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- [00:01]
Ben Mycel
AT T Mobile we'll give you four free 5G phones and four lines for only $25 per line per month with eligible trade ins. And no, it's not a contest. It's every day for a limited time. Everyone's a winner on America's largest 5G network. Minimum of 4 lines for $25 per line per month with auto paid discount using debit or bank account $5 more per line without autopay up to $830 off each phone via 24 monthly bill credits plus taxes, fees and $10 device connection charge. 4 well qualified customers contact us before canceling entire account to continue bill credits or credit stop and balance on required finance agreement too. Bill credits end if you pay off devices early. Ctmobile.com Trump's approval rating is in the toilet bowl right now. Some of the worst approval ratings in the history of Pre inauguration, only 41% of Americans approve. This is supposed to be the honeymoon period. It's turning out to just be more of the same for Donald Trump. Donald Trump, the American people hate you. And you take a look at those confirmation hearings, you get confirmation why? I mean you got some of the most unqualified people avoiding answering the most basic questions. Whether they'd follow the Constitution, whether they have basic competence and qualifications for the job. When they did answer questions, they made it very clear their priorities are to help the billionaire oligarchs and screw over we the people. We'll break down not just the Hegseth hearing, but we should talk about Trump's treasury secretary pick Scott Besson should talk about Pam Bondi, who Trump wants to be Attorney General. We should talk about Russ Vogt, the Project 2025 architect who Trump wants to run the Office of Management and Budget. We will talk about all of that. Also we'll talk about the world uniting against Donald Trump. Who said Donald Trump can't bring people together? Well, here in the United States he can't. But when it comes to the world, he's finding a way to unite countries against the United States. We're seeing that for example in Canada where a meeting was held in Ottawa where mostly all of the premiers and the at the provincial level and then the federal government, regardless of the political parties joined together. There was one premier from Alberta, her name is Daniel Smith. She took the pilgrimage of shame to Mar a Lago where Donald Trump just further shamed her and said that 25% tariffs across the board, no exceptions are happening on day one. But other than her, Canada is fairly united against the United States Ready for retaliatory tariffs, ready to inflict pain on the United States in retaliation for the United States inflicting pain on that. Also Mexico's ready, Europe's ready. Basically everyone's ready to inflict pain on the US on day one, when Trump goes through with the executive orders he's threatening and promising there's a mega civil war taking place. You have MAGA Mike Johnson basically firing Republican Mike Turner, who heads the Intelligence Committee or did head the Intelligence Committee in the House of Representatives. Turner had been a Republican congressman, represents the Dayton area of Ohio since 2003. A fairly respected guy on a bipartisan basis. He supported Ukraine, he supported NATO. So Donald Trump told MAGA Mike, you got to fire the guy. MAGA Mike fired the guy. The Republican conference is pissed. They like Turner. We're seeing it at the state level as well, where a MAGA Republican state senator was literally beat down by other Republicans because he was banned from showing up to Republican Governor Brian Kemp's State of the State speech. He still tried to show up anyway. And then he was like, literally shoved to the ground and he got arrested. Republican on Republican violence right there. And we'll talk about President Biden's farewell address to the American people from the Oval Office where he warned about the oligarchy, he warned about the Tech bro industrial complex, and then he also talked about how he wants to make sure there is a constitutional amendment banning presidential immunity. We'll talk about all of that and more. This is the Midas Touch podcast. I'm Ben Mycel, is joined by Brett and Jordy. A lot to discuss brothers and Midas.
- [04:22]
Brett Mycel
Mighty whole lot going on, folks. It's great to be here with everybody. Quick update here from Los Angeles. It feels like things are stabilizing here, which is good. Hopefully things stay that way. Hopefully these winds don't knock anything back up. Thanks again for. To everybody, for all your support over these past few crazy weeks. Oh my gosh, so much in the news right now. We made a big announcement on our social media as well this week that we will not be airing the inauguration here on Midas Touch. We've decided our editorial staff came together and we have determined that it is in the best interests of our audience, of the country for us not to be streaming the inauguration live. We will be having some alternative programming. We could get to that maybe a little later or give you some of our ideas, see what you think about it. I think. I think. I think we could still have. Still have fun on that horrible day.
- [05:16]
Ben Mycel
Int. Int. Lots of puppies.
- [05:20]
Brett Mycel
He's not kidding.
- [05:22]
Ben Mycel
You said.
- [05:23]
Jordy Mycel
Come on.
- [05:25]
Brett Mycel
I was trying to do the deep tease over here, but.
- [05:28]
Jordy Mycel
But, no, you exactly. What? That's not how hints work.
- [05:31]
Brett Mycel
Yeah, Ben's not good at the deep. It's okay. It's okay. There's more. We'll get into more of that after, but that's it for me for now. I'm excited to get into the news. Jordy, how's it going by you?
- [05:41]
Jordy Mycel
Super, super excited to get into the show today. Ben, excited for you to talk about how Donald Trump is this great unifier against Donald Trump and maga. Just so incredible to see what's happening over there in Canada. By the way, new friend on Blue Sky. We're on Blue Sky. For everyone who's been asking at Midas touched and then at all of our regular handles that you all know, my buddy Jarv came up with the Maple Mighty. He's a fellow Canadian, and he's like, he's like the Maple Mighty. Love y'all out here.
- [06:09]
Brett Mycel
I love Maple Mighty. I've also seen people, because we're, you know, we have a lot of people in Canada who listen to and watch the show, which is super cool. We've obviously been entering Canadian politics a bit and covering Canada, and we will in this episode as well. I also saw the Maple Midas, which I, which I really, which I really like as well. I, I, I love our Canadian fans. I love all of our fans. Our Canadian fans have been so awesome, so welcoming as we do the coverage. So shout out Canada.
- [06:34]
Ben Mycel
Well, it stands in contrast to Maple maga. The issue was a lot of the Conservative Party was overtaken by all of these, you know, MAGA extremist views, and they were kind of proudly declaring themselves as MAGA Maple or Maple maga. A lot of them stopped that because they felt betrayed by Donald Trump. They were like, dude, we were, we were your team. What do you, what are you doing? I mean, the person you see there on the left, Doug Ford, the Conservative premier of Ontario, he would, like, wear MAGA hats. Now. He's wearing hats that say, basically, Canada, you're not touching. I mean, United States, you're not touching Canada, Canada's not for sale. And so, you know, he's done a complete 180. You still have this conservative premier from Alberta, Daniel Smith, who's very problematic, and she tried to divide and conquer, but got humiliated. But let's start here domestically in the United States, where Donald Trump's a favorability rating is like, the lowest ever going into an inauguration, usually.
- [07:36]
Brett Mycel
I gotta say, this shocked me. Not gonna lie, Ben, this. This really surprised me because like you said, usually you're in this period and you think you're having this honeymoon period where your ratings are gonna be high. And some of the initial approval polls of Trump were in the positive territory. I mean, some of the best polls that he's received. And by the way, while still, while being in the positive territory, still lower historically than most presidents, if not all presidents, when they actually enter office, but positive nonetheless. Been interesting to see over the past few weeks that these numbers have shifted so strongly. And I think it's because folks are finally, are already rather seeing what a Trump administration means and are seeing that a Trump administration is quite literally an administration for the billionaires, for the oligarchs. So I'll pull up this poll, Ben, while you speak about it.
