B (5:04)

Great to see you, Ben. Great to see you, Jordy. See, guys, the reporting doesn't stop just because Ben's at Disney. He's going to do reports from Disney. He's going to do reports from, I don't know, inside a maintenance closet. He's going to do reports wherever Ben is because, you know, he can't skip a day. Great to see everybody. What a start to this new year. And I think what we're witnessing right now is what happens when someone's back is up against the wall. I mean, everything else is going terribly for Donald Trump. He's driving the economy into the ground Things are getting so much more expensive. The public has completely turned against all of his immigration efforts. It's just one failure after the next. And so what does he do? He does what he actually accused Barack Obama of doing back in the day. He goes, I'm gonna start a war, I'm gonna start a conflict. I wanna be a wartime president. And so naturally, he decides that imperialism is going to be the thing that's going to try to uplift him. And it's distract people from the Epstein files and all of his other failures. That's what we are witnessing right now. This is a result of Donald Trump's failure. But this is why for months and months and months of this Trump regime, we've been trying to warn everybody that Trump is deadly serious about his imperialistic threats. It's why we've taken his threats against Canada seriously. It's why we've expanded to doing Midas Canada with Charlie Angus, getting his perspective, making sure that he's alerting our Canadian followers as to what's going on. It's why I've been speaking so much about Greenland, about Donald Trump's pretext for going into Venezuela, which I think on the last episode we were speaking about all the lies and how Trump was ramping up for an attack just like this. And so, you know, I think he's serious about, you know, all this stuff and we need to take all these threats seriously. And now we have a cornered man, a cornered rat, whatever you want to call him, and he is going to try to inflict pain now and take all the backlash and try to now attack every other country. Anybody who does not bow to his whimsical. So this is a, certainly a very scary time. I think that his plans are quite not working out as he intended, as people are seeing through, you know, what his actual aims and goals are in Venezuela. The people already do not support these actions. I've never seen anything like this. Usually when a president takes the country into war, takes the country into conflict, he does so by making the case to the American people. He, he builds up a massive approval and they at least start the thing with a lot of approval, like Iraq started with actually people approving of it. And then the people lose their faith, lose their trust. They see it for what it is, while the people have already seen what this is. The people are speaking up, this people are speaking out. I'm excited to get into it all on this episode of the Midas Touch Podcast. Jordy, what's the latest on your end?

C (7:40)

What's up, brothers? What's up, Midas Mighty. I'm stoked for today's show. Couple things, Ben, before I toss it to you. Just a reminder for the live audience right now, tonight, we'll be holding the Midas Touch State of the Union immediately following this episode. That's going to be exclusively@patreon.com Midas Touch. It's a live Q and A. You guys could ask us anything. We'll go for as long as we get as many questions as we get. So that's patreon.com Midas Touch. Join the live Q and A immediately following this episode here, Benji. I remember in the early stages of this podcast, you actually got kicked out of a stairwell one time when you were at it, when you were actively litigating cases and there was something wrong with the room or you had to. You already checked out, but you were so dedicated to doing the show that you did it in the stairwell of the hotel. And apparently security was a little iffy on that. And you got the boot. We caught that live on camera. Lastly, Benji, what was my niece's favorite princess? Who'd you like the most?

A (8:37)

It's a good question. I do think she liked Pocahontas the best, although Belle was a very close runner up. So it was Belle, Pocahontas, and the Small World ride was her favorite. Was her favorite, by the way. It was my favorite ride as well. My wife was like, you were mesmerized by this, right? I'm like, the amount of Small World characters they had there. I just, I appreciate the art. There was like, there must have been 10,000 little characters. Unbelievable. Any event, let's get. Let's get into. Still thinking about it right now. I'm like, how long did it take? Who are the artists behind this? There's a whole rabbit hole. I could go down and do research there, but I know. Focus, Ben, focus. So I want to talk about the events in the past 48 hours and really contextual lies. What's happening? I mean, obviously, we all know that Trump did this unlawful invasion of Venezuela. Midas Touch, I think, was the first network out there that was bringing you the live footage of what was happening in Caracas and some of the surrounding areas. We were so early with it that lots of people almost were like, how are you getting this footage? And how is it possible that nobody.

B (9:43)

Like, is this real? Is this actually happening? Like, I don't see this anywhere on tv.

A (9:47)

Yeah. I'm like, no, I'm not just going to go live with, like, A fake war. What do you think? You know, what do you think is going on? And then a few hours later, all of the other news finally was able to kind of, you know, catch up. But it was important for us right away also, when we were live to discuss it with moral clarity. Like, we never wavered in what happened. I mean, we called it an unlawful invasion, which is what I believe it is. There was no congressional authorization for it. And the way I described it at the time is I said, this must be what it feels like when you live in Russia and Putin says there's a special operation taking place and you're not supposed to question what the special operation operation is. And that terminology, operation is actually what's been used by this Trump regime to claim actually, it's not an invasion, it's not a war. We don't need to go to Congress. This is actually just a law enforcement operation to take a fugitive who's on the run. They go, maduro's a fugitive. And so this was just the DOJ conducting an arrest. So before the United nations, you had Mike Waltz, the United States Ambassador to the UN we'll show you those clips in a little bit. So this is just a law enforcement operation. But while he's saying that, Donald Trump's like, no, we're taking it all over. It belongs to us. They stole our oil. This is for the oil companies. We're going to make our oil companies so rich on this. And Trump was asked, well, what about Maria Machado? Like, what about the main opposition leader who won the Nobel Peace Prize, who many believed would be the leader once the Maduro regime was out, either Machado or Edmundo Gonzalez, who, when Machado was banned from running in the July 2024 election, Gonzalez was the person who ran and she supported Gonzalez. Gonzalez, many believe, won that election by like, 70% of the vote. So people believe there was some sort of popular mandate for Gonzalez. So would it be Gonzalez, would it be Machado? Would it be someone from that opposition? And Donald Trump like, no, no, no, no, no. They're like, oh, huh? Why? And Trump's like, well, she doesn't have the respect of the people in Venezuela. Nobody likes her. She had. She's a nice lady. She might. She means well, but she doesn't have the respect. So people like, then, then who? And ultimately it became clear what Donald Trump's plan is to take Maduro's basically number two, Delsey Rodriguez, because the American oil companies viewed that she was someone who would basically could work with the oil companies and give the oil of Venezuela to the United States oil companies and let the US Take the resources from Venezuela and take the oil. They've at least identified her. Whether she's totally compliant with that plan is meant to be seen. But Trump just is like, yeah, we're going to take Maduro and move him. We'll kidnap him. And Trump goes, that's the language. We definitely kidnapped him, but we'll take Delsey, someone from Maduro's regime, and we'll continue with an authoritarian regime in there. But Trump's like, why would. He didn't say this publicly, but it's clear. He's like, well, if Machado is the leader, then she'll still probably want to do business with Europe. She won't go along with my plan when it comes to how we're going to divvy up this oil with Putin and Xi Jinping and what the kind of sphere of influence plan is among the kind of three authoritarians in the areas as Trump and Putin and Xi Jinping see the, you know, see the world in theory or as Trump sees the world. And so Trump just wants his own puppet. He believes that's Delsey Rodriguez. Delsey Rodriguez was just sworn in today, and she looked perfectly happy. Venezuela's national assembly inaugurated Rodriguez as the acting president on Monday. And, you know, and, and, and this is how Trump wants to run it. And Trump humiliated and embarrassed Machado, Maria Karina Machado. And all the reporting basically says the, the kind of main thing that Donald Trump off the most about Machado was that she accepted the Nobel Peace Prize even though she dedicated it in Trump's honor, even though she said the 2020 election was stolen and spewed all the MAGA lies and the MAGA talking points. It was just a bridge too far for Donald Trump that she would actually accept the Nobel Peace Prize because he wanted it. And so that was also one of the reasons. But I think the bigger reason though, too, is that he wants his own authoritarian puppet there, who he can control, and he actually views her or anybody. I mean, by the way, she's said and done a lot of things notwithstanding the Nobel Peace Prize. Machado, that is, that has concerned me. I mean, the level of being a Trump bootlicker and a lot of other things she said has actually raised a lot of as, has raised red flags. But there's no denying what took place in July 2024 when Maduro basically stole the election, that he lost that election and that the Machado Gonzalez team was the team that won and then Donald Trump also. Brett, I'll throw it to you. There's really no plan either for, like, when Trump was asked. So is the plan Delsey Rodriguez, short period of time, then you transition to elections, and then a Machado and a Gonzalez or. Or whoever, like, they get to run. No. Trump's like, no, that's not that. That's not how I see things. We'll see how it goes. But he's like, basically, Del C is my person. The Maduro regime, just without Maduro. And apparently it pissed Donald Trump off that Maduro was dancing. And that was also one of the reasons, too, that. So. So, Brett, what do you. What do you make of all of it? I'll show the clips, but I want to give the facts before the clips.

