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- [00:02]
Ben Meiselas
This episode is brought to you by Netflix.
- [00:03]
Brett Meiselas
From the co director of Shrek and.
- [00:05]
Ben Meiselas
The visionary behind Toy Story comes Spellbound, a magical new animated adventure starring Rachel Zegler, John Lithgow, Jennifer Lewis, Nathan Lane and Titus Burgess. With Javier Bardem and Nicole Kidman. When a powerful spell turns her parents into monsters, Princess Elian must journey into.
- [00:21]
Brett Meiselas
The wild to reverse the curse before it's too late.
- [00:24]
Ben Meiselas
Watch Spellbound only on Netflix November 22nd. In times of chaos, I see opportunity. What I see when Donald Trump's at the UFC event or when Donald Trump is doing all this propaganda to this day and still whining about the election that's now over, I see weakness. For those listening on audio and those watching though can see it. You see Donald Trump and Dana White and behind them, MAGA Mike Johnson, the Speaker of the House, doing this like weird pointing gesture to Donald Trump at ufc. I see weakness right here and I see the media trying to cover for him. The American people are not buying this. The American people, first off, by and large, not like Donald Trump. But it was a very close election. I think those who did support him did not believe there should be some co presidency with Elon Musk and RFK Jr and Bloody Mass deportations, even though Donald Trump said that that's what he's going to do. And as Donald Trump assembles this chaos cabinet of mass destruction where I think 38% of the cabinet has sexual assault allegations against them, the American people see what's up. And my advice is very simple. Do not obey in advance. Do not surrender. Hold the line. Support democracy, support the Constitution, stay true to yourself and stay true to the founding principles of this country. That's what we're always going to do here on the Midas Touch Network and on the Midas Touch podcast. And it is sad to see shows that I liked, like Morning Joe with Joe and Mika announcing early in the morning that they went to Mar a Lago to reset and improve and improve their relationships with Donald Trump. Donald Trump then went on Fox and he boasted and bragged how Joe and Mika kissed the ring, bent the knee. That's what Donald Trump did. It's absolutely pathetic. Absolutely pathetic. You're never going to see that happen here. It's my. It's my promise to you might as mighty. That will never happen. We will hold the line. We will support and defend our Constitution and our democracy. And as I said in an article I wrote earlier the day, until they throw me in a gulag and put the tape around my mouth, it's Got to be double tape if they're going to really try to silence my voice. We ain't going nowhere. We will always be by your side. Let's bring in Brett and Jordy. And on that note, we are going to be having a Patreon Zoom meeting as soon as this live ends today. It's patreon.com Midas Touch P A T our eon.com Midas Touch for those who miss it, we're going to record it, we're going to post it, and we're going to do Patreon Zoom meetings more frequently. It's important in times like this, we all stand virtually shoulder to shoulder in solidarity together. Brett, Jordy, how you doing?
- [04:00]
Brett Meiselas
I'm doing well. As well as could be, at least. I like that you said that at the outset, Ben. And, you know, maybe it's, you know, naivete, maybe it is the fact that we didn't come from the political world and have these political connections and we weren't going to these parties that Joe and Mika are going to and doing the whole thing. But it's just baffling to me how you could just throw away your values and really all the things that you've been saying and at least pretending to believe. And I've liked their show. I've liked them. I thought they've done a very good job, which makes it almost hurt that much more to see, you know, one of the kind of lone voices kind of left out there on, on mainstream media buckle like this. And we're just seeing a domino effect right now of all of these organizations, quite frankly, Newspapers, cable news channels go across the board of them shifting, you know, their departments, of them changing their coverage in order to try to court Donald Trump. And it is just a very ominous and a very grim sign. And, you know, I am proud to hold the line here at Midas Touch and, and with the Midas mighty. And, you know, they could, you know, this administration could do what they want, but we are not going to stop fighting here. We are going to stick to our values. I think, you know, after this election, there, there's been a lot of people who kind of want to, like, throw it, throw away your values. Right? That's been a whole thing. We need to totally change what we think. No, I don't think so. We need to stay true to our values. We need to be authentic to our values, and we cannot waver from those values. That is the most important thing. That is what is more important than any candidate. That is what is more important Quite frankly, than any political party. You need to stick true your values and you need to support those who identify with your values. And we're always going to do that here at the Midas Touch Network. Jordy, checking in. How are you doing?
- [05:51]
Jordy Meiselas
That's perfect, B. Because, you know, it's one of the things I sort of live by. People will inevitably let you down. Case in point, Joe and Mika, I mean, oh, just feels like the ultimate betrayal, honestly. I know for all our, you know, going after, not going after, but just trying to hold corporate media accountable that we do on this show. Morning Joe was like the last show that, like I got up in the mornings with my baby and I would feed them and I'd watch their morning show. And for them to do that, it is truly the ultimate betrayal. Like, I feel like I've been cheated on by a significant other. It's really that painful. But one of the things that I always live my life by is that people are going to let you down. But values, ideals and principles, you know, that could be your North Star, your guiding principle. And I know that's what we do here at the network, unapologetically pro democracy. We let that lead the way. And not an individual, you know, person or people, but those values that we stand behind. Benji, what's going on?
- [06:51]
Ben Meiselas
I think to your point there, what we focus on here at the network are leading with values and principles as opposed to leading with people worship. Right. Unlike maga, which is exalting people and personalities. And frankly, the way corporate media treats things like a horse race, which is the best horse in the race. That's never how we cover things. Here are our values and principles. We're not sacrificing those values and principles. People can meet us at those values and principles, but that's not going to budge. And I think that's a very important distinction. And Jordy, kind of more to your point right there. You know, the expression from Forrest Gump, stupid is as stupid does. I'm less cynical perhaps of people are going to let you down. But I think corporate media is as corporate media does. Can't expect someone to get a corporate media check necessarily and pursue that type of coverage.
- [07:53]
Jordy Meiselas
It's a good point.
