The Philip DeFranco Show - PDS 9.13 Donald Trump's Disgusting Puerto Rico Conspiracy, & More

Episode Date: September 13, 2018

Watch first on http://youtube.com/PhilipDeFranco TWITTER: http://Twitter.com/PhillyD FACEBOOK: http://on.fb.me/mqpRW7 INSTAGRAM: https://instagram.com/phillydefranco/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Sup you beautiful bastards hope you're having a fantastic Thursday Welcome back to the Philip DeFranco show and let's just jump into it and the first thing we're gonna talk about today One of the most requested stories today is this most recent controversy around President Trump a controversy that even has people He has endorsed disagreeing with him this morning as you may have seen Donald Trump tweeted 3,000 people did not die in the two hurricanes that hit Puerto Rico when I left the island after the storm had hit they had Anywhere from 6 to 18 deaths. As time went by, it did not go up by much. Then, a long time later, they started to report

really large numbers like 3,000. This was done by the Democrats in order to make me look as bad as possible when I was successfully raising billions of dollars to help rebuild Puerto Rico. If a person died for any reason, like old age, just add them onto the list. Bad politics, I love Puerto Rico. So an allegation from the president of the United States

that Democrats made up a death count related to Puerto Rico. And all, and this is an incredibly important note, without providing evidence to back up his claim. We're gonna jump into those allegations, the numbers, and some of which we've actually covered on the show in the past in a moment. But as far as why we got those tweets this morning, it came after criticism of his comments from Tuesday

when he was asked what the administration had learned from Puerto Rico. I think Puerto Rico was incredibly successful. Puerto Rico was actually our toughest one of all because it's an island, so you can't truck things onto it. Everything's by boat. The job that FEMA and law enforcement and everybody did, working along with the governor in Puerto Rico, I think was tremendous.

I think that Puerto Rico was an incredible unsung success. I think in a certain way, the best job we did was Puerto Rico, but nobody would understand that. I mean, it's harder to understand. Trump also pointed to the issues that the government faced when dealing with Maria, including the fact that it was the second hurricane

to hit the island that year, the logistical issues with it being an island in Puerto Rico already having issues before the storm. And following that, many took issue with Trump's characterization and pointed to the recent updated death toll, including San Juan Mayor, Carmen Yulin Cruz, who tweeted, success?

Federal response according to Trump and Puerto Rico a success? If he thinks the death of 3,000 people is a success, God help us all. Senator Bernie Sanders also hitting on this note, saying what a disgrace. Today I know why Trump tweeted out this morning, but what about the updated numbers?

Well, about two weeks ago, a study from George Washington University in collaboration with the University of Puerto Rico concluded that an estimated 2,975 deaths resulted from the hurricane. And this of course was a massive jump from the previous official total of 64 deaths. And this estimate took into account deaths

between mid-September 2017 and mid-February 2018 because so many people were without electricity during this time. And this count included both direct causes of death, like falling debris or drowning, and also indirect causes like a lack of healthcare resulting from lost electricity or a lack of clean drinking water. And basically the study looked at the estimated number

of deaths from previous years in Puerto Rico to figure out how many excess deaths took place in the months following the hurricane. And that is how they got to the number 2,975. The report also evaluated Puerto Rico's response to the disaster and showed that the government was absurdly unprepared, especially in communicating with its people.

The Department of Public Safety and Central Communications Office of the Governor's Office didn't have written crisis and emergency risk communication plans in place. The Office of Emergency Preparedness and Response had an outdated emergency plan, one that didn't even plan for anything above a category one hurricane.

Reportedly, the government only had limited engagement with important people and communities to communicate with, and there was poor communication between local and federal government. Also, in interviews with government workers, they indicated there weren't actually any contingency plans to deal with multiple cascading failures of critical infrastructure, and it found that the government did very little to dispel misinformation and rumor about the hurricane. And an important note here is this is not the only report to show issues in the response. Government agencies, including FEMA, have not called the response in Puerto Rico

an unsung success and do believe that there are areas that can be improved upon. A recent Government Accountability Office report also described the massive investment and deficiencies in the federal response. And in FEMA's own after action report, they too found issues with the response in Puerto Rico and areas that needed improvement.

