MeidasTouch Full Podcast - 8/14/26

Summary

The MeidasTouch Podcast — August 14, 2026

Hosts: Ben, Brett, and Jordy Meiselas
Episode Theme: Breaking News, Military Crisis, Trump Lawsuits, and the State of American Democracy

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Episode Overview

This episode of The MeidasTouch Podcast is driven by the profound crises facing American democracy, with the Meiselas brothers dissecting breaking news about shocking conditions aboard U.S. Navy supercarriers, legal battles tied to the Epstein files and Trump’s Department of Justice, and the ongoing manipulation and mismanagement plaguing the Trump regime. The brothers emphasize their commitment to truth, transparency, and supporting the troops — while holding those in power accountable.

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Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. Breaking News Highlights

• Katie Fang's Lawsuit & Epstein Transparency Act

  • [00:00–02:19] Katie Fang’s hearing against Trump’s DOJ pushes for the release of Epstein-related files; federal judge threatens the Trump DOJ with contempt for lack of compliance in releasing documents.
  • Quote: “A federal judge threatening the Trump regime with contempt and ordering the Trump regime to produce critical documents. Great work, Katie Fang…” — Ben [00:00]

• Horrific Conditions on USS Supercarriers

  • [00:00–04:46] Reporting by Aaron Parnas uncovers dire, degrading conditions aboard USS George H.W. Bush, Abraham Lincoln, and Gerald Ford — with tragic mental health consequences for sailors.
  • Recognition of additional news outlets like Stars and Stripes, Military Times.
  • Military family members confirm and expand on the reported hardships.
  • Quote: “The dire conditions these sailors are facing…is just heartbreaking to me. And it should never, ever, ever, ever be like this.” — Brett [03:31]

• Trump’s “Catering Cart” Incident

  • [00:00, 19:45–24:33] Trump’s recent, widely mocked decision to “hide in a catering box” during a perceived Iranian threat; CIA reports there was never a credible threat.
  • Quote: “Donald Trump was hiding in a catering box with Natalie Harp because he was terrified that Iran was going to kill him aboard the airplane…” — Ben [19:45]
  • Quote: “Usually people who aren’t panicking don’t go and hide in catering carts.” — Unidentified Co-Host [22:16]
  • Comparison to President Biden’s wartime visit to Ukraine underscores the contrast in leadership courage.

• Caroline Levitt Resigns

  • [00:00] Caroline Levitt, a prominent, controversial Trump propagandist, resigns amidst the ongoing chaos.

• Truth Social Lawsuit Over Preferential Access

  • [00:00, 76:36–76:50] Trump’s social platform sued by a media company and nonprofit for selling early post access to Wall Street, potentially facilitating insider trading.
  • Quote: “Donald Trump is charging money for preferential access to his social media posts… deprives journalists of the ability to report in real time…” — Ben [76:36]

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2. The Navy and the Betrayal of U.S. Troops

• Service Member Hardship & Government Neglect

  • [05:11–16:28] Sailors reportedly lose 30–50 lbs due to insufficient food; conditions compared to the worst prisons. Multiple suicide attempts, failing basic needs (food, sanitation), mold, trauma.
  • Families corroborate and intensify the findings.
  • Ongoing cover-up and dismissal by Pentagon officials like Pete Hegseth and by Trump.
  • Quote: “They called the family members of the soldiers liars. I mean, how disgraceful is that?” — Jordy [14:01]

• Media Coverage & Propaganda

  • [04:42–09:00] Fox News and right-wing media’s pattern of distraction via culture war topics whenever Trump scandals break.
  • MeidasTouch’s decentralized network strategy is highlighted as crucial to surfacing the real story.

• Wasteful Spending & Corruption

  • [11:10–12:06] Outrageous Pentagon spending on luxury foods, furniture, and wasteful military contracts while basic needs remain unmet.
  • Quote: “$7.9 million on lobster tail…$250 or $260 million on new furniture…That’s where they were spending lots of money.” — Ben [11:11]

• Troop Morale and Responsibility

  • [13:02–15:12] The brothers debate what “supporting the troops” genuinely means, starkly contrasting empty messaging with the administration’s actual neglect and callousness.

• Hypocrisy & Political Gaslighting

  • [15:12–16:28] Critique of Trump and Republican politicians for performative patriotism while failing troops and attacking military families who speak out.

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3. International Relations and Leadership Critique

• Trump’s Weakness and International Embarrassment

  • [19:45–25:00] Trump’s personal cowardice, starkly contrasted with Biden’s courage. The global community’s perception of Trump as “weak and pathetic.”
  • Quote: “It shows the world that you’re weak and pathetic, that you’re scared, you’re incapable…That’s bone spurs, boy.” — Ben & Brett [24:27–24:33]

• Wasteful Military Reforms

  • [54:54–58:11] Trump’s directive to replace electromagnetic jet catapults with outdated steam catapults, likely costing billions unnecessarily.
  • Military expert Sen. Mark Kelly criticizes Trump’s interference:
    • Quote: “…I’m a test pilot and even I wouldn’t suggest to the Navy how to engineer…Donald Trump should stick to what he knows best: ballrooms, bankruptcy, and bullshit.” — Mark Kelly via Ben [56:36]

• Dramatic Military Weakening & Global Instability

  • [57:44–62:14] Discussion of the weakening U.S. military position: depleted arsenals, failed strategies, and simulacra where Ukraine’s FPV drones “wipe out” U.S. forces in war games.
  • Unprecedented military spending fails to deliver safety or global respect.
  • Quote: “We flushed $10 trillion down the toilet for nothing. For nothing. And we squandered all of this, and we are weaker than ever.” — Ben & Brett [59:08–59:22]

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4. The Politics of Distraction and Media Manipulation

• Distraction by Right-Wing and Corporate Media

  • [28:41–30:36] Fox pivots to WNBA, trans panic, and immigration as distraction whenever Trump’s scandals mount.
  • Corporate consultants and former Democrats appear only near elections to muddy discourse and divide opposition.

• The Toxic “Consultant Class” and Lobbyist Influence

  • [31:03–34:11] The brothers excoriate “democratic consultants” and lobbyists paid millions by think tanks and oligarchs to undermine real issues and sow discord.
  • Quote: “They get paid to make our political discourse as toxic as possible, to divide the American people, to prop up authoritarianism and fasc[ism]…It is disgusting.” — Jordy [32:16]

• Public Desensitization & Authoritarian Danger

  • [35:07–36:38] Discussion of how chaos, “shouting and yelling” in politics, and propaganda pave the way for authoritarian promises and false solutions.

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5. Legal Updates and Accountability Efforts

• Federal Rulings & DOJ Contempt

  • [73:13–74:48] Judge Sullivan compels Trump’s DOJ to produce a detailed redaction log over Epstein files, signaling willingness to hold the DOJ in contempt and referencing the Ted Stevens case as precedent.
  • Quote: “This judge is threatening to hold the DOJ in contempt and making these major orders. I think that’s a really big deal.” — Ben [75:04]

• Truth Social Lawsuit

  • [76:36–76:50] Lawsuit asserts that Trump’s platform violates free press by restricting access to his statements in favor of paying Wall Street clients.

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6. Impact of Trump on U.S. and World Affairs

• Panel with Iranian Professor (Professor Morandi)

  • [63:27–68:56] Ben summarizes his in-depth interview: Iranian public opinion has shifted drastically towards supporting nuclear armament as a direct reaction to Trump-era policies and war.
  • Quote: “A very strong majority [in Iran] believe that Iran should have nuclear weapons. So Trump single handedly has convinced many Iranians that Iran should develop a nuclear weapon…” — Prof. Morandi via Ben [65:05]

• Trump’s Approach: Harmful at Home and Abroad

  • [47:27–50:19] Trump’s economic and social policies seen as enriching the rich, harming ordinary Americans and the international order, while right-wing media manipulates perceptions.

• Clean Energy Paradox

  • [70:01–73:13] Despite anti-renewable messaging from Trump and the GOP, Utah generates more solar power than any other energy source, hinting at possible positive change when local decisions trump national rhetoric.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Troop Conditions:

  • “Our troops who are deployed overseas…aren't getting the basic necessities taken care of. That is what really strikes at the heart of the situation for me.” — Jordy [13:02]
  • “You can't say with one breath how much you love and admire and respect our troops while you simultaneously make them live in unlivable conditions. That's MAGA, though. They are a walking contradiction.” — Unidentified Co-host [15:12]

• On Trump’s Cowardice:

  • “The commander in chief of the United States…had to crouch in a catering box…because Netanyahu told him he could be a target.” — Ben [20:05]
  • “That's bone spurs, boy.” — Ben [24:33]

• On Propaganda Tactics:

  • “Fox reveals itself…they play the patriotic music…then they're talking about bullshit because they don't want their followers actually learning about what's going on…” — Jordy [29:41]

• On Fascist Drift:

  • “What this fascism leads to is this coward, this thing, this gremlin, this creature… Donald Trump, who's made billions of dollars screwing us all over.” — Ben [36:38]

• On Trump’s Military Decisions:

  • “Donald Trump should stick to what he knows best: ballrooms, bankruptcy, and bullshit.” — Sen. Mark Kelly via Ben [56:36]

• On Iran’s Shift:

  • “…A very strong majority believe that Iran should have nuclear weapons. So Trump single handedly has convinced many Iranians that Iran should develop a nuclear weapon…” — Prof. Morandi via Ben [65:05]

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Timestamps for Important Segments

• [00:00–02:19]: Episode intro — headlines, lawsuits, and breaking news
• [03:31–04:46]: Family confirmations on USS Abraham Lincoln’s dire conditions
• [05:11–16:28]: In-depth analysis of the sailor crisis, Pentagon denial, and military family impact
• [19:45–24:33]: Trump hides in a catering cart; contrast with Biden’s leadership
• [31:03–34:11]: The toxic consultant and lobbyist class — how the media gets manipulated
• [35:07–36:38]: How chaos and propaganda feed authoritarian politics
• [54:54–58:11]: Steam catapult directive and military technology mismanagement
• [63:27–68:56]: Iranian public shifts toward nukes — interview highlights with Prof. Morandi
• [73:13–75:04]: Legal update: judge compels Trump DOJ, holds contempt threat
• [76:36–76:50]: Truth Social lawsuit and threat to First Amendment
• [77:02]: Closing reminders, new book "WTF America"

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Conclusion

In this fast-paced, highly charged episode, the Meiselas brothers expose the cruelty and corruption of the Trump regime — from the suffering of sailors abandoned by their own government, to the destabilizing effects of foreign policy blunders, to the manipulation of news and discourse by America’s power brokers. The brothers champion independent media, courageous reporting (shout-outs to Katie Fang and Aaron Parnas), and urge listeners to be vigilant, informed, and active in demanding better for democracy and for the nation’s future.