B (15:54)

Yeah, and we should also mention that Delsey Rodriguez holds another interesting position other than, well, previously vice president and now interim president. She's the oil minister of Venezuela. So I think that's another reason why Trump wanted to elevate her in a total betrayal of Machado. I mean, like, I think even the Venezuelans who were watching Donald Trump make these statements, who were initially celebrating and were happy about this, they all of a sudden heard Donald Trump. Trump say that, and they were like, wait, what? Like, what's going on here? And I think we just got to step back here. Like, the whole. This whole situation is insane. This whole situation is incredibly disturbing. The military action itself is clearly illegal, as we said. Maduro is obviously a brutal dictator who oppressed his people. But come on. Like, the idea of kidnapping a head of state and prosecuting him under your jurisdiction doesn't really add up. And the charges itself, like, are weird. If you read the indictment, by the way, zero mentions of fentanyl, despite Donald Trump saying fentanyl. Fentanyl. Fentanyl for the past few months about Maduro, about Venezuela, because no, fentanyl actually comes from Venezuela. And in the court of law, you actually have to present evidence. And then there's obviously the hypocrisy behind it, where you have Trump, who is pardoning figures like Juan Orlando Hernandez just about, like, 30 days ago. That's the former Honduran president who was prosecuted under drug crimes, similar to what they're charging Maduro with. And so it's like, yes, Maduro, very bad guy. He silenced dissent. He's brutalized his own people. And so when I see the videos of Venezuelans celebrating, I genuinely empathize with them. I mean, I could imagine if, you know, at home here, Trump takes power. He Refuses to leave. He refuses to hold free and fair elections. He's in power for decades and decades and decades, and then some other countries plucks him out, takes him away. I think we'd be celebrating, too. But I think we also have to urge extreme caution, because we have to be honest about what's happening, and we have to make decisions based on what's lawful and what's actually in our interest. Then what's to come. Because I want to be clear, Trump does not have the best interests of the Venezuelan people in mind. I could assure you of that. He supported. Already we've seen him support the continuation of the Maduro regime. He threw Machado under the bus. He's elevated Rodriguez. And going back to before, imagine if Trump was ousted and everyone was celebrating, and then like a Stephen Miller took power or a Vance took power or something like that. We'd be like, oh, maybe that wasn't such a good thing after all. Now we got some really bad people in charge still, and things are going to continue to get worse. And we've seen this play out so long. Throughout my entire life, we've seen what situations like this look like. We've seen it happen in Iraq, we've seen it happen in Libya, We've seen it happen in Afghanistan. There are countless examples of us doing this and us seeing those videos of the statues coming down and people celebrating. And next thing we know, things are way worse for that country, for the world, for the United States of America. These things just never, ever, ever work out. And Trump has made his plan abundantly clear here that he is in this to extract the wealth and resources of the country. He's in it to colonize these countries. He's in it to take whatever he can from Venezuela and take whatever he can from Greenland and take whatever he can from Canada and Cuba and all of these countries. And he has made it clear that he wants to build this sort of American empire on the west that controls the entire Western Hemisphere. It's why we've been so set on telling everybody about Rubio statements which went so under the radar kind of around the time Trump took office, where Rubio described the New World order under the Trump regime as a multipolar world whereby which the United States operates. The Western Hemisphere, you have Vladimir Putin and Russia running Europe, and then you have Asia, and then you have China running Asia. That is their. That was their vision from day one. That's like the Project 2025 vision. So when you see Donald Trump now doing this, and when you See them making the posts on their social media that say things like, we own the west, we control the west, the Don Row doctrine, all of these things. It's not by accident. It's not a flippant thing. It's something that they actually believe. It's something that they said that they would want to do right when they took office. And it's a plan that they're trying to carry out right now. And so that's why I'm saying you gotta urge extreme caution. And I am telling the Venezuelan people, be careful with this. And I am telling the entire world, everybody who Donald Trump is threatening right now, be extremely careful and take this guy seriously. He is a maniac. And you've seen that he will do it and he will assure you that he will do it again.

C (20:26)

Well said. I think you both covered that perfectly. So I just wanted to add to this. Donald Trump, his ego is so fragile, you can crack it just by looking at it. Or I guess in this case, dancing the Trump regime, man, they don't give a damn about the people of Venezuela. They don't give a damn about giving them a voice. Trump isn't liberating the Venezuelan people to install a pro democracy government. He doesn't care. He's liberating them, Brett, to your point, from their assets and from their resources to enrich himself. Because again, ultimately, it all comes down to this. Donald Trump only cares about one person and one person only, and that is Donald Trump.

