The Philip DeFranco Show - The Moist Critical FoidElf Situation is Crazy

Starting point is 00:00:00 And then there's more we gotta dive into in just a minute, but first let me thank a sponsor and say, you know, August is a great time for a reset before fall gets chaotic and my closet, it could use some adult supervision. That's where today's sponsor, Quince comes in. Quince makes fewer better pieces from premium materials, the things you'll reach for constantly. And I really like their staples like organic cotton teas and Mongolian cashmere sweaters at work all day and into the evening. Or basically, clothes that make you look put together without looking like you spend an hour planning it. Their denim and Taylor Chino start at 60 bucks with a fit, structure, and quality that you'd expect from a luxury designer brand. And then you've got things like the cotton silk short sleeve crew neck sweater.

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Starting point is 00:00:57 So hey, upgrade your everyday by scanning that QR code or going to quince.com slash defranco for free shipping on your order and 365 day returns. And they're now available in Canada and the UK as well. So that's QU-I-N-C-E dot com slash DeFranco. Quince.com slash DeFranco. You've got this animal abuse scandal that's blown up, in part because of voice critical, and now he is in the band streamers crosshairs. You've got a woman's friend being caught on video confronting an alleged fratthouse attacker as he shouted she wanted it. We dive into what's really going on with Katie Zachariah. What's behind Trump canceling his deranged live stream of the Ford Hood execution? We're talking about all of that and even more on today's brand new Philip DeFranco show you daily dive into the news, so buckle up.

Starting point is 00:01:36 So you've got a streamer dog abuse allegation story that's blowing up today. I know there's another one, but this time it's a kick streamer by the name of Lavloon, aka FOIDO. And a lot of the situation focuses on this moment and clip. You were like, no, I'm gonna go play Warhammer and I was like, okay, this is ridiculous. Um, Jesus. I just killed the dog. Nice. So that's-

Starting point is 00:02:04 So Ford Elf is now banned from KIC, which is not a thing that I thought actually even happens. But I guess this was just getting too much attention with a clip going viral on Reddit. And then, yet a lot of people just basically saying, what the fuck? Or with people writing, why? The dog was cuddling up to her by the looks of it

Starting point is 00:02:19 and she just did that with contempt for no reason, fucking vile psychopath. And another weighing in, that's just sadistic. There's no reason to grab a dog like that. And then actually with this, someone claimed right before Ford Elf got banned that she was trauma dumping to distract from the dog controversy, and mentioned something about her husband choking her,

Starting point is 00:02:33 with a person saying, that lady seems unstable as hell. But then also with that, you've got people noting that there's a video of her husband telling a very different version of the alleged choking incident. She kicks it, starts attacking me. I didn't start attacking you. A bottle of primer, I have the bottle of primer,

Starting point is 00:02:46 and I didn't start to talk to you. You pulled a paint can out, you pop the top off and you tried to spray me in the face with her. You were choking me. You tried to, no, I wasn't. But at another point in that video, he threatens to kill them both, and so you had a lot of angry, confused,

Starting point is 00:02:58 and concerned reactions here. People saying she needs to get out, people calling. her the abusers of it right now, most of the attraction here is focused around her dog. And then in a response to the backlash, you had FOID-Elf denying the animal abuse allegations and essentially blaming the incident on her dog, saying this dog will literally do whatever he can to put his tongue in your mouth. The clip looks awful, but his feet were on the ground the entire time. Claiming that she was actually trying to make sure that he didn't get stuck or heard,

Starting point is 00:03:20 but he contorted himself in that position. And you add her adding that although this was an unfortunate misapp, the dog is happy as a clam. But a lot of people, they're not buying that. And among her loudest critics, you have popular streamer and YouTuber Moist Critical. And so what you had is that after this blew up, he dropped a nearly 10-minute video titled Completely Unacceptable, where he just went off on Ford Elf saying exactly what he thinks about how she handled her dog. What the f... Who does that? There's no justification for it. This could have very easily hurt the animal there. She's just being so hostile. Like, this is just entirely unacceptable. And no normal pet owner that actually loves their animals would do that.

