The Philip DeFranco Show - PDS 9.14 Video Leak Exposes Cop Laughing At Woman Killed By Cop Car, Casey Neistat Sinkhole, Mummified Aliens

Episode Date: September 14, 2023

Go to Http://grammarly.com/phildefranco09  and get 20% off Grammarly Premium. Head to https://tryfum.com/defranco and use code DEFRANCO to save an additional 10% off your order today. Go Buy http://W...akeandMakeCoffee.com 50% OFF select orders! This new batch won’t last long. Catch up on our latest PDS: https://youtu.be/0ZtRB8UbUws?si=eRQIzQn0HMVUOg75 Check out our daily newsletter! http://dailydip.co/pds  Follow me on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/phillydefranco/?hl=en  –✩ TODAY’S STORIES ✩ – 00:00 - Seattle Officer Laughs After Woman Fatally Hit by Patrol Car 01:25 - Casey Neistat Finds Sinkhole in NYC Sidewalk, Highlighting Infrastructure Issues 03:58 - NASA Plans Better UFO Tracking, Mexico’s Congress Showcases “Alien Bodies” 05:56 - Fight Breaks Out After Landlords Throw Party Celebrating Evictions Resuming 08:15 - Sponsored by Grammarly 09:16 - Gaming Community Reacts After Unity Unveils New Pricing Plan 12:46 - NFT Animated Series Featuring Ashton Kutcher & Mila Kunis Charged by SEC 14:22 - Federal Judge Rules DACA is Illegal 16:46 - Sponsored by FUM 17:40 - GOP Increasingly Calls for Military Action in Mexico 22:56 - Your Thoughts on Yesterday’s Stories  ——————————   Produced by: Cory Ray Edited by: James Girardier, Maxx Enright, Julie Goldberg, Christian Meeks Art Department: William Crespo Writing/Research: Philip DeFranco, Brian Espinoza, Lili Stenn, Maddie Crichton, Star Pralle, Chris Tolve  ———————————— #DeFranco #CaseyNeistat #Unity ———————————— Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Starting point is 00:00:00 Today, we're talking about blood-boiling audio that was leaked of a cop laughing after an innocent woman was killed by a patrol car, why DACA might be dead soon, landlords threw an I-can-kick-you-out-of-your-house party and things got violent, this Unity scandal and backlash is wild, Casey Neistat just accidentally exposed a lot, and 100% definitely real alien bodies were put on display. Yep, definitely not an obvious fake. We're going to talk about all that and so much more on today's brand new extra-large Philip DeFranco show. You daily dive into the news, so just make sure you're subscribed and let's jump into it. Starting with, y'all, this conversation between two cops is going to make your stomach twist into knots. And for context, back in January, a Seattle police officer's squad car struck and killed 23-year-old John V. Kandula.
Starting point is 00:00:39 She was an Indian grad student. The cop hit her while she was crossing a crosswalk with a car which was responding to a call going 63 miles per hour in a 25 mile per hour zone. And the new big thing is we now have body cam video from police union vice president Daniel Otter that caught one side of his phone call with the union president, in which he appears to be making a joke about paying her family off if they sued the department. And just a quick note, for the sake of time, I trimmed out the pauses in this clip, so just keep that in mind. Yeah, just write a check. $11,000. She was 26 anyway.
Starting point is 00:01:08 She had limited value, but she is dead. No, it's a regular person. And so now with that, the Seattle Office of Police Accountability is investigating the video. And they just have to receive a complaint from an officer last month who discovered the video and was disturbed by it. And so while we wait to see how that plays out,
Starting point is 00:01:22 I gotta pass the question off to you. What are your thoughts here? And then New York City just tried to swallow up Casey Neistat, which he's a friend of the show. I don't wanna see him die, but if he was gonna die, that would be the most Casey Neistat way.
