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- [00:00]
Ron Filikowski
Running a business means checking a lot of boxes.
- [00:03]
Parkinson's Patient
Let's see, payroll, check. Inventory, check. Insurance.
- [00:07]
Ron Filikowski
Ah, good thing Simply Business makes getting small business insurance fast and easy. Check insurance off your list@simplybusiness.com
- [00:17]
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- [00:52]
Interviewer/Host
We are joined today by the editor in chief of the Midas Touch and a former Republican official that now, in my estimation, is the biggest smartass on social media. He hosts a weekly podcast, Uncovered, and he writes a substack today in Politics. Please welcome Ron Philipkowski. How are you?
- [01:15]
Ron Filikowski
Great. I appreciate you having me on. It's quite an honor.
- [01:18]
Interviewer/Host
I was just telling him before the show, I laugh out loud all the time at what your posts are on social media. You are the biggest smartass, which is just my absolute love language. So I wanted to start by this AOC clip regarding water and data centers. And I thought your response on social media was great. And so I want to talk about that. So, Seth, if you'll play that clip.
- [01:42]
Ron Filikowski
Sure.
- [01:42]
AOC (Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez)
I have a jar right here. This is the current drinking water in Morgan County, Georgia, right after a data center was constructed, the metadata center was constructed. The only difference between the clean water and this was that data center. I have another one as well. This wasn't just one. Well, this wasn't just one family's situation. This is what the drinking water now looks like next to that data center. I think both of us can agree that neither one of these things are drinkable.
- [02:24]
Ron Filikowski
He's.
- [02:26]
Interviewer/Host
So you called this her Aaron Brockovich moment. Can you expand on that for us?
- [02:32]
Ron Filikowski
Yeah, sure. I mean, what a great movie and what a great person that Aaron has been over the decades and tremendous work that she did. And it sort of reminded me of the scene in the movie where Brockovich asked the lawyer for the water company, handed the puts the glass across the table and said, here, why don't, here's some water. Why don't you have a drink of that? That that water comes from whatever the town was. Higby or something in California. Hinkley, that water comes from Hinckley. Go ahead and have a sip. And the lawyer wouldn't, wouldn't drink it. It sort of reminded me of that. But the data center issue is something that I've been way out in front of for a Long time. I think this is a massive issue. It is an issue that not enough Democrats talk about or pay attention to. I know because like our Capitol Hill reporter, I tell them to ask representatives all the time about data centers, and a lot of times their eyes glaze over because to me, this is an issue where Democrats can reclaim a lot of the rural voters that they lost over the last couple decades because many of these data centers are being built in rural Republican areas and they hate them. They hate the noise, they hate the electric bills going up, they hate their water bills going up. And it's also polluting the water. So. So here you have the EPA commissioner who's in charge of water safety in America, and AOC asks her about this problem of data centers polluting water all over the country, and she doesn't know anything about it. She says they have. She's never heard of this problem before. So I just think this is an issue where Democrats need to get in the game. Some of them are. But I think this is a. This is a key issue because Republicans are all in on these data centers. They 100% favor them because of the, the economic benefit and the campaign contributions they get. So this, this is a way where Democrats can sort of reclaim those rural voters that they've lost, I think.
- [04:34]
Interviewer/Host
Oh, that's a. I mean, that's a great idea because everybody universally that is affected by a data center hate status centers. One thing that struck me is I am a Republican convert also. I didn't legally change my registration until 2000, after 2016. But I look at, like my parents. If you ask them, they're super maga, super evangelical Christian. If you ask them who is the devil, AOC might just be. I mean, they have deemed. The Republican Party has demonized her. So I think it's funny. I mean, when you look at AOC now, now having been in, you know, high up in Republican politics in Florida, do you kind of chuckle to yourself that AOC has now become someone that you really respect?
