The MeidasTouch Podcast - Afghanistan, Anti-Vaxxers and Fascist Family Members with Laura Ingraham’s Brother, Curtis

Episode Date: August 17, 2021

On today’s episode of The MeidasTouch Podcast, we have a VERY special guest & outspoken brother of Fox “News” host, Laura Ingraham, Curtis Ingraham. Curtis is a former Wall Street banker turned... educator and self-described "sibling fact checker and seeker of justice, accountability & honesty." During the interview, Curtis discusses why he has chosen to speak out against his fascist sister, how their relationship fragmented and the personal and familial cost of it all. The episode is rounded out by the Meidas Brothers discussing the latest updates around the developing situation in Afghanistan and how we ended up in this mess in the first place. Lastly, the brothers cover spineless Lindsey Graham and the ongoing cult that is the GQP. If you enjoyed today's episode please be sure to rate, review and subscribe. As always, thank YOU for listening! Get the latest Meidas Merch at store.meidastouch.com! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Starting point is 00:01:08 episode for you today. We will be joined by Curtis Ingram, brother to Laura Ingram. He's a former Wall Street banker turned educator. He describes himself as a seeker of justice, seeker of accountability and honesty, and most importantly, sibling fact checker. I love that. I like to think of myself as a sibling fact checker. I was going to say I'm the sibling fact checker. I mean, not like this, though.
Starting point is 00:01:36 This is a whole new level of sibling fact checks taking place here. And I think I truly want to delve and dive into the origins of a fascist and to determine where these roots really were. I mean, Curtis has been on Twitter before saying, quote, My sister is pathetic, criticizing Dr. Fauci. What is your expertise? Exactly, Laura, beyond spinning lies and conspiracies. He's talked about origins of his sister's racism back in the days when she attended Dartmouth. My sister's racist comments date back to her freshman days at Dartmouth when she would mock her black roommates, he stated. And I want to generally get into it with him about all of these topics and his own views. So we have a great show
Starting point is 00:02:25 for you today. And how are you doing, Brett? How are you doing, Jordy? I'm doing well. Man, you got a little bit of a glow about you right now. I feel like you are so ready for this podcast. Could you imagine, by the way, if one of us had this relationship of this Curtis Laura relationship? Like if one of you would go online and be like, Brett is fucking pathetic, pathetic, awful human. I'd be so, so, so, so hurt by it. But luckily, none of us are fascist pieces of shit. So this is a, I guess you get what you get in life. But I am excited to delve into the psyche of Laura. I'm excited to hear Curtis's thoughts because we got this toxic media right now, every single night, pumping into the home of millions
Starting point is 00:03:10 of Americans, feeding them disgusting, disingenuous talking points, attacking our military, attacking our police, attacking Americans who want just to be healthy. That is kind of what is going on. And so I want to get to the bottom of what's going on here and hear it from the person who knows it most. I am excited. And guys, did you guys hear Jen Psaki, press secretary, Jen Psaki talking about Midas Touch this weekend? Come on. The press secretary of the United States of America was talking about Midas Touch? The one and only press secretary, Jen Psaki. She had an interview with Mediaite and they asked her about the origin of the sake bomb and if she's heard about sake bombs. And this really made my weekend. I'm not even going to lie about it, guys.
Starting point is 00:03:58 Yeah, I was on cloud nine when I watched this clip over and over and over again. One, she nails the definition of the sake bomb. We'll play it in a second. And two, I love how she brings up her own siblings and how they would tease her about it. I mean, the clip's amazing. Can we just play it for everyone? You're aware, obviously,
Starting point is 00:04:16 there's been a lot written about it, a little bit by me, a lot by the Vogue profile, a few others about the sake bomb, the hashtag sake bomb. You're aware of this phenomenon? Yes. My friends and family have definitely made me aware and poked fun at me in a good spirited way. And so can you explain to me what in your view a sake bomb is? Because I've heard other people say, oh, well, it's when she doesn't like a question and she's a jerk to somebody,
Starting point is 00:04:44 but how would you describe it? I hope not. Look, I don't know. I didn't, I didn't obviously invent the term, so people will have to define it better than me. But I hope what it means is like not allowing for misinformation or propaganda to be spewed and swatting it down. Did you know that there is Saki bomb merchandise? No, they sell Saki bomb t-shirts. Yes. It feels like something that, you know, I don't know if you have siblings, but I have two younger sisters. And it's like, no one mercilessly like loves you, but also makes fun of you, like your siblings and your best friends. Like someone's going to, I hope your sisters are watching this and show up at Thanksgiving
Starting point is 00:05:23 with Saki bomb t-shirts. That would be hilarious. Yeah. I hope your sisters are watching this and show up at Thanksgiving with sake bomb t-shirts. That would be hilarious. Yeah. I'm getting registered. Just thinking about it. So there you have it. Jen Saki talking about the origin of the sake bomb. And I think she defined the sake bomb,
Starting point is 00:05:36 perhaps better than we could have ever even defined it, not allowing for information or propaganda to be spewed. The act of swatting it down. And we see that whenever Doocy takes a doocy every single day in the press briefing room after he gets those sake bombs thrown his way. That's really what we admire about Jen Psaki above all. She nailed it. It's not about owning the media or anything like that. It's about delivering the truth and not letting disingenuous gotcha sort of questions get in the way and let propaganda get through and spread to the country.
