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- [00:01]
Ben Meiselas
Have you ever spotted McDonald's hot crispy fries right as they're being scooped into the carton and time just stands still? Your data is like gold to hackers and they'll sell it to the highest bidder.
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Brett Meiselas
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Ben Meiselas
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Brett Meiselas
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Ben Meiselas
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Brett Meiselas
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- [00:46]
Ben Meiselas
This episode is brought to you by Progressive Insurance Fiscally responsible financial geniuses, monetary magicians. These are things people say about drivers who switch their car insurance to Progress Progressive and save hundreds. Visit progressive.com to see if you could save Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and affiliates. Potential savings will vary. Not available in all states or situations. This is the Midas Touch podcast. Let's get right into it. Earlier in the day, Donald Trump held a press conference in the oval office with UK's Prime Minister Kier Starmer. Donald Trump was asked by a reporter if he still thinks Zelensky is a dictator. Since Donald Trump's been repeating that over and over again while refusing to condemn Putin, here's what Trump said. Did I say that? I can't believe I said that. Next question. Did I say that? Either severe cognitive decline, gaslighting, or just being malicious. I think it is all of the above. By the way, here's what Donald Trump wrote where he clearly calls Zelensky a dictator. It was in a social media post that Donald Trump made. Donald Trump is then asked if what would happen, Donald, if the UK was sent peacekeeping forces into Ukraine and they were attacked by Russia with the United States help out its ally, the United Kingdom. Play this clip just just to follow up on that. If British troops are in Ukraine keeping.
- [02:24]
Brett Meiselas
The peace and get attacked by Russia, will you come to their aid?
- [02:27]
Ben Meiselas
If the British people are in Ukraine and they get attacked, you know, I've always found about the British, they don't need much help.
- [02:34]
Brett Meiselas
They can take care of themselves very well.
- [02:37]
Ben Meiselas
Then Donald Trump, while sitting next to Kier Starmer, now UK's Prime Minister, was trying to say, look, this is a great relationship we have with the United States. And then Donald Trump like bullies him and humiliates him or tries to humiliate him in front of the world press by saying, I think Russia's been acting very, very well Care. What do you think? What do you think is happening? Do you think he goes here he goes, Starmer, do you think the UK could take on Russia on its own? Here, watch this. Between our two countries. That is why this is the greatest alliance for prosperity and security I think the world has ever seen.
- [03:17]
Brett Meiselas
Whenever ne we absolutely backed each other up.
- [03:21]
Ben Meiselas
And that's. Could you take on Russia by yourselves? Well, all right, one or two more. I mean, just absurd conduct there by Donald Trump. And then Donald Trump says that under no circumstances will Ukraine join Naito. And then Donald Trump blames Ukraine wanting to join NATO as the reason for Russia's unlawful invasion of Ukraine.
- [03:48]
Brett Meiselas
The Europeans want Ukraine to be part of NATO as part of this deal. Are you willing to budge on that at all?
- [03:54]
Ben Meiselas
Or is it a. Well, I could be very nice and say, oh, well, we'll work to it.
- [03:57]
Brett Meiselas
Look, it's not going to happen.
- [04:00]
Ben Meiselas
It's just not going to happen. That's what started this whole thing. And then flashback, what, 24 hours, Donald Trump convened a cabinet meeting that was led by Elon Musk, not a cabinet member. Elon Musk wearing his dark maga hat and a T shirt with a jacket over the T shirt. And then Elon Musk was saying, you know, look, we're going to make mistakes at those, we're going to make the mistakes like, like, remember when we made the mistake recently about Ebola and we fired the wrong Ebola people. I mean, by the way, also fired like people who work at our new over nuclear material. He fired critical people who were focusing on the avian flu. And he fired, you know, tens of thousands of government employees who worked hard and sacrificed for our government. But it's all one big joke for Elon Musk. Was this real. Just go to doge.gov line item by.
- [05:04]
Jordy Meiselas
Line, and we specify each item.
- [05:06]
Brett Meiselas
So and we, and I should say also, we will make mistakes.
- [05:10]
Ben Meiselas
We won't be perfect, but when we make mistake, we'll fix it very quickly. So, for example, with usaid, one of the things we accidentally canceled very briefly was Ebola.
- [05:22]
Brett Meiselas
Ebola prevention.
- [05:23]
Ben Meiselas
I think we all want Ebola prevention.
- [05:25]
Jordy Meiselas
So we restored the Ebola prevention immediately.
- [05:27]
Brett Meiselas
And there was no interruption.
- [05:29]
Ben Meiselas
Are you going to do just go to go to doge.com? all you got to do is go to doge.com I'm not going to testify. I'm not going to testify before Congress like I'm supposed to. But we may make mistakes like Ebola. It's a good, good joke, everybody. Good, good joke. I mean, what the hell are we watching? Let me bring in Brett and Jordy from the Midas Touch podcast and want to start with those clips right there because it is dystopian, to say the least.
- [05:58]
Brett Meiselas
It is incredibly dystopian. Good to be here with you, brothers. Good to be here, everybody watching and listening to the Midas Touch podcast. You know, a few things. First off, Trump looks tired. Like, for those listening, the bags under Donald Trump's growing. He looks exhausted, he looks out of it, and frankly, like, you're right. It's like you have two options, Trumpers in that situation, when you hear comments like that, like, Zelensky, did I say he was a dictator? I don't know. It's. He's either senile or he's a liar or both. So I'll let you guys decide how you want your dear leader to be described. But he's one of those things. Elon. When I hear Elon, you know, and he's just bizarre that he's taking over these cabinet meetings and whatnot. But there's this guy who went viral this week who's been doing an Elon Musk impression, and I cannot listen to Elon Musk now without thinking of, have you seen this guy on TikTok? It is. It's. So maybe I'll pull up the clip if I can in a second. But. But, yeah, no, it's completely. It's completely bonkers, what we are seeing. But honestly, when I look at Trump in all these situations, I just see, like, I see such weakness. Like, weakness. I feel like he's tired, like his heart is not in it. And it feels like one of the reasons why he's just kind of delegating everything, letting Elon Musk basically do his job for him. It's just like his heart isn't in this thing. Like. Like, it's just a whole bizarre dynamic. But anyway, we've got a lot to discuss. I'll turn it over to Jordy. Jordy, what's new?
- [07:17]
Jordy Meiselas
I'm excited to get into it.
- [07:18]
Brett Meiselas
There's.
- [07:19]
Jordy Meiselas
I don't. There's just too much to cover. So with that, I just want to say, what's up, Midas Mighty? Can't wait to get into the show. And, Benji, where do you want to start us off?
- [07:28]
Ben Meiselas
Let me start off by showing you this photo right here of Donald Trump. If we've got a photo of him with. Without the orange. Do we have that photo of him, Brett?
- [07:38]
Brett Meiselas
Yeah, I. I got it in a.
- [07:40]
Ben Meiselas
Moment, but let's first show you. There it is right here. This is a guy@dave mmc Post this. This is what Donald Trump would look like if his skin tone matched the color around his eyes. Have fun sleeping. I think the hesitation there of Brett posting that photo is. Ben, are you really calling up this photo? Yes, Brett, I'm really calling up this photo because to me, one, I had to see it, so all of you might as mighty have to see it as well. And two, it highlights the absurdity of all of this that we literally have a human being in the White House who paints his face like a orange and then just goes out and does things that are obviously destructive to every aspect of our country. And then you have these spineless MAGA Republicans like, oh, I guess you made a. You made a boo boo when it comes to Ebola. Oh, you made another boo boo when it comes to the nuclear scientists. What are we talking about? Measles. This happens all of the time. Measles. You don't say. I mean, look, you have RFK Jr. At the Cabinet meeting being asked, and Donald Trump's like, junior, you tell me what's going on with the measles? And then he's like. And then RFK Junior's like, oh, well, it happened. Hold on.