A (21:04)

Benji, take a look at the emergency United Nations Security Council meeting that took place. It was such an odd thing to say. See, though, because usually it's America leading a coalition. We could say what America's leading in the past are good things or bad things. But America has always been part of the rallying call of coalitions and at least pretending to be the good guy and saying, we stand for democracy, we stand for freedom, we stand for sovereignty. Now, you have every right to question if those words were congruent with the underlying conduct. Sure. But to see the United States at the National Security Council all alone talking about domination, dominating the Western Hemisphere and then using this Orwellian language of we conducted a special legal operation and it wasn't actually a war, while at the same time talking about dominating the Western Hemisphere and then having China as a voice of reason condemning the United States to uphold the UN Charter, and then you had Russia basically rubbing it in and saying, oh, so this is the global order that the United States has always been talking about. Ah, got it. This is what you've meant for all of these decades. This is part of the consequences here, that if the U.S. says that it dominates the Western Hemisphere, then Russia says it dominates Europe, which, by the way, Trump has basically rolled out the red carpet, quite literally for Putin to do that. If Donald Trump says, I'm running a special operation and a law enforcement operation against Maduro or I'm going to kidnap him, what stops China for saying, I'm going to do that with the president of Taiwan? Heck, China called up Donald Trump a few months back, remember, and said, don't let the President of Taiwan even land for refueling in the United States when he was on his way either to Central or South America. And Donald Trump complied with Xi Jinping. What's stopping Putin to kidnap Zelinsky and say, ah, this is just what we do now, we kidnap. This is what you do. The United States is doing it. Then what the United States goes to, the Security Council goes, you can kidnap. When Donald Trump said, I love the word kidnap, I love the word kidnap. So when the order, the global order of America as a leader promoting democracy ends and you have the United States engaging in this behavior, it has a lot of consequences that need to be thought out. I mean, you don't think that if Obama or Biden wanted to take over Venezuela, you don't think they couldn't do it. I mean, obviously you see the disparity in military power, but the question is, when you use that power in certain ways, what are the consequences? A day, a year, five years, 10 years, 20 years down the line? And smart leaders have to think about that. But for Donald Trump, it just, Oil, Oil. I'm taking their oil. So first, let me just show you in the National Security Council, this is Mike Waltz, the guy who was previously a national security advisor, who was part of the leaking of these signal chats with the attacks in Yemen. And then he either got promoted or laterally transferred to become the ambassador to the United Nations. Here's what he said today about this is about controlling the Western Hemisphere. It was shocking, but nothing should shock me. But when I heard this, it just put a pit in my stomach here, playing this clip.

D (25:01)

As Secretary Rubio stated just yesterday, this is the Western Hemisphere. This is where we live. And we're not going to allow the Western Hemisphere to be used as a base of operation for our nation's adversaries and competitors and rivals of the United States. You can't turn Venezuela into the operating hub for Iran, for Hezbollah, for gangs, for Cuban intelligence agents and other malign actors. That control that country. You cannot continue to have the largest energy reserves in the world under the control of adversaries of the United States, under the control of illegitimate leaders and not benefiting the people of Venezuela and stolen by a handful of oligarchs inside of Venezuela.

B (25:50)

That's just a completely brazen and shocking thing for Waltz to say. And it sums up exactly what we were talking about, their views. And they're setting the pretext right there, Mike Waltz is doing in order to justify any action anywhere, at least in the Western Hemisphere. For now. He's saying if you have resources and you are an adversary of the United States, they should be our resources. If you have resources and you're a competitor of the United States, they should be our resources. And the United States under this new doctrine that we've come up with under the Trump administration, reserves all rights in order to just take it on over. I mean that's what they're saying and they're not even really hiding it.

A (26:28)

Yeah. Let's show the other clip of Walz where he said this is not a war. He goes, this was just a legal operation. This is just a law enforcement. This is basically how you arrest people. Like everybody knows that that's what we do here. Let's play that.

D (26:43)

Colleagues, the United States successfully carried out a surgical law enforcement operation facilitated by the US Military against two indicted fugitives of American justice. Narco terrorist Nicolas Maduro and Celia Flores. Colleagues. Nicholas Maduro is responsible. Responsible for attacks on the people of the United States for destabilizing the Western Hemisphere and illegitimately repressing the people of Venezuela. As Secretary Rubio has said, there is no war against Venezuela or its people. We are not occupying a country. This was a law enforcement occupation operation.

B (27:30)

As all law enforcement operations, about 880 people die. There are bombs dropped by the military, there are troops on the ground. As, as with all regular law enforcement act. Just like arresting a drug dealer on the side of the street.

C (27:44)

Right man.

A (27:45)

At the same time that Donald Trump pardoned Juan Orlando Hernandez, the former leader of Honduras who was, you know, right hand or buddies, whatever you want to call it with El Chapo in Trump pardoned a guy that during his federal trial there was evidence. So you could see the guy's transcript in his conversation with the cartels. The guy said we need to get those drugs up the gringo's nose and we need to kill him. The guy was sentenced to 45 plus years. He's responsible for actually bringing into the United States massive quantities of drugs. That killed people and Trump pardoned the guy. And then Trump was asked, but you pardon that guy. And then Trump was like, yeah, but what do you expect me to do? My, my people told me it was a good move, so I'm going to do that. All this is about is, is what Walt said in the first part, which is dominating the Western Hemisphere. And Trump has Bukele in El Salvador. Now in Honduras, where Trump interfered with the elections there he's got a puppet leader who will do what Donald Trump says there. Donald Trump believes he has a puppet in Del C. Rodriguez, although we'll ultimately see how that dynamic plays out. You did have the Venezuelan ambassador to the United nations speaking out forcefully against the United States. But a lot of that could kind of be virtue signaling for people at home based upon a preconceived imperialistic plan that may have been hatched before. But I don't want to fully rule out what could develop there. As Donald Trump makes clear he wants, he's not hiding it. He goes, I want to use Delsey to give me the oil. So how that ultimately plays out, I think it can have a very destabilizing effect right there. And then Donald Trump threatens Colombia, Greenland, Cuba, Mexico with, with invasion, with war. I mean, you know, that flight back from Florida back to D.C. we'll play you some clips when we get back from our first break. But it's Donald Trump having this bloodlust. You know, I think in Trump's mind, I, he goes, I just keep doing this. I'll make this next year about like invasion and invading all of these places, that maybe they won't talk about the Epstein files and people will just cover the invasion and the war. And I get to, I mean, as Trump was describing. And I won't show the press conference from over the weekend because we've covered it at detail. But that press conference Donald Trump had over the weekend after the invasion, where Donald Trump, you know, was like, it was like, it was like watching a TV show. It was like riveting to watch. I think Donald Trump, like, gets off, like watching, you know, this stuff as well. I mean, like, he set up the room so it looked like, and it was like a, A, a worse version, like a C list version of the Obama room getting bin Laden.

B (30:54)

Did you see behind them on the screens, like, you would think like in one of these, like situation room type settings, you'd have like the best intel on the planet. You know, you're getting the best information possible. They quite literally had Twitter open. They had NFL and multiple browsers of Twitter. They had a bunch of different tabs open and if you zoomed in on the high quality images, each of those tabs were different random Twitter accounts and this is how they were following their operation.

C (31:21)

Yeah, but by the way, also what we know from this Trump regime, they are very just they need to know what the Twitter sentiment is at all times. Like that's how they are dictating their policy and that's how they know if things are successful in their minds or not. Is is what Twitter X is telling them.

A (31:38)

Well, we'll talk about that and more when we come back from our first break of the show. A reminder. The Midas Touch State of the Union address follows this live. So for those watching here, go to patreon.com Midas Touch where we'll hold that State of the Union. We'll open it up to questions as well. So we look forward to doing that. A reminder. You may think you're subscribed to our YouTube channel, but double check and make sure you're active. Actually subscribed and subscribe to the Midas Touch podcast on audio as well. We're really making a big push for the audio podcast this year, so just double check. And even if you don't think you're going to listen to it on audio, still subscribe to the Midas Touch on audio because you really never know. And it also helps with the algorithm and you probably will end up listening to it on audio. All right, let's take our first quick break of the show. Thanks everybody. We will be right back.