Starting point is 00:06:10 And that's what we respect about it. And that's the whole thing too. Look, there are some clown reporters out there who say, oh, it's dangerous to be fanboying the press secretary of the United States. That's not what we're doing. That's not what this definition means. It's not what a sake bomb is. Look, if fanboying is swatting down propaganda, fine. I'll give it to you. I'm fanboying swatting down propaganda. You know what I fanboy? I fanboy truth. I fanboy honesty. I fanboy confidence. That's it. Jordy, Ben, I think we should tell a little bit just briefly before we get into the news because there's obviously plenty to talk about. We're about to get into what's going on in Afghanistan. A lot, a lot happening on the ground and changing by the minute. But let's first just give our
Starting point is 00:06:54 listeners a little breakdown of how we came up with Saki Bomb, the origins of the Saki Bomb, because I think it's an interesting story. As all fun slogans come, this one came from the three of us just workshopping things for fun. And really, it was very early on in Jen Psaki's career. Very early on. I think it was literally the first press conference. Yeah, exactly. And we saw the Peter Doocys of the world. We saw the Newsmax reporters of the world going up there and asking just the most disingenuous questions during a very serious meeting. And it was frustrating to us. And it was refreshing to see someone who went up there without a binder of just blank pages,
Starting point is 00:07:34 talk from the heart and shut down the propaganda and the misinformation that so much of the media likes to project onto the American people. So when we were watching her, we were like, this is amazing. We have to have a term for every time she does this, swats down that misinformation, just swats down that propaganda. And then we took to the chat. We're like, we need something with her name in it to really make it awesome. I think the first one that we came up with- Ooh, there were some bad pitches. There were some rough pitches, guys. I'm not going to say who came up with this one, Brett, but it was uh you got sacked
Starting point is 00:08:05 was the first one we're like no that's was that was that me and not you no it was definitely me I was gonna say I don't think I think I think you were the very adamant on it's got to be you got sacked and we were like awful I'll admit it terrible Brett then threw threw out one out there and then Ben came to the plate and just knocked one out of the park with, guys, I have it, sake bomb. See, that's why everybody, you got to learn, writing is rewriting, as they say. And I have our original tweet right here. It's from January 29th, 2021. We tweeted out, anytime Jen Psaki dunks on a reporter will henceforth be known as a Saki bomb. That immediately, when I say immediately, I mean within minutes, went to the top trend
Starting point is 00:08:53 in the United States after that press briefing, hashtag Saki bomb, and the rest is history. Now we got great Saki bomb merch, which Jen Psaki is flattered by, and we are honored. And you can get it at store.midastouch.com, and you can own the Saki Bomb merch, including a new design that you can check out right now with Jen Psaki's actual definition of the Saki Bomb. So check that out at store.midastouch.com. I'm sure Jen Psaki and her family are going to love that. One of the things that Jen Psaki said in this interview with Mediate is that she's expecting to go home for Thanksgiving and have her whole family wearing the Saki bomb gear. And as I said on Twitter, we can neither confirm nor deny that her entire family has purchased Saki bomb gear. They all did.
Starting point is 00:09:44 I can't confirm or deny it. Jordi, you were mentioning reporters. Just aaki Bomb here. They all did. I can't confirm or deny it. Jordy, you were mentioning reporters. Just a fun fact here. Brian Stelter. I was looking him up because he's the reporter who says that it sets a dangerous. We're naming names. I love it. I was staying away from it.
Starting point is 00:09:57 Let's get into it. No. So I Googled him. And first off, just wild fact, me and Brian Stelter are the same age. He was born. I mean, just a completely wild fact. He's my age. He was born in 1985, which I saw was the first thing. I mean, you know, just wow on that one. And number two, there's nothing fanboyish about that. We are allowed to have fun with politics as democracy-loving people. When you make politics so surgical, so procedural, so elitist, Brian Stelter, 1985 fellow, 1985.
Starting point is 00:10:45 You need to listen to me here. That's what turns people off to politics. What people hate is this ivory tower bullshit, and we should be able to enjoy our politics, and we should be calling out the real issues. We should be focused on what sake bombing is really about. And sake bombing is about calling out reporters for bullshit, calling out the media for not giving a shit about our democracy and treating politics like it's WWE. The great example, Congressman Swalwell came on the Midas Touch podcast and he said the GQP are like WWE.
