The Philip DeFranco Show - Why the Moist Critikal Technoblade LARP Scandal Blew Up The Internet

Episode Date: July 14, 2026

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Just style you love and quality you can trust. Visit wayfair.ca. Wayfair, every style, every home. We've got to break down this weird moist, critical Technoblade Larping scandal that's blown up, why it broke through gamer containment and what it really exposes about the future of entertainment and celebrities. The clavicular Beaming Netanyahu gym maxing allegations are now just the latest controversy coming out of Israel. Taco Bell is now being investigated in connection to the cyclospora explosive diarrhea parasite. And what really happens now that Trump named the U.S. Guardian of the Strait of Hormuz as more strikes are being carried out.

We're talking about all of that and even more on today's brand new Philip DeFranco show you daily dive into the news, starting with this. Silence is not consent. That is just one of the now huge flashpoints around this whole moist critical Technoblade, LARP-Tuber trend and controversy that has completely spiraled out of control. And if you have no idea what I'm talking about here, and trust me, that's completely normal. I didn't know this world existed until about a week ago. Larp tubers are these people who LARP or imitate famous YouTubers copying their look, their voice, their

Cadence, kind of everything about them. And actually, one of the first ones you might have seen go viral back in May appears to be LARPAPlyer, who impersonates huge YouTuber Markiplier. Hello everybody. My name is Larpiar and welcome to let's play Slender. Hospice. And since then, you've had a lot more popping up, mimicking PewDiePie, Moist Critical, Leafy is here, and a ton of others.

For a while, and still, for many, it generally seem like good fun. But then you had someone crossing into different territory where people say, okay, there's the LarpTuber community, and then there's this thing, right? Because someone started larking as Technoblate. And Technoblate, I mean, he was one of the most beloved Minecraft creators on YouTube. He had over 10 million subs while he was alive, he had content for years, and then he got cancer. And at first, he announced it in the most Technoblade way ever.

Of all the phone calls I've made, nobody took the news worse than my health insurance provider. They've been inconsolable for weeks. They were like, you got what? No! And several months later, in 2022, his dad appeared in a video to announce a Technoblade, or Alex had died.

at the age of 23. I got down on my knee at his bedside. And I said to him, you've done so much for so many people. And if you want to now, you can rest. He lived about another eight hours after that. And so following that, just this community, it was absolutely heartbroken. The dad, he's been very active in the community ever since.

They've been raising money for cancer. research, the channel actually has now over 20 million subscribers. And then all of that, it brings us to the current controversy because you have this LarpTuber by the name of TechnoLarp appearing. And for comparison, here's a real Technoblade. But first, it's a pig. It's a plane. It's Technoplane on sale now. I wake up on Monday. I stab celebrities in Minecraft and then I just, I go to sleep for another week because what else? What else is there to do? And then here's Techno Larp. Uh, well, I'm a Technolarp and you might be like Technolarp. That's a stupid name. Well, this creator, he is. is this growing community that really loves this content. As you might expect, there were also a lot of people who were just really irked by the whole concept of imitating a dead person like this.

Especially because he hadn't gotten permission from Technoblade's dad. Where you had TechnoLarp admitting in a sense deleted pose that he had reached out to the dad but got no response, though he argued that he also wasn't asked to stop. Saying we don't know his thoughts yet, let's give him time to figure out

if he likes it or not. But also there, many who just weren't convinced. And then with that, he would voice critical given this thing a whole huge boost when he did a video on it. So he's taken that silence as like a thumbs up to keep doing it in the meantime. Like, I feel like if you cared enough about it, you'd probably wait to hear his thoughts on it

instead of still just going hogwild with it. Though you also, at Technoblade's dad, eventually responding, posting on Reddit, I've been avoiding addressing this for a while now. I just don't know how to react to this. I mean, certainly, it's flattering to Techno, but like, what am I supposed to do? I just don't know what to say to him. Anyway, my response is inconclusive. I'm still ruminating on the whole thing. So even though that wasn't a firm note, you had several other Minecraft YouTubers and a lot of people out there arguing that the post showed that he was clearly uncomfortable. And he would some criticizing Technolarp for putting this dad in the position, speculating that

he felt pressure not to come straight out and tell Technolarp to stop because then all of a sudden he might be an enemy of part of that community. In his defense, you have people noting that Technolarp claim that he wasn't a replacement for Technoblade saying that he was just an obvious knockoff to entertain people. But then also with his good critics pointing out that he went as far as to collaborate with one of Technoblade's friends, Skeppy, arguing that that crosses the line into replacement territory. No, not that's lying.

