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- [00:02]
Benji
This episode is brought to you by Fox 1. Watch all 104 matches of the FIFA World cup live in 4K for just $19.99 a month with 3 days free. Build your own multi view, choose up to three streams and follow player spotlights. Stay on top of every moment with live stats, highlights and instant replays. The FIFA World cup, streaming live on Fox One, offers a subject to change. See fox.com for complete terms and conditions.
- [00:30]
Brett
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- [00:52]
Jordy
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- [01:07]
Benji
audience that pays twice as much attention
- [01:09]
Jordy
to your ads than they do on social? Let me introduce you to fans and they're here with me on Spotify. Trust me, I know fans. They don't skip, they stay for hours, they don't move on, they manifest. They're not a demographic group, they're fans. Spotify advertising.
- [01:29]
Benji
You're among fans.
- [01:30]
Shannon Maldonado
My name is Shannon Maldonado. I'm the founder of Yaoi, a gift shop from the lens of artists and handmade objects. I chose Shopify because when I was testing other platforms it was definitely one of the most user friendly. It was important to me to think about where we would be in the future. All of the tools for reading your sales, like planning inventory, they're just right there on your dashboard. For anyone starting a small business, the biggest thing I can tell you is it doesn't have to be perfect. Shopify can help you build upon it. Start your free trial on shopify.com I
- [02:00]
Benji
started Ornod in 2013 and we make bike apparel.
- [02:03]
Brett
The best part of Shopify for me
- [02:05]
Benji
is our ability to run the business as essentially non technical people.
- [02:11]
Brett
We're able to admin everything on the back end, front end, and sell things online easily.
- [02:16]
Benji
If Shopify were a bike accessory, I think it would actually be the bicycle.
- [02:21]
Brett
It's the thing that you do the thing on.
- [02:24]
Benji
We run the business on Shopify, so start your free trial on shopify.com Trump will huff, Trump will puff, and then he'll give you billions of dollars in unfrozen funds, $12 billion to be exact. That seems to be the result of what took place in Switzerland, as there were technical talks mediated by Qatar and Pakistan between the United States and Iran. In addition to unfreezing $12 billion in funds, the US is also giving Iran a general license ra removing 40 years of sanctions against Iranian oil, petrochemicals and other resources. Donald Trump, in an Oval Office disastrous presser before, seemed to not know that that even took place. But then he said, but actually Iran has agreed that they're going to buy all of this produce from our farmers, so our farmers are going to get so rich. Yeah, he's going with that again. And of course, that's not true. Let's talk about feces. It's not, but Donald Trump is talking about the reflecting pool being infested by algae, not because the reflecting pool is getting its water sourced from the Potomac, which has the algae like everybody predicted. But Donald Trump says antifa vandals went into the reflecting pool and they started throwing feces and fertilizer into this. And guess what these antifas did. They then jumped in with a box cutter, they took a knife and they gashed right in the middle. And that's what's happened to the reflecting pool. Reporter said. Don't you think people would have seen that happen? Ooh, we've got evidence for it. Donald Trump said, we will be doing a very powerful filing in court in two weeks. And then we're actually your fake news, so you may not get to see it, but we will show you. Maybe, maybe not. Again, more lies from Donald Trump. And it's just so utterly deranged. In international news, UK's Prime Minister Keir Starmer has resigned. Donald Trump then continued to attack the uk. He attacked Italy, he attacked NATO. A major meeting took place among Gulf states as they are now working more closely together to coordinate efforts to ensure that to the extent the United States tries to engage in further war and invasions, that they'll be able to counter it and checkmate it. Iran has been meeting back to back to back following these talks in Switzerland, Iran's lead negotiator, M.B. golubov, meeting in Oman with Oman's foreign minister about the tolling system that Iran and Oman are controlling there. And then we take a look at what's going on in Russia right now. As Ukraine launched a major offensive there, hitting Moscow, hitting Crimea and other areas Across Russia as Russia's air defense systems seem. No. No match for Ukrainians new drones or as Zelensky says it, long range sanctions. We'll talk about that and more on this episode of the Midas Touch podcast. Got Bretton Jordy here. We've got a lot to discuss. History unfolding before our eyes. A reordering of a world order happening before our eyes. America's power weakens. Iran's power rises. That's what we're seeing right now happen.
- [05:53]
Jordy
And we're seeing it happen in real time. And it's great to be with everybody, to break down all the latest developments. I'm Brett here. It's great to be here with you, Ben. Great to be here with you, Jordy. Great to be here with you. Midas Mighty. Whether you're watching us live on YouTube or listening on the audio feed, always great to discuss the latest topics with you. So much going on. We were tracking these diplomatic meetings that were happening in Switzerland over the weekend. I find all international diplomacy incredibly interesting. There's such a weirdness about it as when you get all these world leaders in one place. And the thing that I just cannot, you know, just. I can't stop thinking about is that all of these things that the United States is acting like it accomplished right now, it could have gotten months and months ago without war, without destroying the economy, and without giving up so many concessions to Iran. But as I said in the last episode, to the victor goes the spoils. And Donald Trump is using the algae strategy right now with Iran. And he's used it in every single thing he, he did, which is obfuscate the truth, continue to lie, double down on lies, create a rustic Russian nesting doll of lies so you don't even remember what the last lie was. And that's why you gotta follow the facts and follow the data. You gotta look at the actual petroleum reserves. See, actually, how much oil does the United States really have? What is the state of the battle right now in the Middle East? Is what Donald Trump and CENTCOM are saying accurate or are the actual raw numbers accurate? I think that's, that's what you got to do, you know, that's how you cut through the BS here with the Trump regime as they try to flood the zone with lies. You got to flood the zone with truth. So let's get to the truth. But first, Jordy, what's the latest?
- [07:35]
Brett
Brothers Midas. Marty, how y' all doing? Look, I'm going to start out and ask for a favor. If you are watching right now. And if you're listening, great. If you're watching, please go to the Modest Touch podcast on the audio feeds. It's totally free. Hit that subscribe button. Make sure you're subscribed on audio because it really helps us out. It helps continue to grow the show. I know we always get a nice viewership here on our, our YouTube. The audience on the on the audio. What's up audio listeners who are listening to this Tuesday morning. Thank you guys. Please rate it 5 stars while you're there. That takes a second. The audio side of things. It takes two seconds to subscribe. It really helps us out. The Midas Touch podcast on audio. Wherever you get your audio. Benji, where are we starting off today, big bro?