Starting point is 00:11:28 But I want to take it one step further. The media is like WWE. The GQP is like the WWE wrestlers. And the way the media does it, they show no difference between the ultimate warrior and the undertaker. They're just two sides of the same argument such that they all basically blend together. Now, there was a time when ultimate warrior was a bad guy. So perhaps not the greatest example if you go into your WWE law for a very short period of time. But the point remains, you know, I read the headlines today about Afghanistan, and a lot of these headlines are Donald Trump condemns Joe Biden. Donald Trump says that if
Starting point is 00:12:13 he was in president, he would have handled the transition better. Fuck that. I am sick and tired of this narrative that doesn't appropriately root and explain truly what has happened in Afghanistan and what happened in Afghanistan. And the blame for Afghanistan 100 percent lies at the feet of our old fucking traitor of a president who entered into a deal directly with the Taliban, freed 5000 Taliban soldiers who, guess what, immediately came and attacked. Now, you want to know my views? My views is we should never have been in Afghanistan in the first place. In fact, most Democrats, progressives were one of the first people and they all didn't get it right. A lot of them supported the stupid fucking war. But a lot of us did and have been calling for the right transition out of Afghanistan under the appropriate conditions and not continuing this never ending war. next to a Taliban terrorist. Let's not forget, Donald Trump invited the Taliban to come to Camp
Starting point is 00:13:26 David to have a negotiation. And I think the Taliban rejected the invite. On fucking 9-11, Ben, he invited them to come on the anniversary of 9-11. Donald Trump invited them on 9-11. Then he sent Pompeo out to have the Doha Peace Accords, where he sat, where you have Pompeo, and then you have a Taliban terrorist standing next to each other, negotiating the release of 5,000 Taliban terrorists who went out and guess what they did? They did exactly what they said they were going to do. In fact, we have the clips of Donald Trump saying that we needed to get out of Afghanistan quicker. He embraced this policy. And now that it didn't go the way Donald Trump wanted because he precipitously did this without consulting
Starting point is 00:14:16 his military channels, why is the media giving this fuckhead a pass? Why are they giving him a pass and allowing him to criticize Biden for the withdrawal that Donald Trump did? Play the clip of Donald Trump to show what he said as recent. Brett, this clip was from April of this year. I started the process. All the troops are coming back home. They couldn't stop the process. Twenty one years is enough, don't we think? Twenty-one years. They couldn't stop the process. They wanted to, but it was very tough to stop the process when other things were out. Yeah, thank you. Thank you. It's a shame. Twenty-one years by a government that wouldn't last. The only way they last is if we're there. What are we going to say? We'll stay for another 21 years and we'll stay for another 50. The whole thing is ridiculous.
Starting point is 00:15:09 So we're bringing our troops back home. And then you have the Wall Street Journal basically criticizing Biden for Biden's statement. Biden gave a very nuanced statement about Afghanistan. He talked about over the past several days, he's been in close contact with his national security team based on the recommendations of diplomatic and military intelligence team. He's authorized the deployment of 5,000 troops to make sure there is an orderly and safe drawdown. He's ordered the armed forces and our intelligence community to ensure we will maintain the capability and vigilance to address future terrorist threats from Afghanistan. And third, he directed the secretary of state to support President Ghani and other Afghan leaders as they seek to prevent further bloodshed and pursue a political settlement. Fourth, they've conveyed to the Taliban representatives in Doha
Starting point is 00:16:06 that any action on their part on the ground of Afghanistan that puts U.S. personnel or our mission at risk there will be met with swift and strong military action. And we talked, we've talked, you know, he talks about this and we're going to talk about it more today, that this is what he says. When I came into office, I inherited a deal cut by my predecessor. I can't even call Trump by name because Trump is so pathetic, which he invited the Taliban to discuss at Camp David on the eve of 9-11 of 2019 that left the Taliban in the strongest position militarily since 2001 and imposed a May 2021 deadline on U.S. forces. Shortly before he left office, he also drew down U.S. forces to a bare minimum of 2,500. Biden then becomes president. I faced the choice. I either follow through on this deal with a brief
Starting point is 00:17:01 extension to get our forces out safely. And you just heard the clip. Donald Trump didn't want that to happen or ramp up the presence and continue this never ending war. So that was Biden's statement. And this is what the Wall Street Journal said today. And this bothers me to no end. Wall Street Journal basically said, could you imagine what Winston Churchill would have done if he inherited the situation from Chamberlain and basically said and left the troops in Dunkirk and didn't take swift military action in Dunkirk to help and basically win World War II. The difference between Afghanistan and Dunkirk is night and day. And this conflation is just so baffling. What happens in Afghanistan is not the existential survival of the United States of America as what Germany was doing in Dunkirk and what the German
Starting point is 00:18:08 invasion of France was. There's a big distinction there that the Wall Street Journal is basically saying, Winston Churchill took this action. Could you imagine President Biden blaming it on his predecessor? What do you want, Wall Street Journal? You want a never-ending war? Yes. Yes. What you realize is you've never heard the media in the buildup to any of these wars go there and say, this is a disaster. Why is this president getting us into this war? No. If you remember back after 9-11, all the media championed us to go to this war. It's only when we go to take our troops out that they have this incredible freak out. But what could we have done? I mean, we've been in Afghanistan for 20, 21 years. If you were born in 2001, we have a sister, Rachel, 17 years old. She's lived in America
Starting point is 00:18:58 at war her entire life. I've lived in America with the Afghanistan war for two thirds of my life. And it's easy to Monday morning quarterback this thing. It's easy to play couch commander in chief. But the fact is there was no easy way to get out of Afghanistan. This thing has been a clusterfuck from the beginning. And Trump dwindled our troop presence there so much that as he said in that clip, there was no other option other for us than to leave. He made it so we had no other choice but to leave. And by the way, I think leaving was the right move. We were never welcome in this country in the first place. We're an occupying force. We literally invaded Afghanistan. What were we expecting when we left? Like a fucking ticker tape parade? You think they were going to be like, oh, thanks America for being here.
