The Philip DeFranco Show - PDS 8.12 You Won't Believe What This Florida Sheriff Did... David Dobrik, Kamala Harris, & Belarus

Episode Date: August 12, 2020

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Sup you beautiful bastards, hope you've had a fantastic Wednesday Welcome back to the Philip DeFranco show and two quick announcements before we get started. One, you now just have five days left If you want to snag yourself some of the limited edition emotionally exhausted gear all available at shopdefranco.com And two, my podcast A Conversation With came back today actually just before I uploaded this video at youtube.com Slash ACW. Today's guest was the fantastic Matt Pat who of course is behind the game theorists, the film theorists, the food theorists. We talk business, we talk hyper-personal. I think you'll love it. Definitely check it out after today's show.

But that said, welcome back to the Philip DeFranco Show. Buckle up, hit that like button, and let's just jump into it. And the first thing we're gonna talk about today, actually this whole first section, let's talk about some quickie stories before we get to the deep dives. First up, we haven't done this segment in a while,

we have our D-bag of the day. And today, the winner of this prestigious award is Marion County Sheriff, Billy Woods. And the reason for this is in the midst of this pandemic, while yes, there are many large police departments only suggesting that officers wear masks. You have most experts in public health saying wearing a mask is critical.

You have a number of people calling for mandates. But Billy Woods decided to go the complete other way and actually banned his employees from wearing a mask. And no, you did not mishear me. He is banning his employees from wearing masks. It's around 900 people. With the sheriff reportedly writing,

"'My orders will be followed "'or my actions will be swift to address.' Telling employees to tell people it's the sheriff's mandate "'if asked why they aren't wearing a mask in public.' And adding, "'From that point on, "'it will be my burden and responsibility "'to take care of the person and answer their problem, complaint or their question.

Which to me seems like an insane thing for most any sheriff to do, but a Florida sheriff especially. According to Axios, Woods' ban came the same day Florida's health department reported 276 new coronavirus deaths, surpassing the state's previous record. Also a day later, Marion County set a new record

for most deaths in a single Florida County with 13 deaths. At this point, I really don't know what to say when we come across stories like this. I mean congratulations to Billy Woods. This is a special kind of stupid that's even surprising to me at this point. And of note, according to the sheriff, there will be some exceptions to the rule. Saying that while officers are expected to be unmasked when they're talking to citizens, you will allow officers who are working in schools, courts, jails, or hospitals to wear it. But once again, not a mandate. And as far as what happens from here,

we're gonna keep our eyes on this. We should know something soon that the city council is planning to meet today. Then let's talk about some internet and entertainment business news, starting with more of the mainstream. There we had Forbes releasing the highest paid actors of 2020 list.

And there from 10 to the top, you've got Jackie Chan, Adam Sandler, Will Smith, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Ash K. Kumar, Vin Diesel, Ben Affleck, Mark Wahlberg, Ryan Reynolds, and at the top, you know it's him, Dwayne The Rock Johnson. And what I will say is one of the things that was interesting with that list

is the sheer number of people that are on that list that also have Netflix deals. The most prominent of course, being Adam Sandler, who signed a quarter of a billion dollar deal with Netflix back in 2014, as well as more kind of short-term deals like The Rock reportedly getting paid $23.5 million to star in Red Notice.

Then in the more internet-y space, you have stories coming out like that of Shroud. If you're unfamiliar, he's one of the massive streamers that signed an exclusive deal with Mixer. Mixer of course now is gone. Notably there, according to reports, when Mixer ended, Microsoft was forced to buy its exclusive streamers out of their contracts.

With reports speculating that meant Shroud got a nice $10 million without even having to finish the contract, also leaving him a free agent. And with this, you had many people wondering, where is Shroud gonna go? Where are other creators gonna go? And we got the answer for Shroud yesterday when he announced,

I'm coming home with a video announcement and a link to his Twitch channel. And while the details of his exclusive Twitch deal were not disclosed, you have to imagine that there was a nice payday. Shroud is a proven pull, even if he and a select few top creators couldn't make Mixer a thing.

I mean, you just look at some of the things we've witnessed over the past few weeks, like DrDisRespect just blowing away people with huge numbers on YouTube, or Ninja having massive streams on YouTube, massive streams on Twitch. While yes, Facebook gaming is a thing and we have seen growth over there.

