The Philip DeFranco Show - PDS 9.18 MrBeast Situation Just Got Crazier & Could Ruin Him, Forced Child Labor Cult Exposed, & Today’s News

Episode Date: September 18, 2024

These updates coming in are wiiiiild... Head to http://www.lumen.me/DEFRANCO for 15% off your purchase. Get an exclusive NordVPN deal here https://nordvpn.com/phil It's risk-free with Nord's 30-day money-back guarantee!     New Limited Drop @ https://BeautifulBastard.com is LIVE AND YOU CAN GET 20-60% OFF on Drop Week! ALSO go here https://www.instagram.com/p/DAEauwny7np/?img_index=1 and follow the instructions for a chance at $100 Coupon Codes! 48 Days Until Election Day! Make Sure You Are Registered to VOTE: https://Vote.org  – ✩ TODAY’S STORIES ✩ – 00:00 - MrBeast & Amazon Sued Over Beast Games Contestant Conditions 04:08 - We Asked a Dietician if Lunchly Really Is a “Better For You” Meal Option 08:44 - Cult Leaders Made Children Work 16 Hours a Day in Horrific Conditions  12:09 - Sponsored by Lumen 13:06 - NYC School Employees Took Funds For Homeless Students, Went To Disney 16:30 - Venezuela Arrests Fourth U.S. Citizen Over Alleged “Plot” Against Maduro 20:02 - Hezbollah Walkie Talkies Explode Following Pager Attack 23:33 - Sponsored by Nord 24:39 - GA Portal for Removing Voters Raises Concerns After Glitches 32:17 - Comment Commentary  Find Samantha Cassetty on Instagram and on her website: https://www.instagram.com/nutritionistsam/?hl=en https://samanthacassetty.com/ ——————————   Produced by: Cory Ray Edited by: James Girardier, Maxwell Enright, Julie Goldberg, Christian Meeks, Matthew Henry Art Department: William Crespo Writing/Research: Philip DeFranco, Brian Espinoza, Lili Stenn, Maddie Crichton, Chris Tolve, Star Pralle, Jared Paolino Associate Producer on GA Voter Rolls: Lili Stenn  ———————————— #DeFranco #MrBeast #LoganPaul ———————————— Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Sup you beautiful bastards. Welcome back to the Philip DeFranco show. You daily dive into the news and as you might be able to tell from the time code, there is a lot to talk about today. Including a little something special for you near the end. But hey, you just hit that like button to let me know you like these extra, extra large shows

and let's jump into it. This is a news show. Mr. Beast is in some trouble. He is now not only getting sued, he is in the crosshairs of a class action lawsuit. And not just him, him, Amazon, and other production companies affiliated with the Beast Games competition series,

they're facing a lawsuit for poor working conditions. And a lot of the allegations in the suit, they echo some of the claims that we've been hearing for a while now, both from the likes of creator Rosanna Pansino and other reports that have been published over the last few months. Because what started as a ton of eyes on

and a lot of excitement for this competition series that's gonna have a whopping $5 million prize, has now morphed into this class action that was filed by five unnamed contestants this week in Los Angeles. With the seeing Variety being the first to report on it and publishing a fairly heavily redacted copy of it. So right now, a lot of the details are still unknown.

But a key thing is that some of the claims include complaints about safety, not having enough food, chronic mistreatment, and sexual harassment. With a lawsuit claiming that Mr. Beast, Amazon, and the production companies shamelessly exploited the labor of the people who served as contestants. Alleging that even though Mr. Beast

had unconstrained resources, he failed to provide fair wages or even bare minimum legal working conditions to the contestants. And saying instead, he had them sign unconscionable contracts with illegal terms. And going further, to claim that the female contestants, especially, suffered as the work environment

fostered a culture of misogyny, which production did nothing about. And notably, the sections regarding sexism were the most heavily redacted parts of the lawsuit. But we did see that it alleged that there was a toxic and hostile work environment that allowed for women to be sexually harassed. It also made mention of Mr. Beast's handbook that Rosanna Pansino shared in one of her videos, saying the

document, quote, provides insight into the boys will be boys working conditions that are seemingly promoted by Mr. Beast. With this including the part that said, if talent wants to draw a dick on the whiteboard in the video or do something stupid, let them. Really do everything you can to empower the boys when filming and help them make content, help them be idiots. Then regarding the more general forms of mistreatment, the lawsuit said that the contestants were exposed to dangerous conditions and that quote, "'As local news reported, many contestants found "'it was the poor set conditions rather than

"'the challenges themselves that proved "'to be the main difficulty.'" Alleging they were confined to enclosed spaces, underfed and overtired, claiming that the limited amount of food didn't provide enough caloric intake to the point where it endangered their health and welfare. And the lawsuit adding, Beast Games contestants were taken to the hospital, including for dehydration. Adding, Scott Robin of Vital Vegas reported that local Desert Springs Hospital had seen countless patients

coming from Beast Games due to lack of food and water, and that the production had allegedly denied food to diabetics, denied water to contestants, and at least two individuals had seizures as a result. And with all that, you had the contestants' attorneys releasing a statement saying, "'While participants knew upon signing the contract "'at the production's inception that they were facing "'a potentially long and challenging competition, "'they allege getting a lot more than they bargained for.'"

