Brett (5:04)

I'm really excited for the Patreon today after this. And if you're listening to this on audio, it's already happened. You could rewatch it by going to patreon.com midas touc check that out for the next time. We're going to be doing this just about every week now to make sure that we're able to all just be in touch as part of this community during these times. We think it's super important over here. Everything's going well. Ben, looking good by the way. Look at Ben over here. Ben, man with the new setup. Looking fresh. HD Ben, HD Ben, this is the first time I think a lot of.

Ben Mycel (5:31)

People HD Ben, a lot of people.

Brett (5:33)

Seen you in HD So for those.

Ben Mycel (5:35)

On audio, I upgraded my laptop and I upgraded my camera. Now, we still don't have the staff and team at Midas Touch Network to do it for me, so I did it myself. So I don't fully know where to look, but let's be real, I don't really know where to look anyway. And so I'm trying to look at. I'm trying to look at the camera, but, you know, it's a whole different setup for me. So I'm gonna figure that out. So bear with me. Jordan, you're doing great, big bro. How are you?

Jordy (6:05)

You are doing great, big bro. I can't wait to get into the show today. So I guess why don't we just. Why don't we just get started? Ben, where do you want to lead us off?

Ben Mycel (6:11)

Okay. When I saw Donald Trump posting these advertisements for a fragrance that he sells at get Trump Fragrances.com, this follows Donald Trump selling Trump guitars and selling NFTs and sneakers. Assassinations.

Brett (6:32)

You could throw literally any item at the end of that selling Trump, and you could just name anything and, like, there's an 80% chance that you're going to be right, that he sells.

Ben Mycel (6:38)

Well, if you notice the business model, if you want to call it that, is the same for all of these. So he never actually creates the product first. So what? It appears to me, this is again, my opinion from analyzing what I'm at least observing. I could be wrong, but I think it's accurate. It seems that he's posting AI images of the product that actually don't exist. And when you go to the frequently asked question section of all of these different products, which all have different.com names, they all basically say the same thing, that the product that you see in the photos is for illustrative purposes only. It's not the product you're going to get. So the $100,000 Trump watch, for example, which seems to have parts made in China, it's not even made. So they sell it, they take in all of these orders, they kind of hoard the money, and then they decide how they're going to manufacture it later. They're frequently asked questions.

Jordy (7:38)

It's a concept. It's a concept of a product.

Ben Mycel (7:41)

It's a concept of a product. But look to your point, Jordy, concepts of products are different than concepts of health care. This is always when people like, oh, you hate Donald Trump. Look, if Donald Trump wanted to go out there and he was in Mar a Lago and he was not running government and he Wanted to sell little trinkets, right? Sell this and sell that. Go for it. Like, I hope you're not scamming people. I hope it's within the confines of the law, but if that's what you want to do, do it. Concepts of a made up Trump watch or perfume, Jordy, to your point, are different than concepts of a healthcare plan where if you remove people from the Affordable Care Act, Obamacare, if you take away people's Social Security, if you take away people's Medicare, that means human beings are dying. We saw what concepts of a plan meant when Donald Trump was in charge during COVID For him, it meant, oh, like a miracle, it's all gonna go away. Let's just ignore it, let's pretend it's not here, and then we'll just start blaming people for it and not take any responsibility while millions of people die and then rely on a whole propaganda apparatus to push it. So, Jordy, to your point, it's grifty, it's ridiculous. But also, this is an area of law that I teach at USC Law when I teach in the spring semester. I took off fall semester because me and my wife just had our first baby girl, Ximena. But I'm back in action in spring in front of a class of over 100 students at USC. And we teach name, image and likeness law and intellectual property as part of the subject matter that I teach. So I consider myself to be somewhat of a subject matter expert in this type of litigation. You can steal people's name, image and likeness and use it for commercial purposes. It's different than if you're reporting on the news that's newsworthy the moment you start selling products. All of those exceptions don't apply. And now you're commercializing something, using someone's face to advertise your product. There's countless examples of lawsuits that were filed where people's name, image and likeness were misappropriated. The cause of action, the legal claim, is called misappropriation of name, image and likeness. Sometimes it's referred to as a violation of someone's right of publicity, that you have a right not to have someone publicize your image, your likeness, for the purpose of exploiting it for commercial ventures. But, you know, there was a case recently of the rapper T.I. and his wife. His name is. Her name is tiny Harris. So TI created this band called OMG Girls back in 2009. A company then started releasing OMG dolls that seem to use the image of TI's band. He sued, he got a verdict for $71 million. And there had to be a lot of evidence adduced though. Were they related? Is that how the company created these OMG dolls here? You don't even have to deal with that. Trump is using Dr. Jill Biden's image to sell perfumes and to sell colognes. You can't do that. It is unlawful in a civil sense. You could file a civil lawsuit for monetary damage. It's not a criminal thing, it's a civil thing. The statute of limitations on the low end is about two years. So she's got about a two year period. If she wants to sue him for this, what would the damages be? How much money is Donald Trump making from this stuff? Is he going to be making 5, 10, $20 million? Then I think she'd be entitled to punitive damages of 3 to 5, maybe even as much as 10 times the underlying damages. So to me, he's just handed her a potential lawsuit if for a hundred million dollars. Now you're probably saying, well, Ben, Dr. Jill Biden's not going to sue him. She believes that the office of the first lady is August. It's, it's respectful, it's dignified, because it should be. So would she kind of go and, and bring things to this level? I don't know. She probably won't. But also, you may have to ask, when Donald Trump degrades the office this way, how else can you deter him from this conduct? I mean, you've seen when Eugene Carroll at least sued him, it did have a deterrent effect. When Donald Trump was slapped with gag orders, it did have a deterrent effect. He does back down when he's hit with these things. So how do you stop a bully? I think you have to slap a hundred million dollar lawsuit on the bully. It's the only thing he reacts to. One more point and then I'll toss it to you. Brett and Jordy. You know Donald Trump's been found liable for sexual assault. Okay. Donald Trump is on tape bragging about sexually assaulting women. So when Donald Trump posts this photo next to the wife of President Biden and uses language like can't resist a fragrance your enemies can't resist and make some sexualized implication there. Which by the way, Fox then parroted over and over again on all of the Fox shows in the morning, they were basically saying, oh, it seems like Dr. Jill Biden is into power. Seems like, you know, she was into Donald Trump. He knows what he was doing that needs to be deterred and stopped. It's, it's frankly disgusting and despicable. And who wants, I mean, could you just imagine the fact that this is normalized by corporate media? It's why I wanted to do this as our first story. And it's not to point out, oh, Trump selling grifty crap. It's just, this is a stain on the United States of America and it deserves to be covered with, with seriousness and in the appropriate legal context. Jordy Brett?