- [08:55]
Brett Meiselas
I know. Yeah, you have to do the impression.
- [08:58]
Jordy Meiselas
No, no, do the impression.
- [09:01]
Brett Meiselas
All right, Ben, Ben, for the audience, everybody is asking in the comments to hear your RFK impression. So if you really not doing the RFK and if you really, if you really want to do the impression, we'll let you do it right here before.
- [09:13]
Jordy Meiselas
Ben does the RFK impression maybe gets canceled or not. Is me that the MAGA base. It will never not be bizarre to me with the maga. Like, I'm not even talking about the politicians out there. I'm talking the diehard Trumpers. Dude wears orange makeup. I mean, just like, what's Alpha about that? What's Alpha? You know, Trump supporters about kissing the feet of billionaire oligarchs. These people wouldn't piss on you if you were on fire. And yet you're going to go to the grave defending them. They are the most anti American, anti Democratic people to ever exist and to ever walk this country.
- [09:53]
Brett Meiselas
Like, what is it, Ben?
- [09:55]
Ben Meiselas
I was going to say that they are pissing on their supporters even though they're not on fire. And then the supporters are like, more pee pee. Please, Mr. Trump, you can take away my Medicaid. More pee pee.
- [10:05]
Brett Meiselas
This episode is starting on a crazy foot. So, Ben, as we await your RFK Junior impression. Can I play this guy?
- [10:11]
Ben Meiselas
Junior impression. The Elon Musk.
- [10:13]
Brett Meiselas
After, after this we'll go to your. Let me show you this guy and then we'll get into the RFA clip because it's so good. This is not Elon Musk. I think this guy's name is Alex Byron, if I'm saying that right. Alex Byron. He's a comedian. It's a pitch perfect impression of Elon.
- [10:28]
Jordy Meiselas
Yeah, yeah.
- [10:29]
Ben Meiselas
So comedy. Try to take. They're trying to take this away. No, not gonna let them. Yeah, I saw Tony Hinchcraft at the skit, you know, and he said Puerto Rico was a pile of garbage.
- [10:48]
Jordy Meiselas
And it's, it's like.
- [10:49]
Brett Meiselas
Yeah, well, it is.
- [10:51]
Ben Meiselas
So it's really good. For the record, we've built up this audience now to beat Rogan. I'm not doing an RFK impression. I'm not. I'm going to show self. I'm going to show self restraint. But I will show the clip of rfk, which is absolutely deplorable from the cabinet meeting. Let's play the clip. We. Bobby, do you want to speak on that? We are following the measles epidemic every day. I think there's 124 people who have contracted measles at this point, mainly in Kansas County, Texas.
- [11:25]
Brett Meiselas
Mainly, we're told in the Mennonite community.
- [11:29]
Ben Meiselas
There are two people who have died, but they were watching it.
- [11:37]
Brett Meiselas
And There are about 20 people hospitalized, mainly for quarantine.
- [11:42]
Ben Meiselas
We're watching it. We put out a post on it yesterday and we're going to continue to follow it. Incidentally, there have been four measles outbreaks this year in this country. Last year there were 16. So it's not unusual. We have measles outbreaks every year. You sound a little under the weather yourself right now. I just, I have a permanently bad throat. Yeah, that reporter with that question. You sound like you're under. I mean, come on, come on, come on, reporter. I mean, but, but, but let's not, let's not get distracted here, brothers, okay? That's not true. Okay. There's not. Nothing he's saying is true. And oh my gosh, the conspiracy theorist who says that he wants an eight year moratorium on infectious disease research. Who attacked, who attacked vaccines over and over again and is maybe one of the leading spreaders of frickin measles and other pandemics from the past that we stopped with vaccines. It shouldn't shock you that he's out there spreading medical disinformation and at the Same time, a lot of these jobs that are being cut, nih, CDC working groups within Health and Human Services, which is under the purview of RFK Jr. These working groups that are responsible for kind of investigating and then coming up with the formulations for flu vaccines. Right. For like next season, they've been gutted as well. So there's been a lot of reporting. Are we going to be able to have flu vaccines for next year right now as America is less vaccinated because of idiots. Yeah. Here's the article from Bloomberg. The Trump administration has canceled an upcoming meeting of the Food and Drug Administration Vaccine Advisory Committee. A move that could comply could complicate efforts to produce flu shots in time for the upcoming season. And that as they also got NIH CDC jobs as well. And we know that flu deaths right now are very, very high. I don't even know if we're getting the accurate information of just how high they are because Trump's cut so much out of the government. And by the way, Covid cases are very high as well. And Trump and his administration are looking away. But these are the people who brought you inject ivermectin into your arm, which you should never do. That was not good advice. Like a miracle, it's all going to go away. It's never going to hit our shores. I mean, these people are liars about everything. And of course, Donald Trump is a liar in a way that's hitting you in your purse, in your pocketbook, in your wallet. Donald Trump's promise, day one prices will go down immediately. Jobs will be, there'll be so many jobs, you're not going to know what to do with all of your jobs. He said war in Ukraine caused by Russia's unlawful invasion. He said it would be resolved in 24 hours. Know what Donald Trump is focused on, though, is a budget that cut $4.1 trillion in taxes for the billionaires and DECA millionaires and then cut your Medicaid $880 billion of your Medicaid. It will add $19 trillion to the deficit at least over 10 years. And let me tell you what I think the real number that it's going to add to the deficit, and let me give you my data points for it as well. I think it adds $50 trillion to the deficit. And you want to know what I think is Donald Trump's top tell. You know those stupid Trump gold card things that he's selling where he's saying that if you are from another country and you want a visa and Then to become a citizen, he goes, here's what you got to do. We're going to replace our immigration system with Trump Gold cards. Russian oligarchs, you're welcome. He literally said, russian oligarchs, you are welcome. Chinese oligarchs, you are welcome. You just pay $5 million. And he goes, if we can get 10 million of these Chinese oligarchs, Russian oligarch, he said this to become citizens of the United States through the purchase of the Trump Gold cards, we can make up for 50. We can make $50 trillion. So to me, what I think they're doing as they gear up for the reconciliation process after passing the blueprint for this budget that will add $19 trillion, they're going to use Doge to come up with all of these phony numbers. They'll use the Trump Gold card to come up with all of these phony numbers to claim there is a perfect offset to the deficit that they are going to be creating by selling gold cards and snake oil. Because Trump is a fraud. The guy's been a con artist his whole life. He's bankrupted every, basically all of the casinos that he's run. I'm not going to show it again because I show it in so many videos. Go read Donald Trump's annual financial reports. In the reports, Donald Trump has to list all of the businesses that he bankrupted. He's not a good businessman. He's not a builder, he's a destroyer. You go through it line by line and I've read, I've never seen someone go bankrupt so many times over and over again, or run businesses into the ground. And by the way, the business he's running now, Trump Media, that earned less than $4 million in revenue last year. So the Trump business lost $400 million, made less revenue than your local Boba shop. Okay, this is not a good business person right there. Well, here he is at the cabinet meeting saying, blaming the current administration for the fact that eggs are a disaster. The prices are going up and he pretends that he's not the current administration. Here, watch this. Eggs are a disaster. The Secretary of Agriculture is going to be showing you a chart that's actually mind boggling what's happened, how low they were with us and how high they are now.
