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I couldn't believe it. The search engine tools even helped me get more site visitors. Whatever your passion project is, you can set it up with Bluehost with their 30 day money back guarantee. What do you got to lose? Head to bluehost.com that's B L U E H O S T.com to start now. This is the Midas Touch podcast. Brett Jordan Midas Mighty. Wow, wow, wow. Where do we start? The G7 is off to a disastrous start as Donald Trump began by saying that he would have liked Putin to be there, he would want the G7 to be the G8. Later, Donald Trump held a press conference with the United Kingdom Prime Minister Keir Starmer and said that that was the representative from the European Union. Trump then dropped what he purported to be was a trade deal, which I thought they entered three weeks ago all over the floor. And then earlier in the day in the press conference with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney. Carney had to invoke his status as chair of the G7 to shut down the press conference because Trump was embarrassing the G7 and the United States so much. So, so we have that we can start with. We can talk about Donald Trump's disastrous dictator parade in Washington D.C. which was not that many people attended. It was low energy. What a bizarre event to witness. Trump looked inconsolable, almost like he was going to cry. Melania looked, I've never seen her happier watching Donald Trump suffer like that on stage. So you had these split screen of the, the disaster dictator parade which was so bad. But then you had the best of America with the no Kings protests across the country. Some estimates say that more than 10 million Americans were protesting the Trump regime. Close to that 3% of the entire U.S. population mark a very important indicator for mass mobilization against regimes. I was at the Pasadena one. Brett was at one. Jordy was there. The whole team was out and about. We'll talk about what went down at the no Kings protests. We also have a war between Israel and Iran which started at the end of last week. Donald Trump has made a lot of posts seeming to indicate that American troops are going to officially get involved. He took credit for the initial, initial preemptive strikes by Israel against Iran. That's alienated a lot of the MAGA base, which I guess they thought that Donald Trump was going to pull America out of wars. But it was actually former President Biden who pulled America out of wars, not Donald Trump. And Trump looking like neocon Trump and seems to be really focused on potentially getting America into that war in the Middle East. And then we had that horrific, horrific event that happened this weekend. The murder of Minnesota state Representative and Speaker Hortman, killed by an individual named Vance Bolter, a right wing Trump supporting extremist. He also attempted to assassinate a Democratic senator, Senator Hoffman. Fortunately, Hoffman and his wife survived, although State Representative Hortman and her husband were killed by Vance Bolter. And then we saw once again that there's no depths to the depravity of the right wing disinformation kind of MAGA crew. Whether it was Elon Musk or MAGA senators, they were spreading lies that the killer was a Democrat, a leftist, who just happened to have a list of like 70 Democrats that he was looking to go and kill. And so again, you saw all of those lies spreading right away. And then it took some time before we heard from this guy's, the killer's roommate, apparently, you know, that the guy was a Trump supporter. And then the facts came out. Um, let's bring in Brett and Jordi. I think this weekend was also, though, an important time for independent media. You know, we've built this media company in order to be able to amplify the things and fact check the things and do the job that we knew the media was not doing. And so just over the past 48 hours, the Midas Touch Network focused on our protest coverage has gotten over 32 million views on YouTube alone. Our coverage of, you know, the speeches at the Philadelphia no Kings Protest got over 1.2 million views. Our coverage of Donald Trump's disastrous dictator parade, that got over 4 million views alone on that. And so it's been important that we expose everything that's going on. And that's thanks to all of you, the Midas mighty.

Brett Meiselas (7:38)

Yeah, 100%. Thank you so much, everybody. And you know what it tells me? It tells me that there is a thirst out there for pro democracy and for pro democracy content. And it's always kind of been our thesis in building this network that the things that the corporate media likes to focus on are often the wrong things. And the messaging that they try to push, push forward, the narratives that they try to conjure up are often not the things that people want to hear about, and they do not reflect the reality of what is actually happening on the ground. So to be able to Bring you the no Kings protest with our exclusive streams this weekend to make sure that we were covering that heavily and to be doing all of our other coverage and to be getting, like record viewership, you know, 33 million views every 48 hours. I think that speaks to, you know, the energy that's out there in this pro democracy community. Like Ben said, you know, we were out there at those no Kings rallies this weekend. I was at the one by me, and the energy was just absolutely incredible. Like, honestly, it felt like almost like a block party of people celebrating democracy, you know, yes, of course, protesting Trump protest, testing ice, you know, calling for the release of, you know, people who were unlawfully detained by ICE and all of that. But also like a big party, a lot of solidarity with that group. People pushing out, giving out pizza to each other, making sure that everybody is fed, people handing out waters, making sure that nobody was thirsty. It was hot, hot, hot, hot by me. But everybody was out there, you know, just out there to support democracy. Some great signs, great energy, just showing people that we will not have a king in this country, that we will not bow down to tyrants. So thank you to everybody who participated. And if you didn't participate, don't worry. Thank you to everybody for sharing the content about this and getting the word out that is, you know, just as important. So a lot to talk about this episode. I know I have a lot of thoughts on everything else that's been going on in the world, you know, not all of it great, of course. And so I'll toss it over to Jordy and we'll get into it. Jordy, what's the latest?

Mike Lee (9:32)

I'm excited to get going. Brothers, I echo your sentiment. Shout out to everybody on the ground this weekend. Way to go. I mean, look, the juxtaposition between the no Kings marches versus Donald Trump's military style parade could not be more clear. And Ben, I love that you're talking about the numbers, but what you hit on is so key. It goes beyond the numbers of the viewership of what we're doing here at the network. There is a true thirst, a true hunger for pro democracy news and for us to simply just be the vehicle in order to get that out to the folks. I mean, that is so meaningful to. To me personally, we always view this as an ego list movement. What's so cool is you guys, the listeners and the viewers taking what you see here, taking the receipts, bringing it to your families, bringing it to the streets, right? There are no Kings in the United States of America. This isn't Russia. This is. This is in China. This, this, this is how we act here in America. So shout out to y' all, man. Hidden in the ground, all the organized.

Brett Meiselas (10:34)

By the way, Jordan protesters, I was about to add organizers, man, they did a great job. Indivisible 5051, you know, these groups out there, just absolutely incredible, Incredible.

Mike Lee (10:44)

So thank you for your work, because that is far and beyond.

Brett Meiselas (10:48)

Just.

Mike Lee (10:48)

Thank you so much. So excited to get into today's show. Benji, where do you want to lead us off?