Brett (13:56)

Yeah, you know, and I'm not saying necessarily that the first lady, Jill Biden should go ahead with a lawsuit like this, but I would like to see many more instances of kind of Democrats and just people in general not backing down to this guy. I think far too often, especially right now, you get the sense in a lot of ways that there are a lot of kind of politicians out there who were kind of like, they were like made nervous by the election. When you look at the results, yes, Trump won and the electoral, you know, divide was pretty decent. But when you look at the popular vote, when you actually look at how many votes in each state, it's not like it was, it wasn't this mandate, it wasn't this blowout like they try to make it seem. And when you look at the gains that the Democrats made in the house at 10 tells a whole kind of different story even than the national race that was out there. And so I think these sort of post mortems of, oh, like the Democrat brand is dead, like, like we need to run away from all these policies. I think that is wrong. I think there are improvements to be made for sure. But I think this whole idea that, like, now we have to wave the white flag, surrender, now we have to just, let's do what Donald Trump says and make Donald Trump happy, that concerns me a little bit because I think a healthy democracy does need an opposition to somebody who is so anti our democracy, like Donald Trump. And it seems like every day when I open up social media, I see another post from somebody who I thought I respected or liked or whatever. And you see something like, you know what? Elon Musk is very right. I actually agree with Elon Musk very much with this. You know, Donald Trump is very right about, it's like, you don't have to bend over backwards to try to appease these people. They are not going to like you. They are not going to work with you. The whole thing is a con. And it's about time that we all call this out and continue to use the power that you have. That is a check on the Executive branch rather than just folding right off the bat.

Ben Mycel (15:49)

I spoke with Democratic Congress. Sorry, Jordy.

Jordy (15:51)

No, I would absolutely. I mean, he's just such a small, pathetic man. I'd like to think that Melania said no when he asked, hey, can, can, can I do a photo of you? And we could promote my cologne. And then Milani says no. And so Trump decides, you know what? I'm going to. I'm going to go and do that. She should absolutely sue. I'd love to see it. Because ultimately it's what you said, Brett, and I'm not putting this all on Dr. Jill Biden here. I'm not. But it's that essence, Brett, of people just rolling over and just letting Donald Trump be Donald Trump.

Ben Mycel (16:19)

Right?

Jordy (16:19)

Like, why. And why time and time again, are we just letting this person get away with this type of abhorrent behavior? It's pathetic. It needs to stop. And it will only stop when you stand up to the bully.

Ben Mycel (16:30)

Jordy, you mentioned Melania. What was she doing on Fox over this weekend? Well, Fox asked Melania, so what are you going to do as the first lady? What initiatives you did? Be Best before. What's your new initiative? And Be Best was like, total bs. But Fox was like, trying to do the propaganda for her, right? And she was like, and again, I'm not playing Melania clips. And I'm, I made a policy here on my videos. I'm not playing Donald Trump's. I have to talk about the news. I'm just not playing their audio and video. Neither am I going to be playing Melania's audio and video. But her response is, well, I've created these very beautiful Christmas ornaments called the Merry Christmas America Collection and the Merry Christmas America collection. For $90, you can buy the Merry Christmas America USA Star. The USA Star is an exclusive limited edition ornament. Purchasers have the option of receiving a digital collectible as well. That's a photo of it instead of the real thing. If you would just like a photo of the ornament.

Brett (17:37)

Oh, Ben, what the. What the hell, man? Are you kidding me right now? Like, I thought you said you weren't playing clips of Melania, but that was clearly.

Ben Mycel (17:42)

You thought.

Jordy (17:43)

I thought she was in the. I thought she was in the room.

Ben Mycel (17:45)

With us with my new camera, with the new mic. It's like, you do look incredible. Like, I just. Yeah, it's really next level impressions right there. But so then one of the Fox, One of the Fox hosts then says, well, Melania is actually donating all of the Proceeds to a charity for children in need. Okay, no shit. What are you talking about? It doesn't say anything of that on this. And normally if you were going to do that, you would listen the charity it was going to go to. And why wouldn't she say that publicly? Why wouldn't. The first thing you say is this money is going to charity. But then Fox does that and puts out that propaganda for her. Speaking of Melania, though, I was just going back in history because we talked about Bashar Al Assad and I was talking.

Brett (18:38)

Can we talk about the Fox propaganda though, right now? Because they really it's. And we're speaking of Assad. So I think this all kind of plays in. It's really ramped up to just the craziest levels. So the other day, Fox sends out a push notification. This was, I'm paraphrasing it ever so slightly, but the push notification sent out by the Fox News app was something along the lines of Trump shows dominance with hand, with Macron handshake showing America is back. And you're like, what do we do? What are we doing here? Like in North Korea, if they ran that headline, I think even they would be like a little much. Guys, really, that's like, we're probably pushing the limits of what the people might believe. But that was an actual headline from an organization that purports to be a news organization. But you could see how that being beamed out to millions of people's phones at the same time being put on headlines while the antithesis of that is also being rolled out, attacking, attack, attack, attack, funded with billions and billions and billions of dollars. You could see how this propaganda works and how it permeates and how they try to make these dynamics of strength versus weakness, look, Donald Trump tugged on this guy's hand hard. America is back. Look, we are so back right now, folks. That's dominance, that's manliness. The whole thing is totally pathetic. And it's so obvious if you're kind of, if you're just looking for it. But I think if you're really just embedded in this world, maybe I'm trying to give some people the benefit of the doubt here. Maybe you don't see how obvious it is, I don't know. But it's so ham fisted to me that I don't know how you don't see that and go, all right, guy, like, give me, give me a break here, guys.

