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- [00:00]
Ben
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Ben
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Jordy
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- [01:00]
Brett
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- [01:26]
Ben
Visit spinquest.com for more details. We've got a lot to discuss in this episode of the Midas Touch podcast. Donald Trump engaging in a massive escalation of this catastrophic war in Iran. Iran is responding, striking US Military bases in the region. The United States abandoning a lot of its military bases in the neighboring Arab nations to Iran. Moving military equipment to Israel. Meanwhile, the Houthis, part of the access of resistance with Iran, have been able to successfully, successfully and effectively close down the Bab El Mandab Strait to Saudi Arabian tankers. Two Saudi Arabian tankers were struck by the Houthis. About seven to eight others turned around after seeing what went down to those other two tankers. The Strait of Hormuz still remains effectively shut down by Iran, despite CENTCOM claiming the contrary. That it's open and everybody's using it and things are amazing in the Strait of Hormuz. Donald Trump was in Dover, Delaware for the dignified transfer. As four more service members who were killed in action return, Donald Trump put words in their mouth in one of the most disgraceful things I've ever seen, saying that they all said before they die they didn't want Iran to have a nuclear weapon. Donald Trump giving multiple deranged speeches recently. We'll talk a little bit about that. But now he's doing that thing where he calls up his different preferred reporters saying how massive the escalation is going to be, trying to intimidate Iran by saying the attacks are going to be so devastating, so many bridges and power plants, Iran's going to be begging for a deal. If we bomb them more, they're going to be begging for a deal. We actually have top military officials who continue to leak to New York Times, Washington Post, cbs, Wall Street Journal and others that the United States doesn't have the munitions. And that's pretty obvious if you see Iran being able to strike with impunity. American bases in the region, meanwhile, you have the price of oil surging crude over doll barrel and that could be $150 a barrel in the blink of an eye. Gas prices here at home are going up significantly. Inflation is surging. The 10 year, 20, 30 year treasury yields going up significantly worse than really at any time during Trump's term so far, including his liquidation day or Liberation day, whatever the hell they call it. Meanwhile, Trump keeps putting tariffs on Canada and Brazil and other places saying if we just put more tariffs on, that's gonna make them wanna do deal, they'll back down the more we tariff them. Iran will back down the more we bomb them. And the American people are the ones who are suffering. There have been a series of polls coming out whether it's Washington Post, Politico, Pew, Fox and others. I mean, Donald Trump's approval is the lowest in modern presidential history. Worse than Nixon when Nixon resigned. Also, in terms of the war itself, record lows. There's never been a war less popular in the history of the United States than this right now. So in other words, we've got a lot to discuss. Brett and Jordan, good to see you both. A busy, busy, busy day in the news and Trump inflicting catastrophic pain and suffering on the American people in the world.
- [04:53]
Brett
But Ben, maybe if he just keeps doing the same thing, but harder and over and over again, it will solve the issue. Of course, I'm being sarcastic. It's good to be here with you, Ben. Good to be here with you, Jordi. Great to Be here with you. Midas mighty. This is that reality deficit that we've talked about so much on the show right now, which is that Trump makes these major proclamations, he comes up with these massive lies, and ultimately in some cases, he runs into a brick wall of reality. And you can't avoid that reality. Covid was one such instance. And now we're seeing that with the Iran war, Trump threatening all these escalations, Trump threatening more bombings, more attacks. Meanwhile, we see the data, we see that American munitions are running low. We're seeing that bases are being evacuated. You can't escape that reality no matter how much you want to try. So what happens? Donald Trump cornered like the rat that he is, his back against the wall, which of course makes him even more dangerous and more erratic, trying to do more crazy things. Then he starts doing all the tariffs again on all the countries again, deploying strategies that have already failed and been rejected. We're going to get into all of that, but, you know, first we got to check in with the jordy man. What's up, Jay?
- [06:03]
Jordy
Brothers might as mighty. It's great to be here. I don't want to take it on such a dark turn to start the show, especially as you toss to me such a lovely cadence there, Brett. But the reality is, the longer this drags on, Donald Trump is going to get more and more of our troops killed. That, that, like his incompetence is going to get more and more of our troops killed. And it should anger every single American that we are in this war of choice by Donald Trump without any clear reason as to why we are there. And he can't even come up with every time you ask him something different. We need to open the strait. We need the regime change. We need this. We need. We can't get a clear answer as our men and women in the military are dying, dying. So don't ever give me that BS crap again, that maga that they love our troops. Now you don't, you don't love our troops. You can't defend what's happening right now and say you love our troops because you don't. Ben, Sorry, where we started.
- [06:55]
Ben
Well, go back to 2020. Donald Trump kills General Soleimani, General of Iran, IRGC kills him in Iraq. Iran responds, hits an Amel, hits an American military base near the Trump regime. Covers up, they said, no injuries, no injuries. We later learned that there were over 100 very serious traumatic brain injuries, which then in the 2024 campaign, Donald Trump said, nah, they were just very minor and minor. These are 100 traumatic brain injuries took place after Iran targeted the US in 2020 because Donald Trump killed Soleimani. I mean, remember that year? It began early January with Soleimanis being killed by Trump, and then Covid the next month. I mean, I remember that year very, very vividly. But Trump covered up the injuries to our service members over there. Then I want you to now fast forward a little bit, but rewind from the present to May of 2025, when Donald Trump surrendered to the Houthis in Yemen. That was remember signal gate, where people like Mike Waltz, who then got a promotion to become the United States Ambassador to the United nations. And Hegseth, all these people invited that guy was named Jeff Goldberg or something from the Atlantic onto their signal group chat. When talking about the different targets in Yemen that they were going to be hitting, do you all remember that there were all these mysterious F15s that were, like, falling off the ships, like the super carriers. Another helicopter fell off one of our aircraft carriers. Another F15 just kind of fell, rolled over. Remember, they were saying all that stuff back then. You know, another piece of military equipment spontaneously combusted. There was a lot of that happening at that time. And I felt like we were the only ones saying, yeah, that doesn't sound right. That doesn't make sense. That doesn't sound right. And then in May, Donald Trump surrender to the Houthis and says, they're brave, they're valiant, they're courageous, they're a great people. Honor their word. They've given me their word, and we're good with the Houthis right now. Well, when Donald Trump lives in a deficit reality, a fake reality, this fake dystopian world, guess what actually is happening. Iran is studying that, The Houthis are studying that. China's studying that. The rest of the world, even our ally, you know, allies, everyone's studying that behavior and goes, got it, got it, got it. They're learning lessons. And Donald Trump goes deeper and deeper into derangement. As corporate news bends the knee further and more MAGA bootlegging takes place. And so that's what happened back then. So now you kind of fast forward to right now and you take a look at what's happening in these bases right now. Their official number is 18American service members killed in action on 447 injuries, which again, the Trump regime, Defense Department, Centcom and others. And Centcom, what a clown show Centcom has become. Horrifying that I have to even say that about centcom. But they Say most of these injuries are minor concussions. Those things. A minor concussion, that's a traumatic brain injury. If ballistic missile or Shahid drone is striking containerized barracks, there's, it's not a minor concussion. Okay? That's a TBI that could destroy our service members lives for the rest of their lives. If anybody knows what a traumatic brain injury or has had a traumatic brain injury in their, in their lives, I got a concussion.
- [10:09]
Brett
It's not, it's not fun. It's not a good situation.
