The Philip DeFranco Show - PDS 8.16 Lizzo Bella Poarch Controversy, Biden Remarks, Afghanistan Has Fallen. What Now?

Episode Date: August 16, 2021

You’re essentially getting 2 shows in 1 today. Buckle up. Go to https://Stamps.com and use my code PHIL to get a 4-week trial plus free postage and a digital scale! TEXT ME! [phone] Get More Phil: https://linktr.ee/PhilipDeFranco -- WATCH Newest Podcast: https://youtu.be/1Hy6BKjjAQQ WATCH Full “A Convo With” Podcasts: https://www.youtube.com/ACW LISTEN On The Podcast Platform Of Your Choice: http://LinksHole.com WATCH the ACW Clips channel!: https://youtube.com/ACWClips -- 00:00 - Lizzo Speaks on “Rumors” Racist & Fatphobic Hate 02:38 - Jake Paul to Face Scottsdale Charges 03:21 - TX Supreme Court Protects Mask Mandate Ban 04:19 - T-Mobile Investigating Customer Data Breach: 05:04 - Tesla Facing Probe 06:33 - Snopes Removes Plagiarized Articles from Founder 08:07 - Sponsor 09:03 - Devastation Left by Earthquake in Haiti 10:47 - Explaining the Situation in Afghanistan -- ✩ TODAY’S STORIES ✩ Celebs Stick Up For Lizzo After Star Gets Emotional About Online Hate: https://roguerocket.com/2021/08/16/celebrities-stick-up-for-lizzo/ Jake Paul Dodges Federal Charges But Faces Refiled Charges in Scottsdale: https://www.tmz.com/2021/08/16/jake-paul-local-charges-arizona-mall-incident-george-floyd-protest-scottsdale/ Texas Supreme Court Temporarily Bars Dallas and Bexar Counties From Defying State’s Masks Mandate Ban: https://roguerocket.com/2021/08/16/tx-mask-supreme-court/ T-Mobile Investigating Claims of Massive Customer Data Breach: https://www.vice.com/en/article/akg8wg/tmobile-investigating-customer-data-breach-100-million U.S. Agency Opens Formal Probe into Tesla Autopilot System: https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/us-opens-formal-safety-probe-into-tesla-autopilot-crashes-2021-08-16/ Snopes Removes 60 Plagiarized Articles Published by Its Co-Founder: https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/deansterlingjones/snopes-cofounder-plagiarism-mikkelson Devastation Left by Earthquake in Haiti: https://roguerocket.com/2021/08/16/tropical-depression-grace-haiti/ Explaining the Situation in Afghanistan: https://www.nytimes.com/live/2021/08/16/us/politics-news —————————— Edited by: James Girardier, Julie Goldberg, Maxx Enright Produced by: Amanda Morones Art Director: Brian Borst Writing/Research: Philip DeFranco, Lili Stenn, Maddie Crichton, Cory Ray, Neena Pesqueda, Brian Espinoza Production Team: Zack Taylor ———————————— #DeFranco #Lizzo #Biden Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

So today's show is a heavy one. It is a devastating one. Specifically, I'm speaking of the second half of today's show. We're gonna start off lighter, talk about some other things as well, but because this is one of the heavier ones, I'll ask you to hit that like button,

do anything and everything to feed the algorithm gods, because this is the kind of stuff that sometimes YouTube suppresses from us. But yeah, that said, welcome back to the Philip DeFranco Show, and let's just jump into it. First up today, we've got the news and controversy around Lizzo, Cardi B,

and even Bella Poarch getting in the mix. The focus on this story being two things. One, the release of rumors by Cardi B and Lizzo, as well as fatphobia in general. And part of this stemming from Sunday, Lizzo goes on Instagram Live. She talks about how the negativity impacts her. People saying shit about me

that just doesn't even make sense. It's fatphobic, and it's racist, and it's hurtful. If you don't like my music, cool. If you don't like rumors and song, cool. But a lot of people don't like me because of the way I look. And I'm like... Also saying she doesn't want to say the exact things

