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- [00:00]
Ben
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- [01:06]
Brett
We have a lot to discuss on this episode of the Midas Touch podcast. All hell continues to break loose in Minnesota and specifically Minneapolis and St. Paul, where the Trump regime has surged an additional 1,000 ICE and Border Patrol Gestapo to invade those cities. The cities are fighting back right now and they have filed a federal lawsuit and they are calling what is taking place by its correct characterization, an invasion. I mean, pretty powerful to have the state of Minnesota joined by the Twin Cities saying we are being invaded right now by the Trump regime. They're claiming it's for law enforcement or fraud, but it is to literally take over by force the cities and bring it to its knees. The people there are peacefully protesting and we've been working with our partners over at Status Coup to get you on the ground reporting exclusive footage documenting what look like war crimes, which is an invasion because they are crimes against humanity, taking place on the streets of Minneapolis and St. Paul. We'll cover that here on this episode. Donald Trump continues to threaten to invade Greenland. Apparently, according to multiple sources that spoke to the Daily Mail and other outlets, the Trump regime has ordered special forces to come up with an invasion plan. And now in response, you have the uk, Germany, France and others in Europe coming up with war plans to counter a United States invasion of Greenland, which would just rip apart. NATO should also talk about what's going on in Venezuela and the chaos taking place there. No, there aren't opposition parties celebrating on the streets. There's a vicious and brutal crackdown taking place by the authoritarian leader there, Delsey Rodriguez, who's just an extension of the Maduro regime, along with Deodatos Cabello, the enforcer of Maduro. And they're out there with, with their roving gangs, which in Venezuela is referred to as the colectivos, stopping people searching their phones. And if there's any pro America or pro opposition content, these people are getting tortured or killed and disappeared. And it's just fascinating is not the right word, but that, you know, this Gestapo paramilitary force in Venezuela as an arm of the authoritarian regime, the way the paramilitary ICE and Border Patrol are similar paramilitary of the authoritarian regime we have here. So we'll talk about Greenland, we'll talk about Venezuela. We'll talk about Donald Trump ordering the Department of Justice to engage in a criminal investigation of the chairman of the Federal Reserve, Jerome Powell. We've actually seen a number of Republican senators like Thom Tillis, Murkowski and others issue statements. They're very upset. They're very upset about this. But to be fair, the statement by Thom Tillis, the Republican senator from North Carolina, he states that he's going to be putting a hold and blocking any of Trump's picks for the Federal Reserve Board of Governors or Trump's pick of Fed chair unless this is resolved. Trump's weaponized attack on Jerome Powell. And Powell issued an unprecedented video response saying that he's being targeted because he is going by the data about whether or not to reduce interest rates or not, and that Trump has stated his intention to retaliate against him and that Trump wants there to be a fed that's not independent. And the words from Powell as well as a statement that came from most of the other chairs of the Federal Reserve, top Board of governors and former treasury secretaries from from both parties, Republican and Democrats. They compared what's taking place in the United States to what you see in corrupt, developing authoritarian nations where there is no independence over their central bank. So we're going to talk about all of this and more in this episode of the Midas Touch podcast. We've got a lot to discuss. And, you know, Brett and Jordi, one observation, though, stands out to me amongst many, though, also I think as we reflect on this time, you know, whether it's the markets, whether it's, you know, other leaders thinking that you can appease this guy and that, you know, his words don't matter and that he's not serious and this is how he trolls or, you know, this is, yeah, we'll get through it. And what am I supposed to do? You know, kind of either outright support complicity or just not taking it seriously. Ah, he threatened Jerome Powell, but he'll taco again. You know, Trump chickens out, and so we just have to wait for it to pull back. And it's really just an opportunity to manipulate the markets. And so it'll go down, but then it'll go back up. And, you know, we are directionally moving in the wrong direction and our institutions have so brutally failed. Fortunately, the people are standing up, as we see in Minneapolis St. Paul and across this country. But just an observation I wanted to make at the outset.
- [06:45]
Jordy
Yeah. Well, good to see you, brothers. Good to see you. Midas Mighty. I want to thank everybody for tuning in, whether you're watching live on YouTube or whether you're listening on the Midas Touch podcast on the various audio feeds. Man, I just got to say, like, after, especially after this weekend, I should say I am just so disgusted by the state of our country. And obviously, I think we've all felt that way now for the past year or so, but this weekend certainly felt like yet another escalation, yet another step towards autocracy. The only reason I say a step towards autocracy and not that we're in a full blown autocracy is that for the time being, we still have elections. And I'm counting on those elections actually happening. And I think they are going to be the most important elections that I want to make sure everybody gets out there and that you do your civic duty and you get out there and vote. But it is certainly a very concerning trajectory, to put it mildly. Um, we're seeing, we've been tracking what this regime has been doing now for the past year. We were warning about it during the Trump campaign, and I remember just everybody saying, oh, you're being hyperbolic. Why are you comparing Donald Trump's words to Hitler's words? Isn't that inappropriate? No, it's. It's not. And we see where Donald Trump right now is taking this country. We see these masked rogue agents, just these thugs being unleashed on our streets, these paramilitary forces that are being being used against the American people, against United States citizens. I am horrified right now at what I'm seeing. And I'm not going to sugarcoat it. I am looking forward to covering it all and exposing it here on the Midas Touch podcast. So to that regard, I'm going to pass it off to Jordy. Jordy, how you doing?
- [08:22]
Ron
I'm doing as well as anybody could be doing right now, I guess. What's up, brothers? What's up, Midas Mighty. I'm glad to be here. Quick note, hit subscribe to this YouTube channel if you're not subscribed already. Some people think you're subscribed, but you're not.
- [08:34]
Ben
Not.
- [08:34]
Ron
We are so close to 6 million subscribers on the YouTube. So hit that subscribe button. Look, I just want to start off with this in today's episode, Ben, before I send it back to you, I just want to give a shout out, man, to all of the peaceful protesters in Minneapolis and quite frankly, everyone who is everywhere taking to the streets in response to the murder of Renee Goode, you know, at the, at the hands of those ICE agents, man. But we have just got to get back to a sense of a shared humanity in this world. And what the protesters taking to the streets are showing is that they are going to have their voices heard no matter what. You know, that, that what this Trump regime is doing is wrong, to put it lightly, and that we the people are not going to be intimidated or backed down from bullies. And that's exactly what this regime is. They are a bunch of bullies. I think the theme of this episode actually is going to be not backing down from bullies. Whether it's Jerome Powell or Mark Kelly or we the people, we do not back down from bull you.
