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- [00:00]
Brett
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Ben
Protests against Donald Trump have been now taking place across the country. This as internationally America under Donald Trump is now getting booed. We see that in Canada during the national anthem. Donald Trump did the usual fake deal thing that he does, those stunts that we predicted he was going to do where he creates all of this drama, this weapon of mass distraction conduct. He says that there are going to be tariffs placed on Mexico and Canada and then ultimately Donald Trump folds when he crashes the market. So as the market was crashing then Donald Trump had to run to the President of Mexico, Claudia Sheinbaum, and then to the Prime Minister of Canada, Justin Trudeau, with his tail between his legs and then basically do a fake deal, just basically announcing things like the status quo and claiming that that's a deal. And then he goes look what I did America. And then some of our right wing propaganda media and then corporate media is like look, he did the deal. It's like the arsonist causing the fire and then trying to put out their own fire but not really putting it out and then taking credit for that and acting like they should be applauded. The thing is that Donald Trump has now pissed off the entire world with these tactics. Like, even though Canada and Mexico have pushed off their so called tariffs for like 30 days, I mean, the people in Canada are livid and pissed. And like, you can't trust America under Donald Trump, period. And that's how the entire international community is feeling. And at the same time, domestically, while Trump's involved in that WMD weapon and mass distraction, you have his co president Elon Musk, an unelected oligarch, having his tech teams go into various agencies, seize control of the Treasury Department payment system, seize control of sensitive classified information from USAID and other government agencies, literally just take it over without authority. We saw some Democrats show up at the US Aid building, hold a press conference there to call it out, and then you have Elon Musk, you know, tweeting about it or putting it on X, whatever you call it these days, talking about like, like deleting government groups, destroying government groups. Like the way we had free tax filing under President Biden. That's one of the things they gutted. Say goodbye to free tax filings, say goodbye to USAID abroad, say goodbye to a number of other programs here in the United States. And all the while they're like pretending now that there isn't the government freeze of funds anymore because there's court orders saying they can't freeze the funds. But Elon Musk is clearly doing that. We'll talk about all of that. You know, and then with just the firing of FBI agents, the firing of DOJ officials, America's really never been less safe. The firing of FAA officials, the firing of key people working in government positions to just keep Americans safe. American's never been less safe. And at the same time, prices are going up, up, up through the roof. And so all of these stunts, this drama, this chaos, you know, to me is just the opposite of what government should really be. I think Americans are just getting utterly pissed off. Trump supporters have to be like, yeah, tariffs. Oh, actually, no tariffs. Yeah, tariffs. Just the whole thing is one gigantic gong show. It's ridiculous. Brett and Jordy, how are you guys doing?
- [05:10]
Brett
Eggs were way too expensive under Biden, but actually paying a lot of money. It's actually very patriotic and we all have to pay more to support Dear Leader Trump. Ben, you know what I'm thinking? I'm, I'm liking when things were sleepy, you know, they tried to say sleepy Joe is a little bit of an insult. I was liking when things were relaxing, when I could go to sleep at night. That's what I like to consider sleepy, Joe. When I could go to sleep knowing that our country was in good hands. And right now it's just chaos, chaos, chaos every single day, stunt after stunt after stunt. And it's sad because it has real world ramifications. When he plays these games like he just did with the tariff, you know, he obviously tanked the market initially when he, when he made the initial tariff threat and said they were going into effect. But he also ruined our relationship with our allies very quickly. And it's very disheartening to me to look at these images coming out of various countries to see, you know, Canada booing us or booing Trump at least, and booing what's happening to our country at these sports arenas. And by the way, I stand in total solidarity with them on that. I want to be clear about that. But then looking across the world and seeing what the people of Greenland are saying about us, looking what people of Denmark are saying about us, looking at what the folks down in Panama are doing, burning American flags, burning American dolls and effigy, and you see the resentment that Donald Trump is creating with his bluster with these stunts, with the non stop drama that we just didn't have. America was the beacon of the world. We were a global leader. Donald Trump has removed our status as that and he has allowed China, quite frankly, to fill the void and has really abdicated our leadership. I think it's very sad. But, you know, we could also cover everything, right? We got to keep our eye on the ball of what Donald Trump is doing, the destructive n of what he's doing right now in our federal government. And so we're going to be keeping our eyes on that. Everything Elon Musk is doing at treasury, at usaid, at all these organizations, at all these agencies, we're going to be keeping track of all of it. We're going to break it all down on this show first. Jordy, how you doing?
- [07:05]
Jordy
Hey, I'm doing great. I just want to. Hey, Brett, Shout out, man. Brett came through this week. Before we get into all the news for my son's birthday. So he flew out here. That was awesome. Elijah's first birthday party. Been out to hold down the fort in California, so I'll let him slide. Plus he's got his, his four or five month old. It was. Brett, it was so awesome to see you, man. Thanks for coming by. That was really Special Benji. Benji, where do you want to start off today?
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Ben
Well, look, the, the issue for me also, Jordy, is I, as I teach during the week, in addition to. I get it.
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Jordy
You're a professor.
- [07:34]
Ben
I get the teaching. I have to, I have to get back on a certain day. But I'm glad Brett was there holding down the fort and representing. You know who's loving this though, by the way? Vladimir Putin is. Vladimir Putin is basically out there and I'm not going to play the clip because it's, it's in Russian for our, for audio listeners, but Vladimir Putin basically says, and Donald Trump is very, going to, going to very powerfully and strongly make the European countries submit and kiss his feet. And Putin knows how he's manipulating and playing, you know, Donald Trump there while all of this is taking place. Let me share this with you though, as well, just so everybody can get the context of it. So the trade deal with Mexico and Canada is called USMCA United States Mexico Canada Agreement. And it basically in and of itself was a little bit of a fake deal too, because Trump basically took NAFTA, which was negotiated in the 90s, which by the way, he and the Republicans pretended to hate. So they basically just rebranded it and called it the usmca. And Trump said this was the greatest deal, the greatest deal ever. So just so you can see for yourself when we, I think we have to have the context right when Trump is attacking the deal. It's his, it's his deal that we're operating under the usmca. And so here he is talking about it during his first term, saying what a great deal this all is here. Let's play this clip.
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Donald Trump
It's my great honor to announce that we have successfully completed negotiations on a brand new deal to terminate and replace NAFTA and the NAFTA trade agreements with an incredible new U. S Mexico Canada agreement called USMCA. It sort of just works. MCA USMCA. And that'll be the name, I guess that 99% of the time we'll be hearing USMCA has a good ring to it. I have long contended that NAFTA was perhaps the worst trade deal ever made. Since NAFTA's adoption, the United States racked up trade deficits totaling more than $2 trillion. And it's a much higher number than that with Canada and Mexico. It lost vast amounts of money and lost 4.1 million manufacturing jobs and 1 in 4 auto jobs, lost about 25% of our auto jobs. Even more than that, throughout the Campaign, I promised to renegotiate NAFTA, and today we have kept that promise. But for 25 years, as a civilian, as a businessman, I used to say, how could anybody have signed a deal like nafta? And I watched New England and so many other places where I was just, the factories were leaving, the jobs were leaving, people were being fired.
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Ben
So you get the point. He was saying that the USMCA is, he negotiated, that's the current deal. And he now says that deal is incredibly unfair. And so he was asked at the Oval Office again today, you know, tell us about, you know, is there anything Canada can do in order to stop these tariffs? This was Trump, what, moments before the announcement that he would not be imposing the tariffs on Canada. Here, let me just play this for you.
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Donald Trump
I can't tell you what's going to.
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Ben
Happen that he could agree to, to.
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Brett
Change your mind on the tariffs.
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Donald Trump
Well, we can always look, what I'd like to see Canada become our 51st state. We give them protection, military protection. We, we don't need them to build our cars. I'd rather see Detroit or South Carolina or any one of our Tennessee, any one of our states build the cars. They could do it very easily. We don't need them for the cars. We don't need them for lumber. We don't need them for anything.
