The MeidasTouch Podcast - Putin Miscalculated with Fred Wellman

Episode Date: March 1, 2022

On today’s episode of The MeidasTouch Podcast we have an incredible guest, pro-democracy advocate, political consultant & co-founder of Beer Hall Project, Fred Wellman! As you may know, Fred also served in the U.S. Army for 22-years as an aviator and public affairs officer, including four combat tours in Operations Desert Storm and Iraqi Freedom. During the conversation, we dive deep into Putin’s miscalculations with his illegal invasion into Ukraine, members of the Republican Party embracing actual Nazis, the Beer Hall Project & much more. Following the interview, the brothers discuss more updates in Ukraine, the response of the Free World, and the bravery of the Ukrainian people. The brothers also talk in-depth about the information war occuring on social media platforms and how well Ukrainian President, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, has been able to utilize this to Ukraine’s advantage. If you enjoyed today’s episode, please be sure to rate, review & subscribe. As always, thank YOU for listening! Learn more about Beer Hall Project and donate here: https://beerhallproject.com/ Follow Fred on Twitter here: https://twitter.com/FPWellman DEALS FROM OUR SPONSORS: ExpressVPN: https://expressvpn.com/meidas Trade Coffee: https://drinktrade.com/meidas Magic Spoon: https://magicspoon.com/meidas and use code MEIDAS Masterworks: https://masterworks.art/meidas Listen to Hell & High Water podcast with John Heilemann: https://therecount.com/podcasts/hell-and-high-water Remember to subscribe to ALL the Meidas Media Podcasts: MeidasTouch: https://pod.link/1510240831 Legal AF: https://pod.link/1580828595 The PoliticsGirl Podcast: https://pod.link/1595408601 The Influence Continuum: https://pod.link/1603773245 Kremlin File: https://pod.link/1575837599 Mea Culpa with Michael Cohen: https://pod.link/1530639447 Zoomed In: https://pod.link/1580828633 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

There are very few things that you can be certain of in life. But you can always be sure the sun will rise each morning. You can bet your bottom dollar that you'll always need air to breathe and water to drink. And, of course, you can rest assured that with Public Mobile's 5G subscription phone plans, you'll pay the same thing every month. With all of the mysteries that life has to offer, a few certainties can really go a long way. Subscribe today for the peace of mind you've been searching for. Public Mobile. Different is calling. What's better than a well-marbled

ribeye sizzling on the barbecue? A well-marbled ribeye sizzling on the barbecue that was carefully selected by an Instacart shopper and delivered to your door. A well-marbled ribeye you ordered without even leaving the kiddie pool. Whatever groceries your summer calls for, Instacart has you covered. Download the Instacart app and enjoy $0 delivery fees on your first three orders. Service fees, exclusions, and terms apply. Instacart. Groceries that over-deliver. Discover the magic of Bad MGM Casino, where the excitement is always on deck. Pull up a seat and check out a wide variety of table games with a live dealer.

From roulette to blackjack, watch as a dealer hosts your table game and live chat with them throughout your experience to feel like you're actually at the casino. The excitement doesn't stop there. With over 3,000 games to choose from, including fan favorites like Cash Eruption, UFC Gold Blitz, and more. Make deposits instantly to jump in on the fun. And make same-day withdrawals if you win. Download the BetMGM Ontario app today.

You don't want to miss out. Visit BetMGM.com for terms and conditions. 19 plus to wager. Ontario only. Please gamble responsibly. If you have questions or concerns about your gambling or someone close to you, Welcome to the Midas Touch Podcast. Ben Brett and Jordy fighting for democracy here and abroad. Kyiv stands for yet another day, a valiant, courageous, one of the bravest things, I think,

not just in the history of my lifetime, frankly, but in the history of human history. Ukraine fighting back against the unlawful invasion by Vladimir Putin. I don't even want to say Russia because the Russian people don't agree with this unlawful invasion. The Russian people want to take to the street. This is a madman. This is a raving lunatic who's been given way too much credit for being a logical actor by Donald Trump and others. But this man has presented himself as a madman. But just some updates on the Ukraine front that we will be providing for you today. We have a very special guest as well. Fred Wellman, a pro-democracy advocate, I think is probably the best way to describe Fred.

