Julio: Hello, my name is Julio.

Lukas: and I’m Lukas.

Julio: This is our podcast…

Lukas: …about current events.

Julio: With that being said, let’s get right into the news.

Julio: Big news this month, Alex Jones was ordered to pay $965 million to the Sandy Hook families over claims of lying.

Lukas: Well, you know, even though this does represent Mr. Jones of words catching up with him, I do think that even the $965 million he’s been ordered to pay won’t ultimately silence him or people of his ilk.

You’re always gonna have your conspiracy theorists just saying completely nutty things like this and it’s only a matter of time before either Jones or someone else comes out with another new statement that’s gonna enflame all sorts of people.

Lukas: In other big news, popular musician Rex Orange County has been charged with six counts of sexual assault, originating from a woman in London. Now of course, the singer has denied the allegations, but what do you think about this Julio?

Julio: I would say that for what’s it worth, we don’t know truly if it actually happen, especially since he’s gonna be on trial until this January.

But, just the simple fact that currently he’s not allowed to leave the country and said previously, when he canceled his tour during the summer, that he had to cancel it for personal reasons does kinda say a lot.

Lukas: Yeah that’s pretty damning.

Julio: Speaking of musicians, Kanye has been in the news a lot. Too much honestly, so here are the highlights.

Over the past month, Kanye has thrown around a lot of anti-semitic remarks, including claiming that he would “Death Con 3 on Jewish people” on Twitter.

Among the interviews happening this past month, one of them was from the HBO show “The Shop,” which was cancelled after he “reiterate more hate speech and extremely dangerous stereotypes.”

In a deleted episode of “Drink Champs,” Kanye speaks about George Floyd and claims that the fentanyl that was in Floyd’s system is what actually killed him. The Floyd family plans to sue him for $250 million dollars.

Lastly, companies like Balenciaga and the CAA have cut ties with him, with reports of his record label deal with Def Jam reportedly being over. So Lukas, what do think of the recent things that Kanye has done over the past month?

Lukas: Well, you know much has been said about Kanye’s mental state, this and that and the other thing, but I personally think that Mr. West is merely using this as a way to get himself attention and publicity.

Not that I don’t think there is something that is wrong with this man, but I do think that he’s been in the music game long enough to know there’s no such thing as bad publicity and say what you will about his recent streak in bender of just inane (silly) activities but this is indeed drawing him lots and lots of free press.

Julio: Yeah, that certainly is true and this isn’t new for Kanye. He always had a lot of controversial stuff. Even as far back as the beginning of his career, with his comment on George Bush in front of live TV in 2004.

Lukas: Oh absolutely, this isn’t new territory for Kanye. If anything I think we have just kind of forgotten what it’s like to have someone who tries to be really shocking, celebrity presence in our midst.

You know, way back when we had folks like Marilyn Manson, there been plenty like him and I think now Kanye just kind of honed that craft in his career and you have people who aren’t really used to it being befuddled (confused) by it.

Julio: Yeah. I guess, if there’s anything to say about it, is considering his recent streak in being in conservative spaces, it was to be expected. Even though, no one ever wanted to admit it cause no one ever thought it was going to happen and now it did.

Lukas: Well I think we should all have learned our lesson by things we never thought were going to happen to have a tendency to in fact happen.

Julio: What he wants to happen is happening and the thing he wants to happen is for people to talk about him.

Lukas: Every think piece, every article, every condemnation, even this podcast is all a part of the game plan. Who knows maybe that new album is gonna come out and be worth it or maybe it won’t, but either way he will have his name on many lips.

Julio: He knows the game and I kinda respect him for it. Not really.

Julio: Close to the anniversary of the Astroworld incident, the first two lawsuits featuring Travis Scott and Live Nation have been settled. The families that have settled are the families of Alex Acosta and Breanna Rodriguez.

Two of the attendees, unfortunately, passed away during the concert. So what do you think of the Travis Scott incident, as it’s almost close to a year?

Lukas: Many have said that it is amazing that this day and age such a tragedy can still occur.

I myself am more shocked by the fact that the ticket industry is so monopolized by companies like Ticket Master and Live Nation, that Live Nation can suffer a setback this large, this public, this gruesome and still be able to persist.

I use Live Nation for an event just this past week so I am quite shocked that Live Nation would come out of this unscathed.

I think this does say something about how much we need quite frankly, that old school straight accomplish of backing, the idea that the necessity of being the mother of invention, competition being the mother of invention, when the same five companies own everything, that spirit is gone. I think that’s a very tragic loss for us, as consumers.

Julio: If there’s anything to be said about all of it that happened, it’s really sad knowing that everyone involved, including Travis Scott, will go off unscathed.

It’s very clear from watching the footage of everything that happened, it was very preventable. That’s the sad thing. There were a lot of safety precautions they did not take and I even remember seeing about how a lot of people were undertrained and it was really unfortunate.

Lukas: Absolutely I think the blame most chiefly lies on people who were conducting security for that event. Everyone speaks poorly of overzealous security at a concert, but it’s times like this that there suppose to be there for you to just completely and utterly fail in such a spectacular way, it’s just horrible.

