The Philip DeFranco Show - PDS 7.19 CHURCH EXPOSED SELLING BLEACH AS MIRACLE DRUG, Why Jenna Ortega is Working Through The Actors Strike

Episode Date: July 19, 2023

Go to https://sundaysfordogs.com/phil or use code PHIL at checkout to get 35% off your first order of Sundays. Catch up on our latest PDS: https://youtu.be/HpYManWWLT8 Check out our daily newsletter! http://dailydip.co/pds  Follow me on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/phillydefranco/?hl=en  –✩ TODAY’S STORIES ✩ – 00:00 - Family Who Sold Bleach Miracle Cure from Scam Church Represents Themselves in Court 2:43 - As Heat Wave Continues, Texas Inmates Die From Lack of AC 4:46 - Wesleyan Ends Legacy Admissions 6:10 - SAG Allows 39 Independent Films, Including A24 Projects, to Film Amid Strike 7:41 - Sponsored by Sundays for Dogs 8:46 - Lawmakers Call on Biden to End Warrantless Government Surveillance of Health Data 11:25 - Michigan Charges 16 Fake Electors Who Tried to Overturn 2020 Election in the State 13:22 - Putin to Skip South Africa BRICS Summit Due to ICC Warrant  ——————————   Produced by: Cory Ray Edited by: James Girardier, Maxx Enright, Julie Goldberg, Christian Meeks Art Department: William Crespo Writing/Research: Philip DeFranco, Brian Espinoza, Lili Stenn, Maddie Crichton, Star Pralle, Chris Tolve  ———————————— #DeFranco #JennaOrtega #Russia ———————————— Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today, we're talking about the church that sold bleach as a miracle drug that cured HIV and COVID. Michigan 16 finally getting what's been coming to them. Prisoners are being cooked alive in Texas. Jenna Ortega and Paul Rudd are exposing the studios as greedy liars. We're talking about all that and so much more in today's brand new 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, you need to drink bleach if you want to cure cancer. That, to be clear, is not a DeFranco-approved message, but rather the hell of a sales pitch the Genesis II Church of Health and Healing in Florida told its followers for over a decade. Because in 2010,

its so-called Archbishop Mark Grennan supposedly co-founded it with Jim Humble, a man who claimed to be a billion-year-old god from the Andromeda Galaxy. And although Humble reportedly stepped away back in 2017, Grennan continued to run the business with his sons, Jonathan, Joseph, and Jordan, ages 37, 35, and 29. And understand, I call this a business because they sold bottles of what they called Miracle Mineral Solution, or MMS.

And they marketed it as this miracle cure for literally 95% of the world's ailments, from cancer and COVID to HIV and hepatitis. But understand, this wasn't just some, like, Kool-Aid-flavored water. When prepared as directed with citric acid, MMS turns into chlorine dioxide, an industrial bleaching agent. Which is why in 2019, the FDA had to warn that consuming it is the same as drinking bleach. And adding, the reports came in of people vomiting, having severe diarrhea, life-threatening dehydration,

and acute liver failure. And all that leading to 2020, where a federal court ordered the Grenins to stop selling this poison. But they just refused, and they kept doing it, claiming civil disobedience and threatening to resort to the Second Amendment. Saying in a letter to the judge, the DOJ and FDA have no authority over our church. And all that leading to federal prosecutors charging them with conspiring to defraud the U.S. and selling misbranded drugs. And although Mark and Joseph, they fled to Colombia, seemed to be free, local authorities caught and extradited them back to the U.S. And so now they're going on trial, and it already looks like it's going to be a clown show. With the four men declining to have a lawyer, choosing instead

to represent themselves and appearing in court with matching beards and ponytails. While they oddly declined to give any sort of opening statement, the prosecutors did not pass up there. With them calling the family a bunch of snake oil salesmen and con men who pretended their scam was a religious organization to avoid federal regulations. And apparently the district judge there agrees because she said before the trial that they can't use religious freedom as a defense because they're not a religious entity. And that despite all their trappings of holiness with them allegedly calling themselves bishops, their bleach bottles, sacraments, and their customers payment donations. With them all in all allegedly raking in millions of dollars from tens of thousands of sales over