Fred is a political consultant. He is a co-founder of the Beer Hall Project, and he served in the U.S. Army for 22 years as an aviator and public affairs officer, including four combat tours over Operation Desert Storm and Iraqi freedom. So Brett, why don't you break down some other updates going on in Ukraine? Yeah, very volatile situation in Ukraine, as we preface all of our Ukraine coverage, because things are really happening by the minute. And first, I just want to say how crazy it is for all of us right now to be in this moment of history where we are witnessing

basically a world at the precipice of war via social media, playing out in real time on Twitter feeds, on TikTok, on Instagram, on Facebook. I have never seen anything like this in my entire life. I don't think anything like this has ever happened in the history of mankind. And it is truly a marvel to watch and be a part of and see the bravery and the heroism of the Ukrainians, the Ukrainian people, President Zelensky. It is truly something to witness. True bravery, true heroism, true patriotism. And I just want to send my love, my strength, my prayers to the Ukrainian people.

And I want to thank all of our listeners for everything that you're doing to send your support to the Ukrainian people. They're watching. This is a social media war as much as it is a ground war. And they are watching all of our support. They are watching as all of you take to the streets in cities across the world. And it is just so heartwarming to see this outpouring of support for peace and for love and for democracy. And here is where things stand right now in Ukraine. First round of peace talks have been

completed between Russia and Ukraine, says the Ukraine delegation. The delegations met for about six hours, and they say that more talks will happen in the coming days. Now, sanctions. We've been speaking about sanctions on this show and the merit of sanctions. Do sanctions really do anything? Well, let's look at it by the numbers, folks. The Russian ruble has now crashed more than 40%. A ruble is now worth less than a penny. Think about that. Less than a penny. Russian inflation is estimated to have spiked about 70%. The Russian state-owned banks are failing. Yesterday, everybody, well, it's kind of today, with the time zones, it's hard to keep track of, but the markets today, everybody was wondering what's

going to happen with the Russian stock market. They ultimately chose to pause trading and then ultimately decided not to even open up the markets at all for fear of a complete and utter collapse. But that did not stop Russian companies from being traded on international markets. And Russian companies on international markets have plummeted to record lows. And the world is uniting like never before in the face of authoritarianism. The historically neutral Switzerland has adopted the EU sanctions and has frozen Putin's asset along with many other countries. And Zelenskyy this morning signed an application for Ukraine's membership to the European Union. It's clear that the world

is uniting against Russia, against authoritarianism, and it is really just so incredible to see the unity. Putin thought that he was looking at a weakened world in a post-Trump world, a weakened NATO, a weakened NATO, a weakened EU, a weakened pro-democracy coalition. And what he has done is he has activated perhaps the biggest pro-democracy coalition of nations in world history. What's happening now is NATO, the EU, pro-democracy loving people are stronger than ever in the world. And Putin has never looked smaller and never looked weaker, never looked more tiny and little and craven.

But let's be careful here. I mean, a weakened Putin, a Putin who's being humiliated on the global stage is also a very dangerous Putin. So we are not out of this, but the Ukrainian people, I'm just going to say something that they might say, don't fuck with them. Don't fuck with the Ukrainian people because these people are true badasses. I mean, every video from, did you see the video of the guy holding the landmine and taking the landmine off the road while he was smoking a cigarette? I'm not a fan of cigarettes, but smoke your cigarette.

Enjoy it. Enjoy it. I love it. He didn't even drop it. It stayed in his mouth the whole time. It stayed in his mouth the whole time. The bravery of these people is so incredible. And seeing a leader like Zelensky is truly just mind-blowing when you have all these people, these politicians in America who try to project this strongman attitude, this machismo, this just fake fraudulent sense of strength. And then you have a real leader in Zelensky who is an actual strong man, who is an actual leader. Have you looked into Zelensky's history? Because I'm just fascinated by the dude. He is like a Renaissance man. He is like, the guy can do everything. I feel like every day I learn he did that also. Have you seen this guy's history?