- [17:42]
Brett Meiselas
But I think we could do something about it, Madam Secretary, and I think.
- [17:46]
Ben Meiselas
You'Re going to do a fantastic job in that position. While all of this is going on, remember Elon Musk's post from, I think it's 1-28-2025 fork in the road. The Trump administration's offering all of these federal workers buyouts, and then they're firing all of these people. This was Elon Musk's post today. Today. This was his post. There is a shortage of top notch air traffic controllers. If you have retired but are open to returning to work, please consider doing so. Please consider doing so. So now they fire everybody. So he goes on his social media platform to then beg people to work who are retired. Brett.
- [18:36]
Brett Meiselas
It's also bizarre that they're making all these government edicts on Twitter. Like, how are people even supposed to get these messages? Like, he just assumes that everybody is on Twitter all the time and following his messages. Who works in the federal government? That's just kind of a weird thing to begin with. And that's what happens when you go through and just try to, like, destroy everything. I've seen the way these tech people view the world is through the lens of how they view the tech world. And there's that phrase, you know, you know, you got to break stuff or whatever the phrase is, right? That doesn't work with the federal government. When you turn off things on Twitter, there are glitches that happen. Your DMs don't work, your retweets may stop working. When you turn off things with the government, people lose their health care, people die. Parks aren't protected, parks go on fire, airplanes start crashing, food gets poisoned. That's what happens when you break things in the government. And that's why you can't use that strategy in the federal government. Even if it is, maybe it does work in the tech world. Maybe it is a disruptor thing doesn't work in the federal government. And I think they're finding that out every day. And just like the, the. How cavalier they are about it is what drives me absolutely crazy. They try to act on that. They're being transparent. When they're anything but it. They're putting all these fake numbers on the Doge website, which every time reporters are looking at it, they'll say, we save $66 billion. And they'll like, the reporters will be like, nah, it's. And even that is not, you know, doesn't look quite right. And then they just act like, oh, so we turned off the Ebola, what are we going to do? We turned it back on, everything's okay. Then we find out that that is a lie. Also, that things were actually severely damaged as a result of Elon Musk getting rid of the Ebola funding. And it's just one thing after the next, after the next. One scam on top of one scam on top of one scam, just like we would expect from Donald Trump. The latest scam then of course is the one that you were referencing earlier with the gold. Gold cards they're calling it and, and they' use this and all the Republicans are going to use this, including MAGA Mike Johnson to say that, oh, you might see all these numbers. I want you to be prepared for it because they're already starting it. You're going to see all these numbers about major deficit spending. You're going to see all these numbers about the debt skyrocketing to levels that we've never seen before in American history. But once those gold cards kick in, oh, it's going to be a gravy train in this country where you're all going to be getting money. Everyone's going to be, it's going to be a boon to this country. It's a scam. This is like literal snake oil that they are selling you and they expect people to believe it. I just hope people are starting to see through this con because it's such an in your face con. I mean this make, this puts multi level marketing schemes to shame. This puts like Bernie Madoff to shame. This is a con on such a massive level right now and I just hope that people don't fall for it. And that's why even reporting this stuff, I think you need to report it with clarity like that and not accept these as real premises. Not to run your headline as like Mike Johnson suggests that the gold cards are going to pay for the death deficits. Don't even like allow them to put that lie in the headline like they want because it is totally bogus.
- [21:32]
Jordy Meiselas
Jordan, your job as a reporter, as a journalist is not just to echo the MAGA and right wing talking points. It's to get to the bottom of them and to make sure that what you're reporting and putting into the world is actually factual. Not just whatever, you know, bullet statement that they want that they, these MAGA Republicans, Mike Johnson, Elon Musk, Donald Trump want you to just regurgitate. It's a dangerous thing. I don't like bashing on the fourth estate. Absolutely not. Are you kidding? I need to defend it at all costs. But I'm just urging every single reporter out there, please just don't be a mouthpiece for this administration when it comes to Elon Musk. He is an egomaniac. Brett, he does truly think that when he tweets, everybody sees it. All the federal employees, everybody on earth, everybody in America. He thinks his tweets basically serve as law. You know, look no further than the five bullet points of what you did this week that he sent out last week that sent mass chaos throughout this country. You know, once you start ruling, dictating by Twitter, it's a scary place to be. I mean, just like the malignant narcissist in chief, Donald Trump, Elon Musk, who's actually the president. Sorry, Donald, you ain't. You ain't. Elon's the one in control now, buddy. You know, and they're just such babies, too, when it comes down to it. Because when you do call them out for it, Brett, and these reporters do a nice job and they try to get to the bottom of it, all of a sudden, transparency. Not a thing. They. They don't want to be as transparent with you, Brett, when they're in charge. Elon Musk is in charge. He wants to fudge the numbers. And if you, if you start to question his numbers, you're fake news. Six. No, that's. That's fake news. Just like when it comes to comedy, right? When you start making fun of these people, what do they say? Oh, that's not funny.
- [23:23]
Ben Meiselas
That's.
- [23:23]
Jordy Meiselas
That's mean. That's hurtful. Oh, the tolerant left. What about.
- [23:26]
Ben Meiselas
Nuh.
- [23:27]
Jordy Meiselas
We all have to play by the same set of rules, you MAGA crybabies.
- [23:31]
Ben Meiselas
Brett, pull up that photo one more time. Yeah, there it is, right there. That's Donald Trump before he paints his face orange. I don't even know. I mean, that is a rendering of what he probably may look like, this guy David, that this guy David posted. I'm showing you there for no reason. But what I do want to talk about when we get back is Donald Trump's and Epstein's connections, because you're not going to hear about that on the corporate media. But this has actually become a big deal again right now. We've always been covering it here because the MAGA Republican Congress members, led by Congresswoman Anna Paulina Luna, are saying, wait a minute. Donald claimed that he was going to release all the Epstein files. That's really all we've cared about. Apparently, that's like their big issue. And now all of a sudden, you're not releasing it. And then the Department of Justice claimed that they were releasing it, but then they released, like, phone logs or like the phone log sheet that we know that Trump's name was already on the stuff that was released in 2021, like a very small portion. And now you have Anna Paulina, Luna maga Republican, yelling at or attacking the head of the Department of Justice, Attorney General Pam Bondi. Attorney General Pam Bondi is attacking Cash Patel and saying, Patel, you're not turning over the records to me. I don't really have it. And then I wonder maybe the fact the guy who's in the White House is the guy who said that Epstein's a great guy who likes women on the younger side, who partied with Epstein and who Epstein would find women to traffic at Mar a Lago like Virginia Giuffre and others. Oh yeah, and Donald Trump wish Ghislaine Maxwell, who was the sex trafficker for Epstein. Well, so you're not going to hear about this in other corporate media. That's why independent media is the way to go. We'll talk about that when we come back from our first Quick Baker. I want to remind everybody though patreon.com Midas Touch if you ever wanted to meet Brett Jordy and myself and ask us questions. A few times a month we go on patreon.com midas touch we hold exclusive Zoom meetings there. So sign up. We'll let you know when the next Zoom meeting is going to be with a secret link. Again, we don't have outside investors, so that helps build this independent media platform. Also, make sure you check out Midasplus.com as well. M E I-A S P L U S.com that's where our editor in chief, Ron Philipkowski cooks. His Daily bulletin is incredible. Check that out and make sure you subscribe here. We just hit 4.2 million subscribers. We're on our way to 5 million subscribers. Let's go to the moon. We'll be right we'll be right back after our first quick break. 2025 has been a pretty intense year for me so far, especially living here in Los Angeles and having a four month old baby daughter. Fortunately, I previously went to Policy Genius and it gave me the peace of mind for my life insurance and I want you to have the same opportunity. So make this the year you check life insurance off your list and protect your family's future with Policy Genius. Every time I talk about policygenius on my show, I always get positive feedback after people give it a shot and they see how easy it is. It's easy to compare quotes from America's top insurers side by side for free with no hidden fees. Policy Genius has licensed support team that will help you get what you need fast so you can get on with your life and they answer your questions, they handle paperwork, and they advocate for you throughout the process. Look, Life insurance is a form of financial planning and Policy Genius is the country's leading online insurance marketplace. So join thousands of happy Policy Genius customers who have left five star reviews on Google and trustpilot. So secure your families tomorrow so you have the peace of mind today. Head to policygenius.com midas or click the link in the description to get your free life insurance quotes and see how much you could save. That's policygenius.com Midas One more time, go to policygenius.com Midas make sure you spell Midas correctly. M E I D A S okay, Real talk.
