The Philip DeFranco Show - PDS 9.19 11-Year-Old Arrested, Named, & Shamed Over School Shooting Threat, But Critics Say This Goes Too Far

Episode Date: September 19, 2024

8 Things You Need to Know Today... Go to http://zbiotics.com/DEFRANCO and use code DEFRANCO at checkout to get up to 15% off your first order.   The first 5,000 people to use coupon code phil will get 1GB SAILY DATA PLAN FOR FREE! Go to https://Saily.com/phil and download Saily to test it out for FREE. Use code “PHIL” for $20 OFF your first SeatGeek order & returning buyers use code “PDS” for $10 off AND your chance at weekly $500 prizes! https://seatgeek.onelink.me/RrnK/PHIL Daily Dip newsletter subscribers can win up to $1,000 in SeatGeek credit so make sure you’re subscribed: https://www.dailydip.co/ 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! 47 Days Until Election Day! Make Sure You Are Registered to VOTE: https://Vote.org  – ✩ TODAY’S STORIES ✩ – 00:00 - FL Sheriff Vows to Publicly Shame Kids Who Threaten Shootings 03:58 - Nintendo & The Pokemon Company Sue PalWorld Developers 07:01 - YouTube Rolls Out New Features for Creators, Viewers 10:54 - Sponsored by Zbiotics 12:04 - Teamsters Will Not Endorse Any Presidential Candidate 16:04 - National Guard Has Not Fixed Dangerous Lead-Contaminated Firing Ranges  18:21 - Federal Data Shows Unexpected Drop In Overdose Deaths 19:45 - U.S. & Allies Take Control of Network of Internet-Connected Devices Used by China  21:37 - Sponsored by Saily 22:49 - US Sanctions Are Hurting Regular People More Than Governments  31:21 - Comment Commentary  Youtube Communities blog: https://blog.youtube/news-and-events/a-new-youtube-communities-experience-for-fans-by-fans/  ——————————   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 Sanctions: Jared Paolino ———————————— #DeFranco #BillieEilish #Pokemon ———————————— Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Sup, you beautiful bastards. Welcome back to the Philip DeFranco Show, your daily dive into the news, and we have a lot to talk about today. So how about you just hit that like button to train YouTube to know that you love these big daily dives into the news, and let's jump into it.

This is a news show. And the first thing that we're gonna talk about today is I am so interested to know what you think about this. Since parents, you don't wanna raise your kids kids, I'm going to start raising them. Every time we make an arrest, your kid's photo is going to be put out there. And if I could do it, I'm going to perp walk your kid so that everybody can see what your kid's up to. The second point of this is, if I can any way find out that a parent knew what was going

on and wasn't doing anything, your a** is getting perp walked with them. This is absolutely ridiculous. Go talk to the families who have lost a loved one in a school shooting. These little knuckleheads think it's funny. Go talk to those parents and see how funny this is. It's not. We're going to come and get you, we're going to put you out for public embarrassment. Right, so that is Mike Chitwood and he is the sheriff of Volusia County, Florida. And his comments there come as the schools in his county

have seen a huge number of shooting threats since the beginning of the academic year. Well, thankfully, most of these threats have turned out to be false. They still required law enforcement to spend time and resources costing valuable taxpayer dollars. So Chitwood, he's decided to take the public shaming route to try and discourage this behavior.

And he pretty much immediately followed through with his promise. Just days after that press conference, Chitwood posted a video on numerous social media platforms of officers perp walking an 11 year old boy who made threats to shoot up his middle school and had written a list of names and targets. With his office also sharing the boy's name and mugshot,

as well as a picture of a table full of airsoft rifles, pistols, fake ammunition, knives, swords, and other weapons they recovered that he had been showing off to other students in a video. While the 11-year-old told police that he was only joking about the school shooting, they still charged him with a felony for making a written threat of a mass shooting. And then, just yesterday, Chip would post another video as well as later sharing mugshots and names of officers perp-walking to 16 and 17 year old kids who had also joked about shooting up their school on Snapchat. So what we've seen is that both of these videos though,

especially the one of the 11 year old, they have gotten a ton of traction online, gaining national attention. And while Chitwood's name and shame approach here might be unique, he is not the only law enforcement official cracking down on kids who have been driving an uptick in these kinds of threats nationally since the mass shooting in Appalachia High School in Georgia.

