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My name is Shannon Maldonado. I'm the founder of Yaoi, a gift shop from the lens of artists and handmade objects. I chose Shopify because when I was testing other platforms it was definitely one of the most user friendly. It was important to me to think about where we would be in the future. All of the tools for reading your sales, like planning inventory, they're just right there on your dashboard. For anyone starting a small business, the biggest thing I can tell you is it doesn't have to be perfect. Shopify can help you build upon it. So start your free trial on shopify.com
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the World Cup Champion will be crowned this week and you can trade the tourney through the finals on kalshi, America's number one prediction market platform. Right now England is trading at 44% to beat Spain meaning 100 trade pays out 176 if they win. On Cauchy, you're trading against other people in a live market. No house, no odds makers. For a limited time, download the Kalshi app and use code hoops to get $10 when you trade $10k a l s h I kalshi trade the beautiful game 18 only restrictions and eligibility requirements apply. Event contract trading involves risk and may not be suitable for all investors. Prices values in available markets may differ from those mentioned. For more information see kalshi.com regulatory
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started Ornod in 2013 and we make bike apparel. The best part of Shopify for me is our ability to run the business as essentially non technical people. We're able to admin everything on the back end, front end and sell things things online easily. If Shopify were a bike accessory I think it would actually be the bicycle. It's the thing that you do the thing on. We run the business on Shopify. Start your free trial on shopify.com we
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have a major announcement we are making today here at the Midas Touch Network and I am so proud to be able to share it with you. First my brothers and I are releasing our first book. It's called WTF America? The Way out of this Hell and Back to Democracy. WTF America. That is how I feel every morning when I wake up. Wtf? How did we get here? How do we get out of here? And how did three brothers, me and my two brothers with no political backgrounds, with no background in journalism and how did we create the Midas Touch Network? Grow the Midas Touch Network into one of the biggest news organizations in the world, champion independent media in general, rally a pro democracy movement and Continue to fight, not just each and every day to make our days better right now, but to fight for future generations. And one of the things we talk about a lot in this book is you. It's the Midas Mighty. It is the power of the people and how the most important thing that I always tell everybody is listening. You have to listen to what the people are saying. You have to listen to what the people are feeling. You have to understand the pain that people are going through and understand the aspirations that people have, what people want for themselves, their community, for their kids and grandkids, for future generations. Generations. It starts with listening. And then you have to deliver. Not some political talking points. You have to deliver with action, with empathy, with love. You have to genuinely care. And that's a lot about. That's a lot what we talk about in WTF America. And so I'm not going to give away everything in the book, but we talk about how my brothers and I started the Midas Touch Network when we were on a text chain during COVID and we were all at home and we were worried and we just decided maybe if we put together, you know, our various skill sets, me as a lawyer and litigator, Brett as a top digital editor, Jordi as a top marketer, maybe we can just get out these messages into the world and we could, you know, do our best to see if there are other people out there who are experiencing what we're experiencing. And we found this incredible community with you, with the Midas Mighty. And we talk about that a lot in this book, WTF America? And then we talk about the growth of the Midas Touch Network. We talk about the future of the Midas Touch Network. But then we talk about what we cover at the Midas Touch Network. And we talk about how did this authoritarian fascist movement arise in the United States? How were the kind of preconditions and precursors kind of all building for generations to allow this authoritarian movement to rise? And as you know, at the Midas, I don't mince words. I called the Trump regime a regime. I make it very clear that this is an authoritarian and repressive regime, and I call it out. And so how did a regime that was filled with disinformation, lies and hate, how did it metastasize, expand and take power? And how do we avoid this in the future? Obviously? How do we fight it right now? How do we deal with it right now? But how do we get out of this constant cycle where you'll have a Trump break things and Destroy things and be the arsonist. And then when the firefighters come out to put out the fire, the arsonist blames the firefighter as though they are the arsonists. And I talk about the responsibility, and me and my brothers talk a lot about the responsibility of the media. And that when the Fourth Estate, you know, really revealed their true colors, when the Trump regime came into power, they showed what bootlickers they are and how they kiss the ring. And they would all go to Mar a Lago and remember that whole disgusting humiliation parade. That's who they always were and they always wanted to gamify politics. For them, this coverage is not life or death. It's a job. It's about access, it's about fame, it's about going to the White House correspondence and dressing up and acting all Hollywood, you know, and that's why when we created this, we showed, you know, what, we can speak to the people from our living rooms. We can speak to the people with my dogs