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- [00:00]
Ben
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- [01:16]
Brett
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- [01:37]
Ben
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- [01:38]
Brett
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- [01:44]
Ben
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- [01:52]
Brett
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- [01:54]
Ben
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- [02:43]
Brett
40 GB Detail Donald Trump returned to Washington D.C. after taking yet another golf vacation in Southern Florida. He competed, or so he claims competed in his own golf tournament where he awarded himself first place yet again. Then he went back to Washington D.C. after celebrating his own victory in his own golf tournament and then started immediately spewing Putin's talking points. Just false Russian propaganda about how Russia has Ukraine encircled and that Donald Trump and Putin are needed to try to spare the lives of the Ukrainian military and that that's why Donald Trump's going to have to speak with Putin on Tuesday. One thing I should note before playing you this clip of Donald Trump at the Kennedy center talking about this and I'll explain to you why he was at the Kennedy center in a moment. Well, while Donald Trump was vacation over the weekend at Mar a Lago and celebrating his victory, there was a horrific storms that ravaged the Midwest. Over 37 people died and Donald Trump was posting how much fun he was having in his golf tournament while that was taking place then. Donald Trump has already appointed himself chairman of the board of the Kennedy Center. He fired everybody pretty much at the Kennedy center and then appointed all of the kind of MAGA loyalist to positions. No one's really even going to the Kennedy center anymore. Like ticket sales are down more than 50%. Hamilton canceled. So he was holding his first kind of Kim Jong un style board meeting and then he left and then started talking about this, these Putin talking points.
- [04:27]
Ben
Let's play it tomorrow.
- [04:28]
Jordy
I'm speaking with President Putin of Russia to save some soldiers who are in deep trouble. They're captured essentially they're surrounded by Russian soldiers. So I give it to you a lot of different I you a lot of different things in one news conference. But it's a big deal. They're surrounded by Russian soldiers and I believe it was if it wasn't for me, they would be, they wouldn't be here any longer. I was able to get them not to do anything at this moment. But it's a bad situation in Russia and it's a bad situation in Ukraine. What's happening in Ukraine is not good. But we're going to see if we can work a peace agreement, a cease fire and peace and I think we'll be able to do it. I'm speaking to President Putin tomorrow, tomorrow morning. Yes.
- [05:14]
Brett
Notice when he talks about Putin, he never says anything negative about Putin and he always just buys hook, line and Sinker, what Putin says, like literally nothing about what he just said is true. He's not saving Ukrainian lives with. With Putin. If anything, Trump is imperiling the lives of Ukrainians and that's what Putin is telling his people in Russia. It's totally false. The Ukrainian Defense Forces had to forcefully come out a few days ago with statements saying this is false when Donald Trump made a social media post about that. And one of the other developments as well is that Donald Trump has removed Keith Kellogg, his special envoy to Ukraine and Russia, and just reappointed. Keith Kellogg is just the special envoy to Ukraine because Vladimir Putin told Donald Trump that he doesn't want Keith Kellogg in any interactions with Russia because Keith Kellogg has said positive things about Ukraine. I guess that's what Donald Trump calls the art of the deal. What? Just listening to whatever Putin tells him to do. And by the way, Trump gave a recent podcast interview where he was saying that when he told people that he would bring peace to Ukraine in 24 hours, it was all just him being sarcastic. He didn't really mean it. He said, here, play this clip.
- [06:35]
Ben
But as a candidate, you said you would have this war settled in 24 hours.
- [06:40]
Jordy
Well, I was being a little bit sarcastic when I said that I would. What I really mean is I'd like to get it settled.
- [06:46]
Brett
No, what you really meant is that you were lying to the American people. Were you being sarcastic when you said that you were going to reduce prices and make housing more affordable? Was that that old fashioned sarcasm right there? No, you were just a liar in everything you do. Also, were you being sarcastic when you said you were going to release the Epstein fil. I mean, the Trump regime is doing everything but release those Epstein files. In terms of the things that they're saying that they're going to release. The. The latest right here was Trump saying that we're going to release the files that you all have cared about the most. The Kennedy files. Right. You all wanted the Kennedy files.
- [07:27]
Ben
Here, play this clip while we're here.
- [07:29]
Jordy
I thought it would be appropriate. We are tomorrow announcing and giving all of the Kennedy files. So people have been waiting for decades for this. And I've instructed my people that are responsible, lots of different people put together by Tulsi Gabbard and that's going to be released tomorrow. We have a tremendous amount of paper. You've got a lot of reading. I don't believe we're going to redact anything I said, just don't redact. You can't redact. But we're going to be releasing the JFK files and that would be tomorrow. Do you have anything else to add to that, Carol? So that's a big announcement. They've been waiting for that for decades.
- [08:22]
Brett
I think people have been waiting for the Epstein files. Let's bring in Brett and Jordi, everybody. Yeah, My brother's here on the Midas Touch podcast. And one of the things too that Donald Trump was doing at Mar a Lago. I'm not sure if you saw this. Brett and Jordan Midas mighty. They were throwing a Birkin Hermes Birkin bag theme party. Did you catch that? Where they were showing off pocketbooks or handbags or whatever that are like $455,000. The, the croc versions of it and, and gold versions of it. Nothing says man of the people like celebrating crocodile skinned Hermes Birkin bags wild.
- [09:06]
Ben
You don't think the average American could afford a $447,000 purse? This is, I mean, it's just absolutely outrageous. Before he said the price, I was gonna play a game and have Jordy try to guess how much this purse costs. Not, not the gigantic one that they blew up for this celebration on the White House lawn. But I was going to make Jordy guess it and because I, I would, I would have guessed zero chance that you would have predicted $447,000.
- [09:29]
Michael
No, I wouldn't. But for the record, I knew you would have at least been talking about the physical purse and not the purse that they blew up on the lawn. I don't think you needed to qualify that. Thanks for clearing that up.
- [09:40]
Ben
Just making sure that, that everything is clear here. Anyway, it's great to be here, Jordy. It's great to have you back. I know folks have missed you. You've been on daddy duty. Loving it. It's great to see you. I know everybody has been asking every single day. You know, they blame us. They say, free Jordy. Free Jordy. We go. It's not us. He's got to spend some time with the know, it's we. We allow that here at the Midas Touch network. It's part of the family vibes that we got going on. But it's, it's great to have you back. The, the head fake with the Epstein files and the Kennedy files is like the craziest. I, I mean, I. There, there was the. Another clip of him from yesterday where he was asked directly about the Epstein files and he like really downplayed them. And by the way, his, his supporters like really care about these Epstein files also. Like, they're not, they're not giving it up because they should be fr. Information that's out there should be public, right? And so he was asked about it and, and Trump was like, yeah, you know, like Pam Bondi, like, they're all looking into that. They're, they're all looking into that. But, but you know what, people are really, you know, you know, people really want to much more than that. You know, it's much more important than that. People have been asking me about the Kennedy files in one world, first off, there's been a lot of information about this, you know, already released. And he's going to do the same thing that they did last time, right? They're going to release information that's already been out there or they're going to hand select information no one's, everyone's going to be upset about. So. And it's just going to remind people again about the Epstein files. But anytime he's asked about this, it's like you've never seen a guiltier looking sounding person in their life. Just the way his kind of face goes, the way he tries to divert the topic. There was that clip too, that hilarious that Fox edited. I remember when we showed Fox edited a clip of Trump when he was asked if he would release the Epstein files. I think it was while he was on the campaign trail and Trump was like, a lot of good people may be caught up in that. A lot of good people that may be caught up in those Epstein files. So I'm not so sure we want to do that. Fox cut that answer out. Just to have him go like, yeah, we're looking into that. Yeah, like just cut that part out. He can't answer the question without sounding guilty because this is the guy who quite literally is all over these files, is all over the phone book. Like, they not only had Donald Trump's phone numbers, they had like his security guard, his nanny, they had like everyone around him in the Epstein phone books. He was on the flight seven times. We were speaking of Michael Wolf, a Ben great interview with Michael Wolfe on the Midas Touch podcast too.