- [08:22]
Ben Mycel
Yeah, look, you've got Biden's approval rating heading in was about 65%, 70%. Donald Trump's approval rating is like 41%. I mean, just think about how underwater that is right there. And I think Americans are realizing that Donald Trump is a wmd, a weapon of mass distraction. I don't know. Like, all of the crazy stuff that he's posting doesn't hit the way it did. I know corporate media wants us to chase it. The good news is that our platform's just as big, if not bigger than corporate media now. So when Donald Trump wants to try to distract us, we'll cover how serious some of these bizarre and dangerous and threatening statements that he make are. But we're going to always bring it back to egg. Prices are at record highs. Mortgage rates at record highs. The price of goods, record highs. We showed previously on the last episode that Trump's envoy to Ukraine, Keith Kellogg, is saying that he'll need at least 100 days before even a framework is developed for trying to discuss a peace deal. There, where Trump said It would be 24 hours after the election, or just even assume he meant 24 hours after inauguration, which is not what he actually said. That's not going to happen. So it's lie after lie after lie. And Americans who have now been googling, what are tariffs? He probably should have done that before the election. And also Americans and corporations that rely on labor from foreign sources, including undocumented labor and construction and hospitality and agriculture and other areas in red states like Texas and Nebraska and elsewhere, they're saying, well, wait a minute, like, so you're actually going to deport, like, all of our workers and do workplace raids. Well, why are you going to do that? We, we need those workers. Can we do some sort of comprehensive immigration plan? I don't know, like the one President Biden introduced that Donald Trump killed, which would have had the strongest border, as well as a comprehensive plan to make sure that the bad guys were prosecuted, which, by the way, they are. And those contributing have at least a pathway towards citizenship where they don't have to hide in the shadows. And we can actually fix a broken immigration system. Oh, yeah, but Donald Trump intentionally killed that bill because he said it was a winning issue for him to create chaos at the border and to create chaos in our immigration system. So look, when Donald Trump makes a post like this, remember, he's just trying to do a bait and switch. Oh, Donald Trump goes. It's my honor to announce Jon Voight, Mel Gibson, Sylvester Stallone, they'll become special ambassadors to Hollywood, California. Okay. Really? I mean, you're creating, you're making up an ambassadorship to Hollywood, California. Okay, Donald. Cool, bro. But what about lower prices? Cool, bro. But what about the prices of eggs and groceries? Cool, bro. How are you going to make housing more affordable when the 10 year yield on the bond market is pricing in the chaos you're about to cause? And now mortgage rates are up past 7%. Oh, and by the way, those billionaire oligarch Bros. Of yours, the guys like Scott Besant who run hedge funds and private equity companies.
- [11:52]
Brett Mycel
Yeah.
- [11:52]
Ben Mycel
They're the people who are scooping up the supply of housing and making it so expensive because the supply is diminished, because they are commoditizing housing and buying it up so regular folk can't buy homes. Oh, those are your buddies. What are you doing there? Donald Trump says, I am hereby creating the External Revenue Service. The External Revenue Service will be like the Internal Revenue Service, except they're going to collect the tariffs. Dude, what are you even talking about? This is a real post from him. External Revenue Service. Okay? Tariffs are a tax on American companies, the importing company in America, to try to dissuade them from getting goods from abroad. That's what it is.
- [12:45]
Brett Mycel
Do you notice, by the way, that everything that he says, like the, the whole thing in the beginning, right, was Doge, Right? We're going to create this department of Government Efficiency, which is like a fake pseudo department. And then the first hint that this wasn't going to be super efficient was him assigning two people to run doge. Two people run the departments. So we had two people run it. Not very efficient. Now it seems like, every announcement, he's just making government bigger. Like, I don't know if people who consider themselves conservative realize the irony of this. Like, we have departments that collect tariffs. That's already a thing that we have. Like the Customs Service, the Custom and Border Patrol, they handle tariffs. So now Donald Trump wants to put a duplicative department in the government, thereby making the US Government even larger. Just doesn't sound super efficient. But what I've noticed about a lot of the things that Trump says is that. And I don't mean to sound demeaning to people, but a lot of the things probably sound really good to really dumb people. And I. And I've noticed the people. The people who get excited about this are always the same kind of suspects. And I see them on the other apps, too. I see them on Tick Tock. I see them on the various.
- [13:57]
Ben Mycel
They're like, yeah, bro. External revenues, sir.
- [13:59]
Brett Mycel
Yeah, f. Yeah, where this is. Oh, go America, bro.
- [14:04]
Ben Mycel
Yeah, exactly.
- [14:05]
Brett Mycel
Gulf of America, bro.
- [14:06]
Ben Mycel
We got golf.
- [14:07]
Brett Mycel
I'm like, this is the dumbest on the planet. What are we doing here? People like. And. And you know what? That's the weapon of mass distraction, right? Because, like dog in the movie Up, Donald Trump is able to go, gulf of America. Gulf of America. Wave the keys. It's a squirrel. Squirrel over there. And then his followers, like the ones I'm speaking about, they go, squirrel. And they look over there. And then meanwhile, all the stuff is damaging their lives. Raising prices, raising mortgage rates, really screwing them over while they're. They're pumping their chests and pumping their fists over the fact that he wants to rename something Gulf of America or has created another department that is useless and has no point. I mean, it's the same thing every time I think this, every time the guy posts and the oligarchs just sit.
- [14:52]
Jordy Mycel
Back, laugh as they count their money. It is so pathetic.
- [14:56]
Ben Mycel
Well, you know, it's that first scene or one of the first episodes of the new Squid games. I'm not going to try to ruin it on Netflix. And by the way, I really couldn't get through it because I really can't watch anything on Netflix in general. Like, I can't. I. There's nothing I can. Yeah. Zero. Zero attention span. But. But, you know, to watch that type of stuff, like, there's so much real world stuff that I just can't get into. Like, fake worlds. Personally, I don't know. That's my own thing. But the guy who won, the actor who won in the fictional character who won squid games 1 comes back to squid games 2 and then tries to, like, warn all of the people how the games work. Look, here's what's going to happen. They're going to shoot you if you do this. Hold the line and stop. Do not be distracted by what they're about to say. I'm telling you what's going to happen. And so in the scene, as he's warning the people about what's going to happen, for most of it, he's able to do it. He goes, you see, that's the hustle. I'm proving it. Look right there. This is what they did in the first season. You know, this is what they did when I won it. And then as he's trying to tell people, the people still couldn't resist it. And they're like, I don't know about it. I'm going to go and try to run anyway. And then they would get like, shot, basically. Right? I mean, that. We've played the Squid Games before with Donald Trump or the Hunger Games. We've been through it once before. This time it's going to be worse. But we actually know the playbook. So what we always want to warn you about is do not get distracted by the shiny objects. Focus on what we need to focus about. It's why. Let's talk about what I think are some of the most important clips from some of these confirmation hearings that are actually not getting the attention they deserve. Look, we've covered the Hexif hearing. Hegseth's completely unqualified. The guy's got a horrific past. His moral character is garbage. I would just describe it as just consistent, perpetual moral turpitude is what this guy's engaged in. He's unqualified. He's never led anything before. The fact that Republicans want to make this guy the Secretary of Defense just shows you there's no depths to their depths of depravity and frankly, in my opinion, hatred of the United States of America. If you're willing to make that guy the Secretary of Defense. You hate this country because why else would you pick somebody who would do such damage to the country? So stipulated. We get it. That's who the Republicans are. I can go on for hours about what it. How dangerous this guy is. We've done other videos on. I want to show you clips that you're not seeing, though. So Trump's pick for Treasury Secretary, Scott Besant. His. His confirmation hearing, he was asked by Bernie Sanders. So we've been told a lot about, you know, you're gonna. You're gonna help the workers, right? That was some of the campaign promises. You're gonna raise the minimum wage, huh? You. You. 725. We should raise that federal minimum wage. Right? Because you want to help the billionaires. How about bringing the minimum wage up from $7.25 to something a little more. Watch the exchange. Right now, in America, we have over 22 million workers who are making less than $15 an hour and nearly 40 million people in our country earning less than $17 an hour. Shamefully, the federal minimum wage, despite the efforts of myself and other people here, have not been raised since 2009 and remains an unbelievable $7.25 an hour. Will you work with those of us who want to raise the federal minimum wage to a living wage to take millions of Americans out of poverty? Senator, I believe that the minimum wage is more of a statewide and regional issue. So you don't think we should change the federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour? No, sir. Okay, Mr. Besson, just think about that answer right there and then juxtapose that to this clip where Bessen says his top priority, the biggest priority, how he thinks he's going to be judged, is by ensuring that the billionaires get their tax cuts. Here, watch this. Senator. Senator Crapo, thank you for. And thank you for the meetings over the past few weeks. I've enjoyed working with your staff. And this is the single most important economic issue of the day. This is pass, fail that if we do not fix these tax cuts, if we do not renew and extend, then we will be facing an economic calamity. And then I want you to see this clip right here of him as well, where he's asked, do you think that there are any policies that Trump has proposed that will increase prices for families? Hint, hint. Tariffs. Hint, hint, Bloody mass deportations. Hint, hint. And then Besant, by the way, let me give you Scott Besant's background. You know how all the MAGA Republicans are like, this is a George Soros plant. Which it's never true. And it's always like, some attempt at being, like, anti Semitic to link people to, like, a, like a Jewish banker. And like, that's the whole concept. This is a George Soros. This guy was literally George Soros's money manager. This guy ran George Soros's money and then launched his own hedge fund after rising the ranks for Soros. And then he became basically the tool of the oligarchs to implement their agenda. That's who this guy is. Here. So watch this next question, though, and then just listen carefully at the end where the senator says, so let me get this straight, though, because if the prices go up, then. Because we all know the prices will go up under Trump, they're already going up in anticipation. You'll agree that it was a failure, though, because you're saying that because prices went up under Biden, Biden was a failure. And then he goes, I just don't think I can say that. I don't think I'll be able to say that at all. At all. Here, watch this.
