The MeidasTouch Podcast - MeidasTouch RESPONDS to BREAKING NEWS for New Year

Episode Date: December 31, 2024

On this episode of the MeidasTouch Podcast: Trump gets hit with a massive loss from a federal appeals court regarding one of the E. Jean Carroll verdicts; The old-MAGA vs. tech-MAGA divide grows, and Trump voters get increasingly angry before he even enters office; The Republicans turn against Mike Johnson right before the voter for Speaker; and more! Ben, Brett and Jordy break it down. Subscribe to Meidas+ at https://meidasplus.com Watch Ben’s interview with President Biden: https://youtu.be/TJfOAjUleTc Deals from our sponsors!  Armra: Receive 15% off your first order when you go to https://tryarmra.com/meidas or enter MEIDAS at checkout! L-Nutra ProLon: Right now, ProLon is offering The MeidasTouch Podcast listeners 15% OFF off their 5-day nutrition program. Go to https://ProlonLife.com/MEIDAS 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 MissTrial: https://meidasnews.com/tag/miss-trial The PoliticsGirl Podcast: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/the-politicsgirl-podcast The Influence Continuum: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/the-influence-continuum-with-dr-steven-hassan Mea Culpa with Michael Cohen: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/mea-culpa-with-michael-cohen 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 Political Beatdown: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/political-beatdown On Democracy with FP Wellman: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/on-democracy-with-fpwellman Uncovered: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/maga-uncovered Coalition of the Sane: https://meidasnews.com/tag/coalition-of-the-sane  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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down the massive loss. Trump thought he was going to escape that judgment. Uh-uh, Donald, it ain't happening. What is happening, the tech bro MAGA, the old school MAGA civil war is accelerating. And now old school MAGA is finding out that it's all about the money, folks, when it comes to Donald Trump. Trump apparently siding with Elon Musk over his old school MAGA base, who now feel betrayed. We could have told you so. Also, you want to know why Trump and MAGA want to abolish the Department of Education? He told you, he said, I love the poorly educated. I love people who aren't educated. Why? So that they can bring in people who are educated and pay them cheaper from foreign countries. We will break it all down.

Also talking about that money, Trump's inauguration is featuring a pay for prey scheme. $100,000 if you want to attend services with Trump at the inauguration. Doesn't sound very Christian to me, but then again, the first topic we're going to be discussing is the fact that Donald Trump was found liable of sexual assault in the E.G. Carroll case. So it kind of comes full circle right there. Talking about a full circle moment, Russia, Russia, Russia, everybody, guess what? Didn't Donald Trump tell us that he was going to stave Russia's unlawful invasion, although he didn't call it that, of Ukraine within 24 hours after the election? Last time I checked, we're past 24 hours, but assume he said within 24 hours after the election? Last time I checked, we're past 24 hours, but

assume he said within 24 hours of taking office. Well, Vladimir Putin and Lavrov, Putin's top aide, came out with a statement saying that they are rejecting the types of proposals that Trump is proposing. And Putin is saying, you know what? We want the United States to make the first move and they should come to us with their hands out and beg us. Trump, beg me if you want me to try to help you with your 24-hour promise. Why would I want to help you? More humiliation rituals. Vladimir Putin is putting Donald Trump through. Also, what's going on with MAGA Mike Johnson? We're talking about humiliation rituals. He's a walking, talking humiliation ritual. The MAGA base hates him. Trump thinks that he can control him as his puppet. What is going on there? Is he even going to survive the January 3rd leadership vote? We'll cover all of this on the Midas Touch podcast. Welcome back, my brothers, Brett and Jordy.

I missed you guys on the last one. I went solo and I missed the brothers. Yeah, in your Justin Timberlake era over there. I love the solo episode, Ben. I thought you did a great job. Thank you so much for doing that, giving us some time off. Greatly, greatly appreciated. And oh my gosh, did so much happen while we were off. I mean, I step away for two seconds and MAGA is in an all-out civil war at each other's

throats every single day. It's getting worse and worse and worse. And you guys remember there used to be such a thing as a honeymoon period when somebody gets elected and their approval rating is higher than normal and everyone's getting along and everyone's all excited and they have a lot of political capital that they could deploy right when they get into office. Well, I've never seen somebody exhaust all of their political capital and totally destroy their honeymoon period before the wedding, like before the presidency even begins. This is absolutely insane what we are seeing right now. And I think a lot of these Trump voters that we are seeing, the people who consider themselves

to be the real arbiters of what it means to be MAGA, they in many ways are feeling duped. And they are also very confused because they have put their own MAGA capital in trying to push their MAGA beliefs. And Donald Trump himself is now undermining them, which leaves them trying to figure out what the heck do we do? Wait, our dear leader is disagreeing with us. I thought I was Mr. and Mrs. MAGA and Donald Trump, my dear leader, he is saying that he supports Elon Musk. How could this be? A lot to get into over here. Jordy, how are you doing today? I'm stoked to get into the show, brothers. It's so great having everybody together again. Benji, where do you want to start off? Can I just say New Year? It's like New Year's Eve already almost.

This is absolutely great. What a year, fellas, huh? It's a great year. And I would have preferred that at the end of the year, it could have been a little bit different in terms of what's happening with the presidential race. But we're here with the Midas Mighty. It's been an honor to be by your side every step of the way. And, you know, I think that as a lot of MAGA is in the find out stage, there's this opportunity to bring the actual lasting and generational change that's needed. A lot of, whether it was the media or Americans, have flirted with some of these

preposterous and dangerous ideas and disinfo that's been directed at them by oligarchs to try to screw them over. Things like abolishing the Department of Education, things like taking away their social security, making trillions of dollars in cuts in our budget, assuming Congress can even pass one, which MAGA Mike seems incapable of doing, which means taking away social security, Medicare, taking away your healthcare, but also giving tax cuts to the billionaires and decamillionaires while raising your taxes. And so in a find-out stage, I don't like find-out stages because the people have to find out the hard way, but it does present opportunities to create lasting generational change. And I think that that's what we're going to see. And that's what we have to be part of together. And that's one of our goals