Starting point is 00:01:33 Becoming part of, if at least temporarily, the city that molded you. But specifically, what I'm talking about today is in a TikTok that's gone absolutely viral. You see him walking down a sidewalk when he encounters a piece of it that looks kind of odd. And so with his foot, he presses down on the sidewalk and immediately a hole opens up. With him then doing one of the most Casey Neistat things, thinking, ooh, fun angle. And he sticks
Starting point is 00:01:50 his arm in with the camera and you see all the dirt and pipes, which is admittedly cool, but it's also scary. Like when I'm walking on streets, I get uncomfortable when I'm like, I'm, you know, walking over the grates. Meanwhile, this whole time, they're just sections of the sidewalk that will swallow you up. But of course, with New Yorkers being New Yorkers, they just made jokes about this, saying things like, bro found old york, and don't let New York City landlords see this. They'll be advertised in a one-bedroom studio with a skylight for $3,000 a month. But the joking aside, what Casey found actually highlights a very real problem with New York City infrastructure. Because the city, which is over 12,000 miles of sidewalk, routinely inspects them and receives complaints. But that doesn't mean they're perfect.
Starting point is 00:02:23 But although recorded sinkholes were declining from nearly 3,800 in 2019 to just 2,800 in 2021, the city received a whopping 3,920 sinkhole complaints in 2022. And this possibly because of Hurricane Ida, which flooded the city with over seven inches of water. Because water dissolves underground rock and dirt, and eventually there's not enough left to support the service. So that's how a sinkhole forms. With this occurring because pipes burst, leaking water into the soil, or because rainstorms oversaturate the groundwater. Which means that more frequent and intense weather events, like rainstorms and hurricanes brought about by climate change,
Starting point is 00:02:50 could open up even more sinkholes. I mean, we saw a dramatic demonstration of that last year in the Bronx when heavy rainfall damaged a sewer line, and it created this massive sinkhole that swallowed this van. Or how like a couple years ago, you had this guy waiting at a bus stop, one moment he's there, the next he's gone. With him plummeting into a 12 to 15 foot hole and as if that wasn't bad enough It was full of rats and not just your regular rats. We're talking New York rats and then for the next half hour
Starting point is 00:03:11 He just lies there as rodents were crawling all over him He's severely injured barely moving trying not to open his mouth or fear that they're gonna crawl inside him Of course most sinkholes aren't as big or as deep as those but when they are people can get hurt back right outside the city Long Island has seen an especially large number of them open up in recent months, sometimes spilling sewage and fecal matter into neighborhoods. And in one recent case,
Starting point is 00:03:30 a ring doorbell caught this 70-year-old woman falling into a hole in her front yard with two other men. So what do we do? Well, in terms of policies, we can mitigate the issue, not only by maintaining our sidewalks better, but also by reinforcing our sewer systems, and most of all, fixing the climate crisis. With notably, those first two things
Starting point is 00:03:44 being easier than the last, but as we're seeing literally every one of these numbers going in the wrong direction, something has to be done. And I guess in the meantime, because people don't have enough irrational fears, just remember when you're walking down the street at any single moment, you might be seconds away from fending off an army of sinkhole rats. And then, y'all, are the United States and Mexico independently confirming the existence of extraterrestrials? No, you fucking donkeys. But some people with varying levels of success have been twisting recent headlines into the narrative. Starting with the US, NASA just released a 33-page report on UFOs, and in it, they found
Starting point is 00:04:14 no evidence of aliens. Though they still kept the door slightly open for some conspiracy theorists by agreeing that some UFO sightings still defy explanation. That being said, they also made it clear that they just need to invest more into better techniques to identify what's going on. Now, the big thing that any ancient aliens fan is going to latch onto is the fact that this report was made by a 16-person panel that didn't have access to any top-secret files. Right, they only had declassified stuff, so they weren't allowed to look at the actual alien specimens we have hiding around. But, you know who did check out some aliens? The Mexican Congress. Because on Tuesday, two experts stood before them and showed off two allegedly 1,000-year-old alien corpses.
