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- [00:00]
A
Guys, thanks for helping me carry my Christmas tree.
- [00:03]
B
Zoe, this thing weighs a ton.
- [00:04]
C
Drewski, live with your legs, man. Santa.
- [00:06]
B
Santa, did you get my letter? He's talking to you britches. I'm not.
- [00:10]
A
Of course he did.
- [00:11]
C
Right, Santa, you know my elf Drew Ski here. He handles the nice list.
- [00:15]
B
And elf, I'm six' three. What everyone wants is iPhone 17 and at T Mobile, you can get it on them. That center stage front camera is amazing for group selfies, right, Mrs. Claus?
- [00:25]
A
I'm Mrs. Claus much younger sister. And AT T Mobile, there's no trade in needed when you switch, so you can keep your old phone or give.
- [00:32]
C
It as a gift.
- [00:33]
A
And the best part, you can make the switch to T Mobile from your phone in just 15 minutes.
- [00:37]
B
Nice. My side of the tree is slipping.
- [00:38]
D
Kimber, the holidays are better.
- [00:41]
B
AT T Mobile switch in just 15 minutes and get iPhone 17 on us with no trade in needed. And now T Mobile is available in US cellular stores with 24 monthly bill credits for well qualified customers plus tax and $35 vice connection charge, credit and balance due if you pay off earlier. Cancel financing agreement. 256 gigs, $830 eligible for new line, $100 plus a month plan with auto payments, taxes, fees required. Check out 15 minutes or less per line. Visit t mobile.com We've got a lot to discuss on this episode of the Midas Touch podcast. The Epstein files are set to be released. What is Donald Trump gonna do to try to obstruct it? We know he's already got a national security team at the Department of Justice working on redactions. What were they doing back in March? Also, a New York Times expose landed today about Donald Trump's relationship with Jeffrey Epstein and more Epstein photographs with were released by Democrats in the House Oversight Committee. We'll talk about that. Donald Trump is trying his usual distraction tactics. Right before the release of the Epstein files, he's announced something called the Patriot Games, which is his own version of the Hunger Games, if you will. He's got a male athlete and a female athlete from each state in high school. They go to Washington, D.C. and they compete against each other. Also, Donald Trump renaming unlawfully the John F. Kennedy center, the JFK center, the Kennedy center to the Trump Kennedy Center. We will talk about what went down there. Also, Trump announced what he's referring to as a warrior dividend, which is a bunch of bs. He's just taking money away from a housing allowance for the military and saying that this is a special warrior dividend that he's giving to our troops. You have MAGA Mike shutting down the House of Representatives as a discharge petition, got the necessary votes that would otherwise force a vote to extend the Affordable Care act subsidies, which are set to expire in basically a week, week and a half from now. MAGA Mike said, nope, we can't let that get to a vote, shut down the House of Representatives, that everybody go home. And now a vote can't be taken until January after the new year. That's how vicious MAGA Mike and Donald Trump, that's how much they hate the American people. You've got Donald Trump and his regime putting out essentially fake data today regarding inflation where they claim that rental and leasing and housing inflation was basically zero percent. And then they utilized Black Friday discounts to show that there were price reductions. We'll get into more of that. You had Brendan Carr, Trump's chairman of the FCC, on Capitol Hill this past week where he said that the FCC is not an independent agency. You've got of course, Donald Trump's speech that he gave on Wednesday night, I don't know what the hell that even was. He took over the airwaves, took over Survivors finale and I think we were all turned into non consensual participants of Trump's version of Survivor, if you will, because it was beyond deranged to even sit through that. Got a lot to discuss folks. That and more. Let's bring in Brett and Jordy. Good to see you brothers.
- [03:55]
E
Good to be here Ben. Good to be here Jordy. Good to be here. Midas mighty as we said yesterday on the Midas touch Twitter account about that speech, that was some weird shit folks that we witnessed. And I think everybody thought the same thing. I even saw people who were like MAGA friendly people like Republicans, you know, MAGA types saying what the hell was the point of that that made him look absolutely horrible. To interrupt people's I think Survivor was on like of these other shows that people were excited to watch. And then Donald Trump comes on and just lies to people about the economy and says that everything's great. Don't believe your eyes, don't believe your ears. Just a very bizarre thing. But I think a through line of this episode is going to be two C's corruptions and cover ups. And that is exactly what we are seeing with the Trump administration in full effect. I mean we've been seeing that over the past, you know, year or so, but that has gotten even heightened and especially today, I think a lot of the news can be wrapped up with Those two terms. I am excited to dive right into it. So I'm going to pass it over to Jordi. Jordi, what's the latest?
- [04:59]
C
I'm excited to get into today's show. I think there's another C word people use to describe this administration that we won't get into here. Benji, where do you want to start off today?
- [05:06]
B
Crooked is, I think, the word that you were looking at.
- [05:09]
C
Exactly.
- [05:10]
E
Definitely crooked. Yeah, that was the first word that came to my mind.
- [05:14]
B
So just imagine that you're want. You're watching, you know, Survivor. The finale is supposed to be on right in the middle in the night. You've been looking forward to it, or you're watching another sporting event or, you know, whatever your favorite TV show after a long day's work, you've got, you know, things are less affordable right now. You've got the Trump regime ripping away your health care. There's a lot of stress being placed on you at work. So all you want to do, just try to go home, watch some. Watch some TV with your family, right? I mean, that's pretty much what's going on. So you turn on the tv, this is a presidential address, and you're thinking to yourself, okay, well, what's going on? Here we go. In a war, presidential addresses to the nation usually are done for something like deeply serious. Like, is there some national emergency that we should be aware about? We go into war with Venezuela unlawfully. Is what. What is happening here? Is there some crisis we're unaware of? So you turn it on and you go, okay, it must be pretty serious. And Donald Trump says, my favorite word is tariffs. It's tariffs. Here, play this clip.
- [06:20]
D
Much of this success has been accomplished by tariffs, my favorite word, tariffs, which for many decades have been used successfully by other countries against us, but not anymore.
- [06:33]
B
Like, what did I just. What. What did I just watch? And then he keeps going and he's like. And I've slashed prices. Your prescription drug prices are now 400, 500, 600% cheaper.
- [06:46]
E
Right?
- [06:47]
B
It's that. That's that much better. Here, play this clip.
- [06:49]
D
What a difference a year makes. In addition, I'm doing what no politician of either party has ever done, standing up to the special interest to dramatically reduce the price of prescription drugs. I negotiated directly with the drug companies and foreign nations which were taking advantage of our country for many decades to slash prices on drugs and pharmaceuticals by as much as 400, 500, and even 600%.
- [07:18]
B
For real. What are we even watching there? And by the way, why is he so angry and he, like, lunges at the microphone. Ah, totally bizarre.
- [07:27]
E
I think there's a reason. So after that speech, if you looked at, like, Twitter or any of these apps, like, Adderall was trending, you know, a lot more demands for Donald Trump's MRI results. A lot more demands to really understand what kind of drugs Donald Trump is taking. Because the way that he was speaking there was just completely, completely off the wall.
- [07:44]
B
And then he goes, and I've got a like. So this is like some, like, game show competition, right? I mean, because that's how he treats every. Like, as though, as I said at the outset in my intro, like an, like, non consensual participants in his dystopian reality show, whether that's actually Survivor or the Apprentice or whatever. And it's just like, just, what are you even doing? Then he's like, I'm proud to announce that 1,450,000 military service members. When he says 1,450,000, he's, like, happy that he landed the number. Like I said, I'm going to repeat it again. And then he goes, we'll each be getting $1,776. And I'm calling it a Warrior Dividend. A Warrior Dividend. Like as though, again, this is like the host of Survivors saying, and the winner of this competition will be getting whatever you know. Here, just play. Play this clip of it.
