The Lindsay Clancy Trial Is Splitting The Country & Exposing Youtube's Paid AI News Problem
PDS Published 09/03/2026
-
This fake AI news host scandal that almost nobody's talking about. It is even bigger than you think. And it's about to get this Pablo Tory Clippers scandals. Crazy. And it just changed everything.
What's going on with the Lindsay Clancy trial and you've got government housing tenants who just found out that their homes have been quietly turned into surveillance devices.
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 Every day I go online.
I'm just plastered with stuff that makes me go, oh, so everything's just bad and fake. And now the newest thing are YouTube ghost creators.
The Ghost Creator Network
Because you've got a shadowy network of YouTube channels that have been exposed, secretly paying actors to pretend to be political news hosts so they can read AI slop scripts to spread MAGA That's what you just had.
Semaphore revealing in this bombshell new report by author Max Tani, who discovered a creepy network of videos that were strategically gaming the YouTube algorithm to make misleading information and outright lies go super Just millions upon millions of views in these videos.
They basically play the MAGA are they cover hot button political issues with click Beatty titles and content.
Duncan on some of the most well-known leaders in the Democratic Party like AOC, Zora Mamdani, Gavin Newsom, Bernie Sanders and I want to tell you about a project that was supposed to be proof.
Proof that a new mayor could solve the housing crisis. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Engagement is just over years of wearing the ring.
No wedding done. Gavin Newsom has spent years telling you. He is the adult in the room on corruption.
Because of the cohesive ideologies across these channels, you might think naturally, okay, this is maybe a midterms media strategy by some people who are very passionate about
They want to help the Republicans win and while there are for sure coordinated networks like that that are doing that day in, day out, what we're dealing with here here's to be engagement
Or people who really couldn't give a damn about politics but will apparently sell their souls for a paycheck.
So you've got an alarming number of people consuming trash content that they have no idea is being produced for virality in cash, but bad actors trying to capitalize on the growing appetite for online
So with this, the author of this article If you're scrolling all day long, you're going to be confronted by content being made by strangers.
The platforms want you to see stuff like this, so people are desensitized to seeing a new person popping up in their feed talking about something.
Essentially, this allows space for accounts like these ghost creator accounts to go viral.
How the Accounts Were Discovered
And you had a matter that this was first brought to his attention by riddance AI which tracks AI made content at right.
And they told him that they had discovered this network of about a dozen accounts using a new format, real people posing as hosts to read AI generated scripts. so. All of these accounts would follow the same general template.
You got a single host doing a straight to camera monologue, recap, and current events with generic be roll those same three inseparable piano right.
Yet a few different players you've got a guy called Omar who has at least three different accounts. And there's William reports news Julian news reports.
You also had Victoria Foster and there are also a few But those are the big players.
And like Omar, a few of them have more than one the walls will say it looks like some of the other accounts were either scrubbed, deleted, or removed by YouTube since the some of her article was and again.
AI-Generated Scripts and Recycled Content
While the hosts of these videos are human actors, it's pretty fucking obvious the scripts are generated or at least aided by LMS All of these videos,
They follow a very predictable format and use the same ChatGPT expressions over and That's not a rounding error, that's a crater.
That's not a rounding error, that's telling it.
That's them telling you where they think the next 20 years of American money is going to live.
They'll also almost always do intros that follow a few different intro formulas, all of which have classic AI trademarks. And sometimes they're phrasings, even identical.
Picture a highway in California, Picture A woman on the 19 in the South Bronx. Early morning Picture a baby boy on a tiny Greek island called miseries.
Also the regulars start off a story with anecdotes or super basic information about a major person and use the same general language and framing like these ones about AOC.
So just imagine this with me. It's the spring of 2018.
A 28 year old woman is bartending at a taco place in Manhattan, So just imagine this with me. It's June 2018, a primary night in New York.
A 28 year old bartender from the Bronx. Imagine this with me. It's 2016, and a young woman is pulling shots behind a bar in the Bronx.
Tips in the jar. Working a double.
Right now, as you can see, it seems pretty clear these people are reading scripts that they didn't write sometimes about topics they seem to really not know much right.
