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- [00:01]
Ben Miceli
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Brett Meiselas
If your identity is stolen, a US.
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Ben Miceli
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Brett Meiselas
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Ben Miceli
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Brett Meiselas
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- [01:30]
Ben Miceli
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As a proud gun owner, I believe in the second amendment. But rights come with responsibility. That means refining your accuracy, mastering your skills, and staying prepared every time you train. Whether you're a new shooter or an experienced marksman, Mantis X helps you train smarter, shoot better, and defend what matters most. Get yours today@mantisx.com that's Mantis X.com Donald Trump's approval rating continues to plummet. The worst in presidential history. Not a shocker after all of the disasters that he is putting this country through. Another humiliating Oval Office visit by a foreign leader. The President of South Africa, President Cyril Ramaphosa visited the White House and Donald Trump started showing him white supremacist genocide propaganda that is just completely and utterly fabricated. What an embarrassing sight for Donald Trump to be showing these conspiracy theories and making the president of South Africa watch these things as Donald Trump was pulling like random conspiracy laden Facebook accounts and the South African president was like, what the hell are you even showing me? And the international community looks on with absolute horror. I want to remind everybody as well that June 14th, no kings protest indivisible. Once again running those protests with some other groups. We're going to be making sure we promote that because we the people need to take to the streets peacefully. Especially when the MAGA Republicans are at it again, pushing through in the middle of this night, this disastrous murder bill, because that's what it is. This ain't a budget bill. When it removes 14 million people from the healthcare that they need to survive, you call it a murder bill. We also learned that in addition to gutting people's Medicaid, it's also attacking people on Medicare. We know that. It's removing supplemental nutrition assistance programs, food stamps, it's removing rental assistance. It's basically gutting the budget for hud, it's gutting the budget for fema. But guess what, it has removed all regulations for silencers and there's no longer fees associated with getting a suppressor. So somehow that's in the bill. Also tax exemptions for tanning beds. And of course, if you are a billionaire, you just got massive tax cuts from the largest redistribution of wealth in American history from people who are already living paycheck to paycheck. Those paychecks are being snatched so the billionaire Mar a Lago class can get more tax cuts, more private jets, more mansions. Talking about the Mar a lago billionaire class, Donald Trump is hosting this evening a event for his meme Coin holders, the people who have paid the most money for Donald Trump's disastrous meme coin, where I think only two dozen wallets actually made money, while literally tens of thousands of people who bought this meme coin lost tons and tons of money. But yes, the Trump, Donald Trump is hosting this meeting and the Trump regime is refusing to list the attendees who have spent at least around a million dollars for meme coins to meet with Donald Trump. Also, we've learned that Donald Trump has upped the fees at Mar a Lago. It's now $1 million. If you want that access and you want to join Mar a Lago. And the federal government officially accepted the Qatari gold plated jet that Donald Trump's going to use in his personal capacity after he leaves, which he claims it's going to be for the presidential library, which is not created, which basically means Donald Trump's going to ferry around or fly around his other billionaire oligarch buds. On the authoritarian front, what's not on the authoritarian front with this cacistocracy? But the Trump regime deported a Burmese national to South Sudan in violation of a federal court order from Judge Murphy in Massachusetts. Judge Murphy found a violation of his order. I think we're going to be heading towards criminal contempt, by the way, which is why in that disastrous tax bill, there is a provision to remove criminal contempt and contempt as a power that federal judges have. Of course, that's patently unconstitutional, but what else would you expect from the maga Republicans in Congress who have also decided to rename savings accounts to Trump savings accounts. That's one of the things that they had to change before the bill was pushed through in the House of Representatives. Also on the authoritarian front, the Trump regime is saying that any international student that goes to Harvard will be declared illegal and unlawfully in the United States and they will get immediately deported to, who knows where, concentration camps in El Salvador, South Sudan, Libya, maybe their home country, who knows? The Trump regime attacking Harvard because Harvard is standing up to it and the Trump regime wanted to fully capture it. So they're going after international students. So we used to get the brain drain from other countries, the best and the brightest coming to the United States. Now China, Europe, Canada, elsewhere are taking the best students away from the United States as the Trump regime dismantles everything here in the United States of America. And we'll talk about this Supreme Court ruling, which was a bad one, which basically is allowing Donald Trump to fire the leaders, the heads, the chair, people of these independent agencies. Although it seems that the one exception is going to be the Federal Reserve. And that's where the Supreme Court's going to say that they're not going to allow Trump to fire Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell. We'll talk about that and more. So I guess you can say a busy week indeed. Brett and Jordi, let's get into it.
- [08:33]
Brett Meiselas
A big week indeed. And it looks like we lost Jordy for a second. I'm not sure where he went, but. Oh, there he is. Jordy, welcome back to the show. Busy week indeed. Each day gets wor worse than the next, to be honest. And I think the thing that has always been consistent in the era of Trump is the alarmists have always been right. The alarmists have always been told it's not as bad as you think it's going to be. It's not going to be as bad as you think. And it is always not only as bad, but somehow worse because Donald Trump concocts these ridiculous new ways of destroying the country, of destroying the world. And we are seeing that day by day, these authoritarian attacks on all of our institutions. Institutions, whether it's institutions like USAID or whether it's institutions like Harvard, things that the United States was well respected for, things that were revered, things that people looked up to as the gold standard in our country are the things that Donald Trump is attacking as he tries to destroy this country. And that budget bill is just the perfect example of all the craziness that is going on. It just sums up the Kaka stock racy with the stupidity of the Trump administration, with the pure evilness of what they are doing. Remember that quote from Joe Biden, that famous quote from Joe Biden where he said, listen, don't tell me what you value. Show me your budget and I'll tell you what you value. And this budget from House Republicans here is so insane and makes their values very clear. Ripping away from the needy Americans, ripping away from the people who rely on government programs, who rely on Medicare, on Medicaid, who rely on food stamps, giving the biggest tax break ever to the wealthy, making the rich richer as they laugh at the other people in this country and tell them to say thank you for whatever little other tax provisions they did to try to make him happy. The brainwashing here, the messaging here from the Republican Party could not be more disingenuous. But I gotta say, guys, I gotta give it up to these Democrats who, let's face it, are getting a lot of crap these days. A lot of it warranted, some of it not warranted but they really stood up. They came to fight. They were there overnight. They were putting in new amendments. They were doing every procedural move that they possibly could. They delayed this thing, they exposed this thing. And I got to give it up to them. You got to give them their do when they do the work that we sent them to Washington for. So good stuff there. We're going to break it all down. Jordy, welcome back. How you doing? What's the latest?
- [10:54]
Jordy Meiselas
Let's go. Excited for today's show. It's going to be a deep episode from, from what I understand here. So I just want to start off on a brief light note. The brothers don't even know this Midas mighty, so I'm going to show them for the first time as well. Guys, look what came today. Let's go. The Webby Award podcast of the year. We got the Webby award. Thank you guys so much.
- [11:13]
Brett Meiselas
He's holding his Webby for the audio listeners. And he literally, literally didn't tell us about this at all.
- [11:17]
Jordy Meiselas
No, no, it just came. It just came right before the show. And this is all, I think, Jordy.
- [11:21]
Brett Meiselas
Did you swindle the award?
- [11:22]
Ben Miceli
You just.
- [11:23]
Brett Meiselas
You got the award?
- [11:24]
Jordy Meiselas
Yep. Boom. Just right there. So I just want to say thank you guys so much. Seriously, before we get going, it's all thanks to you guys that we even have this. It's a community. It's a win for everyone here.
- [11:34]
Ben Miceli
Right?