Donald Trump's comments also came around the time these photos started being shared online. Those photos appearing to show millions of water bottles meant for victims of Hurricane Maria still on a runway in Puerto Rico. And those pictures were taken by Abdiel Santana, who works with the Puerto Rico State Police Agency, FIURA. Santana says he actually first saw the water bottles

last year, but took the pictures recently because he was angry the water bottles were still there. And a senior official at FEMA confirmed to CBS that the water bottles were delivered by FEMA, but the official said water shipments are not specifically tracked so it is unclear when they were delivered or what happened to them after the delivery. And actually this morning Daniel Kanuski, the deputy administrator at FEMA told CBS, We did some research overnight and it turns out those were excess water bottles. Those were not needed during the response phase and were not

distributed by the governor of Puerto Rico or FEMA for that reason. And also adding, in January we transferred those bottles of water to the location that reason. And also adding, in January we transferred those bottles of water to the location that you've seen. However, in a separate statement, you had the executive director of the Puerto Rico Federal Affairs Administration claiming that when the water was discovered, it was being stored properly in a warehouse

until it was moved onto the landing strip in April of 2018. And according to that statement, after a month, some of the bottles were distributed to the public. However, they stopped after there were complaints that the water had a foul odor and bad taste. So as of now, it is still unclear exactly what happened with this water. Now as far as the response to Donald Trump's doubt of the updated death count, the Speaker of the House, Paul Ryan, was speaking with reporters this morning and said this.

There is no reason to dispute these numbers. And it's a function of this was a devastating storm that hit an isolated island. And that's really no one's fault. He also had notable Republicans out of Florida that President Trump himself has even endorsed breaking rank with him. You have Governor Rick Scott, who of course is now running for the Senate, tweeting, I disagree with POTUS. An independent study said thousands were lost and Governor Rossello agreed. I've been to Puerto Rico seven times and saw devastation firsthand.

The loss of any life is tragic. Additionally, you had a spokesperson for Representative Ron DeSantis, who is running for governor, saying, DeSantis doesn't believe any loss of life has been inflated. We also saw the mayor of San Juan tweeting in response, This is what denial following neglect looks like. Mr. Pres, in the real world, people died on your watch. Your lack of respect is appalling. Mr. President, no matter how much you try, your true colors come shining through.

Unfortunately, you just can't help it. You just can't get it. Simply put, delusional, paranoid, and unhinged from any sense of reality. Trump is so vain, he thinks this is about him. No, it is not. And as far as my personal takeaway and reaction to all of this, that last line stands out to me. You have the President of the United States seemingly denying reality and alleging

that this is an attack by Democrats because he feels he needs to defend himself. This despite the study that Donald Trump is attacking here that revised the death count in Puerto Rico, listing the numerous failures of the government in Puerto Rico. All because he received criticism calling that situation an unsung success.

And I agree with a new statement that has come from the governor of Puerto Rico, who today said, "'It's not time to deny what happened. "'It is time to make sure that it does not happen again.'" And for the president of the United States to do anything else but try and just own reality and learn from it, it's disgusting and it does a disservice to those that died

and those still living there. And even more troubling is the president can say this with no connected evidence to back up what he is talking about. And there is a good portion of the population that will go, yeah, all that research is bullshit. It's just an attack. That is a genuinely troubling situation.

Then in quickie news for the people out there that were incredibly angry about the Netflix series, Insatiable, a series that had so many people outraged even before it was released on Netflix, just after the trailer that over 200,000 people signed a change.org petition calling for the cancellation. Well, rejoice because it has been canceled,

he said, jokingly misleading the audience. It's actually been renewed for a season two. And really I think all of this shows us is there can be whatever amount of outrage or public discourse around a show, but ultimately, and this is for the most part, with Netflix I think it's just gonna come down to viewership. For example, and obviously it's a different thing,

after the White House Correspondents' Dinner there were a lot of people that really loved Michelle Wolfe and a ton of people that hated Michelle Wolf. Much like in this situation you had people threatening to cancel their Netflix subscription if this show gets released. But they released and then at the end of the season they looked at the numbers and they said, ah, cancel. And if anything I wonder how much the controversy around this show ended up actually helping it because people went, okay well let me let me at least watch a little of it. With