I mean, just looking at Florida alone, officials in Broward County, where the Parkland shooting took place, they said earlier this month that they have arrested nine students over violent threats. Meanwhile, earlier this week, the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division announced that it had charged a whopping 21 for making, quote, extremely serious threats targeting schools, with one official saying, school threats are not a joke. Law enforcement takes every threat seriously, and everyone needs

to understand that there are serious consequences. And in recent weeks, we've also seen authorities in Northern California, Indiana, Arkansas, and other states each arresting and charging multiple kids. And this commitment to crack down on students who make threats to schools is actually super significant because in the past, law enforcement officials have been limited in their ability to respond to threats of possible violence.

And as the New York Times explained in a recent article following the Appalachian shooting, if a crime has not been committed or a subject does not meet the criteria to be sent for an involuntary mental health evaluation, the case is often closed. But adding, the sheer number of shootings in the United States, however, has led to a nationwide push to rethink traditional policing when it comes to threats of mass violence. With that then specifically including increased efforts to identify troubling behavior, monitor it, and intervene before violence can happen.

So these increased arrests, they're an important part of that effort to focus on prevention. Not only because they actively stop potential violence, but also because they send a message to others that even fake or joke threats will be treated seriously. But this also, as I will say, it's unclear if it will actually be effective. Or because while it might deter the number of kids making false threats and save law enforcement some money on that front,

there's a question of will this actually discourage students who are actually serious about taking violent action? Because while these arrests and these threat assessments, they handle one part of the issue, another root cause, it's guns and the access that high risk kids have to them. But for now, we'll have to wait and see if, you know, any of these prevention tactics help. And in the meantime, of course,

I'd love to know your thoughts on everything, but especially on Chitwood's public embarrassment strategy. And then it finally happened. After nine months of suspense, Nintendo just fired the first shot across the bow at PAL World, which if you forgot about was that survival crafting game that launched back in January that was immediately a huge smash hit.

It became the second game ever to break 2 million concurrent players on Steam, with it often being described as Pokemon with guns, not only because you collected monsters with balls, you level them up and battle them, but also because many people accused the game of copying Pokemon's model art so closely that the monsters were basically ripoffs at times.

Though there you had others noting, while some, not all of the PALs may be derivative, that doesn't rise to the level of copyright infringement. As well as arguing that PAL World has many core features like base building and management, a multiplayer map, and a castle defense system against waves of enemies that arguably distinguish it from Pokemon. But still, really everyone was expecting and waiting

for Nintendo and the Pokemon company to do something because historically they've been very protective over their IP. And so at the height of Palworld's popularity, you had handsome, charming motherfuckers out there asking. A big question that's been out there is if Palworld did something wrong, if they're actually breaking the law,

how is Pocket Pair, the developers of Palworld, not been sued yet? And well, as it turns out, they were just carrying their lawsuit pregnancy to term, with Nintendo and the Pokemon company now giving birth to a joint lawsuit against Pocket Pair for infringing on multiple patent rights. And with that, seeking an injunction

and compensation for damages, though not specifying what exactly it's alleging Pocket Pair did wrong. So in response, we saw Pocket Pair releasing a statement saying, at this moment, we are unaware of the specific patents we are accused of infringing upon, and we have not been notified of such details. Pocket Pair is a small indie game company based in Tokyo. PalWorld was a surprise success this year, both for gamers and for us.

And adding, we will continue improving PalWorld and strive to create a game that our fans can be proud of. It is truly unfortunate that we will be forced to allocate significant time to matters unrelated to game development due to this lawsuit. However, we will do our utmost for our fans and to ensure that indie game developers are not hindered or discouraged from pursuing their creative ideas. We apologize to our fans and supporters for any worry or discomfort that this news has caused. Right, and so now you have a lot of people asking a lot of questions out there, like, will Pocket Pair have to fork over a ton of money? Will they have to stop sales of Palworld? Will they have to shut down the game entirely? But you know, those last two being a concern for the people that love that game.

But also, really, any of the above would be a huge kick in the pants for Pocket Pair and Sony. Because back in July, they signed a deal to form a new business called Pow World Entertainment that would expand the Pow World IP. And obviously around this, there's enormous chatter online about how likely the lawsuit is to succeed and what might happen if it does. With some pointing out the obvious advantage Nintendo

and the Pokemon company have, right? They have the financial and legal resources. People also noting that they filed their lawsuit in the Tokyo District Court, and Japan is notoriously strict about intellectual property rights. But then on the other side, Pocket Pair has a few advantages of its own.

Because first of all, this is an alleging copyright infringement. It's patent infringement. Copyright protects works of art, while patents protect inventions. So it's kind of unclear if Nintendo is going after Pow World's model art, because if you were, why allege patent infringement?