- [11:34]
Jordy Meiselas
I might have the trophy, but it's literally for the Midas mighty, for this pro democracy community. Because, look, this is. This is what truth means, people, right? This is why we wear the podcast of the year. It's all thanks to you guys for wanting to be truth tellers and truth seekers and relying on us to give you guys the facts, the data, the receipts that we bring every night and that we're going to bring to this show today. So thank you guys, seriously, so much. This is absolutely incredible. This is your award as much as it is. Thank you, guys. Thank you. Benji, where do you want to start off Today?
- [11:59]
Ben Miceli
Donald Trump is a felon. He's a fraud. He's a sexual abuser. He is someone who has bankrupted company after company. He's a destroyer and not a builder. He's someone who handles debt very poorly. His fraud case involved him making up valuations, just coming up with fake numbers in order to manipulate markets and manipulate lenders and manipulate insurance companies. And so when you have someone who engages in that behavior, a very low character individual who should be imprisoned right now, he should be in Jail. That's where he belongs. He's a vile piece of trash, so that's where he belongs. But now he's running the country. And he's running the country the same way he destroyed Atlantic City. I mean, just take Atlantic City for example, right? I mean, he bought three casinos right next to each other. Everyone said that's the stupidest thing ever. Why are you buying three? You're going to cannibalize them. And then you've over leveraged this transaction. You're not going to be able to pay back your lenders. They're going to go bankrupt. And what did Donald Trump do? He had a big flashy opening, got all of the media. Michael Jackson showed up. Gold this, gold that. You gotta go big, you gotta go big. Any whistleblower or person that said this is the stupidest thing ever, Donald Trump made sure that they got fired. They ended up suing him. I know there are some cases where Donald Trump settled confidentially with those individuals. It's the same story with him. And what happened? Atlantic City goes bankrupt, Trump's casinos go bust. People lose their jobs, people lose their livelihoods. Donald Trump screws them. But Donald Trump's able to, you know, extract money for himself. He blames others, he blames the city. I would have been great. I would have been great. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. It's just the same shtick over and over again, you know, and he's, he's a one trick pony. He does the same stuff. And I'll just give you an example, using the felon as a framework. I mean, during Donald Trump's criminal trial, what would he do? He would have, literally someone who worked for him called the human printer was her name. She's the human printer. She'd run around with a portable printer and she would give him these right wing brain rot slop articles from like the, the, the depths, the dredges of the Internet, the craziest stuff. And he would go and he would read the articles or he would have like Fox hosts write the articles for him. And he would read these articles as though he was like reading facts. This is exactly what he did in the Oval Office. He had the human printer hand him like Facebook, like crazy right wing extremist, racist, like Facebook articles, like pro apartheid Facebook pages. And he would be reading these things to President Ramaphosa, Cyril Ramaphosa of South Africa. And President Ramaphosa of South Africa was someone who fought to end apartheid tied with Nelson Mandela. Ramaphosa was there with the white agriculture minister, the Guy who's in charge of the farms. He brought the white agriculture minister with him, which I thought was a brilliant movie. Brought some white golfers with him as well. So he would tell Donald Trump he's going, ask the white guy. Okay, and you want to ask the white agriculture minister if there's a genocide happening with white people? It's not happening. That doesn't exist. Don't you. Why would the white Africana agriculture minister be here with me right now if there was a genocide? He's right here. And Donald Trump's like, but let me show you the video. Let me show you the video. Do you know how humiliating that makes us look? Do you know how ridiculous. These aren't wins for America. This makes America look like the craziest place. So no wonder the latest data says that in terms of tourism from Europe, it's down 25%. That's a big freaking number. A quarter of all travel from Europe to the United States done in Canada, that's closer to 50 to 75%. I just want you to think about these staggering numbers in Australia. Elsewhere, it's, it's those types of numbers and that's going to ultimately show up in the data next quarter quarters after 2026, 2027. Let me just show you though, when I say Trump's a one trick pony here. Donald Trump is at his felony trial where he. I think this one's the felony trial where he's going. He was at so many trials last year, the civil trial, felony trial. But here he is going through these articles, you know, one by one. And let's just take a look at, I'm not sure, let's see if this was the civil or the criminal. But here, play this clip. And even having to do with articles, somebody writes an article. If I read every one of these articles, incomplete, I read some of it and I'll look at headlines, all good headlines, if the case is a sham. But I can't read the whole thing. I'd be reading. This is like reading a novel. So I put an article in and then you. Somebody's name is mentioned somewhere deep in the article and I end up in violation of a gag order. I think it's a disgrace, it's totally unconstitutional. I don't believe it's never, not to this extent, ever happened before. So you see him, he's holding the articles and that's what he was doing with President Ramaphosa of South Africa. So I just think about this scene right now, right? You're in the Oval Office, the Oval Office. Right. Donald Trump has like made this office the most gaudy, crazy looking thing also by like spray painting everything gold. He's got all of these like everywhere you look there's like these like portraits of everybody around him. Like there's like no space for anything. Everything's painted gold around him. You've got Marjorie Taylor Greene's boyfriend is one of the reporters that gets access to this thing. And Marjorie Taylor Greene's boyfriend is further perpetuating this, these lies about like white genocide in South Africa. Asking a question. And remember Brian Glenn was the guy who attacked Zelensky for not wearing a suit. So they have him ask questions like that. And then you have the President of South Africa saying, why don't you, why don't you ask the Agriculture minister? He's white. That's what he goes. He goes, he's white. Here, play this clip. Numbers of people that want to leave South Africa because they feel they're going to be dead very soon. Yes, please, Brian, if I can ask you a question. 72% of farmers in your country are white. If they flee, do you feel that maybe the economy could collapse?
- [18:55]
Jordy Meiselas
You may not have a gap to.
- [18:56]
Ben Miceli
Fill in those people that need replace those farmers.
- [18:59]
Brett Meiselas
You know, I'd like my Minister of.
- [19:01]
Ben Miceli
Agriculture, who is white, who comes from an opposition party to mine, who's joined.
- [19:10]
Brett Meiselas
My government and my invitation to address some this very issue, including the question.
- [19:18]
Ben Miceli
That you've just raised. John, thank you very much, Mr. President.
- [19:22]
Brett Meiselas
Mr. President, thank you for welcoming us.
- [19:23]
Ben Miceli
To the White House. I would say we have a rural, safe profit in South Africa. I don't think anyone wants to candy coat that. And it requires a lot of effort to get on top of it. It's going to require more policing resources. It's going to require different strategy to be able to deal with it. But certainly the majority of South Africa's commercial and smallholder farmers really do want to stay in South Africa and make it work. And I've just come from the largest agricultural show in the southern hemisphere with organized agriculture and farmers. And the majority of them want to stay. But they too, they have a memorial to those who've died as a result of farm attacks. And as the Minister of Agriculture, it is something that I particularly exercised with my colleagues at police and my colleagues in the justice cluster to stop making farm attacks and stock theft approach. And it affects all farmers in South Africa particularly. Stock theft has a disproportionate effect on smaller black farmers. Brett and Jordy, I'll call You in right there. I thought it was, though, just seeing, though, the civil discourse, though, between President Ramaphosa of South Africa, the Agriculture Minister, the respect that they're from different parties, and according to just. According to Trump, you have Ramaphosas committing genocide against the guy right there. And so that's how crazy and deranged this conspiracy that they're pushing is. And Trump keeps on pushing it there.
- [20:52]
Brett Meiselas
It's quite the scene, honestly.
- [20:54]
Ben Miceli
It's quite the scene.
- [20:55]
Brett Meiselas
Let me point you over to this white gentleman over here to combat your disinformation. All right, Mr. President. Yeah, I am indeed white, but I'm not being genocided.
- [21:05]
Ben Miceli
It's like. It's absolutely like the crazy.