the years. But with all that, I really just have this one question of why bleach? Like there's always going to be con men in general and there are con men who use, you know, the trappings of religion and religious institutions as a shield. But why give your customers bleach? Why not like sugar, water, and vitamins? Like, was there some sort of thinking of like, we need people to feel like they're suffering. So maybe it's working or is it something more twisted? Like they got off on the idea of like they were exploiting people's faith and making them feel worse. And then they're cooking our babies alive. Those are the desperate words of a grieving mother whose son died in a sweltering Texas prison last month. And the thing is, she's not alone with dozens of former inmates

and prisoners' relatives rallying at the state capitol yesterday, protesting the lack of air conditioning in state prisons, which become almost uninhabitable during the summer and heat waves like this one. Because since mid-June of this year, at least nine prisoners have reportedly died from heart attacks and cardiac events in uncooled prisons where the outdoor temperature was over 100 degrees. And you also have at least another 14 dying from unknown causes and extreme heat. And although the Texas Department of Criminal Justice has not acknowledged that a prisoner died from the heat since 2012, there's a study that estimates that as many as 13% of the deaths in the state's prisons during warm months could be caused by heat. Because reportedly over

two-thirds of Texas's 100 prisons don't have AC in most living areas. And keep in mind, we're talking about concrete and steel buildings with some people living on upper floors. When the temperature outside tops triple digits, the temperature inside becomes a sauna. And that's not an exaggeration. With inmates and relatives sharing their stories about this. It's very easy to kind of give into that oppressing heat and almost frankly forget to breathe. I would flood the toilet and I would lay in about an inch of cold running water with my fan propped over me. He's the youngest of my sons. My heart aches when I see him, when I talk to him because it is, I can't,

I can't help them. So increasingly we've seen activists and lawmakers demanding that Governor Greg Abbott call an immediate special legislative session on the issue, with State Representative Carl Sherman complaining that lawmakers spent the entire summer fighting over property taxes and other things that he called rich people problems. Especially because back in May, the State Senate shot down a House proposal to invest more than half a billion dollars in prison air conditioning. And that, even though they had a $32.7 billion budget surplus for the next two years.

But this also isn't just a Texas problem. By one count, 44 states do not have air conditioning in all their prisons, and 10 of them are in the South. With Mississippi's largest prison reportedly reaching up to 145 degrees. So the state government finally installing AC units last year. But of course, with this, you have critics wondering,

will the government actually do something? Because we're talking about hundreds of thousands of people that are affected by this, but also a group of people that are routinely ignored because we dehumanize the incarcerated. And then, should you get an advantage because your mommy or daddy went to that college? That is a question that's been getting debated more and more following the Supreme Court overturning affirmative action. Because so-called legacy admissions have been criticized for years now for favoring rich white applicants over people of color.

And so that practice has now come under even more attack since the Supreme Court decided that schools can't consider race in admissions. And it's seeming like increasingly more and more people agreeing that legacy admissions are unfair. And in fact, top politicians on both sides of the aisle, including President Biden himself, have come out against the practice. And polls have consistently shown that the public agrees there. With a Pew Research Center survey taken last year finding that three in every four people believe that legacy status should not be considered for admission. And in fact, a new poll from Generation Lab taken after the affirmative action ruling found a nearly identical margin among college students.

75% saying they believe the practice is either definitely not fair or probably not fair. And it looks like some schools are actually taking that to heart. Because part of the reason we're talking about this today is because the esteemed liberal arts school, Wesleyan University, announced that it would be ending legacy admission. And notably, they're following in the footsteps of other selective schools that have recently made the same move, including Amherst, Johns Hopkins, and Carnegie Mellon. But while to a degree this seems like a trend, you need to understand that many other competitive schools are reluctant to stop legacy admissions. And that because they argue they're important for building intergenerational communities and for getting donations for alumni that can be used to fund financial aid, as well as some pockets. Beyond that,

experts also note that making this decision could be harder for schools like Harvard and Yale, which have a higher percentage of legacy admissions. Right, Wesleyan, by contrast, has just around 3,000 undergrads, and its president said today that even before this decision, legacy status played a negligible role in the school's admissions process. And then, Jenna Ortega, Anne Hathaway, and Paul Rudd are still making movies amid the actor strike. Before you grab that bucket of tomatoes and start chucking, understand they are not scabs, and they're not actually crossing picket lines. Instead, yesterday, what we saw was SAG granting approval to 39 different independent projects that'll still be allowed to continue shooting

amid the strike. And in great news for you film nerds, this includes two A24 films, one starring Anne Hathaway, Hunter Schafer, and Michaela Cole, and the other with Jenna Ortega and Paul Rudd, which just as a side note is a movie about a father and daughter who accidentally kill a unicorn with their car. And as far as why did they get this exemption right, if the actors are on strike, why are they working? Reportedly, the reason these films got exemptions was because A24 and other groups behind those movies are not a part of the AMPTP, right? That group that's representing the studios that actors are on strike against. And so that means for these 39 projects, not only can they keep shooting them, but after production is completed, the actors can do promotion for them. And according to Variety, they just have to abide by the terms of the latest offer submitted by SAG.

