The Philip DeFranco Show - PDS 7.23 The MrBeast Kris Tyson Scandal Got Worse, New Sonya Massey Bodycam Footage is Horrifying & More News

Episode Date: July 23, 2024

PDS Debt is offering a free debt analysis. It only takes thirty seconds. Get yours at https://PDSDebt.com/defranco  Go to https://hensonshaving.com/defranco and enter DEFRANCO at checkout to get 100 free blades with your purchase. (Note: you must add both the 100-blade pack and the razor for the discount to apply.) ==== ✩ TODAY’S STORIES ✩- – 00:00 - Ava Kris Tyson Leaving MrBeast Over Messages to Minor 08:03 - Secret Service Director Cheatle Resigns 09:43 - Sponsored by PDS Debt 10:38 - Bodycam Footage Shows Officer Fatally Shot Woman Boiling Water in Her Home 16:02 - Kamala Harris Secures Delegates as VP Rumors Swirl  19:38 - Sponsored by Henson Shaving 20:50 - Feds Investigating Delta for Canceling Flights Days After Crowdstrike Meltdown 25:36 - Firefighter Crews Are Desperately Understaffed as Wildfires Rage ——————————   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 for Wildfires: Maddie Crichton ———————————— #DeFranco #KrisTyson #MrBeast ———————————— Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Sup, you beautiful bastards. Welcome back to the Philip DeFranco Show, your daily dive into the news. And a lot has happened in the past 24 hours. So you just hit that like button to let YouTube know you love these big daily dives into the news. And let's jump into it. This is a news show.

So Ava Chris Tyson of the Mr. Beast crew is in the middle of a massive scandal right now as she faces allegations that she inappropriately messaged a minor. And while all of this is just now blowing up online, this actually began last month when a little known YouTube channel called Prism42 posted the allegations.

Right, and in it, he accuses her of starting an online friendship with a 13-year-old boy while she was 20, then showing screenshots of several tweets that he claims are between Ava and the minor. And one, from 2018, Ava's promoting her Patreon with her allegedly saying, "'Guys, we are so close to our goal.

"'One more Patreon and I'm releasing my nudes.'" With the two appearing to exchange kissy face and winky face emojis in a thread and Ava eventually telling the minor directly, "'I posted some fire nudes for you. "'Please no share.'" And there, Prism saying, "'Even if this was just a series of raunchy jokes

"'and no actual nudes were exchanged, "'in what worlds is it appropriate for an adult "'to joke with a kid like this?'' Prism then showing other screenshots, some in which Ava appears to call the kid dad, as well as another suggesting Ava was sending him Snapchat DMs with adult jokes. And Prism going on to say when the kid was 16,

he met up with Ava as well as Carl Jacobs after taking a camper to the middle of the woods in a quote unquote secluded area. With Prism then saying he interviewed this guy who's now in his twenties and saying he asked if Ava or anyone else on the Beast team ever assaulted him. However, there he notes that the guy fully denied that. It also seemed like they weren't on the same page

with at one point Prism saying to him directly, that is highly inappropriate. That should have never happened. I'm sorry if your feelings were hurt in any way, shape or form. I want you to know that I don't have any ill intention here against you. And at the end of the day, the only reason I did any of this and was trying to get this information out is because of genuine concern.

He also addressed Mr. Beast and said, I think the work that I see, you do fine work. It's great, it's good charity. I don't have anything against you other than like the fact that, you know, you seem to be okay with having someone that says they're the opposite gender in your kids. However, you know, this video largely went unnoticed until this week when a creator by the name of Brion posted another video recapping Prism42's claim.

Right in it, Brion stresses that he can't confirm Prism42's claim. Right in it, Brionne stresses that he can't confirm Prism's claims 100% saying, it's all allegations. You know, take the things that you see here with the grain of salt. We don't know if 100% Chris is a pedophile or predator or whatever. We just know that Chris has done some really weird things in his past over on Twitter. And with that, you had Brionne honing in on a tweet where the kid asked Ava about her hentai addiction. Like, it's really odd that a 14 year old knows that a asked Ava about her hentai addiction. Like, it's really odd that a 14-year-old knows that a 21-year-old has a hentai addiction, and these two happen to be friends. Like, why the hell would you tell somebody who is this age, or frankly a minor,