- [21:25]
Brett Mycel
Any specific policies proposed by the President elect that you expect will increase prices for families?
- [21:32]
Ben Mycel
They're not. Nothing I can immediately think of.
- [21:36]
Brett Mycel
So that's a no. If the President elect were to propose a policy that you believe will increase prices, would you advise against it?
- [21:44]
Ben Mycel
I would advise. I would speak to President Trump about it. It is his decision. And I believe that we think that if we look back, that it is a complete composite return in terms of aggregate inflation numbers, and I think it's very difficult.
- [22:07]
Brett Mycel
Well, if you believe. I have limited time. So if you believe that a policy that is proposed by President Trump would increase prices, would you advise him against doing it, yes or no?
- [22:21]
Ben Mycel
I can't answer that question because it's a hypothetical.
- [22:25]
Brett Mycel
All right, let's move on to when we met prior to the hearing. You told me that President Biden was responsible for increased prices over the past four years. Something we can litigate, but I don't want to right here. By the same token, I assume you would agree that if prices increase in the next four years, President Elect Trump would be responsible.
- [22:44]
Ben Mycel
I think there could be a variety, variety of reasons. I can't answer that. I think it's a complete composite. On the returns of the aggregate inflation.
- [22:55]
Jordy Mycel
The first 15 seconds wasn't even a sentence.
- [22:59]
Ben Mycel
President Trump, I cannot respond to the hypothetical that you're giving me. It's a complete aggregate mosaic. It's a mosaic, and I need to, I need to do the mosaic.
- [23:10]
Brett Mycel
He's clearly coached to say as little as possible in these hearings. And by the way, I feel like all these people are kind of coached to say as little as possible. And, and, you know, you kind of have to assume that most, if not all of these nominees are going to get through now that they've made it to this stage. It's just the makeup of the Republicans, the makeup of the, of the Senate, of the Congress, and, And, you know, then they're going to vote along party lines, you know, and Some of, some of them will be much wider margins than others, depending on if they're more serious candidates or if they're people like a hegseth. But Besant's going to get in there easy. But it's still good to get these folks on the record with these questions. Think why those that line of questioning was so important, even if he didn't give a straight answer there. But he did give a straight answer in that Bernie Sanders clip. And I thought that was very telling to hear him say adamantly, no, I'm not interested in a federal minimum wage. That's a state issue. The federal minimum wage is, it's a federal minimum wage. It's absolutely not a state issue. It's been 7:25 for decades now. It's, it's, it's quite frankly an embarrassing minimum wage that our country is at. And I, but, but I think that folks who want to opp this administration and this party need to continuously emphasize is the fact that this is the party of the oligarchs. And that's why I was just very excited to hear President Biden make that stark warning during his speech, which we'll get to later, his farewell address. But one of the things that I've been pulling my hair out, and I know I've said it on the show maybe every episode since the election is like, isn't it so obvious? Like, look at the people who are running this party. You have Vivek Ramaswamy, who in my opinion, by all accounts basically scammed his way into becoming a billionaire with the way that he basically did this pump and dump dump scheme to get rich. You have Elon Musk, you have Donald Trump. You have people like Scott Best. You literally, you have all the oligarchs coming together right now. You have all the kind of big tech people coming together. You have the Zuckerberg, you have the Bezos. Like, like it couldn't be more clear and the contrast couldn't be more clear. So it's like you have something to run against here and you have policies that, that the people are, that are very popular amongst the people. I mean, there's a reason, love Marietta, there's a reason that Senator Bernie Sanders has something like a 69% approval rating. I saw this earlier today, 69% approval rating in his state, highest in the entire United States Senate. His disapproval is just that, 27%. Those are unbelievable numbers, unbelievable approval numbers to have in the Senate. And why? It's because he is speaking to these issues now. More people should be speaking to these issues than actually resonate with working people. Ironically, many of the people who voted for Trump for whatever reason, but these are the people whose policies Trump, the policies of Trump are going to ultimately end up hurting. And it's like they're laughing in their face when they have Elon Musk up there kind of mocking them and mocking government workers. And you have the Bezos and all these people. It couldn't be clearer. You have such an opportunity for clear, concise messaging on this topic. Don't let that slip away.
- [26:26]
Ben Mycel
Hey, Brett, ask me a question. Let's pretend that I'm one of Trump's cabinet officials or picks who he's picking. Ask, ask me a question about how I would handle matters in the administration.
- [26:39]
Brett Mycel
So how would you handle. Sir, sir, sir, sir, how would you handle matters relating to tariff policy? What Donald Trump's gonna do by imposing blanket tariffs on, on every country bas. Will that raise prices? Is it going to be, is it going to create hardship for everyday Americans?
- [26:59]
Ben Mycel
Well, I haven't spoken this stage to the President elect. I cannot answer a hypothetical of that nature. I will say that I have full faith that the President will engage thoughtfully. He will build a, he will build, he will build a composite structure with the right team. There will be synergies in place. I am confident that ultimately a solution will be reached that will be complementary to the overall operation.
- [27:38]
Jordy Mycel
It's a long bit.
- [27:40]
Brett Mycel
You're in. But that's what they do though, right?
- [27:43]
Ben Mycel
It's a long bit.
- [27:44]
Jordy Mycel
You're right.
- [27:44]
Ben Mycel
We got to go to our first.