here at the Midas Touch Network, just to bring you the truth. So let's start out, though, by talking about this big loss that Donald Trump was handed by the Court of Appeals, the Second Circuit. It also raises additional questions, would be putting it lightly. Why in the world ABC and Disney would cut Donald Trump a $15 million check for a future presidential library, which I guess for Disney and ABC, they were going to take a tax deduction on it by putting in an escrow account and then claiming it as a donation to some future nonprofit. But I mean, look, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals found that the trial court judge, the federal judge, Lewis Kaplan, did nothing wrong when he oversaw that trial. The witnesses who testified against Donald Trump about prior acts of sexual misconduct,

the fact that the Access Hollywood tape came in in the E. Jean Carroll case involving both a claim for sexual assault as well as a claim for defamation. There's still another case out there involving additional defamation, defamatory statements by Donald Trump, which is still pending on appeal. But this one related to the $5 million verdict. Second Circuit Court of Appeals looked at all of the evidence and said the trial court did not do anything wrong. The jury didn't do anything wrong when they found that Donald Trump sexually assaulted E. Jean Carroll and defamed E. Jean Carroll. I mean, again, we show you the documents here on the Midas Touch Network, so you don't just have to believe me. Here it is right here.

It's a per curiam decision, and a per curiam decision means that this was the decision of all of the judges. It's unanimous, and here's what they say. In this case, after a nine-day trial, a jury found that plaintiff, appellee E. Jean Carroll, was sexually abused by defendant appellant Donald Trump at the Bergdorf Goodman department store in Manhattan in 1996. The jury also found that Mr. Trump defamed her in statements he made in 2022. The jury awarded Ms. Carroll a total of $5 million in compensatory and punitive damages. Mr. Trump now appeals, contending that the district court, Louis A. Kaplan, federal judge, erred, meaning made an error, in several of its evidentiary rulings. These include its decisions to admit the testimony of two women who allege that Mr. Trump sexually assaulted them in the past,

and to admit a recording of part of a 2005 conversation in which Mr. Trump described to another man how he kissed and grabbed women without first obtaining their consent. Mr. Trump contends that these and other asserted errors entitle him to a new trial. On review for abuse of discretion, which is the standard of review whereby a court of appeal determines if anything wrong happened at the trial court level, it says, we conclude that Mr. Trump has not demonstrated that the district court erred in any of the challenge rulings. Further, he has not carried his burden to show that any claimed error or combination of claimed errors affected his substantial rights as required to warrant a new trial. Affirmed, meaning that the sexual assault verdict against Donald Trump stands,

meaning a jury made a finding and the federal judge affirmed it. And now a court of appeals affirmed it, that Donald Trump sexually assaulted E. Jean Carroll. Now, one of the things too, because MAGA doesn't understand the law or doesn't read things or doesn't look at the facts, whatever you want to put, or just puts out disinformation. Nancy Mace was like celebrating this. She goes, I hope George Stephanopoulos sees this. And then it's the Fox headline, how U.S. appeals court upholds Trump verdict in E. Jean Carroll defamation case, unless Nancy Mace is mocking him for settling the case when he probably shouldn't have settled that case and that ABC Disney should have settled the case. I mean, what would that trial have looked like

if Donald Trump even got past summary judgment and the case didn't get dismissed? Trump's lawyer would stand up and say, ladies and gentlemen of the jury, my client was found liable for putting his finger in E. Jean Carroll's vagina without her consent and sexually assaulting her. But he claims that his reputation was harmed by the implication that it was his penis and not his finger. As a result, my client has been severely damaged. Sure, he's on audio recording talking about touching and grabbing women without their consent in their genitals. Sure, there were other women who have come forward with statements. Sure, Donald Trump has engaged in all this other conduct that reputationally would come in in a case like this. His friendship with Jeffrey Epstein, all of that. But ladies and gentlemen, he's claiming he was injured.

Trump's going to sit there at that trial? Do you know what that deposition of Donald Trump would have looked like that ABC ran away from? Because I think them and their lawyers knew, who were good lawyers too, they knew that they would have humiliated Trump at that deposition. The door would have been open to all of Trump's sexual conduct because Trump is claiming reputational harm on the basis of the technical difference in New York between sexual assault and rape based on finger and genitals and saying that that's what's harmed his reputation. That's what he's going with. So it's just extra frustrating. I think that ABC and Disney would settle that case knowing with this coming out. But we told you that this is where this court of appeals verdict outcome was going to happen, that they were going to affirm the verdict. And I think it also shows people too that even with Trump winning the election,

notice they refer to him as Mr. Trump, not President-elect Trump in the ruling, and notice that they didn't bend over backwards to bend the knee. They found that he lost, and I think that's a good sign, the judiciary help. The key thing that we see over and over and over and over again is if you do bend the knee to Trump in these situations, that is how you lose. That is how you get humiliated. And that is how you actually cause serious damage. But what we've seen time and time again is if you actually stand up to him, then you win more times than not. Because for the most part, Donald Trump is all bluster and he is just trying to bully his way around the situation. And that is exactly what he's doing here. And one of the frustrating things

about this right here is that you know that ABC and Disney made a calculated decision in the way that they settled this case because Donald Trump won the election. If Donald Trump did not win the election, I don't think they would have settled the case. I think they would have not been as fearful. And I think they would have then pretended to stick to their principles. But I think they really showed their cards by doing this because they clearly want to have some favor with Donald Trump, with the administration, have some access to Donald Trump, to the administration, and not be threatened by Donald Trump's maniac of an FCC director who is incoming. And so they made the calculated decision that let's take the tax write-off, let's settle this case, and let's try to get on Donald Trump's good side.