weird sexual shit and the things that you're into sexually? And then sort of separate but also connected to this whole story in recent days, we've seen a lot of people screenshotting what they say are old tweets from Ava where she expresses an interest in Lolly, which is this anime style of either drawing young looking or underage girls, usually in a suggestive or outright explicit way. There, you also have the likes of Keemstar writing, Chris Tyson supported the cartoon CP artist Shadman that drew my daughter at age eight in a sexual manner, saying this is a known fact. And adding privately, me and Chris Tyson even had a conversation about this roughly a month ago, as it still upsets me. This is not misinformation. This is a fact. And adding,

as the owner of Drama Alert, I can tell you there has been misinformation surrounding Chris Tyson today on Twitter. However, this above is 100% true. Just like this old tweet from Chris shown here. It's 100% true and authentic. But then jumping back to Brionne's video, he asked Ava to respond to all of this saying. Chris has to say something. Chris can't be quiet like Chris has been for the longest time. This needs to be something that Chris is going to address head on, like right now. That said, so far, as of recording, Ava hasn't outright responded to these allegations. Though reportedly last month, she did delete all of her tweets from her account. We also haven't seen any comment from Mr. Beast regarding the situation either.

Though close to that, you did have Keemstar tweeting, Mr. Beast connected me directly to Lava, the alleged Chris Tyson groomed victim. Lava said, I was not groomed by Chris Tyson. "'Also saying I did not meet Chris Tyson by myself. "'I met Chris and the MrBeast crew with my family present. "'And saying I ran a Discord with Chris Tyson "'when I was 13 and edgy inappropriate jokes were said. "'That's it.'"

And also if you go to that person's Twitter, they wrote, "'Chris did nothing wrong. "'What's actually disgusting is you guys twisting things "'and making me a victim. "'As well as can you guys help me counter all these lies? "'Chris's messages to me were sent "'in public Discord servers, groups, "'but everyone is framing it as if it was one-on-one.

Chris literally did nothing wrong. And then another tweet saying this situation takes away from children who are actively being exploited every day online. So there you had a lot of people kind of either not buying that or countering that by saying something along the lines of what Moist Critical said during a live stream. And then one of the, like the main person being talked about came forward saying they weren't groomed and that it wasn't weird but the whole thing is if you were groomed you're probably not going to be super aware of it and from the messages i saw that shit is completely unacceptable to be saying to a child under under circumstances. And then I saw people saying it was a group chat, but an adult being in a group chat with children and then still saying edgy or inappropriate shit is still unacceptable.

Like that, like there's no context that makes it better. And so online with this, we see just so many different reactions. Some just outright condemning Ava. You also had a former member of the Mr. Beast crew saying Jimmy knew. Though again, others saying when you were a minor, you wouldn't be aware of what was happening. You also had others going after Prism and Breon for misgendering Ava throughout the videos,

which then connected to that, you had many people saying they're scared shitless that these allegations against Ava are just gonna turn into cannon fodder to scapegoat the entire trans community. Saying things like, let's be clear, the Ava-Chris Tyson allegations are not a trans issue. It is in fact a content creator issue.

So many people, when given a small amount of power, abuse it and this itself should be studied. With some arguing we're already seeing the first ripples of that with, for example, Andrew Tate responding to the situation by saying, So now everyone's pretending to be surprised that this tried to a kid. Well, of course.

It's all. They're sexual deviants. They're weirdos. There's no reason to chop your own dick off unless you're a weirdo. Newsflash, you're weird. We've also seen a number of people drawing comparisons between this situation and the one with Dr. Disrespect, with many online saying that those who were quick to comment

on the Dr. Disrespect situation have stayed silent on this one, with seemingly almost all the creators that were in the recent 50 YouTuber MrBeast video getting hit up about this. So in particular, the creators Pokimane and Valkyrae seem to get a lot of the attention, with then, actually as of this morning, both responding, Pokimane and Valkyrae, seem to get a lot of the attention. With then, actually, as of this morning, both responding. Pokimane saying,

I don't know all the details regarding the Ava situation, but I want to make it clear, any inappropriate behavior towards minors is unacceptable, regardless of who you are. And adding, it's a shame that people will see this as an opportunity to attack the trans community as a whole. One person's actions does not reflect on every single trans person,

so please don't view it that way. With Valkyrae hitting a lot of the same notes, but then also adding, Dr. Disrespect is still gross. And lastly, to the incels that only tagged Poki and I to speak up, even though everybody did after Dee did himself, "'You're weird. Focus your hate towards the pedos for once.'" And there online, we've seen people arguing both things.