Often stumbling over words and phrases, struggling to pronounce certain names or just saying things Right now, top Democrats are meeting down over the New York Times
She set the finish line on national television, telling CNN's Jack Tapper, Zoran Modernize you know, good old Jack Tapper and mayor man don't you just hate it when the Democrats meet down?
And then in addition to the general structure, these accounts just recycle the same topics.
Connections Between the Channels
And notably, they weren't initially all right leaning one channel called Feldman's talk show launch is a midas touch style account focused on bashing Trump. apparently progressive content just wasn't a hit.
So after weeks of being dormant, the same man started pushing the same right wing topics on a pro-Trump channel called New York Reports.
Which has actually been taken down from YouTube but also is still up on TikTok, but also the connections between these channels. It runs deeper than just content. right. Many of them also have bios with very similar phrasing.
And most were started in the spring of this year. its ads. Some have found even more evidence linking them together.
Apparently the the bio for example for a William Reports news channel that used to say that he was married to the person behind Victoria Foster's account, and the two regularly posted videos as collaborations.
Also William's link tree randomly linked to Feldman's talk show.
Omar is inexplicably appeared on multiple videos on the Julien News Report channel and some accounts even appear to have swapped personalities. Right.
In one video caption, the host, Julien reports, also referred to himself as Omar. which brings us to the whole paid actors of it, all right.
The Paid Actors
And say I, the company that brought all this to semaphore found very strong evidence that these hosts are paid spokespeople.
And by very strong, I mean, the guy who goes by Omar on YouTube literally advertises his hosting services on Fiverr, bragging about his Australian accent.
But also his name on Fiverr is an Omar. It's Korean.
Made a fact that he openly acknowledged who said before and the host for William reports news channel is actually an actor by the name of Frank George, who has his own YouTube channel with commercials that he's made.
And in a statement to said before, George confirmed that he was being paid to make the video, saying that he went through a broker, Cascades.
Who Is Behind the Network?
So all of that, it brings us to the question of, well, who the hell is behind all this? and well.
It appears that it started with a former University of Chicago student, Caleb Chan, who runs the YouTube channel Cascades.
That's actually its own successful business and a tech channel with more than 360,000 subscribers.
You were chan basically like, hey, I'm good at going viral, so why don't I create channels for other people and help them go viral? is the platform viral locks was bought. into the post earlier this year.
He said that he used AI plus systems heavy emphasis on the AI part to create an average of two new channels per there is work of making dumb shit go viral.
Chan discovered very concerning things about the YouTube algo. things like he said on Twitter that he's learned.
If 26 accounts post the same hashtag within ten minutes, the algorithm thinks it's breaking news and pushes everything to trending. with and then sharing this chilling conclusion.
Manufacturing news is greater than reporting news.
He also didn't appear bothered by YouTube takedowns or spam accounts, even saying at one point that he lost 95% of his channels but didn't care because he understood YouTube so well that it didn't actually matter if you had to start from scratch.
Chan's Statements and Contradictions
But also in a statement of semaphore, Chan painted a totally different picture of the Reclaiming that.
It was an independent digital media publisher with an extensive team, and saying that he created it to produce in-depth commentary, news explainers, and current affairs analysis.
We don't produce content on behalf of political campaigns, PACs, ideological organizations or paid clients, nor do we accept paid political sponsorships.
Also notably here, Chan said that violence is not associated with New York reports, even though that channel follows the exact same format and uses the same phrasing and everything and also despite his claim that the company does not produce content for paid clients.
Some of her found a tweet from last month where he openly said that he was being paid to work for a controversial AI startup called clueless, bragging about how his ghostwriters generated billions of views for the
And last year, he also said that his company had released 2500 organic videos every week for businesses.
Now, that said, it doesn't seem like these political videos or for a client, though it remains unclear before his reporting makes it seem like this is a side hustle that just generates revenue for viral But still.
Chan's clear contradictions appear to just emphasize how shady this whole thing ultimately, it appeared that Chan wouldn't answer more detailed questions, and a few days after some before reached out, the company took down its With all this.
The Bigger Problem: AI Slop and Misinformation
Obviously, misinformation on the internet is not a new concept, and neither is making sensational claims just for the sake of going but assembled for, as Tani pointed out, what is new and frightening about this
Ghostwriter situation is that a parent scale and ease provided by a combination of AI tools, freelance platforms, and cheap digital production.