being said because she doesn't want to give those words power. Yeah, you know, following this, we saw a lot of support coming out for Lizzo, some from Cardi B, as well as other entertainers and influencers like Bella Poarch saying, "'Sad to see society and the internet come together to try and take down people,

especially such positive leaders and role models. This is the part that jades me about the world. We'll never appreciate greatness until it's gone." But also with this, connected or not to the Lizzo situation, we've seen on social media, especially in like the last 24 or 48 hours, a lot of pushback about other incidents involving things that people refer to as fat phobia, body shaming, or just outright threats. With one of these incidents that appears to have one of the biggest spotlights on it right now, especially on TikTok being this clip with Danny Mullen from a podcast. With fat girls,

ideally they have that protrude further than their big belly. Right, we hope. If not, they need to be shot in the head like cattle. With Mullen then going on to say that he would want a samurai to then slice up a woman just long enough so that he could have sex with her still. Like I'd prefer not to even say what he said verbatim.

And so with that, in addition to the backlash you have users on TikTok like Aunt Karen Zero calling for accountability. We need to demand that YouTube review the guidelines because I know for a fact they have to be violating something and we demand better. And with this, well, in general, it's mainly been backlash. We have seen people debate both sides.

Some defending Mullen and the podcast saying these are just jokes, they're dark, edgy jokes, but jokes. Whereas on the other side of people saying, okay, jokes are one thing, but calling for the actual violence against women, that's a complete other thing. It's strange, disgusting, oddly specific. And so with this story,

whether it be the first part with Lizzo or the second part, I would really love to know any and all thoughts you have on this. Then you've got the likes of Jake Paul back in the news, because remember back in 2020 when the FBI raided his home? That after Scottsdale police confirmed in June, 2020 that Jake was facing charges for trespassing an unlawful assembly over an incident

after the George Floyd protests, with them dropping the charges as the investigation moved over to the FBI. But at the end of last week, the situation changed with the US Attorney's Office in Arizona giving Raiders a statement saying, "'Based upon the investigation evidence available "'at this time, the United States Attorney's Office

"'for the District of Arizona is not pursuing "'federal charges against Jake Paul for his conduct.'" But turns out the situation may not be completely over because as of this morning, we have TMZ reporting that the city of Scottsdale has decided to refile their two charges against Jake Paul, with the outlet saying that he's due in court after Labor Day and could face a maximum year in jail

if convicted. Then, in a mix of politics and COVID news, we should talk about yesterday, the Texas Supreme Court temporarily blocking two counties from imposing mask mandates that defied Governor Greg Abbott statewide ban on masking requirements. Those counties, Dallas and Bexar, which houses San Antonio had previously received

a green light to implement the mandate from a lower court, but this new ruling made it obsolete. But despite that, Bexar County still says that they're going to keep their mask mandate, arguing that the court's ruling has little practical effect since a full case on whether or not it can impose a mandate is being heard today. The San Antonio City Attorney saying,

"'The governor cannot use his emergency powers "'to suspend laws that provide local entities "'the needed flexibility to act in an emergency. "'His suspension authority is meant to facilitate action, "'not prohibit it.'" Likewise, the Dallas Independent School District also said that it would continue to enforce its mask mandate for students and staff.

And notably, this comes at a time where COVID cases are surging in Texas. With experts noting that COVID-related hospitalizations have spiked 400% in the past month alone. Also just yesterday, 11,500 were hospitalized with the virus, which is the highest number that the state's seen since January. Then another day, another massive, massive data breach.

This one reportedly targeting T-Mobile customers that could lead to the release of over 100 million people's private information. AKA enough people to basically cover T-Mobile's entire US customer base. Right, reportedly we're talking names, social security numbers, phone numbers, physical addresses, and driver license information.