Speed in region. Speed in region. Pull. Oh my God. Oh, my God. Yes. So he's actively trying to collab with Technoblade's friends while pretending to be their deceased friend.

Like that's some like Skinwalker type shit. Like that just kind of rubs me the wrong way. I feel like the guy's probably approaching it with good intentions, but I still find it to just be off-putting. And then actually during a subsequent live stream, you had TechnoLARP jumping into the chat and they started arguing. The Dachst and my family has been threatened. Some other LARP tubers are also.

under attack. Well, that's awful. I'm sorry to hear that. You were reasonable but missed some context. It painted me bad. I know you meant well. Is the context that Skeppy reached out to you? Because I didn't miss that. That is there. I just didn't find that to be an important thing to mention, because it's not who reached out to who. It's the fact that you still did it in the first place, man. And then after this, you had voice critical making a follow-up video where he doubled down on his critiques. Because also one of the other big questions that's been hovering around is whether Techno LARP has been profiting off of this concept. And on Twitter, you had him claiming that his YouTube videos were demonetized and he'd only earn money if Technoblade's dad gave permission.

Because again, so many people like myself were under the impression that all of this was done with no like financial gain on his own end or anything like that, just all money going to charity through this. Well, that's a half-truth. The charity money is generated through the streams that he does. So he has a charity donation link that Tiltify. And then right under that, he has a personal donation link where you can donate to TechnoLARPA himself. the guy doing this.

And then at the very bottom, he even has a sponsored section. Server hosting by Prism Nodes, use code LARP at checkout for 30% off on any purchase. And he did even say on stream that, yeah, that's there, but the charity donations far eclipsed the personal ones that he's received. So you are financially benefiting from it. Meanwhile, as far as Technoblade's dad, you actually had him defending TechnoLARP, at least against doxing and brets that were apparently happening, calling it MestD. up and absolutely not okay. And then you had him finally setting the matter straight in a lengthy Reddit post, saying when this was first brought to me by one of Alex's YouTube friends,

I was under the impression that it might be a one-time tribute. However, this has continued for several weeks and it is now clear that an identity is being built as an ongoing public persona, saying that is a different thing from a tribute. And doubting, the situation is complicated by a simple truth. Despite being techno-dad, I cannot speak unilaterally on behalf of all of Alex's family, friends and fans who no doubt have a variety of reactions. But after careful consideration, I have reached a conclusion I can give from my own perspective as Technoblade's father and as the person Alex trusted to look after what he left behind. I am asking for this to please stop and for the persona in question to cease. No blessing or permission for this or for any similar persona now or in the future has been given.

And adding, I encourage anyone interested in becoming a content creator to find their own voice. Show us who you are. A sincere presentation of your authentic self will always be better than an imitation to someone else. And adding, I am also asking the community not to harass anyone over this. This is not what Alex would have wanted. I do not believe there was malicious intent. And so then what you saw is that when you would go to TechnoLARP's channel for a response at first, it was actually taken down for violating community guidelines.

But now it appears not only to be back up, but this morning, this guy uploaded a video titled The End of Technolarp. I'm really relieved that I even got an answer. I didn't really mind if it was yes or no. I respected any decision. Everything I did was not for some crazy evil scheme. I was just trying to have fun doing the LARP trend and everything, making content similar to one of my favorite creators.

Now, I can't really change how I sound like my voice because it's my normal voice, but I can definitely take off the skin. I can change the name. A lot of you have been telling me that you want me to just be myself and make videos in my own personality, which I think is a really good idea. So there's that you guys can just call me Stryker now. But with that being said, there's going to be hate on anything that I do at this point. You then also saw him addressing in advance the accusation that he's still profiting off of the Technolar persona by Kepler. keeping the 200,000 subscribers that he's accumulated as Technolarp. So I wanted to say that if you guys are only here

for the Technoblade persona, like the Technoblade stuff, I highly advise that you unsubscribe. The Technolarp videos will stay up for the time being and not be monetized and neither will this video. And then as far as the reactions you're seeing, I will say they're kind of mixed. Are you some applauding him for doing what they said was the right thing?