Starting point is 00:19:42 I mean, the fact that we were the only country, the only presence in Afghanistan that was actually holding this country together shows that the Afghan government that was there was basically a facade to begin with. Or, Jordy, how do you say facade? Yeah, what's going on there? At the end of the day, we empowered their military. We empowered their military leaders for 20 years plus to get their shit together and to get rid of the Taliban. And they couldn't do it. And so what are we going to do? We're going to spend 20 more years there, 40 more years there, 60 more years, just be there forever.
Starting point is 00:20:19 This Taliban mantra that I've been hearing on cable news and reading online is something that is very true and actually pretty powerful and poignant. They say, you as in America have the watches, we have the time. Meaning what was the plan? What was our plan? We could have waited it out for another 20 years. We're going to make Afghanistan like the 51st state of the United States of America. We spent $2 trillion, thousands of deaths. When do we just admit that this was a catastrophic mistake, cut our losses, and leave? And if you look back to Vietnam, nobody blames President Ford for the fall of Saigon. And nobody looks back at Vietnam and says, hey, if only we're in Vietnam for another five years, if only we're in Vietnam for another
Starting point is 00:21:00 20 years. No, the mistake is being there. The mistake was being there in the first place. And this is a bandaid that had to be ripped off. You know what happens when you have a bandaid that needs to be ripped off? It fucking hurts when you rip it off. It's not going to always be clean. And by the way, you could say all these things and still be gracious and grateful to our active and retired military forces who served over there. That doesn't take anything away from what they did. They were heroes for what they did. They went over to a country where it was a lost war to begin with, and they fought bravely. And a lot of people lost their fucking lives. And we killed Bin Laden. Obama killed Bin Laden.
Starting point is 00:21:34 It wasn't all for naught. We got Bin Laden. We were there longer than we should have been, and more Americans lost their lives than should have. George Bush took us to war. President Obama killed bin Laden. President Trump made a deal with the Taliban and freed 5000 Taliban prisoners and had Pompeo take a picture next to the guy who is about to become the Taliban Afghanistan president. There's that photo of Pompeo literally right there with the new head of the Taliban. I mean, President Biden's decision, honestly, it takes courage because in this moment, it's a very difficult decision to make. But I think history will judge it incredibly strongly.
Starting point is 00:22:17 Americans do not want to be in these forever wars. And I think it's so ironic and so typical that you just look at the tweets from a couple of months ago from all these people, you know, Don Jr., Jack Posobiec, however you say his name. You go through Hugh Hewitt, all these sort of right wing MAGA fascist people, and all of them are trying to pitch Biden as this sort of war hawk. Oh, if only Trump was elected, we'd have peace. If only Trump was elected, we'd be getting out of these wars. And then the second we step out, they go, oh, no, no, no, not like that. If you think for one second that Trump would have handled this better, you are out of your mind. He bungled and failed every single thing that we ever did. So now I think it's our duty as Americans to, we got to give aid to those in need. There are people suffering on the ground in Afghanistan, men, women, and children, and we should be providing refuge where we can. We need to get our translators out of there. We need to make sure all of our troops leave there safely. But. We need to show that we can have a thriving democracy here.
Starting point is 00:23:26 And to do that, we need to be prosecuting the people responsible for January 6th. We need to be fighting voter suppression laws. We need to prove that democracy works and be a beacon of hope to the rest of the world. Did you see this, though? Rona McDaniel from the head of the RNC. Yeah. It seems like one day she's either, you know, sucking up to Trump and the other, you know, Trump and the GQP are saying that she's the worst person ever. Like, I don't even know how that could be your existence. Like, haven't they just like totally said that they hate her yet?
Starting point is 00:24:01 She still sucks up to them. Well, anyway, the Republican Party has deleted a page from their website that basically pointed out the Trump withdrawal plans from Afghanistan. That's what the GQP does. They just delete shit. They hide shit. They operate like banana republics operate. Jamie Harrison, head of the DNC, did a great job calling it out in a tweet. But this page that they released talks about how President Trump continues to take the lead in peace talks with the Taliban and will withdraw troops. One thing that should also be mentioned in this, just so we can call it out by name and specifically call it out by name. In 2020 and 2010, Obama caused the arrest of the
Starting point is 00:24:48 Taliban political chief, Abdul Ghani Baradar. And Baradar was later freed at the behest of Donald Trump. And Baradar was one of the lead Taliban insurgents who allowed this victory to take place, leading 5,000 former prisoners in the battle. And because they had these forces, most of the provinces just gave up. I mean, there was really no fighting. Mostly everyone, all of the cities in Afghanistan just surrendered. And now there's Taliban control. So I'm glad we broke that down in detail. When we come back from these messages, we will be here with Curtis Ingram to talk a lot about politics and his fascist sister. We'll be right back after these messages. What's up, Midas Mighty? You know you got to get the Saki Bomb merch if Jen Saki is talking about it. You can go to store.midastouch.com now.