- [12:01]
Brett
I'm trying to get the Epstein. I am actually trying to get the Epstein. I want to let people know what's going on. So in the absence of them turning over the Epstein files, I'm looking to get those files. So I know that the author, Michael Wolf, who's written about Donald Trump before, was also in the process of writing and potentially writing the autobiography of Epstein. So he's got 80 to 100 hours of audio with Epstein. And so. And so a lot of corporate media has basically banned Michael Wolf from talking about the Epstein files and talking about his new book they're scared to have him on. So what did we do at the Midas Dutch network? I'm like, yo, get me Wolf on, and I'm gonna start asking him about the Epstein files. And I, I made a pitch to him. I said, we'll put it on the YouTube page. We will play all of the audio recordings. And do we have the clip, Brett, of when I was asking Michael Wolfe about the Epstein files? And so this is kind of phase one of what I hope to be our release of the actual Epstein audio play. Let's. Let's play this. He sat for many, many hours of discussion with me. I mean, certainly 80, 90, probably 100 hours I have of Epstein on tape. And one of the discussions, because this was occurring, Trump became the President in 2017. I began writing about, about Trump. And so we spent a lot of time talking about Donald Trump and Epstein's relationship with Trump, which went on for a good, certainly 15 years and was incredibly close. They were each other's closest friend for a very long time. And Epstein, I think Epstein is one of those people who truly knew Donald Trump, knew many secrets about Donald Trump, and was threatening to Donald Trump.
- [14:08]
Ben
I mean, that's pretty. Pretty stunning stuff right there. And by the way, you can listen to the full interview with Michael Wolfe on the Midas Touch podcast on Apple podcasts on Spotify. Jordi, welcome back. Should we do a full court press to try to get these 100 hours of Epstein tapes?
- [14:23]
Michael
I think we should. I think we should. I think we should just put our heads down just like we always do. And I think we. I think we should. I think we should do our darndest to get them. I am so excited to be back. Ben. That was a fantastic interview with Wolf. If you haven't. Definitely check that out. Incredible stuff. You know, it just goes to show you Donald Trump with the. With the JFK stuff. Weapon of mass distraction, right? Wmd. That's how we refer to Trump here. Weapon of mass distraction. This is just such a brutal misread of Trump of his own. Of his own, like, core base, though, because, Brett, to your point exactly, you know, everyone wants to see the Epstein. Like, there should be full transparency here around the Epstein files. Make no mistake. But, you know, the Cube base that is so deeply ingrained within that culture, who have been shouting it from the rooftops. Expose them. Expose them. Expose them for the last, what, four and a half years now you got your shot. And what does he do? JFK files. Everybody release JFK files. You know, the head fake only works so many times before you just start stop biting on it, right? I play basketball. You can only do that move so many times before the opponent would stop biting. Well, nobody's biting anymore, Donald. We want the Epstein files. The people want the Epstein files. And the more you show these other files, we're going to be reminded. We're going to be reminded that we want to see the Epstein files. Release the Epstein files. Trump, come on.
- [15:34]
Ben
Here's the thing. Who wants to. You know, he tries to act, and this is one of the most devious and cynical things that Trump does and that his supporters kind of buy into and promote. It's the idea that he is the most transparent president to ever exist. When I hear people say this, I'm like, what world are you living in? The guy's hiding literally everything. But it's because he makes these big shows about garbage like he makes up that he's transparent about things like when he released the fake Epstein documents, and not the fake Epstein documents, but the already publicly released Epstein documents. Right? And he's like, look, I'm so transparent. And that gets repeated by his people. But meanwhile, behind the scenes, not even behind the scenes, but what is he doing? He's hiding tremendous amounts of information from the courts. He's hiding exactly what he's doing with Doge as they raid our various. Our Social Security. Excuse me. My God, I don't know what happened there. Our Social Security accounts, our Medicaid. I couldn't breathe for a second. And then. So Trump is actually trying to hide so much of what is going on behind the scenes. We saw it in this very contentious, combative court hearing today over Donald Trump invoking the Alien Enemies act, how he took these migrants, whisked them to El Salvador in basically secrecy, not telling anybody when these planes took off, when these planes landed, who was even on these planes. He's just saying, these were gang members. Take my word for it. They deserve to rot in these El Salvadorian prisons. We already have reports right now of attorneys for at least one of the people who was sent to El Salvador saying, my client wasn't a gang member. They were somebody who was here in this country working to get their. Their immigration status updated. They were just had a tattoo. They had nothing to do with any gangs, and they were taken off the streets and they were sent to El Salvador. That's the kind of shady stuff that they are actually covering up while they try to pretend like they are being transparent while dangling all this Kennedy files and all this other crap. They're really hiding some really, really abhorrent things that they are doing in our government. And Donald Trump, especially over the last few days, has really ramped up the authoritarian bent. He is really almost getting frustrated that in the first 50 days he was not able to conquer America, that we were able to oppose him, that people did stand strong. And so now he's getting antsy. He's trying to take it to the next level. And you see just abrasiveness, whether it's coming from him or others in his administration right now directed at the American people.