According to Vice's motherboard, which first reported the story yesterday, the hacker or hackers who stole the information have posted their intent to publicly sell some of it on an underground forum. With that, reportedly they're asking for six Bitcoin or roughly $280,000 as of this morning. And as for the rest,

they say that they're selling that privately. Currently, T-Mobile has confirmed that it is investigating the post, but it is yet to confirm if the information is valid. But you also have motherboards saying that they've seen samples of the data and that it can now confirm that the information is accurate and in fact on T-Mobile customers.

Then let's definitely talk about the federal government's top auto safety agency now opening a formal investigation into Tesla's autopilot function after a series of crashes involving emergency vehicles. Right, we're talking about the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and it says that it has identified 11 incidents across nine states since 2018 where Tesla vehicles quote,

encountered first responder scenes and subsequently struck one or more vehicles.'" With the agency saying that most of the incidents took place after dark, adding that the crash sites included scene control measures such as first responder vehicle lights, flares, and illuminated arrow board and road cones. With reportedly all those incidents happening

when the cars had autopilot or Tesla's traffic-aware cruise control engaged. Also noting that seven of the crashes caused a total of 17 injuries and one death. The agency is saying that its probe will examine how Tesla monitors driver engagement and how vehicles identify roadway obstacles. And it will cover Tesla models Y, X, S, and three

from 2014 to 2021, which is an estimated 765,000 cars. And potentially devastating for Tesla, reports say that the agency's finding could force it to make Tesla recall all those cars and make changes to its system. But for now, I mean, we're gonna have to wait to see what happens next. But I mean, this is also far from the first time

that Tesla's autopilot system has been called into question or even defended. Perhaps most notably, the National Transportation Safety Board previously found autopilot partly to blame in a 2018 fatal crash in Florida. Tesla, for its part, as of recording, has not made a statement about the new probe,

but we've seen the public react. Shares down nearly 5% as of midday trading on Monday. Though as many outlets have pointed out that the company has defended itself in the past. Arguing the driving with autopilot engaged is safer than not. Then we should definitely talk about this Snopes scandal, right, the fact checking website facing a major reckoning

over the weekend. And that's because in an exclusive investigation, Buzzfeed News found that the site's co-founder, David Mickelson, plagiarized dozens of articles between 2015 and 2019. Where through side-by-side screenshots, Buzzfeed showed Mickelson ripped off whole sections of other articles from different outlets, including The Guardian, The LA Times, The New York Times,

CNN, NBC News, and the BBC. And reportedly, all of that was in an attempt to, quote, "'Scoop up' traffic," with one former employee telling the outlet that was his big SEO speed secret. He would instruct us to copy texts from other sites, post them verbatim so that it looked like we were fast and could scoop up traffic

and then change the story in real time. I hated it and wouldn't tell any of the staff to do it, but he did it all the time. However, on the other side of this, in his own statement, Mickelson told Buzzfeed, "'I didn't come from a journalism background. "'I wasn't used to doing news aggregation. "'A number of times I crossed the line

to where it was copyright infringement. I own that." Also saying in a separate statement, "'There is no excuse for my serious lapses in judgment. I am sorry.'" But still with that, Snopes has now taken down 60 articles published by Mickelson, also revoking his ability to publish.

However, reportedly at this time, he is still going to remain chief executive at the company. Though seemingly in an attempt to hold Snopes' name above the water, we saw a chief operating officer noting that most of the plagiarized articles were published before the outlet brought in its current managing editor and editorial team. We also saw eight of Snopes' writers

condemning Mickelson's behavior and saying, "'No writer participated in this behavior, "'nor did any editors.'" But ultimately that is where we are right now. And it's gonna be interesting to see how Snopes moves forward from here, especially with Mickelson still in charge and there being a debate that's still going on.