Right, some saying that people went after "'Dr. Disrespect' harder, others saying they went after Ava harder." Now with all this, I do wanna know that everything is still developing and growing. We're now seeing others digging up different comments and posts Ava allegedly made, that including, for example, video of Ava in the past talking about and linking to leaked nudes of Jeanette McCurdy in an old clip, as well as at least one other person claiming they were also underage when Ava sent them inappropriate messages.

They are providing video of what appears to be Snapchat DMs and explicit Discord voice chats from group messages. And in the meantime, you have all these different things all over the place, getting millions and millions of views. You have people arguing about what's real or not, which is also why we've seen people both in support of and against Ava or MrBeast here pressuring them to speak on this. Especially, because again, you have people like Jake the Viking, who used to be a part of MrBeast's crew,

saying things like Jimmy Noop. And actually, like really hitting on how everything's been developing in real time, we have a last second update right before we were uploading. Ava Chris Tyson just tweeted, I would like to apologize for any of my past behavior or comments if it hurt or offended anyone. It was not my intent. Seeing recent events, we've mutually decided it's best I permanently step away from all things Mr. Beast

and social media to focus on my family and mental health. So for now, that's where we're gonna end this today. But of course with all this, I gotta pass a question off to you. What are your thoughts here? And then in the least surprising news today, if you watch yesterday's show, Kimberly Cheadle is officially out as secret service director.

With Cheadle this morning announcing in an email to employees that she was resigning from her post. And of course, all of this just coming a day after the devastating and humiliating hearing with the House Oversight Committee regarding the security failures around the attempted assassination of Donald Trump. But Cheadle facing numerous calls to resign before, during, and after that hearing from people on both sides

of the aisle. In this, as there was also an effort by at least one Republican lawmaker to force an impeachment vote. Though understandably, some people were surprised with this news because despite being told to her face that she should resign or be fired multiple times yesterday, Cheadle even insisted at one point, I think that I am the best person to lead the Secret Service at this time. But in a resignation letter, which was obtained by the media, Cheadle made a complete reversal, saying once again that she takes full responsibility for the security lapse and writing, in light of recent events, it is with a heavy heart that I have made the difficult decision to step down as your

director. And adding, this incident does not define us. I do not want my calls for resignation to be a distraction from the great work each and every one of you do towards our vital mission. You know, with this move, we ended up seeing many people on both sides of the aisle praising or even outright cheering this move. And that, including from House Speaker Mike Johnson. Our reaction, the immediate reaction to her resignation is that it is overdue. She should have done this at least a week ago. I'm happy to see that. will not change the plans for a bipartisan House task force to investigate the assassination attempt that he and minority leader Hakeem Jeffries had announced just hours before. And you have the House set to vote later this week on a resolution establishing that task force, which will consist of 13 members, including six Democrats,

and it'll have subpoena power. And, you know, to that point, despite Chito's resignation, the various ongoing investigations from numerous different agencies will still continue, with President Biden also vowing to appoint a new director soon. And then, you know, I think most of us have felt the pressure at some point of trying to get ahead,

but instead fallen further into debt with credit cards, personal loans, medical bills, you know, you get the gist. Well, getting into credit card debt is very easy. Getting out, I mean, the system's just set up so we don't. And this can be overwhelming, but there are options out there to help, right? And if you're making payments every month and your balances aren't going down,

the sponsor of today's show, PDS Debt, they can help. PDS Debt strives to understand your specific scenario and can help provide alternative solutions to becoming debt-free. And everyone with over $10,000 or more in eligible debt qualifies and there's no minimum credit score required. And when you go to pdsdebt.com slash DeFranco, they'll give you a free debt analysis

and it only takes 30 seconds. So stop waiting and start saving. Get a free debt analysis right now at pdsdebt.com slash DeFranco. Because nobody likes the stress of mounting debt and the pressure that comes with that. Surviving is not living. Regain control of your life and live for you,

not your debt. And then, y'all, we need to talk about how this woman's own 911 call for help ended with her being shot and killed by police. Especially because the body cam footage that just got released shows how it all went down. So to start, the woman's name is Sonia Massey. And on July 6th, early in the morning, she called police

because she thought someone was trying to break into her home in Springfield, Illinois. And so you had Sean Grayson, an Illinois Sheriff's deputy, responding to the call along with another unnamed deputy whose body cam footage we're now seeing. So we see them knock on the door a couple of times. They take a look around outside. There's no one there with Massey

eventually coming to the door. And tellingly, one of the first things out of her mouth is don't hurt me y'all, to which Grayson says. Oh, it hurts you, you called us. But thing is, despite saying that, he's less than five minutes away from shooting her in the head. But from here, you know,

