The Philip DeFranco Show - PDS 9.19 Theo Von Podcast Scam Got Worse, Boebert vs Fetterman Scandals Expose A Lot, & Today’s News

Episode Date: September 19, 2023

Go to www.babbel.com/defranco to get 55% off! Sign up for Underdog Fantasy HERE with promo code DEFRANCO and get a $100 first deposit match: https://play.underdogfantasy.com/p-philip-de-franco  Go Buy http://WakeandMakeCoffee.com 50% OFF select orders! This new batch won’t last long. Catch up on our latest PDS: xhttps://youtu.be/EjmiSQJHqE0?si=bSVMSl1sh18zPwMi Check out our daily newsletter! http://dailydip.co/pds  Follow me on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/phillydefranco/?hl=en  –✩ TODAY’S STORIES ✩ – 00:00 - Alabama HS Band Director Tased, Arrested For Refusing to Stop Band From Playing 02:25 - Podcast Creators Allege Kast Media Stole Millions from Them 07:09 - Evangelical Pastor Sells Industrial Strength Bleach Tablets to Cure Ailments 09:08 - Sponsored by Babbel 10:13 - American XL Bully Dogs to be Banned in the UK Following String of Attacks 11:47 - Trudeau Accuses India of Assassinating Sikh Community Leader 13:58 - Republicans Go Feral Over Fetterman Wearing Shorts in Senate After Dress Code Change 17:47 - Sponsored by Underdog 18:54 - Military Spends Big on “Little Crappy Ships” Despite Severe Faults 25:45 - What You All Thought of Yesterday’s Stories ——————————   Produced by: Cory Ray Edited by: James Girardier, Maxx Enright, Julie Goldberg, Christian Meeks Art Department: William Crespo Writing/Research: Philip DeFranco, Brian Espinoza, Lili Stenn, Maddie Crichton, Star Pralle, Chris Tolve  ———————————— #DeFranco #TheoVon #LaurenBoebert ———————————— Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today we're talking about this absolutely wild podcast scam scandal with Theo Vaughn, the device of Alabama tasing, people trying to bleach away their sicknesses again, John Fetterman and Lauren Boebert scandals both involving pants, we dive into the amazingly stupid ways the US government are spending your tax dollars, and why the situation with India and Canada could get scary fast. We're talking about all that and so much more on today's brand new extra large Philip DeFranco show. You daily dive into the news, so just make sure you're subscribed and let's jump into it. Starting with, in what the hell just happened news, let's talk about Alabama. Because this news story takes place at P.D.

Jackson Olin High School in Birmingham, Alabama, where you had the away team from minor high school winning a football game one night. And so the police, they begin clearing out the stadium. They notice that both school bands are still performing some 18 minutes after the game's ended, with them then talking to both band directors, asking them to stop so the students and the attendees would leave the stadium. While the home team complies, when the cops approach the away team's band director, Johnny Mims, shit gets complicated. Reportedly, it's hard to hear them over the music, but an officer tells him it's time to go and accuses the director of being disrespectful, with Mims arguing back then, clearly saying, get out of my face.

He then tells the cops, we're fixing to go, this is our last song. But then the police ramp up the pressure with one, warning him, you will go to jail. With the director then responding like this. So he keeps conducting for maybe half a minute and the stadium's field lights shut off, the band finishes its song and his director steps off the bleachers.

Which is exactly when all hell breaks loose. Officers try to handcuff him, but he appears to struggle, yelling, get off of me. The one officer can be heard claiming that Mims hit another, and Mims denies swinging at anyone. Meanwhile, the struggle continues, and then seconds later, an officer tases Mims, and he goes down as onlookers scream. And after getting to and then leaving the hospital, Mims was arrested for disorderly conduct, harassment, and resisting arrest. Now with all this, according to the police, the cops who tased Mims did so

because Mims shoved him during the arrest. You have Mims' attorney calling this an abuse of power and a clear violation of his civil rights, arguing, it is unacceptable for law enforcement to engage in home rule in the field of play or with regard to banned activities unless there is a significant threat to the safety of the general public. And so on one side, you have the cops saying the director provoked them into tasing him by resisting and shoving. And then on the other