- [10:12]
Ben
10 medevac flights taken place in the past 10 days. 10 medevac flights in the region. 150 emergency medical personnel have been rushed to the Germany hospital facility right now as we speak. And then there are also troops that are being surged in the area. When I say containerized barracks, I just want people to know that our service members are basically living in the equivalent of like the back of a truck. Like they're containerized, they're like a container. And they live in these barracks that are kind of lined up like truck containers in a shipyard. And that's where they are. The American interceptors aren't working or they're ineffectively working or running out of munitions in these Arab nation bases. Israel has its Iron Dome, which now we're learning more and more. These Arab nations were basically serving as the first layer of the Iron Dome for Israel, which that's why Iran's picking off these Arab nation radar and early detection systems first. The US Is moving its planes to Israel and meanwhile you have, our service members are basically sitting targets there with all that happening. Donald Trump is holding a press conference today where he brags about 18 killed, as though that's a good thing. Less than Vietnam, less than World War II. So we did two wars, Venezuela and Iran, and only 18 killed. So I don't get enough credit for that. Basically, Trump said, let's play that clip from earlier in the day.
- [11:42]
Guest Analyst
That's 18 and two wars and one is too many, but it's 18. Whereas in Vietnam we lost 200,000. We lost thousands and thousands. In Afghanistan, we lost thousands in every war, the Korean War, thousands. And these wars all lasted for years. And we want to get it over with and we want to do it right, but we have to, we have to do what we came to do. And that's. We can't let these people, very violent people, we can't let them have what they want, which is nuclear weapons.
- [12:14]
Ben
First off, it wasn't 200,000. It was still a lot of people who died. In Vietnam, it was 58,000. But numbers actually matter, right? I mean, you can't say that we lost 200. You can't just make up a number. It's 58,220, I believe. You're the President of the United States. You have to be very specific. And then he gives nuclear material or nuclear capabilities to Saudi Arabia. Yesterday, that was the announcement. Saudi Arabia gets nuclear capabilities. And then today he said, it's okay, though, because we're not going to allow them to enrich nuclear material. And Iran uses nuclear material also for non military purposes. So it's just going to be like Iran's nuclear program for non military purposes. And Saudi Arabia has to join the Abraham Accords and become an ally of Israel. Trump didn't say that yesterday that Saudi Arabia would have to become an ally of Israel and join the Abraham Accords, but that was added today. And so I think this whole deal is corrupt to begin with and shouldn't happen. But from Saudi Arabia's perspective, what do
- [13:16]
Brett
you think happened there? You think he got a call from, like, Bibi or somebody over there and they were like, you can't do that. Like, what the hell? Like, what's going on there? Like, I feel like something happened because Trump announced that. Because I think the subtext of all of this is that Trump has royally screwed over all of these other countries in the Middle east who would traditionally be our allies. So Trump is desperate to save face, right? Because Saudi Arabia is the country that gave billions of dollars to Jared Kushner. These are the countries that are giving Donald Trump private jets. These are the people who are like, listen, man, we did you a solid, and then you came to our region and you screwed us over and you made us the military targets. So what. What do you got for me? Because I'm going to pull all that stuff out. I ain't helping you anymore. And so then Donald Trump goes on his Truth Social app and he goes, okay, Saudi, take the nuclear. It's all you. It's all you. Then he probably gets a call from BB and probably like, let me.
- [14:05]
Jordy
I see.
- [14:06]
Ben
Doing that with Saudi Arabia. I see it. But let me give you a little bit of guidance right over there. They must join the Abraham Accords.
- [14:15]
Ad Voice
Just tell.
- [14:16]
Ben
Add the Abraham Accords in there. Okay, Bibby.
- [14:20]
Jordy
Okay, baby.
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Ben
Coming right up.
- [14:21]
Brett
I'll fire off another Truth Social. Caroline will handle it.
- [14:24]
Guest Analyst 2
Donald.
- [14:25]
Ben
Donald, you will be viewed very historic terms if you do such a thing. That would be very much, you know, and it's like they, you Know, Saudi Arabia ain't joined in the Abraham Accords unless they want to topple the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. You know, their people know that there's a genocide going on in Gaza. And until Palestine is recognized as a country, Saudi Arabia has made it very clear. And by the way, you know how I sometimes go rewind to this, rewind to this. It's because Trump's deranged storylines repeat over and over and over again. Like, do you all remember that before the MOU was entered into about three months ago or so, what Donald Trump say when he was on the phone with Saudi Arabia and all these countries? He said, saudi Arabia, why? I'm doing a Bibi voice. He said, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan and Turkey that they need to join the Abraham Accords. And they were like, no, we're not joining the Abraham Accords. And remember, there was the reporting about, like that was that week that Donald Trump and the late Lindsey Graham and all of these people were like, you know, they're going to join the Abraham. Like, they're not joining the Abraham. Big deal, big deal.
- [15:28]
Guest Analyst 2
They're going to do it.
- [15:28]
Ben
So you're just making this up. You're not joining the Abraham Accords. Okay, stop saying, you know, you know, just up and in Donald Trump's social media post, he acknowledges that Iran uses it for non military purposes. And so he seems to concede that the very basis of the war was fraudulent to begin with. And then he doesn't understand the way nuclear material works. He goes, but we will not allow them to enrich. And this is a major point, because the issue regarding the first mediation in February, according to the Iranians and the mediator from Oman, is that the Trump people didn't even understand the way nuclear material works. Civilian, nuclear, non military programs, you still enrich it. It's just down blended and diluted to non weapons grade, which is a different type of percentage of the nuclear material. So you have to enrich to use it for non weapons grade purposes. The issue is down blend. So at the mediation in February, what Iran was like is, look, we had all our nuclear people there. We gave you the formula for how we were going to down blend, which was in the jcpoa. You were going to have independent people watching. And you kept on saying enriching is a form of weapons grade. And Iran's like, stop it. You're so stupid. That's not what it is. It's, it's down blended, so it can't be used for weapons grade. And that's the thing And Trump's post was non enriched uranium. It's like, dude, you don't even know what you're talking about. So that's a fundamental issue that we have somebody so dumb and ignorant around. This is what Trump says. There will be no enrichment of material. If you're going to give them for non weapons, great. It's still going to be enriched. It's just the dumbest stuff imaginable in any of these.
- [17:04]
Guest Analyst
In.
- [17:05]
Ben
Donald Trump then says that the presser of the Iran war is going better than anybody expected. This is as good as. This is great. He says everything's amazing right now. Let's play it.
- [17:13]
Guest Analyst
Subjects one is the Iran war. Well, again, we're doing very well. Very, very well. I would say better than anybody expected could be done. We've knocked out their Navy, their air force.
- [17:27]
Ben
Oh, yeah, sure, that's happening. And then Donald Trump goes on to say that they really want to make a deal really badly. They really want to make a deal here. Let's play it way.
- [17:37]
Guest Analyst
We're doing very well against the Islamic Republic of Iran. We're doing extremely well. They would like to do something, but I say they're not ready yet. They need more of the same. They're not ready yet. They got some evil intentions. We cannot let them have a nuclear weapon.
- [17:55]
Ben
Toss it to you, Brett and Jordi, the Islamic Republic, dude, just be normal, man. What are you saying before, before we
- [18:04]
Jordy
toss it to Brett. Ben, do you ever fall into your impressions, like in your, in your just regular life, like when you're ordering coffee at your Starbucks or your local coffee shop wherever you go, or you just like. Do you just like fall into a bb?
- [18:14]
Ben
You're like the reality, the reality is, is that this, the material is so tough and, and, and it's a coping mechanism sometimes for me to try to be able to articulate the level of devastation and destruction, but also make it accessible, even to me, because the idea that. Because I want to be serious though too, because the fact that you have genocidal maniacs like Netanyahu and Trump who have caused such devastation in the world and how human beings like that can just fuck, excuse my language, just screw up the world for so many people, you know, who just want to get by. It is so deeply painful. So it is kind of a coping mechanism for how I try to grapple.