Ben Miceli (10:52)

Great point. The real heroes are the grassroots organizers. They've been planning events like this now since the beginning of the Trump regime. You know, when I was speaking to Ezra Levin, the head of Indivisible, what he had said, though, was that in mass mobilization movements, it is very important to have media allies. And one of the things that we were observing right after the November election, when all of this corporate news was going to mar a lago and kissing the gangster ring, it was clear to us, the writing was on the wall that they were going to suppress what was really happening. And that was one of the prongs of Donald Trump's authoritarian takeover. So we went into overdrive here to build and build and build. And right now, this week, we are so close to hitting 5 million subscribers on the Midas Touch network already. And I think we'll be able to hit that in the next day or two. So make sure you subscribe and share this channel with everybody you know. I want to start Jordy, though, with California Governor Gavin Newsom's supercut that he created, contrasting the peaceful protests in California and across the United States to Donald Trump's disastrous dictator event that he held for himself and Governor Newsom. And Governor Newsom social media team, they've been great with rapid response and, and going on the offense. And they haven't been afraid to call Donald Trump out as being cognitively addled as well. Let's take a look at the super cup. And for those listening on audio, what was going on in the video is you saw the massive crowds for the no Kings protests at the various cities. Tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands at certain cities. Then you saw the low energy, almost no attendance at Donald Trump's dictator parade. While Donald Trump looked like he was about to cry, he looked inconsolable. Melania looked thrilled to see Donald Trump suffering. And that supercut captured that moment.

Brett Meiselas (13:15)

I think the squeaky wheels, though. Oh, my God. Like, that wasn't a sound that was added after the fact. That's how it sounded. I mean, you know, I'm thinking back to last week, you know, we were speaking about. I don't want to diminish, you know, the seriousness of Donald Trump trying to even throw himself a dictator parade and trying to elevate himself into that role and to try to show that sort of force, but the fact that it looks so stupid, you know, they get back on, you know, it's just like it was like the Teemu parade, you know, timu of parades. It was, the whole thing was just so embarrassing. And quite frankly, I think it was offensive to our military to even make them participate in that. And, and you could tell, like, they didn't even really want to be there. Like they were doing their, you know, and Trump made them, you know, on, on his birthday of all days, co opting the military's birthday for, for his birthday and then doing this parade and then like, it just being a total disaster, just a total and complete dud. It was frankly just so embarrassing, honestly, for the country. For Trump, the whole thing was just like, rough to watch, I gotta say.

Ben Miceli (14:14)

It was the 250th anniversary of the United States Army. Let me be clear about my position. I am all for celebrating the 250th anniversary the Army. Our grandpa was a tail gunner in the B29 in World War II. Grandpa Murray passed away over a decade ago, but he would share with us the stories of his heroism and those who he fought along with. And we are major supporters of the United States military here at the Midas Touch Network and those who make the ultimate sacrifice for our country. Brett, as you said, though, it should not be co opted for Donald Trump's vanity for him to do a dictator parade. The optics of doing it in Washington D.C. and trying to mimic the style of authoritarian regimes is very anti American. But if you were going to do a military parade, at least pull it off, like, at least execute it with a level of competence that puts the troops in good light. And if you needed six months, nine months or a year to kind of execute it properly and to handle the logistics and do a good job, at least, like do a good job at it so the troops look good. You know, I mean, just watching some of the troops hold the drones above their head, you know, the way I described it was I remember going to Disney World when I was growing up in the early 90s and they had that Epcot center ride where you would go into that, like, big globe and they would like, go through the history of the United States and, like, all the robots, and maybe they've updated it since then, but, like, it would have, like, all these, like, weird robots. And it just looked so outdated. It looked disorganized, and it just, it did not look competently executed. And this isn't, you know, and then we have these foreign countries now who are mocking the United States. In Russia, they are doing videos mocking the United States. It didn't look good. And I think that's when we talk about, like, what went down at the G7, when we talk about Trump's disastrous trade war against the world. A lot of these issues are not, like, political things about, oh, Democratic views or Republican views. There should be values and principles. Donald Trump has neither. There's no foundational value or principle at all to anything that he's doing. It's just pure chaos and what he thinks benefits him personally in a specific daily news cycle. But doesn't it come down to just, like, competence and getting the job done and executing what you're saying you're going to do? Brett and Jordi, that was one of the things with the parade. It was just poorly done. But to me, it's a perfect microcosm of everything wrong with the Trump regime. His authoritarian tendencies, that he wants to be an authoritarian, the kakistocracy aspect of it, that it's poorly executed, that they can't even carry it out. And so it makes the entire states look like a dysfunctional clown show. And it goes beyond even, oh, that's a Republican view or a Democrat view. Just, just, just. What are you even doing?

Mike Lee (17:31)

Like, Ben, Ben, Ben. Exactly. And Ben. The waste, the waste. I'm seeing numbers that it cost anywhere between 25 to, to $45 million to operate that parade, listeners. That's your money. These are taxpayers money going to waste for what? A Dear Leader parade? That's not even to your point, Ben. Executed. Well, where's all that. Like, there needs to be investigations into where that money actually, like, where it was spent. Because that was one of the most pathetic things that I've ever seen. Not that I was rooting for it to be like this, like, you know, glorious show or whatnot, but to spend that much money, that much taxpayer money on such a shameful, shameful parade. I mean, that makes this even worse to me.

Ben Miceli (18:22)

You know, I think it was actually far more than that. I think they were hiding the costs in different agencies as well, because 45 million actually seems low to me. But I mean, look, take a look at what he did at the G7. So the G7 is currently being held in Alberta, Canada. Canada is the host. So Prime Minister Mark Carney, the new Prime Minister of Canada, he serves as the chair of the G7. We'll show you clips in a little bit of how it started in the day when Donald Trump and Carney held the press conference. And Trump kept on talking about Putin. He was acting as Putin's agent at the G7. It was. It was really unnerving to the point where Prime Minister Carney had to actually just stop the press conference because Trump was making such a fool of himself. And then by proxy, the entire G7 event. So Khan's like, we're shutting this down, but let me show you what happened in the afternoon. So Donald Trump is standing next to the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Kier Starmer. Donald Trump thinks that the United Kingdom is part of the European Union. So Donald Trump believes he just did a deal with the eu, Even though you have Prime Minister Kier Starmer from the UK Standing next to him. And so Donald Trump says, let's take a look at this trade deal that we did. You should also note that. What was it? Three to four weeks ago, Donald Trump claimed that they had already did a trade deal with the United Kingdom. Remember, we told you they didn't do a deal. It was a memorandum, a memorandum of understanding, which specifically said, this is not a binding trade deal. Let me also just let you know that trade deals in general, like the United States, Mexico, Canada Agreement, they're complex. So an actual trade deal is more than two or three pages in length. An actual trade deal is at least hundreds of pages, usually thousands of pages, if it's an actual deal. So it looks like Donald Trump is holding up the same memorandum of understanding that they did three or four weeks ago, the US and the UK if there's even writing on some of these papers. It's unclear one way or another if there's even writing on some of these papers or not. Trump drops it all over the floor in this, like, cartoonishly clownish moment that you'd expect to see in the movie Idiocracy. Watch this.

Jordy Meiselas (20:52)

We all know the great Prime Minister of the UK and we just signed a document. This is. Sorry about that. Very important document. A little windy out here. Come here. Then we just signed it, and it's done. And so we have our trade agreement with the European Union.

Ben Miceli (21:14)

Did you hear that last part? We have a trade agreement with the European Union. Let's play the longer version of that portion where he says, we have A trade deal with the European Union. Let's play it.

