The Candace Owens Situation Just Got Worse...
PDS Published 12/03/2025
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Candace Owens just dropped what she called another “explosive revelation” - this time accusing leadership at Turning Point USA of working with France and betraying Charlie Kirk to his death.
Right, we’ve talked a bit about Candace recently - with her “investigation” into Brigitte Macron, the wife of the French president, as well as her claims last week that the French government planned to assassinate her.
And with that last one, also doing mental gymnastics to pin the blame for Charlie Kirk’s assassination on France.
Which continues into yesterday’s video except this time, she’s also dragging the leadership of Turning Point USA into the mix.
Right, Candace claims that what really blew this open was some water cooler talk at TPUSA - saying she heard that nearly immediately after Charlie’s death, TPUSA’s COO Justin Streiff made a call to a prospective donor.
With Candace saying that her sources told her that this donor was planning on offering ridiculous amounts of money to the organization,
[“It turns out that these ladies told me that this donor had actually a pretty big piece of bait on the hook for Turning Point USA.” 28:18-28:30,]
[“We’re not talking like oh, a check that’s going to be reeled in for 5 million dollars or 10 million dollars or 50 million dollars or like the 90 million dollars that Turning Point USA raised in the first couple of weeks following Charlie’s assasination. We’re talking billionaire levels of money, potentially billions of dollars. And this was a very big secret.” 28:45-29:10]
It’s also worth noting that she harped on this being so secret that not even people working in the donations department of TPUSA would know about it.
Anyway, Candace went on to say that she learned this top-secret donor was French-American named Pierre and then immediately jumped to it being Pierre Dupont.
And that last name Dupont is one Candace has become pretty fixated on recently.
In fact, she goes into this deep dive about the name’s connection to Wilmington, Delaware - saying that she’s gotten a bunch of tips from residents who claim that family owns everything from hospitals to theaters out there. [B Roll 12:02-12:32]
She also says that Brigitte Macron’s lawyers are headquartered there, that there are federal agencies there.
And then says she also recently realized that the Duponts founded the law firm that is “filing paperwork” for her, though she doesn’t really elaborate or explain further on what paperwork they are filing for her, in what capacity, or anything like that.
So she is essentially just red-string connecting everyone even tangentially involved in this situation to a city of like 70,000 people.
But still, learning that a TPUSA exec allegedly called a potential donor named Pierre, was a big realization for Candace.
“And these ladies messaged me and said, oh, you figured it out! It’s Pierre Dupont?!?!?!” (30:49-30:59)
“This took my breath away. I was, I will be honest, I cried really hard yesterday. Thinking how could i have forgotten this donor was French?” (31:06-31:19)
“I would like a clean answer as to whether or not it is Mr. Pierre Dupont. Because this would be a devastatingly dark story. And my sources are very sure that this was on the line that this was life-changing money, and they are very sure this individual got a phone call after the assassination, and I think we deserve to know. This shouldn’t be a secret, charity shouldn’t be a secret? (31:50-31:29)
And that’s a running theme for Candace recently - espousing connections that don’t seem to hold up to scrutiny in the name of “finding the truth about Charlie’s death.”
Right, really painting herself as the hero of this story - saying,
[“I’m going to miss Charlie, really am going to miss Charlie. And I think when Charlie was assassinated, there’s something about it I knew this story was going to be dark. Instantly, I knew that Charlie was betrayed. They laughed at me, ‘Oh you had a dream, Charlie told he was -’ Yeah, Charlie told me that he was betrayed. And I think part of the mourning, the grief I was experiencing was due, in large part, to my understanding that this was going to be missional for me.” 37:58-38:31]
[“And I kind of knew deep down that the whole world was going to be against me. Of I guess, the whole dark apparatus was going to be against me.” 38:35-38:43]
Now, of course, her loyal listeners are buying this story, fully interested in what she is putting out there, believing, yes, she is the hero.
But plenty of people essentially think she is fully removed from reality.
Because leading up to her video yesterday, she wrote that:
“I received information last night that put the final pieces together for me. I now can say with full confidence that I believe Charlie Kirk was betrayed by the leadership of Turning Point USA and some of the very people who eulogized him on stage. Yes I will be naming names and providing evidence for my claims. And I am making a personal plea to every well-meaning person who donated to this Godforsaken organization to request a refund. You were lied to. And leadership knew.”[]
And so many think that not only did this video not accomplish that, right, she did not really provide evidence or change her narrative all that much,
But they also think it is offensive to Charlie’s legacy to tell people they should get refunds for their TPUSA donations.