- [21:08]
Brett Meiselas
The whole scene is crazy. You know, at minimum, I think it seems like a bit of a problem that the President of the United States is making policy based on watching debunked Facebook videos. This is like, if you're crazy, you know, uncle out there or whatever, it's like the things that you get sent in your, you know, forward, forward, forward, forward, forward, and chain emails. Did you see this? Did you see, you know, what Obama was doing? Did you hear about the Hillary cabal? Did you hear about the South Africa genocide? And you're like, okay, uncle, this is. This is nuts. I get it. I get it. You're. You're crazy. But everything they showed, like, they show these videos that literally are just like, viral slop that go, you know, are from. Or Facebook. They're nothing like what they're talking about at all, but they build these fake narratives. But this is the danger of Trump's lies. And this is why I've always said that his lying is not just about mere lying. It has actual consequences, because he then takes those lies and he puts them into policy. He takes those lies and tries to punish other countries for it. He tries to attack other people for it. This is basically the cats and the dogs. They're eating the cats. They're eating the.
- [22:06]
Ben Miceli
This is that.
- [22:07]
Brett Meiselas
But now in the Oval Office with a world leader, and he is yelling at this world leader, kind of reminiscent of the Zelensky in the Oval Office situation, based on a completely false premise where nothing even exists. There is no there there. So you have the president of South Africa who has to sit there and kind of baby the guy. Okay, Mr. President.
- [22:25]
Ben Miceli
Okay, let me.
- [22:28]
Brett Meiselas
You know, I don't really know what you're talking about, but let me redirect you to this guy. The whole scene is just completely embarrassing from start to finish. And then you have the sycophants around Donald Trump who just back up his every word. You have J.D. vance kind of looking at, he has that same court sort of sniveling look that he had when Zelensky was in there. And he's pass, you know, Donald Trump. These various papers, our researchers here at Midas Touch, they did a deep dive. They saw one of the papers that Donald Trump was holding up during that press conference and it was one that J.D. vance was looking at a little bit. And then J.D. vance picked it up, handed it over to Trump. Trump picks it up, he reads from it. Trump calls it an article. Trump says, I have these articles right here that are speaking about all the murders of the white people in South Africa. I look at these articles. So our researchers here, they found a high resolution photo of the article in question. They traced it back to a Facebook post on just a random Facebook user who is a white nationalist Facebook user who all of his posts are more racist than the next. I'm not going to show them here because they're so racist. First off, I don't even want to put that out into the world on this stream, but they'd probably get me banned from YouTube. Quite frankly, they probably get me banned from these podcasting platforms if I even showed them to you. They are that horrific. We do have them on our Midasplus.com we have all the research there if you want to go. Just so you don't have to take my word for it. Midasplus.com our substack. We have the deep dive on where Donald Trump was getting his information from, but it was literally coming from Facebook posts by avowed white nationalists who would post racist content, content of anti black content. Just the most horrific stuff you have ever seen. Spreading this lie of the genocide that these MAGA influencers and these Trump followers then just repeat as if it's gospel.
- [24:21]
Jordy Meiselas
Brett, it's such a brilliant point that I don't want it to get overlooked because you said it quickly. Where have we heard this story before? This is, this is the Haitian immigrants in Ohio. They're eating the cats, they're eating the dogs. It's that disgusting, vile conspiracy that Donald Trump likes to perpetuate these racist conspiracies. Why? Because it's red meat for his audience, for his MAGA base. MAGA. MAGA. Don't look at your 401ks since Trump took office. No, don't, don't do that. Don't look at the stock market right now. Don't look at the Medicare and The Medicaid that Congressional Republicans are stripping. Not the SNAP programs either. Don't look there. What Congressional Republicans did last night. We don't want you focused on that. Uh, we need you to focus on the real issues. MAGA base, the white South African farmer genocide. Look there. Point all your energy there. That's what Donald Trump does, right? He's trying to distract, distract, distract. And I think in 2017, the media landscape was not built to hold Donald Trump accountable for everything. But that's what I'm so proud about with this community here, is that we can walk and chew gum at the same time. We could point all of those things out, and we will throughout the course of this episode. And we could also say, hey, what is happening right here in this moment in the Oval Office with Donald Trump? This is racist, vile, and disgusting. And it's all meant to distract that MAGA base. Absolutely. Just filth, filth today.
- [25:54]
Ben Miceli
It's great replacement theory, though, too, in action. Right? What Trump wants to do is he wants to get the white Afrikaners to come into the United States to replace brown and black people. Like, let's be blunt and not mince words, what he's trying to do. The white Africaners, though, really don't want to come here. As you heard from the Agriculture minister there, yes, there is violence in South Africa, but even they would rather be, by and large, in South Africa versus in the United States.
- [26:23]
Brett Meiselas
And those questions, white men here, white man here. I want to.
- [26:27]
Ben Miceli
The way the question, though, is even kind of framed, and you have to understand the whole setup here is Trump wants to get rid of Venezuelans, Haitians, Colombians, Cubans, other Latinos for Trump, Hondurans, you know, all of the groups, the Latinos for Trumps, he wants to get rid of them. He's taking away their temporary protected status. He doesn't want them here. If your color is brown or black, he inherently views you as. As a. A criminal. And so he wants you. He wants you gone. So he's taking all of the steps to. To do that. I mean, we've learned even more today that people who are showing up, who are here through lawful process, asylum, or going through the immigration process, the Department of Homeland Security is now immediately dismissing these cases against the migrants who show up for their immigration appearance. So that as they show up at immigration court or to just kind of check in, they get arrested, detained, and then sent back right away. So they want to get rid of the Latinos for Trump and Haitians for Trump. And if your skin color looks a certain way. And then they want to bring in the African, they want to bring in the white south, they want to direct replacement, hence the great replacement theory. So that's what, like, that's what they're trying to accomplish. And you see it happen in the Oval Office. And the President of South Africa is like, what, what are you showing me? What is this? What are, what are you doing? And I'll tell you who's smiling. Xi Jinping of China. You know, he's smiling. And frankly, you know, even other people who are competitive to the United States are loving it. I mean, you have French President Emmanuel Macron leading delegations from the European UN Union taking trips to Southeast Asia and other places in Asia, basically saying, all right, we're the stabilizing force. China's out there saying we're the stabilizing force. Canada saying, we're the stabilizing force. Do business with us. And the reason why the American bonds are such a disaster right now, why the 10, 20, 30 year treasury yields are reaching record highs right now, is because in these bond auctions, nobody wants to buy our notes where they used to be the safest, most secure place to put your money. No one wants to buy our notes anymore. Instead they're buying it elsewhere. So that's why you see the 30 year yield reaching record highs. And it just keeps going up and up and up and up. And it's a real problem. So let's talk about that. Let's talk about how this budget deal exacerbates the problem. We can talk a little bit more about this Oval Office appearance, but I think we've, we've covered it a lot and I think y' all understand what, what went down there without me saying this clip, that clip. I think, I think we all sufficiently get what transpired. But, but let's take our, let's take a quick break for the show. I want to remind everybody about a few things. Midasplus.com that's our substack. Check it out. We dropped that exclusive article today that Brett mentioned. Midasplus.com subscribe to our YouTube. Subscribe to the Midas Touch on audio as well. We've got a lot of people who listen to Rogan giving one star reviews to the show. Help us wherever audio podcasts are available. Search Midas Touch. Give it a 5 star review. If you think this deserves a 5 star review. Also our patreon is patreon.com Midas Touch. Sometime next week we'll do a live Patreon meeting. If you want to meet me, Brett and Jordy, we can tell you about our New York trip, the Webbies, all of that. It also supports our network. We don't have outside investors and we're still beating Fox and all cable news. And it's thanks to things like this. And it's thanks to our pro democracy sponsors. So let's take a quick break, hear from those pro democracy sponsors. We'll be right. Look, starting a new business can be intimidating. I get it. Midas Touch Network was not built overnight. 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- [32:03]