- [27:46]
Jordy Mycel
That's my issue with the hearings. At least this stage. Given the makeup of the Senate. It didn't force out the nominees up until this point. They're, they're confirmed. I hate to say there's nothing that any of these folks could say up, you know, when they're being questioned, aside from I hate Donald Trump, that would get them removed from the cabinet position that, that you know, that they're going for. And so I do, I do want to say this. I like it for the Bernie Sanders moment. And I think Dems in general need to get more pointed with their questions instead of these open ended, more ambiguous questions. Because if this is just a, hey, let's get this person on record so we all could hear it and see it, then let's get real friggin pointed with how we're asking these questions because everyone here is going to get confirmed.
- [28:34]
Ben Mycel
Oh, and it was a long bit. We got to go to our first ad break. I want to remind everybody to check out patreon.com Midas Touch in the next week or so, we'll hold another meeting. If you ever wanted to meet, meet Brett, Jordy and myself in a private meeting. Sign up for patreon.com Midas Touch. We don't have outside investors, so it's one of the ways we grow. Let's take a quick break.
- [29:01]
Brett Mycel
When it comes to cookware, I've always struggled with choosing between the performance and durability of stainless steel pans and the easy cleanup of non stick. But then I discovered Hexclad and let me tell you, it's completely revamped my entire kitchen and it's made all my friends pretty jealous. With hexclad, you don't have to choose Their pants combine the performance of stainless steel with the convenience of non stick in one incredible design. So whether I'm searing a steak, making a delicate omelette, or whipping up a quick stir fry, hexclad handles it all beautifully. In cleanup, it's a breeze. These pans are dishwasher safe and wipe clean effortlessly. It's seriously the best of all worlds. One of my favorite things about Hexclad is how durable they are. I don't have to worry about scratches even when using metal utensils thanks to their patent patented hexagon design. Plus they're oven safe up to 500 degrees, making them perfect for finishing dishes in the oven. I've even tried their Japanese Damascus steel knives and they're a game changer. Razor sharp, they make slicing and dicing feel effortless, and they stay sharp much longer than your average knife. Here's the kicker. Gordon Ramsay himself uses hexclad in his restaurants and at home, and we all know he's the toughest critic on the planet. If it's good enough for him, it's definitely good enough for me. For a limited time only, our listeners get 10% off your order with our exclusive link. Just head to hexclad.com midas support our show and check them out at hexclad.com midas make sure to let them know that we sent you. Bon appetit. Let's eat with Hexclad's revolutionary cookware.
- [30:37]
Ben Mycel
Think about this. Your business, established in 2025, it has a nice ring to it, right? I remember what five years ago, me and my brothers had this audacious idea to start a media company called Midas Touch and we wanted to have pro democracy content and change the way news was delivered and consumed and here we are. I want you to think about your idea for 2025 and start that business that you always wanted to start. And when you do, you have to have it powered by Shopify. Shopify is the tool that will actually help you make it happen. Let me explain to you how. The best time to start your business is right here, right now. And Shopify makes it simple to create your brand, open for business and get your first sale. Get your store up and running easily with thousands of customizable templates. No coding or design skills are required. All you do is drag and drop. Their powerful social media tools let you connect all of your channels and create shoppable posts and help you sell everywhere people scroll. Shopify makes it easy to manage your growing business. They help with the details like shipping taxes and payments from one single dashboard, allowing you to focus on the important stuff like growing your business. And what happens if you don't act now? Will you regret it? What if someone beats you to that great idea? Don't kick yourself when you hear this again in a year because you didn't do anything. So with Shopify, your first sale is closer than you think. Established in 2025. It has a nice ring to it, doesn't it? Sign up for your $1 per month trial period at Shopify. Shopify.com Midas Go to shopify.com Midas Lowercase M E I D A s to start selling with Shopify today. One more time. That's shopify.com Midas.
- [32:42]
Jordy Mycel
Shout out to hexclad Shout out to Shopify. Links in description of both audio and YouTube. Use the links, use the codes. If there's any exit surveys, let them know we sent you. Very helpful. Ben, I'm sorry. I saw you at break. I didn't mean to, like, make fun of you because the bit was going long. You looked a little upset with me.
- [32:58]
Ben Mycel
I apologize.
- [32:59]
Brett Mycel
It was a good bit. I mean, Ben. Ben knew how long these senators actually have to ask questions. He was going to fill that whole time.
- [33:05]
Ben Mycel
They have seven minutes. And so you. But I was showing how it's. This is not like complicated stuff. But the funny thing is, is. And I think they've done this intentionally. It's not all that funny. Cash Patel, who the. Who Trump picked to be the FBI director. I think the Republicans like that. He's not going right away. They're having him watch all of these and they're saying, what? This is how you do it. They're going to get asked these questions. When you get asked these Questions, just don't give real answers. Okay? That's all you have to do. Just don't answer the questions. Just say other crap or just say you don't know and you never heard about it or you can't recall or you don't remember, which by the way, is pathetic. That shouldn't be the case. Right. I think when our founders created our constitution and I think over time, unfortunately, so much has been based on good faith and norms, the ability that co equal branches of government will protect their turf, that even if you're a Republican senator, you will respect that you're a senator and not just do anything that the Article 2 President tells you to do. And that's unfortunately though, what this Republican Party has become. They gave Trump an inch and he took their life. Here's Pam Bondi, Trump's pick for Attorney General. She was asked a very basic question about have you heard that audio recording where Donald Trump said find me the 11,780 votes. And as Trump's Attorney general pick what, what do you think about that? He was threatening and intimidating a Republican Secretary of State in Georgia to commit fraud. And her response is, I've never heard that. I've never, I've heard of it, but I need to see the transcript. I don't know. Here, play this clip. Have you heard the recording of President Trump on January 2, 2021, when he urged the Secretary of State of Georgia to quote, Fine, 11,780 votes votes and declare him the winner of that state?
- [35:14]
Brett Mycel
No, I've heard about it through clips, but no, no, Senator, I've not heard it.
- [35:18]
Ben Mycel
What was your reaction to President Trump making that call?
- [35:22]
Brett Mycel
I have. I would have to listen to the tape, Senator.
- [35:26]
Ben Mycel
Well, the quote that I give you is exact. He said to the Georgia Secretary of state, find 11,780 votes.
- [35:34]
Brett Mycel
Do you have the entire context of that call? I feel like it was long, much longer than that. Maybe taken out of.
- [35:40]
Ben Mycel
It was an hour long.
- [35:41]
Brett Mycel
Right.
- [35:42]
Ben Mycel
You can certainly listen to it. I hope you will. Every American should. As a former prosecutors, are you not concerned that the President of the United States called a state election official and asked him to find enough votes to change the results of the election?
- [35:58]
Brett Mycel
Senator, I have not listened to the hour long conversation, but it's my understanding that is not what he asked him to do.
- [36:07]
Ben Mycel
You need to listen to it. That is my understanding. That is not what he. I mean, it literally is what he asked him to. It's on the audio recording. And you know, look, I know that people Aren't people are more focused on the hegseth one. But I did think it was important to show you Scott Besant and Bondi. And then also you had the head of the OMB, Russ Vogt, literally the guy who authored Project 2025, who's put in the position to implement Project 2025 in terms of all of the budget priorities for the DECA billionaires. I did a whole video on that. It's on our YouTube feed. You should go take a look at that as well. But I want to talk about this MAGA civil war taking place right now at the state and federal level. At the state level. Like, it's literally Republican on Republican violence. You had the state of the state speech, kind of like the State of the Union, but within the state of Georgia. Republican governor Brian Kemp was delivering the speech and he banned the pro Trump state senator Colton Moore. And Colton Moore was always out there saying the most, like, cultist stuff about Donald Trump. It's just really weird. It's like a Marjorie Taylor Green type guy, that same level of derangement. But Brian Kemp banned him from showing up. So what did Colton Moore do? He shows up and then he got pushed. But, like, look at it. Like, it looks like he took a dive. Watch for yourself as Republican on Republican violence. And then I'm not even going to show you after because then afterwards he gets arrested. Then, like, he takes a video of himself in the hospital and he acts like he, like, broke his arm. And it's like, all right, relax, dude. Like, like, it looks like you literally just took a spill on the floor yourself. Like, watch this.