Right, that organization was his, and she claims to be doing this all for Charlie, but the end goal would be his life’s work suffering.
With people saying things like,
“If you think for a second that Candace ever cared about Charlie or Erika, especially now, your brain might be buffering indefinitely. This is beyond demonic. Calling on a public audience of millions to destroy what Charlie spent years building is sabotage.” []
And,
“I pointed out several months ago that one of Candace’s key goals, aside from profiting from his death, was to destroy Charlie Kirk’s legacy and organization because she resents how he distanced himself from her… I hope they sue her.” []
And that was echoed around a lot - with people calling for TPUSA to break out the libel lawyers and, quote, “own Candace Owens.” []
But what we’ve also seen is this continue to stoke the fires of civil war on the right.
With one of the most vocal critics of Candace’s latest video being right-wing commentator Tim Pool - who posted on X saying,
“In the sociopath influencer world there is no amount of money that will never be worth it. That's Candace Owens world. Publishing texts, out of context posts, and attempting to eviscerate Charlie's Legacy seems to be worth every penny to Candace” []
And that idea that she’s doing this for the money isn’t entirely insane.
I mean, just yesterday, Fortune published an article talking about Candace’s multi-million dollar media empire.
And it noted that because right-wing podcasters get such high engagement, right-wing brands are willing to shell out a lot of money for ad space.
In fact, the outlet estimated Candace could make anywhere from $50,000 to $175,000 for a single sponsorship read.
With the piece adding:
“For Owens, this creates a direct financial incentive: The more provocative the content, the higher the audience engagement, and the higher the ad rates…Put simply: Controversy drives views, views drive sponsors, and sponsors fund her entire operation.”
But with the defamation lawsuit from the Macrons filed against her, the article points out some serious risk to Candace on the horizon.
Right, she’s promised to fight it all the way but that’s undoubtedly going to cost a pretty penny.
Not to mention that the Macrons are arguing that Candace’s entire platform is essentially built on the spreading of misinformation - which could do serious damage to whatever credibility she has left. []
With the firm representing them saying in a statement,
“Despite the irrefutable evidence that was provided to her on multiple occasions, she not only persisted but doubled down on her attacks. To make matters worse, many others have republished her lies, thereby increasing their global audience and the emotional and reputational harm they have caused. It is clear that for Ms. Owens truth is irrelevant.” []
But I would love to know your thoughts about all this.
Candace’s video, her claims, the responses - any of it.
Let me know in those comments down below.
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Because yesterday, they posted a video montage of ICE and federal agents arresting people, using Sabrina’s song “Juno” in the background.
Specifically repeating the lyric “have you ever tried this one?” as each new arrest was made.
And Sabrina was not happy that her song was used here, so she responded by writing:
“this video is evil and disgusting. Do not ever involve me or my music to benefit your inhumane agenda.”[]
And that response, for what it is worth, is on the fast-track to the Ratio Hall of Fame, with Sabrina getting over 1.3 million likes and 180,000 reposts, compared to the White House only getting 64,000 likes.
Tons of people also applauding her for standing up against the administration here. [][][]
But the White House responded by again using Sabrina’s lyrics against her, with spokesperson Abigail Jackson saying:
"Here's a Short n' Sweet message for Sabrina Carpenter: we won't apologize for deporting dangerous criminal illegal murderers, rapists, and pedophiles from our country. Anyone who would defend these sick monsters must be stupid, or is it slow?"[]
And here, it is worth noting this whole outrage cycle was likely the point of the White House’s post in the first place.
Right, she is far from the first person to say they do not want the Trump administration using their work or likeness in their rage-bait social posts.
Right, just this week you had the Franklin publishers saying they wanted nothing to do with Pete Hegseth’s post using the cartoon to promote "targeting narco-terrorists.”
And in the past, Pokemon said its theme song was used without permission in an ICE video, Theo Von called out DHS after they used a clip of him in a deportation video, and just last month Olivia Rodrigo issued a statement similar to Sabrina’s when DHS used “All American Bitch.”
And in the cases of Sabrina and Olivia, it is publicly known that their politics are not in-line with the Trump administration’s.