Starting point is 00:03:59 And then in addition to that, you had him ripping apart her. saying that she totally misrepresented what happened. You know that this was filmed, right? Like, it's on camera. And people have eyes, they can see that you weren't grabbing it by its extra neck skin. If you were grabbing it by its neck skin, you'd be over top of it grabbing the neck skin, not around the side of it and going this way. And then, in addition to addressing the dog incident, you had him diving into a documented history of animal abuse.

Starting point is 00:04:25 Because apparently, this is far from the first time that the streamer has been horrible to a pet on camera. And so you had voice critical, including an alarming, an alarming clip before it elf throwing a cat. The way that I have also said the sunken place. You don't rewrite every... That one I think is significantly worse. She picks up the cat and then just fucking torpedoes it. She just throws it hard off to the side there.

Starting point is 00:04:48 And you can hear, again, a loud like crash impact when the cat hits the ground. You then also had him showing clips of her talking about the cats in a certain way. This one's pretty young. I got this one pretty... pretty recently, but you gotta, you gotta just, like, really smash it so that it knows that you're the boss and then you can kind of do anything you want with it. Got to the point where we were in physical altercations. Like, I would have, I would fist fight my cat. Um, the last fight, I think I threw him against a wall and he never fought back again.

Starting point is 00:05:27 So it was disturbing as the dog incident was to a lot of people, you had many saying, hey, This is actually fairly on brand for her. Like, this is not someone that should be owning pets. Like, this is animal abuse that she's describing here. This is disgusting shit that she's describing. This is lunatic behavior. But then, from all that, what you saw is that Voidolp was very pissed about all the backlash from the dog video and people digging into her past controversies.

Starting point is 00:05:49 And part of the reason we bring up Moise Critical is that she was especially angry about his video calling her own. And so she put out we are seeing many calling a completely unhinged response. Because in it, she seemingly tries to imply that Moise Critical is being sexist. But then also at the same time, she throws a slew of insanely homophobic and ablest comments at it. What should I apologize for that my dog's and jumped off the, the, the, uh, uh, uh, the wrong side of the thing as I was trying to get him to stop putting his tongue down my throat? A woman being hostile? A woman being hostile? You're accusing me of abusing my dog. Anyone in that situation is going to be hostile. Moist Critical is like the first case,

Starting point is 00:06:30 of terminal autism. If you are so, that's the problem with a lot of these, like, liberal internet users is they're so fucking antisocial cucked Reddit brain that they don't understand, like, tonality or social skills. Look at this smarmy little f*** to, like, failed transsexual. Holy f-phal. Is that you are greasy? You look like you smell like f***kin cheese. Holy f-f-what's unacceptable is that you are like a fucking beta male cocked woman. It's so over for the male population, bro. These are our men. And so all of that made for, we'll call it an interesting attempt to prove to the public

Starting point is 00:07:10 that you are not a bad person. But hey, well, we'll have to wait to see what happens with her ban, and we'll also have to wait to see if Moist Critical responds. I've got to pass the question off to you. What are your reactions to this whole situation? Because there's a few different things that I think a number of y'all are going to sound off on, and I always love reading the comments. But then jumping from that to other news, we've got to talk about yet another disturbing college sexual assault case that is making national headlines.

Starting point is 00:07:32 Right, because you have a 21-year-old woman claiming that she was assaulted at a frat house outside of the University of Chicago. And it's been reported that there was a group of men who cheered on during everything that was happening. Now, as far as what we know, this alleged assault took place early Sunday morning at the Alpha Epsilon Pi Frat House off campus. And as far as a woman, she's not a student at the University of Chicago, and she went to the hospital and reported the assault to police soon after it allegedly took place. And according to a police report obtained by the Chicago Sun time, she began feeling unwepte. before the assault. And you've had her friends backing up her story, claiming it they had to intervene by barging into a bathroom during the attack and saying that a group of men tried to block them from entering and were seen cheering and appearing to encourage the activity inside. And you had one of the friends doing an interview with the New York Times claiming these men, quote, were saying, when's it my turn and I want to go in there? Someone also apparently grabbed one of the friend's hair as they were trying to get inside the bathroom, but they eventually entered and found their friend not fully conscious, partially undressed and with a man. And the alleged victim is said to have begun saying, make it stop, get me out of here. Also, there's no viral. video showing one of the victim's friend chasing down the alleged perpetrator, which has caused the story to get even more attention as you have the suspect claiming it the girl, quote, wanted it. And of note here, you've had major news outlets blurring the suspect's face since no charges have been filed yet. He's a fucking assaulted my friend in the bathroom. I'm walking there. Right, in an extended version's going around online, the woman tries swatting him away while the person recording says, Okay, assault, nice. And then, as the chase continues, it sounds like the person recording is laughing while he runs after. So this video, you had it just adding to the outrage.