side, you have the director arguing that the police escalated the encounter to a wild degree for something as trivial as music playing a couple of minutes longer, especially since they had already let him finish the song and get down before arresting him. But now with all that said, as we wait to see how this plays out, I got to pass the question off to you. What are your thoughts? And then, CoffeeZilla just investigated how millions of dollars were essentially stolen from podcasters, and we've gotta talk about it. Right, and if that name sounds familiar, we've talked about CoffeeZilla's investigations before, especially surrounding the Logan Paul CryptoZoo debacle. But this most recent look goes past the misdeeds of just one creator. Instead, looking at one company,

Cast Media, allegedly screwing several creators out of millions and millions of dollars. Right, Cast Media is a podcasting network, meaning they represent podcast-defined sponsors. And on a super simplified level, Cast Media would serve as a middleman between the sponsors and the podcasters. And with that, they'd be taking a cut of the payout for the ad themselves. However, it said that a problem began to arise. The payments to creators from Cast Media were coming in late. At first, it was like a month or so late, and then it snowballed into six and seven months late, and then longer. And these payments built up and up to the point that multiple shows were owed hundreds of thousands of dollars. With one of the biggest names talking about this being comedian Theo Vaughn, who said in his own video, which CoffeeZilla later referenced.

Our podcast was defrauded. We were stolen from. We were taken advantage of. A lot of ways to say it. The company that did it is Cast Media. And the man that did it is Colin Thompson. We're part of a larger group of podcasts that were stolen from. Right. We were part of the in total. I've just between talking with folks, there's up to four million dollars that I know of that people were taking advantage of. We're in the six figures. I know of podcasts that are in the seven figures. With EO going on to specify to The Verge that he was referring to six different creators who were all owed money ranging from $600,000 to $1.5 million. That's just a few of them. Whitney Cummings, comedian and host of the podcast Good For You, says that Cast Media owes her $350,000 for ad sponsorships, telling The Verge the whole thing is a nightmare. And eventually, the later non-existent payments turned into Cast Media announcing they were likely going to go bankrupt, meaning that these creators were going to see none of the money that was owed to them. However, Cast said that they could get some of their money if they signed these new deals with Podcast One, who proposed an acquisition of Cast Media. And

there, it was said that creators would receive some of what they were owed immediately, some over two years, and some of what they were owed would be paid to them in stock of Podcast One. That would unlock after two years with Coffeezilla saying, Now the more cynical view of this is that it's kind of strong-arming creators. You either take the deal or you'll never get what you're paid. I mean, podcasters like Jim Cornette were literally told, in the event that Cast is unable to close the Podcast One asset sale, it will likely declare bankruptcy.

So take the deal or lose everything you're owed. And he went on to say that Podcast One was paying Cast Media in stock for each creator that took their deal, meaning that the creators were in a way bailing out Cast Media, which was the company that owed them hundreds of thousands of dollars. Though it is very important to note here that Cast Media has not yet been officially acquired by Podcast One's parent company, Live One yet. But even still, shortly after they went public, Podcast One shares dropped by 45%. And so with all this, CoffeeZilla jumped into finding out what exactly happened to Cass Media to lead to this point. Even interviewing their CEO, Colin Thompson, who said that the issues in accounting started up in February of 2022 and went until February

of this year. With that saying that revenue dropped by 58%, and that was the root of the problem. However, most of the talent Cass had deals with, and even Thompson's former business partner, say the numbers were messed up long before them. Many creators say they had to hunt down their checks months before 2022 when Thompson says the trouble started. So where was the money going if not to the creators? Well, according to Thompson's former business partner, Thompson enjoyed a lavish lifestyle, and that even while his company was struggling, saying, There's a couple places that the money has gone. One is he built a custom house. He was known for going on big, crazy vacations. And, you know, he went to Hawaii multiple times in 2022 and was posting about it on social media.