Starting point is 00:04:44 And they look like a stereotypical depiction of aliens, if not a little smaller. With a speaker who was under oath claiming that these are not mummies, these are complete bodies that have not been manipulated. They somehow even managed to get a forensic expert and military doctor to check out scans of these little guys and provide analysis. Things like they had big eyes or didn't have teeth. So they were probably from a post-chewing society that only had smoothies, kind of like parts of San Diego. But looking into this, this entire circus didn't just come out of nowhere. Just like their American counterparts, Mexican pilots have seen unexplained things in the sky and struggled to make sense of it. So Congress was looking into it. A few people actually believe
Starting point is 00:05:14 that these two little specimens were seriously alien. Which I mean, just to clear up any confusion, I personally do believe that aliens exist. Everything in existence is too grand and infinite for us to be the only ones. But that does not translate to anything we have no answers for when we see UFOs is an alien. That does not translate into I definitely believe that we've been visited. And if you think those things, when I say donkey, I'm not talking about you. I'm talking about people that looked at what is very obviously a fraud. And they were like, well, that's the proof. Or the people that were ignorant enough or clout-chasey enough to try to just muddy up the narrative and say this was the Mexican government confirming.
Starting point is 00:05:46 Which, by the way, X, Twitter, whatever the fuck you want to call it, it's become such a shit show. It feels like ever since they turned on monetization, you have people just like putting out obviously fake bullshit just for engagement. And then a group of landlords just threw a party to celebrate the fact that they are now able
Starting point is 00:05:59 to legally evict people from their homes again. And super shockingly, it did not end well. With this whole situation going down in Berkeley, California, where the Berkeley Property Owners Association, BPOA, hosted a party at a local bar to celebrate the end of the city's eviction moratorium. Because like many other cities, Berkeley implemented a ban on most evictions back in March of 2020,
Starting point is 00:06:15 with that ban officially ending on August 31st. And so you know, with that, the landlords have complained that they were being hurt by the ban, that the tenants had taken advantage of them. And the president of the BPOA defending the party and saying to reporters, "'We make no qualms about celebrating the end of the eviction moratorium. We are celebrating the end of the tenants who could have paid rent and chose not to. But many others have hit back against that, including the chair of Berkeley's rent
Starting point is 00:06:35 stabilization board, with him saying that the allegation that many tenants could have paid rent but just chose not to was nonsense. With that, noting that the BPOA has provided zero proof of fraud. And obviously, the second this event was announced online, it got a ton of backlash from advocates and activists in the city, with the local outlet Berkeley Side reporting that a group of roughly 100 advocates from the Tenant and Neighborhood Councils, Berkeley Tenants Union, and other groups gathered outside the pub to picket the event, which despite the public reaction, was attended by about two dozen landlords. And according to Berkeley Side, the picketers yelled chance and shouted parasite and get a job at the landlords who entered the building. But then about an hour into the demonstration, the protesters streaming into the venue and they started circling around the patio of the pub.
Starting point is 00:07:09 And they continued to picket for about a minute and a half more. And then all hell broke loose. Multiple fights started between the two groups. Witnesses saying they saw a man from the landlords group slap a female member of a tenants group in the face and push her. Berkeley side also saying there was a video of one demonstrator knocking eyeglasses off the head of someone who appeared to be with the landlords. Prompting another party goer to seemingly swing a punch at the protester. The BPOA president telling reporters she didn't see who started the fight and adding that she went outside to ask police who had been observing the protests for help, but they refused to enter the pub.
Starting point is 00:07:34 Though with that, the situation seemingly resolved itself quickly, with protesters reportedly leaving the bar just minutes after the fights broke out. And in the aftermath, both sides appear to blame the other for the violence. With the Berkeley Tenants Union posting a series of tweets accusing the landlords of assaulting protesters, while the BPOA issued a statement to the local media saying, We condemn the actions of hostile dissidents who disrupted a private gathering at a local restaurant to intimidate, harass, and physically assault our members who are law-abiding small business owners. But yeah, that is where we are. And I gotta ask you, where do you land on this issue?