C (32:32)

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B (36:01)

So that was going to be on the top of all of our audience's mind as they saw the ad. So I'm glad you addressed that.

A (36:06)

Yeah. I'm gonna propose in the future that when you do your bets, maybe the, the, the, the, the consequences can be off the air. They don't have to actually influence production. But, you know, let's see you insult to your top editor. You know, high stakes.

B (36:23)

Or they could be higher, even higher stake punishments. I mean, that's, that's easy. That's an, that's an easy one. Let's face it in Jersey.

A (36:29)

All right, ready? Let's talk about. I just want to talk about, though, like, just over the past, you know, 12, 24 hours while all of this is going on. I mean, you know, Donald Trump posting like an absolute maniac. Right? I mean, there's posts like this one from moments ago. Pregnant women. Don't use Tylenol unless absolutely necessary. Don't give Tylenol to your young children for virtually any reason. Break up the MMR shot into three. Totally. It's like, I could keep going on, but, like, why are you giving false medical advice to women and pregnant women? It's creepy, it's odd. And this is the guy who, like, takes. What was the medication that he takes over and over again? Aspirin. 325.

C (37:10)

Guzzling aspirin.

A (37:11)

He's guzzling aspirin because he says that it makes his blood thin and he doesn't want thick blood. A guy who, you know, last week talked about, actually, he doesn't know the difference between an MRI and a CT scan. And he says someone wax his hand and that's why his hand.

B (37:29)

You're being a little too, you got. You guys are being a little too harsh on the guy. If he doesn't want to listen to those woke doctors and he wants to keep guzzling that aspirin, just keep guzzling that aspirin. I don't. You don't have to listen to those woke doctors, Donald.

A (37:40)

It's fine. You know, he's, he's posting messages like this or reposting messages. I like that. Trump is circling back to voter fraud from 2020, just in time for the 2026 election. Elections. Trump forgets nothing, especially the hell the Democrats put our country through. So he's been doing, like, hundreds of posts in the past 24 to 48 hours, lying yet again about the 2020 election. Um, an IT expert, after gaining access to a forensic image of Dominion, shows that Dominion rigged the systems, including the United States on November 2020. And most recently Brazil. Trump votes were switched to Joe Biden in seconds by simply changing the index number. Again, totally false, completely a lie. And he's just posting over and over again Testimony from multiple 2020 election workers find that all these deceased people voted. All lies. Every one of these things, lies. The lawyers who lied about him refused to put forward evidence before federal courts. Lots of those lawyers were sanctioned and disbarred or faced other serious consequences. But this is what this maniac is posting over and over again. You know, also, I know a lot of people focused on Katie Miller, Stephen Miller's wife's post where she did a image of Greenland with the American flag. And she says, coming soon. The one to me that was more alarming was Trump's official rapid response account, the Trump war room account, where it was an old photo that was, that was made, but they redid the photo with Donald Trump, Trump holding a bat or a club that says Don Row Doctrine on it. It's like a political cartoon. And it's Donald Trump stomping on the entire Western Hemisphere. His feet are on South America and North America, kind of right around Canada and Alaska area. And he kind of just straddles over with the Western Hemisphere. I mean, and this is what the Trump regime talks about over and over again. They call it the Don Row Doctrine, that they should seize and take the resources from the Western Hemisphere. That if you're in the west, if you're not a vassal state of the United States, that Trump reserves the right to invade you. That's what's going on. So let me share with you just what Donald Trump said on Air Force One. A reporter asked Donald Trump, are you going to demand that Del C. Rodriguez, now the interim president, allow opposition figures to, to return for or free any political prisoners? Right. It's one of the important issues. Watch what Donald Trump says in response. Here, play this clip.

D (40:18)

No.

E (40:19)

Are you, are you going to demand that Delta Rodriguez let opposition figures return or free any political prisoners? We haven't gotten to that yet. Right now what we want to do is fix up the oil, fix up the country, bring the country back and then have elections. Is it fair? We better bring the country back. Otherwise you're just going to have, you're going to have a mess that's so bad. It was really bad. It's going to get a lot worse unless we go in and fix it.

A (40:46)

So then he's asked, well, what do you need from Dely Rodriguez? And he goes, access to their oil. Here, let's play this clip.

E (40:55)

Short term, next two weeks. What do you need from Del Rodriguez? You're.

A (40:59)

You.

E (40:59)

You threaten total access. We need total access. We need access to the oil and to other things in their country that allow us to rebuild their country. What other things? A lot of things. Roads that aren't built. Bridges that are falling down. Yeah, bridges are falling down. Nobody can go anywhere.

A (41:18)

So did you speak with the oil companies before the operation? Because you didn't speak with Congress. Did you speak with the oil companies? Here? Play this close.

B (41:29)

Yes.

E (41:32)

Before and after. And they want to go in and they're going to do a great job for the people of Venezuela and they're going to represent us.

A (41:39)

Well, the oil companies, of course. I told them, not Congress. The oil companies just want you to think about how dangerous that is. Then Donald Trump refers to the sick neighbors of the United States and he says Venezuela and Colombia, and that he will. He would like to do an operation in Colombia. He says, here, play this clip.

E (42:00)

Successful and where the oil is allowed to freely come out, because that's good. It gets the prices down. That's good for our country. Now we have a very sick neighbor. It's not a neighbor, but it's close to a neighbor. And that's. Venezuela is very sick. Colombia is very sick, too. Run by a sick man who likes making cocaine, selling it to the United States. And he's not going to be doing it very long, let me tell you.

C (42:25)

What does that mean?

A (42:25)

He's not going to be doing it very long.

E (42:27)

He's not doing it very long. He has cocaine mills and cocaine factories. He's not going to be doing it very long.

B (42:34)

So there will be an operation by.

E (42:35)

The U.S. it sounds good to me. You know why? Because they kill a lot of people.

A (42:40)

Actually, the leader of Colombia, Gustavo Petro, has done a lot to actually fight against the cartels in Colombia. Trump wants to bring back the dictators who actually supported the narco terrorists. That's who Trump wants to see come back into power in Colombia the same way that's who Donald Trump wanted and now has in power in Honduras. That's what Donald Trump has with Bukele in El Salvador. That's what he's looking for. I mean, that's, that's his end game Here. Trump is asked about Greenland and Trump says, we need Greenland right now. Then he lies and says that it's covered with Russian and Chinese ships. It should also just be noted that the United States basically has full access to Greenland militarily based on prior treaties between the United States Greenland, Denmark. Greenland's part of the Kingdom of Denmark and Europe to control the area as part of a military alliance. So there is a treaty that's been in place for a very long time that gives the US a ton of authority within it with a military base there. But Trump wants to control it. He wants it on the map to say America. Here, play this clip.

E (43:57)

Let's talk about Greenland in 20 days. By the way, I have to, I will say this about Greenland. We need Greenland from a national security situation. It's so strong strategic right now. Greenland is covered with Russian and Chinese ships all over the place. We need Greenland from the standpoint of national security and Denmark is not going to be able to do it. I can tell you. You know what Denmark did recently to boost up security in Greenland? They added one more dog sled. It's true. They thought that was a great move.