- [07:54]
Ben Meiselas
And then sometimes expect that they're going to buck the trend when the trend for them has always been to follow the bucks. And I think that's what we're seeing there, unfortunately. But I again view this as a moment of opportunity in darkness. Because, Brett, to your point, I don't want to do postmortem stuff. But this was a close election, despite everybody are trying to say mandate. No. Donald Trump didn't even clear, I think like 50%. When all said and done, this will be one of the closest elections in American history. But what Trump did, the Pied Piper of fraud, the Pied Piper of lying, right, he went and micro target this group, that group, micro targeted this group and just lied to them, right? He told the Muslims, let me sign you. Oh, you want me to sign your, your peace, your, your peace thing? I'll sign it. I'll sign your little peace plaque and we'll put it on the wall. I'm gonna do that. I'm gonna have Mike Huckabee become the ambassador to Israel who believes that a Palestinian state should never exist ever. So that's what I'm going to do with you. Then I'm going to go to this group and I'm going to say this. Then I'm going to go to this group and say this. Then I'm going to go to Nevada and I'm going to say no tax on tips. Despite the fact that when Donald Trump was in office, his policy was no tips. That your tips are actually owned by your boss, not owned by you. That was Trump's policy at the Department of Labor that Democrats up. So he went group to group to group and he found a version of kind of Trump at that group. Someone who was gonna put themselves above the people. And oftentimes in groups, unfortunately, they're taken over sometimes or held hostage by certain types of demagogues who put their own self interest. So Donald Trump will bring union leader X to go to Mar a Lago and take that photo with the long red tie. Meanwhile, Trump appoints the judges who just this past Friday, Judge Jordan, not my brother Jordan, federal Judge Jordan in the Eastern District of Texas struck down a Biden rule that would have given 4 million Americans overtime. Guaranteed overtime if you make under $58,000. The Biden department of labor rule is that you get overtime pay. So when I would see a lot of these events, I would see people wearing union workers for Trump. I'm like, wait a minute, you're voting against your wages, you're voting against your collective bargaining rights, you're voting against your overtime. Like you realize you're voting against those things, right? Like it's not a close call. When Donald Trump was in office, he appointed the most anti labor people to the Labor Relations Board. And what does that mean? That means if you have grievances, you don't get to grieve them. You don't get to put them before the board because they take a very anti labor stance. Say goodbye to your overtime. Right. Like what do you think they're going to. Trump's not only going to not give you no tax on tips, he's going to try to take away your tips again because that's what he did. They're going to try to take away your overtime rights. And why do you think the billionaire oligarchs ultimately went and supported this guy? Because they don't want to pay. They'd rather have 75 private jets instead of 73 private jets if that means paying you less. That's their mindset. But we here at the Midas Dutch network, as Jordy, as you said, we're going to lead with values and principles always. And that's it. I don't care. I don't know. Is it going to be what it's going to be? The people are our stakeholders here. All right, let's talk about some of the stuff though, that Donald Trump is rolling out. Trump and his allies are now discussing how are they going to overhaul Medicaid and take away food stamps in their legislation that's going to bring massive tax cuts for the billionaires, for the billionaire class. So in order to try to offset the enormous cost of their tax cuts for the wealthy, Trump's advisors working with the Republicans in Congress, Maga, Mike, they're in discussions about cutting Medicaid, Social Security, which they call entitlements because for them, billionaires are entitled to get all of the benefits and we the people are not entitled to anything. We're viewed as being greedy for asking for overtime and very basic things. So that happened. Also we're learning now what there are more women coming forward against Matt Gaetz, who Donald Trump nominated as attorney general. I think there was talk about a third woman talking about sex with underage girls. A third person. Like multiple victims of Matt Gaetz. We're seeing Elon Musk and Donald Trump. Elon Musk parade around like he's the co president running things on the phone calls with Zelensky while also doing like, like anti Zelensky memes threatening the sovereignty of Ukraine while doing selfies with his thumbs up. You have Elon Musk talking about we the people should be inflicted. This is Elon Musk's statement with economic hardship. He says, he says if you want to fix America, we need to impose extreme economic hardship on Americas. Like what they have in Argentina where 53% of Argentinians are living under poverty right now. That's who Donald Trump and Musk think is a great leader. Also, Elon Musk responded to this post right here that calls for an extinction level event of United States government. He goes true, an E L E, an extinction level event of government. I just want you to think about that. And now as Donald Trump is also, you know, the way our government runs now is you post on X or on Donald Trump's social media platform. We don't do things like adults. It's all social media memes. Because Donald Trump has been responding to all these memes talking about the bloody mass deportations. That shouldn't be a surprise what Donald Trump's been saying at all of his events, bloody mass deportations. So over the weekend, the various kind of the Republicans from the from border areas, but specifically Republicans who I guess, you know, represent a lot of the Latinos for Trump who go, wait a minute, there's a, there's a family values exception. There's a, there's a vote Republican exception. There's a we're not criminals and terrorists exception. By the way, Biden, Obama, everybody agrees, Kamala Harris, that you deport and arrest terrorists and criminals. That's a given. Actually, Donald Trump wouldn't told the MAGA Republicans kill the bill. That would have helped enforcement to stop criminals from getting in. Donald Trump said we need chaos, we want the chaos. But now you have the MAGA Republicans in the House saying things like, well, I don't think this will work out well. If we're going to deport your abuelita or your tio or your tia, we're not going to do that here. This is MAGA Republican Rep. Tony Gonzalez on the weekend show. Listen to this.
- [15:54]
Brett Meiselas
Our message has to be one of.
- [15:56]
Ben Meiselas
Positive if we want to hold on to these gains. If the message is we're here to deport your abuelita, that's not going to work. Well, it has to be one of.
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Brett Meiselas
Holding these hardened criminals.
- [16:05]
Ben Meiselas
But that is, but that is the.
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Brett Meiselas
Message from the Trump administration.
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Ben Meiselas
They are doing mass deportation. Pack your bags. You heard Tom Homan say that. Now, they have said they will deport criminals first, but they've also said everyone else, there are 11 to 13 million undocumented workers in this country.
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Brett Meiselas
So how does this work?
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Ben Meiselas
How do you convince them to let.
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Brett Meiselas
People who are picking fruit stay?
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Ben Meiselas
Now, I don't exactly see it the exact same way. You know, months ago I reached out to ICE and I asked for empirical.
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Brett Meiselas
Data on how many convicted criminals are.
- [16:37]
Ben Meiselas
In Our country, the number is hundreds of thousands, more than 600,000. It's absolutely mind boggling. So how do even round them up? How do you have the manpower to even do that? That's where we need to focus. We need to focus. I'm talking about the convicted criminal aliens that keeps all Americans safe. Fred, I want to toss it to you, but I want to comment on that interview because she made the argument for Trump. Like if you see what she did there, what she was doing there, she was like, well, they did say that they would start with the criminals and the terrorists. And then it. And then the question devolved into he kind of got the tip. And he was like, well, that's what we need to focus on, the 600,000. And they lost. No, they're coming after Abuelita. They're coming after Tio and Tia. Donald Trump said. Donald Trump made up a number, a hundred million. He said that there's a hundred million people because that includes people who were born here lawfully, who he's going to denaturalize. So even there, Brett and Jordy, the conversation gets warped into let's, let's say what we think Donald Trump means versus just say what he's saying.
