The Philip DeFranco Show - PDS 7.9 Roller Coaster Riders Trapped Upside Down For HOURS, New Disturbing Reality of Broken Foster System

Episode Date: July 9, 2023

To get a 1 year supply of immune-supporting Vitamin D3K2 + 5 individual travel packs, here! https://drinkag1.com/defranco Catch up on the latest PDS: https://youtu.be/xvJuVVCj7ss  Check out our daily newsletter! http://dailydip.co/pds  Follow me on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/phillydefranco/?hl=en  –✩ TODAY’S STORIES ✩ – 0:00 - Eight People Get Stuck on Roller Coaster Upside Down for Hours 01:04 - Complaint Filed Against NJ Judge Over Rap, Pop Music TikToks 03:11 - The Foster Care Crisis in America 07:32 - Sponsored by AG1 08:33 - How Student Loans Resuming Will Impact Economy After SCOTUS Decision 10:01 - IRS Makes “Last Call” for 1.5 Million Americans to Claim $1.5 Billion in Refunds 11:15 - Social Media Companies Condemned For Not Cracking Down on Fentanyl 12:49 - Hong Kong Makes First Conviction for Disrespecting National Anthem IRS resources for claiming 2019 refunds: https://www.irs.gov/newsroom/irs-last-call-for-taxpayers-to-claim-1-point-5-billion-in-tax-refunds-from-unfiled-2019-tax-returns-july-17-deadline-rapidly-approaching  ——————————   Produced by: Cory Ray Edited by: James Girardier, Julie Goldberg, Maxx Enright, Christian Meeks Art Department: William Crespo Writing/Research: Philip DeFranco, Brian Espinoza, Lili Stenn, Maddie Crichton, Star Pralle, Chris Tolve  ———————————— #DeFranco #Rihanna #TikTok ———————————— Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today we're talking about the foster care problem in our country is just getting worse. A judge might lose his job because of TikTok. If you listen to this IRS story, you may get hundreds if not thousands of dollars. People were trapped upside down for hours on a roller coaster. We're gonna talk about all that and so much more on 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, eight people just lived my nightmare at the Forest County Festival in

Wisconsin because these poor bastards got stuck on a roller coaster for over three hours while upside down. into it. Starting with, the ride was recently inspected by the state of Wisconsin here on site, with the report saying that the luckiest of the passengers were rescued and had their feet on the ground about two hours after the emergency crews were dispatched, with it then taking 90 more minutes to get to the last passenger. Which I guess to them, congratulations on being the unluckiest of the unlucky. That's like a special flavor of suck. And as far as the people, apparently nine people were treated by medical services, with one person getting transported to the hospital. And you've got the state now investigating how the hell this happened. And then, we've seen situations where teachers lose their jobs because someone found out they have an OnlyFans.

But in New Jersey right now, what we're seeing is a judge possibly in some serious trouble over a TikTok account that he had. And that's because in said TikToks, this judge was lip-syncing to rap and pop music. Right, so his name is Garyann Wilcox. And according to a complaint filed by the state's advisory committee on judicial conduct,

he posted 40 TikToks between April of 2021 and March of 2023 under the alias Sal Tortorella. His account was allegedly set to public and the complaint claims that much of the content that he posted was quote, inappropriate and brought disrepute to the judiciary. And in that, citing specific videos that were taken in his chambers

that included music with profanity, graphic sexual references and racist terms. Like in one where he lip synced to Jump by Rihanna, which includes the phrase, "'If you want it, let's do it, ride it, my pony. And another where he was in chambers with some law books behind him. He was in a suit and tie singing along to the line,

all my life I've been waiting for somebody to whoop my ass. As well as another where he's walking around a courthouse while Get Down by Nas is playing, with a song having explicit lyrics about a legal proceeding and a courtroom shooting. Another highlighting a video where he's smiling on camera with onscreen text displaying when an ex-girlfriend calls you Santa because of your new white beard.