- [38:10]
Jordy Mycel
It has gone too far.
- [38:12]
Ben Mycel
I have an obligation to be in that room. I represent 200,000 people in Northwest Georgia who duly elected me to be here today.
- [38:21]
Jordy Mycel
Can you play it again?
- [38:22]
Ben Mycel
One more time?
- [38:24]
Jordy Mycel
Let's fall when he looks like a fish.
- [38:25]
Ben Mycel
Yeah.
- [38:26]
Brett Mycel
Because now people are ready for it. So he just takes a big spill right off the bat. Just nose dives backwards.
- [38:37]
Ben Mycel
It has gone too far. I have an obligation to be in that room. I represent 200,000 people in Northwest Georgia who do live elected me to be here.
- [38:48]
Jordy Mycel
Today is so maga. That whole moment is just so maga because the. The fight ensues or the flop ensues. He falls. It's all for, like, it looks ridiculous. And he gets up and they both go, it's gone too far. It's gone too far. And then they try to have, like, some sort of civil conversation. It's like, y'all can't just, like, Throw down on the house floor like lunatics and then try and have a conversation. No, you're going to get arrested, buddy.
- [39:11]
Brett Mycel
Yeah. To remind everyone he gets arrested after.
- [39:13]
Jordy Mycel
That that you cannot come in.
- [39:16]
Brett Mycel
He gets arrested after that and then ends up in the hospital and takes a picture in the hospital. You can judge for yourself if you look up the picture whether this injury is legitimate or or not. Ridiculous thing. It's got vibes of Nancy Mace wearing a sling after she, after she took a handshake. Rough hand.
- [39:38]
Ben Mycel
Then they go around. I mean, the whole thing too is like, oh, the Alpha Bros. Like, this is Alpha. I'm like, okay, okay. I, I, I, I, I. That framing is so weird, but this is like the least Alpha ish stuff I've ever seen. I mean, he's like a big guy, too.
- [39:52]
Jordy Mycel
I just want to talk about it one more time because he seems like, like he seems like a big guy and then he just falls in the most hilariously awkward way.
- [39:59]
Ben Mycel
And then this photo at the hospital just. Anyway, you have a guy named Mike Turner, Republican Congress member from Dayton, Ohio, was the chair of the Intelligence Committee in the House of Representatives. Had been a member of Congress since 2003. A respected guy. On a bipartisan basis. He said a bunch of stuff that I disagree with, but overall, he was viewed as a very kind of competent guy, a competent actor. You know, you'd be happy that he, if any of these Republicans were the head of the Intelligence Committee, that at least it was this guy. But he was very pro Ukraine, he was very pro NATO, he was very anti Tulsi Gabbard. So he had to go. Donald Trump gave the order to MAGA Mike Johnson to get rid of this guy from the Intelligence Committee because MAGA Mike is the speaker of the House. He gets to pick who leads the committees and MAGA Mike takes his orders from Donald Trump. So he fired Turner and then replaced Turner with a guy by the name of Congressmember Rick Crawford. Let me do it in reverse order. Let me show you Rick Crawford first. He's an Arkansas GOP Congress member. This is what he said on July 31, 2021, about COVID Here, play this clip. Look, we need to, we need to understand, I believe that the COVID virus is real.
- [41:26]
Brett Mycel
However, I don't know that it's any.
- [41:28]
Ben Mycel
Worse than the common.
- [41:30]
Brett Mycel
And we somehow manage to get through the common cold as we develop over.
- [41:35]
Ben Mycel
Time, vaccinations and herd immunity and things of this nature.
- [41:38]
Brett Mycel
I'm not downplaying the severity of the pandemic. But I also, we have to learn.
- [41:43]
Ben Mycel
To live with it. While I have you, to have you.
- [41:46]
Brett Mycel
Here, I do want to move on to infrastructure because, I mean, the fact.
- [41:49]
Ben Mycel
That that's a political issue is the most ridiculous thing. The fact that that guy is now chairing the intelligence community, that was the least intelligent thing I've ever heard. He's also opposed aide to Ukraine, and he's now leading the Intelligence Committee. Let me contrast him with Mike Turner. And here Rep. Turner says that it's absolutely true. Congressmember Turner says it's absolutely true that Russian propaganda has infected the GOP. This is from April 7th of 2024. Let's play it. Let's turn to Ukraine, an issue that's important to you and your fellow Republican chairman, Michael McCaul, who runs the Foreign Affairs Committee. Congressman McCaul made a comment this week about what he says sounds like Russian propaganda from some conservative media and why it's so difficult to explain to Republican voters why supporting Ukraine is important. He told Julia Yaffe, he, quote, I think Russian propaganda has made its way into the United States, unfortunately, and it's infected a good chunk of my party's base. He singled out primetime shows on conservative channels. Do you agree with him? And how big is this problem? Oh, it is absolutely true. We see directly coming from Russia attempts to mask communications that are anti Ukraine and pro Russia messages, some of which we even hear being uttered on the House floor. I mean, there are members of Congress today who still incorrectly say that this conflict between Russia and Ukraine is over NATO, which of course it is not. Not Vladimir Putin having made it very clear both publicly and to his own population, that his. His view is that this is a conflict of a much broader claim of Russia to Eastern Europe and including claiming all of Ukraine territory as Russia's. To the extent that this propaganda takes hold, it makes it more difficult for us to really see this as an authoritarian versus democracy battle, which is what it is. Is President Xi of China, Vladimir Putin himself have identified it as such. We need to stand up for democracy. We need to make certain that we know that authoritarian regimes never stop when they. When they start in aggression. Ukraine needs our help and assistance now, and this is a very critical time for the US Congress to step up and provide that. So Republicans got rid of that guy because Donald Trump ordered that they get rid of that guy. He's still a member of Congress, but all his seniority his entire career, right. Working up through the ranks to chair the Intelligence Committee. Trump just said, not you. I want the guy who thinks that Covid is the same as the cold. And that's the problem. I mean, one of the biggest problems to me is just the basic facts, right? Just the basic character, basic qualifications and the fact that any of this stuff is political, especially out here in Los Angeles, the way they've politicized the fires and but that's not just unique to us, not just politicized. That lied about it the moment it started. It was a hurricane of lies, as California Governor Gavin Newsom had said in the recent interview with Brian Tyler Cohen. And that's what it was. But it wasn't unique to California. Any tragedy, any situation over the past four years, they pump the disinformation. And with Elon's acquisition of Twitter now X it just gets pushed out with such force that it's a full time job of a governor who has to deal with a crisis to deal with the crisis of disinformation. That's the unfortunate reality that we inhabit in the MAGA world that's removed the norms and good faith and we're all Americans. Kumbaya. Let's lock arms. Let's do things together. That's, that's not where we're, we're at. And I think Democrats are playing by old school rules while the MAGA Republicans are playing an entirely different game built on lies and propaganda. I want to share with you when we come back, President Biden's farewell address. I want to talk about the state of the economy. Brett will break that down as the handoff is made from Biden to Trump and we'll talk a little bit about Canada uniting against the U.S. let's take our last break of the show.