- [08:43]
D
Because of tariffs, along with the just passed one big beautiful bill tonight, I am also proud to announce that more than 1,450 thousand. Think of this. 1,450,000 military service members will receive a special we call Warrior Dividend before Christmas. A Warrior Dividend. In honor of our Nation's founding in 1776, we are sending every soldier $1,776. Think of that. And the checks are already on the way. Nobody understood that one until about 30 minutes ago. We made a lot of.
- [09:29]
B
Why is that even a brag? No one understood what I was gonna say. Maybe they should have understood it because it's a lot of money, right? And where's that money coming from? Oh, we found out where it's coming from. Shout out to Defense One, Thomas Navoli and others over there who reported on actually where that money's coming from. And basically, Trump is taking money that was congressionally allocated for housing for service members, and he's taking the money that's allocated for housing, for affordable housing, and just taking it and giving it as a check to the Service members. Trump's $1,776 checks for 1.45 million troops announced Wednesday night come from congressionally allegated reconciliation funds intended to subsidize housing allowances for service members. This was then confirmed by the Trump regime officials. They admit this did not come from tariff money. It came from money that was allocated for housing. And it's a tariff shelf, not the tariff.
- [10:34]
E
No.
- [10:35]
B
That $2.9 billion was meant to subsidize basic allowance for housing, which is a monthly payment to cover troops, troops off base, expenses such as rent, mortgage and utilities. And Congress didn't just, like, wing it. They Weren't just like, 30 minutes ago, I just did this. Congress did studies, Congress did research. And Congress said, what's a big problem facing our troops? They need affordable housing. And if you just gave sometimes young troops a check for 1776, they may not use it for something that's needed and that may actually harm military preparedness and readiness and actually harm the military.
- [11:19]
E
So there's kind of reminds me of actually his whole idea behind this fake health care scam that he's trying to pull also where we're not going to give money to subsidize these health insurance policies to make sure that people are able to afford health insurance, but Instead let's give $1,000 or so to people and let them buy their own health care. It just doesn't make any sense. It doesn't add up. And it actually ends up screwing people in the long run. He's really, he's stealing from members of the military and then giving them their money in another form. You know, you know what it kind of reminds me of? You know, as a kid when we were like, very young and we, I wanted to get, like, gifts for, like, our parents. I would find like, a bracelet or something in our parent in, like, mom's room, and then I would give her the bracelet as like a Hanukkah gift or a birthday gift.
- [12:08]
D
And she.
- [12:09]
B
Bracelet. It's a normal shared experience.
- [12:14]
E
But. Yeah, but, but I'd say look at. And then she's like, oh, that's mine. You know, I, I think this is Donald Trump's version of that. Like, he's taking it from them, which you should not do. I want to be clear. And he is giving it back to the person and telling them to be grateful for it. And obviously he picks the 1776 number because every three as some sort of branding scam as well behind it. But when you see the way that Fox is, is presenting this, it's Just, you know, it's, it's just one of these other propaganda schemes that he's doing, which is just such a total disgrace. And you see, like, their network. Look at this patriotic move by Donald Trump. Wow, this should be lauded. I can't believe he got this from the tariff shelf. Well, you can't believe it because he did not get this from a tariff shelf. He's saying that every possible way that he spends money right now comes from tariffs. And it's all bs. It's just a lie. Every single time he says it. The 18 trillion, 20 trillion, 22 trillion. Although every number that he names is a massive, massive lie designed to scam the American people.
- [13:16]
B
So you had Kevin Hassett, Donald Trump's national economic adviser, go on MSNBC this morning. Everything that Donald Trump said, Brett, in the speech, $18 trillion, is that we've never been richer. Like, all lies. And so look, this was a good question to Hassett, which is like, why does he constantly exaggerate every single number? Like, why can't you just say, hey, here's what inflation is and we're doing our best? Like, like what? Why does it all have to be like, if you brought in, let's say, $5 trillion of infrastructure investment or $5 trillion in foreign, why not? Why not just go with that and then explain what the hurdles are going to be in the future? Like, because the impact's not being felt so the American people know this isn't happening. Like, you may have been able to fool us for, like, a few months, but, like, now we're a year in. So you can keep showing us the fake data, but you can't convince us when our shared experiences say that's not actually, like, we now know that's all not happening. We should have known before we knew, before you knew, before watching others that maybe didn't. But anyway, watch what Hassett said. Hassett's like, but did you see the slides? This is a Trump regime official. Did you. I'm a little disappointed that the network didn't show his slides. Here, play this clip. Struck. We talked earlier in the show. Steve Ratner was here, helped us with it with a fact check. You know, the President does have some good news to talk about the economy, gas prices, for instance. But why, why the need to constantly sort of exaggerate? Gas prices are $3. They're not 250. You know, the idea of suggesting that, I think a lot of the impact of inflation, yes, some progress made, but not as much as he says, why not just Tell this present American people and say, hey, look, this is, these are the facts. I can understand how you feel, why they need to exaggerate.
- [15:00]
F
You know, I'd have to go back and look at the specific language, but, you know, and I hate coming back with questions for you guys, but, but the President, in order to make sure that everybody understood the facts and the facts were documented, spent a lot of time with us with our team preparing slides that showed the data for what he was talking about in the speech. And in some networks while he was speaking, they showed the slides and in some networks they didn't. And I just thought that was kind of unusual. I was expecting when I was flipping around to just see the slides everywhere.
- [15:31]
B
Gosh, the slides, Brad, it's all about the slides, man.
- [15:33]
E
Well, you know why they didn't show the slides? I actually read about this. It's because the White House created a bunch of fake data, put it on slides without any sort of substantial substantiation, without any sort of sourcing for their numbers. And they gave it to, to the networks and they said, we want you to present this data, this made up data. And all the kind of more legitimate networks I will call them, said, no, we don't put unverified information, unverified, quote, unquote facts on the air. That's not something that we do here. I think the one network that actually did show some of those slides, unsurprisingly, was Fox. I don't think anyone's going to be surprised by that. It's just a regime propaganda channel. And then if you watch the, watch the event on the White House's official stream, they put up those slides, but you know, they just throw a bunch of numbers out there. It's all made up. Everything basically comes from Donald Trump just making up numbers. You know, even in a speech, you know, when he says we're going to, you know, we're bringing down drug prices by 500, 600, 700%. It just, it's all made up stuff that even under the slightest bit of scrutiny doesn't make any sense. And I think we saw these networks not want any part of it. Then you have Hassett go up there and he's like, I can't believe that they wouldn't run the slides. Yeah, cuz you're cooking the books, you're making up the numbers. That's not a way to run a government, it's not a way to run an economy. And it doesn't help the American people. And no matter how much you Try to cook the books here and make things seem like they are rosy and great. It doesn't matter to the American people when somebody goes to the store and they know that they're spending far more money right now than they were spending a year ago. It doesn't matter. You can lie to people's faces all you want, but they know their own lived experiences.
- [17:13]
C
Exactly. And it's what folks keep saying about this Trump regime. If their lips are moving, they are lying. And you see Kevin Hassett up there, and I said this previously, whenever we show him, I mean, he's just got this shit eating grin on his face and he absolutely, he loves it. He loves going on TV and lying to the American people. And he is beside himself when he's looking at the networks who refused to air the propaganda slides that the Trump regime had given out and he's like, huh, I found that to be an interesting thing with his shitting grin. And it's, it's infuriating when you look at him up there because at the end of it, again, I don't want to be gaslit. I just want the truth. And Kevin Hassett is a total puppet man. It's awful.