Julio: I would even make the argument, it wasn’t even just security or Travis Scott himself, it was also like the people around because there are people who were like, jumping on top of ambulance cars as they were trying to pass through and they just did not give a fuck.

Lukas: Oh yeah no, there’s going with the music and having fun and there’s something else entirely.

Julio: It was all bad all-around and unfortunately we may see around incidents like this again.

Lukas: It’s a distinct possibility, so hey, if one incident didn’t stop Live Nation then maybe a second one will.

Julio: Yeah, true enough.

Julio: Ezra Miller pleaded not guilty on Monday to burglary charges, and related to an alleged Vermont home invasion in which he was accused of stealing alcohol. So Lukas, what do you think about the Ezra Miller charge?

Lukas: Well, to be quite frank, I’m fairly certain that he did it. I mean, just the way that the last year has conducted himself in these past months, he has been a sideshow, to be frank. And I don’t doubt that you know, this newest charge is anything less than true.

In fact, don’t be surprised if he ended up going out and doing something before the verdict comes in. Now, the future of the “Flash” is a tenuous one. I mean, they already announced “Flash 2,” but I doubt it’s going to be at the same actor.

I’m hoping this works out and again, as a DC fan, I like to I want to see my characters, my favorite character succeed, right now it ain’t looking like a success.

Julio: In the latest string of bad news for Warner Bros Discovery (WB), 82 employees ended up getting laid off alongside 43 vacant positions, which resulted in 125 positions being eliminated. Now, Lukas, what do you think about the recent things going on at WB?

Lukas: Well I sometimes feel like I’m a tad more optimistic about the whole WB situation than most. You know, they’ve been kind of flailing for a while as a DC fan. I’ve been especially observed of that.

But I feel like now they’re trying to just reshuffle things and get them back in order and an unfortunate by-product of that is that you do have people losing their jobs and positions getting cut and shows getting axed.

Then, you know, hopefully, this is all going to turn out for the best sometime in the future but right now we’re in the deep, nitty gritty, and things just have happened not looking too good.

Julio: Also in WB news, Cartoon Network social media confirmed that the channel is not dead and that they’re “turning 30.” These rumors likely stem from confusion over Warner Bros. Animation and Cartoon Network Studios merging into one and certain cartoon sites not getting their facts right. What do you think about that?

Lukas: I think that now or days, especially with the WB thing people like to paint a picture of things worse than they are. Not to underplay the shakeup that’s currently going on at Cartoon Network but at the end of the day, this is some internal rebranding done under someone who’s been there for a very long time.

I mean if anyone has ever watched a Cartoon Network show, you’ve surely seen the name Sam Register in the credits somewhere. Again not that is not a big story but I don’t think it’s as big a story as people are making it.

Cartoon Network is undergoing some changes, something its done plenty of times before and continues to do well into the future.

Julio: Yeah, and besides if Cartoon Network was truly dead it be a bigger deal than…

Lukas: Oh absolutely.

Julio: And also if Cartoon Network dies, then so does Adult Swim. It be a much bigger deal than that.

Julio: Also in WB news, Rooster Teeth, best known for the series “RWBY,” has been accused by a former employee of verbal harassment and being severely underpaid.

Kdin Jenzen describes her time at Rooster Teeth from 2013 until earlier this year in a Twitlonger, describing the verbal harassment that she faced at the company.

Including, being given the nickname Fugz, which was just another way of saying the F slur, which was a nickname they used within their videos, Transphobic remarks and severe crunch hours with 15-hour work days. So Lukas, what do you think of all the things going on at Rooster Teeth?

Lukas: With Rooster Teeth, you hear stories like this all the time, former employee, freelancer, or whatnot comes out and says that they have some dirty laundry and receipts. I haven’t followed the Rooster Teeth situation too closely so I don’t feel confident in making a judgment of that company’s character.

However, I will say that the man hours, the overpaid, the underpaid man hours over time, that is a trend that is unfortunately far too common in the industry of animation and gaming as well.

So I have little trouble, even though I know very little about Rooster Teeth, in guessing that those allegations are 100% true.

It goes to show that people who run these studios, either through mismanagement or outright maliciousness really need to act their act together and treat the animators clearly deserving so much respect with due respect.

Julio: It doesn’t help really that a company that talks about video games has a video game culture where it seems like they don’t respect other people.

Lukas: All right now, the attempted revival of G4TV has finally failed as today the network was shut down 2 years after the attempted revival. Julio, I know you have fairly strong thoughts on this.

Julio: Well for what it’s worth, G4 pretty much had an identity crisis, for both past and even present. It tried to appeal to a market that’s just moved on.

Like, most people get their news online and not through linear. Not only that, you couldn’t get G4 on most TV providers anyway. So it pretty much just sealed the fate of G4, although not in the way that most people would’ve imagined.

Lukas: The nails were in the coffin before the endeavor even took off.

Julio: Most people didn’t even know that they lost their jobs until Sunday.

Lukas: In possibly abysmal tragic news today, the world-renowned supergroup BTS has broken up as the members are taking leave for their mandatory military service in South Korea. Julio, what are your thoughts on this startling development?

Julio: I’m sad.

Lukas: He is sad ladies and gentlemen. Very sad.