- [19:01]
Jordy
So the answer, the answer is maybe, maybe it sounds like you fall into
- [19:04]
Ben
it during your life. Brett, where you going?
- [19:07]
Brett
I think the key thing is though, like, through all this, when you're Dealing with such heavy topics is you have to, you know, retain your kind of joy. You have to retain your, because otherwise like this stuff's going to destroy you.
- [19:18]
Ben
Right?
- [19:18]
Brett
It is very heavy stuff that you're dealing with every day. So I think people do need a little laugh and a little impression, no matter how bad they are. Ben, no offense, I'm just kidding. Now they're great impressions. They're great impressions. Everyone loves. But, but, but, yeah, but you know, and this is, you know, to, to believe Donald Trump, you have to either be an idiot or a willful idiot or, or, or just, I don't know, have a very low self esteem. I, I, I, I don't know. But Trump says one thing one day, one thing the next day, I don't know how these people who follow him just continue to go along with it. I mean, was, wasn't it just like two weeks ago? These are the reasonable people. These are, these people are good to work with. It's a whole new regime. They're amazing. We could be partners. Let's be friends. Let's be friends. Irgc, let's hang out. And now it acts. These are vile people. They're crazy. They can't be negotiated with. Again, like you're talking about yourself, man, because we're watching all the sides and you know, Iran, for all of its many faults, they've been wildly consistent over their asks over the past few weeks, few months. Donald Trump keeps having this very shifting perspective on anything that he wants that it's hard to even figure out what the hell he wants. And you just know now Donald Trump's strategy seems to be back against the wall. Let's just fire away, right? Let's unload the clip, so to speak, right? Every, every munition, you know, let it, let it loose, any sort of missile, let it go, do whatever we can right now. If we just bomb them hard enough, we could get out of this. But that's not the case. And they also are well aware of our munition supply and they're well aware of our oil supply and they could kind of just wait it out here. You don't, you don't need access to special intelligence to see that. I mean, we don't have access to the intelligence of the United States government or the c, or any foreign entity. We just have the access that's out there in the open source, that's out there from reporting, that's out there from people. And we know what's going on. And Donald Trump has said it out loud. So you could be damn sure that Iran knows what's going on, which puts Donald Trump when every time he lies, it puts us at a very weak point to negotiate, and it puts us at a very weak position in this war because they know what they have to do, and all they have to do really is just wait it out. And the more devastation that Donald Trump causes, the more people he kills, the more he just emboldens that country, the more the people dig in and the more they want to get revenge on Donald Trump for the heinous actions that he is committing in the war. So he's really in this escalation trap right now that anybody with kind of two brain cells should be able to put together. He's got these sycophants around him like Marco Rubio, they need to go to bat with for him and say the most absurd, ridiculous things that they know is not true. And this cycle will just never end with Donald Trump as president because he can admit that he's wrong. You know, know, it seems like it's the perfect storm, though, heading into the midterms. I don't mean that in a good thing. The perfect storm heading into the midterms. Of all the things that Republicans don't want to happen right now, Donald Trump is doing. And so what I'm curious, as, as we approach the midterms more, does Trump start to feel the pressure at all from these Republicans? Does Mike Johnson start getting antsy? Does John Thune. Do they stop saying, dude, do some. You do. Doing more tariffs right now when people already can't afford anything. You're going to expand the war right now when the whole country's against this thing. It's like he's doing everything imaginable right now to drive voters as far and far away from him and from the Republican Party. And I think that's why we're seeing this in all that latest polling as well.
- [22:44]
Jordy
Can I give you my theory of where that's going to go for the Congress and for Republicans in general? It's pretty obvious to me that Mike Johnson doesn't care about working, doesn't care about doing anything for the American people. And so I almost think to a certain degree they're going to welcome it. They'd love essentially to be the party not in charge because it's another excuse for them. Blame the Democrats. Oh, if only we were back in charge, we would have fixed this. Then the Democrats, they took us in the midterms, and now. And now we can't do anything like the Blame game from Congressional Republicans, from just Republicans right now in general is insane. They control all three branches of government, and yet they haven't moved a meaningful piece of legislation for the American people in these two and a half years Trump has been president. It's ridiculous to me. Also another thing to note, one of the grossest things that Donald Trump is doing and has been doing, we played the clip here earlier, is how he's comparing the deaths of these military members and our servicemen and women to the deaths of other previous wars. First off, Donald Trump and the Trump regime are only acknowledging these 18 deaths, which is so damn tragic. And everything that we know about the Trump regime is that they lost. I'm not fully convinced, this is my personal belief here, that the number is actually 18. I actually think that number is probably three to four times higher than 18 just based off of the amount of attacks and our bases getting hit day in and day out at this point. So that's one thing right there. But the way Donald Trump, like, tries to delegitimize the deaths of our servicemen by comparing the numbers from other wars is deeply disturbing and honestly should make everyone's stomach turns. He's basically saying, oh, the death. These 18 deaths, again, the ones that I'm willing to acknowledge is Donald trump, it's only 18. Guys. Guys, it's only 18. Look, look at all these other wars. Hundreds of thousands. Like, he puts hundreds of thousands. He just like, like, makes up numbers when he references the other wars now, too. It's beyond the pale. It is really disgusting. And you would think, you would think more people, especially in the Republican Party, if they had any sort of backbone, would want to stand up to and correct that behavior because it is so, so disgusting. He's like, guys, it's only 18. It's only 18.
- [24:55]
Brett
Past that.
- [24:57]
Ben
But here's the thing, too. You know, those other wars lasted a long time, and this five months is a very long time. Even though Trump said it was going to end in a few days, then four to six weeks. But Donald Trump is beginning the escalation now. I don't know what type of leader or world leader starts spiking the football about the death count right before you're about to escalate and potentially surge troops into the region, maybe put special Forces, maybe do a ground invasion. And now you're saying this is like, we should remember, by the way we're
- [25:33]
Brett
seeing right now this buildup in the Middle east, like, all things. When you look at the kind of just structure of how our troops are kind of positioned right now in the Middle east least it. At least they want the appearance that there's an imminent kind of ground invasion or massive attack. And that's why I think you also see Donald Trump going to the press, like the Israeli press, and telling Israel's Channel 12 that he's considering a massive attack larger than anything before, and says he's close to making a decision. Oftentimes he's already made his decision about these things before. He then goes and. And, and does those things. But everything right now is kind of lining up as this thing could be today, could be tomorrow, could be the next day. Who knows, right? Tomorrow's Friday. Trump likes to bomb things on Fridays. Right. Extra hard. And so this thing could escalate to such a point where we do have troops on the ground. In that case. Yeah, the casualties could be absolutely massive. And so you're right, he is spiking the football before this kind of major escalation even happens. It's absolutely appalling. And we're already, to Jordy's point.
- [26:33]
Ad Read Voice
Point.
- [26:33]
Brett
Still getting data in about the previous attacks. Now, I remember after the attack on the Jordan base. Not you, Jordan, the country, Jordan, that, that we had heard from sources who knew people on those bases that those attacks were incredibly deadly. We got reports from people and new folks on the ground who said that it was. The scenes were apocalyptic on those bases, the images that people saw and were reporting back. And so when we heard the initial reports and CENTCOM was writing on X and things like that saying nobody was injured, nobody was killed, everybody's okay. And then we were getting those reports from people who had a firsthand, firsthand knowledge of what happened on that base. And then we were seeing the satellite imagery that showed the bases completely devastated, the barracks destroyed, the containers destroyed. We knew they were lying to us at that point. You know, we didn't have the information to say these were the amount of people who were killed or injured to that end, but we knew that they were lying to us at that point. Point. And we shouldn't have to worry that CENTCOM is going to lie to us about these types of things. It's absolutely heinous. It's an affront to our troops and kind of. And every kind of patriotic American who really does support this country and support our troops should be livid at the way that this commander in chief and his regime is handling all this.