- [17:50]
Brett Meiselas
Yeah, I mean, Trump has been extremely clear about what he wants to do. He's even went as far as to say that he wants them to be bloody mass deportations. He has said this out loud at his rallies, which is why it so kind of frustrates me when you see all of these kind of Republican politicians and you see a lot of these voters now also who are kind of having a little bit of regret about their vote or they're getting worried about their own families. They kind of try to put their own positions onto Trump, which ironically are often like really kind of the Democratic positions, but they try to like project their own positions on Trump, like, oh, he's not going to come for me. He's not going to do that. He's not going to get rid of that government program that helps me. He's going to provide my state with that government aid that we want. I'm telling you, he is absolutely not. Please listen to what he says and not try to make him into the person that you want him to be. We saw Donald Trump just this morning respond to a tweet from Tom Fidden. That's the non lawyer who gives Donald Trump legal advice, who wears the very tight fitted shirts. And Tom Fidden wrote good news reports are the incoming a real Donald Trump administration prepared to declare a national emergency and will use military assets to reverse the Biden invasion through a mass deportation program. And Donald Trump responded in all caps true, confirming that he plans to use the military, turn the military against the people in this country. There would be nothing that would so more distrust between Americans and the military, our government as a whole, than sending the military into cities, into towns to rip people out of their homes and deport them. But it's clear that that is what Donald Trump wants to do. And this is also one of the reasons, quite frankly, that Trump's lies are so vicious and why they're not just, oh, look, he's exaggerating again. Oh, look, Donald Trump is going to use false pretenses in order to try to carry out his agenda. You see it right here in this Tom Fitton quote where he says is prepared to declare a national emergency in order to invoke the military. There is no national emergency. Are there people here who don't belong here? Sure. Is there a national emergency? No. In fact, border crossings are down now compared to where they were at the end of the Trump administration. So there is no national emergency. Donald Trump is using that as a pretext, as he does with all of his lies, in order to achieve his aim in this case, bloody mass deportations through the use of the United States military. And I'm also sick of all the kind of fake shock out there when you see, you know, some of these Republicans and some people in the media that are like, I don't understand, how.
- [20:29]
Ben Meiselas
Could he pick Matt Gates? Matt Gates.
- [20:31]
Brett Meiselas
Matt Gates is an alleged sex criminal. Matt Gates allegedly sex trafficked women.
- [20:36]
Ben Meiselas
How, how could he possibly pick a.
- [20:37]
Brett Meiselas
Person like Peter Hexith?
- [20:39]
Ben Meiselas
How could he pick just the entertainer.
- [20:41]
Brett Meiselas
Who'S on Fox who, who also has a. Some allegations made against them? Do you know who your guy is? Like, how could the incompetent guy who's going into the White House, who has been held liable for sex crimes of his own, go out there and pick people who are basically made in his image? It's the same person. Like, that is what we're getting here. And that's why we're seeing just the incompetency fill this administration. And incompetency, that's dangerous. And that's why the term that's been being thrown around a lot, and it's one that we brought up on the show years before this administration has even come into focus, is that term cacastocracy, which I, which I've thrown out here now for the past four years. Which is what the Republican Party is. That is a government that is led by the least and the least competent people among us. And that is the government we see Donald Trump putting together, a government that doesn't want to actually lead, but just wants to burn everything down. And that's what Donald Trump is doing by putting people in charge of these various departments.
- [21:42]
Jordy Meiselas
What you're also seeing, too, is just an immediate buyer's remorse from a lot of Latino for Trumps, a lot of Arab Americans for Trumps who believe these promises. Instead of taking Trump at his word or at his post. You see the Arab American community, for example, in Dearborn, Michigan, who's very frightened for what's going to happen over there. And that's because they didn't take Donald Trump at what he was actually saying. They didn't see past the clear lies that he was filling them. And now all of a sudden, they're. They're feel for their families.
- [22:18]
Brett Meiselas
You know, to your point, Jordy, there, there's a cognitive dissonance, right? There is a cognitive dissonance among a lot of Trump supporters. And these are a lot of like, cuts to the sort of swing voters, people who may have voted for Obama, people who, this is their first election and they thought Trump was cool, whatever it is. And we talked to folks on our staff who have friends who, you know, voted for Trump, for people who are in Gen Z. You know, people we're always asking, like, what? So what do they think about this? What do they think? Now we're trying to, you know, gather some kind of anecdotal data on our end about what' going on. And the thing that kind of always ends up coming back to us is what he's not going to do that.
- [22:51]
Ben Meiselas
The deep.
- [22:52]
Brett Meiselas
He's not going to do the two portes. He's going to be good for the economy. He's going to be great for the economy.
- [22:55]
Ben Meiselas
Watch.
- [22:56]
Brett Meiselas
He's going to be great for the economy. Businessman, business businessman. It's like, didn't we try these arguments last time? You've ran the economy into the ground. I like, where are you even getting this stuff from? We were headed for a recession even before COVID He was like the worst for the economy. He crashed the stock market before. He lost more jobs than like any president ever. He was the second president other than Herbert Hoover to leave with fewer jobs than when he entered. And you have this just delusional view that he's going to just be perfect on all the things that you care about. And he's going to keep your Social Security and keep your Medicare and keep your Medicaid, but he's not going to actually go after the media and he's not going to actually round up people and throw them into camps or prisons. Oh yeah? Then why are the prison stocks going crazy right now for the private prisons who know that they're about to receive an influx of migrants from the country and get them thrown in there? There's a reason all of this is going on and it's time for folks to stop deluding themselves and actually listen to what this guy says and what he does.
- [23:53]
Ben Meiselas
I'm excited to meet with everybody, with my brothers as soon as today's show ends at patreon.com Midas Touch so there's a secret link, a zoom link where you'll get to go to a meeting where we'll be hosting it. Myself, Brett and Jordy, we're going to be doing these significantly more frequently now than we did before because I just think it's more important than ever that we all hang out together and that we feed off a positive energy. So patreon.com Midas Touch make sure you sign up. We'll be right back. After our first quick break, we got a lot more show.
- [24:34]
Brett Meiselas
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- [25:40]
Jordy Meiselas
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- [27:22]
Ben Meiselas
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- [28:59]
Jordy Meiselas
Let's go shout out to our pro democracy sponsors links in description of audio and the YouTube use the links, use our codes, let them know we sent you. Black Friday is coming up. Cyber Monday. All of that fun stuff. There's a lot of great deals. Litter robot will make for excellent holiday gifts. Same with Miracle Made sheets. Check them out.