Jordy Meiselas (21:25)

We have our trade agreement with the European Union, and it's a fair deal for both, and it produced a lot of jobs, a lot of income, and we have other, many, many other ones coming. But you see, the level of enthusiasm is very good. But the relationship that we have is fantastic. So I just want to congratulate you, Donald. Thank you very much.

Ben Miceli (21:50)

This now implements on car tariffs and.

Jordy Meiselas (21:53)

Aerospace, our really important, important agreement.

Ben Miceli (21:56)

And so this is a very good.

Jordy Meiselas (21:57)

Day for both of our countries.

Ben Miceli (21:59)

A real sign of strength. So thank you again, Donald.

Jordy Meiselas (22:02)

A really important day for both of us. Great people.

Ben Miceli (22:05)

Great people. He doesn't even know the people he's dealing with and the car.

Brett Meiselas (22:08)

These people know how to play him so well. They just say the exact things they know that they can just do anything they want with this guy. It's incredible. This is besides the point. But did you see his hair also? I mean, I'm. I know I'm focusing on kind of the wrong things here, but he's got like this little rat tail on the left side that just kept dangling up and down his head. But that's beside the point. Sorry, Ben.

Mike Lee (22:27)

No, by the way, I don't think you're focusing on the wrong things. I think. I think we need to look at all of this. The guy can't hold papers. He. He can't hold. Could you imagine? And I'm going to be this guy till the show's over. Could you imagine if Biden was holding papers and he just dropped them? The coverage that it would get on.

Brett Meiselas (22:45)

Fox News, it'd be two weeks on Fox.

Mike Lee (22:47)

It would be two weeks on Fox, Front page of the New York Post day after day for an entire week. The guy can't hold papers. He can't keep his hair looking normal. I mean, when we take that, when the Dems take back the House in the. During the midterms, there needs to be investigations onto who's actually running the White House, because Donald Trump is cognitively not all there. And I'm not giving him an out. I'm not giving him an out. But he's not all there. And there needs to be more of a focus on his mental acuity, or lack thereof, because everything he says, from his statements that we get to read day in and day out, from the way he operates in front of leaders, from the fact that he doesn't even know who the frickin he's talking to. This is insane. Nuclear codes. This guy has the nuclear codes.

Ben Miceli (23:30)

Well, Prime Minister Keir Starmer, you notice the two things that he was talking about, auto tariffs and aerospace. Just who do you think that benefits auto tariffs and aerospace? You realize that the memorandum of understanding that dealt with the auto tariffs gives preferential treatment to United Kingdom automakers over United States auto manufacturers because there would be a higher tariff rate based on US Auto manufacturers having factories in Canada and Mexico than it now gives to the United Kingdom for Land Rover, for Jaguar, for Rolls Royce. So it gives benefits to those UK Car manufacturers over the United States, which is why Keir Starmer's kind of smile on his face is a wink and a nod that, all right, I know you, I know UK People, you hate this guy. But I just got some of the UK Manufacturers a better deal than the American manufacturers are getting as well. So then going through this G7 as well. Oh, during that same press conference, Donald Trump starts attacking Tucker Carlson because Carlson has been critical of Donald Trump trying to embroil United States troops in the Israel, Iran war. Here's what Trump has to say about Tucker.

Mike Lee (24:50)

TUCKER Carlson.

Jordy Meiselas (24:55)

I don't know what Tucker Carlson is saying. Let him go get a television network and say it so that people listen. Thank you.

Ben Miceli (25:01)

We will talk more about the divisions growing in MAGA because we've even seen Steve Bannon and Mike Flynn basically say Donald Trump needs to do like a press conference immediately and say what the hell is happening between Israel and Iran and what's America's role in it at all. You even have Marjorie Taylor Greene, although she's not mentioning Donald Trump's name. She goes, we're now learning who's really America first or who's not, based on if you support American troops going to war in Iran. And that's actually what Donald Trump has been saying that he wants to do. He's not ruled it out. Not only has he not ruled it out, he's indicated that he's leaning in that direction. And it's very much on the table. And the US Is, of course, unofficially helping Israel in all of the coordination and all of the planning. And Israel is out there with Netanyahu and others saying, the US Is doing everything. They're giving us the plans, they're giving us the weapons. This is the US And US together. And Donald Trump's not putting out any statements to the contrary. When you hear those statements coming out of, of Israel. So we'll talk about that. But then you had to have Prime Minister Mark Carney of Canada early in the day. This was supposed to be so super simple, right? Donald Trump meets Carney. They're supposed to speak in front of the press for about two minutes tops. Say we look forward to a productive G7. That's all it was supposed to be. I look forward to it. I look forward to it. This is going to be productive. We have a lot to discuss. Thank you very much. We'll be reporting back to you. That was the moment. That's all it was supposed to be. But Carney had to cut it short because Trump had other intentions for what that was going to be about. Let's play the clip of Carney cutting it short.

Jordy Meiselas (26:42)

All Democrat run cities and they think they're going to use them to vote. It's not going to happen.

Brett Meiselas (26:53)

Thank you.

Ben Miceli (26:53)

If you don't mind, just I'm going to exercise my role, if you will, as G7 chair since we have a few more minutes with the President and his team and then we actually have to start the meeting to address some of these big issues. So thank you, thank you, thank you, media. Let's go. And do you see? Well, for the audio listeners, you can see it. For our viewers on YouTube, you can see it. Trump is like just standing there like a stat. Like Trump would have stand there, stood there for the next hour and would have just kept on saying the most outrageous things that he was saying. Or for Trump, pretty normal things. Like he shows up there and Trump was on a mission that he was going to say he wishes Putin was there. And you know, because Donald Trump's been talking about having all of these calls with Putin lately, including getting advice about what to do in Iran from Putin. Like, you know, that Putin probably told Trump, when you're at the G7, let them know that I want to be there and that I should have been there and they shouldn't have disinvited me with Obama and Trudeau. So that's what Donald Trump says. Trump goes, the G7 used to be the G8. Here, play this clip together very well.

Jordy Meiselas (28:01)

I look forward to that. The G7 used to be the G8. Barack Obama and a person named Trudeau didn't want to have Russia in then I would say that that was a mistake because I think you wouldn't have a war right now if you had Russia in and you wouldn't have a war right now if Trump were president four years ago. But it didn't work out that way. But it used to be the G8 and now it's, I guess, what's that? Nine years ago, eight years ago it switched over. They threw Russia out, which I claimed it was a very big mistake.

Ben Miceli (28:33)

And then here's what he had to say about Putin as well. Here, play this clip.

Jordy Meiselas (28:39)

After the United States. Well, it's not a bad idea. I don't mind that. If somebody wants to suggest China coming in, I think we suggest. But you want to have people that you can talk to, you know, they, they don't talk. Putin speaks to me. He doesn't speak to anybody else. He doesn't want to talk because he was very insulted when he got thrown out of the ga, as I would be, as you would be, as anybody would be. He was very insulting. And I mean, he was thrown out by Trudeau, who convinced one or two people along with Obama. He was thrown out. And he's not a happy person about it, I can tell you that. He basically doesn't even speak to the people that throw him out. And I agree with him.