But on top of the potential for personal gain, there may have been some questionable business choices. In his interview with CoffeeZilla, Thompson's former business partner said that Thompson likes to make outlandish deals with new talent, promising them ridiculously high minimum guarantees, which is where, rather than just a split of the ad revenue, creators are promised a minimum amount every month. And Thompson was said to be making these promises at the same time that he says that ad revenue was way down, and that's why the payments to talent was late, with the business partner saying, February of this year, he was offering multi-million dollar minimum guarantees. His priority is trying to keep the new talent happy for a while with essentially his whole goal of selling cast to make big money in the end. But yeah, I would say that honestly, most of the money probably went to the minimum guarantees of other talent instead of to the people that it was supposed to go to.

Now, Thompson, for his part, has denied any allegation or fraud, but says that he understands why creators would be upset with him and the deal offered by Podcast One, saying, I don't deserve some of the things that were said about me, but I do deserve some of the things that were said about me too. But for now, we're going to have to keep our eyes on the situation, the acquisition, especially in light of these allegations from creators. And in the meantime, I got to pass the question off to you. What are your thoughts here? And then,

why does it seem like anyone says, hey, I got a miracle cure? It's almost like 100% guaranteed to poison you. Right back in July, we talked about this family down in Florida who sold bottles of miracle mineral solution or MMS out of their church, but it was just industrial grade bleach. And they ran this scam right out in the open from their church. And so they got arrested for it. And now it appears like you have this other scumbag that's doing the same thing, except with a little bit more plausible deniability. So meet Joe Salon. He was born into a wealthy New Jersey family, and then he was born again as an evangelical after emerging from drug rehab in his early 20s. And in his spare time, he makes some right-wing rap songs, one of his most famous being to support Ted Cruz back in 2015.

But in recent months, he's become the U.S. representative for a company that markets chlorine dioxide tablets, advertises industrial products for odor removal, disinfection, and as cleaners for hot tubs and jacuzzis. But also, apparently, it can clean your kid's mouth. Because in a phone call recording obtained by Vice News, Salant says that many people are using these industrial strength bleach tablets to treat their kid's autism. Explaining, hey, he's not allowed to recommend the tablets for that specifically. But then citing Andreas Kalker, a notorious promoter of MMS, to treat their kids' autism. Explaining, hey, he's not allowed to recommend the tablets for that specifically. But then citing Andreas Kalker, a notorious promoter of MMS, to treat a bunch of ailments like cancer, HIV, and autism.

Right, and unsurprisingly, he was charged in 2021 by Argentina for selling fake COVID medicine after a five-year-old boy died of suspected chlorine dioxide poisoning. And as it turns out, his book, Forbidden Health, is on the website of the company Salant works for. And what's more, there's a message on the website informing customers that there is a two to four week delay in sending out orders specifically due to overwhelming demand for the product. Well, that's seeming to be because the conspiracy theorist Mike Adams featured it on his radio show with Adams. If you don't know, having founded the notorious fake health news website, natural news,

and has links to Alex Jones and the Oath Keepers. And in fact, some of his listeners said in private Facebook groups dedicated to sharing information about bleach as medicine that they bought the product after hearing his show. Though notably there you see things like one woman writing that the tablets made her sick, saying, I tried dissolving one in a gallon of water and it tastes like pure bleach. I just want to get well. But still, apparently business is booming because Salon says the company is opening up a distribution center in Texas just to deal with all the demand from individuals, not companies. So for now, we're gonna have to wait to see if the FDA brings the hammer down on these guys or if they get away with essentially selling poison to people without explicitly saying

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So here's a special limited time deal for you beautiful bastards to get you started right now. Get 55% off your Babbel subscription, but only for you at babbel.com slash defranco. Yeah, that's 55% off at babbel.com slash defranco, spelled B-A-B-B-E-L dot com slash defranco. Rules and restrictions may apply. And then British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak just announced the country's plans to ban American XL bully dogs.