With one of the female contestants adding, "'I expected to be challenged, "'but I didn't think I would be treated like nothing, "'less than nothing. "'And as one of the women, I can say it absolutely felt "'like a hostile environment for us. "'We honestly could not have been respected less. And so with all this, the lawsuit is seeking

class action status and demands that Mr. Beast and the other companies pay the allegedly unpaid wages as well as damages. So notably here, a lawyer did tell Time Magazine that class action cases generally settle before trial and there is a good chance that happens here. But as far as what this lawsuit means for the show, the lawyer also explained that it likely won't result

in it getting canceled or anything like that. But if there is a ton of backlash or a ton of bad publicity, it could prevent following seasons from getting picked up. Also, if there is a scenario where there is a trial and they're found liable, then I mean, the show is definitely done. Right, but right now that doesn't appear to be the case

of what's gonna happen with NBC News. Even reporting the show is still being filmed in Canada and Panama though, right now there is no air date. But you also have people wondering if there is more to come because it is also worth noting that this lawsuit comes just a few days after Rolling Stone spoke to crew members of the show

who described the sets as fire-fest level chaos. With one even saying, there's a reason why this level of production hasn't been attempted before and it certainly should never have been attempted without people that know what they are doing. But for right now, we'll have to wait to see what happens, both with the actual court system

and with the court of public opinion. Which with that, I gotta pass the question off to you. What are your thoughts here with this lawsuit? But notably, that is not where the bad news ends for Mr. Beast, though at least this one is not a legal issue. Instead, this is connected to how we talked about earlier this week, Mr. Beast, Logan Paul, and KSI

teamed up to launch Lunchly, a prepackaged meal similar to Lunchable, which notably is a meal that of course comes with a Feastables candy bar and a Prime hydration drink, all of which they have been promoting as a healthier, at least healthier option, comparing its nutrients to Lunchables on its website and also posting videos like this saying,

With Lunchly, you get double the amount of liquid. Prime has no sugar added, more electrolytes, and more B vitamins. Crunch bar. Feastables Crunch Bar. And while I still believe from a business sense, this is going to be massively successful unless they somehow fuck it up.

Tons of regular people and even massive online creators have been slamming the product as unhealthy or as influencers just selling crap to kids. With one of the most viral posts around this coming from YouTube's own DanTDM, who responded, "'What happened to YouTubers, man? "'I can't not say anything anymore. "'This is selling stuff for the sake of making money.

"'Simple, how does this benefit their fans? "'This is selling crap to kids who don't know better "'than say anything anymore. This is selling stuff for the sake of making money, simple. How does this benefit their fans? This is selling crap to kids who don't know better than to trust the people who are selling it to them. Do better. And with all the backlash and attention we've seen all three creators responding. RKSI calling DanTDM a hypocrite.

Logan Paul saying, I'll tell you what happened to YouTubers. We spent our lives creating content and building our brands. Now we want to build businesses. And adding, you don't say anything when Lunchables faces bans for allegedly containing lead, but when we create a better version, you're upset, then don't eat it. Which on that note, he also shared videos

of Lunchables meals apparently going through metal detectors to make sure there were no foreign materials. He also responded to other criticisms, right? People claiming that Lunchables only has a high electrolyte count because of the high sodium content. With Logan writing the electrolytes actually come from its potassium. And for his part, MrBeast wrote,

Lunchables sell hundreds of millions of units and countless people eat it. Saying, our goal is to give people a better for you alternative to it. Our turkey meal, for example, Mr. Beast wrote, Lunchables sell hundreds of millions of units and countless people eat it. Saying, our goal is to give people a better for you alternative to it. Our turkey meal, for example, is 80 less calories, 60% less sugar, more electrolytes. We use real cheese. They use cheese product.

They can't call it cheese. Higher quality meat, et cetera. And going on to say, obviously eating fresh chicken and broccoli is healthier, but if someone is going to eat a pre-made meal like this, then I think giving them a higher quality version at roughly the same price is a net good, in my opinion, and why we launched Lunchly. But also with all that, you know, for me, when it comes to this category, I'm just your average consumer, right? And I think that it

can be very hard to parse through a nutrition label and figure out what the hell all this means. So with so many people talking about this, we figured let's actually talk to a registered dietician. And that's what we did. We talked to Samantha Cassidy, right? And here regarding this electrolyte debate of sodium versus potassium, she said that shouldn't really be the focus. So I think the issue isn't so much of whether the electrolytes are coming from sodium or potassium, because if you do need electrolyte replacement, you would need to replace both of these. But an issue for me is that actually kids don't need this. And also the electrolyte drink contains artificial sweeteners, which is another thing kids don't need. And that because she said kids who are most likely going to be interested in lunch.