Because those tools, I mean, it's so easy to just pump out content lightning fast at enormous scale.
Some of these videos are literally getting more engagement than major established news organizations like The Washington Post, The New Yorker, and, yes, semaphore
And while I am all for indie outlets beating out the mainstream, it also matters the quality and accuracy of the Right.
There is a lot of danger in a world where AI slop outperforms traditional there is no quality control for this type of stuff.
The goal is to go viral and reach a lot of people so that the company can make a lot of money.
There is no standards for fact checking, and oftentimes a lot of these videos contained information that was old or garbled or facts that just weren't quite right and it didn't really matter.
Also warning that this kind of growth hacking content, it's only going to become more and more prevalent.
And arguing that Chan's just offers a tiny glimpse of what may be to come as campaigns and superPACs, with access to floods of money and data, professionalize those right.
We've got news to a world where you might see information from a Fox News or a Candace Owens or, you know, one of the talking heads that is at least to some degree held accountable
Or rather, the way I should put it, there is the prospect of that person or organization being held but in this rapidly emerging AI era.
This is a completely different ghost networks where we don't know what the goal or the motive is, can pop in and out of manipulating and misinforming millions of people with very little repercussion.
Dangerous really, regardless of the motive. As long as you get to the same end result, but also very dangerous.
If someone uses this with that intended purpose outside of just making And so really, there's never been a better time to not only have your own kind of
Trusted creators and organizations, but push those two people, you because especially in a world where people are more and more getting their information on short form content, where you're seeing lots of people
You've never seen before, saying things that you may or may not agree is prime for manipulation and exploitation.
And to go an extra step, I think that is also why we are seeing a lot of the guardrails being taken off in the AI and tech I believe that
There are a lot of bad actors out there that know they can get away with even more if there's chaos, If there is a distrust, if everyone feels like they're drowning in misinformation and no one has a life and honestly, I don't even care if it's me.
This is just so important for what is to Right. And then there's actually more. We're going to dive into it in just a minute. But first a quick word from today's sponsor.
-
For those of us still working on something for over a year and you still don't have a website up, I need you to ask yourself this: are you actually closer to launching than you were six months ago?
And that's not a knock at the genuine question, because that is just what happens when the build feels harder than the idea. Squarespace, they make the build stupid simple, right? No website, no problem.
Today it changes for you because Squarespace makes it easy to start selling content, courses, physical or digital products. Whatever you've been dreaming up.
Their Beacon automation tools will literally draft your site, copy, suggest your layout, and design your pages.
You just describe what you want and it builds around. No coding, no guesswork, just results. Your one-time payment subscriptions, both done and done.
Beacon, you know, it can help design and build the business, and Acuity handles the booking.
So by the time that your first client finds you, everything's already ready for them.
Then once you arrive, their built-in analytics and marketing tools keep everything running like clockwork. So you just focus on what you actually care about. Stop the procrastination.
Your free trial's waiting for you at squarespace.com/filler. Scan the QR code. Today is launch day.
When it's ready to go live, just use code FIELD to get 10% off and let them know we sent you.
But then, diving right back into the news. Jurors and the Lindsay Clancy case.
SQUARESPACE
Kickstart your passion project with a free trial today: https://squarespace.syuh.net/phildefranco & enter offer code “Phil” to get 10% off your first purchase!
-
Six Days of Deliberations and a Possible Mistrial
They began their six-day deliberations at a meaning that a mistrial result—that's becoming more and more of a likely possibility.
And now her attorney even wants one of the jurors thrown off the jury. And this, of course, all centering around Clancy being charged with murdering her three children, a five-year-old, three-year-old, and eight-month-old.
The Charges and Clancy’s Mental Health Defense
Her after the murders, attempting to take her own life but surviving, and she's paralyzed from the waist down as a result.
And while Clancy isn't actually denying that she killed her kids, she did plead not guilty by lack of criminal responsibility, or by reason of insanity.
And so trial has been focused on her mental health at the time that the murders were committed, with the lawyers claiming she was suffering from bipolar disorder and postpartum psychosis.
And that allegedly caused her to hear voices telling her to kill the children.