Insatiable, while I don't think it was necessarily intended at the beginning, outrage marketing is a thing and it can be Insatiable, while I don't think it was necessarily intended at the beginning, outrage marketing is a thing and it can be very, very effective. From that, I wanna share some stuff I love today. And today in awesome brought to you by betterhelp.com slash defranco. BetterHelp, if you don't know, is the fantastic place and service where you get affordable

private online counseling. With BetterHelp on your computer, your tablet, the phone in your pocket, you get access to a licensed, trained, experienced, accredited psychologist. And all you've gotta do to get started, you just go to betterHelp.com slash DeFranco, you fill out a simple questionnaire, they match you with a counselor, and you could start counseling today. And here's one of the main things I want to get across with this sponsorship. Whether you end up using BetterHelp, use our code, which obviously we get paid for those conversions, regardless of that, please know there is no shame in getting help, talking with someone. I personally believe this is something that could benefit everyone. That's where I'll end that one.

The first bit of awesome today is if in the next 36 hours you use code FACTS, you will get 15% off the Why Be Informed When You Can Use Your Feelings as your facts shirt. You know, in case you want something comfortable that really showcases your snarkiness. It goes really well with, and the code will also work for the Don't Be Stupid Stupid shirt.

Links to those down below. And in some looking back awesome, it is the 25th anniversary of Late Night with Conan O'Brien. In honor of it, Team Coco has put up the first episode ever. And we got a trailer for Private Life. We also got a brand new trailer for Maniac, which seems so fascinating. As well as a teaser for Chilling Adventures of Sabrina.

We got Billy on the Street, Back on the Street, and Back on the Internet, this time with Emma Stone. And if you wanna see the full versions of everything I just shared, the secret link of the day, really anything at all, links as always are in the description down below. And then let's talk about a story that really embodies why you come to this show every single weekday for a brand new video, and that is my hot takes on fashion. What does Phil think about this trend? Said no one. I, obviously I'm joking. I don't care about fashion. I wear like the same eight shirts for like six months at a time

because I hate giving myself more choices. But there were actually two big stories in the world of fashion that extend past it. The first was the further blending of several mediums and mainstream versus digital. And on that no controversy interesting side, we had Rihanna live streaming an event from New York Fashion Week.

She announced it on Instagram. She live streamed it on YouTube. It did pretty great numbers. It was also a very weird and fascinating event. Some people were kind of flailing around, there were animalistic movements, and you had Bella and Gigi Hadid strolling through. There was also a lot of praise around Rihanna's events and lingerie line because of diversity. Many different kinds of women featured, small, large, we even had pregnant. The sizes range between 0 and 22, bra sizes of 32A to 44DD.

And so in general, it was widely seen as a successful event. Albeit an event that I'm not showing a lot of footage of because I do not want this video to also be age-gated like that livestream has been. And the other story in the world of fashion is, if you kind of think about it, the opposite of why the Rihanna event got so much praise. That other story involving Revolve, an online fashion retailer who put out a $168 sweatshirt that read, Being fat is not beautiful, it's an excuse. To which the internet had a very big reaction to. Says Holliday, responding, Y'all are a mess.

Jameela Jamil saying, Jesus Christ, Revolve, what are you doing? Jen McAllister tweeting, Hey Revolve, what the actual fuck is this? You actually were my favorite place to online shop, but the fact that this made it through however many people it did and onto your website is so fucking mind blowing and disappointing. Biggest fail of a campaign I've ever seen. And what was really interesting is looking into it, the design was actually part of a collection

created by the brand LPA alongside Lena Dunham, Emily Radischkowski, Cara Delevingne, Suki Waterhouse, Loma Elsesser. And it turns out this shirt was supposed to be part of a collection featuring offensive quotes and was intended to shine a light on the harassment and trolling women face online. And actually, if you look at the small print on the shirt

that caused all this outrage, you'll notice the text, as said to, and it's Paloma's Instagram handle. And it's interesting that this is the sweatshirt that set everything off, because when you look into the collection, out of context, the other ones are even worse. You had the slut feminist nightmare design,

the too bony to be boned top, as well as the, if you translated a bum onto her face, she'd have a better face top. According to a statement from Revolve, the collection is a direct commentary on the modern day normality of cyberbullying and the shared desire to create a community for those most affected by the epidemic.