The problem, and something that we could have told them from a million miles away, is that once you show that weakness, it's not like Donald Trump goes, oh, great. They came to me, they bent the knee and all is good now. No, he goes a step further. He then sends the FCC director out there to then further threaten ABC and Disney and say, oh, it was an interesting settlement that you did there, huh, ABC? Well, I think you actually need a little more regulation and we're going to look into how we can regulate you even further now that we're in office because that was a pretty stunning admission that you made by settling it. That's how this happens. And then it affects, quite frankly, all media companies because Donald Trump feels empowered. What was the move that he did right after this ABC suit? Donald Trump sued

Ann Seltzer for a bad poll. I mean, how pathetic is that? But that is because Trump felt empowered from the ABC settlement. And he will continue to do this to people, to try to scare them, to try to threaten them. It hurts all corporate media, but it also hurts all independent media because ultimately Donald Trump will turn his sights on independent media, like Midas Touch, like all your other favorite channels, YouTubers, sub-stackers, whoever they are, because he smells blood. But the difference is here, we are not going to bend over. We welcome those attacks here and we would happily fight them because we understand Donald Trump's weaknesses and how he plays this game and we are prepared as well. Never, never, never obey in advance.

And just to see Donald Trump, this schoolyard bully, it's like when the schoolyard bully, he takes your lunch money and you just give it to him, right? Because you don't want to mess with him. Next day, guess what he's going to do? He's going to take your lunch money. Maybe he'll take your shoes too, right? That's what bullies do. They're going to keep pressing and see how much they could get away with until you actually stand up for yourself. I wasn't surprised by the move from ABC because it's just, it's so corporate of them, right? Let's not wrinkle the feathers on this one, guys. Let's just appease Don here. Let's appease him here and maybe he'll leave us alone. Oh no, he's going to do this to us now? Well, let's just keep appeasing him just so we could

pay our shareholders and our board stays happy and our people, everyone stays happy. No, people are showing their cards right now. The corporate media in general is just showing their cards right now of who are actually going to be fighters in this movement and who are going to hold truth to power right now and who are going to be the first ones to just bend over and say, I don't want anything about this, even if it's standing up for the truth and what's actually happening. It upsets me so much because I really want the corporate media to succeed. I know people might be like, really? Why? Aren't they your competition? No, I really do want them to succeed. I want them to do a good job because they serve a very important function and they, quite frankly,

have resources that, you know, that we couldn't have, right. They're able to go into war zones and do, you know, some really good reporting. They're able to do these international stories, be on the ground in Syria, you know, and I think a lot of these stations do incredible work in those scenarios. But it seems that when it comes to our politics here at home, our domestic politics, too often they are worried about their own access and their own control of the situation and what the incoming administration is going to do. And with Donald Trump, somebody who has made it clear that his is an administration that

is about retribution, they have instead of holding truth to power, I mean, remember the phrases, you know, democracy dies in darkness. We remember all these phrases that these organizations tried to use back in 2016 to show that we're not backing down. Now it's the opposite. They're just before anything even happens, they're going all in with like, yes, sir, how may I help you, sir? How could I make this transition easy for you? Just not the function of what you should be doing at this moment in time. I'd say this. We don't have the resources yet to have foreign correspondence in war zones, but that is something we will build to have here. So Brett, I don't really care if corporate media does or doesn't succeed at this point. I'll say this. We were able to get Ken Harbaugh there

in Ukraine, and Ken Harbaugh at the Mighty Stitch Network did some incredible reporting from on the ground in Ukraine. And so to that point, sorry to interrupt, but I do think it's important that we are highlighting pro-democracy movements, not just in the United States, but all across the world. And I think that international coverage is something that we're working on building here every single day with our coverage of your amazing coverage of Canada and us getting people like MP Charlie Angus on the show and us doing our reporting on Mexico and things like that. Because here's the thing, we can't afford to have a view that is so America-centric about these issues because the autocratic movement

that's out there is not viewing it as a singular thing. They're not viewing it as from the perspective of one country. This is a global movement that we are seeing with global alliances, whether you have people like Putin or Bolsonaro or Orban or Millet or you name it. There are these alliances out there across the world who are all walking in tandem with their mission of overthrowing liberal democracy. I don't mean liberal democracy like liberals on the political side, but I mean liberal democracy. And so the pro-democracy forces across the entire world also need to be united as well in order to combat this encroachment. Well, when you talk about all of those groups, one of the commonalities are they're being

propped up by MAGA and they're being propped up by people like Elon Musk as well. And Elon Musk, for example, writing in a German newspaper over the past few days, his support of the AFD party, which has been described by many as a neo-Nazi party that has said a lot of things that are supportive of Hitler and the Nazis. They've made a lot of horrific statements. They're viewed even too far right for Le Pen's far right party in France. That should pretty much tell you a lot about that. So you have this interconnected kind of movement here of these far, far right-wing movements that are all trying to support each other. And that's why it's important in the pro-democracy movement, we support each other as well. And that's where, Brett, we form

partnerships with people in other countries who frankly probably can do better authentic reporting in their own countries than if you were to send an American correspondent who's not educated. We need to, or is not as educated as people who are from the country. We as independent media need to be good listeners, not just speakers. And we need to listen to what it is that people in other countries are saying about their countries and not interposing our American centric frameworks on their countries. We'll talk about that more later in the episode when we talk about Putin rejecting Donald Trump's proposals in Ukraine, but also Trump's further threatening statements that he keeps on making about Panama and Greenland,

which is part of the Kingdom of Denmark, what's going on, what's going on there. We'll talk about all of that. Jordi, to your point though, about the ABC settlement, I got to tell you, I was actually surprised about the ABC settlement because say what you want about some of these corporations, I get Disney, which owns ABC, but like ABC and its history for them to do that move destroys their credibility on everything. I mean, you have to stand up for your reporters and your reporting and where the federal judge, and I've read the rulings before, gave descriptions about the technical differences at issue between sexual assault and rape. But if you read what the federal judge said, it is very surprising to me that any lawyer would have advised ABC that there's

real risk or that you would settle at that point before taking Donald Trump's deposition, which you know Trump would never do, or that you would settle that point before taking Donald Trump's deposition, which you know Trump would never do, or that you would settle that case before summary judgment, unless, Brett, to your point, there is a broader capitulation and a way to funnel that settlement as a quid pro quo, believing Trump will help you in return. Brett gave an example, though, everybody, that was not a hypothetical about Trump sending the FCC commissioner that he appointed, Brendan Carr, after ABC. As soon as that settlement happened, that happened. Trump's FCC commissioner sent a letter and said, we now have serious questions about your behavior. You basically admitted that you defamed Trump by

