Week in Review: November 21-27, 2022

1. Black Friday 2022 Breaks Record Spending Numbers Raking in $9.12 Billion from Online Shoppers (0:54)
2. Loan Repayment Pause Extended Through 2023 While Debt Cancellation Program Gets Held Up in Court (2:37)
3.  Supreme Court Paves the Way for Trump's Tax Returns to be Released to House Committee (4:15)
4. More than 50 of Twitter's Top 100 Advertisers Have Seemingly Stopped Advertising on the Platform per Report (6:26)
5. Balenciaga Files Lawsuit Against Set Designer Following Backlash for Controversial Ad Campaign (9:40)

All sources can be found at www.jordanismylawyer.com.

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Transcript

[00:00:00] Jordan: You are listening to the Jordan is my lawyer podcast. This is your host Jordan, and I give you the legal analysis you've been waiting for. Here's the deal. I don't care about your political views, but I do ask that you listen to the facts, have an open mind and think for yourselves deal. Oh, and one last thing.

[00:00:20] I'm not actually your lawyer.

[00:00:25] Happy Monday everyone. Welcome back to the Jordan is My Lawyer podcast. I hope you guys all had a great Thanksgiving. Took advantage of Black Friday deals. I know I did. I literally shopped until I dropped on Friday and I don't remember the last time I actually went out and went shopping. So it was kind of nice for a change and I felt like I got some good deals too.

[00:00:45] So it was a win-win. But if you didn't shop Black Friday deals, you obviously still have some time cuz Cyber Monday deals are going on. So make sure you get on. And did you know, so I, I came across this fact while I was doing my research for this podcast. Did you know that this year's Black Friday sales raked in a record 9.12 billion from online shoppers?

[00:01:09] That's up from 8.92 billion in 2021 and 9.03 billion in 2020. And this is all according to Adobe Analytics. Inflation does factor into that increase because obviously right now some people are paying more. To buy less. But the inflation and higher prices were also the reason that a lot of people were concerned that this year's spending would be down, um, for obvious reasons.

[00:01:33] So I just thought that was an interesting fact despite the state of the economy. We still broke a record, so that was interesting. But today's story is, I'm gonna be pretty frank with you. There really was not much going on. Compared to what's usually taking place. Uh, just over the course of the last week, I mean, which was honestly kind of nice for a change.

[00:01:54] We got to slow down a little bit. It was, it was the holidays, there wasn't as much going on. So this will be a shorter episode, but because of that, I'm thinking of doing an extra episode this week, maybe on Wednesday or Thursday, where I recap all of the recent executions this week, because in total there were four or five.

[00:02:13] This month that I haven't even discussed. So I think that could be a good episode because a lot of you guys are interested in that. So stay tuned for that. But without further ado, let's get into today's stories.

[00:02:37] The Biden administration has extended the student loan repayment pause due to the holdup of the debt cancellation program. You guys have heard me talk about this a few times now that are keep, they keep running into hurdles as far as getting the debt cancellation program up and running, and in one of my, I think it was the last, maybe two episodes ago that I covered the most recent lawsuit and, and you know why?

[00:03:02] Debt cancellation program was actually on pause now you can't even apply for it right now. Um, but because of that, the Biden administration is now extending the student loan repayment. Pause. Now, keep in mind, student loan repayments have been paused since the pandemic started in early 2020, and it's been extended multiple times since then.

[00:03:20] So if not extended again, like if this is the last extension, then student loan payments will have been paused for just. Three years now in regards to this extension, president Biden tweeted on Tuesday. I'm confident that our student debt relief plan is legal, but it's on hold because Republican officials want to block it.

[00:03:40] That is why Secretary Cardona is extending the payment pause to no later than June 30th, 2023, giving the Supreme Court time to hear the case in its current form. So basically payments will now. Either 60 days after the debt cancellation program is implemented, 60 days after the lawsuits are resolved, or 60 days after June 30th, 2023, if litigation fails.