- [18:05]
Brett
Look, Hitler's plan was I think between 52 and 54 days. Some say it was more like 30 days, but around 52 to 40 to 54 days. And they called it, there was a German word for it, but it translated to synchronization, basically full control of all levers of Germany at that time. And Donald Trump wanted to do the same here with Elon Musk. Their plan was a shock and awe where they were going to try to take over everything, suppress all resistance and opposition. And they thought they were going to be able to kind of bulldoze over all checks and balances the way they bulldozed over Republicans in the House and the Senate. Right. I mean, the spineless Republicans have given up all kind of pretense that they are, are part of a democracy. They're no different than the people you see in the parliament. And I put that in quotes for Kim Jong Un who do the clapping and they clap loud so that they don't get hurt by Kim Jong Un if they're not seen as, as clapping enough. That's what the spineless Republicans have come. But judges have been standing up to Donald Trump, the pro democracy movement has been standing up to Donald Trump, and international resistance has developed against Donald Trump. Shout out to all of our listeners and supporters and members of the Midas Mighty, for example, in Canada, in Europe, in New Zealand, in Australia and elsewhere, rising up and stopping Donald Trump and protesting Trump and uniting to kind of boycott all things Trump related, which, you know, for America, it's unfortunate that there are big boycotts against all things American. But when Donald Trump is attacking the sovereignty, you certainly understand where, where they're coming from and, and why they're doing that. So Brett, your, your point is, is apt, which is now Trump is like, well, I'm just gonna kind of, I'M just gonna go for it. I'm just gonna go full dictator right now and I'm not gonna hide it anymore. So he invokes the Alien Enemies act over the weekend of 1798. This is something he said that he was going to invoke during the campaign. And he said he's invoking it as it relates to the trend day Aragua gang from Venezuela. But what the Alien enemies Act of 1798 says is that there has to be a war. It's, it's a war powers. So the only three times in American history it's been invoked and it's been invoked in ways that are looked back at at history as being very dark times. But the War of 1812, World War I and World War II, and most recently its invocation in World War II was where we saw Japanese Americans put in concentration camps and being treated as enemy combatants with horrific, horrific conditions related there too. And so what Trump said is that there is a war underway where Venezuela and its gangs are involved in a hybrid gang state actor warfare, that they've declared war on the United States, that thus he needs War Powers Act. And so he does not have to give anybody due process, he says, because he's looking for Venezuelan enemy combatants, he says, and so he gets to decide without providing anybody due process whether they're part of the gang. He just says they're gang members. I declare them an enemy combatant. I'm going to, you know, put him on, I'm going to shackle him. And then what we saw him do over this weekend is send these individuals to El Salvador, where he and Marco Rubio and the rest of the Trump regime cut a deal with naive Bukele, who is the president of El Salvador, who runs El Salvador like an authoritarian. He's like a, they call him like a crypto president, but he's an authoritarian guy. There about, what, 1800 of every 100,000 people in El Salvador are incarcerated. The entire GDP of El Salvador is about $30 billion or so annually. $30 billion. Just by contrast, the GDP of Canada annually is closer to two and a half trillion dollars, and the United States GDP is closer to $35 trillion annually. Although who knows under Trump what that number is ultimately going to be. But Trump is sucking up to El Salvador with a $30 billion annual GDP that has about a 28% poverty rate. Close to 10% of people in El Salvador are in extreme poverty. 28 to 30% live in poverty or right underneath kind of serious poverty conditions. And, and so Trump Cuts this deal with Bukele, who runs these concentration camps in El Salvador and shoots these kind of ISIS style propaganda videos. And so when Trump declared that this group of about 200 individuals he claims are, are gang members, they're Venezuelan gang members. But as Brett said, a lot of them are saying, no, we're not gang members and we're not, we didn't commit any crimes. At least their lawyers are saying that some of these people had hearings coming up this week and Trump just took them and Trump sent them to El Salvador. Now look, even the Supreme Court post 9, 11 in a case called Hamden vs. Rumsfeld said that enemy combatants are owed certain levels of process, even at Guantanamo Bay under military commissions. What Trump is saying is he declares who he says is an enemy combatant and then he's makes these, he makes these videos of himself, makes these videos of the people he declares enemy combatants. And they're straight like ISIS style videos of these people. Like you have Caroline Levitt, Donald Trump's chief propaganda, she goes, the American people voted for this. That's what her post is. She goes, this is what you all voted for on her post. And then here's the video that they released. I'm only going to show you a small portion of it, but it's very disturbing. Here, play this clip. So they didn't get, look, I want to be very clear about my position too. Gang members, people who commit crimes should get the, the book handed to them. Right. You know, if you're committing crimes, if you're in gangs, get them off the street. The furthest extent permitted by law to punish people, punish gang members, members. We have due process in this country though. So what Trump gets to now say you're a gang member or you're a gang member and now you go to El Salvador and you disappear into their concentration camp systems.
- [25:37]
Ben
Yeah, and that's the trap that they try to set, right, with all these sorts of policies because they want to, they want you to go, that's not okay. That video that we saw looks like Nazi propaganda. Upgraded for 2020, updated for up 2025. It's incredibly disturbing for those who are listening. You know, you see the people get walked through these like air, airline and, and like thrown on the ground on their knees and their heads are shaved and they're like, treated like animals, like cattle. And it's, it's a horrifying video. And I'm, and you obviously heard the music too that goes behind it and it looks almost like a Hollywood production. Like, like they sunk a lot of money into making that video. It's very grim, very. Just gross. Like, like I, like I don't feel good. And if you did vote for that as an American, that sort of treatment of human beings, I don't know what that says about your own psyche. But yeah, I think that's an important thing to emphasize because the trap that the MAGA people want to try to capture in is if you speak out in, in favor of due process, in favor of the U.S. constitution, they want to go, oh, so you support gang members? So you support illegal immigrant gang members. That's what you support, huh? Okay, I see what you support. But it's like, no, that's not at all what we want here. We are totally okay, and would like to see gang members who are committing illegal acts deported from the United States. States. They're not here legally for sure. Like that's what we want, what we do not want. And what I think even people who consider themselves to be conservative or MAGA or however you label yourself. What we don't want is the person who gets to decide who is a gang member should not be the President of the United States. It should not just be a single person going off this individual's word without evidence, without any sort of backup up, without any court hearings, because that is a slippery slope that leads to some very, very bad things that has led to very bad things throughout history. You do not want to give that sort of power to an executive. You just do not want to do it. You want to follow the laws. You want to make sure you're getting out the people who are the people who are committing the crimes.
- [27:40]
Brett
You don't.
- [27:40]
Ben
You want to make sure you are not getting rid of just Venezuelan migrants who may be here legally but have a funny tattoo that you think is weird. You know, like that's not what you want here. You need to follow the law. And so this is about fundamental constitutional powers. This is about due process of the United States. I do not want Tom Holman or Donald Trump or Stephen Miller or any of these people having the right to just grab random people who they think look different than them off the street and send them to El Salvador to be in the custody of this third rate dictator over there to treat them the way that you see in those videos. You have no idea what these people have done. And yes, if they committed crimes, yes, sure, get them the hell out of this country. I agree with you, you, but you cannot do that to citizens who are, who could be innocent. I mean, it's just, it's just so vile what we are seeing in this country and, and the ignoring of the court orders. And then you'll get to Judge Boasberg and what's been happening in the, in the courts today surrounding this since Donald Trump invoked the Alien Enemies Act. But I just wanted to make our position on this extremely clear.
- [28:44]
Michael
And let's be, let's also be clear for this administration, cruelty, cruelty is the point. That's what they want to prove here. Cruelty is always the point of a Trump administration. Rates aren't getting cut, egg prices are going up, inflation's through the roof. Trump's not doing anything to help anyone financially. So what does he have to do? He's got to double down on cruelty. That's what he's got to do. He's got a, he's got a head fake with the JFK files, he's got a, he's got to throw some red meat with an auto pen conspiracy, what's going on? And then he's going to release this. I don't even know what, how you want to categorize that video that we just played, but just disgusting and vile video. Why? Just cruelty, that's why. Period. End of story. It's really maddening what we're witnessing. Just a total lack of humanity, humility and just love for people. It's bizarre to see and then be celebrated by, you know, someone who's supposed to be the freeder, the leader of the free world. I just, just, it, it really, my skin crawls watching what we just watched.
