The MeidasTouch Podcast - MeidasTouch Full Podcast - 10/2/26

Episode Date: October 2, 2026

On this episode of the MeidasTouch Podcast, Ben, Brett and Jordy discuss a rapidly widening global crisis as tankers are struck in the Strait of Hormuz, Russia escalates its assault on Ukraine, and Americans get slammed by record-high diesel prices and surging gas costs. The brothers break down Trump’s claims that he “controls” the Strait even as he moves thousands more U.S. troops and another carrier strike group toward the Middle East, raising the stakes of an already catastrophic war. They also examine Trump’s threats against U.S. allies over emergency fuel supplies, his bogus $54 billion South Korea announcement, and Canada’s accelerating push to reduce its dependence on the United States. Finally, they cut through the propaganda surrounding the escalating conflicts and examine Trump’s increasingly desperate message as the midterms close in. Pre-order the new book from MeidasTouch, WTF America?!: The Way Out of This Hell and Back to Democracy, today: https://bit.ly/wtfamericayoutube Deals from our sponsors!  Leaf Filter: Schedule your free inspection today at http://leaffilter.com/MEIDAS. And, for a limited time, get up to $500 off LeafFilter with $0 down. Wildgrain: Get $30 off your first box and free Croissants for life when you visit https://Wildgrain.com/MEIDAS Hims: Visit https://hims.com/meidas to get simple, online access to personalized, affordable care for ED, Hair Loss, Weight Loss, and more. OneSkin: Get 15% off OneSkin with the code MEIDAS at https://www.oneskin.co/MEIDAS #oneskinpod Subscribe to Meidas+ at https://meidasplus.com Get Meidas Merch: https://store.meidastouch.com Remember to subscribe to ALL the MeidasTouch Network Podcasts: MeidasTouch: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/meidastouch-podcast Legal AF: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/legal-af Sidebar with Katie Phang: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/sidebar-with-katie-phang/id1886801652 The Parnas Perspective: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-parnas-perspective/id1869165949 The Intersection with Michael Popok: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-intersection-with-michael-popok/id1818863274 Scott MacFarlane Reports: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/scott-macfarlane-reports/id6807138300 MissTrial: https://meidasnews.com/tag/miss-trial The PoliticsGirl Podcast: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/the-politicsgirl-podcast The Ken Harbaugh Show: https://meidasnews.com/tag/the-ken-harbaugh-show The Weekend Show: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/the-weekend-show Burn the Boats: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/burn-the-boats Majority 54: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/majority-54 On Democracy with FP Wellman: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/on-democracy-with-fpwellman Uncovered: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/maga-uncovered Five Minute News: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/five-minute-news/id1471715443 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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free of charge. BetMGEMGEMP operates pursuant to an operating agreement with Eye Gaming, Ontario. We've got a lot to discuss on this episode of the Midas Touch podcast. In the past 48 hours, somewhere between four to five tankers were struck in the Strait of Hormuz by the IRGC. One tanker was struck in the past few hours. Donald Trump continues to claim that he controls the Strait of Hormuz, and it's the Strait of Trump, but the actual facts tell us the contrary. We'll talk about that.

We'll talk about how we're seeing. Russia escalate its strikes within Ukraine. Putin right now using these Garen 4 and Garen 5 drones. The Garen 5 is more of a hybrid cruise, if you will, but they're striking bridges right now in Kiev and power plants. This is exactly what we were warning about in the Midas Touch network. Things are going to escalate and Donald Trump tap Zelensky along, promising interceptors, promising all of these weapons, didn't deliver it. And Putin has been stockpiling a lot of weapons. We will give you an update on everything that's going on in that war that Donald Trump promised he would resolve in 24 hours after the election in 2024. Yes, he is an absolute liar.

Diesel and gas prices continue to surge and hit record highs. The price of gas is also going up. The crack spread difference between gas price and diesel and gas is continuing to increase as well. We're learning that China is shutting off a lot of its diesel exports right now as it looks to try to become more resilient with these shortages taking place. That caused the price of gas to spike as well. You have Donald Trump threatening France and Germany and other countries in Europe that they need to release their emergency stockpiles or the U.S. will do an export ban on its diesel. Again, things that were very predictable. things that we warned about, but Donald Trump prefers to just engage in fraud, like when he claims,

I spoke to South Korea, and they promised $54 billion to Alaska. Well, interesting. The MAGA Republicans are trailing in Alaska heading into the midterms, and now South Korea doing a $54 billion deal for LNG there. Wow. And then we find out 24 hours later from that press conference where Donald Trump spent most of it sleeping while Lutnik and others, like, you're such a good dealmaker. This is going to save Alaska. South Korea says 100% false. We're not even in preliminary discussion. So, yeah, we are not doing that.

But I'll tell you what is happening with LNG and with other oil pipelines. Canada doing a massive LNG deal. Nation, I mean, in terms of putting out LNG to the rest of the world and also building this pipeline that, would be able to bring oil right to Asia and to avoid U.S. refineries. There was a press conference held in Alberta that Prime Minister Carney talked about that. So the world continues to move on. And then you have Trump and Netanyahu now blaming Iran and the IRGC for that incident that took place at the Royal Air Force Base, a U.S. base in the U.K. in Fairford, which is a lot of strange things happening there.

The individuals were released on bail, and so we're trying to understand that they apparently called the police themselves. There were no explosives found, but Trump is saying that this is probably Iran and the IRGC. By the way, so is the Prime Minister of the UK. I'm trying to think what the hell is happening there. And then the Trump regime and the Netanyahu regime and the UAE, all part of the Abraham Accords, seem to also be blaming the IRGC for this incident in the fly Dubai airplane. I talked a lot about it on Ben on breaking news.

I'll cover that as well. But Trump's like, because of these incidents, now we have to massively escalate the war. And what we've seen take place in the past 24 hours is very concerning. 10,000 more troops likely committed. United States troops committed to the Middle East. We saw the USS Theodore Roosevelt now heading out to the Middle East. We will have three carrier strike groups after the midterm elections in the Middle East and a lot of other amphibious assault groups that accompany them there as well.

And again, about 10,000 more service members, thousands of Marines and Navy and other service members are going to be there. and Donald Trump is basically saying, after the midterms, we're going to escalate and we're going to get back to this catastrophic war as he continues to manipulate the markets. And in other words, we've got a lot to discuss. Brett and Jordy, good to see you.