- [09:34]
Brett
It's important that we document what's happening and it's also important that we take action. But often I hear people say, well, what else are you going to do than just report on it and document it? And I say that is an important function. And then we also have to provide a platform and uplift the incredible voices and community organizations and leaders who are actually fighting for we the people who are fighting for you. Now, one of the things that was very important for us to build out at the Midas Touch network that I think you're seeing us implement a very meticulous plan that we've had. And for those on our sub stack, midasplus.com you know, I've been talking about this plan for some time. Last year was about launching internationally Midas Canada and further increase in our infrastructure. At the beginning of this year, we wanted to make sure we had a reporter on Capitol Hill asking the politicians the questions that you want answered. Specifically, Pablo Manriquez is now working with the Midas Touch network. He's doing an incredible job. And the question that he's been asking politicians, which I believe is a clear line of how we need to hold democratic politicians accountable. And anybody in general is, do they support more funding for ice? And if they support more funding for ice, I think that's an immediate disqualification to run for the presidency of the United States, to run in a primaries, to run in general. At this point, you can't fund this terroristic organization. You can't. They are a rogue paramilitary force under the direction of an authoritarian leader. So Pablo has been out there asking that question to everybody from both parties. So you can hear the answer. And that's not a question that's really being covered in any other outlet. The other. And by the way, Pablo's there asking a lot of other questions about the Epstein file, cover up and everything that you want answered as well. And then separately, we've developed a partnership with an organization called Status Coup. And it's been so important for us to uplift them, to try to get them a million subscribers, because they have on the ground reporting in Minneapolis and St. Paul, and they've been going around city to city where ICE has been making its surges. So whether it's the surge in Charlotte, Charlotte's web was at Operation the Midway Blitz in Chicago, the attacks on Los Angeles, the attacks on Portland and throughout the country. The folks at Status Coup have been in all of these locations. And when you watch it, it is like a wartime reporter covering an invasion. The reporters from Status Coup, they've been attacked with pepper balls, chemical agents, flash grenades. They've been hit, like on live coverage. And you see them getting attacked as the ICE Gestapo attacks peaceful protesters. The protesters aren't escalating, the ICE and Border Patrol Gestapo. And now we're out there documenting that. And we have that with the Status Coup, the Midas Touch Status Coup partnership to bring you. We do lives where we show you five hours, six hours, seven hours, we work with Status Coup to get your reporters on the ground. And then I like to do recaps the next day that break it down in about 15 to 25 minute clips to document for you what's really taking place. I just wanted to emphasize the importance of documenting what's taking place so that the propaganda that is being spread by this regime is met with the actual receipts of what's taking place. Because this regime uses the Nazi propaganda, this regime uses the Putin propaganda. They weaponize things that would certainly pull at your heart. Like, oh, what we're really trying to do with ice, what we're really trying to do with Border Patrol, it's not just stopping the Somali fraud, they create that boogeyman but that boogeyman ain't working anymore. They realize, so what do they go back to? Sex trafficking. And that's what the Trump regime was saying this weekend. Kristi Noem over the weekend, Caroline Levitt earlier today, the regime sends its propagandists out and they say, well, why would you be against our ICE officers? The reasons that there's so many of them out there is we're stopping the sex traffickers. So are you pro sex trafficker? This is how the Magas weaponize the Epstein files against their political opponents. And it's not unique to maga. This is an authoritarian playbook tactic. We see it used by Orban in Hungary and guess what? Orban's regime in Budapest at their prison for children turned it into a child sex trafficking ring there. And there were lots of protests saying the regime is the one covering up the child sex trafficking going on within its prison system for children. But they came out or bond with the same rhetoric, the same playbook anti immigration, and they're going to be the ones who to save the country from the child sex traffickers. And the playbook worked for the authoritarian because they're such sociopaths that there's no low to what their lies will be about. And it's often covering up what they themselves are engaged in. And they know to most human beings those words resonate and are convincing because it's like, oh my God, you're here to save that and people are against you stopping sex trafficking. Oh my gosh. And then you on the other side have to argue against their sociopathic demented argument, which is something that they're not doing. And it's hard to argue against a negative and they take it on such an extreme level that you are left stuttering in a debate. And so when you set up these debates, whether it's the debates that these right wing podcasters want to do on the fight shows that they do on cnn, the construct of the debate always lends itself to the sociopathic authoritarian because they're spewing lies versus you on the other side having to show the truth. And then the viewers left going, I don't know, one side wants to stop the sex trafficking and the other side's arguing that they're not doing it. Do you see why they. And all the while they cover up the largest child sex trafficking ring in world history with the Epstein files, which is what's going on right now. So I want you to take a look at what happened this weekend. And I look, we've analyzed what's going on in Minneapolis, in St. Paul and throughout the country. I wanted to focus though on this aspect of it because it's underreported and understated the regime's psychological warfare backed by billions, tens of billions to brainwash with this stuff. So here's Kristi Noemi, propagandist. She was on the weekend show. She goes on regime media to roll this out and she's like, why would anybody be against us stopping the sex trafficking? Watch Noem play the clip.
- [17:23]
Ben
Maria. We've surged HSI officers there specific to focus on sex trafficking and child trafficking. It's so prevalent in Minnesota. It's horrific. And we brought dozens and dozens of those individuals justice already. We're going to keep hundreds of HSI officers there to continue to protect those children. Every day we get another individual that was sexual assault against a child, sodomy against a child. I can't believe that the mayor and the governor can defend allowing those people to go out there and victimize more of our, more of our children and grandchildren.
- [17:54]
Brett
Sick. I wanted a frame for you. I know you know how sick is and vile and despicable. That lady is sick. But I want you to know it's even sicker than you think. That that's where she takes it to. When we know that first they were going after the Somalis and what they really want to do is invade and take over the city. So they use that. They go there and then Caroline Levitt, there's no bottom to these evil, evil humans. And here's what Caroline Levitt says and she again says, what if you don't support ice, you support the pedos while they cover up the sex trafficking ring. Play this clip from the left.
- [18:45]
Ben
And I think that it just shows you where the modern day Democrat Party stands today in protecting illegal alien pedophiles and rapists and murderers over law abiding American citizens and our brave men and women who serve in law enforcement.
- [19:01]
Brett
Then she walks away. She leaves that there. That's where the Democratic Party stands today and our media. That exists in sound bites. That doesn't show you five, six hours straight of what's actually happening on the ground. That doesn't center their reporting in the people who are being victimized, but they center it in the propagandists who are manipulating and doing the victimizing. You don't get that. And so let me just show you this, then I'm going to toss it over to Brett and Jordy. Then you had Donald Trump flying back from Air Force One and for Trump, he said, at a bare minimum, we can all agree that Renee Nicole Good was disrespectful. How could you be disrespectful to law enforcement? So, of course, if you disrespect ice, who by the way, are in law enforcement, as I said, they're paramilitary, this is what happens. This is the natural consequence. Let's play the clip of Trump. At a very minimum, that woman was very, very disrespectful to law enforcement. And you heard the same noises, you saw the same crunch that I saw. You can't do that with law enforcement, whether it's police or ICE or border police, troll or anybody else. For those listening, you have Caroline Levitt standing behind Trump looking all weird and creepy herself. And then at one point, I'm not going to play this clip. Trump's like, I'm, I'm here. I may need to grab something, but I can't grab Caroline, right? You'll be mad at me if I grab her. So, Brett and Jordy, there's obviously so much more we can be saying on this episode about the cold blooded murder, because that's what it is of Renee Nicole Good. But I think it's important that I open up that window to the psychological manipulation that's used and has been used in order to justify the atrocities.