Starting point is 00:25:49 We have Saki Bomb tees. We have Saki Bomb tanks. So go to store.midastouch.com and get all the gear. Saki Bomb, Club Democracy. It wasn't rigged. You're just a loser. Vax bracelets, everything, everything in the Midas universe available right now at store.midastouch.com. Welcome back to the Midas Touch podcast.
Starting point is 00:26:12 We are joined by Curtis Ingraham, former Wall Street banker turned educator, seeker of justice, accountability and honesty and sibling fact checker of can I call her a fascist, hateful person, Curtis? Well, I'll let action speak for themselves. So I'll let you go ahead. Sibling fact checker of Laura Ingraham, his sister. He states, I have hypocrisy in my sights. And so as a sibling podcast, we're pleased to welcome Curtis Ingraham on the show. Curtis, welcome. Thank you so much for reaching out, folks. So, Curtis, for the past four years, you've been very vocal online and speaking out against the, you know, as you say, her actions speak for themselves. What made you first start speaking out and say, you know what? I can't be on the sidelines anymore. I have to say something here. Yeah, no. So the history
Starting point is 00:27:13 with my sister, we were very, very close at one time. We would travel together. We would visit on the holidays. It was the type of thing where I would finish her sentences on a daily call. And she was that. How old were you in the 90s? This was in the mid 90s. And what happened was the relationship started to fray when she took a stand against gay marriage. And so she had experienced my partners, my relationship with my partner of 12 years who I ushered to death's door. And so when gay marriage came up, she took a stance of, no, we're just going to have to agree to disagree on this. And so I kind of pulled back a little bit from her. But then later on, I was online and I saw a blog of something that she had done while
Starting point is 00:27:58 she was at Dartmouth. So she was the editor of the Dartmouth Review, which is a conservative rag paper, she and Dinesh D'Souza. And it was before technology. So there were no, you know, phones, cell phones, you know, computers, but she sent her reporters in undercover. And they took the names of the people that were in that gay alliance meeting, and they published them in the paper. And in this blog that I read, it said that one kid actually committed suicide. Now, I don't, I can't verify that. But when I saw that, I sent her an email and I said, Laura, is this true? And she wrote back, it was legal language. I do not respond to blah, blah, blah. And so in my heart, I knew she was probably, she's guilty. And so that's when I really pulled away. And it was, of course, when she went full-blown Trump, you know, in 2016, that I could not stay quiet any longer. And I'm just kind of calling out hypocrisy as I see it, her statements, her meanness, the way she's smearing people. I mean, you look, it all started with LeBron James, you know, taking the knee and her saying to him,
Starting point is 00:29:02 just shut up and dribble. I mean, I don't understand that type of person that attacks like this. And my sister, what I've learned is she is one who doesn't listen to understand. Hers is she listens to attack and you can see it in her face. You can see it when she's talking to people on her show. There is no debate. There is no constructive debate. And what's scary is that it's escalating and you've become more outspoken about this because her stance on COVID, attacking Dr. Fauci. You know, now it went from, as you stated, and this is the Nazi creed, right? First they came for so-and-so, then they came for so-and-so, and then they came for me. And so first it was athletes and
Starting point is 00:29:53 particularly black athletes, right? And then she starts attacking David Hogue, David Hogue, who didn't get into a school that he wanted to get into. And so she smears a Parkland High School survivor, Greta Thunberg, trying to, you know, make the world aware of climate change and the disasters that are now, you know, befalling us, attacking her. And the worst was recently when she's attacking those Capitol police that testified to Congress and saying that they were actors and that they get an award for good acting. I mean, who does this? Who does this? What is the pathology? And Curtis, you tell me, I mean, was there roots of the pathology growing up? Like you mentioned
Starting point is 00:30:36 before that, you know, that your father, her father had Nazi sympathizing leanings. And so there was that there. What do you think the pathology is? So I think the pathology comes from familial soil, and I've used that term in the past. So my father was a Nazi sympathizer. There was a copy of Mein Kampf on the living room bookshelf. He was abusive. He was an alcoholic. So we are in a family of anger, anger, abuse. And I think that is what has happened to my sister. People say, well, how did you turn out so different? So in my life, I found love and my sister has not found love.
Starting point is 00:31:15 And so she's gone on this path where she's being honored and rewarded for the type of things that we learned in our childhood. She's getting credit for that anger and that destruction. There's no solutions being put forward. It's all just criticism and smearing. It's very Trumpian. She and Trump have a mindset I think that's very similar. And preaching to the same choir and growing that same cult of Fox News, red hat wearing hateful people. And you've said,
Starting point is 00:31:48 he said, this is a tweet. My sister is pathetic, criticizing Dr. Fauci. She has no expertise. This is what I'm saying. But people listen to her and they think, oh my God, she is the pillar of truth. She knows her facts. She does not. She is spinning. So she's a spin artist. And so these people, it's easy to buy into her spin because anger is easier than, you know, constructive solutions. And Curtis, one of the things that is just so mind boggling, we talked about it earlier in the interview, is this whole anti-vaxxing movement that like your sister is leading. I mean, they're anti-mask and anti-vaccine. It's like promoting the most disgusting, filthy, disease-ridden country.