- [11:33]
Ben
So then, shortly thereafter, Donald Trump and Prime Minister Trudeau make an announcement that, oh, you know, actually there's a deal that was struck and Canada is going to put $1.3 billion in border security, and Canada's going to appoint a fentanyl czar, even though there's basically zero fentanyl coming into the United States from Canada. So the important thing to note is that the $1.3 billion border deal that already existed, well before this, like, that was already something that was in place. A fentanyl czar is basically not going to do much because there's not really fentanyl coming in from Canada. And then earlier in the day, Donald Trump announced also Brett and Jordan Midas mighty, a fake deal with Mexico where they said, well, Mexico is going to add 10,000 additional troops to the border or 10,000 troops, not even additional 10,000 troops to the border. Well, there's already 10,000 troops to the border. When President Biden requested, without this drama, tariff, trade, war, war threats, they added another 10 to 15,000 troops across the border.
- [12:47]
Brett
You better take a look at this. Look at, look what I was just able to find.
- [12:50]
Ben
Look at this.
- [12:50]
Brett
On the Canadian site from what's that date. Let me squint at that date for a second. December 17, 2024, the Government of Canada announces an investment of what the exact amount of this deal from Donald Trump? $1.3 billion to bolster border security and strengthen the immigration system and contribute to Canada's future prosperity. To help detect and disrupt the fentanyl trade. And what the language matches exactly with Justin Trudeau's tweet that he put out about the deal with Donald Trump. How did he time Travel back to 17th to post? Oh, the deal was already in place. Donald Trump literally made a deal to return us to the status quo of the things that were already happening. This is the dumbest thing ever. He needed to declare a win. And when you, like, go through exactly what Trump did here, it is just like the most pathetic thing. I'll recap it for you. We recap things here at Midas Touch Right. Then did a quick click recap. Trump announces the tariffs. Our allies turn against us. They launch boycotts on US Products, which, by the way, are still ongoing in Canada. We'll get to that again. And we'll get to that some more in a second. They boo us at events. You saw the clips yesterday and today in arenas and the Toronto arena, in the Calgary arena and the Ottawa arena. And more of Canadian fans booing the US during the national anthem because they are outraged over the way that our government is treating them. Booing our government. I should say that Canadians like the people of the United States, at least, you know, the ones who didn't vote for Trump. And then the markets nosedive today. We saw a huge crash when the markets open. We saw the futures market absolutely devastated. Trump gets nervous. Trump caves. Trump rushes to call the president of Mexico. He rushes to call the prime minister of Canada to make a deal. He needs to show something. He needs to show a win. Right. It's the same things he did, by the way, back in when he won in 2016. Same exact strategy. So how does he show in? Well, he has to say that he got them to concede on these issues. And so what are the concessions? The concessions that are made. Mexico agrees to do literally the same things they always do at the border, the same things they always do things they did under Biden. And Biden didn't have to cause an economic and political crisis in order to do this. He just spoke to them and they agreed to do this, you know, like normal allies do. And so here's one of the interesting things also, though, President Claudia Scheinbaum of Mexico Actually pulled one over on Donald Trump because in addition to her saying that she is going to do the things that Mexico already does, she got Trump to agree. And, you know, Trump's word isn't exactly, you know, worth anything, but she got Trump to agree that the United States was going to look into weapons trafficking from the United States into Mexico. Now, what's interesting about that also, well, when you read the two sides of the deal, Claudia Scheinbaum, by the way, the most brilliant move, and Justin Trudeau did this as well, got out in front of it before Donald Trump announced his side of the deal. So they took to social media right away when the deal was made. They announced exactly what was in the deal. Claudia Sheinbaum mentioned all the components, right? She mentioned the 10,000 troops, which were always there. She mentioned the 10,000 troops. She also mentioned the weapons trade, the arms trade from the United States into Mexico. Donald Trump writes up his little post on his app. He fails to mention the weapons trade. He fails to mention that Claudia Sheinbaum got him to agree to her terms. That was mysteriously left out. And so I think, as we see all these things, and it was one of the things you guys that we were talking about actually on this very show last week, it was the need to understand that Donald Trump's statements and press releases from the White House are not to be trusted. And you have to view these as if they are truth social posts. Oftentimes they are truth social posts. Like this one was a truth social post. And so what the media needs to do and what listeners of news, what consumers of news need to do in order to be healthy consumers of news, is to understand that what Donald Trump's saying is probably not the truth and not to buy his spin and to understand that whatever he is putting out is simply his propaganda and that there is always going to be a truth underneath it likely that refutes exactly what he is saying. So in this case, he tries to act tough, say he got these concessions, when in fact he got actually absolutely nothing. And he is now just repeating deals that were already negotiated during the Biden administration and trying to claim them as a win for himself. You know, it's just the same old scheme every single time. And at the end of the day, I mean, you got to just tell it how it is. Like Trump caved here. It's. He totally, totally caved.
- [17:38]
Jordy
Absolutely. A few things there, Brett. One, all very astute and incredible points. Couldn't agree more with them. I like the use of your hand gestures throughout that for our audio listeners, Bro is very emphatic with his hands moving. I really like that we're big talkers with our hands. I think one of the things that we talked about earlier in the week, Brett, is also how these world leaders, they know Trump's playbook now, right? You gotta treat him like the petulant child that he is. If you give him an inch, he's going to take your life. Right. We talk about that all the time here on the Midas Touch podcast. And so what are these leaders doing? They know exactly how to play Trump's game at this moment. And they're meeting the moment, whether it's Trudeau in Canada or Claudia Sheinbaum in Mexico. I'm very impressed with how they're handling this. And they're making it seem just to Trump and Trump alone that he, that he won whatever he wanted to win, that he gets to spike this imaginary football. But when you actually dig into the details and the rollout of everything, they could not have played this more perfectly.
- [18:38]
Ben
Look, we called what was going to happen. I think one of our responsibilities in running this media network is to be several steps ahead because, you know, we've studied his pathology. So you may recall last week, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, when all of this was going down. Remember, my reporting was, let me tell you exactly what he's going to do. And we predicted it. Exactly. And by the way, it wasn't all that hard to predict. And if I'm predicting it, I promise you that Claudia Sheinbaum and Trudeau and the others know where he's going with this. So let me just, just so you can see. So our audio listeners know these clips are from January 30th and January 31st of last week. And so our people who are watching this on video, they'll see that that's when I was making these statements to our audio listeners. That's when these two clips that we put together, they were from last week when I was saying, here's exactly what's going to happen. It's exactly what he did here. Let's play it as Donald Trump setting up for yet another fake deal to take credit for just imaginary things that aren't happening so he can get the propaganda headlines that he want. Ooh, Donald Trump made a deal. But in reality, it's just the status quo because he doesn't know what the heck he is doing. So what do we really see here? And what do I think President Clark, audience Shine Bound is alluding to Donald Trump's gonna create all this Chaos, a wmd, a weapon of mass distraction. And then ultimately he's gonna create the problem and then he's gonna try to fix it and say, look, I made Mexico submit. I made Canada submit. But in the end, it's just going to be a press release. And I think that's what she is alluding to. And look, I think we all hope it's just a press release. No one wants economic catastrophe. But this is just the chaos agent that Donald Trump is. And President Claudia Scheinbaum and I think other world leaders are almost treating him and putting him in his place like the pathetic little petulant child that he is. Oh, okay, Donald, you want to do that to us? We'll retaliate against you. Okay, Donald, calm down. And by the way, Xi Jinping, you want to give us a call? By the way, should we all create alliances against the United States? That's what we see happening, by the way. So that's from last week.
- [20:54]
Jordy
I like when you pull up from half court and call your shot. That was nice.