- [27:55]
Brett Meiselas
I love food, but I do not love meal planning. Every week I do my best, but often reality hits. Work errands, exhaustion. Suddenly I'm eating leftovers for dinner again. But then I found Marley Spoon and I am officially a meal prep person. I could announce it right now not because I suddenly got my life together, but because Marley Spoon did it for me. This podcast is sponsored by Marley Spoon and I'm genuinely excited about it because it's helping me fast track my way to eating well without all that stress. And with our Code Midas M E I D A s, you can get up to 27 free meals. Here's what I love. Marley Spoon gives you over a hundred recipes to choose from every week. We're talking everything cozy comfort food like big batch beef Stroganoff to lighter dishes like salmon and creamy mustard dill sauce Traybake. There's literally something for every single mood. And my absolute favorite recently, their beef noodle soup with bok choy. I made it last night. I had that moment where I just stared at my plate like, damn, I'm good. It looked incredible, smelled amazing, and more importantly, tasted like something out of a restaurant. And the best part, Marley Spoon just launched their new 15 Minute Express recipes. Yep, dinner in 15 minutes. So even on nights when I'm feeling extra lazy, I have zero excuses. This new year, fast track your way to eating well with Marley spoon. Head to marleyspoon.com offer Midas and use that code Midas for up to 27 free meals. You heard me right. Up to 27 free meals with Marley Spoon one last time. That's marleyspoon.com offer MidAS for up to 27 free meals. And make sure you use our promo Code Midas M E I D A S so they know that I Sent you.
- [29:36]
Jordy Meiselas
Let's go. Shout out to our sponsors links in description of audio and the YouTube. Click the links, use the codes, let them know. Sent you. If there's an exit survey, it helps a lot. Marley Spoon, A plus policy genius. Really great. I mean, check it out. Absolutely. Benji, question for you. Where to next?
- [29:53]
Ben Meiselas
Where to next? A place I've never thought I would go before. I'm actually going to read a post from Dave Portnoy of Barstool the Influencer. I am doing it. This is what he said today. He goes, if I'm going to be fair, these questions need to be asked today. Why is the release of the Epstein list always a shit show? What's the point of booting out illegals and criminals while somehow becoming a safe haven for. The Tate brothers, who are alleged to have engaged in sex trafficking, were arrested in Romania. They came back to the United States today and there has been a lot of reporting that the Trump administration at advocated for their return. And also, Donald Trump's top advisor, Alina Haba, like, fangirled over Andrew Tate on a recent podcast and said how much she, like, idolizes him or, like, looks up to him or thinks he's great. He goes, why is crypto in the toilet if Trump is the crypto king? Trump's literally been the worst president on everything, but also for crypto, when his whole thing was like, crypto, like, it's in the toilet right now. How far does Tesla stock have to crash before Elon goes back to work? And there's a lot of other questions to ask as well, which is, why is inflation surging again? Why hasn't the war in Ukraine been resolved in 24 hours as Donald Trump promised? Why is it that they are gutting Medicaid? Why is it that Donald Trump said that he had nothing to do with Project 2025? And now Russ Vogt, who's the author of it, is running the show and running everything. Why? I can go on and on. You the point, Brett.
- [31:26]
Brett Meiselas
Yeah. You know, this Epstein thing is honestly, you know, it's obviously a dark subject matter, but the fact that they are in this situation right now, there's definitely a lot of humor to it. They are the dog that caught the car, and now they do not know what to do about it because they've been hyping this up as like, this is going to be like their. Their super bowl, their Christmas. However you want to describe it, the release of the Epstein files. And by the way, Donald Trump was in power before. Nothing happened with the Files, then nothing's going to happen with the files now. Any. Anything substantial. And you know, they've also, they've hyped up that existence of these files. And in their mind there exists a list. And the list says something like pedophiles in Hollywood. And then you read down the list and it's all your favorite Hollywood celebrities. And it's going to be the big. We got the Democrats, we got Hollywood. They're all on this one list. Look at it. The odd thing about this to me from the very beginning is the obvious thing, which is, why would you make this your main cause when the guy you worship was quite literally Jeffrey Epstein's best friend? You don't have to believe me when I say that Jeffrey Epstein said that Donald Trump viewed him as his best friend. They hung out all the time in Mar A Lago. I know they like to say they make up this whole story that actually Donald Trump. Trump banned him when he found out. Actually, Donald Trump just kept him close so that he could report. I meant, give me a fricking break with that bullshit, okay? But they've invented this whole story where somehow Donald Trump has cleaned his hands of this, even though there's nobody who is ever closer to Jeffrey Epstein than Donald Trump, per all the reporting out there. And it goes beyond just even Donald Trump's name on these various lists and things like that. Like, you could go into Ben's deep dives, but all the modeling agencies, all the things that took place at Mar A Lago, there's a whole lot of actual evidence to behavior that may be worse than just a name on a list. But. But the lists that do exist are the lists that have been public for the past few years, if not over the past decade. There's his little black book, the Epstein little black book. And guess who's on Epstein's little black book? Donald trump. And like 50 phone numbers. I'm exaggerating there, but it actually is like 11 phone numbers. Do I have the little black book here? I'll find it if I. Yeah, here it is right here, the little black book. I mean, that's a lot of contact information for one person to have of another human being. If you're looking at this, there's a few two on two numbers, three Florida numbers, another New York York number, like another five New York numbers, another three. There's a lot of numbers on. This is my point. Melania's number. Her name's spelled wrong. Trump security. Like, like, he's got like, like people like who Emergency.
- [34:06]
Ben Meiselas
He's got the emergency contact.