Starting point is 00:08:00 Because there have been a lot of different reactions. Those looking at the landlords going, I mean, like, what did you expect? You're throwing a, yay, we can kick people out of their homes party. But then you have some saying, you know, landlords feel like they've been a lot of different reactions, those looking at the landlords going, I mean, like, what did you expect? You're throwing a yay, we can kick people out of their homes party. But then you have some saying, you know, landlords feel like they've been taken advantage of or the people that are taking one of the biggest losses during the pandemic and others saying, hey, that's bullshit. So I'd love to know your thoughts and feelings here. And then being as clear and concise when communicating is a must. And thanks to the sponsor of today's show, Grammarly, an AI powered writing tool. It is making all our lives easier. Grammarly provides personalized AI communication assistance that accelerates and helps unlock creativity and
Starting point is 00:08:28 helps you communicate clearly and concisely, offering suggestions that, surprisingly, you may prefer. Or maybe you're stuck on where to start. Grammarly can help you get started with initial ideas, outlines, or even tips. It's great help with marketing. I mean, for my new coffee, for example, I could just type in, give me 10 possible ideas for describing the best coffee, and boom, clever ideas for describing our new must-have coffee, which I do think is the best. And when you're done writing and you need that polish or it's running on too long, Grammarly's rewrite function is so awesome. You can ask Grammarly to rewrite it to be shorter, more engaging, whatever,
Starting point is 00:08:55 which is also so important when reporting news. But one of my go-tos is Grammarly's reply feature. And this is for all of us with mountainous inboxes. It helps you summarize your emails, providing suggestions on how to reply in seconds. And I'm telling you, you will be amazed at what you can do with Grammarly, because all of these features I mentioned are free to use. You get 100 free prompts per month.
Starting point is 00:09:12 So just go to grammarly.com slash phildefranco09 and get 20% off Grammarly Premium. And then, it is incredibly rare to see a software company end up as hated as this. But the game engine maker Unity has managed to blow up years and years of goodwill with game developers after introducing a radical price change. And if you don't care about gaming, don't worry, because this could go way beyond gaming. Because it can give us an idea of where software companies want pricing structures to go. And so with that, the obvious
Starting point is 00:09:35 question is, well, what exactly is the change? Well, currently, Unity has a variety of plans ranging from personal to enterprise. And they offer slightly different things, with many small and indie game developers just getting started, opting for one of the lower plans that are free or nearly free. With that being an absolutely huge draw for Unity, it was pretty much like, yeah, use our software and make cool shit. Then if you ever get to a point where you're actually making money, then we'll work out a deal. But starting in 2024, that all changes. With the company now moving to a pay per download model, where developers on the cheapest plans will need to pay 20 cents per install, while those on the expensive plans have variable rates that get lower and lower. And this news caused a massive backlash among developers and their fans especially
Starting point is 00:10:07 because in the gaming world there's this big emphasis on supporting indie devs and their underdog stories but many of them alongside smaller studios pointed out that these changes would be catastrophic for many indie games that become popular the fees could get into the millions of dollars that's a ridiculous amount of money especially when you consider that some of these games are free to play right so in this new world, they'll have to pay upfront for users that may never actually end up turning them a profit through other monetization methods like in-game shops.
Starting point is 00:10:30 Also, another big question was what happens if a user buys a game once, like on Steam, but installs it on their PC, their laptop, and Steam Deck? Or the fact that there was a lot of vagueness about the entire change concerns so many people. Now with this, it appears that some of the confusion could have been solved if people read any of the updates Unity put out about the change.
Starting point is 00:10:44 For example, there are a series of thresholds that need to be crossed before anyone's charged anything. So for those on the lower plans, a game would need to have both made $200,000 within the last 12 months and get 200,000 lifetime installs before they start paying. Whereas the pro plans have the same idea, but at 1 million each and some subsequent updates have offered some insight. One of the big questions was whether things like demos would count towards the download limit. And with that, apparently they, alongside charity packages, will not. Or how downloads will be tracked. For that, they apparently didn't want to give away the exact secret as it was proprietary.
