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- [00:02]
Ben
Meet the computer you can talk to with Copilot on Windows. Working, creating and collaborating is as easy as talking.
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Brett
Got writer's block?
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Ben
Share your screen with Copilot Vision to help spark inspiration and use Copilot voice.
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Brett
To have a conversation and brainstorm ideas.
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Ben
Or maybe you need some tech help with Copilot Vision. Copilot sees what you see. Let Copilot talk you through step by step guidance so you can master new.
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Brett
Apps, games and skills faster.
- [00:26]
Ben
Try now@windows.com copilot Donald Trump's cover up of the Epstein files is worse than anybody could have imagined. I think even worse than their worst expectations. A criminal cover up at the highest levels of our government of a child sex trafficking ring. We'll break it down. Also, Donald Trump wants a distraction. He's trying to get the United States into multiple wars, trying to get the US Into a war with Venezuela continuing to seize oil tankers, both sanctioned and unsanctioned oil tankers. You have the Trump regime essentially threatening war with Greenland, appointing a special envoy, the current governor of Louisiana, Jeff Landry, who put out a statement saying that we are going to make Greenland ours. A reminder, Greenland is part of the Kingdom of Denmark, a NATO ally. Denmark and Greenland, the prime ministers of both locations issued a powerful response. We'll talk about what's going down there. And you see our former allies, kind of a World War three war footing as a result of Donald Trump's behavior. You have this deranged GOP Turning Point USA event in Phoenix where all these GOP influencers were attacking each other. It also looked, in my opinion, like a white supremacist rally at Times. You had J.D. vance saying that now white people are not afraid to say they're white anymore. And then you had a bizarre special guest appearance by Nicki Minaj, who referred to J.D. vance as an assassin to Erica Kirk. And then she went on to threaten the life. In my opinion, that's what it looked like of California Governor Gavin Newsom at this event. We'll break that down. And then you have Donald Trump slapping his name on just about everything unlawfully, from putting his name on the Kennedy center, to putting his name on the Institute of Peace, to putting banners of himself everywhere on buildings in Washington, D.C. earlier today, they announced a new class of Navy vessels referred to as the Trump class. While Americans just want affordable housing, affordable groceries, an economy that works for most Americans and not the billionaires. We'll break it all down here on the Midas Touch podcast. It's great to be with everybody Right before Christmas. If we don't check in with you before Christmas. But don't worry, we're going to be doing videos every day. Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, happy Kwanzaa. And it's been a great, great time to be with all of you in solidarity and standing up to this regime.
- [03:11]
Brett
Brett, Jordyn, Happy holidays, everybody. It's great to be here. Ben and Jordi. It's great to be here. Midas Mighty I know we got a whole lot to discuss today. I think the thing that I'm just most. I don't know if I should be surprised or shouldn't be surprised about this, but the COVID up has just been so sloppy in regards to the Epstein thing. And you know, if they thought that releasing the files in the way that they did by withholding so much, by redacting so much, by being so selective in their releases, by taking things off once they discovered that Donald Trump's face was, was in a photo, all the things that they are doing is actually making this whole situation look way, way, way worse. It's actually causing people to ask even more questions than they had before this first dump of documents. I just cannot believe, maybe I should. I just really can't believe how bad they are at this cover up. But we're lucky that they're bad at the COVID up and we've been catching them every step of the way. We're going to go through that. I know we got a lot to discuss, so I'm going to toss it to Jordi. Jordy, what's the latest?
- [04:07]
Jordi
What's up, brothers? What's up? Midas Mighty I'm excited for tonight's show with that. Benji, where are we starting off tonight, big bro?
- [04:13]
Ben
I mean, look, when we talk about this cover up, I don't want to center this away from these survivors. Right. Because they've been re victimized by this. They've been psychologically tortured. These are people who have experienced the unthinkable, who have ptsd, who are being traumatized over and over again by this behavior. Now, whatever comes next, this process has been irreversibly tainted. There's nothing that you can trust that comes out of this. And I know we all knew that the Trump regime was not going to comply with the Epstein Transparency act when all of the files were due on Friday. That's what the law said. There was an ambiguity. The law didn't say the first phase starts on December 19th or you can do rolling productions. It said all of the files must be made public. With the exception of limited redactions of the victim's names, the survivors names, the victim and the survivors faces, that's it. Everything else comes out. There is no ambiguity, there's no confusion. So early on Friday, you had Donald Trump's former criminal defense lawyer, who's now the number two at the doj, Todd Blanche, it should be noted, all of the top Justice Department officials, Pam Bondi, all these people were Donald Trump's former lawyers. They're out there protecting him. But Todd Blanche says, well, we're going to start our first phase, our rolling production. No, no, no, you have to turn everything over. We know back in March from the FOIA requests that were made by Jason Leopold at Bloomberg and others, There were over 1,000 FBI agents and DOJ officials back in March. What were the overtime hours? Over 14,000 overtime hours or some really large number like that. And throughout this period of time, the amount of people who were placed from the National Security division of the DOJ and FBI to review these files has been, it's been a massive amount of time. And look, to give you some of my personal background and experience, I've been in cases that have involved more documents than are in the Epstein files where there were terabytes of productions. I was in a billion dollar Ponzi scheme case where I was the prosecuting attorney. And there were enough documents and videos and witness statements that could fill three 80 story skyscrapers. That's how it was described to me by our E discovery vendor, our electronic discovery vendor. If you just put the documents from the floor to the ceiling, what you would do, and this was before AI and all these other tools to help you go through the documents and videos. But I assigned four or five associates for about a month and a half, two months. That's all they did. They went through everything. Occasionally they used before AI and before all these tools they just used like keyword searches to try to prioritize things. So you would try to look that way and maybe prioritize your search, but then you would be able to produce all of these things and have everything ready to go by, you know, a month and a half. And you would use these electronic discovery tools to load the documents and you would work with the posing counsel to do it. Like this is not actually all that of a complicated task. And you would do attorney client privilege redactions and all the other redactions that I would do. So this is a manageable task. I'm thinking to myself, imagine if I had the equivalent of one of these massive law firms, right? 