- [46:11]
Jordy Mycel
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- [48:06]
Brett Mycel
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- [49:39]
Jordy Mycel
Let's go. Shout out Manicora. Shout out prize picks links in description of the YouTube and the audio. Use the links, use the codes. Let them know we sent you. Benji, where to next?
- [49:48]
Ben Mycel
One of the other things to mention is that on the dais next to Donald Trump during the inauguration, there will be the physical manifestation of the oligarchy, right? You're going to have Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg and Jeff Bezos sitting together, the richest people in the country. They're sponsoring all of the events. They're going to be right there. Just, you're going to see it. So if you want to know who is screwing you, it's right there. Then the Cabinet, basically that they bought, and then the MAGA Republicans, who they bought as well. Michelle Obama's not going to be there. Nancy Pelosi's not going to be there. Others will be there on the Democratic side, and we're not going to stream that there. The interesting thing is, like, when you have Charlie Kirk, who previously didn't like, you know, these individuals posting like, this is great. Look who's going to be there there. Even some of like the MAGA supporters are like, these are the billionaires that you told us that we were supposed to hate. Like, what are you talking about? You know, and I think it's important again, WMD weapon of mass distraction. Anytime that Donald Trump tries to bring our attention to, oh, Mel Gibson I'm appointing to become the ambassador of Hollywood, we go, okay, cool, bro, but what about egg prices? Okay, cool, bro, but what about the costs of groceries? What about making housing more affordable? What about all of your promises about workers and all of these things? Oh, wait a minute, you're not doing that. And look, I think on day one, here's the thing. And Brett, I'll let you do this economic update. President Biden had things in the right direction. Just objectively, it's not like, oh, you like Biden, you interviewed him. I mean, just look at, at the charts and the graphics and where the market was. It was up 50 to 60% from where it was under Trump. You had great job reports every month. Never a single month where jobs were lost. 16.6 million jobs created. All Trump, like, actually would have had to do is basically nothing. Just coast on it and take credit for it. But pathologically, Trump can't do that. And now we're already seeing before day one the market reacting to it. Brett, take it away.
- [52:20]
Brett Mycel
Well, first I just want to pitch, before we get into the economic updates, I just want to pitch our idea for the inauguration. I want to say I want to see what the folks think in the comments so you can let us know in the comments. What if instead of airing the inauguration because we're not going to air the inauguration, what if we just air videos of puppies throughout the inauguration? Like, I'm not even like exaggerating. What if throughout the inauguration just we just do a stream of a loop of a bunch of videos of adorable puppies the entire time? If you like this idea, let us know in the comments. Let us know here in the live chat. I want to hear your thoughts. I'm not kidding. Like we will go ahead and you know, it'd be hilarious as well if our stream of watching puppies gets more views than the streams of the inauguration. Just an idea. Just an idea, folks. We're throwing it out there. If you like it, let us know. Okay. Every time for everybody's favorite segment. Let's get right into it. This is the netsuite by Oracle Know youw Numbers minute. All right, it's time for the netsuite by Oracle Know youw Numbers minute. Let's get into the latest economic updates here. As everybody knows, NetSuite provides easy access to economic data and trends through integrated analytics. So let's break down some of that data, shall we, folks? So we're seeing some news on mortgages and mortgage rates. Right now, the 30 year mortgage rate is back above 7% for the first time since May. Freddie Mac says the average rate is now 7.04%. This is, quite frankly, one of the least affordable times to buy a home in the past 40 years. And it's going to be hard to spur a lot more buying or building with rates this high. And I want to be clear, rates were coming down quite substantially leading up to the November elections. That all changed following the results of the elections. In fact, just a few weeks ago, the CEO of Compass was interviewed on cnbc and they said that prior to the election, it was Compass's view that the mortgage rates were heading to the fives either next year or the following year. But then we had these fears of new tariffs and other inflationary policies from Donald Trump, from the incoming administration that have now changed the court's course of rates. Now we're seeing them come back up to historically high levels in the past few decades. It's honestly, I think it's a huge bummer because as Ben was saying before, things were heading in the right direction. Everything was on the up and up. And then we had this huge reversal over these past few months. Just the sign of more things to come. In inflation news, we had a new inflation report come out. Inflation was a mixed bag in December. In the report that came out this week, the Consumer Price Index, the CPI showed some relief in core inflation, which was definitely some positive news. But the threat of those sticky high prices continue to loom. Although inflation has been slowing, it still remains above that 2% level by the Federal Reserve. The Consumer Price Index increased the seasonally adjusted 0.4% on the month, putting the 12 month inflation rate at 2.9%. That number was exactly in line with the forecasts of what the experts thought that it was going to come in at the core CPI annual rate. And for those who don't know the core cpi, it excludes food and energy prices because those are much more volatile. So this is a, a more stable way to measure the underlying inflation trends. Those slow to 3.2%, which was a notch down from the month before, so slightly better than the 3.3% outlook that analysts had predicted. That excited investors quite a bit. If you all saw the various markets, the stock market indices rise in a big way on Wednesday. That was why, because the markets reacted positively to that number. NetSuite offers tailored reporting features that allow businesses to focus on specific stock market indicators relevant to their sector. That way your business can always be ahead of the curve no matter what happens. Shelter prices. Housing, which comprise about one third of the CPI waiting rose by 0.3%. But we're up 4.6% from a year ago. That's the smallest one year gain since January 2022. The stubborn inflation numbers are going to present an interesting situation, I'd say, for the Federal Reserve in the coming year. Because as you remember from our reporting, the Fed was getting ready to do a lot of aggressive rate cuts over the next few years. And we saw the beginning of that happen kind of prior to the election and kind of just after. But now, as Trump's policies are expected to contribute to higher prices and this is how you can kind of separate, right, the bs, the bluster, the messaging from what's actually happening. You see how the actual how the Fed's reacting, how the economic experts are reacting, because these policies are expected to contribute to higher prices. Markets aren't expecting the next Federal Reserve rate cut to come now before June. June. Despite the fact that we've had this better than expected economic data. So there's my economic update. That's where things stand. That's where things are heading. Obviously things could change, but we always think it's important to bring you the latest updates as we have them. Thank you to netsuite by Oracle. That was the netsuite by Oracle. Know your numbers minute. Do you know your own numbers for your business? Download NetSuite's ultimate KPI checklist right now at netsuite.com mine midas.
- [57:31]
Jordy Mycel
Thanks for that update B. That was a really, really solid one there. I agree that streaming puppies versus the inauguration is the route to go.
- [57:41]
Brett Mycel
People seem to like the puppy idea.
- [57:42]
Jordy Mycel
I gotta say, confident that the puppy stream is gonna get more than any inauguration stream.
- [57:47]
Brett Mycel
So that's really what I wanna know. Could we get more like if we look at the Midas touch puppy inauguration stream and then we compare it to like the MSNBC or name your stream stream, can we get more viewers on videos of puppies? And Ben could come in and narrate the puppies to. And do some voiceovers, you know, to tell you what's going on with the pups. Right? They're super adorable, super cute. Could we get more views just tonight? Just. Just an idea, folks. Just an idea.
- [58:16]
Jordy Mycel
Stay tuned.
- [58:17]
Ben Mycel
All right, WMD weapon of mass distraction. One of the things that Donald Trump is promoting at his Palm beach golf course, he's now doing, I guess, his mug shot, which is basically his portrait. Now they. His portrait, like, is his mug shot photo. That's where we are in the United States, internationally.
- [58:40]
Brett Mycel
Well, he basically replicated the photo. I want to be clear. It's not the same exact photo, but he basically replicated the post.