And in this one minute video, he said, "- The American XL bully dog is a danger to our communities, particularly our children. I share the nation's horror at the recent videos we've all seen. Yesterday, we saw another suspected XL bully dog attack, which has tragically led to a fatality. It's clear this is not about a handful of badly trained dogs. It's a pattern of behavior, and it cannot go on. And the videos that he's talking about are a few that went viral recently,

showing the breed in various attacks, including fatal ones. With him going on to say, as a first step, the dog breed must be clearly defined as it's currently not since it's a pretty new breed. And after what he called that first vital step,

it will be banned under the Dangerous Dogs Act. Now with this, that name might give you an idea that this is not the first time this has happened. Red American pit bulls were similarly banned and it's suspected that the XL bully descends from it. We've seen activists back up his calls to ban the breed, arguing that they make up 40% of all dog attacks in the UK and a

disproportionate number of deaths. And I will say this is kind of an interesting look at different societies, right? Because any talks of certain dog breeds being particularly aggressive is met with extreme pushback here in the United States. But in the UK, there's actually much less division about the matter and both conservative and labor lawmakers seem to agree that something needs to be done. However, with this, you have people saying there is an argument to be made that a lot of this decision is based on emotion rather than concrete data. And that's because it's argued that while there is some data on the breed's attacks, the reality is that it's so new that in total, there's very little.

And critics of this argue that banning particular breeds doesn't really solve anything, claiming that the Dangerous Dogs Act of 1991 hasn't stopped the number of attacks from rising. And so on this incredibly divisive topic where you get completely different reactions depending on where you go, I gotta ask, what are your thoughts here? And then, tensions between Canada and India right now are heating up in a very concerning way. Right back in June, a prominent Sikh community leader in British Columbia, Hardeep Singh Nijjar, was shot in Surrey outside a Sikh temple by two masked assailants. Nijjar was president of the temple where he was shot and was an outspoken advocate for the creation of Khalistan, which is an

independent Sikh nation that would include parts of India's state of Punjab. Notably, the Khalistan movement is banned in India, where officials see it as a national security threat. But the movement has also seen support in countries with a sizable Sikh population, like Canada and the UK. And a key thing is that Nizhar was actually declared a wanted terrorist by India, and at the time of the shooting, many in the Sikh community in British Columbia believed that his death was a political assassination.

And that may actually be the case, with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau saying in Parliament yesterday. they will stay for dinner. Instacart has all your groceries covered this summer, so download the app and get delivery in as fast as 60 minutes. Plus, enjoy $0 delivery fees on your first three orders. Service fees, exclusions, and terms apply. Instacart, groceries that over-deliver. Over the past number of weeks, Canadian security agencies have been actively pursuing credible allegations of a potential link between agents of the government of India and the killing of a Canadian citizen, Hardeep Singh Nijjar. Any involvement of a foreign government in the killing of a Canadian citizen on Canadian soil

is an unacceptable violation of our sovereignty. Now, in response to that, India's Ministry of External Affairs completely rejected Trudeau's claim, describing the allegations as absurd and politically motivated, with the ministry then going on to accuse Canada of providing shelter to, quote, Calistani terrorists and extremists,

and saying in a statement, we urge the government of Canada to take prompt and effective legal action against all anti-India elements operating from their soil. Also following Trudeau's statement in Parliament, Canada's foreign minister said that they had expelled an Indian diplomat she described as the head of India's intelligence agency in Canada. And to that, India responded today,

saying they will be expelling Canada's diplomat in turn, saying in a statement, the decision reflects government of India's growing concern at the interference of Canadian diplomats in our internal matters and their involvements in anti-India activities. And then tied to all this, Canada also recently suspended negotiations over a free trade agreement with India, citing recent political developments. Now, all this is still under investigation, but Canada's foreign minister has said that she intends to discuss India's actions with Canada's allies following the United Nations General Assembly this week. And actually regarding that, the White House has said that it is deeply concerned about the allegations leveled by Trudeau, with White House National Security Council spokesperson Adrian Watson saying,