1000 lawyers or whatever it is at my disposal to go through these documents. I mean, it probably could have been done in a week. I just want to give you that perspective that I have. Having litigated cases with massive amounts of documents. I'll give you this perspective as well because I think it's helpful that we move the needle forward and give you interesting perspectives that you're not hearing anywhere else. I've been on the receiving end of document dumps where a party has tried to cover up their malfeasance when a judge has ordered them to produce documents by a certain date, but they've at least done it in a semi sophisticated way. They would show you some documents, but they wouldn't have all of them. So you would be like, oh, they must be producing something because it has this on it. Why would they show that if they're covering up that? But then ultimately you would send out third party subpoenas. If this was this Trump situation, you would, you know, to the Epstein estate and you would, you know, say to these third parties, you know, wait a minute, I'm getting documents from the third parties that I didn't see in this production, so maybe I'm not getting all of the documents. And then sometimes you would ask the judge to appoint a discovery referee to jump in and help show you if in fact the other side wasn't turning over the documents that they were required to. So what the Trump DOJ is doing, it wasn't even like a sophisticated cover up. Right? They didn't even produce documents that we know they have, which were those Epstein estate documents that were turned over to the Democrats in the House Oversight Committee. Like they didn't even produce those ones. And we know that's in their possession, custody and control because we all have them. So clearly it's in their possession, custody and control. So it was a just an F you to the American people saying, we don't care that this is the law. We don't care that there is a deadline here. Screw you. And look, for the American people's perspective, that's bad. But where I started was this is re victimizing the survivors and none of us should be okay with that. So anyway, Donald Trump held a press conference to talk about the Trump naval ships, that that's what he's calling him now, the Trump naval ships. By the way, how much are all of you looking forward when this regime is over and the next president changes all these names and tears down the ballroom and it's going to feel like when Saddam Hussein was. With the statues coming down, I think about that day, and I know you think about that day as well. So anyway, the purpose of this press conference ostensibly was to talk about the Trump ships. That's what he's calling. And Trump's like, I designed them with my own aesthetic. Okay, well, that's pretty, that's, that's not a good thing if you're the one designing Navy ships. And that's by the way, one of the reasons authoritarians often fall from power and are defeated is because they think that they alone can fix it. And they push away people with expertise, knowledge and intelligence and people who care about the truth and science, because authoritarians shun that. So, you know, we'll see if it's Trump's aesthetic, what that actually means for the ships. But at this presser, Donald Trump was asked about the Epstein files and the release and the COVID up. So one question that seems to be a planted question, which Trump botched, was a question about former President Bill Clinton. So the question was like, so there's all of these photos of Bill Clinton. What do you make of that? Now, in this Trump production, Trump considered all of the men who were perpetrators, who were implicated, who were mentioned as though they were the victims in the files. So that the victims were not the actual victims and survivors, but it was the men who were mentioned. Remember when MAGA Mike Johnson was saying, oh, what we're really worried about here and why he at first did not support the discharge petition is he said it would create a whole new class of victims, referring to the men who are involved, referring to the perpetrator. Well, that was how the Justice Department went about a lot of these redactions, by treating that group of people, except for Bill Clinton. And these photos of Bill Clinton were produced kind of without context. And they were like photos of Bill Clinton, Diana Ross, Michael Jackson and children. And the children's faces were redacted and it turns out like they were like Diana Ross's children. Right. There was another photo of Bill Clinton in a pool and someone's face was redacted. And it turns out that it was in a, called the Emperor Suite in Brunei at a hotel. And that the person's face was redacted, wasn't a victim. Seemed that the person's face who was redacted was someone who was actually a co conspirator of Epstein. And the implication was, was that, you know, this was a victim. And they were in this pool together naked, but they were like wearing bathing suits. So they put out all these Clinton posts. Let me be very clear where I stand not defending former President Bill Clinton. If he's in these files doing anything wrong or incorrect or engaging in criminality in any way, release all the files. No one, whether, regardless of your political affiliation, get the files out there. It's just that simple. That's how we should all feel about it, Right? And by the way, earlier today, former President Bill Clinton, and I'm glad he finally did this, put out a statement saying, release all the files. And I think he should have done that a long time ago. And he said, look. And it was through a spokesperson, a former President Clinton. He's like, look, it's obvious you're selectively leaking photos of me. Release everything, anything that I mentioned in anything at all, just release it. Stop the selective dropping of things. The law said, release it. And you're not doing it. I'm glad that Bill Clinton finally, you know, did that. Anyway, so Trump was asked about it, and so just listen to Trump's response, because Trump's like, I like Bill Clinton. He's a good guy. I think he's a really good guy. I feel bad for him. He's a bud of mine. He's. He's a really good guy. And when you hear this, I want you just, to me, this just shows you what a fraud and a con Donald Trump is. He's your friend. He's a good guy. You're upset that he's in these photos. You put them in. But that's what a sociopath does. And if you know sociopaths in your life, you recognize this behavior. Trump's just a nuclear sociopath. Let's play this clip.
- [14:38]
Jordi
Thank you, Mr. President.
- [14:39]
Brett
Were you surprised by the number of.
- [14:41]
Jordi
Photos of Bill Clinton in the Epstein files?
- [14:43]
Brett
And you. Can you commit to their. And were you surprised by the number.
- [14:47]
Jordi
Of photos of Bill Clinton in the Epstein files?
- [14:50]
Brett
And can you commit to their full release? By the end of the year, Some of the victims were protesting that too.
- [14:54]
Jordi
Many of them were redacted.
- [14:56]
Donald Trump
I know there are a lot of people that are angry about all of the pictures of other people, you know, but I think it's terrible. Look, I don't like the. I like Bill Clinton. I've always gotten along with Bill Clinton. I've been nice to him. He's been nice to me. We've always gotten along, respect him. I hate to see photos come out of him. But this is what the Democrats, mostly Democrats and a couple of bad Republicans are asking for. So they're Giving their photos of me, too. Everybody was friendly with this guy, either friendly or not friendly. But he was around. He was all over Palm Beach.
- [15:26]
Ben
Let me bring in Brett and Jordi right there. That's a sociopath right there. That is deranged behavior right there. And it also speaks to the fact that this regime thinks you're stupid. Like, they truly think that you're not just stupid. You watching and you listening. They think you are as stupid as stupid can be, that he can say something like that, and that they expect you to have the MAGA mush brain to go, well, I guess so. I guess that ends it. That makes. They're close. They're buds. He feels bad for Bill.
- [16:03]
Brett
It's utterly. It's utterly bizarre, Ben, you know, and I think it's interesting that that's what he decides to say the day that we see former President Bill Clinton turn the tables on Donald Trump and actually challenge him to release the full files and say, listen, man, I've got nothing to hide. Release all the files. Stop the selective releases of me. Release any pictures you have of me. Put them out there. Any documents you have of me, put them out there. I'm not afraid. Are you afraid? Let's do it. That's what the law says. And then all of a sudden, Donald Trump's like, oh, Bill Clinton is good. Good, good guy. Yeah, really good. Really good guy. I like that guy. I like that guy a whole lot. Something that you did not hear Donald Trump say in that speech was, yes, let's just release all the files right now. Bill Clinton is right. Let's get all the files. Let's get them out there. You know, I think it's very telling, honestly, when you hear someone like Bill Clinton say, release everything. I'm not afraid. When you see somebody like a Reid Hoffman go out there and say, release everything. I'm not afraid. And then you see Donald Trump and he goes, nope, don't do it. Please don't do it. I think it's just very telling. And I know there's a frustration out there amongst people because they are treating all of us like we are stupid. With the release of these files and the way they are doing it is meant to obstruct the process and obstruct the. Obstruct the law. But, you know, I always think, as frustrated as I am, I go back to, you know, what Ben was saying in the beginning of this episode. Imagine how frustrated and just depressed and how hurt the survivors are. And imagine going way, way, way back, decades to as early as around, like 1996 or so, people who have been victimized by this man, trying to get answers, trying to get responses from various FBI's with various reports and hitting these same brick walls every single step of the way. Like, what we are all experiencing right now is a mere fraction of, of what their survivors have had to endure over the past few decades. And I think it's important that we all keep that in mind.