Starting point is 00:11:10 But they did say that they have protections in place for fraudulent downloads. Which is probably important because critics of the change, like Asmongold, pointed out a few interesting situations that are surely to happen. Like what would happen if he played a small game and didn't like it? And then a small but stupid percentage of fans decided, hey, I'm going to download the game in order to get it past a certain threshold to hurt the developer. Does that developer just get fucked? Also, another question posed by creators like Day9 was, why was this change a better option than revenue sharing? Because with revenue sharing, the objectives of both Unity and the developer are aligned. As the developers make more, so does Unity. For its part, Unity said in an FAQ that they thought this was better for developers
Starting point is 00:11:41 because it didn't slow down future profits like profit sharing would. But the main and biggest thing here is that because of all this, we've seen a slew of developers just saying, hey, we're out. With, for example, the makers of Cult of Lamb, which, by the way, is a fantastic game, tweeting out, buy Cult of Lamb now because we're deleting it on January 1st. While the threatening to delete the game was a joke, the general anger towards this change wasn't. With them posting, for those who don't know, Cult of the Lamb is made in Unity. Our team specializes in Unity games. So what's the impact on us? Well, we have future projects in the pipeline that were initially planned to be developed in Unity.
Starting point is 00:12:08 This change would result in significant delays since our team would need to acquire an entirely new skill set. The introduction of these fees by Unity could pose significant challenges for aspiring developers. While others said that the changes would be unsentable or, simply put, Unity can get fucked. And you also had a number of people arguing that the company knew that this was a shit idea. People pointing to things like its CEO selling off stock days before the changes were announced. And unsurprisingly, that was a good idea as the price tanked afterwards.
Starting point is 00:12:30 With all that said, I'd love to know your thoughts on this, whether it be generally or like you're someone that's super into this gaming space. Do you think people are overreacting or they're justifiably pissed with everything how it's been described? Do you think it's a reasonable way
Starting point is 00:12:41 to charge people that are using their platform for free to occasionally make hit games? Any and all thoughts you have on this, I'd love to hear. And then the problems for Ashton Kutcher and Mila Kunis just keep on growing. Though this time, I will say it has nothing to do with those character letters they wrote for Danny Masterson. And actually, instead of all things, it's about an NFT cartoon show they worked on. And that show was called Stoner Cats. It was reportedly funded by selling NFTs with buyers getting access to the series as well as their own stoned cat avatar. And while both Mila and Ashton voiced big characters in it, they were not the only ones,
Starting point is 00:13:07 with other big names involved like Chris Rock, Jane Fonda, and Seth MacFarlane. But also on top of voicing characters, the Hollywood Reporter noted that Mila and Ashton went on a media tour for the project. And the show's website also notes that Mila's Orchard Farm Productions was a partner in making the series. But all of that brought us to yesterday with the SEC announcing that the show's LLC was charged with conducting an unregistered offering of crypto asset securities in the form of its NFTs. With a press release saying that those NFTs raised $8 million from investors to finance the show. And adding that the StonerCats2 LLC emphasized its expertise in the crypto space and its marketing campaign. With it telling investors to expect profits because a successful web series would cause the resale
Starting point is 00:13:39 price of StonerCats to go up. And so there, that's the key thing. The SEC is basically saying that the show was marketing these NFTs not as collectibles, but as crypto assets. With the associate director of the SEC's home office releasing a statement saying, registration of securities, including crypto asset securities, protects investors by providing them with disclosures so they can make informed investing decisions. StonerCats wanted all the benefits of offering and selling a security to the public, but ignored the legal responsibilities that come with doing so. With that, notably, no one was individually named in the SEC's release, just the show's LLC. And now what we're seeing is this is often the case once we get into the seven-figure range. Without admitting to or
Starting point is 00:14:11 denying the SEC's findings, StonerCats2 LLC has agreed to pay a civil penalty of $1 million, with the order also establishing a fair fund to return money to injured investors and requires that StonerCats destroys all NFTs in its possession or control. And then DACA could be dead soon because yesterday a federal judge in Texas ruled that the Obama era policy protecting immigrants who were brought to the US as children is illegal. But notably, he didn't immediately revoke the program
