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- [00:00]
Ben Meiselas
What makes a great pair of glasses?
- [00:02]
Brett Meiselas
At Warby Parker, it's all the invisible.
- [00:04]
Ben Meiselas
Extras without the extra cost. Their designer quality frames start at $95 including prescription lenses plus scratch resistant, smudge resistant and anti reflective coatings and UV protection and free adjustments for life. To find your next pair of glasses, sunglasses or contact lenses, or to find the Warby Parker store nearest you, head over to warbyparker.com that's warbyparker.com this episode is brought to you by Lifelock. During tax season, your personal info travels to a lot of places between payroll, your tax consultant and the IRS. If your W2 gets exposed, that's just the ticket for identity thieves. That's why Lifelock monitors millions of data points every second. If your identity is stolen, they'll fix it, guaranteed or your money back. Don't let identity thieves take you for a ride. Save up to 40% your first year. Visit lifelock.com, terms apply. Attention taxpayers, the IRS is intensifying collections in 2025. If you owe $10,000 or more or have unfiled tax returns, it's time to take action. Tax Network USA's experienced lawyers have saved clients over a billion dollars. They're ready to negotiate with the IRS on your behalf. Don't risk wage garnishment, property seizure or losing your home. Call 1-800-958-1000 today. Get the help you need at 1-800-958-10000 or visit tnusa.com another day and more Countries Donald Trump is threatening war with. He then threatened to invade Gaza, send troops there, occupy it permanently. Then Fox tried to, I guess, cover up for it and say that he was part of some master negotiation that we just simply don't get. And also what he was doing with Greenland and Canada and Mexico and Panama and Colombia, where he threatens things and then just basically either preserves the status quo or gives the other countries more than they had before. It's all part of four dimensional chess, folks. I mean, this stuff is dangerous because Trump is isolating the United States of America, but it's also making America look so utterly weak and pathetic and detested across the world, as Donald Trump backs down on his various tariff threats and his various cries or claims that he's going to do all of these wars, he's also losing in the courtroom as well. There have now been multiple injunctions against Donald Trump and Elon Musk's various schemes. There was an injunction regarding the doge access to the Treasury Department records, although the person who was appointed as the representative to go inside the Treasury Department apparently resigned recently over making certain eugenics related comments. And so once these were discovered, the person resigned. There's also injunctions regarding birthright citizenship. There's also injunctions regarding the government freeze. There's injunctions regarding Donald Trump's attempt to put trans women into the male prisons and to deprive them of the medication based on the cruel and unusual punishment clause of the United States Constitution. There's also an injunction that was issued by the court about that fake government buyout offer and more. We'll go into all of these major federal injunctions, but it's been loss after loss after loss for Trump. Don't be distracted, folks. Prices are not getting lower, they are getting higher. That's if you can even find eggs at a supermarket. Houses are not getting more affordable. They are getting less affordable. There has not been peace in Ukraine in 24 hours, although Trump has made Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping more powerful than ever. We're going to break this all down on the Midas Touch podcast today. I want to start off, though, by showing a series of clips. Brett Jordy, I want you to react to these clips. The first clip I want to show you Sean Hannity trying to say Donald Trump making these statements about Gaza. Brilliant, brilliant stuff here. This is part of complex negotiations. Everybody here play this clip. The US Will take over the Gaza Strip and we will do a job with it, too. Now, like Trump's tariff threats and tough negotiations with Panama, Venezuela, Denmark, Mexico, Canada, this is likely just the first chapter in a complex, ongoing art of the deal negotiation. But once again, for the millionth time, the Democratic Party is just overcome with hysteria. You know, there's like that DMX song where he like lists a bunch of like women or like kind of like a list of like ex girlfriends who don't talk to you anymore who like hate you. Like that's kind of like what, what you Panama, Colombia and you know, in Denmark and Greenland, places where Trump literally lost in negotiations and Trump was made and utterfl. I could do the DMX voice with, with those songs. Here's Kayleigh McEnany, though, trying to push these propaganda talking points. This is from state run regime media called Fox. Let's play it. Well, the media didn't listen to that.
- [05:03]
Brett Meiselas
Those gathered in the room, Kaitlan Collins, others, because I watched through the channels last night and it was absolute pandemonium. I mean, the freakout was Only second to June 27, the day that Joe Biden had that disastrous debate and when you look at it, I just thought to myself, they haven't learned the lesson yet.
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Ben Meiselas
And the lesson is this, maybe Trump.
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Brett Meiselas
Is not trying to take Gaza. Maybe this is a grand part of a negotiation to get Iran to come to the table, to get Iran to hold back the proxies, to get Iran to stop its nuclear warfare on the world.
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Ben Meiselas
Maybe that's it.
- [05:38]
Brett Meiselas
My lesson to the media, this one line I wish they would take. President Trump is playing four dimensional chess. You all are playing checkers.
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Ben Meiselas
If they even have a game board.
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Brett Meiselas
If they even have a game board.
- [05:49]
Ben Meiselas
Yes, if they even have a game board. Elon Musk and Doji are all in your government records. Everybody. Do you even have a gameplay like they're like literally cartoonishly evil. By the way, that was the face of Susie Wiles, Donald Trump's chief of staff. Is Donald Trump. Talk about permanently occupying Gaza. Brett and Jory Sorty, sorry for that long intro. I just had to show those clips right away. Brett.
- [06:14]
Brett Meiselas
No, I mean it's, it's craziness, it's pandemonium. We can never act like any is normal. There really is like a coup of the government happening from the inside and we're seeing state run media like you see in Russia and North Korea and other autocratic countries. Fox is just full on state run media at this point. Everything they say is, everything's a lie. Honestly, a lot of the stuff I think would make Vladimir Putin and the stuff he does over in Russia blush with, with the level of gaslighting that they have. And it's the same pattern though that we've seen from Fox over so many years. And that's at first they try to tell you what Trump really said. Oh, this is actually what he really meant. It's actually four dimensional chess. And watch, let me show you. And then Hannity goes, oh, you're just not getting it. You people, if you are as smart as me and everybody else who we know that Donald Trump is doing these negotiations and then inevitably this is going to happen where Hannity is going to be on an interview with Trump one on one and he's going to ask. So this is a negotiation tactic. Right? So you're not really, this is just a positioning for the United States and Trump's going to go, no, I really mean it. And Hannity is going to go, but you really don't.
- [07:17]
Ben Meiselas
Right.
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Brett Meiselas
And the whole cy going to continue like it always does. The stupidity is endless. The they're even using the same talking points right now. If you look from Fox to the White House press secretary to people like Pete Hegseth. You see the talking points just repeat themselves on all those aspects. They are clearly in coordination. And if, you know, let me show you a clip. I got a clip of them literally repeating each other's talking points that I do want to show you. I'll show you this and then I'll just make another point about why Fox is state run TV after you watch this. But this makes it pretty damn clear. Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.
- [08:00]
Ben Meiselas
The definition of insanity is attempting to.
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Brett Meiselas
Do the same thing over and over and over again. As the president and prime minister pointed out last night. As our defense secretary said famously today, Pete Hegseth, the definition of insanity is.
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Ben Meiselas
Doing the same thing over and over again.