We remain in regular contact with our Canadian partners. It is critical that Canada's investigation proceed and the perpetrators be brought to justice. And then, Republicans right now are going feral for Fetterman. Because while the weekend news cycle was dominated by Congresswoman Lauren Boeber going over the pants with her date, the weekdays rather have been focused on John Fetterman having the audacity to wear shorts in the Senate. With many Republicans taking this showcase of CAF as serious as an insurrection. Or I guess how you'd hope they'd take an insurrection seriously. But a big part of the story is that Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer just recently announced that he would no

longer be enforcing the informal dress code on the Senate floor. And this after years of male senators being required to wear suits and dress shoes in the chamber. And this is there was a dress code for women as well, but it was less clear. And that's likely because Democrats couldn't reach a common ground with Republicans who seemingly wanted them in full out Amish gear and chastity belts with the option to flog any Jezebel who dared to show a little ankle. But part of the reason this has gained so much attention is that it comes as Fetterman has been seen frequently wearing shorts, a hoodie, and running shoes as he goes about his business in the Senate, sometimes even being seen voting from doorways as to not enter the floor in

his casual clothes. Right, and Fetterman reportedly started dressing this way when he returned to the Senate after checking himself into a hospital for clinical depression, with the Senator just saying that he feels more comfortable in casual clothes. Which I just gotta say, if you are a senator and you do not suffer from clinical depression, how? Like, I get that you have power, but it seems like a genuinely shitty job. No matter who you are, you gotta work with a bunch of shitty co-workers, half of which probably talk shit on you. And not like in the break room, like publicly on national television. You know, with the state of how ugly politics have gotten, this whole dress code thing seems like nothing. But instead, we've seen a number of

Republicans going absolutely apeshit. With tons of GOP senators condemning the move, the likes of Susan Collins joking that she would wear a bikini, which yeah, do it, coward. Just another thing you'll flip-flop on, but saying, I think there is a certain dignity that we should be maintaining in the Senate, and to do away with the dress code, to me, debases the institution. That also echoed by other senators like Joni Ernst, who said we've got to maintain a level of decorum. And Tommy Tuberville, who's still trying to distract from the fact that he's getting bipartisan backlash for single-handedly undermining the U.S. military by holding a promotion saying, it bothers me big time. You've got people walking around in shorts. That don't fly with me. Meanwhile, you also have other Republicans who aren't in the Senate, like

Marjorie Taylor Greene speaking about decency,, I mean, that'd be like me speaking on what it's like to have talent or a vagina. Right? Two things equally distant from my lived experience. But she said, the Senate no longer enforcing a dress code for senators to appease Fetterman is disgraceful. Dress code is one of society's standards that set etiquette and respect for our institutions. Stop lowering the bar. But putting the ridiculousness aside for a second, we did see Fetterman respond in a tweet saying, Thankfully, the nation's lower chamber lives by a higher code of conduct, displaying ding-a-ling pics in public hearings. With that in reference to the fact that this woman who's complaining about etiquette and decency and respect

recently displayed pictures of Hunter Biden having sex in a public hearing, a possible violation of DC's revenge porn laws. We also saw Fetterman hitting back against a number of people, writing that he dresses like DeSantis campaigns. He also took a shot at pollster Nate Silver for some reason. Nate made what seemed to be kind of like a harmless reference or a joke, with him tweeting,

starting a new political party for people who don't give a shit either about how John Fetterman dresses or what Lauren Boebert does in a theater, which I guess he took as like a false equivalency because the Boebert stuff just really highlights what a hypocrite she is. But he responded,

I dress like you predict. With him also arguing about how fucking stupid all this is during an interview with MSNBC, where even Chris Hayes mocked the focus of this non-issue. Let me, let me start with the most important matter facing our country at this dire moment, which is the matter of the Senate dress code, which has recently been recently been changed. Of course, of course. Yes. Yeah. No, of course. I've heard about, I've heard that some people are upset about that. And the right have been like losing their mind. You know, they're just like, oh my God, you know, dogs and cats are living together. And, you know, like I said, aren't there more important things we should be talking about

rather than if I dress like a slob? And personally, I agree with him. I think this is like Obama's tan suit all over again. With Fetterman also seeming to think that Republicans would have a completely different reaction if instead of being a D, he was an R. With him responding to a Fox News article on Twitter by saying, I figure if I take up vaping and grabbing the hog during a live musical, they'll make me a folk hero. Yeah, that's just a little taste of the state of our union. And in the meantime, I got to pass the question off to you. What are your thoughts here? And then

football season is here, people. And oh, God, what a start. I'm still getting over the fact, though, I'm not surprised. It's what happens to us. Aaron Rodgers being out after just four plays as a jet. But I do want to take a second to thank the sponsor of today's show, Underdog Fantasy. Underdog is the easiest way to play fantasy sports and not just football. You can make picks on baseball, basketball, UFC, and more. And simply, you just pick

