious violation of the rule of law and the principle according to which all individuals are equal before the law. And then going even further to say that the government could no longer provide subsidies to religious schools if they enrolled students who should be doing their military service.

And one of the big things here is that this represents a big problem for Netanyahu, right? Because what was once a small ultra-Orthodox minority in Israel has grown into a community of over a million people, making up more than 12% of the population. And with that, politically powerful ultra-Orthodox parties are key partners in Netanyahu's governing coalition. So what we've seen is in response to this ruling,

ultra-Orthodox leaders have restated old claims that their religious studies are an important part of Israel's defense. With, in fact, one government lawyer arguing before the court saying that forcing ultra-Orthodox men to enlist would, quote, tear Israeli society apart. religious studies are an important part of Israel's defense. With in fact, one government lawyer arguing before the court, saying that forcing ultra-Orthodox men to enlist would quote, tear Israeli society apart. And so now there's a real possibility that Netanyahu's ultra-Orthodox allies, they might abandon the coalition,

which could then cause the government to collapse and lead to new elections at a time when his popularity has plummeted. And while Netanyahu has called for legislation to continue the exemption in an attempt to hold the coalition together, that plan risks alienating other members of his coalition instead,

especially as there's rising public anger over the failure to reach a deal and return the hostages. And at that point, Netanyahu's actually now facing backlash from hostage families for comments that he made this weekend, seeming to dismiss the ceasefire proposal backed by Biden, with one family even trying to put pressure on him by releasing a new video showing the kidnapping of three Israelis by Hamas on October 7th,

including one Israeli-American. And with that, what Netanyahu said is that the intensive phase of Israel's offensive in Gaza will end soon, and that he would only accept a partial ceasefire deal. With the big thing there being that it's only to direct more resources to the border with Lebanon, right?

Because you have the US now warning Hezbollah that it won't be able to stop an Israeli attack. And of course, you have Netanyahu saying again that Israel would continue its offensive in Gaza until Hamas is destroyed. And in fact, since he made those comments, we've already seen reports of more Palestinians dead in Israeli airstrikes and tanks pushing further into Rafah, while experts are still warning that the risk of famine there remains high. And so there's a lot of different things at play here, but they're all interconnected, which, you know, gives it this feeling of it just,

it keeps growing and growing, but also it could be built on a house of cards. But ultimately, time will tell. And then in some heavily requested international news, let's talk about Kenya, right? Because the protests against the government there have hit a whole new level of intensity, with police opening fire on demonstrators trying to storm the country's parliament,

multiple deaths now being reported, and part of the parliament building actually ending up on fire. Hell, even the country's ceremonial mace was stolen, with Kenyan lawmakers even reportedly having to escape through an underground tunnel. With all that, where we stand now is at least five people have been confirmed dead, according to Amnesty International. And while that number still could change, the thing we know for sure is what these protests are about.

Right, it's about a piece of legislation dubbed the Finance Bill 2024. It was introduced in Kenya's parliament back in May, and today the parliament actually approved it, moving it through to a third reading, with the next step after that being for the president to sign it. What the bill would do is basically expand the definition of taxable income, increase excise duties and value-added taxes, and introduce new income tax categories. With the ultimate aim being to raise 2.7 billion dollars in additional tax revenue to cut debt and reduce borrowing. But of course with this, critics say that it's the corruption and greed of politicians that have weakened the country's economy and that ordinary People shouldn't have to pay the price

Especially as Kenyans are already dealing with a cost of living crisis and this also is the president has already implemented a number of very unpopular taxes right on everything from gasoline to wheelchair tires bread to Sanitary pads and notably those changes coming under pressure from the IMF So the protests of the clashes they've been ongoing since the bill was first announced. So of course, over the last week or so, things have really heated up. And this is the government has actually made some concessions, right?

Promising to get rid of proposed new taxes on things like cooking oil, car ownership, and financial transactions. But obviously that hasn't been enough to satisfy protesters, which brings us to the violence today. And also a key thing to keep in mind is that the crackdown has been against more than just the people storming parliament.