- [08:16]
Brett Meiselas
President Trump is an outside of the box thinker and a visionary leader who solves problems that many others, especially in this city, claim are unsolvable.
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Ben Meiselas
The president is willing to think outside the box.
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Brett Meiselas
We might as well look at one.
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Ben Meiselas
Of the world's longest problems and bring.
- [08:33]
Brett Meiselas
In a leader who thinks outside the box. Who's crazy, may just be crazy. Genius. Like I said, you can't. Vladimir Putin is watching that, being like, guys, you gotta tone it down a little bit. It's a little on the nose, fellas. And that clip for the audio listeners, you go between Carolyn Levitt, who's the press secretary, go to Pete Hegseth who was a Fox News host plucked right out of Fox News morning tv. Then you go to the Fox host praising him. They all say the same exact things. And where I was getting at before is if that wasn't enough for you to explain that this is state tv, guess who's getting a new show on Fox, a new weekend show on Fox coming up soon. Lara Trump is going to be hosting new show where she's going to get into the truth about what is really going on. That's right. Lara Trump, former co chair of the rnc now getting a show on Fox. But yeah, Trump administration. Tell me more about DEI and merit based hiring.
- [09:31]
Jordy Meiselas
You know, Lara is probably going to end each show singing her hit singles. Brett, it's going to be when I.
- [09:36]
Brett Meiselas
Watch, I hope, I hope those Fox viewers get all the singing they asked.
- [09:40]
Jordy Meiselas
When I watched those. I'm going to borrow a word, I'm gonna borrow a nice yiddish word. Putts, McEnany putts, Hannity putts. Will Kane Putts, Levitt, Potts, Hexa putts. They're such losers, man. It's unbelievable. Watching them with these same talking points, these tired ass talking points. And then you get the sense when you watch the Carolyn Levitt clips, very specifically, she's doing like a bad book report in school. Like it feels like when she's reading from her notes, like even just the way that she tries to deliver the information is just awful and super incompetent. I mean, these people are the worst.
- [10:16]
Ben Meiselas
You know, as Donald Trump and people like that are. Their one mission is destroy US Aid. Okay? But the broader plot there was, that was the first one they were going to go after, right? So go after usaid, which provides all this aid to like vulnerable people abroad, like women who have HIV and aids, to stop the transmission of the, of HIV AIDS to their babies. And like stopping things that are like, and harming agencies and organizations that like do things like that. Like literally people are going to die. But one of the things that we've learned, right, is that Elon Musk and Doge are now going to the other agencies right there. They put their people in the Treasury Department. We'll talk a little bit more about the legal maneuvering there, but there's now an injunction blocking that data from being given over to Musk and anybody but their designated person who works at the Treasury Department. But it turns out that that person was bragging about eugenics and saying that he wouldn't marry anybody outside of his race ever. And those posts emerged and apparently that person resigned from that position. But we'll, we'll get into that. But then they've gone into the Department of Labor, Department of Education. It seems like every day they go into another, like another entity just somewhere and they say like, get the hell out of here. And like walk in and then like have their 19 and 22 year olds like enter the systems and put their.
- [11:42]
Brett Meiselas
Creepy little like creeps, they're putting their little tent kids, I want to call.
- [11:47]
Ben Meiselas
Them kids because I give them that gets them like, oh, their child. These are adults, but they're like, they, they look like creepy kids, but they're actually, you know, purportedly I won't call them grown men, but whatever. So they go into all these areas. But like I, I need to remind us, perhaps we start this like cleanse at the beginning of the episode. Like when JFK rolled out usaid, it was because this was viewed as like a major part of America's soft power, that America was the leader of the free world. And what JFK was saying is, as the leader of the free world, it's not bombs and threats it's sometimes medication and food and helping countries out that saves lives here. When you can do that here, play this clip of JSK Presence of the United States is, as a leading power in the free world is involved in your work directly. The people who are opposed to aid should realize that this is a very powerful source of strength for us.
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Brett Meiselas
It permits us to exert influence for.
- [12:56]
Ben Meiselas
The maintenance of freedom. If we did not, were not so.
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Brett Meiselas
Heavily involved, our voice would not speak with such vigor. And as we do not want to.
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Ben Meiselas
Send American troops to a great many areas where freedom may be under attack.
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Brett Meiselas
We send you and you working with.
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Ben Meiselas
The people in those countries to try to work with them in developing the.
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Brett Meiselas
Economic thrust of their country so that.
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Ben Meiselas
They can make a determination that they can solve their problems without resorting to.
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Brett Meiselas
Totalitarian control and becoming part of the block. And I want everybody quickly to just be aware of a lot of the disinformation that's going out there right now. Because one of the things I think that's been the scariest thing for me about this Trump administration and frankly, it's been a concern of mine for the past, I don't know, since we've been doing this, is that you have Fox owns the flow of information that's on cable news. They're the dominant news outlet spreading the news there and they own a lot of newspapers. And then you have Sinclair, that owns a lot of the local news that's repeating right wing talking points. They're a right wing conglomerate that own channels that appear to be NBC or appear to be ABC or Fox or whatever. They're actually owned by Sinclair. Then on digital you have the platforms that are owned by people like Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg and those are throttling information, those are pushing certain information to the top. And so these lies spread so quickly. So I see every day now a new lie that is built up in order to justify the destruction of these agencies and to smear people and to destroy them, to fire them, to maybe ultimately imprison them. And it worries me because it doesn't look like the United States at all, but it does look like Russia. It does look like what you see in these autocratic countries. And so when you see with USAID and you see Elon Musk, you know, I've seen a lot of these kind of right wing people on Twitter go, isn't it everything that, you know, they're afraid because we found the fraud, we found the fraud and the illegal activity and they are mad that we discovered all the illicit activity that they are doing at the Treasury Department, at the this department, at the that department. They make up a lie and then they use that as a predicate to then go after those organizations and, and to bleed them dry when they are the ones actually engaging in likely illicit behavior. They deflect with that. That becomes the pseudo truth that gets uplifted first on social media, then it flows to Fox, it's repeated on Fox, and then it just becomes the kind of MAGA truth that they think is the truth. There was this Politico story yesterday that was one of the things going on that was saying like, oh look, USAID paid Politico all this money over these years and they're using it to bribe Politico. And it was just complete and total bs. They were paying for like a Politico data service the same way government agencies pay for Reuters or Associated Press or whatever to get access to data, to get access to research and things like that. And it was money that was paid over the course of, I don't know, like eight years or 10 years or something like that. They turned this into a conspiracy theory that USAID is being used to funnel money to news agencies in order to shift the programming to be anti Trump. And, and they somehow acted like Politico is like the most pro Biden administration, which if you read Politico ever, you know that it's absolutely not at all. And I think they're even owned by a right wing like German conglomerate Politico. You know, the point that I want to make though is that they are using Soviet esque justifications in order to destroy these agencies. And it's just a very devious tactic. I'm not honestly sure how you overcome all that other than by building these pro democracy voices like the Midas Touch Network and others up. And so I mean that's our mission right now. We got to combat this just endless flow of stuff. And I'll just add also that we're doing that and I want to thank everybody because we're proud to announce that the Midas Touch podcast on audio platform platforms right now is the number one news podcast out of any podcast on all of audio on Apple podcasts. Not only that, when you look at all categories, we are the number two podcast of all podcasts. So that's higher than the New York Times, you see, it's higher than Joe Rogan, higher than Tucker Carlson, higher than Megyn Kelly, higher than Charlie Kirk, Ben Shapiro. So finally, these pro democracy voices, despite all the manipulation despite all the finger that they have on the scale here, we are still winning this information war right now. And that's because of you. Because while the corporate media wants to think that the pro democracy community is dead right now that we are silent, they are dead wrong about that. People are fed up. They don't like what's happening. So if you want to support, by the way, help us get to number one of all podcasts, make sure you go right now also and add the Midas touch podcast on Apple Podcasts and on Spotify and keep us up the rankings because we need to continue to clap back at this disinformation with the truth. And that's what we're here to do. I know that what you're going to do. Ben, Ben, you're on mute.
