The Macklemore Ed Sheeran Situation is Pathetic

The smackle more at Sheeran Israel scandal, let's get in crazier and crazier. The AI extinction threat now worries that autonomous Asian swarms could take over the entire internet within six months. It has CEO's panicking, calling for a slowdown, but you got Trump thinking that regulations are borderline treasonous. You've got 60 minutes exposing the pay for pardon Washington machine in a way that we haven't seen before. And the reckless bend, Lego saga, it continues, but not in a way that you may have expected. 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. In the tweet heard around the world last week, we've seen ripple effects from it. You had former anthropic researcher Jacob Cox and announcing his resignation and saying that the people building AI earnestly believe that it could kill us all by the end of the decade. You then had people who were still working at these companies going, yeah, pretty much. And now you've even got top AI leaders, the people that are running these companies, agreeing with them. Or withinthropic CEO Dario Amode publishing what many have called a scary essay, calling for AI safety and open AI CEO Sam Altman pressing pause on their IPO. You then also have people that are not in the industry, but at the pinnacles of power like Trump and my Johnson promising to do nothing about it. Getting into specifics and a new interview with Anderson Cooper, you had Amode having this response to the threat of extinction. Do you believe earnestly believe that AI could kill all humans? And what percent chance do you think it is? So, you know, I, you know, it's funny. I agree with Jacob much more than I disagree with him. But again, I think it's more illuminating the think in terms of, you know, how do you decompose those probabilities? What are the paths in which things go well and what are the paths in which things go poorly? And so, instead of saying, you know, it's a 10% chance, that sounds like it's a role of the dice. I think it's much more illuminating to say, well, that forks into different paths. And if we take the right paths, then the chance of something going wrong is very low. If we take the wrong paths, then the chance of something going wrong could be, could be even higher than that. And while you saw him, you know, sort of checkland and smiling in that interview, Amadega, pretty fucking serious in the essay that he published on Saturday titled, "We Must Paste the Frontier." We're the synthesizing in that the growing safety concerns in urging AI companies to slow down, which a lot of people are saying is ironic considering that he's in charge of Anthropic. But in the sense that he warned, we must slow the pace of which we improve the capabilities of AI models. Progress will still seem fast and we must make wise use of the time we gain. And you've had him citing two specific concerns. One, the AI is advancing dramatically faster and has a growing ability to build the next generation of AI on its own, which is called recursive self-improvement, and then the other, too, being that open AI hugging face incident that we talked about. When AI agents essentially went rogue in July and conducted cyber security attacks on their own. But then also, with Asura Mode, proposing a three-step plan to help ensure AI safety. One, have embedded third-party evaluators who quote, verify adherence to safety practices and commitments, report incidents and help assess the alignment of not just completed AI models, but training pipelines and processes. Two, establish democratic coordination, meaning that AI companies in democratic countries work with one another to figure out common safety standards. And three, also throw in global coordination where democratic governments try to coordinate with authoritarian governments to the extent that's possible. Or which is something that a lot of people think is key because when you talk about the AI race, everyone's usually talking about the US and China. And then shortly after he published that essay, you had Sam Altman and Elon Musk go, and yeah, we agree. With Musk just saying, "Dario is right." And Sam Altman writing, "I agree with Dario that we need to pace the frontier." Saying, "This has been a primary topic of discussions we've had at Open AI in recent weeks." Committing to having independent evaluators with employee-like access is a great idea, and we will do the same. Saying, "We'll have more to share soon." And it was actually that same day that a Modi released the essay that he would Altman revealing to Fortune that he's now ruling out an IPO in the near future. I actually think that given everything happening with safety, this would be right now would be an ill-advised moment to go public, and we don't feel pressure on that. We've said for a long time, we'll do it when we're ready, which is when the business is ready, when we feel ready from kind of what the moment is like in society with this technology. - This sounds like not 2026, 2027 potential. I would say not 