- [20:57]
Ben
That was really precisely what happened. But I was also watching what he's doing. And look, it wasn't just in Canada and Mexico. He did the same thing in Panama. He, you know, and by the way, his threats were, I want to conquer the nation, I want to conquer Canada, make it the 51st state. And Donald Trump settled on a fake fentanyl czar. I just want you to think about that. And a n a deal that already took place two months ago, that master negotiator, how weak they see him in Canada after threatening to take over. I mean, could you imagine if Vladimir Putin made these threats to Ukraine? And then ultimately Putin was like, you know what? Actually, you know, we said denazification. We said we were going to invade Crimea. We're going to do all of these things. But you know what? Give us a fentanyl czar, we're okay about it. No, Trump is using the language of Putin, but then settling for a fentanyl czar, which gets you the worst of all of the worlds. I mean, I clearly don't want imperialistic conquest of Canada, but it just makes us look like a stupid idiot. Like, the whole thing just looks dumb. And the people in the other countries look at us and they're not Fox propaganda. When Fox like, look what we did, you know, Hulk Hogan, rip off my shirt. They're looking at us in other countries. Like, it's so pathetic.
- [22:18]
Brett
I really like people.
- [22:19]
Ben
A fentanyl. Borders are. That's what you said. Look, you Talk about he sends Marco Rubio to Panama. Do we have the clip of him even today saying that he wants to conquer Panama from the Oval Office? This was he still. So let me just show you. This is what he said today. And then let me tell you about the Marco Rubio piece of it. Here, play this clip.
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Donald Trump
Okay. We gave it away essentially for nothing. And we either want it back or we're going to get something very strong, or we're going to take it back.
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Ben
And China.
- [22:53]
Donald Trump
Will be dealt with.
- [22:57]
Ben
Okay, first off, let's acknowledge that his brain is mush. Like, the guy can't even speak. Like, you can't even speak in sentences. Like, could we just address the fact that he can't even find the words? And if any other person was behaving like that, you'd probably declare a doubt and need a 5150 cycle. But let's be clear what Senator Rubio settled for that the deal was made, also a fake deal. And the deal was that the US Navy gets to send its ships through the Panama Canal. Oh, yeah, usa. And then that Panama will consider studying the issue of whether it should continue being part of the Silk Road deal, which. There's no real Silk Road deal. China's making investments in Panama beginning in 2017 during the first Trump administration, when Trump's eye was off the ball. And then Panama stopped its alliance with Taiwan, made the alliance with Beijing during Trump administration, number one. And then China's made investments in Panama. There's no, like, Silk Road deal that just gets, like, ripped up and, like, shredded. Like, so that's that. But then the reason why US Naval ships don't go through the Panama Canal is because the ships are too big. The ships are too big for that. You can't send US Naval ships through it. Our aircraft carriers and our ships are. They just don't fit through it. So we've now. So the deal that after threatening to take it back, the deal with Rubio is that our naval vessels can use it, which they always could, but they're too big to use it. Then his deal with Colombia is like, okay, we are going to make sure we can deport people back to Colombia.
- [24:38]
Brett
Okay.
- [24:39]
Ben
That's what was happening in the Biden administration. So it's just fake deal after fake deal, British majority. But it just looks so weak.
- [24:45]
Brett
Yeah, it's every single time. And also, by the way, I want to reiterate this, too. The beginning of all the deals, like the. I mean, like, the beginning of all these problems, when Donald Trump explains The reasons why he's imposing tariffs on these countries or wants to get. It's always predicated on just fake information. It's always predicated on just lies. Like he talks about when he talks about these massive trade deficits with Canada, and he says all this fentanyl is coming in from Canada, and he says that they owe us all this money. Like, he look under the surface of all these comments, it's like, what are you even talking about here? There's no anything that makes any sense to all of this. We'll get to this a little later, probably. But it reminds me of, you know, what he did out here in California with the water issue, just making up what was going on with the fires, inventing a fake solution, claiming he solved it, while actually making the problem worse. What I think is going to be interesting in this situation is that. And one of the things I'm so impressed by, too, and we have a lot of Canadian listeners here, I want to say shout out to Canada. You guys have been incredible. You guys have stayed strong. It's because of you, by the way. Maple maple, mighty Maple Midas. It's because of you that Donald Trump folded. I mean that genuinely, because if you folded, Donald Trump would have taken that as an opportunity to actually move ahead with his plan to try to make Canada the 51st state. Like, I think he's serious about that stuff. I actually do. But because you all united, I guess, except for Ben, who's that politician, Danielle Smith. Because everybody else except Danielle Smith got together and they said, we're not going to give up our national sovereignty. And I thought that was a really powerful statement to see across party lines, to see NDP leaders, to see liberal leaders, to see Conservative leaders coming together and saying, you ain't doing shit to Canada. Donald Trump. I love what Charlie Angus had to say. I think he's basically paraphrased, said something like, hey, we're sorry in Canada till we're not, you know, don't mistake our kindness for weakness here in Canada. And it's true. I mean, we saw that in full swing. I thought that was incredible. Incredibly cool. And the ripple effect, though, is going to be vast. I've already seen the stores in Canada, pictures of the stores in Canada that now have Made in Canada signs over all their goods. They're relegating the American goods to other sections. People are checking. People keep telling us people are checking all the products to see if they're made in America so that they don't buy them. We're getting a Lot of comments on our social media about this that says, well, that's too late, that Donald Trump reversed this. You don't talk about our country like that. We are still boycotting American products. We've seen those by the thousands, thousands and thousands of comments like that. We saw Doug Ford, the premier of Ontario, come out and cancel their massive multi billion dollar contract with Starlink over this, saying, we're not going to support companies who are owned by people who want to destroy our country. Let's see if that cancellation of those contracts remain. But those are all devastating effects already against the United States from Canada. All for what? For nothing. To. To announce a deal that happened under the Biden administration. To announce things that were already going on. For what? For what reason? Why crash the markets? Why do all this? Just because you want to soothe your ego like a maniacal madman? It's just so ridiculous. It's so insane. But shout out to Canada for standing up and standing strong. I gotta say, absolutely.
- [28:09]
Jordy
In a world of Daniel Smith, be a Charlie Angus, be a Doug Ford, shout out to the Maple Mighty. You know, never go full Vivek. Donald Trump. Remember when Vivek made it like a big point of his, of his campaign to go to the northern border and everyone's like, vivek, what are you doing?
- [28:25]
Ben
He's like, we got to stop the.
- [28:25]
Jordy
Fentanyl from the north. Vivek, what are you doing, man? Never go full Vivek. Donald Trump's brain, Ben, is total mush. You're exactly right. And I just want to take a second to talk about that because it needs to be looked into, like corporate media. Please, please, just, this is really important. The guy can't think, he can't get a coherent sentence out of his mouth. When Joe Biden, when President Biden would speak to y'all corporate media, I'm talking to you directly, and he'd give you guys answers, right? And he'd take a second to collect his thoughts because he wanted to give you an earnest response, a dignified response, you know, an important response from the President of the United States. Y'all crushed the man. Crushed him. Jump down his throat every chance you got. And now when Donald Trump's up there answering your questions, or I should say trying to answer your questions, and he's talking in three word sentences, if you can even call what he's doing a sentence, and you're not going to push back. This man has the nuclear coats, okay? This man has access to our top secret documents. What are we doing here? When we're going to let this go completely unchecked. Not here, not here. His brain is mush.
- [29:42]
Ben
Well, Jay, I appreciate you calling out the corporate media. You know, the reality is, though, they're kind of don't even see the corporate media as being a major. I mean, they're the corporate media. I got it. But to me, they're becoming so less relevant every day. I mean, you know, the latest playboard charts had Midas as the most watched digital channel. Fox was number two, number three was Forbes, and then ABC was like number seven. And so the reality is we're going to lead by example and we're going to call it out here, and we've got the platform to do it. So thanks for everybody who subscribed. We're on our way to 4 million subscribers. There it is, right there. That's Playboy, most watched YouTube channels in the country and Midas Touch 1 Fox 2 Forbes 3. And I expect this number to be higher. I mean, it's been like 26, 27 million views every 48 hours right now on this network, more than all of the top Fox shows combined. You're getting out the word, you're getting out the message. You're the difference maker. And so this community relies on you. So thank you for that.