Every time I do these intros, you know, it shocks me a little bit. It shouldn't shock me, but as I'm doing the intros and I kind of have an idea of what I'm going to say, like, oh, man. really and then this really really really this is what we're doing really really right well it's a day that ends in why so of course we got a lot to discuss here good to see it ben good to see a geordie good to be good to see you might as mighty you know i think it's interesting that we're seeing right

now the trump regime threatening countries like france and germany and's telling them you need to release your emergency diesel stockpiles or we are going to implement an export ban here in the united States. And they're saying that out of one part of their mouth. Well, out of the other part, they're saying, oh, actually, diesel is at levels like they were before the war. We actually don't even need any more diesel because we've been so successful in the Iran War. It's like, all right, which is it? We're not stupid people. We're not stupid. And now Trump's new thing as we approach the midterms, which are getting awfully close people, Trump's new thing, everything actually is amazing. It is a golden age. Everything is perfect. The war is going great. The economy,

incredible, our poverty numbers, incredible. Everyone is happy. The problem, Donald Trump just isn't bragging enough about it. He just isn't bragging enough about it. If we know anything about Donald Trump, humble guy, not bragging enough. That is the issue. Okay, Donnie. Well, if that's his plan leading up to the midterms, I think that's why we're seeing

Republicans right now in dire straits. We've got a lot to talk about. Jordy, what's the latest that you're in? Donnie, keep spiking that football. Spike it as much as you want because you got nothing to spike, man. It's unbelievable. Brothers, might as mighty, it is so great to be here. Yeah, Donnie, you and Dan Skavino might be popping champagne over in Mar-a-Lago, having a great time with your 0.01% folks who like to hang down there with you.

The American people feel something differently, so to see. I'm excited to get into tonight's show. We have a lot to get into. Every time that Donald Trump and the regime open their mouth, they're lying. Anytime they speak, like literally, Brett, to your point, right? They say one thing over here. Next breath, they say the exact opposite. It's because they don't have like a singular belief.

or conviction other than to cause chaos and make the wrong decisions. So they're like, if I just start saying everything, I'll have to like broken clocks and all that. I'll have to be right eventually. The issue is he's seemingly never right. And all of his decisions are just leading to more chaos and more of our troops getting killed. And it's horrific to see.

And Ben, I hear you with the intros, big bro. It's like deep breaths as we kind of go through these. But again, that's what they want. That's what the Trump regime wants. They almost want us to. to get in this perpetual sort of exhaustion where it just feels normal. But we all know, brothers, might as mighty, that we can't look away, especially right now, especially as we head into these damn midterms over here.

And it's just like, we just got to lock in and just get through the craziness here together and report the truth every step of the way. So with that, big bro, where do you want to start us off today? You look, in past presidencies, I didn't really have to think all about the straight of Hormuz or the Bob Elmondeb straight. I didn't have to think about crack spreads or 10, 20, 30-year treasury yields. You know, I didn't have to think about the process for refining oil and how the distillate is distributed. I didn't have to, you know, think about a lot of these, you know, issues that out of the basic survival instinct, I think we've all, the minus mighty, have had to build a resiliency here because we're,

we know that every word, sounds, syllable, and utterance from this regime is a lie. And knowledge is power. And it helps us build this resilience where we can trust a single word that comes out of this Trump regime. We'll talk more about that throughout this episode. I think that will be a theme that we all know by now. But when you see Donald Trump in Texas and you're saying, well, what is the MAGA Republican message?

and you want to see how desperate they are. I mean, Donald Trump says, you know, the thing about James Tolarico is he's a freco who vomits in his mouth after eating the beef. He's a freco beef vomiter. And you're watching a freco beef. What the hell is happening? But this is what they're running on because the magas realize people like James Tolariko are delivering. concrete plans about the cost of living, concrete plans about how we can fight back against this fascist Trump regime, concrete plans about stopping data centers, which the Trump regime

wants to rename SI centers. And now we're going to put SI centers in your backyard. Or as Donald Trump said in that deranged Time magazine article, I don't want them in my backyard. We need them in the country. We need them in your backyard, but I'm not, he literally said that in the Time magazine article. All these magas got are when he eats the beef, he vomits in his mouth. Here, watch what Trump says. Let's play.

You know what a vegan is? Vegans don't do well in Texas, okay? So now he goes to a barbecue. He eats meat. You know what he does after he eats? He says, excuse me just from, he goes behind the tent and he throws up. He throws up. He gets rid of the meat.

He doesn't want meat. No, this guy's not the right guy for Texas. I know it well. Oh, that's it. Got it. Got it. Got it. And then Donald Trump says, as he was heading to Texas,

we have the best numbers of any president in history, he says. The best economic numbers, the best inflation numbers, the best numbers on trade, the best numbers, the best in-eastern numbers. The best numbers. in history, he says. We just need to get a fair shake from the media. The media is treating us bad, but everybody knows this is the best presidency ever. Watch what he says. Here, play this clip. Well, that's true. We have to get the message because we have the best numbers of any president in history. The one thing we don't do, you know, we don't get a fair shake from the media. If they'd report them,

they just don't report the numbers. I mean, and the people around him are just as vile. as he is complicit. And I hope history remembers those images when they remember what a vile piece of trash he was and the damage he did. I hope we have those snapshots. I'll certainly make sure that as the Midas Touch Network continues to grow all of those traders around him do not get to wiggle out of accountability. Then Donald Trump says, and here's the thing, though, if Democrats get in, it will be 1929. Watch this. Then let's talk about it. I think if the Democrats get in, we will end up in a financial depression. We will go into a depression, the likes of which we've never seen before. It'll be 1929. That's my opinion. They're grossly incompetent.

They have no idea what they're doing. Now, you would still, sadly, be the president in that case. You would be the one to take care of that laws are faithfully executed. Sadly, you would have veto authority, unless it was a veto-proof majority that was reached, which I hope is the case. But I just want you all to be aware of what the plan is here. It's just like his plan after COVID, which they were able to execute with the support of complicit fascist media pouring in trillions of dollars in order to get this message out. The arsonists then want to blame the firefighters for the problems they created, and their message is going to be.

We have to preview it. We have to get ahead of it. Things were about to be so great. Look how amazing it was at the beginning of 2026, which, by the way, it wasn't. But this is what they did back in 2020 also. Things were so good right before COVID and then COVID hit. Things were so amazing, but then we had to stop Iran from getting nuclear weapons. And then we had to deal with that, but we were still resilient.