Starting point is 00:32:34 What's up with that? So the thing that really upsets me now with the data that we've got, and we're seeing hospitals fill up and people that aren't vaccinated and, you know, being intubated and some dying. There is no plausible reason right now while anyone should not be vaccinated. There is this total disregard for the collective good of our country. And there is, I think, an element of people that want to maintain the divide. And so by maintaining a divide, they keep us from getting back to normal. So when they say I have freedom of choice, well, if you're on a plane, do you have freedom of choice to open the door mid-flight?
Starting point is 00:33:13 No. Okay. So you think of the collective good, and that is what's happening right now. And the anti-vax messaging from Fox and how they tried to roll it back a little bit, it was Hannity that tried to roll it back and say, get vaccinated. Your damage has been done. And so when you think about all the people that are receiving that information, they are making life decisions that could actually cost them their lives. I liken it to a cancer patient. So a cancer patient will take any therapy that comes their way, any experimental therapy. And yet here we have COVID-19 proven treatments, proven protection, and they choose not to. So what is really going on there? I do think there's a political element to it. It's beyond and it's not even there's nothing
Starting point is 00:33:52 conservative about that position. Like, I don't believe your sister's conservative. Honestly, I believe your sister is a fucking crazy person who hates you, who wants to lead a death cult to enrich herself. If you're conservative, you don't support insurrections, right? You don't support in disinformation about medical facts. This is not conservative one bit. No,
Starting point is 00:34:19 no, it's actually dangerous. And so your role, do you see yourself being more outspoken in this area now in the future? Or where do you see this all going as as she escalates? So I cannot stay quiet. And there is you know, we have we have history in common. And I know things, you know, about her that it's I mean, it's just I have to reveal the hypocrisy that's going on, the immigration stance. She's got three immigrant children that she adopted. So how is that allowed? The
Starting point is 00:34:54 vaccination, anti-messaging around vaccines. She's been vaccinated. You know they have. Murdoch got early access to the vaccinations. All his star assets were vaccinated. And yet they're spinning a counter tale, which I find is very destructive. And it's it's disinformation and it's a spin that people are following. And those tropes that she throws out, the elites, the fake news, the biomedical state socialism. And these people tap into those because she's so clever at spinning it. You think she, you know, kind of knows she is creating this fiction? Like, do you think she goes, it's like, oh, how could I, oh, I got a good one here. We call it biomedical,
Starting point is 00:35:38 you know, and then she's like, God, you think it's that, you know, planned out? I do. I do. She has a conscience. And unfortunately, that conscience is getting dimmer and dimmer as she goes further in her career. But the type of behavior to continue to do what you know is wrong and inherently a lie, I think, isn't that the definition of sociopath? I think it is the textbook definition of sociopath. Was she always a contrarian growing up, like in terms of justopath? Yeah, I think it is the textbook definition of sociopath. Was she always a contrarian growing up, like in terms of just anything, like, you know, everybody likes ice
Starting point is 00:36:10 cream. Was she like, fuck ice cream? So she can be very funny. Now that the humor has been, you know, turned in a way that's a little twisted. So, and it has a kind of an evil destination to it. So, no, there was always kind of a, an evil destination to it. So, no, she, there was always kind of a mean-spiritedness to her, I have to admit. And she, she's very much an opportunist. She would say she's an expert on gay rights because her brother's gay. She would say she's an expert on being a mother because she has three adopted children. The Catholicism, the cross around the neck, those are all just shields that are, you know, kind of giving an illusion of who she would
Starting point is 00:36:47 like to be, but who she really is not. And Curtis, your answer could be all the above, but is she doing this for money, for power? I think she's following her pocket. It's fattening her pocket and she's got a huge following. And so who's going to disrupt that? Curtis, what are you up to these days in your personal life other than being a sibling fact checker that you'd like people to know about? So I left finance in order to go into teaching because when my partner died, I was looking at
Starting point is 00:37:16 life and going, I'm on the wrong path here. And so I've been teaching now for about 25 years. And I teach middle school math and I'm in a community of people that are very supportive. And to get back to an earlier question, how did I get involved in speaking out against my sister? She actually brought me into her ring of fire here at school because everyone is aware at my school. It's a very progressive school, a private school in Marin County. And so people are coming up to me saying these things that my sister has said, how could I not react? How, how, how, how can I stay silent? And the whistleblower comes at a great cost guys. I gotta be honest. I have, my family has disowned me. I have one cousin who I'm still in touch with. But that was, that was the cost of going out with honesty.
Starting point is 00:38:02 Yeah. I mean, that's, it's honestly so brave of you to speak up knowing just what some of the ramifications could and would have been. And I also have to say, there has been no attempt for my sister to reach out to me to discuss these things because she'd have to face truth and facts that she's just not able to do. Kind of on that note, shifting gears slightly. So we've had Mary Trump on the show before.