- [30:42]
Brett
And then I want to add this. There's a new energy right now. I could feel it. I know you all could feel it out there. And I think, you know, I think these last few weeks have woken a lot of people up. And I think looking at Canada, I think we could take a lot from their example that they just showed us up there, right? They showed us how to fight. They showed people how to rise up, how to fight back against fascism, how to push back against authoritarianism. Same thing with Mexico and Claudia Sheinbaum. These are, this is an example that we all need to take, and especially our politicians, they need to take it also. And I think they're starting to wake up just a little bit, maybe slowly, maybe they're still in the yawning stage. We got to get enough of bed. But we actually are starting to see finally some fight in them, like with this USAID issue. We saw them, we'll talk about that in this show also. But you see people waking up, you see people taking the streets. And I think our energy right now is at such a, a key point. And so we got to keep up this momentum and keep going because Donald Trump's weakness is showing right now more than ever. And it's because of you. It's because of you.
- [31:36]
Ben
Patreon.com Midas Touch we will do in the next week or two a special Zoom meeting for all of our patrons. P A T r e o n.com Midas Touch also go to midasplus.com run by our editor in chief Ron Philipowski. The Best Daily Updates by Philip Kowski. And then, you know, I usually give a nice little morning post as well. Let's take a quick break. We'll be right back with the Midas Touch podcast.
- [32:06]
Brett
All right, real talk for a second. Why do we put up with uncomfortable clothes? I mean it's 2025. We've got like self driving cars and AI doing all sorts of wild stuff. And yet some pants still feel like they were designed by medieval blacksmiths. No thanks. That's why I am obsessed with Public Rec. Their pants are ridiculously comfortable, like sweatpants level comfort. But my favorite part is that they actually look good. No stiff seams, no weird bagginess, just perfectly tailored pants that move with you. Public Rec isn't just about pants either. They've got polos, shorts, hoodies. You know, the kind of stuff you could wear to work, to dinner. Just lounge it at home without looking like you just rolled out of bed. And here's the best part. Unlike other brands that just give you like small, medium and large, Public Rec lets you pick your exact waist and inseam size so they fit like they were made for you. After I got my first pair of Public Rec pants in the dark olive color, I literally went back on the site and bought them in every single color. True story. So this February, treat yourself right because comfort is always in season. Upgrade to Public Rec and feel the difference. For a limited time, you can get 20% off at public rec by using code MIDAS20 at checkout. Just head to public recommendation. Use code MIDAS20. That's me. I dash 20 and you're all set. Oh, and when they ask how you found them, be sure to mention our show. It really helps us out. Find your perfect fit and never compromise on comfort again. Public Rec where comfort Rules what does.
- [33:37]
Ben
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- [34:55]
Brett
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- [36:12]
Jordy
I love it. Shout out to our Pro Democracy sponsors y'all links in description of YouTube and audio. Use the links, use the codes. If there's any surveys, exit surveys after you do your orders, tell them the Midas Touch podcast sent y'all. It really helps so thank you.
- [36:24]
Ben
You know, someone recognized me on campus today when I was teaching at law school, and we were just having a conversation and I gave this example, and I hadn't really thought of it like this before, but I thought it was worth bringing to the show, which is, I think about sometimes the government the way I would think about getting on an airplane, which is, when I get on an airplane, I really, other than maybe the captain telling me where I'm going, I really don't need to hear all that much unless there's something serious going on. But my hope is to have the least amount of drama. I'm not trying to think about a bunch of crazy stuff. I just want to get from point A to point B. I'd like for the plane to be comfortable, I'd like for the plane to be safe. I'd like for it to have what I paid for. In the example of government, when you pay taxes, you'd like to have certain things, but you don't need to hear the captain flying your plane going, oh, and I'm gonna make a left. Should I make a right? Should I make a left? Should I go up? Should I go down? Should I go right? What should I do? Everybody with this plane, aren't planes crazy? No, that's not the way it is. And to me, the leader of government at the highest office should be steering the plane or the ship in a stable way. Yes. You want to hear from them at certain times, the beginning of your trip, at the end of the trip, maybe to let you know when you reach cruising altitude, but you don't want the drama. I thought that example was appropriate given the fact that in Trump's America, I think we're all feeling a lot less safe right now. Whether it's also getting on an airplane or, or whether you're consuming food or whether we're going to be able to deal with things like tuberculosis and measles, whether we're going to be able to have allies abroad. And one of the things going back to 2016, among many that I just so despised about Donald Trump, is that his abusive personality never ceases. He brings that abuser mentality into your lives and that every day during his first term, and now we're seeing it again, that, that it's, it intrudes in all of our lives in bad ways, in obnoxious ways, in loud ways, in, in attention seeking ways, and it, and I don't want that. I mean, you would think for people who consider themselves conservative, who consider themselves small government people, you you wouldn't want a constant barrage of shit coming in your face from, you know, the President of the United States. But that's what Trump does. It's always. It's constant, the post, the obnoxiousness, the meanness and all of that. And to me, whether you're a Republican or Democrat or independent or red state or blue state, you should just not like that. Like, it's, it's overall gross is. Is just an observation. And again, we see it now over and over again. So, you know, and I've been referring to it as a wmd, a weapon of mass distraction a little bit. We'll talk about what the government's doing with Trump's announcement of a sovereign wealth fund, because you always have to follow the money when it comes to Donald Trump. And they want, and he and Elon want to start a sovereign wealth fund where our money's going to go to the slush fund to be used by oligarchs. No. No way. Usually, by the way, sovereign wealth funds are used in countries that have, like, budget surpluses in nations to just invest their excess money. You may remember the conversation. It seems like it was 50 years ago. That was a pretty long time ago. It was 25 years ago when Al Gore and George W. Bush were talking about the lockbox. Right. What do you do with the surplus under Clinton? And then George W. Bush kind of ran that into the ground, and then there were deficits that he crashed the economy and Obama had to save it. Then Trump crashed it, then Biden saved it. Now Trump's crashing it again.
- [40:20]
Brett
Imagine having a surplus. Like, it seems like such a foreign concept. Like we had a surplus in the United states in the 90s. I know it's like kind of long ago at this point, but it's not that long ago. And then that was handed over to the Republicans, who just destroyed it forever. It's never, never recovered.
- [40:37]
Ben
You remember that debate? I mean, just think about how times have changed. Like in 2012. Sorry, in 2000, I said, I'm not sure. Say 2020. In 2000 was when the debate was between Al Gore and George W. Bush.
- [40:49]
Jordy
That's the first fun fact SNL skit I remember. I think it was a core memory for Jordy.