They don't need to prioritize electrolyte consumption unless they're partaking in prolonged physical activity. And as far as if it's better than Lunchable, she said, I don't necessarily think one is healthier than the other. I think neither are things that we ought to be giving our kids every day. And with all that, noting that when you look into the ingredients, you can see preservatives, additives, and artificial sweeteners.

All of these things are red flags indicating that a food is heavily processed. And what we know from like all of this mountains of research that is currently coming out is heavily processed foods are associated with poor health outcomes. this mountains of research that is currently coming out is heavily processed foods are associated with poor health outcomes. One thing that both of these products lack is a fruit or vegetable and fruits and vegetables are really supposed to be the foundation of our diets. So if a product is marketed to kids as a meal, it should include at least a serving of one of those

foods. Though notably with all this, she also added that that doesn't mean you should never eat something like this. These products are obviously very appealing to kids. They're easy for parents to grab and there is a reason they exist. There's a time and place for everything. And you know, it's okay to eat these things when you're being thoughtful and in the context of serving other foods. I just wouldn't make these products a way of life and be giving them to your kids every day. I understand why parents go for these things. It's really, really hard to be a parent

and to be sending your kid to school with lunch and be tasked with having to make that lunch, shop for that lunch, when you have all these other obligations, work and getting dinner on the table and all of it. But with all that said, my opinion is YouTubers should have the right to poison our children just like any multinational company.

No, I'm kidding. I don't know, I am interested in this. But for now, I'm more interested in what are your thoughts here? Do you agree with any or all the criticisms against these three? Or do you think there's really not much there that people are just complaining?

Why, why not? Let me know. But then, brace yourself, this next story combines alien spaceships, child slavery, and maybe, just maybe, a little bit of justice. And with all of this centering on a cult known as the United Nation of Islam, also called the Value Creators or the Promise Keepers, all of which should not be confused

with the more well-known Nation of Islam. See, the United Nation of Islam, that was a breakaway sect from that group founded in 1978 by Royale Jenkins, a man who claimed to have been taken through the galaxy on a spaceship by beings alternately described as aliens, angels, and scientists, and shown the proper way to rule the earth.

With him also promising that his followers would be protected when the quote, final destruction came, and apparently that convinced hundreds of people to join his group. At which point Jenkins told them to hand over everything they owned, money, food stamps, property deeds, everything. And then in 1998, they set up shop in Kansas.

Within the unified government of Wyandotte County in Kansas City, as well as a public school board, donating five buildings to the group to revitalize an impoverished area. And with that, you had a city commissioner telling the Kansas reflector that he raised an eyebrow at the time when Jenkins claimed to be Allah. But apparently this promise of new housing and storefronts

was just too attractive. And in some narrow sense, the group did deliver. Running businesses like gas stations, bakeries, restaurants, a laboratory, and clothing and sewing factory, and not just in Kansas, but several other states as well. Thing is though, the employees who worked at those places from 2000 to 2012, turns out most of them weren't adults. Parents in the group sent their kids

to an unlicensed school in Kansas City called the University of Arts and Logistics of Civilization, which should have set off alarm bells immediately because the principal, one of Jenkins' many wives and also his stepdaughter, only had a sixth grade education. So these kids, some of whom were as young as eight years old, worked up to 16 hours a day in the group's businesses for no pay,

with them then also doing childcare, domestic services inside group members' homes. But then also when they weren't working, it got even worse. Because home, that consisted of overcrowded facilities often overrun with mold, mice, and rats. And their food, that consisted of nothing but bean soup, salad, and occasionally fruit. That is, unless it was time to undergo a cleanse,

in which case they only got lemon juice for days at a time. Though that may not have been too bad compared to the colonics that they were forced to go through. And amid all this, if one of the children stepped out of line in any way, the punishments were severe. From being deprived of food, to being isolated from other people for over two weeks,

to getting locked in a dark, frightening basement. And that's not even the worst of it, right? One of the kids later told A&E that those who committed minor infractions, like walking the wrong way down the street, or saying hi, a word that was banned by Jenkins, because it connotated with hell, they were brought in front of an auditorium full of people

and publicly humiliated, with group members even punching the person in the chest, sometimes leaving them unconscious. And then in one rather, let's call it creative punishment, one victim was held upside down over train tracks because he wouldn't admit to stealing food when he was hungry. With another one of his victims in similar desperation drinking toilet water because she was so thirsty.

And through all of this, they were told they would burn an eternal hellfire if they left. Also, instead of ever taking medicine, members were told to just eat garlic even when there was a ringworm epidemic in the group. And this, according to Jenkins, because sickness was just brought on by personal will and his followers were assured immortality anyway,

which is actually pretty ironic because he died from coronavirus in 2021. And while through that, he escaped justice, unless you count the cosmic variety other high ranking members did not. With us now seeing this week, a jury convicting six people of forced labor and conspiracy to commit forced labor.