Right, so it seems like officials are intentionally trying to poke the bear when they use the music of stars who dislike them.
But not all artists who fit into that bucket have spoken out, right.
Even though Taylor Swift has spoken against Trump and endorsed Kamala Harris, the White House still used her song “The Fate of Ophelia” for a video last month.
And Taylor notably did not say anything, she did not tell them to not use the song, nothing.
But when Variety asked the White House why they would use her music, a spokesperson responded:[]
“We made this video because we knew fake news media brands like Variety would breathlessly amplify them. Congrats, you got played.”
Right, so you have some arguing that the White House is just doing this on purpose, they are trying to troll these major artists or their fans into creating backlash and outrage that ultimately amplifies their message.
So while some have called out people like Taylor Swift for not saying anything, thinking she is complicit, others think she is just trying not to give the situation any oxygen or attention because that is what Trump wants, and she does not want to fall into his trap. []
But I would love to know your thoughts here, on the Sabrina Carpenter of it all, or on this overall trend of the White House using music and other creative works to intentionally piss off the artists behind them.
Right, on them really leaning into rage bait for messaging, and how you think artists should respond.
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Millions of Americans are at risk of losing SNAP benefits — yet again.
Yesterday, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins announced that her Department would start withholding billions of dollars in federal funds for states to administer their SNAP programs if they don’t turn over sensitive data about recipients.
Right, back in May, Rollins ordered all states to hand over information on their SNAP enrollees — including Social Security numbers, birthdays, and home addresses — so the administration could verify the eligibility of the over 42 million Americans who receive food stamps.
With the Trump administration’s claim there being that they needed to root out fraud and waste in the system.
But 22 Democratic-led states and D.C. filed a lawsuit to block the demand, arguing that they already verify SNAP beneficiaries and that they never share large chunks of sensitive recipient data with the federal government.
Right, when they do share data, it is small, randomized samples, with one expert saying that no agency has ever required states to share this amount of data with the federal government.[]
And, back in September, a federal judge appeared to agree, issuing a preliminary injunction blocking the USDA from collecting data from the states that sued and preventing the agency from cutting funds to punish them.
With the judge arguing that the states were likely to win their claims that federal laws — including the one governing SNAP — prohibited them from sharing the information, and that cutting funds could cause irreparable harm to the states and their residents.[][]
But 29 other states that were not part of the lawsuit ended up complying with Rollins’ order, and now, she is trying to get the rest to follow suit, despite the ongoing lawsuit.
Right, during a cabinet meeting yesterday, Rollins accused Democrats of not doing enough to address “rampant fraud” in SNAP, and adding:
“As of next week, we have begun and will begin to stop moving federal funds into those states, until they comply, and they tell us and allow us to partner with them to root out this fraud and to protect the American taxpayer.”
Though, notably, you had the department later issuing a statement clarifying that Democratic states have been sent another request for data, and if they fail to comply, they’ll get a warning informing them that their administrative funds will be pulled.
With the agency also baselessly claiming that non-complaint states are choosing to “protect illegals, criminals, and bad actors over the American taxpayer.”
Okay, so a few things to unpack here.
First of all, despite Rollins and the administration’s repeated claims that SNAP is riddled with fraud, experts say that it is minimal, and the bigger problems are organized crime efforts to fabricate or steal benefit cards — not wrongdoing by enrollees.
With them arguing that the Trump administration has largely failed to provide evidence for its claims of systemic fraud.
Additionally, experts say there is no evidence of systemic SNAP fraud from illegal immigrants.
Right, only select groups of carefully vetted legal immigrants can collect the benefits, and studies have shown that 96% of recipients are American citizens.
But even beyond all that, experts widely agree that Rollin’s threat to pull funding from states that don’t comply with her order is illegal.
Right, for one, a federal court has literally blocked her from forcing the states to hand over the data OR from punishing them by withholding funding.
Now, notably, the USDA is specifically withholding funds for administering SNAP, not money that goes to recipients, so it seems like they might try to use that fact to claim they’re not violating the court order.
But legal scholars say it doesn’t matter, because the federal government doesn’t have the authority to withhold SNAP benefits OR administrative funding.
But hey, since when has the Trump administration cared about what’s legal or obeyed court orders?
And if they go ahead with these cuts, it would be absolutely massive.