If you are a streamer and you're interested in not only blowing up with an audience that is hungry to view your content, but possibly get some money from an exclusive deal, it feels like YouTube and Twitch are the places to go. And I think more and more platforms are realizing the creators at the end of the day are king, as long as there is a at least close competitor

in the space, or like there's a minimum threshold or core user base on a platform for everyone to win. So I'm pretty sure that for a number of these companies, especially if they're kind of like one or two in the space, it's in their best interest to throw money at creators. I mean, another company in the news for a similar reason, you had TikTok. They recently released the names of the 19 people

who will be the first to be paid under its new creator fund. When they first announced this fund, it was for $200 million. It is now expected to grow to over $1 billion in the United States over the next three years. With TikTok encouraging eligible creators to apply when the next round of applications opens up in mid-August. And among the first 19, you have the likes of David Dobrik,

Michael Lee, Brittany Tomlinson, as well as Avani Gregg, just to name a few. And obviously when you hear that news, you're like, ah, thank God, David Dobrik's finally making money. But once again, I do believe it's in TikTok's best interest. They have big competitors emerging like Instagram Reels, which even though in my opinion, it is a far less intuitive and worse version of TikTok,

Instagram does have a massive and active user base. Just because of their sheer size, they're immediately a threat. You also have people believing that this move will help incentivize users to remain loyal to the platform, especially as they fight with the Trump administration. For now, we'll have to wait and see. And I guess the main question I wanna ask

with this bit of quickie news is, aren't you happy that David Dobrik's finally making money? Actually, if there's any question, obviously I gave you the story, I gave you my opinion, but I do wanna know if you agree or disagree on the point of it makes sense for the top two to pay a creator to go to their platform. And this might be more geared towards people

that watch live content. If one of your favorite creators signed an exclusive deal to one of the top two to pay a creator to go to their platform. And this might be more geared towards people that watch live content. If one of your favorite creators signed an exclusive deal to one of the top two, in this case, it is YouTube and Twitch, would you be far more likely to follow them than if it was some smaller platform? Yes, no, maybe so, why, why not? And then let's talk about what's been easily

the most requested international story, and that is what is the situation in Belarus? And so this whole situation starts with President Alexander Lukashenko. So Lukashenko has served as the president of Belarus for more than 25 years. He was first elected when the office was established back in 1994, and not by coincidence,

that was also the last election in the country that outside observers have said was free and fair. And since taking office, Lukashenko, who has also been described as Europe's last dictator, has kept tight control over the elections. In addition to literally controlling vote counting, he also controls Belarus' huge security system, as well as the state media,

which always pushes news favoring him and criticizing his opponents. And throughout his authoritarian rule, the government has continually and frequently suppressed opposition. But then, heading into last Sunday's election, Lukashenko was experiencing the largest and most significant opposition to his rule

since he assumed power. And a big part of this is due to the fact that his policies have become more and more unpopular as they have failed to modernize and grow Belarus's economy. But in addition to the faltering economy, Lukashenko was also facing a lot of anger from his people over the handling of the pandemic,

which he also said was not a threat. With him repeatedly downplaying the virus, even after he said he got it, and suggesting at one point that drinking vodka would prevent the coronavirus. So in the months leading up to the election, we started seeing street protests against Lukashenko. He then responds in an unsurprising manner.

There's a massive crackdown with him claiming that the protests were part of a foreign plot and he began mass arrests. One Belarus-based human rights group reported that throughout the whole election campaign, which started in early May, there were more than 1500 arbitrary detentions. But it wasn't just protesters and journalists

that were arrested. Lukashenko also began arresting several of his major political opponents in the upcoming election on charges that were widely believed to be false. Then what we ended up seeing is in July with all his opponents either in jail or forced to flee the country to avoid being in jail, Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, the wife of a popular YouTuber

who was one of Lukashenko's jailed opponents, registered to run. With her then becoming the United Opposition candidate, receiving backing from others who were unable to run. And for weeks, she went around the country campaigning, sometimes drawing crowds estimated at over 60,000, making them some of the largest political rallies in Belarus since the fall of the Soviet Union.

But despite all of that, the opposition expected that this election would be illegitimate. And what we ended up seeing on Sunday is the state-run election authority declaring Lukashenko the winner by a vote of 80% to Svetlana's under 10%. So immediately we see the opposition and many other international governments dismissing the outcome as clearly rigged.

With Tikhanovskaya's campaign and independent observers reportedly claiming that in addition to all the other things that Lukashenko did to set this up in his favor, there was also widespread ballot stuffing and falsification. And so as she had indicated before, Tikhanovskaya said that she would refuse to accept the results.