They're excited to see what kind of content he starts making. Some of the top comments on his video reading, Goodbye Techno-LARP, hello, Stryker. As well as thank you for respecting Techno-Dad's decision, good luck, Stryker. You also had others more skeptical. Some bring back up questions around money that may or may not have been earned that were brought up in the latest Moist Critical video. Others also saying that if he wanted to wipe the slate clean,

he'd actually just start a new channel. And there, in fact, he does have another channel, but he claims that Minecraft content just wouldn't fit in there, and a lot of people want to watch and play Minecraft regardless of the LARB, so he's keeping the newer channel. But then also, whatever happens to this channel in this guy's career, this whole thing, it's kind of caused a reckoning for some with the Larp tubers space in general,

You've got more and more people debating, you know, where are the limits? Where is it okay to impersonate? Do you need their permission? Should you be able to make money off of it? You know, on all of these fronts as well as kind of just the core story in general, I really would let me know your opinion and your reaction to all this, especially in those comments down below. Because for me personally, this has been a weird, wild one to watch. I'm still kind of digesting it. And that's also because a lot of my focus has been, at least in this space, on the AI clones moving forward of people alive and dead. Right there, you're seeing more and more proposed and even passed legislation state by state.

just worried about the AI craze. Whereas this, you know, it's being performed by a human, and unless you get into a place where you're trying to sell like merchandise that is very close, a lot of this ends up playing in the court of public opinion. But then also from that, we should talk about the story that really people have latched onto, and it starts with a question. How does an 18-year-old swimming athlete drown

and why would his friends try to get rid of the evidence that they were with him when it happened? Because that is what you have many, including his family, asking about the mysterious death of 18-year-old Daniel Irving right now. Right, and Daniel, he was a senior at a North Texas high school on both the honor roll and swim team, and back in April, He went out to Lake Ray Hubbard to go swimming and fishing with 19-year-old Lucas Roper and an unnamed 17-year-old.

But that was also the last time that Daniel was seen alive. And almost immediately, Daniel's mom, Temeca Irving, had a feeling like something bad happened to her son. And when he still hadn't come home the next day, she filed a missing persons report with the Rowlett Police Department. And while you had the local police, issuing a community alert, it wasn't until three days later that Daniel's body was found and recovered from the lake. And from there, you had the Dallas Police Department taking over the death investigation. And the medical examiner concluding that Daniel's cause of death was drowning and it was determined to be an accident. Except, if it was an accident, why didn't anyone call for help or come forward when it happened? Right, what were Daniel's two friends doing?

It seems like the police also asked that question because last week, Lucas Roper and the unnamed teenager were arrested in connection with the case, specifically on charges of evidence tampering, which is a third degree felony. Because according to the affidavit, when Daniel drowned, Roper and the other teenager panicked and took off. There were when Daniel's closed in the tree line and getting rid of his cell phone. Roper reportedly deleted all the conversations that he had had with Daniel that day from his phone, saying that both he and the other teen, they were worried that they were going to get in trouble and they panicked. But also, you're seeing that explanation and the charges of evidence tampering not being enough for many, including Daniel's family. Right, you have his mom, Temeca, saying there is absolutely more to this story than what they've gotten so far.

If you are not guilty of a crime, why would you throw away his clothes and delete messages and not even call his mother? And they're also calling for murder charges as you have their attorney promising to conduct an independent investigation. This family has lost confidence, in the system that is supposed to protect them. This family has a distrust of the Dallas Police Department. They have not given this death of an 18-year-old Daniel Irving the urgency it deserves and demands. He was a member of his swim team.

He was a strong, healthy young athlete. For these two suspects to say he drowned and they left, doesn't add up. It doesn't add up. Something smells off to us. And then you're also seeing the family coming down on the police, about their handling of Daniel's death, with his sister saying that the case was treated with no sense of urgency, and it's left her family in agony for months now. And that is a criticism that's been echoed by other activists as well, including Dominique Alexander, who's the founder of the Next