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Ben Meiselas
You have protests taking place across the country as well. The 50, 51 protests, 50 states, 50 protests on one day. I know that was not getting a lot of corporate media. Did anyone.
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Brett Meiselas
And it. Was it on any channel at all?
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Ben Meiselas
You know, I mean, you would think about if there were protests literally in most cities across the country, whether you were in Los Angeles, San Francisco, whether you were, you know, in Tampa or Denver or Wyoming, where, I mean, this shouldn't be a Republican, Democrat, independent, vegetarian, carnivorous, whatever, like, whatever your issue is, you should not want billionaires to have your Social Security info and your medical records and your data. It shocks me that there are people like, yeah, we're owning the libs. Take my medical records and my Social Security and all of my information. Take my Medicare. Take that libs. You, you, you. We owned you. Really like that. Like, that's. You're rooting for billionaires to literally, like, you're, you know, we do that. We do that. We do the segments on the leopards eating your faces, right? But often when the leopard, like, eats your face, you'd be like, oh, leopard. You know, sometimes while the leopard is eating their faces, they're like, yes, yes, I love the leopard. It's like they're eating your face. That was your eyeball, okay. And that was your nostril, but I don't need an eye. Okay, That's a little bit weird. Like, stand up for yourself. Look, I'm not really sure where I'm going with that, but people get it is the point. People get it is the point. And people don't want that to happen. And one of the things that we, the people can do is, you know, we're going to get out all the information. We disseminate the information we build this platform. This YouTube channel is almost 4 million subscribers strong. And I think our growth was something like close to half a million subscribers over the past 30 days, or slightly less. Thanks to everybody here. We can keep on growing this together and then we can also activate when we need to be activated peacefully, of course, and to make sure we get these messages out. It's why it's important that we continue to grow. I mean, but who's, who's, who's the beneficiary of this? Because it certainly ain't the red state Venezuelan voter or the red state Cuban voter or the red state voter on food stamps or the red state voter on Medicare or Obamacare. Let's show some of those, shall we, though? Let's just, just show me first, Brett. Let's, let's do the Venezuelan community that had a lot of people on tps temporary Protected Status, meaning they were here lawfully leaving Venezuela because there's a dictator, Nicolas Maduro, who's trying to kill them. They were welcomed here into the United States a lot under the Biden administration, which respected their TPS status as well. They rallied, though not behind Biden, but behind Donald Trump and said, oh, Trump's going to protect us. Trump, Trump for Venezuelans and Cubans and everyone for Trump. So what does Trump do? Trump's been making deals with Maduro to send them back to Venezuela, revoke their tps. Their TPS is gone. So now you have people in these communities, especially communities too, like where Trump has resorts like Doral, the city council. There's all Cubans and Venezuelans in Doral, that they have big populations there. And they're like, wait a minute now. Now you're sending us back to Venezuela? What you're doing deals with Maduro Biden didn't recognize Maduro Biden protected their TPS status. They rallied to Trump and let's play the clip.
- [21:31]
Brett Meiselas
At a press conference in Doral Monday.
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Ben Meiselas
Venezuelan Americans denounced the Trump administration and South Florida Republicans more than Betrayed beyond, Betrayed beyond. They used us. They actually, during the campaign, and I don't want to make this political, but during the campaign, the elected officials from the Republican Party, they actually told us that he was not going to touch the documented people. Well, I mean, what do you think he was going to do? I mean, let's be real. And I don't root for people. Let me be very clear. Even if they voted for Trump or supported Trump, I don't want to see Americans suffer because we're all suffering, too. It's not, you Know, just unique there. But you were so stuck in your rage algorithm that you were, that you were like, Trump had signs said, it said mass deportations. Now you think he was talking about deporting white Southern men? Who do you think he was talking about deporting? You were holding the signs at his event. You were. I mean, not her specifically, I don't know, but, you know, but Venezuelans and Cubans and Latino Americans and others saying mass deportations now. And you and I were saying here and other hosts, like, he's talking about deporting you. What do you, what do you think that actually means? And now they're like, oh, I've been so betrayed. I've been so betrayed. I, I, I want to show this, though, Brett and Jordy and Midas Mighty, because it's not just unique to Venezuelans or Cubans or Palestinians for Palestinians for Trump. I could be a Palestinian for Trump, Muslims for Trump. What are you talking about? He had a Muslim ban. He banned you. But he's going to be good this time. What does he go, let's level it. Let's, let's level Gaza. I mean, let's just destroy it with Netanyahu by his side. What do you think he was going to do? That's who he is. What are you talking about? It's everyone, though. I mean, here you have the maga, Republican representatives, Congress members right now who are going out there, and they're basically saying, look, it's time. You all feel pain. Americans, we're going to release a budget soon. You're, it's going to suck. You're going to feel so much pain, you're going to hate it. You're going to suffer. But shouldn't we all suffer for Elon Musk and Donald Trump? Shouldn't we suffer? Shouldn't we suffer for they, they want us, our dictators want us to suffer. So let's sacrifice for them. If you think that I'm making that up and that's not what they're saying, roll clip. You'll see a menu of options that will come out in March, and it will be littered with a collection of ideas, some of which Americans are going to really not be for. But hey, if we don't sacrifice, if we don't understand that this is going to be a painful process, process, nothing's going to change why I, why I don't want pain. What are you talking about?