- [08:14]
Benji
Brett, you mentioned the deal months ago, February 27, to be exact, when the Omani foreign minister mediated the discussions between the United States and Iran. Iran agreed to nuclear inspection, agreed to remove all of its enriched nuclear material. The Oman foreign minister went on CBS to announce the deal. That night, Donald Trump and Netanyahu invaded. And the rest, as they say, is history. A catastrophic and unlawful war that destroyed the global economy, destroyed America's standing in the world, was unleashed. And there was a deal that night that's far stronger than what, by far than what exists right now. But you don't even have to just talk about that. Go back many, many, many years ago during the Obama administration. Of course, the non nuclear deal, referred to as the jcpoa, had multilateral mechanisms, did not have to give Iran all of these unfrozen sanctioned funds, required that there be IAEA inspections taking place, did not remove all of the oil and petrochemical sanctions against Iran. And you had that deal in place. And as I mentioned before, that deal was supposed to be a template for non nuclear deals with North Korea. Donald Trump allowed Kim Jong Un to get a nuclear weapon as well. You know, the complexity, however, of reporting on what went down in Switzerland and in this MOU is among all of the options that exist. I believe that doing a deal and having peace is far better than the alternative. And so I want the peace process to work, of course I do. I don't want to see us going back into war. I think, however, as a reporter, it is important to point out the representations that were made initially versus the reality and even right now, the representations that are being made by the Trump regime about things that are happening with respect to what actually is happening right now. And I think I need to point out the vulnerabilities in the memorandum of understanding and the subsequent technical talks, not to root for its destruction. Because I actually, despite my hatred of this Trump regime for what they've done to the American people and the world, I still want to see the MoU and peace survive again. Out of all the possible other options, this seems to be the best possible option. But I do know when we see Donald Trump's psychotic behavior and Donald Trump's inability to stick to any deal throughout his life, this thing is very, very vulnerable. And so I think it's important to point that out. Iran knows Donald Trump's pathology and his past and that he's incapable of actually complying with deal terms. So when Iran entered into this mo, you, they built it like a ladder where you have to climb different steps before Iran gives the United States anything. So part of climbing that ladder, Iran wants to ensure that that occurs right now before Iran really has to do anything reciprocal for the United States. So part of climbing that ladder is the United States needs to unfreeze this $12 billion in sanctions. And the United States, through the Treasury Department, provide the necessary waivers and documents that would allow Iran to sell its oil, its petrochemicals and other resources, which were the subject of very harsh sanctions that have been compounded by more harsh sanctions over the past 40 years. And so Iran realizes, and MB Golubov has said this, which is, we now are able to achieve through the diplomatic process, leaps and bounds even more than we can achieve on the battlefield. On the battlefield, we can choke the Strait of Hormuz and inflict pain. To make the United States submit, then through diplomacy, is where we really cash in. And so yesterday, Donald Trump began by threatening to kill the Iranian negotiators. That's how the day began. He called up state regime, media, Fox and said, I'm going to. To kill the negotiators, basically, and that the United States is going to control the Strait of Hormuz and we're going to do tolls, and the Iranian president better watch his mouth. And then Donald Trump made posts to suggest that, you know, he was going to allow Israel to continue its attacks inside Lebanon. And that happened right before any of the discussions took place in Switzerland. Just to remind you, you had this MOU that was signed in Versailles last week. Then on Friday, there were supposed to be the subsequent technical conversations to implement the MoU because of Israel's continuing invasion inside Lebanon and attacks and lots of innocent people in Lebanon being killed. Iran said, we're not doing it. On Friday, J.D. vance's trip was delayed. That ended up getting moved over to the weekend. So then that happened over this past weekend. They then meet to have these technical discussions. Donald Trump begins by making all of these threats. And while they were all supposed to be in the same room together in Switzerland, in Lucerne, you know, you had J.D. vance, Iraq, they were all supposed to be in the same room. As soon as Donald Trump makes the threats, Iran lodges a protest. The Iranian negotiators, MB Golubov, the parliament leader, he's the lead negotiator, the Foreign Minister Aragchi, who you see right there with Pakistan's Prime Minister Sharif. They, you know, this image that you're seeing it for audio listeners, it's Iraqi, the Foreign Minister of Iran meeting with, over here, Pakistan's Prime Minister Sharif. In the background, you see Jared Kushner, the kind of flunky nepo, son of, you know, of a kind of a convicted felon who is pardoned by Donald Trump. You've got Witkoff over there, one of Donald Trump's like, kind of like scummy real estate guys from the 80s and the 90s wearing $110,000 Rolex watch. I mean, the guy doesn't even know what the hell he's doing. Or, you know, an expensive watch. I'm not like a watch guy, but expensive watch. And then you have J.D. vance, who just seemed way out of his depth, but at least I think, trying to implement the MOU. But I mean, it's like the Three Stooges over here. And when J.D. vance is your least bad stooge, you know, you're in trouble. So the Iranian negotiating team leaves, they walk out, they go, why would we deal with these people? Donald Trump is, you know, threatening us. We all think there's going to be a complete breakdown. But then the Pakistani and Qatari mediators, I think, speak with Iran and they go, all right, guys, they're here. If you leave right now, you're going to fall into the trap that Netanyahu and Trump and all the neocons in America and Israel want you to fall into. Why don't you utilize this platform to extract the concessions? Look, we all believe that Donald Trump will probably breach this thing in the near future, and Israel's not going to leave Lebanon, which is one of the requirements in the MoU before the United States starts getting things in the MoU, which is basically Iran, to remove nuclear weapons or not build nuclear weapons, which again, was in the JCPOA and which was being offered in the first place in the February deal. But why don't you extract the concessions, get the waivers, get your $12 billion. I mean, you're here. And so Iran's like, sure, we're not going to meet with them in a format of all of us there because of Donald Trump's threats. But, you know, let's get what we want. MB Golubov, he's now in Oman and he's recounted basically the story. And he said, yeah, we walked out. We then work through the Qatari and the Pakistan mediators. We all realize how desperate the United States is. Donald Trump showed us his cards. Trump is terrified of being Herbert Hoover in a global depression. We know that the US and other countries are about to hit tank bottom of these strategic reserves. Iran, we want to get out our oil from Carg Island. So let's, let's do this. I mean, let's figure out how we can do this. And so Iran, through the Qatari and Pakistani mediators, you know, got these major concessions. A joint statement was then issued. And the joint statement basically said that these general waivers for Iran would be given by the US Treasury Department so Iran can get out all of its oil from Carg island and petrochemicals and sell it. This morning we saw the Treasury Department issue this general license. It's only through August 21st, but for the next 60 days that will, that will allow Iran to send all of its tanks that, you know, a lot of them haven't been able to get through. Some of them have, you know, but a lot of them have been through the US blockade. And Iran's been able to move now about 30 million barrels of oil already. So that's a big concession. And Iran's been able to move 30 million barrels. And Iran and China and Iran's allies were ready to go with this. They had the vlcc, those big tankers, they were ready to go push out all this oil. And so they got out all their stuff, you know, right away.
- [18:20]
Brett
First.
- [18:20]
Benji
And M.B. golubov confirmed that $6 billion of the $12 billion in additional unfrozen funds were given to Iran. And they were expecting another $6 billion soon. And one of the things they set up is what they call a, a deconfliction cell. And the deconfliction cell now has Iran working with inside of Lebanon, with the United States and with other actors in order to try to again effectuate Israel moving out of Lebanon, getting Israel to stop attacking inside of Lebanon and to push Israel out. Now, Israel today, through Netanyahu, through Ben gvir, through Smoodrich and others, their Defense Minister, Israel Katz. Israel's Defense minister's first name is Israel, last name is Katz. Not to confuse you. They all put out statements, we're not leaving Lebanon. I mean, Ben Gvir's statement is, we're going to blow up Beirut and basically kill everybody, and we need to escalate. And he's the national security minister. Netanyahu's. And Israel, Katz, frankly, not much better than that statement. But they're like, we're not leaving, we're not getting out. And so Iran, Iran knew this was going to happen. But Iran got its money unfrozen. It got the oil sanctions removed with this general license as well. And now it's saying, look, just like we did this weekend, we can close the Strait of Hormuz at any given period of time to the extent there are violations of this mou. And number one, the number one clause in the mou, you, Donald Trump, you can't threaten. If you threaten us, that's a violation. We get to close the Strait of Hormuz. If Israel continues to attack inside of Lebanon, that's a violation of the MoU. Whatever you think about, it really doesn't matter what you think about it, because that's what the MOU says. And now this MOU has kind of trapped Trump, and we see how it's being, being, you know, utilized. I mean, you also have Trump. And we'll, we'll show you this a little bit later in the show. Trump and J.D. van saying, well, Iran promised us that they're going to buy from our farmers. And Iran's like, that's not gonna happen. Iran promised us that they're gonna let the IAEA in. Iran's like, want me to prove to you that doesn't make sense? The IAEA wasn't even at these negotiations. You know, the people who would be involved in the nuclear file weren't even in the room. So how could that have even been something we agreed to? And even if they do it in the future, agree to it, what does that bring you back to? A weaker version of the JCPOA for all of this. So, anyway, I think that neatly ties. Without showing you this clip, that clip, which I'll show you in this episode, I think that fundamentally ties together where we are at right now.