For full interviews and exclusive investigative segments, visit the MeidasTouch YouTube channel and subscribe for breaking news and upcoming book releases.

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Transcript

[Ben Breton]

We've got a lot of breaking news to discuss on this episode of the Midas Touch podcast. We'll talk about Katie Fang's hearing in her lawsuit against Donald Trump's Department of Justice and Todd Blanche under the Epstein Transparency Act, a federal judge threatening the Trump regime with contempt and ordering the Trump regime to produce critical documents. Great work. Katie Fang, Aaron Parnas on the front lines of incredibly powerful reporting about the horrific conditions on the USS Super Carriers, the George H.W. bush, the Abraham Lincoln and previously the Gerald Ford. Also, hat tip to Stars and stripes, Military Times, Ms. now, and others who have been doing great reporting. And to all of the military families who have been reaching out to us at the Midas Touch network, whether it's through Parnas or otherwise, thank you very much for your courage. We support you. We're going to do everything we can to bring attention to those horrific conditions aboard the super carriers. We'll talk about Donald Trump hiding in the catering box with Natalie Harp in Turkey and how pathetic he looks and how pathetic he is and the whole world is laughing at him and mocking him right now. It is so freaking humiliating. I just want to talk about that. We'll talk about Donald Trump seeing that Caroline Levitt is now resigning. It just so happens that at the same time that Caroline Levitt was put in the old Air Force One while Natalie Harp got the VIP treatment in the plane that was not going to get shot down. Although now we know from our CIA that they've leaked out that this was just Netanyahu Yahoo. Trying to get Donald Trump re engaged in the war which ended up working, and that the CIA never believed it was a credible threat. But Donald Trump is a pathetic coward anyway. And anyway, Caroline Levitt has resigned. See you later. One of the worst propagandists in the history of the United States and in fascist regimes generally. You have Donald Trump's social media platform, Truth Social, being sued by a media company and a nonprofit for creating the truth API based, basically selling early access to Wall street firms to get inside trading information of Donald Trump's social media post. It was a very strong lawsuit filed under the First Amendment saying the president

[Brett]

of the United States can't sell preferential

[Ben Breton]

access to his statements and his posts. It's utterly ridiculous. So we'll talk about that. State regime, media, Fox, with all of this going down, they want to talk about, I don't know, the WNBA or Sophie Cunningham or, I don't even know what the hell they're talking about.

[Brett]

We've got a lot to discuss.

[Ben Breton]

That and more on the Midas Touch podcast. Brett and Jordy, great to see.

[Jordy]

Great to see you, too, Ben. Great to see you, Jordy.

[Unidentified Sponsor Voice 1]

Great to see you. Midas Mighty, you know, the midterms are

[Jordy]

approaching when everything you see on Fox or all these crazy distractions, whether they're speaking about Hasan Piker, whether they're talking about the wnba, when they're talking about caravans and illegal immigrants, when they're talking about the transgender. They're going to make you transgender. You're like, oh, yeah, that's right. We have like 90 days until the midterms. It's one way to, like, understand the timing of things. And also it shows honestly how scared they are for these midterms that are coming up. You know, a lot of stories to get into today before we get into them. I do want to show shout out all of our incredible Midas Touch network reporters who are just doing such a incredible service right now for this community, for democracy. Whether it's Scott McFarlane, his incredible reporting on how money's being diverted from the national park system to Donald Trump's pet projects at the White House, whether it's Katie Fang and her fight to get the Epstein files released and her clash with the Department of Justice today, including court. Excited to talk about that. And of course, Aaron Parnas with his incredible exclusive reporting about the USS Abraham Lincoln, which honestly cannot be talked about enough. The dire conditions these sailors are facing, the the members of our Navy are facing on the USS Abraham Lincoln, it is just heartbreaking to me. And it should never, ever, ever, ever be like this. I mean, what an absolute disgrace. It is shameful. It is horrific. Those words do not even do it justice. And we are now being with comments from family members of people on the USS Abraham Lincoln who are confirming that all of this is, in fact, true and even worse than what is being described right now in the public. And so we're just trying to confirm everything. Aaron's been doing an incredible job speaking to these family members of the soldiers on the ship. Just a horrifying, horrifying story. And honestly just shows you the mistreatment of our troops by Donald Trump and how little he cares for them and how it's all just a game to people like him and Pete Hegseth and Mark Marco Rubio and J.D. vance. What an absolute disgrace. Before we get into all that, Jordy, what's the latest?

[Unidentified Co-host or Contributor]

Brothers Midas Mighty, it is great to be here. Before I toss it to Ben, can I just ask you, the viewers right now watching on YouTube specifically for a quick favor. 100 free to do it. If you could just hit that subscribe button to the Midas Dutch YouTube channel, you might think you're subscribed, but you might not be. Some people think they are and they're actually not. Just double check, hit that subscribe button. Really helps continue to grow this channel, especially as we're on our way to 7 million subscribers and it's totally free. Benji, where are we starting off today, big bro?

[Ben Breton]

Yeah, it was a real perfect way to start this show, giving the credit where credit is due to the incredible reporters who are affiliated with the Midas Touch Network. And for me, it's an honor just to have that affiliation and to do even a small part in trying to promote their great work to bring them all together. And there are so many others who we could be naming legal AF and all of the great hosts over there. Alison Gillen, the great FOIA work she's doing to release the Epstein files as well. This is the machine that we wanted to build here at the Midas Tension Network, a machine that can go pound for pound against the disinformation machine of state, regime, media, Fox. We can control the narrative and flood the zone with the truth, with accurate information. And we can fight whether it's on YouTube, whether it's on TV, whether it's in the courtroom, and to have some of the top people doing that. And I'll just show you right here the kind of contrast, right, because as we learn more grim details about how terrible our sailors and Marines are being treated aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln, the USS Gerald Ford, previously the USS George H.W. bush, right now there are two super carriers there that form Donald Trump's so called blockade, right? As oil prices hit a record high for August in the history of the United States, as our deficit hits record highs, Donald Trump's like, well, we have this, this perfect blockade. Well, our service members are being treated horrifically aboard them. They're not getting the food they need. They're losing 30, 40, 50 pounds. The frozen food is rotting. So they're not getting all of, you know, it's hard to get the food. They have some frozen meat that, you know, they get small portions of. You've had, I think at least six service members try to jump overboard. I think one person did. They were fortunately rescued. You have real serious mental trauma being caused to our service members. The bathrooms aren't working moldy rotten. It just really, you know, it's been described as being worse than some of the worst prison Conditions that are out there, you know. You know, and it's just, it's horrific to see, you know, that taking place.

[Brett]

But we know that's happening.

[Ben Breton]

Like we're in contact with the families of the service members. They're reaching out to Aaron, they're reaching out to us. They're especially reaching out to Aaron, who's doing incredible reporting. You know, similarly, when we report on the Trump regime's cover up of the Epstein files, their cover up of the

[Brett]

child sex trafficking ring, we're speaking with

[Ben Breton]

the survivors, we're grounding the story, we're rooting the story in the people who

[Brett]

are being harmed, not in the personalities in the game.

[Ben Breton]

We're trying to tell the stories of what's actually happening. While you have Fox and corporate media

[Brett]

propaganda trying to make this some game of this team versus that team, when

[Ben Breton]

we should all be on Team America, right?

[Brett]

And so you have Pete Hegseth out

[Ben Breton]

there doing his normal propaganda shtick. His lies, his awful lies.

[Brett]

Everything's going great.

[Ben Breton]

Our, our lethal war fighters are doing amazing.

[Brett]

Any reporting that they're doing bad aboard these ships is utterly false and defamatory.

[Ben Breton]

How dare people lie?

[Brett]

This is the information coming from the

[Ben Breton]

people on the ships who are talking

[Brett]

to us and their family members. And they're not just talking to us. I mean, hat tip to the Military

[Ben Breton]

Times, of course, to Stars and Stripes,

[Brett]

Mississippi, now lots of others people are being contacted by these military families. Also, although I want to give a hat tip to Aaron for really want

[Ben Breton]

to be one of the people leading the way on this coverage.

[Brett]

But first, let me show you what Hanks had said.