- [17:52]
B
Then you had Andrew Ross Sorkin question Jameson Greer, who's Trump's top trade representative, just so you know all the officials, just so you don't get confused at home, right? You have Treasury Secretary Scott Besson, Treasury Secretary, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, National Economic Advisor, who you just saw over there, Kevin Hassett, and then Trade Representative Jameson Greer. That's like the core economic team, if you will. And they're all losers. So here's Jameson Greer. And trade is really supposed to be the one that deals with, you know, the tariffs. And normally it would be kind of free trade is what it would focus on. So Jameson Greer is asked by Andrew Ross Sorkin. By the way, I did an interview with Ross Sorkin. Check out the interview that I did with him, which on our feed we went into a lot of areas that.
- [18:41]
E
I think, great, great, great interview. I gotta say, this was a really good deep dive into the economy, into Donald Trump's claims about the economy. And I recommend that everybody either watch it on YouTube or listen to it. It's on the Midas Touch podcast, like the audio feed. Check it out, Apple podcasts, anywhere you get your audio podcast. A great deep dive then. Incredible stuff.
- [19:02]
C
Hold on. I think it was the best interview. And we squeaked it in right before the new year. Might, might be my personal favorite interview of the year. Yep, it's getting majority stamp of that.
- [19:12]
B
This is Andrew Ross Sorkin though. These are the issues that I was speaking to him about actually. And I was, I was glad to see that he asked these questions of Jameson Greer. Let's play it.
- [19:21]
F
I think I wanted to ask you about was the President spoke obviously to the American public last night and Talked about the $18 trillion I think was the number he used of investment pledges made into the US as part of, of some of these tariff transactions or tariff deals with various countries. And I think the American public wants to understand the math behind that because $18 trillion is an extraordinary amount of money. You look at some of the countries that have made these pledges, it's you know, close to their entire gdp. Over what period of time should we anticipate these deals actually coming to fruition? And I should also just mention and that Bloomberg had done an analysis of this and suggested that in fact there were closer to only really $7 trillion, which by the way is still an extraordinary number. But in terms of measurable deals that, that we should be thinking about.
- [20:14]
G
Well remember the deals, they really have a couple parts to them. You know, one, one is the investment headline numbers that you're talking about which are really important. It's helping to re industrialize America. I don't think talk a little bit about that. And the other part are what I'd call the pure trade issues where they're opening our markets to us, they're taking their tariffs down, they're removing their non tariff barriers. And on that part a lot of that is already in progress. We're going through legislatures in foreign countries on the investment piece. You know, this past week we saw a new zinc smelter be announced by a Korean company. We have the Koreans talking about more shipbuilding in the tombs of you know, hundreds of millions of dollars and billions of dollars dollars. We have the Japanese companies like Hitachi and others building. So we see a lot of progress on that front and we're going to be looking at it over the life of President Trump's term on the investment figures.
- [21:01]
B
Okay, just to be clear, he just lied. Do you hear what he just said? Like just break it down what he just said. He goes, when we talk about 18 trillion, write this down or just remember it. That's the investment headline number. The hell does that even mean? Yeah, the issue that you're being asked is that you're making up fake headlines. You go, it's the investment headline number. So that's what we look at. The investment Headline. Okay, so you made up the number. That's basically what you're saying. And then the other thing we look at is the pure trade issues. What does that even mean? The pure. You're the trade represent. You think there wasn't trading before. So are you just counting trading that takes place between countries has a gross number of investment into the United. What does that mean, Pure trade issues investment, Headline number. And then he says there's a zinc smelter plant from a Korean company that we're talking about hundreds of millions of dollars and perhaps billions, but you need to measure it throughout the lifetime of the presidency. Okay, that's what he said right there. You all realize he just literally just. It's just vomited out a bunch of words that make literally no sense at all.
- [22:12]
E
Can I give some. Can I give some other facts also just to, like, level set these numbers that the Trump administration continues to say Global. When you're talking about global trade. And I'm talking like all of globe. All of global trade, Every single aspect of global trade. $35 trillion for 2025. So Trump is claiming he's brought in 18 trillion. 20 trillion, $22 trillion of investment. The entire global trade, all of it is 35 trillion for 2025. And anytime he says the numbers about these various countries, it's oftentimes as much as the country's gdp, most of the country's gdp, more than the country's entire gdp. It just, none of it makes sense. None of it adds up.
- [22:56]
C
It's also why the Ponzi scheme that the Trump regime is running right now, lying about the trillions and trillions of dollars that they brought in just absolutely makes no sense to me. Because at that same toke, they'll talk about, oh, we brought in this much money, you know, trillions of dollars here. The economy, it's, it's, it's an A plus plus plus plus plus plus plus economy. And then in the same breath, they'll go, biden left me a disaster. This economy's horrible.
- [23:20]
B
But.
- [23:20]
C
But you should be feeling great about it, because it's actually great. It's like the mixed messaging here makes absolutely no sense because they're lying. They are lying to you.
- [23:29]
E
And that's why it's like, it's Schrodinger's economy. Right, Jordi? It's both the best economy, the golden age, A plus plus plus plus. But also it's horrible and it's all Joe Biden's fault.
- [23:41]
C
Exactly.
- [23:42]
B
And meanwhile, Dr. Oz was holding a press conference today. And here's what he was talking about. Let's play it Vaginoplasty. A vaginoplasty, a procedure a child does not need, cost $60,000.
- [23:57]
E
Shockingly, a phalloplasty, the creation of a.
- [23:59]
B
Penis, costs on average in America, according to this data, high quality, $150,000. Now, look, we don't need to get into much more of what he was saying. I mean, he's trying to attack transgender people and he's trying to attack gender affirming care. And that's the main thing, though, that his focus is on. Just to be clear, again, while Americans are having their healthcare ripped away from them as maga, Mike Johnson refused to allow a vote on the Affordable Care act subsidies to be extended to even take place despite there being a discharge petition. They go to their toolkit, Right? They go there.
- [24:35]
E
Don't forget the massive measles outbreak.
- [24:39]
B
Exactly. Exactly. So we have a lot more to discuss when we come back from our first quick break of the show. I want to give a shout out to the Midas plus substack. It's our get shouting at our own substack. Check it out. I think you'll like Ron Filipkowski does a great job there with his daily summaries. Go check it out. Midasplus.com Become a member of our YouTube page if you can. It helps grow this independent media platform. Subscribe across all Midas Touch platforms. YouTube viewers, go to audio check out the audio podcast. Audio podcast listeners, go check out the YouTube page. Let's keep trying to grow this thing as much as we can and we appreciate all your support. Let's take our first quick break of the show.
- [25:19]
E
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- [28:38]
C
Let's go. Shout out to our sponsors links in description of both the YouTube and the audio. Use the links, use the codes. If there's an exit survey, let them know we sent you. And as we were at break, Ben and Brett, I was thinking of a fourth C word about this Trump regime. And I'm gonna say it, I'm gonna say they're childish. Looking at those clips. That's what you're child.
- [28:59]
B
What was it?
- [29:00]
C
Childish? Because we need adults in the room if we actually, if we actually as a country want to start solving the issues that are in front of us. Inflation, this economy, making everyone and our citizens actually feel better moving forward. Like, we just need to be serious and we need to have serious people as leaders. And the Trump regime are not serious. They are childish, Ben.
