The Philip DeFranco Show - PDS 8.17 Dear Bryce Hall, WHY?! Backlash & Shutdowns, "Fixing" the USPS, Iowa Devastation, & More

Episode Date: August 17, 2020

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Sup you beautiful bastards. Hope you have a fantastic Monday. Welcome back to the Philip DeFranco Show. And a quick note before we get started, as of uploading this video, there are only a few hours left. If you want to jump in on the limited edition, emotionally exhausted drop.

We've got the embroidered and bleached tie dyed hoodies and shirts. We've also got the sleek depleted heart on a hoodie and a shirt. And of course the hat and notebook, if you want to switch it up. So there's that. But like I said, welcome back to the Philip DeFranco Show.

Buckle up, hit that like button, and let's just jump into it. The first thing we're gonna talk about today are the updates involving the continuing story of what happens when you make the worst people or people who are just stupid, selfish, and or lack empathy famous news. And specifically, what I'm talking about here are the influencers in LA

who will not stop partying during the pandemic. You know, we've talked about it in the past, involving people like Loray Merritt, Nikita Dragun, James Charles, Charlie and Dixie D'Amelio, Tana Mongeau, Jake Paul, and many others. You know, with some, we've talked about it in the past, involving people like Loray Merritt, Nikita Dragun, James Charles, Charlie and Dixie D'Amelio, Tana Mongeau, Jake Paul, and many others. You know, with some we've seen them apologize and seemingly better their path, or with some others it appears

that they're just being more discreet. But still, we've seen a ton of people continuing to throw and attend mass gatherings and post about it all over social media. One of the biggest stories breaking this weekend was about a series of recent parties over at the Sway House, which if you're unfamiliar with what that is, I'm sorry, I have to poison your mind here.

For some context here, the Sway House is a collection of big TikTok influencers who all live together. But they reportedly threw a party on August 11th for their videographer, J-Rod, then reportedly throwing another party for TikToker Bryce Hall's 21st birthday. Then because apparently that wasn't enough,

they threw an even bigger party for Bryce with at least 100 people in attendance, with them boasting about their plans to do so online. Then you see footage from this party. It's just a packed house inside and out. Seemingly no social distancing, no masks, a long list of influencers in attendance. Then we get news that the LAPD broke up the party

at 4 a.m. though they didn't give reporters any comments about the situation at that time. Following this, we see a number of influencers slam this behavior online. Tyler Oakley, for instance, did what we've seen him do before. Tag big names who were at the party and ask them to use their platforms

to encourage responsibility during the pandemic. As well as people like Matthew Espinoza, just completely frustrated by this situation. Majority of people can't do anything because people don't know how to stop partying. Just stay home. Like I'm getting so annoyed with people. Holy crap, how dumb and selfish are you?

You also had others like Elijah Daniel slamming Bryce Hall in particular. With a number of people also bringing up previous controversies and accusations against Bryce and other members of the Sway House. Though for the sake of the story in this video, we're gonna be focused on what's happening here. You know, while some have argued that people

shouldn't be giving these influencers the time of day, others also feel that it's important to draw attention to these parties since they don't seem to be slowing down. Because in addition to Sway House members here seeming to throw or attend a lot of influencer parties over the past several weeks, they are by no means the only ones doing so. You know, just last week, post-FBI radio

with Jake Paul hosting a boxing match at his Team 10 house in Calabasas. There was also a party for Daisy Keach at the clubhouse in Beverly Hills. Also another to celebrate Maddie Monroe hitting 10 million on TikTok at the Not A Content house. We even saw the D'Amelio family come under fire after Charli posted a vlog about her sister Dixie's birthday,

with that gathering showing more than a dozen people inside their home without masks, including Addison Rae, Avani Gregg, Maddie Monroe, a camera crew, managers and others. You know, at the end of the day, whether I'm looking at specific stories here or I'm looking at the situation in general, stuff like this is going to continue