And if it's going after something else, what could it be? Because Nintendo and Pokemon, they don't own the concept of catching monsters with balls. Also, it's possible that Microsoft comes to Pocket Pair's defense since the two companies have a close relationship. But really a big thing to keep in mind right now

is we know very little. And so until we get more details about the allegations in this lawsuit, it's hard to say one way or another where this might go. Though it's still important to note that this chapter has begun. Then in huge internet news, YouTube just announced some changes

that you are either going to love or hate. Because these are big changes for both users as well as creators. With a lot seemingly meant to drive engagement, grow monetization, and there seems to be a particular spotlight on helping smaller creators grow. And so we'll start with creators.

I know we have a lot that watches, a whole new suite of AI tools coming to the platform that expand on stuff YouTube already has. Like right now you have DreamScreen and Vio using AI to add static backgrounds to YouTube shorts. But coming soon, it's gonna work with Google's deep minds and allow creators to make video backgrounds with it. With YouTube even suggesting ideas like imagine a BookTuber

stepping into the pages of the classic novel, The Secret Garden, or a fashion designer instantly visualizing fun and imaginative design concept to share with their audience. It could also be used to add up to six seconds of AI generated B-roll to videos. We're also seeing YouTube upgrade the inspiration tab on the YouTube studio side of things,

with using AI to help suggest thumbnails, video titles, and even video ideas, as well as tools to make getting to the tab much easier from wherever you are on the platform. Then on the community side of things, there's gonna be a lot of features coming. And here, you know, one of the big things is that YouTube is notorious

for wanting people to stay on the platform. And so with that, we're seeing it expanded to the new communities tools. Because they've already tried using this to boost engagement, but this new version, quote, "'Will be a central hub to discuss video, share fan art, "'connect with like-minded individuals, "'and build a vibrant sense of belonging.'"

And only some channels have the full version right now, but it'll be expanded site-wide by 2025. And while there's a lot of details, I'll link down below, the kind of quick version is that it'll essentially be a Discord-like place within YouTube on a per-channel basis, which kind of makes sense since a lot of creators already use Discord for this kind of stuff. But then probably one of the biggest changes is going to be hype, right? And they've been beta testing this in Brazil, Taiwan, and Turkey, and they found that it's pretty successful. And what hype is, is it's

kind of similar to liking a video, but much more. And according to YouTube, videos with the most hype points will be featured on a special leaderboard, increasing their chances of discovery and recognition. With this entire feature actually meant to help smaller creators, as it's only available for those with less than 500,000 subscribers. It's pretty much YouTube trying to combat a cycle where only the biggest channels generally get recommended.

And actually the top 100 users with the most hypes over a seven day period will be featured on a new tab. And here, you have the company backing up the idea with data finding that younger users in particular were often far more interested in watching and helping smaller creators grow than the same large ones. Right. And one of the things to note for larger creators is that getting hyped is an addition to the normal algorithmic recommendations YouTube does. So it appears that it'll only help channels not replace other growth strategies. Like with any

change, but especially a YouTube change, we have seen a range of reactions to the news. It takes like hype. It's like CPR for the internet dream. Suddenly that person making weird videos in their bedroom could be tomorrow's viral sensation. Just like the good old days, it's bringing back that Wild West vibe of early YouTube when any random video could blow up overnight. But also some of the opposite reaction,

like reporter Taylor Lorenz, who replied to that tweet with, "'I love Greg, but I'm taking the opposite stance "'on this one. "'This is way too much of a burden on the users. "'Instead of having more user-based recommendations like it's 2017, they need to build a better algorithmic and automated recommendation system that prioritizes relevant discovery like TikTok.

But with all of this news, especially because you are watching this on YouTube right now, I'd really love to know your thoughts on all of the changes, but also specifically around hype. Personally, in theory, I like the idea of hype. It feels like a great way that a community for a small creator can build up a lot of support

and help that person grow. I also feel like it might make larger creators that wanna do like smaller initiatives feel more secure and trying something maybe more niche. Because I do agree with the notion out there that one of the fun things about old school YouTube is you never knew when a video was gonna blow up. And really the closest thing out there right now

to that is TikTok. It's why for the past two years, if there was an up and coming creator or someone that wanted to get into it, I was like, you gotta be posting fucking TikToks. Cause while I have no doubt that YouTube is the best video platform out there, as far as a new awareness engine,

TikTok takes the cake step. I mean, it's why the last generation or two of creators that have come up have come from TikTok and then they migrated to YouTube for better monetization and long for it. And that's not like some crazy phenomenon, right? We've seen that in the past, like when Viners jumped from that platform and thrived here.

So obviously YouTube's gotta take better swings to try to lift up smaller creators that wanna blow up on a platform that is so saturated. Yeah, in the meantime, let me know your thoughts and we'll have to wait to see how this plays out. Then just taking a 60 second break from the news, I have to ask, do you enjoy having a few drinks? Maybe you don't enjoy how you feel the next day.