giving this $15 million payment. Now we understand that you're negotiating affiliate deals with your local stations. We're concerned about those deals. You're going to have to run them through Trump and us now to make sure that we're approving of them. Why are they doing that? Because they know that Sinclair owns a lot of local media, which is right wing, and they want to have local media speak in a right wing voice. So the message being sent to ABC is we're watching you. Make sure that your local media is in check and in line because we could regulate you there as well. Brett, I talked about Elon Musk a moment ago also in connection with funding and or supporting these right-wing movements and networks everywhere from the Conservative Party in Canada to the right-right-wing party in Germany, the AFD, to right-wing parties in the UK, to Javier Malay in Argentina,

where the poverty rate, by the way, is about 54%. And people from Argentina are on food lines and lines to buy supplies in Chile because it's so unaffordable in Argentina, Victor Orban and so forth. But when you talk about, Brett, the capital that's been spent by the OG MAGAs, the Laura Loomers, the far right wing anti-immigrant MAGAs who like Trump, that capital doesn't win when the only capital that wins is money when it comes to Donald Trump. Hard capital, donations, contributions, who's paying Donald Trump? And that's ultimately Elon Musk. And you take a look at this tech bro MAGA versus kind of OG old school MAGA, and you've got Steve Bannon responding to Elon Musk. I mean, Elon Musk is telling OG old school MAGA to take a big step and F yourself in the face is what Elon Musk said. He also used the R word, which I don't want

to repeat again, to talk about the kind of old school MAGAs who believe that all of these jobs should go to Americans and that the H-1B visa program should not be expanded and bring in more immigrants. So Steve Bannon's response was, someone please notify Child Protective Services, need to do a wellness check on this toddler. Donald Trump chimed in over the past 72 hours as well. And Trump goes, I love H-1B. I always use H-1B at all of my properties. They're the best H-1B. Trump really doesn't use H-1B. He uses J-1 and H-B2 visas, but he's not using those visas that he claims he's using. But he did use it though a while back with the Trump modeling agency. A lot of the kind of models who came over came in through

the H-1B visas back in the day, but Trump doesn't use H-1B visas. And if Trump's claiming that these are people who work at his properties in hospitality, that's not what H-1B covers. But Trump's now endorsing an entirely new form of having immigrants come into the United States as well. But essentially what this boils down to is we need the immigrants that help us, the oligarchs, the billionaires, not the immigrants who are taking less wages and who are working agriculture jobs and hospitality jobs and construction jobs. We need them because Elon Musk is like, this is Elon Musk's theory. I could pay H-1B visa immigrants from India to do engineering jobs less. They essentially function as indentured servants who can be deported if I don't like

the way they're working. We can get around most of the labor laws as well because they're here and they're dependent on us and we can pay them less. So Brad, it asks the broader question though, now that Elon Musk and Trump are saying, look, these white Americans who were part of Sari, you can't do these jobs. You don't have a college education. You're not smart enough for these jobs. That's what they've said. It's really stunning, honestly. Just stunning. You saw Vivek Ramaswamy say this outright. He said, I'm paraphrasing, but he said something that Americans have a lazy culture, or white Americans have a lazy, mediocre culture that encourages laziness. And he spoke about Saved by the Bell and all these kind of old sitcoms and how they're making Americans lazy and how Americans were idolizing the wrong characters.

They shouldn't be idolizing the jocks. They should be idolizing the nerds and the geeks in these shows. And that's why countries in Asia are doing so much better than Americans. When I saw that, I was like, woo, my God. Could you just imagine for one moment if Kamala Harris said that Americans have a culture of laziness and that's why we need to bring in immigrants from other countries to fill these tech jobs? I mean, it would be pandemonium, but that is what Vivek Ramaswamy said. That's what Elon Musk has been saying. And that's what Donald Trump apparently ultimately agreed with after people like Laura Loomer, who is as MAGA as it gets,

was with Donald Trump throughout the whole campaign. After all these people in the MAGA universe, especially online, were speaking out against those comments and saying, I thought this was about America first. I didn't think we were going to have to compete for jobs with the entire world. And they've kind of put themselves in this catch-22 here because for the last, as long as we've been doing this, I've seen people like Elon Musk and I've seen people in MAGA pushing this idea that college is just liberal indoctrination, that people don't need higher education, that instead of higher education, everybody should just try to find a trade and then get a trade job, and that college is stupid. College is a waste of your time. And now here you have people at the new power center of this Republican Party, people like Elon and people like Vivek Ramaswamy, who are saying, these Americans just aren't educated enough. We got to bring in the more educated people

from overseas to fill these jobs. And all of a sudden, all of these MAG people who have been told and who have been pushing over the past few years that college is the enemy, that college gets you nowhere, that education is a scam. All of a sudden, they're being told that they are not educated enough to take these jobs that Elon Musk is saying that he wants to give away to people in other countries. So it's quite the predicament that is out there and it is quite the tangled web that people like Elon and Vivek and Donald Trump have weaved in order to come around to an oddly pro-immigration opinion in a weird kind of way. And it's just fascinating to see the backlash that it has produced. The MAGA people are pissed about this for the reasons that I just mentioned.