because there really aren't any consequences. I mean, yes, online you see some backlash. You see a number of people kind of just fed up, but at the end of the day, you look at the numbers for a number of these creators and they still have astronomical growth. While on some posts you do see some backlash. You see a number of people kind of just fed up, but at the end of the day, you look at the numbers for a number of these creators and they still have astronomical growth. While on some posts you do see some backlash that eventually dissipates as they post more

and they continue to rise. In part, likely because they have young, impressionable audiences who believe that the people that they support can do no wrong, which has also led a number of people to go, well, what about like real world consequences? And there we've seen a number of people tag the mayor of LA, Eric Garcetti on Twitter,

hoping that he would hand down some serious consequences, which according to people like Elijah Daniel might actually happen. Early Sunday morning tweeting that he had spoken with the mayor's office and added, "'Good luck with no power or water after Tuesday, guys.'" Later adding that, "'Sway and Hype Houses have violated

"'the mayor of LA's rules more than once, "'which will result in their power "'and water being shut off.'" Also tweeting a warning saying, "'After your power and water gets shut off on Tuesday, "'if you continue to party, they can and will try "'to charge you with domestic bioterrorism "'to make an example out of you.'"

Though I will say regarding that, it is unclear what exactly is happening. We have reached out to the mayor's office for confirmation, but have yet to hear back. However, we do know that disconnecting water and power is not out of the realm of possibility. Back on August 5th, Mayor Garcetti responded to reports of large parties in the city by announcing this

as a consequence for repeat offenders. With Garcetti clarifying that this enforcement is not focused on small and ordinary gatherings in people's homes. Instead saying they're focused on people determined to break the rules, posing significant public dangers and a threat to all of us. Though on the other side of this,

Hype House manager Thomas Petro wrote online yesterday saying they've been working closely with the city and are not included on the list of people getting shut off. So if true, that just leaves us with questions about the Sway House. But ultimately, where I wanna end this story is on a point that I've hit and I kinda wanna expand on it.

Once again, if you're one of the people that are organizing these events and even going to it, you are being a garbage person right now. Obviously, everyone is individual. Everyone can make mistakes, I hope, for better actions in the future. But to take it a step further, if you still support the people

who are actively dismissing the concerns and continue to do this, you may not realize it, but you are helping feed their entitlement. You know, obviously it's a little bit different because this person is also an influencer, but you know, me just saying that, it makes me think of the Hollywood fix

interviewing Cynthia Parker. And she was asked about the party, she said this. What do you guys think about Bryce's party? Because a lot of people were saying that he might've like had too many people over. I mean, no comment, it's his 21st. I mean, I'm not saying I agree with it, but it's his 21st dude, you know?

Okay, so two things. The first, if you say no comment and then follow it with a comment, that is a comment. And two, I don't agree with it, but it was his 21st. Bro, like, come on. That's what I mean. That's the pass that people give. That's the entitlement that we're seeing.

How many other non-famous people have missed their sweet 16, their 21st birthday, their graduation, the births missed, the funerals missed, just the people suffering in general. I talked to actually a beautiful bastard from the nation from my text line. I talked on a Zoom about his struggles because he normally goes to AA.

And a big part of that is actually seeing other people in person, shaking hands, hugging. There are people suffering and sacrificing right now so we can get to some semblance of normal faster. I just genuinely cannot understand if you have been impacted by this pandemic, how you can support these people. Once again, if this was a situation where the only people that were being put at risk were New King Fuckboy and his friends and the clout chases around him, I wouldn't care. What I worry about, I care about, and I get unfortunately angry on the behalf

of the essential workers, their parents, their grandparents, just everyday people. People who do not have a choice while these others selfishly fuck about. But that is where I'm gonna leave this, and of course pass the question off to you. What are your thoughts on this? And actually, you know what?

I'll leave this story with a desperate request. Don't be stupid, stupid. Y'all have so much attention, thus so much power, and it will cost you neither of those things to just try to be a decent human being and care about others. And then, man, if back in January, you told me one of the biggest, most important fights

in America involved with the US Postal Service, I would have told you you were crazy, but hey, 2020, constant unexpected change is our new norm. So, you know, when we last talked about this on Thursday, we talked about President Trump saying that he wants to deny funding to the USPS ahead of the election. This, so, well, in his own words.