- [29:14]
Ben Meiselas
A plus stuff. Benji Brett, to your point, even before COVID hit, there was a manufacturing recession taking place. And I guess with COVID there are some, you know, the men in black wand that gives some collective amnesia to what was actually taking place. But all of Donald Trump's promises, his lies about bringing back factories to here, bringing factories to there, he'd show up with golden shovels and say, we're building this plant. It was just lie after lie after lie. And that's what was happening. There was quite literally a manufacturing recession and the country was heading into a recession. And then Covid hit. But it's not just something that comes out of nowhere, as I always like to say, it's called COVID 19 because it happened in 19, in 2019. So capable and competent leadership would have recognized it and talked to us about it. When in 19. That's what Obama would have done. That's what Hillary Clinton would have done. Right. That's what someone like Kamala Harris would have done. That's someone. That's something that Biden would do. Sometimes we have to hear the good, the bad and the very, very ugly so we can all prepare so when something hits, there isn't cataclysmic and catastrophic consequences and people don't know what to do because nobody is prepared for it. Even when it hit. Donald Trump called it a hoax. He called it a hoax. He said like a miracle, it was all going to go away. And you all remember the stories about the Chinese Weather balloons and other weather balloons that were going over the United States kind of early on in Biden's presidency. It was because Biden was transparent about it, and we had a plan to deal with it, to call out China to learn from it, but not to hide it. Right. Those balloons were going up when Trump was in office. But Trump and his administration, they covered it up because the same way their view is, I guess you can't have more cases if you don't test for it. Their whole view about everything. And this has been Trump's entire life, basically, you scam, you con, you lie to people, and then you pretend that it's not happening and you just ignore it and you present another reality. And then people go, well, who would ever lie to me like that? Trump and all these magas, that's all they do is lie and lie and lie. So a point that I made at the beginning of the show, which bears repeating right now, is Trump did not even get a majority of votes in this election. He didn't even clear 50%. So stop this nonsense about a mandator. This is one of the closest elections ever in presidential history. What Trump's campaign did, as I call him the Pied Piper of fraud and lies, he went to the different states and he said what they wanted to hear. Vice President Kamala Harris talked to aspirations to the future. She talked about plans and policies, but people wanted someone to be blamed and they wanted to be promised the world. And Trump said, on day one, before I even take office, if I were to win, I will stop the war in Ukraine. Remember, he said that, he said, he said. And by the way, that's one of the things, too, that corporate media just doesn't report on. Trump said. And the promise has been broken already. The lie, Duh. He goes, I'm going to call Putin and I'm going to call Zelensky. I can't tell you what I'm going to say to them, but I'm going to tell Zelensky, I'm going to tell Putin this, and then they're going to stop. Well, Donald Trump leaked to the Washington Post that he spoke to Vladimir Putin and he told Putin, don't you escalate. Right. That was the article that people were talking about. Trump comes out strong. Well, what did Putin do? Putin said through the Kremlin's state media, pure fiction. Never even had a talk. Day after day, Putin has been using Russian state media to show nudes of Melania. By the way, remember 30 days ago or so when Melania was talking about how much she loves her nudes. Remember she like randomly made posts about that because that's what she wanted to talk about in her book. But she said, my nudes are so artful. I wonder if in her own mind she was thinking that, you know, Russia was good, but whatever, I don't want to go down that rabbit hole. But nonetheless, they keep on showing the nudes of Melania. Think about that. Donald Trump can't even protect his own wife, right? Donald Trump saying, I'm the protector of, of, of women. I'm g. Just be clear to all the Trump supporters out there. As a man, Donald Trump's out there saying, I'm going to protect your wife because you can't do it. While, while Putin is showing nudes of Donald Trump's wife and mocking him. I just, I just, I just want to speak very clearly to you. Like y'all, y'all get what's going on there, right? And Putin has escalated, Putin has escalated more right now than really since the beginning of his unlawful invasion, which then required President Biden to allow Ukraine to use American supplied missiles in certain areas that are technically now part of Russia's territory. Because after the phone call, very powerful phone call I had with Vladimir Putin, very powerful. Well, North Korean troops have now amassed more on the Russian border and now President Biden is helping Ukraine deal with that situation. Notably too, what we're seeing as well is nations like Poland and Japan and others saying, well, we got to develop nuclear weapons now because we can't rely on American support. So the only deterrent is if we develop a nuclear arsenal. So already what we are seeing, before Trump's even stepped foot in office, remember, everyone's like, oh, he's going to end the war. She says, he's going to end the wars. We're already seeing now nations acting in their self interest, saying, well, if America's not going to support us, and if America's going to apparently let Vladimir Putin show nudes of their leader and mock them, while a co president named Elon Musk is out there doing memes, mocking a President Zelensky mocking an ally, I guess we have to develop nuclear weapons too. And so we're seeing that take place right now. And here's the thing, we need to just speak clearly to the American people about what's going on. Democrats love talking about process and over intellectualizing things. You got to just speak plainly and clearly about what is taking place. Putin is alpha in Donald Trump right now. For all the alpha talk, Putin is showing nudes of Donald Trump's wife. And what's, what's Trump doing? He's having his co president mock Zelinski. You don't get weaker than that. And by the way, if you think the markets are going to react positively to Matt Gates and to Tulsi Gabbard and to RFK and to all of these psychos, because that's what dangerous psycho. I, I gotta tell you, the markets don't like that. The fact that there are economists already predicting 75% chance of recession right now. We have to, we have to talk candidly and honestly to people about that. And when we're talking about the Matt Gaetz ethics report, I don't want to hear about the process. I want to hear about what Republicans are doing covering up child sex trafficking potentially. That's what they're covering up by not releasing. They don't think that the people. The report's done. They don't even want to release the report. They want to hide child sex trafficking. That's, that's the religious right, that's the conservatives, that's the evangelicals. Huh? Talk clearly about these things. By the way, when you have Trey Gowdy, a MAGA Republican who led the Benghazi hearings to attack Hillary Clinton, when he's out there on Fox saying the following, we as pro democracy, as freedom loving people need to understand that sometimes you may have an ally like this in an unlikely place on a discrete issue and not be purists and recognize what's happening here. Let me show you Trey Gowdy. Play this clip. Yeah. The overwhelming majority of his picks will sail through because they were grand slam. But to Molly's point, you don't root out corruption at the Department of Justice by picking a corrupt person to lead it. So Matt Gaetz, either the report comes out and he's not going to be the Attorney General, or the report doesn't come out and he's not going to be the Attorney general. The problem, Brett, is all the good picks. John Lee Radcliffe, Elise Stefanik, Lee Zeldin, Mike Waltz, all the good picks. Nobody's talking about those right now. They're talking about this wild card pick of someone who had to get out of the House to avoid being sanctioned.
- [39:04]
Brett Meiselas
By the House Ethics Committee.