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And then if you ever need proof that the people that are running the country or the people that have the power, just grown up children who really love their toys. I mean, you need to look no further than the U.S. military. I mean, we already spend so much money, but I mean, we spend tons of money on technology that looks really cool, but we arguably don't need. And one very expensive rubber ducky that we're going to do a deep dive on today is the Littoral Combat Ship, or LCS. With Littoral in this case meaning that it's meant to be deployed in coastal waters where the Navy needed to expand its presence after 9-11. We're thinking the Persian Gulf to support Iraq and counter Iran, the Caribbean to track down gunrunners, and Southeast Asia to help smaller allied navies. So fittingly, they're designed to be small, fast, and versatile,

enabling them to engage enemy warships, hunt down mines, and sink submarines. And in July of 2016, the United States deployed an LCS for the first time off the coast of Southern California in the world's largest naval exercise comprised of hundreds of warships from more than two dozen countries. But unfortunately, the crew of the USS Freedom quickly discovered the reason why many in the Navy nicknamed the LCS's Little Crappy Ships. Dozens of pieces of equipment were undergoing repairs, and before they left port, one of the ship's engines failed. But under pressure from top officers not to screw up this crucial demo of the tech, the ship's captain went ahead anyway and relied on the other three engines. And fortunately, it endured, but a maintenance check revealed that the faltering engine had

suffered galloping corrosion from saltwater during the exercise, with the sailor even describing the engine as a horror show that had rust eating away at the machinery. So as a result, the USS Freedom would spend the next two years undergoing repairs at a cost of millions. But understand, none of this was a surprise to anyone who knew anything about the LCS program. Two of the ships broke down in the preceding months and two more would break down in the months to come. And the list of mechanical problems and software glitches

just goes on and on. The remote mine hunting system often returned false alarms during testing, was unreliable, frequently broke down, and was difficult for sailors to control. The towed sonar couldn't function properly in the vessel's wake, and the Freedom Class's engine is considered too loud to hunt submarines. The design also didn't contain protections that could prevent the flooding of critical systems when under attack. The ship also absolutely guzzles gas so it can't stray too far from its fuel supply before running out. Additionally, many ships had cracks in their hulls and their combining gear, the thing that

connects gas turbines and diesel engines to the propulsion shafts to help the vessels reach top speed, they often just broke down. So not only did it take a dozen years longer than expected to get them operational, by which time the Navy needed littoral ships, less and bigger ones that could combat China more, but these ships, which were originally meant to cost

no more than $220 million, wait for it, ended up billing the Navy for around half a billion dollars each. With John Pendleton, a former top military analyst at the Government Accountability Office, estimating that the lifetime cost of the LCS program may reach 100 billion dollars or more. And what's also wild about this is it's not like we realized our mistake only when it was too late. No, I mean, doubts overshadowed the LCS program ever since Congress agreed to begin funding it back in 2003. Right at the time, a House Appropriations Committee

report warned that there was no roadmap of how the Navy will achieve the system required. And from that point on, officers who criticized the ships faced consequences. Things like getting assigned to an undesirable post or even being dismissed. And even as the flaws became more and more apparent and critics became more numerous, the Navy's top brass refused to give up on the program. With Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus, who was appointed in 2009, coming out as one of the ship's most ardent cheerleaders. Because as outlets like ProPublica observed, once a massive project gains momentum and defense contractors begin hiring, it is politically easier to throw good money after bad. And in the case of the LCS, the Pentagon went with not one,