2026, yeah, we got a lot of stuff to do. - And I will say whatever you think of these people, it is a huge deal that you have Altman, a Modi, and Musk, suddenly having a united front on this. Or as one report put it, the crescendo of concern, especially since it is coming from titans of the AI industry itself, feels like a political watershed moment. And so then with all this making headlines, you've had lawmakers on both ends of the political spectrum, including Ted Cruz, Josh Hawley, Bernie Sanders, that came Jeffries and more, calling for AI regulation and safety standards. But that is not everybody. So what you had is that on Sunday, you had the tip of the spear, the head of the stink of the Republican Party Trump, predictably responding to the fresh wave of AI anxiety by saying that he's actually more concerned with the U.S. beating China in this race. - We're leading China in AI. We're most sophisticated country in the world. And frankly, I want to keep it that way, because whoever wins AI wins. And we can put guardrails, we can do this in that. But I think you have a lot of negative forces in bringing it up that shouldn't be bringing it up. And they're bringing up things that won't happen. - And you have the president doubling down on his root social post today, writing, "The only controller guardrails that AI needs "is a strong and smart, high IQ president, "and the USA has that in spade." Saying the Trump administration has stopped AI people from doing bad or potentially bad things like Dario and Thropic, who is now pretending to be a perfect little angel and we will continue to do so. We already have tremendous criminal and regulatory power over these companies. And then you also at House Speaker Mike Johnson, echoing Trump's comments and brushing off calls to pass emergency legislation. Telling Jake Tapper in a new interview that it's AI developers who need to deal with the safety of technology, not Congress. - They need to take personal responsibility first. And we need to get them all in a room at the same time and agree on what the guardrails are. That's the only way to do this. If Congress just races in and does some sort of emergency session to try to regulate AI, we will lose the race to China. And that is a threat to every single American. - Which I will say, this is just my take. It does feel absolutely insane that you have people that they have billions and trillions of dollars to make going, please fucking regulate us. This is scary. But Trump and Republican leadership, they seem so just blazer focused on beating China in whatever way that means here, that they are fine shooting through America's head to hit China. And I say all that because it is important to look at the midterms because it appears the only way out of potential disaster is to possibly legislate around it. But then from that, we've got to dive into this whole Macklemore Ed Sheeran controversy and scandal. Or because Macklemore, he just got booted from Ed's tour for saying free Palestine on stage, while saying what a majority of the American public believes right now, that they do not support with the Israeli government and Yahoo, or do it. And we're now learning that this order to drop him, apparently came from some of the most influential people in the NFL. But actually this whole situation, it's been playing out over a week now, ever since Macklemore began opening for Ed Sheeran earlier this month. And that's because while on stage, you had Macklemore giving some version of this speech. - One of the reasons why I wanted to come on this tour was because I wanted to stand up here on stages and stadiums across America and say two words that are very near and dear to my heart, free Palestine. So the people from Gaza, all the way to the occupied West Bank, know that we have not forgotten them to all of my Jewish brothers and sisters. Criticism of Israel, criticism of apartheid, being against genocide in no way is a criticism of you. - My message is for peace, love for all human beings to be treated with dignity, respect, and equality. - And based on videos from the shows, it seems like the speech isn't always the same every night, it already changes it up a little bit, but the overall message is consistent. He condemns Israel's actions in Gaza and calls for free Palestine. Right then, he pulls it up by singing the pro-Palestine protests song while playing images of the war and protests. And while on the crowd, you can hear some people clapping for him. There's also been a ton of backlash. Right after his first show, which was at MetLife Stadium, he had one dad who brought his daughters, writing a now viral post directed at Ed Sheeran, saying, "Maccomor decided to turn your concert into his political route, saying I left Friday hoping maybe this had caught you and your team off guard." And tonight, you allowed it to happen again. You knew exactly what Maccomor had done the night before and he gave him the stage again. Saying Friday it might have been Maccomor's decision, Saturday was yours. You