[Unidentified Voice (possibly a singer or chant leader)]

Let's play it completely misrepresented. Listen. We make sure at every ship, every crew, every captain has everything we can provide them at every single moment. Some deployments are longer than others, and I have more respect and gratitude for those sailors than anybody. What they do in those high seas, in those austere conditions with less port calls, it's incredible. Americans don't understand what it's like to do that. So as someone who's not been on a ship like that but been on long deployments, I feel it. I want them home as soon as everybody else do. I want folks rotated as quickly as possible. I want the best for them. My commanders know that, our service secretaries know that the President expects that. And so to that crew and to all those crews, we're going to do everything we can for you.

[Ben Breton]

You're not even giving them the food that they need to get the most basic nutrition. So Shut up. I mean, just a real evil demon human being right there. And I mean, the way the logistics has been so utterly mismanaged. You see the trend, right? The guy, he couldn't run a nonprofit for veterans and got thrown out for mismanagement and other horrific allegations against him. Donald Trump has bankrupted casinos. So I think you see a pattern, right? Our strategic petroleum reserves tank bottom under 300 million barrels oil. Our munitions have been depleted. Our thads, our Patriots, our ATACMS, our SM2s and 3s on the Navy destroyers, right? You know, depleted. Our MQ9 reapers 25, 30% destroyed. Our bases in the Middle east now basically have to be abandoned. Major equipment has been kind of totally destroyed. And yes, we don't have the basic logistics aboard our super carriers. It's all consistent with mismanagement.

[Brett]

And then you have people like Hegseth

[Ben Breton]

and you remember this story, who previously spent in one month alone $7.9 million on lobster tail in one month.

[Unidentified Voice (possibly a clip or guest)]

15.

[Ben Breton]

That's not a. I'm not exaggerating. 7.9 million on lobster tail, that was a line item. $15.1 million on ribeye steak, 250 or 60 million dollars on new furniture, including CH shares that were each 1900 dollars each. That's where they were spending lots of money on. Oh, and don't even get me started on factories that they would give out these no bid contracts in Texas and red states that got billions and billions of dollars from us, from the taxpayers and didn't produce anything and ended up, you know, having factories that. I think there was one factory in Texas from General Dynamics that became a l dumpster fire with what it was purported like an actual dumpster fire, not a hyperbolic, like an actual dumpster fire.

[Brett]

And then we see lots of weapons

[Ben Breton]

heading into Haifa today in Israel that weapons, bulldozers, you know, to level more areas in Palestine and in Lebanon and

[Brett]

all these other areas. And it's like, what about, what about

[Ben Breton]

first off, the most basics. Give our troops the food they need, the resources to live. And that's what that should be a focus. But and I think our troops, what we're hearing from a lot of family members, they don't want to be complicit in war crimes. They don't want to be complicit on ships that are sending missiles that are killing little girls in schools in Iran.

[Brett]

And it's absolutely.

[Ben Breton]

And they feel the guilt of even being associated with this war with these war criminals.

[Brett]

And then, you know, health care, basic stuff that the American People, you know, you know, need jobs, you know, focus on the American people, you know, education, things that are here and not, not all and, and like, what the hell's going on?

[Jordy]

Brett Jordan and by the way, you know, when it comes to like, you know, the stories about Hegseth, the military, the Pentagon spending a lot of money on lobster and things like that, you know, if we know that that's going to the troops and that, you know, they're being taken care of, honestly, that's something that's completely okay with me. But when we hear stories like that and then we hear that our, our troops who are deployed over overseas in this very, very dangerous situation aren't getting the basic necessities taken care of, that is what really strikes at the heart of the situation for me. And also the fact that throughout this entire process, Hegseth has lied about this. You know, we've been on the story now for what it feels like months, right? I think it was supposed to be, I think it was like supposed to be a six month deployment and now we're like nine months out. Something around that. And we've been speaking about the conditions on the Abraham Lincoln. And if you recall a couple months ago when this was brought up to Hegseth and Trump, what did they say? Their response, the Pentagon's response was to say they're lying. They basically called the family members of the soldiers liars. I mean, how disgraceful is that? They're lying. This is fake news. More fake news media. Everything's great. These are lethal war fighters. They're amazing. And I've even seen MAGA people who, you know, the few remaining MAGA folks who kind of go into our comments on stories like this and they try to like downplay it too. Like they say things like, I saw comments like, oh yeah, there's always a few weak ones. There's always a few weak ones in the, in the group. They'll learn to suck it up. Like, no, that's not how you treat people. That's not how you treat your soldiers who are deployed. You have to be worried. As the head of the Pentagon, as the Secretary of Defense, you need, you are responsible for the day to day stuff. And while people are going without food or getting moldy food or in these horrific conditions, the things that Hegseth seems to care about are TV hits, working out and posting workout videos, talking about giving soldiers testosterone shots. Like all just weird stuff that isn't actually helping them when they're actually in battle. He likes to talk a big game but he doesn't even know how to play the damn game.

[Unidentified Co-host or Contributor]

Exactly. Be well said. Look, you can't just give our servicemen and women lip service like it's grotesque and it's exactly what Hegseth is doing. You can't say with one breath how much you love and admire and respect our troops while you simultaneously make them live in unlivable conditions. That's maga, though. They are a walking contradiction. They'll wrap themselves in the American flag bread just like you were alluding to, pretend to love our troops, campaign like they love our troops, but won't even give them a proper meal. They hate our troops. There's no other way to see it other than that they will not protect our troops. And what Donald Trump and the Pete Hexas of the world constantly do just gaslight the American people. They tell you how much they love and respect and admire these people, all while letting them die, all while making sure that they live on unlivable conditions while then going after the families of these brave servicemen and women that are just trying to help them, that are trying to make sure, like, hey, can they get a proper meal? They're defending our country. They should be able to actually eat. They shouldn't have to feel like they need to literally jump overboard to find more safe ground to be. Be, like, living on. It's absolutely disgusting. And Heg says answers there are despicable. They really are.

[Ben Breton]

Yeah. I'll show you the reporting with Aaron Parnas. Again, we're going to do more reporting, Aaron and I, on this. Here's what Aaron told me when I was asking him about what he's hearing from the military family. This is directly from the families who have Navy sailors and Marines aboard the ships that are currently there in the Middle east right now with the two super carriers being the USS Abraham Lincoln and the USS George H.W.

[Jordy]

bush.

[Unidentified Voice (possibly a clip or guest)]

Let's play it.

[Brett]

He comes up with the flashy name Epic Fury.

[Ben Breton]

He loves the social media post, we win.

[Brett]

But then it's like, hey, you know, how are you gonna get the food? How are you gonna get the mail? How are you gonna get the stuff to the troops when you abandon those

[Ben Breton]

bases in the Fifth Fleet in Bahrain

[Brett]

and other areas, that was one of the areas that would route the stuff to the ships. And now, because you don't have the interceptors, Iran's able to strike there, which has these third and fourth level consequences of, well, then how do you get the food and the mail and the supplies to our troops who are out there? You can't just keep them there. And it's like, Aaron, they don't think about, it's like they don't think about that. And they just go, eh, if we're asked about it, it's a PR issue. It's a people issue. The PR issue of you lying. You could do it once, but the people are there. The PR is just lies.

[Unidentified Guest or Expert]

Well, Ben, just imagine if the president wasn't Donald Trump and the president was Joe Biden. Imagine if the secretary of defense wasn't Pete Hecseth and it was Lloyd Austin. I mean, if you had these facts come out, just one of these stories, let alone dozens and dozens of service members experiencing the same thing. Imagine one service member tries to jump off an aircraft carrier under the Biden administration. Number one, we'd never hear the end of it. Fox News would be running it on 24. 7. Jake Tapper would have written another novel. But number two, Congress would have opened up investigations by now. They would have hauled Lloyd Austin up to Capitol Hill. They would have asked military leaders to testify. James Comer would have opened up an impeachment inquiry into Joe Biden. I mean, this is as bad as you can get. This is a dereliction of duty. And I asked Governor JB Pritzker today whether or not he believes that Trump is essentially fit to command our troops. And he essentially says no, he's not right. He has mental health issues. He has possible dementia issues. And now it's a complete just mess as our service members aren't getting the necessary resources abroad. So it's bad and unfortunately it's not getting the coverage it deserves.

[Ben Breton]

Well, the good news is that while it's not getting the coverage it deserves on Fox, what Midas is doing, what we've built through this decentralized network of independent media as well, is we forced it to become the biggest issue, which it should be with Aaron leading the way and others covering it also. And now we see that people are covering it and they are being forced to cover it because this is what should be one of the biggest issues right now, as it should also be a big issue that Donald Trump continues to cover up a child sex trafficking ring in the Epstein files. And you have Katie Feng leading the way in a federal courthouse there or that Donald Trump was hiding in a catering box with Natalie Harp because he was terrified that Iran was going to kill him aboard the airplane that has

[Brett]

more defense capabilities than any plane ever anywhere. A billion dollar two, three billion dollar

[Ben Breton]

plane, the old Air Force One, which has anti missile capabilities, anti drone capabilities that Donald Trump would not want to go aboard that plane.

[Brett]

And he had to crouch in a catering box, the commander in chief of the United States, because Netanyahu told him that he could be a target of some of these shoulder fire missiles that

[Ben Breton]

Iran's able to have, likely because China

[Brett]

gave them some of these. And what Netanyahu said is, you know how your F15s got shot down?