On Monday, going to the Central Election Commission headquarters to formally contest the vote count, according to a supporter who said that she went with her, she was in a room for three hours with two senior security service officials. About an hour into that meeting, the supporter said she saw several people entering the room with black bags that contained

what looked to be video equipment. And after another two hours, she was told that Tikhonovskaya had left through another entrance. Then on Tuesday, Svetlana posts a video on YouTube saying that she had fled the country, saying she did so for the sake of her two children, and adding, I know that many will understand me, many will judge me, and many will hate me. But you know, God forbid,

I will be in such a choice as I am. And while she didn't say in that video where she had fled to, her campaign said that she was in Lithuania, which is a fact later confirmed by the country's foreign minister. Then, later that day, a video of Tikhanovskaya was released that most people say she clearly made under duress

and likely was filmed at the commission headquarters. In the video, reading from her prepared note card, she called on the people of Belarus to stop protesting, insisting the nation has made its choice and Lukashenko had won, but that has not stopped the protesters. And in fact, since the election results were announced, the protests have swelled and spread all over the country.

Marking would have been described as the biggest anti-government protests in this country in decades. Thousands of people taking to the streets on Sunday. According to reports and footage, security forces responded in multiple cities by trying to break up protests by force, using tear gas, stun grenades, water cannons,

rubber bullets, and other projectiles at varying degrees. The Associated Press also reporting that black uniformed officers chased protesters into residential buildings and deliberately targeted journalists, beating many and breaking their cameras. Also on Sunday, the country was hit with massive internet and cellular blackouts,

many social media sites being blocked. And while Lukashenko denied that the government had shut down the internet and blamed these outages on a large cyber attack, experts have said that there is no evidence of that. And while some places have reported that as of today, the internet has largely been restored, the protests have still been going strong ever since.

So far, government authorities say they have arrested more than 6,000 people nationwide in just the last three days. Though, as of right now, it does not seem like these protests will die down anytime soon. And while there have been reports that demonstrators in some places have fought back by throwing petrol bombs and building barricades, this response from security forces

has been described by many as unusually brutal, even for Lukashenko. As the BBC writes, "'The brutality of the crackdown has shocked observers "'as many of these weapons had not been used in Belarus "'before the weekend.'" Also, we're seeing things like numerous reports of journalists being arrested and going missing

for long periods of time. Meanwhile, numerous world leaders have spoken out about the violence against the protesters, including Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who said today, "'We want the people in Belarus to have the freedoms that they're demanding. And adding that Sunday's election wasn't held in a way that was free or fair. That was also echoed by the EU foreign policy chief

who criticized authorities in Belarus for disproportionate and unacceptable violence. Also saying the EU was considering taking measures against those responsible for the observed violence, unjustified arrests, and falsification of election results. With the EU also reportedly weighing sanctions on the country. But ultimately that is where we are right now.

It is unclear what happens next. We'll obviously be keeping our eyes on this. And of course, like with every story, I do want to pass the question off to you. What are your thoughts on this? And the last thing we're going to talk about for a little bit is Kamala Harris. As I only got to briefly touch on yesterday,

of course, Joe Biden announced that she is his running mate. That announcement met with a very strong reaction. I mean, on one side, for example, you saw this massive outpouring of support. This including a barrage of celebrities like LeBron James, Chrissy Teigen, John Legend, Kerry Washington, just to name a few. You also saw Democrats who had previously been seeking the

nomination like Cory Booker, Amy Klobuchar, Pete Buttigieg, echoing support. However, on the other side of this, we saw president Donald Trump pretty much immediately taking aim at Harris, tweeting out an ad that calls her part of the radical left, also calling her phony Kamala. And just minutes later, we saw Jesse Waters

making a similar statement over on Fox News. She's kind of a phony who never caught on. We also saw that gain some steam online with phony Kamala trending on Twitter. We also saw Republican National Committee Chair Ronna McDaniel blasting Biden for picking Harris, saying that Biden just, quote, "'Chose the person who would actually be in charge

"'of the next four years if he is somehow able to win.'" With McDaniel going on to paint Harris as what she called the radical left by saying, "'Kamala Harris's extreme positions, "'from raising taxes to abolishing private health insurance "'to comparing law enforcement officials to the KKK, "'show that the left-wing mob is controlling "'Biden's candidacy just like they would