- [18:03]
Jordi
Well said, V. And when Trump was talking about his great relationship with Bill Clinton over there, I couldn't help but wonder if he was going to refer to him as his bubba. But that one never came out during that clip. Anyway, on a more serious note, to your point there, Brett and Ben, it's the gaslighting for me. It's like when Donald Trump is even fielding these questions from reporters. For our audio listeners, there's almost a look of bewilderment, shock on Donald Trump's face as he's getting asked the questions about Epstein. Like he can't even fathom that you, that you people out there, that you guys still want to understand what, what, what's going on with those files. Like, Trump is a serial gaslighter on top of being a sociopath. And Ben, you said it perfectly. It's because he thinks you're dumb. It's because he thinks whatever trick he's trying to play on the American people isn't just going to work, that it's already worked. And I think that's just continuing to infuriate the American people more and more, especially when you bring it back to, oh, no, there are real people behind these files. There are real victims here. And now they have to relive this in this utterly sociopathic way that Donald Trump is forcing down the American people. It's crazy to see in real time, Ben.
- [19:24]
Ben
Well, look, from Trump's perspective, and I'm not making excuses for him, what I want to show you is that his view is look at Pam Bondi, look at Todd Blanche, look at MAGA Mike Johnson, look at James Comer, look at Jim Jordan, look at all of the people who Trump surrounds himself with. Look at what Elise Stefanik did. You know, she, she of course said that she's leaving the New York governor's race on Friday and quitting politics altogether. But look at how these people bent and broke and parroted what he says. The delusional stuff, right? And the cognitive dissonance, although it's also cognitive decline. And there's a whole other analysis we make of Donald Trump. There and we should be talking about his physical and mental deterioration before our eyes. And yet another cover up going there is how is it though, that the majority of Americans don't buy the crap that I'm selling right now when there's this group that does and why can't I? And he's frustrated that America and the people have stood up to this and like, no, you're a liar. You're involved in a criminal sex trafficking ring. Cover up right now. We're not okay with this. We're not stupid. We know what you're doing. We're not maga. Mike, you know, he's upset that there are people with morals still and ethics and people who care about the truth. And that part about it is very frustrating for a majority you mention. It's kind of like, you know, Donald. Donald Trump's out there saying, you still care about this. He literally said that. He goes, you know, this whole thing with Epstein is a way to deflect. You still care about this. Like, I'm surprised people even he literally said that. Here, play this clip.
- [21:19]
Donald Trump
He's just being used by the Democrats. Because what this whole thing is with Epstein is a way of trying to deflect from the tremendous success that the Republican Party has. Like, for instance, today we're building the biggest ships in the world, most powerful ships in the world. And they're asking me questions about Jeffrey Epstein. I thought that was finished.
- [21:39]
Ben
So, Jordan, he actually says that. I thought that. I thought that was finished.
- [21:42]
Brett
I have just never seen in the history of politics or perhaps anything, seen such an incredible own goal, I guess I will call it. You know, like, Donald Trump made this such a centerpiece of his campaign. He tried to weaponize the Epstein files to go after all of his political opponents. He basically rose to popularity on the whole idea of QAnon, which was tangentially related to things around the Epstein files. And then all of a sudden he's in power and now he has to actually produce the documents and he realizes that he's being caught in his own web of lies, in his own web of deceit, and that he, of course, had a very close relationship with Jeffrey Epstein. Jeffrey Epstein, what did he used to call Donald Trump from the New York Times report? My. My best friend Don, or something like that. Like, they were best friends going back for a very long time. And so when you have Donald Trump out there and he promises to release the Epstein files and then they put this minimal release after. It was like pulling teeth to get them after a law, a Literal law had to be passed in order to force any sort of action. And then they put out this little batch of files, I think like under like 5% of it. And they're mostly redacted. And then you don't even see the photos of Donald Trump and Epstein that we know exist. And then the one photo that we actually see of them was inside a drawer that they clearly missed. And then they took the photo down for a little bit once people caught wind of it, and then we caught them taking it down. It's like they're not doing anything to help their case here. And that's why just, just release the files. I don't understand what is so difficult about this. And now we're at a point where it's like the COVID up really is worse than the crime. And, you know, if you really, truly did not do anything wrong, then you should just be able to explain yourself. Right. Just because you're in a photo with somebody doesn't necessarily mean, you know, association does not mean guilt. Right. People are asking me, so, you know, why aren't you speaking out about Bill Clinton? I said, I don't like Bill Clinton's association with Jeffrey Epstein one bit. I'd have, I'll happily speak out about him. But show me, you know, somewhere where it says that he did something wrong. That's, that's, those are the things that I need to know. I mean, seeing a picture of Bill Clinton in a pool with his shirt, I mean, people have shirts off in pools. You know, we need context for a lot of this stuff and we need people to be able to explain themselves. But Donald Trump's refusal to explain anything and instead doing the opposite and continuously trying to deflect and say, it's this person, it's that person. That right there to me is what makes him seem guiltier and makes this even, like, darker. The fact that he's covering this whole thing up. I think that is the most troubling part for me.
- [24:16]
Jordi
Exactly. And it's been a series of own goals. When, when you talk about the Epstein filer release, let's start with the beginning of this regime. He invited the MAGA influencers to the White House, gave them binders, they did the whole photo op that they have. Well, people weren't buying that bs. And then come time to release these files after everyone fought tooth and. Sorry, let me rephrase. After the pro democracy coalition fought tooth and nail to get the release of the files, you had MAGA Mike Johnson trying to kneel the football and Just run out the clock on it. Finally, the files do get released or are set to be released, and what do they do? They wait the entirety of the allotted time to even release the files. Come the day of the release, they make up this, this headline saying that we are going to meet the initial deadline of the files and then continue to release more and more. It's a series of own goals because at every turn they've gaslit the American people with the release of these files. And at every step of the way, folks have been calling them out for their bs because people are genuinely interested in this. Because like I said in the beginning, there are real victims. There are real victims and people genuinely want justice, not some sort of fake MAGA justice where Donald Trump could say, oh, I did it and we're great and now it's time to move. No, folks want real answers when it comes to this. And so the series of own goals that we've seen from MAGA just, I mean, that is this Trump regime in a nutshell.