- [40:55]
Ben
The lockbox. I'm gonna do this with the lock box. And then George W. Bush would be like, yeah, and I'm gonna do this with the lockbox. And then, you know, and what they were talking. Just think about that. That was the drama. What do we do with the surplusage? Of funds, that there's a budget surplus and where does it go? And ultimately, you know, George W. Bush had the Supreme Court push him into power. And by the way, the people who fought for Bush to do that are now the people on the Supreme Court, like Justice Brett Kavanaugh and others. And they kind of put a. Could you imagine what the world would have been like in another time frame if we actually counted the real votes and not had the Supreme Court stop, like, literally stop the count? And then those people became supreme justice anyway? But I digress. That's what we were talking about in 2000. Whereas now Donald Trump's talking about invading this country, invading that country. So then he moves on at, you know, knowing that this is. This was, by the way, this was not Trudeau blinking. This was not shine bound blinking. This was Trump blinking and submitting to them, but trying to pretend, oh, look, the threat of tariffs makes me a master negotiator. This is so stupid. But then what does Trump do? He moves on to the next one, and then he threatens Europe. So now, okay, I did that, I did that. What other chaos can I cause today? Europe. Let's do Europe. Let me talk about Europe Here, play this clip. I mean, don't you see what a tired playbook this is? Like, it's the same. It's the same. He doesn't have a lot of moves. So when I showed you the clip of me predicting it, I'd like to be like, oh, you know what? Great predict. He has the same moves. So now he goes, he does it to Europe. And then, you know, in Europe, the leaders there, whether it's the Chancellor of Germany or whether it's Macron in France, they're like, all right, he's going to threaten us with tariffs, and then he's going to impose. He's going to say he's going to do it, and then he's going to call us the day, you know, of the markets are going to crash, and we'll let him tweet something out and then we'll just kind of go like that. That's how they think of him. And that's not. And then meanwhile, they're thinking to themselves, oh, my God, this guy is so weak and crazy. Like, this guy's a psycho and he's weak. Like, we can't rely on them. They're the worst. We got to form our own alliance. That's the only thing Trump's projecting is his weakness. And then he mixes it up with this crap where he's like, look what I did with the water. I turned down the beautiful water and California. Here, play this clip.
- [43:33]
Donald Trump
They don't like to say that I opened up the water for California. It's a great thing. It's too bad they didn't do it themselves. I had to do it and it was not easy. We did it a very rough way and I didn't like to do it a rough way. We shouldn't have to do it a rough way. But a lot of these countries that we're talking about, you know, there are so called allies, but they don't treat us well. And just like I got $420 billion and now it's actually over $600 billion. The Secretary General of NATO came in two weeks ago and he said it was a miracle when Trump came in. When President Trump came into NATO, I got, he said it was $636 billion by saying to them, no, you have to pay. And if you don't pay.
- [44:17]
Jordy
Okay, wait, sorry, sorry. Real quick, back to Mushbrain. We did it a very rough way. I didn't want to have to do it a rough way. We shouldn't have to do it a very rough, rough way. Ben, what is he saying?
- [44:29]
Brett
See spot, run, spot, run, fast, spot.
- [44:33]
Ben
I mean, could you imagine. Again, I won't give the examples. All right, enough saying.
- [44:37]
Brett
Could you imagine now you couldn't imagine. But let me tell you the facts here. Let me tell you the new reporting, though. And then this is reporting now that like basically every organization has done like, there's been a new story on this every week. CBS was the latest one to do this. They, they, they did the reporting on Trump's turning on the water valve today. So CBS reported that Trump almost flooded. You heard that right? Trump almost flooded the Central Valley of California by instructing the Army Corps of Engineers to release billions of gallons of water from two reservoirs in California's Central Valley. Get this as well. If farmers did not talk the Army Corps into stopping the water flow. So they had to stop it. He turned it on. They had to stop it. There would have been serious flooding. Farmers are now worried that the water they rely upon for the dry summer season has now been wasted. And the farmers are, quote, they say it is assumed to be lost, that Donald Trump just took the water that they were relying upon for later seasons when it gets drier. And he wasted it. He basically flushed it down the toilet and now they're not able to use it in the future when it gets drier. So he screwed over the Farmers. And he almost destroyed all their farms and the entire town by flooding it. Not only that, none of this 0%, 0.0000% of this magical water that he's talking about turning on comes anywhere near California. It's not even in the same vicinity of California. It's not even in the same region of California. There is not a single way to even get it from where it is to California. So all the Los Angeles to. To Los. Sorry, to Los Angeles. Yeah, it's in California. Yeah.
- [46:08]
Ben
See?
- [46:08]
Brett
See, Jody, sometimes you get brain mush. What are you going to do do? But to Los Angeles? And the thing is, all the firefighters are looking at this and they're going, we, we couldn't use this water for the fires. What are you doing? Like, this is the stupidest thing. Anybody who knows even a little bit about like the water policy in California or firefighting in California, anyone who has an expertise in, in anything around those areas is speaking out loudly and going like, this guy doesn't know what the hell he's talking about. I've seen memes about like Elon Musk and, and I think probably about Trump too. It's kind of one of those rehash memes about people that says, like, you know, this one was, I think, specifically about Musk, but it was like, when he talked about, you know, cars, I thought he was a genius because I don't know anything about cars. When he talked about, you know, coding, I assumed he was a genius because I don't know anything about coding. When he talked about, you know, my specialty, I realized, oh, this guy's a freaking moron. Knows nothing about anything. And I think that's what was a big wakeup call to a lot of people this time when he's talking about this issue that actually a lot of know quite about and deal with here in California and in Los Angeles. And you see that the guy is completely just making things up. And not only that, worse, making the problem worse and making a dangerous situation that later on might be a devastating situation, quite frankly for California, which he then blames on Gavin Newsom and Democrats and then does this whole big scheme again.
- [47:31]
Jordy
And that's the real thing. It's not that he's just making things up. It's what he's making up is having real world consequences and truly affecting the lives of the American people. People, as a leader, you should want to lead for all Americans, not just the ones who voted for you. But very clearly that's not how Donald Trump wants to lead and it's. It's, quite frankly, incredibly disappointing. But we knew that that would be the case.
- [47:52]
Ben
You just think about, though, the totality of all of this stuff that he's doing, and, you know, it's like, okay, fake trade war against Canada and Mexico. You're kind of pissing them off. Off. You're weakening your alliances abroad. You're playing right into Putin's head. All of these statements that you're making to, oh, I'm going to tariff Taiwan and their semiconductor industry. You know, all. All of the things he's doing there and then the things he's doing domestically as well. I mean, firing any FBI agent without due process, if they were involved at all in any January 6th case. So you have the January 6th insurrectionist he refers to as hostages or heroes. They get pardoned, the bad guys get celebrated. But the FBI, like the law and order people, who, by the way, don't just handle January 6th cases. I mean, these are the people who are investigating and arresting terrorists and getting, you know, cartels off our street here and dealing with all of these things. These people, you know, are fired without any process at all. I mean, you have Donald Trump, you know, gutting all of these agencies. I mean, just think, even as we talk about usaid, if you just take a look at one of their programs, which is providing medication to pregnant women who have HIV and AIDS in order to, you know, help stop the transmission to their babies, to stop, you know, to try to stop kids getting, you know, getting HIV and aids. And then, by the way, you know, as we know from COVID you know, pandemics are global in nature. There's a reason why it's important for America to lead abroad when it comes to, you know, things like stopping the spread of HIV and aids, when it comes to things like Ebola, when it comes to investigating all of these things, and usaids, like one of the main agencies, if not the main agency, that would do that and also provide humanitarian aid. And so, you know, again, them saying, oh, this is a leftist whatever. I mean, they're quite literally killing people. And they're also creating a void internationally for China to step up in and fill the void and provide aid to countries and to provide soft power and to build alliances as America. It's not just even, you know, stopping the funding and announcing it through some streamlined process. It's doing it so cruelly. It's the cruelty also, you know, from stopping this funding to destroying people's lives who work at the government. No notice, no process, no nothing. Just see you later. You're screwed. In some cases, you die. That's what they're doing. When we come back, I want to talk a little bit about, you know, Musk having his teams go into all of these government buildings and seizing control of servers and payment systems and, you know, the Democrat response to, to that. We should talk about protests that are now happening across the country against ICE targeting. And let's be clear who ICE is targeting now. They're targeting way more people who have no criminal record than criminal record. Actually, Biden still, as you look at the stats, was deporting more people than Trump has even now. But Biden's been deporting people with criminal records. Trump is like, specifically cruelly targeting people with no criminal record and focusing on them, them and not the criminals at lower amounts, but also making it very stuntified. And wwe, you know, you know, where they're, where they're playing dress up and, and you have like, literally Trump's Homeland Security Secretary, Kristi Noem, you know, who's got the full Mar A Lago look. She, like, wears a new outfit and a new Halloween costume every day. She'll like dress up as like cowgirl and then she'll dress up like in the vest, like she's the one there, like SWAT team style. And then she's like dressed up and like, you know, her park ranger outfit. Like, the whole thing is like ridiculous. It's like ridiculous, the ridiculous things to watch this and I'm like, oh, my God, I'm just like the best. I, I'm just cringy. It's like I'm so embarrassed. It's so embarrassing. By the for those looking, that was Kristi Gnome 2019 before full mar A Lago. And then here she is now doing the Mar A Lago dress up thing you evaluated for yourself. Leave it at that. Hit Subs, Hit Subscribe. Let's get to 4 million subscribers. We're going to take our last quick break of the show. Reminder patreon.com Midas Touch is a way to help us. Another way to help us go to Midasplus.com, subscribe there and subscribe to our YouTube channel. We are rapidly getting closer to 4 million subscribers. So hit subscribe and share this network with anybody you know in your life. It goes a long way to help. Just send it to 20, 30, 51, however many people you know. Let's take a quick break. We'll be right back.