- [39:05]
Ben Meiselas
That dumbfounding pick is just sucking the oxygen out of all the good ones he made. You are referring to the situation with the report in the House Ethics Committee. The wild thing is, what are they? Yes, but they could also be referring to Donald Trump's Secretary of Defense pick Peter Hep, who apparently had some financial arrangement with an alleged victim who accused him of sexual assault back in 2017. I mean, could you be talking about RFK Jr when RFK Jr was asked about sexually harassing women, he remember his response. He was, I. I did stuff in the past. I don't know, whatever. Really? That was his response when he was running, I don't know, you know, a nanny. I can't tell you. Maybe. Who knows? Maybe I did it. That was his response.
- [39:54]
Brett Meiselas
Brett, I can't emphasize how Trade Gowdy is not in the so distant past. Was the James Comer of the House back then doing all the Benghazi stuff. So to see even him saying, like, hold up a bit, like, this is a little not so great. I mean, that should raise some absolute red flags here. But, you know, Trump is just showing such weakness right now, and our adversaries see it, our allies see it. And I think one of the dangerous things, Ben, is what you brought up before, and this is something that I think is really not getting enough attention, quite frankly. I didn't even hear about it until you were reporting on it earlier today, which was the fact that our allies right now are rushing to try to figure out, do we need to be making nuclear weapons of our own in order to defend ourselves? And to me, that kind of thing is horrifying because, you know, like it or not, America, in a lot of respects, the United States is kind of the glue that holds the free world together. And when we abdicate our responsibilities, there is then a vacuum of which needs to be filled. And it could either be filled by our adversaries, like Russia and China, or it could be filled by our allies who now have to realize, oh, shoot, we need to be doing something to counteract the Americans who are being isolationist now and are not, you know, rising up to the task. And that's what we're seeing from this Trump administration.
- [41:15]
Ben Meiselas
Look, it's worse than isolationist, right? It's pro adversary. You know, it is. It is. You know, isolation alone, you know, would be bad given the historic leadership of America. But we're finding this situation where America's leaning into helping, you know, enemies and calling people who are trying to help the country and trying to help the world enemies, enemies from within. You know, we. We did this. I wrote an article about this. I called it the Authoritarian Loop. And what Trump's tactic is and what we need to recognize and push back against is, you wonder, well, how is it that, like Saddam Hussein Builds themselves these palaces and while people are suffering, well, it's the same way. And we show these graphics of Massachusetts versus Oklahoma and we're saying why is it that in Oklahoma when they're the last in every category, vote exclusively red against their interests. And we contrasted that to Massachusetts which voted all their districts exclusively blue, which wealth, health, education, you name it. Massachusetts is like top three and all of these things. So how do you have this paradox where one's totally blue voting in their self interest because wealth, health, education, all these metrics are good. Yet you see a state the exact opposite, that's the last on all of those categories, continue to vote against their interests. What's happening there? Well, they create the enemy. The enemy is the libs, the Dems, the migrants, the this, the enemy within whatever this ambiguous thing is. And then your entire agenda, whether it's like Huckabee Sanders in Arkansas, whether it's Abbott in Texas, who can't even keep on the electric, you can't even keep on electricity. If people vote the guy, you can't even keep on the lights. And then they lie and they're like, but do you see what's happening in California? There's constant blackouts there. No, I live in California. That's not, not true. What's happening in Texas ain't happening here in California. Could there be better things in California? I'm sure they're, you know, I'm sure they're good, but that ain't happening here. It's the exact same rhetoric that North Korea uses to talk about South Korea all the time. Right? You would think that South Korea is North Korea based on how North Korea propaganda is. That's never really, that type of tactic. Hasn't existed in the United States to affirmatively make your fellow American the enemy. And as the, you know, as the authoritarian attack the enemy from within. That's their playbook right there. And so I called this out in the article I wrote and I talk about it here again, not to inspire fear, but I view a way out of the authoritarian loop if we could recognize it. I fear after four years, if the resistance is weak or non existent, there's no going back. We've crossed the Rubicon into authoritarianism right now. Let's be very clear eyed about what happened. But to me, if it stopped now, there could be generations of progress equally, there could be generations of worst of the worst of the worst things. That's at least an opportunity. To me and Brett, perhaps when you said maybe we're naive, maybe we're glass half full. I just say I'm a fighter. We're going to talk in the next segment about people who are not fighters. And all I'm going to tell you is we're going to fight for you. We're gonna fight for you until they silence this thing. But I ain't stopping. We ain't stopping. This network ain't stopping. I know the might is mighty Ain't stopping. I'm looking forward to chatting with everybody as soon as this ends. Patreon.com Midas Touch There's a secret zoom link there. We're going to be doing a lot more of these meetings when the live ends. Click it. If you don't get let into the room right away, don't worry. We're probably just setting it up, so don't worry. You know, if it's like, wait a minute, I thought this is going to start. It'll start once you click the zoom link. We'll be right back after our last quick break of the show. You may assume that you're getting everything your body needs from your diet or simple green juice, but I recently discovered that most people, including myself, are still short on essential nutrients. Our bodies need to function at our best. So I've been taking momentous creatine, omega 3 and protein daily to ensure that all, all of my bases are covered. These three supplements support nearly every aspect of my foundational health, from aiding my cognitive function to reducing inflammation in my muscles and joints, just to name a few. My Momentous Daily protocol has become a staple in my health routine and makes the perfect addition to other wellness products that are part of my toolkit as well. 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- [48:36]
Jordy Meiselas
This show is sponsored by BetterHelp. This month is all about gratitude. I'm personally so grateful for the Midas Mighty, especially this month. And along with the Midas Mighty who I just shouted out, there's another person that we don't get to thank enough, and that's ourselves. It's sometimes hard to remind ourselves that we're trying our best to make sense of everything, and this is a crazy world that isn't easy. Here's a reminder to send some thanks to the people in your life, including yourself. Therapy is helpful for learning positive coping skills and how to set boundaries. It empowers you to be the best version of yourself. And it isn't just for those who've experienced major trauma. If you're thinking of starting therapy, give BetterHelp a try. It's entirely online, designed to be Convenient, flexible, and suited to your schedule. Just fill out a brief questionnaire, get matched with a licensed therapist, and switch therapists anytime for no additional charge. Let the gratitude flow with BetterHelp. Visit betterhelp.commidus today to get 10% off your first month. That's BetterHelp. H E L p.commidus Shout out to our pro democracy sponsors links in description of YouTube and audio. Use the links user codes and let them know we sent sent you the Trey Gowdy moment. I purposely sat out the last segment because I think you guys spoke about it perfectly. And really the only thing I wanted to add was that he just always reminds me of Mr. Mackie from South Park. Okay. So I wasn't gonna just throw that in there after.
- [50:10]
Brett Meiselas
His face is like the opposite shape, though. It's very skinny as opposed to.
- [50:13]
Jordy Meiselas
But it's. But it just, it just reminds me like I'm seared in my brain every.