- [29:23]
B
Well, you look at what they even said this morning, right? They said, consumer price index. They said, wow, big drop in inflation. All of a sudden, out of nowhere, big drop in inflation. Like, like a, kind of like a pretty drastic drop. And it's like, well, where, where's this coming from? Well, it's coming from housing and rent. Wait a minute, Housing and rent is all of a sudden going down, like, dramatically over the past, what, month and a half? And then it's like, wait a minute, did you all use the number zero and just make a assumption that there was zero increase without actually gathering the data? And is that one of the core inputs that dragged down in a good way that brought them. Although it's fabricated information that brought down inflation. And yeah, they did. And you can say, well, they did this because the algorithm just input zero. That was one of the excuses there. Just the algorithm did it. Okay, what does it even. The algorithm put zero. Why don't you just. They've had a lot of time to gather the right data. Like, why don't you put what it actually is before making a report that's false. And if the algorithm truly inputs zero improperly when it's not zero, then maybe you say, hey, it input zero. So you can't trust this because we're going to figure it out. Like, people saw it and said, wait a minute, how'd this happen? Wait, you put zero and they're like, wait a minute, the cost of all these products and goods and consumer stuff, that went down dramatically as well. How'd that happen? Like all of a sudden, oh, wait a minute. You didn't collect any data other than basically the Black Friday sales Across the board. So you're literally using the Black Friday discounts to claim that inflation is going down. And then when you see this, it's just like, you can't. There's nothing you trust with these people. Right? It's like what I said before. Oh, that's the headline investment number. Do we tell you about the zinc plant? And it's just jordy. To your point, like, when children lie. When children lie or give fake gifts to their parents and re. Gift them for their birthdays, you know.
- [31:24]
E
Who would do something like that? That's like, such a weird thing to do. I don't know who. Who would do that and then admit it on a podcast to millions of people that would just feel freaking just.
- [31:33]
B
Because it came out of like, like, you know, when you're like a kid and it's your mom's birthday coming up and you give her her own necklace as a gift and people like, I'm not sure about that one, Brett. I'm not sure that's a shared experience.
- [31:44]
E
I def. I, I definitely did that to you guys too, by the way. You definitely got re gifted gifts of your.
- [31:49]
C
Maybe, you know, and you thought you were just winning. You're like, you're like a unique experience to you, Brett.
- [31:54]
B
Okay, but, but, but the, the way they lie is the way, like, a child gets caught in a lie, too. And it's like, okay, did you just come up with, like, the stupidest lie? Like, you know, something can't decrease by 600%. What he really means, it's like, okay, this is. This is the American economy, though. This isn't. This isn't Brett re gifting on Mother's day when Brett's 8 years old. This is the American. This is the American economy right here. So we've got that taking place. Then. I, I want to talk about, though, what's going on in the House of Representatives, because the American people right now are very alarmed. They're very worried that they're going to be losing their health care, especially if they were on Medicaid. The disastrous budget bill gutted a lot of people's Medicaid. Then lots of people get their health care from the Affordable Care act exchanges and plans. It wasn't some Democratic talking point. Oh, your premiums are going to triple or quadruple if these subsidies are not extended. It's just, it's called a fact. It's just the reality of it. Okay? And sure enough, people are seeing that their Affordable Care act plans that they bought on the exchanges last year that the premiums have gone up to air to amounts that they can't afford. You're seeing in all of these states, people are not buying the health insurance off the exchange because they can't afford it. And so something had to be done about it. And MAGA Mike and Republican leadership at Donald Trump's demand as well refuse to. And one of the things is too, because Donald Trump hates Obama. So anything Obama, Affordable Care, anything, any Obama's achievements or Biden achievements, even if they're, they're good for the country, Trump has to destroy so that he thinks in that kind of simplistic terms. And I think he likes to see people suffering. So Maga Mike refuses to allow a vote to take, but just let Congress vote on extending the Affordable Care act subsidies. What Maga Mike does allow for is a vote on just like a hodgepodge of like old plans that Republicans had come up with. And like a lot of them, like, involve not allowing Affordable Care act plans to like give women reproductive rights right in blue states also, not just the red states that like basically have abortion bans. So just to be clear, not only was MAGA Mike refusing to allow a vote to extend the Affordable Care act subsidies, what he put on the floor and what Republicans did vote for was limiting Affordable Care act plans ability to provide for like maternity and reproductive right care and, and, and, and other types of things that are vital, but you had four Republicans join forces with Democrats on Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries discharge petition that would have a three and, and shout out to Hakeem Jeffries because he held his ground. And he said, no, you could join my discharge petition or nothing. Like, this is what the American people need right now. It's not just like what Democrats want, it's like actually what the American people like actually need to live right now and to have the certainty. And Jeffries was like, look, we can negotiate. You want to talk about other plans, come up with something real, but in the meantime, extend the subsidies so people aren't losing their health care and dying. Like, so you had four Republicans join forces with the Democrats or sign the Democrats discharge petition to go around. Maga Mike discharge petitions are ways to get around the speaker who controls what bills are able to be voted on because MAGA Mike wasn't even allowing the extension to get a vote because he knew if it got a vote, it would be voted on because it's actually something that American people want. So what did Magam Mike do after this discharge petition was signed? Magamike shuts down the House of Representatives. Remember when he did this during the government shutdown where he could still have showed up and like actually done work, but they didn't want to swear in Adelitogrijalva because she would be the signature on the discharge petition to release the Epstein files. Don't worry, we'll talk more about that on the show. But remember when they did that? So he literally shut down Congress. That's like his playbook, Jordy, to your point, childish. He shut down. He shut it down. And he said, everybody think about the.
- [36:08]
E
Think about the two recent times that, and the only times that really Mike Johnson has forced the rest of Congress to employ these discharge petitions, which are rarely used, rarely successful, but they've been used twice now in the past few weeks. And the first time was because Mike Johnson refused to put the bill for the to release the Epstein files on the floor. And now we have this. A simple, clean extension of health care subsidies to save millions, millions of lives.
- [36:33]
C
And I'll give you one build on that, Ben, about how childish that is. So you guys remember when you're kids and the older brother's beating you in a video game or something and you turn it off really quickly because you don't want them to win? That's how MAGA Mike is looking at government right now. He's shutting down the government because he's scared he's gonna lose. Because that's how they see this too. They see this as a game instead of just getting.
- [36:56]
E
Where do you get that example Journey people?
- [36:58]
C
That one's hyper specific to me. I never let the brothers beat me in video games. That system would get shut off real quick. Oh, come on.
- [37:03]
E
That was, that was a Ben. That was such a Ben move, dad, come on. I'd be so close to beating Ben and like Madden Football and he'd turn off the game. I mean, that was the classic, classic Magam Mike move.
- [37:15]
B
I was defending mom's honor in shutting it off.
- [37:20]
E
Classic Magam Mike style deflection.
- [37:23]
B
Not allow someone who regifted necklaces on Mother's Day to defeat me in a game. So that's why, that's why if to the extent I ever did that, that's why I did it. So Magam Mike was then Jordy, to your point, childish. He ran around the halls of Congress saying, I didn't lose control. I, I don't lose control.
- [37:43]
E
That's how you know you're in control.
- [37:46]
B
And that's what, that's where I would perhaps say, or Jordy would perhaps Say, I didn't lose the game. I didn't lose. I'm actually still the winner. While the winning brother would play We Are the Champions and make the other brother cry. You play this clip hypothetical we're talking about. Have you lost control of the House?
- [38:05]
E
I have not lost control because this is a third time.
- [38:08]
C
There are many.
- [38:09]
E
Look, we have the smallest majority in U.S. history. These are not normal times. There are proxies and procedures in the House that are less frequently used when there are larger majorities. And when you have the luxury of having 10 or 15 people who disagree on something, you know, you don't have to deal with it.
- [38:31]
B
Okay, sure, I got that.
- [38:32]
E
They come in there, they're like, we have a mandate. We have a huge mandate. We're going to bulldoze through and do everything. We. Oh, I'm sorry. We actually have a very slim majority and we'd love to get this health care. We'd love to do all that. We just can't. We just can. And sometimes things like this happen. Okay, okay. Magamike, this guy is such a disgrace.