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they'll refund your money. No questions asked. That's zbiotics.com slash DeFranco and use code DeFranco at checkout for 15% off. And then in political news that a lot of people are talking about, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, one of the biggest unions in the United States and North America, right? Has 1.3 million members working in several different industries nationwide.

Yesterday, they announced that they are declining to endorse a presidential candidate this year with their general president, Sean M. O'Brien, saying in a statement, unfortunately, neither major candidate was able to make serious commitments to our union "'to ensure the interests of working people "'are always put before big business. "'We sought commitments from both Trump and Harris "'not to interfere in critical union campaigns "'or core Teamsters industries

"'and to honor our members' right to strike, "'but were unable to secure those pledges.'" And saying that after reviewing six months of polling and round table interviews with all major candidates, they found no definitive support for either party. And this is definitely a major shift because Teamsters has endorsed the Democratic nominee for over 20 years now,

backing Joe Biden, Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, John Kerry, and Al Gore. So now you have tons of reports noting that this shows that there is growing divisions in Teamsters and in other major unions as well. Because despite its history of leaning left, outlets like the New York Times noted that Trump had really been trying

to court General President O'Brien this year, inviting him to Mar-a-Lago and giving him a prime time speaking slot at the RNC. And him being Trump curious has really been a point of tension. Though here, Teamsters did point to polls conducted this year that show that there is potentially a lot of split among its members.

Right, Biden was apparently winning support in early summer, but when Harris became the nominee, support shifted to endorsing Trump over Harris. But a big key thing is that some have questioned that polling as it came from a third-party union polling service that didn't provide its methodology. People also becoming increasingly more skeptical about the polling because we're now seeing tons

of local unions within Teamsters breaking from leadership to endorse Harris. This including locals in swing states like Michigan, as well as major coalitions on the West Coast with 39 local unions representing 300,000 workers in California, Nevada, Hawaii, and Guam, giving their backing to Harris. But that said, understandably, since there was no endorsement from the Teamsters general president, the Trump team is viewing this as a win for them, with a spokesperson saying that

it is a clear indication that the Teamsters leadership wants Trump back in office. And then on the other side of this, as far as the Harris campaign, they noted that Kamala recently met with the union and added, as the vice president told the Teamsters on Monday, when she is elected president, she will look out for the Teamsters' rank and file, "'no matter what, because they always have been "'and always will be the people she fights for.'" And also noting that the Harris-Walls ticket already has the support of many of the country's

other major unions, like the United Auto Workers, American Federation of Teachers, and United Steelworkers. And you know, with all of this, it is very significant because Teamsters is a very big union, and it matters who its members vote for. With, for example, Steve Rosenthal, a Democratic political strategist telling the Washington Post, the election is likely to come down to a handful of votes in the blue wall states.

The Teamsters have a significant number of members in each of those states. Their endorsement coupled with a program aimed at mobilizing their members could be a deciding factor. And adding no endorsement likely means the difference between their members voting 50% for Harris versus close to 60%. In a close race, that could be significant. Which again brings us back to Widesworth noting that tons of local unions within Teamsters have broken from leadership to endorse Harris. Also, on the note of endorsements, we've seen news being made about entertainment unions as well, as those in Hollywood. Because while obviously Taylor Swift's going to be the biggest this week, you also had Billie Eilish and Phineas telling their fans to vote like their life depends on it. We are asking you to please join us

in going to iwillvote.com to check your status and vote early like we do. We are voting for Kamala Harris and Tim Walz because they are fighting to protect our reproductive freedom, our planet, and our democracy. We can't let extremists control our lives, our freedoms, and our future. The only way to stop them

and the dangerous Project 2025 agenda is to vote. Right, with them, just the latest musicians to speak out in some way. But as far as if any and all endorsements, whether it be unions or celebrities, has an impact, we'll know soon because election day is now just 47 days away. So just to give you your friendly, annoying reminder,

go to vote.org if you haven't already. Register to vote if you haven't. If you think you're registered, go to vote.org if you haven't already. Register to vote if you haven't. If you think you're registered, go there and double check to make sure you are. Voter roll purges are a thing. You can also see what's gonna be on your specific ballot. And you can come up with a voting plan, whether you wanna mail in, do some sort of early voting,

do day of, set reminders. And of course, encourage your friends to vote because while people may not fuck with politics, politics will fuck with you. Remember that, always. Then, you know what they say, in America, you're always 10 steps away from either getting poisoned or shot.