Wasn't he also in the movies? Okay. So until 2019, like not 2009, 2019, he was an actor in a TV show called Servant of the People. And he actually has, I think his production company has a different name, but he ended up making a political party called Servant of the People based on his TV show, Servant of the People, where he played the president of Ukraine. He was a comedian and actor. Think about if Jon Stewart had a role in the top TV show in America. Then he created the Daily Show Party. And then created the Daily Show Party, and then became president of a country of the United States fighting against corruption. That's the plot of Longshot. The movie before doing that, imagine if Jon Stewart also got a law degree from the top university in the United States,

like Harvard Law and Zelensky got his law degree from the equivalent of that in Ukraine. Then imagine if Jon Stewart didn't just participate in Dancing with the Stars, but won Dancing with the Stars. Zelensky won the Ukrainian version of Dancing with the Stars first place. Zelensky starred in addition to the TV show and a number of top movies that are very popular in Russia. He won with overwhelming support in a very crucial and critical election. He's now demonstrated what in a very crucial and critical election. He's now demonstrated what a hero, how courageous he is. Wait, I just want to say before we lose it, he also did the voice of Paddington Bear in Ukraine.

Every time I see something, I'm like, no, he didn't. Come on. He did that also? Does anybody else? He just does all the jobs. He does everything. It's, it's, it's on this guy's unbelievable. And this is the individual who Donald Trump extorted. This is the individual who Donald Trump refused. Although Donald Trump now wants to rewrite the history. He was very pro Putin every single day, especially, you know, two days ago, Donald Trump was super pro Putin. And now Donald Trump wants to take credit for NATO when he was like actually trying to destroy NATO and discredit NATO and called NATO stupid literally two days ago and said that NATO was weak two days ago and that the sanctions weren't working. But it brings it into such starker contrast, the call that Donald Trump had with with the Ukrainian President Zelensky, where he threatened Zelensky and said that we're not going to give you weapons, we're not going to give you these javelin systems to protect your country unless you gin up a fake investigation into Joe Biden, into his political

adversary. Just think about that Zelensky who he was talking to. And basically when I think about that call, I think that was Putin talking to Zelensky. I don't even think it was like Trump, like, like Trump is such a stooge of Putin that that's who was talking to him. I want to cut you off because I don't want to give the rest of the GOP a pass here either. This isn't just Trump as a, as a person, this was the entire Republican party. I mean, let's not forget 52 out of 53 Republican senators voted to allow Trump to block that much needed military aid to Ukraine. They were all in on it. The GOP is the party of Putin. And that's what they've shown us time and time again. Not only that,

in 2016, remember when the GOP actually used to produce like official campaign documents about their plans for what was going to happen and what Donald Trump and Paul Manafort actually convinced the GOP to take out their support of Ukraine in the official GOP platform in 2016. It's absolutely the case. The Republicans want to try to reinvent history right now. Some do. Some are still totally pro-Putin, right? I mean, you have, you know, you have, you notice the pivot though in Fox News over the past 48 hours though, like they literally change. I don't know how you change like that. Like it just shows what a phony network they are to begin with. You know, they went from being very, very, very pro-Putin

and now they start acting like they care about Ukraine. But occasionally, they'll still have a guest come on now who's very pro-Putin, and then they'll actually try to have a responsible reporter. They don't have Tucker speaking to them anymore. They'll try to have their responsible reporter check them. Yeah, they hedge their bets is what they do there at Fox Entertainment Network. Where are you getting your Ukrainian news from, Brett and Jordi? Because I'm getting my news from, and I want to give a shout out to these incredible sources. The Kiev Independent has been doing incredible, almost minute by minute updates. A reporter by the name of Ilya