You've had some of the witnesses that the defense has called supporting that, with one psychiatrist saying she was clearly psychotic, that she felt that her body was taken over by an external force, where she was in a dream state and did not have control of her own body.
It was almost like she was a puppet and someone else was pulling the strings.
But then you have the prosecution arguing that while Clancy was clearly suffering, she wasn't actually psychotic and the murders were intentional.
Disagreement Over the Voices She Heard
So with that, you had other psychiatrists doubting the voices that Clancy claims to have heard.
The way she described these is they were not auditory hallucinations. Instead, they were her own thoughts. They were intrusive and unwelcome, but they were not auditory hallucinations.
Questions About Her Psychiatric Care
Also at odds in the case was the care that Clancy received when seeking help for her postpartum mental health.
Because in the four months leading up to the deaths of her kids, she was given 13 psychiatric medications from multiple providers.
So, her defense argues that these prescriptions were disjointed and poorly managed.
And Clancy and her now ex-husband even sued over this.
Also, a key thing with this case is that due to her plea, even if she ends up being found not guilty, she doesn't actually walk out of there a totally free woman.
That would mean she'd be committed to a state mental health facility, likely the one she's already been in.
The Public Is Divided Over the Case
But then with all this, another aspect of the situation is that this case has actually divided the whole country.
If you look online, there are drastically different reactions and camps out there. It's led to some creating conspiracies, others wearing pink outside of the courthouse to express sympathy for Clancy and the illness that she struggled with, using it as an opportunity to shine a light on postpartum psychosis and depression.
Many of them are mothers who say they understand how awful these illnesses are and believe that she deserves better.
That's why you've seen people like this one media professor saying that there's been an empathetic tone online, and saying you're seeing more of an attempt to try to understand why she did what she did, which is a typical in true crime.
Like I said, that's just one camp.
There are plenty of other people out there that say, hey, this situation is more black and white, saying it's simple. She may have suffered, but Clancy killed her kid. She shouldn't get sympathy.
There should just be justice.
And so with people so divided and all over the place, out in the wild, right in the public, it's then not that surprising to learn that the jury's been deadlocked.
The Jury’s Deadlock
So that's why you saw on both Tuesday and Wednesday, they delivered a note to the judge explaining that after hours and hours of deliberation, they remained unable to come to a unanimous decision.
Which then led to yesterday, the judge reading the jurors the two Rodriguez instructions, aka the dynamite charge.
That's essentially designed to encourage them to reach a consensus.
And it reads:
“The verdict to which a juror agrees must be their own, the result of their own convictions, and not a mere acquiescence in the conclusions of their fellow jurors.”
You should consider that it is desirable that the case be decided, and that you have been selected in the same manner, and from the same source from which any future jury would be.
There is no reason to suppose that the case will ever be submitted to 12 persons more intelligent, more impartial, or more competent to decide it, or that more or clearer evidence will be produced.
And with this in mind, it's your duty to decide the case if you can do it conscientiously.
Concerns About the Jury Instructions
It said that that statement generally causes jurors in the minority to feel pressured into changing their position and joining the majority.
And actually, because it's intended to force a decision, it's kind of controversial in Massachusetts, where this trial is taking place, to even revise the language to make it less coercive.
But it seems like that charge didn't do much.
Because today the judge had to further instruct the jury on reasonable doubt before sending them back to deliberations.
Clancy’s Lawyer Wants a Juror Removed
But also Clancy's lawyers are not happy, claiming that there's one juror who's the holdout and demanding that the juror be removed.
There's one juror who refuses to listen to the law that you've given him or her on reasonable doubt.
But as an ally of the judge, saying that it felt improper to side with one side of the jury over the other.
What Happens If There Is a Mistrial?
But with this deadlock, there's a ton of speculation as to whether or not the judge will declare a mistrial and what that would even look like.
Well, as if there is a mistrial, Clancy's lawyer, Kevin Reddington, said that they likely take at least six months to a year.
It's been reported that it's likely that the prosecution would move to retry, or she'd remain institutionalized through the whole process.
But then also, you have experts saying that if the current jury does end up speaking publicly and they reveal that they were close to acquitting Clancy, the prosecution might end up actually reconsidering if they want to go through all this.
And that's also as you've had Clancy's lawyers saying that he doesn't think that she could emotionally handle another trial.