- [29:45]
Brett
Yeah, no, it, for those, on audio. I mean, it does, it reminds me of those ISIS style propaganda videos that were released, you know, 12 years ago, 13 years ago. But the American regime, the Trump regime is releasing it while they're grabbing people's hair and throwing them on the floor and then throwing people into, you know, throwing people into these cages in the El Salvador system. I want to talk about what Judge Boasberg in Washington, D.C. ruled, whether the Trump regime violated that order. What went down in the hearing today as it relates to the Alien Enemies act and an injunction that was issued. And then I want to talk additionally about some of the international protests that we're seeing. Whether it's in Belgrade, Serbia, whether it's in Budapest, Hungary, whether it's in Tbilisi in Georgia against Putin. Putin's never been actually weaker. And Donald Trump is doing everything he can, in my opinion, to try to throw Putin a lifeline. And you see Canada, Europe, Australia rallying behind Ukraine in ways that are, you know, truly kind of meeting the moment. We'll talk about that dynamic. We'll talk about more. We're going to take our first quick break of the show. Want to remind everybody to hit subscribe here. Help us get to 5 million subscribers. We're going to be holding very soon our next Patreon meeting. If you ever wanted to meet Brett, Jordy and myself, go to patreon.com Midas Touch check it out and we really look forward to seeing people there. We're going to make the announcement soon of when our next meeting is going to be. We have a secret link there for our patrons. We don't have outside investors, so it helps grow this independent media platform. Also Check out out Midasplus.com M E I-A S P L U S.com that's where our editor in chief, Ron Filipkowski cooks and gives some of the best daily summaries of all of the all of the news of the day. Let's take our first quick break of the show.
- [31:52]
Ben
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- [34:35]
Michael
Let's go Shout out to our sponsors links in description of the YouTube and the audio Fabulous sponsors. Use the links, use the codes, let them know we sent you. And just one thing on the audio podcast front. Thank you all so much. I know you know a while back we asked you guys to give us a 5 stars wherever platform you use and leave a review. I've been reading all those reviews and seeing the five star reviews and just thank you guys from the bottom of my heart and I could speak for the brothers too. It means the world to us. It helps us with the platforms stay at the top of the charts. So if you haven't done it, go do it now. Whether it's Apple, Spotify or Wherever. Thank you guys for leaving those five star reviews. Appreciate it.
- [35:09]
Brett
Let me talk about first, the authority of federal judges in general and our federal court system. Since the case of Marbury vs Madison, one of the earliest cases of the Supreme Court, our country has had a tradition of something called judicial review, where the federal courts review the constitutionality of actions by the other branches of government. And as part of that judicial review, the federal judges can issue injunctions that can block actions. It goes all the way up to the Supreme Court. And if the executive branch is engaged in conduct that is deemed unconstitutional, or if, if Congress engages in conduct that is unconstitutional and the federal judge, it could go all the way up to the Supreme Court. In our federal system. So rules, our system has always been based on the kind of good faith compliance with federal court orders. Good faith compliance. And as I've said before, Donald Trump not only is a destroyer of businesses, he's a reason. He's bankrupted things over and over again. He is someone who does not engage in good faith. He's someone who has always ripped up contracts his entire life. He's tried to, you know, whether it's stiffing contractors or just not complying with contracts, that's been Donald Trump's M.O. and so what's the ultimate kind of contract as it relates to our country? It's our Constitution. So like other contracts Donald Trump's been able to rip up, he wants to rip up our Constitution. Now, former President Biden had a lot of his agenda stalled, stopped or blocked via nationwide injunctions whereby Heritage Foundation, Federalist Society people, they would run to one judge in the Northern District of Texas, a guy named Judge Matthew Kazmark. The MAGA lawyers would find some jurisdictional hook. They'd go to Kacmerk and then this federal judge in the Amarillo Division in Texas, Texas would issue a nationwide injunction, not just for Northern District of Texas, everywhere, blocking initiatives by Biden to try to help people, whether it was expanding healthcare coverage or forgiving student loan debt, things that actually helped people, the MAGAs would go to block it. They'd go to Kazmark, Donald Trump trying to hurt people. And so now know that Trump is in power and the Trump regime is in power. Lots of federal judges out there, not one. Just a lot of them are saying, hey, you can't overturn birthright citizenship. Hey, you can't fire these probationary employees and say you're firing them for performance reasons when they've actually performed well and they've done everything that was expected of them. And Then defame them. We're issuing nationwide injunctions to stop what you're doing that's hurting people. And the Trump regime hates these nationwide injunctions. They're challenging nationwide injunctions now all the way up to the United States Supreme Court using the cases that involve birthright citizenship that Trump is trying to overturn. And there's going to be briefing in April where the Trump regime is saying, we don't like nationwide injunction. Sure, we used it to screw Biden, but now that it's being used against us, where the Trump regime's trying to hurt people, not tell people we hate it, get rid of it. This is a common theme we see with the kind of right wing. They like it when it helps them. They hate it when it doesn't help them. The only consistency is in both instances, they're trying to screw over the people for the oligarchs. That's one of the things that we consistently see. Now, I wanted to give you all of that framework. So, you know, when I talk about, about this Washington, D.C. judge, Judge Boasberg, and what he ruled and what the hearing was today, you at least have that as background. Let me just give you a little info about Judge Boasberg so you understand you call him Bozberg. Who's this guy Boseberg? He's a federal judge who is one of the top federal judges in all of Washington, D.C. he was the presiding judge of the United States Foreign Intelligence Service Court, the FISA court courts from 2020 to 2021, which is a big role to have. So he's dealt with the most classified and sensitive information as a chief judge, federal judge of the FISA courts. And then in addition, he's now the chief judge of all of the Washington, D.C. district Court judges. He's the top guy, the top dog. And he's got massive amounts of experience in dealing with, with classified information, executive authority and how to deal with all of these cases. Very well respected guy. So a lot of groups like the ACLU and others saw that the Trump regime was likely going to invoke war powers under the Alien Enemies Act. So they smartly rushed to court at the end of last week before Trump ever even invoked the war powers. Then subsequently, Trump invoked the war powers. There was a hearing that was held over the weekend and apparently the Venezuelan individuals, who Trump says are gang members, without giving him due process, without them having hearings, without evidence being presented with them denying that they've committed any crimes. Trump put him on planes to go to El Salvador. The lawyers who were Representing them said, whoa, whoa, whoa, this is unconstitutional. We need hearings. You can't just pick up people off the street or pick up people and say because you don't like their tattoo or this or that, that they're necessarily gang members and send them to El Salvador, even if they were gang members. By the way, as I mentioned earlier in the show, there's a case called Rumsfeld B. Hamden or Hamden v. Rumsfeld, which the Supreme Court said even as it relates to Guantanamo Bay, when there were terrorists who were being tried post 9, 11, you still had to have some sort of process through these military commissions to make sure that there was some process being offered. You couldn't just declare anybody who you want as a terrorist and then put them in concentration camps. So Judge Boasberg issued a kind of nationwide injunction, an all encompassing injunction that were just basically in order, order that told the Trump regime, stop, in 14 days we'll brief this issue, but you send the people back, we can't have these individuals lost in the El Salvador concentration camp systems, so stop it. So the Trump regime claims that, number one, that was an oral order and not actually in written form. So they therefore don't have to acknowledge or respond to, to courts making oral orders, Which Judge Boasberg in a hearing today said, that's the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard. You've heard what I said. There's a transcript of it. The second Trump regime argument is that the plane with these Venezuelans who they claim are gang members, was in international waters, so therefore they don't have to listen to what the judge had to say. And Judge Boasberg's like, that's not what the law is either. You still have to listen to federal judges. You should have complied with the order. And then we could have, you know, dealt with this. And so Judge Boasberg is now at a hearing today that just took place an hour, a few hours ago, grilled the Trump DOJ lawyers and said, what the hell are you doing? To which the Trump lawyers were like, we don't have to answer any of your questions. National security. To which Judge Boasberg says, I know a thing or two about national security law. I know my case law. You don't. By the way, you may have remembered that I was the chief FISA judge. So I know this stuff like the back of my hand. Under what authority are you claiming? And you. And if you are going to say national security, you need to make a showing still. You can't just say, oh, we're going to do whatever I, whatever I want. And so Judge Boasberg's given 24 hours for the Trump regime to provide a detailed declaration on everything that happened. Now with that flight we showed earlier of these Venezuelans who are now in the concentration camp system in El Salvador. Meanwhile, you have Trump and Musk attacking Judge Boasberg, posting photos of Boasberg saying, impeach Boasberg. All these spineless Republicans in Congress are saying, get rid of Boasberg. And that's basically the status of where we have now. And we have all of these. We have 200 or so Venezuelans and a lot of them whose lawyers saying, not gang members, not criminals, just people who are now sent there, who, who are now lost in a concentration camp system in a foreign country. Final point, the Trump regime shut down what they were doing in Guantanamo Bay. And remember, in Guantanamo Bay they said they were having the gang members in Guantanamo, but it actually wasn't gang members in Guantanamo. It was actually a lot of nonviolent people and just migrants. A lot of it was just regular hard working kind of migrants who were sent to Guantanamo Bay. So Trump lied about putting them in Guantanamo Bay. So are these the same types of people who they shut down Guantanamo Bay for? They moved them to Louisiana. Are they those people? Are they other people like that who they were sending to Guantanamo Bay? So these are all of the issues that we're dealing with now. I know that was a little bit of a long and wonky discussion, but I think I had to give it a little bit of the, that the legal.