Starting point is 00:38:23 She's fantastic. She's very outspoken against, you know, that side of the family. She actually let us know that Don Jr. is the dumbest Trump in the Trump family. Curtis, if forced to, you know, who's going to have the most awkward family reunion? Is it Curtis Ingram and Laura? Is it Mary Trump, Don Jr. and that side of the family? Or is it Paul Gosar and his family? We're all kind of in similar boats, aren't we, with different sails.
Starting point is 00:38:49 It's funny, I don't see those reunions ever happening because these people can never come, they can never face the truth. And they are all kind of leading their lives. And it's what identifies them now. So people always ask me, does your sister really believe this stuff? And it's what identifies them now. So people always ask me, does your sister really believe this stuff? And it's who she's become. So she's become the industry that she's been working so hard to become. And I don't think that will ever change. Curtis Ingram, we appreciate your time and your courage. Thank you for joining us today
Starting point is 00:39:20 on the Midas Touch podcast. We hope you'll come back. It was a pleasure. Thank you so much. We will be right back after these messages. What's up, Midas Mighty? Ben here with my brothers, Brett and Jordy. Do you have your Midas Touch gear yet? One thing that the brothers don't know is I cracked a beer mid-interview of Curtis Ingram today. So hey, check out our Midas Mighty merch at MidasDrinkingOnTheJobStore.MidasTouch.com. We only have about 50 of these Vax AF koozies left.
Starting point is 00:39:52 Don't quote me on that number, but last time I checked, that's what we were up to. Get these. These are awesome. It's kept my beer cold the whole interview. You're really drinking a beer? Radical move. Here's what you can do.
Starting point is 00:40:02 You can get that or you can get the Vax AF pack, which includes the koozie, a Vax AF mask and a Vax AF bracelet. And you save six dollars when you get all three. Get it all at store.MidasTouch.com. Welcome back to the Midas Touch podcast. Great interview with Curtis Ingram. I want to just pause on that for a second because I did not know that's how you pronounce the name. And yes, we confirmed it with Curtis and he says that's how him and his sister pronounced the last name, Ingram. We've been saying it wrong this whole time. My world. Everyone's been saying it wrong the whole time, but you know, what's great about
Starting point is 00:40:38 that interview too. You know, I've been seeing Curtis on Twitter. His tweets are punchy and great. And I love meeting someone like Curtis, who when you meet him and you have an interview, they're just such like a cool, great person that like you can take off just the little like tweet feed and like get to really know about. No, for sure. You definitely get a much better sense and a much better depth.
Starting point is 00:41:03 And that's why these conversations are so important and It's great having Curtis Ingram on the show. So good. So going from the courage of Curtis Ingram to this spinelessness of Lindsey Graham. That's a good transition. What? Sorry. I was just saying that's a good transition. I didn't mean to interrupt your flow. In the middle, while I'm doing the transition. Stays in the middle while I'm doing the transition stays in the pod I'm literally saying the words I saw where it was going
Starting point is 00:41:34 keep going I'm going to continue your sentence I saw where it was going okay but I have to say it so speaking of the great sentence great couple of words. I'm a motivator. I like to bring you guys up.
Starting point is 00:41:51 I did that. Speaking of speaking of the courage of Curtis Ingram and going to the spinelessness of Lindsey Graham. Have you seen the news recently that Lindsey Graham called up Biden after the win to apologize for attacking Hunter Biden? He told, according to a New York Times article, he told Biden, I just had to do the bare minimum to satisfy Trump supporters. And I'm really sorry that if that crossed the line, he didn't say I'm sorry that it crossed the line, but he did say the bare minimum to satisfy Trump supporters. And Biden basically said, unforgivable, go fuck yourself, basically. And good for him as as Biden should have. I mean, it's that hunt that a whole Hunter Biden line is truly the most disgusting one of the it's hard with the Trump because they love COVID. They want to marry COVID. So the depths of how disgusting and filthy these maggots are, are sometimes hard to articulate.
Starting point is 00:42:54 But this is one of the most disgusting and vile things because I'll tell you what they're trying to do. They're actually trying to, in my mind, cause such depression to cause such pain in Biden by attacking his son, given all the family trauma that the Biden family has gone through. Remember, Biden's lost his first wife. He lost his son, Beau. He lost his other child and his wife in a car accident. Biden's life has been filled with tragedy. And frankly, hunters experienced a great deal of tragedy. And we all know people who suffer from addiction. The issue of opioids, the issue of addiction today
Starting point is 00:43:40 is such a prevalent issue where we all have someone who we either in our family, extended family, a friend, a colleague, and you need to help those people out. Hunter's not setting national policy the same way Don Jr. and Ivanka were. Hunter was dealing with significant drug-related issues and was a recovering drug addict. That whole line of attack on Joe for having a son who was a recovering drug addict is one of the most disgusting things. And by the way, it completely backfires. But Lindsey Graham is a spineless piece of shit and it completely backfires because throughout all of this, Joe has shown that he's a compassionate parent who's not going to ditch his son. And in all of those purported messages, Joe looks like the most caring person in the world.