And I see no signs of this slowing down. And I think for the first time and I'm not going to count my chickens before I hatch here, guys, don't worry, but I think for the first time I've seen a little bit of glimmer in some of the comments from these Maggie influencers that some of them just maybe in the back of their head are realizing ever so slightly that, huh, maybe it's these billionaires that are trying to screw me over. Maybe it's these people with billions of dollars, the people who are trying to become the first trillionaires in history. Maybe it's them who are the problem and not all the things that they are telling me are

the problem. Maybe they are the reasons why our wages are low. Maybe they are the reasons why our prices are high. I wonder if there's anything to this. And so I think once that kernel gets planted in, once that seed gets planted in people's minds, I think that's an interesting place because I think that seed can grow. And I think hopefully there are at least some people who could realize that they've been duped, that they've been misdirected to get angry about the wrong things so that people like Elon Musk could get cheaper labor and take their jobs and do all the things that they do. How about MAGA just having one policy discussion in four years and then just combusting into a MAGA civil war over it? The first time they try and not have a culture war issue. And I guess to a certain degree, you could say, you could almost put this as a culture war issue. Is it white Americans? Is it Americans that are, who are we talking about here? But this

feels at least more like a policy discussion here that turned into just the party sort of catapult. And hey, there's definitely a substantive discussion that can be had here, what are the right levels of immigration? At what point, how are you prioritizing Americans in the United States of America to take jobs? There are a lot of actual legitimate discussions that can be had here. But when they start having these discussions, it turns into a full-on civil war. And I think this is why they focus so much on Hunter Biden. I think this is why they focus so much on Hunter Biden. I think this is why they focus so much on gas stoves. This is why they... I saw, who was it? Mike Lee, I think. Senator Mike Lee, the other day, he tried to do his redirect where he was like,

aren't you pissed about these new light bulbs? Shouldn't we go back to those old light bulbs, the filament light bulbs? And it's like, even the MAGA people in that one were like, dude, shut up. First off, the new light bulbs last longer. They're cheaper. They're better for the environment. Everything is better about them. So you're just now showing your idiocy here and you're trying to distract us. We're angry about this thing. And so I think it's interesting, finally, when people get actually put on to what's actually happening in the country, how those other issues all of a sudden fall to the wayside. By the way, what happened to those UFOs and the drones? That went away quickly. Well, and by the way, Brett, it's because

now that they're in power- Squirrel. And it's not... Now that they're in power and that they're not whining about – they're great whiners. But now that they're in power and they have to do these things, how are they utilizing it? Brett, it's not a pro-immigration stance that Elon is taking. It's a pro-Elon stance. Replace America with I or me and you'll see what Elon wants. It's for him.

He wants cheaper labor at his companies that can go around labor laws where people can be treated like indentured servants and he has control over it. That's helpful to him and his sector. So what you have is billionaires now saying, I need this and I need that and I need this. And then you have OG Magus saying, whoa, whoa, whoa, this whole thing is about we don't like immigrants. What are you talking about? You get carve outs and you get carve – what is even happening here? And then MAGA now tries, Brett, to your point, to strike Hunter Biden's penis.

You see the penis? Or how about San Jose State volleyball player? And by the way, the dark – When we think about that San Jose volleyball player. You're pretty pissed off, eh? Pretty pissed off. Angry. In the dark under Belhie. Can you believe it? Everybody, there's a volleyball player. Your favorite volleyball team, San Jose State, has a backup who's transgender. You pissed? Oh, wait a minute.

You care about your wages now? You care about your healthcare and housing? No, be upset about that. We've got a lot more show to discuss here. This is what happens when you get the brothers back. I want to remind everybody, we've got some great articles up at MidasPlus.com. Check it out there. And then Patreon.com slash Midas Touch. Hey, Brett, on Patreon, we should do a post New Year's. Now that the brothers are all back together, we got to do that post New Year's meeting with everybody. So let's get that on the books. Go check patreon.com slash Midas Touch. We'll post when our next beating is.

We'll do it after New Year's so you don't feel like I got New Year's plans. We'll do it after the New Year's. We'll do it after New Year's so you don't feel like, I got New Year's plans. Do it after the New Year's. We'll do it after the New Year's. We'll come up with a plan and we'll be right back after our first quick break. First and only. Only a quick break. I'll be right back after this. Bye. I've been trying to lose some weight lately and get a little healthier and I'll tell you what's been a key for me. It's called Prolon, and a lot of our viewers say it's changed their life. So forget everything you know about fasting. I want to tell you about Prolon by L-Nutra.

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off your first order. That's tryarmra.com. You spell it T-R-Y-A-R-M-R-A.com slash Midas, M-E-I-D-A-S. Go and check that out now. Try armra.com slash Midas. Shout out to our sponsors, y'all. Links in description of both YouTube and audio. Use the links, use the codes, let them know we sent you. Benji, where to next? I mean, those are some products that have focused on the health a little bit, you know? You're looking great. I could see the L-Nnutra looking good. Prolon making you look good, B. And look, thanks to our pro-democracy sponsors. We don't have outside investors here on the Midas Touch Network. So we get scrappy with it. We got to find ways that we can keep on competing with and beating Fox and ABC and CNN and all those networks on digital. We do that

through patreon.com slash Midas Touch and MidasPlus.com. And we do it with those pro-democracy sponsors right there. So shout out to everybody there. Let me walk you through this thought experiment here. Now, what if President Xi Jinping of China started posting on his official social media accounts that he was considering conquering Japan. And thereafter, he posted some meme of himself, AI, hoisting a Chinese flag on top of a Japanese building in Tokyo. And then he did another post where he talked about turning Japan's leaders into governors or members of the CCP, just right after each other like that. Now, do you think Japan would be taking that as a joke? Do you think the international community would go, oh, that's just Xi.

He's a troll. Xi the troll. Or do you think that, wow, there must be an attack on Japan that is imminent? Okay. I think you know the answer to that hypothetical. So that's both why you need to and we need to take Trump's threats seriously when he threatens about conquering Canada or Panama or Greenland, right? You should take that seriously. And if it's just a troll and Trump does not back it up, which he doesn't usually, he just goes and plays golf after making posts like that, do you see why that would make him look so incredibly weak to people like Putin and Xi and Kim Jong-un and MBS? If you can't back up fight words like that, and it's just,

oh, that's just him. He's a troll. That's not some form of sophisticated negotiation. That's just being a freaking idiot and that's as weak as you can get. Similarly, when I teach negotiations in my law school classes and even in my undergrad classes that I teach, I always tell people that time is one of your biggest allies in a negotiation and you need to use time to your advantage. The worst thing you can do as a negotiator is to create some arbitrary self-imposed deadline that you can't meet and that your adversary in a negotiation is aware of because they know that you're working under a constraint that if you fail, you will get embarrassed or lose the negotiation.