"'control him as president. "'These radical policies might be popular among liberals, "'but they are well outside the mainstream "'for most Americans.'" With McDaniel adding that Harris should expect an unprecedented level of scrutiny and attention. Actually, let's talk about that because whatever your view of Harris

or politics in general is, that much is true. There's already been widespread scrutiny into Harris's time as the top cop attorney general of California by both Republicans and Democrats. But the difference you often see there is you have conservatives painting Harris as too extreme or too far left for America. And then at the same time, you see a number of liberals

saying that she's actually way too moderate and that her actions as AG do not align with the current situation America is in, especially from what liberal critics say they want to see out of the Democratic Party. For example, you had people tweeting out things like, "'In an era of Black Lives Matters and defund the police, "'Joe Biden proposed increasing police budgets,

"'and now he has announced a cop, Kamala, as VP. "'The Democratic Party is laughing laughing at black people right now. Others accusing her of promoting mass incarceration and advocating for petty sentences that disproportionately affect black and brown communities. You know, looking at some of the specific criticisms, a lot come from 2011 to 2017. This because she was first elected as AG in 2011.

She served until 2017 when she won her current Senate seat. For her part, Harris has described herself as a progressive prosecutor that's tough on crime, while also addressing deep inequalities on the criminal justice system. Saying that she became a prosecutor because she believed she could best change the system from within.

But if you're gonna be the top cop and also call yourself progressive, there are gonna be some conflicts and there's also gonna be some baggage. For example, after Michael Brown was shot and killed by police in Ferguson, Missouri in 2014, many called for her to open an investigation and do a series of police shootings in San Francisco.

However, she argued that except in extraordinary circumstances, that was not her job. Though by 2016, Harris had proposed what the New York Times described as a modest expansion of her office's powers to investigate police misconduct. And there she began reviewing two municipal police departments as well as backing a justice department investigation in San Francisco.

With the New York Times noting that quote, "'Pritics saw her taking baby steps "'when bold reform was needed, "'a microcosm of a career in which she developed "'a reputation for taking cautious, "'incremental action on criminal justice, "'and more often than not, yielding to the status quo.'" Critics also pointing out that Harris said

in her 2009 book, Smart on Crime, "'If we take a show of hands of those "'who would like to see more police officers "'on the street, mine would shoot up. "'Virtually all law-abiding citizens feel safer "'when they see officers walking a beat. This is as true in economically poor areas as in wealthy ones.

But then earlier this summer after the death of George Floyd, she said, it is status quo thinking to believe that putting more police on the streets creates more safety. That's wrong, it's just wrong. And so while here you had some people saying that she was a hypocrite or a flip flopper, you also had people arguing, okay, well that's 11 years.

People's viewpoints can shift over that time, whether it be from personal growth or new information. But that's hardly the only controversy Harris has faced as AG. In fact, one of the most notable concerns stems from 2011, when the Supreme Court ordered California to reduce prison crowd, saying that conditions were so bad, they violated the Eighth Amendment ban

against cruel and unusual punishment. With then Justice Anthony Kennedy writing that the prison system in the state had failed to deliver minimal care to prisoners with serious medical and mental health problems, producing what he called needless suffering and death. And what we ended up seeing at that time, Harris created a division in her office to help counties devise alternatives to incarceration.

And in February of 2014, the state agreed to reduce its prison population by releasing nonviolent prisoners with only two felonies who had served half their sentences. However, by November of 2014, her office argued in court against releasing too many prisoners eligible for parole. Right, prisoners it had already agreed to release

because if forced to release these inmates early, prisons would lose an important labor pool. At that time, Deputy Attorney General Patrick McKinney also argued against releasing those prisoners because many were being used as firefighters to combat California's fire season, with most of those prisoners earning only between eight and 37 cents an hour.