And this coming after two more people pled guilty to the same charges previously, but have now set to be sentenced in February. So at least some justice here, but just a horrifying, horrible situation. Then taking a quick break from the news, here's a fact. Optimal metabolic health translates into a bunch of benefits, including improved energy levels,

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That's L-U-M-E-N. me slash DeFranco for 15% off your purchase. And thank you Lumen for sponsoring the show. But then this is so infuriating. New York City public school employees took money meant to fund educational trips from homeless students and used it to pay for their families to go on vacation. That's what just got revealed in this absolutely wild report

by the special commissioner of investigation for the city's public schools. So let me explain, right? The trips in question were meant as enrichment opportunities or as incentives for improving attendance and academics for homeless students, who, and this is a story in its own right, make up one in every nine of the city's 1.1 million public school attendees. But that ended up being abused by more than half a dozen people who worked for the Queens branch of New York Students in Temporary Housing Program, or STH, which provides resources for unhoused students.

And according to the report, there was a clear ringleader, Linda Wilson, who was the STH Queens regional manager at the time. With the investigation finding that Wilson had brought her own daughters on multiple grant-funded trips for homeless kids and allowed other employees she managed to bring their children or grandchildren as well.

And also, like, let's be clear, this was not some kind of misunderstanding of the rules. Investigators said that Wilson and her staff members literally filled out permission slips using the information of unhoused students and then forged their parents' signatures. With a whistleblower even telling investigators that few of the homeless students listed on the trip

paperwork actually attended the trips. Beyond that, Wilson also used a third party contractor to book the trips because there was less oversight than if the trip had been booked directly through the city's education department. With an employee even telling investigators that in 2018, Wilson canceled a trip after she found out the department had been notified

about family members of staff attending trips meant for homeless kids. With her even allegedly holding a meeting where she instructed her employees to keep quiet, saying, "'What happens here stays with us.'" But then, despite the fact that Wilson and the others seemingly knew that the education department was onto them,

they still continued to bring their own kids and grandkids on these trips. And all in all, these trips took place between 2016 and 2019 and included travel to Boston, Washington, DC, a resort in upstate New York, at least one Broadway show in Disney World. Though at least notably, can we call it a silver lining? The report does note that the Disney trip,

it was actually attended by some unhoused students. But it also noted that multiple staffers brought family members and one person interviewed said that he had to beg Wilson to allow him to add two of his students to the trip. And what's more is that while bringing housing and secure kids to Disney, it sounds like a sweet idea. If, of course, they had done that,

it also didn't serve an educational purpose, which notably was a requirement under regulations for these kinds of trips. In fact, the investigators found that very few of these trips actually had educational value, and that's even the ones that claim to have explicit educational purposes. Like for example, the probe said Wilson and the others

took their family members on several trips that were quote, "'Intended to give homeless students opportunities "'to visit college campuses.'" Sounds great, but the groups never actually visited the colleges at all or even contacted the schools to arrange visits. But the report's stating that Wilson planned these trips near colleges in order to do non-educational activities

around those colleges. Now with all this, Wilson for her part, denied that she ever brought her daughters on the trips and claimed that she was unaware of other staffers brought their kids because she didn't know their families. She also denied that she informed her employees to keep quiet about family members attending these trips.

And other people named in the suit have also denied the allegations against them, though some recanted their testimonies after being shown photos of their kids literally on a trip. And this also is notably one of the employees recently reached a settlement after admitting that she, quote, used slots intended for students in temporary housing to take her own children to see Wicked on Broadway on a trip to Washington, D.C. And to that point, the investigation explicitly said that Wilson and the other employees involved should be fired and

the education department should seek reimbursement for all expenses incurred by them. Then a statement, a spokesperson for the agency condemned the actions and confirmed that all staff identified in this report are no longer employed by New York City public schools. But then shifting gears, we have two absolutely wild international news stories to talk about today. And we'll start first with these crazy allegations of an international CIA led plot to assassinate

Venezuelan president, Nicolas Maduro. Right, because while there is zero evidence that such a plot exists, it's the reason being given for why a US citizen has just been arrested in Caracas. And actually a key thing is he is the fourth American to be arrested in Venezuela in the past month, right? And over the weekend, the government there revealed

that it had arrested six foreigners, with three of them being Americans, two being from Spain, and one being from the Czech Republic. With their country's interior ministers saying they were all part of a CIA plan to not only take out Maduro, but actually kill several other officials

and bring down the entire Venezuelan government. And so also with that, you had him claiming that they had seized 400 rifles originating in the United States that were meant to be used in the plot. And then yesterday, you had him announcing this latest arrest saying, this American was taken into custody

after snapping photos of electrical installations, oil installations, and military units. And again, he insisted without providing evidence that the CIA designed, promoted, and financed this plot, and Spain's National Intelligence Center had knowledge of it. But with all this, right, so far, we only know the names of one of the Americans,

with that being Wilbert Joseph Castaneda Gomez, with the interior minister claiming he's a Navy SEAL who served in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Colombia. And there, we know he's at least half right. Or we know that the guy did once serve as a SEAL, but he's not anymore, though he's still assigned to a Naval Special Warfare Unit. And besides that,

we know that he's been enlisted since 2007 and is ranked as a petty officer first class. With American officials saying that he was in Venezuela on personal travel and not on official government business. But of course, either way, you have the US fully denying everything with a message from the State Department saying,

any claims of US involvement in a plot to overthrow Maduro are categorically false.'" And again, right now, we haven't seen any evidence to suggest otherwise. Instead, you have people saying it's all politically motivated. Because as we've talked about before, Venezuela had an election this summer,

with Maduro, along with state institutions that are stacked with his cronies, claiming that he won with 52% of the vote. And that despite there really being no evidence of that. Now the opposition, on the other hand, they actually collected tally sheets from 80% of voting machines and they published them online with those,

suggesting that their candidate won with twice as many votes as Maduro. And also notably regarding these arrests, in the past week, the US and Spain have both done things that pissed off Maduro. Right just two days before the first arrests were announced, the US sanctioned 16 of Maduro's allies for helping him steal the election.