Starting point is 00:08:55 With people thinking both the suspect and the person recording aren't taking the situation seriously and even think that it's funny. We're especially paired to reports and allegations of the men cheered everything on and they were joking about the assault while it was happening. Now, as far as responses, you've had the fraternity hosting the party saying that to the best of their knowledge, no one affiliated with the frat was involved or complicit with the incident and adding, we condemn this violence unequivocally saying we are committed to cooperating with the investigation and supporting the victim in any way possible. Also, the frat's now been told to not hold any events as this investigation unfolds. Though also, looking into it, it is worth noting that frats at the University of Chicago are not formally a physically. with the school, but they are still subject to its policies.

Starting point is 00:09:28 Right, as far as who this suspect is, you've had the school identifying a person of interest, they've banned them from campus, though he is reportedly not a student or even affiliated with the school But they didn't publicly share the name and so far police have said that no arrests has been made So while the situation of course stands on its own with the Cornell fraternity gang rape allegations still dominating in the news cycle This news has really struck a nerve and among the many reactions you're seeing a lot of people arguing that schools need to do something about the rampant cases of sexual violence at fraternities and actually regarding Cornell the school just announced that it's really banning all fraternities from hosting any parties or social events for the rest of the academic year, while the school reviews whether or how fraternity life can safely continue. Right, you had Cornell's president, Michael Kotlakov, writing in a memo to students saying, it is clear that women on our campus continue to question whether they are safe.

Starting point is 00:10:09 And doubting, we must meet this moment by acknowledging where we have fallen short and taking meaningful action. And then with that, you had him giving his first interview since Jane Doe's lawsuit made national headlines with him telling the New York Times. The fact that Jane Doe experienced what she experienced at Cornell is something that I am personally sorry for, saying, I think this entire campus is sorry that it occurred. And adding, I've heard enough from the community that there is a loss of trust. People are angry. I understand that anger. With all this, while there has been mounting backlash against him,

Starting point is 00:10:32 he also indicated that he doesn't plan to resign. Right, in the backlash, you do have a lot of people thinking that it's just going to grow more and more as there are reports alleging that Cornell has not done enough to address sexual violence on its campus. And so you've got things like CNN reviewing records from the school and finding nearly half of students found responsible for sexual assault. We're punished with extra study programs and written reprimands, largely avoiding suspensions and expulsions. And you've got that review looking at data from mid-2020 through, mid-20204. It's that likely cuts off right before Jane Doe's allegation, and it found that only two Cornell students were expelled, even though there were 51 formal complaints in 16 cases

Starting point is 00:11:03 where students were found responsible. And with this, you had one student saying that she felt so betrayed by the school after it punished her assault her with a reflection paper that she wishes she never even went through the investigation process and addict. To know that I went through it all for the illusion of accountability felt even worse. And then there's even more we got to dive into in just a minute, but really quick, a small break with our sponsor. So Jesus, hey, he's going to go see the Haley Williams show and all you. to do is enter our weekly $500 Seekkeek giveaway. Because today's sponsor, Seatkeek, they've doled out nearly $60,000 to y'all to get you off the couch and into the comedy club, the stadiums, the concert halls since 2024. It's been really awesome seeing all that happen. But also, if you haven't entered yet, you got it. Like, it's fall and the events are stacking up. You've got football, baseball, tours for Bruno Mars, Harry Styles, so many more. Your favorite comedians are out there. And this is free to enter and it takes like two seconds. Because Seatkeek, they're the number one rated ticketing app with over 28 million downloads and tickets to over 70,000 events, whether it's sports, music, music, Comedy, theater, you name it. Literally right now or after today's show, look for tickets to literally anything.

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Starting point is 00:12:29 that the inmates at a DC jail are saying that they found in their food. So now you've got them suing over it. And so picture this. You sit and down for lunch, eating rice and beans and something, it crunches in your mouth in a way you didn't expect. An unexpected texture while eating, already unpleasant.