Generation Action Network. And you had him writing an open letter to the Dallas Police Department slamming their handling of the case and also going after the Rowlett Police Department for dragging their feet, saying, a young black student goes missing, and instead of immediate action, his family's met with delay and dismissal. And having, we are not going to accept excuses. We are not going to accept delays and we are certainly not going to accept a narrative that asks this family to move on without answers. Justice requires action and action must happen now. The way of the police still maintaining that Daniel's death was an accident. As this case has gained traction, you're seeing a lot of people drawn comparisons between this and Nolan Wells's case, which is another heartbreaking case that we've

covered now a few times and you have many people saying that both of these boys, they deserve justice, their families, they deserve answers and their deaths can't be swept under the rug. And while we're waiting for answers and updates, of course, our hearts go out to the family of Daniel Irving and Nolan Wells. And then there's so much more that we've got to dive into in just a minute, but first, let me thank a sponsor and say, you know, we live in a world where it's easier than ever to consume news. But also somehow harder than ever to know if you're getting the full picture and also to see where other people might be coming from. You know, having covered just countless major stories over the years, I've learned that having one source, it is very rarely

enough. And that's part of the reason why I use today's sponsor, Ground News. To take the reports of the latest U.S. strikes against Iran, for example. Some headlines have framed it as protecting regional shipping routes, others have focused on the failed ceasefire, retaliation, and escalation risks. And in a lot of things, and especially in war, the same event, it can look like strategy, diplomacy, or escalation depending on the outlet. And while multiple perspectives may be accurate, it also can leave you with a very different impression. That's one of the things that ground news helps us see. It compares how hundreds of news outlets are covering the exact same story side by side. It also shows their political bias ratings, factuality ratings, and who owns each

publication, giving you some valuable context behind the headlines. So definitely, I'll say one of the features I love the most is a blind spot feed, which flagged stories heavily covered by one side that the other side's barely touching. I mean, actually, that Mumdani Little Italy story from yesterday, fantastic example. It was primarily covered by the right, and it's kind of important to look over that fence sometimes if you don't find yourself using those sources a lot,

just to see what's happening in that land. So Ground News, it becomes one of the places that I check because I'd rather understand why coverage differs than just assume that the first headline, it tells me everything. Especially because algorithmically, it seems like so many of these platforms just want to keep us in tiny bubbles. So, hey, in addition to be in, of course, a daily watcher of the Philip DeFranco show, you can head to ground.

dot news slash DeFranco or scan that QR code to get 40% off unlimited access to the vantage plan, which is the one I use. And then diving back into the news, the first line for this story, I want you to know I am not, I'm not having a stroke. This is actually a real news story. You now have Clivicular claiming that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wants to jimax with him to improve his public image. Right. And that's coming directly from clavicular, who if you don't know is this massive, controversial, looks maxing streamer. And he's just kind of blown up over the last year. And you had him claiming that he had dinner with Netanyahu's advisors as well as other tech and U.S. officials and I was fine with talking with one of BV's people

about looks maxing, how he could looks max. That's what they asked. They said, hey, BVs has been having a lot of trouble with humanizing himself to the younger generation. They think he's too old and out of shape. Would you want to do like a gym stream with him or something like that? And if if I had any ideas about, like his fitness thing, because he's getting into sports or something. And I was like, sure, man, I'd be happy to be happy to help. Right, you had cliticular saying this on a stream while in Israel, which he spent the last few days visiting.

And also, there were like a number of other controversies happening. But as far as this Jimbrosec, you have a number of people kind of just not believing him. I think it's kind of hard to imagine, you know, these two in a stream together, pumping iron and Netanyahu somehow walking out with a rehabilitated image. So counterpoint, this is also the same Netanyahu that did the Nalk Boys podcast.

Though also, I'll say there was some backlash in the media when it was first reported that Clivicular met with Netanyahu's advisors. And so that, one, could dissuade Bibi from taking a break from bombing people and following through on this idea. And two, it brings us to one of the other controversies because clavicular has been accused of anti-Semitism in the past. Because while he's known for looks maxing content, which is controversial in its own right

because it goes to extremes to improve your looks, including by taking supplements and even smashing your bones, where with it being this kind of internet subculture that's especially popular among incels. And he's been seen as incredibly controversial with that, as well as numerous other issues and other scandals, but also over his connections to the Manosphere and far right figures.