Ponomarenko. He's fantastic. And he works for the Kiev Independent. He works for the Kiev Independent. And of course, I'm also looking at Ukraine's Twitter handle itself, as Ukraine Twitter handle provides much needed updates. And you also see the difference between a open society, a democratic society, and their ability to utilize and mobilize social media versus a despotic dictatorship and how their inability to use social media as Russia tries to bring down the info and contain info. Ukraine is open with their info and sharing it. And that's been, I think, a major factor as well in this war and this unlawful invasion by Russia. We talked about it from the outset. You could tell that strategically the intelligence communities were saying that and gave that intel because where I think Joe Biden did an incredible job, where our State Department did an incredible job leading up to the war, was literally broadcasting every one of Putin's moves before Putin made the move. So when Putin tried to come up with this ridiculous pretext for war of denazification

and that Ukraine was attacking Russia, all the bullshit, protectual stuff that Putin was, it was obviously exposed as a fraud. And then since the unlawful invasion, Ukraine's done an incredible job communicating to the world and having messages also tailored to the Russian people. And to that end, I want you to play a clip from the Ukrainian ambassador, Sergei Kislytsya. He spoke in front of the UN General Assembly today, and he read a message from a Russian soldier to his mother moments before the Russian soldier was killed. I listened to this first thing this morning. It really touched my heart. Talks about the stakes of war, how just horrible and disgusting what Putin is doing,

the international ramifications and the Ukrainian bravery all in one play the clip because I would like to read from the screen shot of the smartphone of a smartphone or uh of a killed Russian soldier that's an actual screenshot from someone who is dead already. Lesha, how are you? Why haven't you responded for so long? Are you really in training exercises? Asks the mother of the killed soldier. Moments before he was killed. Mama, I'm no longer in Crimea.

I'm not in training sessions. Where are you then? Papa is asking whether I can send you a parcel. What kind of a parcel, Mama, can you send me? What are you talking about? What happened? Mama, I'm in Ukraine. There is a real war raging here. I'm afraid.

We are bombing all of the cities together, even targeting civilians. We were told that they would welcome us. And they are falling under our armored vehicles, throwing themselves under the wheels and not allowing us to pass. They call us fascists. Mama, this is so hard. And this was several moments before he was killed. Wow. When I watched and heard that this morning, it was just so powerful, so tragic. Well, think about it, Ben. I mean, right now you have all these Russian soldiers who are being sent to Ukraine to fight a war about nothing, frankly.

They're being lied to, right? They're being told they're peace, like they're actually being lied to by Putin about why they're going in in there they're being told they're peacekeepers they're being told they're going to be greeted with sunflowers and going to be viewed as heroes like they're being completely lied and manipulated to and they're walking in um to the brave and courageous ukrainians who are killing them yeah and you might you might think to yourself why don't they know better why don't they do their research to find out that they're on the wrong side of this? Well, Russian state TV, they're being fed this information. Yeah.

And it's the same disinformation that we see in this country with networks like Fox News and Newsmax and OAN. It's the same kind of brainwashing. And instead of being greeted with sunflowers, they're being greeted with sunflower seeds and being told that when you're dead, these sunflower seeds will grow and at least something good will come out of it. And it's just so tragic really for the Russian people, for these young Russians who are being sent to fight a senseless war of aggression to invade a country that is free, to invade a country that is not so different than Russia, which I think is also interesting. I think they have a

shared history, much of a shared culture, and they are in many ways brother and sister countries. And so when they go and they see people there who are like them, and they see families, and they see children, they see women, they see these people standing in front of their tanks, not letting them through, calling them fascists, telling them to leave their land, calling them oppressors, calling them invaders. All of a sudden, they're like, wait, why are we here? What are we doing here? And then as these messages go back to Russia, I expect more discontent in the population. As the economy crashes in Russia, I expect more discontent in the population. As the economy crashes in Russia, I expect more discontent with the population. And right now, Putin is incredibly isolated. Russia is incredibly isolated. They are the pariahs of the world. And it's really time for the Russian people to step up and for the Russian power structure around Putin to step up and say enough is enough. There's no turning back now. Putin can't just come back into the