- [05:24]
Ron Filikowski
Yeah, and, you know, I. My opinion has changed about her a lot, and a lot of it is because she's changed, in my opinion. I mean, I think she would admit that she has talked about that, that when she came in, you know, first she was very young, she was in her 20s, and she was a member of the squad. And she did a lot of bomb throwing and, you know, made a lot of inflammatory statements about several different things. And then I think she, she has said this in interviews. She realized that that's not. That's not what she wants her career arc to be. She wants to be in leadership. I think she either wants to be speaker of the House or president. And I think, you know, as she matured and got some years under her and some wisdom, I think she realized that she needed to be more of a team player. She needed to help leadership, whip votes, and she needed to sort of expand her portfolio where she's talking more about foreign policy and more about tax issues. I mean, she's just become a brilliant student of policy. And I think that that is the most impressive thing about her, is that you can ask her about almost any issue. And we do all the time. We talk to her almost every day at Midas. You know, our reporters ask her questions almost every day, and we ask her questions about a variety of topics all over the map. She maybe more than any other Democrat, is able to give you an intelligent answer about such a wide array of topics. So I'm just incredibly impressed with her. I think that she has grown a lot and she's still, what, 30, early 30s. She's young, bright, future ahead of her. I think, you know, everybody talks about her as president. I think she would be more ideally a Speaker of the House down the road. But that's my opinion.
- [07:18]
Interviewer/Host
You know, I look back at some of the policies that I didn't blindly support. I just didn't give a shit enough to ask about in, in the Republican Party and now what they stand for. And now I, I want to take a shot, shower to get that stink off me. What do you see now when you say Republican Party?
- [07:38]
Ron Filikowski
Yeah, you know, like, people think like, I left the party. I left it too, you know, because of Trump. And I did not, you know, I left the Republican Party because of what, how everybody else in the party responded to Trump. I mean, you know, you had that handful of those never Trump Republican, you know, Lincoln project type people back in 2016 who spoke up and spoke out and resisted. And JD Vance was one of them, by the way. And, you know, and then that was, that was fine. But then to see all of these Republicans like Vance Rubio, who despised Donald Trump, who hated Donald Trump, who thought he was a fraud and a con artist and a grifter and all those things. I mean, Marco Rubio said some of the most horrible things about Donald Trump, called him a racist, you know, in 2016 than anybody out there. And now he's his secretary of state. So it was just, you know, a close friend of mine, Joe Grutters, is now the RNC chairman Joe and I were friends for 25 years. We lived in the same town. And, you know, to watch people like that completely sell their soul and to sell out and take everything that they supposedly believed in, that I. I believed in, and just say, none of that matters anymore. We're all going to line up behind this charlatan, this con man. I just said I'm disgusted. I'm. It's not Trump that is the reason why I'm leaving. It's all of you. All of you sellouts. All. I mean, look at a guy like Tom Emmer who's out there. Tom Emmer hates Donald Trump. He despises Donald Trump. Everybody knows that. And yet he goes on TV and just praises him like he's Jesus now almost every day. It's. It's disgusting to me. Really.
- [09:31]
Interviewer/Host
It is disgusting. And what's so funny about it, they're the party of masculinity and alpha males and all of that. And I'm like, y' all are all the biggest pussies on the planet because you bend the knee to this stupid, stupid person. Okay, so I've got it. What did you think when you heard about Trump's January 6th slush fund? I mean, the corruption is so staggering, you almost can't even keep up.