So oftentimes when I teach negotiation or I'm involved in a negotiation, I want to test people utilizing time as a negotiating tool. So Trump creates a self-imposed deadline of his negotiations with Vladimir Putin over Ukraine. And Trump announces that he's going to get it done within 24 hours of winning the election, which he's already failed to do that. So assume that he's now claiming, I didn't mean after the election. I mean 24 hours after the inauguration. Now put yourself in Putin's shoes. So Putin knows that if Trump doesn't get that deal, Trump is going to be mocked mercilessly here. It'll be viewed as a failure. And people are going to say, look, you didn't deliver on that. I mean, perhaps Putin

would be viewing our media as though our media will actually hold Trump accountable, but you get the point that Trump will be failing to deliver something and it would be embarrassing to him. So Putin knows that. So what is Putin doing in these negotiations with Trump? Knowing Trump has this self-imposed deadline, Putin is toying with Trump. So the first way that Putin toyed with Trump and showed that he is the one dominating these negotiations is that Putin announced that he's ready for potential talks with Trump during his year-end news conference. And Trump reposts that. I want you to think about how weak that makes Trump look. Putin is ready for potential talks with Trump. In other words, Putin is dictating the timeline for when he will be ready if Trump comes to him and it's potential. I'm not sure I'm going to even do it. Trump

reposts that as though that's a good thing. So Trump already is showing that he is the weaker person. Not that Putin's coming to him. I thought he was a great negotiator. And Putin, I thought he was going to call Putin. I'm going to call Zelensky. And then boom, the war ends. Well, that didn't happen. Putin's dictating the time. As I told you, a good negotiator knows how to use time. You want to see what it looks like when Putin actually respects you? China's Xi Jinping will visit Russia in 2025, Russian ambassador says. You see the difference there? Russian ambassador saying that Xi will be visiting Russia. That shows respect versus Putin saying, I'm going to meet with you potentially when I want to. Also, watch our coverage on this that

we've been doing for the past several weeks. Putin had state-run media in Russia run nudes of Melania over and over again on state-run media. And the kind of hand-picked hosts, their version of the Hannitys, but who are basically Putin's puppets who do the shows, were just mocking mercilessly the fact that Melania did these nudes. It was a your body, your choice. And then Putin would do other things like he'd send messages through oligarchs that Trump owes him favors now because Putin helped in the election. And there'd be oligarchs sending that message through TASS, the official state-run media of Russia, which is controlled by Putin.

And now the Kiev Independent reports Russia rejects Trump team's reported peace deal proposals on Ukraine. Sergei Lavrov said, and if the name Lavrov sounds familiar, it's because Trump during administration one had Lavrov and Kislyak, Putin's top advisors, in the Oval Office and he gave them classified information. It's undisputed. How do we know? He admitted it. Trump posted on social media in May 2017. He said, of course, I have the absolute right to give them classified information. I had to do it, he said, because of ISIS. I had to do it. But he admitted that he gave them classified information. In any event, Lavrov, who was there back in May 2017, said the proposal that's been outlined in leaks and in Trump's time interview suggests, quote, freezing hostilities along the current line of contact and transferring the responsibility of

confronting Russia to Europe. Quote, we are certainly not satisfied with the proposal sounding on behalf of representative of president-elect's team, Lavrov said, specifically rejecting the idea of introducing European peacekeepers in Ukraine. Lavrov expressed Russia's willingness to engage with the new U.S. administration, provided Washington takes, quote, the first move to restore dialogue severed after the start of Russia's invasion. In other words, you come to us with your hands out. You come to us. We ain't coming to you. Again, that's a negotiating tactic to show strength in the negotiation to make your adversary come to you to beg.

And then Putin expressed openness to dialogue with Trump, but maintain Russia's firm demands, including no territorial concessions and a rejection of Ukraine's NATO membership. In other words, he wants Trump to do a total capitulation. Trump's team has yet to outline officially any concrete steps for ending the war, despite his bold claims of achieving peace within 24 hours. And you see right there how that's being reported in the Kyiv Independent, which is in Ukraine, of course. So the worst negotiating style imaginable, Brett and Jordi. And you see what Putin is doing there. And I wanted to give you the background on the subtleties of negotiations here to show you just how weak we are positioned and postured into this negotiation. This is not from a place of strength, the ultimate weakness. Trump's bluster may work on people like ABC and

Disney. It may work on the media. It may work on certain sections of the population, but it doesn't work on people like Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping. They respond to actual strength and actual power, which is why the actual power of President Biden, quite frankly, over these past few years was so effective in holding back Russia, in protecting Ukraine throughout this entire invasion. And it's why America was able to expand NATO, actually make NATO stronger than ever, and do all these things that actually ultimately made the world a better, a stronger place long term. And so we're seeing now just a scale back of that with Donald Trump. And we're seeing how easy, once again, this guy is to be played. It is already giving the flashbacks in

my mind to Donald Trump in Helsinki, where Donald Trump decided to say out loud in public, one of those first meetings that he supported the intelligence of Vladimir Putin over the intelligence of the United States. And that he remember when he said, Oh, I'm going to work with Vladimir Putin, we're going to actually get to the bottom of this election interference. We're going to have a cyber security partnership here. And we're going to, it's like, dude, how, you know, I'm not even going to give him the benefit of the doubt and say, how do you know you're not getting played? Because, you know, at some point you got to assume that he's just, he's just in on this whole thing. But at the same time, he is getting played, you know played no matter what is going on. Vladimir Putin is just quite frankly much smarter than Donald Trump when it comes to these issues.

And he understands Donald Trump. They've had a profile on Donald Trump for, what, decades, at least like four decades now, understanding Donald Trump's psychology, understanding exactly how to use Donald Trump at minimum as a unwitting asset in order to advance Russia's interests. And so they've been doing everything in their power over these past few decades in order to do that. And Donald Trump now is just their puppet and every single step of the way. And it's also why, Brett, to your point earlier in the show about there not being any sort of honeymoon phase for this incoming administration, It's like everybody just knows what to expect with this unhinged lunatic. It's chaos. It's disorganization. It's bully type behavior on a global scale that just, quite frankly, embarrasses America at large daily. And so that's why his approval ratings coming in are already so low. It's frankly because everyone knows what's going to happen. I liken it to this.