frame and be like, yeah, we're just kidding guys. Just a joke. Preston Pyshko The most dangerous person in the room is the person with nothing to lose. And Putin has been stripped of his power in leadership. He's been stripped of his power in the economy. He's been stripped of his power in his bravado. All of that's now been taken away from him. But what does he still have? He still has nuclear freaking weapons. And that's a scary, scary thought. And Brad, I want to take it one step further. You're talking about the soldiers who were brainwashed. What do you think about just the ordinary citizens of Russia, the pro-democracy citizens? Now, that might sound

like an oxymoron to some, but you and I saw hundreds of thousands of Russians in the streets protesting the war, not wanting to be in this senseless war with Ukraine, wanting Putin to get out, wanting Putin to get out of government for good. And now they look at their economy today, and a ruble is trading at the equivalency of a penny. Their lives are ruined, destroyed by a senseless war, by a senseless leader, by, to put it lightly, a murderous villain in Vladimir Putin. Now, it's tragic. And I think something interesting is, you know, we've we've talked to people over there. We've been speaking with people in Ukraine and people who

have family in Ukraine. And one of the interesting things that we found is, you know, there are a lot of people in Ukraine who actually have relatives who live in Russia, who live in Moscow, and they try to communicate with their families. And while we do see a lot of people in Ukraine who actually have relatives who live in Russia, who live in Moscow, and they try to communicate with their families. And while we do see a lot of people taking to the streets to protest the war, to protest the invasion, there are a lot of people in Russia who are simply sitting at home watching TV and are being fed the Russia line, that Russia are freedom fighters, that Russia is going there to liberate a country because Ukraine is attacking them. And those people believe it because that's all they're being told. And it really shows you

the power of information. And it goes back to what we were speaking about earlier in this episode about the power of digital and that ability to break through that propaganda and get out the right messaging. And I think this war is going to go down in history as the first information war, not to Alex Jones at Infowars, but it truly is an information war. And it shows how important the internet is. It shows how important the internet is for organizing, for showing support around the world, for showing Putin's oppression, for showing the horrific things that the Russian soldiers are doing to the Ukrainians. The internet has become such a key player in this. And I want you to take

note of that because the internet's been used for a lot of evil shit over the past years. And so it's finally nice to actually see the internet be used for a good cause. And it's something that we should all take note of too, as we move forward to future elections and other sorts of activism, the power of the internet to mobilize and shift public opinion. It's incredibly important. And Ukraine is 100% winning in that space. They are winning that information war. Like you said, Ben, with those journalists who are doing incredible reporting, they all deserve Pulitzer Prizes. They all deserve probably Nobel Peace Prizes, all these Ukrainians. The information war is real.

The Ukrainian people are winning it. And it's motivating people. It's motivating the soldiers. It's motivating the people. It's why we see such support right now for Zelensky around the world and for the Ukrainian people, because everyone's actually able to see what's happening and sort through the bullshit. I couldn't agree more, Brett. I think it's also important that we'd highlight just some of the most absurd things like Trump's handpicked candidate for governor of Arizona, Wendy Rogers, while the world is uniting. Essentially, the whole world is uniting

with Ukraine. This is what Trump's handpicked individual who's running for governor of Arizona, major state in the United States of America, says the following. Zelensky is a globalist puppet for Soros and the Clintons. Next, the West is trying to de-platform and debank Russia. This is just as wrong as invading Ukraine. Next tweet, all within the same hour. If Zelensky was so great, why didn't he amass troops and tanks to defend his country when people were warning him that hundreds of thousands of Russian troops and tanks to defend his country when people were warning him that hundreds of thousands of Russian troops and tanks were amassed on his border for months. Pretty big blunder. Typical liberal who doesn't project strength. Next one. So when will the fake news tell us the truth about Ukraine instead of just the Clinton global initiative side? Mix mixing kind of anti-Semitism, stupidity, pro-Putin, GQPism, all in one.

And Brett, was it a member of Congress who literally Webster's Dictionary had to respond to? And Webster's Dictionary said, I literally, so Webster's Dictionary said, we are literally the dictionary and we have no clue what you mean. But which member of Congress was that? It was Representative Clay Higgins. And he said, and don't worry if you can't understand what I'm about to say, because literally the dictionary couldn't understand what what he said. Representative Clay Higgins said, you millennial leftists who never lived one day under nuclear threat can now reflect upon your woke sky. Woke sky.