A (44:38)

That's not true. They did beef up security in the area. He mocks Denmark Let me read for you a statement from the Danish Prime Minister. Meta FREDRICKSON I believe one should take the American president seriously when he says that he wants Greenland. But I want to make it clear that if the US Chooses to attack another NATO country militarily, then everything stops, including NATO and thus the security that has been established since the end of the Second World War. She's saying, you do that, there's no more NATO. NATO is over right there. The Prime Minister, Premier of Greenland, put out the following statement. We have been a close and loyal friend of the United States for generations. We've stood shoulder to shoulder in difficult times. We have taken responsibility for security in the North Atlantic and not least for North America. That is what true friends do. Precisely for that reason, the current and repeated rhetoric coming from the United States is entirely unacceptable. When the President of the United States speaks of needing Greenland and links us to Venezuela in military operation, it is not only wrong, it is disrespectful. Our country is not an object in great power rhetoric. We are a people, a country, a democracy that must be respected, especially by close and loyal friends. We are part of NATO and we are fully aware of our country's strategic location. We also understand that our security depends on good friends and strong alliances. In that context, a respectful and loyal relationship with the United States is very important. That has been the case for decades. But alliances are built on trust, and trust requires respect. Threats, pressure and talks of annexation have no place between friends. That is not how one speaks to people who have repeatedly demonstrated responsibility, stability and loyalty. Enough is Enough. No more pressure, no more insinuations, no more fantasies of annexation. We are open to dialogue, we are open to conversations, but they take place, they must take place through the proper channels and in full respect of international law. And the proper channels are not random and disrespectful posts on social media. Greenland is our home and our territory, and it will remain so. Also, most European leaders put out statements in support, support as well of Greenland and Denmark, and spoke out against Donald Trump's very dangerous rhetoric right there. I'll just show you this other clip right here. This is Lindsey Graham saying, cuba, you're next. Watch out, Cuba, we're coming for you. Let's play this clip. You just wait for Cuba.

E (47:15)

Cuba is a communist dictatorship that's killed priests and nuns.

A (47:20)

They've preyed on the their own people.

E (47:22)

Their days are numbered.

A (47:24)

We're going to wake up one day.

E (47:25)

I hope, in 26 in our backyard. We're going to have allies in these countries doing business with America, not narco terrorist dictators killing Americans.

A (47:37)

So I think. Brett Jordan, let me call you back in too. But it's also linking Greenland with Cuba and Venezuela and like Canada and Mexico, all in the same, all in the same bucket. The narco terrorist label is like a denazification label. There are legitimate criticisms and strong ones that you could level at a Maduro, you could level out of Cuba. And there are legitimate ways to go about applying pressure, developing international coalitions, working through international channels like the United Nations. If ultimately you think that there should be a war, you get congressional authorization so that the will of the people can be heard. And when people oppose such imperialistic adventurism, we could level our opposition through our elected leaders. But what this is all about and what Lindsey Graham and you know, people see the video I did this morning, Lindsey Graham is like, you know, whatever he's hiding about himself personally and whatever his own inability to deal with his own feelings about himself that he has to think that he's this own, this tough guy. I'm a real alpha, you know, in the face and the foaming at the mouth. What a weird human being he is. There's also. Can I show you the. Do the Howard Lutnick clip as well. It was like Trump and Lutnick. And Lutnick's like, and we're gonna do deals. This is about business deals. We're putting companies to do this deal and that deal, and we're going to do this deal. And I'm like watching this and like, Lutnick is This, like, is this weird character as well. So let's play that clip if we got that one.

D (49:22)

Are there any other companies that you.

B (49:24)

Talk to about dealing with Venezuela?

D (49:26)

Maybe Mr. Ludnick is talking about that.

C (49:28)

Are there any other corporations, entities outside many.

E (49:32)

Outside of the oil business? Well, the oil business, yes, but outside, yes. Howard, you want to have steel, you have minerals, right? All the critical minerals.

B (49:40)

They.

E (49:41)

They have a great mining history that's gone rusty. So steel, aluminum, minerals. I mean, this is all. It's a rich. It was once upon a time one of the great economies and cultures of the world, and it was destroyed. And now President Trump is going to fix it and bring it back for the Venezuelan.

A (50:02)

We're going to take it. We're going to take the steel and their minerals, and we're going to take it all.

C (50:08)

Let me just say this, Brett. I'll kick it to you in one second. I don't mean to make light of this, but, like, when you see Lutnick and Graham and Trump there, like, they. They look like, like children that are at, like, some sort of, like, sleepover who are, like, trying to pitch to their parents why they should stay up later. Like, the way Lutnick is, like, creepily, like, behind the door, like, sneaking out with his nose poking through the whole situation is just. It's just so strange. They are so deeply unserious, doing very serious things where it's just infuria. Brett, go ahead.

B (50:37)

No, I've never seen somebody get as horny for war as Lindsey Graham does. I mean, like. Like Ben said, like, it takes over him. Like, it's. It's a bizarre thing to watch. Like, if, if you are listening to this, like, I do advise, like, watch it on our YouTube channel, because it is freaking weird when you see the passion that fills his face when he talks about bombing and killing people and taking over countries. It is quite disturbing. And, yeah, like, like, yeah, I'll say this. The pretext that they've said, as we said throughout this episode and other times, as Ben was saying before, the narco terrorism thing, the drugs, the this, the that, it's obviously, we all know that's fake. We all know it's a complete lie. We know it because there's so many examples of hypocrisy. Like Ben said with Juan Orlando Hernandez, with the guy who Trump freed, the guy who did the Silk Road, Trump freed a lot of other drug dealers. This ain't about the drugs. And when you read the indictment, you also see, like I said, like, Trump said Fentanyl. Fentanyl. Venezuela. Fentanyl.

A (51:31)

Fentanyl.

B (51:31)

Fentanyl not even mentioned once in the indictment as fentanyl mentioned. Not, not, not a single time in the 25 page indictment against Maduro and the others. But the thing that they are telling the truth about and the thing that we need to listen to are the things that Howard Lutnick said there and the things that Donald Trump has been saying, and that's that this is about one thing and it's about the resources and that's what connects all of those countries. As Ben was saying, it's not that Greenland is a narco terrorist state and Canada is a narrative narco terrorist state. Although you remember what was Donald Trump saying about Canada? He was also saying, there's a fentanyl problem. It's all coming in from the country. And I think the statistic was like, that there are like 40 pounds of fentanyl that managed to come through the border into the United States from Canada. Like an insignificant, you know, just like none, basic, virtually zero. But Donald Trump was trying to accuse Canada of being this major drug trafficker sending fentanyl to the United States, United States.

A (52:24)

Why?