- [21:10]
Jordy
Now, I think it's an important connection to make, and I'd go as far as to say that of course, not only is this not about sex trafficking, I don't even believe this is about immigration or illegal immigration at all. I think this is about putting an illegal secret police force, masked police, and I don't want to call them police. They're just these, these thugs, these paramilitary forces, these enforcers of the Trump regime, putting these masked secret forces on the streets in order to terrorize the population and build a fascist state. That's what I think it is. And I think everything else is just a pretense to, for doing just that. And like I said earlier in this episode, I am just, like, so incredibly appalled watching all of this. And, you know, I'm just trying to think of, like, what other kind of comparisons to make. But I just keep coming back to the fact that I really think these people right now are just behaving as Nazis. They are following the Nazi playbook. I am very much aware that comparing an individual or group to Nazis should not be something you do lightly, but in situations like this, you have to be able to sound the alarm when you see people following along this path. Like, if you. What's the point of studying history if not to call out moments like this? I'm not sure if you guys saw, but there's this GoFundMe for the ICE officer that's going around that people are donating to, which is like disgusting enough in and of itself, but in, within that GoFundMe, for whatever reason, it makes a point to note that the mayor of Minneapolis, it says in parentheses after his name, who is Jewish. It says that in the GoFundMe for. For the ICE agent who murdered Renee Good in one of the GoFundMes. Then if you look at the other GoFundMe, because there are two currently set up right now that are raising hundreds of thousands of dollars for this killer. The other Go Go gofundme, which I believe Bill Ackman, that, that billionaire guy, you know, Trump supporter that he donated to like $10,000 to the profile photo of the person who made that. GoFundMe is literally a sea California. So like they're not exactly trying to hide it right now. Then you look at what's coming out of the government accounts, the government Twitter accounts and Facebook accounts. It's some of the most appalling Nazi propaganda that you will ever see. They did a post the other day, Ben, I know you covered this on one of your hits. It said one people, one empire, one leader, I believe was the phrase they used, which is a total ripoff from the Hitler Nazi phrase. One homeland, one people, one heritage. Ein Vogue, ein Reich, einfurer. They are ripping Nazi phrases and Nazi imagery and they are using it for US Government propaganda in order to push forward all of these heinous actions. They're making posts on their social media that are exactly 14 words. 14 words is a nod to white nationalists and Nazis. They have a 14 word phrase about something to do with securing the existence of white people in the world or in the United States or something. And they're are using 14 words exactly in their posts as a nod to them. They're capitalizing the H in their posts as a nod to Hail Hitler. You have the secret police terrorizing the population. You have people being sent off to camps in different countries. You have Trump, who continues to consolidate the power of the executive, putting his name on buildings, putting his photo on buildings, using the government to continue to attack his political opponents or anybody who does not bend to his will. You have Elon Musk who is retweeting calls for re migration. That's this notion. It's a white nationalist idea. A Neo Nazi idea that you can take away the citizenship of any Americans who are not white and send people back to the countries that they originated from when they immigrated here back in the day. And the person who Elon Musk retweeted specified. And by re migration, I specifically also mean the Jews. I want to become clear about that. So when you take all of this together, like, what other conclusion can you possibly come to other than that this is a regime right now that wants an autocracy in this country that is behaving as if they will never leave power and wants to take the lessons that they learned from the Nazis and apply them here in the United States and use the same scapegoating tactics, use all the same tactics that they use in order to consolidate power. I think it is absolutely chilling. And that's why the use of our First Amendment, the use of our voices, getting those cameras on the ground, getting our cameras in the halls of Congress, actually videotaping what ICE is doing as they terrorize these communities, as they throw flashbangs at our reporters who are down there with status coup. We need to be documenting all of this right now. It's perhaps one of the most, if not one of the most important, important thing that we could all be doing at this moment. They are telling us exactly who they are at this moment in time. If you don't believe it, I don't know what to tell you. But we're going to keep providing evidence of it here. And I think we also need to continue to call out like we are on this show, like you all are out there, call out all of the collaborators, call out all the corporate media who is bending the knee to this regime, like the CBS News is in the Barry Weiss's. Call out all the people around Donald Trump like the Caroline Levitts and the Kristi Noem and all of these tech people who are, who are getting behind this movement. Call them all out. Don't let them get away with this crap. They are a part of it. They are responsible and they should always be held responsible and they should always have the stain of what they did to prop up this administration and they should never be able to get rid of it at long after, after this is gone.
- [26:48]
Ron
So well said. B. And Ben, you did a great job too summarizing it. I don't have much to add other than I just want to add this gnome Levitt Trump is the word I've been using recently to describe this regime. They're creatures. I don't see the human element in them in the sense that, where is the love? Where is the love for your fellow American? When you see these folks speaking, it's never there. If they can't condemn the murder of a mother of three, where are we as a society? Like, why do we have leaders if they don't want to lead? And let me rephrase that. Why do these leaders right now, rhetorical question. Want to lead in this specific way? How can you not condemn at the highest and most, in the loudest way, the murder of a mother of three? Everyone saw the footage. It was. Everyone has seen it multiple angles, multiple times. Now you see Donald Trump raving like a lunatic up there, talking about, oh, and you hear the crunch. I don't even know what he's saying. But if you just can't put your politics, I guess, aside and say, that's a real tragic thing that just happened, that those kids are going to bed tonight, now and forever without a mother, that you can't just say that. It is so damning to an entire political party because as we've said before, this MAGA ilk, if you will, they all then just pivot.
- [28:13]
Brett
They.
- [28:14]
Ron
They spit out the Trump talking points. You know, they. Then they talk about the. This crunch that they hear, and it's just like, are you insane? Like, are you just. Are you mad that you as a person can't feel for your. For your fellow person? In a way, that woman is dead, gone forever. And you can't say that's a bad. To me, honestly, it is so disqualifying for an entire political party that they can outwardly, with their whole chest, just say how horrific that was. It's crazy to me. It really is.
- [28:46]
Brett
Let me give you an ominous timeline, but also one that should instill a little bit of hope, given that the people of the United States has not allowed Donald Trump to fully seize control of all aspects of our government. You know, Hitler came to power January 30th of 1933 after being appointed to the position by the German president Paul von Hindenburg as part of a coalition government. And then if you go through what they did there, they had their own Project 2025. It's called their Enabling act, gave Hitler's cabinet power to enact laws without the Reichstag approval, which eventually led to a dictatorship. What do you think Trump wants to do when he basically has Magamike shut Congress for huge periods of time? And the Project 2025 agenda, full control, coordination, synchronization, Gleichers is what they called it. In Germany, a broader policy to bring all aspects of German society under Nazi control. Whether that was in the first 50 days or 100 days, there's different. Political scientists view the timeline a little bit different. But within 50 days or 100 days from January 30, 1933, Hitler controlled everything. And you'll recall the Reichstag fire decree, which suspended civil liberties, free speech, assembly following the fire, creating fear, allowing for mass arrests. Same playbook, right? I mean, the Somalis, the fraud, the. The.