They want three and a half trillion, billion dollars for the mail-in votes, okay, universal mail-in ballots. Three and a half trillion. They want $25 billion, billion, for the post office. Now they need that money in order to have the post office work so it can take all of these millions and millions of ballots. Now, in the meantime, they aren't getting there. By the way, those are just two items. But if they don't get

those two items, that means you can't have universal mail-in voting because they're not equipped to have it. Right, so notably, that's been seen by many as a very blatant attempt to curb mail-in voting efforts. But since then, we've seen a number of big updates, including reports that the post office is deactivating mail sorting machines ahead of the election. And according to multiple outlets, a plan outlined by Postmaster Louis DeJoy last month

included decommissioning 10% of the USPS's costly mail sorting machines, or in raw numbers, 671 of those machines scattered across the country. And understand, this is a USPS that is already massively stressed and understaffed. And even before these new reports, there were already genuine fears

that tons of mail-in ballots could come in late. I mean, even just recently, we've seen the postal service warning as much, telling 46 states and DC that it cannot guarantee all mail-in ballots will arrive in time to be counted. And notably, if that happens, under the current system of most states, those ballots would be invalid.

Even if you did everything on your part to mail your vote out in time. So there's this massive concern that by removing these machines, it could slow down and jeopardize that process even more. Then adding fear to that already raging fire, we started to see photos of what appeared to be USPS mailboxes either being taken away or locked up.

You know, you had a lot of people wondering, what the hell is happening here? Is this why we're seeing right now major delays in mail being delivered? And the thing is, when we first started seeing these wondering, what the hell is happening here? Is this why we're seeing right now major delays in mail being delivered? And the thing is, when we first started seeing these reports, these images, we didn't even have a concrete answer as to why this was happening. Reportedly, the USPS had not announced any new policy

to local union officials. They didn't explain their reasoning or say what was going to happen to those machines or mailboxes. They actually learned about that 671 number from internal documents obtained by news outlets. Now all of that said, here's the thing. Having things like sorting machines removed,

replaced or modified, that isn't anything new. It happens all the time. However, what we're seeing here seems to be a lot more widespread than normal. It's hard not to get concerned when you see things like a USPS employee at a Buffalo New York distribution center, which is set to lose six of its 21 machines

under this plan saying, look at it this way, your local grocery store was forced to cut one third of its cash outlines, but management expected the same productivity, quality and speed for the customer. It's just never going to happen. Now, with all that said, it is also important to point out that snail mail has been declining for years.

And because of that, a lot of distribution centers are now finding themselves having to sort through less mail than ever before. So it is possible that the USPS might not need as many of those machines or mailboxes, which is actually something we later saw a USPS spokesperson saying, noting that package volume is up

but mail volume continues to decline, and adding, "'Adapting our processing infrastructure "'to the current volumes will ensure more efficient, "'cost-effective operations, and better service "'for our customers.'" Alongside that, on Friday we saw a USPS official telling a TV station in Kansas City that several mail processing machines in the area

had been removed earlier in the summer for efficiency and lower mail volume related to the COVID-19 pandemic. And in a similar statement regarding mailboxes, we saw a spokesperson saying that those units are removed if they consistently receive very small amounts of mail for months on end, saying there that it drives up costs to have carriers drive to those mailboxes.

Also, regarding why we saw other mail drop boxes locked up, it actually appears that that could be a semi-routine way to stop after-hours theft, though it's still unclear at the moment if this is actually the case or if it's become more widespread recently or it's just more people noticing because they have valid concerns right now.

However, with all that said, whatever the case may be, we have since seen the USPS confirming that it will stop removing mailboxes until after the election. But it does appear that these changes to mailboxes and sorting machines may be, along with other changes, what is causing the slowdowns and delays that we're seeing right now.