- [21:12]
Jordy
And it was a very tense scene yesterday as we were following it beat by beat, and trying to see what reporters on the ground were saying, what all the parties were saying. And I got to say I felt a little bit bad for everybody who was in Switzerland, because, honestly, it's an incredibly difficult situation. Like, let me, let me roll this tape just for a second while I'm, while I'm speaking about it. This is the Pakistan Prime Minister. And this is as kind of shit is hitting the fan as Trump is sending his truth Social post, threatening to blow up Iran again. As the Iranian mediators are walking out, you see Pakistan's prime minister, who's the mediator here? Guy looks terrified. Guys looking around, he looks absolutely horrified as to what's going on. And I think basically everybody, I think all the parties in this case, and I'm talking anybody from the Iranian delegation to J.D. vance and Kushner and Witkoff to Pakistan, to everyone who was there, I think everybody was on such edge. And it's really, when you, when you kind of step back a little bit, you have all these people actually getting in a room to try to move the ball forward with diplomacy, which I agree with Ben and is a very good thing. You know, my feelings aside for the people in the room, it's a very good thing, I think, when people are trying to have productive conversations about peace. And then you have this idiot back in Washington who's just posting things from his phone that's blowing up the entire talks. You have Israel that keeps attacking Lebanon, you have Lebanon attacking back. You just have all these other kind of wild cards while these people in the room are actually trying to do something. And so it's just such a, it's almost like a frustrating situation when you get to this point and you actually have a real opportunity for peace, a real opportunity to make progress, maybe not on the United States terms, as I would have preferred from a strong negotiating posture prior to the war, but in a weakened posture, but nevertheless still working towards some agreement towards peace, which I am all for. And you got people blowing it up. And now when you actually break down the numbers of a lot of the things Ben was speaking about, I'll just pull one number out right here. You got the oil sanctions unfrozen from Iran. That's, by the way, this is like something that is unheard of, has not been done, like, what, in 40 years or something. This is like the biggest gift to Iran that you could possibly give. It's, it's massive. And in these like 60 day period alone, it's worth something like analysts say around $10 billion to Iran. So you can add that to the bucket of the unfroze in funds, you could add that to the bucket of the $300 billion fund. And you see Iran just keep stacking up the sort of prizes from this war. It's really, really kind of just wild when you really step away and see just how much they are getting from all of this. And now, even after the fact, you know, we're. We're moving the ball forward a little more, right? Inch by inch, we have that deconfliction team that's trying to work on the Lebanon issue. But I think right now, to me, and I understand there are other conversations happening right now, but the biggest wild card is the one that I mentioned before, which is the dynamic that's playing out between Israel, Hezbollah, and Lebanon. And that is something that seems to be beyond the control of so many of the parties who have actually entered into this agreement. And the whole deal kind of rests on that. As Ben says, these are the initial points to the MOU that need to be fixed before. Before any of the other stuff happens. So Iran needs to get what they want before any of the other stuff happens in this MoU. And if you have Israel out there promising to continue their invasion, continue their bombing campaign, to stay in what they call their security zone, which is an area in Lebanon that they say that they are allowed to control, and. And they said they could kill anybody in that area and do whatever they want in that area, then the path to peace seems much more difficult. But if everybody decided at once, you know what? This is a good opportunity. Instead of fighting, instead of doing all this, let's just pull back for a second, behave like actual adults here, and let's actually try to move the ball forward for world peace. You could actually have it, but you have all these parties right now, all this tension, all these people who are still stoking this vitriol in the area, even as we get closer with this thing, and as they move the ball forward.
- [25:33]
Brett
I guess for me, what's so frustrating is watching Donald Trump and to your point, just in the Oval Office or wherever the heck he was that day on Sunday. Just like nuking the whole thing. Like nuking the whole meeting when everyone's getting together. Yeah, exactly. I just don't understand how we could ever get anywhere with such a lunatic in office.
- [25:56]
Benji
And the way he just wakes up in the morning, morning, it's a day of peace talks. And then he says, you know what I'm gonna do today? I'm just gonna. I'm just gonna try to blow it all up. And, I mean, you heard from Lindsey Graham the day before, and one of the things that Lindsey Graham had been saying to Donald Trump was, you know, look, this deal's gonna fall apart. We need to charge tolls. We need to go in there. And she had Lindsey Graham, you had all of the MAGA in influencers, who seem to be very coordinated with this message, were doing everything they could to derail the process. Then you had this convention that was taking place inside of Israel where you had all of these speakers and kind of MAGA and Huckabee, the ambassador to Israel, and all these people, all saying things that were clearly designed to destroy the peace process from happening that day and the implementation of the MoU at the Technical levels. And so the fact that after all of that, there was still a joint statement that was issued, you have to say, how did that even happen? Why did Iran even stay there? Was it from a point of weakness or strength? And what's the dynamic? It's why I want to acknowledge, explained to you at the outset, the dynamic is Iran realizes that this agreement will likely blow up. However, while it is in process, Iran wants to cash in on what it sees as its victories from the war. And the question is, are they doing it? And the short answer is, absolutely, they have done it already. They brought with them, they knew what they were doing, the kind of chief executive of their petroleum industry. And he talked, he said it. You know, we get to hear what they say. If you listen and you don't watch our propaganda media. He said that at a minimum, we've brought in 25 or we brought out 25 million barrels. That number may be, you know, 30%, even more than that now, most of the oil that's left outside of the Persian Gulf already as oil that belongs to Iran or Iran affiliates like China or other places, and Iran's got these sanctions unfrozen. And so now, to the extent there are benefits given to the United States, which is one try to avoid this economic global depression, if we had tank bottom right, which is caused by Donald Trump and Netanyahu's catastrophic war, and I suppose get the IAEA in perhaps in the future and do what the JCPOA and all of that now is contingent on Netanyahu, the very future of the United States being in an economic depression like we've never seen before, or having some degree of, I don't want to say prosperity because Trump's destroyed our economy with his tariffs against the world, but some ability to survive, right, that now is rooted in Netanyahu and Iran, in its architecture of this, designed it that way by making it contingent on Israel leaving a country that's not Israel, that's Lebanon. Knowing that they won't do that and knowing that that will be the key part for Iran to then say, okay, they do that, then we'll open up the Strait of Hormuz. Otherwise we can declare it closed and we won't seem like the unreasonable ones because it's right there. And to make it even more clear, guess what provision? They made it. They're smart. They know what they're doing. They made it. Provision one, Article one. So there's no doubt about what it says. And this is where I go back to you and I say, you, whatever you think about this, it's frankly irrelevant at this point because all I'm trying to tell you is this is the mou. This is what was signed. These are the requirements to comply. And so, you know, I've been asked, well, what would you do? I would say I figure out a way to comply with the mou, that that's what you got to do right now. That's that, that's what, that's what the world expects. That's what you should do. And Trump lost the war. And so that's what you got to do. That's it. I want to talk more about the specifics. I want to take our first quick break of the show, but I thought it was important, important not to give you the bluster, the bravado. It's very easy to report on this and not, not, not this in general. But to say J.D. vance got so humiliated and he looks so weak and pathetic, that's it's easy to report. What's complex is understanding war and peace, life and death, balancing the different factions and interests here. And as a reporter and someone who cares about humanity, trying to push the dialogue forward constructively toward the direction of peace, regardless of the fact that I despise this Trump regime for the pain and suffering that they've caused this country, that's a complex project. But I think you have to balance these things given the stakes of what we're dealing with here, which actually are global calamity and economic depression. If this can't be sorted through, let's take our first quick break of the show. A reminder, as Jordi said at the outset, subscribe to the Midas Touch on Audio. With your support, we've been skyrocketing up the audio charts and that helps our network generally grow. So please subscribe to the Midas Touch Podcast on Audio and leave a five star review. We'll be right back after our first quick break of the show.