Ben Mycel (20:17)

Well, Brett, to your point, just so people know the exact context of that, right, President Macron of France invited Donald Trump to the reopening of the Notre Dame Cathedral, which was previously burned down. So this was a big event. Macron was smart. What he realized was, how do I get Donald Trump to meet with President Zelensky and send a message to Putin when Putin's looking very weak right now, when Putin's big ally in Syria is being over overthrown? So Macron was the one actually exercising strength and international leadership, and he realized we have this grandiose historical cathedral. Let me invite Donald. So he gets a photo op and that Donald can look and act tough and act like a big shot right there. In the meantime, Macron then brings in Zelinski, and in a brilliant move. This is brilliant. It's really Macron's brilliant. He brings Zelinsky and Trump together while Trump is, you know, thinking about his big handshake, which he looked ridiculous on. And by the way, Macron was ready for it and squeezing Trump really tight. And you could look at Trump's face in some of these photos. Again, I don't want to show more Trump stuff, but he leveraged Trump's desire for publicity and to see big, but to bring Zelensky in for geopolitical purposes. And so, you know, I wrote an article on Midasplus.com about it. I called it the tiny or micro stick policy. I said, we used to have Teddy Roosevelt in 1902 and thereafter, America's policy was speak softly, carry a big stick. You don't have to be loud and obnoxious, but you can back up ultimately what you do with power. I said, trump's got a micro stick. It's like a tiny stick policy. It's act loud and obnoxious, but you're power, but you have no real power. So it's interesting to see how Macron was utilizing that and how our enemies, like Putin is utilizing that. Putin's using it with nuclear blackmail. Regarding the handshake, the handshake was the most ridiculous thing imaginable. I mean, Trump, like, approaches the handshake from like a downward 90 degree angle from the elbow and like jerks the hand up in the weirdest way. It looked very strange, and you're right. But all of the push alerts from Fox were like the most powerful move ever. He dominated the handshake. Biggest handshake ever. Meanwhile, what was really taking place was Zelensky was engaged. Thank you for chopping out the face. Zelinsky was engaged in a real diplomatic effort by pulling over Zelensky. That's what was actually happening. And that's actually what the strength there is. I want to talk about all of that. I want to talk about more of exposing Fox's propaganda. Then I want to talk about what's going on in Syria. Let's pivot to Trump's Meet the Press moment. Let's talk about President Biden. 227,000 new jobs created again this month. I mean, President Biden will be handing off an economy that is the envy of the world. 16.1 million new jobs created. Let's talk about that and more. But let's take our first quick break. Before doing that, Let me just remind you patreon.com Midas Touch I'm excited to chat with you on our exclusive Zoom meeting in front of my new camera. If I know where to look. Right there. Let's take our let's take our first quick break of the show. With big wireless providers, what you see is never what you get. Somewhere between the store and your first month's bill, the price you thought you were paying, it magically skyrockets. With Mint Mobile, you'll never have to worry about gotchas ever again. When mint mobile says $15 a month when you purchase a three month plan, they mean it. Think about all the bad experiences you've had with mobile providers in the past, complicated bills, upcharges that you never thought were going to be there. Say bye bye to your overpriced wireless plans, jaw dropping monthly bills and unexpected overages. Mint Mobile is here to rescue you with premium wireless plans starting at 15 bucks a month. And all plans come with high speed data and unlimited talk and text delivered on the nation's largest 5G network. So to get this new customer offer here at the Midas Touch Network and your new three month premium wireless plan for just 15 bucks a month, go to mint mobile.com midas that's mint mobile.com midas make sure you spell it right. Me I D A S cut your wireless bill to 15 bucks a month at mint mobile.com midas $45 upfront payment required, equivalent to $15 a month. New customers on first three month plan only speed slower above 40 GB on a limited plan. Additional taxes, fees and restrictions apply. See Mint Mobiles for detail. Isn't it funny how the people we love the most are often the hardest to shop for? You know what I mean? Luckily, there's one gift that everyone on your list and my list is sure to enjoy. It's an Aura digital picture frame named number one by Wirecutter. Aura Frames make it incredibly easy to share unlimited photos and videos directly from your phone to the frame. And when you give an Aura Frame as a gift, you can personalize and preload it with a thoughtful message and photos using the Aura app Perfection, making it an ideal present for long distance loved ones. It's a gift so special they'll use it every day. I know when I'm on that hunt for the perfect gift. The Aura Frame. It's personal. It's something that can be with the person I'm giving a gift to forever. It is really, really special. So save on the perfect gift by visiting auraframes.com and get 35 off Aura's best selling carver Matte frames by using the promo code Midas at checkout. That's a U R A frames.com promo code MIDAS M E I D A S this deal is exclusive to listeners of the Midas Touch podcast, so get yours now in time for the holidays. Terms and conditions apply. One more time, that's Aura frames a u r a frames.com and then use the promo code Midas at checkout.

Brett (26:48)

Let's face it, after a night with drinks, I don't bounce back the next day like I used to. Hey, I got to be honest with myself, right? It feels like I have to choose between having a great night or a great next day. That is, until I found Pre Alcohol zbiotics. Pre Alcohol Probiotic drink is the world's first genetically engineered probiotic. It was invented by PhD scientists to tackle rough mornings after drinking. Here's how it works. When you drink, alcohol gets converted into a toxic byproduct in the gut. It's this byproduct, not dehydration, that's to blame for your rough next day. Pre alcohol produces an enzyme to break this byproduct down. Just remember to make Zbiotics your first drink of the night. Drink responsibly and you'll feel your best tomorrow. Every time I have pre alcohol before drinks, I notice the difference the next day. For example, after a fun night out with friends at like a local bar or wherever we go, I could still get up the next morning and hit the gym. And I'll admit I was skeptical at first, but I tried it at a dinner party with some friends the next morning, I felt great. Ready to tackle the day, ready to do more videos here at the Midas Touch Network. I kept hearing about pre Alcohol and wondered what it was actually like. Now that I've tried it, I get the hype. Plus, with their GMO technology, Zbiotics is continuing to create probiotics that tackle the challenges of modern living. Go to ZBiotics.com Midas to learn more and get 15% off your first order when you use code MIDAS at checkout. ZBiotics is backed with a 100% money back guarantee, so if you are unsatisfied for any reason, they'll refund your money, no questions asked. Remember to head to ZBiotics.com Midas and use that code Midas. It's M eidas at checkout for 15% off.