- [58:47]
Jordy Mycel
It's the same exact pose.
- [58:48]
Ben Mycel
The same exact post. That's what I meant.
- [58:50]
Jordy Mycel
Flint and Harris there be right.
- [58:51]
Ben Mycel
But. Okay, got it. Okay. Here he is, though. He's doing his face on burger. So if you eat the burgers, his face appears on your burgers at all of his properties now, which is, you know, I mean, very.
- [59:04]
Brett Mycel
Doesn't look like him.
- [59:05]
Jordy Mycel
It looks, honestly, it looks like Putin.
- [59:08]
Ben Mycel
Don't get distracted by. Don't get distracted by that. Let me show you what's going on in Canada, though. This is Doug Ford. He was Maple Magic. You see right there, projecting unity. The various different parties, provincial level, federal level. You know, Ford is a conservative leader, the premier of Ontario. You see Justin Trudeau, Prime Minister, he's resigned. Canada's in the pro rogue Period. Right now, as they pick their new leader, their new prime minister for the Liberal Party, then we probably will have a vote soon. I've seen a lot of people call for a unity government. Their parties need to unite against Trump, but they're projecting unity as well. Here's what Ford again, this guy was Maple maga. This guy was a Trumper. He said his support for Trump would never waver. Well, not only has it wavered, he removed his MAGA hat and now wears the Canada is Not for Sale hat. And here he is describing this meeting where he says, you're never going to see what you see right now here in Canada. You'll never see Democrats in Republicans, Republicans meeting in the Oval Office, united on stuff. He goes, here we all are. He goes, I don't care if you're the Orange Party, Green Party, ndp, Liberal Party, Conservatives, we're uniting. The one wrinkle to that, though, is that the Premier of Alberta, she's still Maple Mag. Her name is Danielle Smith. She showed up at Mar a lago with Kevin O'Leary. You see them right there. And then, I mean, Donald Trump just utterly humiliated her. I think she, like, lied to the press, too. And she said she was on a vacation, but with her husband, but she ended up being in Mar a Lago. And Trump said to her, no, we're doing tariffs on day one. You're not exempt. There's no Alberta exemption. 25%. Well, we're going to do it on crude oil as well. Screw you, basically. And she's been really odd. She's been like, attacking this unity government from Alberta, saying, no, you're going to screw us over in Alberta. The issue with Alberta is, is that, that they, they have a lot of big oil companies there. And so she's a shill for the oil companies. That's what's taking place there. But anyway, let me show you Doug Ford from Ontario. Again, this guy used to be a Trumper, but here he is now saying that we're united to cause pain to the United States and have retaliatory tariffs on the US when they come after us. Play this, political parties sitting down, and we have a robust conversation. We may agree or disagree, but we're coming out united. I can tell you, spending a lot of time in the US you would never see a group of Democrats and Republicans sitting here collaboratively. I promise you one thing. President Trump's office, a whole bunch of Democrats and Republicans saying, how can we attack Canada? It's not happening. We have the greatest country. We have the greatest elected officials, the greatest democracy in the world. World. That we can sit here from one extreme to the other extreme to in the middle. And I have always said, I don't care about political stripes. I don't care if you're from the Orange Party, the Blue Party or the Red Party. We're going to be united. We're Canadian. We're going to get this done. And by this done, he's talking about uniting to inflict retaliatory tariffs on the United States, which by the way, Mexico would do on day one as well of Trump, when Trump imposes the tariffs, you know, for all these people out there too, you know, who are like, well, we still need to see what he's going to do. They're gonna, he's gonna do it. He's gonna do it on day one. Okay. He said he's gonna do it. So, like when all of a sudden all of these analysts are like, shocked, they're like, oh, he did it. And then the markets are impacted by it. Yeah, he did it. He said he was gonna do it. We warned you about it. What, what else is it that you need? Like what, what other things do you need to be sheltered own and you know, it's a wild thing. If you were to tell me, hey, Ben, I got a great investment for you over the next four years, we could increase your income by 50 to 60%. I would go, that's a great return on investment. Right? That's good. That's what President Biden did with the markets. It was up 50 to 60% percent, but he was like excoriated and attacked by all of these so called finance bros. Or finance people. Oh, we're going to do it better. Are you going to do it better than a 50 to 60% increase? You're going to do it better than 16.6 million jobs? I'm just so sick of this prevailing narrative that, oh, the Republicans are better on the economy. Look, over the past three, four decades, with 50 million jobs created, 48 million of those jobs were created during Democratic administrations. The big recessions that took place, right, were under Trump. We're under George W. Bush, Reagan. I mean, those, I mean, like, it's such a strange thing to me. What they're really saying is that these billionaires want deregulation so that they can basically rip people off and that they can have not just 10 yachts, but 20 yachts. And then they get bailed out by the government while we the people get screwed and we don't get the bailouts they get the bailouts and so there's zero risk. And they just, you know, snatch up all the money and view it as a zero sum game. It's, it's really screwed up, but it's what President Biden warned about in his farewell address. He gave a few warnings and I thought it was great. I thought it was substantive. One thing he was very critical of is the Supreme Court, a ban on stock trading in Congress. And also he wants a constitutional amendment to say no to presidential immunity. Here, play this. We need to get dark money. That's that hidden funding behind too many campaigns contributions. We need to get it out of our politics. We need to enact an 18 year time limit, term limit, time and term for the strongest ethics and the strongest ethnic reforms. For a Supreme Court. We need to ban members of Congress from, from trading stock while they're in the Congress. We need to amend the Constitution to make clear that no president, no president is immune from crimes that he or she commits while in office. The President's power is not limited. It's not absolute. Here's what President Biden said about the threat of the oligarchy that has formed in the United States. Let's play it. This is a dangerous concert. And that's the dangerous concentration of power in the hands of a very few ultra wealthy people. The dangerous consequences if their abuse of power is left unchecked. Today, an oligarchy is taking shape in America of extreme wealth, power and influence that literally threatens our entire democracy, our basic rights and freedoms, and a fair shot for everyone to get it. Powerful, powerful stuff. And then, Brett, he talked about remembering your oath. I know you wanted to share that.
- [66:11]
Brett Mycel
Yeah, I thought this was a powerful clip. And I think President Biden is obviously, he's always very deliberate in his language. And so, you know, these warnings carry a lot of weight to me when, when he says these things, I think we need to take it to heart. So earlier today, President Biden was speaking, he gave a farewell address as commander in chief, Chief to the United States military. And he gave them this message.
- [66:36]
Ben Mycel
Let me close with a final request. I say it not as your president or commander in Chief. I say it as a man who spent 50 years of his life serving his country in a different way. Remember your oath. My son, Major Beau Biden used to call it home base. That's a set of principles, of values that give you light and darkness, that guide you. True to the military, it's the best weapons, the best training in the world. We're the most cutting Edge ships, planes and subs. We have the smartest, most well trained force on earth. That's all critical, but that alone is not what makes us strong. This is not what brought Washington band of brothers together all those years ago. Powerful, powerful stuff right there. And Brett, as you said, very deliberate. And you know, I'll leave everybody with this thought because we see it with California Governor Gavin Newsom right now, who. He wasn't ready for the, at first for the deluge of the lies and disinformation. Right. He just, and then it hit and he was about two days late. Not because he was negligent or anything, quite the contrary. Right. He was head down focusing on the crisis. He was solving the issues. He couldn't fathom that as he was doing that, though, there would be all of that, this disinformation and lies that were harming his ability to handle the crisis. Then he's like, oh, we need to create a whole website that debunks the lies. I got to be out every day. I got to do videos and highly produced pieces every single day. The, the, the thing is, he's doing such an effective job at it right now. You have even Speaker Mike Johnson, maga, Mike, saying instead of making highly produced clapback videos with social media influencers, you should get to work helping California's, you know, which, which he is. But you see how effective Newsom is. But you have to do it relentlessly. You shouldn't have to do it. Be clear, like, this was not the country that President Biden grew up in.