- [34:08]
Brett Meiselas
He's got Trump's emergency contact. Like, like I get a lot of people's phone numbers. I don't have their emergency contact and their security. This is a close relationship. And by the way, I'm going to say right up front, just because a name is on this phone log doesn't mean that any bad behavior was done for that. We'll go and go into Ben's deep dives on the Epstein stuff and you'll see the more tangible stuff. But you want a list. Here is a literal list. It exists right here. Right. The other literal list that exists, and this is the one that apparently Pam Bondi is planning on releasing that these MAGA influencers have been holding up in this binder. It was the phone records that I just showed you that Donald Trump's name on. By the way, when we actually see these, let's see if they keep Donald Trump's name on it or not. But there's also the flight logs. We need to see the flight logs. We need to see the flight logs. The flight logs were released in 2019. They were released as part of the Ghislaine Maxwell trial, the federal trial. Signed affidavit. These are the official logs. We have them right here. Donald Trump is listed in these logs by name. He brought his kids on sometimes. He was often on it with Epstein himself. You could see the name Je on these various logs. But Donald Trump was on the flight logs 17 seven times. These were released. Sorry. They were released in 2021 and not 2019. And his name's all over it. But yet you show this to the MAGA people and they're like, what? That doesn't mean anything. What, what list are you looking for? The list you're looking for doesn't exist. These are the lists that actually exist. And then you have these White House influencers now going to the White House. And so you have people, and it's disgusting to see some of these people at the White House holding up binders, holding up literal binders, Small binders, Small binders. Like this guy, this, who is, this is a Cernovich. I don't know. I, I, I'm upset that I know any these people, but they're people like libs of Tik Tok and Cernovich and I don't know, DC Drano. DC Drano. Here's the DC Drano photo and they're holding these things up. There's Libs of TikTok in this photo and they're Smiling, and they're celebrating. And these. These binders say phase one. The Epstein files, the most transparent administration in history. It has a fake declassified marking. It's not a real declassified. It's like it says it. Like they just printed it on the thing and they gave it to these 15 influencers. Apparently, this is. Is phase one of the release, which is all this information that I just showed you. Like, it's already. Already public, apparently. And they're, like, smiling and celebrating. And it's just weird because, like I said in the beginning of this, this is disturbing stuff. Like, this is evidence of somebody who, like, raped children. I was trying to see if I could make it a little softer for this episode, but I want to be clear about what it is and not.
- [36:42]
Jordy Meiselas
Use the link about it.
- [36:44]
Brett Meiselas
And they're smiling with these binders as if the. Look what I got. Look at this great thing. It's completely bizarre. Not to mention the fact that the people accused the media of being regime propagandists under Biden there. This is literally the definition of regime propagandists. I mean, how do you ever recover from this? You holding your binders to try to cover for Donald Trump and his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein. Because that's all this is about right now. And now you have these rifts forming because you have these MAGA people who are willing to do whatever Donald Trump wants, right? Then you have an other MAGA people who view themselves as, like, pure blood magic, you know, like. Like, I am the real maga, and I actually stand for my beliefs. And you know what? To their credit, some of these people, I actually do think, stand by their beliefs, as horrific as they are. Like a. Like a Laura Loomer, for example, horrible person. She's pretty consistent, though, in being a horrible person. She wouldn't probably partake in a situation like this. So then you have a Laura Loomer getting angry now at these MAG influencers getting angry at the Trump administration. You have Pam Bondi saying that she was gonna release all the Epstein files, but the FBI is not gonna allow her to release all the Epstein files. You have the FBI going like, what are you talking about? They're all trying to blame each other. And now it's just MAGA is in chaos over this thing because the dog finally caught the car. And now they don't know what to do because they've hyped this moment up for so long as the moment that was gonna take down the Deep State and the Democrats and liberal Hollywood. And guess what? The only Person's name who keeps coming up on these lists is Donald J. Trump.
- [38:23]
Ben Meiselas
Trump. Ben, let me tell you what actually does exist, though. What does exist is millions of records from the Department of Justice investigation witness statement. I'll give you an example of what exists that hasn't been released, that if you were to release, all of the files would be released. There was a 14 year old girl, she testified at the Ghislaine Maxwell trial as a woman who said that Epstein brought her and introduced her to Donald Trump. We don't know really what that testimony was because a lot of it was under seal and then was classified. But we know that it took place because we're aware of Jane Doe Trump, Ghislaine Maxwell. That's what was reported. Right. So just for that one victim, for example, I'm sure there are pages of witness statements from police officers and investigators about what she told them happened. And then with all of the victims, there are police reports, phone logs, records, you know, statements, photographs, all of that. Right. And that file, from my experience in as a lawyer who dealt with, you know, big document production cases, I think you probably have terabytes of data that's out there. Now, if they claim they're doge efficient, they should have been able to go through those terabytes of data. And if they had to redact a name of a victim, I get that. But the people who are being accused, that's the type of stuff that you would assume that they would want released. That's what they're asking for. Right. So there's. To your point, Brett, the only list lists that exist list Trump's name on him, phone logs, flight logs. Right, but in terms of the data, I know, for example, that there was depositions released in part of these cases and Trump's names on the depots that have been public where one of the victims that Epstein trafficked talked about Epstein calling Trump from the jet or before they went in the jet to go to a casino with her when they needed to reroute their flight light. So, you know, that information's out there and the question is, why don't they want to release it? And again, you have MAGA Republican Anna Paulina Luna, she posts. That's not the information that we asked for. Turn it over. I want to pivot and talk about the relationship between Andrew Tate and all of this with Andrew Tate, who was accused of sex trafficking in Romania, returning now to the United States. But Jordy, let me have you comment first on the Epstein stuff.
- [41:07]
Jordy Meiselas
No, I just wanted to Say this, like if they're. And I don't want to be that. But if Biden. But if, but, but in this situation, if there, if you were to Google Joe Biden, Jeffrey Epstein, just in the chat, how many photos pop up of Joe Biden standing next to Jeffrey Epstein? Oh, you're, you can't find any? Okay, same question now for the chat. For the listeners, Google Donald Trump, Jeffrey Epstein. The photos go on and on and on. And for our audio listeners, Bret just put one up. Trump's arms totally all around Epstein. They're having the, what seems to be a very happy cordial conversation between the two. God knows what they're talking about right there. The video of that moment, if you look at it, is repulsive. Trump is doing like a weird, like dance move thing where he's bobbing his head. The whole thing is really licking his lips. He's grinning his lips. It is disgusting. Like, absolutely disgusting. But here's one more for you. Jeffrey Epstein's own brother has come out and said that Jeff stopped hanging out with Donald Trump when he realized that Trump was a crook. Imagine being too dirty and too crooked for Jeffrey fricking Epstein, man.
- [42:23]
Brett Meiselas
By the way, I totally, I totally buy that it was Epstein that cut off the friendship, not the other way around. I completely bite. Before you go on to Tate, I want to say one more thing also, which is this. I see all these MAGA people online saying why don't the Democrats, why don't anybody who's not maga, why don't people say release the Epstein list? It's because they're scared that they're on it or their friends are on it or their, whatever, politicians are on it, celebrities. We've been saying it all the freaking time. Release the list. We don't give a shit. We released it. Released it, Release it. We've seen the list that exists. Your guys on it. And we don't care who is on the list. We'll acknowledge it. I don't know why you can't acknowledge the reality that Donald Trump is the one who constantly shows up and had this very deep, close and personal relationship with the guy. Benjamin.
- [43:17]
Ben Meiselas
Donald Trump's top advisor is Alina Haba. She was his former lawyer who lost most of the cases that he was in and pretended that she won. She was sanctioned million plus dollars for filing frivolous lawsuits in federal court. Here she is a few months back, I believe, with Andrew Tate, who was accused of sex trafficking in Romania, and Alina Haba sees him and she is starstruck it's like she saw, you know, the most famous person, the most beloved person. Just watch for yourself. Hey. Hello.
- [43:54]
Brett Meiselas
Alita. Hi.