they talk out front for another minute or two. They head inside. They're asking for Massey's name, then asking for her driver's license. And you know, she's seemingly having a little bit of trouble answering the questions. With now a key thing to keep in mind being that Massey's daughter has now confirmed that her mother was paranoid schizophrenic. And of course, as we've talked about on the show, for years we've seen people raising the issue of how encounters between police and people with mental illness too often turn deadly. But in any case, right, the situation seemed to be

relatively calm. That is until Grayson spots a pot of boiling water on the stove and he tells Massey to go turn it off. And in seconds, everything changes. We don't need a fire while we're here. All right. Hey. What are you doing? Huh? What are you doing?

I'm gonna wade through your hot semen water. You're gonna wade through my hot semen water? Yeah. Oh, I was gonna puke you in the name of Jesus. Huh? I'll puke you in the name of Jesus. You better not, that's what I got. I'll shoot you eyes in the water. I'm gonna wash my eyes in the water? Yeah. Oh, I'll rebuke you in the name of Jesus. I'll puke you in the name of Jesus. You better not, that's what I got. I'll shoot you right in the face. And that's where I have to stop the video on YouTube

because that is the exact moment Grayson pulls out his gun. Right immediately after that, we hear Massey saying, "'Okay, I'm sorry,' and duck down behind the counter." But then Grayson repeatedly shouting, "'Drop the fucking pot,' before advancing and firing three shots." With one of those shots hitting Massey in the head, and that's when we hear this audio. Bring 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. I was on, I was on. I'm gonna go get my kid. And if Grayson's little chuckle there wasn't disturbing enough, he also at one point says about the woman that he just killed. And then beyond that, we hear Grayson sort of trying to explain and justify his actions saying this at one point. I mean, you know, what else do we do? I'm not taking hot boiling water to your face

and it already reached us. But with that, beyond the fact that it's not totally clear that Massey was actually getting ready to throw boiling water at them, we even have police saying this was totally unjustified. Right, I mean, you had the use of force incident review chair for the Illinois State Police making clear in a memorandum for the department saying,

by approaching Massey, Grayson placed himself within a distance where he could have been injured and adding, this is similar to an officer stepping in front of a moving vehicle and fearing for his safety. And so with that, one, Grayson has been fired and two, last week he was charged with counts of first degree murder,

aggravated battery with a firearm and official misconduct. And while of course you had a lot of people very happy to see these charges, you also had others quick to point out that this is something of an exception. There have been a lot of cases that people would say have been similar that haven't resulted in charges, let alone convictions. With this case in particular, they notably may reflect broader issues that are being talked about with policing.

Like for one, body cams, right? On one hand, the body cam footage here was very useful, but that's also only because there was this other deputy around who had his turned on. Grayson, on the other hand, wouldn't you know it, reportedly didn't have his body cam on for much of the interaction, which is an apparent violation of protocol. And then, as far as other stuff about the guy, he had been hired despite two charges of driving under the influence. And then, of course, there's also the issue of police trying to protect their own, even when they've done something wrong. And specifically with that, some are reporting that certain officers may have tried to cover up the shooting. And that being, according to police, radio allegedly showing someone, apparently at the scene of Massey's killing, falsely claiming her wound was self-inflicted.

In fact, when the dispatcher asked for clarification, a man repeated the claim. And then on top of that, Massey's father claimed he initially received conflicting information from law enforcement, saying at a news conference, I was under the impression that a prowler had broke in and killed my baby. Never did they say that it was a deputy involved shooting until my brother read it on the internet. And so with all of that and the body cam footage coming out, you even had the likes of Biden being one of the people

to connect this to the bigger picture saying, "'Sonia's death at the hands of a police officer reminds us that all too often, black Americans face fears for their safety in ways many of the rest of us do not. With him then calling on Congress to pass the George Floyd Justice and Policing Act to, quote, increase trust and accountability

in America's police force. And then with that, we actually had the family's attorney comparing Massey's killing with the murder of George Floyd, as well as relating it to the upcoming election. Saying, just like George Floyd was the catalyst for the 2020 election, we believe this will be similarly impactful on the 2024 presidential election, especially for our black community.

There's a narration to the tragedy. It's just troubling on every level. Black women don't get the respect and consideration they deserve in America. And then on top of that, you had Massey's family placing what happened here in a longer history of violence against black people in the US, and actually in Springfield, Illinois specifically.