Jordy Meiselas
The older I get, the more I find myself wanting to be more intentional about the way I live, eat and take care of my body. That's why I'm so happy I found Mosh. Mosh, which you may have heard about on Shark Tank, was founded by Maria Shriver and her son Patrick Schwarzenegger with a simple mission to create a conversation about brain health through food, education and research. Maria's father suffered from Alzheimer's and since then she and Patrick have dedicated themselves to finding ways to help other families dealing with this debilitating disease. MASH joined forces with the world's top scientists and functional nutritionists to go beyond your average protein bar with eight delicious flavors including a plant based one in peanut butter and chocolate. Each Mach bar is made with ingredients that support brain health like Ashwagandha, Lion's maid, collagen and omega 3s. And now Mach bars come with a new look and new formulation featuring a game changing brain boosting ingredient that you won't find in any other bar. Mach is now the first and only food brand boosted with Cognizant, a premium nootropic that supplies the brain with a patent form of city choline. But here's the best part to make you feel good, Mosh donates a portion of all proceeds from your order to fund gender based brain health research through the Women's Alzheimer's movement. Why gender based? Because 2/3 of all Alzheimer's patients are women. MASH is working closely to close the gap between women and men's health research. Personally, I love the taste of my Mosh bars. My favorite is the Peanut Butter Crunch which I have each morning before I head off to the gym. Now if you want to find ways to give back to others and fuel your body and your brain, Mash bars are the perfect choice for you. Head to moshlife.com midas to save 20% off plus free shipping on the bestseller trial pack. That's 20 off plus free shipping on the best Sellers Trial pack at M O S H-L-I-F E.com Midas thank you Mosh for sponsoring this episode. Let's go shout out to our pro democracy sponsors links in the description of both the YouTube and the audio. Use the links, use the codes. Let them know we sent you if there's an exit survey. I got one more thing everybody before we get into the next topic. I don't want to lose sight of this. It's Memorial Day weekend. We got a Memorial Day sale. Store.midas touch.com we got new designs up there. Wet Hot Democracy Summer. An incredible because truth is golden. New tea up there. It's awesome. And yeah, we got, we got some tanks for summertime, some new stickers. Check it out. Use code truth t r u t h truth@store. By this touch.com Get 10% off running our Memorial Day sale. So thank you guys.
- [34:39]
Ben Miceli
You know, Donald Trump is spending this evening hosting a private event for people who have bought his meme coin. And the Trump regime refuses to release the names of the people who he's meeting with. It's believed that over 75% of the people there are either from foreign countries or have foreign ties there. It's a group of, I think, 22 people who have each spent about, on average, about a million doll. These are some people who were under criminal investigation before for their involvement in serious crypto issues, but who now are sitting there at the table embraced by a felon, you know, and Donald Trump. But I just think that's a theme we need to keep on talking about. Donald Trump is a felon and he's behaving as felons behave. It's why, it's why he should be behind bars. I don't want to normalize, you know, any of this, frankly. So Caroline Levitt, Donald Trump's chief propagandist, the way North Korea's Kim Jong Un has a purple dressed lady, America has Caroline Levitt, just similar, just right out of central casting. And she's asked a question that's also asked the way you would ask a question in an authoritarian regime. So, you know, Donald Trump. You all value transparency? No, you know. No, they don't. So can we get the names of the people who are going to be there? Just watch this interaction. Play this.
- [36:07]
Brett Meiselas
You're welcome. Thanks for being here, Garrett. Go ahead, Caroline. You guys are very proud of your record on transparency. I have two transparency related questions for you.
- [36:14]
Ben Miceli
Sure.
- [36:15]
Brett Meiselas
On the President's dinner tonight, will the White House commit to making a list.
- [36:18]
Ben Miceli
Of the attendees public so people can.
- [36:20]
Brett Meiselas
See who's paying for that kind of.
- [36:22]
Ben Miceli
Access to the President?
- [36:23]
Brett Meiselas
Well, as you know, Gareth, this question has been raised with the President. I have also addressed the dinner tonight. The President is attending it in his personal time. It is not a White House dinner. It's not taking place here at the White House. But certainly I can raise that question and try to get you an answer for it.
- [36:39]
Ben Miceli
Okay.
- [36:39]
Brett Meiselas
And on the Qatari aircraft, the Air Force has said they're going to classify all the information about the work that.
- [36:45]
Ben Miceli
Has to get done to bring it.
- [36:46]
Brett Meiselas
Up to SNUF to be Air Force One. Previous Air Force One contracts, including the one at the President entered into in 2018, are public. That's available knowledge. Will the White House commit to releasing who's doing that work and the cost of that work? I understand that some elements might be classified about specific systems. Will you commit to releasing that basic information so people can see ultimately what this costs? Well, Garrett, as you know, that's a question for the Department of Defense in the United States Air Force, who is accepting this jet as part of their fleet. You classify anything you Want? Well, you'll have to ask the Department of Defense, Defense in the United States Air Force, who is accepting this jet as part of its fleet.
- [37:21]
Ben Miceli
Peter, Again, it's being given to Donald Trump for Trump's hypothetical presidential library is what they're claiming it as. And so now they're going with the Department of Defense is accepting it as part of its fleet. So even if that is the case, which it isn't, how embarrassing. America gets the seconds or the thirds from Qatar. That's that. That's who we are. Also, do you see the pattern here? We don't get to know who's at the meme coin dinner. We don't get to get the information about Air Force One. The Trump regime has filed this emergency petition yesterday with the United States Supreme Court saying that all of Doge activities should be privileged so they never have to respond to a Freedom of Information act request. It should all fall under executive privilege and other immunities so that we can never know what Doge was communicating about, what it was. I thought they said they wanted transparency. Nope. They're trying to block it all and prevent Freedom of Information act requests. The MAGA Republicans want to rush through their disastrous bill at 1am in the morning. Like, do you sense a pattern here? Go back to it. Trump is a felon. Trump is a criminal. Okay? This is how felons and criminals act, how they behave. They want to hide the things. They want to do it in a sneaky way. If they loved it, why wouldn't you just go and brag about it? This was such a great deal. Why, why, why wouldn't you talk about it? Why wouldn't you do all that instead? What they want public is the lies and the disinformation and they want to keep the truth private. It's why our slogan is truth is golden. Because we want to shed light on just what is happening so that people can get objective data and make informed decisions about what's taking place. Here, let me pass this to Brett and Jordi. What do you think about that? Let me also share with you as well. Or Brett, if you want to know. What do you think about this happen?