And things were going to be amazing. But then the Democrats won the House, the Democrats won the Senate, and as a result, we are now suffering. And it's like, these were all your policies, the tariffs against the world, the catastrophic war. And I'll say this because Donald Trump's pathology is a bankruptor and a loser, you know, it's almost as if his safe space goes back to the blame. It's almost like the Iran war provides him with where he's most comfortable losing because he's a lifelong loser to then be able to say, I was going to do a great job. But now it's the fault of Iran's nuclear weapons. I had to make a safe. The Democrats then screwed it up.

And folks, as I've always said, this vile piece of trash is a lifelong loser. This isn't my political message. I'm not trying to spin you to vote this way or that way. I'm providing an objective fact that if there was a Guinness Book of World Records for someone who's bankrupted things as many times as he had and the size of said bankruptcies, in my opinion, he'd probably be at the top of the list well before he ever even got into politics. And we're seeing it play out over and over again. Fake deals, fake this, whey, wah, the whining, the complaining, the blame.

Loser behavior, Brett. The irony is that if Donald Trump took office and did basically nothing, say he got in there and his one thing was, I'm shutting down the border, I'm going to take that really seriously, and then he just kind of hid in his bunker and never came out. We'd actually maybe be like in a golden age right now because the trajectory of the country at the end of the Biden administration was actually very good. Inflation was coming down, mortgage rates were coming down. Interest rates were projected to decrease.

Multiple decreases in the interest rates were projected at that point. Everything was heading in a very good direction. And then Donald Trump, to Ben's point, it was his specific decisions that ended up blowing up everything and causing all of the havoc that we have today. And now Trump just believes that he has a messaging issue, that everybody actually loves what's going on. But the message just isn't getting out to the American people in the right way. And that's because the media is corrupt. The media is fake news. No, the media is actually telling the truth about Donald Trump.

Frankly, they're not even going far enough about how bad Donald Trump is. You think that the media would be silent if Joe Biden was falling asleep in the Oval Office at every event for minutes on end? Absolutely not. You would have anchors like Jake Tapper and others. they'd be calling endlessly for Joe Biden to step down, saying he's unfit for office. But here, Donald Trump does it. You don't even get like a story out of it on the mainstream news. They don't even speak about this stuff, which is just absolutely mind-blowing to me.

Like, it should be a major story that a president of the United States is falling asleep in the middle of the Oval Office, basically on a daily basis right now. Like, this is not normal behavior. And the irony of it all as well is that while Donald Trump complains that everything is just all fine and great and everybody loves everything, but the media isn't doing enough to get his message out there. And so there's just some issue right there. That's kind of actually what was happening under the Biden administration. There was actually not, I'm not saying anything was perfect. There were certainly high inflation. And all the things that really happened under the Biden administration, most of them were caused by these external facts.

like Russia invading Ukraine, by the supply shocks as a result of Trump's mishandling of the COVID-19 pandemic, a lot of external factors that President Biden had to deal with at the time, and the media treated every little thing that happened under the Biden administration as a hair-on-fire moment, as this is it. This is a catastrophe. And so, you know, ironically, what Trump is describing is much more apt for like a Biden to complain about than for him to complain about. anything, Donald Trump just has it too easy right now. People are going too easy on him with all the corruption and they want to try to normalize this behavior and pretend like it's normal and pretend like he's not an authoritarian who is actively subverting the Constitution and

taking over our institutions and everything that he's doing. And I think that is an absolute disgrace. I think it needs to continue to be called out. It's not a messaging issue. It's a Donald Trump issue. It's a corruption issue. And it's a corruption issue where you have Donald Trump, of course, at the top of it here. And then you have all of the people around Donald Trump, the employees around him who are enabling this. And then you have the kind of corporate structure of the United States when you see those CEOs going to the White House and fawning over Donald Trump and going, oh, you say, SI, sir. Yes, it's SI. Oh, sorry. I should have said ASI. It's like, dude, what the heck are you doing? Can you grow a goddamn spine? You have, you have, you. You have, you

You're a billionaire. I always thought when you became a billionaire, that was supposed to imbue some sort of sense of, you have FU money, as you call it, and you don't have to be a marionette for somebody like a Donald Trump, you could do your own thing. But these people are just absolutely pathetic everywhere you look. It's cost one yachts not enough for these CEOs, Brad.

They need seven yachts. They need 14 yachts. So they have to keep Donnie happy, man. They have to keep them happy so they won't go after. They won't look into his company. A lot to unpack. here. I want to start off with vegan. Can I tell you what's happening there? Like, please try to say vegan, obviously.

Yes, we know this. So he's reading from a teleprompter. He can't read, right? So he doesn't know the word vegan. So what's happening is they have it spelled out phonetically. This is what I'm guessing here. And when you spell it out phonetically, it's VEE, and that's how he's getting VE. Like that's why he's saying, he has no idea what he's saying in this moment. His closing argument to win Texas is that Tala Rico, is a vaguen, like something that's not even a word. This is truly an utter, like, we haven't seen just a level of incompetency at this level of of job.

Sure, Ken Paxton is an actual criminal. Sure, he's somebody who is a serial philanderer whose own wife divorced him on biblical grounds. Sure, he misused his office in the, one of the biggest corruption scandals in Texas. But did you know that James Teller Rico throws up his meat? That's the other thing. What is he called? He's like also calling him Belimic. Like I just don't understand where this is appealing to and like how this is truly the closing message. Other than like I could just like maybe he just really doesn't want Paxton to win.

But I'm not I'm not theorizing that. But I'm just saying like he's called the guy ugly. He said like you hate the guy, but you got to vote for. It is the worst campaigner that you could be or have on your side. Now I want to go to the 1929 thing. So Donald Trump is the president right now. Yes. He's also going to be the president two years from now.

Unfortunately, just how it works, right? Everyone gets four years, right? That's it. So Donald Trump is already sort of putting into the world that under his presidency, like we're going to live through this Great Depression, should the Democrats win in November? Should they like regain the House during the midterms? Tell me like what sense that genuinely makes when you as the president,

when you as the Republican Party have controlled all three branches of government. And in theory, could have put the necessary precautions in place if you were truly scared of the scary Democrats coming into office. I don't know, to maybe hopefully hold y'all accountable from the MAGA grift that y'all are doing, from the $3 billion, Donnie, that you and your family have grifted since you've been in office this time around. Yet the thing is and the fear is, oh, Democrats take power over the midterms. Now, now I'm going to run on this campaign that the economy is so bad because of the Democrats. My agenda was going to be fulfilled. Everything was going so swimmingly. Now I'm going to spend the next two years campaigning for my third term

or whomever the next Republican candidate is going to be saying, the Democrats ruined the golden age. Look around. Affordability is terrible and it's all the Democrats' fault. Again, Ben, to your point, exactly. He's the arsonist trying to put out a fire, but he's not even putting it out. He's actually making more fire just for the sake of campaigning on it.