- [25:48]
Ben
Also, Bill Clinton is not the current President of the United States. Bill Clinton was impeached when he was in office on perjury based on his description of oral sex in an investigation that started about a real estate transaction. Bill Clinton's not leading the country. You know, at the end of the day, everything that the Trump regime right now wants to do is, well, Biden this and Obama that, and y' all are in charge. This guy, this guy is the leader right now. And if former President Bill Clinton, he's not able to, but if he was running for office again or, you know, and we had to evaluate their character and their associations, we should, in the context of an election or in the context of their decisions bearing upon our existence and our lives right now. No, Donald Trump is making a number of reckless and malicious decisions that are affirmatively harming the American people right now. And Donald Trump is out there calling this a hoax. And Donald Trump was the one out there who made the Epstein files like one of his signature issues. That's what he talked about about. That's what Cash Patel talked about. That's what Dan Bongino talked about. That's what Pam Bondi, this whole, one of these things, this whole right wing movement in the US Was built on is that they were the ones who were uncovering the secret child sex trafficking rings out there and they're the ones who are now covering it up. It's also why it's important that we have an international perspective of these things, because it's actually an attribute of right wing ultra nationalistic movements in trying to appeal to the people and divide countries. If you look at how Viktor Orban came into power as well in Hungary, an authoritarian regime there, same playbook. They were the ones who were going to uncover the child sex trafficking ring and they've been exposed in Budapest in running a child prostitution ring essentially out of the child detention centers out there. And there were all these protests taking place in Budapest because their authoritarian regime is also complicit in a cover up of a child sex trafficking ring. And it is an attribute of these right wing movements and it's why it's helpful that we make these connections. And oftentimes they're either the perpetrators or they're the ones aiding and abetting in the coverups. It's an interesting point to expand our horizons and recognize that there are these right wing authoritarian movements using these same talking points. Points. All right, let's take our first quick break of the show. A reminder hit subscribe. We're on our way to 6 million subscribers right now. When we come back, we've got a lot more to discuss. And I didn't mention at the top, but we should also be discussing basically how CBS is totally dead. CBS is gone and its implications as well. So let's take our first quick break of the show.
- [28:53]
Jordi
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- [32:45]
Ben
So last night Donald Trump posted that he was appointing a special envoy to Greenland. He said he was appointing Governor Jeff Landry. And before Governor Jeff Landry made a post in response, I did a video saying, oh, yeah, that's a threat of war right there. And how'd I know that? Because this is how authoritarians speak. The idea of an envoy for what the envoy in Trump's mind is the way he's got his envoy in Ukraine, which is to basically hand over Ukraine to Russia. Trump's own mind is he needs an envoy that's basically going to demand that Denmark give the United States greenland. And the person Trump selected is the governor of Louisiana. And this guy's a maniac. His name is Governor Jeff Landry. This guy's been corrupt his whole life. You know, Louisiana had a lot of great choices to pick in terms of Democrats to be leaders, and they picked the maniac. Louisiana's now in terms of all of the lists of like best states to live in and health and jobs. It's always usually now towards the bottom across the board. You know, they really launch this MAGA assault on their own citizens. And it's one of these laboratories of autocracy where they show how much suffering can people take where you throw at them, you know, all of the right wing talking points and, you know, just hope their partisan views make them never vote Democrat, basically. So Governor Jeff Landry responds to Trump saying that he is the selection of special envoy and he goes, thank you. It's an honor to serve you in this volunteer position to make Greenland a part of the US this in no way affects my position as governor of Louisiana. Now should be clear that that's a statement of war. It's a statement of aggression. I know that media doesn't want to talk about it like that because Trump has won very little credibility. So his threatening war isn't viewed as, oh, is that really a war or is that just Trump being Trump? But also the media doesn't want to use this language. The media doesn't want to say what it is. They want to give him cover. We'll talk more about CBS a little bit later in this episode, but they don't talk about it that way. Could you imagine if former President Biden or former President Obama or former President George W. Bush or Clinton made a statement about conquering and taking over Greenland, do you think that it would at least make the news cycle, or do you think it would lead the news cycle or do you think it would lead the news week? Do you think that there would be camera crews set up in Greenland waiting for the invasion? Don't you think that would happen if another president made statements like that? And when Donald Trump makes it, it's discounted because, one, he lies about everything. But also it's discounted because the prevailing view is, ah, he's not really going to do that. Ah, he's not really going to do that. Well, you know, go look at the history of what people were saying about Putin and Ukraine. Ah, he's not actually going to launch a full fledged invasion and try to take over Kyiv. No, that's, that's his view. That's what Putin wants. Putin's, quote, unquote, special operation to denazify Ukraine, which is the pretext, used a deranged and utter lie to use to invade and take over Ukraine, a sovereign territory. Trump's got his versions of that. Those rare earth elements in Greenland belong to us. We need it for our national security. What's Trump saying about Venezuela? They stole our land, they stole our oil. We need to reclaim it and bring it back. It's the same exact type of language as Putin. It's why, again, as I mentioned before, you draw the parallels between Maga and Orban's. Maga. Hungry Maga. Right. And you have to draw the parallels between Trump's language there and Putin's language there. And you go back to when this regime started. Remember what I was showing you, Marco Rubio's speeches where he talked about a multipolar international world with Russia, the US And China. That's how Trump sees things. China controls Asia. Screw Japan, screw Taiwan, screw South Korea. That belongs to China. All of it. Europe belongs to Russia. The Western Hemisphere, Greenland, Central America, Mexico, South America belongs to the us. Xi Jinping, Trump, Putin. That's how Donald Trump, Canada belongs to the us. That's how Trump sees the world. You have to recognize that that's how he sees the world. And if he could invade Canada and take it over without resistance, he would do it. That's what he means by 51st state. He was looking for a pretext to invade Venezuela. He keeps on seizing these tankers and including one recently that was a Panamanian flagged tanker going to China with 2 million barrels of oil that was not on a sanction list. And the Coast Guard just took it like we just stole their oil. And Trump says, well, it belongs to me now. Trump's trying to provoke the war in Venezuela. And just think about this language that's being used here. And so the Prime Minister, Mette Fredriksen, and the premier of Greenland, Jens Frederick Nielsen, they issue a joint statement saying the following. National borders and state sovereignty are deeply rooted in international law. These are fundamental principles. No one cannot annex other countries, not even by invoking arguments of international security. Greenland belongs to the Greenlandic people. We expect respect for our shared territorial integrity. No one must be allowed to change the national borders by force, neither politically nor militarily. So there you have that. And I'll show you what Donald Trump said at this press conference earlier about Greenland. Listen to what he said. Let's play that clip of what Trump said about Greenland.