- [50:18]
Brett Meiselas
Time I. I do. Gotta say congrats to QAnon. I guess, like, what a run you've guys had. From going after the deep state and the shadowy billion and the child sex traffickers to putting those people in power. We got Donald Trump, Jeffrey Epstein's best friend as president. We got Matt Gaetz running for Attorney General right now. We got all these people. We got Elon Musk, either. Whatever. I thought you were so fearful of the shadowy billionaires pulling the strings.
- [50:43]
Ben Meiselas
Pulling the strings behind the scenes.
- [50:45]
Brett Meiselas
These unelected bureaucrats, the deep state, we're.
- [50:47]
Ben Meiselas
Going to get them.
- [50:49]
Brett Meiselas
What do you think is going on right now?
- [50:51]
Jordy Meiselas
Movement of all time?
- [50:53]
Brett Meiselas
I mean, if you view it by what they say. But I always thought it was a front to do exactly what they're doing right now, a cover for these people. And instead of going after these people, I mean, could you imagine? I mean, this is just like it. The absurdity, you know, just is going into the election.
- [51:12]
Ben Meiselas
You know, it was like, all right, we've got audio tapes, okay, From Jeffrey Epstein.
- [51:18]
Brett Meiselas
Okay.
- [51:19]
Ben Meiselas
From 2017.
- [51:21]
Brett Meiselas
All right, I'm listening.
- [51:22]
Ben Meiselas
Okay. That talks about him being like best friends with Donald Trump. Okay. Talks about, you know, Donald Trump and Melania going on the Lolita Express. He has, he has deep insight into the administration as though he was in communication with Trump. And we've got massive amounts of audio. Corporate media. Is this something that intrigues you in any way? No. Okay, what, what, what are you focused on here? Kamala's laughter. I think that she laughs too much.
- [51:59]
Brett Meiselas
When she made that argument on the town hall. It was A inverted pyramid structure when she probably would have been better served by a pyramid structure.
- [52:06]
Jordy Meiselas
Also not sure if you guys know. Do you guys know Biden's old? Like, you just know. He's like an older gentleman.
- [52:12]
Ben Meiselas
I just think the reporter dropped it at.
- [52:15]
Jordy Meiselas
For corporate media breaking news.
- [52:18]
Ben Meiselas
I think the reporter just dropped that. The one. The author who dropped that story. Like, I almost think he did it on, like, as part of a bet where he was like, all right, look, look, look, look. I got the Epstein tapes, okay? I'm gonna just release them and I'm gonna show you that it's gonna get no play at all. So here we go. I'm gonna release. I'll release the. I'll release some crazy ones right here, okay? And it's gonna be Epstein going all in on Trump. I'm gonna drop it, and I bet you X dollars that no one's gonna even care. And then he drops it, and then people are like, okay, but like, what are we. What are we talking about here? Like, we're gonna. We need to focus on. Kamala hasn't single handedly brought peace to the Middle east right now. And so why don't we. Why don't we spend the time blaming the person calling for the ceasefire as being more culpable than the person saying that he wants to literally have Netanyahu finish the job. Why don't we spend our time focused on that as opposed to Trump, Epstein. I bet you even Trump was like, all right, look, I'm gonna fly around in Epstein's jet too. I'm gonna. They're like, what? They're like, what? He's gonna be like, yeah, of all the planes that I could use to fly around in, I'm gonna go on the Lolita express. What? Just watch. I'm gonna fly around in it. I'm gonna make that my other main plane. And then nobody's gonna talk about it. And. And other than, like, us and maybe a handful of people, you know, Miami Herald confirmed it. You know, it's like, it's. It's like, no. No one's giving a cover. Like, you could have used any Gulf Stream, any Cessna, any Bombardier, any type of jet. I'm going with Jeffrey Epstein's.
- [54:12]
Brett Meiselas
What are the odds of landing on Jeffrey Epstein's old jet? I mean, at least he was familiar with the place. He was on it per the flight logs, at least seven times. But, you know, that's the craziest thing. And hey, I'm not saying that the election would have different results if they reported on the Epstein story. That's not what I'm saying. But the fact that a story like that, which is a major frickin story with tapes, with recordings of Jeffrey Epstein saying these things, saying, Donald Trump was my best friend. Donald Trump and I worked together, I helped find girls for tr. Like the stuff he said on recording, on tape, and they refused to run with it. And then you think back to, you know, 2016 and the coverage they did with Hillary and you just want to slam your head against the wall and be like, really? Y'all ran with that story with the, the, the comey drama and you did not even touch this. Only on the Daily Beast site did they show those tapes. And then we covered it here. And, and nothing on the cable news about this. They didn't do any reports. There was, wasn't breaking news headlines in the New York Times, not front page stories. And you know, I say that wouldn't have impacted the election, but when I speak about stuff like that, it's more like an overarching theme. And if you go back throughout the entire campaign, it felt like we were all always pushing against the, the headwinds of the corporate media who was constantly, even like the New York Times occasionally would have like the best story. Like, like their top notch reporters uncovered the most like unbelievable thing about Trump and what his generals were saying, whatever. And you'd look at the paper, you'd.
- [55:48]
Ben Meiselas
Be like, where is it?
- [55:50]
Brett Meiselas
It's not on the front page.
- [55:51]
Ben Meiselas
I thought this seemed to got a.
- [55:52]
Brett Meiselas
Lot of attention last night on social media. People were not on the second page. Oh, 15B.
- [55:57]
Ben Meiselas
15B.
- [55:58]
Brett Meiselas
Okay, what, what is on the front page? Oh, something critical about Kamala Harris because she didn't say things the way you wanted her to say it at the event last. It was one of the most frustrating things imaginable. And you know, I, I think that's also kind of the point, you know, because you guys know, and, and we've said this to people out there too. Like, one of the things that I, I do not like doing is criticizing the media. But they've been so bad that you have to almost. And I think our commentary about them has unfortunately been confirmed. Every time we see a Joe Scarborough situation, anytime we see a Washington Post type situation, it confirms kind of our worst fears about what was going on behind the scenes. And that to us is sad because I really want them to do well in those organizations, Washington Post and New York Times, and they all have really good reporters who are there who do really good stories. But they are being hindered by these billionaire owners and these billionaires across the country and across the world who have so skewed with our political system and this global environment like we are right now in the makings, if not past that, of an oligarchy here in the United States that's being run by Donald Trump and Elon Musk. You have Elon Musk, like we were speaking about earlier, following Donald Trump around everywhere, using his billions and billions of dollars to get Donald Trump elected. And now what is happening, you have this guy Brendan Carr at the FCC who Donald Trump is putting in to run the fcc. He's a big fan of Elon Musk's, he's a big fan of Starlink. Huge, huge Musk guy. You get Musk's handpicked regulator to regulate him. I mean, that is like the epitome of corruption that is happening right before us. And that's what we're going to see through this entire administration. Favor is being dished out to Donald Trump's friends. Tariffs put on people that are going to hurt certain businesses. And he'll write little exemptions for people like Musk, write little exemptions for his buddies who helps him. And that's another way that he's going to sort of build this blind loyalty around him by handing out these political favors. It's the epitome of corruption. And that is to be everything that the government does over these next few years.