But from that, I want to take a second to thank the sponsor of today's show, Stamps.com. You know, whether you're a small office sending out invoices and online sellers, shipping orders, or even a giant warehouse sending thousands of packages a day, Stamps.com is great for any size business. For an official US postage from your computer 24 seven

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I mean, I can get all the mailing and shipping done without even leaving my house. Stamps.com saves me time and money, freeing me up to produce the show, work on the new studio, create the awesome apparel that we've been doing on these drops. And right now you'll get a four week trial

plus free postage and a digital scale when you use code fill. There's no risk, no long-term commitments and no contracts. Just go to stamps.com, click on the microphone at the top of the homepage and type in fill. That's stamps.com, code fill. And then the second half of today's show is gonna be focused on very important international news,

starting with Haiti. Haiti, if you don't know, was struck by a 7.2 magnitude earthquake on Saturday that has killed nearly 1300 people and injured at least 5,700 others, according to numbers released on Sunday. And notably, that shake was more powerful than the 7.01 that hit Haiti back in 2010,

which of course killed more than 200,000 people. But this time the quake reportedly hit a less densely populated area in the Southwest part of the country. Now that said, it does need to be understood that this is still a developing situation. It is impossible to assess the full scope of the casualties and the damage right now.

You have rescue teams continuing to dig through the rubble of collapsed structures. The quake and its aftershocks have had a devastating impact on thousands of locals left suffering and displaced. Tragic videos from the scene showing people screaming and sobbing in the streets as they scramble to save or just locate their loved ones. Reports say that more than 27,000 homes have been damaged

or destroyed along with schools, churches, and other structures. And while there's never a good time, the earthquake could not have come at a worse time for Haitians who are still reeling from the recent assassination of the country's president. Right on top of the political turmoil that followed amid a wave of gang violence,

government is just not financially equipped to handle such a crisis. Right, Haiti is considered the poorest nation in the Western hemisphere, and it's already dealing with the effects of the coronavirus pandemic. In fact, they had only just started undergoing a mass rollout of vaccines.

You also have the Southern Peninsula still recovering from Hurricane Matthew, which hit back in 2016, and the devastation will soon get worse because of tropical depression grace, which is expected to hit the area today, triggering mudslides and flooding that will further hamper rescue and recovery efforts. Now with this, the US along with the United Nations

and several other relief organizations have already promised to send assistance, which is definitely needed as hospitals are overwhelmed with patients and low on even the most basic of supplies, as well as a ton of locals out there struggling to get a hold of essentials like food and water. So we'll have to keep an eye on this absolutely devastating story to see how the situation changes.

And then of course, the final thing today is Afghanistan. The country has now fallen and to describe this as anything other than an unmitigated disaster, I don't know how you do that. As I just jumping straight into it, the Taliban have managed to retake Afghanistan within essentially a week after capturing Kabul on Sunday. It's leadership posing for interviews

from the presidential palace and in a later statement, a spokesperson said that the war is finally over and that they would now be in charge. And this reportedly just hours after the Taliban arrived and Afghanistan's now former president fled and resigned to avoid quote, a flood of bloodshed. With him also on his way out, according to some outlets, taking massive amounts of cash and luxury vehicles.

But for many Afghans, that is such a minor issue compared to them just trying to get out right now. This morning, we saw thousands flee to Kabul Airport, the last lifeline out of the country after border crossings were closed. And heartbreaking and devastating videos that appear to be from movies and not real life. You see hundreds storming the airport doors,

rushing the tarmac, people desperately trying to get on flights whether they're waiting in a line to get onto a military plane, helping evacuate refugees or by trying to force their way onto a plane or in the most desperate and tragic of cases holding on while the plane takes off. Also on that note, as of recording,

there are reports of at least seven deaths at the airport, most likely from stampeding, people falling off of planes or possibly even gunfire from either Taliban or security forces. But reportedly, despite the scenes of chaos at the airport, American forces are currently in charge there and trying to get some semblance of order. 3,000 troops were sent back to Afghanistan last week

to help evacuate its 10,000 embassy staff. And over the next few days, it is expected that over 6,000 more will arrive. Although understand this is a developing situation, just as we were recording this, it's also being reported that the US has now halted evacuation flights. This because reportedly things are too chaotic

and too dangerous. I mean, kind of just a thing to understand with this situation, just with how genuinely crazy it is. There's a lot of information that's coming out that can also be contradictory. Now with that said, as of right now, reportedly the Taliban has not made any serious efforts to interfere with the evacuations.