Starting point is 00:12:44 But then when you spit out the bite, I'm so sorry to do this to you. But when you spit out the bite, you see the thing that caused the crunch and it has ears and a nose and it is a dead baby mouse, sitting amid your lunch. Right, because that is a real-life thing that happened to Kevin Condry, an inmate at the incredibly

Starting point is 00:12:59 run-down and controversial DC Central Detention Facility. When you had Kevin trying to tell a guard on duty about this rodent in his food, he was reportedly told who just flushed the mouse down the toilet. And apparently, this was far from a one-off incident. Six current or former inmates at this facility have filed a class action lawsuit saying that the jail knowingly and repeatedly served them food with mice and insects in it. And like in Kevin's case, the guards apparently knew about it and they did nothing with a complaint accusing staff of repeatedly dismissing, denying, or undermining inmates

Starting point is 00:13:25 concerns about food quality and sanitation. Because according to this lawsuit, there was another point in 2025 where an inmate complained about finding a cockroach in his oatmeal and a guard accused him of lying and threatened him with solitary confinement. And then reportedly, a member of medical staff told him, quote, in other countries, they eat roaches. Then in another case, a member of the medical staff reportedly made a joke about protein when an inmate complained about bits of spiders in a piece of cake. And then in another, high-ranking officials accused the inmate of deliberately planting the mice on his trade, despite a doctor afterwards saying that the mouse looked like it had been boiled. And in case it's not clear, a literal vermin in your food, it poses a serious risk. You're looking

Starting point is 00:13:57 at salmonella, hantavirus, antibiotic resistant rat bite fever, which I did not know as a thing until looking at this story. Or even bacterial infections that can cause kidney damage and liver failure. So you've got several inmates on the inside telling the Washington Post that they're just chronically hungry because even when there isn't something nasty in their food, the meals, they're tiny and they generally lack adequate nutrition, which is that also something that the inmates say has seriously impacted both their physical and mental health, with, for example, one former DC inmate named Robert Williams saying, I know I'm here for committing a crime,

Starting point is 00:14:25 but now you treat me like I'm a slave or less of a person saying you don't even care what you feed me. At the end of the day, someone made a mistake, but there's still a human being. And apparently this has been going on for years. And a 2023 survey published by the nonprofit DC Greens, 89% of inmate respondents reported that they were never served enough food to feel full

Starting point is 00:14:41 and more than 70% said that they've been served rotten or spoiled food. And then two years after that, you had a report from DC's auditor saying that the inmates and staff had reported food contaminated with bugs, rodents, and screws. with the report saying the conditions were endangering the lives of inmates and staff and that there was an urgent need for a new jail. And that's also not an empty warning. The report also said that the death rate in the DC central detention facility is three times higher than the national average. As far as their response to this, you had a Department of Corrections spokesperson, saying that the DOC takes concerns regarding food quality seriously and remains committed to ensuring that residents received meals at meet USDA nutritional standards,

Starting point is 00:15:14 saying that there is a pest management program that includes weekly treatments as well as deep cleanings of the kitchen and food service areas. And they also added that the food is supposed to be inspected during storage and meal preparation and upon delivery, as well as personal overseeing meal distribution. In fact, corrections officers were, for a while, reminded over loudspeakers to be checking trays, but those announcements stopped last year, according to the lawsuit. Right, and instead, they just started offering a foreign objects in tray reporting form to affected inmates. Moves of the lawsuit called Band-aid measures, and the attorney leading the lawsuit said that those changes show that the jail is aware of the problem and has knowingly allowed it to get worse. And adding, that is an affront to their dignity as human beings. Refilling out of form, it doesn't stop things like biting into a bug and a mouthful of green beans. Which, again, is not just a thing I'm making up.