And in the background, you got a Busta Rhymes song playing with the lyrics, she turned around and was trying to put my dick in her mouth a letter. With all that, the complaint states that he exhibited poor judgment and demonstrated disrespect to the judiciary and an inability to conform

to the high standards of conduct expected of judges. So here, I do have two thoughts. The first being, I'd rather my case be in front of a judge who does maybe kind of questionable TikToks rather than some of the ones we've talked about recently who just seem to be in rich people's pockets. And two, we gotta understand that everyone's just a human being at the end of the day. Most likely a cringey human being at the end of the day. But ultimately with the situation, it's not up to me and Gary's gonna be facing a hearing

and could face consequences ranging from a reprimand to potential dismissal from the bench. I mean, this is a guy who's been a superior court judge since 2011. He was admitted to the New Jersey bar over three decades ago and actually will reach the mandatory retirement age by 2034. And to think that he could lose everything because he posted some cringy TikToks, some like thirst traps. That's wild. And also very importantly, this case is very likely going to be a big free speech case. With his lawyer telling the New York Times, I don't think that at the end of the day, anybody is going to believe there was any desire to do any harm here. Hindsight is 20-20, but ultimately, we're going to have to wait and see. And then, on any given day, there are hundreds of thousands of kids in the American foster care system. But

also, over the last several years, the number of foster homes has dwindled, meaning that these caseworkers are being forced to house kids anywhere that has a bed, including casino hotels, hospitals, and even jails. So if we look back, the foster care system in America is nearly 200 years old, tracing its origins back to the 1830s with the Children's Aid Society. That's when its founder, Charles Brace, decided to take action against the growing number of homeless children in Northeastern cities.

And by 1875, Brace had sent 3,000 children from the cities to be adopted on farms in the Midwest, where notably, in exchange for being taken in, the children would help out as extra labor. And then, throughout the 20th century, the government established its role in children's welfare. Validating the state's authority to remove a child from an abusive or neglectful home, creating government programs dedicated to children's welfare, and allocating funding for child welfare services.

And throughout those 200 years, the foster system in its varying forms has faced different problems and hefty criticism. And the system that we have today is no different. With a couple of the major concerns being the foster-to-prison pipeline, as well as the disproportionate number of children of color within the system that we have today is no different. With a couple of the major concerns being the foster to prison pipeline, as well as the disproportionate number of children of color within the system. And the pandemic we all just lived through certainly did nobody any favors. With some places like Chicago seeing an increase in children entering the foster care system. But at the same time, you had many foster families unwilling to take in these kids that needed housing because they were afraid of COVID. With Lindsay Wilson, the CEO of a national nonprofit

that supports children in foster care saying, we've had kids that during the pandemic have been shuttled from foster placement to foster placement, not for the child's fault, but because the caregivers are concerned about COVID. And in fact, in places like Texas, foster kids reportedly got COVID at twice the rate of the general population. But also even following the pandemic, the most recent problem that the system's facing is the fight to find housing for these kids as the number of foster homes available continues to dwindle. According to the imprint, a nonprofit publication focused on child welfare and family issues, more than half the states across the country saw a decrease in licensed foster homes

between 2021 and 2022. And those drops range from anywhere between less than 1% all the way up to 60% in states like South Carolina. And as these states encounter foster family shortages, they're being forced to place these kids anywhere with a bed. Like in Nevada, where you had kids from rural counties being placed in casino hotels for short bursts at a time over the course of about three months at the beginning of the year. As well as in one rural county, Brandi Holbrook, a state social services manager, said the shortage was the worst she had seen in her entire career. And saying, for this whole county, it's a total of 12 beds and there's zero open. Literally no kids in this county could stay in their community.