With them saying that she was actually a descendant of William Donegan, who was a black man lynched by a white mob during the city's 1908 race riots, which notably was the event that led to the creation of the NAACP, which also is an organization that Massey's family actually reached out to for help, sort of bring the whole thing full circle. And just adding to this cruel twist of fate,

Massey was taken to and pronounced dead at the same hospital where her ancestor died after being lynched. But with all that said, while we wait to see what happens here, I have to pass the question off to you. What are your thoughts? But then to shift gears,

we gotta talk about big updates around Kamala Harris. Because there are a few things. The first big one is that over half of the first round delegates at the Democratic National Convention have now vowed to support Kamala Harris, which notably is what she needed to get that nomination. So depending on how pedantic you are,

she is the nominee or just will be. So, you know, big, but also not surprising news. Once Biden dropped out, it seemed like this was how it was gonna play out. The party seemed to be very quick to get behind Harris as she has a lot of campaigning to catch up on. And it also makes funding and fundraising way less complicated since it's the same committee.

Of course, definitely jarring that this is all happening just three months before the election. You know, it's given it the feel of a European election. Whereas in the United States, it feels like the soft election cycle is two years long. Like, I don't know how people in the House of Representatives get anything done. They are just constantly running for office.

And so now as Harris has started publicly campaigning, the next big topic is who's gonna be the VP? Here, I wanna issue a clarification. Some people were like, you need to correct this. It's a clarification. Yesterday, I talked about Gavin Newsom being mentioned as a possible nominee. And I said, that just doesn't make sense. There are also names that have gotten thrown out there that I don't think make sense.

Like Newsom as a VP pick for Harris, I either don't think makes sense. And that's actually for two reasons. The first is that personally, I do not in any way think that would help Kamala Harris in a swing state. And the second, and arguably the more important, is that they are both from California. And that matters because the 12th Amendment states that the electors at the Electoral College vote by ballot for president and vice president,

one of whom at least shall not be an inhabitant of the same state with themselves. And so they could be on a ticket together, but it'd mean California's 54 electoral votes couldn't go to them. And even that is assuming that a judge didn't interpret that amendment to mean that they can't even run together in the first place. But regardless, losing 54 electoral votes kind't go to them. And even that is assuming that a judge didn't interpret that amendment to mean that they can't even run together

in the first place. But regardless, losing 54 electoral votes kind of matters. Right, but that then brings us to, well, who are the leading candidates to be Harris's VP? Currently, we're seeing reports that the two front runners are Senator Mark Kelly and Governor Josh Shapiro, starting with Kelly. He was a fighter pilot in the first Gulf War,

flying 39 combat missions. Then he became an astronaut who orbited the earth over 600 times and flew the space shuttles last flight. He's also married to Gabby Giffords, the former congresswoman who was shot in an assassination attempt in 2011. Kelly also ran for Senate in Arizona in 2020, winning re-election in 2022. Also, I feel like maybe I shouldn't have started with him because now you're going to be comparing them to, okay, are they a fighter pilot astronaut who won a swing state? But there's a lot of different stuff at play here, and we should talk about everyone.

Right, like with Josh Shapiro, he served in the Pennsylvania State House before becoming county commissioner. He then became the Pennsylvania Attorney General, and then was elected to be the governor in 2022. Notably, his approval rating in Pennsylvania is apparently in the low 60s, which makes him one of the most popular governors in the country,

with even one in three Trump voters saying he's doing a good job. And while it's been reported that those two are the front runners, the other possible candidates include Roy Cooper, Big Gretch, Tim Walz, JP Pritzker, and Andy Beshear, all of which are popular in their states and all of which have their own unique advantages.

As far as Roy Cooper, he's the governor of North Carolina. He's won six consecutive statewide elections. I mean, at one point Republicans didn't even bother running against him. Then you've got Gretchen Whitmer, who is the governor of Michigan. While she has said that she will not leave the state, that's also what every college football coach has ever said before they've left. Then you gotchen Whitmer, who is the governor of Michigan. While she has said that she will not leave the state, that's also what every college football coach

has ever said before they've left. Then you got Tim Walz, who's the governor of Minnesota and is largely considered to be the most successful democratic governor in the country. He's also a veteran. And JB Pritzker, he's the governor of Illinois, who's won in a landslide twice. He's a billionaire whose family owns the Hyatt

and he was also a venture capitalist. He's also been described as a knife fighter or an attack dog, with a big part of the narrative around him being that he cannot be bought and as a knife fighter or an attack dog, with a big part of the narrative around him being that he cannot be bought, and as a result of that, his values are unshakable. And then you have Andy Beshear, the two-term governor of Kentucky.