- [52:57]
Jordy
My cat is part of the family, plain and simple. So I want them to have the best food that money can buy. And I didn't realize that for years. The cat food that I was buying had questionable ingredients. This podcast is sponsored by Smalls. Now, if you're a listener of the show, you know that my cat cannot live without smalls. To get 50% off your first order plus free shipping, head to smalls.com and use promo code Midas. Smalls cat food is protein packed recipes made with preservative free ingredients that you'd find in your fridge and it's delivered right to your door. That's why cats.com named Smalls their best overall cat food. My cat's favorite flavor is smooth fish, and my cats prefer Smalls way more than their previous cat food. I legitimately did a taste test, put two bowls side by side, and they immediately went to Smalls. Since making the switch to Smalls, my cat has had fewer hair balls, more balanced energy, a healthier weight, a softer and shinier fur coat, and a less stinky litter box.
- [53:55]
Ben
That's big.
- [53:56]
Jordy
Still not a believer in Smalls? Well, New York magazine called Smalls the best cat food according to veterinarians. While Buzzfeed said my cats went completely ballistic for this stuff. My cat's breath is much better and their fur is much softer ever since I switched to Small. Smalls also has a bunch of amazing treats and snacks that you can add to your order. And after switching to smalls, 88% of cat owners reported overall health improvements. That's a big deal. Do you have a picky cat? Well, Smalls has a sampler so that your cat can try everything Smalls has to offer. And the team at Smalls is so confident that your cat will love their product that you can try it risk free. That means they will refund you if your cat won't eat their food. Food. What are you waiting for? Give your cat the food they deserve. Head to smalls.com and use promo code MIDAS. ME I D A S at checkout for 50 off your first order plus free shipping. That's the best offer that you'll find. But you have to use my code MIDAS for 50% off your first order one last time. That's promo code MIDAS for 50% off your 1st order order plus free shipping. How good is that feeling of fresh, clean teeth now? I only used to get that true feeling twice a year after I went to the dentist. But that all changed now that I use the new Quip360 rechargeable electric toothbrush. The new Quip360 oscillating toothbrush literally revolves around you. Finally, an electric toothbrush that doesn't over complicate the most basic daily ritual. Quip 360 is a bold, simple design that comes in multiple colors and is ultra quiet for a super clean without being super annoying. Accepted by the American Dental Association, Quip360 is scientifically proven to remove up to 11 times more plaque between teeth compared to a manual toothbrush and provide up to two times more whitening on day one. If you don't absolutely love your Quip360, return it for free within 30 days. Days. If you do love it, brush easy knowing you get a free lifetime warranty for purchasing on getquip.com getquipquip.com and the opportunity to subscribe to refill heads by mail every three months so you never have to go to the store. And now with Quip Perks, Quip is literally putting their money where their mouth is. When you subscribe to Auto ship, you'll be enrolled in Quip Perks to earn credit back over time time. Free your mouth with quip and discover the 25,000 5 star reviews and mouths already loving Quip. Just for listeners of the Midas touch podcast, get 20% off site wide and a free travel case and countertop stand@getquipquip.com Midas free your mouth today and save 20% site wide plus a free travel case and countertop stand@getquipquip.com Midas getquipquip.com MidAS let's go. Those are some of my favorite products. Smalls is amazing. My cat Chubbs loves it. And Quip, y'all remember I won best smile in high school, so I have to keep that looking fresh.
- [57:18]
Brett
Humble brag. Humble brag.
- [57:20]
Jordy
Maybe a little bit. Would not recommend something I didn't use myself. It's awesome. Check it out. Links in description of audio pod and the YouTube. Click the links, use the codes, let them know we sent you.
- [57:30]
Brett
I was nominated for best eyes and that's cool. Nicest to bring home.
- [57:34]
Jordy
Nominated's cool.
- [57:35]
Ben
You know, Nicest to bring home.
- [57:38]
Brett
Nice to bring home.
- [57:41]
Ben
I think that's appropriate.
- [57:43]
Jordy
So you can't. You can't knock. Nicest to bring home.
- [57:46]
Ben
What'd you say?
- [57:46]
Jordy
You were a teacher's pet. So you can't knock, right? You can't be like, oh, what? What's nicest to bring home? That's an interesting one. You were literally. You were voted teacher's pet.
- [57:56]
Ben
Yeah. Number two. Also number Two and most likely to succeed and also student government president.
- [58:02]
Jordy
Hearing a lot from you guys that you were nominated for these things. But I'm not, I'm not seeing, I'm not seeing the hard way.
- [58:07]
Brett
Ben was the. Ben did win president of the school.
- [58:10]
Ben
I'm a student government president of the entire high school. I was.
- [58:14]
Jordy
That's what. This is what Ben does. He then he brings in these other.
- [58:17]
Brett
Another thing.
- [58:17]
Jordy
It's not. No.
- [58:18]
Ben
All right, all right. Enough teasing.
- [58:21]
Jordy
Enough teasing.
- [58:21]
Ben
All right, Take it easy. So this is how decisions have been being made at the government lately. One of these far right wing Twitter or X accounts will make some statement. Like this Alx account that goes something about, I don't know, some, some the person will say like direct. I don't even, I don't even understand the language that they use. So I'm, I'll try to read it, but it's like basically reading j. Gibberish anyway. It's a far right wing count attacking the IRS direct filing program. And then Elon Musk responds. This group has been deleted. To which the Midas Touch Network account goes. So Elon Musk is now bragging about getting rid of the team that put together the direct file tax filing system, which allows citizens to easily file their taxes for free. Free direct file is a big target of the for profit tax prep industry. And then as Democratic Congressman Eric Swalwell states, until today, you could file your taxes for free. Trump just took that from you. And it's just such a strange thing to take from people. Like it really did make things easy and convenient and that's the type of stuff that they're targeting. And then they target it and say deal y far leftist. Okay, so you're getting rid of like that, you're getting rid of US Aid. Like, like literally they go after. This is part of their playbook as well. The most vulnerable and the most peaceful and the hardest working. That's their foreign policy as well. Like to like, let's go after. Yeah, you know, and as Prime Minister Trudeau's like what Americans other than Donald Trump like wake up and like, let's attack. Attack Panama or like let's attack Greenland. But see, Trump just sees like peaceful people who aren't trying to have like massive military establishments around them on the surface. Let's be clear though. Canada was fighting in World War II before anyone else really was fighting in World War II. And Canada was with us side by side after 9 11. Canada has been one of America's biggest allies on, on Everything. So has Denmark. But Donald Trump looks at these countries that, you know, are trying not to. They're just trying to live their nice, peaceful lives and go after them here domestically is like, let's get rid of US Aid. Let's get rid of faa. Let's get like, let's get rid of things that are, like, really needed. Let's get rid of FBI agents. Let's get rid of. Let's get rid of. The tax filing system is ridiculous.