With in fact, at least one person dying of a gunshot wound during last week's protest. And rights groups saying that more than 200 other people were injured before today. And actually, Alma Obama, the half-sister of Barack Obama, was tear gassed by police during an interview with CNN live on air today. Young Kenyans are demonstrating for their rights. They're demonstrating with flags and banners. I can't even see anymore. They're being tear gassed. With Amnesty International reporting that there were 21 abductions and disappearances

by uniformed and non-uniformed officers over the 24 hours leading up to today's protests. And so in response to that, ambassadors of 13 embassies in Kenya, including the US, have issued a joint statement saying they are deeply concerned by the allegations and calling for restraint on all sides. But for now, all we've actually seen

is the Kenyan president stepping up the crackdown with him even deploying the military to help police deal with quote treasonous protesters. And then, you know, traveling abroad is great, but the costs add up. You know that text you get when you land in another country? Cell company offering you an international data plan and they're expensive at $10 a day.

And did you know that those plans are throttled? But they're often limited to two gigs per day before pushing it to 3G or even 2G. I mean, I can zoom through two gigs scrolling through socials before even getting off the plane. But now, thanks to our sponsor, Saley, I've secured way more precious high-speed gigs for travel. Because Saley is a new eSIM app

from our friends over at Nord Security. Because in medieval times, right, when the world was black and white, you'd have to hunt around at the airport for a physical local SIM card to install with a needle. With Saley, you can set up a plan from the app before leaving town and sail through the airport after landing.

Saley provides an internet connection when traveling and a tethered connection for your other devices. So you can also stay off that hotel Wi-Fi. With affordable plans in over 150 countries, Saley works everywhere you'll be traveling this summer. And Saley works on all dual SIM devices and they'll refund you if your device isn't eSIM compatible. Also, did I mention they have 24 seven support, which is huge when you're in a pinch traveling. So y'all just go to Saley.com slash Phil. Use code Phil to get an exclusive 15%

off your first purchase. It's Saley.com slash Phil. But then for this next dive into the news, we actually have a special guest. Me from this past weekend before I switched offices. And then, so if you're watching the Philip DeFranco show from outside of America, you may be shocked to learn that American retirement isn't a guaranteed thing. Like yeah, technically, when we make it to retirement age now, we can start getting the social security benefits

most of us paid into our entire working lives. But really, the vast majority of Americans near retirement age think that the system will just run out of money by the time that they retire. So now, one of the most common retirement plans are 401ks. But the thing there is there's now a growing sentiment that these plans may have actually set us back. Because before their implementation in the early 80s, retirees instead relied on social security, private investments, and company pensions. And those pensions are something that a

lot of retirees today look back on with jealousy. But also with this, you may wonder, well, what is a 401k? Well, without a doubt, pretty much every adult American has at least heard of it. There's probably a lot of people who don't really know what it is. See, it actually gets its name as part of the tax code that it falls under, and it's a pre-tax retirement account. You pay a portion of your income, and in return, your company offers you a selection of possible investment portfolios to choose from. And the good part is that as long as you're paying into a 401k consistently throughout your working career, you'll end up with a good chunk of change by the end of it. Now, some companies even offer a match, which means that for every dollar you put in, they'll put in a dollar up to a certain percent. Right? In common schemes are things like a 5% match. So you invest 5% of your pre-tax

income and the company also puts in 5% for you. If a company offers a match, it's often considered one of the best investments you can make because it's literally a 100% return. Now, 401ks, they do have limits on how much you can set aside every year. Like you can't just put in 50% of your income into it and then just make a crazy amount of money that way. You also can't easily access the money before you retire outside of a few niche scenarios without serious penalties. For example, let's say you really want to take 10 grand out for a new car. That ends up being very likely a dumb move because on top of automatically being taxed at the highest tax bracket, the money is also subject to like a 10% fee. So you'd really need to take out nearly $20,000 to even get half