- [31:51]
Brett
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- [35:26]
Benji
Well, I would never tell you to read the art of the deal, but if you did, to try to get into Trump's psychology, which he didn't even write. First off, Trump doesn't believe in deals to begin with. That's why you have frameworks, oral understanding, so he can manipulate it. Then if you actually enter into something, he prefers a memorandum of understanding versus actually a deal, because oftentimes there could be more ambiguity in an MOU. And as he said before, actually after 60 days I get an option and it's not even a real binding thing, which is actually not what it says. There are binding terms in it. And then when he actually does a deal, he'll never abide by the terms. He'll just start suing and going and trying to blow it up on any terms that are harmful to him. He views the negotiation as a way to exploit the good faith of the other side. And people in negotiations often let down their guards, the equivalent of, you know, you rest for a little bit, right? You Turn your back and then he sucker punches you. So that's how he's always viewed deal making. Not in making deals, but as tools to break the deal and to use it to exploit by not making good on him. For him, it's like, why would anybody do a deal you don't have? I'm just not going to follow it and then I'm going to screw people over who sign it. And that's not how most people view deal making. And the issue why most people don't do it that way is because, yeah, maybe you can get away with it once, but you're a scumbag. You can, I don't know, maybe get away with the twice. You're a bigger scumbag. If you keep doing it, you lose your reputation and then you go bankrupt. No one wants to work with you. And that's what happened in his life before he was reinvented on the Apprentice with this fraudulent I'm a businessman guy and then launched a political career. The parallels here between his failed businesses, his fraud in the past and what he's doing right now are so obvious that, you know, I think it's important to point it out. That's why Jordy, if you listen to how he even talks about the United States, Canada, Mexico agreement, the usmca, a deal that he did in his first term, which was an update to nafta. Now he says the reason that I did the USMCA is cuz I built in a poison pill where we don't have to renew it and we could actually break it. So he says that the accomplishment of the USMCA was in its breach. So to answer your question, why, for him this was a tool of holy shit, we are about to experience a global depression. We are in big, big trouble right now and we're about to hit tank bottom. So let me sign this thing, I'll do it in Versailles. It makes great tv. He doesn't care about the symbolism, that that's where the 1919 Treaty of Versailles, World War I surrender document by Germany was like. He's like, I don't make great tv. That's how he thinks about these things. And then he enters into it, then you got to live with it. And Iran knows this. I mean, look, I like to believe that based on my background, having been involved in some of the most high profile mediations, settlement discussions, as a litigator in, in cases in my past life before this, I've never done global war and peace negotiations, but I have done mediations at the Highest level with the top mediators in the most high stakes of litigation that we've ever had in our country. And so seeing his behavior over here, it gives me insight. My point is that if I have that Iran, their level of insight into this is leaps and bounds beyond. They know this. So they built an MOU that traps them. And the trap is, here are the binding short form provisions. Here are the ones that only become binding if you climb the ladder us and do boom, boom, boom, boom and boom. And if you don't do it, you saw what happened Sunday. Bang. We shut down the Strait of Hormuz. And what will that do your. The markets that seem to be all you care about. Donald will tumble and crash. We will put America in an economic depression. So that's a long answer, Jordy, but that's what the Iranian negotiators are thinking. And they cashed in. They cashed in. They turned writing into liquidity, literally. They got money, cash money, dollar bills, and they're going to be doing and they'll keep it going. So that's what happened.
- [40:18]
Jordy
And they, and they see, they see the data, right? They see the same data that we see. And you know, here's the thing about Trump's lies. When you lie about something that everybody knows is a lie, it makes you look weak and it actually hurts your negotiating position incredibly. And so the Trump culture might believe that stuff. The MAGA people may go, oh, antifa did the algae, da da da da da da. But anyone with a brain cell knows that that's bs. Just like anybody know with a brain cell knew that when Trump was saying, we have unlimited oil, unlimited reserves, everything is great. Everybody with a brain cell knew that was bs and we even, they like every hour it almost seems like we get an update on the strategic petroleum reserves, including today, it dropped, we get the latest data, it dropped, dropped 9 million barrels to 331.2 million. To put that into perspective, beyond the numbers, that's the lowest level since July 1983. So we keep going further and further back. And the Iranians are not stupid people. These are smart people. The, the, the Trump regime, they try to make the Iranians out to kind of be these like savages who live in caves. Remember like when they were, when Trump was like, we're trying to make a deal with them. And like, you know those reporters like Barack Ravid and stuff were repeating this crap like, oh, Trump says U.S. officials say that they've been trying to make a deal with Iran, but they can't because they don't have a WI fi in their caves. And so they have to pass it via messenger pigeon to different. I'm like, dude, they're tweeting. What are you talking about? They're making Lego videos. We see them. If Ben, Brett, and Jordy could see the Iranians speaking, if we see them walking in the streets alongside the people, then I'm not. Then, you know, the President of the United States and these reporters who work for organizations that are worth billions of dollars should be able to see this as well. And so when the Iranians see that, they know this guy's a bullshitter and they know we got him by the. You know what, that we could do what we want here because we know his actual pain points. No matter what he wants to project to the public. If he says the Iranian navy's at the bottom of the sea, they know that's not true. They know they still have their munitions. They know they built up all the munitions that they had. So, like, like, the lies, to me, they don't even serve a function. You know, they serve a function because the. Trump cares about the propaganda to his base, and he cares about the propaganda to the American people and what's laundered through Fox and what's laundered through the Warhawks and all these people. But he doesn't think about that. There's actually a negotiation that has to go on, and there has to be an end result to this war, and there actually is a war that is unfolding that theoretically, you want to come out on top of of. But he's done everything to put the United States in a weak, weak, weak position. As Governor Gavin Newsom says, weakness masquerading as strength. I think that was on full display throughout this entire process and continues to be on full display.