- [43:56]
Jordy Meiselas
Nice to meet you.
- [43:57]
Brett Meiselas
I'm a big fan.
- [43:59]
Ben Meiselas
Well, nice to meet you.
- [44:00]
Brett Meiselas
I'm a fan.
- [44:00]
Ben Meiselas
You're the one saving Trump. You're doing more important work than me.
- [44:03]
Brett Meiselas
America. America, not just Trump. And I agree with everything you just said, and I think that your anger is the same that President Trump has for our country. And the time is now for us to stop being wimps. I think that's exactly the right sentiment.
- [44:20]
Ben Meiselas
Okay, now let me show you. I'll just show you a clip of Andrew Tate in his own words. Just. You can follow his own words. This is what he says, what his main line of business is, in his own words. Here, play it. And I became a multi millionaire. I did this by creating a webcam studio, by taking girls who didn't know how to be effective on webcam, girls who had never done webcam before, girls.
- [44:45]
Brett Meiselas
Who didn't have the equipment, didn't have.
- [44:47]
Ben Meiselas
The know how, didn't have the will.
- [44:48]
Brett Meiselas
Didn'T have the premises, didn't have the ability to make money.
- [44:51]
Ben Meiselas
With this exchange, I created a system that allowed me to convince girls to do this, allowed me to retain 100% control of their income, allowed me to.
- [45:00]
Brett Meiselas
Make sure they were effective.
- [45:01]
Ben Meiselas
Because it's a super competitive industry.
- [45:04]
Brett Meiselas
Don't think this is easy money.
- [45:05]
Ben Meiselas
You're just gonna put a girl on.
- [45:06]
Brett Meiselas
The camera and they're gonna get rich straight away.
- [45:07]
Ben Meiselas
No, it's very competitive, and it's very difficult. I learned every tip and trick it takes to make sure a girl gets paid.
- [45:14]
Brett Meiselas
I know how to make sure the girl can't run away.
- [45:16]
Ben Meiselas
Because once you teach a girl how to do this, she has the ability to make unlimited money from home. Why would she still give it to you? Why did she just run off and keep it all for herself? Why are you getting your percentage? I learned how to do everything. To take a nobody and make her a somebody.
- [45:30]
Brett Meiselas
I learned how to take a nothing.
- [45:31]
Ben Meiselas
Turn into a cash cow. And betas from all across the world.
- [45:35]
Brett Meiselas
Would be sending money into her.
- [45:37]
Ben Meiselas
My bank account. This is what webcamming is. Okay. Now, we learned that the Trump administration, when they were in Munich attacking Europe. Sorry, it's hard to even watch that sometimes. When Trump was. The administration was in the Munich Security Conference attacking Europe. Someone from the Trump administration approached the Romanian foreign minister about bringing releasing some of the restrictions on Tate from leaving Romania. Andrew Tate, who faces rape trafficking charges in Romania has left for the US he was believed to be going to Florida. Even Desantis was like, I just found out about this from the media. He can't come to Florida. I don't know what the hell this is about. I'm pissed off. Of course, Donald Trump is like denying I don't know much about what's going on there. I don't know what's going on there. But when they talk about like the manosphere podcasts and that, like they're talking about people like that. And let me be very clear, we may be beating the Manosphere podcast, but we wholeheartedly reject any of that disgusting filth and crap. That's not how you need to be a good podcast. It's not what you need to do to get ratings. That's what you need to be a trash, disgusting, despicable human being and just condemn that in the strongest of terms. When we come back, I want to show you some of the headlines from this past, from this past 24 to 48 hours. We'll go through, we'll go through that. I want to show you what's been going on in Congress a little bit as well. I want to remind you, if you want to meet Brett, Jordy and myself, now would be the time to sign up at patreon.com midas touch P-A-T-R-E-N.comm e I D A S T O U C H Also check out Midasplus.com Just make sure you spell Midas Correspond correctly. It's M E-I-A-S-P-L-U-S.com Midasplus.com Check that out. We will. I'll make sure you subscribe as well. I'll try to get to 5 million subscribers. We'll be right back after a quick break.
- [47:43]
Brett Meiselas
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- [49:15]
Ben Meiselas
It's 2025. Why aren't my blinds smart and automatic like the rest of my home? Are your blinds still from 2025? Look, there's a better way to buy blind blind shade shutters and drapery. It's called three Day Blinds. They are the leading manufacturer of high quality custom window treatment in the United States. And right now if you go to three day blinds.com Midas they're running a buy one get one 50 off deal. Look, we can shop for almost anything at home, so why not shop for blinds at home too? Three Day Blinds has local, professionally trained design consultants who have an average of 10 years plus experience. They provide expert guidance on the right blinds for you in the comfort of your home. Just set up an appointment and you'll get a free no obligation quote the same day. It's what I did. And then I put their blinds all over my home except for right there because my neighbor's a Midas touchpan and she likes to see her green friends when I do these hot takes. Look, if you're not very handy like I am, just go trust them. They come into your house, they figure it out for you and you're not going to regret it. I am so happy I have 3D day blinds. Look, it's 2024. I have so many smart gadgets and gizmos in my house, why not do that for your blinds as well? That's what I did. I'm very happy. So right now, get quality window treatments that fit your budget with three day blinds. Head to three day blinds.com Midas for their buy one get 50% off deal on custom blind shade shutters and drapery For a free no charge, no obligation consultation just head to three day blinds.com Midas one last time. That's buy one get 50% off when you head to the number 3D a Y blinds.com Midas and spell Midas right M E I D A S thank you.
- [50:59]
Jordy Meiselas
Let's go. Shout out to our sponsors. Pro democracy sponsors. I want to say since Ben did that read which is brand new read by the way for anyone listening. Ben has now the three day blinds behind him. So I sorry to Ben's neighbor who loves watching the show show but those blinds look incredible B so that's awesome. Shout out three day blinds. Shout out our sponsors links in description of audio and YouTube please click the links and use the codes and if there's an exit survey please let them know the Midas touch brother sent you.
- [51:28]
Ben Meiselas
I had the three day blinds all throughout the house but just not right there. And my neighbor, she's got that great green fence that you may have seen and she loved her green fence sense in the videos. And so when the three day blind she goes, I love your blind. She goes, but are you mad at me? Did I do something? I go, no, why would you say that? I'm not not mad at you. And she was in the civil rights movements in the 70s and she goes, are you mad at me? I said absolutely not. I just, you know, I just got the blinds, they were installed. That's why. So anyway, shout out to her and shout out to three day blinds. Not no, shout out to Marjorie Teller. Great. I mean I'll show you this. This is what she was saying in Congress yesterday, two days ago, earlier this week, whenever. It's all the same with her. I mean this is what MAGA Republicans are going with. And it's not just her. This is what they're saying. They're saying that these hard working federal employees who are being fired again, 30% of federal workers are like veterans as well. And then there's a whole other group that are spouses of veterans because or spouses of people in the armed forces. Since when you go from base to base, you the spouse will technically be a probationary employee. Because when you start a new job, even if you accrue experience that technically makes you probationary. Listen to what she says about just federal workers in general. Play it.
- [52:53]
Brett Meiselas
You can protest all you want outside of departments of this government. You can protest all you want, but the American people disagree with you. You, you're protecting the bureaucracy. The bureaucracy is not a business. Those are not real jobs. Producing federal revenue. By the way, they're consuming taxpayer dollars. Those jobs are paid for by the American tax. People who work real jobs, earn real income, pay federal taxes, and then pay these federal employees. Federal employees do not, not deserve their jobs. Federal employees not, do not deserve their paychecks. And these are jobs that can be fired at.