- [38:46]
Donald Trump
But he. He felt very strongly we needed financial. We need Greenland for national security, not for minerals. We had. So we have so many sites for minerals and oil and everything. We have more oil than any other country in the world. We need Greenland for national security. And if you take a look at Greenland, you look up and down the coast, you have Russian and Chinese ships all over the place. We need it for national security. We have to have it. And he wanted to lead the charge, so we're making him, Marco today a special envoy to Greenland. Greenland's a big deal.
- [39:20]
Ben
Bretton Jordi.
- [39:22]
Brett
It's the way authoritarians speak. And while our media might not take that super seriously, you know that the countries themselves are taking that seriously. You know that Greenland has taken it seriously and Denmark is taking it seriously. And we says similar things about 51st state with Canada. You know, the Canadians are taking that seriously. You know, when he threatens Mexico, saying that he's going to bomb inside Mexican territory to get at the cartels, you know that Mexico is taking that seriously. And you could tell because he's also using the same sort of tactics that he's using right now in Venezuela that he's using with all these other countries that are supposedly our allies, are supposed to be our allies. But you see the same exact lies as Ben was going at, you know, before, about Venezuela, where, you know, in Venezuela, he's saying all this stuff belongs to us and Venezuela took all the stuff to us, so it's our right to get it back. That is no different than, as Ben said, what Vladimir Putin did in the lead up to Ukraine. And Ben, I so remember all the people Back then saying that former President Joe Biden was trying to rile people up, that he was being alarmist, that Russia would never do such a thing. But you know, at the time, who did not buy that? The Ukrainians who were ready for it, you know, they, they understood the intelligence and realized that they had to be prepared. Now, I think that's what all these countries unfortunately have to do, because you're dealing with an unhinged sociopath, psychopath. And I mean that in the literal meaning of those terms. Someone who's very erratic and a bunch of yes men around him who refuse to say no to even his worst instincts. And so you're dealing with a madman. He's got all the power in the world right now. He's got access to nuclear weapons, he's got access to the United States military, and he clearly is okay with using it for means that even if it borders on or is completely illegal. And so we're just watching this play out day in and day out. And you know, I think you also have to look at all this also in the context of, of course, the release of the Epstein files and people's demand to get more and things like that. I mean, there's a reason why he starts going back to the threats against Greenland now, right as people are furious at the so called release of the Epstein files. I think he goes back into his bag of old tricks and he'll do any. Honestly, this, this is a guy who will start a war in order to try to get people's attention off of Epstein. Like, I have no doubt in my mind that he is sick enough to do that.
- [41:43]
Jordi
No, it's a great point. And it's why I say often we need adults in the room. We need adults in these positions of leadership here. Because what Donald Trump is doing, he's just making us look weak first and foremost. Like, as an American, it pains me to see this from our quote, unquote leader because at the end of it, I don't understand what this accomplishes. Like when he just talks like such a maniac like this and when he puts this stuff out there and attacks these countries, for me it's just like, why? And Brett, to your point exactly. It's to distract. It's trying to obviously, in this case, seems like to distract from the Epstein files and the release of those. And so Trump could continue to get more questions this particular subject matter. And I hate it. I just hate it. I know, we all do. I know that's the obvious thing to say here, but Again, it. I am worried about what this man is going to do for future generations of this country. We all have kids here on the podcast, not just for our kids, but for everybody's kids. Like, it's going to be very hard for our current allies, or folks who at least used to think they were our allies, to have that same perception of us going forward. It's going to be a hard stench to wash off of us, you know, even if we are hopefully able to get back into a more pro democracy area of this country, man. Benji, what's your take on that? Where do you see this, like, in the future?
- [43:09]
Ben
Well, here's the thing. Now, every country is now making long term plans to move away from the US like, long term. Because even if you brought in a pro democracy administration, right. I think every country, you know, that was formerly allied with us is going to say, yeah, that's great, and we like you, but we know that in four to eight years, y' all are capable of bringing in somebody like Trump. And so we've trusted you implicitly since World War II to be the leader of the free world. And we don't trust you anymore. Forever. Forever. I think a future president will, who's pro democracy, can make repairs, and I think they will. I think they'll physically rip down a lot of this Trump name stuff and nonsense. I think they'll, you know, make a Herculean effort. They're going to be running on this as a platform, right, to restore federal government back to competency. Bring in, like, the people from the CDC and everyone who was fired. And I think there's going to be a real thirst for the generals and the leaders and the scientists to want to come back as patriotism. Right? And to help. It's never. I'm just, I'm being blunt and I'm not trying to be nihilistic. I think it's just truthful, right? It is an irreparable breach that the United States has engaged in with anybody. And sure, you may bring in a new person, but the world's gonna say, yeah, we get that. But in four years, eight years, 12 years, you could, you're capable of bringing back a Trump because you brought this guy back after you knew everything about him. Another point I want to make, though, I think it's an important one with Trump making more aggressive threats against Greenland. Right. Who was hanging out with Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff this weekend? Like, who was there in Miami? The Russians. Right. You had Kirill Dmitriev and Ushkov and all of the top Russians were in Palm beach while Donald Trump was in Miami. You don't think they were on the phone together? You don't think Trump and the Russians were speaking back channeling that, then I've got something to sell you. Okay? Even if they weren't, Kushner and Witkoff were delivering messages. You don't think that Putin knows that one of the ways to endear himself to Donald Trump is to talk about, you know, look, we've got our area, Europe's ours. We're going to give you Greenland. We're going to give you. That's for you. And Xi Jinping has aid. You don't think that that was taking place? Then again, let's talk about what really goes on behind the scenes in these conversations. I mean, look, this was a post from yesterday from Witkoff over the last two days in Florida. The Russian special envoy. There's that word, special envoy. Right. Don't you think? I mean, where's my special envoy to Greenland? You don't think. You don't think that's how he thinks? I've got such a psychological profile. I'm telling you, that's how the guy thinks. Over the last two days, the Russian special envoy, Kirill Dimitriev, held productive and constructive meetings with the American delegation to advance Trump's peace plan on Ukraine. The American delegation included special envoy Witkoff, Kushner, and White House staff member Josh Grunbaum. Russia remains fully committed to achieving peace in Ukraine. Russia highly values the efforts and support of the United States to resolve the Ukrainian conflict and reestablish global security. Just think about that dystopian paragraph right there. First off, the Ukrainian conflict. You mean Russia's invasion of Ukraine re establish global security? You mean the ones that Russia breached by invading Ukraine? Russia remains committed to achievements at all times. Ukraine has agreed to a ceasefire. Russia's the one who doesn't. We played for you the clips of Putin, of Lavrov, of Dmitriev, of Yushkov, of the Russian ambassadors to various countries like Ukraine. They're the ones saying that they need all of Donbas and all of Eastern Ukraine, areas that they have not conquered militarily, that they need to finish their quote, unquote, special operation of denazification. That's what they keep on saying. They also refer to the European leaders as pigs. And Lavrov has said, we're currently in World War Three right now. That's what Sergei Lavrov, basically the number two in Russia, is saying. So this is nonsense, but this to me with those other factors explains the Greenland statements that are coming out. This is how it perfectly this is exactly how Trump sees the world. Brett, I want to get your take on it. We gotta go to break, but when we come back, I wanna get your perspective on that. Let's talk cbs. Let's talk this deranged Turning Points USA event. A reminder hit subscribe. We're on our way to 6 million subscribers. Let's try to hit it this month. Also check out Midasplus.com that's our substack. That's one of the ways we've grown. And when you see what CBS is doing, that midasplus.com substack, it's more important than ever. Let's take our last quick break of the show.