- [24:24]
Brett Meiselas
The crazy thing is I would, I, I would maybe understand some of this if they were like, listen, like, times are really tough the economy, we're in a great Depression. And we all gotta understand that times are going to be tough as we get back, you know, on our feet. But our economy is the best in the world. Like, you know, there are obviously a lot of issues with the economy, but our economy has been the best in the world thanks to President Biden bringing us back to the devastation that was wrought by Donald Trump's previous administration. So you saw four years of steady growth, you saw four years of inflation raising because of what happened with Donald Trump and the pandemic and the issue with supply chains, and you name it, and you saw President Biden deal with that in a steady way, execute what is known as a soft landing, which many people thought was impossible. And now that we're at that soft landing stage, Elon Musk and Donald Trump actually want to destroy people. They want a hard landing. They want to actually hit people over the head and make them suffer. And this is like, how many times do they have to say this out loud before people get it? How many? Elon said it before the campaign. Trump said it last week. You have this guy saying it right now. There is no need for Americans to suffer for things to improve. And the fact that people apparently decided that they want this is one of the most disturbing things to me. But, Ben, I think you nailed it. The rage algorithm. People looking beyond their own interest, because it just, it upsets me because I have so much empathy and I care so much about these various groups of people. I care so much about the treatment of the Palestinian people. I care so much about the treatment of Muslims in America. I care so much about these other immigrant groups, the Venezuelans, the Cubans, and to see them be led astray by Donald Trump and to buy his bullshit when everybody should have known that Donald Trump is a master bullshitter and was going to sell these people out, he could. It just defies any sort of logic to me. You know, I read an interesting article. I'll just like go over quickly, but it was an article about one of Peter Thiel's in house thinkers. They called him a house philosopher. And this guy's name is Curtis Yarvin and he's a software engineer. And he developed kind of this, this program, this plan that we now kind of see Elon Musk following. There's been articles about this guy in the Guardian and on this website, the Nerd Reich. And he envisioned. And this is a guy who JD Vance frequently retwee and quote, tweets and views as an intellectual genius. This, this Software engineer guy. And he said, quote, if Americans want to change their government, they're going to have to get over their dictator phobia. And he suggested running the government with a president and then an unelected CEO type who gets to do whatever he wants in the government and destroy the government from within. Make the American people feel pain as he re rewires the government from the ashes. Does that sound familiar to what's going on right now? Well, this is somebody who, Peter Thiel, who's one of the PayPal mafia guys. He helped start PayPal with Elon Musk and very close, you know, basically responsible for J.D. vance. This is like the philosopher, and I use quotes for that, that these people look up to and this is who they're taking their guidance from right now. So I just think it gives a little bit of perspective. He called his operation that he envisioned rage retire all government employees. And what the writer of this Nerd Reich notes is that rage is basically the same thing as Doge under a different name. And that's exactly the plans right now that you see Elon Musk carrying out.
- [27:59]
Jordy Meiselas
Yeah, exactly right. You look around, you look at all these buyouts for government officials. I mean, it's exactly that plan. How terrifying is that?
- [28:07]
Ben Meiselas
It's.
- [28:07]
Jordy Meiselas
It's happening right in front of your eyes. Look, there's no other way to put this.
- [28:10]
Ben Meiselas
This.
- [28:11]
Jordy Meiselas
The Republican Party is pro oligarch. They hate you. American citizen MAGA base. They hate you. They want to make you suffer. You heard it. You heard it right there from the horse's mouth. That's one of your elected officials saying that you need to feel pain in order to then later feel better. But that's not even truly what he's saying. You need to feel pain so the oligarchs, so they can feel good. That's what this Republican Party wants to do. Do it is un frigging believable. We're not going to let it happen. Not this community, not this pro democracy movement. No chance.
- [28:46]
Ben Meiselas
Well, that's one of the reasons too. You know, when they're doing all this stuff and they're throwing out the invasions language, and then they're having Musk's team go in and destroy the government. Then they sneak in their culture war issue front and center. Donald Trump signing an executive order banning the nine transgender NCAA athletes from playing in sports. And then, you know, and then they basically push out kind of those talking points to, you know, literally impact. I think, I think it's under 10, according to Charlie Baker, who runs the NCAA, the president of the NCAA. A lot to talk about, Brett. We actually did talk about the person you mentioned, CURTIS Yarvin, about six months and six months ago, Anthony Scaramucci and I spent about four minutes, minutes talking about the Yarvin, J.D. vance connection. And so we were saying this is who they follow. And we went through a bunch of it about maybe even more than six months ago. May have been like May or June, however many months ago that is. Anyway, we've got a lot to discuss. We're going to take our first quick break. Trump losing in the courts. Loss, loss, loss. A ton of injunctions, right wing judges as well, Reagan appointees and others. You know, basically saying that this Trump regime is lawless and that these injunctions are ne necessary with things like birthright citizenship or sending Doge people into the Treasury Department or cruel and unusual punishment by forcing trans women to go into men's prisons and to be taken off medications and things like that. Banned under the cruel and unusual punishment clause of the United States Constitution. REMINDER Hit subscribe now. We're on our way to 4 million subscribers. 4 million subscribers, everybody. We can get there together. So please hit subscribe now. Also patreon.com Midas Touch P-A T R E O N.com Midas Touch Next week, meet me Brett Jordy special Zoom meeting for patrons. We don't have outside investors. We're 100 people powered. Patreon.com Midas Touch is how you join that zoom meeting. Ask Brett Jordy and I any questions that you have. Also Midas+.com M E I D A S P L U S.com Midas+.com there we've collaborated today. We had a great one with Jim Acosta. Finally we've had that Jim Acosta collaboration you have all wanted. So you can watch that. And our editor in chief Ron Philipkowski has the best daily breakdowns in politics. Let's take our first break of the show.
- [31:27]
Jordy Meiselas
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- [32:41]
Ben Meiselas
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- [34:41]
Jordy Meiselas
Shout out to our sponsors links in description of YouTube and the audio. Use the codes, use the links, let them know we sent you that miracle made sheets, guys. I've outfitted my entire house with them, so definitely check them out. And if you're a Midas mighty and you're in this chat right now, let everyone know if you've ordered them and what you think, because 10 out of 10 would approve. And then again, just real quick, shout out to the audio listeners of the Myest Touch Podcast. I mean, it is just so dang amazing that we are the number one news podcast in America on the Apple charts right now. See, we come with actual data. We just don't say, like, oh, we're the number one.
- [35:12]
Ben Meiselas
What?
- [35:13]
Jordy Meiselas
No, this network here. The Midas Touch Network. The Midas Touch Podcast. Number one news podcast.
- [35:17]
Brett Meiselas
Seismic shift, folks. A seismic shift.
- [35:20]
Jordy Meiselas
Incredible. And number two of all shows in any category, and that's seriously thanks to y'all. So thank you, guys. I know we talk about a lot on the show, but that's just you guys delivering, making sure that you're subscribed to the podcast and all that, and listening on audio as well as the YouTube. So shout out, y'all. Thank you so much.
- [35:36]
Ben Meiselas
Ready for this, Jordy? We don't really have a sound effect, so. Real, real, real.
- [35:41]
Jordy Meiselas
What's the.
- [35:42]
Ben Meiselas
What's the.
- [35:42]
Jordy Meiselas
What's the theme?
- [35:43]
Ben Meiselas
Flashback. Flashback alert. 2016, Marco Rubio debate with Donald Trump where Rubio says, play the clip. In all fairness, Marco is not a negotiator. I watched him melt down, and I'll tell you, it was one of the saddest things I. I've ever seen. He's not going down. He thinks the Palestinian is a real estate deal. These people may even be tougher than Chris Christie.
- [36:06]
Brett Meiselas
Okay, The Palestinians are not a real estate deal, Donald. No, no, no.
- [36:10]
Ben Meiselas
A deal. They're not a real estate deal. Deal is a deal. Let me tell you. Not a deal. When you're dealing with terrorists, have you ever. You are not a negotiator. You are not a negotiator. And with your thinking, you will never. You will never bring peace. You will never bring.
- [36:26]
Brett Meiselas
Donald might be able to bring condos in the Palestinian areas, but he's not going to. This is not a real estate deal.
- [36:33]
Ben Meiselas
He will never be able to do it.
- [36:35]
Brett Meiselas
I think I may be able to do it.