His family has a legacy in Kentucky, with his dad having previously been governor in the state. Also before the governorship, Andy was the attorney general of the state. He's also notably an elected Democrat in Kentucky. So one, he's notably less liberal than the rest of these picks, but also two, that shows that he might have broad appeal.

But for now, we kind of just have to wait to see what happens because no one really knows. And then, so if you were born after 1970, multi-blade razors were kind of status quo for over half a century. Where's that gotten us? Right, for most, it's irritation when shaving or the ridiculous cost of razors that don't do the job.

And personally, I've been using what I consider the best razor I've ever used long before they were actually a sponsor of the show. So thank you to Henson Shaving for giving consider the best razor I've ever used. Long before they were actually a sponsor of the show. So thank you to Henson Shaving for giving me the best shave I've ever had. Because Henson shaving razors are the skin friendly shave, exceptionally well built, giving me the closest shave I've had with no nicks or cuts.

Cause you see razor blades, they're like diving boards, longer the board, the more wobble, meaning more nicks and cuts. And these blades, right, their blades, they extend a thousandth of an inch, which means a secure and stable blade. And once you have a Henson razor, it only costs three to five dollars a year to replace the blades, which really goes along with my mantra in life, which is just give me one less thing I need to think about. If I can do that, I consider that a huge win. Not to mention,

you know, giving landfills a bit of a break. So y'all say no to subscriptions and yes to the razor that'll last a lifetime. Go to hensonshaving.com slash DeFranco to pick the razor for you and use code DeFranco and get two years worth of blades free with your razor. Just make sure you add them to your cart. That's 100 free blades when you go to h-e-n-s-o-n-s-h-a-v-i-n-g.com slash DeFranco and use code DeFranco. And then, so we have to talk about CrowdStrike again. And I know that some of you are like, that was five days ago. That was a different lifetime.

That was back when Joe Biden was still running to be president. But here's the thing, that little oopsie that happened last Friday that caused what may be the largest global IT disaster in history, that mess is still unfolding. And if you don't know,

or you just need a little refresher, right? This starts with one little software update from the Texas-based cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike that provides software to a wide range of industries. And according to its CEO, a defect in the update's code caused one of the software products to malfunction. With that, in turn, causing Windows operating systems to malfunction. With reportedly as many as 8.5 million Microsoft devices around the world just suddenly shitting their pants. And with that, disrupting about everything that makes modern civilization work. Things like

hospitals, banks, hotels, retail stores, delivery services, government agencies, 911 call centers, and public transit system. You even had the giant screens of Times Square either go black or show New Yorkers the terrifying blue screen of death. But there was one industry that got the biggest gut punch, and that was air travel. Airlines having to cancel thousands of flights

and delaying tens of thousands more on one of the busiest weekends of the summer. While thankfully, all of them pretty much recovered from the outage by Monday, that wasn't true for Delta. Or because it turns out, while other airlines only had to fix their passenger check-in systems, Delta's crucial crew scheduling software totally shut down as well,

meaning that Delta had no way of matching crew members with planes or even knowing where its employees were. So on top of the thousands of cancellations from over the weekend, Delta canceled over a thousand more flights yesterday, making up just over half of all cancellations globally. And then of course, with hotels either shut down or overbooked, you had passengers stranded

without their luggage waiting for alternative flights and airports were just a nightmare. With the videos on social media just showing all this chaos. For example, one person sharing their experience saying, Atlanta airport is jam-packed. Mothers with small children on the floor and the terminal line for customer service is a half a mile long, no rental cars, few hotel options.

People have been stuck here three days. If there weren't bigger national news, Delta CEO would be dragged to testify. But as far as its response, so far we've seen Delta offer SkyMiles vouchers and the right to request a refund. Also posting on Twitter, we will be covering eligible expenses

for impacted customers resulting from this flight disruption, including providing meal vouchers, hotel accommodations, where available, and ground transportation. Though, airline policy says it doesn't compensate passengers for lost income due to canceled flights. And this is it's pretty much impossible to fully capture the downstream impacts that we're seeing. It's more just anecdotal. For example, there was this one pair of friends stuck at the airport struggling to find care for their dog back home, where also the AC broke down during Arizona's triple digit heat. As well as things like a woman

who ran out of her prescription meds after being stuck in the airport for three days. And of course there were no shortage of less serious but still important things like people missing birthdays, weddings, work opportunities, and on and on it goes. So notably with that, after speaking with Delta CEO on Sunday, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said in a statement,

"'I have made clear to Delta that we expect the airline to provide prompt refunds to consumers who choose not to be rebooked and free rebooking and timely reimbursements for food and overnight hotel stays to consumers affected by the delays and cancellations, as well as adequate customer service assistance to all their passengers.