Right, the states that would be impacted are home to more than 20 million beneficiaries who could be affected, and those states could stand to lose millions of dollars.
Big states like New York and California receive enormous amounts of money — $475 million and California received $1.2 billion, respectively.
And experts say that the loss in administrative funding could jeopardize states’ ability to implement SNAP, which, in turn, could force them to push enrollees out of the program.
So this is a situation where people could start losing benefits.
I mean, you literally had the Washington State Attorney General saying that any cuts to the $129.5 million it receives would be “catastrophic for the state and the residents who rely on SNAP for food.”
So this is massively consequential, but unfortunately, it’s just par for the course.
Right, since taking office, the Trump administration has been fighting tooth and nail to deny people SNAP benefits.
Millions are already set to lose benefits over the next few years, thanks to the new work requirements and eligibility rules Republicans enacted in the BBB, which alone amount to the deepest cuts to the program in history.
Then, of course, there was the whole shutdown battle, with the Trump administration pausing SNAP benefits for the first time in U.S. history during the 43-day government shutdown.
And Rollins has been scheming other ways to deny even MORE people access.
Among other things, her department recently submitted a draft of a regulation that would narrow an eligibility metric used by more than 40 states — a move that could result in nearly 6 million people losing SNAP benefits.
So, you know, just more evidence that the Trump administration wants people to fucking starve.
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The suspect in the shooting of two National Guard members in Washington D.C. has pleaded not guilty.
His name is Rahmanullah Lakanwal (Ramen-New-Luh Lack-in-wall).
And he’s accused of fatally shooting Specialist Sarah Beckstrom and critically injuring Staff Sergeant Andrew Wolfe.
Both of whom were from West Virginia and deployed to D.C. under Trump’s crackdown there.
And as far as Lack-in-wall?
He is an Afghan national who entered the country in 2021 after years of working with a CIA-backed counterterrorism unit in his home country.
He resided with his wife and five children in Washington state
And the Trump administration formally granted him asylum in April.
But now he’s specifically been charged with first-degree murder, assault with intent to kill while armed, and two firearms offenses. []
And since he was also injured during the shooting, you had him making a virtual appearance in D.C. Superior Court from his hospital bed yesterday.
With a defense attorney pleading not guilty on his behalf to all charges filed so far.
And I say “so far” because prosecutors have said they will file additional charges as the case advances.
And Attorney General Pam Bondi has said she’s considering the death penalty.
But either way, in the meantime, Superior Court Magistrate Judge Renee Raymond granted prosecutors’ request to detain the suspect without bond pending a trial, arguing that the government's case against him was “exceedingly strong” – adding:
“It is fairly clear that he came across the country — 3,000 miles — armed, with a specific purpose in mind.” []
“...there’s video footage of him waiting in broad daylight while armed, and then upon seeing a contingent of law enforcement officers including the slain and injured national guard persons, he went in their direction, and he started shooting at them.” []
And with that, charging documents filed yesterday also say that Beckstrom and Wolfe had been speaking with a supervisor when gunfire broke out and they both fell to the ground.
With the supervisor claiming he saw Lack-in-wall shooting a gun and screaming “Allahu Akbar.”
And after that, he said, a gunfight broke out during which Lack-in-wall was shot.
With a witness at the scene jumping on his back while he attempted to reload his gun.
And the two of them along with multiple Secret Service Officers who responded to the scene assisted in apprehending the suspect. []
But for now, while we wait to see how the case plays out, we’re continuing to see the fallout – both in terms of what’s happening in DC and with immigration policy nationwide.
Right, starting with DC, a federal judge ruled last month that the National Guard deployment likely violates federal law – but she delayed the order to end the deployment for 21 days to let the Trump administration appeal.
And so that deadline is coming up on December 11th, but the Trump administration filed an emergency appeal against it after the shooting.
Also ordering an additional 500 more National Guard troops to the city – which would bring the total to roughly 2,700.
And that’s as these troops have also started patrolling DC with local law enforcement.
WIth the Pentagon announcing this week that all troops will now be armed with live weapons as well – whereas when this first started they were unarmed and weren’t even allowed to have weapons in their vehicles. []
And ultimately there’s concern that just having more troops doing tasks they’re not necessarily trained to do is just gonna create greater risk.
With former senior National Guard commander who has been critical of the deployments in US cities telling the Wall Street Journal:
“The military is not and should not be trained for law enforcement.”