But for now, we're gonna have to wait to see how this plays out.
And of course, in the meantime, I'd love to know: where do you fall on this?
-
The NBA’s Largest Punishment in League History
Especially if you've been keeping track.
Robert then jumping from that to other news, we've got to talk about this insane Pablo Torre Clippers story because a lot of people, they're missing just how huge this thing really is.
Because the NBA just left the Clippers with the largest punishment in league history over this Kawhi Leonard salary cap dodging scandal.
And while you've got a lot of losers in the situation, the huge winner here is Pablo Torre.
Right. Because people are going to forget, like they do. But people are shitting on this guy's name. They were crapping on independent media.
But here we are, after a yearlong investigation by the NBA coming to a conclusion, finding the Clippers trying to go around league salary cap rules and line Leonard's pockets with a bunch of extra cash using some shady methods.
The Investigation Into Kawhi Leonard’s Deals
Specifically, the investigation found that Leonard, through his uncle, pressured the Clippers organization to, quote, assist him in obtaining off-court income opportunities, successfully obtaining those opportunities, and failing to reimburse payments by the Clippers for personal expenses.
And so, reportedly, the Clippers set up secret endorsement deals with four different companies for Leonard: Aspiration, Boingo Wireless, TekSystems, and Lockton Insurance.
And Aspiration was a really big one.
We're talking about a $28 million contract that was described as a no-show contract. So that meant that Leonard was paid and he really didn't have to do anything.
With a report citing audio from an Aspiration employee who said that the deal was made for the express purpose of circumventing the NBA salary cap rules.
That's on top of the Clippers also reportedly arranging $18 million worth of deals with the other three companies, all three of which were described as being outside the norm for a number of reasons.
Right. Like their quick turnaround, the fact that none of them were publicly announced, or asked really, for anything of Leonard to do in exchange for the millions of dollars.
And then there's the fact that none of these companies have given an endorsement like this before or since.
The Clippers’ Business Arrangements
Now, also a key thing with these deals is that the Clippers organization was reportedly seeking these companies out to sponsor Leonard and then committing to deals of their own if the companies agreed.
Right. In Aspiration's case, you had them reportedly saying that they would not sign the deal for Leonard unless the Clippers also brought business back to Aspiration.
Then boom, there was a contract for sustainability services for another venue owned by Steve Ballmer, the Clippers owner.
Then something similar with TekSystems, with a report finding that the company signed the contract for Leonard in exchange for more business from the Clippers organization.
Also, on top of that, investigators found hundreds of instances of the team paying for Leonard's personal air and ground travel, accommodation, gifts, and tickets without then taking the cost out of his paycheck.
Which is very, very against the rules.
The NBA’s Punishment
The report came to the conclusion that, hey, they found a pattern of misconduct and rule violations and that while there could still be more information to come, there's already more than enough here to bring down the hammer.
That is exactly what you saw play out last night.
They announced the most severe punishment in league history, where the Clippers had five first-round draft picks between 2029 and 2033 stripped.
Which is also important because they already traded away their first-round picks for 2027 and 2028.
They also have to pay a $30 million fine.
Steve Ballmer, he's been suspended from all league and team activities for a year, along with a couple other executives involved getting suspended.
And the team, they're gonna be subject to a compliance and monitoring program for five years.
And then as far as Leonard himself, he was fined $700,000 for the report saying that he failed to report improper solicitations for off-court income opportunities.
But ultimately, Kawhi Leonard gets to keep his job, while his uncle, who is the one accused of doing most of the legwork here, he was fired earlier this year, and he's not allowed to do any business for the next five years.
Reactions From the Clippers and Kawhi Leonard
So now with all this, you've seen a number of different reactions.
And we'll start with the huge denial from the Clippers, where they're saying this whole thing's bullshit, that they reject the NBA's findings and plan to challenge them through all avenues possible.
Though there's actually not many.
Right. There really isn't an appeals or arbitration process for these kinds of things.
Also, as far as Kawhi Leonard, he's saying that he had no idea what was going on, with his statement reading:
“I accept full responsibility for lapses in judgment by people within my inner circle and regret the distraction this situation has caused the fans and my family.