And well, as it turns out, there's a fun little place where you can do both at the same time, indoor firing ranges. Though really, they're like getting shot, that's probably way less likely than the hidden danger of getting poisoned. Right, because when you fire a gun, the primer that ignites the gunpowder

sheds a tiny amount of lead, and more gets flaked off as the bullet travels down the barrel, hits the target and falls to the ground. And as it turns out, over time, with people constantly popping off shots all year round, those bits of lead, it adds up to a clear public health hazard.

People tracking toxic dust on their clothing and breathing it in through ventilation systems. While this might be the first time that you're hearing about it like it was for me, it's certainly not for the people in charge. Because going all the way back to the early 1970s, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health discovered a potential hazard from lead exposure

at indoor firing ranges. Then in 1979, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration establishing standards for airborne lead exposure in the workplace, including indoor firing ranges. And then in the 1990s, the Defense Department's inspector general found hazardous levels of lead dust in 12 National Guard

and Army Reserve Armory then finally for what we're talking about in 2016 the Oregonian finding that hundreds of armories were still contaminated with dangerous amounts of lead dust And all of that is documented in this investigation by the intercept But despite everything that you've just heard the problems barely been touched with the outlet reporting that at least 600 and possibly more than 1,300 National Guard indoor firing ranges may still pose a threat. With these spanning across three and possibly 53 states and territories. Because although the National Guard ordered

a sweeping cleanup operation of ranges across the country in 2017, it's doubtful whether that actually worked. With the 2020 army audit obtained by the intercept showing that in New Jersey, North Carolina and Ohio, 73 of 83 ranges were not thoroughly cleaned and the required in-depth lead evaluations weren't conducted. Either because only some parts of the facilities were cleaned like cleaned and the required in-depth lead evaluations weren't conducted.

Either because only some parts of the facilities were cleaned like the range, but not the ventilation system, or because the cleaning methods were simply ineffective. But still to this day, almost four years after those findings, an army spokesperson told the outlet that the National Guard hasn't followed the audit's recommendations.

And keep in mind, right? This doesn't just affect the soldiers who train in these armories. We're talking about facilities that are often open for public use, share venues with other organizations, or get converted into stuff like storage and office space. With one of the prominent examples

being a soccer stadium for children. And while all of this is unfortunate, it's really not surprising. I mean, we've lagged behind banning lead paint, lead pipes, and leaded gasoline for decades. So, you know, there's no reason to randomly have high expectations now. And then in kind of positive news,

or I guess at the very least less bad news, for the first time in decades, we're now seeing a sudden and unexpected plunge in overdose deaths across the entire United States. The CDC now reporting a yearly decline of roughly 10.6%, and that's probably conservative. And that because the federal surveys, they haven't been updated to reflect improvements

that we're seeing at the state level yet. So with that, we're seeing people like Dr. Naberun Dasgupta telling NPR he believes street drug deaths have dropped by at least 15%, which can mean as many as 20,000 fewer fatalities per year. With them adding, in the states that have the most rapid data collection systems, we're seeing declines of 20%, 30%. Now, as far as why this is happening,

right now that's still kind of a mystery. Though there's definitely no shortage of theories. Right at the top of the list, you have the greater availability and affordability of anti-overdose and anti-addiction drugs. There's also been changes in the chemical makeup of the street drug supply that delay the onset of withdrawal symptoms in some users,

so they use less frequently. You also had NPR noting other experts pointed to the end of the COVID pandemic combined with the high number of people who have already died from drug overdoses. But really, whatever the reason or reasons, experts are hopeful that the catastrophic explosion in overdose deaths that began in 2019

is finally coming to an end, with the head of the National Institute on Drug Abuse telling NPR, this looks real, this looks very, very real. But also, the reason I don't just call this good news and I say this is less bad news, I mean, something we shouldn't forget, overdose deaths are still way above pre-pandemic levels. I mean, we're talking about as many

as 75,000 lives per year. So this is encouraging, this is positive, but there is still so much more to do. Then, shifting gears, we gotta talking about as many as 75,000 lives per year. So this is encouraging, this is positive, but there is still so much more to do. Then shifting gears, we gotta talk about how 260,000 cameras, routers, and other interconnected devices were all part of a massive Chinese hacking operation targeting private companies, the government, and even educational institutions.

And right at the top, a big thing is I'm saying were not are because the US and allies have reportedly just seized control of this vast spying network in a secret operation. I'll explain, right? See, these devices were part of something known as a botnet, which is basically a network of computers that have been infected by malware and that are under the control of a single attacking party. And in this case, it was a global botnet codenamed Flax Typhoon, with nearly half of the infected devices being located in the United States, but there were also a lot in Vietnam and Germany. And according to American officials, it was run by a government contractor in Beijing, specifically a

publicly traded company called Integrity Technology Group. Now, China, of course, has denied any involvement. But in any case, as far as what the botnet did, well, it was meant to steal confidential data from the so-called critical infrastructure. Because like I said, this included everything from corporations and media organizations to universities and government agencies. And with this takedown, you had FBI director Christopher Wray saying, "'This was another successful disruption, "'but make no mistake, "'it's just one round in a much longer fight.