He's been on stream with Nick Fuentes, who's known for his anti-Semitic views. And actually connected to that both he, Fuentes, the Tate brothers, and others, they faced a ton of backlash earlier this year after getting a Miami club to play the song, Hale Hitler by Kanye West and singing along. And so the fact that clavicular was in Israel at all,

let alone potentially meeting with people close to Netanyahu, it caused a ton of debate. Were you at some wondering how how or why he was even let into the country at all, when other controversial influencers in the past, they've been denied. Though according to several Israeli meetings, At least one of Netanyahu's advisors did admit to speaking with Clavicular, but they claimed that it was just a happenstance at a club that they briefly spoke and that Clavicular apologized for past anti-Semitism.

Which actually ends up being very interesting because at least publicly, Clavicular has not only avoided addressing any controversies about anti-Semitism, but he has gotten actively annoyed when they were brought up. And actually, you had him walking out of an interview when a journalist pressed him on why he was in Israel in the first place and if he'd addressed the video of him singing, Hail Hitler. So you basically came here to apologize? So we came here to explore Tel Aviv and kind of show that it's a really fun city. How can you not talk about the song? That's like a very poor, poor journalist tactic. No, no, so if you're going to be negative, if you're going to be negative and ask about, you know, like old, you know, situations that are not so positive, then I really don't want to talk to you. Last January is not that old, you know, you got kicked out of a club.

Why not clean the page? So why don't you clean the page and talk about how much I've done for this country's reputation? Because it's in utter shambles. This is the most ridiculous thing ever. You know, I just woke up. I don't want to be talking to someone who's going to be rude. What's wrong with apologizing about singing Heil Hitler? No, no, this interview is over.

Just apologize. Why don't you apologize? Why don't you apologize to me for wasting my time? me for wasting my time. Why are you straight to apologize? Just apologize. That's it. But then also with this, you know, just because he's trying to dodge a backlash,

it doesn't mean everyone else has or gets to. And I say that because you're seeing some reports now claiming that an IDF soldier is being punished for appearing in clavicular streams in Israel. Right? And that soldier is Shira Braun. She was seen on a number of his streams. They were seen walking with arms around one another. And she apparently worked for the IDF spokesperson's unit.

And actually, during one of the streams, she identified herself as working for the IDF social media channels. And the IDF is reportedly investigating this. and she's now facing disciplinary action. But according to Israeli media, she's no longer allowed to do social media work and it's gonna be transferred to a different unit with some reports even saying that she's been demoted to being a cook.

And you have all of this going down as you've clavicular, repeatedly insisting that his trip to Israel, it's not political. In fact, you even had him slamming a free press reporter who wrote about why he's in the country writing. You essentially advocating with a 20-year-old to share his political opinions to the massive audience I have is wildly irresponsible.

I'm very conscious of the influence I have, which is why I only speak about topics such as looks maxing, which I spent years of my life research. And while I personally, I'm very open to the nuance around the conversation of, hey, we don't have to force everyone to speak on things politically, you are visiting a country during a time of war. You're talking about pumping iron with a man that many believe is a war criminal. And while you personally probably only care about the additional views from the controversy of it all, or maybe you're actually interested in talking to Netanyahu about, I don't know,

putting fucking lifts in his shoes so we can join the Six Footer Club, he would actively be using you to try to normalize everything that he and his government is doing to a very young impressionable audience. Also, I'm not going to say that's your entire audience because something that we saw with the whole Netanyahu Nelkboy interview was a lot of people were just not on board. So much so that the audience smacked them up. So they essentially had to do a humiliation ritual and we saw like Kyle and Steini, who's a real person apparently, having to just eat shit in a follow-up video. But as far as glivicular, right, in recent streams, he's talked about how he's leaving Israel soon, if he's not actually left already and the next country he said he wants to go to is Russia. So while you have him saying, you know,

he's not interested in talking politics, it does appear to be obvious that he's seeking politically contentious places to visit, to stream from, to monetize, to audience grab. Yeah, ultimately, time will tell how all this plays out, both with wherever he goes next and the things that happened there, as well as everything that went down in Israel. And then also, we should talk about, you know, while you've had clavicular strips stirring up controversy, there are a lot of Israelis right now that are thrilled with another American, and that is Donald Trump. Right, and that's because you have him relaunching his war against Iran and reimposing his blockade on the country, all while threatening to upend literally centuries of American policy supporting freedom of navigation around

the world. And actually, despite everything, he doesn't seem any closer to meeting his original war aims, all while traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, it's come down to its lowest level in a month. So if he asked Trump, he's continuing to claim that it is safe to travel and he claimed on social media that the Hormu Strait is open and will remain open with or without Iran and announcing the return of a blockade

affecting Iran's ships or customers saying, all other countries will have fair and open use of the street. Then with that, also adding that the US would now be known as the guardian of the Hormuz Strait and will be reimbursed at the rate of 20% on all cargo shipped for any and all costs necessary to do the job of providing safety and security to this very volatile section of the world.