Ben Miceli (29:20)

I want to talk about that moment right there. Yet another humiliating stainless steel on the United States of America. We'll talk about that. I want to talk about the no Kings protest a little more. I want to talk about the war between Israel and Iran and what the United States is doing, how MAGA is really pissed that Donald Trump is pushing to have American troops fight in that war. Before we go to our first break, we got some, we got, we got a fun one right here. To try to grow this network, we are releasing California Governor Gavin Newsom emojis. Lots of people have been saying, in light of Gavin Newsom standing up to Donald Trump and standing up strong, people have been saying release the Gavin Newsom emojis to our members of our YouTube channel. So if we can get 500 more memberships on our YouTube, you could also gift memberships to people. You'll see the feature on YouTube where it says get a membership or gift memberships. Once we hit 500, we will release the California Governor Gavin Newsom emojis here. So let's unlock those. We also have been releasing some exclusive content for the YouTube members, and we're going to keep doing that as well. We don't have outside investors here at the Midas Touch Network and we've grown this network people powered. So it's one of the fun ways that we've tried to grow this network. So if you can become a member, unlock the Gavin emojis emoji. At 500 memberships, California Governor Newsom emoji will be unlocked. Let's take our first quick break of the show. We've got a lot to discuss when we return.

Mike Lee (31:01)

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Ben Miceli (34:55)

Look, Trump's really making a fool of not just himself, but the United states at the G7. I mean, you have the incredibly embarrassing dictator parade. Then he goes to the G7 and behaves, you know, like this. Look, California Governor Gavin Newsom, you know, has been saying, and I think rightfully so. It goes to your point, Jordi, that Donald Trump is cognitively addled like he is. And in a very real way, that's also impacting American policy, too. And Donald Trump's out there with a team of losers who he surrounds himself with as well. And he's out there like a mumbling, blabbering fool, saying things that are putting the United States in a very bad light internationally and weakening us on the world stage at every. At every point, at every turn. I mean, going back to this press conference that Donald Trump was having with Prime Minister Carney. You know, Donald Trump spends the time attacking democratic cities as though. As though he's a. As though he's in the past. He obviously is a dictator right now, but as though this would, we would normally expect, like a dictator talking about invading a neighboring country. Donald Trump's at the G7 talking about attacking United States cities. And then at first you'll see when he gets asked the question, he like doesn't remember the social media post that he made. What are you talking about? What are you talking about? Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, the cities. I'm going after the cities. Here, watch this.

Brett Meiselas (36:31)

Why are you ordering ICE to target Democratic inner cities? What's behind that?

Jordy Meiselas (36:34)

I don't know what you're saying.

Brett Meiselas (36:35)

You did a post last night where.

Ben Miceli (36:37)

You said you want ICE to really target Democrats.

Jordy Meiselas (36:39)

I want them to focus on the cities because the cities are where you really have what's called sanctuary cities and that's where the people are. I look at New York, I look at Chicago, I mean, you got a really bad governor in Chicago and a bad mayor, but the governor is probably the worst in the country. Pritzker. But I look at how that city has been overrun by criminals and you know, New York and la. Look at la. La. Those people weren't from la. They, they weren't from California. Most of those people, many of those people. And yeah, that's, that's a focus. Biden allowed 21 million people to come into our country. Of that vast numbers of those people were murderers, killers, people from gangs, people from jails. They emptied their jails out into the U.S. most of those people are in the cities. All blue cities, all Democrats run cities and they think they're going to use them to vote. It's not going to happen.

Ben Miceli (37:35)

He's using a speech, a press conference in an international platform to spread Russian style propaganda lies about the United States. I mean, can you imagine if Prime Minister Carney during a press conference spent his time attacking provinces in Canada and going after, you know, where there's opposition leaders who run. Like, like, imagine if he went after like Alberta and then lied and said there are 18 million. That's more than the population of Canada. But if he said there was, you know, a million murderers in Alberta and it's the, you have the worst premier of Alberta and you know, and what a horrible person, what a horrible human being and spent all of their time attacking their own country with lies. And what are you saying? That there are 20 million murderers in the United States? Like, what the hell are you even talking about? And you should know that actually red states, red cities have a significantly higher violent crime rate and homicide rate than blue states by far. You should also know that in America the red states are subsidized by and large by the blue states. California has the fourth largest gdp, not in the United States in the entire world if California was a country. Our diversity makes California a very powerful state. It works. We subsidize in California the red states, which would be failed states if California and other blue states didn't fund them. The red states, by and large, have the worst health, have the worst mortality rates, have the worst quality of living, the worst education. On every stat, they're in the worst on the lists, and the blue states are usually in the highest and. And the best. But yet you have Trump and the red states attacking the states that are subsidizing basically the entire country and also doing it on a world stage with lies like that and attacking. Just attacking that America in the G7 while praising Putin. That shouldn't be a. Oh, that's a. This position that should. That's just wrong. Brett and Geordia might as mighty.

Brett Meiselas (39:54)

Yeah. If you looked at if any sort of Democratic politician anywhere made it a main point of when they went around speaking, especially in front of world leaders, but literally anytime, if they did one tweet that was going after red states, red cities, saying, you know, this specific place is a piece of crap, this place is full of criminals, you name it, it would be the biggest story imaginable. And when you look at Donald Trump's statements there and. And Jordy, I mean, you're totally right. You look at the guy, he has no idea what's going on. Like, I think he's. Honestly, I think that party, you know, his little birthday party destroyed him like that. Nobody showed up. I mean, honestly, something's going on there. But you look at his post, and we don't have to read this whole post because it's like the manifesto of a killer. And we'll get to more stuff about it, you know, right. This looks like a man. Like a manifesto right here. Like a psychopath. Well. Well, you know, I guess it is, but you look at it, and it basically declares. It's a post of Trump declaring war on blue states and blue cities. And it's him calling it out, like, directly. Like, he's not even trying to hide it. Like, remember how in his first term, Donald Trump announced that he was doing a Muslim ban, and then he had to peel it back, and now he just calls it a travel ban that happens to include mostly Muslim countries, but he doesn't call it the Muslim ban anymore. Well, Trump didn't quite learn his lesson from the trouble he got into with that. Now he's just saying out loud, I'm targeting Democratic cities and Democratic power centers. I Want to come for you Democrats. I want to try to scare your people away from your city. Your cities. I want to try to, you know, arrest people in your cities. I want to make your cities hell. That's what he is saying in this post.

Ben Miceli (41:25)

Literally says. He goes, you turning everybody transgender. He says, you. You do transgender for everybody. And that's why we need ICE to disappear human beings, because you're turning everybody into transgender. I mean, what the hell? It's.