- [45:14]
Michael
I like the level of detail, Ben. Our listeners like the level of detail too. That was excellently done.
- [45:19]
Ben
Well, it's an important case and I think, you know, it's helpful that you took people basically inside the courtroom today to basically try to experience what actually went down in that very contentious hearing that took place. And you know, I feel like often people go, when we try to fact check Trump or when Trump says all these lies, they're like, yeah, we know he's a liar. He lies about everything. We get it. Who cares? He's okay. So he's hyperbolic about things. Like that's what he does. That's not the problem though. Like, the problem is that these lies have actual consequences and he's using these lies in order to do things that subvert our entire democracy. Like what he is trying to do right now is tyrannical. It's autocracy. And I know those words are thrown around often and sometimes they're thrown around a little lightly, basically have meaning. And they're not. It's not very good for the United States to be under that sort of rule. But it could certainly apply and should certainly apply to what we are witnessing right now. Because Donald Trump, under his false pretenses, based on his lies, is trying to do all of this illegal activity. He's basically saying to the courts and his Department of Justice and shame on these lawyers, lawyers at the Department of Justice who were in front of Judge Boasberg today. They're basically saying, as long as Donald Trump says what it is, as long as Donald Trump says these are gang members, as long as Donald Trump says that this is a matter of national security, as long as Donald Trump continues to lie about that, you can't quite even question them about it. It's just this is going to be what it's going to be. And there were multiple times during this court hearing today where Judge Boasberg was like, well, could you tell me who was on flight number two that went out? No, no, we're not going to tell you. Well, why not? Can you tell us? We don't have to tell you anything. They kept saying that that was their answer to everything. So ultimately, Ben, what is it? They got to get back to Judge Boseberg, what? Tomorrow at noon, I think with a clear delineation of what their official response is going to be to those questions, because as of now, they are refusing to answer these very basic questions. They are trying to hide behind this national security argument. But this isn't a military operation. Even Donald Trump invoking the Alien Enemies act doesn't autom make this a military operation. And these were not military planes that were being used. These were ICE planes that were being used. We are not under an invasion. We are not at war with Venezuela. The entire pretense of this is fake. It's garbage, it's bullshit. And it's the same kind of stuff that Vladimir Putin does. It's the same kind of stuff that Putin did when he went to invade Ukraine. He needed a pretext for it. So he made up whether it was about the NATO stories, whether it was about I need to de nazify Ukraine. It's those sorts of lies that Trump employs over here. Try to engage in his tactics and his authoritarian tactics. And we are seeing that bubble up in various different ways right now in very horrifying ways that are not fit for the United States of America. Now, I think we're clearly beyond the point of no return here. Like we've been saying you know, people have been saying, are we in a constitutional crisis where we're close to a constitutional crisis? I personally believe we are in a constitutional crisis right now. Donald Trump refusing to abide by these court rulings, refusing to abide by the law. So, Ben, I guess my question for you is like, what happens now? You know, obviously there's going to be a hearing tomorrow, but what if Trump just, in his administration, what if they just keep ignoring these rulings and they keep moving ahead and, and doing what they do as the Supreme Court, just giving them a get out of jail free card essentially with their immunity ruling?