Jordy (28:33)

Shout out to our pro Democracy sponsors, y'all. Links in description of both YouTube and audio. Click the links, use the codes, let them know we sent you Benji. Where to next?

Ben Mycel (28:41)

All those sponsors are so great. But you saw the contrast though, with the new camera, with the first one and then the other ads. So support all of our sponsors.

Brett (28:50)

You know what it's like? It's like when you watch like a show. It's like when you watch Kerber Enthusiasm season one.

Jordy (28:56)

Yes.

Brett (28:56)

And then you go to like Kirby Enthusiasm sees, like when they have the HD and it's on and you're like, wow, it really looks a whole lot different now.

Jordy (29:03)

It's a moment. This is a defining moment for men right here.

Brett (29:05)

Defining, define. But now you got to make sure, like, they're gonna see everything on.

Jordy (29:09)

You know, that's the thing with this. I was nervous for him with the camera. Like, it's a really high definition camera. I'd be nervous for myself. Let me rephrase that. I'd be nervous. Like, it would, like, bring out every pore, every wrinkle. You look great, big bro.

Ben Mycel (29:22)

Well, I appreciate that, Jordy. I was going to say, I won't turn this into my trials and tribulations of trying to set up this camera last night, but let's just say there was probably four hours of me whining.

Brett (29:35)

All I know is I woke up to hundreds of tech as if there was an emergency. I woke up to hundreds of texts and I go through it and it's been having a mental breakdown on imessage. Like, I'm not going to show you all my texts, but.

Ben Mycel (29:53)

It just went.

Brett (29:54)

On and on and on and on and on and on and on and every text or pictures of the setup. And Ben freaking out because he thought it was over and he couldn't do it, couldn't do any more videos.

Ben Mycel (30:06)

My wife got me around 12:20am and she was like, all right, you really have to go to sleep. Like, I don't Know what you. I'm like, I'm like, just 10, 50 more minutes. I think the tripod. Anyway, I digress. All you have to do is plug.

Brett (30:18)

In a USB cable and put it on a tripod.

Ben Mycel (30:21)

I get it. You have to build a tripod. You have to.

Jordy (30:24)

Big brain right over here knows how to do everything.

Ben Mycel (30:26)

Easy for you, Brett. Yeah, you have to, you have to install some. Anyway, it's all it was. Not yet.

Jordy (30:32)

Don't worry.

Ben Mycel (30:34)

All right, all right, let's get it. Let's not bury the jobs report though, the way corporate media will want to bury it. President Biden has to tell his own news now. That's like great. So President Biden posted today's report jobs report, this is on Friday, shows The economy created 227,000 jobs in November as Boeing people returned to work with record wage gains and hurricane recovery further progressed. America's comeback continues. Since I took office, the economy has created more than 16 million jobs with jobs created every single month over the last four years, we've had the lowest average unemployment of any administration in 50 years. This has been a hard fought recovery, but we are making progress for working families. There hasn't been a single month with a net loss jobs report since President Biden's taken over. Here's the thing though, and here's what I understand. There are, you know, the, the minimum wage for example, has not been raised for decades while CEO salaries have increased a thousand, three thousand, five thousand, ten thousand percent. While CEOs and billionaires know how to dodge their taxes while the people pay their taxes. People see this disparity while private equity buys up homes, reduces the supply of the housing market by commoditizing it and makes it so it's like impossible to buy a home if you just have a regular job and then makes it very difficult for your kids and your grandkids to get good paying jobs to buy their own homes. Yes, these numbers are great, but people are pissed now. President Biden's policies were to deal with systemic issues. And when you deal with systemic issues, they don't heal overnight, right? Like infrastructure act, inflation, reduction of bottom up middle out economics that takes many years to occur. The same way Reagan's trickled down which benefited the billionaires. The impacts are they felt right away, but also are now still being felt to this day. A restructuring of wealth, a massive wealth grab for the billionaires hoarding all of the wealth, it wasn't enough for them to just be billionaires. They have to take it all. And people are Pissed. But people need to know how to vent that peacefully and how to vent that and where to vent that anger. What Donald Trump and the MAGA said is, it's the trans who are doing it. Trans people. It's the migrants, it's the communists, the Marxists, secret cabals are behind it. And maga, when they tapped into George Soros, they kind of made it both anti semitic. And the billionaires. And notice what Trump would do in all of those ads and all of the emails. He would say, the billionaires are the ones giving Kamala Harris the money. Remember all that reporting that we did? The billionaires are supporting. She's raising money off the billionaires, which she really wasn't. Don't get me wrong. There were some billionaires who supported her, I'm sure. But overwhelmingly, the billionaires supported Donald Trump because they wanted to pay no taxes and they want to get basically social welfare for billionaires rather than taking care of we, the people, of taking care of you. So people were pissed. So Vice President Kamala Harris saying, let's go forward, let's turn the page, hope there's a bright future. People didn't even know what that meant. I think is the kind of analysis she ran Obama's 2008 campaign in 2024, when people are saying, I'm pissed, who should I be pissed at? And Trump is saying, george Soros, migrants. You should be pissed at trans people. They're all taking your jobs, they're eating your pets, they're coming for you. And people were like, okay, got it. I gotta blame. I gotta blame some people. While the reality is the ringmaster of all of this are people like Trump and Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos and all, not just them, all these billionaires and people who have amassed massive amounts of wealth who have been spiking the football and gloating about it and like, laughing in our faces post the election, which we see that with these. They've all emerged right and cocky as, you know what they're. Look what we did. His entire cabinet are billionaires who he's putting on entirely. But nine 12 people in cabinet and senior.