- [48:35]
Jordi
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- [53:18]
Ben
Why don't we talk briefly about this deranged Republican Turning Point USA event. It's worth highlighting some of it so that our audience is aware, like, what's going on there. A lot of it was like, different Republican factions fighting with each other, calling each other conspiracy theorists. You had J.D. vance there as, like, trying to basically be what the. The heir apparent to Charlie Kirk. You know, just so you all remember, obviously Turning Point was run by Charlie Kirk. It's now run by his widow, Erica. There was like a lot of Freudian slips or intentional Freudian slips there.
- [53:57]
Brett
One after the next after the next.
- [53:59]
Ben
Definitely one after the next after the next. So let me just show you what went down. This one's not a Freudian slip. This was JD Vance just being utterly racist and misusing the term Freudian slip. And he's like, yeah, Minneapolis is Mogadishu. Here, play this clip. And in the meantime, what are the Democrats offering you in the meantime? I gotta say, ladies and gentlemen, they are not sending their best. Omar Fateh was Ilyan, Omar's candidate for mayor of Moganishu. What I mean, Minneapolis, little Freudian slip there. He's like the most vile creature ever. I'll talk more about him in a moment here. He says that in the US because of Donald Trump, this is what everybody was focused on, right? This is, he says, the big. The big accomplishment of the Trump regime. You don't have to apologize for being white anymore. He says, here, play the score. In the United States of America. You don't have to apologize for being white anymore, guys. Literally married to an Indian woman named Usha Vance. Like, I just wonder what her family thinks about all of this. And by the way, when J.D. vance met her, he was a different human being too. Not this personality. Like, you all know, the different personalities of J.D.
- [55:23]
Brett
Vance.
- [55:23]
Ben
He grew up, he said he was gay, thought he was a gay guy. He had three different names throughout his life. And then he's like, I'm not gay anymore, right? And then he says that he was this Appalachian working class guy. And he grew up, like, in the suburbs by Cincinnati. And he was. But this is all, I'm an Appalachia poor guy. It's not really accurate. And I'm an anti Trumper. And throughout all of these periods of times, he like, changed his names and changed his identities. And now he went from saying that he was gay and not named JD Bench. Think about that to now he goes, he's anti gay and he's like a white supremacist like J.D.
- [56:01]
Jordi
Vance.
- [56:01]
Ben
Like, that's his, like that's how he behaves. Like, like that's his new thing, basically.
- [56:05]
Jordi
Yeah.
- [56:06]
Brett
I mean, you, you. That JD Van speech, he wouldn't have to rewrite it if he was speaking at a Klan rally. I mean, that's essentially what it turned into with him on, on the stage. And I think it goes to show you, you know, the ways that you remember these Turning Point USA events, it really is playing to the base of the Republican Party and it really shows who they are that JD Vance thinks that this is the person he has to be in order to court the. These people. And I said this on an episode a few weeks back, at least, that there was this power struggle happening in the Republican Party right now, because I think they really are starting to look beyond Donald Trump right now and try to figure out what does the Republican Party actually look like. And so there is a civil war happening within the Republican Party. And you see people like JD Vance, he thinks the future of the party isn't going ultra white nationalist, ultra racist. Just be the most despicable, hateful person, try to write off Donald Trump's coattails in that regard and then take it even further. Then you have some people pushing back against that and saying, no, we should embrace actual conservative ideals. And then there's this whole civil war that's going on between, like, Ben Shapiro and Megyn Kelly and all these people. You know, I find them all, like, wholly uninteresting. But I find this dynamic of this infighting that's happening right now in the Republican Party to be interesting and something that is newsworthy. And that's, that's what we're seeing right out there. And like everything J. Van said, because they don't have any accomplishments that they could be hyping people up on, what have they actually done for people? Nothing. They've not done anything. They've screwed over their own voters, in fact. And so he just has to keep going back to the racism. Just keep going back, keep going back. So there was this clip also where he's talking about Representative Jasmine Crockett. And once again goes back to the.
- [57:46]
Ben
Racism and Jasmine Crockett. Oh, Jasmine Crockett. The record speaks for itself. She wants to be a senator, though her street girl Persona is about as real as her nails.
- [58:10]
Brett
It's just disgusting. I mean, just. He clearly just wants to be like, a podcaster or something. Go. Go be a might or right wing podcaster. Say your evil. Stop running the country, because you're not good at that. But sorry, Ben, I was gonna say.
- [58:23]
Ben
Like, look, whatever issues you're going through with your identity, right? Whatever, you know, issues are about his sexuality, whatever he's going through, whatever that is, right? Like, he's morphed like a chameleon into three freaking people. And it's like, with all of these people, like, you could be you. Like, just go in your private life and be you and just be happy and let other people be happy. Why do all these people who are hiding whatever it is that they're hiding feel that they need to, like, screw over everybody who just wants to go about living their life, you know? And, you know, my neighbor heard me say this. I talked about it in a video earlier today also. And my neighbor said this really resonated me. It resonated to me, Ben. And I said, yeah, I think it's true. I'm like, sometimes you just have to look at these people and call it out for what it is.
- [59:18]
Brett
Evil.