- [48:43]
Brett
Look, I think we are past the constitutional crisis. I think we have to acknowledge, not accept, but acknowledge that there's no longer a government by the people, for the people. Thus, I don't call it a government. I call it a regime, because it's by the bullies for the billionaires and these MAGA Republicans. And the Trump regime have already destroyed the Constitution. So the question is, is they're already attacking Judge Boasberg. They already didn't comply with Boasberg. Now they're attacking Boasberg to the D.C. circuit Court of Appeals. Basically the appeals court that sits above Boasburg, then above that is going to be the United States Supreme Court. And as I've been talking about this case, this Hamden vs. Rumsfeld case, the question's going to become where I think you're going to have. And you may call me naive here, but to me, looking at the current dynamic of the Supreme Court, there seems to be a 5 to 4 court against the dictator stuff that Donald Trump's doing. This right wing Supreme Court will let Trump get away with a lot of horrific things. I'm not trying to in any way say the Supreme Court is, is, is good. It's a six to three right wing court, six right wing justices, three liberal justices. But we are seeing Chief Justice John Roberts and Amy Coney Barrett and Donald Trump appointed Justice Barrett. So that's why a lot of magas are hating on Justice Barrett. But they've been joining with the three liberal judges and forming five to four potentially against some of Trump's biggest excesses. So the question is, is what happens when you get a five to four against Donald Trump at the Supreme Court level? Trump says, I'm not complying with the Supreme Court. And then we're kind of in this kind of full fledged, you know, you know, even worse kind of authoritarian grip. And then what happens is, and I think what happens is, honestly, what you're seeing in Budapest, in Hungary, I think what you're seeing in Belgrade, Serbia, I think what you're seeing in Tbilisi in Georgia where you've got these massive, massive rallies. I mean, can we show this video, Brett? And I'll tell our audio listeners what it is. I mean, it's hundreds of thousands, I mean it looks like a million people or so in Budapest, in Hungary protesting Viktor Orban, the Putin puppet, Orban, who Trump loves. I'm going to play it because I want people to see the visuals of what this look like. We'll just play it short so I don't want to annoy our audio listeners, but just, just take a look at this. And again, for audio listeners, it's just so many people, like hundreds of thousands in this, in the streets. Play this clip and then I'll show you. This is in Belgrade, Serbia. Let's play it. Over a million people, I think in Belgrade, Serbia protesting against the kind of Putin aligned regime right there. And when we come back from our last break, I want to talk to you about some of the things that Trump is doing right now to kind of further entrench and align himself and his regime with Putin. The types of things that he's saying that we talked about at the beginning of the show. What is being done to kind of combat that. This coalition of the willingness led by UK Prime Minister Kier Starmer, French President Emmanuel Macron, other leaders emerging. I mean, you're seeing the new Prime Minister in Canada, Mark Carney invited zelensky to the G7 summit that's going to be taking place in June, making a strong stance right there. And, and Europe and Australia and Canada uniting to be strong negotiating partners with Ukraine to check Donald Trump trying to just have bilateral negotiations with Putin, cut everybody out. And what Trump wanted to do was to basically split Ukraine. In my opinion. He wanted to steal the minerals for himself at his own sovereign wealth fund. And then he wanted to give the other part to Russia. That's I think Trump's vision of what the deal was going to be. Europe and Zelensky smoke that out early and they were able to say, no, no, no, we're pushing back. They're kind of leveraging kind of Marco Rubio against Trump. And because I think that Rubio is uncomfortable with what Trump's doing. But Rubio spineless and they see how to kind of use Rubio. They've been doing a good job checking Trump. But on Tuesday, Trump's going to be, be talking with Putin. So I think we can expect more of the Putin propaganda to flow on Tuesday and a bunch of ridiculous statements that will be coming out of Trump that will resemble and mirror anything that Putin tells him. Let's take our last quick break of the show. We got a lot to discuss. Still reminder Midas+.com or editor in Chief Ron Philip Koski does his great daily summaries there. And also patreon.com where you could meet Brett, Jordy and myself for one of our upcoming Zoom Chats. We'd love to see you there as well. Let's take our last quick break of the show. So since my daughter was born a few months back, I've been really focused on my fitness and doing what I can to stay healthy. And so I recently discovered Armor Colostrum and it's been a way I strengthen my immunity and gut health. And it's been great. Armor Colostrum can help you optimize your whole body microbiome, strengthen your immune barriers along the mouth, sinuses, gut, urinary and reproductive tract, and guard against unwelcome particles. For your strongest immune health. Armor Colostrum can help combat bloating. It helps you feel lighter. 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- [56:12]
Michael
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- [57:53]
Brett
Off.
- [57:56]
Michael
Let's go. Shout out to our sponsors Links in description of audio and YouTube shout out ZBiotics. They've been a sponsor for a while, I could definitely attest. Check them out. They're wonderful. Same with Armor. Check them out. We work hard on those deals for y'all. Love working with them. Benji. Where to next?
- [58:12]
Brett
Where to Barbie's Dollhouse. Wow, that's a good Barbie doll.
- [58:18]
Jordy
House.
- [58:18]
Brett
House. Donald Trump's. Yeah, there it is right there. There's Barbie's Dollhouse. Why am I showing you Barbie's Dollhouse? Because Donald Trump's treasury secretary Scott Bessant lives in the real life version. I'm not making this up of the Barbie Dollhouse or the Barbie mansion. It's a 22 million dollar sprawling pink mansion in Charleston, South Carolina. Donald Trump's treasury secretary is working worth about half a billion dollars. Maybe worth a little more. And he's been out there talking about how like the American people don't care about lower prices. That's not really what the American dream has anything to do with. So I, I just, we, we don't see that as anything that American people actually care about. So as Matthew Iglesias says, I guess when you already own a 22 million dollar mansion mention it's easy to sneer at the value of affordable durable goods. And this guy is like the sneer in chief, like the most arrogant, strange delivery like so out of touch here. This is what he said over the weekend.
- [59:28]
Ben
Let's play ask you about something that you actually said last week and we'll discuss it on the other side. Take a look. Access to cheap goods is not the asset, is not the asset essence of the American dream. The American dream is rooted in the concept that any citizen can achieve prosperity, upward mobility and economic security. Mr. Secretary, are you there essentially saying that the Trump administration is comfortable to have consumers pay more for goods in America? Not at all, Kristen. What I'm saying is the American dream is not let them eat flat screens. That if Americans, if American families aren't able to afford a home, aren't, don't believe that their children will do better than they are. The American dream is not contingent on cheap baubles they have from China. That it is more than that and we are focused on affordability. But it's mortgages, it's cars, it's real wage gains.
- [60:25]
Brett
Okay, didn't Donald Trump say that he was going to make things cheaper on day one? Wasn't the whole promise that things were going to be cheaper? Because I'll tell you, under former President Biden, GDP growth was hitting records high. The American economy was growing faster than China. 16.4 million jobs created under former President Biden. We had record low unemployment. We were energy independent. 40,000 infrastructure projects. Real wages were growing. Former President Biden got inflation under control. It was heading towards 2%, which is exactly where the Fed wanted it to be to cut interest rates. Rates. The Wall Street Journal had said that the American economy was the envy of the world. Others called it a Goldilocks economy, that it was just right what former President Biden handed over to Donald Trump. And now it just the question when you wake up in this Trump regime is like is today Donald Trump wants to take over Gaza and make it Trump Gaza Day? Is it he's going to say Shalom Hamas Day? Is it one of those where he goes shalom Hamas all hel going to break loose. Is it a tariff day where he starts, you know, saying that, oh, we're gonna, we're doing new tariffs on 200%, 500%, whatever, 100% on Canada, on Europe, and then he, then he tanks the markets on that day. Is it a conquer Greenland day? Is it a takeover Panama day? Or is it a do whatever Putin wants day and attack Zinsky day, which is basically like every day. And then you go through these, like, cycles like Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, which, which day is it going to be? And, you know, and this creates great instability in our markets, and it's leading to lower consumer confidence. At the end of last week, the University of Michigan consumer confidence showed that the inflation expectations were, I think, the worst since 2008, consumer confidence, the worst over the past five years. Job expectations the worst since 1987. And while all of this is taking place, one of the strange things we're seeing too is not only are you having Trump propagandists like Scott Besson just arrogantly just say Americans don't care about lower prices. You've got all these maggots now. They were doing it before, and it's a phenomenon we saw, we see in history with other authoritarian experience. They, they make themselves look like Trump. And we saw this, like, Hannity painted his face Trump about a year ago. Remember, like, Hannity started looking just like Trump, like, orange face. And then you had Maga Mike did this crazy Botox thing. And then he, he was on over the past two or three days. And I mean, I look at the guy, I mean, he, he looks like a different human being. He literally paints his face Trump. You've got Dr. Oz, like, literally makes himself look like, like, like Donald Trump, like, like splitting images of each other. Now, as he refused to answer whether or not they were just going to totally get rid of Medicaid and cut Medicaid. Here, let me just show you what Maga Mike was saying in his appearance that he's been saying, look, the, the grown ups are back with the economy. We've got it. We're gonna, we're gonna, we're gonna fix it. Everybody here, play this clip.
- [63:51]
Ben
We have President Trump back. He has a great team in place. He has willing partners in the House and Senate unified government. The adults are back in the room, okay? And we are going to turn this economy around. We need a little Runway to do it. I keep using this metaphor of a aircraft carrier. You know, it took decades to get into the mess that we're in. You don't turn an aircraft carrier on a dime, but you need miles of open ocean to do it. But we have begun that turn.