B (52:24)

Because that's the fake reasoning. That's the pretext, that's the bs. The real thing, though, is that they want to extract the resources and they want to make these deals with their oligarch friends to make them richer, to make themselves richer. There's a lot of sketchy things also going on in the background with people with insider information over these things making deals in the background. And so I think you have to monitor the whole situation. Not to mention, what does this tell China, what does this tell Russia? China, who's looking at us, who's eyeing Taiwan and seeing that we're coming up with all these BS pretexts for doing these actions in the Western Hemisphere. Russia, looking at Ukraine, they've already made their BS pretext for taking over Ukraine. What moral authority does it give the United States to say, you can't do that? We have none. We have none. Donald Trump has blown up all the rules. And I'm not saying we had a perfect record before this. Far from it. We've engaged in regime chains, as I went through the list, both parties, numerous times. But this is just something on another level that we have not seen. This is like kind of like very like Mafia, like very like mob, like very like extorting you. Like Trump's philosophy seems to be, we're the United States of America. We have power. And while other presidents recently have viewed that power as a responsibility to create a stable world order. Donald Trump views that power as something that you use to dominate over other countries and other people. And so you country need to bend to my whim and do exactly what I say or we will take you over. And same with this country and same with that country. And it doesn't matter if the reason is something actually very important to national security or if it's something incredibly petty like Maduro danced on TV and Donald Trump didn't like it. Uh, you know, Gustavo Petro, you know, he spoke out about Donald Trump strike on boats and called Trump out, basically said that Trump was committing murder. Said that he had heard from his own people that there were people on those boats, fishermen on those boats who were killed by Donald Trump. I'm sure Donald Trump did not like that. I'm sure that's factoring in to Trump's opinions about Columbia and what he wants to do with Columbia. While past presidents have had great relationships with Petro and other Colombian leaders. And so this is where we find ourselves right now. And I think we just need to be completely clear as to what's happening, what Donald Trump is doing right now, and what he plans to do from here.

C (54:52)

Well said. I just want to get into this. You bring up such a good point, too. It's very mafia esque. It's very Wise guy esque. I mean, you even look at them in their suits and their long ties. I try not to make this comparison much because I think there's been like a romanticization about mafia and mob life in this country. And like, it might make him look cool, but that's what it is. He. He's going around and he's like, hey, if I, if we can't agree to this, or if you rub me the wrong, if you rub the don the wrong way, I'm gonna go break your kneecaps, I'm gonna steal your oil, and that's that. I'm gonna blow up your boats and blow up your fish. Like that's what I'm gonna do. So what, what are you gonna do about it, huh? And it's just, it's such a pathetic mentality, really.

A (55:27)

It's, it's.

C (55:28)

It's a weak, weak mentality. And then I just want to touch on the oil companies here too, because if we heard Trump correctly there, it seemed like he consulted with the heads of the oil companies before talking to Congress. That's what I heard. So let me just oversimplify this. Mondoro bad guy. Yet it doesn't give the United States and the Trump regime carte blanche to just drop bombs on Venezuela and kidnap him and forcibly remove him and his wife to the US without first going through the proper channels and procedures. You can't just unilaterally skip over branches of government in these ways. And you know who, who does things like that? Dictators. Did Trump speak to Congress? No, but he spoke to the heads of the oil companies. This tells you everything you need to know. It's so banana land, this country that we're living in right now.

A (56:12)

And who, and here's the thing too. Did he really speak to the oil companies or is he so kind of delusional and narcissistic in his mind that he, in his own mind is doing it for the he knows he's going to shake down the oil companies at some point in time. So, yes, maybe he talked to a person in the oil industry or Kushner spoke to some person, but did he even have the conversation? Or is that ultimately what his goal and objective is? Because I think if you spoke to someone actually thoughtful in the oil industry right now, I think that they, what they would tell you is that it probably costs on the low end, 25 to 50 billion in cap ex capital expenditures if you were going to start to revitalize the Venezuelan oil industry and the type of investments that need to be made there. If you were a oil company and you had shareholders, you also want to determine if there's going to be a stable democratic future. What would be stopping somebody like Del C or a future Maduro or a future authoritarian from renationalizing it if you were to make billions of dollars of investments right there. And so just a question is you need fundamental stability and plans, the same reason why you actually don't see a lot of or why you've seen a manufacturing decline in the U.S. construction declining in the U.S. a lot of the uncertainty in the business community caused by Donald Trump waking up and his is arbitrary, capricious and maliciousness prevents businesses from doing the right type of planning. So the reality is, is what oil company though yes, there may be this allure for a greedy oil company of, of additional oil to be used then has to be refined, by the way. But ultimately who's going to make those investments without understanding what an actual plan is? So I just want to flag that aspect as well, because do you think.

B (58:25)

The oil companies really want to flood the market with so much more oil where it's going to then decrease the prices significantly and hurt their bottom line. Like that's going to be a factor as well. And like you were saying, this is the, the Venezuelan oil is a very particular kind of oil too, which is very difficult to refine and it's, it takes a lot more processing. And so you have all of these things that are actually working against it. Like we've even seen, you know, remember as, as the more oil leases, as, as there was more drilling kind of under the Biden administration. And you know, throughout the past few years, a lot of these oil companies didn't want to drill on the lands that they already had permitted. Like, it wasn't an issue of why isn't Biden doing more permits. Like, you know, the oil drilling was at its all time high under Biden, but the oil companies did not want to expand their oil drilling because they knew that prices would got too low and it would end up screwing them at the end of the day. So I'm not even sure this makes sense from that sort of business stance. But I do think there are going to be a lot of people like Trump and in Trump's orbit who are going to make a lot of money off this by extracting resources in various ways.

A (59:31)

I think they want to, and they're going to create the conditions for a speculative stock market for them to make a lot of paper wealth and then to cash out on the expense of investors and the greater expense of the American people, because that's what we've seen them actually do. But I think the question becomes, is there a, you know, what is the plan? In these types of things, you expect there to be a plan articulated and for Trump, it's just seizing their oil, running it. We're going to run it and then appointing a puppet right now and what happens in the future. We're going to be reporting on it every step of the way here. All right, let's take our last quick break of the show. A quick reminder, as soon as the show ends, head over to patreon.com Midas Touch where we will be holding our Midas Touch State of the Union and we will be opening it up to questions for us. So I'm excited to do that. I'm excited to see all of you there and make sure you subscribe to this YouTube channel. You may think you're subscribed, but you may not actually be subscribed. When we come back, let's talk about the Trump regime covering up the Epstein files, which a lot of what's happening here is part of that. Let's talk about Governor Walls in Minnesota, him announcing he's not running for another term. And let's talk about the censure by the Department of Defense unlawfully calling themselves the Department of War against Senator Kelly. We'll talk about that and more. Let's take our last quick break of the show.

C (61:02)

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B (62:43)

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C (64:24)

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. Those are two of my favorite Mando and Wild Grain. Definitely, definitely check them out. Benji, where to next?

A (64:37)

I think something I want to flag as well as a top Trump DOJ official reposted the following so Ed Martin, who's Donald Trump's pardon attorney, who's also on like Trump's Weaponization Committee of what as well reposted the following it's going to be wild when Maduro tries to plead to lesser charges by proffering evidence that the 2020 election was stolen. As Ann Bauer writes, hours before Maduro's first court appearance on federal criminal charges, a senior Justice Department official amplified a post speculating that the Venezuelan dictator would try to plead to lesser charges by proffering evidence that the 2020 election was stolen. Remember, a lot of Donald Trump's lies about the 2020 election was that Hugo Chavez of Venice, Venezuela, created a technology that beamed something into outer space that changed the vote tabulations and that this is being operated by Venezuela. Right. And so I just want to put this on your radar. I mean, Maduro pled not guilty and said he's a political prisoner and that he's the leader of a country. That's basically what he said. That was the only statements that he made. But would it shock you if one of Donald Trump's other plans is to work something out with Putin, Putin, to eventually send Maduro to Putin or to Turkey or somewhere else, as was offered before in exchange for Maduro saying the 2020 election was stolen? I flag that, not to be conspiratorial myself, but when you have Ed Martin, the top DOJ official, reposting those things, and in theory, the DOJ is prosecuting. Is prosecuting Maduro. The charges against Maduro for like, like having machine guns, like, you know, conspiracy to commit narco drug trafficking. It's going to be an interesting case. And they actually try to put this case on against someone who is the leader of a nation. And what that act, what that trial actually, you know, what that trial actually looks like. But anyway, I wanted to flag that piece of it right there for you. Just as they thought we could come back to that part in a few weeks or months when and inevitably our predictions tend to be right on these types of things. Brett.