He's using the midterms as essentially, how he would use, you know, a tax loss harvesting strategy for one of his, you know, companies I was going under so he could avoid paying taxes. He's trying to do that for his presidency saying, oh, don't blame me for this. It's all the Democrats' fault. Let's write that off and blame the Democrats as we go forward so I could win again in 2028. Just keep it going. He's like a Ponzi schemer, right? And so his only move is scapegoating, and he always needs to find the next scapegoat. And he scapegoats one Ponzi scheme with the next Ponzi scheme with the next Ponzi scheme. So you have Liberation Day, right?

Then you have Iran War. You blame the Democrats. You just keep stacking all these things up to blame so that, hey, it's not me. I'm not the reason for all of it. It's the media. It's this person. It's that person. It's not Donald Trump.

Yeah. And look, it's the biggest cell phone, which is why I always talk about leadership beyond really even ever talking about the day-to-day politics of this person and that person. I think it's important, Brett, we point out what an absolute, awful, vile piece of crap Ken Paxton is and how I actually believe that James Tolerico is an honorable person. I think that's important. I also think it's important that we ask a broader question about how are Americans doing right now. how are people in Texas doing right now?

Because even if you took away all of those horrible personal attributes of Paxton, and even if you took away what I think are the great attributes of Tala Rico, but if you remove that, the question is, is your life better or worse right now under the Trump regime and under Republican control? They had the opportunity to show you what they can do. Do you actually like their performance? If your lived experiences, you think it's great.

I really need to meet you because most people I speak to and most people, other than some of those AI billionaires who are out there at the White House who have made a lot of money under the Trump regime, most Americans are doing significantly worse right now. And that's what I also talk about leadership. Donald Trump, sadly, would still be there. captain. You would be the leader of the team, which is what the executive branch is, to take care that laws are faithfully executed. If Democrats took control of one house or both houses, the House and the Senate, which I think they're going to do. So if you are saying that you as the captain would not be able to steer the country in a direction of prosperity or success, and that by having members of the team who you disagree with would send us into a depression. Think about any sports team, the QB, or think about a sports team, a basketball team with

the best player. If you can't work with your teammates and you believe that just not having the perfect teammate, not only means you won't achieve your best success, but means that you will automatically lose, you're also calling yourself the biggest loser ever. that you can't navigate that situation. Now, the situation he's creating is a total fabrication and a way to blame others. But I just want to put it in those terms as well, because just even removing the politics, which is hard to do, it's the most loser quality to say things like this. Like, that's not how winners behave. And I hope when we elect people to the highest office, We elect people who are serious, competent, sophisticated, public servants who are then acting

and the highest levels to benefit us. Let's never forget that. By the way, it's what we talk about a lot in our book, WTF America, the way out of this hell and back to democracy. And one of the things I've been learning is we probably should have told everybody about the audiobook because people are really excited that there's an audio book to it as well and that we're all reading the audio. So Brett, Jordy and I, we all read it, Ben.

We all read the audio together. And it's not AI. It's us reading. We spent a lot of time doing that. And once I said that everybody was really excited, so I saw the audio book, you know, start to, you know, rise. And it's the same link, by the way, that you get the other. Same link.

And then there's an e-book and then there's a hardcover as well. But yes, we all read the audio. And once we told that to be there, so why didn't you tell us that to begin with? Anyway, because we were working on it, probably because we were in the studio recording the audio book. All right, we have a lot more show to discuss. I want to talk about what's happening right now in Saudi Arabia. Jan Bu is on fire.

Abkhak, other areas seem to have been hit by Ansarala, the Houthis. Also, we're seeing St. Petersburg and Russia burning. We're seeing the main bridges in Kiev burning. I mean, war is escalating throughout the world right now. Putin's talking about nuclear weapons. If NATO moves on Kalinigrad, you're saying NATO, saying that Putin's planning hybrid warfare against NATO and Donald Trump's out there talking about Tolerico vomiting in his mouth. We'll take our first quick break of the show.

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I also have been looking around Nebraska and South Dakota and Alaska and of course Michigan and Ohio. I've been looking in Maine and I've been looking in Florida. I've been looking in a lot of these states, and you're seeing MAGA Republicans just losing ground. I mean, heck, you know, even in Florida, I'm seeing Democratic registration there beating Republican registration. I look at the first time last month since 2021, did Democrats surpass it.

I'm not going to act like it's a significant amount, but it is significant that Democrats for the first time since 2021 had more voter registrations last month in Florida. You know, it's interesting because we've been speaking about this for months, how Donald Trump is a drag on the Republican Party and how everybody wants to run away from him. But Donald Trump, of course, has felt the need to try to get his stink over as many of these Republican candidates as possible, including Ken Paxton, who was his guy, right? Like, they could have had John Cornyn, who would have been much more palatable to the people of Texas.

But instead, Donald Trump had to do what he did, and he had to get the corrupt Ken Paxton in, us corrupt people, stay together. And it's been a disaster for them. And I think one of the most telling things was that leaked audio that came out on Wednesday, where you actually heard Ken Paxton say, on tape, that Donald Trump was a drag not only on his own candidacy, but on all Republicans. And when you look at the actual data, like I was looking at Nate Silver, he has a silver bulletin average of polls, and you could see the line.

And it goes, you know, kind of steady clip. You see the Democrats percentage increasing and increasing as the midterms approach. Then you hit that midterm convention, which we had said was likely going to be an utter disaster for the Republican Party, just a fatal mistake. And we were actually commending the Democrats for not trying to do a kind of rebuttal midterm convention. Just let them, you know, hang themselves with this one. And sure enough, the day that that midterm convention happens, it goes from just kind of a straight lineup to like a very, lineup for the Democrats. And remember, that was the night where Donald Trump tried as Hail Mary. I'm going to give $5,000 out to the American people. That ended up being so mocked and derided

not only by Democrats, but on all sides of the political spectrum. People looked at that as an act of desperation, and it also just reminded folks that this guy is a freaking liar. This guy has been promising me money now for years with the doge checks, with the tariff checks, now with this and he's not giving me my money so fool me once fool me twice f you donald trump i ain't fallen for this crap and so it is really just a slap in the face when Donald trump does it and a lot of these attacks these culture war attacks when they try to put down trans people because they think they could bully marginalized communities for votes what an absolute disgrace when they try to attack stupid stuff like veganism which there's nothing wrong about veganism shout out

to vegans. When they do all that stuff, it might work if the economy is actually good or people are feeling comfortable in their lives. When people are suffering, people, they don't have time for that. They don't have time to get in those factional arguments. So what Republicans do, and the reason why they always go to this, and it's been before Donald Trump, it's been going back. If you look at President Bush back in the day when he was running for his second term, very unpopular. They leaned very heavily into gay marriage back then. That was a big thing that they made an issue of that election. And so they always do this.