Starting point is 00:15:55 It is an actual thing that happened to an inmate and a plaintiff by the name of Mustafa Wright. And that actually turns out it came a week after he bit into a cockroach in his potatoes. So what happened, he, like many others, just stopped eating the provided food. And instead, he relies on his family to provide money to buy food from the commissary. And there he had rights wife telling the post that she sends her husband $400 a month to buy things like tuna, beef jerky, and chips. And saying, I'm taking care of the household by myself now. And I'm having to put forth more money just to make sure that he gets some type of nourishment because what they provide isn't safe. And then actually, relying on the commissary

Starting point is 00:16:23 presents its own set of problems. You have the jail physician saying that they've seen inmates gaining 60 plus pounds or even becoming diabetic from exclusively eating commissary food. And then with that, there's also the tension that the limited supply of commissary food brings to the jail. And there you've got people like Charles Hopkins who worked for the DC nonprofit voices for a second chance saying that it creates a black market of individual sellers and adding. That causes a lot of violence. Because if I'm hungry, I'm going to the store to borrow. And if I can't pay back, it's going to be a situation. But then as it turns out, commissary food also isn't safe from roaches and rodents. Right, Kevin Condre, the guy who found a baby mouse in his rice and beans, he has also transitioned

Starting point is 00:16:57 to relying on the commissary, except he can't leave it on a shelf or on the floor. It's one of the only ways to keep it safe from the mice is that he ties a strip of his bed sheet and hangs it from his bunk. So we'll have to wait to see what happens here, but also a big thing here is like this is not the only problem. And I mean that both in general for a number of facilities, but with this specific facility. But the complaints, they also include a rampant mold, substandard plumbing, inadequate health care, and now this. But then, from that, to talk about a different kind of news, with, you know, it's just weeks left until Election Day, the DOJ, they were reportedly suing California over alleged non-citizen voters.

Starting point is 00:17:29 Right, and all this started earlier in the week when acting deputy attorney general Trent McCotter sent letters to two officials in California. Secretary of State Shirley Weber and LA County registrar recorder, Dean Logan. And in those letters, he said that the DOJ would take legal action against the state if they did not address the Trump administration's claims that the state has registered numerous non- citizen voters, saying, accompanying this letter is a password-protected thumb drive with a list of names of people the federal government believes are likely non-citizens who are sent a vote-by-mail ballot from California to participate in the November 26 federal election. Right, and with that, he

Starting point is 00:17:58 didn't say how many people were on the list, nor lay out any evidence or methodology as to how the DOJ came up with these names. But it did say that these offices had to review the list within 48 hours, and if they could not confirm the citizenship of anyone on it, they must immediately instruct the appropriate elections official to segregate, not cancel those ballots until their citizenship was determined. And their time to get that done expired today at noon Eastern time. And the DOJ, they warned that if they could not implement this process, given the ongoing federal election, the United States will have no choice but to seek emergency relief. So then, just after noon Eastern time, ABC News reported that the DOJ was suing the state for failing to review those

Starting point is 00:18:31 alleged non-citizen voters. But also here's the thing, that move from the DOJ is potentially illegal because the National Voter Registration Act prevents systematic purges of voters 90 days before the election. And so with that, you're the director of UCLA's Safeguarding Democracy Project, telling the LA Times that he is not aware of anything like this ever happening this close to an election. And whether or not this 90-day rule applies to purges in non-citizens, it's actually an issue that the Supreme Court is set to hear in December. And so when California officials first got the letter from the DOJ, they questioned its legality, arguing that the Trump administration was using the threat of emergency litigation to demand that California blindly trusts this administration without

Starting point is 00:19:04 any evidence or legal authority to justify its request. And you also had California's Secretary of State adding, the U.S. DOJ's relentless efforts to unlawfully gain access to states's protected voter data and purged voter rolls serve only to cause chaos and fuel public distrust in our election, saying California has robust state law requirements that only U.S. citizens can register to vote and that any non-eligible registrants are removed from the state's voter rolls. And you had LA's registrar backing that up saying that maintaining accurate voting records is already a primary responsibility in his office. Also adding that even though he was reviewing information as best he could, he was not accessing the thumb drive with his voter information because it would

Starting point is 00:19:37 conflict with data privacy and security protocols. And that's as you had other officials in the state slamming this Trump DOJ for starting this last-minute pressure campaign with, for example, Senator Alex Padilla writing, Trump's DOJ is trying to bully California to purge names from the voter roles based on unreliable data less than three weeks before the election. And saying to threat, comply or face a federal lawsuit and ballots from those on the list could be withheld from being counted. But then adding, the Constitution is clear. Donald Trump doesn't run California's elections. And while you've got a Trump DOJ spokesperson insisting that this should not be controversial because it's a federal crime for non-citizens to vote and the DOJ is only asking California to ensure