[00:04:06] So according to the president, June 30th, 2023 is the absolute last. Extension date That takes us into story number two. The Supreme Court says that Trump must release his tax returns to the House Committee. This decision likely ends the three year battle over former President Trump's tax returns. So on Tuesday, the Supreme Court refused to block a request.

[00:04:29] By the House Ways and Means Committee for former President Trump's tax Returns. So basically the ways and Means committee requested former President Trump's tax returns. And on October 31st of this year, Trump filed an emergency application at the Supreme Court. To block the release, at least until the court could consider whether or not it wanted to hear a full argument on the issue.

[00:04:52] But the court said, no, we are not going to block it. This isn't the first time that former President Trump has lost this type of case. Most recently in the DC Court of Appeals, the court ruled unanimously. That the House committee's request for the returns was in fact constitutional. Now the arguments basically break down to the House committee arguing that they need the information in Trump's tax returns to meaningfully evaluate the IRS's Presidential Audit Program, which the IRS is required to do by its own rules, they have to conduct an audit of each sitting President's tax returns.

[00:05:25] So basically what they're saying is they need this information in Trump's tax returns. To evaluate this presidential audit program, the House committee is considering implementing greater legislative oversight over financial activities conducted by presidents. And this includes investigating whether the current IRS audit program is able to adequately enforce the nation's tax laws against a president who has complex business holdings.

[00:05:48] Like former President Trump, and on the other side of that, former President Trump's lawyers are arguing that turning over these tax returns would be an unconstitutional breach of the separation of powers, and that the request is politically motivated and over broad. Obviously, the Supreme Court did not buy Trump's lawyers arguments and instead ruled in favor of the House Committee, and so this decision likely means that the returns will be released by the Treasury Depart.

[00:06:14] To the House committee immediately. So that is what's happening with that. Like I said, that'll kind of conclude a three year long battle. So we'll see what comes of this, if anything. And that brings us to story number three, which is the fact that Twitter has lost a lot of its advertisers recently. So according to a report from Media Matters for America, 50 of the top 100 advertisers on Twitter have either announced or seemingly stopped advertis.

[00:06:44] On Twitter, we obviously know that Twitter has been making headlines recently, ever since Elon Musk took over. If you've listened to my previous episodes, you know, kind of how I feel about the situation. Just that the media's not gonna let this go. Elon Musk is kind of going to become one of those figures that's just picked apart in every move he makes, makes its way into the media, which is going to negatively affect him in the long run, in the sense of advertisers wanting to advertise on a platform because.

[00:07:13] Advertisers don't wanna advertise on a controversial platform, right? They don't, they, they don't wanna be a part of that. So I've said before, I'll say it again, it'll be interesting to see where it goes. That being Twitter, depending on how much money they lose from advertisers, not advertising with them, but according to this report, companies.

[00:07:33] Either made a statement about not advertising on Twitter, or it was publicly reported that these companies stopped advertising on Twitter, and then the companies subsequently confirmed were the following. Chevrolet, Chipotle, Ford, Jeep, Kendra. Merkin CO and Novartis Ag. And then the companies named Quiet Quitters, which are essentially companies that previously advertised on Twitter but stopped for a significant period of time.

[00:08:02] Include at and t Chanel, Allstate, amex, Dell Direct tv, fidelity, Kellogg, LinkedIn, Marriott, Nestle, mea, whole Foods, Wells Fargo, and many others. So it's important to point out though. This report says that these advertisers have seemingly stopped advertising on the platform as of November 21st, but then it also says there's an additional seven companies that appear to have slowed down their rate of advertising to almost nothing.

[00:08:31] But in support of that, the report says that since 2020, these seven advertisers have accounted for over 225 million in spending on Twitter. But that number dropped to 118 million in 2022. Now, given the fact that Elon only took over at the end of October, I would just cast a little bit of doubt on whether or not these advertisers stopped because of his takeover and the controversies that have followed, or if this.

[00:08:55] You know, slow down in spending is due to inflation and other factors. So that's kind of unclear according to the report. But nonetheless, the report does say that as of November 21st is when a lot of these advertisers have seemingly stopped advertising on Twitter. So again, it will be interesting to see what kind of path Twitter takes from here.