- [27:51]
Ben
Yeah. And all those other wars involved ground invasions also. Troops are on the ground. And so. So the lesson should not be Spike the football at 18 and let's celebrate the amount, which is sick and disgusting. While reflecting on the deaths of these other wars where there were ground invasion, we had troops on the ground and in the cities. It's to perhaps learn from history, but Trump doesn't want to learn from anything after this episode. As soon as this episode ends and we still have a lot of show left, we're going to be on our patreon. Go to patreon.com midastouch and I'll tell you what we're going to do on our Patreon Patreon. We're going to talk about WTF America, our new book that's coming out in October. But you can pre order it right now. WTF America? You can scan the QR code. The pre orders really help a lot. So don't wait until October. If you're able to buy it now, buy it now and pre order it right now. But we're going to answer all of your questions about the book on the Patreon as soon as the show ends. So Patreon then.
- [28:51]
Brett
I've got a lot of questions about this, so I'll just say it right now.
- [28:54]
Guest Analyst 2
Now.
- [28:54]
Brett
Yes, you could pre order the audiobook, you could pre order the ebook if you have like a Kindle or something like that. And it's all, and there's a hard cover for pre order and multiple retailers at the link. And it's also available in all North America for, for those wondering and we're looking into the other internationals. We've got a lot of requests for the other internationals that'll probably be closer to release date. But we're on it. We're on the case.
- [29:14]
Ben
Don't worry.
- [29:14]
Brett
And thank you to everybody who's pre ordered already.
- [29:16]
Ben
Let's, let's take our first quick break.
- [29:19]
Brett
Actually, give me, give me one second. Let's, let's talk a little bit more about this for one second.
- [29:22]
Ben
All right. Let's not take our first quick break of the show. Let's chat more about. You mentioned Marco Rubio, Brett. Why don't I show you though, what Rubio had to say? Because you mentioned how Rubio was being kind of clownish. Rubio was whining about the Lego videos and talking about how Iran makes mean Lego videos about the United States. He's upset about a meme r. Rubio is that it's more than a meme. It's, it's a Lego. It's musical Lego videos, to be fair. And Rubio is at the Asian Conference, the South Asian Conference where the US Is participating. On the sidelines, he's met with Wang Yi of China, the Chinese foreign minister, but of course didn't answer the question about what Donald Trump did a national address about. So did you ask Wang Yi, do we have this clip too, Brett, where it's like, did you ask Wang Yi of China, the foreign minister, about Donald Trump saying that China interfered with the 2020 election? Seems like a question that might want to come up if the president of the United States does, I don't know, an entire national address. So Rubio, surely when you were there with China, you said, hey, we should talk about this, right? Did it even come up? Was it a topic here? Let's play this clip.
- [30:35]
Brett
Was there a disagreement on election interference?
- [30:37]
Marco Rubio
We didn't discuss that topic.
- [30:39]
Guest Analyst
Topic.
- [30:39]
Ben
All right, we'll talk about the Lego when we come back from our first quick break of the show.
- [30:44]
Jordy
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- [32:21]
Brett
If you've ever actually looked at the ingredient list on your dog's food, it gets pretty wild after the first ingredient. Half of it sounds like something from a chemistry textbook and it got me thinking. If I wouldn't want to eat food packed with ingredients I can't even pronounce. Why would I want that for my dog? That's one of the reasons that we switched to sundaes for dogs. Sundaes is different. They start with 80% plus all natural meats, then add superfoods like kale, ginger and blueberries. And gently air drying everything instead of blasting it with high heat. It doesn't even look or smell like typical dog food. It looks like high quality human grade jerky. No fillers, no nutritional blends, no chemicals, just simple complete nutrition. It was founded by Dr. Tori Waxman who created sundaes to meet her standards. Standards as both a veterinarian and a dog parent. And mochi. My dog absolutely loves it. Mealtime has become something she actually gets excited about and I've noticed that she has more energy, her coat looks great and I just feel better knowing that I'm feeding her real quality food. The other thing I love is, well, how easy it is. There's no fridge, no freezer, no prep and no mess. You get the quality of a home cooked meal with the scoop and serve convenience of kibble. It's really what dog food should have been all along. Over 100,000 dogs are already eating sundaes and it's easy to see what why make the switch to Sundays? Go right now to sundaysfordogs.com Midas50 and get 50% off your first order. Or you can use code MIDAS50 at checkout. That's 50% off your first order at Sundays for dogs.com Midus50 Sundays for dogs.com Midus50 or use code MIDAS50 at checkout. Out. That's me. I D A S50.
- [34:06]
Jordy
Let's go. Shout out to our sponsors. Links in description. Both YouTube and the audio. Use the links, use the codes. If there's an exit survey, let them know we sent you. It's very helpful. Benji. Where to next, big bro?
- [34:17]
Ben
What I teased before the break? Marco Rubio, our horrific Secretary of State, talking about stupid Iranian Lego videos. This is what Secretary of State Rubio was saying at a major international conference. Let's play it.
- [34:31]
Marco Rubio
Because the price they're paying is very high. Despite their tough talk and their flowery language and their stupid Lego videos they put out. I've never seen them, but they put these things out on social media. Despite all that bravado, they are suffering tremendously and they're going to suffer more until they come to their senses. They're not there yet, unfortunately.
- [34:46]
Ben
Which country is? I can't Tell you who, the worst liar ever.
- [34:49]
Jordy
He's, of course, seen them. He's seen them every night before bed.
- [34:54]
Ben
Also, though, the language, though, you know, with Donald Trump, Trump, we're going to open the gates of hell. And he's posting memes of himself with that stupid face of his. You know, it's the face of like, like that. Open the gates of hell. And then you have Rubio saying, we're going to make them suffer until they do a deal. I mean, if you look at the language of even how these American leaders speak, they speak like terrorists. Everything that we've said that the bad guys speak like and behave is exactly how the Trump regime sounds and talks. And what you, and, and what you do is you galvanize populations and resistance against you also.
- [35:35]
Brett
Yeah, it doesn't require a lot of editing. Right. All they have to do is play that clip of Marco Rubio to their citizens and say, look what they're saying about you.
- [35:42]
Jordy
Right.
- [35:42]
Brett
All they have to do is show a Donald Trump truth social post that says, we want to annihilate your civilization. And what do you think the Iranian people are going to think? They're going to think, think, well, screw this guy. This guy's an evil monster, evil genocidal monster. We need to get together and we need to fight this evil. You know, this thing, this stuff doesn't happen in a vacuum. And I feel like, you know, when, when the Western media speaks about these issues and speaks about countries like Iran, it's often as if they, like, aren't even like the same species. Like, the people they. It's like a National Geographic kind of analysis of these are human beings we're talking about, and they're, they're not making their decisions. They're not taking actions just based on, on randomness. Like, there's a reason for it. And the stuff that Rubio is doing, and he's a Secretary of state who should be engaged in diplomacy, the stuff that Donald Trump is doing, it's, it's only, it's only having the opposite effect of what you actually want to do. And if you're trying to actually approach a party, as Ben knows, and litigation from his attorney days in good faith, to actually do a deal, you want to do a deal, you don't threaten to kill the other person. You try to find areas of agreement. You try to come together, you try to beat out an agreement. Agreement, by the way, the way they did with the mou, which was a very bad deal for the United States. But as we said, at the time, I thought it was good in general that we were signing an MOU so that we could hopefully get the hell out of this war. But Donald Trump doesn't want to do deals. He wants to string the other party along so that he could continue to escalate and he could be in this just quagmire forever. And you know, just going back quickly to that other review clip too, we played before break. Like, how stupid do you gotta feel if you're, I guess they don't have this level of self reflection, but if you're one of the people who. Donald Trump holds this big, big press conference and he says China has been hacking our elections. And they're like, Marco, you gonna do anything? You bring it up with the, with the Chinese when you were in the room with him, he's like, nah, why would, nah, why would I do that, Donald? So, Donald, you gonna do anything about China? There's pretty serious accusations. Nah, that was them. Then we do it too. Who cares? You held the primetime press conference. What do you mean? Who cares how you go to bat for somebody who behaves in this way?