"'The Chinese government is going to continue "'to target your organizations "'and our critical infrastructure, "'either by their own hand "'or concealed through their proxies.'" And actually on that note, it was also this year that the FBI took down a Chinese botnet known as Volt Typhoon.

And in that case, a hacker group affiliated with the Chinese military used a compromised network of office routers to gain access to power and water utilities as well as communications and transportation systems. Unlike Flax Typhoon, which was more about getting information, that could have been used

as a direct attack on infrastructure. But in any case, right, the point is that this is not the first time and it definitely will not be the last. In fact, in general, this is happening as there's been a lot of concern about the security of so-called Internet of Things devices, including routers and surveillance cameras. I mean, everything from your phone to your watch to, I had a fridge and a toaster connected to the internet. Well, I'm not

worried that China is going to burn my toast. You have to think about all of the potential vulnerabilities that we're opening. Then, just taking a quick break from the news, y'all. I mean, traveling abroad is great, but the costs add up. You know that text that you get when you land abroad where your cell company is offering you an international data plan? They are expensive at like $10 a day. And did you know that those plans are throttled? Often limited to two gigs per day before pushing you to 3G or even 2G. I mean, I can burn through two gigs scrolling socials before even getting off the plane. But now, thanks to our sponsor, Saley, I've secured many more precious high-speed gigs for traveling. Because Saley is a new eSIM app from our friends at Nord Security. You know, back in medieval times, you'd have to hunt around at the airport for a physical local SIM card to

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this news starts with a question. Is punishing someone, even someone who deserves it, even someone who really, really deserves it, is it worth it if it also means punishing millions more? Because the US government, time and time again, has answered yes to that question. And they've done it time and time again by imposing economic sanctions, despite concerns over their efficacy and impact. Right, because the reality is that sanctions tend to fail more than they succeed. And on top of hurting innocent people,

they can even backfire in all sorts of ways you might not expect, like driving, migration, actually enriching those they were meant to target, and even fueling the drug trade in the Middle East. But despite all those concerns, the U.S. is now using sanctions more than ever. In fact, since 9-11, the number of entities sanctioned by the U.S. government has grown by almost 1,000%,

with now the U.S. having more than 15,000 sanctions in place, which notably is three times as many as any other country or international body. Now, with that said, look, I don't wanna paint this issue as black and white, right? Policymakers often claim that sanctions aren't actually punitive. Instead, they say they're just about pressuring these individuals, look, I don't want to paint this issue as black and white, right? Policymakers often claim that sanctions aren't actually punitive. Instead, they say they're just about pressuring

these individuals, organizations, or governments to change their behavior. And they do sometimes work, right? In South Africa, for example, many people say they helped end apartheid. And beyond that, they've also allowed the US to take not only moral, but also economically meaningful stands against not only governments,

but individuals or groups who violate human rights or commit war crimes. And very importantly, they do it all without putting a single one of our soldiers in harm's way. Or they're seen as being in this sweet spot between doing nothing and sending in troops. And as far as potential collateral damage, there are mechanisms meant to minimize that.

Right, there have long been so-called humanitarian exemptions to allow the delivery of aid into affected countries. And in fact, the Biden administration led the way in developing and implementing a UN resolution on humanitarian sanctions exemptions. But despite that, studies often show that broad sanctions have a significant negative impact on things like income, poverty, mortality, and human rights.

And even though there's this whole idea of targeted or smart sanctions that aim to deal with that, focusing their attention on specific individuals or institutions to minimize the suffering of innocent civilians, it's not clear they're much better. Or you've got people like George Lopez, one of the people who actually popularized the idea of smart sanctions more than 20 years ago,

telling the Washington Post, smart sanctions were meant to be a buffet of choices where you fit the particular imposed sanction to the offense and vulnerability of the country. Instead, policymakers walked into the buffet and said, I'm gonna pile everything onto my plate. And at that point, back in 2017, some argued that Trump's new smart sanctions on Venezuela

could lead the country back to democracy. But then two years later, the administration imposed the most sweeping sanctions the country has ever seen in targeting the government of Nicolas Maduro. Because on top of being accused of corruption, widespread human rights violations, and bringing the country toward economic crisis,

Maduro also won a second term in office in 2018 in an election widely seen as fraudulent. But six years later, the abuses have continued and Maduro has seemingly stolen another election. And so while there was briefly hope that sanctions would work, now all they seem to have done is accelerate the country's economic collapse.