It's we're all brothers here. When we would start new years of school or whatnot, yeah, every one of us would go in with a fresh slate, right? Now, I was fortunate too because what I got was, oh, a lot of the teachers that had you guys would be like, are you Ben's brother? Are you Brett's brother? Oh, Jordan, I'm going to like you even more.

See, the issue would have been if they had me first and then they had you guys after, then also they would already have this sort of idea of systematic behavior that comes along with having one of us in their class. Now that's not to say I wasn't a great student, but maybe you guys were a little bit better and sort of helped me there. I think we would have got plenty of compliments. Oh, you're Jordy's brother. I think they would have been thrilled.

Jordy, don't. Yeah, maybe. But the American people and quite frankly, the global community at large already knows that this guy is a clown and he's just going to continue to embarrass us at a, you know, in a large scale. In your example, who's Jordy in the American? It's a, it's a great point. I clearly didn't flesh it out fully. Like I really liked the idea of that going into what I was saying. And I need to workshop that and I'll come back on Thursday's episode and we'll have that down. But let me make this important point, uh is – that was a great example, Jody.

Thank you. I love you, man. Which is the media lionizing and idolizing superficial power over actual superpower status. They've Kardashian-ized the Oval Office and they're looking for that theater when you actually had real power in the office because Biden's what, older and he speaks slower and the stutters may be more pronounced now in his older years, but someone who was really strong, you Kardashianized it and you've made that, this Trump, that's not power. That really isn't power. And international leaders see that. Now, that doesn't mean that Trump doesn't have access to power. He'll be running the biggest superpower with the most nuclear weapons and the most actual power by military that exists in the history of mankind. But as an individual, He's not capable of wielding this power effectively.

And even someone who was born into so much wealth, how could you be born into that amount of wealth and bankrupt the amount of companies that he bankrupted? Like when you're that freaking rich, the only way that happens is if you're both incompetent and you're throwing people under the bus as well. And he would do both of those things. So people know this mentality. And I could finally just take it from a kind of international perspective and bring it also to a kind of domestic perspective at all. He was whining about the debt ceiling not being raised again, even though it's not even supposed to be raised until next June. I mean, remember when he tried – this was what, two weeks ago, the other drama two weeks ago where he told MAGA Republicans, you shut down this government now unless you either eliminate the debt ceiling. And then he said make it extended until 2029. And then he said, make it extended until 2029.

And then he said, OK, maybe 2027. Then he said, victory, success. We did it, even though Republicans voted against that happening. And then the final continuing resolution had nothing about raising the debt ceiling, even though Trump wanted the MAGAs to block raising the debt ceiling when Biden was in office because they wanted a Great Depression. And Trump's posting now something that is not going to happen. Like he's saying that the debt ceiling needs to be raised now or else there's going to be a 1929 style depression happening when he's in office, essentially.

Now it becomes ours. I call it 1929 because the Democrats don't care what our country may be forced into. Is he preparing us for a Great Depression when he's in office? Who writes these types of things? And I get the not constantly covering every post that he makes, but I think there's a way to contextualize what he's saying, the way we are here and showing you how dangerous this guy is. Instead, I've gone back and I've showed you and Brett and Jordy and these people on the network have showed you, remember what the media headlines were as soon as Biden got in office. Bloomberg, 100% chance of recession. Nine months later, we still have the recession is coming. Another one, the recession is still going to be. That

was the whole time. And he avoided a recession. He took action to avoid the recession. But all the headlines were like undermining him from day one. And to your point, have this episode go full circle now. Trump is ruining the honeymoon phase that the media is trying desperately to give him. They're trying hard and bending over backwards. The headlines, 0% chance of recession. Really? 0%? Because if you actually look at the indicators and he does what he says he's going to do, it seems like it would be more than zero percent. I saw another headline today. Why you expect that the prices are going down? Okay. There's no indication of that right now. Mortgage rates are up right now.

Most of the goods you're buying are- I mean, you see the CEO of Compass like last week came out and said, yeah, we thought that interest rates were going to come down. We thought we were going to start seeing low 5% and continue on the way down over the next couple of years. And then our forecast changed. And this is on CNBC. And the host asked, I mean, what changed? And he was like, well, the election. The election went a way that we did not think was going to happen. And with Donald Trump's policies, they are incredibly inflationary.

And now we expect rates to continue to go up 6%, 7% and kind of keep rising and hold there over the next couple of years. That is going to really affect homebuyers, potential homebuyers over the next few years. It's going to make the ability to take out mortgages a lot more expensive for folks who are hoping to buy a home over these next few years. And that's directly tied to Donald Trump's policies and the things that I can't even fathom then. And I love that framing too, that the media is the one who are trying to create this honeymoon period. Because why do you have to, as the media, even if you're making these predictions, why say 100% or 0%? Why not give yourself a little wiggle room? They literally, from Biden,

from day one, Bloomberg had that report, 100% chance of recession. And now before day one of Donald Trump, they are saying 0% chance. There's not a 0% chance of anything. There's not a 100% chance of anything. And I don't know why they make it that sure of a thing. But that is how these organizations that are respected by the general population, organizations like a Bloomberg or whoever, that is how they set these narratives that people believe. And if you go back, and I don't recommend doing this because why torture yourself, but if you go back to the early coverage of President Biden, you will see that literally from day one, you had these media organizations undermining the presidency

and planting at least the seeds, in a lot of cases, more than just the seeds of a narrative of bad economy, bad economy, bad economy, things not getting better, things getting worse. And this was, mind you, in the midst of some of the most horrific things that had happened in American history with a pandemic that he was dealing with, with the recession that Donald Trump and the pandemic caused, with the supply chain issues Donald Trump had caused. At every single step of the way, the media, along with the help of the Republican Party and people like Donald Trump, who had a separate vested interest in this, were just beating down President Biden and doing everything they can to make people continuously angry about a situation that was a hard situation that President Biden actually