Starting point is 00:14:32 instead allowing it to stay in place, at least for now. And so that means that the roughly 600,000 Dreamers enrolled in the program can renew their status, but no new applicants will be allowed. Now, while this is big news, it shouldn't come as a surprise, especially because this same federal judge, Andrew Hannon, has already previously struck down DACA before, making a very similar ruling back in July of 2021. With Hannon there siding
Starting point is 00:14:50 with a group of Republican states that had challenged the law, saying the program had been created illegally. But again, he kept it in place and allowed current DREAMers to stay enrolled while suspending new applications. Then, back last October, a federal appeals court upheld that decision, but it also then passed the case back down to Hannon so he could review changes the Biden administration had made to the program. Because just a month after the initial ruling, the Biden administration moved to boost the program's legal standing, with them issuing a rule in August of 2021 to preserve and fortify DACA. And that rule was very similar to the initial executive action Obama issued to create the program. Though notably,
Starting point is 00:15:17 it also added some more language to try and protect against further legal challenges, including by moving to codify the program into federal regulations. But the main difference between this rule and the one Obama made is that the Biden version was subject to public comment as part of an effort to include DACA in administrative law instead of unilateral presidential action, because that's how Obama had implemented it. And that is actually a very significant key thing, because Hannon had ruled that the original program was illegal in part because it had not been subjected to the public notice and comment periods. But still, in his ruling yesterday, Hannon said that the changes to the program don't cut it, writing that there are no material differences
Starting point is 00:15:46 between Obama and Biden's version of the policy, and so his initial issues still stand. And adding, the solution for these deficiencies lies with the legislature, not the executive or judicial branches. But you know, the current state of Congress is the current state of Congress, so as far as what is going to happen,
Starting point is 00:15:58 experts now widely expect the matter to make its way up to the Supreme Court. And while this would mark the third time the high court has ruled on DACA, very notably here, this is the most conservative the court has been. So it's very possible, and some would argue probable, that we're going to get a different outcome this time. For the first time, the Supreme Court heard DACA was deadlocked four to four due to a vacancy from Scalia's death. Then the second time, it blocked Trump from ending the program five to
Starting point is 00:16:17 four, but didn't rule on the legality. Which is why, as a result, you have experts arguing that the only way for DACA to survive is if Congress passes legislation, with many supporters calling on the legislature to act. And that's also something that seems to have widespread public support. I mean, according to a 2020 survey by Pew, nearly three out of every four American adults say they are in favor of giving permanent legal status to DACA recipients. And so while I personally have no faith in our Congress, it'll be interesting to see if this is something that they move on ahead of 2024. And specifically, if DACA being rolled back lights a fire under Republican members who have been slow to move on the issue, but still want to court and appease Latino voters.
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Starting point is 00:17:59 wording there is very important because words matter. That move wouldn't be superficial. It would give the US a ton of sweeping powers, including the ability to prosecute outside of the United States, enhanced investigative authority, and the authority to impose sanctions and other penalties. Now there, Trump ultimately backed off after Mexico repeatedly fought against the idea, arguing it would completely undermine their sovereignty and hurt relations between the two allies. But that doesn't mean that Trump didn't then continue floating more plans. For example, former Trump Defense Secretary Mark Esper wrote in his memoir that Trump asked him twice in 2020 if he could strike Mexico with missiles.
Starting point is 00:18:28 And his ideas about military action in Mexico have also extended to his 2024 campaign. This last January, he promised to order special forces and other military assets to, quote, inflict maximum damage on cartels if he was reelected. And people close to him said that he even asked advisors for battle plans to attack Mexico if he won in 2024. And so with all that, in recent months, we've seen a ton of other Republicans jumping on the Trump bandwagon. With many of the Republican candidates
Starting point is 00:18:48 running for president openly saying they would initiate military intervention with Mexico, with that including man who smiles normally, Ron DeSantis, with him actually taking one of the most combative stances on the issue, with him being asked during the first debate if he would support sending US special forces across the border to take out cartels
Starting point is 00:19:01 and labs that produce fentanyl, and he said, Yes, and I will do it on day one so as president would i use force would i treat them as foreign terrorist organizations you're darn right i would 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.