And that notably after he said on Saturday, I am hearing reports of some airlines only offering flight credits to passengers for canceled flights. Let me be clear, you are entitled to get of some airlines "'only offering flight credits to passengers "'for canceled flights. "'Let me be clear, "'you are entitled to get your money back promptly "'if your flight is canceled "'and you don't take a rebooking.'"

And in fact, now the Department of Transportation has announced that it's opening an investigation into Delta, which of course is gonna be a horrible time for them because they've already lost tens of millions of dollars in revenue and they're expected to lose much more. And of course, all of this is Delta didn't start the fire, CrowdStrike did, which is also why it's important to note

that CrowdStrike's also feeling the heat, with members of the House Oversight Committee and House Energy and Commerce Committee both requesting briefings from CrowdStrike. And this is the House Homeland Security Committee went even further, calling on CrowdStrike CEO, George Kurtz, to testify on what caused the outage and how the company will prevent it from happening again.

The committee's chair and that of its cybersecurity subcommittee writing in a letter that the outage must serve as a broader warning about the national security risks associated with network dependency. Which notably is also a conclusion that we've heard from many different people on both sides of the political spectrum.

For example, Professor Brian Klaas writing for The Atlantic, "'The devastation was the inevitable outcome "'of modern social systems that have been designed "'for hyper-connected optimization, "'not decentralized resilience. "'We've engineered a world in which tiny localized errors "'can cause global crisis.'" And so with that, one of the questions that's popped up is whether or how we roll back

some of the corporate concentration and market monopolization that has taken place over the past several decades. But then also, more immediately, we're going to have to figure out what to do about CrowdStrike. Because, I mean, you can bet your ass we are going to see a fire hose of lawsuits. So there, reportedly, how liable the company is is a question. Because according to Business Insider, for example, CrowdStrike's terms and conditions state that it doesn't have to give affected clients anything more than a simple refund for the software. You've got some arguing that unless you're this huge company

that actually negotiated better terms or you were smart enough to buy cyber insurance, you may have to just eat the damages. Though also, we could still see lawsuits come up against cyber insurers over what is and isn't covered. And also, you know, it's important not to forget that CrowdStrike's also vulnerable to legal action from shareholders and potentially the SEC. And also, you know, it's important not to forget that CrowdStrike's also vulnerable to legal action from shareholders and potentially the SEC.

And then, now this is rough, because as if the growing threat of wildfires wasn't a big enough issue, we're also dealing now with firefighter staffing shortages. While this is a countrywide issue, one of the biggest problems is actually among federal wildland firefighters who are leaving their jobs en masse.

In fact, data shows that over 1,300 Forest Service firefighters resigned in the last three years alone, and 84 Forest Service fire engines in California are unstaffed at any time. And according to Christopher Benz, an Oregon-based writer and former firefighter, there's no wondering why this is happening.

With him writing, the reason is simple. The government hasn't significantly raised pay in decades. 30 years ago, a fire job could afford you a modest home, but wages have barely gone up since then. By the time I left fire in 2020, half the temps on my crew were living in their cars and sleeping literally down by the river because gentrification from remote work

had sent housing prices in mountain towns skyrocketing. And while, you know, there was a temporary boost a few years ago that brought minimum pay to $15 an hour, funding for that, it expires in September. And the opportunity to give federal firefighters a permanent raise is just stuck in Congress. There are actually being two bills aimed at addressing this but there's no telling what's gonna actually come of them.

But also according to Benz, even the raises proposed in those bills, they're just not enough. And with that, he explained that the consequences are incredibly severe. Saying as firefighters quit, "'It guts crews of experience, leadership and tradition. The firefighters who remain will be less safe.

So will homes.'" Also with this issue, you have people like ProPublica doing a massive piece noting that in the past three years, the Forest Service estimates that it's suffered an attrition rate of 45% among permanent employees, some even calling it the worst crisis in its history.