Brett Meiselas (41:41)

It's literally. It's literally what it says here. And as somebody who, you know, resides in Los Angeles and who grew up in New York, like, I certainly take extra offense to all of these comments, especially somebody who's living in this incredible city, you know, and was out. And I got to say, there was such an, you know, I was like, out, you know, in the heart of the city this weekend, and there was such an anti Trump energy out. There was the night before the protests, as I passed by bars, you know, you'd hear comedians on the mics, all the comedians trashing Trump, trashing ICE posters all over the city. I saw these horrifying photos that people were putting up. And Ben, I think you talked about these in some of your videos. I wish I had a photo to pull up right now. But, you know, it looked like a dystopian movie. There'd be, like, missing posters, right? And. But it would say, missing, you know, father. You know, my father. And it would say, you know, it's lived in the United States for 20 years, you know, was here legally through the asylum process, currently in ICE custody. We don't know where he is, and had an image of these, you know, image of the individual. And there are multiple posters like this all throughout, you know, la. And when you see it, you know, it's. It almost looks like it's a. Like a street team advertisement for, like. For like a dystopian movie or like a Nazi movie. But you look at it and you're like, this is real life. Like, and this is. And this is going on and. And you walk through, you know, our cities here, and you just see the damage that Trump is causing and the trauma that Trump is causing here. And. And honestly, just at a deeply personal level, you know, it's. It's all. It's all very upsetting to me. None of this stuff should be partisan. None of this should be political. And we'll get into the, you know, the shooting in a little bit because I. I have a whole lot to say on that, you know, as well. But you know, there were certain things that. There are things that have been going on for a long time in this country and but particularly this weekend, you know, it felt escalated even more that just, you know, there's politics and there's humanity and you should be able to conduct politics and deal with people who have different political beliefs and do it with compassion and do it with empathy, and you should be able to respect one another and be able to work through things. But the way things are right now, it's just really unfortunate that we have an entire political party that's just dedicated to burning it all down, dedicated to turning any of their political opponents into enemies. Lying at all costs even. No matter how ridiculous the lie, how absurd the lie, how offensive the lie, even when there are people dying out there over these lies. It just really, really, really, honestly is just so abhorrent to watch and, and to live through and to be a part of. So, you know, I just, I just want to say that I got more to say.

Mike Lee (44:22)

No, no, no. Well said, well said. Can you please bring up, Brett, that post again that we were showing before? And so, again, apologies.

Brett Meiselas (44:29)

The psychopathic post.

Mike Lee (44:30)

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm not going to read it, but I just want our YouTube viewers to just look at this. Now. I want you to go. I want you to go to your Facebook. And I'm sure just naturally, the way Facebook happens, you know, there's going to be a cousin, a third cousin, a fourth cousin who writes like this, right? Who does these weirdo, long, drawn out, frankly scary posts. All right, Brad, you could take that down now and think to yourself, thank goodness that that third cousin of yours or that random person, you know, isn't running the country. Well, in this case, that psychopath is. And he's disappearing people, he's disappearing pillars of the community. Why? Because he's a psychopath, that's why. Why? Because for some reason, the Supreme Court gave him the power to do whatever the heck he wants. And this is not just trauma right now, today. This is going to be generational trauma that's felt within this country for just the total lack of empathy that the Trump, that the Trump regime just dishes out day in and day out. It is really just horrifying from a human level to see this play out. And that's why, too. That's why I do get hopeful when I see folks on the ground during the no Kings parade, marching peacefully, protesting, saying, uh, this is not the America that I love. This is not the country that I love. And these will not happen to the good citizens and the good people of this country. We will not allow it.

Ben Miceli (46:10)

Yeah. One of the things in that post, on the page two of the post, because Trump goes on single space ranting and raving, he talks about the Pentagon, meaning our Defense Department and our military, that you have the full support to go into these, what he calls Democratic power centers. He says to ice, FBI, dea, atf, the patriots at the Pentagon and the State Department, get the job done, djt where then he talks about the democratic power centers turning everybody into transgender people. By the way, that's the exact same type of rhetoric, rhetoric that Vladimir Putin uses when he targets countries for invasion. That's the language that he uses. One of the things that was very important to every other country at the G7, other than the United States, was de escalation of what was happening in the Middle East. Israel launched preemptive strikes against Iran. And then Benjamin Netanyahu said, we did this with the full support of the Trump regime. And this is what Netanyahu said, that all of Donald Trump's statements that he was trying to negotiate peace with, with Iran and do a nuclear deal, that was all part of the plot, that was part of the plan to trick Iran into believing that there wasn't going to be a preemptive strike and to lure Iran on, into thinking there could be some sort of deal hold, you know, wait for Iran's generals to be in certain areas, decapitate them, then go after the nuclear facilities. Donald Trump didn't rebut any of that at all. The G7 countries, other than the United States, they wanted to sign a pledge to de escalate. Trump refused to sign the pledge to de escalate. Instead, at the G7, Donald Trump made the following post. Iran should have signed the, quote, deal I told them to sign. What a shame and waste of human life. Simply stated, Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon. I said it over and over again. Everyone should immediately evacuate Tehran. And he has an exclamation point right there. And again, even a statement like that, I can't begin to tell you how utterly reckless it is. You know, this is the type of thing where you should absolutely, before posting a statement like that, you give the address to the nation, you explain the goals, the policies, because you're about to commit American troops. It could possibly lead to another American draft. You could be having tens of thousands or potentially hundreds of thousands of Americans being sent to war because of this. And having clearly defined goals is important. I think it is also significant to note that there was supposed to be negotiations around Iran's nuclear deal on Sunday. That was supposed to be the sixth round of talk on Sunday. So to say there should have been a deal, I would like there to be a deal. There was a deal that Obama negotiated with Iran that Trump pulled us out of with Netanyahu back in 2016. There was a deal, and Trump was trying to redo a version of that deal. The sixth round of those talks were going to happen on Sunday. All of the reporting indicated that Donald Trump actually had told Netanyahu, do not do the strikes so that we can do the talks on Sunday. Netanyahu didn't care, and he went and did the strikes. Donald Trump saw that a lot of the Iranian leadership was killed and decapitated by the Israel strikes and nuclear facilities were taken out. So Donald Trump wanted to then insert himself and the United States as the central player in the attacks against Iran. And now we're in a place and in position where we're in entirely unchartered territory about what could happen if all hell could break loose, which is already happening, and what's taking place there. And that's Donald Trump's just entirely reckless statement. We should talk more about that. Brett, I want you to talk about the fact check that you did in terms of what happened in Minnesota. I think that's important. I want to talk a little bit more about no Kings.

Brett Meiselas (50:23)

Tom.

Ben Miceli (50:23)

Let's take our last break of the show. I want to remind everybody about the Gavin Newsom emojis. Let's unlock those Gavin Newsom emojis as well. Become a member of the YouTube channel. It helps grow our independent media network. We're close to 5 million subscribers. You can gift memberships for people. So if you've always been saying, hey, I'd love to, I'd love to help grow the Midas Touch network. There's really no limit on the amount of gifts that you can get people. So you can gift others, get yourself a membership, and then YouTube automatically then sends your gift to other people who are there who say they want to receive the gifts. All right, let's take our last quick break of the show. Let's hear from our post.