Starting point is 00:19:31 Download the Instacart app and enjoy $0 delivery fees on your first three orders. Service fees, exclusions, and terms apply. Instacart, groceries that over-deliver. But that also echoed by Vivek Ramaswamy. And while those two have kind of painted themselves as far-right alternatives to Trump, it's also the moderate Republicans.
Starting point is 00:19:48 Even candidates like Tim Scott and Nikki Haley also floating the idea of using military force against drug cartels. And notably, this goes beyond just candidates saying things. Like back in January, for example, there was a group of 21 Republicans who introduced a bill that would authorize the use of military force against cartels in Mexico.
Starting point is 00:20:01 And this past March, Senator Lindsey Graham said that he would introduce a bill to set the stage for military force in Mexico. And so with all this, you have experts saying this represents a major shift in the GOP, because for decades, the party has supported close relations with Mexico. And many of the defining policies that have built bilateral relations between the US and Mexico have had broad bipartisan support. And I mean, even in the early days of Trump's presidency, a majority of Republican voters said they believed Mexico was a US ally. But now, polls show they are much more evenly divided on whether they perceive Mexico as an ally or an enemy. And notably, this as experts
Starting point is 00:20:27 across the political spectrum have sounded alarms against the growing support for military action in Mexico. With them pushing back against what they call the dangerous mainstreamification of this idea and warning that plans Republicans are casually tossing around would be absolutely catastrophic. Arguing that at the very basic top level, what we're talking about are just acts of war, plain and simple. Saying Mexico is a sovereign country and you can't just unilaterally take military actions against another nation and expect everything to just be fine. And that's something that even hawkish Republicans have argued. And this including John Negroponte, who's one of the leading voices in this particular area of foreign policy. Having served as the ambassador to Mexico under both Bush Sr. and Clinton as well as the permanent representative to the UN under Bush Jr.
Starting point is 00:21:02 With him telling The Hill recently, I believe any action that is unilateral by the United States vis-a-vis Mexico, especially by U.S. uniformed forces, be they police or military, would be completely counterproductive to United States-Mexico relations. And adding, Mexico is our largest trading partner. We share a 2,200-mile border and we have interrelationships that are extensive and across an entire spectrum of issues such as migration, trade, people-to-people relations, and environmental concerns. I believe such action would be extremely ill-advised."
Starting point is 00:21:28 Others in the space have also echoed this in less diplomatic terms, like one scholar at Carnegie Mellon University telling the New York Times, "'In 35 years, this takes the prize as the stupidest idea I have ever heard.'" And with that, as the Times explains, "'In addition to the likely humanitarian toll
Starting point is 00:21:41 and hit to U.S. standing in the world, any incursion into Mexico could worsen the same problems Republicans are trying to address. To the extent that the U.S. has succeeded in stemming illegal immigration and drugs in recent years, it has relied on Mexico's close cooperation. And that idea that military action would make all the problems that Republicans are using to justify their arguments so much worse is something that a Mexican official also echoed in Commons to the Hill, saying any military intervention in Mexico would be a monumental setback for the U.S. and would derail the bilateral relationship. It can destroy the North American trading bloc
Starting point is 00:22:08 and worsen the security situation, triggering a wave of migration in the region. Now, with all of this, there's, of course, the possibility that people are just posturing, they're just saying words. But when the people saying those words have the ability to or are vying for the positions that can actually do those things, you should listen.