Brett (35:34)

14 billionaires. 14 billionaires.

Ben Mycel (35:36)

Donald Trump, 14. Essentially the entire cabinet are billionaires. And while Elon Musk says things like, you know, I don't support unions because they have a lord versus peasant dynamic.

Brett (35:49)

And I thought we weren't playing clips of Elon.

Ben Mycel (35:52)

Anything with lord and peasant dynamics, I cannot. What are you. The lord versus peasant dynamics you're saying are in unions fighting for living wages for people versus, I don't know, the actual Lord v. Peasant dynamic of you having 350 or $500 billion, whatever it is, I don't know. I think the Lord v. Peasant dynamic is people in Mar a Lago laughing at people because they're not paying taxes, while the people are paying more actual taxes than billionaires are paying. I think that's the situation that's going on. So I think what Democrats have to harness right now, but for in a peaceful way, is you have to harness the frustrations and the anger and you have to let people know what's up. I mean, the parallels here to these dictators across the world, I mean, I think can't be overlooked. I mean, you know, when I saw Donald Trump posting that people were making statutes, golden statutes of them or fake golden statues, I'm thinking it's the same time where Bashar Al Assad statutes are being torn down by just pissed off people and some bad people there too, some rebels. But as President Biden said, there is an opportunity if you can root out ISIS in Syria to try to redefine the future of a Bashar Al Assad free system.

Brett (37:25)

I mean, can I just say, once you start building statues of yourself as like a living president, I think it's game over for you at that point. I've never seen the story end well, where the statues are up of the dictator and everything just goes swimmingly for that guy. I just, my whole life I've seen images of people tearing down these statues after the dictators flee or the dictators are like decapitated. It just does not end well for the people with the statues. I mean, we go back to, you know, whether it's like Gaddafi or now Assad or Saddam Hussein. You could go back the list of the autocrats overseas who have put up statues and I'm just going to say the success rate. Not a great club to be in at the end of the day is all I'm going to say.

Ben Mycel (38:08)

Look, America is not about that though. That's the frustrating thing. Like what, what? We used to mock that behavior. You're right. There used to be movies and granted, you know, Sasha Barricone's from the uk, but you know, but, but it similar to the south park style mocking of dictators. When Sasha Barricone was in the movie the Dictator and you would see that, you'd be like, that's ridiculous, that's embarrassing. That's just some goofy stuff. But like that's actually Trump. I mean, take a look at just this photo of Bashar Al Assad that was found in his palace right here, this is what he was looked like when he was younger. Doesn't this remind you he was born with a golden spoon in his mouth? Doesn't that remind you of Trump? Like, literally, while Donald Trump was dodging the draft in Vietnam? Here's the photo of Trump. It's like the same, like, photo right there. I mean, doesn't that give you that small stick energy right there? I mean, and Donald Trump is literally somebody who has a golden toilet bowl. Okay, his toilet is probably fake gold, but his toilet is gold. He lives in a gold luxury apartment. He lives in a country club, and he brags about his wealth. You know, one of the other parallels between Basar Al Assad that I started kind of picking up on, I said, you know, I was reading some articles about how Vogue did this propaganda piece for the Assad family in 2011, and they featured Asma Al Assad, Bashar Al Assad's wife. You see her right there? And they called the article a rose in the desert. And they said, Asma Al Assad is a glamorous, young and very chic, the freshest and most magnetic of First Lady. She's breezy, conspiratorial, and fun. Her accent is English, but not plummy. Despite what must be a killer iq, she sometimes uses urban shorthand. Then they show the photos of Bashar Al Assad and her and the kid together.

Brett (40:11)

This is crazy.

Ben Mycel (40:13)

And they show. They show. That was in there. That was in their edition. And then I think about this, the Vogue cover from 2005 with Melania Trump on it, Donald Trump's new bride. The ring, the dress, the wedding, the jet, the party. Why are you selling 99 Christmas ornaments if. If you have that, that's not enough. That's not enough. You've got the private jets, You've got any car. You have to now go after the people who, for whatever reason, believe in you, because they're watching Fox propaganda. And you have to take from those people $99 when you have that amount of wealth. And then you see these members of Congress. And I hope we have this clip, Brett, it's one of these MAGA Republicans today talking about cutting Social Security and just saying, well, that's got to be. Or Medicare, like, that's off the chopping blocks as well. Like, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha. Like, I guess that's what's going to go next. Do we have that clip right? Do you know what I'm talking about? Or Do I not?

Nancy Mace (41:27)

And so we've got to right the ship. And it's going to mean cuts. It's going to mean cuts to the 24% of the discretionary spending that we have. And it's also going to mean looking long term at the front end of some programs like Social Security, Medicare, not taking anyone off of what they paid into so far. But there is some waste, abuse and fraud in Medicare that we can, we can take those numbers back and add to our general coffers in our treasury and on the front end on Social Security, I think there's a way when people are living longer, they're retiring later, that on the front end we can move that retirement age back a little bit.

Ben Mycel (42:03)

Let me get your take on. It's the craziest stuff. The first thing that you go after while billionaires are amassing the craziest amount of wealth, where you're all prepared to give the wildest, more tax cuts to these billionaires, Your first thing that you do as Republicans is go after people's health care is you go after people's Social Security without even a sense of feeling like what? So here's the thing, folks. Republicans were out there saying over and over again, the trans people are coming to look at you in the bathroom. They're coming for your high school sports teams, they're coming to beat you in sports. Or the migrants, they're eating your cats, they're eating your dogs, they're coming for your pets, even ducks, they're eating ducks off the street Republic. None of that's happening. Republicans are coming for your family. Not only are they coming for your books, they're coming for your health, they're taking away your health care, they're ripping it away from you. They're coming for your retirement, they're coming for your Social Security, they are coming for you. Not hypothetically, not jokingly, not sarcastically. They're doing it and they're saying it to your faces right now. So get freaking angry, get freaking pissed, but get pissed at the right freaking people. Get pissed at the people who are doing it to you, who are scamming you and looking at you and laughing at you and mocking you in Mar a Lago. That's what's going on. We still have a lot more show. Let's want to remind people. Patreon.com Midas Touch meet us for our Zoom after show meeting. Exclusive to our patrons. No questions, off limit. Excited to see you all there and answer your questions right after the show. Let's take our last Quick break.