- [39:32]
Brett Meiselas
No, I mean, it's just the most cr. I just have a problem with the lack of honesty here with when they say they want to be efficient, where they say they want to cut costs, all this stuff and the fact that the media often goes along with this, basically always goes along with this complete and utter scam. Like just because they say they are quote, unquote, fiscal Conservatives or Ben, I know you mock them all the time for saying they're fiscal hawks. I paused for sound effect. I knew it was coming. But just because they say that all the time doesn't mean that you have to then parrot it, no pun intended, and act like that is true. Because throughout history that has never been true. And yes, both parties spend, but when you look on the whole about who has been better for the economy, who has actually spent less, who has had lower deficits, who's added more to the debt, you see a big difference in this area. Especially when you look at what Democrat, what presidents have balanced the budget. Budget, you see like Bill Clinton, when you look at what presidents exploded the deficit more than anybody in history, you see Donald Trump, you see George W. Bush. And the same things happen with each administration. And the fact that they still get to get away with this scam is just absolutely insane to me. And all these Republicans just go along with it and all the people just go along with it. And it's just, it's, it's so mind numbing to me that they could act like all, they're saving all this money from Doge, which they weren't at all. Doge is going to cost us money. Doge, I think, is going to cost us trillions of dollars based on what they did with the IRS alone. But then you see them put forward this bill after months and months and months of saying, you don't deserve your job, federal employee, you don't deserve your job because we need to save money. So you are fired. We're saying you're bad at your job. Now you're fired. Or just the ridiculousness when you look back at like them cutting, you know, subscriptions for like Microsoft Office and like Adobe Photoshop and things that cost, you know, 30 bucks a month, 50 bucks a month, just like the things that allow the people to actually do their jobs, taking that away, causing all this chaos, only then come to the House floor with a bill that calls to increase the debt ceiling by $4 trillion to explode the deficit by trillions, to explode the debt by, I think it's like 30 trillion. It's like the craziest number over 10 years. It's absolutely bonkers. And to look the American people the straight face and say that this is actually going to save us money, this is actually a good thing. And while everything in that bill goes to take the money from the people who need it and give the money to the people who absolutely do not need it, it is just sick. The whole thing is just so sickening from start to finish.
- [42:14]
Jordy Meiselas
Well, that's the thing, you know, it's just the. It's the. It's the repentance, it's the pattern that we've seen from this regime time and time again. They really don't give a damn about the American people. How many times do we have to see this play out? They care about lining their own pockets by any means, and they lie easier than they breathe. It's just unbelievable to really see play out. And Ben, you're right. I mean, looking at Levitt up there, like, what in the Kim Jong un are we even looking at that she could just. Just lie like that, that. And just have no remorse for what she's even doing up there. It's just brutal to see play out.
- [42:50]
Ben Miceli
You know, you take a look at just each aspect of not just government, but the things that make America successful, that we were one, a beacon of financial stability. And we see the Trump regime wrecking that with their malicious and reckless trade war against the world. By the way, zero day, zero deals in 90 days so far, they've made no deals. The United Kingdom thing was not a deal. If you actually read the document, it says this is not a binding deal, like literally a fake deal. And if it did anything, it gave special exemptions for Jaguar, Rolls Royce and Land Rover, who get preferential treatment to American car manufacturers who are hit with the higher tariffs from Mexico and Canada. What we did with China was not a deal. It was the United States caving. It was a consensus is why China calls it a consensus, not a deal. And the consensus was America lost. That's China mocking the United States also, because the United states just removed 145% tariffs, made it 30% tariffs, which is still a 30% tariff. Tariff. A 30% tax on the American people. China lowered its tariff to 10% because they want to tax their own people less. And so for China, it was the biggest win imaginable for them out of that, that's not a deal. And so now we're approaching, you know, the next 90 day deadline. And what's Trump saying he's going to do? He's going to reimpose unilaterally, the tariffs again and call that a deal. So it's like, here we go again through this cycle. So in terms of financial stability, Trump screwed that. In terms of attracting the top engineers and scientists and doctors and professionals from across the world, they're destroying that. I mean, their attacks on education, their attacks on immigrants, their attack on science Now, Canada, China, Europe, they're out there recruiting universities. Come here. We'll protect you. Don't worry. We've got your back here. In terms of dismantling healthcare, I mean, obviously we know that this budget will take away Healthcare from 14 million Americans. Supplemental Nutrition Assistance programs from millions of Americans. Rental assistance. Right. Trump, who promised to make housing more affordable. Mortgage rates are now above 7% and may even go higher than that. But when we talk about people living paycheck to paycheck who need rental assistance, the budget of HUD is being cut dramatically as well, and rental assistance programs are going to be destroyed. You see them dismantling fema, you see them dismantling our national parks. You know, Donald Trump is legitimately turning the United States into a shithole, like, in every aspect, a Trump cesspool, because he's lived in cesspools. Go back to what I started. He's lived in cesspools. He's a felon. Get like, let's. Let's establish that he's a felon. He's a sexual abuser. This is a bad person who lives in filth, in cesspool. And what I mean by that, though, is in crime, in evil, in suffer. That's what he does. And he wants to bring that everywhere. And the budget is something that reflects that. I mean, just take a look at his dog killer cosplaying. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, her appearance on Fox, where she's bragging that the Trump regime unlawfully is telling all the international students currently enrolled at Harvard that they're now considered unlawful and they're about to get deported. And she, like, basks in the delight of this. And then she's like all the other universities, you're next here. Watch her say this.
- [46:48]
Brett Meiselas
As you mentioned, 18% of Harvard's freshman class this year is. Are foreign. They're foreigners here on student visas. What happens? Where do they go now? What do they do? Yeah, we have given Harvard multiple opportunities to give us the documentation that we've.
- [47:05]
Ben Miceli
Requested to conduct oversight. We've asked them for the backgrounds on students that attend their university, their criminal activity on campus, off of campus, any.
- [47:15]
Brett Meiselas
Video or audio footage they have of this violent activity, and they have just simply not complied.
- [47:21]
Ben Miceli
This is something that they need to.
- [47:23]
Brett Meiselas
Do in order to comply with this.
- [47:25]
Ben Miceli
Program as it was established. And so, unfortunately, all of their foreign students will face the consequences of Harvard's.
- [47:32]
Brett Meiselas
Lack of protecting the individuals that go there. So 27% of their students are foreign students, and they will have to find some other university to go to, and hopefully they find one that can cares.
- [47:44]
Ben Miceli
About them and provides a safe environment. And then here she is saying that this should send a message to other universities. Play this clip.
- [47:51]
Brett Meiselas
Could you foresee, or are you now considering similar moves with other universities like Columbia that has allowed Jewish students to be threatened and made unsafe? Absolutely. We are. We are.
- [48:05]
Ben Miceli
Absolutely. This should be a warning to every.
- [48:07]
Brett Meiselas
Other university to get your act together. Get your act together, because we are coming to make sure that, that these.
- [48:12]
Ben Miceli
Programs, that you are facilitating an environment.
- [48:15]
Brett Meiselas
Where students can learn where they're safe and that they're not discriminated against based on their race or their religion.
- [48:22]
Ben Miceli
Anti Semitism will not be stood for.
- [48:24]
Brett Meiselas
And any participation with a country or an entity or a terrorist group that hates America and perpetuates this kind of.
- [48:31]
Ben Miceli
Violence, we will stop it. And we will not allow that to happen, especially in places where our kids need to grow up and really learn.
- [48:39]
Brett Meiselas
What this country is about, about what the world is about and what it.
- [48:42]
Ben Miceli
Means to promote freedom and liberty. The hell are they even talking about? And that is what authoritarianism looks like right there.
- [48:52]
Brett Meiselas
I mean, you know what really sickens me, honestly, too, just like on a fundamental level as like a Jewish person, to hear them weaponize the idea of anti Semitism in order to push their authoritarian agenda. That truly, truly sickens me because Kristi Noem does not speak for me. Donald Trump does not speak for me. And when they go out there and they say we are clamping down on peaceful protests to protect from antisemitism, we are sending these students, we are kicking them out of the country because of antisemitism. I think that's a dark road to go down. I'm not with it. I'm not okay with it whatsoever. Like I said, they do not speak for me. And I think it's just atrocious for them to do it. I think that is the real antisemitism, which is weaponizing antisemitism, which actually takes away from real antisemitism out there, the bad stuff that is really going on. Yesterday we saw two people killed outside a Jewish museum in Washington, D.C. outside of an Israeli embassy. That's real anti Semitism, okay? People peacefully protesting, whatever the cause may be. That's not it. Okay? So stop using that and stop trying to weaponize people's pain about real horrific stuff that is going on to achieve your political ends. I just think it's a disgrace.