- [61:02]
Brett
It. Yeah. And I want to be clear about one thing. The tax filing, it still exists. So, like, if you need to file your taxes, you know, this year, e file still currently exists as of this moment. But we don't know what's going to happen to it. And it's certainly not a good sign that Elon Musk is saying that he, quote, deleted the team who's responsible for it and who built it. And, you know, this is also probably just a shot at Elizabeth Warren as well. He hates Elizabeth Warren because Elizabeth Warren has gone after him in the past for his business, shady business activities. And Elizabeth Warren ushered in the direct file system of via legislation a few years ago. And this is like an extremely bipartisan thing. Like, people like it, Americans should be able to file their taxes for free. They should be able to do this in an easy way. And it's ridiculous that it took this long for it to happen, but it finally did happen during the Biden administration. And to rip this away from people, it's really absurd. It's something that literally gonna sound like that viral Biden line, but helps nobody, hurts nobody. You know, it's true. It helps. I mean, it helps everybody. Hurts nobody. This is something that is just an asset for. To help them out to pay their taxes to the government, to help them pay the government money. It should be as easy and streamlined as possible. Our tax system is already as complicated as could be in regards to the other language you were speaking about, Ben. Ben. The language of conquest that Donald Trump is using towards these countries who just want to live. It's the language of an abuser. You know, when he's calling eu, when he's saying they're abusive towards us, when he's saying Canada, they are abusive towards us. Never has anybody in the history said, you know, who's really abusive towards us. The. The United States of America, you know, who really needs to get what they deserve? Canada.
- [62:43]
Ben
Yep.
- [62:43]
Brett
Canada. That's right. Never been said ever. Maybe until Donald Trump said it. And now his brainless minions who follow him parrot his, you Know everything. The last point I want to make is how quickly the messaging changes from MAGA depending on what Donald Trump says. He could literally say anything and they just go along. For the past few years, this whole MAGA movement pretended like they were this anti interventionalist movement. You know, we like, we should do our own thing. Other countries should do their own thing. You know, we shouldn't be helping other countries. We shouldn't be doing hurting other. We should just be, you know, the other countries problems are their problems. We're just going to do our thing and we're just going to let everything be. Oh, wait, you want to help Ukraine by helping them not even getting into the war, but helping them buy weapons. U.S. weapons, which is going to actually make America more money. Money. But you want to help out an ally so that Russia doesn't take over all of Europe. Oh, you're a warmonger. You're a warmonger. Oh, but Donald Trump gets into office, all these people are like, can. Like the way they speak. There was like a. I don't even know if I have it, but there's like a Tim Pool tweet out there that's like, Canada is going to see the vengeance of the United States when we prevail in our imperialist ways and crush them underneath the wrath of a thousand fires. Like, it's like a. It's. That's not it. I'm like paraphrasing one of his like crazy tweets. But it's that ridiculous is my like, exaggeration of the tweet. Because all of a sudden now they're like, we're conquerors, right? We need to conquer the world. They went from. America shouldn't intervene in any other country, even just with aid. And acting like Biden is some warmonger. Well, by the way, Biden, even though there's this public perception that he did didn't get us into any wars, the United States did not enter any wars. No American troops entered any wars. And in fact was maybe the first president in decades to actually get us out of wars by getting us out of Afghanistan, which ironically was the thing that kind of sunk his approval rating and he never recover from. And he got a whole lot of crap from Biden, took us out of wars. Now Donald Trump is trying to spark confrontation with our allies, like not even with people who are threatening us with Canada, with Panama, with Colombia, with Greenland. I mean, with Mexico. You could go with the eu. You could go on and on about the people that he is targeting, right? Now, and this whole MAGA movement now is all like, yeah, we're going to conquer them all and America's going to manifest destiny this. And, and it's just, they're all frauds when you really look at it. They're all frauds. They believe nothing except raw power. And so you need to throw raw power back at them. You need to stand up to them because it's the only way that they are going to back down. It's the only way. You got to stay strong. And you got to understand that really in these cases, the emperor has no clothes. And we are going to see that time and time again.
- [65:24]
Jordy
To your point, exactly. They, they think they're like Genghis Khan. Like, they think they're, they think they're just taking over there, but they're going to conquer everything. And they're just such keyboard warriors at the end of the day. You know, the, the messaging from Tim Walls, when he called them weird, should have never been turned away from. I think that was really sharp and on the nose messaging. These MAGA influencers are weird. The MAGA culture is weird. And when you look at one of their dear leaders and Elon Musk running this department of Government efficiency, Doge, what is he doing when he gets the opportunity to actually do things? He's making things wildly inefficient. I mean, you see it time and time again, and we saw it again today, Brett, with exactly what you just laid out. It's, it's really, it's spiteful and it's just all based on vengeance for vengeance sake. And again, not in the spirit of helping out the American people or making their lives lives easier.
- [66:21]
Ben
Look, I want to give a shout out to all of the government workers out there. Yes, these are people who are grinding every single day in difficult jobs who have been degraded by Republicans forever, basically. And they, they take it like, imagine if every day, you know, someone, just think about your job if you're not working in the federal government, if every day some of the people with power just would say, what a horrible job. Like, what you're devoting your life work to, how horrible it is and how bad you are and how lazy you are and that you don't work good and that you're just a terrible worker and a terrible person, right? Like, and you're working really hard, whether you're working at USAID to stop the spread of Ebola, whether you are, are working within a government agency that deals with safety protocols on railroads and you make sure that you're studying every day just the way the machinery works and ensuring that, you know, the tracks are certain specifications. Because if you're not there doing that and making sure there's compliance across all new projects, there could be train derailments and people die. Imagine like you're working to ensure that certain food dyes don't get into consumption. And, but for you and your research and your studying, there could be mass casualty events taking place. You know, I, I can, I could go across so many government agencies where, you know, where people, where these jobs are so necessary and, and Elon Musk and Trump are treating these jobs like they're crap. But here's the thing. A lot of these jobs are also incredibly hard to fill with people. Retention of these jobs is very difficult. And who in the world, once these jobs are gone, are going to want to work there? And look, you know, for Elon Musk, when, when Twitter's down or when it doesn't work well, or when he, you know, makes one of his ridiculous Twitter changes and by the way, turns Twitter into X and makes it into this hellscape where there's, you know, all this hateful and racist and misogynistic and like, and pornography and profanity, like it's, it's a gross place to be. And it's hard because you want to check in occasionally because what was there and some reporters and journalists are still there. It's like whenever you go there and now if that becomes the government, what that means is huge problems if Twitter's down or the posts aren't happening or the videos don't work, and that's the government. That could mean planes are crashing, salmonella is spreading to, you know, so, you know, that's why these issues are, are just, and here's the thing that bothers.