- [30:39]
Jordy
The.
- [30:40]
Brett
The smelt fish, you know, he's. He's stealing the water from you. You know, in. In California. I mean, all of the things that. They're. The ones aiding the sex traffickers. Then you had the Malicious Practices Act, March 21 of 1933, that criminalized criticism or mockery of the government. Does that sound familiar to you? And so you look at these things and you're like, it's the same authoritarian playbook. Because authoritarians historically have had a playbook. As I said on a past episode, you can say that Orwell was so prophetic in writing 1984 that he saw the future, sure. But he also was a student of the past, because there's thousands of years of history of authoritarians, malignant narcissists, totalitarians who behave certain ways and do things that have different names. But ultimately, it's about total control and domination for the sake of domination. Greenland for Trump isn't about safety and security. The same way going into Minnesota is not about stopping sex trafficking or Somali fraud. It's about domination and control. It's about Trump being a predator. And by the way, there are MAGA Republican Congress members who say they're predators. They're predators. They just want to control it. They want to own it. He's got to have it. He sees it on a map. He looks at, it looks so big. It needs to be mine. Same thing with Canada. Same thing with Mexico. Why isn't all of this mine? That's what they're looking for. So while I said ominous timeline, Trump's frustrated because he hasn't achieved it yet. He thought with Elon Musk's money with Project 2025, that they would achieve it in that first year. That's what they were hoping to do. They failed. The system of federalism and states rights actually worked is the only safeguard, in addition to the people, because the country was too big and there were too many blue states that pushed back against the Trump regime's initial assault. Trump saw the National Guard. I thought that was going to work out better. That didn't work out better. Let me surge my own paramilitary now. And he wants Minneapolis to be the starting point of a conquest of an invasion, which is why in the lawsuit filed by Minnesota, Minneapolis and St. Paul, they say this is a violation of our 10th Amendment right, which reserves all powers that are not expressly given to the federal government to the states. States have a local police power. States are the ones who are responsible for the education and for hospitals and public health and safety. And so by surging ICE and invading now, our police officers have to deal with ice. Our police officers can't focus on law and order on the streets. Our hospitals are not functioning properly because you're attacking our hospitals. People aren't showing up to school or work because you're terrorizing the communities. You're infringing on our 10th Amendment rights. So that was the lawsuit that was filed earlier today by Minnesota, Minneapolis and St. Paul. I did a video on it earlier, but I wanted to make sure we fully covered what's happening there, what the broader intentions are, and that we use the right words when framing this. Trump is frustrated and he's desperate because the people haven't bent. And also, if you look in places, even like Texas, Trump has a net negative of like 6 and negative 12 when it comes to his handling of the economy and negative 22 when it comes to his handling of inflation. I did a recent interview with Amy Acton in Ohio. Trump's also net negative 6, net negative 7 over there in Ohio. People don't like this stuff. Remember the don't tread on me. Trump is Mr. I Tread. He is. I am the treader. I am the destroyer. That's who he is. He is the snake. You know how there's the snake on the don't tread on me. Trump is the snake that doesn't defend. Trump is the snake that you let in who then destroys. Like that story he told was the first Midas touch video we did. All right, let's take our first break of the show. We covered a lot on that segment. A reminder, go to midasplus.com check it out. Go to. That's our substack. That's one of the ways you can help buy memberships on this YouTube. Become a member of our YouTube and you can gift memberships to as many people as you can. You see our growth that's made possible by you. You can see the expansion. Thank you for that. So become a member. Subscribe to the substack and we will be right back after our first quick break.
- [35:47]
Jordy
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- [37:44]
Ron
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- [40:16]
Jordy
And you see that, you see the pause for sound effects. See how that works?
- [40:18]
Brett
Really good.
- [40:19]
Ron
They're gonna be like really impressed. Best second Benji, you look pretty sharp, dude. Take a straight razor to your face. You look, you look really good. Really cleaned up. Nice haircut.
- [40:30]
Brett
What happened?
- [40:32]
Ron
Yeah, why so fresh?
- [40:34]
Brett
First day back Teaching.
- [40:35]
Ron
Hey, Professor Ben.
- [40:38]
Brett
Back to, back to the professorship. And so I was just thinking so.
- [40:42]
Jordy
Much growth in the past year and you haven't taught since last year because you had a baby. I feel like a lot of our audience doesn't even realize that you are a law professor. And so welcome back to teaching. Ben. How does it feel?
- [40:55]
Ron
Didn't have enough going on in your life? Ben, you're also, you're also somehow a professor. Congratulations.
- [41:00]
Brett
Well, I really enjoy teaching. I think it's now that I no longer practice law on a day to day basis, I still want to, in addition to YouTube, give back to the legal community in southern Los Angeles and Southern California in general. And so, so it's a way to do that. And I think also interacting with the kind of next generation, you get a lot of ideas too. And it's inspirational. And so it's an important part of my life and I take it very seriously. And I really enjoy being a teacher, both on YouTube and in an academic way. So people ask me, I told the class today, when people say, what are my hobbies? This is, is my hobby. So I hope you enjoy this class because I'm doing it because I want to be able to give back. Speaking of speaking up though, and using your voice, I've been heartened. I've been happy to see more people in public starting to speak out against what's happening. And it was disheartening to see a lot of the silence throughout last year. The class I teach is sports law and I represented Colin Kaepernick back in 2017, 2018, back in Huntsville, when Donald Trump said get that son of a bitch off the field. And Colin never played a down of football again. There was a lot more vocal aspects from athletes and celebrities and people in positions of, of, of public light. And I think that you have so much people right now in public who have a platform to speak out against this regime, who don't. And frankly, that's complicity. And they don't whether it's because they think that because they're wealthy that they make more money under authoritarianism, that they don't want to potentially divide their fan base if they take a political position or they like it or they're afraid, any of those. But to me, you have a responsibility to speak out against injustice because this stuff isn't political political. It's not like you're out there saying, you know what, I really don't like the fiscal policy right now coming out of, out of the Republicans in Congress. It's very, you know, it's very reckless, the way they're spending and federal spending significantly, by the way, all true. They're reckless. Federal spending's higher, it's up. The deficit's increasing. The debt is skyrocketing. Right now, Trump wants a $1.5 trillion military budget. He wants hundreds of billions of more dollars going to the ICE Gestapo. Horrible. But we're talking about basic humanity. Are you okay with the government sending militarized, unaccountable forces into our cities, killing people, disappearing people, terrorizing communities? Like, are you okay with the regime that's out there constantly without getting congressional authority, threatening wars or getting into wars? Are you okay with someone who said he would end the war in Ukraine caused by Russia on day one and takes Russia's side essentially, in the dispute? Based on what I've observed, in my opinion.
- [44:50]
Ron
Are you.