- [64:17]
Brett
One of the other analogies he gave to were, like, billiards and, like, it's like playing pool and you break it and then you have to go and then figure out which holes you're going to put the balls into first. And he looks ridiculous.
- [64:30]
Ben
What did he do to his face? Like, let me pull this back up. Like, it looks like he has. Did he get fillers?
- [64:34]
Michael
I, I, I, I think whoever did Matt Gates's Botox during the RNC or whatever the heck that was, that's who's doing. That's who's doing Mike Johnson's Botox now. I mean, oh, my God, you know what?
- [64:44]
Brett
It's like?
- [64:44]
Ben
It's like they go down to Mar A Lago and they have, like, some room or some door that they enter, and, like, they open the door and they go through, and then, like, they come out and they're like, they have this fake tan and, like, dyed hair and, like, fillers in their face, and they become, like, these Mar a Lago, like, Stepford Wives versions of themselves and just become these robots. And, like, there's some sort of process, it's like severance or something, where, like, they take, they take the parts out of your brain that make you anything that makes you semi normal, and they, like, implant in you. You like something that makes you this maga weirdo creature. Because something happens to these people around Trump, and it is just, we like the whole thing, all the vibes, everything that we're looking at is just so utterly strange. And you see Mike Johnson, he keeps going on the, on the various shows, and he says things like that, and then he'll say, and, you know, we're able to get all this waste, fraud, and abuse because of Elon and his algorithms. He's got his algorithms going through everything, and they just make things up. Like, they're just lying and, and we're still waiting. I'm still waiting. Where's all the waste, fraud, and abuse? Like, let me know. I know you've canceled some programs that you didn't like. I know you've gotten rid of the history of the Tuskegee Airmen. I know you're getting rid of a lot of our history and things like that. I haven't seen any results. In fact, I've seen that the United States actually spent more money this, this February than they did last February by a significant amount. So where are the cuts? The cuts just seem to Be. Be cruelty for cruelty's sake, because that's all we're seeing. But I think the problem that we're seeing is, you know, you see Trump and. And his approval with independence right now is just like, crashing, like, is a. It's something like, what is it then? It's 69 disapprove among independents or something like that. And I saw all these headlines about. It was like, trump gets his highest approval rating ever. And it was like, still 54 of people disapprove of him. And I was like, yeah, yeah, I don't know if that. That'd be the headline of that story. Story. But you see independents running away from him. One of the issues that we're seeing, though, right now is that the Democrats aren't super popular right now either, to say the least. There was a poll that came out about the Democrats that said 29% of Americans approve of what the Democrats are doing. But what that tells me is that Democrats are not listening to their base. They're not listening to the people. And so I am just urging any politician out there who wants to oppose Trump, don't just oppose Trump, but listen to the people. People listen to people. We are able to listen to people here. I don't know why you're not able to listen to people when it is your job to listen to people, unless you are willfully closing your ears and closing your eyes to everything that is happening out there. Because as we've seen with the fights with, like, the whole Chuck Schumer situation last week, just doing everything, it's like they choose to do whatever the opposite is of what the people want them to do every single time. And they hope that that could keep them in power. Power. But ultimately, you know, you got to represent the people, and the people right now want fighters. The people right now want you to do something. The people right now want to show that you could actually put up a fight against Donald Trump. And I think folks understand that, you know, the Democrats are in the minority right now with all this stuff. They understand the limitations. But a, don't lie to people and say you're going to do something and then back out on it, like Schumer did the other day, by saying, we're gonna fight. Nobody is gonna vote for this thing. We're all united on a different plan. And then the next day you vote, and then you have to cancel your book tour because you're afraid. You have a book tour planned, and you're afraid of people crashing your book tour now to protest you like how now frickin lame is that listen to the people and the people want you to fight where you are able to do things, do things. But that's why I like seeing what the people are doing. That's why I like seeing those images of the protests that we were seeing all weekend in various states across the country. People going to the state capitals, people going to. There was a protest in front of the New York Stock Exchange. There were protests I saw in Mike Lawler's district in the Hudson Valley in the Tarrytown area protesting the Medicaid cuts. The people are going to be there, right? The people are doing their thing. They need leaders who are going to be able to match their energy as well. So it's time to step up, folks. You know, don't, don't think you're going to just like skate on by because Trump is unpopular. Because if you're less popular than he is, they're not going to go to you. Give them some inspiration. Give them some reason to want to fight for you. I mean, you got it. You got to give people something.
- [69:04]
Michael
1,000%, Brad. 1,000%. Can you bring up that photo of Mike Johnson one more time?
- [69:09]
Ben
He looks, Mike.
- [69:12]
Michael
Yeah, just Mike. He looks like a ventriloquist dummy. That's what I was trying to. Yeah, Nothing's moving. Just his face. And you know what, in ways it's like an analogy or a metaphor for, for Johnson in general. Just the puppet. Yeah, just the puppet spewing Trump and Putin talking points at this point. I mean, talk about a guy who sold his soul. Like he, he, he was one of these rule of law guys. Yeah. Or at least that's what he pretended to be. Nope, not anymore. And then you look, you look at Dr. It's also creepy. Like what in the Kim Jong un are we even looking at? Donald Trump is holding golf tournaments. He seven time champion of his own golf tournament. This is just weird stuff. And you know what? It's okay to call this stuff weird because it is. Don't feel like, you know, any of this is normal. Don't be gaslit by corporate media and don't feel bad that you're calling this weird.
- [69:59]
Ben
Weird.
- [69:59]
Michael
This stuff is weird. Trump is holding up trophies and not actually working and saying, I, I won my final tour.
- [70:06]
Brett
Who's he?
- [70:07]
Michael
Jack Nicholas. I won my final championship game. Oh, man. Oh, Donnie, the crowd. We need to see you do one more season, please, Donnie, please come back next year. This is weird stuff. And I said this earlier on Blue sky. This is like, it's just the compounding effect of. Of WT ETF every day. And it's meant to be that way in many ways for you. It's meant to exhaust you. It's meant to make you want to look away. But now, more than ever, people aren't actually getting exhausted. You know, it is tiresome, don't get me wrong. But people are. Are angry and they're fed up. And so, please, for the love of God, Democratic leaders, like, just step up. People want fight. They want to see you out there talking to the people. But, like, earnestly talking, not talking like a weirdo politician, just be a human. In many ways, the Democratic leadership has become corporate media in the sense that the people are just a little bit upset and sick and tired and just seeing through all the nonsense. That's why independent media is rising.
- [71:06]
Brett
Right.
- [71:06]
Michael
People just want to be spoken to like people. Yeah. We all have our interests. We all want to see this country better off for the next generation than when we got here. So talk to us like humans.
- [71:16]
Ben
Jordy.
- [71:17]
Michael
Here's Democratic leaders. Your approval rating ratings will go up.