B (66:51)

I mean, Trump is transactional and he's crazy and he's conspiratorial and he wants to be right. I mean, one of his big phrases that he always says, even though he's wrong about just about everything, is Trump is always right about everything. And so we know that this 2020 election that he keeps going back to, we showed the post from earlier today. We know that this is on his mind. It's not a coincidence that it's on his mind as he kidnapped, abducts the leader of Venezuela. It's all tied together. And if Donald Trump can extract that from him, I think he's a transactional guy who would. Could possibly let him off the hook. I don't think it's even conspiratorial to think that. I think that's how Donald Trump thinks. And nothing is beyond the realm of possibility. We're dealing with a psychotic man. We're dealing with a sociopath. We're dealing with somebody who does not have any boundaries. And so anything could happen here. And honestly, like, just from, like, a gut feeling, like, the, the whole, whole scene with Maduro has just been so bizarre. Like, the entire travel to the United States has been weird. Him with the DEA Agents has been weird. Like, he's got the thumbs up next to the agents and like. And I feel like every picture with the D agents or with the, you know, the federal agents, they're all taking pictures with him. Like, he's like a celebrity. It's like, you think the guy was like Timothy Shalam or something. Like, watching him walk around these facilities, you see the. The way he's behaving. There was that clip of him walking through the DEA facility in handcuffs. They sort of did like a little per. Walk, and he was just like, hello. Happy New Year. Happy New Year, everybody. Happy. I actually, I. I have that clip. I. I'll play it quickly in case people haven't seen this one.

A (68:24)

Night. Good night.

E (68:27)

Happy New Year.

B (68:29)

Good night. Happy New Year. Thumbs up. A million pictures with DH Is this Nicholas Maduro or is this Justin Bieber? Like, it's truly just bizarre, and it defies all logic. And I think it's very possible that there's a lot more happening behind the scenes that we don't know. That stuff that Ben was hinting at just before, that could be a reason for all the strange behavior, because something is not quite clicking into focus for me at least.

C (68:54)

I don't want to make light of that clip that you just showed. But nothing else comes to my mind. When you look at Maduro walking down saying, what's up to the camera, folks? And people flashing, like, he looks like. Like an athlete doing, like, a walk into the game.

B (69:06)

Like, he's got, like, dope outfits on. He's got, like, Nike sweatsuits.

C (69:09)

Something's going on. I really do think Your gut is 100% right, Brad. I. I'm a big believer in trust in Brett's gut on these things. And it's just the whole thing has just been bizarre. The photos that it's something.

A (69:24)

It's.

C (69:24)

Thank you. Than Trump right now.

B (69:26)

Thanks.

A (69:26)

A few other things to point out to, you know, like Charlie Angus has been saying on the Midas Touch network for a long time. He starts. He's started. And he's the leader right now of Midas Canada. He leads the Midas Canada Resistance Tour. By the way, he's going to be in Edmonton pretty soon, so go check out the Charlie Angus tour dates if you are. If you happen to be in the area. But, you know, he's been saying, like, we need to prepare for a potential invasion by the United States of Canada. It's like, the US Is serious about this. And now the Globe and Mail editorial board, which is kind of like the New York Times there in Canada, if you will, Their editorial board says Venezuela's fate is a warning for Canada. And Angus writes, when the Globe and Mail editorial board is warning that the Venezuela invasion represents a threat to Canada, you know how serious the menaces from the gangster fascist regime. I'll share this with you as well. You have. I just want to mention this. The Japanese Prime Minister Takeshi says that challenges to the international order are now gaining momentum in the Indo Pacific, where we're seeing further military buildups by China and North Korea, as well as the strengthening cooperation between China and Russia and Russia and North Korea. You had a missile test recently by North Korea, which under the Obama administration, when Kim Jong Un would test these missiles, people, oh, he's so weak, Obama, how you're letting him test these missiles like that's just happening regularly right now under the Trump regime. And you know, it barely gets a passing mention though. So I want to bring it here. Let's round out this topic right here as I'll show you what the ambassador from China to the United nations had to say during the United nations meeting about strongly condemning the unilateral acts by the United States. Then there's another clip where he says, we urge the US to abide by international law. First, this is China is deeply shocked here. Let's play the first clip.

F (71:31)

On January 3rd, the United States blatantly launched large scale military strikes against Venezuela, forcibly seized Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his wife and took them out of the country. It claimed that it will run Venezuela and even didn't rule out launching a second round of military operations on an even larger scale. China is deeply shocked by and strongly condemns the unilateral, illegal and bullying acts of the US for some time now, the international community has repeatedly expressed grave concern over the US Sanctions, blockade and threats of force against Venezuela. The Council convened two emergency meetings during which Secretary General Mikucheres, many council members and countries in the region and beyond unanimously called for abiding by the UN Charter and the international law.

A (72:25)

Now I'll show you this one where that that same deputy ambassador urges the United States to abide by international law and cease infringing upon the sovereignty of other countries. Here, play this quote.

F (72:37)

In Latin America and the Caribbean and indeed internationally, China firmly opposes this and the international community has also expressed widespread grave concern and strong condemnation. We urge the US to heed the the overwhelming voice of the international community, abide by international law and the purposes and principles of the UN Charter, cease infringing upon the sovereignty and security of other countries. Stop toppling the government of Venezuela and return to the path of political solutions through dialogue and negotiations. We call on the US to ensure the personal safety of President Maduro and his wife thrive and to release them at once. We support the council in fulfilling its primary responsibility to maintain international peace and security. And we support all efforts by the UN Secretary General, regional countries and organizations that contribute to promoting dialogue and de escalating the situation.

A (73:36)

Okay. I mean, when I was watching that, I'm like, why does China sound like the United States would normally sound at something like that? The United States ambassador is all alone. All of the countries are like, like, condemning the United States action. The US Isn't even talking about UN Charter or sovereignty, saying we dominate the Western Hemisphere. It's honestly one of the most shameful things I've ever watched. And I think this will be studied a lot in the future. What took place at that United Nations Security Council meeting? A few other things I just want to mention quickly. Governor Tim Walls in Minnesota announced that he will not be seeking reelection. He says that as he considered running again, he said that he decided not to run again. He said that. I won't mince words. Donald Trump and his allies In Washington and St. Paul want to make our state a colder, meaner place. They want to poison our people against each other by attacking our neighbors. And ultimately, they want to take away much of what makes Minnesota the best place in America to raise a family. They've already begun that by taking our tax dollars that were meant to help help families afford child care. And he goes, look, we're deeply concerned about fraud. A lot of these cases were prosecuted under former President Biden. Governor Walls requested more authority to deal with fraud, which was rejected by the state legislature there. Bad guys need to go to prison. The Trump regime is misrepresenting the nature and extent of the fraud that takes place. But let's be clear. Fraud is fraud, is fraud, fraud, and it's bad. But he said that I don't want to be a distraction right now to the state. And so he's going to step aside, not run for reelection. Many people believe that Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar is going to run. We'll keep you posted there. I think you can debate whether, you know, Governor Walls being bullied by MAGA and attacked relentlessly every day through their billion dollar propaganda machine and him saying he's not running, if that's kind of bowing down to the pressure of the MAGA propaganda machine or if at some point you appreciate that. It's like, look, the bottom line is that that propaganda machine is so strong and it's created all this taint and distraction and noise that you don't run and then you put somebody else in, and then you don't have to then.