Brett (44:28)

We've all been there scrambling for that last minute gift that doesn't feel like a last minute afterthought. Well, here's your solution. Trade coffee. With trade, you can send a personalized coffee subscription directly to someone's inbox within minutes. It's fast, easy and guaranteed to impress. Honestly, no other gift gives them something to look forward to every single morning. And I know personally because I look forward to my trade coffee every single morning. And here's the best part. A trade subscription is not just coffee, it's an experience. Every month they'll get freshly roasted coffee perfectly matched to their tastes from one of the top small batch roasters in the entire country. It's like gifting them a personal tour of the best coffee shops across the US without ever leaving home. From light and bright to dark and bold, trade has options for every coffee. Now let me tell you about my own experience with trade. I've tried roasters like Equator Coffee and Steady State from Trade and the quality is unbelievable. The beans are roasted just days before they arrive to my door. So much fresher than anything I would grab at the store. And the variety. It is like a new adventure every shipment. Plus the convenience is unbeatable. No more overspending at the coffee shop, settling for something less than amazing, or worrying that you forgot to add coffee to your last grocery list. Let's talk about gifting. A trade subscription is the perfect practical, yet personal gift. It's the gift that keeps on giving. Literally every day. When they brew their coffee, they will think of you. Whether they're a casual coffee drinker or a full on coffee enthusiast like me. Trade makes it simple to gift something they'll love. And you know, as the resident coffee geek here at Midas, I would not give my stamp of approval to just any coffee subscription service. Ready to cross that last gift off your list. Trade is offering their best savings of the year on gift subscriptions right now. Head to drinktrade.com Midas to send a personalized coffee subscription in minutes. That's drink trade.com Meidas don't miss out.

Ben Mycel (46:32)

Autumn leaves are so beautiful until they're clogging your gutters. And I know you're probably busy like me this season, so getting up on a ladder and cleaning your gutters can be very difficult. And I'm a low maintenance kind of homeowner, so I want to try to find solutions that protect my home and that don't require that much work for me. While I'm focused on our pro democracy media network. So look, I made an investment in something called leaffelter because it's really an investment in protecting my home. And in your case, your own home. I mean, clogged gutters, they're not just a nuisance. They can cause extensive problems and do it yourself. Solutions may work for the time being, but ultimately cost more money in the long run. So what leaffilter does is it uses this patented technology to keep out everything but water. No holes, no gaps or large openings for debris to get through. Every installation comes with a free inspection estimate and lifetime guarantee. The lifetime guarantee. He was really important for me. A leaffilter trusted pro will clean out, realign and seal your gutters before before installing leaffilter. And over 1 million homeowners have trusted leaffilter. So protect your home and never clean out gutters again with leaffilter. It's America's number one gutter protection system. Schedule your free inspection and get up to 30% off your entire purchase@leaffilter.com Mike that's a free inspection and up to 30% off@leaf filter.com Midas See representative for warranty details. Promotion is 20% off plus a 10% senior military discount. One discount per household. Again. Leefilter.com Midas.

Jordy (48:23)

Let'S go. I've heard nothing but great things both about trade and leaffilter from the Midas mighty so certainly check it out. Links are in description of YouTube and audio. Click them, use the codes, let them know we sent you. Benji Benjamin.

Ben Mycel (48:36)

Sorry, Brett.

Brett (48:36)

Sorry. Go, go, go.

Ben Mycel (48:38)

Oh, I was just gonna say Jordy, do you think I would be a good auctioneer? You really interrupted Brett. Some great dialogue. I was gonna say, jordy, do you think I would be a great auctioneer? And I was gonna go, do we have one?

Brett (48:51)

One, one.

Ben Mycel (48:54)

Do you know why I'm saying this? Other than you think I may be losing my mind right now?

Jordy (48:57)

I. Ben, I think you'd be great at anything you put your mind to do.

Ben Mycel (49:00)

Even 1, 1, 2.

Jordy (49:06)

Did I miss something last segment?

Brett (49:08)

We're gonna have some auctioneers who are listening to this episode being like, oh, that's not idea.

Ben Mycel (49:15)

That is really. IRS commissioner Pick was a auctioneer and he his whole shtick when he was in Congress. Like, his whole shtick. Like he had like one move. It's like the basketball player who could only go right and then do like the one move. Like his whole move. And people like, oh, this guy's so funny. Is that he would like. Like when he would like go and give a speech on the floor. You know, people like, that was amazing. All right, all right. It gets old after the first time you do that, buddy. But Billy Long's whole shtick. This is the guy Donald Trump is bringing in to lead the irs. The one thing Trump has to fire, the existing guy who was selected on a bipartisan basis, whose term isn't over until 2027. But Trump's bringing in this guy, Billy Long, former MAGA, Republican Congress member. I guess Trump's gonna fire this guy. Daniel Werful, or Wergle Warfell, I think is his name, who is the current IRS head. The IRS has made major improvements right now under President Biden because Biden has worked to bring efficiency to agencies.

Brett (50:25)

Can I tell you something crazy about Wurful for a second? Because I just looked him up. Daniel Wurfle graduated from John F. Kennedy High School in Plainview, New York.

Ben Mycel (50:35)

Stop it. You went to our high school.

Brett (50:36)

You went to our highest. This is kind of crazy. Fat right out of all the high school. I swear I'm reading it right now. Werfel graduated from John F. Kennedy High School in Plainview on Long island in 1989. So obviously older than the three of us over here, but that's pretty wide. Out of all the schools in the country, when I looked the guy up, he went to Plainview jfk, which is where we grew up. That's pretty good.

Jordy (50:56)

And you guys overlapped in, like, school, like going to the public schools in Plainview, not when.