- [10:02]
Ron Filikowski
You know, when the story first broke, I. I immediately said, this is the most corrupt thing that has ever happened. Not. Not just that Trump has ever done. It's the most corrupt thing that has ever happened in U.S. history. You know, my degree is in U.S. history. I was a high school U.S. history teacher back many years ago. You know, I've read biographies of every president, so I'm pretty well versed in US History and been a political junkie my whole life. There has never been no president has ever done anything this corrupt, ever. I mean, from the whole thing. The fact that it stemmed from a bogus IRS lawsuit resulted in this thing. And now you're going to have all these grifters coming forward. You've already got Mike Lindell out there asking for $400 million. Enrique Terrio wants 2 million. You know, I saw another one is asking for 4 million. You know, some of the worst dregs of society are all going to come forward. John Eastman, Jeffrey Clark, they're all coming out of the woodwork like cockroaches coming out of. You know, it's like flipping the light switch on. All these J6 losers and scumbags are all back, you know, and it's like you're looking at these Republicans in Congress you know, John Thune, Tim Scott, these guys who have to run these campaign committees to try and hold on to their majorities, and they're just beside themselves right now. They cannot believe that Donald Trump has just dropped this bomb on top their shitstorm on top of their head. They were all griping about it yesterday. At least a dozen senators on the record by name went on camera to denounce this. That has never happened before. You know, we haven't seen anything like. And you're taking J6 an issue which is, which is dead and buried, which is gone as an electoral issue. Nobody talked about January 6th in the 2024 election. It was a dead and buried issue and Donald Trump has just revived it and made it literally one of the top issues in the 2026 midterms. It's absolute insanity, stupidity and naked corruption. I mean, the fact that Todd Blanche's personal criminal defense attorney is now appointing all five members. Yeah, I mean, that's. And they're meeting in secret and, and they're not going to report out the settlement agreements only every three months. So they could hand out all this money in secret for three months. We won't know. It's just every three months we get a list of names and dollar amounts. I mean, it's just absolutely outrageous.
- [12:38]
Interviewer/Host
My two things with this are, number one, instead of coming out and voting against it and killing the addendum, the bill, they closed down the Senate, which is Mike Johnson's move. He, you know, I don't want to vote against Trump, so we'll just all go home. So that's a bunch of cowards right there. And then two, the people that are getting it are so despicable. But in my opinion, Trump is trying to rewrite history that, no, I was wronged. It wasn't seditious conspiracy to overturn the government in my favor. They really were. It was weaponized against them. And so I'm like, you're such a dumb. Like, even all of his plans, it's like he's too stupid to actually execute him. And then what I thought was interesting is Michael Cohen says he might file. And I'm like, michael Cohen, your is with the Trump administration.
- [13:36]
Ron Filikowski
I mean, look, Michael worked for us, you know, and I liked him. He wrote that column in Substack a couple months ago where he denounced Leticia James and, and, and claimed that they tried to in the Manhattan DA and tried to claim that they forced him to lie or tried to talk him into lying, things like that. And you know, I talked to Ben, immediately after he, that column came out, and I just said, I don't, I don't think I can work with this guy. You know, I, I just, this is despicable what he just did. Then he did a podcast with Laura Loomer. It was somebody like that. He did a podcast with some right winger. Oh, Patrick Bet David. And you know, he went on there and, and I listened to that and I was just totally disgusted. And now you have him coming forward, wanting money. He wasn't even prosecuted by the Biden administration. He was prosecuted during the Trump administration. So, yeah, I mean, like, I. And he's also angling for a pardon. Michael Cohen is. So I just don't want anything to do with that guy.
- [14:50]
Interviewer/Host
Yeah, it's a real fall from grace, in my opinion. Okay, so let's talk about the ballroom. And you brought up the irs. And I don't, I know we're running out of time, but how the irs. The IRS can't audit Trump. He can't. Can't audit family or corporations, and they're taking every corporation on planet Earth and putting their name on it. What was your first thought when you heard that?