- [38:50]
B
Okay, well, Magamike. Well, what about the fact that 22 to 24 million Americans, Americans are on these Affordable Care act plans, perhaps even more, and they're, they could be losing their health care now because of what you're doing. And you've never put forward a plan to actually reduce costs. And no, Donald Trump being out there and saying he's reducing the cost by 600%, that's actually not a solution. So what's your plan? Mag and Mike here play this clip.
- [39:16]
E
But here's, here's the false narrative. The Democrats are pretending as though this affects everybody in the country. It affects 7% of Americans, this extended subsidy. And of those, even if it was extended, without any reforms at all, it would only reduce that small group of Americans premiums by 5.7%. The Democrats, 22, 24 million Americans.
- [39:39]
A
No, I understand this is not for.
- [39:41]
E
Everybody, but it's 22 to 24 million Americans. And there are some Republican, some Republican Republicans whose districts are going to face some real trouble and some real issues with this. We've talked to some of them. I understand that Mike Lawler from New York was particularly upset yesterday that he was kind of furious about it. Said it's idiotic, it's political malpractice.
- [40:05]
B
But here's the thing, too. It's not just about Mike Lawler or Fitzpatrick. Like, it's about the people.
- [40:14]
E
Like.
- [40:17]
B
These are, we're talking about people's lives here. We're talking about our viewers, our listeners, Mag and Mike in Louisiana, your constituents, Mike Lawler's constituents. I don't give a s, you know, I don't give a crap about Mike Lawler's job, you know, or, you know, you, you represent human beings who can die because you have not come up with a plan and you're failing to allow the plan, as imperfect as it may be, that provides people, though, with a solution that gives them comfort and that they like. You're also taking the option away from somebody without replacing it with something that could help them. So that's, that's just cruel and unusual, I think about that term, cruel and unusual punishment. What a cruel and unusual way, right, to treat, to treat the American people. It's just very strange, Breton, very strange behavior. And it is, it shows a, I think a hatred, frankly, you know, for the American people.
- [41:24]
E
I mean, you can see it there. Mike Johnson is treating like 25 million Americans like it's some sort of rounding error or something. These are real people's lives. That's a lot of people. And honestly, like you talk about Ben, and you know, I know we've had Senator Bernie Sanders on the show speak about this, that idea of psychological torture. This right here is an example of that psychological torture that we speak about. And that so many people in these rallies across America, whether they're Republican, Democrat, independent, doesn't matter what the political affiliation is. This is what they speak about. This is what they mean when they're talking about it. When you are faced with this spike in premiums, that is could be thousands of thousands of dollars. Some cases like ten plus thousands of dollars a year. Like, how do people afford that? Like, I, I, I don't understand how this is feasible, how this is sustainable. And there is a way that we have made it feasible and sustainable for people. And in any other normal time, this would not even be a question. This would be probably a unanimous vote. If this was like 10 years ago, right, of course you would extend these subsidies because there are so many lives on the line. You're going to push a lot of people into bankruptcy. You're gonna make them have to decide between their health insurance or other necessities in their life. But instead you have Mike Johnson writing them off so flippantly. And by the way, if Donald Trump came out tomorrow and said, yes, I want to extend these subsidies and name them the Trump subsidies, he'd flip in a second because he has no values, he has no principle, he has zero foundation to stand on. These people do not believe anything except doing Donald Trump's bidding. That's all they care about about. And because Donald Trump says he does not want these subsidies to pass, Mike Johnson just acts like he is a vessel of Donald Trump and he repeats that. And then he makes every single excuse as to why he is about to be the reason that millions and millions of Americans, tens of millions of Americans, are going to be forced to pay astronomical healthcare premiums, health insurance premiums that could send them into bankruptcy and really destroy their lives. Not to mention the psychological tragedy, trauma that comes from that. As they receive these bills and as they have to now monitor, what the hell is Congress doing? Are they going to pass this? There's a discharge thing. It's now not going to take the floor until January because Mike Johnson refuses to put it on the floor. Is it going to pass the House? It should pass the House. Will it pass the Senate if it passes the House? Why should the average American have to worry about these things? They should just be able to pay for their health care, their health insurance and get the health care that they need. They shouldn't have to worry about the intracranial intricacies of politics and the horse race and who's up for election and who may flip on this because they're more moderate. And in this district or that district, it shouldn't even be on any American's mind. They should be able to go about their lives. And when I think about this notion of freedom, the idea of freedom, that Republicans pretend to be these representatives of freedom, there is nothing more, the opposite of freedom. There's nothing more kind of shackling than having to be worried about your, this, these sorts of issues in your life. How could you go about your day to day, enjoy your life when you have to worry about the very fundamentals of keeping yourself and your family alive. It is so hateful. There's no excuse for this 1,000%.
- [44:27]
C
And going back now to how he started the show with that Trump speech, whatever you want, to the rally speech that he addressed the nation with, that he made us all watch. The bizarre part of me really thinks why he did that. I'm not trying to get into his mind. That's a scary place. But we all know the holidays are here, they're coming up, Christmas is right around the corner, families are going to be getting together. What that sounded like to me was he was giving his, his base the talking points to kind of back pocket as they roll in. Oh no, oh no. Because look, politics inevitably comes up at These things, oh no, it's the Democrats fault and here's why. And it's at the end of the day again. But people just don't want to be gaslit, man. Like the tone, when you hear Mike Johnson there, it's just so. I'm going to use another C word. I'm going to say it this time. Don't believe me. Condescending. It's so evil and condescending and just so arrogant that they just continue to lie to us to our faces. And I am proud of this community here, the pro democracy community who pushes back, says hey man, this is not what the data is reflective of. You continue to lie to us, you continue to gaslight us. Here's X, Y and Z reason why. Now just can you tell us the damn truth? Why are premium skyrocketing? Why is our health care skyrocketing? Maga Mike, what's going on? I'm feeling this in my pocket. I am a human being. Don't talk to me like I'm some sort of constituent that you need. I just want to live, man. So what's going on dude? Why can't we just be there as a society? Like how, how has this MAGA Republican Party so lost its way that they just hate the American people so much that they're willing to let them die so long as they continue to gaslight?
- [45:59]
B
Well, you know, they thrive as this opposition, this anti everything and tear it down and burn it down. And so the contradiction is this whiny, pathetic, orange Adderall fueled loser in the White House, like whining and yelling, right? But you're in the White House so you're in charge and we're a year in and you're whining about Biden and you're whining that the unaffordable Care act, dude, you're in charge. Like I'm watching an address that in the past we had leaders, presidents, stress the American people on the most serious of matters. Whether it was announcing war, whether it was announcing peace, whether it was announcing killing of Osama bin Laden, whether it is announcing a national tragedy or being there as a consoler in chief. You're there with the trappings of the White House and this whiny, childish, immature, dangerous racist a lot of Americans don't see. You know, we cover it. And a lot of people follow the Midas Touch network. We're the most watched digital news network that there is. You know, a lot of people though just wanted to watch Survivor. They just wanted to watch Survivor. They wanted to watch their favorite show and they turn that on and they don't really following politics. Like, wait, what, what, what, what are you saying? Huh? Now when we come back, I want to talk about a few things. I want to talk about what Trump is doing to cover up the release of the Epstein files. What I expect is going to happen when they're released on Friday. What's going to be released, what's not going to be released? And let's talk about what Trump's priorities are. Like, what's he actually focused on doing right now? Renaming the Kennedy center to the Trump Kennedy center, putting his social media posts and attaching it to the White House. Like he's doing true social posts on the White House. He's focused on his own. Trump Media acquired like or merged with an energy fusion company. And then all of a sudden, Trump Media stock soared. A fusion company that requires the Department of Energy approval merges with Trump Media because, you know, Trump Media, as we've always talked about, was doing, you know, my opinion, was doing really bad. I mean, lost tens of millions of dollars each quarter. So now it announces a merger with a fusion company. This technology that hasn't even been implemented yet. While Trump is getting rid of solar and wind, which we know work, and reduce energy prices while energy prices are up 13% to 15% year over year. I mean, these are the derangement. He's announcing the Patriot Games. Patriot Games. One male high school student, one female. Battle it out in D.C. at the Capitol, at the Federal Capitol. What are we talking?