- [59:19]
Ben
Like, there are just some evil people among us. Evil, bad humans. Why do they do what they do? Because they're evil and they want to see you suffer. You know how you wake up and you're like, what can I do to better this world? I have a limited time to be alive, and I want to contribute and help and try to make people smile, right? There are people who just wake up and go, I hate this. I'm evil, and I want to hurt people every day. And that's what Trump. This Trump regime has collected, like, evil, bad people who want to hurt and inflict pain so that whatever suffering that they're going through, others can feel it as well, versus all of us living happy. And I know that doesn't get discussed enough, but I think. But I think that is. And by the way, Don Jr. Said, we're not even the Republican Party anymore. At the Republican event, he's like, yeah, the Republican Party's dead. It's just MAGA. Do we have Don Jr saying that? Let's play this clip the rhinos.
- [60:21]
Brett
You see the manufactured attacks on jd, myself, my Father. Anyone.
- [60:28]
Ben
Who understands that this isn't the.
- [60:31]
Brett
Republican Party anymore, It's the America first party. It's the Make America Great Again party, and we are not going back.
- [60:42]
Ben
Then they bring on Nicki Minaj as their guest. Nicki Minaj is speaking with Erica Kirk, whose husband was assassinated. Was killed, right? And Nicki Minaj, you know, and this just shows you. You know, just these people, like, do they even, like, listen to what it is that they're saying? So the first thing that Nicki Minaj, Erica Kirk, and this crowd is doing on stages. Nicki Minaj says the following about Governor Newsom. She calls him new scum. And she says, we're going to have to clean up that scum. Tread lightly. Y' all realize she's threatening the life, in my opinion, of a California governor at an event with the wife of someone who was killed, and the crowd is clapping for her threats that, in my opinion, can only be perceived as a threat to the life of the governor of California. You tell me how you perceive it, but play this clip. Mr. Newsom. Dear Newscom, We don't have a problem.
- [61:57]
Brett
Cleaning up the scum if we have have to.
- [62:01]
Ben
Please tread lightly. That's what I would say to Gabby Poo. You know, it's why I say these are actually evil people. Like, it's almost like a parody of the bad guys or the bad gals, you know, in these movies. Like, who even talks like that, right? You're at an event, you're in front of younger people, right? Like, it's a. I mean, I teach. I'm a law professor. I speak to young people and undergrads. Like, I speak like, it would never cross my mind in a group of young people. Think, Dan. No, scum. Dear scumbag. Tread lightly, you scumbag. You know what we do with people like you, scum? What are you doing? I mean, who conducts themselves in this way? And then they're so deranged. The language that they use all the time is so violent that they can't even, like, get through a sentence without being reflective. Like, Nicki Minaj then refers to J.D. vance as the assassin in front of Erica Kirk. And Erica Kirk's like, that's okay. She's a woman of God. She's a woman of God. So it's okay that she says assassin where my husband would die. Watch this. And you have amazing role models like the assassin JD Vance, our vice president.
- [63:23]
Brett
And when I say that, I trust me.
- [63:33]
Ben
There's nothing new under the sun that.
- [63:34]
Brett
I have not Heard.
- [63:35]
Ben
So you're fine?
- [63:40]
Brett
Yes, we did.
- [63:42]
Ben
I love you.
- [63:48]
Brett
You have to laugh about it, truly. I have been called every single day thing. And you know what? God is so good, you let it.
- [63:54]
Ben
Roll right off your back. And this is what's so beautiful about this moment.
- [63:59]
Brett
Because if the Internet wants to clip it, who cares?
- [64:02]
Ben
I love this woman.
- [64:03]
Brett
She's an amazing woman.
- [64:05]
Ben
She has a soul and a heart for the Lord. You love this woman? You love this woman? Lord God. That's because that's. That's what they go back to. Lord God. Jesus. Guns. Jesus. Lord God. Guns. Jesus. Lord God. Don't worry about the deranged stuff that we're doing to you, which to the extent people are religious out there, this would go against anybody's. What do we do? What do you. Do you think that God and Jesus is. Is. Is for this behavior of taking away people's health care and.
- [64:36]
Brett
Well, Ben, you gotta. You gotta look at, though, what. You know, why they're invoking God, right? Why they invoke Jesus? All the things that they do here are no different than tell of what televangelists do every single day. The. The model that they're. That they are following for these Turning Point USA events are not political rallies and they're not political events. It's the model of the megachurch down to the grift. And that is what they are doing as they put these events on. It's where the theatrics come from. It's where the language comes from. It's why they are willing to forgive or empathize with anybody who uses the most horrific language, so long as they are on their side and attack the other side as demonic and attack the other for small differences of opinion every single time. And so the language is deliberate, it is manipulative, and it is specifically designed to invoke this kind of the inner, like, religiosity of people in that crowd. That's where it's playing from. And then ultimately, the end goal is basically, give us your money. So there was this other Freudian slip that happened at this event where Erica Kirk, she was like, honoring a student and she was saying she reminded him of Charlie Kirk. And then she goes, oh, you know, you also. You have just like Charlie did. You have such a great grift. You're incredible, grifter. And then she catches, you know what she was saying? And it was this very cringy moment. But in a way, the truth slipped through as to what this movement here is all about. Watch this. Despite the devastating loss of Charlie Kirk, my incredible husband at uvu, Caleb has persisted with the same grift. Excuse me.
- [66:20]
Ben
Gift, grit.
- [66:23]
Brett
It has been a long day. Trust me, you're not a grifter, honey. It's all good.
- [66:33]
Ben
Trust me, you're not a grifter, honey. Trust me, I'm the. Trust me, you're not a grifter. Not a grifter, baby boy. What are we. What are we watching?
- [66:44]
Jordi
Yeah, exactly. And you know, who sees Erica up there is like, you know what the country needs is more. More of. This is CBS's Barry Weiss. And I know you wanted to talk about that segment, Ben, the 60 minute segment over there. Oh, boy, were you. Where do you want to start? There?