- [53:37]
Ben Meiselas
She's literally the stupidest person ever. I mean, oh my God.
- [53:40]
Jordy Meiselas
Oh my God.
- [53:41]
Ben Meiselas
She is despicable, but she's also really stupid. Like, Marjorie, you're a federal employee. Like she literally is a federal.
- [53:51]
Brett Meiselas
You're talking about yourself, Marjorie Taylor Greene. That's who you're talking about. Because the federal employees. I know, the federal workers. Workers are super hardworking people who go to work every single day, live a middle class lifestyle, often are able to do things in the private sector, but choose to give service to their country. By the way, yes, they do pay taxes and they do pay taxes back to the government from their salaries. And the government is not a business. It's not a profit making function, despite what you and the other Republicans want it to be. Things need to run. Services need to be provided to people. And when did it become okay for politicians to speak down to working Americans like that? It is so, I guess, with Trump, but it's so incredibly appalling to me and it really, really disgusts me on a gut level. And this, you're telling me this is the party that is claiming the mantle of populism? This is the party that's claiming the mantle of where for the working people. And you're saying that to people who are hard workers, who go in every single day to difficult jobs and you tell them their jobs don't mean crap. Honestly, screw. Screw her. It's.
- [54:57]
Jordy Meiselas
That's 1,000%, Brad. When did it become okay to talk like this to anybody? This behavior wouldn't be acceptable in the high school, let alone within our government. It is just so deranged, upsetting and appalling. And I'll tell you when, quite frankly, it's when it's Trump. Yes, but now all of these MAGA Republicans sticking their chests out, walking strong, they got Big Daddy Elon over there. Elon the oligarch. Right, right. They're red. They got Elon, man. They got all this money. They could talk down to you American worker. They could talk down to you working class folk. They don't give a damn about you. They got Trump. They're gonna go to Mar a Lago, they're gonna kick it there, eat their lobster. They're laughing at you, the people that voted for you, they're laughing at you and in your face.
- [55:47]
Ben Meiselas
Well, look, I mean, to your point, Jordi, you have MAGA Mike Johnson, the Speaker of the House here. He's speaking, and he's like, we really actually came up with something very incredible. So we put Elon in with his algorithms because in Congress, we couldn't do our jobs. And so you see, Elon now has the algorithms that sift through all of your data. And it's actually a quite revolutionary concept that we have going on here. I mean, like, do you realize what you're saying, MAGA Mike Johnson. Like, I'm going to show you this clip and then I'll comment on it. But. But just watch it. And the Congress, we could have oversight. The problem is, for decades, as we know, we haven't been able to do that job well, because even though we requested the data and requested the insight, it was hidden.
- [56:31]
Brett Meiselas
How many of you know that bureaucracy was not forthcoming?
- [56:34]
Ben Meiselas
Right? They're not transparent. That's the whole point. That's the problem. That's the deep state that we talk about.
- [56:39]
Jordy Meiselas
So they were hiding from Congress.
- [56:41]
Ben Meiselas
We didn't know that USAID was funding drag shows in Peru or whatever, you know, trans transgender operas in Columbia or whatever, you know, and it's madness. But Elon has cracked the code. He is now inside the agencies. He's created these algorithms that are constantly crawling through the data. And as he told me in his office, the data doesn't lie. We're going to be able to get the information. We're going to be able to transform the way the federal government works at the end of this. And that is a very exciting prospect. It is truly a revolutionary moment for the nation. If revolutionary, you mean creating a. A tech dictatorship to overthrow checks and balances and then to use Stalinist tactics to lie about fraud, to attack political enemies while getting rid of key functions that have literally destroyed our government, making people less safe. I guess that's one word. Rebel, revolutionary. But literally, your job as a Congress member is oversight, not to give your job to a billionaire oligarch to put algorithms into our data and hand over our data and then not call the individual to testify before Congress. I mean, these are literally the most pathetic people. And it gets more pathetic. I mean, you've got MAGA Republican Congressmember Joe Wilson introducing the $250 bill legislation to put Trump's face on a $250 bill because he says the most valuable president needs the most valuable currency. And then I'll just show you this image one more time. Brett, pull up that photo of Donald Trump with the rendering without the, without the makeup on so we can just take a look at this. Because I, because I, because I think about, because look, I mean, just imagine, you know, it's, it's, it's like, you know, whatever, late at night, in the morning, you've got the guy on my right hand side, like on his phone. And let me, let me, just, let me, let me reenact it for you right now. You could show me now. And he's on the phone and he's like, you know, and he's looking at it, he's looking at it. He's like, what should I, what should I post? Trump, Trump Gaza. I'm gonna post Trump Gaza. Look, look, look, look. Let's do AI, look, Elon, Elon, look, it's me, it's me, it's me in Gaza. Here, pull up some of these photos if we, if we've got them. This is a video that Donald Trump posted. First image is him and woman, not really wearing a lot of clothes, dancing. Then him and Benjamin Netanyahu.
- [59:24]
Brett Meiselas
Not his wife, by the way.
- [59:25]
Ben Meiselas
Not his wife. Him and Benjamin Netanyahu, I guess, you know what, Post genocide on the, on a Gaza beach with Trump, Trump with Trump hotels. Then the third photo is. What do we got there? Men with bathing suits and, and big cleavage in bathing suits on the beach with beards and, and long hair. Is that what we're looking?
- [59:50]
Brett Meiselas
I'm sure libs, the tick tock is all over that one.
- [59:52]
Ben Meiselas
I'm sure they're all over this. And then a gigantic gold statute and then Elon Musk throwing, throwing money in the air. Yeah, I guess the Palestinians for Trump and the Muslims for Trump. I don't know. I don't.
- [60:12]
Brett Meiselas
Know.
- [60:13]
Ben Meiselas
Here's what you're distracting from, though, Brett. You know, I don't want to show that. You have to show that these people are, this is not normal behavior. But then I think you have to quickly pivot to saying, what are they distracting from, Bren? And that's the destruction of the economy that they're, that they're bringing 100%.