- [37:54]
Jordy
It's pretty evident to me that Marco Rubio suffers from some sort of Pinocchio of the years where every time he shills for Donald Trump, his ears get a little bit bigger.
- [38:05]
Brett
He really.
- [38:05]
Jordy
A little bit bigger. Marco Rubio. Ben loves when I talk about Marco's ears. Marco Rubio, I did that real. So you know where I was going with that. But Marco Rubio, what a disappointment this guy was. What a disappointment this guy has been. And like, I didn't expect much out of him at all. But I do think like at large, like if there was one person put in a, you know, position like Marco had been put in now, like, I don't know, people could maybe try to lie to themselves, convince themselves he's a, he's a real person, he'll try and do, he'll try and do the right thing. Nope, total shill. Total absolute shill and clown. And that, that writing has been on the wall for Marco for a very long time now. You know, it was interesting. I often bring this up, we were speaking to, I forget who, but someone that was deep ties to the Republican party, who then came over and now is like a pro democracy person. And his whole thing was how disappointed he has been in Marco Rubio. And this was back in 2020. I can't imagine what they think of him now looking at all of this shillingness and just, you know, day by day, every Time he shows the ears
- [39:07]
Guest Analyst 2
get a little bit bigger.
- [39:07]
Ben
You kind of remember these storylines and these through lines. Remember when Rubio, after the MOU was signed, went to the Middle east and people said, so did you talk to these countries about the $300 billion fund for Iran? Because that's one of the main provisions. Before you get to even talk about Iran's nuclear file, surely you brought that up because you've all been saying that the Arab nations need to chip into that $300 billion fund that the American taxpayers are. So surely when you did this meeting, wasn't that what you were here to talk about? Talk about? No, we didn't talk about that at all. And it was like, yeah, Pinocchio of the years right there. Jordan was a good. I, I don't remember his ears ever.
- [39:49]
Jordy
Just good assessment.
- [39:50]
Ben
Look, I, I, his ears are definitely growing several centimeters.
- [39:54]
Jordy
There was. Wasn't there a character on all that? Wasn't there a character on all that?
- [40:00]
Ben
There was a lot of things on all that that I think need were deep profiles.
- [40:03]
Jordy
Maybe have an age as well. Maybe we'll just leave it there.
- [40:05]
Ben
No, I mean, I've seen the, I've seen all that. You're referring to Ear Boy. Ear Boy. Bring up a photo.
- [40:14]
Jordy
Brett.
- [40:14]
Ben
There was, there was randomly Ross Perot. There was Pizza Face.
- [40:17]
Brett
Yeah, Ross Perot was quite the choice for a kid show. What about, what about Repair Man? Man, Man, Man, Man.
- [40:22]
Ben
There was a lot in that show. I, I, I was having a conversation about your boy.
- [40:27]
Brett
This is so millennial coded.
- [40:29]
Ben
Yeah. I was having a conversation about your boy the other day, and I wanted to.
- [40:35]
Brett
I was just having a casual conversation about Ear Boy the other day.
- [40:37]
Jordy
Was it in the context of Rubio?
- [40:39]
Ben
No, it was in a con. It was in the context of shows that I watched growing up, and I just wanted to show my nephews who were of the age when I watched Ear. I'm like, y' all know Earboy? And they're like, no, we don't know. I'm like, what about Pizza Face? And what about. I go, I go, let me show you what I watched. And then I was showing to them. I'm like, this is wildly inappropriate. This show is offensive on so many levels. Levels. And so it's funny that, you know, I, I, Ear Boy references. Ears are really big. Yeah, that was the theme song. And, and then, and the story of. Just so you remember the story of Earboy, we're showing a picture of your boy right now. He wanted. And it's a sad show. Because he wanted a girlfriend. And like, and like, the cool jocks
- [41:24]
Jordy
would be there and he'd go up
- [41:25]
Ben
and go, hey, everybody, this is good to see you. They'd be like, your ears are really big. And then he'd always go to Ross Perot. And Ross Perot would say, okay, I'm sorry. Let me, I'll stop. I went to a deep earboy dive the other day. Marco Rubio, though, as part of this press conference when he was at the ASEAN conference, would say, every day, Iran is calling, begging for a deal. They're begging. They're begging here, let's play this club.
- [41:48]
Marco Rubio
Okay? These people who are calling us every day begging, let's do a deal. They send us messages through other countries, third countries, countries. I mean, they're running out of countries to send even. I had countries here coming up to me. Oh, I just spoke to the Iranians. They want to do a deal. The problem is every time these people do a deal, they either break it or after they make it, they want to change the deal. So they're probably not ready to do a deal yet, but they will be.
- [42:08]
Ben
They're not ready to make a deal yet. They're going to make a deal.
- [42:11]
Brett
Say it again. Those years.
- [42:14]
Ben
What does the statement even mean? We're running out of countries? I don't even. Like, what word is he even saying? We're running.
- [42:21]
Brett
We're words.
- [42:21]
Ben
We're running out of countries. That. What is that even referring to? How do you run out of countries? You know, the. If you look at the foreign minister of countries and how they behave versus how Rubio behaves, you know, it is like night and day. You know, he doesn't even understand. I think he wants to be the. You know, he behaves like he's the Defense Secretary and talks about, you know, all these. But, but you know who's also been very silent lately as well? J.D. vance. Like, we haven't heard anything from, like, J.D. has gone notably silent.
- [42:56]
Brett
That was his MOU.
- [42:58]
Ben
But, but, but let me say this about J.D. because I think he's shapeshifter. I think he's a weird dude. I think he's a bad guy. Like, I think he's a horrible human. And, you know, you could potentially say his wife did give birth soon. So perhaps, you know that. You know that there's an, there's an aspect of that. Although I believe they mocked Pete Buttigieg and other people, you know, for taking any time off to be with, to be with kids. But, but, but setting that aside for A moment. All of my criticism about JD Vance. Notice I did not criticize him on the MOU because I often get asked, well, do you want to see anything? You can never say anything nice about anybody there. That's not true. If they cured cancer, you would be against it? No, no, no, no, no. The problem is, is that they're pro cancer and they're cut cancer research. So if they cured cancer, I would say they cured cancer. That's great. We can reflect on the fact that this war has been catastrophic and unlawful and caused grievous harm. But we can also say the MoU, of all the bad solutions, was the best one that exists. It was the right decision. If it was fully implemented, if we complied with it, Iran won the war. They get the Strait of Harm, they administer it. There is probably a way, if the US Wanted to open up these southern route by Oman, to do it in a way where the US could have said, hey, you're administering it. We want this route. Let's work out a solution over the next 60 days to do that. But that's not what the US did. The US immediately, from not having access to the Strait of Hormuz, tried to use the absence of any contractual language in the MoU. There's something that banned the US but it said Iran is the administrator. So Trump, the way he's always dealt with agreements, which is just to break him, goes, aha. It doesn't say that we can then administer it too. It just says Iran administers it, but there's nothing that says we can't do it. Also in the southern route, and Iran's like, well, it says, admit we're the administrator, that not you are the administrator also. So coordinate the rust. Because it says everything, you know, but. But anyway, I can go on the MoU breach by. By Trump forever. But my point is, is that of all the bad solutions, the MOU was actually the right solution for the time. And I was supportive of the MoU. And I complimented not to say, oh, great work, you're the arsonist putting out your own fire. You deserve, like, lots of applause. But when J.D. vance was in Switzerland and it was obvious that Kushner and Witkoff, in my opinion, were just proxies of Netanyahu there and were there for their own self interest and were the worst people possible. I'm like, J.D. vance, he's got a laptop. He looked like me when I was a second year or so associate working at a law firm. It's like typing things. I'm like, you know, he's the Vice President of the United States. It's weird to see him with a laptop on his lap, you know, just given the structure of the United States. But I'm glad the guys. I was. Seriously, I was like, the guy's working. I like, you know, of all the bad solutions, I like that he's at least trying to.