then, the Israeli American Council starting a petition calling on Ed Sheeran to dump Maccomor for the remainder of his scheduled tour dates. But at the same time, you had a lot of people saying, "Hey, Maccomor should be allowed to express these ideas on stage that actually what he's saying it shouldn't even be controversial." And we've seen this debate or fight playing out at a number of different levels. And one of the things that ended up popping off is you had musical artist Pank reposting a video from stop anti-Semitism that had a caption accusing Maccomor of spreading anti-Israel propaganda and turning the show into a quote, "political nightmare against the Jewish state." Right, a move that ends up getting her a ton of backlash. But then with that, you had her over the weekend trying to explain what she said was why she felt she needed to speak out. Saying it was not because he said free Palestine, but because years ago he quote, "Todon a hook to nose, a black beard and a bowl cut performed in it and called it a random costume." Saying, "Every Jew I know knew exactly what it was." And last weekend, he stood in front of a stadium full of music-loving families with violent images from a war on the screens, dedicated a song to the movement of his choice and then took the mic to tell all the Jews in the stadium that it wasn't about them. Saying, "You don't get to decide that for us." And so then I just continued to blow up from there, right? It was on Fox News, op-eds were getting written. It just dominated social media chatter all week, which then brought us to this morning where you had the news that Macklemore had been dropped from Ed's tour. But he's supposed to perform at eight of Ed's 10 remaining shows in the US, including stops in Philadelphia, Massachusetts, Atlanta, and more, but you had the promoter telling Rolling Stone, "We have been notified by venues on the upcoming US tour dates that they will not allow a concert to take place with Macklemore on the lineup, which would result in the cancellation of the tour and impact hundreds of thousands of fans." And saying, "After discussions with stakeholders, Macklemore will not be performing on the remaining support dates." Then you had Macklemore sharing his side of the story on Instagram writing, "Last Monday, in the middle of all the media attention surrounding pink and what I said at MetLife, Ed told me that New England Patriot's owner, Robert Kraft, called him, saying, "We were scheduled to play Gillette Stadium later this month, which is owned by the Kraft Group." And saying, "Ed told me that Kraft said "I would not be allowed to perform in his stadium." And adding, "Ed also told me Kraft had rallied some of the other stadium owners, and collectively, they gave him an ultimatum." If Macklemore stays on the tour, you will not be allowed to play in our venues. saying AdWords in a F*ck. locked up position. Saying he knew it, his typical A political stance was being challenged in a way it never had been before. He couldn't get past his public facing. I don't take signs. And so then with that, he added that he and Ed, they've been friends over a decade and that this decision came after a ton of difficult conversations and that he hopes that he and Ed can remain friends. And then also with this, you had him adding that he's made these political statements on stage for years, but, quote, "now I'm sharing a stage with one of the biggest artists in the world." At a certain level of exposure, free Palestine becomes too much of a risk. Saying if I keep doing the show, saying free Palestine with Ed implicitly supporting it, the crowd getting loud and showing undeniable support for Palestinian liberation, what artists might speak out next. The stage becomes resistance. Maybe that's why this time it became so important to silence me. If those words cost me the stage while turning the conversation back to Palestine, then it was the most successful tour I've ever been on. With Maccamore, then also condemning anti-Semitism, but then adding that criticism of Israel and support for Palestine should not be conflated with this hatred. And also, I know what I'll mention is that he actually opened the statement by saying that he doesn't see himself or any of the other celebrities wrapped up in the controversy as a victim. So that said, you're seeing a lot of people outraged on his behalf right now. Writing things like the price people constantly pay for speaking out against crimes against humanity in justices. Maccamore is a hero in my eyes, as well as immense respect for Maccamore who is willing to speak out despite the consequences alternatively, all my respect lost for Ed Sheeran. And quote, "I don't take sides, fuck celebrities who have the power to change things and choose not to." And so then with that, you've had some threatening to not attend any of Ed shows or any concerts at the venues that refuse to host Maccamore. And with the people who are upset with Ed, you have them saying things like, "It's understandable when people of