They try to latch on to these culture war issues because they know they're failing on the things that actually matter to people and the things that people actually care about, the things that people will rank as their top 5, 10, 15, 20 issues, and they go to the bottom of that list to an issue that they know that they could get clicks on and then they can know they could rile people up on and they try to do that. It's their only move. It's been their only move. Donald Trump just does it in the stupidest, most overt way imaginable.

We have to, though, recognize how are people susceptible to it, not just Americans, but people across the world and people historically. How do you have this dynamic where there's these information gaps or poisoned information and how are people riled up against each other and then against their own interest? And what can we learn from? And I mean this sincerely, you know, what I think is an incredible mayor, the way Zoran Mamdani is running New York City and kind of always in a constant campaign mode of getting out the information of here's how government's actually working for you. Not a day goes by where he's not releasing a video of addressing the potholes to the tennis courts in the Bronx to saying, here is what we are doing.

And I think that that is something that lots of people need to understand that in this information age, it's not enough to just believe that people get it or people are seeing it. You have to make sure that you build a connection with the people you represent, show people you're fighting for them, regardless of what political party they're from, that you are fighting for them, that you stand with them, and that you're willing to take on these other forces that are out there. And so while I see a lot of this news of the vote now shifting very blue, very democratic in the House and the Senate, I think that it's good.

going to be now incumbent upon Democrats if and when they take control of the House and Senate to not squander the moment and to learn and to see what's happening in New York City and gain lessons from it, to see how someone like a Tala Rico is inspiring people in Texas, to see the broader dynamic out there and listen to what people are saying, what they're going through, Why is it that these people even voted for Trump in 2024? I mean, the promises made about electricity prices being cut. No more never-ending wars. And I know he said a bunch of lunatic stuff, and he would talk about how to belector and mass.

Like he said so many hateful deranged things. He's a sex predator. He was found civilly liable for sexual assault. He's a felon. He engaged in the January 6th insurrection. Everything he did was, should have made it very disqualified from the outside. So let me be very clear. But when you listen to what voters were saying about the no more never-ending wars and

that affordability was crushing them and they were feeling left behind in this broader environment, you know, the Epstein class, these oligarchs where they are trying to convince the people that they were the ones who were going to help them when they were the ones causing the problem, when they were making this problem in the first place and exacerbating it. And now the people see. So you can't just go back to the status. quo you have to show that you will actually create major change now I know so got to be a doer right

you got it you got to be able to do stuff done and you could speak in flowery language and you could message test and say what did Zora and Mamdani say that helped him get elected and why did those videos make him so popular is because they were edited nicely or were they slick was it the filter they put on the video was it his how a charismatic he is I mean yeah that's that's a large part of of why those videos worked for sure. But then if he came into office and he said, I'm implementing a tariff on all New Yorkers and I'm gonna make all your stuff more expensive

and I'm gonna go to war, obviously can't do that as a New York mayor, but you get the analogy I'm making here. Then people would be like, F you said all that stuff. He wouldn't be at a 60% plus approval rating in New York City. And that's what Donald Trump did. He sold all of that stuff to these people. Now, a lot of people like you all who are watching, that a lot of you are watching,

because we do have a lot of former Trump voters who watch this as well. you'd be surprised you know a lot of people saw past it but the people who voted for him believe that he was going to be the anti-war guy that he was going to be the i'm going to make your things cheaper guy and then he got into office and he did the exact opposite mom donnie's a great example of getting into office and then you see every single day it's like we fill 200 000 potholes boom right we got money hundreds of millions of dollars going back to door a door dash drivers who were ripped off by the company i got this settlement this money's going back to the people who were screwed over boom I'm

holding landlords accountable and I see videos all the time of people in their apartments now in New York City and I've heard all these stories of people in New York City who go I had this issue with my apartment for years and my landlord never did crap for me now all of the sudden that there's actual consequences behind them not doing stuff for me all the sudden things are getting fixed awfully quickly and universal child care universal child care all the stuff, pre-K. When you deliver for people, it builds trust. And especially on these tangible issues, it was something I actually heard Mayor Mamdani speak about recently. I forget where he was, but that's

beside the point. But he was saying, people were asking him, you know, why do you think these things are so important to be filling potholes and to, you know, be letting people know that you're clear in the snow and doing stuff like that? And his response, I'm paraphrasing, was something like, well, people have to know that you have to build a trust with your community and you have to be able to let people know that government works for you. And when people see that government is working on their block, on their literal street, when they see that the people who they once could not get on the phone to fill a pothole or help them out are actually doing the work that they're supposed to be doing for them, then you could actually move on to these bigger initiatives. People

go, I trust them to do this, therefore I could trust them to do that. It's one of the criticisms you often see that Republicans levy on programs like universal health care, right? They go, oh, you mean the government who runs the DMV? They're going to run your health. You're right. They point to something that isn't very efficient often. And then they try to say, that's why the government can't work for you at all.

And then they do everything possible to make sure that government doesn't work for you at every stage so that they could use that as an excuse. in a cycle of saying, look, government doesn't work. And so we can't do these big things, so we're going to spend all our money on all these endless wars because that's the one thing we actually do good, not the actual fighting of the wars part apparently, but the spending the money on the wars

and keeping them going, this military industrial complex. And so that's the dynamic you have. And also I think it's incumbent a little bit on people to also understand civics at a basic level and understand what folks can do and what they can't do. You shouldn't expect Democrats winning the House and boom, everything's going to change overnight. You know, everything's going to get back.

It's, that's not going to happen. But what you should be doing is demanding that these people do what they say, that they hold this regime accountable, that we see an intense confrontation between these Democrats if they were to take the House, interrogating, investigating, holding these folks accountable, at least making the case against all these folks. so that when a Democratic administration comes in on the future, there's been all this work that's gone into holding folks accountable. And that's it right there, Brad, because at its core, that's what people just want. They want government to work for them.

They want government and their electeds to actually work for them and deliver on their promises, right? We have too many politicians that, quite frankly, exist that just want to grift off their position of power. And it's, you know, it's disgusting and it's not good for this country. But when you see someone like a Zoran in New York doing what he's doing, when you see someone like a Shapiro out here in Pennsylvania, bridge collapses. He has it back up in 12 days. I mean, that's a defining moment in someone's elected career right there.