B (76:06)

Think about what else Walls was dealing with. You had Trump posting just like the most horrific conspiracy theories from the darkest areas of the Internet, accusing Tim Walls of being responsible for the murder of Melissa Hortman and her family and the other Minnesota lawmakers. Like, there is no low that is too low for this MAGA movement and for Donald Trump. And so you know that Walls and his family, family have just been facing so much harassment on a day to day basis. They have people driving past his house every day calling him the R word because Trump called him that. Like, they are not really, like safe, like their families being harassed. So I could only imagine, you know, how he feels being, you know, the main target of this, this, this horrific Trump machine. I think it's very sad that he felt like he had to, you know, step down to, you know, probably protect himself and his family. But, you know, if Klobuchar goes in, you know, I mean, that would be a great thing for Democrats. There should be an incredibly strong candidate. But I just find the whole situation sad and just a representative of just the moral rot that we've seen come from this country and from maga.

A (77:15)

Right. You have Senator Kelly, Arizona senator, decorated pilot, astronaut, someone who's been in combat. He was censured by the Department of Defense, which calls itself the Department of War. Pete Hegseth didn't want to court martial him or he'd have to, like, go and get due process. So instead, Pete Hegseth used something else, which was a censure and a demotion to do a reduction in the retired pay of Kelly. Kelly can still challenge that. Kelly put out a state, oh, and then in the letter about the censure, you have Hegseth threatening Kelly, if you continue to engage in conduct prejudicial to good order and discipline, you may subject yourself to criminal prosecution or further administrative action. I mean, you have someone like Hegset who's incompetent, not qualified, been pathetic in every job that he's held. Going against a decorated veteran like this, you know, it's despicable. And Senator Mark Kelly responded, Look, over 25 years in the US Navy, 39 combat missions and four missions to space. I risked my life for this country. And he basically says, like, I've earned my rank, I've earned my retirement. If you think that I'm going to be afraid of you, you've got something else coming. So something to follow. I want to flag it here. You know, and finally, you know, I guess Trump thinks this isn't getting attention and this is why he wants to, you know, continue to try to distract. But as Senator Chris Van Hollen talked about today, he said in a statement that in the bipartisan funding agreement, as reported by Nancy Nathaniel Reed, Republicans removed his amendment, which was passed in the committee unanimously, to require the Department of Justice to retain, preserve and compile any records or evidence related to Jeffrey Epstein. Van Hollen said the following about the Republicans scrapping the Epstein Amendment. Given the GOP's previous support of this amendment on the floor and in the committee, their backtracking is particularly egregious. It's clear they're still opposed to providing the victims and the American people the answers they deserve. And if you're confused and saying, well, how is this different than the Epstein Transparency Act? It basically reconfirms what's in the Epstein Transparency act, but orders a preservation of evidence request as well, not just a production request. And the Republicans refuse to agree to the most basic thing, which is just a restatement of what your obligations are, are don't delete and destroy the evidence about Epstein. And the Republicans in the Senate said, nope, we don't support that. Right. And this also comes at the same day where there was a deadline that really wasn't on lots of people's radar. But the Epstein Transparency act did two things. On December 19, all the records had to be produced and the DOJ was allowed to do redactions just of the victims names and the victims faces. That's it. They, the DOJ violated the law. They turned over what, 4 to 5% of the records. Now they claim there's 5 million or 10 million missing records. After the Midas touch, we found that there was at least an additional 1.2 million. They fessed up that there was millions of records that were missing. Got it. But there was also another obligation. Basically, I forget if it was 10 or 15 days after that, whatever the, whatever the date was for yesterday, the DOJ had to prepare a report that explained its review of the files, what it did, what it searched and the redaction choices it made and why it redacted the things that it did. It had to prepare the report to Congress. DOJ just said, no, we're not doing it just did. Ignored it just ignored the Deadline as though it didn't exist, which again, is another criminal violation. So you have Pam Bondi clearly engaged in high crimes, not just misdemeanors, felony. I mean, felon covering up a child sex trafficking ring in violation of the Epstein Transparency Act. To me, the whole command structure and anybody who's been involved in the DOJ in doing this, I believe could be criminally prosecuted in a future RICO case, a racketeering case for. In being involved in covering up a child sex trafficking rapid. I mean, just. I get there saying, okay, no, we're not doing it. We're, we're, we're. There's a deadline. Who cares about the deadline? And you know what they're gonna say. Ah, we were at war, though. You expect us to give you the redactions. We were involved in a special legal operation in Venezuela. That's what they're calling the war and the unlawful invasion in Venezuela. This is what they're doing. They're thugs, they're criminals. But it's consistent with Donald Trump's behavior. Like if you were wondering what would it be like if you put a, a sexual abuser, a sexual predator, if you put someone who was a bankrupter, if you put someone who destroyed a lot of his businesses, if you put someone who's a felon, if you put somebody who is a fraud, if you put someone whose entire life has been involved in shady and abhorrent and disgusting behavior in the position, how do they behave? Like this. Like this. Trump's entire life has been one of the most vile and shameful, painful, cancerous things to the world, even before he was in office. This is. He's a predator, He's a bad guy. He's an, he's an evil person. And he attracts other evil people who run an evil regime, you know, who are involved in making the world worse. They get off on your pain. They don't want to see people happy. They don't want to see people in situations where people work together and build things together. Together. So that's what you're dealing with right now. But we're going to keep building the Midas Touch network. We're going to talk about in the State of the Union address coming up right now on patreon.com Midas touch what we're doing to build, building out a DC bureau, building out DC staff and DC employees so that we can bring you exclusives. You've already seen them today. If you're on the Midas Touch social media account, we're breaking news. We've got reporters there getting exclusive statements from reporters that but for our reporters asking you wouldn't have heard this anywhere else. And getting people on the record, I think it's going to be a game changer what we're building over there. So we'll talk about that and more. Reminder patreon.com Midas Touch for the state of the union of Midas Touch address. That's all I got. Brett and Jordy, we've covered a lot. Covered a lot. I'm back from Disney here.

B (84:09)

Ready. I'm ready to work.

A (84:10)

Ready to work. And so thank you everybody. We appreciate you. We'll see you next time on the Midas Touch podcast. Have a great one, everybody.

C (84:18)

Shout out to the Midas my day. Want to stay plugged in? Become a subscriber to our substack@midasplus.com you'll get daily recaps from Ron Filipowski ad free episodes of our podcast and more exclusive content only available@midasplus.com.