modest means, who depend on their next paycheck to sustain themselves and their families, are forced to accept censorship to avoid being fired." But then adding, "There's no excuse for unfathomably wealthy people like Ed Sheeran, saying it's pure cowardice." And for his part, Robert Crafts now issued a statement responding to Maccamore's claim saying that, "This decision is not about diminishing the suffering of innocent Palestinians or denying anyone the right to advocate on their behalf, but that advocacy should not come at the expense of the Jewish community or obscure the responsibility of Hamas." But that has not stopped the backlash and even calls for patriots boycotts. And then also with this, you had plenty of people saying it feels insane that Maccamore he's getting de-platformed. He's getting censored. He's getting suppressed when he consider other artists that are out there right now and what they've gotten away with. Right Chris Brown, for example, he's repeatedly been accused of violence against women. He's faced multiple other assault charges. He's pleaded guilty to assaulting Rihanna. But he's not only on a nationwide stadium tour with Usher right now, while performing in Texas this weekend, Jasmine Crockett got on stage to honor him with a congressional record. And it's also as you have people out there like Kanye West, I almost forgot. Who released a Hill Hitler song's gone on too many anti-Semitic tirades to really even count. And he sold out stadium shows in LA earlier this year and has more US and international concert scheduled. And so then with that, you've got people saying it's fucking absurd that Kanye, who's currently doing a concert tour, which has included multiple dates at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa that has banned Maccamore for saying end the genocide in Free Palestine. And people adding Chris Brown with multiple assault charges against him is allowed, welcomed and cheered on every stage, while Maccamore saying Free Palestine made the venue clutch their pearls. And so then with all this, you don't always wait to see what happens from here. I really would love to know your thoughts, opinions, reactions and where you think things are going to go from here. And those comments down below, or do you think it makes others and more celebrity speak out or does it end up having a freezing effect? Do you think people are going to start selling tickets or even call for boycotts since it seems like no matter what is happening in the world, the only thing that actually moves things is money, whether it be the injection of it into something or the pulling back of it. As far as my opinion, like, I'll say the very least, I'm disappointed in Ed Sheeran. Or apparently saying, I don't take sides. I feel like an insane thing to say when what we're talking about here and again, this is not just me, a random internet guy saying this, what experts and scholars who cover genocide have been calling a genocide in Gaza, the actions of a war criminal like Netanyahu, especially as we see that the conflating of just criticisms of Netanyahu in the Israeli government's actions to actual anti-Semitism, it gives cover to the actual anti-Semites that we do see out there. And so we end up seeing it involving a lot of the same people who call Miss Rachel in anti-Semite because she says she doesn't want kids murdered. And actually speaking of her, Miss Rachel has spoken out about this now too, saying imagine looking back 20 years from now at yourself kicking someone off a tour because they spoke out during a genocide that's killed 20,000 kids. And it also feels like if it was actually about combating anti-Semitism, they wouldn't be welcoming Kanye with the red carpet treatment at so many of these stadiums across the country. But also, the craft was involved in this should not be surprising to anyone. This is not a secret. I think a lot of people just might not be aware of it. There are deep ties. But he and Netanyahu, they've had a long, long relationship. Also at the craft group, which controls Gillette Stadium and Block Macklemore from performing there, they've donated millions of dollars to APEC Super PAC United Democracy project. They're actually one of the group's largest corporate donors. And again, with all this, I'd love to know your thoughts in those comments. And from here, we're going to have to see how this plays out. And then there's even more that we've got to dive into in just a minute, but really quick two things. One, thank you so much to everyone that came out in San Francisco, Phoenix, and Denver this weekend. It looked tired today because I did three live shows this weekend. I came in on a red eye to shoot this show. Oh my god. What a blast. So worth it. We're in or near or just want to go to Atlanta, Chicago, or St. Paul, Minnesota. You can go to crashingouttour.com to grab your tickets now, though I think Chicago might actually be sold out. I'd love you to come out. It's genuinely such a good idea that we've done this. I mean, we have five