- [60:33]
Brett Meiselas
And I just want to add as well, that is something I'm going to reiterate on the show quite a bit. That is, you could say all the things in the world, right? You could try to create your own reality, but reality will always catch up. Caught up to Donald Trump in his last administration with COVID when he tried to create his own reality around that didn't work. We already are seeing that happen to the Trump administration right now across the board. And the economy is no different. Let me break down the economy, but first, you know, I got to do this as part of everybody's favorite segment on the Midas Touch podcast. This is the NetSuite by Oracle know your numbers minute. Welcome to the NetSuite by Oracle know your numbers minute people. We break down the latest data that we are receiving today. So we got the new unemployment claims from last week rising much higher than anticipated. I know a lot of you are probably like, I anticipated it to be pretty high because Trump is firing quite literally everybody, but this is higher. They do it based on the economists predictions and this is even higher than that. So there were an estimated 242,000 claims filed, jobless claims filed last week, which is 22,000 more than the previous week. So we are seeing a pretty steep increase across the weeks right now. And all this unemployment that Trump is causing in D.C. and Virginia and across the country, that's going to lag a little bit also. And when this catches up, I think the unemployment numbers are going to start looking really bad once we start seeing these monthly jobs reports in like April, May, you know, and things like that. By the way, like you first off, the expectation was 220,000. We had 242,000 jobless claims. Just want to be clear about that. And you could use NetSuite to stay on top of all the economic indicators. NetSuite provides easy access to economic data and trends through their integrated analytics so that you're always up to date. And this news comes as Donald Trump continues to purge these federal employees implement these tariffs, threaten these major American industries. As you could see, everything is kind of an upheaval now and there's a whole lot of instability. And speaking of tariffs, tariffs, tariffs were back in the news today. Trump announced earlier that those previously postponed tariffs on imports from Mexico and Canada will now take effect on March 4, 2025. We'll see if those tariffs end up happening again or not. Like the last time, the tariffs are set to be 25% on imports from Canada and Mexico, with an additional 10% tariff on China. I should mention now that we're talking about international. If you have a business that does work globally, NetSuite is tailored to meet your various trade regulations, standards, all that sort of stuff to make sure it was compliant, client and on top of everything. And Trump continues to blame the flow of fentanyl for the tariffs. Even like in places like Canada, like it doesn't make any sense. There's like, no, I think there's more fentanyl that flows from the US To Canada and from the Canada here, there's virtually no fentanyl that goes from Canada to the U.S. so it's a fake excuse. Like I said, they use these kind of con games constantly in order to try to push, to push forward these policies. Trump also says these reciprocal tariffs are going to take effect on April 2 that could affect products from the entire world. And the things that Trump is claiming need reciprocal tariffs are things like, like value added taxes, VATs, which are not that at all and don't actually affect exports to other countries. Once again, like a lot of made up things, as previously mentioned, these tariffs could upend American industries. We just heard this week from the CEO of Alcoa, that's the nation's leading US Aluminum producer and he said that Trump's tariffs on aluminum could destroy 100,000American jobs while not even providing an incentive to change aluminum production in the United States. So you're getting all the bad stuff without any of the good stuff that he's going to say. He even said at his conference, once again, CEO of Alcoa. So I'm not saying this is a liberal organization. Alcoa, the leading US Aluminum producer, he said, quote, at a recent conference, it's bad for the U.S. so you know, we're going to stay on top of all the economic updates here at the Midas Touch Network, week by week, month by month, day by day, making sure that you're getting all the data and everything that is going on. And so I'll be back soon with another segment and we'll stay on top of it. That was the netsuite by Oracle Know your numbers minute. Do you know your own numbers for your business? Download NetSuite's ultimate KPI checklist right now at netsuite.com Midas Let me give us.
- [64:42]
Ben Meiselas
Some legal news right now. According to ABC News, newly installed FBI Director Cash Patel has reportedly proposed establishing a key partnership between the FBI and the ultimate fighting championship, the ufc, whose CEO Dana White is a major donor to develop programs to train the FBI agents, agents integrating UFC into the FBI. Other important legal news I want to mention as well, a federal judge in California earlier today ordered opm, the Office of Personnel Management, to rescind memos calling for the mass termination of probationary employees, saying the agency overstepped its legal authority and must inform other agencies that lack the authority to issue such a Direction. The judge said he can't stop agencies from terminating those employees on their own, but they cannot be ordered by OPM to do so. The judge wants OPM boss Charles Ezel to testify under oath next month about his agencies, about the termination. So that could be a big deal. If these probationary employees are now given all of this back pay and then are required, allowed to return back, back to the government, then what's going to happen? And they fire him again. We're talking about massive, massive damages and massive wrongful termination lawsuits that, that, that, that can be filed. By the way, shout out to Michael Popak, who started his own law firm, the POPAC law firm. I think you could Google the Popoc law firm. Maybe we'll drop it in the description as well. But he's been handling a lot of big kind of catastrophic injury cases, wrongful termination cases. He's representing victim's family from the plane crash over D.C. and so he's handling cases like that. I know a lot of Midas mighty were reaching out to Pop. We'll post his link in the description. I'm proud of him for starting his own law firm. I digress there. But also earlier in the day, a judge ordered the Trump separate judge ordered the Trump administration officials and at least one Doge staff staffer to sit for depositions in a lawsuit over the group's access to sensitive government systems. Judge Bates, who's a George W. Bush appointee, called Doge's activities, quote, opaque. You think, you think so? That's, that's your legal update brought to you by.
- [67:11]
Brett Meiselas
And legal. And legal af, I should say, by.
- [67:16]
Jordy Meiselas
The way, we have for that one.
- [67:18]
Ben Meiselas
What'd you say?
- [67:18]
Jordy Meiselas
I said Bill Popak for that one. On a totally separate note, though, I did just kind of want it because I know we're coming close to the, you know, the end of the show. And I just wanted to say this. Look, Dems in Congress, there's Dems in politics across America. We need you to show up. And some of y'all are in like doing incredible like Rep. Jasmine Crockett. I just, I see her all the time and she, she's doing it right. She's getting the message out there. We need fighters more fight like her. You know, we have the expression on the Midas Touch podcast, ABC always be campaigning. Look, the Democratic Party, it's truly the party for the American people. Their policies and the data, it all backs that up. But if you're not an effective communicator and you're not effectively communicating Your messages, where these voters are at all times, you know, you just may as well be screaming into the void. What are you scared about? Are you scared about some trolls on the Internet that are going to be mean to you? You know, for what? For fighting for democracy and not kissing the feet of an oligarch or a guy that wears orange MA makeup? You know, I see some fight. I need to see more fight, though, out of our Dem leaders. And I know they could get there because we have some rockstar talent, especially the younger ones.
- [68:28]
Ben Meiselas
There you have it there, Jordy. I want to thank all the members of the Midas Mighty because, you know, one of the things that I think is important to note about this show and this network is, look, it's, it's, it's great when they're like, oh, the Midas Touch podcast is beating Joe Rogan. But to me, it's not an individualistic achievement. It's an achievement for this community. And this community has been growing organically step by step. And really, it's a testament to the strength of the Midas Mighty. So thank you to all of you. Thank you to the people for beating the oligarchs. Thank you to the people for pushing back on those, whatever they call them, the manosphere podcasts or whatever. I mean, we could win with the truth, with passion, with joy way, and we can be hard hitting about it too. And we could have fun about it like we like to do here on the network. But let's be grounded in making our country and our world actually better and helping people, not hurting people. That's some of the core messages that we have here on this show. And so thank you to all of you. Make sure you subscribe on audio and the YouTube channel. Let's grow all of this together. Patreon.com Midas Touch if you want to meet Jordy, Brett and myself at our next meeting, we do a few meetings every month on patreon. Then there's midasplus.com. by the way, that jingle at the end of the show, that's sung by Tennessee Brando, who's on the Midas Touch network. That's the Midas Touch Anthem, Tennessee Brando.
- [70:05]
Brett Meiselas
Just at 600,000 subscribers on YouTube. So congratulations.
- [70:09]
Jordy Meiselas
Love Brando.
- [70:11]
Ben Meiselas
Absolutely. And thank you to all of our great hosts, our contributors, our staffs, the Midas Mighty, the mods, everybody. Thank you so much. Let's keep building, let's keep growing. Keep the passion, keep the hope, keep the joy, and we'll take our country back. Jordy, take it away.
- [70:27]
Jordy Meiselas
Shout out to the Midas mighty the.
- [70:32]
Ben Meiselas
Standing strong against the fascist we sing our song.
- [70:47]
Jordy Meiselas
Love this video. Continue the conversation by following us on Instagram at Midas Touch and help US blow past 750,000 followers.