of that in cash. But that's not the case if you take the money out after 65, which is why these are known as tax advantaged accounts. And so all of that sounds pretty good. So where's the drawback? Well, the first big one is that not every company offers a 401k. Currently, millions of Americans lack access to any company-backed retirement plan and instead would need to use something like an IRA or Roth IRA. And that's assuming they even plan for retirement at all. And then with places that do offer 401ks, they may not offer a match. Then even if they did all that, a lot of employees are actually stressed about 401ks because it requires some kind of active participation. You need to choose which of the investment portfolios your company offers to go with. And as you get closer

to retirement, the weight of it all really begins to hit you. Now, think of it this way. You need enough set aside to maintain about 80% of your pre-retirement income to maintain your lifestyle. So for someone making around $80,000, that's like a million in retirement. Of course, the later you start, the harder it is. And that assumes, of course, you even start. Because the reality is that a lot of Americans, especially those with lower incomes, they just can't spare the money for retirement because they need it right now. They don't save. I mean, in 2022, the median retirement account for the 20th through the 39th percentile was just at $20,000. And that's not a lie. And actually what ends up happening to this group and those slightly above and below them is

that their 401ks instead turn into emergency savings accounts. They'll just take the tax hit and penalties to get this money when they really need it. And actively choosing which investment portfolio also comes with the stress of what if. Like what if you choose poorly and it doesn't grow to what you want? Or what if there's a crash like there was in 2008 when many Americans lost on average 25% of their 401ks? And for the vast majority of workers, it's not really another option at their workplace, right? It's 401k or nothing. Meanwhile, compare that to our parents or grandparents where things like pensions were far more common. But nowadays, those plans are reserved almost exclusively for union employees, although they're also disappearing at an increasing

rate. And the reason that some are looking back at pension plans with jealousy is that they offer some unique benefits, especially a guaranteed income. With a pension, the company invests on your behalf and pays into a plan and in return offers a flat payout. That's a source of income where the amount is known and relatively stable. And it's also protected an employee from themselves. What I mean by that is, let's say you start working your career at 25 years old. Well, most 25-year-olds, they probably don't realize how important starting to save for retirement is at that age. They don't. With a pension plan, that money is already being put aside. So that brings us to the question of, well, why was there a switch to 401ks if pensions are now looked back

at so fondly? Well, pensions, those also have some serious drawbacks. Probably the biggest one being, well, what happens if a company just goes under? Which is something that arguably becomes more likely if a company is beholden to a large pension fund as they promise guaranteed payouts. And as a matter of fact, the entire reason 401ks even first came about was because Congress passed a law in 1978 that gave employees a voluntary tax-free way to fund their retirement. You're pretty much stuck within a job or a work sector covered by your union if you want access to that pension, whereas with a 401k, that can be transferred around. And in the cases where 401ks can't roll over due to a new job not offering a 401k, they're allowed to still move that cash into a tax-advantaged account like an IRA.

Additionally, for the employees who are actively monitoring their 401k, there's something to be said about the ability to have some control over where the investments go. But also, the reality of all this is that despite everything, 401ks were never really meant to be an end-all, be-all retirement plan.

They were actually supposed to be part of a so-called three-legged stool. That phrase first coming about when President FDR was pushing for Social Security as one of the three legs of retirement along pensions and private investments. So ideally, there would be a situation where someone not only has access to a 401k,

but also a pension as well as Social Security. What's really interesting is that the scrutiny over 401ks, it's not necessarily a left or a right issue, which is something I feel like we don't often see in today's age. When they first gained widespread popularity during the Reagan years, his administration even tried to kill them before losing in court. It took years for the right to

heavily embrace them, and they have, whereas the left has been upset at the loss of pensions. But over the last few years, there's been another shift on the right as more and more low and middle-income families struggle to retire. In fact, so much so that former President Trump's former senior economic advisor, Kevin Hassett, has teamed up with progressive advocates on new legislation in front of Congress to address the retirement crisis. And their proposal is called the Retirement Savings for Americans Act, and it would start a federally run 401k program with the feds matching all contributions up to 5% of your income. Now with this, there's been some pushback that this unfairly hurts private 401k plans, but I also don't think many people pity hedge fund managers. Hell, even