- [15:19]
Ron Filikowski
This is a broader problem that I have been really worried about. Look, tax receipts in April were way down from last April. And this is something that has been on my radar, that I've been watching. And the reason is this. When Trump got there, one of the first things Doge did is they wiped out the IRS audit investigators. You know, they got rid of a lot of them and they gutted DOJ's white collar fraud division. I mean, it basically doesn't even exist anymore. So this has sent a signal to all these corrupt billionaires and hundred millionaires and corporations that if they file fraudulent tax returns, if they scam on their taxes, there's really nobody that's going to investigate them. There's nobody that's going to prosecute them. I mean, I think what you're going to see over this next couple of years is the number of audits and prosecutions for tax frauds are going to bottom out. They're going to go through the floor. And when you know that there's no cops out, I mean, people tend to speed when, if they know that there's not going to be any police, you know, on the road. I mean, people, once these scammers, grifters and con artists and tax cheats know that there's no, there's no fox guarding the chicken coop, it's all hell is going to break loose. So Now, I. I think that there is a lot of blatant tax fraud going on right now as we sit here from these people that we will never know about. We will absolutely never. Because all this stuff's confidential. So that. And so I was really paying attention to the April tax receipts because that's. That's the month when the government brings in most of their tax revenue, and it was way down this year from last year. So I think that there is a lot of scamming going on. And then what happens? Trump has, again, his former criminal defense attorney, Todd Blanche is the one who signed this, giving him, his family, and his companies complete immunity from audits, investigations. And the reason why this is significant is because Donald Trump scammed nearly $100 million in a tax refund about a decade ago. He wrote off bogus losses on his Trump Tower, Chicago and a couple of his other businesses and committed tax fraud. And he's never been prosecuted for it, and the case was never closed. So what this did is it basically closed that case, and it also basically signaled to his sons, who are out there running a bunch of corrupt enterprises, that they don't have to worry about being audited.
- [18:00]
Interviewer/Host
It's just unbelievable how blatant this is. But again, nobody's going to stop him. And one thing that leads to that is now we have, you know, Marjorie Taylor Greene. She's found the light. Alex Jones found the light. They're on this podcast and they say, oh, well, Trump's going to cancel the 2028 elections. Which, that doesn't surprise me. That would not surprise me. But then I tie that into the ballroom. He wants this fucking ballroom because he wants to hide and never come out of the White House. We saw. I acted last time, and now we're talking about the elections. What is your. What do you think about the upcoming elections? And then the ballroom, you know, I
- [18:42]
Ron Filikowski
saw Green was on Alex Jones's podcast yesterday. And, you know, normally I probably wouldn't watch that, but I did see Alex posted some of the topics that they discussed, and one of them was Trump's cognitive decline, and the other was Trump canceling the 2028 election. So I said, okay, well, this isn't my favorite thing to do tonight to watch these two yahoos, but, you know, I got to watch this one, you know, so I did watch it. It was 30 minutes. It was, you know, 30 minutes of agony. But. But the point is, is that they both have. Are completely off the Trump train. Both of them, you know, they both attack him pretty much every Day, and they both have pretty sizable followings. And so, you know, one of the things that was interesting was they, they did say that Trump is not the same guy. He's cognitively, he's lost it. He's gone way downhill. Greene told a few different stories about why she believes that that's true, that he's, he. Alex Jones mentioned frontal lobe damage that he has. He speculated that he had a stroke, all kinds of things. I mean, it was pretty wild to listen to these two go at it. Right? And then, then they went in to talk about the 2020 election, and Green said talk sounded a lot like a lot of Democrats. You know, she sounded like I was, I thought I was on Blue sky listening to her. You know, she said that Trump keeps bringing up that he's still going to be in office, as if he's joking. But what she says is, he's not joking. He's floating that out there. He keeps putting that out there as a possibility because he's conditioning people to get used to that as an idea. And then when she talked about how he became very interested when Zelensky said in the Oval Office last year that Ukraine hasn't had an election because war is going on. And Trump picked up on that right away and said, oh, that's interesting. Maybe that could happen here. And we have Trump starting all kinds of wars, Iran, Cuba, everywhere else. And so they speculated, speculated that, like Trump will start a war in 2028 and try to use that as his justification not to have an election, which I thought was pretty wild for the two of them to say that. But, but you're right. I listened to his press conference a couple days ago where he was out at the construction site of the ballroom and he was talking about it. And the impression I had after listening to that for an hour was, this does not sound like a guy who plans to leave.