Adding proceeds were set to benefit Girls Right Now, a charity focused on mentoring underserved young women and helping them find their voices and tell their stories through writing. And they said that the collection was actually prematurely released and according to the statement, was not only included without context of the overall campaign, but regrettably featured

one of the pieces on a model whose size was not reflective of the piece's commentary on body positivity. We at Revolve sincerely apologize to all those involved, particularly Lena, Paloma, our other collaborators, our loyal customers, and the community as a whole for this error. And they go on to say that they're pulling the collection and they will be donating $20,000 to the Girls Right Now charity. We also saw Lena Denham firing shots at Revolve on Instagram writing,

"...without consulting me or any of the women involved, Revolve presented the sweatshirts on thin white women, never thinking about the fact that difference in individuality is what gets you punished on the internet, or that lack of diversity and representation is a huge part of the problem, in fact, the problem itself. As a result, I cannot support this collaboration or lend my name to it in any way. I am deeply disappointed in Revolve's handling of a sensitive topic and a collaboration rooted in reclaiming the words of internet trolls

to celebrate the beauty and diversity and bodies and experiences that aren't the industry norm. And then on top of all of that, you had people saying that this was going to fail from the get-go no matter what. And the reason for that is this sweatshirt that started this wave of backlash was about weight. And so you had people pointing out that when you looked at the products that were released, they were available in extra-extra small to extra-large and not any higher. And when you're talking about weight and body positivity, inclusion, acceptance, that seems to miss the mark no matter what.

But with all of that said, I do want to pass the question off to you in general, what do you think about this story? But also, do you think this is an example of people jumping the gun and getting angry about something? But also, do you think it's understandable that people had this reaction to this line of shirts, given the way that it was presented? Or no, if someone saw this, they should have gone to the site, seen that it was something that was said to someone, not an endorsement of that phrase? I don't know. Any and all thoughts you have here, I'd love to hear from you. And then let's talk about Hurricane Florence,

which we talked about earlier in the week, but now it's started to actually have an impact on the East Coast. And in fact, the outer bands of Florence have started to hit North Carolina today, although there is some good news. Florence has been downgraded to a category two and it is not expected to strengthen.

But Florence is still a large hurricane. It's a very wide hurricane. You have winds at speeds of 110 miles per hour, which is also why more than 10 million residents across North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia are all under storm warning. Which means surging ocean waters, torrential rain, in fact as much as 40 inches of rain over 7 days and 13 feet of storm surge are what's predicted. And in case you're having a hard time visualizing what that storm surge could look like, the Weather Channel made this amazing yet at the same time horrifying visual animation of what six to nine feet looks like I think a lot can be lost in the numbers. So I think the visual really helps and this could all lead to

Catastrophic inland flooding. I mean you have the National Hurricane Center calling this life-threatening in North Carolina And unfortunately for the people in North Carolina reports have come out that Hurricane Florence could be even more damaging because of a law against climate science the state passed six years ago and reportedly in 2012 North Carolina passed a law that banned Up-to-date climate science to plan for consequences of rising sea levels. So you hear that and the questions pop up. Okay, well, what exactly does the law say? Why did it get passed?