“The solution is to move military forces out of the cities, which they should not be in to begin with, and to enhance law-enforcement capabilities to help local communities achieve increased safety.” []
But then, zooming out, another big aspect of all this is how it’s been used to justify new restrictions on immigration.
Right, within hours of the shooting, the administration suspended the processing of all immigration requests for Afghan nationals specifically.
Then taking it further by halting all asylum decisions and announcing the start of a sweeping review of green card holders in what the administration has described as “countries of concern.”
With that then leading to this week a pause on all immigration applications from those nineteen countries.
All of which are countries whose nationals not already in the US have been fully or partially restricted from entering the country thanks to Trump’s so-called travel ban.
And so what’s different here is that this is affecting people who are already here.
And we’ve seen reports of key interviews and even citizenship ceremonies being cancelled.
And beyond that,you’ve had Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem saying it’s not enough– writing on social media this week that she is recommending:
…“a full travel ban on every damn country that's been flooding our nation with killers, leeches, and entitlement junkies.”
And so it's not clear exactly what countries that will include but this is coming only days after you had Trump himself saying he intended to “permanently pause migration from all third world countries.”
And while an immigration crackdown has obviously been underway from the very beginning, what does stand out here is how much he’s now targeting legal immigration pathways.
And ultimately, we’re not even a year in, so there’s a lot that could still happen.
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Donald Trump’s physical health and mental sanity are back on the table after this disastrous cabinet meeting.
Now concerns about his health have been growing for a while, because at 79 years old, he is the most shriveled-up man ever to be elected president, and by the time he leaves office, he’ll be 82.
Not to mention the bruising on his hand, the swollen ankles, the MRI exam during a half-year physical, and as we’re gonna get to, his propensity to fall asleep in public. [Image]
So the other week, The New York Times published this report where they analyzed Trump’s public schedule throughout his second term so far to see how he’s been doing.
And while they noted that people have regular access to him and he takes questions from the press far more often than Biden did, they conclude that he’s slowed down noticably from his own first term. [Quote, find “far more often”]
With his total official appearances decreasing by 39% this year compared to 2017, going from almost 1,700 to just a thousand. [Quote same link, find “39”]
And whereas in 2017, his scheduled events started on average at 10:31 a.m., now they start at 12:08 p.m., even though they end around the same time they did before, shortly after 5 p.m. [Quote same link, find “12:08”]
So The Times framed those findings as signs of the president’s growing fatigue as he succumbs to the reality of aging.
And in response, Trump called the woman who reported that story “ugly, both inside and out.” [Post]
With the White House this week giving its own Oval Office logs to The New York Post, purporting to show that Trump worked up to 12 hours a day throughout 10 weekdays last month. [Headline]
But even if that’s accurate, skeptics counter that it’s a stretch to call it “working” when he’s dozing off during meetings or posting non-stop on Truth Social.
Right, just on Monday, for example, he posted 150 times between 7:00 p.m. and midnight, averaging about a post every two minutes for five hours straight. [Headline]
Then, after presumably waking up at 05:48 the next morning, his first post of the new day was: “TRUTH SOCIAL IS THE BEST! There is nothing even close!!!” [Post]
[Clip, 01:04 - 01:11] Caption: [Jimmy Kimmel:] “Do you know how long you have to be on the toilet to post that much? I mean what is he eating?”
So then yesterday, with the Times report apparently still on his mind, Trump opened up a cabinet meeting by denigrating Joe Biden and defending his own mental acuity. [Lead B roll into clip]
[Clip, 20:09 - 20:18; Clip, 21:22 - 21:25] Caption: “I’ll let you know when there’s something wrong. There will be someday. That’s gonna happen to all of us, but right now I think I’m sharper than I was twenty-five years ago, but who the hell knows. … I’m a smart person, not a stupid person.”
But then, I shit you not, within minutes of closing his mouth to let others speak, he closed his eyes too.
Right, as one person after another — Scott Turner, Brooke Rollins, Linda McMahon [Mick-man], Marco Rubio, RFK Jr. and others — glazed him for being God’s gift to the Earth, he appeared to nod off over and over again. [B roll, B roll]
With him struggling to keep his eyes open, sometimes shutting them for several seconds at a time, often leaning back and forth in his chair. [B roll, B roll]
At some points he even seems to jerk back awake as he desperately clings to consciousness. [B roll]
So you had people dunking on him online, calling him sleepy Don, joking that he looks like he’s about to enter REM sleep. [B roll, B roll]
[Clip, 04:25 - 04:33] Caption: [Jimmy Kimmel:] “Tell us again how sleepy Joe is, will you? Of course he’s tired. He was up all night posting!”