You made quite a non-binary fuss to save the world from intercontinental ballistic tweets, to which Dictionary.com responded, We're not entirely sure what this tweet is supposed to mean, and we're literally the dictionary. You know, these are people who are supposed to be in leadership positions during critical moments in time in the United States of America. As we said before, on the last podcast, you cannot be with Ukraine and still support Donald Trump. Those two concepts do not work hand in hand. If you support Donald Trump,

if you're still going to do this obsequiousness to Donald Trump, if you're still going to take photos in front of Donald Trump's murals and treat Donald Trump like he should be a dictator of the United States, if you are going to let Donald Trump be the leader of your party, you are not with Ukraine. You are with Vladimir Putin. And I'll tell you, it goes also to like Mitt Romney. And don't get me wrong. Mitt Romney was right about Russia in the election against Obama. Mitt Romney noted that Russia was a grave threat. Mitt Romney has been

consistently strong on sanctions. He's been strong on supporting Ukraine and he's been strong on foreign policy. But the part that still is baffling to me is how is this guy still a Republican? He made some comment and he was like, what was it, Butch Cassidy? He's like, it's like the old Butch Cassidy line, the Butch Cassidy line. You got morons on your team, morons, I tell you. Play the clip of what he said. Granted, this was not directly about Ukraine. This was about Marjorie Taylor Greene. We'll talk about this later in the pod, about Marjorie Taylor Greene's decision to speak at this guy Fuentes. He's a white nationalist and he does these racist conventions and she was the guest speaker. This was also about Gosar's comments as well as his tweets

about pro-Russia tweets. So it's a little bit of both. Liz Cheney was right with that statement, and she's been right for a long time. And I also saw that Ronna McDaniel came out with a statement as well, talking about how repugnant these white nationalists are. Look, there's no place in either political party for this white nationalism or racism. It's simply wrong. It's, as you've indicated, speaking of evil, it's evil as well. And, you know, Marjorie Taylor Greene and Paul Gosar, I don't know them, but I'm reminded of that old line from the Butch Cassidy, the Sundance Kid movie, where one character says, morons, I've got morons on my team. And I have to think anybody that would sit down with white nationalists

and speak at their conference was certainly missing a few IQ points. They're still on your team, though. And even he name drops Ronna McDaniel, who is Ronna McDaniel Romney, who dropped her name for Trump because Trump didn't want her to be a Romney no more. She disavowed her own family. She disavowed the Romney name to appease. I don't think people know that. That's such an interesting fact that isn't it?

Is it Ron or is it Rona? I think it's, I don't know. Because when, what's his, when, when Jamie Harrison comes on the patio, he goes,

Rona. I kind of think that's like when Republicans go Kamala. But she did drop her actual last name to appease Donald Trump. And then finally, Brett, play the Tim Cotton clip with George Stephanopoulos. When George Stephanopoulos asked Tim Cotton, can you just simply denounce Donald Trump's praise of Vladimir Putin? Why can't you condemn Donald Trump for those comments? George, if you want to know what Donald Trump thinks about Vladimir Putin or any other topic, I'd encourage you to invite him on your show. I don't speak on behalf of other politicians. They can speak for themselves. I speak on behalf of Arkansans. You're a senior member of the Republican Party. Donald Trump is the leader of the Republican

Party. He said last night, again, suggested that he would be running for president when Fox News asked him if he had a message for Vladimir Putin. He said he has no message. Why can't you condemn that? I feel quite confident that if Barack Obama or Joe Biden said something like that, you'd be first in line to criticize him. Again, George, if you want to talk to the former president about his views or his message, you can have him on your show. If Donald Trump runs again, can you support him? George, I'm not worried about this falls election right now, much less an election two years from now.