but two contractors to each build their own design. The first being Lockheed Martin, which would operate out of a shipyard in Wisconsin. And the second being a joint venture between General Dynamics and an Australian shipbuilder, which would use an Alabama shipyard. But these radically different designs then meant that the ships couldn't swap parts or sailors, and it made them more expensive to maintain and crew. Plus, much of the data and equipment on the new ships were proprietary, so only the company's employees

were allowed to do certain repairs, which meant that when shit broke down, as it did almost always, contractors sometimes had to fly all the way out and fix it, racking up millions in travel costs and wasting weeks waiting around. But Secretary Mavis, who was committed to rescuing the program's reputation, reportedly thought he could earn support of Congress

members both from Wisconsin and Alabama by delivering thousands and thousands of jobs and millions in spending. So after 2014, when Defense Secretaries Chuck Hagel and Ash Carter tried to shrink the LCS program, they unsurprisingly encountered resistance from Mavis and others within the Navy. And then when the leadership of the Navy itself grew cold towards the program, the rest of the government stepped in. Like in 2017, the Navy requested funding for only one LCS, but Democratic Senator Tammy Baldwin from Wisconsin fought for more. With a writing in a letter to Trump that building too few ships would force her state shipyard to lay off hundreds of workers. And many top officials within the administration agreed with one source saying, maintaining the industrial base was really the sole consideration.

So sure enough, at the last minute, the White House inserted one more $500 million ship that the Navy didn't even want into the budget after it had already been sent to Congress. And over the next year, Congress funded two more ships, bringing the total fleet to 35, which was three more than requested. And still, the struggle continues. As last year, the Navy announced plans to retire nine LCS ships years early because they just suck. But predictably, lawmakers from states where the ships are based, oh, big shocker, they intervened alongside a trade group whose members had just secured contracts to do LCS repairs and supply work worth up to $3 billion, with the latter making phone calls,

sending emails, and visiting Washington in person to lobby Congress against doing this. Not that the lawmakers really took that much convincing. Many of them, especially the Republicans, already got campaign donations from defense contractors. And then, within weeks, amendments lowered the number of ships that would retire to just four. So now the U.S. Navy has a bunch of shitty boats

in its arsenal that are just stupid expensive to maintain, but it can't even get rid of them because politicians won't let it. But also with this, while I'm doing a deep dive into the disaster that is the LCS program, do not let me mislead you into thinking this is somehow like isolated. Right? Every branch of the military has a long history of buying overpriced and underperforming weapon systems. I mean, the F-35 fighter jet is a prime example. It has been beset by problem after problem. It is more than a decade late. It is $183 billion over budget, with the whole program costing some $1.7 trillion,

as well as the Navy's newest aircraft carrier, the USS Gerald R. Ford. That costs $13 billion, and it's yet to prove it can actually reliably launch planes. And as far as why this happens, we've noted the factors of politics and lobbying, but even the officers who don't have to worry about elections share the blame.

With outlets like ProPublica explaining, stopping a weapons program in its tracks means people losing work and admitting publicly that enormous sums of taxpayer money have been wasted. And you have a former Marine Corps captain who now works on Pentagon reform for the non-profit project on government oversight telling the outlet, it's a zombie program phenomenon where everybody knows deep down we are going in the wrong direction. But because so much money is involved and so much political capital is invested,

you can't stop the train until the problems are so overwhelming that no one can feign support for it. But also a big part of the reason that so much money is wasted is that the military is largely unaccountable. Last year, auditors combed through the Pentagon's $3.5 trillion worth of assets and concluded that over 60% of them could not be accounted for, meaning the Defense Department is the only government agency to fail every single mandatory audit ever. And that is why you may have heard people call the DOD a black hole that sucks in money and makes it go poof.

And so it's not surprising that the agency has a long record of underestimating the cost and overestimating the performance of weapons programs. I mean, according to the Government Accountability Office, for more than half the major defense acquisition programs that were reviewed in fiscal year 2022, they, quote,

did not demonstrate critical technologies in a realistic environment before beginning system development. But with all of that said, we have now reached the summit of insane, crazy bullshit mountains. So with that, I will now pass the question off to you. What are your thoughts?