- [45:51]
Brett
Not gonna knock him for working.
- [45:53]
Ben
What'd you say?
- [45:54]
Brett
As I'm not gonna knock the guy for working. Not gonna work.
- [45:56]
Ben
It's weird that, like, I'm. I'm like, I. I was like, that looks like me. My. As a first year law associate, you know, I've got, like, a partner by my left. I've got, like, the people not doing the work. Jared Kushner and Witkoff.
- [46:09]
Brett
Like, it's like the day before the papers do beat.
- [46:11]
Ben
Now sitting there with my laptop, typing away the settlement agreement. You know, I've got mediator Tony Piazza on my left. You know, they've got the. You know, I had, like, very vivid memories of, like, my litigation days, you know, Is that.
- [46:24]
Brett
Is that a real person?
- [46:25]
Ben
Tony Piazza, huh? Yeah. Yeah. Tony Piazza was so. I would do lots of mediations in front of Tony Piazza. He was. He is. He was like the king of mediations. And honestly, a lot of my knowledge of mediations come. He's the guy who mediated the Winkle Brothers Facebook. He's, like, known as the godfather of all mediations in the United States. And early on, I was lucky to do dozens of mediations with this guy who's been a mentor to me.
- [46:53]
Brett
And so.
- [46:54]
Ben
So anyway, that's my Tony.
- [46:55]
Brett
I wasn't sure if you're talking about, like, pizza face.
- [46:57]
Ben
No, no. That's why the show is awfully offensive, you know, and then pizza face and ear boy walk around, and then they get made fun of. And because of the way they.
- [47:06]
Brett
And that's the joke, by the way. The joke is.
- [47:08]
Ben
The joke is that they're ugly and that they have pizza face and ear boy and the people.
- [47:12]
Jordy
Can I. In defense of this, like, of all
- [47:15]
Ben
the things you can't defend the show, it is indefensible, horrible.
- [47:21]
Jordy
They're more offensible offenses. From the shows that we always. From the shows that we watched growing up there. I'm not going to go into this,
- [47:30]
Brett
but I'm saying when I washed that, hashtag, cancel Jordy.
- [47:33]
Ben
All right, let's take our last quick break.
- [47:35]
Jordy
Okay?
- [47:35]
Brett
Reminder.
- [47:36]
Ben
Wtf. What. What the f. Are we even talking about right now? Wtf America?
- [47:41]
Brett
I regret to inform you there's no ear boy or pizza boy talk. There's a lot of other really great stuff in the book. I really, really love it.
- [47:49]
Ben
Leave the QR codes over there. But if you are going to get the book pre order now it helps with every helps with our planning and what we need to do. Pre order the book now if you can pre order multiple copies if you if you want to. It's dedicated to the Midas mighty. We poured our heart and souls. It's one of the reasons why we haven't even able to do all that much Patreon but I've just been non stop working on this thing so. Patreon.com Midas Touch. We'll see you there after the show. We've got, we've got one more segment left. I promise you we won't talk about ear boy, pizza face or anything.
- [48:26]
Brett
I'm not a party, I'm not a party to this memorandum of understanding. I cannot promise that we'll talk or not talk about pizza boy and your boy.
- [48:34]
Ben
Last quick break in the show.
- [48:36]
Brett
We'll be right back. You know what's easier than fixing a problem?
- [48:39]
Marco Rubio
Problem?
- [48:40]
Brett
Not having the problem in the first place. Your liver is one of those organs that you don't think about until you have to. Supporting it daily is one of those small things that can make a huge difference in how you feel overall. And that's where dose comes in. Dose for your liver is a clinically backed liver health supplement. This isn't just another capsule or powder. Dose is a liquid supplement. It's taken in a daily 2 ounce shot and it tastes like fresh squeezed orange juice. Here's why it matters. Your liver is your body's filter. It processes everything you consume and handles over 500 daily functions. Energy production, digestion, fat metabolism, vitamin storage. When your liver is overworked, you feel it. Dose helps cleanse the liver of unwanted stressors that may be slowing your liver down. And it promotes daily liver function so that your liver can do its job. Zero sugar, zero junk, zero calories. And when you take dose daily, you're going to reduce sluggishness, get rid of those midday crashes, support your metabolism and even aid your daily digestion plan. Plus, this is the real deal. There are two double blind placebo controlled studies showing doses positive impact on liver enzyme levels. Are you ready to give your liver the support it deserves? Head to DueDaily Co Midus or enter Midas to get 35% off your first subscription. Your body does so much for you. Let's do something for it that's D o s e D a I l y Co M for 35% off your first month subscription.
- [50:10]
Jordy
If a genie gave me three wishes, I would use all of my wishes to wish for my cat to live forever. But since genies don't exist, as far as I know, I feed my cat Smalls. Smalls is fresh human grade cat food that does so much more than just feed your cat. It helps them live a full, healthy life. Most cat food out there, it's made with like these meat products and cheap fillers and artificial ingredients. Ingredients basically stuff that isn't great for your cat. Big Pet food does this because it's cheaper to make, but what they save on cost your cat pays for. With their health, Smalls is different. Their fresh recipes are made with at least 80% animal protein and they're gently cooked to retain all their nutrients and flavor. They never add fillers or artificial ingredients. And their food is so healthy that 88% of cat parents say that after feeding their their cat Smalls, their cats have better digestion, a softer and shinier coat, and more energy to play because it's actually good for cats. Your cat's health and longevity starts with what they eat. Try smalls and get 60% off your cat's first order, plus free shipping and free treats for life when you go to smalls.com midas one last time. That's 60% off your first order, plus free shipping and free treats for life. Life when you head to smalls.com midas let's go. Shout out to our sponsors links in description of both the YouTube and the audio. Use the links, use the codes. If there's an exit survey, let them know we sent you. Benji, where'd you next?