I'm focused on the naked war of aggression that Vladimir Putin has launched in Ukraine right now. There is not a moment to lose. We can worry about electoral politics down the road. All right. He's a coward. He's a coward. They're all cowards. He's chicken shit. He's afraid. They're afraid to criticize their Vladimir Putin, who's a weaker Vladimir Putin. They're afraid because and here's what they're afraid about. They're afraid that Donald Trump is going to be mean to them. They're afraid that Donald Trump is going to go speak in a crowd and give him a bad nickname. Oh, my. Oh, my. They're afraid that Donald Trump is going to start calling him lying, Ted. Oh, that hurts. I mean, it's really embarrassing. Like,

that is what they're afraid about. Like, they are the biggest chicken shit party. These are the biggest chicken shit people in the world that that is what they are afraid about. Like Donald Trump has shown time and time again that he's the big bad wolf. He'll huff and puff and I'll blow your house down. But there's no substance there. Donald Trump wouldn't throw a grape in a fruit fight. Donald Trump is the biggest wimp ever. That is who Donald Trump is. He is scared. He is obsequious to Putin. And we need to be honest at this time in That is what the Republican Party is. But I love, if there's one thing that I love that's good that's come out of this unlawful invasion, it is the stark contrast. It is that the world is uniting. It is that the NATO alliance is stronger than ever. It is that the European Union and countries like Germany have now decided to lean into their defense budgets to protect

the world and recognize what the stakes are here. And I do love having a president, having the secretary of state, having Department of Defense heads that actually support and will fight for our country. Now excited to get the take of Fred Wellman, who served tours of duty courageously for the United States, fighting for our democracy and is a pro-democracy advocate here. Let's bring in Fred Wellman. But before doing that, I want to talk about ExpressVPN. Have you guys tried ExpressVPN? For me, privacy online is one of the most important things. And I do not like when I'm searching, even if you go on incognito mode, like the advertisers are still able to see what you're searching. The incognito mode doesn't even help

with that. And then they target spam at you and they hit you with all of these ads. I don't like my data floating out there like that. And so that's why I use ExpressVPN. It's a simple app for your computer or smartphone that encrypts all your network data and tunnels it through a secure VPN server so that your ISP cannot see any of your activity. Just think about how much of your life is on the internet. Sadly, the list of people you've messaged, the sites you visit, and videos you've watched get tracked by tech giants who can sell your information for a profit. It's the reason I recommend ExpressVPN as the best way to hide your online activity from your ISP.

You just download the app, tap one button on your device, and you're protected. And ExpressVPN does all of this without slowing your connection. That's why it's rated the number one VPN service by Business Insider and The Verge. So stop handing over your personal data to ISPs and other tech giants who mine your activity and sell off your information. Protect yourself with VPN. We trust that keeps us private online. Visit expressvpn.com slash Midas. That's E-X-P-R-E-S-S-V-P-N.com slash Midas to get three extra months free. Again, go to expressvpn.com slash Midas right now to learn more. And Brent, I'm learning that you look a little upbeat today. You're looking energized today. Oh, am I energized, you guys? I know where this is going.

Well, because I got my coffee and I got my good coffee. And so I've been traveling over the last few weeks and I recently got back and I was so excited to get back to a new bag of trade coffee that had arrived at my door. Because here's what you got to know about coffee and when you're shopping for coffee, because I am like one of the biggest coffee nerds out there. 90% of the coffee from the grocery store that you find is actually stale coffee. You heard that right. The coffee you know and love needs an upgrade. And instead of re-buying the same old, same old, let Trade Coffee send you something freshly roasted that you're literally guaranteed to love. So here's what Trade Coffee does. They sell the freshest roasted and ethically sourced beans from

America's best independent roasters. They ship free to you as often as you like, whole or ground. So whether you're a coffee nerd like me, or you just want a better cup, Trades real coffee experts, taste test over 400 roasts and use technology to match you to your ideal coffee based on your preferences and brewing method. So take the coffee quiz to get started. Trade coffee guarantees you'll love your first bag or they will replace it for free. It's been featured in the New York Times, Wired, GQ, and has delivered over 5 million bags of coffee. The subscription is no hassle. You could skip shipments, change your frequency, or cancel at any time.