What we're seeing is that time and time again, people are approving of the elected officials who are actually getting stuff done, who are those GSD types who get it done day in and day out and just don't give folks lip service, but actually deliver. And that's what we see. I think that's what I think separates a lot of people in the pact of, oh, this is actually a good leader. By the way, I mean, you're seeing it at the prime minister level in Canada where you have Prime Minister Carney taking tangible steps, not doing fake deals. You know, just think about the contrast over here.

You have Donald Trump in the Oval Office yesterday saying that he's got this $54 billion an LNG deal with South Korea and South Korean companies are going to be investing in Alaska, and it's going to be amazing. And you've got all of these people, these Alaska MAGA bootlickers of Trump, the governor, and people like that, and we're like, it's going to be, you know, this is, we need this. This is so big. Then South Korea says today, their ministry, their industry ministry says it's not happening. It's just we never agreed to this.

You know, we're in very preliminary talks, very preliminary. So this isn't happening at all. So you've got that. And then you contrast that with Prime Minister Carney, who's already announced major actual LNG deals. And he's now diversifying their oil market away from the United States. You just think about that. I mean, it was such a obvious benefit to the United States and Canada.

But Canada's like, okay, we are rich in resources. So here's what we're going to do. So Prime Minister Carney goes into Alberta. By the way, their premier is Danielle Smith, Maple Maga. She does everything she can to undermine Prime Minister Carney. And he's there. And he's just, you know, standing up. Look, it's like I'm going to Alberta.

I'll go to British Columbia. I'll go to Ontario. You tell me, where should I go? I'll go to Quebec, you know, and I'll speak to the people about what we're doing tangibly. And here's what he says in Alberta. Here, let's play this clip. Appline to the West Coast is part of our mission to transform our economy, to double our non-U.S. exports over the next decade, to create tens, in fact, hundreds of thousands of good jobs, to unlock the full potential of Canada as a global energy superpower, and to catalyze tens and tens of billions of dollars of new investment into the Canadian economy. to make Alberta and Canada more prosperous, more independent, and to do all of this in the right way.

Today, 90% of Alberta's oil goes to the U.S. Pacific Link will materially reduce that dependence by allowing us to export an additional one million barrels a day to growing markets in Asia. That means more customers, more choice, higher prices for all Canadian energy producers. and it means greater long-term security of demand. Greater long-term security of demand. In other words, U.S. is unreliable, and so we need greater long-term security, not just Trump destroying the United States short-term,

but long-term. And when we look at the long-term bonds, the 30-year, 20-year, 10-year treasury yields, how they're seeing the United States, how that market is seeing the United States, the United States, it's a very grim picture. I mean, there's a world where the 30-year yields could hit 6% very soon. And the 10-year yields had its worst quarter, its worst run, since 1994 or so.

We had inflation data that came out yesterday and it seemed, whoa, it was actually pretty decent. And then we learned that the Trump regime has just changed. the PCE inflation formula, basically to rig the formula so it drops inflation by about 30 to 40 basis points. And that's why we saw it drop 30 to 40 basis points from where we expected it to be. But you're not fooling anybody long term. I mean, you may trick the market for short periods of time where Trump and others seem to

be buying the dips that they create. But if you look at the bond markets, they're now believing that there's going to be four to five interest rate hikes. Brett, as you mentioned before, there was supposed to be three interest rate cuts. So we're talking about a swing of about 225 basis points in the direction of interest rate hikes versus cuts where we were expecting it to be. And you're seeing countries and companies that hold U.S. debt dumping it unless the Treasury Department provides these very high yields, which ultimately means we, the tax

payers are paying to service the debt somewhere in the range of $1.35 trillion a year. It's like basically the biggest line item right now of our budget is paying the debt, which actually causes more debt because the Ponzi scheme continues. And the debt that the United States has accumulated was never sustainable, but it was at least continuing to be able to be sustained on the basis. that the post-World War II architecture was created by the United States. So all of the oil money was in dollars, the equity markets, really the United States was paramount. The bond market, United States. Everything was conducted in dollars. The US would be able to wheel that

so you can print more money. We shouldn't have. It's reckless, but it was at least somewhat able to continue DePonzi because the US created the architecture. architecture and created the rules, heads, I win, tails you lose. But what happens when you destroyed the rules-based order and made the United States weaker, that's when the overall Ponzi scheme actually collapses, and this is what Trump is doing. We'll talk a little bit more about what's happening internationally when we come back. And this is what we talk a lot about in WTF America. What I'm excited about this book is for it to last beyond this election, the next election,

the next 20 elections because it is the Midas, mighties kind of flag, if you will, in the United States literature of here is the way out of this. And I hope people, 20, 30, 50, 100 years or more will go back and look at this and see the ideas of the Midas Mighty of you, that you helped inform this. So get the audio or the e-book or the hardcover.

you can click the QR code right now or scan the QR code. You can't click it, scan the QR code, or click the link in the description. We'll be right back after our last quick break. The moment you notice something's off in the bedroom, it tends to stick with you. Most guys sit on it longer than they should. Hymns makes it simple to actually do something about it with real treatment options 100% online. HIMS connects you with licensed healthcare providers online, giving you simple access to legitimate ED treatment options

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Please support our show and tell them we send you. Let's go. Shout to our sponsors, links and description of the YouTube and the audio. Use the links. Use the codes. If there's that exit survey, let them know we sent you. Benji, I like your glasses today. They're very clean.

Their new glasses were inspired by the Midas Mighty saying that the old glasses were very dirty and foggy. And I'm a creature of habit. It was true. They were dirty. They were foggy. They were filthy. Like smudges everywhere. It was crazy.

Did you just think the world looked like Vaseline? Yeah. Did you think you needed new glasses because you couldn't see out? We're being mean. Brett, you're being too much. I mean, look, I don't get out of the house that much. It's been a lot of time working. You know, the idea of even going to-

Oh, sorry, you worked too much. The idea of even doing an eye exam. It's like the job question. What's your big? weakness i just worked too hard you know a little more self-care defense though i mean he doesn't stop working so now he really it's true yeah the funny thing is the way i found out that i needed glasses was we were watching like finding nemo in the auditorium and so like middle school i don't know why that was even a thing but we were and my friend who was sitting next to me i gave me his glasses

i put him on all the sudden the movie looked crystal clear like it was hd i thought the screens like a all screens like projector screens were blurry. And then I put the glasses on and I had a huge revelation. Oh, it's not the screens. It's me. And I'm glad that Ben had a similar. Fun fact, Brad's also colorblind. This is true.