[Ben Breton]

This part was true. The F15 got shot down because Iran's able to utilize these kind of drone swarms in the air to signal to the people on the ground who have these shoulder fire missiles that seem to be provided from China, specifically where the F15 is. And it kind of guides it. These F15 pilots describe seeing these jellyfish, almost formations of drones in the air, and then they give the signals to the people on the ground how to shoot the F15s.

[Brett]

And that's what Netanyahu told him, although no one believed.

[Ben Breton]

Iran doesn't want to kill Donald Trump. I mean, I don't. I think Trump's afraid that they do. But Trump's killing America.

[Brett]

Why would they want to go after they. He's their best weapon against the United

[Ben Breton]

States and against America's alliances right now, in my view. But it actually wasn't a credible threat.

[Jordy]

Rcia, by the way, doesn't that make it like a million times more embarrassing? Like, like the story was incredibly humiliating for Donald Trump to begin with, but then learning that the CIA didn't even think it was a credible threat at all, and Donald Trump ran into this whole stunt to hide in a catering cart in order to get away from this. And I mean, when you see his actions, you know, there, there's a reason I say that, you know, when we report on him, that he's, you know, he's panicking because he is panicking. I mean, when you watch him, he's golfing now with surface to air missiles next to him. He's switching planes and not telling the press or his press secretary or other officials that he works with that he's switching planes because he's too afraid for his life. I mean, this guy right now, he's a really pathetic, really pathetic individual. And of course, he doesn't care about anyone else's life. He's willing to risk their life if he thinks it's a credible threat. But the fact is, nobody took this threat seriously at all. But Trump was still running scared.

[Unidentified Co-host or Contributor]

Usually people who aren't panicking don't go and hide in catering carts. That's just, I mean, Maybe a rule of thumb for some, if you're not panicking, you don't go and hide out over there. You know, I could only imagine, and I, I know sometimes our listeners and viewers get upset when I, when I play our favorite game, which is imagine if Biden did it. But could you imagine if President Biden, if the CIA ultimately determined that there was no credible threat, went ahead, got off the plane, left the reporters, abandoned them on Air Force One and went to go hide in a catering car, basically, and fly out and pick his top three favorite people to take with him like it was a sinking ship, the Titanic. Because that's what this entire Trump regime, this Trump presidency, that's what this is. It's the Titanic that we're all witnessing play out in real time. Could you imagine if he did it, that trillion dollar propaganda arm at Fox News and, and all of that, how that would play out their right wing ecosystem? It would be relentless. It would be relentless. I mean it. And the fact that this isn't getting enough attention, in my opinion, to me, I think is a red flag. I think, I think more people really should be talking. Trump abandoned all of those folks on Air Force One and basically took the life vest for him because he thought it was a credible threat. He thought his life was actually endangered. So I'm leaving, I'm out. Y' all are good there. You could be my decoys and I'll get, you know, I'll get to shore safely.

[Ben Breton]

You actually have a one to one comparison because when Biden traveled into a active war zone in Ukraine, Biden was, people knew where he was going to be. He was aboard a train, he went through Poland, was a 19 hour train ride that did not have Air Force One capabilities. He arrived in Ukraine at a time like now where it's constantly under attack. And he stood in an area with Zelenskyy that gets struck.

[Brett]

And he was there, he was outside, outside.

[Ben Breton]

And so we actually have a basis of comparison.

[Brett]

And by the way, I understand that

[Ben Breton]

there may be people who are afraid to do these things.

[Brett]

I get that there are people.

[Ben Breton]

But you're the commander in chief. Just think about the message that you're

[Brett]

sending to everybody else when you do that.

[Ben Breton]

It shows the world that you're weak

[Brett]

and pathetic, that you're scared, you're incapable. It's like, got it.

[Ben Breton]

That's bone spurs, boy.

[Brett]

That's the guy who claimed fake bone spurs five times.

[Ben Breton]

Who believes our military suckers and losers.

[Brett]

That's the guy who gets scared that when he sues people and you fight back. He's too scared to show up at trial jail.

[Ben Breton]

He's too scared to show up for a deposition.

[Brett]

He's too scared to litigate and turn over his documents. He's a coward. He's been a liar. He's been a coward his whole life. And it's sad for our country that we have a coward like that.

[Ben Breton]

All right, let's take our first break of the show. Reminder.

[Brett]

Check out WTF America.

[Ben Breton]

That's the book I wrote with my brothers. Comes out October 20th. There's a lot of momentum behind these pre orders, but please, we need to keep the momentum up. So get your copy now. Don't wait until October.

[Brett]

October so you can Google WTF America?

[Ben Breton]

And you can see it's probably one of the first results that show up. It's from Hatchet. Just make sure you get the right one.

[Jordy]

It's also in the description below.

[Brett]

It's also in the description. I find some people actually are easier with Google than that, but it's in

[Ben Breton]

the description below too.

[Brett]

But however you want to do it.

[Ben Breton]

Maybe that's just me.

[Brett]

I don't know. Anyway, we'll be right back after our first.

[Ben Breton]

There's a QR code up here that you can scan too. All right, let's take our first break of the show. Life insurance.

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[Unidentified Co-host or Contributor]

Let's go. Shout out to our sponsors links in the description of both YouTube and the audio. Use the links, use the codes. If there's an exit survey, let them know we sent you Benji where 2 next big bro. That was a good segment. That was a really strong for if you're just tuning in now, I'd rewind and just rewind. That was a strong first segment, brothers.

[Ben Breton]

Yeah, that's always great when you just applaud your own segments. That's what people love.

[Brett]

Those are really, really covered.

[Ben Breton]

A lot of good news, good timing, good pacing.

[Unidentified Co-host or Contributor]

The pacing was really strong.

[Jordy]

I think each really good. Ben, your voice was strong. I want to say this too, you know, before we go in. You know I think one of the ways Fox reveals itself because we were speaking about the distractions of Fox and this multi billion dollar empire that that Fox has and how, you know, they always want to talk about, you know, right now they're talking about the WNBA and transgender this and illegal immigrant that and Caravan this. And you know it also ramps up at times when they want to cover for Donald Trump. And so right now, you know, it's almost. You couldn't have more bad stories. I don't even want to say that because there are always more bad stories with this guy. And, you know, more are going to come. But, you know, whether it's the war, whether it's what's happening on the USS Abraham Lincoln, whether it's the economy, I mean, you go down the list, you name it, it's a disaster. I mean, this presidency is a complete and total disaster. Donald Trump's approval ratings are at historic lows. It's humiliating. The whole thing is humiliating and awful. And unfortunately, the American people are the ones who are suffering because of it, and quite frankly, the entire world. And so when that happens, FOX can't be report on the USS Abraham Lincoln. You know, they try to act all patriotic. They play the patriotic music they play. You know, they show the flag. They're. They're behind the flag, and then they're talking about bullshit because they don't want their followers actually learning about what's going on the USA's USS Abraham Lincoln. They want them instead to be so angry at this community or that community. And that sort of distraction strategy, to me, is worth pointing out. And it's also just so reprehensible.

[Ben Breton]

Yeah. And so you have that going on with regime media, but then also on corporate media and in other areas, you have these people who just kind of show up and they pop up. The political consultant class, right? I hate them right before the election, and they start telling you about their views about elections because they represent candidates and their job is literally to make money off of elections. So they start to show up.

[Brett]

I need my candidate to look like this, and my candidate needs to do that. And I don't want to be in a party that's this or I don't want to. And I just say, where the hell have you been?

[Ben Breton]

You haven't earned the right to even give those. Like, you haven't been in the trenches with the people. Right after the horrific election in November 2024, you ran away. You weren't there in 2025. You weren't there in most of 2026.

[Brett]

It's just fascinating me to watch these

[Ben Breton]

people pop up totally 75 days, and

[Brett]

it's like, here I am, everybody. And here's what I want to tell you.

[Jordy]

You know who's, like, the lower, lowest of all these two? Like, the people who I actually like absolutely cannot stand, it's the people who are, like, bitter, like former Democrats who haven't even worked for the Democratic party in like 20 years or something, who go on TV and decide this is my moment to get money and go on FOX and whatever. And their job is to have the title of Democratic consultant, even though they haven't been hired by a democratic campaign in 20 years and aren't like Democrats at all. And their job is to just talk shit about, about any sort of policies, you know, on that side of things. And it's, it's so transparent. You know, what, what they're doing. And these people just come out of the woodworks one after the next and you're like, oh, it's just gross.

[Unidentified Co-host or Contributor]

It's also like such a weird attention seeking mentality. Like they didn't get enough attention. They need a, they need to make sure that their voice is heard. I could almost only describe it as like the kid who would try and like crack jokes in class and like no one would laugh at his jokes. Like, ah, Bernie's doing another stupid thing, all right, Everyone just ignore him here and now. They give him his, his five minutes of fame. Like I, I genuinely don't get, get what this consulting, this chattering class gets out of.

[Jordy]

I. Because they're not, I'll tell you what they get. They're getting, they're getting paid a lot of money.

[Donald Trump (clip)]

Getting paid.

[Unidentified Co-host or Contributor]

They bring on that aren't getting paid, though.