Brett Meiselas (51:05)

Can I just say one thing? Like, this whole, this whole framing, though, of preemptive strike to me is just bullshit. And I think it's buying, like, the media framing and stuff. So I just want to. I want to push back on that. There was no sign that there was about to be an imminent attack on Israel. But before they launched these things, you know, they're using the nuclear, you know, the idea that they were, you know, creating nuclear weapons, which is something we've now heard for what, decades and decades and decades. And I believe that they've been working on, you know, nuclear weapons, of course, but there was no sign that there was going to be any sort of imminent attack whatsoever. And now this is a, appears to be a war that we are now going to be embroiled in. We saw a buildup of fighter jets last night and today that were flying across the United States into Europe up to prepare. And the Trump administration told some foreign outlets that they were to prepare just in case they had to do anything, that these foreign jet, that these US jets, fighter jets were going to be built up over there in case they needed to go into Iran. We are already very much involved in this war from a defensive posture of shooting down missiles that are coming into Israel. And it seems pretty clear that, you know, Donald Trump and, and Vance and Rubio and all these folks want to escalate this and really get us fully embroiled in yet another Middle east war. So, you know, I just wanted to push back a little at that framing because I think it's, I think it's kind of bullshit. And I think Donald Trump has, you know, using kind of the same excuses that, you know, Bush used us to get us into Iraq back in the day. It's sort of like a wmd, weapons of mass destruction kind of framing that, that he's pushing, that Fox is pushing foxes in full on, bloodthirsty war, war, war, war, war all the time mode right now. And, and you watch it. And I just get echoes back to Those times after 9, 11, when we were kind of as a country brought into, you know, into Iraq. And we all saw how that worked out. And yeah, I mean that I'll end it there. I got a lot more to say.

Mike Lee (52:59)

No. And real quick. And this is where real leaders, this is why leadership is actually very important because we need to know what's going on. You know, all the speculation he's giving policy by tweets. I mean, look to one end, right? I understand that there has to be some secrecy behind all this, but right now the entire country is left in the dark of what's happening other than the reports that we're seeing coming out on Twitter or XYZ Social, you know, media asset.

Brett Meiselas (53:23)

The guy comments about every little thing all the time, right? He's, he's tweets about everything, every celebrity breakup, every tweets about Taylor Swift, he tweets about everything and then the moment this all happens, he kind of goes silent for a few days.

Mike Lee (53:37)

There are already American lives on the line, so I mean, there already are American lives. Hey, we're going to hit our last quick break. Chat's telling me, by the way, that we're about 150 new members away from unlocking the Gavin emoji. So let's see if we can hit the 150 members again. You could gift them to folks. Let's see if we could hit that during the break. And then when we come back from break, assuming we hit it, the Gavin emoji will be unleashed. Good.

Ben Miceli (54:00)

Let's take a quick break.

Mike Lee (54:05)

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Ben Miceli (57:11)

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Brett Meiselas (57:45)

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Mike Lee (59:10)

Let's go shout out to our sponsors links in description of both the YouTube and the audio. Use the links, use the codes, let them know we sent you. And also just to clear the air because I know I've been getting some questions. Yes, I am podcasting from a bathroom. This is the only place I'm getting my wifi right now. Today. Ben may be frozen as well right now. So Brett, you and I might need to just take over the show, but that's where we stand currently. Oh no, Ben's back. Benji, where do you want to take us to next?

Ben Miceli (59:36)

I timed that. My WI fi timed that perfectly. Jordy, just to scare you.

Mike Lee (59:39)

I was a little bit worried.

Ben Miceli (59:42)

It's all good. He would have both done an incredible job with or without me. All right, let me show you how Donald Trump's I wouldn't even just say warmongering, just all, all out commitment to war in the Middle east and seeming commitment to sending United States forces into the Middle East. How that's playing out in MAGA world. You have to remember, I mean Donald Trump's whole thing was lying that he was going to stop World War iii. And one of their main points that they kept on lying about former President Biden about is saying that Biden's going to start World War III and Biden's going to do another war in the Middle East. When actually former President Biden was the one who had the courage to withdraw American troops, for example from Afghanistan and end that never ending war. After Donald Trump was the one who cut a deal releasing 5,000 Taliban prisoners during Trump's first term and then withdrawing Americans from most of the bases other than one basically allowing the Taliban to surround the United States of America, Donald Trump claimed he was going to withdraw the American troops himself during his first term. Not only did he fail to do it, remember during the transition to President Biden Trump refused to provide any communications at all with the Biden administration on any topic to purposefully have Biden show up and then inherit a mess that Trump and MAGA could use and exploit to then spread all the disinformation and blame all of Donald Trump's problems on Biden. And Brett, in a little bit, I know you're going to talk about this disinformation right wing network, but you know, you also saw that on full display, you know, when it came to the wildfires as well. I mean, when it comes to the most unthinkable tragedy, and we saw that over and over again in the Biden administration. That's because, because they're unthinkable tragedies. Most people who are dealing with them don't think, oh, where I've got to spend a lot of my time and perhaps the majority of my time is not dealing with the tragedy and the crisis, it's that I've got to swat away and fight off all of the disinformation. And there's no low to what the right wing MAGA Trumpers will say. I mean, you think about Nancy Pelosi's husband, victim of attempted murder. What does MAGA say? He's gay, he's a homosexual who invited the murderer over because they were having gay sex. And then that's why they were trying to kill the guy because it was an elaborate homosexual sex thing. And it's like that's the conspiracy that the guy was almost killed and you're making a lie that, that Nancy Pelosi's husband was having an affair with the killer. Like it's on. It's unthinkable things that, that, that they make up in their mind. They talk about the wildfires, they act like Gavin tried to do it intentionally and then they spread the lies that, oh, the real issue here was that Gavin turned away people raking the leaves and that Gavin was the one who took away all the water from the dams, you know, and they spread this and you, and if you don't respond to them right away and rebut them, then it actually becomes the story and corporate news does in fact check it. So now I think that people like Gavin and independent news, you have to kick into high gear right away. And Brett, I know you'll talk about the moment you had this Trump supporting murdering right wing extremists have a list of Democrats he's going to kill, including the most, the second most prominent Democratic state representative in Minnesota. The Republican conspiracy was, was, no, this is a Democrat. This was a leftist murderer who's doing the far left Marxist agenda. And then you had MAGA Republican senators and Congress members out there spreading that lie. I want to pass that to you. But Brett, I do want to show this clip first about how the Trump's war footing in Iran is impacting Magna right here. So here's Steve Bannon with Mike Flynn. You don't really get more Trump supporting than Bannon and Flynn. And here's their take on Donald Trump getting America involved in the war between Israel and Iran. Here. Play this clip right now.

Jordy Meiselas (63:53)

I'll be blunt.

Ben Miceli (63:54)

This is just as sloppy, just as ill thought through, just as lack of precision as Afghanistan and how we started there in Iraq as we started there and quite frankly, the Fox News team and the pom poms up, we played on the cold open the other day. Shock and awe, Shock and awe. Shock and awe. When Fox was up there with the pom poms. We are, we are inexorably drawn into a conflict that we're not making clear.