the chairman and CEO of BlackRock, one of the biggest firms on Wall Street, has suggested companies ditch 401ks, writing to investors that moving away from pensions towards 401ks has meant a, quote, shift from financial certainty to financial uncertainty. And it's also driving income inequality. For the top half of American earners, and especially the upper third or so, they're able to much better leverage their incomes to their 401ks in order to drive long-term wealth. Whereas the bottom half, they just can't do that to the same degree, leading to people working longer and longer in order to get more years to put more money aside. But with this, unless there are some fundamental changes to how America tackles retirements,

the reality is that 401ks are here to stay. With that in mind, if you have access to one, put money into it, especially the younger you are. And yes, I will say there are risks involved, but the other option is not really having anything for your retirement. And that is arguably a lot worse. Then finally today, let's talk about your comments on yesterday's show, right? Comment commentary. Starting off with one of the most popular comments on yesterday's show about that whole Mr. Beast scandal.

With local menacing, imagining Mr. Beast's fall from grace being a result, not of greed or hustle culture, but from defending his friend is as bemusing as it is absurd. Y'all need to leave Ava be already. I think my favorite take from the situation is, you're a parent, quit being pissy about trans people being parents

and go be with your own kid already. Be a good example. Yeah, I will say, I love that 90% of the Mr. Beast controversies are like, can you believe what he did? He built wells for people who need water and helped people fix their eyes and ears so they could see and hear things. Also disgusting, he's publicly defending

and supporting a friend that made a personal decision that only affects her life. Can you believe it? But I really do wanna say, I do respect that Jimmy speaks up for Ava when things get like this. Because I agree with David Campbell who said, "'Jimmy actually doesn't need to defend Ava. "'He's choosing to.

"'That's why I respect him. "'He's standing by his oldest friend who hasn't done anything wrong or hurt anyone. Right, because the business decision here would be to just let things play out with no input from you. Not risk the mob coming for you when you've built out an audience of everyone.

And you can say, yeah, well, he's protected. He has such a big audience. But I mean, just look out there. The culture war is raging. Not only do you have something that is big, you have a lot to lose. And the fact that he's choosing to be a friend and a human first, I think is admirable. We can only hope that is the worst of the controversies that our favorites experience.

But then I gotta say, there was also a lot of conversation around our disability story. And luckily, most of it wasn't about what I said about your sweet, sweet mother. Instead, we got comments like that from Tay Matty, who said, can confirm in South Carolina that disability is super backed up. My son is on disability, but we have never gotten a check and are number 14,000 on a list to even get any help. With another one of y'all sharing, when we went through the social security process,

our lawyer told us, okay, so everything looks great. You'll get denied and then we'll start and do it again. And we were like, oh my God, do we have errors in our paperwork? Did we do something wrong? And they said, very matter of factly, oh no, they deny every application the first time and most likely a few times to really make sure you seriously want and need it. I appreciated the honesty, but it felt like a huge punch in the

gut with what we were already dealing with. The most surreal part? The judge was one of the kindest people ever. She only asked a few really compassionate questions and just said, yeah, it's all in the paperwork, nothing more to be said, and bam. Years of papers and voicemails and terrifying denials for that 10-minute process. With others saying they experienced the exact same or similar things. Though one of the more troubling comments I saw was,

I was born with spina bifida. I can't walk or stand for longer than 30 minutes at a time. The state of Kentucky said there are zero jobs in America that I can do. They still will not give me any SSI because I went to college. I'm 43 now, and things for my body have only gotten worse. But that, my friends, is the end of of your Tuesday evening Wednesday morning dive into the news.

And as always remember my name's Philip DeFranco. You've just been filled in. I love yo faces, and I'll see you right back here tomorrow for more news.