- [71:20]
Ben
And here's the thing I just want to emphasize also, it's not for a lack of these leaders existing. Like, there are plenty of people right now in the Democratic Party who are inspiring. There are plenty of people in the Democratic Party who are doing a great job of connecting with voters. When I see these town halls and I think these. These going into the red districts where these cowardly Republicans are too afraid to face their constituents, I think this is a brilliant way to show your fighting. Brilliant. And I love seeing whether it's, you know, Congressman Garcia who's doing this, or AOC doing this, or Bernie Sanders getting out there. We've covered Tim Walls going out there. When you. When you see all these politicians going out there and speaking to the people, speaking to the voters, I'm like, yes, that's exactly what we need. Even when you see on social media, when you see people like a Chris Murphy or. Or whoever it is going on social media and laying out the case for the American people in clear, concise ways, you're like, okay, so there are people who know how to communicate. There are people who know how to fight. Well, let's elevate those people to leadership positions. Let's stop going by this old fash. You know, it has to be a hierarchy of who's been in the Senate for the longest. And this guy's been in the Senate for 70 years, and so he deserves to lead this position which is going to have a very big public speaking role and is going to have a very big role that, that has to inspire folks. But let's put this guy who's been in the Senate for 60, 70 years up there. Like that's just not, that's not the world that we live in right now. We need a shake up. You need it to, you need inspiring leaders and those leaders exist. But those people need to be elevated. They need to continue to get out there insp the people. And we can't be sidelining, you know, some of the brightest people who are actually doing the work.
- [73:00]
Brett
Let's close out by playing a game called wtf. If what I say inspires you to say wtf, I want to hear you say it to your screen or to wherever you're listening. Just say wtf. Elon Musk has cut funding to the TSA for bomb sniffing service dogs, including their food and veterinary care. So he and Trump are quite literally exposing America to real terrorism everywhere. Wtf? Elon Musk's Doge cuts hit the team saving kidnapped Ukrainian children. A unit that helps rescue Ukrainian children kidnapped by Russia during its full scale invasion has been defunded as part of the operations of Donald Trump and doge. This was called the Yale University's Humanitarian Research Lab. Wtf? You have the following individual was just deported. Trump's DHS just deported a surgeon from Brown University Medical School who is here legally on an H1B visa that doesn't expire until 2027 and has committed no crime crimes. Trained in the US at Ohio State University and University of Washington and Yale as a transplant surgeon, one of the most difficult surgical fields in all of medicine. She is a highly trained doctor on kidney transplants which cannot be easily replaced. Her phone was seized at the border. A federal judge handed down an injunction against her deportation, but she was already deported on a plane en route to Paris. Brown's kidney transplant clinic is now strained by her deportation. Wtf? Nebraska, like many red states, is getting crushed between tariffs and Medicaid cuts. They have to balance their state budget and it looks like there's going to be at least a $200 million shortfall this year. This before the tariff impact and this before the Department of Education is abolished. Wtf? Donald Trump's National National Department of National Security DNI Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard just reposted an individual named Ian Miles Chung, a who's a pro Russian resident of Malaysia who just posted the following. So this is what the Director of National Intelligence just reposted. Trump has ordered the shutdown of the United States Agency for Global Media, which oversees Voice of America, Radio Free Europe, Radio Free Asia, Radio and Television Marty and Middle East Broadcasting Networks. These organizations are shut down because they produced and disseminated, it said. Narratives against Russia. It says perpetuated pro war narratives against Russia. Pro war narratives against Russia. That's the Director of National Intelligence. Wtf F I can keep on going on and on, but American people are pissed at this stuff. So whether you're a Democrat or just a human being, stand up and say, enough is enough. That's why, look, I love speaking to the politicians, the governors, the senators, the members of Congress who come on. But you know who sometimes I like to talk to? Sometimes I like to talk to people like Ken Casey. Y'all know Ken Casey is. He's the lead singer. Singer of Dropkick Murphy's, a band that since 1996, punk band putting out working class anthems, Right? So they're traveling the country right now. They're on their last stop of their tour in Boston. So it's fitting because of their song, of course, heading back to Boston, that that's where they're finishing their tour and they're from the area. But he speaks in front of these working class crowds all the time. Time. And I was able to interview him today because there's been a number of moments where he and the huge crowds that he's bringing together for their band's concerts, he's calling out, there'll be a few MAGA people in the audience. And again, his anthem is working class stuff. So. And of course, you know, his song I'm Shipping up to Boston. Here's Ken Casey when I interviewed him today. Here's what he said. And I think what he said here is just perfect.
- [77:25]
Jordy
Let's point up, because there's this whole, like, mentality that Maggot has painted that like, you know, you're either MAGA or you're, you know, drinking soy lattes, you know, or whatever, you know, and there's a. There's a lot of people that are just like, we're just regular people, but we don't want a dictator. We don't want to see people rip people's benefits ripped away, especially veterans and people who have worked their whole life to pay into Social Security. I just don't understand, you know, if someone was going to trick Americans into what has happened, I would. I would have, like, thought it might have been like a Brad Pitt or someone. A little bit cooler or whatever. Like the fact that Elon Musk, the guy looks like he's, he's literally seems like a villain from a movie mixed with the guy that's like mid nervous breakdown and Donald Trump's just a clown. I just can't believe how they've been the two that have that are swaying people's views.
- [78:24]
Brett
I thought that's a perfect way to end this episode on, on St. Patrick's Day. So oh, and by the way, there they have a live concert right now that's playing and in the description below, as soon as this show ends, we'll throw in the description below. It's a website called like Veeps Events, Dropkick Murphy's. But we'll throw the link because they're, they're playing live as we speak right now in Boston. So you can check it out as they play. I'm shipping up to Boston. Well, there you have it, everybody. Hit subscribe. Help us get to 5 million subscribers. Subscribers. Make sure you subscribe on all platforms, on audio, on video, wherever the podcast and the show is available. Check it out. We're almost at 5 million subscribers. Also go to patreon.com Midas Touch we're going to be announcing soon and putting our secret link of where to meet us. It's what's going to happen in the next few days or so or maybe early next week. But we'll give that date soon and we'd love to meet all of our supporters. So patreon.com mite midas touch and check out midas plus.com as well. Our editor in chief, Ron Philipowski did a great summary today. Brett, anything else you want to add?
- [79:31]
Ben
No, that's it. I love Dropkick Murphy's man. They're so badass and Ken Casey is the ultimate badass. And seeing these clips, you know the ones we've been posting a lot on our social media of these moments that have been happening at his rallies, they're just, I mean at his, at his concerts they're just absolutely electric. And all the interviews that that Ben does on the network are always available on the audio podcast site on the, on the Apple podcasts and Spotify. And if you love Ben nerding out on the law with all the stuff about the Alien Enemies act, we got a whole podcast dedicated to that as well. So check out the legal AF podcast that has been other attorneys like Michael Popa, Karen Freeman Agnifolo used to be the number two at the Manhattan DA's office Dina Doll we got a great crew of the best attorneys in the country who give legal analysis on that podcast, Legal af. So make sure that you are subscribed. Jordy, it's been great having you back on the show. The vibes are back, the energy is back having you buddy. And I, you know, I've been doing the sign off, but I. I can't do it like you do it, Jordy. So show the people how it's done.
- [80:32]
Michael
Shout out to the Midas mighty, the.
- [80:37]
Ben
Standing strong against the fascist we sing.
- [80:45]
Brett
Our song.
- [80:49]
Ben
We will get get it right.
- [80:52]
Michael
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