- [50:04]
Ben Miceli
And I wanted to say, you saw there as well, there was a tracker of flight delays, the disaster going back to my like, dismantling of all aspects, dismantling the Department of Education. By the way, there was a court ruling today blocking the Trump regime from dismantling the Department of Education, basically saying, you know, it's, it's, it's an unlawful impoundment act by the Trump regime that you're not funding, you know, the Department of Education, they're not funding fema, they're not funding the agencies. So what they're doing in order to rip these agencies apart, to rip them to shreds, is they're just not funding the agencies and they're trying to let these agencies die. But you take a look at like the basic functioning of our government. Like, you know, yes, there are storms around the country, but by the way, Donald Trump hasn't even acknowledged that 28 people died in massive storms or more now in Missouri, Indiana, Kentucky and elsewhere. But the overall airplane situation right now, airport situation is a disaster in the United States. And I don't think it's being sufficiently covered by corporate media. At the most basic level, our government's not doing the most basic things. While Donald Trump, Trump is hosting a meme coin dinner for himself and Brett after you see Caroline Levitt basically say, oh, this is his personal time. Well, if it's his personal time, then explain to me Donald Trump posting. There's no such thing as personal time. When you're in president, you're the president. Personal time. Heading to the crypto dinner in Virginia in a little while. The USA is dominating in crypto bitcoin and we're going to keep it it that way. This is an event to as, as she said, personal time to enrich himself. But do you see how he morphs country with him? And the big problem too is that he is a felon. He's a loser, he's a criminal, he's a sexual abuser. And he's behaving the way criminals and felons behave. And that is disastrous for a country that needs to function. That's why, you know, when all of these, you know, to me, pathetic, you know, corporate CEOs and everybody who tried to be like, oh, it's going to be okay. It's going to be okay. You would never hire this guy. You would never hire him in your company. A board would never approve this guy to hold any position. He can never become a board member of a serious company. He'd be, I think banned based on his background anyway, but he can never do that. So if you can't meet the basic qualifications for being even a, a mid level executive at a company, why are you running the United States of, of America? To me it's not a political thing. It's just that simple for me. Anyway, when we come back I want to share some more insight on that. We've a lot, we have a lot more to discuss. I want to talk about the Supreme Court ruling on these independent agencies and what, what the import of it is, how it's going to address the Federal Reserve situation as as well reminder go to store.midas touch.com get that pro democracy gear we have. 10 off store.midas touch.com check it out right now we got some great gear as well. 10 off patreon.com Midas Touch subscribe there Midasplus.com subscribe there. We don't have outside investors so look, we're beating Fox News and I put news in quotes and all these other cable channels the way we built it. So help us continue that path and we appreciate it. Let's take our last quick break of the show.
- [53:58]
Brett Meiselas
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- [55:15]
Jordy Meiselas
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- [57:06]
Ben Miceli
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- [58:34]
Jordy Meiselas
Let's go. Links in description of both the YouTube and the audio. Use the links, use the codes, let them know we sent you. Brett, your read was fantastic for delimi. But Benji, that Sundays for dogs read, I mean, that was probably your best work yet, big bro. So excellent job and just want a housekeeping note here right before break. Ben, told you about Memorial day sale on store.midustouch.com with a 10 off. You have to use code truth T R U T H though at checkout. Truth@checkout store.midustouch.com Running our Memorial Day sale. Benji, where to next?
- [59:07]
Ben Miceli
I want to remind everybody earlier this week the headlines versus the reality. And we try to bring you the reality and let you know when the headlines are bs. So you all remember that Donald Trump had that, that phone call with Vladimir Putin, and then Donald Trump said, we made major progress. I've agreed to let Vladimir Putin and Ukraine speak directly together. I did it. What great progress. This is what I promised you. No, you promised that you would bring peace to Ukraine in 24 hours. You said it would be easy. You said that you've got a great relationship with Zelensky and Putin. You'd bring him in a room together, you'd be there and it would be simple and it would actually happen. Before you took office, you actually had an op, an opportunity two weeks ago in Istanbul to show up there and actually try to exert real pressure and leadership because Putin announced, and we all knew it was Putin propaganda and a lie, but he said he wanted to negotiate with Zelensky directly in Istanbul. So Zelensky said, okay, I'll be there in Istanbul. I'm there. I booked my flight. We can do it in Istanbul or anywhere else in Turkey or anywhere else you want to do it. And hey, Donald, Zelensky said, why don't you show up as well? It was a brilliant move by Zelensky. And ultimately Putin said he's not showing. Then Donald Trump said that he's not showing because Trump said he didn't want to disappoint the United Arab Emirates. That was actually said I couldn't disappoint the United Arab Emirates, you know, so I, why would I, why would I go and try to broker the peace deal, which I said was the most important that one of the most important things in my campaign, it was utterly pathetic. But then you fast forward and Trump's like, I'm doing the phone call. Call. And of course, the corporate media is like, he's doing the phone call. I'm like, all right, it's obviously a BS Phone call. I was like, where's. Where's Putin taking the phone call from? Right? Because I want to get a vibe of it. Putin was taking the phone call from an elementary school in southeast Russia. So, like, the very place Putin was doing it in was intended to show disrespected. Like, I don't know, I'm doing it at elementary school. Like, watch the. Watch me treat him like, was basically what Putin was doing. And then Trump gave this announcement after saying that he was needed in order to broker a negotiation, saying, I told them, they work together. I'm like, okay, we all know that What Donald Trump really did was he capitulated. He surrendered. He said, I'm out. Which is even more than just surrendering. It's basically telling Putin, you do what you gotta do. We're not gonna do anything. We're not going to impose sanctions. I'm not going to do anything. It shows once again that Donald Trump will always kind of talk this big game, but everybody knows he doesn't follow through with anything. That's one of the reasons he's done zero deals in 90 days, because everybody knows you just wait until the deadline. The American markets start to collapse. Donald Trump panics. He sends his people to beg for a deal, and then he issues a stupid press conference where he claims that he wins. The real terms come out, out. He looks like a fool, but then, you know, people forget about it in theory, and then they move on to the next one. And then he floods the zone with more disinformation, which ultimately is weakened, weakening the United States of America. So once again, we've been proven correct. Donald Trump did not do anything with Putin. Things are getting worse. Putin continues to kill innocent Ukrainians. Ukraine continues to agree to an unconditional ceasefire. And while Donald Trump is sitting there with the President of South Africa, and mind you, South Africa is part of the BRICS bloc of Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa and other countries. So you would think you, diplomatically, Trump, want to try to make inroads to convince a nation like South Africa, especially if Donald Trump purports to care about rare earth minerals and other natural resources and ways to work together to maybe do more trade with the. That the purpose of it was to Talk about trade. But then he basically, while Trump is there with the South African president, Donald Trump shows, like, obsequiousness to Putin. He shows what a Putin puppet he is, because then he's like. Like, Putin should be part of the G7. I. I wish Putin. I wish Russia was there. I wish we had a G8. And you're saying that in front of the South African president when you're. When the message you're sending to all the other bricks block countries is, oh, my. Like. Like, you know they're all talking about him, right? You all know they're going, oh, my God, this guy's, like, the weakest ever. And what makes it more dangerous is when our media propagandizes it. Like, he's not. Like, if they just said it, we could get the news that the rest of the world's getting because they're laughing. You know how Trump's like, they were laughing at us. No, they weren't. Now they actually are laughing at us. Us. They're all laughing at us. They're either horrified if they were our former allies or they're laughing at us. So let me show you Trump saying that. Let's play this clip coming and are.