And then also at the beginning of last week, the guy who most people believe actually won the election, he fled to Spain with a meeting, the Spanish PM and Spanish parliament, symbolically recognizing him as Venezuela's true president. Plus, besides all that, a big thing is that Maduro has previously used Americans imprisoned in Venezuela to get things from the US government.

I mean, just last year, Maduro released 10 Americans and a fugitive wanted by the US known as Fat Leonard. And in exchange, his government got a presidential pardon for Alex Saab, who very notably is a close ally who allegedly helped Maduro avoid US sanctions through a complex network of shell companies.

And so with all that, Venezuela could just be restocking its supply of bargaining chips to use with the US. Though also, you know, while we're talking about people being unjustly detained in Venezuela, another key takeaway is that more than anything else, it's happening to Venezuelans. I mean, he has arrested thousands in the week since the election.

And in fact, this week, a UN-appointed fact-finding mission released an all new report showing just how bad things are for them. And notably, this is a seasoned group that's been reporting on human rights violations in Venezuela for years. But now even they are claiming it is worse than ever with the person who chaired the mission saying, "'Not only have there been no improvements,

"'but the violations have intensified, "'reaching unprecedented levels of violence.'" And as far as the specifics, I mean, there is a lot, but one of the big things is that many of those detained have allegedly been subjected to torture and other cruel, inhumane, or degrading treatment, as well as sexual violence. So really, we're talking about a bad situation

that is only getting worse. But for now, we're gonna have to wait to see how all these things play out, both generally as well as if anything happens with these people that are being arrested. But then, as promised, I said I had two crazy pieces of international news today. And the updates around the Israel-Hezbollah situation, y'all, it is getting crazier by the minute.

Because yesterday, like we talked about, pagers carried by thousands of Hezbollah operatives all across Lebanon just started fucking blowing up. And of course, while Israel didn't publicly take credit, Hezbollah, as well as Lebanese, U.S., and other officials briefed on the operation have said that Israel was responsible. And with that, the reported death toll from yesterday's attack has now risen to 12. And horribly, two children were reported among those killed. And then, in addition to all that, nearly 3,000 people were reportedly injured, with at least one official describing this as the group's biggest security breach since October 7th. But today, Israel apparently is on some DJ Khaled shit because they said another one. Instead of pagers, though, there were walkie-talkies being used by Hezbollah being detonated in various parts of Lebanon today. And notably, some explosions were reported during a funeral for three Hezbollah members and a child killed in the pager attack. And then on top of that, Lebanon's official news agency also reported that solar energy systems in people's homes were exploding.

Although with that, at least right now, it is unclear if they blew up by themselves or were simply near walkie talkies which blew up. But in any case, as of recording, at least 14 people have been reported killed and more than 450 injured, according to Lebanon's health ministry. And as far as how all this happened, well, the walkie talkies were reportedly purchased by Hezbollah five months ago,

around the same time that the pagers were bought. So with that, we can only assume it's the same MO. But with the pagers, the group reportedly ordered 3000 of them from a Taiwanese company called Gold Apollo. With them then distributing the pagers to their members throughout Lebanon with some reaching Hezbollah allies in Iran and Syria. Although here it's worth noting that Gold Apollo

has done its best to distance itself from the attack, saying that it was actually a Hungarian company that manufactured the pagers. But in any case, at some point along the way, Israel reportedly managed to implant explosive material as little as one or two ounces next to the battery in each pager. And then a switch was also embedded

that could be triggered remotely to detonate the explosives. With that happening yesterday at 3.30 PM in Lebanon, when the pagers received a message that appeared as though it was coming from Hezbollah's leadership, but it was actually just about to detonate. But of course, that's just the how, there's still the why. And as far as that goes, one reported reason is just that Israel feared that Hezbollah was on the verge

of finding out about the devices. With one US official telling. official telling Axios it was a use-it-or-lose-it moment. And then from there, they may have just decided to blow up the walkie-talkies today for the same reason, right? With the sources saying the decision was also driven by the assessment that Hezbollah's investigation into the Pager explosions would likely expose the security breach in the walkie-talkies. But then also, right beyond that, they said it's about increasing paranoia and fear in Hezbollah's ranks, With the idea being to pressure the group's leadership to change its policy regarding the conflict with Israel. With a source telling Axios,