- [67:01]
Ben
I guess we'll start with Barry Weiss at cbs. And we're wanting to prop up people like Erica Kirk. What was it, a week ago? Two weeks ago, they promoted the Erica Kirk event like it was their super bowl, right? And more people watch Midas Touch videos every day by far than watch that. And that was like their biggest event. And it was just really weird, too. Like, Erica Kirk couldn't, like, even answer any question. Like, there was the one good question, which was like, will you condemn Donald Trump's political violence as well? And then she gave a bunch of word salad. We showed that clip before, but CBS is the. Has the rights to 60 Minutes, the revered, award winning show. We all grew up at 60 minutes. You know, it's CBS in general was the gold standard of news, right? I mean, there was NBC and ABC and. But cbs, to me, when you would say, which one has this history of straight news that was always, you know, just kind of cutting edge. It would say CBS and you would say 60 Minutes. Like, that was it. And so we all know that Donald Trump sued CBS and Paramount over former Vice President Kamala Harris doing an interview with 60 Minutes. And that Donald Trump didn't like the way, like, a segment was edited, so he sued for bajillions of dollars. And then cbs, one of these billionaire heirs who used to own Paramount, wanted to sell the company to another billionaire heir to Skydance. And so CBS settled the Trump lawsuit. They then got FCC approval of the merger of Paramount, cbs, which sold to Skydance. And then they installed Barry Weiss as their new head. And Barry Weiss has been turning it into like, like, like even, like a weirder version of Fox. Like, boring Fox. Like, Fox is obviously state regime media, but they're so clownish and cartoonishly villainous that you could be like, I guess that's entertaining. In like, a disgusting way. But, like, you have to call out the propaganda. Like Barry Weiss has turned CBS into like the most boring version of state regime. It's all horrific. Let me be very clear. So that, I guess that's. That's their lane Fox, but more boring. And so CBS was supposed to air this segment. You all know about the conditions of Seekot, the terrorist detention center, which is like a concentration camp in El Salvador. The Trump regime sent Venezuelan migrants to Seekat where they were physically tortured, sexually abused. Experience, you know, like, suffocated, like, experiencing like, the worst of worst conditions there. And it was an expose on that CBS in 60 Minutes. Their editorial teams that still care and try to do the good work, despite all the headwinds, they reached out to the Trump regime. Hey, you want to comment? You want to be involved in this? Ignored, ignored, ignored. Went through five levels of Revuke 60 minutes. Very diligent, right at this long history. Trump regime doesn't respond. They advertise that they're about to air it. And then like two or three hours before it goes on tv, it gets pulled, it gets canceled. And it turns out Bari Weiss canceled it because she was worried about the Trump regime criticism. And the way Barry Weiss tried to say, ah, it was actually, we wanted to get Stephen Miller's voice in there. We call them migrants. Maybe we shouldn't call the people migrants. And maybe we needed more of the Trump regime side in it. And, you know, we have to go through some more edits. And then all the people who actually worked on this Inside 60 Minutes, the people who still care about journalism, was like, this thing has been ready to go. It's been vetted in every level. One of the reporters who was on this segment, she issued a statement saying, this is absolutely crazy at this point. And, you know, it intrigues me is probably not the right word, but it's fascinating. You know, Bari Weiss, her career after New York Times, right, took off on substack, you know, and she parlayed that ultimately into then taking over this revered CBS and destroying it, right? Like. Like she actually was cutting edge being on substack. But it's wild that she then did that, then took over Legacy, kind of trashed her own substack, in my opinion, to then ultimately destroy a legacy property. And now it's dead. It's got zero credibility, right? It's an arm of the Trump regime, in my opinion and the opinion of most people. It's like you can't trust anything they're saying. And so it's sad because I like 60 Minutes. I like their reporting. There's a place for that really good reporting right now in addition to independent news. Like Minus. They're trash now. Trash.
- [71:57]
Brett
Yeah, it's, it's really upsetting. And, you know, once you make moves like this, it really taints everything else that the network does going forward. And then you're always wondering in the back of your head if something was said to them, if they're, if they were, if they're doing something to try to protect the Trump administration. And here that seems to be exactly what they're doing by, by pulling this episode the way they pulled it. It's just so unusual. But in the Trump world, I guess it is kind of typical at this point. We've seen all of these legacy stations capitulate. We've seen it with abc, we've seen it with cbs, and, and it just keeps happening over and over and over. Nobody wants to stand up to these people. And we see Trump kind of continuously issuing these sorts of threats, especially as there's this pending deal right now with Paramount and trying to buy Warner Brothers Discovery. And you see Donald Trump making comments on social media saying, oh, I thought I liked those new owners of, of Paramount, but I guess not. I guess that they're actually my enemies. Like, you know, he's making all these statements in order to try to threaten people because they know that ultimately none of the agencies in the Trump regime are actually independent the way they were supposed to be. We saw Brendan Carr of the FCC say that out loud, that he does not view the FCC to be an independent agency just days ago. And so they know that they're going to need Donald Trump sign off in order to do any sort of business moves. They want to make more money to do these mergers to acquire companies. And so, you know, when you have somebody running the company who's like a Trump friendly voice, you then have somebody making decisions that's in the best interests of them, trying to get done what the executives of the company want to get done. And I think that's what we're seeing in this situation. I think it's no surprise that the topic of this, of the segment that was axed by Bari Weiss was about seekat was about the, a cruel and unusual and inhumane treatment of the migrants at these torture facilities that they have in El Salvador. And I think it's very telling of the direction that the network is going. You know, I think a lot of people sounded the alarm when Barry Weiss took over, saying that this is not going to be good. I think a lot of people were like, oh, what do you have to worry about here? What do you have to worry about here? I think the same thing happened when Elon Musk took over Twitter back in the day. A lot of people said, oh, what.
- [74:10]
Jordi
Do you have to worry?
- [74:10]
Brett
It's going to be the same. No, these people are taking over these companies and they're being put in these positions for a reason. They're being put in these positions that they could control the flow of information from the oligarchs to the people and make sure that it's a regime approved content that is getting to the people, whether that's via social media or whether that is via traditional means like cable television or traditional broadcast television. And, you know, that's why independent media, I think right now is more important than ever. That's why I always try to support all the independent creators out there, in addition to us, of course. That's why we're grateful for your support of independent media here. Because the thing about independent media is we're independent. We got no one to answer for. Answer to or answer for.
- [74:52]
Ben
Right.
- [74:53]
Brett
And so we're going to continue to tell the truth as best we can, to track down sources as best we can, to continue to build our team. So I want to thank you all for your support because frankly, right now, in this moment, it matters more than ever. So I mean, thank you to everybody on YouTube who continues to buy memberships to support us. Thank you to everybody who joins our substack@midasplus.com that is such a huge way to help us and we, you know, do great work there and exclusive pieces and daily newsletters from Ron Philipkowski. So definitely check it out@midasplus.com thanks for listening to the Midas Touch podcast I hear or on audio, you know, and subscribing to this YouTube channel. Those are all free things right there that you could do to help support and grow this independent movement. So from the bottom of my heart, and I'm sure I'm speaking for my brothers here, thank you so much. And let's continue to build independent platforms because frankly, as I think we saw from the numbers of what they tried to do with that Erica Kirk event at CBS the other day, people aren't buying that crap, right? People don't want to watch that. And we have a real opportunity right now to continue to grow. And I feel like in many ways we are already, at least in the digital sphere, way bigger than they are. But I think we have so much more to go right now, and I think this is the moment where we could really, really, really, really make independent media the key thing that we need at this time. Thanks to your help. So thank you. Are we Jordy? Is Jordy taking it away?
- [76:17]
Jordi
Shout out to the Midas mighty the.
- [76:20]
Brett
Might as might stand strong. Against the F We sing our song.
- [76:38]
Jordi
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