- [36:37]
Ben Meiselas
Although I will say this, probably the toughest deal of any kind is that particular deal. Few observations. Number one, Donald Trump now, compared to then literally looks like absolute cognitive mushroom. I mean, like. Like, literally looking at Donald Trump now. I mean, I know the media wanted to say all these things about Biden there's a Biden was older, but, but Biden's was saying things that like, made sense and yes, the delivery was slower. Sure. Would Biden stutter. But like, okay, Donald Trump says things where, like, you read the transcript, I mean, he did one recently and I read it about air traffic controls and you just read these statements and it's like, what are you saying? This is what Trump says, said, we're all going to sit down and do a great computerized system for our control towers. Brand new, not pieced together, obsolete. Like it is land based. Trying to hook up a land based system to a satellite system. The first thing that some experts told me when this happened is you can't hook up to land to satellites and you can hook up satellites to land. It doesn't work. We spend billions of dollars trying to renovate an old broken system instead of just saying cut it loose and let's spend less money and build a great system done by two or three companies, very good companies, specialists. That's all it is. They use 39 companies. That means that 39 different hookups have to happen. I don't know how many people of you are good in terms of all the kinds of things necessary for that. And it's very complex stuff. But when you have 39 different companies working on hooking up different cities and different people, you need one company with one set of equipment. And there are some countries that have unbelievable air conditioners.
- [38:20]
Jordy Meiselas
Whole thing, it's ridiculous. I mean, by the way, Ben was only halfway done, which is the only reason why I think it was NPR in 2017.
- [38:30]
Ben Meiselas
We're trying to preserve our number one podcast status.
- [38:33]
Jordy Meiselas
There you go.
- [38:34]
Brett Meiselas
That's, that's over the number one pod, folks.
- [38:38]
Ben Meiselas
Brutally honest with brothers. Ben, Shut up.
- [38:45]
Brett Meiselas
Jordy, you may speak.
- [38:46]
Jordy Meiselas
Thank you. Thank you. Do you guys remember, I think it was like 2017. NPR actually did a story that it was, was next to impossible to translate Donald Trump in other countries just because of the ongoing, just blurbs that come.
- [38:59]
Ben Meiselas
Out of his mouth.
- [39:00]
Jordy Meiselas
I could only imagine what it is, is now. I mean, take that statement for example. It's completely ridiculous. My other observation from that clip, Ben, if you'd be so kind, would be that. Did everyone in Trump's orbit just sell their soul? You don't actually have to answer this. It's rhetorical. Just sell their sell out. Completely sell out. Because that Rubio clip is actually standing strong. It sounds like he actually has a strong conviction there and he's calling Trump out for exactly what he's doing now in 2024. So it's 2025. So it's unbelievable to see, you know, the J.D. vance's who had the hard anti Trump stance and you know, it wasn't just anti Trump to be anti Trump. It was almost essentially like a close adjacent to a pro democracy stance. But no, they've sold their soul to get closer and more power. Closer to the power.
- [39:44]
Brett Meiselas
And of course, you don't have to go as far as J.D. vance because you had Marco Rubio right there on the stage who's now the Secretary of State, going, oh, Donald, amazing plan to take over and occupy Gaza and own it. Oh, this is exactly what every I' excited for this. This is an amazing idea. Coward. Such a tiny, like the one thing that Trump was right about was the nickname little Marco, because this is such a tiny human being, just a speck of a man. Just such an insignificant little tiny human being. I'm not talking about in size, but I'm talking about in, in his intellectual stature. I'm talking about in just the way he's willing to sell out his values for power. The tiniest of people that you could possibly ever imagine. Marco Rubio, you, you pathetic little man.
- [40:29]
Ben Meiselas
Pathetic little Rubio.
- [40:31]
Brett Meiselas
You little market.
- [40:33]
Ben Meiselas
Let's be clear. Let's be clear though too, is that we're just bullying now. But I mean, I guess you could bully Marco. Bullying bullies is not bullying. It's like when in like a math class when you would have like negative negatives, it somehow became a positive or whatever. You know, if you bully a bully, it's positive.
- [40:50]
Jordy Meiselas
I love the extent when our math knowledge brothers. Magic.
- [40:54]
Ben Meiselas
Bullying a bully. All good. Nothing. But here's the thing. We also know that Donald Trump has very, you know, is looking weaker than ever as well. I mean, with all of like, just think about all those memes out there with Claudia Sheinbaum and Justin Trudeau, Prime Minister Trudeau, President Sheinbaum. We're like, you just take a look at Mexico, for example. Donald Trump's like, look at the, look at the negotiation. I got 10,000 troops at the border. A Donald, there's already 15,000. So you just agreed to negative 5,000 troops at the border. You literally just said you're going to have less troops at the board. But they're, but then all like Trump's people go on. But now they're permanent. It's like, okay, where was that set on the deal? Number one? And then number two, Biden had far more troops on the board. All right, so you screwed that one up. What about Canada? You said you want to do annex it. Like the way Putin says he annex Ukraine, take it over, conquer it. What'd you get, Donald? Okay, $1.3 billion in border security. I mean, you mean the same thing that was happening under Biden that was talked about in December? No, but he said it again to me. Okay, what, what el you get? Fentanyl czar. Okay, well, how much fentanyl is coming in from Canada? None of a fentanyl czar there.
- [42:03]
Brett Meiselas
I think it's like £40.
- [42:05]
Ben Meiselas
Just think about it from me. I mean, basically. Okay, think about it from this perspective, though. If Vladimir Putin threatened Ukraine, Zelensky responds to Putin. Hey, I know you say you want to annex Ukraine, that you said you're going to invade. What if I gave you a fentanyl czar and Putin was like, okay, deal even, and then, and then that was it. I mean, I just want you to think about it. We have Trump using Putin's rhetoric, weakening the United States. And then when Trump is like, confronted by a united and strong Canada, good for them. We stand in solidarity with you Canada people, Canadians who love democracy and people across the world who love democracy, standing up to our humiliating fascism here in the United States. What does Trump do when he sees the stock market market going down? He folds like the cheap suits that he wears instantly. I mean, in. In Panama. How embarrassing is this? The State Department puts out a tweet, we gotta, we got a deal in Panama. The crossings are free. Then the Panama Canal Authority responds, not true. We didn't agree to that.
- [43:10]
Brett Meiselas
It's so embarrassing.
- [43:11]
Ben Meiselas
It didn't do it. Then they do, you know, fake deals with Colombia. Look, we got Colombia to submit. Submit. You didn't get Colombia to submit. What are you talking. Colombia is not doing anything different either. It's the same exact thing that's happening in the Biden administration. All you've done is unite the world. And they all just think that you're just gonna go throw a tantrum, then move on to the next one, move on to the next one, move on to the next one. But Russia's loving this. This has been Russia's favorite week or favorite two weeks, you know, for them to watch the self destruction of US Power. Power. This is Julia Davis. She does a great job. You should all follow her. She does Russian monitor. I really like her work. Cackling Putin pals celebrate Trump's simply sensational first week of US Self destruction. Nice alliteration there too. But the thing I want to say here is in addition to the obvious stuff that weakens America, there was something else that wasn't covered but that Russia TV is talking about over and over again. And I'm not just talking about the nudes of Melania that they play on Russian TV to taunt Donald Trump all of the time. What Marco Rubio said on the Megyn Kelly show was viewed in Russia as submission, as an admission and a submission that the US has done trying to lead the world. It's not being covered here, it's being media. I watch Julia Davis monitor Russia. So I'm telling you, this is non stop. And they say that Rubio sounds exactly like their foreign minister Lavrov. They go, this is what, this is how Lavrov talks. I want to show you the moment. Let's play it right here where Rubio talks about the US being part of a multipolar world where China and Russia basically have equal power. Here, play this clip. So it's not normal for the world.