I never even knew that you're colorblind? You didn't know this? It's like you badly colorblind or like it's like a mild thing. But they're like if people out there are colorblind in the way that I am, it's red green colorblind. And there are certain shades of red and and green that when they're side by side, my eyes can't tell the difference.

So I see color, right? I see colors. I could point to blue, right? I see colors. However, those specific shades, I can't see. So they have these number tests they give you where there are these circles with these dots in it and they'll be like, what's the number in the dot?

And I'll be, Brett's like, what number? It's why. There's no number in there. And then they'll be like, what number is there? I'll be like 27 and they'll be like, oh, that's interesting. because the number is actually 72, but colorblind people are able to see 20s. And I go, okay, I get it, whatever.

You learn something new about your brothers, every show, Ben. You do, but I'll somehow link this to the show, which is do it. Let's do it. Moral clarity, clarity in general, being able to see the truth is all very important. But I'll just say this. Never would I ever think that when the United States government says, that there are protests in Iran where 12,000 people were killed. And I see images on a TV screen of seemingly the protests back in January,

and people seem to be killed or there seemed to be a location where people were killed. I, when that incident happened, despite me believing Donald Trump, lies about everything, my view was it was clear, you know, from what I observed, I thought, I mean, it's being honest, and being vulnerable with you right now. That's what I thought happened. And to this day, I still believe that there was a protest, and I believe people were killed in the protest, although the number of people who were killed in the protest,

whether the real numbers, 3,000, 5,000, or 10,000, I don't know. But what I do know is that the Trump regime, on an issue like that, went from saying 12,000 to 30,000, to 50,000, to 50,000 to 60,000. And then in this deranged Times Magazine interview that Donald Trump gave that was released today where he was like, I've got high IQs. Do you know my uncle is MIT? Very high IQs, very high IQs.

You know that Donald Trump said 72,000 people. That was the number, 72,000. So if you're going to make up 12,000 and then go to 72,000 and just do it so cavalierly and nonchalantly, and that this is just what you do and make up a number like that, you know, it's just like, I don't know, is literally everything you say an absolute lie? What really went down? And it makes it very difficult when this regime lies about quite literally everything

of what's going on over there, right? Then you hear about the Royal Air Force Fairford incident and the information that came out, that's the U.S. air base that's been used to strike Iran. there were apparently people who were involved in terroristic activity. That's the news that was coming out. And as soon as it happened, I had to say, this is what's being said. I don't know what's happening.

So I just want to tell you we have to be very careful in how we report this. I think we handled it very responsibly and how we reported it. But now we know that the five people are out on bail, that apparently one of the people or two of the people in that group were the individuals who called the police on themselves, that there were not any explosives. They weren't like right by the Air Force. They were, you know, in a town that was close by. And they had, I guess, empty petroleum cans or kind of tanks that weren't filled with anything. And then the Trump regime and even the prime minister of UK. And now Netanyahu are saying, that was Iran. That was IRGC. They're probably being.

behind it and now we've got to make Iran pay for it. And I'm thinking, all right, if you're saying it's IRGC and it's terrorists or whatever you're saying, why would you let the people out on bail? Like, what am I missing here? And they called the police on their own. And so there's that one. You know, then there's the fly Dubai incident, which again, seems deeply serious. I mean, what they're telling us is that this plane that had an Indian pilot and Omani co-pilot

was traveling to Tel Aviv and it was traveling. traveling from Dubai and then the co-pilot from Oman, this is the story, stabbed the pilot and tried to take over the plane and then the pilot opened up the cockpit and then the plane started a descent, a straight down descent, 17,500 feet. And then a guy with no pilot training who's a plumber who was on the plane, he rushed into the cockpit and he had seen television shows about airplane crashes. And so he took the yoke, the control yoke of the plane, pulled it up as it was descending 17,500 feet to the ground, and then pulled it up himself, stabilized the plane with no training

as an Air Force pilot or a pilot at all. And then there were two other individuals on that plane who were pilots off duty and they helped land the plane. And then now the Trump regime and UAE and Netanyahu are saying, it was IRGC backed and Trump's like, well, now that's a reason that we've got to make Iran pay. This right, as we learn about the USS Theodore Roosevelt with this aircraft carrier strike group now,

heading to the Middle East, about 10,000 more service members heading to the Middle East and Trump's saying he wants to escalate after the midterms. And then I reflect on the F-15 story where they said this F-15 pilot, Dude Bravo, we apparently saw the purported guy on 60 minutes. He's probably like 50 years old. When the F-15 was shot by Iran, he apparently fell without a parachute onto the ground. He says 70 to 100 miles per hour. And then he fell to the ground and then he broke some bones, but he was okay to run five to 20 miles to the 7,000 foot mountain.

And then he climbed the mountain to the very top. And that's where he was rescued the 7,000 foot mountain. And then he was saved and he was rescued there. And then they're going to be making like a Hollywood movie about it. And then, oh, and then in the fly Dubai incident, the plumber who apparently saved. the flight, he was waiting in a bloody shirt. They didn't have him change. And so when Netanyahu was there, he and Netanyahu hugged each other and he was in the bloody

shirt. And then Netanyahu, I don't even want to play the Netanyahu club, but he went on, you could, I showed it in the morning. Netanyahu then goes on state regime media Fox. This is, you couldn't even believe this if they wrote it in Hollywood. You couldn't even believe this thing. And just the very fact, you know, I have to report on this. This is news. This is breaking news. And this is now being used by the Trump regime, Netanyahu, UAE, even the Prime Minister of UK, apparently, as a justification for potentially escalating a war, as you have Pete Hegsef. And I don't want to show any more Hegisith clips. Whenever I show the Hegset clips, I see the chat. They go muting it now. But Hegsith is saying the Book of Isaiah told him that we need to send. our young men and women and people to war just based on whatever God tells Hegesith and Trump,

send me, send me is what Hegseth said. And Hegs had takes great delight in cutting 20% of our admirals and generals. He said they're unworthy of their positions. And so he bragged about it while he says, God and Isaiah told him that we command our service members, send me into war. And then I see this is now being used as the justification. So I have to be circumspect and I have to be responsible in my reporting on all of this. But I put these pieces together for you in that way. And I just never thought, being candidly, you know, going back to the beginning where I was like, I never wanted to talk about strain of Hormoos and crack spreads and treasury yields and things like that.

but that this entire narrative out here seems to be filled while just leave it at this with many a question with many a question and the American people like just get us out of this war we don't want to be involved in this never-ending war the U.S. doesn't want to be working with Netanyahu to do all of these horrific wars and as Netanyahu continues the genocide and Gaza like we just We don't, let's just stop it. We don't want to be spending taxpayer dollars, slaughtering little children in Iran or in Gaza or elsewhere in Lebanon or elsewhere. We want to spend that money to build schools in the United States

and to help people here and to build hospitals here, not to blow up hospitals there. What are we doing? And so I, you know, I hope piecing that together for you. And then this last piece, and I'll throw it to you, Brett and Jordan, because that's really, you know, this is my international beat that I always talk about. You know, then you just see the mass escalation in Russia, Russia escalating on Kiev, rather.