[Jordy]

I'm talking jordy, jordy, jordy, jordy. Oh my naive jordy, jordy, jordy. They're getting paid money. Not only a little bit of money, millions and millions of dollars. Not by Fox. But these people are lobbyists and they work for think tanks. And these think tanks are paid millions and millions and millions of dollars by billionaires so that these people can represent these interests, whether they're corporate interests or whatever interests you name. And they are paid to be those people. It's not about the, you know, free guest appearance on Fox or if they get that small contract with Fox. It's not what it's about. They get paid. They make bank these people and they get paid to make our political discourse as toxic as possible, to divide the American people, to prop up authoritarianism and fasc. And it is frankly, blood money, in my opinion. It is disgusting what these people do. It's why people hate lobbyists. But, you know, there are lobbyists that work behind the scenes and they work with, you know, they work with politicians and they, you know, try to get their bills passed, you know, where they work for the NRA or we need to get this pro gun legislation through. And then there are the ones who show up on TV as the sort of chattering class. I mean, think about Scott Jennings. I'm not saying he, you know, clearly, you know, I'm not saying what I said before applies to Scott Jennings here, per se, but Scott Jennings is a guy who works in this MAG ecosystem, probably makes a lot of money in this MAGA ecosystem. And his job is to basically parrot the Trump White House line. He has a direct line to Donald Trump. He knows exactly what the messaging the White House wants out there. And then he goes on, he's put on cnn, and his job is to shout down Adam Mockler or shout down Lee McGowan or shout down who's ever on there. And to get out Donald Trump's message on cnn. I mean, that's, that's, that's really like, at least a portion of the scheme there.

[Unidentified Co-host or Contributor]

For the record, I knew all of that, and I was just setting you up for the alley oop to slam dunk that for the audience.

[Brett]

So there's, there's two points I want

[Ben Breton]

to bring up, though. People don't live in elections. People live in their lives. And so if you're not there with the people fighting for the people when there's not elections, when they are having this psychological torture inflicted upon them, you shouldn't expect that they're gonna be there for you.

[Brett]

When you say, well, now I want

[Ben Breton]

you to vote just because here I

[Brett]

am, everybody, you know, you think about

[Ben Breton]

the person who just shows up in the party, you know, who shows up

[Brett]

late, you know, who's supposed to like, I'm here. And it's like, okay, well, you know,

[Ben Breton]

except this is the bad Trump regime dystopian party.

[Brett]

It's like, okay, where have you been?

[Ben Breton]

We, we were looking for help, and now you want to come out while we've been trying to fight these fires and we've been putting it all out on the line.

[Brett]

And then I'll say, people also don't

[Ben Breton]

like shouting and people don't like yelling. And people just think about your dinner table or your Thanksgiving table or your whatever.

[Brett]

And once the people start to, like, yell, you're like, God, come on, I don't want that. What are you talking about? Just stop it. So Brett and Jordi, to your point,

[Ben Breton]

Brett giving you the alley. Oops.

[Brett]

Part of what? Knowing that. What I said, knowing that people are

[Ben Breton]

looking for honest, candid information.

[Brett]

What, what, what is trying to be

[Ben Breton]

created by the oligarch class, by the right wing class.

[Brett]

Is a toxicity that we all just

[Ben Breton]

walk away from this and that. The shouting and the yelling becomes just every.

[Brett]

I don't know what's going on. I don't know what's going on. And then who kind of fills the void? Someone who says, I can fix it.

[Ben Breton]

I'm going to make you a promise. I'm going to lower your electricity bills by 50%.

[Brett]

I'm going to ensure that gas is

[Ben Breton]

below $2 a barrel, $2 a gallon.

[Brett]

I'm going to make sure that everybody

[Ben Breton]

can afford their homes, and we're going to make sure that groceries are cheaper than ever.

[Brett]

Then when they finally get into power, after making that pitch because there's so much noise, then they go, I don't even know what the word affordability means. Deal with it. You know, $4 a gallon is, is. Is better than by, you know, they want to blame Biden this and that. And, you know, I never knew what the word affordability meant. And it's all because we needed to stop nuclear bombs.

[Ben Breton]

Even though you claim you obliterated the

[Brett]

nuclear weapons from Iran last year, and even though former President Obama did a jcpoa. And then they go, oh, yes, yes, yes, we promised you that, but it's coming in 2027. Ah, we promised you 2027, but just you wait, 2035, you're not even going to need money. You're not even going to need a retirement. There's going to be such abundance. You'll be cool. It'll be amazing. So just the point is, and I didn't mean to sidetrack us by saying this, I want you all to watch out for the tactics. Because what this fascism leads to is this coward, this thing, this gremlin, this creature, this hoarder, this taker, this predator, and Donald Trump, who's made billions of dollars screwing us all over. And he's just weak and pathetic. I mean, you see him on the tarmac and I just lying about everything when we know what really went down. We know what's going on in Iran. We know what went down, where he

[Ben Breton]

ran off from the old Air Force

[Brett]

One, on the cafeteria, the catering box. Let me just show you over here. This was done, by the way. Donald Trump really hasn't even been out there talking all that. Do you notice that he's kind of gone pretty silent since the story broke? And I just think he wants to try to wait it out and do some more insane things to try to change the topic. It's why we need to focus on what's happening here. He really hasn't held press conferences lately. Here was the last time we seen him publicly, I think. Watch him just insanely lie. Every word of this is a lie. Let's play this clip.

[Donald Trump (clip)]

The country's doing well. The stock market's fantastic record. We have 79 records so far in a short period of time. More people are working right now in the United States than ever before and prices are dropping fast. Iran is going fine, going just absolutely fine. We totally control the strait of hormones. We have control over it. Nobody else. Only us. Our navy is unbelievable and things are going great.

[Brett]

And then this is what he says

[Ben Breton]

about the Qatari Air Force One. So you remember there was Qatari Air Force.

[Brett]

Just think about the amount of waste,

[Ben Breton]

fraud and abuse this is to.

[Brett]

So we had three planes for Trump, Qatari Air Force One, the old Air Force One, and then this military plane

[Ben Breton]

that he ended up going in.

[Brett]

Qatari Air Force One did not have

[Ben Breton]

the defensive capabilities in order to stop ballistics or drones.

[Brett]

So Qatari Air Force One went back

[Ben Breton]

to the UK Then you had old Air Force One, which is where people thought Donald Trump was that one. Then there was the military plane that Donald Trump eventually went in. But here's what he said about the old, here's what he said about the

[Brett]

Qatari Air Force One and that this was all, all this was about the fact that our service members in the uk, they really wanted to see Qatari Air Force One. So we were, we were building a museum for them so that they can tour Qatari Air Force One. That's what this was all about. This is what it is. This is what he says here, play this clip.

[Donald Trump (clip)]

Well, this one went over to England where it was shown to the soldiers. No, I know, but this one went over to England because the soldiers wanted to see it and it stopped and they showed it to the soldiers and we did a switch over there and it was really as per the military. And I just have to do what they say. They go for safety and I have to do what they said. Well, I don't know. I, I think actually the plane that

[Ben Breton]

the party was going to say there too at the end and I played the clip a lot, so we don't need to, you know, repeat it again,

[Brett]

though, is he said, actually, I think

[Ben Breton]

the plane that I went on was more dangerous than the old Air Force One, where I had the presco I.

[Brett]

So he's like, I was protecting them because I took the more dangerous plane,

[Ben Breton]

let them go on the better plane

[Brett]

because I cared about Them?

[Ben Breton]

Dude, you were hiding in a catering box with someone who's referred to as your human printer. Natalie Harp.

[Brett]

And the Overton window has been so shifted into this deranged fascism weirdness that we rarely, although this is all we

[Ben Breton]

do at the Midas Touch Network, step

[Brett]

back and just say, wtf? This is not normal. This is not normal behavior.

[Ben Breton]

This is not politics. This is not what's supposed to happen. This is real deranged, sick stuff.

[Brett]

And we need adults, we need grownups,

[Ben Breton]

we need courageous people.

[Brett]

We need people who care about the American people. And oftentimes what's lost from all of this are just basic discussions about leadership, about empathy, about what it means, what the presidency means, means what our Constitution is all about. And just watching, again, just the pathetic

[Ben Breton]

behavior, I just can't help but be like, again, like, what the f. What

[Brett]

the f is that? What are we even watching here? You know?

[Ben Breton]

And then as you learn more stories about.

[Brett]

What's Donald Trump doing today? Oh, he wanted to now that he was banned from having the Kennedy center be called the Trump Kennedy Center. Well, now his plan was to say it's the Kennedy center renovated by Donald Trump. And he wants it engraved into the Kennedy center because like a little pathetic baby, no offense to pathetic babies, he needs his name engraved in it. And now he wants to call the whole plaza the Trump Kennedy Center Plaza so that there is now a lawsuit against the plaza because he lost the lawsuit against the Kennedy center where he put up tarp to cover his name being removed. And now he wants to go chisel the name into the building. And, and folks, I mean, this guy's a freaking predator. I mean, he's a sexual predator, right? I mean, he's a bankrupter. He's a sexual predator. He's a horrible human being. And it's like he's got the interceptors around those golden statues right now that are in. Not only do they follow him around, they guard the golden statues, the bronze statues in D.C. he's gilded gold with our taxpayer money. And again, with all of this going on too, you have, have record setting deficits. In July, you had the biggest deficit

[Ben Breton]

ever in American history.

[Brett]

The interest right now that we are paying on Our debt is 1.17 trillion or $1.27 trillion right now, which is like one of the biggest line items. You know, when we talk about the

[Ben Breton]

treasury yields and the bonds and these

[Brett]

bad bond sales right now. Now, yeah, it's because one of the reasons it's really bad is our Treasury Department has to pay interest on these, on these notes that it's selling. And that means we, the taxpayers are ultimately on the hook and this just increases our debt. These are the least fiscally responsible people. It's absolutely insane.