I entered into my contract with the Clippers, as well as the agreements in question, in good faith, fully committed to fulfilling my obligations, and with no knowledge of any intent on anyone's part to circumvent the salary cap.”
Pablo Torre’s Reporting
And then, as I mentioned, there is the completely warranted “I told you so” from Pulitzer Prize-winning sports journalist Pablo Torre.
Because, Pablo, he first highlighted Leonard's sketchy money situation nearly a year ago to the day on his podcast, Pablo Torre Finds Out.
Which, by the way, is just a fantastic listen.
But his reporting is focused on the $28 million Aspiration deal.
And he said at the time:
“Which is that on that list of creditors, up near the top above the Boston Red Sox, is an LLC, a tiny little company that Aspiration owes $7 million.
And that LLC's name, David, is what? An AKL to Aspiration LLC.
And what does it list there under manager or member name? Kawhi Leonard.”
Whose NBA jersey number, just to connect all of the dots here, happens to be what number?
I started doing was scour the internet for any mentions of Aspiration, any appearances, tweets, quotes, Instagram posts, anything by Kawhi Leonard endorsing Aspiration.
But the grand total number of times that I found Kawhi Leonard ever publicly referencing Aspiration: zero times.
Right. Kawhi Leonard mentioned Aspiration.
The Backlash Against Pablo Torre
And a big thing that you should understand here is that when that video first went out, Pablo initially faced a ton of backlash from everyone, including major names in basketball.
People including Mark Cuban, who used to be the majority owner of the Dallas Mavericks.
He posted on Twitter at the time:
“As much as I wish they circumvented the salary cap first, Steve isn't that dumb.
If he did try to feed Kawhi money knowing what was at stake for him personally and his team, do you think he would let the company go bankrupt knowing all creditors would be visible to the world?”
And saying the idea that the default is Ballmer is the bad guy is going to backfire on him.
Then you saw the backlash ramping up even further when ESPN posted an article last month saying that their sources told them that the NBA didn't have any evidence of money being funneled to Leonard through sponsorships.
Except obviously that was either a little premature and ultimately incorrect, or there's a bigger question of can certain journalists and certain outlets be trusted?
Whether it be for more nefarious reasons, whether it be something that resembles amateurishness, whether it be an aspect of access journalism.
You even had some saying that report was a leak from the Clippers to try and gain ground in the PR war.
And so now, one of the things you're seeing is that a whole bunch of people are eating their words.
And that includes Mark Cuban, who took to Twitter with a simple: “Congrats, Pablo.”
Pablo Torre Responds to the News
And for his part, Pablo went live last night to discuss this news on his show, breaking down the executive summary of the report and responding to the whole situation.
But maybe one of the biggest things that he said was the reason we've been reporting it is because we think this story is fundamentally important.
We think it's important to bring people what is not being told to them otherwise by some of the wealthiest, most powerful people in America who happen to control some of the most important institutions in America.
As in sports, we're doing a story about accountability.
We're doing a story in which people such as the source alluded to here—we heard a source number one on September 3rd, 2025—took risks to talk about.
Then also, Pablo Torre was saying there is more to come.
What Could Happen Next?
And actually, he said that he was expecting more, maybe a bigger fine or even maybe Steve Ballmer losing the team.
Because for Ballmer, a $30 million fine is nothing.
I had to double-check this, but Ballmer brings in $300 million a year just from his Microsoft dividends.
Right. That is completely separate from the value of the stock or any of the other stuff that he owns.
And again, this is done in a number of ways.
We're also looking at an SEC investigation and a doctrine for their involvement in this shit, the company's CFO saying that they received requests for information and they take these requests seriously and they're cooperating.
Also, there's Kawhi Leonard's trade to the Raptors that was put on hold pending the outcome of the NBA's investigation.
And then there's a larger question of: is this happening in other places in the league?
And if so, are they about to be exposed?
It's ultimately something we're gonna have to keep an eye on.
But huge news, not just for the NBA and fans and players, but also just the world of business, accountability, power, and independent media.
And then, before we get to dive into that in just a minute—
-
But first, a little self-promotion. If you are in or near San Francisco, Phoenix, and Denver—not this, but next weekend—I’d love to see you.