- [43:11]
Benji
Well, it's weakness masquerading also as weirdness. Now, it was maybe once upon a time weakness masquerading as strength. Now it's weakness masquerading as just an oddity. I've done reporting how the Iranian negotiating delegation has diagnosed Donald Trump as being clinically mentally ill and that they have to negotiate as though they're dealing with a 5150 patient who is psychiat psychologically incapable of adapting to any type of norms. And so that's how they have to. To almost deal with him. And their own guiding principle, though, is liquidity. Whatever this is going on, whatever this noise is, what we need to always make sure we maintain is we can't give. This is what they're thinking. We can't give Netanyahu what he wants, and we can ultimately give the neocons what they want. So we have to make sure that we extract, extract, extract. And you saw them do this this weekend. We set up our bright lines. They walked out of the United States in front of the world, while you had J.D. where you had. You had Jared Kushner and you had Witkoff. They walk out, and at that point, JD has to make a decision. He's already been abandoned by Marco Rubio and others in the regime. So the fact that J.D. is even there, again, I'm not trying to give J.D. vance, like, credit, but that's a job. That Secretary of State Ruby, that's the job of a secretary, not the job of a vice president. But anyway, he's there. Kushner's an idiot, Witkoff's an idiot. I mean, you got dumb and dumber over there. J.D. vance is not an idiot. He is evil. He is a chameleon. He is morally and ethically not consistent. It's an understatement. And he's unleashed so many problems. I do not want to give JD Vance props for simply showing up and being there. But he was there. And J.D. vance, that has to think, all right, Donald Trump posted that, that all the neocon war hawks want this to be blown up. Iran walked out because Donald Trump did that. What do I do? He walks up after Iraqi goes to Prime Minister Sharif and says, we're walking out. And then J.D. vance comes around and says to Sharif, what just happened? And then Sharif said, you could see what they're saying. She'd go, yeah. Donald Trump just, effing, you know, posted, he's going to kill them. Like, of course they're going to work out. I'm going to try to deal with that.
- [46:02]
Jordy
And J.D.
- [46:03]
Benji
vance could have stormed out there. But see, J.D. vance at least also realizes you then doing that causes a global economic depression, because that's where this thing is heading. So J.D. vance, as the trapped party, as the weaker party, he now has to kind of suck it up. Iran walks out because they actually have the cards, and that's what's happening, happening. And then they are able to come up with this joint statement without being in the same room together as was planned. But Iran extracted ultimately what Iran wanted to get. They turned words into liquidity, while the United States still doesn't get to reap any benefits, which is just basically a weaker version of the jcpoa, unless and until Israel does that, which Israel says Says it will never do. And so this also one of the brilliant aspects of this MoU from the Iranian perspective, is it even more perfectly highlights to the United States that Israel pursues an agenda that is adverse to the United States agenda, that our very ability to avoid a Great Depression hangs in the balance right now of Israel getting out of a country that's not Israel but they claim as a security zone for themselves. And again, no matter my point more broadly though, you know, regardless of my view that there's a genocide being committed in Palestine and that you have Israel engaging in these atrocities of Lebanon, inside Lebanon, the reality is though, now, whatever you view this way, view that way, the view is this, the MOU is crystal clear. Jordy. Brett, we see the writing, we know what needs to occur and what needs to happen. And so if you want a breach of the MoU, then go to the public and say what that means is you want hundreds of thousands of Americans to die in this war trying to take car guy, Say that's what you want. Want the way Russia has 35,000 Russians dying a month, that's what it will look like. Say, don't be a freaking coward. Say that that's what you want because that's what you want. Say that you're okay with a global economic depression where Americans will be on food lines that make what took place in Covid look like nothing. Say that's what you want.
- [48:35]
Jordy
By the way, it's interesting that, you know, Iran knows that they have Trump on a short leash right now because Trump himself admitted the other day, maybe he wasn't supposed to, that the United States had about four weeks left till economic catastrophe until we completely ran out of oil and it was a global depression. Trump, Trump said that himself after denying it for months and months and months. And so Iran knows all they have to do essentially is wait this out. If Trump wants to play this game, well, we'll wait it out. Send in your troops, let's go, let's go to war. Let's make it happen, happen. But Iran's also saying we're here to do this the right way. I've got no love for the Iranian regime, but they seem to be the
- [49:14]
Donald Trump
more
- [49:17]
Jordy
honest brokers in this negotiation. Like, you know, and who knows, it could all be bullshit, I don't know. But they seem to be presenting themselves with professionalism. The people they have in the room are actual experts, nuclear experts, professors, mediators, people who understand the issues. It's not like, you know, someone's son in law and some Real estate guy. Like. Like what the President of the United States is sending over there. So it's, It's a very unbalanced sort of, you know, negotiating room right there. Vance is the smartest person.
- [49:48]
Benji
That's why I was saying. I can't believe I had to say this, and I don't mean this to support jd. I had, I had to admit, I'm like, thank God JD's at least in this room, because as between Witkoff and Kushner, the only one guy who knows what he's doing, even though he's a horrible human being, that's where we're reduced to right now.
- [50:05]
Jordy
And also, like, if you even look at all of Kashtir and Witkoff's beliefs, you know, it's, it's, it's pretty screwed up, honestly, especially as we're dealing with a volatile region. I even saw yesterday, like, Jared Kushner had followed some account that was like one of the most anti Islam, like, just said the most grotesque things.
- [50:24]
Benji
Imagine.
- [50:25]
Jordy
And he goes and follows this account, which is then public record, and people are talking about it in the midst of these high stakes negotiations. I don't think that's a good move at all. Even something as minor as that, when everyone's kind of walking on eggshells here. But, you know, like I said, the fact that these people are in the room and are actually trying to do something, I think means something. But you have to actually be willing to move the ball forward. And you have to be willing to also upset some people. People, right? You're going to have to be willing to upset the Lindsey Grahams and the Michael Le. Mark Levins, and you're going to have to be willing to, you know, upset the people who want the Netanyahu and the Ben Gavir, the people who want to be in this prolonged war. And if you want to actually show your power, you got to show your strength and you got to stand up for your interests as an American president. Even for people who are supposed to be our allies, like the Israeli government, who is now showing their cars that they don't care about the interests of the United States if they're going to continue this fight, I think that is one of the issues, you know, that. That we're seeing. And, you know, every day that situation continues to get worse. While everybody else is sort of trying to just keep this all moving along.
- [51:40]
Brett
It just feels like there's just a certain unwillingness from the Trump regime, the Netanyahu regime, to actually get this thing over. The Finish, line, line. It feels like a lot of untrustworthy parties are at play here. A lot of dueling, competing forces are at play here. And it just truly feels like this will never get, I mean, never say never, but it feels like this will actually genuinely never get done under the Trump presidency, under the Trump regime. So long as, you know, he continues to tweet out on True Social. It's very confusing seeing this happen. When there are folks in a room, we're like, okay, it looks like. It looks like they're going to make a deal. It looks like they're working, working towards something. And then within minutes, it's all, nope, never mind started from scratch or that that's the way at least it feels like just looking, looking at this thing.
- [52:25]
Jordy
And I think, you know, when you look at the comments that other people are making around it, you know, everybody kind of reveals their cards a little bit, right? We had Pablo Manriquez, our, our Capitol Hill reporter going around and asking people what they thought of the deal, what they think of the mmu, what they think of what's going on. Asking, asking, you know, members of Congress, senators. The Republicans, like, don't even want to answer his questions. Like, they don't want anything to do with it. And if they were happy about this thing, they'd be, you know, doing their typical bravado that they do when you ask any other question. But I think it's notable that they don't want anything to do with it. I think it's notable that Marco Rubio, who has clearly has ambitions to be president, is staying out of this and he's kind of going to these ancillary talks rather than being, being where a Secretary of state should. I mean, this is the job, quite literally, the job of a secretary of state would be to do this, not the vice president. The vice president's job is truthfully, just to exist. Like, they don't even have to do anything else. They exist. They're there just in case the, you know, the worst happens. They, they rise up and Rubio is like really kind of distancing himself from all this while Vance is going headfirst into all this. It's a huge, huge risk for Vance, quite frankly, because as we've already even seen Donald Trump say Trump is going to. Trump's plan is to blame the whole thing on Vance if this thing goes south. And so Rubio is trying to keep his hands clean. You could see that there's this tension building and this sort of intra party, intra regime fighting. Happening kind of in the background, this, this power struggle, if you really read between the lines as to what's going on between Marco Rubio and J.D. vance, because they both view that, view themselves as the future of the Republican Party when Trump is ultimately finished. And so there's a lot of other complex dynamics at play throughout this talk, throughout these talks that just have to do with these people's ambition and their egos as well.