Especially if you or someone you know is a part of the military. And then let's talk about yesterday today, where we take a look back at yesterday's show, where we covered a number of topics and we dive into those comments to see what y'all are saying. Starting with the story about the Russell Brand allegations, his denial and the fallout. With a number of topics and we dive into those comments to see what y'all are saying. Starting with the story about the Russell Brand allegations, his denial, and the fallout.

With a number of y'all specifically focusing on who's immediately defending him. Saying, man, having Tate defend you is not the look you want if you're claiming innocence. I don't know about the allegations, but I wouldn't want Musk and Tate defending me. Or with one of the main ideas being comments like, even if you're not guilty, there's just nothing more to make me doubt your innocence quite like that. Many of you were also chiming in regarding Ken Paxton's acquittal the all commenting things like it's a shame that Ken Paxton got away With this people more concerned with their parties instead of actually wrongdoing which there I think it is important to remember that yeah I think it was a showcasing of maybe more moderate Republicans and far-right Republicans because remember he got impeached in the Texas House By a majority of Texas Republicans

And so with this we had a lot of beautiful bastards in Texas chiming in and saying things like as someone who lives in Texas I am appalled by the acquittal of Ken Paxton. I'm an independent voter, and it just feels like a huge middle finger. It just feels like more and more top officials in the state are dirty, and this just proves it. It makes me wonder and worry about what will happen in the future. Also, as the comments kept rolling in, we saw more and more people talking about the UAW strike, with most everyone seeming to support the workers. What it takes, like, after years of increasingly anti-worker sentiment and policies across a country,

it's extremely gratifying to see unions pushing back and multiple industries gaining a lot of attention in the comments. Though some weren't fully on board, with some comments popping up like, wow, the strike culture is real. I mean, I get that people need to be paid what they are worth, but holy shit, this culture of walking out of work and just stopping everything is kind of crazy. Also, there were some people that didn't like that we mentioned how all of this might impact the economy if it continues for long. Comments popping up like it's extremely important to know that underpaying workers is more harmful to the economy than a union strike. Highlighting the pain to the economy caused by the strikes is exactly what these greedy companies want you to do. They want you to pit the working class against

each other. Don't let it happen. And to that, I 100% agree with that last note, right? They want the working class fighting amongst each other. But talking about the potential impact this could have on the GDP, it's the same as when we talk about the writer or actor strike, like all the money that's going to be lost there. The fact that this is going to have an impact is just a fact. And I think it is then an additional step to go, and it's the worker's fault because that's not what I'm seeing. What I'm seeing are workers in an industry going, hey, the fucking rich people at the top who really aren't doing much, their pay rates and their bonuses have gone through the absolute fucking roof. And we're like expected to live off of crumbs, crumbs from a cake. Those rich fucks don't even get to eat if we don't do our jobs. So that doesn't change the fact that the negative impact's

going to come, but it does point the finger at the greedy fucks on top of these corporations, that they are the reason that it's happening because really everything they're doing, it's from the same playbook, which people like Royce for short also noted saying every single time there's a strike, the corporations without failure are like, but if we give in to their demands, we'll go bankrupt, and then everyone will be out of a job, and every time it's never true. And then finally, there were a smattering of comments like, how is Phil not talking about the Lauren Boebert fiasco? To which my response is, what a man and woman do in the privacy of their local showing of Beetlejuice is between them and God. I guess technically anyone within the blast zone. No,

it was just yesterday's show was already too big. But yeah, you know, we kind of mentioned it today. Like the headline is, lying hypocrite is lying hypocrite. Seems like a fun, messy first date. Horrible congressperson. For just so many reasons outside of this situation. And that is where today's dive into the news is going to end. But remember, for more news you need to know, I got you covered right here. You can click or tap or I got links down below.

So thanks as always for everyone that supports, including the most recent way to buy a bag over at wakeandmakecoffee.com. You can get your first bags for 50% off. But as always, my name's Philip DeFranco. You've just been filled in. I love your faces and I'll see you right back here for more news tomorrow.