Me and my buddy Alex Pearlman, we’re on a live tour of the United States right now, and that’s where we’re going. We’re coming on four fantastic shows. It’s been so awesome, and you can get tickets right now at crashingouttour.com.
And I recommend sooner rather than later, because some places are even further down the line. They’re already selling Chicago. It’s already sold out.
See the top link in the description, top link in the comments, crashing out tour.
And also, a little side thing: The last two shows we did, kind of this random run of shirts that ended up selling, so we’ll have them up on beautifulbastard.com for like maybe a week or so if you want to snag yourself an “Even Bootlickers Get Stomped” shirt.
Or, “You may not fuck with politics, but politics will fuck with you.”
Big text at beautifulbastard.com.
But then, dive right back into the news. Let’s close out today’s show with some more news you need to know in quickie form.
-
Starting with the fact that residents at a government housing authority in New Hampshire have been forced to give the state thousands of data points about what goes on in their house every single day.
That's because back in 2024, the Concord Housing and Redevelopment Authority started installing Minut sensors into their units. If you don't know, like I didn't know before this, those are sensors that look like smoke alarms and attach to your ceiling.
The housing authority presented them as a way to make sure tenants were not smoking in their houses. But what residents say they didn't mention was that, on top of that, they also track things like decibel levels and the amount of Bluetooth signals or mobile devices, and can even be used as motion detectors.
The data can be used to determine how many people are in the house or what they're doing at any given time because they're tracking that stuff minute by minute. Literally every 60 seconds.
As it turns out, Minut devices are usually marketed to Airbnb hosts as a way to make sure guests aren't smoking or having parties. The company's CEO even says that less than 5% of the devices they sell go to long-term residences.
In this case, they're being used on people long-term.
Residents are worried that they're building a data trail of things like when they sleep, how many people they have over, even what they're doing in their bedroom, all without their consent.
Because when the devices were installed, they were forced to sign lease addendums with no opt-out option.
So when they figured out how much the sensors could do, they said they were dumbfounded, saying they might as well just open their doors and let everybody in to see what they're doing 24 hours a day.
After years of feeling like this, they called the ACLU.
And so now there's a class-action lawsuit against the Housing Authority to get the sensors taken out.
The argument being that this is a violation of their privacy rights, comparing the whole situation to a continuous warrantless government search.
In addition to those concerns, you have other lawyers saying, "Hey, what about the data possibly being used by stalkers, employers, or anybody else who makes a public records request to get insight into the residents' daily routines?"
They're also looking at getting any data that's already been collected deleted.
Yeah, just some crazy news to see. Obviously, there's been a lot of focus on flock cameras out in public, but people are even having to worry about what's happening inside of their own homes.
-
Then for your last story today, we should talk about Leon Black.
Earlier this summer, Leon Black walked out early on his talks with the House Oversight Committee investigating the Jeffrey Epstein case, refusing to answer questions.
Well now, he just decided not to show up altogether.
On top of that, he filed a lawsuit hours before he was set to meet with them, claiming that they don't actually have the authority to enforce the subpoenas that they filed, trying to get more information about his NDAs with Epstein.
Because Black was connected to Epstein for years, allegedly paying him around $180 million throughout their relationship.
There are several NDAs between them that Epstein survivors themselves say underscore why Congress must scrutinize the agreements in his possession and determine whether they shed light on his relationship with Epstein.
That's exactly what this committee expected to get into today.
But Black's legal team is arguing that complying with the subpoenas would expose women who have bargained for confidentiality in this whole situation.
The argument is that this is actually protecting women, adding that giving out more details about the NDAs would leave them with no way to protect themselves or their privacy.
They also claim that the committee's dealings with Black have turned into a fishing expedition that's more about destroying their client than it is about uncovering the truth about Epstein.
What you're seeing from members of the committee is them saying that this lawsuit is a laughable way for Black to hold the process up.
At this point, they're saying it's time to start the process of holding him in contempt, which notably is something James Comer, who's leading the committee, had already threatened Black with before.
Now that he didn't show up—which, by the way, is a subpoena violation—Comer said they would be discussing that option further during today's talks.
If they do go through with that, they're going to have to go through the House, and then it would fall to the Justice Department.
But then, my friend, you beautiful bastard, that is the end of your Thursday show.