And what does this mean for the people living where Florence descends? Well, the law was drafted after an estimate by the state's Coastal Resources Commission said that the sea level will rise by 39 inches in the next century. Climate scientists saying that the levels would leave North Carolina open

to intensifying floods and hurricanes. There were also worries that the rising sea levels would affect real estate development and tourism along the coast. You had projection maps that showed what would happen if sea levels rose, showing some pretty disastrous results. And we were talking about areas

that had been given permits for planned development projects being underwater. New flood zones would have to be drawn, new waste treatment plants would have to be built, and roads would have to be elevated. And all of that would end up costing North Carolina hundreds of millions of dollars. And so reportedly you had North Carolina lawmakers

not wanting to follow the CRC's findings, partially because it would have been so ridiculously expensive. And so instead they ended up drafting their own bill. And so when making the bill, North Carolina lawmakers claimed that the science used to make the 39 inch prediction was flawed. Also claiming that the resources commission

failed to consider the economic consequences of preparing the coast for a one meter rise in sea level. And so in June of 2012, the lawmakers ended up making this bill and what did it say? Well reportedly the bill made it illegal to consider quote, scenarios of accelerated rates of sea level rise. Meaning the CRC's estimate couldn't be used. And the bill said instead, the state should only consider

how the sea levels have risen over the past 100 years. And regarding the future, it stated that research should only look at 30 year predictions rather than a century. Which was also very surprising because typically climate scientists focus on a 100 year model. Now before the bill became a law, it was softened a bit. The final language said the state should quote,

"'compare the determination of sea level "'based on historical calculations versus predictive models.'" But in the end, if you look at the specific words, basically North Carolina still passed a bill that ignored current climate science. Now keep in mind when this bill did pass in 2012, it was met with criticism. North Carolina State Representative Deborah Ross

who opposed the bill in 2012 said, "'By putting our heads in the sand, literally, "'we are not helping property owners. "'We are hurting them. "'We are not giving them information "'they might need to protect their property. "'Ignorance is not bliss, it's dangerous.'" And so all of that brings us to the question,

how does the 2012 law make Florence even worse for North Carolina? Well, as mentioned in previous coverage, North Carolina has a really long low-lying coastline. And that's the biggest reason why it's considered one of the most vulnerable states in the US to rising sea levels. And the 2012 law hasn't allowed the government

to legally consider the worst potential effects of rising water when making decisions regarding development, zoning, and infrastructure. And while it's true that North Carolina might have saved some money in 2012 by not creating new flood zones, new roads, Hurricane Florence is expected to be a really, really costly storm.

Before Florence was downgraded to a category two, analytics firm CoreLogic estimated the reconstruction cost for all 758,657 homes. The number of homes in the path of the likely storm surge, and they found that it would cost close to $170.2 billion. And following all of this, I think one of the most important things to consider here is this is not just a singular moment.

We're talking about Hurricane Florence today, and I think we can all agree that we are all hoping that the damage is limited. We've heard numerous words along the lines of catastrophic, life-threatening in relation to what we are going to see from Florence over the next few days. It's not like this is the last hurricane that is ever going to happen and we made it through.

And keep in mind, that's just thinking about this situation from the angle of a natural disaster and not just general sea level rise. I mean, since the bill has passed, researchers come out saying that sea level rise in that area has gone up an inch a year. And also keep in mind that rate of a rising sea level, that's worse than what was even predicted before.

This is just one of several issues that need to be addressed that are being talked about right now. There's been a lot of talk about how five years ago, North Carolina and a few other states weakened building code requirements. And personally, I think one of the main things we need to take away from this, and I really, really do hope that it does not take a catastrophe for us to have this conversation,

more and more changes are going to be made. There is no benefit to denying the future. A short-term gain is going to be a long-term loss, even if in the short term it's going to be painful and costly. And so that's the main note I want to end today's story on. Of course, I pass the question off to you. What are your thoughts about all of this? But also, to the people near or around Florence,

please, please, please be safe. Hopefully you got out of the way or you took precautions. Also, if you're in North Carolina or South Carolina and you're caught out by the storm, down in the description below, I'll include links to emergency shelters. There's that. But yeah, that's where we're gonna end today's show.

But remember, I also want this to be a conversation. So whether it be the last story, the first one, anything in between, let me know what you're thinking in those comments down below. Also, while you're at it, if you like this video, you like what I'm doing here, hit that like button. If you're new here, hit that subscribe button. Also, if you missed and want to catch up on the last two Philip DeFranco shows, you can click or tap right there to watch those. But, 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.