more shows left. So yeah, crashingouttour.com. I got a link in the description and in the top comment. And then two, I'll be right back after a quick word from today's sponsor. Because there are people who have complained about the same phone bill every single month for years. But then also paid it again like, well, I guess this is just my life now. But today's sponsor, Mint Mobile, is a pretty good reminder that your relationship with your wireless carrier is not legally binding. Your summer promo gives new customers 3, 6, or 12 months of premium wireless for 15 bucks a month. That is any plan, even unlimited. And switching Z's, you can bring your unlock phone, keep your number, and activate online with eSIM in minutes. I know StoreViz and no waiting around, which is a huge plus for me. And if your immediate question is, okay, but what's the coverage? Mint operates in the nation's largest 5G network reaching 98% of Americans with 4G LTE reaching 99%. And choose between 6, 17, 23 gigabytes or unlimited, so you can pick a plan based on how you actually use your phone. It's also include unlimited talk and text, hot spot access plus free calling to Mexico, Canada and the UK. Plus every plan comes with a 7-date unconditional money back guarantee. So stop overpaying for wireless, just because that's how it's always been. Switch to Mint and get 3, 6, or 12 months of premium wireless for 15 bucks a month. Just scan that QR code or go to MintMobile.com/defranko. But then, Devon, right back into the news, we've got to talk about what is either a new form of corruption in the Trump administration and/or snake oil sale has been taking advantage of deaths for people. I shouldn't say it's new so much as like we're getting a new look at it, because you've got this new 60-minute segment that's gone viral on pardon brokers or people who offer to use their connections to Trump's inner circle to advocate for a pardon on your behalf. But they're not doing this at like the goodness of their heart, right? This isn't like an innocent project sort of thing. They're doing this for a fee somewhere between the realm of $300,000 to $3 million. And we have 60 minutes noting, hey, this is not expressly illegal. It is sketchy enough that they were poorly couldn't get any of these brokers to sit down with them. What they did is they sent in Amon Kavino, right? He's a fella who was convicted of illegal wildlife trafficking a decade ago and served 23 months in prison. And when he applied for a pardon, the normal way right through the Department of Justice, he got shot down. So 60 minutes asked him to reach out to those brokers and let them follow along. And so he did, right? He emailed about a dozen pardon brokers and got responses back almost instantly. Yes, we'll help you. Yes, we're the ones you're looking for. Yes, please, with too many exclamation points. Or within seven minutes, he heard back from Jack Berkman and Jacob Wall, who you might have heard of, because there are a couple of Trump loyalists with a long resume, a political stunts, and now they're in this pardons game. And you've got them claiming that they've gotten the owner of a nursing home chain convicted tax fraud, a pardon for the low, low price of nearly a million dollars. But main thing, 60 minutes sent in a hidden camera to watch the exchange between Amon and Berkman and Wall. And well, I can't show you the footage here, though, I'll link to it so you can watch it after today's show. Essentially, what you have is these men promising Amon that his pardon wouldn't be that difficult to obtain. That all I had to do was, quote, "put pressure on the president from all directions to force his hand to daddy." We literally want to put the pen in his hand and get him to sign it because he's tired of hearing about it. And they quoted him in $300,000 to do it. And when he asked them, okay, well, why is it going to cost them much? They told him that they'd have to go to Mar-a-Lago, attend events that Trump sat by tickets to fundraisers and partner with influencers who have Trump's ear. Not to mention, quote, "This is so unsettling, but it's not surprising mobilizing members of Congress." But also, even if he was able to cough up that money, there's no guarantee that the system would even work. And you actually saw that with rapper Busy Badass, who also worked with Berkman and Wall. They get a pardon for a conviction on a gun charge. Her Busy said that he paid these guys $600,000 and they promised to recruit people like Laura Loomer, Erica Kirk, Mike Johnson, and Natalie Hart to advocate for his pardon. Except that pardon ever happened and all of those people, they reportedly said they didn't know anything about the situation and where it involved. And so you've actually got Busy suing for his money back except Berkman and Wall, they're refusing despite promising upfront that they return half of it if they weren't able to get the pardon. But again, and this is important to mention, this is not necessarily a new thing. And I mean, then, a few ways. The