- [58:06]
Ben Meiselas
You heard the expression that nature abhors vacuums. And I think that there is a vacuum of the truth, of evidence based reporting of people who truly believe in these values and principles and who are going to fight for it. I mean, that's why our stakeholders in this network are you. We've built this brick by brick. You've been with us on this journey. You know what we're reporting and we've kind of, we've been on the journey together. If you go back and watch videos of me, Brett and Jordy from a few years ago, sometimes I watch it and I'm like, wow, that wasn't all that good. You know, and we're, we're, we're, we're working to always be better. You know, we'll, we'll make mistakes. You know, we're not going to be perfect. We will, you know, always try our best though, and, but we'll be guided by those values and principles. And so we're on this journey together. And I know that central to that journey is protecting and defending democracy. And look, I like, I like The Scarborough Show. I didn't want to write an article today that was like, condemning them. Like, I don't like, I don't like kind of that cheap shot stuff. But it wasn't a cheap shot. They went to Mar A Lago, they bent the knee, they kissed the ring, they talked about resetting their relationship and improving their relationship. And by the way, I think they announced it on their show because they knew that Trump was going to announce it, which Trump did right away on Fox. So they had to beat him to it by getting ahead of it and announcing on their show before Trump would be able to announce the meeting in the Trumpian way, you know, they try to gaslight about it. Well, you know, we're still going to be tough, but, I mean, you went to Mar A Lago. You went to Mar A Lago. If you want to be, you know, tough and honest, then report the truth. I mean, if you think that there's genuinely something that you think he's doing good at, that, you go report it. I'm not going to. You know, can I also say this?
- [60:17]
Brett Meiselas
I like Morning Joe. It's not like an invest. It's not an investigative journalism show. It's. It's not like they need to be embedded in the administration to find out the details.
- [60:26]
Ben Meiselas
It's such a good point.
- [60:27]
Brett Meiselas
They're doing commentary on the news. Like, there's, there's no need for them to have, like, the inside scoop on things. That's not what the show is like. I've watched the show. I've watched plenty of it. That's not what the show is at all. But they were there to kiss the ring because you probably had NBC execs, quite frankly, breathing down their necks.
- [60:46]
Ben Meiselas
Go.
- [60:46]
Brett Meiselas
And you see this guy who Trump's putting in the fcc. You see the threats that Trump is doing. Can you go, guys? Mika. Joe, you've been hard on him. Go there. You know, he'll like, he'll like the positive attention. Go there. You know, just like make it feel good. You know, say, say nice things to him. Say, say run a great campaign. Say you crushed it because we need that relationship. We can't be shut down. We can't be targeted. We can't be sued, we can't be prosecuted. So just make, go, go make nice because we got, we got to be making nice with this guy. And you have executives in newsrooms, quite frankly, all over the country who are doing just that. But right now, because they are all controlled by these billionaire owners who just want to curry favor With Donald Trump. By the way, if you want to read Ben's article that he wrote about Joe and Mika, you could read it@midasplus.com. that's our substack. It's just growing so tremendously. We're putting a lot of content on there. So check it out. Midasplus.com. that was a, a great piece, Ben. And we got a lot of other stuff over there. But this whole kind of billionaire oligarchy that we are seeing control our country, control our media, control our government, everything about it. That right there I think is the single most dangerous thing to democracy right now that we have now.
- [61:54]
Jordy Meiselas
It's exactly why, it's exactly why independent media outlets like the Midas Touch Network are so crucial to this moment of time. Right? Exactly what Bret just laid out. Therein lies the problem of corporate media. The corporate and corporate media playing these weird games behind tables and shaking hands and doing these dirty things. You know, damn. Damn the viewer, damn your law, your loyal audience. No.
- [62:20]
Ben Meiselas
Who?
- [62:20]
Jordy Meiselas
They don't care. They don't. You think they care? They wouldn't do that. They would if they cared. They wouldn't do that. That's ultimately what it comes down to because they have stakeholders that they have to report back to. They have these billionaire shareholders that they have to report back to. They don't care about the viewers, they don't care about you. But that's the great thing here about what we're doing in the Midas Touch network, the collective we here. We don't need them, we don't need corporate media, we don't need those corporate dollars. No, that's not what we're going to do here. We're going to build this thing, continue to do it bricks by brick with this incredible pro democracy audience, the Midas mighty and corporate media be damned.
- [62:52]
Brett Meiselas
Let me read what Fox be damned.
- [62:54]
Jordy Meiselas
Like I honestly, because, because it really hurts me. It really did hurt me hearing that and reading that today. It really did. Because they were the last ones in my eyes. They truly were the last ones that I could turn on and be like, okay, cool. What are they talking about? What is MSC.
- [63:11]
Brett Meiselas
Joy? I mean, you know, it's. They probably have three or four people left at this point. But let me just read this from Fox right this, because this is the Trump quote that this is what Trump had to say because Trump has to sort of like humiliate them for coming, right? He knows that they bent the knee and so he's got to turn Mika and Joe into like reek from Game of Thrones. And so you have Trump over here going that they, he, Trump said, they congratulated me on running a great and flawless campaign, one for the history books, which I really believe it was. But it was also a campaign where I worked long and hard, perhaps longer and harder than any other presidential candidate in history. It's just, it's, it's. The whole thing is just so incredibly pathetic. It really rubs me the wrong way. It's really upsetting to see our institutions, whether, whether it's the media or government, fold so quickly to this guy because we won. It's one thing to be tough when you think you're winning, right? It's one thing to be tough when you think you're going to defeat him, right? You could say all the nasty things you want, right? Say, say, tell the truth, you be unapologetic, right? Go on the air, you say those things, right? And then the second the guy wins, you're going to fold and you're going to be like, oh, everything's okay. Actually, I'm sorry. Actually, can we be friends, buddy? You know, it just, the whole thing rubs me the entire.