And with all this, you had SAG's chief negotiator, Duncan Crabtree Ireland, explaining that it's beneficial for actors to continue to work on approved projects or under interim agreements right now. With Rolling Stone quoting him as saying, it really helps to show in a very practical way that the studio's claim that our proposals are unrealistic or just bogus. Our members who work under interim agreements are actually helping advance the cause just in a different way. So while obviously there are very real concerns about there being some sort of entertainment drought because of these strikes, there is also the possibility that if this goes on for a long time, we may see a sort of renaissance when it comes to indie films. In that, maybe we see a number of movies getting released that don't have like a 3, a 4, a 5, a 6, a 7, or an 8 after the title.

Since in general, it seems like many of the studios have been allergic to like original or at least new IP. And then, you know, if you're a dog lover like me, nutrition is very important for your dog's life and well-being, but it can also get costly, which is actually why I'm excited to tell you more about the sponsor of today's show, Sundaes. Sundaes is fresh dog food made from a short list of human-grade ingredients containing 90% meat, 10% veggies, and zero synthetic nutrients. And unlike other fresh dog foods, Sundaes doesn't require refrigeration or preparation because of their air drying process. Just pour and serve, and it's super easy to store. And I mean, we all know how much better we feel when we're getting the right nutrients and the good foods and the same goes for man's best friend, which I will say our dogs are loving this food. And we love feeding them quality food, but also really love the convenience

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Just go to SundaysForDogs.com slash fill, or just use code fill at checkout. And then the government and Big Brother have gone too damn far. That's what a group of more than three dozen lawmakers argued in a letter urging the Biden administration to change federal laws that allow law enforcement to access sensitive medical data, and notably that including abortion records all without a warrant, with this letter coming in response to a proposed update under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, aka HIPAA, and specifically an update that would require law enforcement to include a written certification in its request for certain protected health information, vowing that the data would not

be used in certain ways. But the lawmakers say that the Biden administration needs to go further and ensure that Americans' protected health information for all categories of medical care receive the same protections that emails and location data already receive, and adding that the changes are necessary in order to protect Americans from warrantless government surveillance. The letter specifically noted, Although doctors cannot be forced to testify about their patients' medical conditions in courts across the country, patient records containing the same information can be subpoenaed by law enforcement agencies without showing probable cause of a crime and without oversight by an independent judge. So with that, the group's asking Biden to require law enforcement to obtain

a warrant in order to get protected health information from doctors, pharmacists, and other medical providers, arguing that requiring a warrant for this information is consistent with the protections afforded to other sensitive data under federal law and the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution. Also pointing out that law enforcement's already required to have a warrant to wiretap someone's phone calls, obtain their emails and text messages, or track their phone's location. Beyond all that, the letter also calls on the administration to require warrants for protected health info to prevent those records from being shared with fusion centers, government surveillance, clearinghouses, or other law enforcement agencies unless necessary. Plus, they're requesting that patients be notified when their medical data is shared with law enforcement.

While obviously this applies to a wide range of protected medical data, this letter is coming amid increased concerns about the surveillance of abortion seekers specifically. And that's not just limited to warrantless surveillance of medical records and information. In fact, the same day lawmakers sent this letter, a damning new report was published detailing how people who travel across state lines to get abortions or gender-affirming care face an increased threat of surveillance and criminalization from law enforcement. And that report, which was published by the advocacy group, the Surveillance Technology Oversight Project, it showed just how many data points law enforcement can use to track people who travel out of state to get abortion, with a senior researcher explaining that traditionally lawyers prosecuting abortions have drawn from cell phone data, but also adding, even in the absence of cell phone data, it is shockingly and scarily easy to track people's trips to gender-affirming care clinics and to abortion clinics.