- [51:42]
Ben
Did you ever feel like something is moving fast forward and in slow motion at both the same time? That's how I feel. This escalation and this catastrophic war that Donald Trump is doing in Iran is going to slow motion in the sense that it just feels each move so obviously moving in the direction so easy to pinpoint the escalation trap, the lies, the mistakes, the fatal errors that are happening that are leading our country into perhaps one of the most catastrophic moments, if not the most catastrophic moment in our nation's history. I can literally, you can see it happening every moment, every moment, how the buildup is happening, how this vile piece of trash in the Oval Office goes deeper into this escalation trap, how just, you know, how history is often viewed with all of these complexities. But at the Most basic raw form. We have someone so unfit, so unqualified, so deranged, so psychotic, so personally caught up. So everything that it's just moving us in this direction. And you have MAGAs in the Senate who are apparently okay with this. Yes, let's do it. No, War Powers Resolution act, you've got such a compliant Congress that's like, all right, let's just let it, let's just let it happen. And we all know better. We all know this moment that we're in right now, we know where this is going, but we, we, we move closer and closer. And I say we fast forward because it's also happening at this speed where all of a sudden you're right there. And here we are making this recording where it appears that right now, in any moment there's going to be this escalation. It's like we went from MOU mode to Fox doing it's Iraq 2003 coverage, but on steroids, talking about, we're gonna pinpoint, you know, they got their generals on doing the strategy. We're gonna dock out this facility and this facility and this facility and this facility and that facility. You look at the radar right now, you can pull up the B roll just so you see the plane activity that's taking place right now in Europe and in the Middle East. I mean, you see an unprecedented amount of military aircraft that's going around right now. I mean, it's obvious to Iran, it's obvious to anybody that this full scale US invasion that will make the initial stages of epic fury look small is happening any moment, is happening any moment right now. And I'll show you what they're showing on state regime media which calls itself fox. Here's what, here's, here's what they're doing. Here's their war propaganda trying to rally their zombified base into blowing up, into war, into more war crimes, into, you know, like, I mean, I mean, this, I mean, this, seriously, it almost feels like this is the propaganda of Adolf Hitler and the Nazis. And you know, like right before they were going to go into Poland or right before they were going to, you know, go into France and you know, right before, you know, that, that they would, you know, that, you know, it would be a version in the, you know, in the nineteen four, you know, in the nineteen forty version of it, you know, it'd be like. And then here we're, you know, it's always that weird voice, right, that they did back then. I forget what that, what that voice is. You Know, called with the inflections. But like to me, this is a variation of that with, with the regime media out there. So here we're going to go here. We're going to go here. You know, this, this is.
- [55:41]
Brett
This is it.
- [55:42]
Ben
Let me show you. Let's play it.
- [55:43]
Ad Voice
So let's take a look at the power plants and places that we might be able to hit. Lucas, as you see these as targets, what do you think we might hit first?
- [55:51]
Guest Analyst 2
Well, I don't know if we'll hit it first, but the Dhammavad plant supplies 40% of Tehran's electricity. The Bashir nuclear power plant, probably not likely a target. This, the Russians built this. They still supply Iran with low enriched uranium.
- [56:05]
Ad Voice
Because, Lucas, we should say there's a risk to blowing up a nuclear plant.
- [56:08]
Guest Analyst 2
No question. Now, the South Pars gas field. This sits on the largest natural gas field in the world. Israeli forces hit this on March 18th in the beginning of the war. Iran responded by hitting the Qatari side of this natural gas field. In terms of targets, but let me
- [56:24]
Ad Voice
ask you here, this is the strait.
- [56:25]
Guest Analyst 2
Yeah.
- [56:26]
Ad Voice
So we want to send a message in the strait where they're hitting ships in the strait. Wouldn't that be a place we go?
- [56:33]
Guest Analyst 2
It would. The only question is, what would be Iran's response? We've seen Iran hit back. And Qatar's oil field, natural gas oil fields in the uae, that's the big thing.
- [56:44]
Ad Voice
You mean they'll have a like response
- [56:45]
Guest Analyst 2
if we hit a power plant that's been this tit for tat the whole time? That's what's notable about the Israelis. They use disproportionate responses. Probably one of the reasons that Israel hasn't reentered the war. Iran has not attacked Israel since early June.
- [56:57]
Ad Voice
And your assessment of how we're doing it now, do you think we're doing disproportionate or do you think we could be doing.
- [57:03]
Guest Analyst 2
Not doing disproportionate is notable that US Forces hit an Iranian barracks after an American barracks was hit. Of course, in Jordan. That's what killed those three US Armies.
- [57:14]
Ad Voice
So this is the power plants that
- [57:15]
Ben
we could be this really sick. I mean, it's, it's, it's. Those are. They're talking about war crimes so cavalierly. They're talking about.
- [57:24]
Brett
This is like a football player.
- [57:27]
Ben
Yeah. So maybe we're going to take that power. These are civilian. We'll cut off the electricity to Tehran. Seriously, I mean, these are war crimes. This is sick. They're Talking about the idea if we want to send a message to the Strait of Hormuz, we could blow up the Bushir power nuclear plan. But it does come with risk that you're going to blow up a nuke. Do you, do you know about Chernobyl? You're going to blow up a nuclear power plant? Do you, do you know your fucking history, you idiots? Excuse my language. Do you know your fucking history? You're going to do a Chernobyl over there. You're going to blow up a nuclear power plant to send a message in these straight up removes. Have all these people lost their fucking damn mind? Minds. And again, excuse me, are these people crazy? I mean, are these people lunatic? That's why I say it's like we're slow walking into like nuclear annihilation. Also at like a warp speed at the same time. What are we doing here? And again, I hate to curse, excuse my language, but as I watch that I, I, I say, I say to myself, if they're saying it on regime media, that's the advice that Donald Trump is getting. He gets his advice. He's watching that right now. He's watching.
- [58:55]
Brett
Let me take it one further. You might may say these are TV hosts. They call themselves an entertainment network in core. Fox News. Well, let me remind you, where did Donald Trump pull his Defense secretary from Fox News? He's the guy from that network. That's the guy who is making these decisions. These are the people that guy hung around with and those are the conversations they had. And this is why Donald Trump picked that individual to lead this department. It ain't just tv, this is real life. And Donald Trump has merged the two together in the most heinous fashion imaginable.
- [59:32]
Ben
The Pentagon removed the names of the four service members who died in Georgia, Jordan from their official list of casualties. They explain that this is because their deaths occurred after President Trump declared a ceasefire in the war in April. How sick, how sick? I mean, honestly, how sick? These are not normal times.
- [60:11]
Jordy
So he's now saying, Ben, just to be clear, it's not 18, it's 14. That's what we're acknowledging here as the Trump.
- [60:18]
Ben
But then think about this, Jordy, to your point, what about, do they count Special Forces?
- [60:27]
Jordy
Exactly.
- [60:27]
Ben
I mean, I think the issue is, is because we all, because service members have families back at home, it's not easy to fully cover up all of these casualties. You know, when you have, when you have family at home, right? Because people are going to say, hey, you know what's going on if you don't hear from somebody or, you know, not necessarily, but we know that Iran has attacked multiple CIA sites that they believe were dark sites that Iran very much knows knows these were CIA sites. Right. And we also know that Iran attacked like the area Iran talked attacked in the Al Sanf area, Syria, Jordan border area, was Special Forces barrack. And you know, I think it's easier to cover up Special Forces casualties. So I mean, I don't believe.
- [61:28]
Jordy
Here's the thing too. Here's the thing too, real quick is, I mean, it could take months to hear back from folks over there fighting. Yeah, we know. We, my wife is family serving right now. And there we go long stretches of time without hearing, you know, an update on how they're doing. And so with the Trump regime, again, you just have to be skeptical about every single number that gets put in front of you. I mean, I'm reacting to that news live. I've just learned out and learned from about that along with everyone here. Trump is essentially taking a mulligan like, like he's cheating in golf because he's trying to correct his scorecard to be better in his favor. I'm using terms that, like how the pathological lunatic that is Donald Trump, how he's viewing this, the deaths of our servicemen and women. Don't count those four. Yeah, Donald, tell that to their families. Tell that to their families.