- [49:05]
E
May the odds be ever in your favor.
- [49:06]
B
The odds be in your favor. Let's take our last quick break of the show. Reminder hit subscribe, help us get to 6 million subscribers. Subscribe to us on audio and video. Just search Midas Touch wherever you get your audio podcast. We'll leave a five star review there. And if you can go to Midasplus.com, check out the substack. All right, let's take our last quick break of the show.
- [49:28]
E
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- [53:58]
C
Out to our sponsors links in the description of the YouTube and the audio. Use the links, use the codes. If there's an exit survey, let them know we sent you. Benji, where to next?
- [54:07]
B
You know, I said, when we come back from a break, I'm going to discuss all the distractions. Then I, like, just discussed them. Like I ended up saying all the things I was going to say when I came back. So, like, I could kind of be redundant about it. But yes, Donald Trump said that he was announcing the Patriot Games, which is like the Hunger Games except it's. It's a little bit different, obviously, but, you know, it's like literally borrowing the idea, but like, it's one female high school athlete, one male High school athlete. And they compete each other from the different districts. Okay, he's renaming the Kennedy center to the Trump Kennedy center, which, again, is illegal. The Kennedy center was named that by Congress. They. But Donald Trump doesn't care because they're. It's an unlawful regime.
- [54:47]
E
They're.
- [54:48]
B
They're a gangster regime. And they do. A gangster regimes do. They've changed the website of the Kennedy center, so it now already says the Trump Kennedy Center. They're going to replace all the signage, but it requires a congressional act. But the MAGA Republicans won't keep him, won't hold him accountable to all the Kennedys other than RFK Jr. But all the Kennedys. Like, this is so horrible. Like, this was part of the legacy of a fallen president. And like you have Maria Shriver saying some things just leave you speechless and enraged and in a state of disbelief at times such as that it's better to be quiet. For how long? I can't say. You have Joe Kennedy iii. The Kennedy center is a living memorial to a fallen president named for President Kennedy. By federal law, it can no sooner be renamed than can someone rename the Lincoln Memorial, no matter what anyone says. And you had Caroline Levitt over there saying, I've just been informed form that a unanimous vote was taken and the entire board voted to change the name, and they're now calling it the Trump Kennedy Center. First off, Donald Trump appointed, like 90% of the board. Like, they're all Trump people. It's like Pam Bondi and Steve Scalise. And like, Dan's not Steve Scalise, like Dan Scavino, you know, and like all the Trump. It's just Trump's people. The people who were not Trump's people, their phone was muted during the vote, so they were not even allowed to voice their objection. Even though Trump had packed the board with enough people to have. The board can pass resolutions. They can't change the name. It's like, again, it's a crime. And frankly, those board members, when everything's said and done, they should be criminally prosecuted, Right? Like, this is a crime.
- [56:25]
E
You can't.
- [56:25]
B
It's like it would be like putting graffiti on it. Like, you can't put graffiti on it. So again, another crime that I think these people should actually be. Look, there's a lot more that these people should be prosecuted for. A lot of them are war criminals also. But, you know, not all of them. But, you know, some of them, Pam Bondi, others. But, you know, it's just every day they commit crimes Crimes, crimes, crimes, crimes. And you know, screw you Supreme Court for giving Donald Trump absolute immunity. Because right here is part of the consequence when you treat some, when you say that someone has king like powers and all they got to do is say, oh, national security, or this or that. You know, that's what they claim with everything. By the way, Donald Trump's latest briefing regarding tearing down the east wing. I did a whole video on this. You know what he cited? National security. Cuz they're building a bunker underneath it and they're renovating a bunker. You think the taxpayers are paying for that? Absolutely, the taxpayers are. They said, ah, you know, the, the ballroom won't be done until 2028. So judge, it's moot anyway. Like, you can't tell us to stop building, we've already destroyed it. But national security when it comes to the bunker. So they invoke national security for like quite literally everything. So do we have one of the board members, the congresswoman who said, who said actually what really went down during, during the vote? I think we have a video of her. Let's play this clip if we got it.
- [57:49]
H
I'm Congresswoman Joy Space. I'm sitting here in my congressional office in Washington D.C. just ending a call with the Kennedy center where I serve as an ex officio member. I am bringing this to you live today because what you may hear is that there was a unanimous vote to rename the Kennedy center the Trump Center. Be clear, I was on that call and as I tried to push my button to voice my concern, to ask questions, and certainly not to vote in support of this, I was muted. Each time I tried to speak, I was muted. Participants were not allowed to voice their concerns who were online. Yet it was said at the end it was a unanimous vote. Clearly the Congress has a say in this.
- [58:48]
B
They muted the Congress, like who literally required to pass a law. They muted Congress's ability to object and they said it's unanimous. I mean, Jordy, that's, I mean, yes, it's childish behavior, but it's like this is, these people are thugs. I mean this regime, this gangster regime. I mean, like just look at their behavior. I don't know how anyone looks at this and goes, oh yeah, I like this, I like this, Brett.
- [59:12]
E
Yeah, I mean it's, it's Orwellian and it's, it's just fascist behavior. I mean, this is, you know, it's how like fake trials are run in Russia. You know, it's, it's straight out of 1984. It's unanimous. Oh, why? Because you muted all the people who object. And the way that they stack these boards with, you know, all of these Trump sycophants, I mean, you could go down the list. It's just like atrocious. Like they made a mockery of all of our incidents institutions and the American people hate it. Like no one's even going to the Kennedy center for events anymore. Like they've just totally desecrated the place. It's just so, so appalling. I mean, you've got people like Susie Wiles, Usha Vance, you spencet, Dan Scavino before Lee Greenwood, Laura Ingram, the Fox host, Maria Bartiromo, Elaine Chao who was in Donald Trump's administration, Pam Bondi, you know, Sergio Gore. All of these people are the people who are making these decisions about the Kennedy Center. So it's not like some, you know, independent board. It's Trump sycophants and it's against the law, as Ben said. But that doesn't matter to them. They just press ahead. And I think it's very ominous when we see them doing things like this, when we see things like them, you know, make calling it the Donald Trump Institute of Peace. When you see at the Department of the Labor, Donald, a giant poster of Donald Trump's face. I mean, these are the things that we would look at, you know, Saddam Hussein's Iraq or we'd look at North Korea and we'd go, wow, what an effed up society that is. You know, I'm thankful to live in a country where that's not how things are here. But Donald Trump has quickly transformed our society into that, thanks to all the enablers around him.
- [60:51]
C
For me, you know, I look around sometimes and I'm hopeful that we will get out of this one day, I really am, and restore normalcy here and really put our best foot forward as a nation. But I'm talking like 15, 20, 30 years down the line when we all sort of reflect back on these cowards who just bent the knee so willingly to Donald Trump. And for me, I'm just so curious as to genuinely why? Is it money? Is it because you don't want to get called a bad name? Do you not actually like this country? Do you not actually want this country to be better off for its citizens? Like there are so many way, so many ways to look at this thing multiple times and it's frustrating and only time will tell. And I hope, I hope we're all around collectively still in this country, still standing for us to kind of see the light of day on this and actually have that debrief here and understand why. But it's, it's, it's genuine. It genuinely upsets me as someone who truly loves this country. Truly.