- [44:50]
Brett
Are you okay with that? Are you okay with not using your voice right now to speak out about the atrocities happening in Gaza? You're just going to be silent about it? I think we all have. We all have to use our platforms. And by the way, you can be late to it. Like, you could be late to it just because you didn't use your platform the right way before.
- [45:15]
Ron
Okay?
- [45:17]
Brett
Use your platform and use your voice. It's never too late until it's too late for you to use your platform and your voice to speak out against injustice. And we saw that at the Golden Globes. More people starting to speak out. Right. And I also like to see how some of the comedians were talking about cbs, and they said, cbs, the letters, right there. That's where you. Cbs. I think that was pitch perfect.
- [45:45]
Jordy
Right? Not to mention it was on cbs, which I think is a bold move as well. I agree. There are more folks speaking out right now, and that's important. The. The past year, you know, I think a lot. A lot of people in this community and us felt like we're on our. So we're on our own here. Right? And you have that whole MAGA podcasting kind of ecosystem, and they were pushing all the crap. But one of the things I noticed is that there has been this massive shift, and if you look at all those podcasters, and I'm not going to go through their names right now, you know who they are, but now all of a sudden, they're like, wait, what. What is this? I didn't vote for this. What the hell is going on here? I. I don't agree with this. This is everything that they warned about, and I'm like, yeah, duh, okay. Like that's what we were trying to say. One of the interesting things I've seen also in the past, especially this escalation with ICE and these secret police forces and things. I've seen a lot of these kind of big kind of MAGA right wing accounts who I'll just say do not think very kindly towards anybody in the center or on the left of the political spectrum coming out and, and basically admitting fault here, which I think at least says something like, I'll pull up this, this tweet that went viral. I'm not gonna put the individual on blast, but I'll, I'll read you the tweet. It says here and it says a million views, 32,000 likes. I grew up conditioned to mock the loony libs, a habit formed in the early Rush Limbaugh years. I no longer feel the urge. Those libs are now fighting for America's core principles, while the people who, who taught me to sneer at them have abandoned principles all together. I think that's a lot coming from a. Which traditionally been a pro maga account. And I've seen dozens and dozens and dozens of posts just like that. Because like Ben said, this isn't an issue of right versus left of. Do you think this economic policy is better than this economic policy? This is going back to the founding of this country and the ideals set forth by the United States Constitution and the Bill of Rights. Very basic ideas, very basic ideas about how police are used, about how military forces are used, about search and seizures by law enforcement, about the right to free speech, about the bullying that somebody like Trump does against people and corporations who don't take his exact point to of view. What we're seeing right now goes far beyond any particular policy. It is fundamentally un American at every level. And so I think everybody out there who agrees at least that 70% of people who agree with the principles of the United states, maybe not that 25, 30% that are just die hard, die hard MAGA and we'll do whatever Donald Trump says, but that 70% needs to come together, kind of put policy aside right now and understand that we are fighting for the life of democracy, of the United States of America, or at least what the United States of America stands for. There's also an article in the Wall Street Journal that came out today that talked about how much these MAGA influencers are being paid to push certain positions. Paid hundreds of thousands of dollars per tweet. If you ever think, how is this person tweeting something so horrific. How could they possibly. And the tweet they did two weeks ago is the complete opposite of the tweet they're doing now. How do their ideas just shift? They just do whatever Trump says. It's because they're literally getting paid hundreds of thousands of dollars by dark money and these secret groups in order to push their profascist MAGA agendas. So much of this is Astroturf. It's all done via these algorithms that are run by people who are Trump adjacent, friendly with Trump. Algorithms run by Elon Musk, the people at Meta who are, who are people who are in the Trump administration. I mean, you name it, they are the people who are elevating this content to the top of your feed. And so it is no surprise that a lot of that content that's being elevated is content that supports Donald Trump. When we actually go into the real world and you actually look at polling of the American people, it tells a much different story than you'd see on an app like an X or a Twitter or something like that that it just does. So that's all I want to say.
- [49:50]
Ron
No, that's great. And look, I'm going to articulate this as best as I can here. I am always going to give my fellow American the benefit of the doubt, especially when you're looking at an ecosystem where there are being trillions and trillions and trillions of dollars poured into in order to quite literally brainwash you, right, with this MAGA propaganda from the accounts that Brett had just sort of referenced there. That's just the pocket. Like that is just. That is the, the slimmest of slim folks who, who are making money off this MAGA grift right now to just pollute, literally pollute the media airwaves, whether it be on, on X or threads or Facebook, you name the social media platform. It's out there intentionally trying to manipulate you, trying to manipulate your family, trying to manipulate your loved ones. And it's really disgusting them. The one thing, though, that I will always just dig my heels into, and I'm not calling any, you know, MAGA bro podcaster out or bro podcast route specifically here, but this whole notion of I didn't vote for it. Yes, you did, you did vote for it. And now that a mirror is just being held up to what you voted for, you decided you didn't like it. And so look, as I said, I will always give you the off ramp because we need as big of a acquire as we could get here to sing these pro democracy ideals. But also, don't lie to me in the same breath and be like, oh, this isn't what I voted for. Yes, it is. Yes, it is. But now the other side of that.
- [51:19]
Jordy
Jordy, are the people who are like, I voted for this. When something horrific happens, when something that is just like, shouldn't even be like a debate, like an ICE officer murders a woman, you should be able to at least take a second and say that this is a horrific horrify, a horrifying situation, a very sad situation situation. And then you get the kind of maga bots on these apps going, I voted for this. Yes, this is exactly what I voted for. Yeah, that's, that's kind of why we all hate you. That's, that's exactly the reason.