And you then later had him going into more detail, talking to reporters in the Oval Office, saying, I want to be reimbursed because we're protecting a very rich portion of the world. We're spending money. And so what we've done is we are going to be reimbursed for protection. And in addition, going against hundreds of years of U.S. policy, he is then also contradicting his administration's own position that there shouldn't be any tolls or fees on shipping through the street, which is something you had stated unequivocally by Secretary of State Marco Rubio just a few weeks ago.

No country has allowed to charge tolls or fees on an international waterway. And I-we. But with all this, you have Trump, in the eyes of many legitimizing Iran's claims that it should have the right to charge tolls in the street. And actually, you had Iran's foreign minister responding to Trump's announcement with his own mocking post on social media writing. POTUS is absolutely right. Whoever provides secure and safe passage of commercial vessels through the Strait of Hormuz should be compensated for this surface. Iran has always been the guardian of the Strait and will remain so forever. 20% is of course too much.

We will be fair. But then with all this, you had sent compensation. announcing that the blockade would be back in effect starting today, right, July 14th at 4 p.m. Eastern time, but it didn't mention fees at least yet. Yet it's just saying that the ships near the Gulf of Oman and Strait of Rammuz should contact U.S. naval forces and that additional information, it would be provided to commercial mariners through a formal notice. But at least for now, you're still seeing that just very few ships are willing to go anywhere near this mess. You would only 10 vessels passing through the straight yesterday. That is the lowest level in a month

and a fraction of the more than 130 vessels a day that would pass through the straight before the war. And connected to that, Brent Crude, the international benchmark for oil, prices that apparently we're all now having to focus on. Shut up around 9% yesterday after Trump's announcement and another 2.5% today to roughly $85 a barrel. And you've got all of this coming as missiles and drones. They've been flying over the region on any of your daily basis for almost a week now. We talked about this last Wednesday, Trump.

He declared the ceasefire with Iran was over after a new round of fighting. And on Friday, he formally notified Congress of a new war with Iran. Of course, this is really the same war. The reason for the distinction is that the War Powers Act requires the Commander-in-Chief to inform lawmakers within two days of engaging U.S. forces and hostilities. Rainland from there, he has 60 days to either finish the job or get permission from Congress with a possibility for a 30-day extension. As he had Trump telling lawmakers at the April 7th ceasefire with Iran, it stopped the 60-day clock that it started on February 28th, and then his latest update, he claimed that a

new 60-day clock has started from strikes on July 7th, even though, one, you've got so many experts rejecting the idea that this is in any way valid, especially since the US and Iran exchanged fire during this so-called ceasefire. And two, the 60-day clock thing kind of assumes that the initial strikes were okay in at least some way, but many experts have argued that attacks against Iran violated domestic and international law from the very beginning. But, you know, with all this, the back and forth has been pretty much non-stop since Saturday when Iran fired what it said was a warning shot

that struck a commercial ship in the region. With that ship, reportedly being set to pass through the straight on a route along the coast of Oman, which is the one recommended by the United States, but rejected by Iran. Which is then also one of the reasons why Iran is accused the U.S. of violating the memorandum of understanding where at the MOU that was signed last month

between the two countries. And then with this, after you had the U.S. retaliating with multiple overnight strikes in Iran, you then also had the country's top negotiator responding to U.S. strikes by posting a screenshot of the text of that deal, with them highlighting a section saying that it would be up to Iran to make arrangements for the safe passage of commercial vessels through the strait. And you then also had the regime responding by launching attacks in several countries in the Middle East and declaring the Strait of Hormuz closed, which then, of course, prompted