Starting point is 00:44:36 There are no tweets that put a bigger smile on my face than when I see people tweeting, hey, I'm, you know, it could be, hey, I'm two days sober. Hey, I'm six weeks sober. Hey, I'm six months sober. Hey, I'm six years. So, I mean, like, the battle with addiction is no joke in this country. And like you said, Ben, every one of our listeners either has someone in their family or knows someone personally who's gone through this struggle. And they know what addiction does to families. They know how crushing it can be. So, to attack somebody for something that they can't even fucking control is just so pathetic and just disgusting. Not only did Hunter's mom and sister died in an automobile accident,
Starting point is 00:45:19 Hunter was in the car at the time and suffered injuries to his skull as well. I mean, he was there. He was there when this happened. So think about the struggle in your life when that happens to you at such an early age. And Ben, I agree. When we see, when they leak President Biden's texts with Hunter and things like that, it shows a caring man. It shows a man of character. And every time they talk about Hunter, they are really only revealing their own character flaws. And what Lindsey Graham did in this exchange also is reveal his character flaws and reveal that he knows it's all bullshit. He knows, bringing it back to what Swalwell said, he knows he is just doing a performance
Starting point is 00:46:01 for these crazy people like it's a WWE event. And I'll say something that may be slightly controversial, but if I'm looking at all these people in Congress, honestly, I think Lindsey Graham is like the lowest of the low. I have more respect than I have 0% respect for her. I have more respect for Marjorie Taylor Greene than I do for Lindsey Graham. This is the most spineless, most calculated, most craven and desperate attempt for power. And then to go, because Lindsey Graham and Biden have had a relationship for decades too. Lindsey Graham has said many, many nice things throughout the years about Joe Biden. And for him to go and be like, oh, it was just performing out there. You get me, right? You get me, right?
Starting point is 00:46:41 And good on Biden for saying, no, you can't play both sides here. That's not how it works. That's not how it works. Lindsey Graham also got censured from the South Carolina GOP for voting to fix America's crumbling infrastructure. So the Aiken County Republican Party in South Carolina was announcing it was voting to censure Lindsey Graham for his support of the infrastructure package. The group said in a statement prior to voting to censure Lindsey Graham that Senator Graham failed to live up to the conservative Republican principles that we elected him to follow by supporting a bill that does not put strong limits on ambiguous green focus studies and pork barrel projects that don't really address the true needs in rural America. It's a cult, y'all. This GQP is a cult. They are against infrastructure
Starting point is 00:47:37 that helps them. They are against medicine that saves their lives. They are against, frankly, all of the values that make America such a special place. And at the end of the day, it's really, you think, letting this podcast go full circle. What the Taliban created and wants to continue in Afghanistan is what MAGA wants in America. that as the rest of us just want to go about and live our lives, to take occasional vacations with our family, to read, to listen to music, to go to the movies, to eat and have dinner in peace and tranquility. These GQPs want to come into your home. They want to shake the fucking stability out of your home so you can worship their fucking cult master, Donald GQP Trump and the fraud that he's created. And also letting this episode go full circle, the stelters and the smelters of the world, whoever these people are, whether you're born in 1985 or earlier, do your fucking job better. Do your fucking job right, I should probably say, and stop equivocating between fascism and democracy. There's a difference between people joking and having a good time and having a lighthearted laugh around democracy and a whole fucking death cult that is killing our country. So wake up, wake up now. That's the Midas Touch podcast for you.
Starting point is 00:49:36 Ben Brett and Jordy Micellas thanking you. And we want to thank you also for supporting all of our other podcasts, which are now top trending, top charting podcasts. Make sure you subscribe to the Kremlin File about the rise of authoritarianism with Putin in Russia and the parallels to here in the United States and abroad. Make sure you subscribe to Legal AF, a podcast featuring myself and my co-host, Michael Popock, where we break down today's legal issues in fun ways that everybody can understand and have a laugh at. Hopefully, I won't get criticized by some reporters that were joking sometimes occasionally, but we have serious analysis. We have a podcast zoomed in, focused on Generation
Starting point is 00:50:27 Z engagement in the political process. Make sure you subscribe to Mya Culpa by Michael Cohen, another Midas Touch executive produced podcast that's top charting. And of course, this podcast, we appreciate your support, Ben. And if you were wondering, I have been on, I'm on a vacation. I'm recording this from vacation. I've seen people saying, what am I drinking? And the comments below, it is a non-alcoholic watermelon drink, which somewhat disgustingly I had last night, but it still tasted really good. And so I feel like, I feel like this was a podcast version of a subtweet against Popak somehow.
Starting point is 00:51:10 Like, yes, I'm on vacation and I am working through it to deliver you this podcast. Not saying anything else, but I'm working. That's why I save that for the very end, because I just wanted to show I didn't need to make a big deal about it. I went through it. I saw people saying, oh, how Ben's dressed. And yes, he's holding the cup. But you know what? This is what you do, Popak. This is what you do. So for those who don't know, my co-host Michael Popak took three weeks off, which is great. But I mean, I won't go. I won't do some. Anyway, PopAC took a three week vacation.
Starting point is 00:51:47 I'm going to, I'm going to stay safe. And then Legal AF is back and better than ever. So subscribe to the Legal AF by Midas Touch podcast, wherever you get your podcasts. We appreciate your support. Jordy, longest outro of all time. Shout out to the Midas Mighty.

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