- [51:47]
Brett
We all saw what was on the video. We saw the murder of Renee Nicole Good. The video was crystal clear. And for the Trump regime to say Renee Nicole Good was a domestic terrorist who weaponized her vehicle and they've defamed her posthumously in such heinous, heinous ways. They said that she's a lunatic woman, that she's a crazy lady. I mean, they threw everything, the misogynistic, the lies, the hate at someone who they murdered. We saw her on the video say, I'm not mad at you, bro. She was doing a three point turn in order to get out because they were telling her to get out. She was not running over the officer, the. Or the ICE Gestapo. I should not call these people officers. I apologize. He's holding up a phone, videotaping it with a gun in his hand, shooting her in the face three times. And I'm not going to play the clip, but over the weekend, Kristi Gnome was smirking when she was showed a video by Jake Tapper where after she was murdered, the ICE guy, Jonathan Ross says, fucking. And then Tapper goes to Gnome. So was that the ICE officer or is that the ICE agent saying that? And she goes, yeah, I think so. And she smirks that these are a group of sick, evil people. Evil at their core, evil. You know, my neighbor who watches the Midas Touch podcast, I've said this before, pulled me aside, saw me walking my dog and said, it really connected when you called the regime evil, because that's what they are. I'm like, yeah, no, they are. I mean, they're. They're bad people who want to use their existence on this planet to do bad things. Each one of these sickos is sicker than the next, right? Whether it's A Kristi Gnome or a Pete Hegseth. By the way, Senator Mark Kelly sued Pete Hegseth because Hegseth, this sicko who's been engaged in war crimes and crimes against humanity, demoted Mark Kelly, a decorated veteran and astronaut. So Mark Kelly filed a federal lawsuit. At the same time Minnesota filed a federal lawsuit against the Department of Homeland Security. But all of these sickos, the Stephen Miller, the Caroline Levitt, that Tricia McLaughlin from DHS, RFK Jr. Who spent the weekend attacking healthcare in Germany, like, what are you doing? Attacking the healthcare system of Germany. And the Germans were like, who. Who are you? Shut up. Are you doing. You know, a guy who is so incredibly unhealthy. You can see how unhealthy is. It drips through his pores when he's out there speaking, you know. And then we learned about all the other grotesque. I won't even go there with the. Just. The RFK is disgusting. I'll just. We all know that. So as we would say in the law so stipulated. There's. There's one more moment I wanted to talk about though at the, at the CBS Golden Globe things though, when you had like Mark Ruffalo was being interviewed by a CBS guy from whatever the show extract one of these, one of these stupid shows. And the guy, the guy, the host of the show was like, mark, it's great to see you, man. The drinks are flowing. Everyone is a buzzing. You're having a great time. Walk us through what it means to be partying with so many celebrities here this evening. That was the framing of the question. Like lunatic question, right? Cbs see the bs And Ruffalo responded great. He's like, well, I would like to say that I'm happy, but we have a out of control authoritarian regime murdered Renee Nicole, good. And who's out there terrorizing our communities? That's what we have happening right now. So I'm not really thinking about the drinks, a flow in the parties that are happening, the celebrity glitz and glamour. I'm thinking about the people. And it's so important that we center our coverage in the people. The people need to have their voice heard. That's what we hope to accomplish at this network, to tell the stories from the people. I saw this on TikTok and Bretton Jordi, you may have seen this as well. And Midas mighty. There was someone who did this great TikTok talking about. They go, I just don't understand how the MAGA followers don't realize that they're the bad guy in every One of the superhero books they grew up with any of the stories that they grew up with any of the movies. They have an arc of good guys and bad guys. And this lady, she's incredible on the TikTok and she's just like. So I'm. If your moral compass is so warped that you cheer on ice, terrorizing this, I can't interact with you. I just can't. I can't be friends with you. I can't pretend it's okay. It ain't. It ain't okay. So we'll be right back after our last quick break of the show. When we come back, I want to talk about Trump going after Jerome Powell and the sharp response we've seen, including even from Republicans. I want to talk about the Trump DOJ also firing the number two in the Eastern District of Virginia, a guy by the name of McBride, because they're still trying to find people to go after Comey. And nobody wants to lose their license other than Lindsey Halligan, apparently. She's like, put me in, coach. Even though I'm not the lawyer, even though I'm not the real prosecutor of the Eastern District of Virginia, I'll, I'll keep saying I am. Donald Trump posting more about tariffs again. If you do business with Iran, you get a 25% tariff right now. What does it even mean? What does it even mean? What you in the policy via social media post, right? Or Donald Trump posting. I hereby decree that on January 20, I will be capping credit card fees at 10%. I will make such an announcement on January 20. Okay. Are you going to make a law? Because that's how you have to do it. So what happens when the credit card companies don't do it? They'll do it. No, they won't. No, they won't. Just like your fake Doge dividend checks, your fake tariff rebate checks. It's all bs. His view of affordability is just going to lie about it. It he's gonna say, I've decreed that Microsoft lowered its data center costs. So ordered. That's what he posted today. We just look, okay, well, what are you gonna do a law. Are you gonna do a law capping credit card? Are you gonna go about it that way? Cause I'll tell you what we could do to help affordability right here, right now. Extend the Affordable Care act tax subsidies. Don't let those expire. Because right now, people's healthcare costs are skyrocketing right now. Now, because no one can afford health care without the subsidies. But no, Donald Trump wants to subsidize the oil companies in Venezuela when the only person who was right, I give him credit. It's the last time I'll give credit to an oil exec on the Myst podcast, Mr. Exxon, because that's how Donald Trump was referring to the different execs. There's Mr. Chevron and Mr. Exxon. Mr. Exxon said it is uninvestable to be in Venezuela right now. He was right. How could you invest in there? They've got gangs going around kidnapping Americans or people who have any sympathy with America. That's what's happening. The State Department said, evacuate now. If you're America or if you have any sympathies to America, you have to hide right now from the regime that Trump has hoisted up.
- [60:32]
Jordy
By the way, this is why I was so clear on our episode immediately following the US Invasion of Venezuela to say, yes, I'm, of course, I think everybody is happy to see Maduro out, but the regime is still in charge. So I am happy to see that people are happy that Maduro was gone. And I understand how much this means for Venezuelans. They need to be very careful right now because they are not out of the clear. They are under the same regime, just a different leader. And Donald Trump does not care about. About their safety. He does not care about their security. He does not care about democracy or their freedom. He just wants to extract the resources from the country. And he's okay to make these evil deals with evil people in order to do that and keep these people oppressed. And sure enough, these people now are in as much danger as they have ever been in any sort of celebration. Any sort of dissent from that government right now is being suppressed. And you have, have the, the government's telling, you know, people to get the hell out of there because these collectivos are going around and they are harassing people and rounding people up. That's the reality of what's happening right now. That's the destabilization that we're seeing in Venezuela, just like we've seen in all of these other countries that the US has tried to do similar things in, in the past. It's the exact reason why we've warned against this and why when everybody's like, oh, so you're not, not happy that Maduro's out? No, of course everyone's happy that Maduro is out, but they are still at risk and things are now as bad as they have ever been in that country. We need to be clear about these things and understand that Donald Trump is a fraud. And this is yet another aspect of the fraud that he's perpetrating, not just on the United States of America, but on Venezuela and the entire world. It's scam after scam after scam. And if you don't believe me, I've got a Trump phone to sell you.
- [62:24]
Brett
We'll be right back after our last quick break of the show. A reminder, our network is expanding. You see it for yourself. You see our D.C. bureau, you see the partnerships that we're working on right now with on the ground reporting, you see the growth in our coverage. And I think the first 12 days of this month there's been massive expansion. We want to keep that going. So if you can become a member of our YouTube page right now and gift as many memberships as you can, don't worry if you can't do it, but if you can, that's a major help. The other thing you can do is go to midas plus.com m e I-a s p l u s dot com that's our substack and subscribe there. Let's take our last quick break of the show. We've got a lot to cover when we get back.
- [63:16]
Ron
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- [66:22]
Brett
You look at Donald Trump's post from a few hours ago where he just says something which in theory I guess sounds good, but without any thinking planning. So he goes Effective immediately, any country doing business with Iran will pay a tariff of 25% on any and all business being done with the United States of America. This order is final and conclusive. Thank you for your attention to this matter. Now, within seconds of that post, our Editor in chief Ron Philipkowski responded right away. So is Trump going to terminate his personal business deals with the UAE worth a total of $500 million? And I think it's probably worth more than that. It's probably in the billions. They are Iran's second Largest trading partner. What about the advanced chips that we just agreed to sell them?