another round of U.S. strikes the next night, which in turn led Iran to follow up with more strikes, it said, targeted American military facilities in Jordan, Bahrain, and Kuwait. And then all of that it brings us back to yesterday when a few hours after announcing the blockade, sentcom said that it had begun the third consecutive night of strikes against Iran at Trump's a direction. And also something that was notable shortly before that is that Trump had told right-wing radio host Hugh Hewitt that he expected strides to continue today as well, saying, We're going to hit him very hard tonight and we're going to hit him hard tomorrow. And there's not a damn thing they can do about it. They have nothing. They have nothing going other than they

have big mouths. You also had him seemingly completely dismissing the MOU that he previously claimed made him the first president to make peace with Iran and would bring peace and security to the whole region, but he now said that it was just a test and adding... Look, memorandum of understanding when you're dealing with sleet bags don't mean much. And they don't mean much when you're dealing with honorable people, too, because it's a memorandum of understanding. It doesn't mean much. Unfortunately, and, you know, Mago will say you have Trump derangement syndrome if you say this,

but if there is a thing that we've learned by now, is that, you know, when Trump says something, it really doesn't mean anything. Like, even just the past, what, less than 48 hours? Yesterday, right? He was talking about his administration. They'd be adopting an unprecedented. and world-changing policy and charge and tolls for passage through the strait. Well, today, while falsely claiming that oil is flowing like never before, unless he means barely.

Thanks to the U.S. military opening the straight, you then also had him saying, based on highly productive conversations with Middle East leadership, I have decided to replace the 20% United States reimbursement fee with trade and investment deals that the various Gulf states will be making into the United States. But of course, there also just happens to be no information about these deals, whether they're even real or not. And all Trump's really done is kind of damage to the U.S.'s credibility even, more. So even though technically things have happened, we appear to be stuck in the same situation

where neither side seems like they want the war to continue, but neither side can back down and you have people continuing to suffer, some dying, and the economic fallout, it's just going to continue. And then, actually, there's even more that we got to dive into in just a minute. But first, let me thank a sponsor and say, you know, traveling abroad this summer. If you're doing it, do what I do. Set up a Saley ESIM before you go. It is one of the easiest ways to make the trip less stressful. Because today's sponsor, Sali, they're the ESM app from the company behind NordVPN. Download the app, choose the plan, install the E-Easel. ESIM, right? It makes all the difference. When I land and I need an Uber, Saley activates automatically so I could pull up maps, message people, and order my ride instead of becoming spiritually trapped in airport Wi-Fi. Or when that happens, I feel like I've gone back two decades. Saly, they also offer flexible data plans and more than 200 destinations from a few gigabytes to unlimited data. Once you have the ESIM installed, you can add new countries or regional plans without installing a new one each time. It also helps avoid those surprise roaming charges, which is kind of the financial equivalent of being jump scared by your phone bill. And Saly, they offer a US phone number in the app with voice calls and SMS, no

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and use code fill for an exclusive 15% discount. Again, scan that code or go to the link, use code fill and save 15%. And then for your final block of news today, let's cram in some more news you need to know because it's just so much, but let's start with Taco Bell. Because if you've been planning on a late night Taco Bell run,

You might want to hold off on the lettuce, the tomatoes, or really any of those ingredients that helped make us think that it was kind of healthy. Because right now, you've got health officials investigating a massive multi-state outbreak of a literally explosive diarrhea parasite that might be tied to your favorite chalupa. Because unlike a normal boozy 2 a.m. trip to the bell, the diarrhea caused by cyclosporiasis, it can be weeks long, which is one of the quickest ways to dehydrate yourself. And in extreme cases, it leads to death. But also, here's a huge thing. While Taco Bell, they are currently a focal point. You've got many experts, pretty sure that the contamination is somewhere up in the supply chain. So like a regional supplier of fresh produce or even at the agricultural level,

which is then kind of gross because the parasite is most commonly caused by water contaminated with human feces. So it's the fact that there's a good chance that it's not just Taco Bell's produce being infected that's caused state and city officials to issue really strict recommendations about produce. You have the emerging supermarkets and customers to not buy pre-packaged produce. And Michigan and Texas, they're warning about all produce, including fresh stuff. You've got San Diego probably going the furthest at least so far, setting off alarm bells after warning that fresh produce should be avoided for at least a week as investigators get to the bottom of whatever the hell's going on. And that's because a very key thing here is that this parasite can't just be removed by washing your produce like you normally would.