[Jordy]

And it's a generational problem and it's debt that we're going to be saddled with for decades and decades and decades. And Donald Trump, he referred to himself as the king of debt. He is actually always proven that true. Trump is responsible for something like 25% of like all the debt ever accrued in the United States since the beginning of the history of the United States. Quite the achievement of Donald. And frankly, you know, Democrats should be screaming this from the rooftops. They should be making this their issue because to me it's not an issue of big government or small government or whatever stupid framing they want to use. I'm so sick and tired of the media going, look at these hawks, look at these fiscal hawks out there. I mean, these people are not fiscally conservative. The Republicans are not fiscally conservative in any way. And the data bears that out 100% of the time. They're the opposite. And we even get all these other like little stories that go out there. Like there was a story today in the New York Times that's a Department of Homeland Security spent $464 million. This is one of those, another no bid contract which you're seeing many of in this Trump regime. They spent the money on 10 used airplanes, theoretically to be flying undocumented immigrants out of the country. And, and these have just sat idle like they haven't done anything. They've just been sitting there on the tarmacs just collecting dust. And this is just another example of the government waste. What do you see? Donald Trump, like, what was his big announcement that he made on, on social media today? I've made a memorandum that we're going to use steam catapults on the ships now. Steam, we're using steam. Like this is the stuff that you're focused on and this is the stuff that you want to be spending money on. And all these retrofitting and your planes and all this BS while our soldiers can't even get a proper meal out to sea. I mean, the whole thing is absolutely appalling to me. And the contrast and the way that politicians are judged based on the actual things that they do to me is just like astonishing. It's just absolutely stunning. For example, New York City Mayor Zoran Mamdani earlier today announced that New York City is going to eliminate, eliminate all the out of pocket childcare costs for roughly 22,000 low income families who are receiving childcare subsidies. So they're wiping out all the co pays. It's going to be completely free beginning this September. I mean that's a, that's a big deal. Right? But what do you see, you know, when you see headlines on Fox and maga? People are going to your comments. Oh, where is he getting this money from? Oh, this is the taxpayer money. He's happy to use your money to do, do this. What your money to get kids child care. Yeah, like to me, that's where we should be prioritizing tax money for things just like this. And these same people who get so upset when taxpayer money is used for health care or child care or helping to feed people or whatever it is, they get so angry at that. But then Trump grifts billions of dollars from the system. He moves all this money from the national parks that are to upkeep our national parks. And he moves them so that he could do these pet projects in the White House. He moves them into these other ridiculous pet projects that you see him doing all over the place. He's burning money like crazy. All of a sudden all those people go silent. That's okay, that's perfectly okay. But spend one penny on the American people to make their lives a little bit better. Spend one penny to make people who need it most have an actual healthy, a successful life. Give them a leg up. And that's like the worst thing imaginable to them. And then you get those attacks ramp up in the right wing media. Oh, Mamdani, he attacked Benjamin Netanyahu. He hates Jews. That must mean he hates the Jewish people. No, actually Benjamin Netanyahu is a very right wing, autocratic leader who is like the Trump of Israel, if not worse. That is somebody who deserves criticism and condemnation. And they just constantly are doing these distractions to try to get communities angry at somebody who's actually the first individual, one of the main kind of prompt individuals right now, who's actually using his role, his power to actually try to do good by people who are often looked over by the people in power.

[Unidentified Co-host or Contributor]

It's just so important too, Brett, as you lay that out so astutely there. It's just like we need leaders in this country that are actually going to lead. Right. They're elected officials. Right. They should be putting their best foot forward to help the American people, like stop, start right there, period, end of story. But that when you get the Trumps of the world and the magas of the world who use their positions to grift, to line their own pockets as Americans are suffering. Quite frankly, it's so frustrating as it continues to play out right before your eyes. And all of those folks who are so eager to jump on Biden or jump on any sort of Democratic leadership or folks who are trying to actually, actually, you know, push the world forward in a positive way that's helpful for everyone. Just go so quiet. Just go so friggin quiet. When Trump griffs, what, 2, 3 billion off of his crypto scam. It's the craziest thing to me how you have those people who had voted for Trump twice, three times, whatever, who say, you know, I, I don't like his, his, you know, I don't like how he behaves. But hey man, I'm a, I'm a fiscal conservative. I'm a fit. That's a load of shit. That is a load of shit. You wanted them to do. You wanted Trump to do the I thing. You, you wanted him to start ripping rights away. You wanted Trump to be just this maniac, like that's what you're rooting for. You're not a fiscal whatever. You're, you're an asshole.

[Jordy]

And the reality is, you know, when I, when I look at it like, I'll be, you know, perfectly blunt about what I think these people think. I think they think that anyone who isn't as rich as them are lazy and that they're useless and that they don't deserve any help and that the government should be helping the people who are already doing well because they view it as these people, people are contributing to society and these people are not. So why would we give these people health care? Why would we give these people child care? And they're able to convince even people who would be helped by these things that it's bad for them. They're able to convince them of this by doing these culture war issues to say, hey, look over there, that's one way to do it. Another way to do it is also to make them feel like they're actually not a part of that class, right? That they are actually speaking about those other people, those lazy people. You're actually going to do great, you're going to make a lot of money under this Trump regime, so just hold out. But these other people, these lazy people, they don't deserve any of this. They don't. We're going to rip away their Medicare and their Medicaid because they don't deserve shit. But you, you're going to be rich. You're going to be good. Don't worry. The golden age is coming. Everything is good. Trump's about to make you a lot of money. It's the endless scam right now. That's, and it's been going on far before Donald Trump, but it's way more obvious now than it's ever been, been. And I think you have to kind of realize that that's what's going on when you're watching Fox News or when you hear Donald Trump speak or any of those allies or a lot of people who are making the laws, writing the laws of this country.

[Ben Breton]

It's right around the corner. Don't just you wait. Right when they say 20, 25, it's like the appetizer.

[Unidentified Sponsor Voice 2]

Two weeks, two weeks.

[Ben Breton]

It's the banquet, it's the this. It's all teed up.

[Brett]

We were going to do it, but

[Ben Breton]

then the Democrats to control Blame, blame,

[Brett]

blame, blame, blame, blame, blame. Come on, we need us.

[Jordy]

We were about to do it.

[Brett]

We were about to save you. Then they screwed it up. They're, they're the ones ruining it. They're the ones who bring us back into power. Don't you see the cycle? I think people are waking up.

[Ben Breton]

I think people are opening up their eyes. I think people see it and I think that's why right wing oligarchical power structures are very, very, very nervous right now. Right, let's take our last quick break of the show. Reminder, make sure you pre order WTF America? That's the book I wrote with my brothers. If you're thinking, well, I'll just wait until it comes out in October. Our publisher says the pre orders are really important, so consider buying it by the pre order right now. There's a link in the description below. There's the QR code. The book's called WTF America. It's very helpful if that book is purchased before the publish date on October 20th.

[Brett]

So pre order it today. All right, let's take our last quick

[Ben Breton]

break of the show. We will be right back after this quick break.

[Jordy]

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[Unidentified Sponsor Voice 1]

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[Unidentified Co-host or Contributor]

let's go. I love the idea of partaking in some indicloud and then enjoying some Wild Grain. If you like those sponsors links in description of both the YouTube and the audio, use the links, use the code. If there's an exit survey, let's get

[Jordy]

the order to do it.

[Unidentified Co-host or Contributor]

Do you guys hear this? Deep breathing. It's not me this time. It's really so my dog. Go, Melo, rush up. Oh, Melo, come back. He was. He's been sitting next to me the whole podcast and he is just like, I. He must have just been running around outside right now.

[Jordy]

He heard about that wild grain and

[Ben Breton]

he started salivating, you know.

[Brett]

Yeah, stuff, man.

[Unidentified Co-host or Contributor]

I was just, I was getting really concerned. I'm like, I hope people don't think it's.

[Jordy]

I was getting hungry listening to it. So I totally get it.

[Unidentified Voice (possibly a clip or guest)]

Totally.

[Ben Breton]

I want to just remind people when Brett was talking about drums steam catapult plan, like, what that was all about, because just think about where we started this episode, talking about Donald Trump's horrific treatment of our sailors and Marines aboard the USS Supercarriers in the Persian Gulf right now, and our troops generally also, who were previously positioned in the bases in the Middle east, who were in those containerized living areas that were repeatedly hit by Iran in response to the US Strikes, and then they suffered serious traumatic brain injury, which the Trump regime categorized as minor injuries when ballistic missiles hit by their little containers that our service members were living in. But we know the horrific conditions on the super carriers, right? So if you were a leader, right, who cared about our troops, wouldn't you come out and say, look, we hear you, it's unacceptable. I'm going to get to the bottom of it, and I want to personally make sure that we direct all of the attention that we need and we're going to address it. Don't you think that's something that they would say?

[Brett]

But he did make an announcement.

[Ben Breton]

He didn't come out publicly, but he did make an announcement that we learned about regarding these super carriers. And Wall Street Journal got the scoop. Trump directed the Navy to tear out a complex system for launching fighter jets from its aircraft carriers and instead go back to using steam catapults, a move Navy officials have fought for years and will likely cost billions of extra dollars. U.S. officials say Trump signed a national security memorandum today directing the change, which would involve removing the electromagnetic catapult system used by the ships in the Gerald Ford class of carriers. As Senator Mark Kelly said, I've launched off the front of aircraft carriers hundreds of times, have a master's degree in aeronautical engineering, and I am a test pilot and even I wouldn't suggest to the Navy how to engineer specific systems on its ships. Donald Trump should stick to what he knows best. Ballrooms, bankruptcy, and bullshit. And, you know, those are.