Now you may remember that less than a month ago, Trump appeared to doze off during another Oval Office event as well. [Image]
So when The Times asked Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt whether he fell asleep again yesterday, she replied that the president was “listening attentively and running the entire” meeting.” [Quote]
But as many have pointed out, much of what he said when he was awake didn’t make any sense.
Like for example, claiming to have lowered drug prices by numbers that are mathematically impossible.
[Clip, 11:11 - 11:19] Caption: “I got them down 400, 500, 600 percent and more, and the fake news won’t write about it.”
My man, if you reduce anything by 100%, it’s zero.
A 600 percent drop in the price of something would put it in the negative; right, that would mean the pharmacy pays you to take its drugs.
He also claimed that the U.S. has already collected trillions of dollars in tariff revenue, which isn’t true.
Right, it’s more like 200 billion, and that’s without factoring in any lost revenue from other sources.
Then he promised to use that money both to pay down the debt and to give American’s dividend checks, which is impossible with the actual amount of money coming in.
And finally, on top of all that he suggested that the tariffs are generating so much revenue that it’s about to replace other taxes.
[Clip, 14:40 - 14:46, 14:53 - 14:57] Caption: “I believe that at some point in the not-too-distant future, you won’t even have income tax to pay. … Whether you get rid of it or just keep it around for fun or have it really low.”
But there was one moment from the cabinet meeting that Leavitt pointed to as proof of Trump’s sharpness, and it came right at the very end when he got a question about Minnesota Governor Tim Walz.
And after ripping into his enemies for a few minutes, he turned his attention toward Somali immigrants, whom he says are ripping off our country and contributing nothing.
[Clip, 02:16:12 - 02:16:24, 02:46 - 02:16:55, 02:17:13 - 02:17:26] Caption: “I don’t want them in our country. I’ll be honest with you. Somebody say, ‘Oh, that’s not politically correct.’ I don’t care. I don’t want them in our country. Their country’s no good for a reason. Their country stinks. … We’re gonna go the wrong way if we keep taking garbage into our country. Ilhan Omar is garbage. She’s garbage. Her friends are garbage. … But when they come from hell, and they complain and do nothing but bitch, we don’t want them in our country. Let them go back to where they came from and fix it.”
So yeah, that’s the portion Leavitt picked out from this two-hour-plus event and told The Times:
“This epic moment put an exclamation point on President Trump’s ninth cabinet meeting of his second term — all of which have been entirely open to the press for the whole world to see.” [Quote]
But to many others, it was just startlingly racist, even for Donald Trump.
With Ilhan Omar herself responding to him calling her out.
And then you had n interviewer asking the Homeland Security spokesperson this question: [Lead B roll into clip]
[Clip, 00:55 - 01:13]
As well as Republican Representative Tom Emmer giving his own answer to that on Fox News: [Lead B roll into clip]
[Clip, 00:04 - 00:12]
And all of this as you had the mayor of Minneapolis, Jacob Frey [Fry], responding to what he called “credible media reports” that as many as 100 federal agents will deploy to the twin cities with a specific focus on Somalis. [Lead B roll into clip]
[Clip, 00:28 - 00:33, 00:55 - 01:12]
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If someone in your life is diabetic pay attention, because the FDA just warned that one of the most popular monitoring devices has led to “hundreds of incidents” and multiple deaths.
They’re called the FreeStyle Libre 3 (and associated models) and are made by Abbott Diabetic Care.
And for those who don’t know, the FreeStyle series of monitors are some of the most popular out there for diabetics and near ubiquitous.
However, Abbott revealed last week that there was a production issue on one of its lines, leading to about 3 million devices incorrectly reporting glucose levels and that the affected units,
“May pose serious health risks, including potential injury or death.”
They’re not joking either, with 700 reports of problems and at least 7 deaths worldwide so far.
(None of the deaths were in the US and only 60 injuries so far).
And if you should know one thing about diabetes, is that knowing your glucose levels is the bedrock of how to even treat it.
Without that information you’re just shooting in the dark.