- [64:10]
Brett Meiselas
You preparing to come?
- [64:11]
Ben Miceli
So without the United States, the G20, just like the G7 used to be, the G8, but brilliantly, they threw Russia out. Would have been a lot better if Russia was in. You know, a lot of people would say, oh, that's not. Because if Russia was in, you probably wouldn't have this war. And if you had a different president, you wouldn't have the worry there. And again, you see the South African president looking at him like, what in the hell? And then you have his commerce secretary, Howard Lutnick, speaking at this Axios event. And here you have Lutnick saying how, look, everybody's doing well now. First, Lutnick's a billionaire, okay? Lutnick's worth over a billion dollars. This guy. And this is the guy that basically said, if you miss a Social Security check and you complain, you must be a scammer. You're a. My mom. He goes, my mom, she's 94. She would never complain if Social Security didn't give her her check, because she would be, like, a criminal and she should be investigated. She would never do that. So this guy speaks in front of Axios, and he's like, no one's feeling the pain because of tariffs. Like, everything's fine. What do we talk? Everything is good. Are you feeling pain? He goes to the audience and the audience like, yes, we are. Yes, we're feeling pain. And mind you, this audience is Axios audience. I have a feeling I could be wrong. I'm just doubting that you're going to have a cross section of factory workers at this Axios event. I just, just my guess. And they're saying we're, we're hurting. What are you talking about? Watch this. Everything in the world's got 10%.
- [65:51]
Jordy Meiselas
You go to the store now, are.
- [65:52]
Ben Miceli
You feeling the pain? No. Why not? Because there is no pain. Because what happens is the sellers, the producers, the sellers and the currencies change and the price effectively mostly goes away. I'm not, you know, what's the inflation rate in America? Two odd percent. Okay, two odd percent. But seriously, for the month of May, every product in the world's got 10% on it right now with no exceptions, no exclusions. This, that we have 25% on cars and that are coming in from out. Do any of you feel anything? Because I want you to understand, in the month of May, the United States of America is going to take in $35 billion towards our deficit of tariff revenue in the month of May. And consumers will feel that. Well, I said it's already on. This is on since April. So when it's not that the tariff is coming, it's on. Have any of you felt any of it? Seriously, Brett?
- [67:02]
Brett Meiselas
He was just silent after that. Everything about Howard Lutnick, by the way, like, the guy always comes off as the sleaziest of sleaze imaginable. It is just this hearing his, his voice. I just like have a feeling that the guy reeks of cigarettes. Like, I know, I know his whole vibe. I know this guy's whole vibe. And look, we can look it up and we could pull this up right here, right? This is what Google says. Howard Lutnick is a billionaire. He is the current United States Secretary of Commerce and is also the chairman of Cantor Fitzgerald, where he owns 60% of the firm. His net worth is estimated to be at least $1.5 billion. So a real man of the people. I wonder why your mother, your old mother, Howard Ludnick is not worried about her Social Security check. I wonder why she's not worried. You're worth one and a half billion dollars.
- [67:47]
Ben Miceli
Inflation.
- [67:48]
Jordy Meiselas
Two odd percent. Two odd percent. He's just saying words up there. Sorry, go ahead.
- [67:52]
Brett Meiselas
But just the concept that this guy and all these billionaires in Donald Trump's cabinet are trying to position themselves as, we know what's best for working people. These are policies for working people. These are tax cuts for the we're the working people party. Nothing they say or do, and maybe st say nothing they actually do lines up with that. So if I'm bringing it full circle from the beginning, just because these people say we're fiscal hawks and fiscally conservative does not make them so. Just because these people say we are the party of the working people does not make them so. All these programs that people get up in arms about and that they freak out about when Republicans try to come for them, Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, snap, snap, you name it, all of them Democrats, that's where they came from. And yet the Republicans try to strip it away. And what are these MAGA people sometimes say? What's like the comical version? They go, get your government hands off my Medicare. Get your government hands off my Medicaid. People like these programs. When people have access to these social safety net programs, they actually like them. That's why the United States is like the only country in the world that doesn't have a lot of these programs that other people really like. Like, these politicians know that once Americans get a taste of what these other countries get even just a little bit, that they actually like when government is there, actually working effectively. But the Republicans always want to ensure that it doesn't work effectively. They want to make sure that they hamstring the government. So then they could point and say, look, I told you government doesn't work. I told you it's not efficient. I told you that it's a waste. And while they do that, what are they doing under the guise of less government? They are taking your money away from you. It's literally what's happening with this bill right now. So we're going to see what happens as this goes on. Right, with the going back to the GOP tax scam bill. It's not law yet. Still got to go through the Senate. The Senate is going to have to come up with their own version of this bill. I think oftentimes, quite frankly, I think one of the strategies that the House Republicans do is they add all this crazy stuff to try to appease Donald Trump or throw red meat to their base that they ultimately know the Senate or they hope that the Senate is going to strip out before voting for it. This is the thing that could pass through reconciliation, which means, you know, 50 plus one votes, it's passed, it's law. You see this major, major, major redistribution of wealth from the working people of this country to the wealthiest of this country. And everybody needs to wake up and stop. I'm not talking about this audience, you all know, but all these people who are under the guise, who are under the illusion that these people have my interests at heart. Heart, I assure you, I assure you they do not. And when Democrats do a good job at fighting back, we should, we should shout them out. You know, when we see, you know, Congressman McGovern out there doing what he's got to do, staying up, I mean, these people are up, what, like 48 hours straight, basically. I, like, I, every time I saw, you know, Asen was up all night last night. Asen, who works with Midas Touch, posting these clips. Unbelievable. Our editorial team following all this stuff. But when you see at least they're putting in the work, you know, when it matters, they're getting it out there. They're exposing what's going in. They're trying to warn the American people at least, because quite frankly, that's the only power that they have right now, them being out of power. But they're trying to sound the alarm and they're trying to let people know the craziness of this bill. Did you know that there's a provision in this bill to remove the federal excise tax for tanning beds for indoor tanning? That wouldn't have come out if not for Democrats cross examining these Republicans during their bill. Did you know that they are trying to change the name maga, the word maga, which is bad enough to have in this bill and have it be associated with any government program, program to Trump. He wants to put his name on your baby's trust account. What the hell. These are all the things that have been being exposed. So it's great to see that sort of fight. I think we got to ensure, you know, we got to hold these people's feet to the fire. But we got to acknowledge like I'm, you know, I, I, it's, it's become so cool on the Internet, I think, to just like hate, hate, hate on everything the Democrats do and criticize every little thing. And I understand there's frustration. I understand there's anger, I understand there's anxiety. I understand there are like people who are just pissed off about the way the election went and they're looking to redirect their anger. But at a certain point we got to figure out what are the collective actions we could take to actually fight back and expose the real issues of this country, which is right now, this, this malignant strain of Trumpism. Maga, this Republican Party as it, as it exists today. We need to keep our sights set on who's actually destroying our country right now because this is not a normal moment in time. Time.