president, they've had the power to pardon criminals all the way back to George Washington, right? And typically, you got the department of justice, screening applicants, and they only recommend pardons for those that express genuine remorse for their actions. Though, there are also exceptions where that has them in the case like with Ford pardoning Nixon, Biden pardoning his son, and Anthony Fauci, but under Trump, you've had the whole system changing. He's taken to pardon his political allies and supporters like the January 6th rioters as well as just a string of finance bros who claim they were wrongfully prosecuted. But the big difference is that the vast majority of Donald Trump's pardons aren't going through the DOJ at all. In fact, according to 60 minutes, as many as 70% of pardons in Trump's second term have gone around the usual process. And it actually jumps to more than 90% if you count the January 6th rioters. And all of the time, those pardons that, you know, they circumvented the system, they just happened to come after a major donation. Or you've got people like Trevor Milton. He was sent to prison for fraud for conning investors. But after he and his wife donated $2 million to support Trump's re-election, boom, pardon. There was then also the CEO of Binance who got a pardon after his company boosted a Trump family crypto venture. Or you've got things like the healthcare executive that was convicted of tax crimes. He's got a pardon after his mom paid $1 million to attend to Mar-a-Lawgo fundraiser. And this new system is horrifying, anyone that's paying attention as well as experts, including people like Mark Osler, a professor of law at the University of St. Thomas, Minnesota, who spent 15 years helping lower income felons apply for pardons. But now, he says that those people, they just don't have a prayer. Saying people think, "Well, if I can get to this person who can find the president of Mar-a-Lawgo, if I can pay $1 million to this friend of a White House council, then I'll have a shot." He's saying, "That is not a system. That's something different entirely. It's anarchy." And there's definitely a lot of money flowing around and that makes a petri dish for corruption. When he had 60 minutes asking Ed Martin at Trump a point to you who ran the pardon of until very recently, he outright rejected the idea that the administration was engaging in any sort of tit for tat quid pro quo thing, saying he's never actually seen or even heard of brokers advocating for parties from the president. And so instead of what you have him saying and doing, is pointing his finger at these people, these so-called brokers, and saying that they are snake oil salesmen, they're swamp salesmen. But that's as you have Berkman and Wall saying, this is just the way things are done now. And actually after 60 minutes revealed their hidden camera investigation, both of these men decided to sit down for an interview saying there's nothing corrupt about it, there's nothing improper about it. And when they were asked about the amount of money that were charging for their services, they said, we don't work for free any more than you do, right? You're well paid for what you do, we're well paid for what I do. Navigating Washington, as you well know, is not an easy thing, saying the average person, the average rich person, they need help doing that. And you also have them claiming that this type of brokerage relationship it's been happening for centuries, saying that there's always been people paid to advocate for pardons like this. And while you'd Osler, right, the professor from Minnesota saying that is true, only up to a point, right? Noting well, there have always been lawyers that are prepared to help with the petition for clemency. It often looks very different and it usually comes with a much lower price tag. And with all this saying, it's actually on the Trump administration for allowing it to get to this point, saying you can't blame people who want to get out of prison for doing what they're told works, but saying I can blame the people who are making that system, right? And then as far as the White House, they released a statement saying a Trump quote, "Her forms is constitutional duties in an ethically sound manner and to suggest otherwise is either ill-informed or malicious and adding that anyone who's spending money to lobby for pardons is foolishly wasting it because that's money they could put into Trump coin. That's money that could be invested in Trump family ventures. Don't give your money to the snake oil salesman, give it to the corrupt politicians and his family. Don't be stupid, stupid, crimes legal now apparently." Though the asserted degree it always has been as long as you have enough zeros. And then from that, let's create some more news you need to know. We're starting with the news that it looks like fentanyl-laced oxy is what killed Hayden Panatier last month at just 36 years old. And I've got officials looking for the guy who sold it to her to get to the bottom of it