Right, in the one peer reviewed academic study that tried to quantify it, it found that sanctions were responsible for about half of Venezuela's economic contraction, which the author estimated was three times as deep as our Great Depression. With that, millions of Venezuelans have been driven to flee the country.

I mean, it is the largest migration crisis in the Western hemisphere. Now also to be clear, some people claim that the sanctions didn't have anything to do with the economic or migration crisis. Right, they correctly point out that Venezuela's economy was already going to hell. And some claim that increased migration had more to do

with Biden's handling of the border. But then you also have folks like Democratic Representative Jim McGovern writing in 2021, "'Although US officials regularly say "'that the sanctions target the government "'and not the people, "'the whole point of the maximum pressure campaign "'is to increase the economic cost to Venezuela

"'of failing to comply with conditions the U.S. imposes. "'Economic pain is the means by which "'the sanctions are supposed to work.'" And adding, "'But it is not Venezuelan officials who suffer the costs. "'It is the Venezuelan people.'" And in fact, for some people in the Trump campaign, they didn't even hide that that was the point.

Right back in 2019, Trump's Secretary of State Mike Pompeo seemingly acknowledged the rationale behind the sanctions. When does fast grocery delivery through Instacart matter most? When your famous grainy mustard potato salad isn't so famous without the grainy mustard. When the barbecue's lit, but there's nothing to grill.

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he made again and again when it came to sanctions, right? Like when he was talking about Iran, he said. Things are much worse for the Iranian people and we're convinced that will lead the Iranian people to rise up and change the behavior of the regime." The man also reportedly telling European diplomats that the maximum pressure strategy was designed to starve Cuba in order to bring down the government. Now with all that, I don't wanna make this out to be some sort of totally partisan issue.

While Biden has said that he'd use sanctions more sparingly when he came to office, he actually kept a lot of Trump's sanctions in place, with him also, in fact, adding to them. Though a lot of that had to do with Russia's full-scale invasion, which led to Biden rolling out an unprecedented 6,000 sanctions in just two years.

But this also, as his administration, has sanctioned Israeli settlers in the West Bank, former government officials in Afghanistan, and alleged fentanyl dealers in Mexico, right? And that's not to say that any of those decisions were good or bad, but to say that the US does it a lot. And that last one does raise an interesting point, right? Because while the US is using sanctions

to try and curb the illegal drug trade in this hemisphere, American sanctions are actually contributing to the illegal drug trade in the other. And specifically here, I'm talking about Syria. Because in 2020, Congress passed the Caesar Syrian Civil Protection Act, with it named after a Syrian defector who smuggled out evidence of atrocities

committed by the Assad regime. And with that, the sanctions are supposed to get Assad's government to, quote, "'halt its murderous attacks on the Syrian people and to support a transition to a government in Syria that respects the rule of law, human rights, and peaceful coexistence with its neighbors.'" So right from the beginning, you had people warning

that the sanctions could devastate Syria's already failing economy. Right, Julian Barnes-Dacey from the European Council on Foreign Relations saying at the time that Assad is absolutely the prime driver of Syria's ongoing collapse. But then adding that the U.S. position now appears to be fundamentally driven by great power politics and the goal of ensuring that Russia and Iran can't claim a win. And going on to say, my fear is that Caesar will achieve the exact opposite of its stated goal, fueling the worst impulses of the Syrian regime in wider conflict.

And now, a few years later, we've certainly seen that. Right at least 12 million Syrians are now refugees or internally displaced, 90% of people live in poverty, and the country's GDP fell from a pre-war high of $252 billion to just 9 billion in 2021. And whatever role sanctions played in that, one thing they definitely contributed to was the trade of a drug called Captagon, which is this synthetic stimulant

that costs less than a dollar to make, but fetches up to $20 each on the street. And it's now one of the big reasons that Assad is still in power. But Joel Rayburn, the US envoy to Syria from 2018 to 2021, actually telling the Post, "'This is the stream of revenue "'on which Syria's ruling class are relying on