- [61:54]
B
Yeah. And I mean, you just with all of these inc. And they're incompetent. You know what, Jody? Because a lot of the people who take these positions, though, who are willing to say these things and behave in this way would not otherwise on their merit be able to get into these positions. You know, and so they're, they, you know, like Akash Patel being the FBI director. Right. Pam Bondi becoming the, you know, attorney general. I mean, you know, Dan Bongino who's quitting, but becoming the deputy, the deputy FBI director. Pete Hegseth becoming a secretary of defense. Like, what are, you know, Trump picks and this is the thing about authoritarian regimes in general. Like, he picks the most unqualified people. Do we have the clip right, of Lori Chavez Darimer from one of the appearances she gave this morning where she at least was asked by Fox about the bad job numbers and if they're coming from, you know, jobless claims are up 54%. Unemployment's at 4.6 and rising. I think it'll probably be at about, about 5% soon. And here's what she and she's like, yeah, AI isn't a big deal. Like, AI is not take like you're the labor secretary and you're saying AI is not a threat to labor. Here, play this clip.
- [63:17]
A
But back to this weakening of the numbers. Do you believe that the weakening of the numbers month to month on, on jobs and the unemployment rate ticking up, is that a function of AI or is that a function of some weakness in the broader economy? Absolutely not. It's not a function function of AI Again, because we want to make sure that we're answering the call. These market demands, you know, post Covid, there was a lot of companies who, who, you know, increase their employee growth numbers and maybe they're laying off for those reasons and they have to answer that to the American people. But I will tell you at the Department of Labor, what we're doing is focusing on the apprenticeship program. We're focusing well, you know, we've registered almost 300,000 new apprentices. We're in answering the call for 700,000 jobs in electricians, machinists, plumbers.
- [64:01]
B
Again, did you see that she was basically attacking companies for hiring labor, right? She was like, they're going to have to answer for hiring all those people or keeping People hired or, or, you know, it's like, what, you're the labor secretary and you're saying that AI isn't a threat and it's answering a marketing demand. You could say it's that there is a. That, that AI. Like, if you're the labor secretary, you should say, what, yes, we need to harness the power of AI but we need to make sure that we protect labor. Like, isn't that like, literally your whole job is. And then it's like, why is energy bills going up 13 right now since Donald Trump took office? Because he's going. It's. It's like literally going rampant. Why is heating costs going up? Like, why are all, all these costs are going up? I wonder why, Brett. I wonder why.
- [64:48]
E
It's also. It's all skyrocketing, too. It's like, it's not even close. Like, electricity prices, I think you, you said the step for. They're up 13% since Donald Trump took office. Heating costs are expected to rise 9.2% this winter. So think about all the other costs. We talked about this episode, right? Health care costs and things like that. On top of that, all of these costs in addition to prices for everything being more expensive. And Trump just makes it worse because he keeps canceling all of these clean energy projects. So while he's giving all of these kind of AI companies carte blanche to build all these data centers and all these towns, he's canceling these clean energy projects that would actually help the energy load, that are actually clean ways to help with this energy load. So already Trump has either threatened to Cancel or cancel 324 clean energy projects or companies. He put 165, more than 165,000 clean energy jobs on the chopping block. $53 billion in clean energy investment is gone. And these projects just like, so you could wrap your head around it a little bit bit, they would have generated enough electricity to power 13 million homes, but they're gone because of Donald Trump. And all of this while, like, think about the other orders that Donald Trump wants to sign and what these Republicans right now, what they're fighting for. They're fighting to stop any regulation on AI like, to not allow any states to regulate AI whatsoever so that they could allow these billionaires to build these data centers which are destroying communities, straining the energy grid, consuming massive amounts of water. In many cases, they're even making water unsafe to drink in the towns. They're just allowing them to build these carte blanche with that, just out with no guidelines. And no guidelines, obviously, for the, you know, for the end result of AI, for its many use cases that could be quite dangerous. AI, if harnessed correctly, could be a good thing. It could be used to improve efficiency. It could be used to help find cures to diseases. There's, there's a lot of great use cases for AI, but they're without all these. But it's also a very dangerous technology that also needs a lot of regulation. They do not want any regulation on this. And then that brings me to another really important story that I don't think is getting nearly enough attention. But the Trump administration just moved to dismantle the country's leading climate research center, which is the national center for Atmospheric Research in Colorado. It's, like, world renowned, one of the top research centers in the entire world. People all across the planet rely on this facility for life and death information about natural disasters and so much more. But the administration says because they report on climate issues and give actual data on the climate, not cooked books like the Trump administration gives out, but they give actual facts to the people, the Trump administration says that that is alarmist and woke. I wish I was being facetious when I said that. They called the workers that they do woke, but they literally said that it's woke. It's woke to know about natural disasters. It's woke to have information on the climate. It's woke to save lives, I guess. And it's all because they're just giving truthful information that goes against this regime narrative. It's part of the danger of having these sycophants, of having a regime that doesn't care about the facts and just wants to push forward its agenda without any regard for anything else.
- [67:54]
B
Yeah, I'd be remiss if we didn't talk about the Epstein files, though, for a moment. First off, on Thursday, the New York Times dropped an incredible expose. By the way, Brett, that was a great segment. New York Times dropped an expose. The headline, don's Best Friend. How Epstein and Trump Bonded over the Pursuit of Women. The article talks about, and it's very well sourced from, like, people who worked with Epstein at the time, Epstein's assistant, like all the people who knew what was going on at the time. The two men forged a bond intense enough to leave others who knew them with the impression that they were each other's closest friend. The Times found the president has tried to minimize their friendship, but documents and interviews reveal an intense and complicated relationship. Chasing women, say girls. But chasing women was a game of ego and dominance. Female Bodies were currency. There's also photos that the Democrats from the House Oversight Committee released. And it's like Epstein with, like, it looks like very young girls in the photo. Their faces are redacted, but it looks like very young girls in the photo. This photo, you go to what the New York Times also reports, and they say one of the assistants who worked for Epstein, who would work late, recalled that sometimes when the office emptied out, Epstein would check to see that she was at her desk and put Trump on speaker. Mr. Trump, she said, seemed to enjoy regaling Epstein with tales of his sexual exploits. And Mr. Epstein seemed to delight in how uncomfortable it made her to overhear them. She remembered one call in the mid-1990s in which the two men discussed how much pubic hair a particular woman had and whether there was enough for Mr. Epstein to floss his teeth with. Epstein frequently mentioned his friendship with Trump, according to several accusers, telling one he had a bedroom reserved at Mar A Lago. So while this is going on, Donald Trump has also assigned a national security team, a national security team at the Department of Justice and FBI to work on the redactions, which are, you know, removing things and hiding things, or not disclosing the names before the deadline, which is on Friday. If you're listening to this on Friday, it's today. And so, like hundreds of national security employees, lawyers, FBI agencies, potentially in the thousands. Interesting thing to think about, though, because didn't they do this in March? Also, from the FOIA requests that we know that Bloomberg sent out, we know that redactions were made in March. Remember, there was one week where there was a thousand overtime hours that were spent by the FBI and the various teams there. There was also, I think, national security teams and other teams that dealt with these redaction teams back then. Yeah, million dollars, I think it was. I think it was 1,000 employees that worked on it in March and over a million dollars in overtime paid in one week alone. And that's when Bondi said they were going to release it. And of course, they didn't release it and said they're not releasing anything. So I think, given what we know, Trump's not going to produce things that have his, you know, it's either going to be redacted or not produced. They'll probably produce, in my view, duplicates of what the estate turned over, and I think they'll produce some things that have Trump's name on it. But just to be like, oh, you see, his name is on it, but like, you know, but I think they're going to produce a lot of things that implicate people who Trump views as, like, just other people, not him, other, you know, people that he would perceive as enemies. Anyone who's friends with him, I'm giving you my opinion, friends with him, him, I think they're not going to produce it or just produce a little bit, enough people to be people like, hey, you see, we turn stuff over. I think they're also going to be sloppy. And I think we're going to find out pretty quickly and you can go back to this tape when it happens, that they will probably violate a lot of actual privacy issues of the real victims and survivors. We saw them do this before in other settings where they, like, give Social Security numbers. So, like, I think there's going to be a great degree of sloppiness that we're going to find out right away. But I think there's going to be a lot of COVID up and I think a lot of the work's going to begin in terms of exposing what their, what their cover up is. So we will, we will, we will be on that every step of the way. I, I just do want to show these two other points, though, just be, before we go and there, there are just two separate hearings. And I just want to make sure I give everybody this, this info. You may have seen it on Hot Takes that I've done, but I want to show you some of the Democrat cross examination of witnesses that took place in the Senate, the first one where you had Democratic Senator Blumenthal cross examining Trump's pick to be federal judges. So you see, like, who are the future federal judges that Trump is pushing forward and that the MAGA Republicans are pushing forward. And to what we described earlier, I think you said, Jordi, who would want to, like, who, who would do this? Who would debase themselves? You know, these people want to be federal judges, and they're willing to say anything. And they know that if they say January 6th was an attack on the Capitol, that they will not become judges. So they say, I can't answer the question. And you'll see how people like this bend and break. And these are disgraceful human beings. They're vile human beings. And I hope that their children and their grandchildren see this and say, you know what? These individuals in my family were utterly disgraceful. Here, play this was the United States.