[Brett]

Those are powerful words, though, by someone who's an expert. He goes, I'm an expert in aeronautical engineering. And just because I think it's not, therefore it is, we need to understand what the needs are. It's the same thing Trump wants to

[Ben Breton]

build right now, a battleship.

[Brett]

A Trump class of battleships that look

[Ben Breton]

like ships from the 1920s through the

[Brett]

1930s, but have nuclear capabilities in a

[Ben Breton]

current military environment where we have drone warfare drones, drone interceptors, unmanned submersives.

[Brett]

And once again, the United States military

[Ben Breton]

ran a war games exercise with Ukraine and tested our capabilities against Ukrainian drones, those FPV drones.

[Brett]

And within a matter of minutes, Ukraine wiped out the entire United States military

[Ben Breton]

during these simulations right now. And the United States military had to respawn, as they call like, a video

[Brett]

game, several times, and Ukraine would wipe it out again. And they've run these simulations and these

[Ben Breton]

war games numerous times.

[Brett]

And it's like Trump is taking our taxpayer dollars.

[Ben Breton]

He's giving it to Netanyahu. He's building battleships, and he's wasting our

[Brett]

money on all of these things. And we saw, you know, again, logistics, logistics, logistics, also that our ships don't

[Ben Breton]

have the food for our service members.

[Brett]

They're not being taken care of. And then these interceptors, which fire two

[Ben Breton]

interceptors at a time. Iran's been developing, developing more advanced ballistics and shahids.

[Brett]

Iran has studied what's going on in the United States.

[Ben Breton]

They recognize where the vulnerabilities are, and they launched a very sophisticated plan, knowing also that Donald Trump is stupid and that he's an idiot. And we ran through all of our

[Brett]

interceptors and we ran out of weapons. From 2016 to the present, we've put over $10 trillion or close to $10 trillion in military service spending.

[Ben Breton]

We could have had universal health care. We could have had free education.

[Brett]

We could have had affordable housing. We could have had better infrastructure. We could have had so many things. We flushed $10 trillion down the toilet for nothing. For nothing. And we squandered all of this, and

[Ben Breton]

we are weaker than ever.

[Brett]

You have Putin right now in an island that's claimed by Japan, claiming that

[Ben Breton]

this is Russian territory threatening Japanese sovereignty. You have a MAGA leader in Japan right there. You have Taiwan running drills right now, preparing for a Chinese invasion. China's never felt more emboldened and stronger than it is right now. Remember, that guy, Elbridge Colby, the number two at the Defense Department, who was all like, we're gonna decouple from China.

[Brett]

Now he's begging China to be allowed

[Ben Breton]

to visit, and they don't want to allow him to even show up.

[Brett]

Like, you're the guy who talked about decoupling at a time attacking us.

[Ben Breton]

All it took us was one maneuver.

[Brett]

We didn't even play multiple chess moves.

[Ben Breton]

All we did was withhold rare earths

[Brett]

for a brief second. When you threatened to do a tariff war against China and we tanked your entire stock market, then you had to

[Ben Breton]

chicken out and make a deal or

[Brett]

pretend you're making a deal. So then China agreed. You know what? We're just going to buy half the stuff we were buying under Biden and Trump's like, 13 million metric tons of soybeans. We did it. Mission accomplished, everybody. And China's lab is like, we. We're buying half the amount. We've diversified, and now we're buying from all the other places you were attacking, like Brazil and all these other areas. And. And you're acting like you did some major deal while we're not doing any of it. And we control the rare earths, so we have to pay attention to what's actually going on right here across the world.

[Jordy]

World.

[Brett]

And it's one of the reasons also why I think, you know, when you're, when you're, when you're reporting on the news the way we do, you got to be good listeners also. I mean, when it comes to our court, when it comes to our court report, and we read through all the documents, the footnotes, but you got to be a good listener. One of the issues with this Trump regime is, you know, and this is an issue of authoritarian in general throughout history, is they. Is their malignant narcissist. I know everything. I know everything I know about the environment, I know about. About this.

[Ben Breton]

I don't like windmills.

[Brett]

I like coal. I mean, everything the guy says is wrong. Like, quite literally, tariffs is a beautiful word. That's what made us rich. No, it. No, it didn't. And by the way, who's getting the tariff refunds now? The corporations. $180 billion, $200 billion being refunded to corporations. That's going right to their bottom line.

[Ben Breton]

Inflation rose.

[Brett]

We, the consumers had to pay. It got passed on to consumers.

[Ben Breton]

Now the companies are making record windfalls, getting money from the government while they

[Brett]

passed it on to the consumers. And they keep their prices high, by the way. And. But Trump's Like, I love tariffs, I love coal, I hate windmills. The stupidest stuff, too. He's like, you know, in China, they don't use windmills. It's like, yes, they do. What are you even saying? Yes, they do.

[Ben Breton]

They do use windmills in China.

[Brett]

They don't do solar. Yes, they do. They do use it, and they're doing. No, they don't. Yes, they do. I mean, how am I even having a stupid debate with you? Of course they use wind more than anybody. They use solar more than anybody. What do you think?

[Ben Breton]

Talking about.

[Brett]

But, like, everything he says on everything is wrong. I like battleships. Okay, okay. Well, I, I, There's a lot of things that I like this. You know, you don't make decision making. I like chocolate. You know, I don't eat chocolate every night. I mean, what are we talking about? You know, it's, it's, I, I like catapults. Okay, you like catapults, okay. Do you know about aeronautical engineering? Do you know about any of these things? And meanwhile, you know, you've got Iran in the war. You know, they, they had these F5s. These, these fighter jets from the 1970s fly 50ft and just drop bombs, you know, on, on our bases in Kuwait. It's just one of the things, fundamentally, as I watch all of this is like, I'm, and I see Trump in the little, you know, cafeteria container box. It's like, it's like, damn, man, he's. It's like a loser. You know, we should never have authoritarians, but, like, also, if we were gonna have one, like, man, why is our guy such a freaking loser and so pathetic and so weak, and it's embarrassing. Let me be clear. I don't want any authoritarian leader. It's just like, it's just edge is like, what in the hell, you know, is even going on here? And so, anyway, I want, I would love to know what our audience thought

[Ben Breton]

about my interview also with Professor Morandi,

[Brett]

and I wanted to show a brief portrait portion of that, because I think that we have to develop an understanding of what's going on in Iran, you know, because Trump will be like, they're bankrupt. Everything is terrible there. They're begging us. We control horror moves. And it's like, stop. That's not what's happening. They're going to greet us like heroes, me and Netanyahu. No, they don't. They don't. They see the genocide in Gaza. They see obliterating Lebanon and this mass slaughter there. You know, they were never to, going, going to the CIA warned you that

[Ben Breton]

this was not going to happen.

[Brett]

What are you talking about? You know, and so you listen, we need to get data. We need to understand what's happening in Iran. And this was a profound conversation that we had, I think for 30 minutes. And Professor Morandi was like, look. He's like, look, Ben, in Iran, even right after the 12 day war in 2025, the people, you know, were looking to the West. They were looking, looking for, they were starting to get skeptical and were skeptical

[Ben Breton]

of, you know, the government here.

[Brett]

And they were thinking about, you know, you know, changing it up. And they weren't sure, you know, what

[Ben Breton]

was, you know, the direction that this country was going to go.

[Brett]

And he's like, right now, though, the energy, right now, it's like every worst fear about the United States has been confirmed by Trump's behavior. Everything and everybody now has this posture, we need nuclear weapons, weapons now. Because look at what's going to happen. Look, Kim Jong Un has nuclear weapons. Maybe we need to have nuclear weapons now. You know, we, and so the, the view of resistance in Iran is so

[Ben Breton]

much more emboldened right now.

[Brett]

And everybody should go back and watch the interview. Let me just show you a small

[Ben Breton]

portion, then I'll, then I'll throw it over to you.

[Unidentified Voice (possibly a clip or guest)]

Something that I have also experienced personally. It's anecdotal, but some of my students who, who previously were very critical, if not hostile towards the Islamic Republic because they believed the Islamic Republic was unwilling to deal with the United States and to do a deal with the United States, their views changed dramatically. And so, and another thing is that although it's not really the number one topic nowadays, but before the 12 day war last year, I think roughly half the Iranian, half of the Iranian population believe that Iran should have nuclear weapons. But now even, and that's the state and government officials have always been saying that we do not need nuclear weapons. And they were always explaining why we do not need nuclear weapons. And yet now, according to the polls that I saw two, three months ago, a very strong majority believe that Iran should have nuclear weapons. So what Trump has done is that he's shifted Iranian public opinion toward, I think a small minority believe, a small major majority believed back then that we shouldn't have nuclear weapons. But now a strong majority believes that we do need nuclear weapons. So Trump single handedly has convinced many Iranians that Iran should develop a nuclear weapon, despite the fact that the government, the leader, political parties for the most part are still saying we, we shouldn't pursue Nuclear weapons, at least for now.

[Ben Breton]

To watch the full interview, it's on our feed. I suggest you watch this. It was 30 minute. I think it was a good discussion.