Starting point is 00:20:10 that it is not happening. Many argue there's just no basis for this request. Over the summer, Homeland Security Secretary Mark Wayne Mullen claimed that there were over 190,000 non-citizen voters registered in California, but you had state officials disputing that. And that says the Trump administration has a history of providing voter fraud accusations that it cannot back up. And it's also severely exaggerated the number of non-citizen voters in other states, with multiple outlets noting that non-citizen voting is a relatively rare phenomenon. But still, multiple states have been subpoenaed for voter records, and many election officials believe that the Trump administration is doing this to set up legal challenge

Starting point is 00:20:40 after the midterms. Or with, for example, the director of elections in Washington State telling NBC News, what we have seen is some groundwork laid out for post-election challenges, whether that's the seizure of voting equipment, balance themselves, tabulation equipment, we're preparing for any and all eventualities in that case. And as far as the specific lawsuit against California, you know, this news, it broke as I was making today's show for you so the details are slim. But according to Reuters, you're the DOJ wanting a judge to block California from counting the balance

Starting point is 00:21:04 of around 20,000 voters that it claims are potentially non-citizens. Generally, you've got people saying this as just one small, aspect of a much bigger thing that the administration is trying to do right now. And as far as how it's going to play out, we'll know soon because the election, of course, is November 3rd. It's just around the corner. Of course, early voting has started in a lot of states, as you can tell, buy my sticker. Look at me. Did I vote yesterday afternoon and then transferred the sticker that I put on yesterday to my new shirt today to, I don't know, Politiflex? Yes, I did. And then actually we got a few more things we got to dive into in just a minute, but really quick,

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Starting point is 00:23:28 And looking back, I definitely would have appreciated having something like HomeServe then when my water heater broke down. So, hey, join the millions of customers who trust HomeServe. And for 50% off your first year, just go to homeserv.com slash DeFranco. And diving right back in the news, let's end with a three-piece, sorry, no biscuit. We're starting with Trump's new press secretary, who people, they've just been dunking on her all week.

Starting point is 00:23:48 And not only for just that horrible first introduction, but also after finding out that she may have been cosplaying as an attorney this whole time. And you've got some saying she could actually be facing jail time for it. Because after Trump presented Katie Zachariah as this accomplished lawyers, reporters, they started asking questions. And the answers that she gave didn't seem to add up. She said she's an attorney. Where did she pass the bar exam? Which state? What did she tell him? So after that clip goes viral, people, they start digging. And so what we do know is that she did go to Pepperdine Law.

Starting point is 00:24:15 And a professor that she assisted said that she was a star while she was there. And they even shouted her out after landing the press secretary position. But then no one could actually confirm whether she had actually gone on to pass the bar. And then since she claimed that actually happened while she was living in China, people started looking into her work there. And she still hasn't given a lot of details on that. But she did say that she practiced international transaction law with all the appropriate credentials. And now we're seeing more specific reporting saying that she was an associate at a law firm in Beijing,

Starting point is 00:24:39 providing legal analysis based on her law degree and international transaction experience. Those are specific and key words because she didn't need to be licensed there because apparently she was technically an international legal consultant and any official legal opinions were handled by partners. Which means contrary to what she said earlier this week, there is still no proof that she completed the bar while she was there. Now also I say here that experts fully accept that plenty of respected legal scholars. They haven't conquered that exam yet. But for a lot of people the issue isn't whether she passed it or not. It's just that it looks like she's been lying about it throughout her whole career. And actually, actually, amazing news as I was recording this video. It's now being reported that she took the bar exam in 2011 and failed right before she went to China for that job and her husband had already been working there as well. And do you know how we're talking about that period of her life in a very

Starting point is 00:25:21 specific way? I was obviously incredibly, I know, distracted and overwhelmed and excited for finally being married to someone who had been long distance from. We just said let's let's take this time and I'll take the bar and see what happens. The results are somewhat inconsequential. because I knew I wouldn't need the bar in China. And so with that, you have a watchdog group called Campaign for Accountability filing a complaint with the California State Bar, accusing her of violating the law by claiming that she is a lawyer, even though she's apparently never been licensed.