- [45:02]
Jordy Meiselas
To simply have a unipolar power.
- [45:05]
Ben Meiselas
That was not, that was an anomaly. It was the product of the end.
- [45:07]
Brett Meiselas
Of the Cold War.
- [45:08]
Ben Meiselas
But eventually you were going to reach back to a point where you had.
- [45:11]
Jordy Meiselas
A multipolar world, multi great powers in different parts of the planet. We face that now with China and to some extent Russia.
- [45:19]
Ben Meiselas
Okay, that right there, that statement, it's hard for me to characterize or even give the right words, words to what that was that you just observed. But for all of foreign policy, America saw itself as the leader of the free world.
- [45:38]
Brett Meiselas
Right.
- [45:39]
Ben Meiselas
We'd call the president leader of the free world. The way that's being interpreted internationally is Rubio saying there's America, China, Russia, and then there's more to that clip where he goes, everyone focuses just on their own self interest, interest, who they're going to go after, what they need. And that's it. That's a complete 180, a complete 180 of American foreign policy. And that's exactly what Russia wanted to hear. And they viewed that as American surrender. And that's what they're saying over and over again on Russian tv. Brett Jordan.
- [46:16]
Brett Meiselas
Yeah, and I just want to add, you know, I'll bring it full circle back to the beginning of the show when we played the clips of Hannity and Kayleigh mcine and he going, oh no, these are just the works of a brilliant tactician and it's 4D chess and blah, blah, blah, outside of the Fox bubble. That's not how these things play. And the Reality is, is that the President is a very powerful person. That's why they call him the most powerful person in the world. And his words and his actions have an effect on the entire world. And other world leaders take cues from the comments and actions that are done by the President of the United States. So when you have Donald Trump speaking about invading Panama or Greenland or Gaza, Canada or you name it, that goes to Vladimir Putin and through his mind and goes through Xi Jinping's mind and go, oh, I mean, maybe I'll take Taiwan. Maybe, maybe I, I should take these other countries in Europe because it's giving them the green light. Because now America's kind of central focus, like the, the idea of America pushing back against that imperialism in the current day is now being met with Donald Trump going, oh no, that's cool. It's good to invade countries. This is what you do in this world. So it's giving them a green light to go ahead and to do those sorts of things. And you could just go down the line of, of everything that this administration is doing and you see that it is giving all of these dictators and autocrats also excuses to engage in their worst behavior. Also, particularly when it comes to like what Donald Trump saying about Gaza and saying that he's, it's a beautiful Riviera and it's going to make for great high class development. Essentially just saying that he wants to build Trump Tower or Mar a Lago out in Gaza and you have all these Trump people and MAGA people going, oh, it's not the Gaza Strip anymore, it's the MAGA strip. You see all these things. You know what that is great for? It's great for recruitment for terrorist organizations overseas who have been saying that America was seeking the destruction of the Middle East. Great for them. They are now able to use those clips. And whether Donald Trump is serious or not serious, they have that footage now. They have the tweets from all these high ranking people in the Trump administration. They have all these sound bites from people like maga, Mike, the Speaker of the House in the United States and they could use those and go, we're under attack. So are you going to join us or are you not? Because they're going to come for us. It's the greatest recruiting tool ever for these groups. Donald Trump has made our country, whether he even acts on these things or not, he has put our country in grave danger. The same way that he spiked the stock market for those few hours before he panicked and reversed on his tariffs. His actions have real world effects. There's always going to be an opposite reaction to Donald Trump's action and the nature of how this works. And so we're frankly, we're not safe under this administration is basically my main point. And we just got to be careful, honestly, with all this stuff. And unfortunately, the Republican Party and MAGA and the Fox News of the world all view this as some sort of propaganda game. But the consequences are serious.
- [49:15]
Jordy Meiselas
Exactly. Brett Trump is providing a permission structure to allow these, you know, world leaders, these dictators to live out their worst ideas. He has provided that permission structure for them. And then just on a lighter note, if we're still bullying Marco Rubio, his ears are gigantic. I mean, for such a little guy.
- [49:33]
Ben Meiselas
He can't do a physical joke. I mean, you can get a truth. What do you mean?
- [49:37]
Jordy Meiselas
What are you talking about?
- [49:38]
Ben Meiselas
What, what Bullying. Bullying and then making a physical may cross the line. You were bullying him intellectually. Now you're going to call.
- [49:46]
Jordy Meiselas
I mean, someone's got to say it.
- [49:49]
Brett Meiselas
Maybe it's like maybe Pinocchio where his ears grow the more he lies.
- [49:54]
Ben Meiselas
Jordyn building physical appearances. I, I, I'm not sure I can condone that. Younger brother Jordy. We'll, we'll, we'll. There's a lot to criticize Marco Rubio, but having j first off his ears. Come on, come on, Jay, you're getting a little too comfortable on the with, with this bully. All right, I want to remind just because you're the number one podcast Jordy and you're beating Joe Rogan, we don't.
- [50:14]
Jordy Meiselas
Have this is why the people come here.
- [50:17]
Ben Meiselas
Okay. Make sure everybody you hit subscribe. Let's get to 4 million subscribers here on this show. We still got a lot to talk about. Maybe Jordy will bully more People's phys is who knows where the show is going to go. But in all seriousness, I'm going to break down some of what happened, the legal developments, what happened where there are injunctions. We'll show Democrats fighting back. We'll talk a little bit more about the protests taking place across the country. Action packed episode of the Midas Touch podcast. Hang in there folks. We are in this together. Hit subscribe subscribe on audio midasplus.com midasplus.com see that interview with Jim Acosta pasta that Brett and I did?
- [50:54]
Brett Meiselas
Maybe we'll show them a clip when we get back if we have time.
- [50:56]
Ben Meiselas
Maybe show them a clip and patreon.com Midas Touch join me Brett at and Jordy at a zoom meeting next week. We don't have outside investors. That's what helps this network grow. We'll be right back after our last last quick break.
- [51:15]
Jordy Meiselas
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- [53:12]
Brett Meiselas
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- [54:49]
Jordy Meiselas
Shout out to our sponsors links in description of the YouTube and the audio. Use the links, use the codes Brett. I, I, I gotta call Tushy for the next read because it should be once you go bidet you never go away. You like that? It's pretty good.
- [55:05]
Brett Meiselas
We can workshop it. We can workshop it. And now we go to Jordy to make fun of rfk.
- [55:08]
Jordy Meiselas
Jordy Benji, where to next?
- [55:12]
Ben Meiselas
I think our nation needs one gigantic tushy bidet just over our nation to.
- [55:18]
Brett Meiselas
Yeah, just spray that full throttle that out.