Ben Mycel (51:02)

Did he say, when did he graduate?

Brett (51:03)

Brett, what are you talking about? He overlapped when he said they.

Jordy (51:06)

Ben, like, overlap. That was in, like, first grade, when he was in high school. I'm just saying they overlap.

Ben Mycel (51:11)

I was like, did I hear Brett say the dates wrong together? Jordan?

Brett (51:17)

Ben was a toddler, to be clear.

Ben Mycel (51:22)

The point that I'm making in a long, very circuitous and bizarre and weird way is that President Biden picked people who improved the agencies whose goal was to do better. So one of the things that the IRS was doing is it found the tax cheats, the billionaires who weren't paying their taxes. It collected the money. That's why the deficit under Biden was far less than under Donald Trump. Trump added $8.5 trillion of debt to our country, the most ever. 25, 30% of all debt was caused by Donald Trump. One of the ways President Biden managed things efficiently is we clawed back money from billionaires who weren't paying their fair share of taxes. Also, he created an online system for you to file taxes Online that there's a whole IRS filing online system which didn't exist before. Call times, if you have issues to call, the IRS went down to like, as efficient as possible. Before, if you called the irs, you would never even get in touch with somebody. People were pissed. They hated the system. But then what did the Republicans do? They created a boogeyman. Ooh, Biden's having 88,000 IRS agents who are knocking down your door. Okay, that's not anything that's happening at all. There were 88,000 new people being hired, I think over the course of like two decades to replace people who were resigning or leaving or aged out retiring over time. And Biden was created an efficient irs. Trump creates people who break the systems on purpose. Like Billy Long says he wants to destroy the IRS and he wants to repeal the concept of income taxes with a 23% regressive sales tax, which would benefit billionaires and screw over the 99% massively because the billionaires get to avoid all of their, you know, get to avoid paying all of their taxes. When Donald Trump finds the person to be the Postmaster General, he picks the guy. Dejoy. Who wants to destroy the post office. Like, the guy's life is like, let's destroy the post office. When Trump finds the FBI director, Cash Patel, let's, let's pick the guy who said that the FBI should be abolished. Let's make him the FBI director. Right. When it comes to the Defense Secretary, Pete Hegseth, let's pick a Fox Weekend News host who has no experience leading in the military. Be one thing if the guy was a Fox News host but was like a general or like another high rank, maybe a four star, Be a one star, a two star. How about you lead a military company? Exeth hasn't led any military company. He ran led two nonprofits after he left to veterans groups that pushed him out because of his personal behavior. He's someone who's been accused of sexual assault. He denies the allegations, but it's a pretty detailed police report. Someone whose mommy wrote a letter to him saying that he's an abuser of women on or around the same time he was accused of sexually assaulting a woman whose mommy's now on TV calling senators on behalf of her son saying, can you please let my son get the nuclear codes? Can you please do it, Penelope? I'm Penelope. And I'm Penelope and I'm going on all the news for my son. It's like, really, where they're kind of embarrassing. I gave the joke in My last one, I'm like, my mom went to my third grade art teacher to get my work hung up. And that embarrassed me. Wasn't for the nuclear codes. I mean, we have Penelope Hegsev going on Donald. He's a good boy. He's a really good boy. You made the right decision. And these are the people who lecture us on dei, as Brett says, DEI really stands for Didn't Earn it. And that's maga. Didn't Earn It. And it's all these MAGA people.

Brett (55:12)

Brett, that IRS story, that was, I feel like those. One of the, kind of the earlier stories in the Biden administration where they tried to make improvements to the IRS and turn it into this. IRS agents are coming to your doors and they're going to knock down your doors with weapons. They're sending in an army. That is a very clear instance of exactly what we're talking about here. And kind of a big focus that we've had. It's that these culture wars are created and they are, quite frankly, bullshit. They're. They're really made up things. And I don't want to. I don't want anybody to, like, take that as like, oh, you don't care about this group's rights or that group's rights. I just mean they exploit these things in order to control people, in order to turn people against each other who otherwise would be working together for a common cause. And in this case, the common cause is to actually be able to advance in our society, to have economic opportunity, to be able to live the American dream. That's what everybody wants here, except for the billionaires who are in charge. And so while Donald Trump puts all these bills. Billionaires in charge. While Donald Trump wants to strip away the actual parts of the IRS that are actually designed to help people. Listen, I understand there's no love lost with the irs, right? Nobody is like, yay, I'm going to pay taxes to the government. This is going to be awesome. I can't wait to pay taxes. I get that. But these are actually improvements that were designed to claw back more money from tax cheats, from millionaires and billionaires who are cheating on their taxes. And in order to actually help. Help you, to help normal people out there pay their taxes, figure out how to do it, the process, do it more efficiently. This is actually to improve the process for regular people. Well, you know, the billionaires don't like that. So they. How do they gut this agency without telling people that we're taking away the things that are actually making Your life easier. We're taking away the things. So instead of having to wait on the phone for hours in order to get a hold of somebody at the IRS to help you with your taxes, you get through in just a couple minutes. And you could help and you could go about your day, go about your life, go to your son's baseball game, whatever it is. Right. How do we do that? Well, we have to invent this story that there are these IRS agents that are going to be knocking down your doors and they're coming for you. It's always, they are coming for you. And it's this divide right now, which I think is one of the greatest divides in our country that we are seeing. And I think it's more present than ever, especially in light of many of the recent events that we've seen, that there is such this divide right now by the people who are wealthy and are getting wealthier and wealthier and wealthier by the day. I mean, just obscene numbers like to go from, you know, being worth $100 million to over $300 million. Some, you know, some people gaining that kind of wealth in the span of like a month, right. While there are people who are struggling. That's the kind of thing that Americans look at and they go, what the heck is going on? Like, this is a fundamentally unfair system. And so what do they do? Distract, distract, distract. Oh, look at this. Look at these people using the bathroom. Aren't you mad about that? You should be very mad about that. Get angry about that. They redirect the anger in these places. And that's something that is really the cause of all this division. And it's why there is so much funding put towards things like Fox and Right wing radio and all these various things, because they need to stoke that division. So while you're looking over here, they could redirect you there while they're picking your pocket with the other hand and they're putting forth the most radical agenda. Agenda on the planet that seeks to strip away your Social Security, that seeks to strip away your Medicare, that tries as hard as possible to prevent you from getting the healthcare you need.