All of which is why the FDA came out yesterday and told people to check their unit numbers, all of which we’ll link down below.
Because if you or someone who knows has one of these it’s SUPER important that you stop using it and get a new one.
Meaning that this 3 million unit recall affects about 10% of them.
Abbott hasn’t stopped making the devices because the issue isn’t with the design, but instead because a single production line out of several screwed up.
Something that the company claims has been resolved as of writing.
So send this around and let people know it’s free to get a new one, which will also be linked down below.
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Hackers in South Korea accessed 120,000 cameras homes and other private places – stealing sexually exploitative material that they then sold online.
That’s according to the country’s national police agency, which announced that those four have been arrested and charged with violating laws against hacking.
With one being released while three remain in custody on additional charges of creating or selling sexually exploitative material, including some involving children. []
And with that, these cameras they allegedly hacked? They were installed in private residences as well as businesses – including hospitals, saunas, karaoke rooms, a pilates studio and even a gynecologist’s clinic.[][]
With police claiming they were able to get into the devices because many were protected with extremely weak passwords made up of repeating characters or combinations of sequential numbers and letters.[]
And saying they then sold the footage to an overseas website – with just two of them selling hundreds of videos for tens of thousands of dollars between them, allegedly making them responsible for 62% of the videos posted in the past year on that.[][]
Now, with that, police said they’re now moving to block and shut down the site and are working with foreign agencies to try and find out who’s behind it.
They have also arrested three people who are suspected of having bought and viewed material through the site.[]
And they’ve reportedly notified victims at 58 locations and are helping them update passwords and delete content – and they’re also working to identify others who may have been affected. []
And notably, with that, these people are far from the first victims in South Korea.
Illegally filmed videos have been a major issue and there’s been crackdowns on hidden cameras in places like hotels, swimming pools and public bathrooms in the past.
Between 2011 and 2022, police made nearly 50,000 arrests tied to illegally filming sexually explicit material, most of it involving young women.[]
And then, beyond that, with there being more internet-connected cameras, it’s become an issue elsewhere and in other ways.
In the U.S., for example, one camera company Verkada paid nearly $3 million last year to settle a Justice Department lawsuit connected to a 2021 breach that exposed about 150,000 cameras in places like hospitals and schools.
And so ultimately, the moral of the story is if your password is still “password” please, for the love of god, update it.
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with that said, the final thing today is, as we talked about earlier, this I had a birthday this week, unbeknownst to me,
my podcast partner, Alex Perlman and my producer, Ben, they had a few people send in, like, happy birthday videos.
I thought that the most surprising was going to be Governor Wes Moore, of all people wishing me a happy birthday.
they also got someone I, I did not expect. I do want to say we had one come in late fill, and this was a late addition.
We couldn't get him into the edit in time for the editors to put this together. So we just want to. It was a very, very close personal friend of yours
that you've known for a very, very long time. So we just want to go out and throw that to that video right now. Happy birthday to my closest bestie.
So, my God, I can't believe it. Phil, look, it's your birthday. And when
anyone thinks of Phil, I want them to think of me. And, yes, I mean George and Joe's, and
I just want you to know that we are so alike, Phil. We are, like, practically the same person.
The only difference is I'm still going to be 21 this year. I know it's your 29th, 40th.
Birthday. But, you know, do your thing, talk your shit happy birthday, dear Phil.
Happy birthday to you.
Bye. By. Oh, by the way, send Alex a kiss. She sent you this?
You gave money to George Santa. He's going to buy a credit card skimmer, and it's going to be our fault.
I want you to understand something. I've been mode one of your producers. And then he risked his debit card numbers
by paying George Santos $100 on cameo. Phil but that it's where we're going to end things
for now, though, you got more just a click away. you can. And you should definitely check out the full episode of Crashing Out There.
Today's episode just dropped. It's over an hour. Things, per usual. Go off the rails. You can click that. Or I got links in the description for you that you can go check it out.
and or if you missed last night's Philip DeFranco show, you can check that out right here. but hey, no matter what you do, let me end on two things. one.
Thank you to everyone that's been posting their their Spotify wrapped and and YouTube wrapped and just talking about how much the Philip DeFranco show
has been a part of their lives on, on social media. That just it warms my heart. It's so cool to see. two. Thank you for watching.
I love your faces. And I'll see you right back here tomorrow.