- [54:16]
Benji
Look, you have two years, six months, 29 days, or 31 months, 134 weeks and four days left in the Trump regime. Okay, there's 942 days remaining until January 20, 2029. Why do I bring that up? That means there's approximately 15.7 cycles of 60 days from now until the end of Trump's term. So about 15 times. We're going to have 60 days. Sixty days. Sixty days. 60 days of extensions. And I'll tell you what will happen then. There's 42 extra days basically on top of that. And so where we end up, Jordy, to answer your point, to answer your point, is the Trump health care plan. The Trump I'm going to do a press conference about Melania's immigration status. You know, the Trump I'm going to do this in two weeks, 60 days, blah, blah, blah, right? We're now in a 60 day cycle. It's a version of the two weeks. Two weeks and then what will happen, happen 58, 59, Donald Trump will post, get the nuclear inspectors in or we're gonna blow the hell out of you.
- [55:32]
Jordy
Right?
- [55:32]
Benji
That's on day 59, Iran, we shut down the Strait of Hormuz. Markets tank, people struggle. You know, there's a major thing. Donald Trump, you know, then, you know, puts this something, they said that, you know, the Qataris and Pakistanis get involved, they extended for another 60 days. Right? Like, like, it seems pretty clear to me that on 60 days there's, they're incapable of doing an actual full deal. So What'll happen is 60 days. 60 days. 60 days.
- [56:02]
Jordy
60 Days. 60 days.
- [56:04]
Benji
Now, the problem with that is markets, the economy, global world order abhors uncertainty. The most important thing for the economy generally, you know, is predictable and global affairs, predictability, certainty, stability. And so as you go through these different 60 day cycles, you're unable to address things like inflation, you're unable to address, you know, the issues of affordability, you're unable to address any of this. So then what does Donald Trump turn to? Well, his next trick in his playbook, which is the blame and to Say, ah, it's the Democrats he's looking for. Who's my next Foushee? Who do I get to blame for all of this? Is that a jd Is that the Democrats generally? Is that t. You know, you know, and this is where we're at with the reflecting pool also where the absurdity of it is that he's now saying that the algae was caused by vandals putting feces and fertilizer into the reflecting pool. And then, and, and, and by the way, you have all of this algae killing the ducks. It just looks disgusting. It apparently has this noxious, horrific smell. And then people who are, you know, who are dressed up and like having fun protests against the reflecting pool. Donald Trump's posting like, like here's an example of a crazy pro algae likely paid protester. The sign says, first they came for the algae, which is in reference to the famous post World War II statement about Germans not speaking out against Nazis. Then they came for the Jews. And I did not speak out because I was not a Jew. Then they came for me. And so these people are showing up at the reflectible mocking Donald Trump for the algae lies. And then Donald Trump's like, you see, you see the frogs and the people dressed in the mascot out there, antifa. They did this. They took their box cutters and they destroyed it and they threw fertilizer in. And that's why. And it's just like, oh my God, we, this country's run by a side by like a psychotic and truly psych. And I'm not saying that to let him off. I want to be very clear. He deserves to be held accountable to the full extent of the law. But he's also a psychotic human being. This behavior is beyond range. Let's talk about that and more. Talk a little bit about what's going on internationally as well. Let's take our last quick break of the show. A reminder hit subscribe here. But more importantly, subscribe to the Midas Touch audio on wherever you get your audio podcasts. It really helps the growth of our channel and the network. So go to whatever app you use for audio podcast search. Midas Touch Subscribe Leave a five star review. Alright, we'll be right back after our last quick break of the show.
- [59:00]
Jordy
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- [62:02]
Brett
Let's go. Shout out to our sponsors man links in description both the YouTube and the audio. Use the links, use the codes. If there's an exit survey, let them know we sent you hexclad Fast growing trees. Long standing partners of this network. Definitely check them out if you're in the market for those products. Benji, where to next?
- [62:17]
Benji
Let's show you just briefly what Donald Trump was saying at the press conference today. Two quick clips. Number one, Donald Trump saying that the issue with the reflecting pool was vandalism and antifa using box cutters to cut inside the reflecting pool and that that's what's contributed to the algae. And then he also talks about that antifa and all these people are throwing fertilizers in and that the feces is what's causing the algae and not that the algae is causing the algae. I mean, it's the most ridiculous, ridiculous thing. But like he said, I mean, like it's like a deranged psycho. I mean, here he is talking about how we have vandalism. Let's play this clip first.
- [62:59]
Donald Trump
They've all been fixed. We also fixed the reflecting pool. In fact, if you go over there right now, it looks very good. It's up. They put, somebody said fertilizer in the water. If you put fertilizer in the water, you get algae. But somebody said they might have put fertilizer. They did something to create the algae. But that doesn't matter because that's been purified. It's dead laying at the bottom. They're taking it out. They vacuum it out. They vacuum it very carefully out and it'll be back to health pretty soon. We're going to have to let the water out to fix the one little. There's two little areas, very little areas where they were cut and we'll fix that but it's not leaking or anything. Got a base underneath.
- [63:43]
Benji
This was supposed to be a press conference about quantum technology and that. He was, again, saying that. And, And, I mean, look, guys, gals, peoples, we're talking about, like, a psycho. I just don't know how to describe it. Like. Like, I remember the days when someone would spell potato wrong, like, Dan Quail. Like, that's it. That's their political career. Like, John Kerry would, like, do, like, what was he on? Like, one of those, like, surfboard things? And it was like, hey, windsurfing. And it was like, oh, my God, that's disqualified. I mean, guys, come on. What do we watch? What are we talking? Like, what are we even talking about here? This is not even.
- [64:20]
Jordy
It's not funny. It's.
- [64:22]
Benji
It's like. It's a crazy person.