- [21:06]
Interviewer/Host
Right, Absolutely. I mean, it's, We've seen the evidence. Like history repeats itself. And he was willing to stage a coup in 2020. Now all he's going to have to do is run down in his little ballroom that, oh, I just have to ask you this, because it shocked me. He's like, I'm funding the ballroom. He said that in a press conference yesterday. Bitch, you're trying to get $1 billion from the US taxpayer. Shut the up.
- [21:35]
Ron Filikowski
Yeah, I, I posted all these old clips recently. His. When he first talked about the ballroom, he said it was going to cost $200 billion million dollars and he himself personally was going to pay for the Whole thing. Then it went to 250, then it went to 300, then it went to 350, then it went to 400, then it became donors were going to pay. And I said at the time, I'm like, there are no donors that are paying for this. This is what, this is what I've been saying for months and months. Every time he talks about all these corporate there, he doesn't have the money, he has pledges, he claims, he's got promises, he's got, you know, Tim Cook saying, oh yeah, you know, we'll, we'll think about putting in 5 million or something. That's all. He doesn't have money in the bank. And so I believe that his plan all along was to get this ballroom started, destroy the east wing, put the hole in the ground and then he's going to run out of money, you know, a third of the way through and he's going to go to Congress and ask for it. I've said that for the last year. He's going to go to Congress and what happens? They have this shooting incident at the, at the, at the White House Correspondents dinner. Literally, Trump is in front of microphones 10 minutes later saying we need taxpayers now to pay for the ballroom. It was, that was his plan all along.
- [22:50]
Interviewer/Host
I completely agree. Ron Filikowski, everybody. Follow him. Go to substack for today in politics. Smart ass of the year in my opinion. You get my vote. I will continue to follow you. Thank you for being on. It was a treat and we will talk soon.
- [23:07]
Ron Filikowski
All right, we'll do it again. Thank you, Angie.
- [23:20]
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- [23:50]
Family Member of Parkinson's Patient
Hey, he's back. Who Hun Sammy. The puppy I had when I was a kid. He's right there by the couch.
- [23:59]
Parkinson's Patient
Could this be related to his Parkinson's? What's Sammy doing?
- [24:04]
Family Member of Parkinson's Patient
Wagging his tail. He wants to play Stay calm.
- [24:09]
Parkinson's Patient
I, I, I don't see him.
- [24:12]
Ron Filikowski
You really don't?
- [24:15]
Parkinson's Patient
No. But I know you do. This is the second time this has happened. Or is it the third?
- [24:22]
Family Member of Parkinson's Patient
He came back to see me.
- [24:25]
Parkinson's Patient
That's the part that really breaks me.
- [24:28]
Parkinson's Awareness Narrator
About 50% of people with Parkinson's may experience hallucinations and or delusions over the course of the disease. That can mean seeing things that aren't real and believing things that aren't true. Symptoms can worsen over time but are treatable. Learn more at More to Parkinson's. Com and take the screener to see if it's time to start a conversation with your doctor.
- [24:50]
Family Member of Parkinson's Patient
Hey, he's here again.
- [24:51]
Parkinson's Patient
Oh who hun?
- [24:53]
Family Member of Parkinson's Patient
Sammy the puppy I had when I was a kid.
- [24:55]
Parkinson's Patient
This is the second time he's seen Sammy. Could this be related to his Parkinson's? I don't see him hon, but I know you do.
- [25:03]
Parkinson's Awareness Narrator
About 50% of people with Parkinson's may experience hallucinations and or delusions over the course of the disease, seeing things that aren't real and believing things that aren't true. Symptoms generally worsen but are treatable. Learn more@mortaparkinson's.com and take the screener to see if it's time to start a conversation with your doctor.