Ultimately, what we ended up seeing is that campaign fail, but relevant to what we're talking about today, Harris denied that she ever knew this argument was being used, telling ThinkProgress, "'The way that argument played out in court "'does not reflect my priorities. "'The idea that we incarcerate people

"'to have indentured servitude "'is one of the worst possible perceptions. "'I feel very strongly about that. "'It evokes images of chain gang.'" And we ended up later seeing Harris instructing her lawyers not to make that argument again, but still baggage. Also, one of the very, very common criticisms we've seen of Harris involves arrests over marijuana, which is why we saw that video from a presidential debate last year resurfacing yesterday. There you had Representative Tulsi Gabbard taking aim at Harris. There are too many examples to cite, but she put

over 1500 people in jail for marijuana violations and then laughed about it when she was asked if she ever smoked marijuana. Also with this, you have some arguing that that is misleading, with some arguing that Gabbard was pointing to the Washington Free Beacon, which is a conservative outlet that ran the headline, Kamala Harris packed California prisons with pot peddlers. And reportedly during Harris's time as AG,

around 1900 marijuana offenses were recorded, which is actually more than what Gabbard said. But also a few things here that others have argued. One, marijuana offenses actually dramatically dropped after Harris's first year in office. Two, the vast majority of those cases were not directly prosecuted by her office, but rather low-level attorneys prosecuting those cases.

And three, of former lawyers from her office arguing that most of these people were never locked up. Instead, saying only a few dozen were sent to state prison for marijuana convictions while Harris was AG. Also, regarding more Harris criticisms, we can actually go back to Tulsi Gabbard and that clip. She blocked evidence that would have freed an innocent man from death row until the courts forced her to do so.

For those unfamiliar with the specifics of that claim, that case involved a black man by the name of Kevin Cooper. He was convicted of brutally murdering four people in a family in 1983. In 1985, he was placed on death row, but continued to maintain his innocence. And with this story, there have been serious, serious concerns over his conviction.

For example, an eight-year-old witness described the perpetrators as three white men. And according to an investigative column from the New York Times, brown and blonde hairs were found in the victim's hands. But Cooper had black hair and an Afro at the time. In fact, sheriff's deputies never even found Cooper's hair or even his fingerprints at the scene.

You also had a woman calling police and telling them that she believed the murderer was her boyfriend, a man who was already convicted of murder. This because she found his bloody overalls and noticed that a hatchet had gone missing. But police still went after Cooper after finding him hiding near the family's home after he had escaped from a prison on a burglary conviction.

Then we fast forward to 2016 when Cooper's attorneys filed a clemency petition insisting that newly available DNA testing would exonerate him. However, Harris's office refused to allow that DNA testing. Though we ended up seeing all these years later as in 2018, when she was now in the Senate, Harris then said that she hoped that the state

would allow DNA testing for Cooper's case, which later moved forward after Gavin Newsom took over as governor last year. As far as Harris's response to all of this, I mean, after that Gabbard clip, we saw Harris's then campaign spokesperson denying that she was ever directly involved in that decision, saying, Senator Harris ran an office of 5,000 people and takes responsibility for all the actions of the California Department of Justice during her tenure.

Most of the legal activity around this case occurred before her terms in office, but this specific request was made to and decided by lower-level attorneys. When the case was brought to her attention, she publicly called for further DNA testing. She has always been a strong proponent of DNA testing and again, an opponent of the death penalty. You've also seen people taking aim at Harris over things that she said about Biden during the primaries, during the debates, around things even like race. But then fast forward to now and she is his running mate, so does she still not believe that? Once again, I want to reiterate,

everything that we're talking about today is not everything. As McDaniel noted, there is going to be an unprecedented level of scrutiny and attention. We're just getting into this new phase. I mean, you also had people calling around for sponsoring a 2010 law that would have made it a misdemeanor for parents to have their children miss more than 10%

of the school year without a valid excuse. Right, something that would have disproportionately affected low-income families. But I want to make sure that we at least started on this today. And I mean, as far as what happens from here, one of the most notable things to me is gonna be, how does this affect the polling?

Right, everyone can say what they're saying online. Sometimes you see stuff, sometimes you don't, because it feels like more often than not, we end up in these little bubbles these days. One of the things we have seen thus far though, is that after Biden made this announcement, according to his camp, they brought in a ton of money, saying that it was their biggest fundraising day to date.

Once again, for now, we'll wait to see what the polling shows. With all that said, of course, I then pass the question off to you. What are your thoughts on this? And that is where I'm going to end today's show. And as always, to the 11 of you still here Thanks for being a part of these daily dives into the news. I love having this community Also, if you happen to be new here, we'd love to have you definitely hit that subscribe button

Maybe even tap that bell to turn on notifications Also, if you're looking for more to watch I have that brand new podcast out with MatPat or maybe just miss yesterday's show You want to catch up on the news? You can click or tap right there to watch either there But with that said of course as always my name is Philip DeFranco. You've just been filled in I love yo faces and I'll see you tomorrow