Jordy Meiselas (64:18)

Decisions about now if we, if we're.

Ben Miceli (64:20)

Going to be in this.

Jordy Meiselas (64:21)

Yeah. So let me jump in.

Ben Miceli (64:22)

Let me jump, let me jump in. Go ahead.

Brett Meiselas (64:24)

You're, you're, you're on a, you're on a diatribe there.

Jordy Meiselas (64:27)

That's fine.

Brett Meiselas (64:28)

Here's what Trump needs to do.

Ben Miceli (64:29)

Okay.

Brett Meiselas (64:30)

But Donald Trump needs to do, and I understand the celebration in Washington, D.C. in the parade and all this wonderful stuff. Happy Birthday, Army. I got it. What Donald Trump needs to do, President Donald J. Trump needs to do, is.

Jordy Meiselas (64:40)

He needs to go to the podium.

Brett Meiselas (64:42)

With very, I mean, very clear objectives about what the hell we're doing.

Ben Miceli (64:46)

Then you have over here a podcaster and frequent Joe Rogan guest and big Trump supporter Dave Smith saying the following about Trump's Iran policy. Play this clip about coming back to the negotiating table. It's like sitting after Pearl harbor and.

Mike Lee (65:02)

Telling FDR now the time to go.

Ben Miceli (65:04)

Negotiate with the Japanese. Negotiations are over.

Mike Lee (65:07)

Now the time for negotiations was before this. And so yeah, Donald Trump looks and.

Ben Miceli (65:12)

Man, I supported him this last year. I apologize for doing so. It was a bad calculation at the time. It seemed like the right one, but he should be impeached and removed for this one. Impeached and removed for this one. Brett, let me toss it over to you because I know you called for the resignation of, of MAGA Republican Senator Mike Lee as well. And your call for his resignation went viral. And I think what we saw happen in Minnesota, the unthinkable tragedy, speaks to some Larger issues that independent media has to combat, media literacy in general. And the moment that we're in, yeah.

Brett Meiselas (65:48)

Well, we saw a horrifying killing this weekend in cold blood. And it was at the hands of this far right MAGA Trump voting guy, Trump supporter who had a hit list of 70 Democratic targets, who killed Minnesota State Representative Melissa Hortman and her husband, who shot State Senator John Hoffman and his wife, who killed Melissa Hortman's dog, who also tried to show up to multiple other Democratic lawmakers homes and was not able to get in. The federal had said today had a list, like I said, of a bunch of other targets, was targeting pro abortion activists, was targeting pro abortion clinics and it was evangelical guy. And literally the killing happened, the assassination happened. And that wasn't horrifying enough for us all to basically wake up that morning to this, you know, horrific news. And honestly, like, I'm sorry if I have trouble getting through this. I'm honestly, I'm still like very distraught by this and shaken up by even just the reaction that that's unfolded online about this. But you see, you know, what, what happened there. And then the first thing that happens is, you know, these click farms, these right wing MAGA influencer types all rush into gear to try to shape the narrative. They don't wait for the facts, they don't wait for the truth. They just go, how do we start spinning this in order to blame this on Democrats, to blame this on the left, to wash our hands of it and to make sure that this is a lia for them Once again, everybody targeted that people killed. Democrats, Governor Tim Walls targeted on, on this hit list as well. Well, they had the nerve to blame Tim Walls on this. That was the first thing that they did. Because this individual, who was the shooter, who is the suspect, Vance Bolter, was somebody who people knew and he was on a, an advisory board, a nonpartisan advisory board with no actual power that the governor had put together. And this was a holdover from the previous governor, Governor Dayton, also a Democrat. And it was a bipartisan commission that has to be made up of both Republicans and Democrats. And this was just one of like 50 people on this commission. And Walsh just, you know, reappointed the person to this position, didn't know who he was. But it's a bipartisan, very basic thing. So they tried to use that little kernel of information in order to try to blame this on Tim Walls and blame this on Democrats, despite the fact that Democrats were assassinated for their political beliefs. And they conjured this whole Story. Oh, they probably shot these people because they voted on this bill against, against the Democrats they went against. So, so they were punishing them for voting against them. And then that wasn't even true of like, at all. Like, like there was just a made up thing. They invented their own narrative and then very quickly the facts started to come out. But they had already set these traps, set this narrative out there. But that didn't stop them from tweeting and their refusal to even admit that they were wrong. This is like the other day, but obviously much worse than that when all of these mag influencers, you know, when Gavin, when Donald Trump said, I spoke to Gavin Newsom yesterday, and Gavin Newsom said, I did not speak to Donald Trump yesterday. And then they showed the call logs which showed that Gavin and Trump had talked like four days prior to that. And then all those Maggie influencers just kept saying, that was yesterday, that was yesterday, that was yesterday. They wouldn't drop the lie, even though it was a black and white, no gray area here. Well, this is obviously ramped up on a different level because there are lives here. They're like, we're talking about people who died. We're talking about two children who no longer have their parents because this evil, heinous monster killed their parents. And you have people like Elon Musk who have the nerve to tweet stuff like this. The far left is murderously violent. You have people like Mike Lee, a United States senator, tweeting about it, making jokes about it, saying stuff like, this is what happens when Marxists don't get their way. And showing a photograph of the killer. The killer was wearing a mask, is wearing a mask in this photo. Something straight out of a horror movie. This is the killer as he, as he approached the, the door. Then you have him, you know, blaming Mike Waltz, all these people, I mean, I mean, Tim Walls, you have all these people blaming Tim Walls for it. And it's really just so disheartening that we cannot even be on the same plane of reality when we're dealing with issues like this. And especially when we're dealing with people who died and murders and killings, politically charged killings. Like we've truly just lost our way as a country when this is what's going on here. And like I said earlier in the episode, I wish, you know, there was a Republican Party that I could say, you know what, maybe you have some good ideas on this and let's discuss, you know, let's. Maybe there are some compromise that we could find on these issues. And you know what, you're right about this. But, you know, you're very off about this. I'm to going, going to defend this to the end. And we could have actual discussions about policy, but the thing that we've seen is that these people don't live in reality. And then they don't care about reality. They just care about raw power. And they don't care how many lives are on the other end of it. They just don't give a shit at all. Like, it's just all about lying. And so you had Tina Smith today, the Minnesota senator, thankfully, you know, and props to her. She, you know, was looking for, for Senator Mike Lee. She's the other senator from the state, and she confronted Mike Lee. And here's a photograph of him confronting her. And look at that keyboard warrior. You know, look, look at how, you know, hunched over he is. You know, for the listeners, it's Mike Lee, like, with his hands on his hips and he's kind of hunched over, looking disheveled. And as the Democrats said when they posted this photo, no screens to hide behind. Let's see him defend his disgusting tweets to Senator Tina Smith's face. And Tina Smith's staff wrote a very powerful, you know, email to Senator Lee's staff. I think I should just read, like, at least a little bit of it because I think it really centers just this whole situation and what's been going on. And I'm happy somebody is saying this, you know, directly, directly to him. But she. They said the following note from Senator Smith's deputy chief. I knew Melissa Horton. Many people in this office did. She was a longtime friend of Senator Smith Smiths who had seen her hours before she was murdered. So you'll forgive my candor as I speak through enormous grief. It is important for your office to know how much additional pain you've caused on an unspeakably horrific weekend. I'm not sure what compelled you or your boss to say any of those things, which, in addition to being unconscionable, may also well be untrue. Also may very well be untrue. But that is not the point. Why would he use the awesome power of United States Senate office to compound people's grief? Is that how your team measures success? Using the office of a US Senator to post not just one, but a series of jokes about an assassin assassination? Is that a successful day of work on Team Lee? Did you come into the office on Monday and feel proud of the work you did over the weekend? Let's Recap Saturday so you fully understand what Minnesota was going through. Melissa Horman and her husband were murdered. Senator Hoffman and his wife were shot numerous times and remain hospitalized. By the grace of God, it appear, it appears they will survive. Senators are discovered to be on a hit list of an armed man on the run. Senators Lee's, Senator Lee's colleagues. The decision of the office of Senator Mike Lee was not to publicly condemned the violence. It was to intimate that Melissa and Mark somehow deserve this by making jokes. Did you have any consideration for the survivors and her family? For the Hoffman's in the hospital for their families? You exploited the murder of a lifetime public servant servant and her husband to post some sick burns about Democrats. Did you see this as an excellent opportunity to get likes and retweets? Have you absolutely no conscience, no decency? I pray to God that none of you ever go through anything like this. I pray that Senator Lee and your office begin to see people you work with in this building as colleagues and human beings. And I pray that if, God forbid, bid you ever find yourself having to deal with anything similar, you find yourselves on the receiving end of the kind of grace and compassion that Senator Mike Lee could not muster. Lastly, I suggest you take a few minutes today to read about Melissa Horton and her husband Mark. They were remarkable people. Here's a story in the Saint Pioneer Press, Saint Paul Pioneer Press called Melissa Hortman once a teenager with a job making burritos, she became a powerful Minnesota lawmaker who trained service dogs. She was a force and a human being. And I beg of you to exercise some restraint on social media as we continue to grieve Ed Shelby, office of Senator Tina Smith. I found that powerful. And it just speaks to this, this moment that we're in. You know, like we've said on the show before, there are, you know, there is right versus wrong there, there's. There are black and white issues out there. Not everything is. Some things can be debated. There's some things up, a lot of things up for discussion when it comes to things like this. There's no debate here. Okay? And to see people continuing to. I'm talking right now still. If you posted the facts about this, about who this individual was. And by the way, I don't even like going immediately to, oh, he's a MAGA guy, he's a right wing guy. But unfortunately we have to because they're spreading these lies to try to smear people. They're trying to smear the victim. So we have to do that. Unfortunately, it's just where we are as a country. But it's, you know, Brett, I think.