the goal was to convince Hezbollah that it is in its interest to disconnect itself from Hamas and cut a separate deal for ending the fighting with Israel, regardless of a ceasefire in Gaza. But there, you have a lot of people skeptical of that. Right, one BBC journalist, for example, who claimed that yesterday's attack was a tactical triumph for Israel,

also added that it's not gonna get Hezbollah to back down. And in addition to that, you had several analysts telling the New York Times that the attack was a tactical success, but it had no clear strategic impact. And to that point, despite the attacks, Hezbollah said today that it would not let up cross-border strikes it's been launching against Israel since last October in solidarity with Hamas. So now really the big fear is that all of this is a precursor to a bigger invasion of Lebanon. In fact, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres warned that yesterday's attack raised a serious risk

of a dramatic escalation in Lebanon. And adding, obviously the logic of making all these devices explode is to do it as a preemptive strike before a major military operation. And in fact, with that, Israel's defense minister said, "'The center of gravity of Israel's war with its enemies "'is moving north.'"

And also saying that he estimates the countries are now at the outset of a new period in this war. So while obviously we're gonna have to wait to see what happens, all signs right now are pointing to this getting way, way more intense. Then just taking a quick break from the news, can I just ask if you don't already, why don't you have a VPN yet?

I don't feel like I'm going out on a limb here to assume like you care about accessing a free internet or protecting your data and devices. I feel like I could be wrong, but I feel like that's universal and I care. here to assume like you care about accessing a free internet or protecting your data and devices. I feel like I could be wrong, but I feel like that's universal and I care. And that's why I use Nord VPN who yes, also happens to be a fantastic sponsor of today's show. Right, you know, I use Nord

because I like to keep my digital life secure and protected. Linz and the kids love having access to streaming content from all around the world. But also more and more, I've become increasingly grateful to Nord knowing that it is the best shot you and I have at maintaining access to information. I mean, these days, a VPN, it could make the difference

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the system has had multiple security flaws that increased the potential for bad actors to commit fraud and readily supplied voters personal information. And specifically what I'm talking about here is a new portal launched by Georgia Secretary of State, Brad Raffensperger, that lets people cancel a voter registration online with a few clicks of a button.

With the goal there being to help people update their voter registration status if they moved out of state or no longer qualify to vote. As well as, you know, to assist family members in removing relatives who have died from the voter rolls. But very notably here, the portal doesn't require a person filling out a request to say that they're trying to cancel their own voting registration

or that of a dead relative. In fact, you don't have to identify yourself at all when making the request, meaning that anyone can fill out a form requesting to cancel the registration of anyone else as long as they know the personal details required. Right, I mean, the start, the cancellation request, all a person needs is a voter's name, date of birth,

and county of residence, all things that can be easily found online for a lot of people. Though notably, to finish, they must provide either the last four digits of the voter's social security number or their driver's license number, which obviously are much more secret.

And after that, once the request is sent, county voter registration officials will receive a notification and remove the voter from the rolls. Now notably here, a spokesperson for Raffensperger's office did tell reporters that postcards will be sent to people notifying them that they will be removed unless they respond.

But you have experts there noting that there is no law in Georgia that explicitly says a voter's registration has to be reinstated if it's canceled by an unauthorized person on the portal. So as a result, critics have argued that the requirement to provide a social security or driver's license number is the only actual obstacle preventing bad actors

from canceling anyone's voter registration. And so that is an issue on its own, especially given how much of a person's information gets leaked by companies constantly. But also it is especially concerning here because the rollout of this portal has been riddled with multiple glitches that allowed people to get around that one single deterrent.

And in fact, shortly after the site was launched, the Associated Press found a flaw that quote, "'Allowed people to access a voter's date of birth, driver's license number, and last four numbers of a social security number.'" So in other words, not only was the government giving out super sensitive information, it was providing the exact information needed to cancel a registration.

And specifically, the glitch took place when people who didn't have the personal information they needed clicked on an option to print out a copy of a sworn statement requesting cancellation. And according to the Georgia Senate minority leader, who personally tested the system with her own information,

all you would need to know is a voter's birthday to get in and request the statement that would then give you all the data necessary to cancel their registration. Now with that said, a spokesperson for Raffensperger's office said that this massive flaw had only lasted less than an hour and it was quickly fixed. But notably, that's not the end of the problems here. Because a few days later, The Current reported that even though the website no longer printed out personal information about voters, it could still be found in the computer code that the portal sent to some users' browsers. And again, we saw officials within the Georgia Secretary of State's office saying that the issue had been fixed quickly and that only a couple hundred people

had visited the site before it was resolved. But also, that's not where this ridiculous saga ends. Because about a week after that, ProPublica reported that a cybersecurity researcher had discovered, quote, a serious security vulnerability that would have allowed anyone to submit a voter cancellation request

for any Georgian with just their name, birthdate, and the county they lived in any Georgian with just their name, birthday, and the county they lived in. And adding that the bug would, quote, allow any user of the portal to bypass the screen that requires a driver's license number and submit the cancellation request without it. And in a video shared with the outlet,