- [67:11]
Ron
Them?
- [67:11]
Brett
Are we still selling them? A $14 billion Boeing package of 787s. So what are we doing there? Also, as Ron writes, so a new 25% tariff on China and India effective immediately. When do these new tariffs start getting collected? This is on all the goods from those countries immediately. What about the limited trade deal we just made with China? Oh, that's over now. Or is this just more BS because China trades with Iran, right. And India trades with Iran. So we're doing another 25% tariff on top of that. You know, and ultimately the courts, the market at this point, large corporations, they go, you know, this is just what he says. He just says these things and they almost discount his craziness relative to his backing out of the threats. And they figure we'll just get through this at some point in time. That doesn't, that's, that's not always going to hold. That's assuming a lot. And I mean I've given this example with Trump's cover up of the Epstein files. And I'll, I'll address it here because I don't want to ever not do an episode where I don't mention that the government right now is covering up the largest child sex trafficking ring in the world history right now. Blatantly covering up that the DOJ is now a racketeering criminal enterprise involved in these cover up of sex trafficking. It's just a fact. You call them a regime because that's a fact. You call them terrorists because that's a fact. And you call up the fact that they are engaged in a racketeering enterprise to cover up a sex trafficking. Fact, fact, fact, fact, fact, fact. It's not hyperbolic, right? I saw, I'll get back to Epson in a moment. But I saw when the mayor of Minneapolis was being interviewed, all these corporate media were like, but do you bear responsibility for saying that the, that what took place with Renee Nicole Goode was a reckless murder by an out of control ICE officer? And then the mayor would be like, I mean, I said that it was caused by a reckless out of control ICE officer? Because we saw the video and that's what happened. And you're upset that I use the F word when there are people getting killed by this regime. So I wanted to point that out. But just think about it like this. Donald Trump has said that Epstein was a hoax and that the FBI was involved in this hoax and James Comey was involved in the Hoax. And all of these people were involved in the hoax. And Maureen Comey, who was the lead prosecutor, her dad's James Comey, and they were in on a hoax in any normal time. Imagine, former President Obama said, I've got inside information about a criminal case. I know from the FBI that what took place at that trial is a hoax 100% of the time. That criminal defendant would cite the President of the United States words, because words should have meaning. And the president's words should be the most meaningful, not the least meaningful. And that criminal defendant would get a new trial if the President of the United States say that they found actual fraud or a hoax. Now, it's a good thing that Ghislaine Maxwell will almost certainly not get a new trial, but the way she won't is that ultimately the DOJ will write in their paperwork to the judge. Yeah, you can't really. He didn't really mean it like that. That's not what he meant. He meant it this way. And ultimately, the federal judges will not value Donald Trump's words. Not because they're appointed by Democrats, because this is equal for Republican judges and Democrat judges, because his words don't have meaning. The President of the United States. Words don't have meaning or have such ambiguity or are so clouded in this trolling nonsense that people don't. And, and the reality is, though, is that you can't discount it, though, either. And when he's out there saying he's going to invade Greenland and he wants to acquire it, and he compares Greenland to Venezuela and Cuba, there's only a certain amount of time where you could be like, that's just Trump being Trump. He says these things. Hey, no, no. And here's the thing. Like Trump saying he's going to tariff any country that does business. So are you tariffing China? Right. If, if, if your words are meaningful, that should happen right away. And there should be tariffs against the United Arab Emirates and you should cancel your deals, your family deals and America's deals and all the semiconductor chip deals. Or is this just a bogus post? The same way as post about capping credit card interest at 10%. Just a lie. There's no law. It's not going to be enforced. It ain't happening. Doge dividend checks. Yeah, right. Doge increased federal spending, didn't decrease federal spending. The tariff, rebate checks.
- [72:59]
Jordy
Oh.
- [73:00]
Brett
The way we'll change health care is we'll give people the money and then they can negotiate themselves with the insurance companies. Brett and Jordy, it's just all BS after BS and, you know, did you see it was Senator Marshall, right, Brett, Senator Marshall, Republican, who went on some of the shows and he was asked about Donald Trump's threats to criminally prosecute Powell. And they go, I don't think he really meant that. He was trolling. That was a. That was one big troll. Do we have that clip?
- [73:35]
Jordy
Yeah, let me look for that clip. But the whole trolling argument, to me, like, really is so frustrating because you could write off anything the guy says as trolling, you know, and at what point do you not realize that there may be an element of trolling to the things that Donald Trump does, but that there's also a tangible effect and impact of Donald Trump's words and actions on people that go far beyond trolling and are affecting people's lives in an incredibly negative way every single day? I'll keep looking for the clip, but we got it somewhere. Here it is. Let me play this.
- [74:12]
Ben
Is there really a reason for an investigation? Because, you know, a lot of people are looking at this and saying, well, wait a second. We know President Trump does not like Jay Powell, and we know that he's calling him stupid and that he hasn't cut rates fast enough. So is this political? Or did Jay Powell break the law and mislead or lie to the Senate Banking Committee? And you say, well, Maria, will let.
- [74:36]
Brett
The, that the system play through here. I think there's other issues that we should be focused on. I think this is the president throwing out one more. Maybe he's even almost trolling here as well. We got bigger issues to go after than this one.
- [74:49]
Jordy
I mean, he's sending criminal subpoenas to the Federal Reserve and to Jerome Powell, and he's saying he wants him criminally prosecuted. Jerome Powell has to hire a lawyer now. Jerome Powell now has to kind of enter the political arena in a way that he never does because he plays everything very by the book and really just, you know, views his job as what it is, as doing what's best for the economy? You have Donald Trump doing this, which has. Could have catastrophic effects on the economy, I guess, A if people took them seriously and if you were to actually move forward with this. We've seen the impacts of what happens in tin pot dictatorships throughout the world when they get rid of their person who's in charge of monetary policy and put in a lackey in order to artificially lower interest rates. Spoiler alert. It doesn't end well. You think inflation was bad a few years ago. You ain't got shit on that inflation. When you're going to see 30%, 40%, 60%, 80% inflation. If Donald Trump does something like that, it is completely reckless. And this trolling argument is just another way that they try to get out of and squirm out of actually having to answer the questions as to what Donald Trump is doing and what I think the Trump administration is doing right now. This Department of Justice, personally, I believe that it is criminal. I believe with the Department. I believe the Department of Justice right now, now is a criminal entity. I believe they are engaging in crimes every single day. Of course they're not going to prosecute themselves. That's not going to happen. But I do believe that the people in this administration, in this Department of Justice can be held criminally liable and can be criminally prosecuted by future administrations. I think over the Epstein files, absolutely. What we're seeing here, less than 1% of the Epstein files have been released. All of them were supposed to be released in December. Every last one. Less than 1% have been released. And they keep stonewalling and they keep making up excuses as to why the files aren't coming. They are clearly covering up there for Donald Trump and all of these bullshit prosecutions, whether it's against Letitia James or James Comey or Jerome Powell. I think Lisa Murkowski actually used the right word, Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski, when she said, what I believe the Department of Justice is engaged in right now is coercion. And I completely agree. I think this is criminal coercion. She says that Congress needs to investigate the Department of Justice. I don't think we're going to see this Congress investigate the Department of Justice anytime soon. If Congress flips in the coming elections, I think you will see Democrats start those investigations. But what we really need down the road are criminal investigations by a future Department of Justice and prosecutions against these officials. Because we need to set an example that none of this could ever happen again. And I'm not here to advocate for any particular political party or candidate. But I will tell you that any candidate out there that does promise to go after these people in no uncertain terms and prosecute them and hold them accountable for all of the crimes that they committed, for all of the wrongs that they have done, for all the abuse that they have inflicted on on the American people, that will be the individual who gets my vote personally.