- [62:17]
Ben
You know, I try not to be all that self referential. You know, self referential is a term when I'm just like, you know, when I say, well, this is what I said then. This is what I said then. And the only reason why I say that though sometimes is because the force, sometimes Jordi, of which the criticisms take place against the platform, you know, of like, I mean, I did a video a few days ago, Trump cracks over war and tries to hide the casualties. And you know, I got a lot of criticism for that. And you know, and ultimately I think it was proven to be. Yeah, it was stuck on Jordan. He was like, I was looking at Jordy was channeling my, my narrative there. But that way, you know, and then sometimes the criticism is you're making this up or like you're whatever. It's like, no, like that's like that's happened. They're hiding the casualties. That's in the numbers. And, and you know, New York Times is two or three days late and they report it. And I'm glad when they report it. A general says, you know, maybe they need, need, you know, to get the source here or the source there, to me, the sources, I see it, I see it in the region. I don't need the general to tell me or the admiral to tell me or the, whoever I can, I can see what's happening, you know, over there. And so then I report it based on satellite footage and the like and the medevacs and the number, you know, the numbers that I see.
- [63:40]
Brett
And I actually have, I have the clip of you from a few days ago. You reporting that they had changed the casualty count quietly from 18 to 14. That this is reporting now being confirmed by the New York Times that they were reclassifying these deaths because they don't view them as war deaths because Donald Trump technically said we were in a ceasefire at the time. So they don't count, right? If you don't, if you don't test, they don't count. Here has been a few days ago,
- [64:04]
Ben
this is, you know, the military website that, that reports out U.S. military casualties. Official website. And at first on the website, the casualty total for Operation Epic Fury was updated in the Defense Casualty Analysis System. So if you looked at KIA killed in action, there were four soldiers added who were killed in action, because that's what was reported in the past 24 to 48 hours. And then the wounded in action increased by 20 to 447 from 427. But then, then at around 11pm last night, that changed and the Defense Casualty Analysis system removed the four killed in action and the 20 wounded in action again. Just look at the website.
- [64:59]
Brett
Yeah, that reporting now being confirmed in a news story by the New York Times, you heard it here first on Midas Touch. And you know, it's, you know, like something like that comes, comes directly from Donald Trump, like that's only somebody as sick as Donald Trump would think of doing something like that. And we know because every time he goes out now to what Jordy was saying earlier, he's constantly comparing deaths. This is just a scorecard to him. These people aren't people with lives and families and friends. These are numbers on a chart. And he thinks that the higher the numbers go, the worse he looks. And you know, we've been for months now, since the beginning of this war, we have been speaking about the comparisons to Covid of this. And this is also just a spot on comparison between the war and Covid. Because what did Donald Trump constantly say? In addition to saying if we don't test, there won't be many cases, which is the logic that he is applying to here. Trump also said that he wanted to Change the classifications for the way deaths were calculated during COVID So if somebody had a pre existing condition, even if they died due to Covid, that shouldn't count because they actually had these other pre existing conditions. And so the COVID might have killed them, but it shouldn't count towards his numbers because they had something else else going on. This is the sick pathology of Donald Trump. And so you see it now directly infecting our military and the data reporting, which is why I don't honestly trust like any of the data reporting coming out of the White House because he's doing this everywhere.
- [66:22]
Ben
Well, remember, what if Dr. Fauci, rather than saying what Dr. Fauci believed was the scientific information at the time, ultimately did like Admiral Cooper, right? You've got Admiral Cooper, the CENTCOM guy, you know, is out there behaving, you know, basically, you know, if this was a health space like RFK Jr. But in the military, like the head of CENTCOM is out there saying the craziest stuff also and posting the, and is complicit in this. And all the top generals and admirals were purged. The former chairman of the Joint Chiefs. I did a video on it this morning. Morning. CQ Brown was purged back in February of 2025 and replaced with a three star General. And this guy, Dan Kane, who had to get a waiver because he wasn't qualified to be the chairman of the Joint Chiefs. He didn't have the positions, he didn't have the qualifications, is currently the chairman of the Joint Chiefs. We got rid of the most qualified guy because he's black. That's why Pete Hexith and Trump got rid of CQ Brown Jr. And they got rid of other top, top people either because they were black or because they're women or because they were supportive of promotions of black people in the military and women. That's why, that's why other top generals and admirals were purged out. Hegseth didn't like that. Hegseth wants his gender affirming. Hegseth wants his gender affirming testosterone injections. And he thinks that helps lethality. I mean, did you see what a sweaty mess he was mean when he was testifying, when he was testifying before.
- [68:01]
Brett
That did not go well for him at all. He was so unsure of himself and they used all of his words against him. Right? All, all the, all the things that he's been saying throughout the entire war. Because you all of a sudden you have to answer questions under oath and you were saying the War was over three months ago and now you got to explain, okay, why not? And he tries to be competitive, but you can even see during that, that moment it was like he was like in his, like, shell. It was like he was actually didn't quite know what to say because he didn't want to perjure himself yet. He still wanted to try to put on this macho Persona. And I got to give it up to the Democrats in that hearing. I thought they did a, a great job questioning him of grilling him, of, of, you know, ensuring that, you know, they're getting the information or at least having him confront the reality of the situation. I thought they did a really effective
- [68:47]
Ben
job during that hearing. I agree. Look, covered a lot. I want to go do the Patreon, talk about the book a little bit over there. I want to thank everybody for watching. Obviously, we'll continue to give you the breaking news as it develops throughout the day. We're really grateful for you. Hang in there. We're going to keep on fighting with you, for you together and in WTF America. It's dedicated to the Midas community, community and the north star of this book is you. And one of the big conclusions we make in the book is that authentic communities that form can become the difference maker. And we talk about how this is a generational project also. We have to respond day to day, but we also have to think generational. Fox was basically created with the Roger Ailes memorandum and manifesto in the 1970s, 70s and it didn't come out of nowhere. It's kind of what I was saying before, how things could happen in slow motion and fast all at once. And so we're six years since Midas Touch was created as compared to almost 60 years since this idea Fox became right wing radio, which became Fox, which, you know, you now see there, is encouraging nuclear annihilation on the planet, basically. I don't know how to describe what it is that we just saw right there. I want to give a shout out to all the holes hardworking team members, which is every hardworking, which is everybody who works at the Midas Touch network for their cra, for their great work. And I want to thank all of you. Even watching this. I know is, is it's enjoyable to spend time together, but I know sticking with this information, it's heavy, it's hard, but it's. But it's life.
- [70:30]
Brett
And shout out to all the mods who work in the live chat here and do such an incredible job and moderating the live chat. We Love you Knots and everybody watching.
- [70:37]
Ben
All right, pre order WTF America? Now, if you want to ask us questions about what to expect in the book, we'll see you at the Patreon. If you're thinking about should I pre order it or should I wait until October, do the pre order now. Click the QR code. It helps a lot for us to focus on how we better promote or promote more or promote less or promote here or promote there where we can see what the pre orders look like. So pre order it right now.
- [71:03]
Brett
Cities we may get to in the future if we had to do some events that does help.
- [71:07]
Ben
Give us the data too of where the books are being purchased and and okay. Thanks everybody for watching. We appreciate you. We'll see you soon. Patreon.com Midas Touch oh, I'm so excited
- [71:17]
Brett
to talk to everybody.
- [71:18]
Ben
It's gonna be fun. We're gonna join that Jordy. Take it away.
- [71:20]
Jordy
Shout out to the Midas mighty
- [71:24]
Brett
standing
- [71:25]
Marco Rubio
strong
- [71:29]
Brett
is the fascist we sing our
- [71:33]
Marco Rubio
song
- [71:36]
Guest Analyst
we will get it right
- [71:40]
Brett
Want
- [71:40]
Jordy
to stay plugged in? Become a subscriber to our substack@midasplus.com you'll get daily recaps from Ron Filipkowski ad free episodes of our podcast and more exclusive content only available@midasplus.com.