You also have folks like this one Forest Service official saying that hiring for the 2024 season has been abysmal, saying it's just the smallest list he's ever seen. And all of this is just hammering home the point that even though wildlife firefighters are the last line of defense for vulnerable communities, their base pay is comparable to a food service job. And while yeah, firefighters can earn overtime

and hazard pay as the author of the ProPublica piece explained, there is concern that the emphasis on hazard pay creates an incentive to take risks. And the emphasis on overtime as one wildland firefighter put it to me, quote, "'To be able to provide for our families, "'we have to basically detach from our families.'"

And also with this, I mean, we're talking about a dangerous job, many get injured, plus there's an increased risk of cancer as well as mental health issues. In fact, one 2018 survey found that one fifth of wildland firefighters had experienced suicidal thoughts and 14% screened positive for probable PTSD,

which is why it's not surprising that there have been repeated calls on Congress to actually take action and pass raises for them. With the president of the National Federation of Federal Employees, Randy Irwin, releasing a statement in March saying, NFFE members and firefighters across the country "'are fed up with seeing the can

"'kick down the road repeatedly. "'This uncertainty is taking its toll "'on the wildland fire workforces "'in terms of low recruiting and retention numbers. "'We need a permanent fix for the pay cliff now.'" But also, it's not just the wildlife firefighter numbers that are dwindling. We're also seeing the issue

with volunteer firefighters as well. And that has also been an issue that's been growing for a long, long time now. In fact, according to data from the National Fire Protection Association, the number of volunteer firefighters in the U.S. was nearly 900,000 in 1984, but today it's just 677,000. And that's, of course, even with the U.S. population growing substantially during that time. Also, the age of volunteer firefighters is a concern. Half of them are between 30 and 50, and in smaller departments, you have even higher percentages of firefighters over 50. And all of this happening as have even higher percentages of firefighters over 50.

And all of this happening as well the number of volunteer firefighters has been going down, calls to those departments have actually tripled since 1986. And as far as part of the reason, you have people once again, pointing to economic issues. Right, because especially here, I mean, if for someone to do volunteer work,

they have to make sure they have enough money from working an actual paying job to cover their bills and childcare. But as one New York based fire department chief explained, there's a need for two or three incomes now, and there's only so much time in a day that you can dedicate. Which is why this year we've seen headlines popping up from pockets around the country talking about these shortages. Like in Delaware, for example, which needs about 600 more firefighters to respond to rising calls in the state, or I mean,

New Jersey. New Jersey is one town that had to close three firehouses because they couldn't get enough volunteer firefighters. With this, some solutions have been proposed. I mean, some departments have actually created apprenticeships that could turn this into a career path to make it more of a ladder that people can climb. You also have a fire department in Texas that was able to grow its base, saying that one major factor was messaging, both in finding ways to reach new people,

but also establishing the fire department as a main source of local information. It builds connection, it builds trust, it becomes naturally appealing to the community. Of course, all of this as it doesn't seem like this is gonna be any less of a growing problem. I mean, one, on local level shortages could impact emergency response time,

but also two, when it comes to issues like wildfires, I mean, you need as many people who know what they're doing than ever. Because you know, we have that fun little thing, climate change happening. With one recent study finding that extreme wildfire risk, it's doubled in the last two decades in no small part due to climate change.

And it's also important to remember when we're talking about these fires, it's not just like, oh, it's doubled in the last two decades in no small part due to climate change. And it's also important to remember when we're talking about these fires, it's not just like, oh, there's a risk of someone's home getting burnt down. Well, yes, that does happen and it's a big thing. I mean, severe fires, it kills people, it hurts air quality, it has long-term health consequences. I mean, for example, wildfire smoke exposure

contributed to 16,000 excess deaths a year for the past decade. And it's expected that by 2050, that could go up to 28,000 deaths a year. And I'm saying this to you as fire season has already begun in certain areas of the country. Like y'all, in California, between January 1st and June 19th,

wildfires have burned nearly 90,000 acres compared to the five-year average of 17,000. You don't need to be good with numbers to appreciate that massive jump. And even though the amount of wildfires that have happened in this timeframe is less than the five-year average, it's just the size of these fires

that have made them so severe. The Cal Fire spokesperson saying just the sheer amount of the land burned is alarming and adding, what that tells us is the fuel is ready to go. And that is horrifying to hear because the worst of fire season is very still likely ahead of us.

And all of that just underscoring the need for wildland firefighters, how important their job is and how devastating a shortage of them is. But that, my friends, is the end of today's Tuesday Evening Wednesday dive into the news. And don't worry, you don't have to miss my stupid face for too long, because I'll be right back here for you tomorrow.