the researcher showed that when the portal asked for a driver's license, all they had to do was right-click to inspect the browser's HTML and delete the few lines of code for that request. And from there, they were just able to successfully submit the cancellation request. Now, of course, again, Raffensperger's office said they had addressed the issue after it was flagged. But you have experts just absolutely

stunned by how serious this specific flaw was. And as a result, some have speculated that this likely isn't the only issue with the portal. With Zach Edwards, for example, a senior threat researcher at the cybersecurity firm Silent Push telling ProPublica that the issue was, quote, as bad as any voter cancellation bug could be, noting that it would have been so simple for someone to automate cancellation requests to get around the portal security and submit thousands of them, adding, at this point, we should assume there are other subtle bugs that could have potentially serious impact. And that's something that's been echoed by others who note that elections-related websites have a long history of easily exploitable security failures. And I mean,

specifically, Georgia itself also has a history of compromising sensitive voter data, which is why you have Democrats and voting rights groups arguing that the portal could be abused by bad actors who could submit mass challenges to deny people the right to vote. And that's actually a very real threat in Georgia because this portal isn't just a one-off, right?

It is part of a much broader effort by Republicans to mass purge voter rolls in response to Trump's false claims that he lost the 2020 election due to fraud. Specifically, pro-Trump conservatives have argued that outdated rolls can lead to voter fraud. Claiming that people could use invalid registrations to cast fraudulent votes and arguing that Georgia has been too slow to update rolls and remove people

who died or are no longer eligible because they moved. But truly, very few cases of illegal out-of-state voting have been confirmed in Georgia or really anywhere else in the country for that matter. Trump's infamous claim that 5,000 dead people voted in Georgia, that's been debunked, with officials actually finding

that just four ballots for dead people were cast and all were identified in remedy. But what we've seen is that hasn't mattered to many Republican officials in Georgia who have made purging voter rolls a key element of the highly restrictive laws they've implemented to safeguard their elections against this imagined threat of widespread fraud.

Because if you don't know, back in 2021, Georgia became one of the first states to enact sweeping voter restrictions, passing one of the strictest laws the country's still seen to date. With one of the single most consequential provisions of that law being that it made it easier to kick people off voter rolls

by allowing citizens to contest the eligibility of any voter in their county through unlimited voter registration challenges. What we've seen is that's resulted in a wave of mass challenges to voter registrations. With it being widely reported that at least 100,000 have been brought since the law was passed. But you know, it's not concerned neighbors

that are bringing these challenges. This is a coordinated effort by a small group of far right groups and pro-Trump activists bolstered by his false claims. In fact, according to ProPublica, nearly 90% of those 100,000 challenges have been brought by just six right-wing groups. Now with that said, most of those challenges

have been rejected with officials repeatedly saying that the allegations are bogus or that the challengers don't have enough evidence. But some have been accepted and experts say that counties have been handling these challenges inconsistently, sometimes in ways that might violate federal law. When those challenges are approved,

the voters in question are forced to jump through hoops to prove their eligibility, creating barriers to voting and leaving many feeling harassed or intimidated. But despite that, Republicans have been expanding the ability to bring these challenges ahead of the 2024 election. Because in addition to this new portal, the state's Republican lawmakers also recently approved another wave of election restrictions. With this, including one law that makes it easier to bring voter registration challenges by expanding the criteria that can be used to remove people from voter rolls. And so with all of this, we've seen Democrats,

voting rights groups and others pushing back saying, this is all just a scheme to suppress and disenfranchise voters. And many here arguing that these mass challenges are a voter intimidation tactic meant to discourage people from going to the polls, create unnecessary hurdles and remove eligible voters from the rolls. Also you have others claiming that Republicans

are trying to sway the election in their favor by targeting democratic voters. Noting that these challenges disproportionately impact voters of color, especially black voters. So the super alarming issues with the portal, they've just heightened those concerns even more, which is also why we saw the NAACP writing a letter to the DOJ condemning the system as an act

of voter suppression. And they're calling on the agency to investigate and take the steps necessary to reverse any voter registrations canceled as a result of this recently implemented practice. What's more, the non-profit Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law also sent Raffensperger's office a cease and desist order arguing that the portal violates federal law and demanded that it be taken down. But for now, especially with the election getting closer and closer by the day, we're gonna have to see what

happens and if there are legal challenges. Especially because whatever goes down here, it's gonna be incredibly consequential, and not just for the people of Georgia. Because while yes, Georgia has been described as the ground zero for these Republican-led mass voter roll purges, Trump allies have since been deploying similar efforts in other key swing states.

And so if this portal proves successful in Georgia's efforts here, I mean, we could see similar systems implemented elsewhere. Then finally, to end today's show, let's do a sneaky little giveaway and talk about yesterday. As far as the giveaway, if you watch Monday's show or you're on the email list, you saw we just did a big old drop over at beautifulbastard.com.

We're in addition to most everything being 20 to 60% off right now, we dropped new villains gear, since we're all villains in someone else's story. New barely alive gear for my emotionally exhausted friends. The I'm killing it gear for those of us fighting through it. As well as our fantastic Banff tea and crops. Also a bit of good and bad news, there was a glitch on the site the last two days.