Instead, you'd have to use heat to kill it and like who wants to boil their lettuce. So right now, you've got everyone kind of waiting for the FDA to issue a public recall, although privately they might be already putting that into motion. Then also in the news, you've got New York now becoming the first state to finally put a hold on data centers with a moratorium that'll last for up to a year. Massive data centers are being built across our state and our country. The scale and speed of this development has put unprecedented demand on energy and water resource and threatens to drive up utility costs. Before it goes any further, I need safe cars in place to protect New Yorkers. Are you at New York, New York Governor Kathy Hochel saying,

as data center development threatens to create uncertainty for New Yorkers, it's my responsibility to take action and lead. And to her point, this definitely puts New York dead center in the debate about how to deal with this quick push and AI and all the infrastructure that we need to maintain it. And it's been an ongoing issue across the board. Studies have shown that between Republicans and Democrats, no one really wants data centers running in their backyard.

And you're seeing that people are worried about the same issues that the moratorium is meant. to address the environmental impact and the energy costs. Right and while the moratorium's in place, you have the state actually developing a generic environmental impact statement to make sure that any new data centers are held to consistent standards in handling those concerns.

And they say that their end goal is create more rules for the sake of their power grid and the land the developers are looking to build on. And then once there are clear regulations, they'll lift the ban. And then also in the meantime, they aren't cutting any data centers that already have their required permits.

But also any projects that need more than 50 megawatts of power, those are gonna be on hold. And so this is big, but also not shocking. New York's kind of been inching toward a move like this for a while now. I mean, just last month, you had the legislature passing a broader bill that puts tighter regulations on data centers using more than 20 megawatts of power. And that one would also force any project using more than one megawatts to use almost entirely renewable energy by 2050.

But apparently, that hasn't made its way at Hokel's desk yet, and even before that, in 2019, they passed the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act. Right in that, who's meant to lower greenhouse gas emissions and add protections for environmental justice communities. But also, the thing that you've seen there is that Hockel's gotten some backlash with that because they haven't been keeping up with their goals. And she actually moved to roll back some of those agreements. So at that point, you had people saying that she was kind of watering the whole thing down.

And so now this move, for many, it's seen as a step in the right direction as far as their climate efforts go. But then, for your last story today, you have Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan and Amy Cody Barrett, going in front of Congress to ask for more than $15 million to expand security for the court at work and at home. Federal judges across the country throughout the judiciary, including the Supreme Court, continue to do their jobs without fear or favor, but the threat level is really high. So in their 2025 fiscal year, there was a 57% rise in, what they call security incidents of significant concern. And so far this year, there have been 370 more threats

with 512 investigations. And they say they actually expect to see a 38% increase before 2027 rolls in. And it kind of give you a better idea of what this looks like. A lot of the threats come as online comments and other digital communications like that. But we've also seen plenty of examples that people bring those issues right to people's doorsteps.

Many of us, me included, have received threatening anonymous deliveries designed to intimidate and harass us. With this, there's kind of been, there's a full spectrum. on top of things like this, you also have protesters staging marches in front of their homes. Then also you have incidents like someone getting arrested outside of Brett Kavanaugh's house with a gun and a knife. And actually, you had officials later finding out that that person was aiming to kill three of the justices. And then actually with all that at one point, apparently Justice Barrett even had to be sent home with a bulletproof vest for protection.

Maybe I lack imagination, but I didn't expect that performing this service was going to put me in the position of explaining to my children what a bulletproof vest was and why I had to wear one. Right. And some of the biggest safety issues they've seen have been from situations when their decisions got leaked before they were officially announced. So that's apparently why on top of physical security, they also asked for a boost in funds for cybersecurity. With Kagan saying, we can't do our business, we can't engage in confidential communications. If you think that those views are going to appear

on the front page of the newspaper, you pull back. So if to see what happens, if they do get it, these extra funds, they would kick in in October. Of course, all this still leaves kind of the root of the issue, which is the sort of increased hostility that we're seeing in politics right now. And if that doesn't get fixed, or the thing that is causing that doesn't get fixed,

I don't know how much the, you know, beefing up security will help. And then, my friend, you beautiful bastard, is the end of today's Tuesday show. Of course, till next time, you can keep getting filled in right here or I got links in the description. But no matter what, let me just say,

thank you for watching. I love yo faces and I'll see you right back here tomorrow.