But they're also going on to note that these kids were being moved hundreds of miles away from their lives as they knew it. And key thing, removing a child from their community like that completely destabilizes them. Forcing them to lose contact with not only their family, but their friends, teachers, and coaches. Right? Anything resembling a support system. And then in North Carolina, where the number of licensed foster homes dropped by 23%, children were placed in hospitals, jails, and even the division of social services offices themselves. With Michaela Reinhart at Children's Home Society of North Carolina Specialist saying, it's already just a hard situation being the child in foster care. But then to have a crisis where things have come down to the pipeline

and the amount of licensed foster parents has decreased, it just made it even harder for these kids. And even here in California, you're seeing things like kids being placed in a temporary shelter set up in a former juvenile detention center. And very importantly, these types of desperate accommodations

are not only pretty terrible for the kids, but also very detrimental to the child welfare programs themselves. Because these short-term solutions are draining their resources and the departments are becoming ever more dependent upon them in a time when kids have nowhere else to go. With Alicia Welch, Deputy Litigation Director for the advocacy group

Children's Rights saying, it's not to say that I think any of these systems are choosing to rely on these practices, but the deeper they get into relying on them, they're just digging their hole deeper and deeper. Now with all that said, there have been a couple of ideas thrown around for solutions. In Montana, you have Governor Greg Gianforte taking the incentive route and signing legislation providing a $7,500 tax credit to parents who adopt foster children. Meanwhile, in Nevada, officials are looking to relax the requirements for licensing for foster parents. However, part of the problem with that is that last year, an audit found extensive problems in already existing foster locations, with reportedly after inspecting 30 homes, a legislative auditor finding that a third of them

had health or safety deficiencies and 79% had at least one violation. And a few of them didn't even meet medication management standards. But despite those issues, Nevada is still pushing for lowering the minimum requirements for foster home licensing, which as of now requires foster families to pass background checks, submit fingerprints, and not have a history of child abuse or neglect, as well as there being 27 hours worth of training required for parents who want to take in kids or teens with emotional or behavioral issues. But also in some communities, it can take anywhere up to between six and nine months to become licensed. And actually Welch even agrees

that there can be some rules that can be loosened without compromising safety. And you also have North Carolina working on legislation to give more funding to their child welfare programs as well. And to be clear, all this doesn't mean just getting more homes fixes the system. It has plenty of flaws, but most can agree that having a kid in a home

is far better than on the street and at least a start. And so with all that said, I wanna do two things here. I wanna ask one, what are your thoughts on the situation in general? But also two, if you've ever been a part of or in the foster care system, I'd love to know your thoughts especially. And then, by now I'm sure you've heard me talk

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with your first purchase at AG1. And then the Supreme Court may have just fucked up the economy. So last week, the conservative majority ruled six to three to strike down Biden's plan to forgive up to $20,000 in federal student loans. So student loan payments, which have been paused for several years since the pandemic started,

will now resume in October. Though also, Biden is now looking at other ways to get forgiveness or relief to those borrowers. But right now, unless something changes, payments are gonna resume soon, and that's gonna take a toll on millions and millions of Americans who have not had to pay for the last several years.

And very importantly, this is coming as many households are already dealing with high inflation and interest rates, as well as record credit card debt. With experts explaining, this is a major hit to most people's budget. And the fact that it's been paused for so long means that people have mentally taken that out of their budgets. So as a result, the impact this is going to have on people's budgets are also going to ripple into other parts of the economy, and particularly consumer spending. Because until now, for the most part, consumer spending has remained

solid despite other economic uncertainties over the last year or so. But a lot of that money is going to have to be redirected to the billions of dollars in monthly loan payments. In fact, the investment bank Jefferies is predicting that student debt payments will resume at $18 billion a month, which is 3% of the $686 billion that was spent on retail and food services in May per Census Bureau estimates.

With experts forecasting, department stores and specialty retailers are gonna be hit the hardest as well as all kinds of discretionary spending like travel or streaming services. But also the biggest thing with this whenever we're talking about the economy and predictions, they are predictions.

We don't know 100% what people are actually going to do, how they actually react. And of course, this is the other wild card of, is Biden gonna be able to do something before October? But in the meantime, I gotta ask you, how is this gonna affect you or those around you? Because the United States is very much a nation of debt holders, but not equally.