You have DeJoy reportedly telling employees that these are just unintended consequences and that his plan for the agency will increase our performance for the election and upcoming peak season and maintain the high level of public trust we have earned for dedication and commitment to our customers throughout our history. But a lot of people have not bought that explanation,

saying that these changes are likely to hurt mail-in voting, including from Representative Emanuel Cleaver, who said, "'We are 80 days out until the next election.'" I don't think there's any question that this is all related to the upcoming election. People in our community right now ought to begin writing letters and screaming and saying, "'This is a misplaced political move.'"

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer issuing a statement on Friday saying, "'The President, his cronies, and Republicans in Congress "'continue to wage their all-out assault "'on the Postal Service and its role in ensuring "'the integrity of the 2020 election. The president made plain that he will manipulate the operations of the post office to deny eligible voters

the ballot in pursuit of his own reelection. The president's own words confirm he needs to cheat to win. And you know, that idea of Trump needing to cheat to win is something we've seen take off recently. Something even echoed by the likes of Taylor Swift. And alongside big name responses people taking to social media, we also saw protests this weekend outside of DeJoy's is something we've seen take off recently. Something even echoed by the likes of Taylor Swift. And alongside big name responses, people taking to social media, we also saw protests this weekend

outside of DeJoy's house in DC, as well as outside of his North Carolina mansion. With people holding signs like, Deliver, DeMail, Depose, DeJoy. Now, in response to a lot of the criticism, we've seen Trump hitting back, shifting blame. First, seeming to backtrack on his original statement that he'd block billions of dollars of funding

from going to the USPS as part of the next coronavirus relief package, saying on Friday that he would approve that funding, but only if Democrats gave Republicans what they want. But then on Saturday, we saw Trump continuing his attack on the USPS by calling it a catastrophe, defending DeJoy and saying, Obviously, what's better than a well-marbled ribeye sizzling on the barbecue? A well-marbled ribeye sizzling on the barbecue that was carefully selected by an Instacart shopper and delivered to your door. A well-marbled ribeye you ordered without even leaving the kiddie pool. Whatever groceries your summer calls for, Instacart has you covered.

Download the Instacart app and enjoy $0 delivery fees on your first three orders. Service fees, exclusions, and terms apply. Instacart. Grocer groceries that over-deliver. If you're going to do these millions of ballots out of nowhere, he's going to obviously need funding. But the Democrats aren't willing to provide other things, and therefore they're not going to get the funding for that. But even with all of this, we've seen some states making moves to accommodate for ballots that could reach election officials after November 3rd. For example, on Thursday, we saw Pennsylvania election officials

asking the state Supreme Court for permission to count ballots arriving up to three days after the election. On Sunday, we also saw New Jersey governor, Phil Murphy, telling Fox News that his administration is working to ensure that votes are counted accurately in November, saying that New Jersey is working to expand access to secure mail sites, also expanding other precautions

that will deliver mail-in ballots on time. Notably, that would include extending the deadline in which mail-in votes could be received as long as they are postmarked by election day. It's also possible we could see a coalition of states taking action as early as this week. This coming as attorneys general for states like Virginia, Pennsylvania, Minnesota, Massachusetts, Washington,

and North Carolina are expected to launch a lawsuit against the Trump administration. But in a lot of other states, those rules might not actually be able to be changed. For example, last month we saw the Michigan Appeals Court denying a request that would have allowed mail-in ballots to be counted even after polls close on election day. With the state Supreme Court also later denying

to hear that case when the decision was appealed again. But regarding the federal level, yesterday we saw Pelosi announcing that she was calling the House back from its August recess early, this to specifically address issues surrounding the USPS. And while up to this point, the debate in Congress has been around funding,

the House is actually expected to vote on a bill that wouldn't center around that, but rather organizational issues surrounding the USPS. And while up to this point, the debate in Congress has been around funding, the House is actually expected to vote on a bill that wouldn't center around that, but rather organizational issues at the USPS. With Pelosi saying that the bill would prohibit the Postal Service from implementing any changes to operations or level of service it had in place on January 1st, 2020. Right, so very transparently targeting the massive cuts

outlined by DeJoy. And I mean, man, in this announcement, you had Pelosi calling DeJoy a complicit crony, saying that he's pushing sweeping new operational changes that degrade postal service, delay the mail, and threaten to deny the ability of eligible Americans to cast their vote through the mail in the upcoming elections in a timely fashion.