- [55:20]
Ben Meiselas
I mean I, I guess that's called an election in two years and in Congress. Congress and then massive, a massive tushy bidet in four years because. Oh wow, wow, wow, wow. Let's talk about the courts. Let's talk about what's going on there. Multiple injunctions against the Trump administration and Doge, whatever Doge even is seems like a bunch of private citizens and billionaires, connected individuals who are just going in and rating different federal agencies. A bunch of creeps. I mean some creepy looking we could bully them. Definitely some creative. The Doge kids deserve some and how far I could definitely some creepy looking.
- [55:59]
Jordy Meiselas
Dudes like is quite selective at times.
- [56:02]
Ben Meiselas
Before Chan was manifested in the human form. It would be the people that Elon Musk is sending into these government agencies.
- [56:10]
Brett Meiselas
Frankly, if these kids are bullied a little more, I don't Think we'd have dosh. Maybe they needed a little more.
- [56:14]
Ben Meiselas
I am.
- [56:15]
Jordy Meiselas
You guys bullied me a ton. You guys bullied me a ton growing up, and I think it really built some character.
- [56:20]
Brett Meiselas
Really.
- [56:20]
Ben Meiselas
I mean, you. I mean, we'll save it for. We'll save it for RFK Voice game.
- [56:26]
Brett Meiselas
Might as touch After Dark.
- [56:28]
Ben Meiselas
His.
- [56:29]
Jordy Meiselas
His voice has to be fair game, right?
- [56:30]
Ben Meiselas
No, Stop it.
- [56:32]
Jordy Meiselas
Benji, where to next?
- [56:33]
Ben Meiselas
Well, I'm trying to talk about legal cases while you're trying to, like, get me canceled. Jay, let's talk about injunctions. I'm a law professor. Jordy, let's talk about injunctions. An injunction was issued in Washington, D.C. purporting to stop Musk's accident access to the Treasury Department and to the payment transaction systems. The judge was inclined to grant this injunction and then basically ordered the parties to come up with a form of the deal of what that would be. But as with every Donald Trump deal, including the buyout, you can never really trust anything he's going to do because the person in the Treasury Department ends up who they agreed could stay there is a Musk handpicked puppet who, it turns out, based on some new breaking news, a staffer for Elon Musk, Department of Government Efficiency, whose access to treasury payment systems was approved by the judge as the designated person, resigned today after links to a deleted social media account that advocated for racism emerged, specifically eugenics. You can't pay me any money to marry outside of my ethnicity, and pro eugenic immigration policies that this individual supported. So that was the Treasury Department person. But that injunction remains in place. It's unclear how much of our data they already have, how much access to your medical records, Medicare records, bank account informations that they have. But that injunction was issued an order Donald Trump wanted to ban birthright citizenship. Birthright citizenship is literally in the Constitution. There's an order, order in joining or stopping the Trump administration from terminating the Constitution. Very strong words from the federal judge who was actually a Reagan appointee Republican, who goes. It has become ever more apparent that to our president, the rule of law is but an impediment to his policy goals. The rule of law is, according to him, something to navigate around or simply ignore, whether that be for political or personal gain. Nevertheless, in the courtroom and under my watch, the rule of law law is a bright beacon which I intend to follow. Hopefully when history is written, we will look back at federal judges, including even Trump appointees, as those who have held the line. And I'll tell you, Donald Trump has off all of those D.C. federal judges, including those who he appointed when he let out the January 6th insurrectionist, they had actually warned him in other sentencing hearings before he took off office. Do not release the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers. But Donald Trump released the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers. Talking about more injunctions here. The this buyout offer, which seems to be completely illegal, it seems to be an unlawful buyout offer because the appropriations process of Congress has not approved such a buyout offer. Yes, it has to be in legislation. But also one of the reasons that could render this buyout offer unlawful is that it was also came with the threat that if you don't take the offer, you're going to be fired anyway, which would make the agreement coercive in nature and make it unconscionable as an agreement. That's one of the things that were argued the judge in that case, I believe it was a Massachusetts judge. Pushed. Pushed until next week. At least next Monday there's going to be a hearing on whether there will be a more permanent injunction. But if you're a federal worker, you're under no obligation to respond until at least next week. There'll be more clarification next week. But one of the things we're even learning, for example, is like all of these IRS people who took the buyout offer because Trump's threatened that he's going to fire all the IRS workers any anyway, so a lot of IRS people took the offer and, you know, they're one of the groups that took the offer, but then they were told you can take the offer after they took the offer because it's tax season and they're needed to process all of the taxes. And so Donald Trump, who said that the tariffs were going to replace taxes, we didn't need an irs. We could just have the External Revenue Service. And he wanted to push out the IRS agents. Well, the IRS agents. That a bet. We'll take the retirement. Well, we'll leave and then guess what? Fake offer. We need you to work through tax season, you know, through March and April. Which just goes to show you, Trump's a con artist. His whole life has been duping people. He's gonna dupe you, too. So I like that. By the way, the people who are leading a lot of this litigation, unions, afl, cio, seiu, retirement federation, a bunch of groups who have been the ones pushing these cases. So they've at least stopped that. The government funding freeze. There's a Rhode island case and a DC Case. The funding freeze has been stopped, although it seems that the Trump administration is violating that freeze and still just saying, well, the memo's frozen, but we're, but we're just engaging in other action. But that's under federal judge monitor right now. And one that's not getting, I think, enough attention, though, just in its, in its sheer cruelty was this executive order that would have forced the trans women population in prisons to just forcibly take trans women off their medication and then to put them back into the population with men, where horrible things would happen. You got really horrific declarations like this one right here. I mean, this is what, you know, this guy Aaron Melnick, who's been doing a good job covering this stuff, says, speaking personally, one of the most horrifying things in the last couple of weeks was Trump's decision to order that trans women, including people who fully transitioned, surgically be taken off their medication, stripped of female clothes and thrown into men's prison. And you got declarations like this. That seems like a really bad idea. That would have resulted in immediate sexual assault assaults consistent with the standard of care. Sarah has lived as a woman and has taken hormones for several years, including the entire duration of her incarceration. Prior to her incarceration, she had several surgeries, including since, and then it's redacted. Since her arrest, she has always been housed in women's facilities. If Sarah is transferred to a men's facility, she will not be safe. She will be at an extremely high risk of harassment, abuse, violence and sexual assault. She may be subject to strip searches by male correctional facilities facilities officers. She may be forced to shower in full view of men who are incarcerated. And her breasts and female genitalia will be exposed and vulnerable to sexual harassment, assault and rape. The federal job, the federal judge temporarily blocked that under the cruel and unusual punishment amendment of the United States Constitution. So people are fighting back. People are taking to the streets as well. We talked earlier in the episode about various protests, 50, 51 protests that we're seeing across the country over this past week. I think those will continue to grow in size. Make as corporate media refuses to report on those. Make sure you stay here on the Midas Touch network because we're going to do that type of reporting. I want to share this with you as well. Democratic Congressmember Jim McGovern. Other Democrats are fighting back. This is Democratic Congressmember McGovern speaking from the floor of the House of Representatives. How people voted for lower egg prices, not for a Middle east mar a lago here. Let's play this clip. I mean, My Republican friends like to talk about America first again. I mean, look at the front page of the New York Times today. Trump proposing takeover of Gaza as US Territory. I got to tell you, people voted for lower egg prices, you know, not for a Middle east mar a lago. You know, people did not vote to send their sons and daughters into the tunnels of Gaza so that Jared Kushner and Donald Trump can build Trump Tower Gaza. That's not what they voted for. I mean, people want to talk about issues. They want us to deal with, issues that are going to impact their everyday life, lower the cost of living. And in the first weeks, we have seen nothing, nothing, nothing from this president or the Republican majority here to deal with that. Next, he talks about Trump wanting to invade Greenland and Panama. Here's Democratic Congressmember Jim McGovern. And look, you know the agenda we're talking about. I mean, I'm looking at the New York Times here. Trump proposing takeover of Gaza as US Territory. I mean, do your constituents want to have their sons and daughters sent to Gaza, Gaza to be in the middle of that violence? This is the guy who also now wants to invade Greenland. He wants to take over Panama. He wants to annex Canada. He wants to now occupy Gaza. I mean, we have 42 million people in this country who are hungry. Whatever happened to America First? Whatever happened to helping people in this country? Whatever happened to lowering prices? And instead we get this. This is like a warmonger here. I mean, come on, powerful words there by not like a warmonger is a warmonger, but I like that. I mean, Congressmember McGovern's been great. We've been seeing, you know, whether it's Democratic Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett, AOC Dan Goldman, Senator Schiff, Senator Murphy. If I keep listing, I'll leave out names. Democrats are fighting back and we're seeing, you know, some even new Democrats emerge who are, who are leading this fight. And you know, I like Democrats going in front of the Treasury Department building, going in front of the USAID building. Those visuals are important. It's important to be there, but it's important to visually connect what's happening to we the people so we can see.