[Jordy]

Yeah, it was a good discussion. I thought it was, you know, enlightening. Obviously, he had, has, you know, his perspective, make no mistake about it. But, no, everything he said there is is backed up by the data. That's what the data is showing. It's that what Trump is doing has actually turned any of the people who may have been willing to support the United States in any sort of objectives or mission or to want to at least play nice with the United States have kind of become, you know, radicalized, I guess you could call it, in a way, because of Donald Trump's actions. And I think, I think, you know, people need to understand the, you know, kind of unintended consequences of actions, like when Donald Trump bombs schools and when Donald Trump tries to level cities and makes threats to end an entire civilization and, and everything the United States does in the region, it causes a reaction to that. And, and that reaction is, most of the time, not going to be favorable to the United States. And if you're looking at this from a purely objective point of view, via the objectives of this war, it's been a complete and utter failure. And it's actually driven Iran now to think, well, we should do what North Korea is doing. We should, we should be arming up, we should be increasing our nuclear capabilities because they wouldn't have messed with us, they would have never bombed us if we had nuclear capabilities. I mean, I'm telling you, that's what they're thinking right now. And they are thinking, you know, there were certainly people who are thinking that before, but now the percentage of people are, are who are thinking that. It's just, it's, it's drastically changed and it's really all because of Donald Trump.

[Unidentified Co-host or Contributor]

You think, you think bombing a little girl school motivates Iran to, to look for peace? I mean, come on. The decisions that the Trump regime has made along the way, where we are now, it leads me to believe that there is no way that this war ends under Donald Trump's presidency. There's just, there's just, he, he is too manic, panic of a quote, unquote leader. There is absolutely no stability, nor does he have the right people in the rooms making the correct decisions other than being his yes men. So to me, yeah, obviously, in my opinion, of course, Iran's going to look to double down on their nuclear programs because of how Donald Trump has been handling this war. The guy, the guy's been a maniac. And I think there was at one point potentially opportunity for peace. But Donald Trump's decision along the way have so domino effect this into a situation that just feels like, I don't know if we'll ever get like, it just genuinely feels like we will be in this war forever. And I, I don't know how we get out and I especially don't know how we get out under a Donald Trump presidency.

[Jordy]

Well, with Trump's current posture, you know, we're not going to because Trump can't even abide by his own memorandum of understanding and he's not trustworthy. You know, one of the things Trump said also when he was on the, the tarmac in that footage, we don't have to play the clip, but Trump was going on and on and on about how, you know, the issue with dealing with these Iranians, the issue, they lie and they change what they want and you don't know what they want and they just lie to you and they lie about what's actually going on. You know, I wish that, I wish I could say he was telling the truth, but he's the liar. Unfortunately. Unfortunately, the President of the United States is the guy who's been lying to us about the, this war based on objective data that we're seeing every single day. And this is, this is what he does with everything, right? Ben was speaking about the windmills before. Ben was speaking about how he hates windmills. So therefore windmill energy is bad and needs to be eradicated. And any country that uses windmills, they're idiots, right? They're, they're loser countries. China doesn't use windmills. When China is the top windmill producing country in the entire world. When he's speaking about battleships and he's, I, I like steam, I like battleships, I like this, I like that. That's great. I don't care what you like. Like, let's look at what the data actually is. And you know, I guess my one kind of sign of hope is, you know, we don't have control of this war because Donald Trump unfortunately is the commander in chief. But when you look at a topic like, you know, windmills and clean energy and stuff, what, one of the things that I find interesting is that even these red states are pushing back on Donald Trump. And this is a, kind of a really fascinating thing that's happening because you see on the one hand, Donald Trump and Republicans talking a big game like we hate clean energy, get rid of it. But then you look at one of the reddest states in the country right now, Utah. They have now for the first time ever generated more electricity from solar power than any other energy source during the month of May. The data just came in, and they produced nearly one third of all the electricity generated in their state, edging out natural gas. Coal felt the third place. So think about Donald Trump's rhetoric. And the thing I love coal. Coal's amazing. I love this. But think about what people are actually doing when they see the benefits of what actual, you know, science tells you, what actual data tells you, tells you. And so people in Utah right now are actually using clean energy at the highest rates they ever had. They're saving money. They are actually getting more jobs because of it. A lot of people who didn't have jobs are now getting these new jobs that actually last for the future. So, like, it's not even like a clean air issue here. It's new jobs, it's new investment, it's stronger economies. Like, there, there are all these other things that we're being held back upon because of this guy's kind of stupid outlook and myopic outlook on the. When there's actual hard data out there that actually kind of tells you in a clear cut way what to do, how to actually chart a path forward. And that's the thing we're missing out on. But you see when you remove Donald Trump from the equation, like in this Utah situation, when he's not touching that, all of a sudden you see even the red states are going to do what they're most incentivized to do. And in this case in Utah, that's build solar energy. And so you see how Donald Trump, Trump right now is the barrier to so much progress. But you remove him, you get people who are actually concerned about their interests, not Donald Trump's interest. And I know that's hard in this environment. You get a much different situation.

[Ben Breton]

Yeah, I want to, I want to bring up two quick points. I just want to give to that point just a brief legal update. Number one, hat tip to Katie Fang. We did a whole hot take on it. Watch the video. Make sure you subscribe to Katie Fang's YouTube channel. Channel. The short of it is the federal judge has basically ordered the Trump regime and the Trump DOJ to do a, to, to produce a redaction log and to give the timeline of when they will be producing the redaction log. The Trump regime sent in this, like, inexperienced person who works at the Justice Department who, like Took the fall for Todd Blanche didn't know what he was talking about. And, and Katie Fang's lawyers were like, all right, we want an order to be signed that basically says the redaction log is going to be produced and when it's going to be produced. So Katie Fang's lawyers get to prepare the order that compels Trump's DOJ to turn over the redaction log. So 5 million documents that are being withheld, each one, one by one, has to be logged. Those notes regarding allegations against Donald Trump that were in those FBI 302 reports. Underage girl made allegations against Donald Trump. Trump denies it, but there's an FBI 302. There were handwritten notes that the Trump DOJ didn't produce. Well, those are going to have to be produced. And then the Trump DOJ turned over a binder to try to prove why people who appear to be co conspirators and the perpetrators are claiming to be victims. And so the judge says, I'm going to look at this, but I'm very skeptical of your claim.

[Brett]

Claims.

[Ben Breton]

It's a federal judge named Judge Sullivan who's previously not been afraid to issue contempt orders against the DOJ in connection with the case against Senator Ted Stevens. He's passed away in 2010. But there were criminal charges against this Alaska senator. The charges were eventually dismissed after he was convicted because of DOJ misconduct. And this federal judge was the judge who held the DOJ in contempt. Then individual lawyers and I'm not afraid to hold you in contempt. Contempt referring to the new lawyer for the DOJ as well as all the DOJ lawyers that are there. So this judge is threatening to hold the DOJ in contempt and making these major orders. I think that's a really big deal. Very big development there.

[Brett]

And, and what else?

[Ben Breton]

Oh, the other quick legal update. Other journalists I want to give a hat tip to the Intercept and Freedom of Press Press group sued Truth Social saying that it violates the Constitution, the First and Fifth Amendment, that Donald Trump is charging money for preferential access to his social media posts because it deprives journalists of the ability to report in real time on what's happening in our country while giving preferential access to Wall street firms who want inside information to trade on Donald Trump Trump's social media posts. Trump media lost $270 million in the last three months or for their last quarters. Their Q2 results was like, it's like a 250, $270 million loss. So they have a new CEO, the new CEOs like our big business line is going to be charging Wall street firms $100,000 a month for access to Trump's social media posts to get preferential access. And it's a permit month. There were 10 firms, I think, that bought access to this to be able to trade on Donald Trump's social media post.

[Brett]

It's sick.

[Ben Breton]

But the lawsuit takes a first Amendment,

[Brett]

fifth amendment angle, and I think it's a powerful lawsuit.

[Ben Breton]

And so other journalists stepping up and

[Brett]

fighting, you know where I think we

[Ben Breton]

need to have these fights. So we'll be following that lawsuit, of course, as. As well. So I wanted to round that up and make sure I covered up. We touched a lot of base.

[Brett]

All right, pre order WTF America? You can pre order it now.

[Ben Breton]

Google WTF America. Hatchet's our publisher, but order it right now.

[Brett]

Is.

[Ben Breton]

It's like under the Hatchet, you know, label, but it's. You could get on Amazon.

[Brett]

What'd you say?

[Jordy]

Hachette.

[Brett]

Hachette.

[Unidentified Guest or Expert]

Is that.

[Ben Breton]

Oh, Hachette. Hachette. Pre order right. A Grand Central is the. Is the. Is the publisher, you know, it's the main publisher. Is Grand Central under Hachette Ben Breton.

[Brett]

Make sure you get us from me

[Ben Breton]

and my brothers, we dedicated to you. Order it right now. The pre orders are important.

[Brett]

Thanks for listening.

[Ben Breton]

We appreciate you. We're grateful for you. We know we covered a lot, but I think we had to cover all that. Thanks for listening.

[Unidentified Co-host or Contributor]

Shout out to the Midas mighty the

[Unidentified Voice (possibly a singer or chant leader)]

might as mighty Standing strong

[Brett]

against the fascists we sing our song.

[Unidentified Sponsor Voice 2]

Before you go, our book WTF America is available for pre order now. It's the story of how we got here and how we fight our way back. To pre order, scan the QR code or click the link in the description.

[Ben Breton]

Let's do this, Sam.