HAPPY Fourth of July YOU GUYS! As a little holiday weekend surprise for all of you, I dropped our VERY first BONUS episode. We are doing a deeper look at the charges against Derek Chauvin, as I promised we would in previous daily news episodes. There are three different charges against him and getting into the legal language was just too in depth for a regular length episode. So now you can learn a little bit more about him and hopefully go into his trial, a little better informed.
- For our first story today, we are discussing stimulus checks…. Sent to dead people.
OK YOU GUYS – about $1.4 BILLION DOLLARS were sent out to Americans…. Who were already deceased. WHOA.
So how did a mistake of this size get made? And how did we find out this happened?
Well, basically, The Government Accountability Office put together QUOTE “a comprehensive report on the effectiveness of the trillions in stimulus spending the federal government has undertaken to cushion the economic blow of the coronavirus pandemic.” END QUOTE, according to Forbes.
They figured out that the error was basically due to the IRS records not overlapping with that of the Social Security office. The Social Security office is much more up to date on who has passed away. But now, they are asking that ALL this money be SENT BACK to the government.
Seems kind of comical at first but some people, aren’t laughing.
For someone who recently lost a loved one, this was a painful reminder that they aren’t here anymore. The New York Times reported on a wife who had recently lost a husband, opening his check and bursting into tears. Keep in mind, a LOT more people than usual have lost loved ones this year. We have over 128 THOUSAND people dead in the past few months in this country, just from COVID)
Hopefully, if they do another round of stimulus checks, they will have a better system in place to avoid this type of mistake.
- OK so we are going to sliiiiide over to YOUTUBE land for our second story. And BOY, is this one a doozy.
I am going to try to stay away from the nitty gritty of this story…. And just give you guys the broad strokes.
There’s a LOT here.
So Youtube Beauty TITANS, James Charles (with currently 19.8 million subscribers) Tati Westbrook (with currently 9.3 million subscribers) had a very crazy feud back in May of 2019.
The two had been BEST FRIENDS and mentor/mentee in the beauty world… That was until Tati posted a YouTube video entitled “bye sister” SLAMMING James and insinuating that he might be a sexual predator, that he was potentially in breech of a contract with her, and what’s more – had betrayed her trust and that his ego was out of control. Her video was VERY convincing and upsetting to watch.
James Charles, who is only 21 years of age, lost millions of followers over the incident. But he regained them, after posting his own video, defending himself and responding to the allegations, again, very very convincingly. So a lot of us were left with well, who to believe? They were both so convincing.
Well now, over a year later, Tati has exploded the beauty world with yet ANOTHER shocking video. This time, she has made up with James and blames TWO OTHER Youtube stars for QUOTE “gaslighting her into” making the original Bye Sister video.
These two OTHER Youtubers are Jefree Star (with currently 17.7 million subscribers) and Shane Dawson (with 22.3 million current subscribers). Tati DID reference these two names throughout her original video as being somewhat involved with her finding out about James’ behavior. So it’s not a far leap to imagine it could be true.
In this most recent video, she claims she is afraid for her life and that she is bringing legal action against both parties. She also claims she had had to move twice because she feared for her safety. She additionally stated that she believes other Youtubers are currently being blackmailed by Jeffree Star and Shane Dawson to keep quiet about other allegations.
Tati’s first video was RIFE with receipts – text messages, emails, contracts, etc. But this time, she claims all of these things are legal evidence for her court case and thus, she is not allowed to make them public at this time…. Convenient OR true? We don’t know. She cries a LOT throughout this video.
Shane Dawson has already denied her allegations but he has already had to apologize a LOT recently for two other horrible incidents sooo… his career is not looking great at the moment. But Jefree Star has yet to respond to Tati in any way. I am personally expecting a very dramatic video to pop up on one of their accounts, any day now. Nail biter, I know.
3. COVID UPDATES
So for our last story today, before we go into the weekend, I just wanted to update you guys on COVID.
So according to Reuters, over half of the newly reported cases are coming from FOUR states alone: California, Arizona, Florida, and Texas. These areas are now being termed, “the sun belt.” If you are living in or visiting one of these three states, PLEASE exercise caution as much as possible.
Additionally, The European Union is now not allowing Americans to travel to Europe, even though a lot of other countries now can. Even travelers from China are let in. But not Americans. Why? Because we still have one of the largest outbreaks on earth, and it’s speeding up right now in many states, not slowing down.
Data has shown that the recent rise in numbers is directly correlated to re-openings OR states that never fully seemed to close down like Florida and Texas. It’s important to note that the cities with the biggest protests like NYC, Pittsburg, and Seattle are not the epicenters of this new wave of outbreaks. There have been protests in all 50 states, but not all 50 have cases exploding. The states that defied the CDC’s recommendations are now the ones with numbers on the rise.
According to Forbes, Goldman Sachs has now come out with research that shows a national mask mandate could actually slow the growth rate of COVID enough to save the U.S. economy $1 trillion dollars because it could help avoid another shutdown. Wow. Save lives AND help the economy at the same time? I’m all about it.
Stay healthy – Wear your masks this weekend!
And that’s the news du jour!
I want to leave you with the quote:
“Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced.”