- [66:41]
Brett Meiselas
Brett, I think it's important as well that we reflect on the weakness that Donald Trump is showing with all these move and how he continuously now he tries these big swings and ends up getting swatted down, whether it's by other foreign leaders or whether it's by the judiciary system. And Ben, you know, we use the phrase here that Ben Came up with a weapon of mass distraction. And, you know, Ezra Klein kind of took that through line, I think, and expanded on it a bit as well. And a great op ed that I read where he basically said, you know, don't believe Trump, like he's going to try to throw all this crap, see what sticks. He's going to try to act. He wants everybody to think he's the super powerful king that nobody could say no to. But guess what? We're seeing time and time again, people are saying no to him. The courts are shutting him down. His team is a complete and utter mess. They're making all these mistakes. They're kind of a disaster behind the scenes. They can't really do anything right. And as they struggle, you see the people rising up, you see the people taking the streets. You see Donald Trump's approval rating falling dramatically. You see Elon Musk, who I think it's weird for just a random public figure to have an approval rating, but I guess some people do. But you see Elon Musk's approval rating plummet. Like I'm talking plummet where most Americans, I think only 30 something percent of Americans approve of what Elon Musk is doing right now. One of the fascinating things that I saw, as well as there's a new poll out amongst Republicans who before the election said like 60% or something like that, said they were excited about Elon Musk having a very intimate job in the Trump administration. Now that's down among Republicans to something like 26% with this new poll. So you're seeing things change, you're seeing perceptions change. So we have to remember that in spite of all the craziness out there, to not fall for all of Donald Trump's antics and to understand that he is not infallible, that we have the strength and we have the energy. And whether the corporate media wants to show it or not, we're going to show these images, we're going to show the protests, we're going to show the opposition to Donald Trump, the pro democracy resistance that is taking shape in all forms right now. And we are never going to give up with this. And I know you aren't either. We got to break through the noise. We got to continue to fight. And I know that you all are going to do this. Oh, you know what I also want to do, if it's okay, just two seconds. I want to show you just a quick clip of our interview with Jim Acosta from earlier. This is, you can see the full thing on the midas plus substack. We had a great chat with him, spoke to him for what, like 35 minutes this morning. He, he's such a legend and he is one of the voices out there that is standing strong, that is fighting, fighting back. That is not taking the crap, that is not laying down. He's defending our democracy. And he had some thoughts about Donald Trump constantly backing down. I'll play it for you right now.
- [69:32]
Ben Meiselas
You know, Trump rolls out this threat, I'm going to do these tariffs.
- [69:35]
Brett Meiselas
And believe me, I've seen this movie before.
- [69:37]
Ben Meiselas
He is the king of empty threats. He puts out these empty threats all the time. And he, and you know, you'll talk to his aides and advisors and they'll say this is what we call strategic rhetoric. And he'll, he'll say all of this stuff and then he'll get concise sessions. Baloney. It doesn't always work out that way. Take a look what happened with Kim Jong Un. Remember when Trump during the first administration, his first administration was saying there's going.
- [69:59]
Brett Meiselas
To be fire and fury and all.
- [70:00]
Ben Meiselas
This stuff, and then he goes and he meets with Kim Jong Un.
- [70:03]
Brett Meiselas
What happened?
- [70:04]
Ben Meiselas
Kim Jong Un still has nuclear weapons. Nothing happened as a result of that. You know, Brett, those conversations that we're going to be having with Acosta quite frequently on Midasplus.com so everybody go to Midas+m e I d a s p l u s dot com go there. Great content. Philip Kowski does a great job with these daily updates, but we're going to get to hear from Acosta unfiltered with Midas touch. Think about that. Think about the, you know, he has his sources. He has, you know, all of that. And he's going to bring, bring that here. You, he's got his incredible substack. Make sure you subscribe there. Midasplus.com check it out. M E I-A S P L U S.com subscribe to our substack as well. We're going to bring you that. We're growing, we're scrappy. We're scrappy with it as the kids.
- [71:00]
Brett Meiselas
I'm telling you right now. It's an inflection point right now. Right. We may be down bad from the election. Right. Everybody's not thrilled to say the least about what happened happen. But what's happening right now in the background and not, not in the background for you, but in the background to the, to the folks in corporate mainstream media, all that, there's something growing right now that's bigger than ever that they don't even see coming. So let's continue to build that and let's continue to just crush them. Right? They're not. As we emerge, it's going to be. It's already too late for them. Let's. But it's already too late. But, but as the. Once they finally get wind of what's going on here, they're going to be. Oh crap. Right? They're. They're going to freak out. So continue to follow all the platforms grow and not just us too, but all the pro democracy creators out there. Make sure you're following. Let's grow this community. And I really mean it. I'm going to push you guys really hard this episode because I. I want this show to be number one. I want this message to get out. Follow the Midas Touch podcast on audio. We are the number one news podcast now in America. I want to be the number one of all podcasts. But it's great that we're beating all these MAGA people because once you're the higher you are, the more the algorithms push you out, the more they push down the other folks and we got to drown these people out. It is my mission in life to drown these MAGA voices out and for this community right here to be the one leading the charge. So on that note, I guess I'll leave it to Jordy to sign us.
- [72:14]
Ben Meiselas
Up to the bully. Give it to the bully. We will get it right whenever.
- [72:37]
Jordy Meiselas
Love this video. Continue the conversation by following us on Instagram at Midas Touch and help US blow past 750 thousand followers.