- [72:24]
Jordy Meiselas
And let me just add to this, Brett, because I don't think we touched on this. Think about when they passed that bill over Wednesday night, Thursday morning. Think about that. It was all through the night, in the dead of dark, shady things happen at that time, right? The MAGA Republicans are the Republican Party. They're telling you that they don't want you, the American people to see this. And I'm so just grateful for the Midas Touch community and especially our editorial staff here that they stayed up all through the night night and put things on record for everybody to see the words play out and what was happening. I mean, what are they, the Baltimore Colts, you know, moving at midnight. Like that's the type of behavior that happens when you don't want folks to see what you're doing. And it is just so despicable and disgusting. Like government should be as transparent as possible. And sure, I guess in theory it is, right? It's oh, it's taped or what, they're doing it intentionally at that time, in the dead of night, in the earliest of the mornings, the ams, so that they hope that you miss it and so that Donald Trump could go into the White House and the Oval Office the next day and say, you know what you need to focus on not what happened at 2, 3am last night when we took away SNAP for millions of Americans. Don't look at that, don't look at the 401ks, no care about the white South Africans, the genocide and then just push these bizarre conspiracies and give his base that red meat. But thankfully we got this pro democracy community right here, the Midas mighty and folks that just want the truth and just want the information. So thank you guys again for being truth tellers and truth seekers because this, you know, this is absurd times. And don't be gaslit by anyone out there trying to tell you that this stuff is normal. Nothing that we're witnessing right now is normal.
- [74:08]
Ben Miceli
Let me give a few other pieces of data before we go. Number one, June 14th, no King's Day protests across the country. What can you do right now, as we're live on May 22, just start telling everybody about it. It's going to be run by Indivisible. We're going to be having the leaders of Indivisible on the Midas Touch network over and over again for the next few weeks. And of course, we're going to be covering the protests here. It is a major part of our priorities of the Midas Touch network to cover the peaceful protests and to allow a distribution network for the word to get out. How does the word get out out? You watching this? Share. Take screenshots right now of this and then send the screenshots to people that, you know, that's what, that's an easy thing. You, it's free to do it. Just text photos of this graphic that's on and if you're listening to audio, just tell people, June 14, Indivisible 5150 other groups are going to be running these protests. So make sure that you get the word out about these protests too.
- [75:18]
Brett Meiselas
I'll just say, Ben, let me just add, if you can't, that's, you know, totally fine. Also, I don't want anybody to feel pressured and some people physically make it to this thing. But get the word out. Yeah, that's what I'm saying. Get. You, you, you all have a platform, you all have social media, you all have text messages, family, friends, just get, get, get the word out, spread the message. You know, the power of the people is really the most important thing right now. And that's why, you know, we're seeing such a shift just across all things because people are stepping up and they're saying no to the corporations, they're saying no to the old ways of doing traditional media. They are saying no. We have the power. We're going to take this into our own hands.
- [75:51]
Ben Miceli
This past week, Democrats won a big New York Senate special election, 68% in a deep red district, carried by Trump by 56 points. In 2024, actually, it was 33 points that this Democrat, Sam Sutton, won this district, District 22 by 33 points. Trump won that seat by 55 to 56 points or he won the seat. He won that district. That area there was about an 88% over performance by Democrats in that Senate district. 88%. Okay, so all of this fits together, though, because that's why peaceful protests take to the streets peacefully and make sure we preserve and protect our elections. Show the power of the people. People. Because we got to fight to have elections in 2026 and we the people have the power. So let's get out there because when we're out there, pro democracy voices can have an overwhelming effect. Now, the last thing I just, I want to cover because I promised I would at the outset, but on our legal AF YouTube channel, also our Katie Fang YouTube channel. Everybody subscribe to the Katie Fang YouTube channel. Katie Fang has officially joined the Midas Touch Network. We announced, announced a few weeks back that she was going to join, but now we've got it all figured out for sure with the YouTube channel launch.
- [77:19]
Brett Meiselas
Can I just say how excited I am about this? Like, she is such an incredible talent. And to have her on the Midas Touch Network, on her own YouTube channel that we're building right here at Katifang News. So you go to YouTube.com atiefangnews to be able to hear from Katie again, have her opinions, have her analysis, the way she delivers the news, the way she gets into all, like, the intricacies of these legal cases. She is so incredibly brilliant. I'm, I'm, I'm, you could tell. I'm, like, so excited about this channel and I've been loving all the reports that she's been putting out. I feel like we have been blessed with Katie Fang joining independent media, joining the Midas Ditch network, being with us on YouTube. So let's show her the power of this community, folks. And check it out. YouTube.com/at Katie Fang News. That's. Let me, Angie, let me break down.
- [78:06]
Ben Miceli
The Supreme Court ruling on Trump's ability to defy the heads of independent agencies that was issued by the Supreme Court in their shadow docket, meaning it wasn't done through like an actual formal hearing. So Donald Trump fires board members from the National Labor Relations Board, and he fires the head of the, or one of the commissioners from the Merit Systems Protections Board. A district court for the District of Columbia did an injunction to the Trump regime, saying, no, you can't do that. That, let's get them back to their jobs, put them back into their jobs. Trump appealed that to the United States Supreme Court. And the United States Supreme Court says, nope, they don't get to go back into their jobs. We're going to stay that. They said the status quo is Trump fired them. Even though the statutes that created these commissions require terminations be done for cost cause, and these terminations were done without cause at all. The Supreme Court says we don't care. And the Supreme Court says it's got to be a for cause. It doesn't matter if it's without cause or for cause. Trump has the ability to fire the heads of these independent agencies. Now, that changes decades and decades and decades of precedent here where if an agency was independent and created by Congress and the statute says you have to fire them for cause cause, you have to fire them for a cause. So this has serious ramifications and it's basically the Supreme Court giving Donald Trump the green light to fire the heads of any independent agencies at all, whether it's the National Labor Relations Board, the Barrett System Board, whoever. It's giving a green light to do that, except in the circumstance it appears the only exception that would meet this rule, as you read the, this is the Federal Reserve. And they actually say in this ruling that the Federal Reserve is going to be treated differently here. Let me try to find the line where, where, where it actually mentions this. But it goes on to say how the Federal Reserve is more analogous to the national banks. And so it goes. Respondents Gwen Wilcox and Kathy Harris contend that the arguments in this case implicate the constitutionality of four cause removal protections for members of the Federal Reserve's Board of Governors or other members of the Federal Open Market Committee. We disagree. The Federal Reserve is uniquely structured quasi private entity that follows in the distinct historical tradition of the first and second banks of the United States. So the message really here and by the way, the three liberal justices lodged a dissent to this and said this is a horrible ruling and you're just overturning precedent through this shadow docket ruling without even oral argument. But there's the carve out is the Supreme Court telling Trump and the majority you can't fire the Federal Reserve without cause. So anyway, I mean that's why I wanted to read the language to you. It's still a horrible ruling and it's going to lead to Trump firing basically every, I mean, I think he's going to fire everyone, you know, everybody now, now from all of these agencies and the idea of independent agencies, you know, is, is going to be destroyed other than the Federal Reserve of, of with this ruling. So not good. It's also why we the people need to take back our power, you know, and we need to show up on the streets peacefully and we need to protest and we need to get out there and we need a, a massive statement, a massive statement on the streets, in the polls, in, in general and as a media network. We just want to amplify pro democracy voices here on the Midas Touch network, voices that follow the Constitution. That's where we'll be at. Thank you Everybody for watching. Reminder midasplus.com Please go there now and subscribe. Patreon.com Touch Check that out. Store.midas touch.com Store.midas touch.com 10% off sale store.midas touch.com subscribe on audio wherever audio is available. Make sure you subscribe to the audio podcast and leave a leave a five star review. And I want to conclude the show also on Memorial Day or even though we're recording this earlier, by recognizing, of course, all of those who made the ultimate sacrifice for our country. The brave men and women and people who have given their lives for our country and everything they've done for our country deserves far more than a day of acknowledgment. We owe them our freedom. We owe them everything. And so it's it's in honor of them that we humbly try to fight for our democracy and every day. So with that Jordy, take it away.
- [83:17]
Jordy Meiselas
Shout out to the Midas Mighty. Can't get enough Midas? Check out the Midas substack for ad Free articles, reports, podcasts, podcasts, daily recaps from Ron Filipkowski, and more. Sign up for free now@midasplus.com.