- [69:29]
Brett
Me, just to say very briefly, like, you know, if I'm going to put aside the fact that we already have an actual organization or office, rather department within the government right now that is responsible for the way the money's managed and making sure there's no fraud and making sure that federal spending is happening appropriately and US Government Accountability Office literally exists. That's the real DOGE already exists. DOGE is actually by, by its nature is inefficient. But let's, let's put that aside for a second. If somebody like an Elon Musk actually came in and was like, you know, we're going to review things, we, we think that there's inefficiencies. A lot of agencies have grown Quickly and, and we think that we could curb the bloat and see if there are any redundanc and we're gonna, we're gonna dig in and do that. I would be like, okay, that sounds, that sounds fair. But that's clearly not what he's doing. He's taking political vengeance and personal vengeance against certain agencies that, you know, he views as scorned him. Many people believe that one of the reasons that he's going at USAID with such force right now is because they played a pivotal role in ending apartheid in South Africa. They think so. A lot of people think that Elon Musk is furious about their actions then, men helping to eradicate apartheid. And so he is now trying to fight back against them there and then. It's also the language that Elon Musk uses, right. When Elon Musk is trying to investigate these agencies. You know, if you were being an honest broker of the issues right here, you would say, okay, I'm going to look in, I'm going to check the budgets, I'm going to make sure, we'll do an audit, we'll make sure the numbers line up and make sure everything's cool. Make sure that, you know, it's as efficient as possible. But what Elon Musk does is he goes online, he goes on Twitter and 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 times a day calls the hard working employees at these organizations criminals. He uses that word. He said, these are criminals, you are criminals, they are criminal. And that to me is such an escalation and it is so inappropriate and it really, it just, it shows his ulterior motives here that they're really not in good faith at all. And he's also setting it up to try to use the government to weaponize the judicial system against people who disagrees with them, to arrest people, to lock people up and to do all sorts of things like that. So, you know, there's, they say one thing, but when you look at what they're actually doing and the way they're actually carrying things out, you know, you always have to actually look at that because the way that Elon Musk is going about this is, it's very fascy, it's very, it's very fascist, it's very authoritarian. And it's not something that you see in developed countries. It's not something you see certainly in the United States of America. You know, I guess in until now.
- [72:05]
Ben
You know, I want to also mention the Dems, Democratic senators, Democratic members of Congress, went in front of the USAID building today. They were, you know, it was. It was good to see them here. I think we have. We have a clip of it. Brett. Just pick. Pick whichever one you like, and let's play it. You know, foreign assistance. Foreign assistance is about 1% of our entire federal budget. And maybe before coming after usaid, Republicans should look at all the billions and billions of dollars in tax breaks and subsidies that they give to oligarchs like Elon Musk. You want to save some money? Well, let's start there. And while we're at it, hey, Elon, pay your fair share in taxes. What is happening right now across the government is that an unelected billionaire is trying to gut the government so he can give other billionaires a tax break. And our answer is hell, no. That was Democratic Congressmember Jim McGovern, who's appeared here on the Midas Touch Network. Democrats need to do stuff like that. They need to do. I think they need to then use all the legal instruments they can. You know, maybe seek an injunction barring Elon Musk from entering these buildings. I think I'd like to see that. Why not? Why not file a temporary restraining order order saying that he should be limited from going into the buildings and that he doesn't have the appropriate security clearances. He's not somebody who's been appointed and confirmed. You can't just have random strangers, you know, go into the building, even if they work at other agencies. See if you can get a Washington, D.C. federal judge to literally issue an injunction banning it. That's a. That's an option. Why not. Why not at least try something like that? But I. But you need to. You need to be out there and you need to have those visuals. You need to show people, people that you're out there fighting. And you need to fight. You need to do both. And I think too much Democrats, you know, just assume that people get it. You got to be out there and lead on the front line. So it was good seeing them there. But, you know, also, I would have liked to see them out there last week in. In the heart of a lot of this, but they need to be out there every day. I know it's tough. I know it's tiring. But, you know, you've got some really great Democratic leaders, and they. And they can be out there, there messaging this. It's where the lot. Whether. I don't even think it's that even political anymore. You've got your MAGA people, but who's really cheering on Elon Musk? Getting rid of like osha, like, and lowering safety stand like, like, it's a popular issue for you to take on, but it's also the right thing for you to do. So do both and go out there and fight for the people. I'd like to see that. And one of the things Brian shot a senator from Hawaii Democrats doing is he's imposed a block on all of Trump's nominees from being confirmed until Elon Musk stops meddling with USAID and US Aid workers are restored. Any single senator, it's one of those weird quirks in the Senate can hold up the confirmation hearings of people. And so he's placed a hold on, which I think is, you know, yeah.
- [75:05]
Brett
For the State Department nominees. And we, you know, we remember the Republicans taking those actions, you know, all throughout the Biden administration, holding things, things up. And of course, you know, the things that we always also have to remember because, you know, it's, we don't also become the people who just say, do something, do something, do something, do something, do something. When things are maybe impossible to be done, but we need to do everything that can be done, you know, and, and go up to that line at all times. And this is a tactic that is important because we have to realize with this tactic, like this is a good example right here. With this tactic, right, it's going to delay Donald Trump's state nominees. It's going to frustrate the hit hell out of Donald Trump. It's tactically a very smart thing that they should be doing. Republicans would 100% be doing it if anybody was pulling one something, 100th of what Donald Trump and Elon Musk are doing. But we have to understand, at the end of the day, those nominees will still probably get through, Right. The Democrats don't have the majority, but Democrats need to flex their power where they have it. If they have the ability to delay these nominations right now, take it. Look, for every opportunity that you can right now to make these people's life hell, take it. Show that you're defending the American people. Show that you're defending these federal workers. Show that you're defecting this humanitarian aid people view this, these things positively, as Ben said, popular issues and good policy. And it's the right thing to do. So do it. Don't be afraid.
- [76:23]
Ben
Want to remind everybody we're, we're very close to 4 million subscribers. Then let's get to 5 million, let's get this to 10 million. Let's try to do all of that by April. I think we can get between 5 and 10 million by April. We need your help. Help though. So make sure you're subscribed. It's free to subscribe to this YouTube channel. Also share this YouTube channel with anybody in your life. That's the best, the easiest way you can help. And you go, hey, but I can't subscribe. I can't do this. I really want to help. What can I do? That's one of the main things you can do because this network is the main hub for resistance, but also pushing back. Not merely resisting, but pushing forward and making sure. We're highlighting these stories that corporate media, media isn't. So one of the main ways you help is when this show ends. Just reach out to anybody in your life that you know. Just go through your cell phone, say, hey, we haven't spoken in a while. Somebody haven't spoken in a while. Hey, just. Have you seen the Midas Touch network? Hey, make sure you subscribe and do it to like everybody on your phone and anybody you know, family, friends, co workers, colleagues, people you used to know, whatever. That's the number one way you can help. Another way you can help, go to midasplus.com. that's our substack run by Ron Philipkowski. You can subscribe there for free. Free. I would love for you to become a paid subscriber, but why don't you test it out or become a paid subscriber, Chris, that helps. Then go to patreon.com Midas Touch. That's where we hold our Zoom meetings a few times a month. We'll do another one soon. We love to meet you. Look, we have zero outside investors on this network. We're a hundred percent people powered. And again, show that graphic. Brett. We're beating Fox. We're beating Forbes, we're beating abc. We're beating every major corporate. We're number one in the United States of the most watched. We get more people watching this than all of the main Fox shows combined. And I'm saying that because we need this microphone. You need this microphone, and it's your microphone. It's you. It's the Midas mighty who built this. And now let's go out and use this for good. Let's spread empathy, love, compassion, democracy. Let's bring people together. We can do this together. Thank you so much. Thank you for watching this episode. We'll see you next time. Keep checking back on the YouTube channel throughout the day for all of our news updates. Subscribe on Instagram. Subscribe across all platforms. Brett's been doing a great job on Tick Tock. And thank you, everybody. We'll see you soon, Jordy.
- [78:46]
Jordy
Shout out to the modest.
- [78:51]
Brett
Standing strong against the fascist. We sing our song.
- [79:06]
Jordy
Love this video. Continue the conversation by following us on Instagram. Midas Touch and help US blow past 750,000 followers.
- [79:23]
Brett
You are no dummy, but you're kind.
- [79:24]
Ben
Of acting like one. You used to crush it in school.
- [79:27]
Brett
Outsmarting opponents on the field. And now? Well, you're still smart, but not exactly challenging yourself. You could be advancing nuclear engineering in the world's most powerful Navy. You were born for it. So make the smart choice. You can be smart, or you can be nuke smart. Become a nuclear engineer@navy.com Nuke Smart. America's Navy, forged by the sea.