- [64:23]
Jordy
Here are the things to me, you know, that make the algae story bigger than the algae. Because, you know, I'm not gonna lie, I. I don't care about algae in a pool. I don't need to be talking about it every day. But they're, they're, they're. There's a broader issue, though, at play with this, and there's a few things. One, if, as I've said, if Trump is willing to lie about something so stupid, then how could you ever believe him when it comes to something as big as an Iran deal, right? How could he ever trust him there? How could he ever trust what he's saying about a story related to Border Patrol or ice? How could you trust literally anything he says? You can't. If he's willing to lie about this, which is so obvious, then he will lie about everything. And I know, we know that to be true, but this is the ultimate kind of microcosm of that in, like, the stupidest, most in your face way. Secondly, it shows his kind of hold on. On the cult, because there will be people, maybe even in the comments of this very video or podcast, who will then just parrot what Donald Trump says, who will say, it's antifa, it's agitators. There's left. I. I knew the left did this from the start. I knew. Democrat. Just shut up. Snap out of it, all right? Snap out of it, buddy. Come back to the real world, okay? Because whatever the hell you're doing, you. You've got. You've swallowed the Kool Aid or you've swallowed the algae infested water, and all of a sudden you can't think straight. And you think that this guy who lies to you every single Day is some truth teller. It's sad, it's pathetic, and you got to come back to the real world. But to me, those are like, some issues that we have here. An additional issue is that Donald Trump is instructing his government. Donald Trump, who controls the executive branch of the United States of America, is instructing the people who have power to make arrests, to file charges, instructing them to do things based on his delusions to do things such as arrest people who touch the water in the pool, arrest people who think it's funny that there's a little blue chip of paint on the floor, because due to Donald Trump and his contractor shotgun work. And they take it and they start walking with it, and then they have a plaincloth officer arrest them. That's what Trump is doing. Once again, if you're willing to do that just to soothe this fragile ego of this pathetic algae infested human, metaphorically, and maybe not metaphorically speaking, then these people would be willing to do that about any issue, right? They'd be willing to arrest Don Lemon over BS reasons. They'd be willing to kill somebody on the streets of Minneapolis for false reasons reasons. So it's much bigger than the algae, to me is, is why I think this is important. And there was even a video today that was going around of a woman who was arrested by, or at least detained by the Reflecting Pool. And I watched the video of it, and what do you see the woman doing in the video? You see her bend down, dip her hand in the water, and then an officer takes her and like a huge amount of cops surround her. And then all the people in the right wing media pump it out and they go, we found the vandal. We found antifa. That's what's dangerous about this. If you saw that happening in Russia or any other country, right? This is the stuff that we would, like, mock other countries for. This is the stuff that we would have Human Rights Watch and we would send people in and we would talk about these at UN Hearings if we saw this sort of behavior. But it's happening right here in the United States. United States.
- [67:59]
Brett
Well, that's also too. When we are watching this all go down and we're all texting each other, we're like, this is a. This is a disaster in the Oval Office right now. Like, he's supposed to be talking about Quantum Technologies and he's out there screaming from the rooftops about the algae and how it's actually, we put the algae in to get the algae out. It's psychotic. And Again, it's not, it's not about the algae, although it's about the odd. But it's not, it's more of a metaphor for his entire presidency and just for how he, he leads in general. It, it's really frustrating when you have someone like a Donald Trump who is supposed to be the leader of this country, who is so cognitively not there. And I'm not saying that to be, like, hyperbolic or to get him out of any future prosecutions or anything like that. Like, he is just so deeply gone that he puts a lot of his brain power and might into very bizarre things and then ends up making it 20 times worse because he just can't help himself. Because he's also surrounded himself by a bunch of. Yes. People that want to tell him how brilliant his plans are.
- [68:58]
Jordy
Are.
- [68:58]
Brett
And so inevitably, when stuff goes wrong, it can't be him and his poor thinking capabilities or, or he only keeps the smartest people around them. It's not them. It's the left. It's the liberals. They're, they're, they're terrorizing the reflecting pool. It's just such an obvious farce. And it's just such a joke that we've come here in this country with Donald Trump leading it the way he is.
- [69:18]
Benji
You talk about the yes men, and it's pretty much all men at this point. He got rid of all the women, most mostly in his cabinet. So even in this clip, you'll see he's just surrounded by all men. And this, again, is supposed to be a press conference about quantum. And Donald Trump couldn't be bothered with the actual topic. And his energy secretary, Chris Wright, starts to talk about quantum technology, and he's trying to make a point that 121 years ago or 141 years ago, Albert Einstein, you know, published a paper. And here we are now on the precipice of, you know, leaps and bounds of a technology that could be really important for the United States. That's the point that Chris Wright, Trump's energy secretary, is trying to make. And I'll show you how Donald Trump reacts when his energy secretary's, you know, speaking for maybe 35 seconds with that point after Donald Trump's ranting and raving about feces in the reflecting poll.
- [70:14]
Shannon Maldonado
Let's plate.
- [70:15]
Donald Trump
You have, all of you have, actually. Chris Wright, please. Yes.
- [70:18]
Benji
Thank you, Mr. President. So 120, 141 years ago, Albert Einstein. 121 years ago, Albert Einstein published a paper. Nobody cares. Good point, Good point.
- [70:35]
Donald Trump
And usually they won't catch you, but
- [70:37]
Benji
published a paper on the photo Electric, you know, and that's, you know, look. And you could be like, hey, Ben, that's funny, man. You know, you know, everybody laughed. That's typical Trump, you know, and to me, you know, what if maybe this was some sitcom or if this was the Apprentice or if this was, you know, an environment where we were and also talking about whether we were on the precipice of a global depression and what's going to happen in this direction of Hormuz and genocide and, you know, I mean, if, if, if we were removed from that, you know, do I, that's not my humor to begin with. I, I don't like belittling humor that mocks people. I think there's other ways to be funny than to tell people what they say doesn't matter. And so I wouldn't like it, but I wouldn't make it a cause to go out of my way to be like, oh, do you see that? But like, folks, folks, this is the Oval Office. You know, during the commercial break, I saw my wife came over to the office and brought over my 19 month old, 20 month old, you know, baby girl. And I was waving to her during the commercial break. And I just think about the world that we are raising our kids in, the world that we are living in, and with all of these issues happening, with all of the suffering happening in the United States and across the world, that, that is the behavior and it is, again, it is incredibly deranged and it is demeaning. And I'm not gonna, I don't need to play all the other clips. But during the press conference, he attacks Italy and he's been going on a tear with Giorgia Maloney and how much he despises her and how she wants to take photos with him. And she's like, no, I don't. What are you talking about? I've never said these things. Why are you belittling me? And it's because Trump hates NATO, he hates women, he's very insecure and, and you know, he's going after someone like Maloney, who's a pretty far right wing person in Italy who would naturally be someone who would be allied with Donald Trump. But Trump, you know, just goes and just continues to attack her. You know, Donald Trump is out there talking about this guy El Tigre in Colombia. Trump got involved in Marco Rubio while Rubio wasn't there in Iran, to, you know, to really meddle in this election in Colombia. And at Least the current results. And New York Times called it that the right wing party in Colombia is going to go on to win. You have the leftist current leader Gustav Petro saying that, you know, basically it's a rigged election and it was rigged. And, and with all of the Trump lies, you know, about elections in general, you know, you have a situation where, where America can't be the voice of moral clarity anywhere going on. And then, not to mention, you have Marco Rubio arrest one of the kind of foremost, you know, activists for the Petro regime in Colombia as saying he's an enemy of the United States. Someone who's lawfully here was asylum, was an asylum seeker, was here since 2014. And, and Marco Rubio has a guy arrested for supporting the candidate that wasn't Trump's preferred candidate and like detains the person. And so you have the US operating like, you know, like Russia. And so speaking of the US Operating like a Putin Russia, you look what's happening in Russia, the economy there is tanking. Their markets are tanking. In Crimea, their Putin proxy has basically had to shut off, giving oil to the people, you know, there who are all trying to leave Crimea. As Ukraine's been able to have its long range drones successfully strike infrastructure within Crimea, ferries, oil depots, other military transport facilities. You have Ukraine being able to successfully strike oil depots in Moscow. We've been covering it in detail here. And Ukraine's been able to bolster its capabilities with drones working with NATO countries that want to be helpful as Donald Trump continues to, you know, threaten and attack NATO. And, and what you have right now is, you know, with, with the weakness of the United States. You know, no, you have Trump not being able to facilitate anything. He promised there would be peace in day one. So you have Zelensky taking matters into his own hands, striking inside Russia. You have Putin on the ropes right now, although it should be noted that Russia is a nuclear power. And so you have a high risk of escalation kind of taking place there. But Ukraine successfully striking with the support of NATO. You have Trump attacking NATO while Zelensky is making these gains right now. You have this very tenuous situation, obviously in the Strait of Hormuz, what's going to happen there? And then you have Donald Trump ranting and raving about algae. And Brett, one of the points also is like, he just keeps on talking about it over and over and over again. Then you have the market manipulation, you know, layered on top of all of it where it seems that, you know, the, with the crazy Market volatility. Donald Trump's like trading stocks every nine minutes. I think it was last quarter. You know, he's like a rapacious stock trader.