So for a lot of y'all, it actually looked like our brand new two packs of the long sleeves core gear were sold out. That's now been fixed. It's actually stock that you can snag right now. With long sleeve two packs, 45% off right now. But whether you bought something, you're gonna buy something or not,

if you go to the Shop Beautiful Bastard Instagram page, I'm gonna link to the exact post, and you like the post, you follow the account, you tag three friends, then you may be one of five beautiful bastards randomly selected to get a hundred dollar coupon code. And again, link to the site and that post in the description down below. But then yes, finally today, let's talk about yesterday. Because there was a lot of conversation about a number of topics. Usually people focus on kind of just one. It was everywhere

yesterday. Starting with the fact that while most people saw the Matt and Abby situation and went, okay, regarding that specific scandal, their story seems to make sense. But just a huge chunk of y'all are very much against family vlogging in general. With one of the most liked comments yesterday being, it's honestly just plain dangerous to put your young children on social media

and this family blogging shit needs to go out of fashion altogether. With folks like Kater Free saying, dead ass, I'm more concerned about the whole putting their kids online thing than leaving the kids in a room with family members, though yes, they should have been clearer about other family being there. With Oak Gray adding onaterfree saying, "'Deadass, I'm more concerned "'about the whole putting their kids online thing "'than leaving the kids in a room with family members, "'though yes, they should have been clearer "'about other family being there.'" With Oak Gray adding on to that, saying,

"'Social media is already poisoning our minds. "'I can't imagine what having every notable event "'in my life posted on the internet would do to a kid.'" Which I will say, this is a different situation. My boys have been begging me for a year now for them to be able to start a gaming channel. And personally, I've kind of pumped the brakes on it and put it off, but at some point,

I know I'm gonna have to loosen on the reins and figure out how to navigate it. But I just, I mean, it arguably took me more than a decade as an adult to figure out like how to react to just hundreds and thousands and tens of thousands of people saying shit about you online. Because arguably having done this for 18 years, I've had a very positive run regarding like,

especially being in the political and commentary space. I can't even imagine what that does to a developing mind So I think that's also part of the reason I'm very careful But then also going back to Matt and Abby and their situation specifically I should say as someone that is not someone that consumes their content You folks like absurd guppy saying honestly I watch Matt and Abby and their kids hardly make an appearance and saying when they do their faces aren't shown. Then there was definitely a lot of conversation about that shooting in New York with many especially appalled at Mayor Eric Adams

and how he explained the situation initially. With starred image saying the tweet from the mayor is striking. You mentioned the cop was shot by his own buddies no less, but not the two bystanders? One of them was shot in the head for goodness sake. With others applying he didn't even mention that the shooter was another cop so it's actually worse. Others adding New York needs to release the body cameras soon instead of letting people make assumptions on who's telling the truth. King Cobra also asking, the man with a knife was close enough to the officers for their lives to be in danger, yet their accuracy was so bad they shot three other people. Where is the firearms training? With Streaky sarcastically adding, they were so badly threatened with this knife that they can't even find the damn thing. And finally with this story, a bluegrass nomad adding, New York City subway writer here, important context is that the

police commissioner just resigned last week because of the federal corruption probe surrounding our mayor, who FYI was a cop, and adding on top of the corruption, he has been criticized for killing cases where the police were founded to have acted inappropriately, and tampering with the website that allows the public to search for an officer's disciplinary record. All to say, this case is just the tip of the iceberg, which on that note, we actually covered the tampering story in the past. But then the final thing that we're going to touch on are your reactions to a woman in Georgia who died after Roe v. Wade was overturned. So I'm saying, Jesus, that poor woman. There's no words to describe how horrific this is. You know there's something truly wrong when a clump of cells is

valued more than a grown woman's life. Rest in peace, Amber. Others saying, this abortion ban is so wild, even my pro-life, very conservative parents have realized it's absolutely insane to not give women reproductive rights in healthcare. And adding, people are literally dying and Project 2025 is going to hurt so many more. As a doctor, you shouldn't be afraid to give life-saving care. As a woman, you shouldn't have to drive to another state to get it. And while there was no shortage of other comments, I'll end with Earth Toast who said, listening to Amber's story has me almost in tears. I live in Indiana and had to have a D&C and round of methotrexate for an ectopic pregnancy in 2021 before Roe v. Wade was overturned. It was already hard enough trying to get care because I was dismissed by two doctors when I was consistently bleeding.

Indiana has a fairly strict abortion ban, and when you've already had one ectopic pregnancy, you're at a higher risk for another. I'm terrified that if we try to have another baby that I won't be able to get the care I need and the damage will be either irreversible or would kill me. Regardless of if she chose to abort or it was non-viable like in my case, abortions are healthcare and I wish more people could see that. But that, my friends, is the end of your Wednesday, even Thursday morning dive into the news. And fortunately and unfortunately,

I can already tell tomorrow is gonna be a big one. So I'll just leave you with a thank you, I love your face, and I'll see you right back here tomorrow.