Although there have been reports that they've set up checkpoints around it and sometimes have even taken shots at aircrafts leaving. You also have the US saying that it plans to evacuate at least 5,000 people a day and not just Americans, but also the Afghans who are eligible for a special visa because they worked with US forces. But that's where a lot of the concern is right now

because it's not just a few people. Reportedly 88,000 Afghans qualify for this, but it's unclear how many people will actually be able to get out and for how long the US will be able to maintain control at the airport. But for as long as it's able, the Pentagon says that it's planning to relocate

30,000 applicants to the US, despite not having their paperwork done or vetted. Something that President Biden said just a month ago was against the law, but seemingly is reversed as the situation deteriorates. It's also not just the US that's offering support. A range of Balkan countries have offered refugee status to Afghans alongside Canada and Iran.

The situation has also influenced many European countries to stop deporting Afghans who have been rejected for asylum. But with all that said, with the Taliban in charge, there is the question of, well, what happens next? Some Western nations are urging the international community to not accept the Taliban as a legitimate government of Afghanistan, while places like Russia and China seem to be

in the opposite boat. And for the Afghans there on the ground themselves, it looks like a return to strict Islamic rule with draconian punishments and few rights for women. You know, almost immediately we saw the city of Kabul preparing for that by doing things like removing adverts featuring women and women also largely avoiding going out in public after Sunday. But you also have the Taliban saying

we're not the same Taliban, saying they won't go back to all the old rules, saying that they'll allow women to go around unaccompanied by male relatives, they won't require women to wear burqas, instead saying that a hijab will be enough. Also claiming that girls will be allowed to go back to school.

But at the same time, while they may be saying that, there are mixed reports that some areas under Taliban control have already returned to its more strict interpretation of Islamic law and scripture, which prohibits those things. Which is why we're also now seeing the UN Security Council calling for an immediate end to the violence in the country and for the Taliban to set up a government

that treats women on a completely equal basis. But I also wouldn't hold my breath on that. Right, but with all of that said, it brings us to the final thing that we're gonna talk about today. And that is, it ultimately revolves around the question of, how did this end up being such a shit show? What went wrong?

Earlier this year, the public was told that Afghanistan may not even fall to the Taliban. That then later turned into the government could hold on to major cities for weeks, if not months. But the Taliban kept pushing, taking more and more territory, leading to US officials saying late last week that at least Kabul could hold on to major cities for weeks, if not months. But the Taliban kept pushing, taking more and more territory, leading to US officials saying late last week that at least Kabul could hold out for weeks.

But none of that panned out. So you had people going, how did this happen so quickly? We've spent 20 years and billions of dollars training the Afghan National Army. But that army reportedly had over 300,000 troops, tons of US equipment, and outside of a handful of special forces units, it largely didn't fire a single shot

when the Taliban rolled into city after city. With it seeming that many of the calculations being made for how long the central government would last were based on the national army actually doing something. But the reality is that it was an open secret that the army was a paper tiger and extremely inept. Recruits were alleged to have spent most of their time getting high, looking to play both sides for cash.

Officers there were notoriously corrupt and skimming cash as often as possible. And on top of that, it failed to forge a national identity as most Afghans actually care more about local ethnic and tribal ties rather than some abstract Afghan one. I mean, this isn't new news. As far back as 2013, you had Vice making documentaries talking about this issue.