[00:09:14] Obviously, ad revenue is the biggest source of revenue for these social media companies, so who knows where it will go. If Twitter can manage to stay out of the news, then potentially they'll keep a lot of their advertisers. But if they keep making headlines like they are now, I don't see this working in Twitter's favor.

[00:09:34] So this takes us to the last story of the day. I told you this is gonna be a short episode, but on Friday, lenga, the company submitted papers to the Supreme Court of the state of New York initiating a lawsuit against the set designer of the shoot behind it's recent controversy. So if you weren't aware, Valencia has been called out as of just a couple of weeks ago.

[00:09:58] There was a Valencia ad campaign that was released a few weeks ago that features children holding teddy bears wearing BDSM gear or bondage. In one of the pictures on the table, there were a bunch of things kind of scattered around, and one of the piles of paper on that table was actually an excerpt from a Supreme Court decision that upheld a law against child pornography.

[00:10:25] Very weird. Excerpt to have laying there, especially given the fact that in the campaign there's children holding teddy bears in bondage gear. It was just weird and a lot of people called for a boycotted Valencia, but Valencia now says that this is not their fault. They issued an apology on Instagram and they are now seeking 25 million for what they call extensive damages to its reputation.

[00:10:51] So after these photos went viral, the brand removed the pictures. They issued an apology on Instagram, they said. We apologize for displaying unsettling documents and are taking legal action against the parties responsible for creating the set and including unapproved items for our Spring 23 campaign photo shoot.

[00:11:08] We strongly condemn abusive children in any form. We stand for children's safety and wellbeing. We sincerely apologize for any offense or holiday campaign may have caused our plush bear bags should not have been featured with children in this campaign. We have immediately removed the campaign from all platforms, end quote.

[00:11:26] Now I do have these summons linked on my website. Jordan is my lawyer.com. That's always where you can find all of my sources and all of the relevant documents that are publicly available. And on this summons, it reads, so this is basically, it's not going to be a synopsis of the lawsuit. But it's a very, very brief statement about the lawsuit.

[00:11:49] So what it says is, quote, upon information and belief, defendants without Valencia's knowledge or authorization included documents in the campaign. Photographs including an excerpt from a. Court decision upholding a criminal prohibition against child pornography. Valencia believes that defendants inexplicable acts and omissions were malevolent, or at the very least extraordinarily reckless as a result of defendant's misconduct.

[00:12:14] Members of the public, including the news media, have falsely and horrifically associated Valencia with the repulsive and deeply disturbing subject of the court decision. Defendants are liable to Valencia for all harm resulting from this false association. End quote. And again, that summons is on my website.

[00:12:33] If you wanna see it, just go to today's episode. At the very bottom, you'll see sources and it is linked below this story. So that concludes today's episode. Again, it was very short. It's just a combination of the fact that there was really not much happening this week. Also, I was very busy this week with family stuff.

[00:12:51] Thanksgiving obviously took a lot of time away. I hope you guys also had a great Thanksgiving, whether you were with family or friends, or you had to work, whatever it might have been. So next week's episode, just as a kind of fyi, next week's episode will be live on Tuesday. Not Monday. I'll actually be flying on Monday, so I won't be able to record and get it uploaded.

[00:13:13] So be on the lookout for that on Tuesday. And then I'm also going to be uploading an extra episode this week, either Wednesday or Thursday that will feature all of the, uh, executions that have happened. In the United States just this month. I don't remember the last time. There was a month with more than three executions, and like I said, this month there's been four or five, so stay tuned for that.

[00:13:34] I will obviously post it on TikTok as well. And just as your reminder, please leave me a review on whichever platform you listen. I did see a couple of submissions come through on my website where people were writing in their reviews. That actually it doesn't work that way. You have to go to where you're listening.

[00:13:51] So whether it be Spotify or Apple Podcasts, Google Podcast, whatever it is, there should be a button there to leave an actual review. So that's where you can do that, just as a friendly reminder, and I will talk to you later this week when I recap the executions.