- [73:29]
F
Capitol attacked on January 6, 2021.
- [73:35]
E
And again, Senator, as a sitting judge under Rule 2 of the Missouri Rules of Judicial Ethics, I believe that there are cases pending in front of courts. And so due to pending or impending litigation, I cannot comment on anything of political controversy.
- [73:51]
F
I'm not asking about a specific individual. Was a Capitol attack.
- [74:00]
E
And again, I do believe that there are cases currently in front of courts. And so as a sitting judge under rule two, I cannot answer.
- [74:10]
F
Mr. Lee?
- [74:12]
B
Same answer. And I would add that as an employee of the Department of Justice, I would refer to the Department of Justice's positions and briefs.
- [74:20]
F
Mr. Olson.
- [74:22]
E
Senator, the January Six events are a.
- [74:25]
B
Matter of public controversy and debate on.
- [74:29]
E
How to characterize those.
- [74:30]
B
And I think to wade into that. All right, that's, you know, that very low character individuals, very shameful individuals. Right, but they're going to be federal judges deciding cases. How do you think they're going to decide cases that involve Donald Trump and maga? Right. Such low character. Such scumbags, frankly. Let me know how to describe these people. Such shameful humans. They can't say that. Look, if they want to. Not being asked to opine. And do you agree with Donald Trump's impeachment? Which should be an easy answer. I mean, sorry, Donald Trump pardons should be impeached. You know, but, you know, but also, I mean, they weren't asked to opine on what are your, what are your thoughts about Trump's impeachment in his first term? Like, they weren't asked about, like, those questions.
- [75:12]
E
They were literally not even. By the way, Ben, they weren't even asked, is Donald Trump responsible? Were the events on January six?
- [75:18]
B
Like, was there an attack on the Capitol?
- [75:19]
E
It was simply, was the Capitol attacked on January6? This is common knowledge that we all know happened, and they refused to even say that.
- [75:29]
B
Yeah. Okay, so then you have Brendan Carr, the current chairman of the fcc. FCC is an independent agency. It's always been. Their website said it was independent until Brendan Carr said what I'm about to show you. Then they deleted their website language and removed independent agency from the website. Okay, but it's supposed to be an independent agency. And Brendan Carr. And it's great questioning by Senator Lujan. Watch what Brendan Carr, the chairman of the fcc. This is the guy who threatened Kimmel and abc and he's been threatening all the comedians. This guy's the guy who threatens all the networks that if you don't say what Donald Trump wants to say, I'm coming after you as the chairman of the fcc. And so he's asked by Senator Lujan, like, so do you believe that the FCC is an independent agency? Again, not a controversial question. The answer is yes. Of course it's an independent agency and it's his own agency that he's supposed to defend. His job is literally to defend the independence of his agency. Watch what he says. Let's play it. Fcc, an independent agency. Senator, thanks for that question. I think yes or no is all we need. Or yes or no, is it independent? Well, there's a test for this in the law, in the key portion of that yes or no, Brendan. The key portion of that test. Okay, I'm going to go to commissioner trustee. So just so you know, Brendan, on your website it just simply says, man, the FCC is independent. This isn't a trick question. Okay. The fcc, yes or no.
- [76:54]
E
Is not.
- [76:54]
C
Okay. Is not.
- [76:55]
B
So is your website wrong? Is your website lying?
- [76:58]
E
Possibly.
- [76:59]
B
The FCC is not an independent agency. Okay, can I read this to you? The F. FCC's mission on the homepage of the FCC independent agency. And you see how Brendan Carr was going to go into his like, state regime, media bs well, you know, I don't like that. Senator Luan's like, hey, Brandon, Hey Brandon, answer the freaking question, yes or no.
- [77:18]
E
But by the way, what they did after that hearing, like within the hour of Brendan Carr saying that you might think, oh, they corrected him. They showed him, oh, this actually it says it on the website. No, they changed the website. They. They changed history. They changed the website. Despite that being the history of the FCC forever. They, that that was the way they handled that situation.
- [77:36]
C
The only thing is he missed an opportunity at the end of that to just say thank you, Brendan would have been just really funny for the. The one person that made that, that gets that joke. I like that.
- [77:50]
B
Well, on that note, Jordy, and the hilarious, hilarious. The episode we covered a lot. Covered a lot. I just want to thank all the Midas mighty out there. Thank you all for standing strong. It's been people powered, resilience, institutions may have bent and broken. We've seen a lot of leaders, a lot of people bend the knee, a lot of disgraceful behavior. But the people have stuck together. And I've said this before, and I'll say it again, the country is far worse off right now. But I think there's a lot more hope because of the resilience of people. Whereas last year I think there was far less hope, but the country was far better off when Biden was still in office. This was around the time when I had interviewed Biden in the Roosevelt Room a year ago. You know, it's almost probably exactly a year ago. And when I asked former President Biden what he wanted his legacy to be. He said that I kept my word, that everything I said I was going to do, I did. And I didn't care if you were from a red state or a blue state or a purple state. You were an American and I fought for for you. And those words back then seem so distant yet what we should all be aspiring, I think, in future leaders. And so I'll leave you all with that. Thank you all for watching. Brett Anything else you want to say?
- [79:07]
C
All Jordy Shout out to the Midas.
- [79:09]
B
Mighty, the mightest mighty Standing strong.
- [79:17]
E
Against.
- [79:19]
B
The first fascist we sing our song.
- [79:28]
C
Want to stay plugged in? Become a subscriber to our substack@midasplus.com you'll.
- [79:33]
E
Get daily recaps from Ron Filipkowski, ad free episodes of our podcast and more.
- [79:37]
C
Exclusive content only available@midasplus.com VRBO's last minute.
- [79:44]
B
Deals make Chase Fresh Mountain Powder incredibly easy. With thousands of homes close to the slopes, you can get epic Pow Freshies first tracks and more. Find Last Minute deals with the Last Minute filter on the app. Book a private vacation rental now@vrbo.com.