barking in the background now with the love of my life, other love of my life, my little baby, you could hear her crying in the background. What I'm doing takes. But getting that information out quickly, getting that information out, accurately connecting with the community and, and building a true movement, an authentic movement rooted in you, rooted in the Midas mighty. That's a lot what we talk about in WTF America, the way out of this hell and back to democracy. And, you know, each of the chapters begin with, you know, WTF this, WTF that, WTF this, WTF that. And, you know, we talk about how Donald Trump, you know, engages in these kind of various scams, how he engages in the schemes, how the way America is being run into the ground is very similar to how Donald Trump bankrupted and ran into the ground, his businesses. You know, I draw on my background as somebody who was involved in some of the most high stakes litigation. That's what I did before the Midas Touch Network. I was a partner at a law firm and did high stakes litigation. I was in some of the biggest, most culturally significant and high profile mediations and negotiations where real deals were made, not fake deals were made. We talk about how my brothers draw on their marketing experience and Brett draws on his digital editing experience, how you can kind of translate getting out truthful information into modern mediums to get out information quickly. We talk about, you know, give an example of, you know, Donald Trump's constant cover ups, whether it's the Epstein files, whether it is quite literally everything that he covers up. We talk about in the book how the Reflecting Pool is. And I've always been, I've always been saying this, but every day it becomes more and more clear how, you know, the Reflecting pool is a perfect symbol of kind of all of Donald Trump's fraudulent schemes. Just paint it blue. Just paint it blue and everything will be great. And then when it doesn't, you scapegoat. You blame the vandals and they tore it and I'm going to prosecute them. And the grievance and the anger and the lies and the constant fraud and how, you know, just this paint it blue approach. And then when you screw it up, you find your target, you find who you're going to scapegoat. That's what Trump did with COVID That's what Trump's done his entire life. It's why he wants. Obama did it, Biden did it, this person did it, this person did it. And you know, at the end of the day, we need to be solution oriented. We need to figure stuff out. We need responsible adults in, in govern, in governance. And so we talk a lot about that as well in WTF America? You know, and what I don't shy away from is talking about, you know, leading with values and leading with principles and fighting for marginalized communities and fighting for civil rights, standing up for people, punching back against the bullies. Punching up, not punching down, just fighting, fighting for people, fighting for all people to be, you know, to be happy and live thriving lives. You know, I, of course, you know, there was always, early on, there was always people who were like, you know, can, can Ben and Midas touch be like the next Joe Rogan and Manosphere and all of this stuff? And I've always, I've always rejected that. Remember, just kind of from the very outset. And I talk about how this behavior that I observe from the so called manosphere of bullying, of mocking people, of lying all the time, you know, I was viewed that as like, that's when I grew up. That's the least alpha behavior out there. I don't know what the hell that even is. And you know, when I grew up, the bullies weren't the cool people. It was the people who stood up for people, was the people who. It was the people who, you know, spoke authentically and were truth tellers and, you know, and who made decisions and who didn't lie. I mean, to me, that right there, you know, was always the people I looked up to and I admired. And so, you know, WTF America is a broader theme than just, you know, Trump did this, Trump did that, Trump did this, Trump did that. And as we talk about, Trump is a vessel and we connect this to the international landscape as well. Trump is a vessel that we see played out when Orban was leading Hungary. We see it in Javier Milei in Argentina, we see it in Bukele in El Salvador. We see it, you know, in the rise of right wing, you know, ultra so called nationalist parties in Europe. I mean this, this is, you know, Trump is a vessel for this type of destructive thinking. And we talk about the landscape of how we went from, you know, this idea of liberal democracies growing with enlightened thinking internationally to how it's under attack by authoritarian forces right now. And that there are bigger issues even at play than just kind of the day to day politics which need to be addressed. But we need to get out of this loop. We need to reframe the arc towards freedom, to democracy, towards empathy, for advancing human rights, for protecting each other. And I talk about the existential issue of these oligarchs and often these right wing oligarchs who are out there constantly taking and taking and taking and beating everybody down and can never satiate their greed. It's always more, more, more, more, more, more. And how do we stop that? How do we get out of this cycle? How do we empower people? As my dogs are barking, they may have some ideas as well. So here's the book. Wtf The Way out of this Hell and Back to Democracy. I spent a long time writing this with my brothers. I hope you will enjoy it. You could pre order it right now. Check it out with the pre order. There's a link in the description below. You can hit the QR code above. Get your pre order right now. We're grateful for you. WTF America? WTF America? The way out of this hell and back to democracy. Hey, if you want the full story, how democracy got here and how we take it back, pre order our new book, WTF America Today. Just scan the QR code or click the link in the description. Let's do this,
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Sam.