"'in the face of sanctions pressure from us "'and from the European Union. "'The Assad regime could not withstand "'robust sanctions enforcement except for Captagon. "'There is no other source of revenue that could make up for what they lost due to sanctions enforcement. And with that, you have US officials saying

that Syria now produces most of the world's Captagon supply, with factories in the country reportedly exporting $10 billion worth of illicit drugs each year. And so also with that, Assad is now reportedly wealthier than ever. With a 2023 study, for example, estimating that Captagon generates about $2.4 billion a year

for the Assad regime, which is, quote, well above any other single licit or illicit source of revenue. And then, you know, the knock-on effects from this just continue, right? It's increasingly become the drug of choice among the youth in Gulf Arab states, and especially in Saudi Arabia. And now there are concerns that Captagon, sometimes called the poor man's cocaine, could hit Europe next. And so the question with that now is, as much as Assad deserved to be punished, was it worth it? To be clear, it is not an easy answer. You got folks like the executive director of the Syrian Emergency Task Force saying, the Caesar Act, along with new sanctions put in place targeting the Captagon trade, quote, sends an important signal to the Assad regime and its

allies that the United States is standing with ordinary Syrians. And with that, noting that there are strict humanitarian exceptions to ensure that no Syrian civilians, regardless of their political outlook, are harmed by these sanctions. But of course, with the rest of what we've talked about here, there's a real debate, especially going back to the broader question of sanctions and how often they're used. And in fact, people in the highest levels of the US government have been seeing the over-reliance on sanctions as a problem for years. I mean, back in 2016, Obama's treasury secretary warned that the overuse of sanctions could ultimately reduce our capability to use sanctions effectively. Because at a certain point, if so many sanctions are in place that no one can get anything done,

people will find ways to do business outside of American markets and without the US dollar. And so with that, we actually had Obama lifting a bunch of sanctions before he left office. But that's something that couldn't stop the trend. And so you have people like William Reinsch, a former Clinton official, explaining, It is the only thing between diplomacy and war and as such has become the most important foreign policy tool in the US arsenal. And yet nobody in government is sure this whole strategy is even working. And this is Ben Rhodes,

who served as Deputy National Security Advisor in the Obama administration said, mentality, almost a weird reflex in Washington has just become, if something bad happens anywhere in the world, the US is going to sanction some people. And that doesn't make sense. We don't think about the collateral damage of sanctions

the same way we think about the collateral damage of war, but we should. And so right now, as this debate continues, I gotta pass the question off to you. Where do you land on it? What are you thinking and why? But then finally today, I gotta congratulations, and then also let's talk about yesterday.

Starting with a congrats to Seth D, who's a Daily Dip newsletter subscriber and just won $1,000 in our weekly SeatGeek giveaway towards his choice of SeatGeek tickets. But they're looking like Seth's going to want to do something at the Sphere in Vegas. And for everyone else, that's right. SeatGeek and the Daily Dip are still giving away up to $1,000 in tickets. And you should definitely enter today if you haven't already. Just add code PDS to your SeatGeek app profile for a chance at the weekly $500 prize, no purchase necessary. And $1,000 prizes are available to Daily Dip subscribers who add code PDS newsletter doubling

entries and winnings I mean it really couldn't be easier But that said let's talk about yesterday's show for comment commentary and just immediately Diving into the comments you will learn that this audience is not big fans of Logan Paul KSI or mr. Beast or if they are they were silent yesterday because a lot of the top comments were things like mr. Beast unironically creating this weird dystopia with Squid Games while simultaneously starting a new business with a known repeated scammer is wild. Michael McDonald saying three people who built their entire career and business model via exploitative marketing preying on children or starting a business based on exploiting the child market shocking. As well as Snail Man saying Mr. Beast

and Logan unironically pulled a it has electrolytes from idiocracy. Though there was also a fair share of even-keeled critiques. People saying things like I don't really care if YouTubers sell stuff. But adding where Logan and MrBeast lose me is when they constantly say that their product is healthy. They literally say it all the time. It's not healthy. It's chocolate bars and artificially flavored juice. So there you had some pushing back saying, to be fair, they say it's healthier than the alternatives, not that it is healthy on its own. Arguing kids will be eating unhealthy either way. A lot of the time, unfortunately, for me, the real travesty is how expensive they are. And finally here, a lot of people kept hitting on this similar note saying, Rosanna Pansino

and Jack Septic, I were right the whole time. Hello, well, everyone went for their throats when they said anything negative about Mr. Beast. Also, in addition to that, there was a fair share of comments around that child labor cult. With one of the top comments there being, I think the sentence, the school's principal, who is one of Jenkins's wives and also his stepdaughter only had a sixth grade education is one of the worst sentences I've ever heard.

Which just to paraphrase Homer Simpson there, one of the worst sentences you've heard so far. You watch this show long enough, it might not even be in the top 10. But that my friends is the end of your Thursday evening, Friday morning dive into the news. Thank you for another day and or week of your time. I hope you have a fantastic and calm and or fun

or whatever sort of weekend you want. And then I'll see you right back here on Monday to talk about what's been going down. I love your faces and I'll see you then.