And reportedly it is largely not changed since then. Right, so that's led to a series of questions about the political spectrum that mainly boiled down to, if that was such an open secret and we knew we were leaving Afghanistan by the end of the month, then why did we rely on them? Why wasn't there a push to evacuate sooner? And why was there a sudden collapse leading

to what will likely be this generation's fall of Saigon moment? These are questions that we don't have answers for right now and may not have them fully for years. But right now, a lot of the blame is being put on the Biden administration. Right, as recently as Saturday, we saw Biden blaming Trump for the Taliban's rise, while Trump similarly

stacked the blame on Biden. You look to social media, there's a lot of finger pointing to whether it be to people or specific moments. We saw him going all the way back to the beginning, blaming Bush and Congress. Others also pointing the finger at presidents who followed, Obama and Trump. You also, of course, had people pointing to Biden because while he didn't start the war or continue the war or make a deal to end the war, he was in charge of the US pullout. Biden and his administration seemingly caught off guard, even though there have been people warning that he needed to move people out sooner.

Then of course you have people pointing back to Trump and Pompeo. People noting that Trump was the one that made the agreement with the Taliban. Also noting that Trump released thousands of Taliban fighters, including the Taliban leader slash looks to be the new president of Afghanistan. People pointing to Trump just a month ago saying at a rally.

Afghanistan, by the way, I started the process. All the troops are coming back home. They couldn't stop the process. 21 years is enough, don't we think? 21 years. They couldn't stop the process. They wanted to, but it was very tough to stop the process. The only way they last is if we're there.

What are we gonna say? We'll stay for another 21 years, then we'll stay for another 50. The whole thing is ridiculous. And some have even gone as far as to blame you, you watching right now, with Tom Nichols putting out a piece on the Atlantic called "'Afghanistan is your fault'."

Noting that the war was immensely popular at the outset, and as recently as June of this year, 70% of the US public wanted America out of Afghanistan, right? 77% of Democrats, 73% of independents and 56% of Republicans. But of course with that, you're gonna have people saying, yeah, support for leaving, but not like this.

So that then leads you into the debate of, we always knew this was gonna be bad. It was just what level of bad, right? Because there's leaving and then there's completely botching the situation, right? Poorly handling the pullout despite many months of lead time and reports that the Afghan National Army wouldn't do anything.

And actually the last thing that I'll tack onto this story is just before uploading today's show, President Biden spoke to the country. I'll link to the full speech down below, but the Cliff Notes version, Biden saying that the war in Afghanistan was never supposed to be about nation building, never supposed to be about making a democracy,

was about preventing an attack on the homeland. Saying that he inherited Trump's deal and he had to follow that agreement or escalate the situation. Saying that there was never going to be a good time to withdraw US forces, but also saying it did unfold quicker than anticipated. Saying the Afghan political leaders,

they gave up the military collapse without even trying to fight. That Americans should not fight in a war that Afghan forces are not willing to fight themselves. Saying we gave them every tool we could, we gave them every chance to determine their own future. And saying that if the Afghan forces couldn't do it now after all the time and investment,

then there was no chance that more time on the ground from US boots was ever going to make a difference. Adding that our global adversaries, Russia and China would love nothing more than the US to keep flooding money into this forever war. Also saying before it fell, he urged the government to seek a settlement with the Taliban, but the former president refused, saying that they could fight, they could last. And regarding why evacuations did not happen sooner, among other things, he said the part of the Afghan government and its supporters discouraged them from a mass exodus, saying

that that exodus would then trigger a crisis. But ultimately, Biden here saying that he stands by his decision to withdraw the United States from the country. Also adding that the US can still carry out counter terror operations around the world without constant troop presence. And warning that if the Taliban attack US personnel or those who helped us, the US response will be swift and forceful.

But yeah, ultimately with this story, I do wanna pass the question off to you. What are your thoughts right now with everything that we're seeing happening? Whether it be what's happening on the ground, the blame game, any and all things, I'd love to hear from you in those comments down below. But yeah, ultimately that is're seeing happening. Whether it be what's happening on the ground, the blame game, any and all things, I'd love to hear from you in those comments down below. But yeah, ultimately, that is today's show.

Of course, as always, thank you for watching, liking, subscribing, all the ways that help us do what we do every day. And of course, my name's Philip DeFranco. You've just been filled in. I love yo faces, and I'll see you tomorrow.