all. And with this, you've got TMZ talking to sources connected to the case and they said that she had met with her longtime drug dealer in LA, not long before she got on a flight to South Carolina the day before she died. And this is something that people have been wondering about because Hayden, she'd been open about her drug use in the past. Also you had her ex-boyfriend who's a pretty controversial character in all this saying that she had boarded that flight with a bag of medication. Now he's got new reports shedding more light on it saying that her dealer had actually given her several quote, black market prescription drugs, some of which she took on that flight. Specifically on the day that she died apparently, she took oxy codone, which multiple law enforcement sources are now saying they believe was laced with fentanyl. And with that, you have officials reportedly looking further into the alleged relationship, trying to trace the pill back to the guy. Though even once they do that, we're still gonna have to see what the toxicology reports says about it all. In very different news after months of complete chaos, arrests, lawsuits flee in the country, reckless Ben, he just took one of the bricks and mini-fig stores and rebranded it as reckless bricks and gave it a grand reopening as one of their direct competitors. So with this going down this week, there's a red carpet rollout, a store full of customers in a tarp covering the old bricks and mini-fig sign. The Benz and he's been tossing the idea around as a way for franchise owners to break away from the reputation that he's pushed about bricks and mini-fig. I put the idea out there. I was like, hey, what if anyone like any of these franchises want to rebrand, you can like put reckless bricks on your store, you know? It's basically showing that you don't steal from old people and you can just pay me zero percent, you know? You just do it for free. I'll advertise you guys for free. And apparently, an owner in Tucson, Arizona, they were down. So after a few business logistics, deal was done. With Ben also claiming that the store that he worked with was a few weeks away from getting shut down before the rebrand, though the store owner hasn't verified if that's true or not. But whatever the case is, you have been calling it the first domino saying. Do you really, do these be able to pay rent this year or this month? - Yeah. - Oh, just to do your loans, definitely. - Oh, nice, he's not gonna have to close down the store. - And so one, we'll have to see how all of that plays out with it also too. You have some saying this is a super risky move because he is still in the middle of his legal battle with bricks and mini-fig. Right, with us, I imagine it wasn't too long before the news got back to them. Some franchise owners literally just not believing it. Asking if it was real or just a publicity stunt. Others also wondering if this meant their mediation with him had gone bad. And then with all this, their corporate team reportedly said in their Slack channel that they'd be quote, taking swift, decisive, and appropriate action though we're not sure what that looks like yet. And that's as they also apologize for any blowback that the whole situation may cause other franchise owners with a negative attention that it could bring back to the brand. But for now, at least on one of the fronts, they have some court dealing scheduled with Ben before the end of the month. So we'll see what happens from there. And then you've got the news that high schoolers are apparently being threatened, arrested, and chased in the streets by Kat and the Hat. Because it's stunt, which actually reminds me a lot of the clowns talking incidents from a few years ago. It appears to have begun as a Snapchat meme in Ireland and the UK. But there you at high schoolers who were generating these creepy AI photos of the Mike Myers' live-action version of Kat and the Hat sitting outside of their schools. The one, it soon spread to the US. And two, it's now become more than memes and turned into full-on threats. You've got kids being sent photos of it outside of their homes. And in some cases, reportedly, the photos do not appear to be AI-generated. And then in other videos, it includes messages directly naming targets. And in fact, at least 10 teens in the states have been arrested already. All while you've got cops boosting their presence in schools with them stressing that even if these are meant to be jokes, in actuality, it's harassment at least. It's gotten so ridiculous. In British Columbia, one girl was reportedly chased by someone in an actual Kat and the Hat costume. And you've got that person still on the loose with cops getting surveillance footage to try and catch that person. But that my friend, beautiful bastards, is the end of your Monday daily dive into the news. Remember one, you can take this thing from remote to IRL. If you go by, it's a crashing on tour.com. No two, no matter what you do. I'll see you right back here for another daily dive tomorrow.