Starting point is 00:22:23 In fact, because there is a growing concern, we've actually seen Democrats taking action to try and prevent all this. With a group in the House, for example, introducing a measure that would ban the president from taking unilateral military action against Mexico. And that proposal, which would be an amendment to the 2024 Department of Defense Appropriations Bill, draws from the 1973 War Powers Resolution that created limits on the president's ability to wage war. And specifically, the amendment would prohibit the president from using the military budget in regard to Mexico without Congress first providing authorization. With that including, quote, the introduction of United States armed
Starting point is 00:22:50 forces into hostilities in Mexico, into situations in Mexico where imminent involvement in hostilities is clearly indicated by the circumstances, or into Mexican territory, airspace, or waters while equipped for combat. And notably there, some Republicans have even said they will support the measure, but others, including some that backed previous resolutions to limit the president's war powers, have been cagey, with many of them declining to comment on the matter or dancing around it by using buzzwords about the need to protect Americans and secure the border. But ultimately, that's where we are for now. We're going to have to wait to see how this debate develops, how the policies develop, and of course, we're going to have to go through a whole election cycle. I mean, granted, it's already officially started, but I'm trying to deny that reality. It's always my least favorite stretch of a year, but at least we'll be in it together. And then let's talk about yesterday today, the part of the show where we look back to yesterday's show, dive into the comments section and see what y'all are saying.
Starting point is 00:23:34 Especially because yesterday, while we talked about a lot of things, one of the biggest things that took over the comments section was that CEO, you know, the one who said that the economy and its workers need to feel pain. The workers need to be reminded they work for their employer. They are lucky to be there, and it's not the other way around. With a lot of people agreeing with comments like, What? A CEO that spends his day emailing and taking lunch meetings thinks workers are getting greedy? I'm so shocked.
Starting point is 00:23:55 And I'm glad that evil CEO is feeling that way. It confirms to me that he's the one afraid of things like rising unions and collective action. He's afraid that we know our own value, and he is afraid that we know that they rely on us. Some also honing in on the part with the quote, tradies get paid a lot for doing little, with Steph saying being a tradesperson is insanely dangerous. Roofers fall off roofs, bricklayers lose fingers, they get paid so much because their work is strenuous, dangerous, and they deserve a hefty supper fund after breaking their backs to literally build the country. So glad tradies have such a strong union. More industries in Australia need unions as strong.
Starting point is 00:24:23 There were also a good number of you that noticed the stories of the day seem to have a trend. With Mike writing, quote, It's pretty on point. And those are just kind of a small taste of the overwhelming number of comments, many including four-letter words about the CEO. There were also some comments regarding the Taylor Swift reporter backlash, with one of y'all sharing, As a former Gannett employee, I have to say that is truly disgusting that they're doing this Taylor Swift reporter job and acting like they're so fun and cool for doing it.
Starting point is 00:24:53 They have destroyed so many vital small-town papers, leaving each paper with one or two employees each. Total. Papers that had 30-plus employees five years ago. And I know that even at their national level, they have made major cuts to important teams. So they're 100% full of it. No one feels safe in their newsrooms until there's one person left. And I'm sure they're targeting a young journalist who doesn't know their MO and will just be another victim to their insanity. Total BS. And then finally, there were a lot of people who were just celebrating the cave rescue story. But there were also people like Fernandez who wrote, you did a great job in highlighting the challenges of the cave rescue. But as someone who has personally been involved in a cave rescue, I must say that the speed and depth at which this rescue took place is truly remarkable. It's a
Starting point is 00:25:28 testament to the incredible talent and dedication of the cave rescuers involved. I'm in awe of the amazing work done by everyone who played a part in this rescue, and they definitely deserve a shout out for their bravery and selflessness. In closing, it's important to know that these rescuers are not paid professionals, but rather volunteers who willingly put their own resources on the line to help a fellow caver. Kudos to them for their outstanding effort, and they deserve Phil's bamf shout out. And they are definitely getting it because one, they deserve it, and two, I want to end the show on a high note for once. So that brings us to the end of today's dive into the news. As always, thank you for being subscribed. Also, for more news you need to know,
Starting point is 00:25:59 I got you covered right here, or I got the links in the description for you. But my name's Philip DeFranco. You've just been filled in. I love your faces, and I'll see you right back here next time.

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