- [76:04]
Jordy
Prolific, prolific stock trader.
- [76:06]
Donald Trump
Yeah.
- [76:06]
Jordy
You know, one of the ironic slash semi funny things is watching these kind of Trump officials and kind of these mag influencers who clearly all get their talking points from the same place, start running with, oh, why? Well, this is all the libs want to talk about these days. All they want to talk about is the reflecting pool. Why won't the Dems in there? Why do they keep talking about blah, blah, blah? Donald Trump talked about this every day and he's still talking about it every day. The guy would be in his press conferences. You all remember, he still does it. Holding up the stupid sign that shows that the reflecting pool is longer than buildings are tall, which don't make any sense. He was bragging about how clean it was and crystal clear. And this is amazing. And how crappy Obama was spreading these AI images of a fake way it looked before and how it was looking bright blue now and all. He did that for weeks and weeks and weeks and weeks and weeks. And the second his project fails and people start calling it out, they're like, whoa, why do you guys care about the.
- [77:05]
Benji
This pool so much?
- [77:06]
Jordy
It's like, I don't know, maybe progress you. But it's all. It's all, it's all you've been speaking about. You know, I, I do want also, like, as. As we sort of head towards wrapping up, end on a bit of a human note here and say, you know, it's. It's great seeing people rise up across the world, and it's great seeing just people kind of stand, you know, with each other, no matter where they are. I think there's still wild things happening right now in Albania as a result of that. Jared Kushner Ivanka T.R. trump Development, where they're taking over this kind of protected land to make their own. Make their own island. Make of that what you will. But you could see this is even yesterday, so many people flooding the streets in protest of Kushner and Ivanka and this project. I think that's incredible to see people standing up to their leaders in that way. I'm seeing these images coming out of Tehran in Iran, and I thought this was really incredible to see as well. And it's one of the reasons, quite frankly, why I think sports are so incredible and why, like, the Olympics and the World cup are so cool, because you see people interact with one another and have shared experiences with one another that you simply don't get otherwise. And you see what people are like when you remove the leaders, when you remove the people who are actually causing the problems, causing the tensions, and you let people be people. And so the image I'm showing for the audio listeners is Iranian football fans, soccer fans react as they're watching the FIFA World cup match from Sunday. It was Belgium versus Iran, and Iran, it was a major upset. A funny thing about football slash soccer to me is that you could end games in a tie. Unusual thing to me as not a particularly soccer fan, but Iran held Belgium to a tie, a 00 tie. And that was a big upset for Iran, who were expected to lose the match. And so you see here in this audience, in this theater, Iranian in the midst of this war celebrating their team, cheering them on. You see women and men and children, and they don't look the way that you would think that they look if you were just going by the American media. And I found these photos actually incredibly powerful to see that kind of level of excitement from people who are in the middle of this war and people who are theoretically, the media kind of tells us, are supposed to be our enemies. Right? I don't think any. Any, you know, human being should be our enemies just because of where they live. I think there are a lot of good people out there. And I also found this quite heartwarming. The Iranian team left this message in the Sofi Stadium, that's the stadium in Los Angeles, left this message in the locker room thanking the city of Los Angeles for its hospitality at the World Cup. I'll just read some of the lines here. From the ancient Persia thousands of years ago, go to the civilized Iran of today. The spirit of Iran remains alive and steadfast. We came to Los Angeles with pride, competed with honor, and lead with dignity. May peace, respect, and friendship prevail among all nations. I found that just incredibly powerful. And like I said, you take away the leaders, you take away all these egos and all this petty bickering and the bombing, all this, you peel it back and you go to the human level, level of what all this is about. And it's a reason why I do hope that this MOU does work out and that Trump kind of, I hope someone takes away his phone for a little bit, right? Someone cracked that phone screen.
- [80:25]
Brett
I changed the password of True Social
- [80:28]
Jordy
because there are good people at the end who are experiencing the brunt of all of this, who deserve better, including you, listening, including everybody out there. And so I Just wanted to share those because I found it powerful. I found them emotional, I found. Found it poignant. And in case you didn't see that or read those, I thought they were powerful.
- [80:49]
Brett
I think you should end shows more with a moment of humanity. Remember Jon Stewart, moment of Zen.
- [80:54]
Benji
Moment of Zen, yeah.
- [80:55]
Brett
You know, I'm gonna ask you once a month, you should end the show with a moment of humanity. That was beautiful.
- [81:00]
Jordy
The whole network, Jordy, is about humanity to us.
- [81:02]
Brett
I know.
- [81:02]
Benji
I mean, that's. That. That's what this is.
- [81:04]
Jordy
And so I think it's a great idea of yours and maybe we'll find ways to sneak it in. But the humanity gets lost in the kind of horse race of it all as people try to present it. And so I think if we could pull back and see the humanity of this all, I think it provides a. A unique and powerful perspective. That's.
- [81:25]
Benji
Before tossing it to Jordy, I just want to mention this because I did mention in my intro, Prime Minister Carney. Sorry, Prime Minister Keir Starmer. Sorry, sorry, Ken.
- [81:34]
Jordy
Easy.
- [81:35]
Benji
Prime Minister Carney was going to say is great. Moving on in uk, Prime Minister Keir Starmer has announced his resignation as Prime Minister and leader of the Labour Party. And it seemed that the straw that broke the camel's back was the Epstein files. There was other stuff as well, so it wasn't as simple as that. But the straw that broke the camel's back was bringing in an ambassador to the United States with all those Epstein ties. And of course, Donald Trump refused to allow Keir Starmer the grace and dignity. And Trump had to basically call him out and mock him in social media posts and earlier in the day, but in the very dignified and British way, you know, Keir Starmer shows up, says, my time has run out. It's been an honor, you know, and again, just to see him say, look, I've lost the confidence of the party and I would like it to be different, but I understand I move on. Then the likely successor, Andy Burnham. Well, not guaranteed, but likely. Andy Burnham gave a very nice message about the dignity and grace and the service with which Starmer served. I also even know too, when you see the shifts from Tories to Labor and the different political shifts. I've always noted in UK politics, the exit has always been like, like done in a graceful way that I'm like, whoa, that's something.
- [82:57]
Jordy
There's a lot of exits too. Right.
- [82:59]
Benji
You know, I know seven in the past. Like, you know, seven in a row.
- [83:03]
Jordy
Yeah. You know, there's a lot of I'm sure there's a lot of emotions running high, you know, with the departure of Starmer. I'm sure some people are upset by it. I'm sure some people were pushing for it. But I also think, like, that should be normalized a little bit. Bit like leaders who have lost the confidence of the people leaving their roles. I'd like to I'd like to see that in the United States.
- [83:28]
Benji
So we'll leave on that humanity note as well. Jordan, take it away.
- [83:32]
Brett
Shout out to the Midas mighty?
- [83:37]
Benji
Standing strong
- [83:41]
Jordy
against the fascist?
- [83:44]
Benji
We sing our song?
- [83:52]
Brett
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