Ben Mycel (58:45)

It's.

Brett (58:46)

This is across the board and it's a strategy that is deliberate and it is happening every single day in this country. And we all just need to be aware of it. And that awareness, I think, is one of the most terrifying things imaginable to the ultra wealthy, which is why they work so hard to control the flows of information. That's why you have Elon Musk spending 44 billion billion to control the inflow of information on Twitter, a worldwide platform that people have considered a town square. Why spend it? He's losing all this money. Isn't that an issue? Right, look, he's losing. No, he doesn't care at all. He's made far more money than that, even just in his other investments over the past month. He's made more than that. His wealth has increased more than that. He doesn't care because he gets to control the most valuable resource that we have right now in the world, which is information and what people are hearing. And he gets to, with his platform, amplify and de. Amplify certain things in order to push certain agendas in order to further divide people and do that head fake for people. Don't. Look at this, look at this. This isn't the real story. That's the fake news. That's the real news is here on X. This is the real things that we're telling you about. And you know, that's why we need to keep calling them out. It's why independent platforms, you know, are so important. Because when you have this corporate money, when you have billionaire investor, when you have all that stuff, you inevitably get beholden to the same interests, right? I mean that. And that's what we see with all these networks. That's what we see with the foxes of the world. That's what we see as these newspapers get taken over by these billionaire owners as someone like Jeff Bezos tries to curry favor with Donald Trump. They're all a part of the same team. Okay? And you ain't on it. We're in on it. I'm just telling. Telling you that right now. And so the sooner we kind of realize that, you know, the sooner we're going to be able to have actual substantial progress in the country.

Ben Mycel (60:43)

I'd say it like this, Brett. In a war, what is one of the tactics that's often used? Deception, sleight of hand, fake outs. Right. And one of the things I think that we're seeing right now, though, to your point, is a variation where there's a culture war, which is a smokescreen think for a class war, right? The culture war is a smokescreen for, I think, a class war. And it's an asymmetrical warfare because the people who are being beaten down by the billionaires kind of don't even. They feel angry. But the culture war aspect is having their anger all over the place and they're not sure where to be angry. So, yeah, you're telling Me. It's trans people. You're telling me it's migrants? You're telling me it's George Soros. You're telling me it's this group or that communists or a secret cabal of people? Oh, my God. Is this. Is this the QAnon cabal? I gotta go down the rabbit hole. No, no. It's the billionaires. Occam's Razor. Let's be clear who's happening? The people who hang out at Mar a Lago are the ones doing this to you, and they are distracting you with culture war stuff while they wage war on your bank accounts, on your pocketbooks, while they're picking your pocket. They're out there saying, oh, you know, focus on this. Isn't this wild? Could you believe it? There's a trans woman on the volleyball team. The volleyball team? Don't you care about the San Jose State volleyball, which is not even national? Does this make you angry? What about the bathrooms? Nancy Mace. Bring Nancy Mace on tv. Let Nancy Mace have her bullhorn and go. I am outraged that I have to go into a bathroom with a transgender congresswoman. This. I am worried about that. And meanwhile, two years before, three years of. Before Nancy Mace was saying positive things about LGBTQ community. What are they doing literally, with the bullhorn? They're saying, look over here. Look over here. And then with the other hand, a, they're taking your money. They're taking away your health care. They're t. They're taking away your Medicare. They're taking away your. Your. Your kid and your future grandkids opportunities. That's what they're doing. And so I think it's important as this platform develops that we make it clear where this is happening. We combat their culture war with the truth and with the facts, and we talk about what's really happening. It's why we start this episode talking about Donald Trump grifting by selling his people perfume and cologne and misappropriating name, image, and likeness and how we link that with what's going on in Syria. How we link that. What's going on in the halls of Congress, and how we link that ultimately to how you're being impacted personally. So let's keep growing. Midas Mighty. We will be starting our zoom. We have a little bit of buffer of time right now, so why don't we let people sign up for Patreon right now? So sign up now. Patreon.com Midas Touch sign up. We'll start it in, like, say, 10 minutes. So we'll start it officially. That makes sense. Brett and jordy at perfect 6:15 Pacific 9:15 Eastern. That gives you some time to if you want a little bite to eat, you want to get a cup of soda or something healthier or water or whatever. I don't know what I'm even saying anymore. If you want to do that, well, go, go, go, go and do that. And we, I'm just describing things that I'm doing and we will saying his.

Brett (64:41)

Cravings right now, I think.

Ben Mycel (64:42)

Okay, well, we will see it. We will see you short look Midas mighty hang in there. We're in this together. We're gonna win with joy, we're gonna win with facts. We're gonna win with strength when the time comes, but we're gonna win with this community and you're a major part of it. Thank you, thank you, thank you. Jordy. Take it away.

Jordy (65:00)

Shout out to the Midas.

Brett (65:05)

Standing strong against the fascists. We sing our soul.

Ben Mycel (65:16)

We will get it right.

Jordy (65:20)

Hey, Midas mighty love this report. Continue the conversation by following us on Instagram at Midas Touch to keep up with the most important news of the day. What are you waiting for? Follow us now.

Libsyn Ads (65:35)

Marketing is hard, but I'll tell you a little secret. It doesn't have to be. Let me point something out. You're listening to a podcast right now and it's great. You love the host. You seek it out and download it. You listen to it while driving, working out, cooking, even going to the bathroom. Podcasts are a pretty close companion. And this is a podcast ad. Did I get your attention? You can reach great listeners like yourself with podcast advertising from Libsyn Ads. Choose from hundreds of top podcasts offering host endorsements or run a pre produced ad like this one across thousands of shows. To reach your target audience in their favorite podcasts with Libsyn Ads, go to Libsyn ads.com that's L I B S Y-N-Ads.com today.