- [77:58]
Ron
Brett, where is your sense of humor? He is just simply trolling. I know we played that clip a little bit ago, but what is that Shtick Marie even does on Fox. I don't watch her program, so I very rarely see that. But that was like just comical in that delivery. But it's scary in the sense of what a grip that has on the American people. And then going back to Powell here when what I really respect, and it's something that we say here a lot is you have to control the narrative and you have to dictate the narrative. Especially when your narrative is in truth is in facts. When the narrative is on your side, you have to be willing to just get in front of a camera and lay it out for the American people of what is going on. So when the criminal investigation was announced in the pal, what I really appreciated with him is that he jumped in front of a camera right away and got a video out right away. So he could, in very clear terms explain why it was all BS and, and that's the type of messaging that really breaks through. There is before you can even let Fox News initiate the talking points to, to the MAGA base before Elon could could hype up all these people on X and whatnot, you have to get out there and control the damn narrative. Especially when the facts, the truth, truth and just the American people are on your side. So shout out to.
- [79:16]
Brett
Great point. I want to leave us with, with this, right? Contrast everything we showed you with what's happening in New York City right now. And I'm specifically though talking about with Mayor Mamdani. And within the first eight days. And I had Mayor Mamdani on where I interviewed him on day eight when he and Governor Hochul announced step closer to universal child care. And they were extending child care to hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers right away. And Mamdani got that commitment from Governor Hochul which no one thought would be possible for a long time. It happened in eight days. And every day you see Mayor Mamdani out there with the people standing side by side with New Yorkers fighting for them. Does that mean he's going to be perfect? No. Does it mean that he'll never make mistakes? Of course not. Does it mean he'll accomplish everything? No. But he set an ambitious agenda and he centered what he's doing around the people, not for the oligarchs and the bullies. And I'll just show you him how he was greeted earlier today. And this is a testament to how people in New York feel about him. When you actually feel respect for a leader, a political leader, because they're fighting for you. Watch. Sa.
- [81:21]
Jordy
For the audio listeners that was not a rock concert. That was not a Taylor Swift concert with the applause. That was Mayor Mamdani walking the streets of New York and joining the picket line with nurses. And I think you could even just set aside all political views, right? Maybe you support the strike that the nurses are doing, maybe you don't support the strike. But it's hard not to look at that and see that this is somebody who's actually doing things for the people and that the people are responding in a positive reason. These are much different than the crowds that you see at Trump rallies that are so full of vitriol and hate and anger. It's just the complete opposite of that. There's a lightness there, right? There is a happiness there. There's a passion. There's an emotion and a positive emotion that is such like an antidote to the toxic, polluted political environment that we have today. And, Ben, that's why I love that we're kind of ending with. With that clip kind of right there, because it really shows you what's possible, right? When you set aside all the bs, when you set aside the hate, when you set aside the vitriol, and you actually just focus on how are we going to help people, what do the people want and what are people looking for out of leaders? And people are looking for leaders who are going to serve them. And there are always going to be those politicians out there and those political figures out there who try to prey upon your hate, who try to make you fearful, who try to make you scared, who try to scapegoat and say your problems are all because of the Jews or the Somalis or this group or that group, the gays. You saw Donald Trump say something today that the. He was bashing the civil rights movement. And Donald Trump said, yeah, the civil rights movement was actually way too mean to, to white people. It was actually a disgrace for what they did to white people. During the civil rights movement. Trump said earlier today, you'll see the politicians who do that, and that hate is an incredibly potent force. And you've seen how it's been able to affect our country and this world and countries throughout history and take people into a very dark place. But then you see images like that of Mamdani walking through New York City, and you see the excitement, you see the positivity, and. And you remember the feeling that people felt during the Obama administration, and you remember that hope is an equally potent, if not more potent, emotion feeling than hate can ever be. And so I think we need to continue to work to inspire each other and not be just so sucked in by all the hatred that's out there. How can we elevate each other? How can we continue to spread hope and positivity and in doing so, hold the people who spread that hate, spread that vitriol and continue to attack and assault the American people every day. Hold those people to account.
- [84:06]
Brett
Covered a lot on this episode of the Midas Touch podcast. I want to thank each and every one of you for fighting for our democracy each and every day, for holding the line, for sharing the videos that we put out there to document what's taking place. We try to just give you the receipts, the facts. Occasionally I'll get pretty angry and worked up on some of these videos, but I try to keep a steady voice sometimes with these images. It's not all, not all that easy. But we appreciate the work that you do. It's part of this community, for this country, for the world, for democracy, for empathy, for love, for hope. And I want to thank everybody who is a member of this YouTube channel. You click that join button, gift memberships to as many people as you can. That helps grow this network. And another thing you can do right now is just subscribe to our substack. There's a lot of great member features that you can access. There's exclusive podcasts for our members. There's additional access to some of the write ups by our editor in chief, Ron Filipkowski. But most importantly, it helps expand our network and do the things like build out a D.C. bureau and help us make these partnerships and, and grow in ways that are. I think you're already seeing massive growth internationally and here in the United States, hired a lot more people. And that's, and that's. We've increased our capabilities and that's thanks to you. So we're grateful for you. So go to midasplus.com or become a member and, or become a member of our YouTube page right here. So thank you all very much. My doggies are saying in the background.
- [85:52]
Jordy
Dogs are calling they're saying wrap it.
- [85:53]
Brett
Up up saying it's time to go.
- [85:54]
Jordy
It'S like the Oscars music, you know when you're talking too long, they're like wrap it up.
- [85:58]
Brett
Then Taquito and Chito are saying wrap it up. Wrap it up. Ben. I will. Thank you everybody. From the bottom of my heart, we appreciate you. Jordy takes up shout out to the.
- [86:07]
Ron
Midas My day.
- [86:11]
Ben
Standing strong.
- [86:16]
Brett
Again the.
- [86:18]
Ben
Fascists we sing our song.
- [86:27]
Ron
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