But ultimately, that is where we are with this story right now. And obviously we're gonna be paying attention to what happens here. It is important to be laser focused on this, especially because we should expect more things to come out. I mean, we've seen reports that the post office

inspector general is reviewing DeJoy's policy changes and potential ethics conflicts, with DeJoy also slated to appear before the house oversight committee on September 17th. Although we've also seen their concerns that this could be too late and would be ineffective at forcing him to reverse changes. And actually because of that, yesterday we saw the oversight

committee announcing that it plans to hold an emergency hearing on mail-in voting next week. Also inviting DeJoy to testify early. Also yesterday we saw White House Chief of Staff, Mark Meadows saying that the USPS won't be decommissioning any sorting machines from now until the election. But it is unclear if he was disputing the fact that other machines were removed

and he never really answered when pressed on the issue. But with all of that said, where I wanna end this story is on two notes I wanna hit every time we talk about voting. One, I highly recommend if you live in the United States to go down to the description and include two very helpful resources from Axios and FiveThirtyEight on how to vote in this election. If you're a more visual person, I recommend FiveThirtyEight.

You look at the map, you click your state, gives you information and links regarding registration, requesting an absentee ballot, voting early, submitting an absentee ballot, in-person voting. Also in your state, what they're watching regarding if any of this information might change. And then of course too, I'd love to know your thoughts on what we're seeing here with the USPS.

And then the last thing we're gonna talk about today is the weather. The thing you talk about with strangers to fill in the void of silence when you're done complaining about the traffic together. But specifically here, we're talking about dramatic and severe weather events. California, for example, right now,

battling an intense heat wave. I mean, you literally had Death Valley recording temperatures of 130 degrees, which is notably the hottest temperature in the United States in at least 107 years. And all that heat is of course concerning on its own. It is made worse by the fact that we are dealing with the coronavirus.

Right, understandably, you have more people staying at home, trying to be safe. That probably means that they have their AC on, which has led to fears that California's power grid system could be overstrained. You had California Governor Gavin Newsom encouraging people to conserve energy by reducing appliance use during certain hours,

by turning off lights, by using fans. You then had the body that runs the state's electric grid declaring a statewide stage three emergency Friday evening, which ordered utility services to lower their energy usage by means of rolling blackouts across the state. And Saturday night, we saw another round of blackouts order. And that is incredibly notable. This is the first time since 2001

that the state's electric grid operators have had to take such a drastic step. And as far as what this looks like, according to a spokesperson for Southern California Edison, typically what happens is the blackouts will be done in small blocks that include portions of communities. So we don't shut down a county or something like that.

But still, what that meant was you had hundreds of thousands of people in California being affected here, most at one to two hour intervals. And while you did have some places opening up cooling centers on Saturday, you also have to keep in mind COVID-19. Cooling centers tend to attract elderly residents since they're hit harder by the heat.

But as we've seen by the data, they are also hit harder by COVID-19. So of course, that is an additional concern, though we've seen at least some of these centers screening people for fever and other symptoms, also trying to have them socially distanced once inside. As of right now, we're gonna have to wait to see what happens in California,

especially since this heat wave is expected to last into this week. So there's that, and then of course, we need to talk about what's happening in Iowa. So if you haven't already heard, Iowa recently saw an absolutely devastating storm called the Durecho, which is essentially a really big and powerful windstorm.

And it slammed Iowa last week with winds hitting more than 100 miles per hour. And since then the damage has been devastated. The storm reportedly hit 57 counties in Iowa. And over the weekend 160,000 people didn't have power. As of this morning, that number got down to around 65,000. Also some of the most severe damage here is to the crops in the area, which could have huge implications.