Starting point is 00:25:52 It's saying in California, that isn't puffery, it's a crime. And if the state bar agrees, she could actually be looking at up to a year in jail and a $1,000 fine. But then with that, you had Trump's team chiming in, claiming, quote, this group is a radical leftist organization run by rabid numskell suffering from a severe case of Trump derangement syndrome. And adding that nobody takes them seriously

Starting point is 00:26:09 because they are deranged low lives. So it does look like they're willing to defend her, at least to some extent here, but as far as where this goes, we'll see. And then we also got to talk about the news that Donald Trump has decided to officially pull the plug on Hegset's plan to live stream the military execution of Nidal Hassan to the American public. And you had a writing on a true social post that he felt that it would send a strong deterrent for how American deals with terrorism, but quote,

Starting point is 00:26:29 many very good and well-meaning people would rather not watch him die through streaming. Though not changing is that Hassan's still going to be killed by firing squad come December. And a key thing you have with the situation is that it's weird how he got here. His public stance on this has been, we'll call it, a bit nebulous. He didn't state one way or another if he was for it, just that he would make the final call. At the same time, you had Vice President Vance saying that he wasn't gonna watch. And then he would lawmakers on both sides generally opposing Hegg Seth's idea, saying that it was coming off as an authoritarian display. Now to mention, it was expected to be illegal nightmare due to existing laws and regulations around federal executions that banned them from being seen by the public.

Starting point is 00:26:57 And then reportedly behind closed doors, you had trump getting cold feet over the optics of it all. Because among other things, Hassan's been paralyzed from the way he's down on a wheelchair since the 2009 shootout, so it sparked concerns at streaming it, it would make him look like a sympathetic figure in a moment. But now that it's been cold off, it does raise some questions. Is this Trump administration so disorganized that Hegseth just didn't run this by his boss first? Was this a way to test the waters and if there was backlash, Trump could just kill the plan and look reasonable? Let him use his lackeys and his goons as these sacrificial lambs so that dear leader can stay safe. Which on that note, there are also some reports saying that Heg Seth might not be around as secretary defense after the midterms. And then finally today, there is a solid chance that your phone could be infected with spyware and you didn't even have to do anything to get it, just scrolling, pass an ad is enough.

Starting point is 00:27:34 And you've got cyberwatch dogs at the University of Toronto Citizen Lab calling the the surge and this type of attack, ad-fection. Right, normally getting this kind of malware on your device requires a phishing scheme or click on a link that you really shouldn't have. There's more people to become familiar with those techniques, the less effective they are. So instead, you've got a situation

Starting point is 00:27:48 where an Israeli digital advertising agency by the name of Discover Tech operated a platform called Controlio. Apparently, it's lax policies allowed bad actors to bid on ad space and mass profile users. So that ad, it would get pushed to you. And so far, you know, this is all normal in the online ad space.

Starting point is 00:28:01 Then the second that ad load it onto your screen or even just rendered silently in the background, it delivered a zero-click exploit. No interaction needed. at all and they have access to your device. Researchers have actually linked the attacks to a spyware company called Kanduu, which is so notorious that it's blacklisted by the US government. This isn't just theoretical, this isn't hypothetical.

Starting point is 00:28:17 The Al Jazeera News Network, for example, they had at least 45 devices compromised from it. And these ads, they spanned everything from Yahoo to Duolingo. To exactly how many of the ads were a part of this attack remains unclear. Now, ad giants like Google, they've reacted quickly to the news, booting Discover Tech permanently from their ad exchanges. Well, you're probably fine because it does appear like these attacks are pretty sophisticated and they're targeted at national governments and high profile organizations.

Starting point is 00:28:38 It is unfortunately something you need to keep in mind and be prepared for. And that, my friends, you beautiful bastards, is the end of your Thursday show. Thank you for being a part of another daily dive into the news. If you haven't already, support the show with a little like button love, and or if you're getting this show on Apple Podcasts

Starting point is 00:28:52 or Spotify, hit us with that five stars. Also make sure you subscribe it. Hey, no matter what you're doing, let me just say, thank you for watching. I love yo faces. I'm gonna see you right back here next time.

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