Ben Miceli (74:33)

With the no Kings protests and I think we leave on this, people saw America again across the world, Right. Donald Trump wanted it to be about his dictator parade for his birthday, and it wasn't. I mean, we, we mocked it, we laughed at it. Corporate news tried to rehabilitate him. Corporate news tried to post these stories and they take these weird to make it look like it was largely attended when it was absolutely not. That's why we showed it from every angle, and each angle was actually worse than the next. Like, I think your point was the more videos that come out, the worse this thing actually was and the worse that it looked. So there was that, and then there was the split screen with what was happening in the streets. This is how Washington Post reported what went down in Trump's dictator parade. Planes roared over D.C. on Saturday. Tanks rolled along the National Mall. Brass bands resounded, and thousands of soldiers marched past cheering crowds as the army put on the largest show of military might in the capital in more than three decades. And it is a kind of bizarre photo that is very much like, cropped in a specific way with tanks rolling through Washington, D.C. and then on the other side, you have someone wearing a January 6th hat, dressed in all red in front of looks like. I'm not sure if it's either a helicopter or, or, or, or a missile system. It's hard to see because it's cut off. But military equipment, that's what you're reporting on the Washington Post. I mean, if you went through the New York Times reporting, they buried the coverage as well in, like, about what happened with the no Kings protest. You had to, like, really, like, look for it. But we focused on it here on the Midas Touch Network. We made it our top priority. It's reflected in the views as well that people want to see the truth. They want to see what is actually happening and what is going on. And that's what we're going to report on each and every day here at the Midas Touch Network. And I think when I spoke to and I hear from our international audience, they go, thank you. We thought America was just totally lost. But to see about 3% of the entire American population out on the streets protesting in big cities, small cities, big towns, small towns, red states, blue states, purple states, gave us hope. Even though we're not going to be getting through this Trump regime, you know, anytime soon, in the next year to two or three years, we see light at the end of the tunnel, that America may be able to make it past this. And I know America will be able to make it past this. I know with the heroic grassroots organizations responsible for the no Kings protests, who are responsible for all the grassroots work out there, with all of the incredible legal groups and people who are on the ground and on the front lines, helping to all of you, the Midas mighty who are out there putting in the work every single day, getting out the word, getting out the message, constantly keeping friends, family, neighbors, copy, co workers, everybody you know updated in what's happening. Y' all are the heroes. And it's an honor that we at the Midas Touch Network get to play a small part in amplifying the work of you, the lawyers, all the legal groups out there, all the grassroots organizations, and everybody in America and across the world fighting for our democracy. So if you haven't already become a member of our YouTube, become a member member of our YouTube right now. We'll have exclusive content as well for members. It's one of the ways we try to grow this independent media platform. Look how close we are, everybody. To 5 million subscribers. I think we can be able to hit it tomorrow if we are on pat. We're on track to hit it tomorrow. So if one of the best ways you can help if you can't become a member of YouTube, we'd love for you to be and we'd love for you to gift membership. If you can't become a member of Midas. Plus.com, we'd love for you to be a member. Just share this network with as many people as you know. When this ends, tell anybody you know, go down your phone list and say, have you subscribed? Have you subscribed? Have you subscribed? They're about to hit 5 million hit. Subscribe. Let's see if we can get there even before tomorrow. We'll see about it. Thank you, everybody. Keep checking in every 90 minutes or so for new content uploaded on the Midas Touch YouTube site. We appreciate you. We love you. We're so grateful for you. And we'll see you next time on the Midas Touch podcast. Brett, anything else?

Brett Meiselas (79:12)

Just grateful for everybody. You know, I. I know, you know, it's a little emotional this episode, but just grateful for everybody, you know, getting out there and putting in the hard work every day. Like, I'm. I'm so thankful for you. You keep me going. I know you keep all of us going. So from the bottom of my heart, thank you.

Mike Lee (79:25)

Jordy, shout out to the might as.

Ben Miceli (79:27)

Mighty.

Jordy Meiselas (79:31)

Is standing strong.

Brett Meiselas (79:35)

Against the fascist we sing our song.

Mike Lee (79:46)

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