And then you, listen up right now, because you may be missing out on a whole payload of cash and know this is not an ad. And the reason I need you to hear me is that there are only a few weeks left to claim it because the IRS just said in a recent announcement that they're issuing a last call for people who have not yet claimed their 2019 tax refunds. I'm not talking about pocket change here. The agency estimates that there are $1.5 billion in unclaimed tax refunds from unfiled 2019 returns just sitting on the table. And we're talking about a whopping 1.5 million Americans who are eligible for those refunds, with the IRS saying that the average median refund for the tax year was $893. But also adding many low and moderate income workers may be eligible for as much as $6,557 if their 2019 income qualifies them for the earned

income tax credit. And so if you happen to be one of these people, you'll have until July 17th to claim your refund. And to make it easy, I'm going to link to resources from the IRS on how to do that. But also very specifically here, the agency also specifically noted the IRS reminds taxpayers seeking a 2019 tax refund that their checks may be held if they have not filed tax returns for 2020 and 2021. And also warning that the refunds will be applied to any amount still owed to the IRS or a state tax agency and may be used to offset unpaid child support or pass due federal debt such as student loans. But no matter what, there's real money at play here and you should at the very least check. And if you get a refund, maybe spend some of it over at beautifulbastard.com. I gotta self-serve a little bit, don't judge me. And then social media

companies are not doing nearly enough to crack down on fentanyl sales on their platforms. That is what DEA Administrator Anne Milgram told Chuck Todd in a recent interview with NBC, where she discussed how drug cartels use social media to market deadly drugs. Social media is also a vital part of the conversation. It is what I call the last mile, because what the cartels need, they're selling the deadliest poison we've ever seen. They need that to get-

They need a platform to advertise. Exactly. And they also need to be able to expand and sell more. They need to be able to reach people at massive rates. And that's what social media is doing. But they're also going on to say the DEA has been in conversations with social media companies

and that has been made clear to those platforms that they need to step up. The deputy attorney general convened all of us in April of this year and made it very clear, number one, that the companies have to comply with their own terms of service, which say this is illegal.

You cannot be selling fake pills. You cannot be selling drugs on social media websites. Number two, law enforcement needs to get information from the social media companies. We have not, until recently, gotten nearly as much cooperation as we need. And finally, this is an outright emergency. So they need to be doing absolutely everything they can to get the deadly drugs off their platforms. Also adding here that this is the key jumping off point for getting the fentanyl crisis under control. We talk a lot with Congress about social media. We talk a lot about the need for these platforms to, you know, essentially one of the main ways we see Americans dying right now is through social media, the purchase of pills, fake pills on social media. So again, if we're

after, you know, how do we stop 110,000 Americans from dying? That's the place to start. And then, here in the US, if you don't respect the national anthem, though the worst that's gonna happen is maybe you're gonna kill your football career due to faux outrage.

But in Hong Kong, that shit's serious. You go straight to jail. With a guy by the name of Chung Wing Chun just finding that out because he became the first person tried under the city's controversial national anthem law. Right, and so what specifically Cheng did was he edited a video of a Hong Kong Olympic fencer during the Tokyo Olympic Awards ceremony.

He replaced the Chinese national anthem with the song Glory to Hong Kong, which if you don't know became a major protest anthem during the massive 2018-19 protests. And many think that what Cheng did wasn't even disrespectful at all, and he continues to claim that he never meant it as disrespect.

However, the court magistrate said, "'This behavior clearly undermines the dignity dignity of the national anthem as a symbol and a sign of the People's Republic of China. And as far as for his sentence, the 27-year-old man's not going to know until July 20th. But what we do know is this conviction carries upwards of three years in prison and over $6,000 fine. Because sure, if you want to be so patriotic that if someone disrespects your country's national anthem, you can be like, fuck them, I'm not going to support them. But to actually have it at a level where the government will potentially throw you in prison is pure

insanity. But it is currently at least one person's reality. That's where your Sunday dive into the news is going to end. But of course, don't worry. For more news you need to know, I got you covered here and in those links down below. And make sure you subscribe because I'm going to have some more for you soon. Because remember, my name's Philip DeFranco. You've just been filled in. I love your faces and I'll see you tomorrow.