turned around and improved in a historic way. Now they're doing the opposite with Trump. Vibes over lives. And that's what the media wanted to do. They wanted to push the vibe when Biden was in office that you all should feel horrible and that this is all Biden's fault. And that was from day one. They're pushing bad vibes over lives versus reporting on what was happening in front of them. Was the infrastructure, inflation reduction, PAC Act, CHIPS Act, were these net positives or were these net negatives? What is actually happening here? And they didn't do that. Brett, to your point, you go back, they were platforming all of the both sides-ism stuff. And they would put on, well, the Republicans say we're now doing this because of Biden. You know who just was in power? It was Trump. You realize that you're not going to fix all of the

issues that were created by him in that first year, but Biden did a good job and he fixed a lot of them. And then year two, fixed a lot of them again. And then there was the midterms. And then in the midterms, Democrats lost control of the House. And then Republicans blocked everything from bipartisan immigration acts, reform. And Brett, to your point, it would have solved all of these issues. There's a way to deal with making sure that the American education system improves so we can get more STEM jobs for Americans, but also deal with the kind of short-term need to bring in engineers to fill these jobs, to bring in migrants who are working, not criminals, not terrorists. Every discussion with MAGA devolves into some red herring. We all agree, no criminals, no terrorists, get them out, arrest them, lock them up, whatever. Whatever the full force of law is allowed with criminals and terrorists, do it.

Strong borders, we all agree, we should be a country of borders. But let's also remember, who's working those construction, the manufacturing, the agriculture and hospitality jobs? And why should they fear for their lives? Why are you keeping them off the books? Why not create a system where you have transparency and people aren't living in fear who are contributing to the economy, who are paying taxes, who are... No, no, we have to go, they're eating dogs and cats. They're eating dogs and cats, transgender. No, I mean, let's have real discussions on issues.

And to me, it's the job of corporate media to set that framework and to not Kardashianize our political system. And that's basically where we're at right now. We were at a place, and that's why we're fighting against that. We're at a place where for corporate media, this is all some drama, some theater, some reality show. So is it shocking that one of the first reality show hosts is running this dystopian reality show, as I've called it, the Kardashianization of America? No, if they won't, they loved us all a reality show, as I've called it, the Kardashianization of America. No, if they won't, they loved us all, a reality show to them. But there are lives on the line here, and we need to get serious about these things. Democrats need to start acting like Democrats

again, too, and realize what the sentiment and environment out there is. ABC, always be campaigning. Get out there and speak to people. Speak to people. Where are you? Sure, Congress is out of session. Go work. Go meet people at the docks. Go speak to the union workers. Just show up unannounced.

Go out there. Shake hands. Look people in the eyes. Start doing that now, not 90 days before an election. What are you doing? I think one of the great things- I don't know, but- Yeah. Well, I think one of the great things that our editor-in-chief here, Ron Filipkowski,

said a few weeks ago in one of his tweets and in one of his great recaps that we have on MidasPlus.com, Ron's recaps, by the way, side note, the best recaps of every day in politics. I don't even know how he gets all the information. He's just the best researcher. He's always on top of every story. Check it out on myspace.com. But Ron said something like, for all those out there in the Democratic Party and the pro-democracy community at large, complaining about the need for more ways for pro-democracy voices to get out there after the election, you need to take it into your own hands. If you're one of these politicians, or if you're whoever, an elected official, an unelected official, such as somebody in the party, whoever you are, if you want to get a message out there, you need to make it your job every single day to be going on various forms of

alternative media. You can't always rely on, I'm going to just get out my message. I'll write an op-ed and it'll go in the New York Times in two weeks. And then everyone will see my perspective on this issue and everything will be, no, sorry. That's not how things are done anymore. The one thing that I will say that Republicans have been quite good at is you see them everywhere, right? They're not only on the Sunday shows every week, but they're on all those right-wing podcasts all the time. They show their faces all the time. They're constantly posting clips on social media. And this isn't rocket science. It's really not. So if you're listening to the show and you work in a comms department for a politician, or if you are a politician in Washington or in a state house

or wherever, local, make it your effort, make an extra effort to go on, set a quota for yourself. I need to go on five podcasts a week or five podcasts a month. Just start, start slow, right? But make it an effort that you need to be getting your voice out there in different ways and that you need to take it upon yourself to realize that there is this medium by which you could get your message out there and that your messages can be heard. Because when your messages are not heard, all you do is you leave a vacuum that is then filled by the people who are speaking. So if you're listening to this, and like I said, you're one of those people, get out there, hit us up on the Midas Touch podcast.

I know a lot of politicians already do, but do it. I mean, reach us. Hit up all the other kind of various shows that are on YouTube or podcasts, or just take out your phone and post a clip on social media of yourself and get your message out there. Don't send it through a million different approval processes. Don't worry about every little word being correct, every punctuation mark being in the right place. Just let your voice be heard and understand that people will value that authenticity if you are speaking to them like a human being. That's what we need now more than ever, because we're going to need everybody out there to be united in taking on the incoming administration and taking on this rise of authoritarianism. And we are lucky, quite frankly, that the people we are dealing with are wholly

incompetent. And they think far too much of themselves. And they are going to destroy themselves as we are already seeing. But when they do that, that is going to be a vacuum that needs to be filled. And you need to ask, am I going to be the person to fill it? In order to do that, you need to take action. That is my message to anybody out there who wants to get their message out and be heard. There you go. There you have it, everybody. Happy New Year's. Looking forward to being with you every step of the way in this New Year's. If you can, check out MidasPlus.com. Check out Patreon.com slash MidasTouch as well. We appreciate you and all of your support.

Thank you to the mods for all their hard work this year. We know how hard all of you mods work and we're grateful for all of the work you do to keep this uh chat room polite and civil um and uh thank you to all the Midas Mighty out there um you know we'll keep fighting with you each and every step of the way. Jordy, take it away. Shout out to the Midas Mighty! Hey! The Midas Mighty standing strong Against the fascists we sing our song We will get it right whenever Hey, Midas Mighty.

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