With them pulling from a number of different sources, such as vehicle information from private car or rideshare apps, flight records, street cameras, ticket information, automatic license plate readers, among others. And the organization's executive director saying, Every hotel reservation and bridge toll will just be one subpoena away from being used against a patient in court. And the report also warning that digital surveillance data makes profiling easy and suggests that travel data will be weaponized to identify new targets for healthcare prosecutions and investigations. And importantly, all of this is coming as anti-abortion states are increasing their efforts to prosecute people who leave the state to get an abortion where it is legal. So this is a very big deal, something we're going to have to keep our eyes on. And unfortunately,

in the meantime, we know Big Brother is going to be doing the same. And then the other shoe just dropped for 16 fake electors in Michigan. With Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel yesterday charging 16 Republicans who falsely claimed to be the presidential electors in 2020 in an effort to get Trump elected in the state. And the charges they are looking at are hefty. With Nessel slapping all 16 with eight criminal counts, including forgery, conspiracy to commit forgery, and election law forgery, some of which carry sentences of up to 14 years in prison. So I imagine not fun news for any of these 16, but especially Michonne Maddock, who back in May joked about not being arrested, saying, Dems waiting for my arrest. Also, the details in this story are very interesting, because specifically, court documents released after the charges were

announced detail how the 16 Republicans met and filled out paperwork claiming that they were Michigan's official electors and that Trump had won the election. This, of course, despite the fact that Biden had actually won the state by 150,000 votes, courts had already thrown out lawsuits that claimed that Trump had won, and leaders in the legislature had made it clear they would not challenge the results further. But still, the fake Trump electors tried to go to the state capitol on December 14th of 2020, the day every state met and cast their vote for president. But of course, they were blocked by police because the real electors who had literally been certified by the state were already there doing their jobs. But even then, the Trump electors claim that they were the true electors who had met

at the state capitol. And it wasn't just a verbal claim. Nessel also said yesterday that the 16 Republicans actually submitted paperwork to the Senate, National Archives, and other entities making this bullshit claim, which, who could have guessed it, turned out is in fact a crime. And understand, these criminal charges are especially significant because the 16 Trump electors in Michigan weren't the only idiots who tried to pull this stunt. Michigan is just one of seven swing states that Biden won where Republicans filed paperwork claiming to be the true electors for their states. And also, Michigan isn't the only state to have launched an investigation into those actions. With probes still ongoing in Arizona and Georgia alongside additional civil lawsuits against the fake electors in Wisconsin as well as Michigan. And while, of course, we're going to have to wait to see how all this plays out. Very key thing.

While the Michigan probe that resulted in the charges we're talking about today mostly focused on the fake Trump electors, it's possible that it could expand beyond that with Nessel saying yesterday, this remains an ongoing investigation and our department has not ruled out potential charges against additional defendants. But yeah, in shocking news, someone might actually be held accountable. And then Vladimir Putin is a little bitch. Or to put it another way, South Africa just avoided an international crisis after convincing Putin to just stay home. Because little boy Vladdy was supposed to be traveling to the country for the upcoming BRICS summit. But there was the itty bitty problem of that whole international criminal court arrest warrant for him. Because South Africa is obligated under treaties to execute that warrant

if Putin shows up. Which obviously put the government in a weird spot. Where they either don't arrest him and get in trouble with every other country that follows the ICC, or they do arrest him and then deal with Russia likely not being a fan of that. With South Africa's president even speaking on this and saying, Russia has made it clear that arresting its sitting president would be a declaration of war. It would be inconsistent with our constitution to risk engaging in war with Russia. Now with that, Russia has denied that it threatened war, although the statement from a Kremlin spokesperson really isn't that much better, saying it's clear to everyone what that kind of infringement against the head of the Russian state would mean. And so with South Africa seemingly having no good solution, for a while it seemed like they were just leaning towards letting Putin attend.

But then that hit a speed bump as the main opposition party went to court to try and compel the government to arrest Putin if he arrived. However, all this ended up getting dodged because Putin agreed to stay home and instead send Foreign Minister Lavrov, which could end up being a big deal because it takes away Putin getting FaceTime with leaders of Brazil, India, China, and South Africa. Though, of course, he will be Zooming in, something he probably finds less than ideal, especially because he wants to meet with major economic partners, with China and India especially really propping up Russia's international trade right now. But that is where your daily dive into the news is going to end today.

But, of course, remember, for more news you need to know, I got you covered right here on those links down below. And for those who have already watched everything, remember, my name's Philip DeFranco. You've just been filled in. I love your faces, and I'll see you right back here tomorrow.