- [64:27]
Ben Meiselas
Wrong. You know, I leave everyone with two thoughts. So, first, some people may not know this about my background, but I represented Colin Kaepernick back in 2017 when Donald Trump had said to him, you know, get that SOB off the field. And then Kaepernick never really got a job ever again in the NFL. And, you know, my representation of Kaepernick was always also recognizing, you know, that his values and principles of peacefully protesting, you know, were as American as you get. And to not bend the knee to Donald Trump when he was basically saying, you can't engage in a peaceful protest just to bring attention to police brutality, which is a real thing. And, you know, in this moment, too, in these moments, like, this is where, you know, I think people show you who they are, you know, and were their values and principles really aligned with yours or were they just telling you what you wanted to hear, you know, when ultimately I believe, and again, perhaps it's because I'm a glass half full person, but that the arc of history is long and it's challenging and sometimes it's not the arc in the path that you wanted to go, but I believe that the arc of history points towards justice and progress so long as people don't give up. So the pledge I give to you is if you're looking for someone who's perfect, if you're looking for someone who's flawless, if you're looking for someone who always gets it right all of the time. I, I'm not your guy. Sorry I can't promise you perfection. What I can promise you is that each and every day I'm going to fight for you. I'm going to fight for democracy. I'm going to do my best to report these stories unless and until they shut me down and don't let me report these stories anymore. But that's what I'm going to do. I'm going to do my part, my small part each and every day because I recognize you. Sometimes you may hear in the background my baby girl, Jimena, 2 months old, crying in the background, smiling in the background, laughing in the background, feeding in the background. Sometimes right here, somebody don't even know I'm holding her. I'm holding her. Not in this show, but if you look at some of the other videos, you may see. But we got to leave our planet a better place. So it was heartening to me also with all the drama. I always said, I don't want drama. I want drama. People, you talk about simple things. Why I like Biden so much, why I liked him was not just because I'm like, I'm a Joe Biden fan or, you know, it's because, you know, here's someone who, who did it, drama free. So the media would attack that as sleepy. But I'm like, this person's just doing the job, doing the job. And here he was doing the job. First president in American history to be. And Brett, Brett here, he's in Brazil here.
- [67:43]
Jordy Meiselas
Yeah.
- [67:43]
Brett Meiselas
Amazon rainforest.
- [67:44]
Ben Meiselas
Amazon rainforest. First person talking about the climate. Let's watch this clip back home. I signed the most significant climate change law in history. A law that positions us to cut carbon emissions in half by 20. This generated $450 billion in new clean energy investments and that's created hundreds of thousands of good paying jobs and a manufacturing boom as well. Folks, we don't have to choose between the environment and the economy. We can do both. We've proven it back home. It's no secret. And I'm leaving office in January. I will leave my successor and my country in a strong foundation to build on if they choose to do so. It's true some may seek to deny or delay the clean energy revolution that's underway in America.
- [68:45]
Jordy Meiselas
But nobody, nobody can reverse it. Nobody.
- [68:50]
Ben Meiselas
Not, not when so many people, regardless of party or politics, are enjoying its benefits.
- [68:56]
Jordy Meiselas
Not when countries around the world are.
- [68:58]
Ben Meiselas
Harnessing the clean energy revolution to pull ahead themselves. The question now is which government will stand in the way and which will seize the enormous economic opportunity. There you have it. Powerful, powerful stuff right there. And, you know, I hope you've all been enjoying, I'm not sure if that's the right word, but, you know, we've been focusing a lot on climate here over the past several months. And I know sometimes that's a topic that just be. Some people like, oh, well, it's a little bit dense. It's one of the most important things that we can talk about, recognizing that climate change is real and making sure we take efforts to protect our climate. And in contrast, you know, Donald Trump has just put somebody in his cabinet, someone named Chris Wright, as Secretary of Energy, who is hostile towards climate change science. And I think saying hostile puts it very lightly. Right. Lightly right there. And what President Biden showed is that you can focus on the climate and focus on the economy at the same time. Actually, a lot of these jobs that were created after Donald Trump's manufacturing recession or jobs that also help the climate, the climate, you can do both. And President Biden led the way in that. It's something I appreciate about what he did. I'm excited to chat with everybody. Now is the time. You'll go to patreon.com Midas Touch you'll click the link, you'll enter into the Zoom chat. And for those who can attend it live, you should still join patreon.com Midas Touch because you'll see the conversation that we had. And we're going to do these at all different times. So maybe next week we'll do one in the morning or the afternoon. So this way, if you're in out of the country or if you're in a different state, we'll do different times so we can stagger different groups of people who can, who can be there and with us live. So we're going to do a lot more of these. It's important I spend a lot more time with everybody right now. And we see each other in addition to being on the pod. So, Brent, anything you want to say before we toss it to Jay? You're, you're on mute.
- [71:16]
Brett Meiselas
Got to get it. Turn the mic on for this. Right. You, your voice still matters. And your voice matters more than ever. And so, you know, if something's going the wrong way, make sure that your voice is heard. And actually, a lot of the climate activists and groups that I've talked to and that I've read from, they have said that they're actually, they actually remain optimistic about the future of our climate. And it's because of people rising up and because of the actual tangible benefits of these policies. Just think about, for example, a couple of weeks ago when Mike Johnson let it slip when he said, oh, yeah, of course, we're going to try to get rid of the CHIPS Act. We're going to get rid of the CHIPS Act. And what happened, instantly, that became a top story. A great journalist in Syracuse put that out there. People got outraged. And then people, even in these red states and swing states, whatever, we're all like, wait, you're going to take away my job? You're going to take away my job, my funding that came from that bill? Hell, no. And quickly, Mike Johnson was like, oh, no, no, we're not going to do it.
- [72:10]
Ben Meiselas
We're not going to do anything with that.
- [72:10]
Brett Meiselas
We're not going to do anything with that. Same thing that kind of happened with the Affordable Care act during the last Trump administration. Once people actually see these programs, once they appreciate these programs and see the tangible, positive impact they have on their lives, they do not want them to go away. So when they try to take them away, that's when you use your voice and use your platform, no matter how big or small, to get out the message, because you still have the power in these respects, as we've seen with that moment, with the Affordable Care act, with the CHIPS act, and we'll continue to see that. But we need people like you to speak up and to continue to protect our climate and all these other issues as well. On that note, I'm excited to see everybody. I really can't wait to chat in just a couple of minutes. We better get over there so we could set up the chat and I'll toss the jordy. Thanks so much, everybody.
- [72:57]
Jordy Meiselas
Shout out to the Midas Mighty, the.
- [72:59]
Brett Meiselas
Might as mighty standing strong song.
- [73:06]
Ben Meiselas
Against.
- [73:08]
Brett Meiselas
The fascist we sing our song.
- [73:13]
Ben Meiselas
We will get it right whenever.
- [73:17]
Jordy Meiselas
Hey, Midas Mighty Love this report. Continue the conversation by following us on Instagram at Midas Touch to keep up with the most important news of the day. What are you waiting for? Follow us now.