With Iowa Secretary of Agriculture, Mike Naig, estimating that approximately 14 million acres of crops could have been impacted in the area, which could have huge implications. With Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Mike Nagg estimating that approximately 14 million acres of crops could have been impacted in this storm, including 8.2 million acres of corn and 5.6 million acres of soybeans. With Nagg saying in a statement, "'These farmers put significant resources into this crop

"'and were planning for strong yields. "'Now their crops have been damaged, some destroyed, "'and the state has lost tens of millions "'of bushels of grain storage just a few weeks before harvest begins. This is a devastating blow to the agricultural community that is still recovering from the pandemic. With Naig also tweeting that many farmers have told him that their farms will not look the same in their lifetime.

And in addition to this, of course, being incredibly important locally, this is nationally significant. According to the Iowa Area Development Group, Iowa produces 1 11th of the country's food supply and is the number one producer of corn and other goods. In fact, it produces 18% of the nation's corn supply and 13% of soybeans and eggs.

So the farms in Iowa are integral to feeding the country, but they were also far from the only things damaged by this storm. According to the governor's office, 8,273 homes have been destroyed or suffered major damage. It's estimated that there was $23.6 million of damage to public infrastructure, and it could cost 21.6 million to remove

and dispose debris from the storm. And here you had Tyler Olson, a city council member in Cedar Rapids, describing this damage to NPR, saying the devastation is widespread, it's intense, block after block of houses, every one with some amount of damage, trees piled six to 10 feet high along the road.

With this, we've seen some efforts to help the area underway. You have the Iowa National Guard cleaning up debris, the Iowa Red Cross opening shelters. And once again, there, because we are in a pandemic, that takes even more effort. In order to make these shelters safe, they're following COVID-19 guidelines,

doing health screenings, planning isolation areas, requiring face coverings and more. On top of that, they're also sending volunteers out on the ground working to provide meals. But of course, with all of this, there has also been a call for federal help and criticism that there has not been enough already. And there we've seen the likes of Ashton Kutcher

lending his voice, pleading, where is the federal relief for Iowa? 10 million acres of crops have been destroyed. Houses, communities, wake up federal government. What, because it's not called a tornado or hurricane? You don't need to act fast? Come on. Kutcher's words on Friday then brings us to yesterday

when Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds requested aid and a federal disaster declaration saying, "'We're going to need a strong and timely federal response "'to support recovery efforts. "'I have formally requested "'an expedited presidential major disaster declaration "'to secure this critical federal assistance "'as quickly as possible.'"

With her also saying that she has spoken to both Trump and Pence about this situation, saying that they have both pledged their support. With Reynolds saying that the state will need an estimated $3.9 billion to recover. And adding, while it is unconventional for a major disaster declaration request of this magnitude to be assembled and approved within a matter of days,

it is essential that our request is expedited and approved as quickly as possible. Which is also why we saw a number of senators and representatives sign a letter to President Trump asking that he grant the governor's request. And actually we ended up seeing this morning that Trump tweeted out that he had signed the emergency disaster declaration.

But ultimately that is where we are with this story now. Of course, in general, I would love to know everyone's thoughts about this. Also, is this maybe the first time that you're hearing about it? Also, if you're watching this and you live in Iowa or you have family there, what is it like right now on the ground?

Also, how have you or they been impacted? And that is where I'm going to end today's show. And of course, to the 73 of you still here, thanks for being a part of these videos, being a part of these daily dives into the news. I don't know if it's just me, but it feels more manageable knowing that we are here together as a group.

Also, if one of you 73 are new here, definitely hit that subscribe button, tap that bell to turn on notifications so you don't miss these daily videos. Also, remember if you caught this video early enough, head on over to shopdefranco.com to be one of the last to get the emotionally exhausted drop. But with that said, of course, as always,

my name's Philip DeFranco. You've just been filled in. I love yo faces and I'll see you tomorrow.