And then you see the response of Ukraine in Russia. Bridges blown up and refineries blown up and logistical centers blown up. And this thing is escalating in a way that is absolutely. You know, people are often going, well, why do you call your video all hell breaks loose? because if there was a bigger word that I could use than the apocalyptic scenes, I would want that word. If you help me find that word, but what we're observing is the closest,

I think we can observe to hell. So that's what we're seeing. So that's what it is when you see that level of destruction and devastation, Brett, Jorney. Yeah, I think it's quite the apt description. And, you know, when we speak about all the, when we speak about all these things and we speak about the kind of propaganda that we see out of governments, and I'm not saying this specifically tying it to any of the stories that Ben mentioned.

Honestly, I just don't have all the details on these. We don't have all the details on these stories. We don't know what's true. We don't know what's not true. But we do know that the government has lied to us continuously, and it's not new in the age of Trump. And I think that's also important to point out that while Trump is the kind of loudest force of lying and propaganda and he's just so overt with everything he does. This has been going on for an incredibly long time. Of course, happens across many governments, all governments, but it's been

going on in the United States for a long time. One of the examples I always think about first, there's the whole weapons of mass destruction, which brought us into Iraq, and why did we go into Iraq after the World Trade Center attacks never made any sense to begin with, but we relied into that war. Everybody knows and acknowledges us today that that was a complete lie. And if you said that back then, people called you a traitor and they said that you were a conspiracy theorist and whatever names they wanted to give you. There were also other things that happened even back then that are worth revisiting today because in times of war, the propaganda that's used is potent propaganda. And they do it for a reason. Back in the day, there was a guy named Pat Tillman, and he was an NFL player.

I believe he played for the Arizona Cardinals at the time. chiseled jaw, big dude look like Mr. America, right? Like stereotypical look like Mr. America. Captain America. Yeah. Well, I'm not saying Captain America specifically. Like I'm saying like he looks like the embodiment of like, you know, America tough guy, army military guy, right?

And so he is, you know, in the army and he gets deployed to Iraq. And he's against the war. He actually opposes of the war. And this was the guy who was supposed to be like this NFL player who was going to fight and he was going to be this hero. They were going to use him as propaganda, but he was against the war. And he ended up getting killed. And it turned out that he got killed by what they call friendly fire. Also a name used to diminish what actually happened.

He was killed by Americans. He was killed by American soldiers theoretically accidentally. And the government covered it up. And they used his death as propaganda. And this is well documented. It's not like this is my opinion on what happened. It's well documented that this is what happened. They used his death for propaganda to push the war,

despite the fact that he was against the war. His family had to try to speak out and say he actually hated this war. He was against it. He thought it was unlawful. He didn't want to be there. And there's a movie about it called The Tillman's story, which came out like in 2010, which is really, really good. And it just shows you.

you how all these people in our government lied every step of the way. Donald Rumsfeld, George W. Bush, right? All that entire administration back then just lied in order to make this individual's death war propaganda. And we're seeing today how they use these horrifying situations and how they embellish stories and make up stories and use whatever they can to push war propaganda. It's the same machine behind the scenes, right, with a different face out front. It's going on for a long time. If you haven't seen that movie, it's a really powerful and horrifying movie. But even today, the NFL does, I believe, ceremonies where they honor Pat Tillman and they do it in a kind of very war propaganda way to honor soldiers and things like that.

Basically the exact opposite of what Pat Tillman's message actually was back then. But they've turned his death into this kind of propaganda scheme that's now an NFL broadcasts, that's feeding more propaganda to people via that. And it's just, you have to be aware of it, right? And in the moment, you often don't, it's often impossible to know what's going on, right? Because there are cover-ups, there are actual conspiracies happening. And oftentimes, it's not until later on, until there's investigations, till documents leak or unclassified or whatever, until you find stuff out. But my point, just to wrap it up, it was happening then, it's happening now, and technology is much more sophisticated now than it even was back then,

even though that wasn't all that long ago. And so we have to kind of take each story as it comes and look at it through a very critical lens and not immediately try to yell at somebody if they express skepticism at something, especially when you have an administration, or in this case a regime that is quite literally lied about everything, even something as stupid as the wrong. reflecting pool. And by the way, I could say that David Hearn, his case dismissed with prejudice today, meaning the government cannot bring that case again against him. Donald Trump wanted to lock up a former Olympian blaming him for the reflecting pool disaster that was caused by Donald Trump's

own incompetence. And so just putting the pieces together once again, it happens. It happens every day. There's a whole document to trail of it. And so I thought I would bring it up. No, thanks for that, Bia. I just want to add this really quick, Ben, is Brett, to your points exactly. It's why I'm so honored to be walking side by side brothers with you guys, but also Midas Mighty with you guys, interacting with you all in the chats when we can, obviously,

and just hearing what's impacting your lives and what's on the top of your minds. And so it's just I know we're all collectively going through a lot. I just wouldn't want to be going through this with anybody else. And in times that are difficult, you know, it's good to lean on communities. I'm just so honored to have this incredible community with you all here in this shared space

as we march forward, as we continue to be truth seekers and truth tellers and trying to just unearth all of the madness that we're witnessing day in and day out. So truly from the bottom of my heart, and I know from my brothers as well, thank you guys for staying so plugged in every single day. God knows we're going to need it, especially post midterms and all of that. So thank you guys so much. Super excited. This was a great episode. Benji, I'm just going to close right now if that's all right. Remember, WTF America, scan the QR code, buy the book, audio book, e-book, however you could do it.

We worked tirelessly on this. We dedicated to y'all. Thank you guys genuinely so much for tuning in every single day. Y'all are the best. Until next time. Shout out to the Midas, Marty. Before you go, our book, WTF America is available for pre-order now. It's the story of how we got here and how we fight our way back. To pre-order, scan the QR code, or click the link in the description. Let's do this.