- [69:04]
Brett Mycel
Or this was not part of the job not, not too long ago. It wasn't. It wasn't. You had to be a social media influencer yourself in addition to being a governor or president. But that's where we are now. And you could tell it's effective, quite frankly. Exactly. Because of what Speaker Johnson there. Speaker Johnson responded. That was a response to one of the clips that Brian Tyler Cohen, Brian Tyler Cohen, by the way, did a fantastic interview with Governor Newsom. And I think it's very smart that Governor Newsom is, is doing these interviews on site and is getting the message out to people in unique ways. It's one of the things that folks need to be doing. It's one of the things that Republicans have excelled at. And so now that Speaker Mike Johnson, Elon Musk, these people are seeing that, oh, Democrats are wise enough, look at them going on, getting their message out in ways that they're supposed to be the way we've been doing. They're like oh, no, no, no. That's our thing. You're not allowed to do that. That's what we. That's what we do. And so now we're going to demean you for doing exactly what you need to be doing in this era, because we don't want you to counter our bullshit. We don't want you to counter our lies or disinformation. We want to be able to do this, and we'll just run over you with these lies every single day while you're out there trying to do your job. But Newsom realized, you know, I'm talking. He's like, I'm talking to people out there these first few days, and they're coming to me and they're saying, oh, this is to. To form a. The Democratic cabal pedophile ring and all this. And he was like, where are you getting this stuff from? Like, what are you even talking about right now? And they would be like, Twitter, Elon Musk, you know, and that's the problem with this.
- [70:39]
Ben Mycel
This.
- [70:39]
Brett Mycel
With this new ecosystem. These lies spread so quickly. And I think, yeah, I've even made the mistake in the past of thinking that this was insulated into this online bubble. The fact is, these lies go beyond that bubble. They reach normal people. And by the way, people who are pretty smart people, I hear, echo a lot of these lies. It gets to them. They think it's fact. They then spread it. They tell it to their friends, their family. Next thing you know, there's a whole large section of the population that believes these lies are the truth, no matter how outrageous they are, no matter where they started from, because they even lose where they. People don't know this started with Donald Trump or started with the. They just know the information that their friend told them that this is what's happening, even when it's the complete opposite of the truth. Like, I saw this post that was saying that Gavin Newsom was trying to. This is all part of Gavin Newsom's plot to sell off the land to speculators on the cheap so that he could give all the land away in Los Angeles to these. To these speculators later. It was actually like, when you actually played the clip that they were referencing, it was Gavin Newsom saying the opposite, that he wanted to make sure that the people of the city were protected from vultures trying to swoop in and take their property. It was the op Gavin Newsom signed.
- [71:53]
Ben Mycel
Like an executive ordered to that point. But then MAGA then attacks him and says, well, now you're Screwing over the people because they should be able to sell.
- [72:04]
Brett Mycel
Yeah.
- [72:04]
Ben Mycel
Their homes to the land developers. So now you're screwing the people. To which Gavin's like, where? Wait, Ted Cruz said that. So now you're a shill for predatory land developers. It's in. They're not consistent things. But it doesn't have to be. When it's a lie, it's just everywhere. And then whoever gets it get. It's easy to lie about everything. If that's what you. That's what.
- [72:26]
Brett Mycel
And let's face it, all of this right now is also coming from a place where Republicans are looking ahead in politics. They're looking to 20, 28. They see that Governor Newsom is clearly going to be one of the top contenders for the Democratic nomination. They view this as a moment where they could weaken him p. Politically. And we can Democrats politically in the state of California and nationally. That is part of this whole plan. It's sick. It's devious, it's cynical. It's in the middle of a crisis where people are suffering. And it truly hits home for me and all of us here because we are living well, not you, Jordy, but me and Ben and. And so many people who work with us live in this city, live in this state. And it is just so important to see this kind of behavior. But, you know, all in all, watching this, I actually think that. That Gavin Newsom has done a remarkable job. I think he has risen to this occasion. I think, despite all the shit that they've thrown at him, that Newsom has proven himself to be a very effective leader in a time of crisis. I think he's been very effective at getting the truth out. I think he's been very effective at consoling people in this state, in the city. I think he's been very good at kind of telling people where we go next from here, dealing with the crisis in real time and being an effective communicator. And that is one reasons why MAGA hates him so much. That is one of the reasons why they try to spread all of this crap about him. And I'll definitely defend him. I think that he is doing a. A fantastic. A fantastic job during a very difficult time. And shame on the people. And by the way, I'm not saying that anyone is above reproach. I'm not saying that anybody is. Is beyond receiving criticism. But what they are doing to Newsom right now is possibly even more than what they've done to Biden over the past few years in a truncated time. Period. The lies they are spreading, the disinfo they are throwing this guy. The way they are doing this in the middle of a crisis, it is absolutely vile, vile stuff, inexcusable stuff. And you know, but thankfully I think he's equipped well to handle the situation in the climate.
- [74:29]
Ben Mycel
I want to remind everybody we're going to be doing a meeting@patreon.com Midas Touch next week helps grow this independent media platform. We don't have outside side investors so it is a way to help us grow. We're billionaire free, no oligarchs here. So patreon.com and you get to meet us, you get to ask Jordy questions. Jordy gets the fun questions always when we do those Zoom meetings. Also, MidasPlus.com is the destination where Ron Philipkowski, our editor in chief, put some great content. He does an incredible daily summary. Like if you miss the day of news, just go get Midas+.com just read it all. It's pretty incredible. That's where I, it's where I go honestly to consume the news and make sure I've done all of the videos that I, that I need to do.
- [75:21]
Brett Mycel
I'm just gonna make sure. If you're not reading ron's recaps of MidAsPlus.com every day, you're missing out. I'm just gonna be honest with you. You're missing out. You're missing out. You gotta read Ron's recaps is today in politics bulletins that come out every.
- [75:32]
Jordy Mycel
Day, all day, literally writing the re. Literally all day up until he hits send.
- [75:38]
Brett Mycel
And they are fantastic. And I think I followed the. Sometimes I look at these recaps and I go, I didn't even know half of these things happened. Oh, and we're also doing ad free episodes of the Midas Touch podcast. We release them the following day on the Midas plus as well. So check that out.
- [75:52]
Ben Mycel
Make sure you also subscribe on audio to the audio podcast. So wherever the Midas Touch podcast is available on audio, even if you don't like listening to audio podcasts and you always get the video, it helps us a lot if you subscribe to the audio. So it'll take you two seconds to do it. It's free to do it. Just whatever device you have, whether it's like Spotify or Apple podcasts or Google Pod, whatever it is, just search it, search Midas Touch, hit subscribe and then that's all you have to do. And if you click play occasionally, if you watch on video that's great. And audio listeners. Check out the YouTube site. Help us grow the YouTube site so we could do a trade. Right? The video watchers maybe do audio. Audio listeners do video. All right. Thanks everybody for watching this episode. We covered a Jordy Send us out.
- [76:41]
Jordy Mycel
Shout out to the Midas Mighty. Hey, Midas Mighty Love this report. Continue the conversation by following us on Instagram it touch to keep up with the most important news of the day. What are you waiting for? Follow us now.
- [77:15]
Ben Mycel
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