I'm telling you, every single bag of coffee I've gotten from Trade Coffee has been perfect, has been so good. Because you could personalize it exactly the way you want it. When I take the quiz, I'm personally a fan of light roast coffees, whole beans, so I could grind it fresh, put it in my Chemex, put it in my espresso machine. And I've been getting some great coffees from Chicago, from Santa Barbara. It comes fresh. It smells amazing. It has the roast dates on the bag, so you know that it was made fresh for you. And get this, our listeners right now, Trade Coffee is offering $20 off your first three bags when you go to drinktrade.com slash Midas. So to get started, take their quiz at drinktrade.com slash Midas and start your journey to the perfect cup. That's drinktrade.com

slash M-E-I-D-A-S for $20 off your first three bags. Do it. Trust me. I love, love, love trade coffee. Excited to bring in our guest, Fred Wellman. He's been a big friend of the pod, friend of Midas Touch since our inception. Fred is a hero. Fred is a 22-year aviator in the U.S. Army. He's a public affairs officer. He had four combat tours over Operation Desert Storm and Iraqi freedom. I'm excited to chat with Fred about the developments of the day with what's going on in Ukraine and elsewhere.

Fred Wellman, welcome to the Midas Touch podcast. Great to be back. It's been too long, fellas. My God, it's been like six months. I think it's been longer. Yeah, we should never go six months without talking. Fred, you may have inadvertently turned Geordie into a meme. I don't know if you know the video that you did went viral. I was saving this for my question, but let me just bring this up. Let me just bring this up on the screen real quick. I was saving this for my question, but let me just bring this up. Let me just bring this up on the screen real quick. I can't bring it up, Ricky. Can you bring up the image real quick? Yeah. So for those listening, it's a photo of Jordy wearing a,

what do you call that? A tie dye shirt and Jordy's signature glasses and hat. And Brian Williams put our interview with Fred on his show on the 11th hour. And oh boy, do I miss Brian Williams right now? Oh my goodness. But they put our clip with Fred on the show and the chyron underneath Jordy looking, I would say very not normal, said normal is gone. That kind of froze, it froze on that image before it really got into your talking point. For like an obnoxious amount of time where I guess, why would Brian Williams do that to me, man?

Now, Brian Williams chose violence. I know. I love it. That's what I love about him, frankly, you know? So it's good. Well, you know, I'm happy to help you in your fame. I've since lost the glasses. No, it's good.

Good choice. I think Jordy asks for it. I'm not one to criticize, but geez, man. The hell. And that's how Jordy presents. He deserves it. He walks into it. I'm old enough to be your father. I'm disappointed.

That's even worse. He just gave you that. I'm not mad. I'm just disappointed. I'm just disappointed. Yeah. It's a tough one. I am all for turning the show into just ragging on Jordy.

It is. Trust me. We got nothing but time. We've got a lot to discuss there, Fred. And we should never go six months without talking to you. We got to. Jordy's the scheduler. So I also blame that on Jordy for not booking you.

My God, dude. For not booking you any sooner. All right. Well, I'll be better about that. I'll ping you guys. Hey, what's up? What's up? Hey. So, Fred, let's get right into what's going on in Ukraine. Obviously, your combat experience being an army veteran, being in the army for 22 years. This is what you tweeted yesterday. Hey, everybody, be nice tomorrow to your neighborhood GOP employees and influencers. They're going to have to redo their budgets and find out if they can even pay their bills.

Now that Putin money is getting cut off. Maybe we can start a go fuck you fundraiser. Now it's parody, but also it's true. It's also my usual subtle self. Yeah, it's funny. Somebody tried to drive. It's like, yeah, it's a joke.'s a joke but nonetheless well you know it is true there i also think about today actually over the weekend is what's really interesting about this situation is you know if you remember when

the soviet union fell as as archive you know historians got in their archives you know we found out some stuff right we found out what they've been up to for so many decades and i sometimes i just can't under i can't help but wonder what we're going to find in the, in the Putin archives once he's gone. Cause look, you know, Ruth Ben-Gayat has got a great book, strong men and all these authoritarians that go, this is, this is, there's a lot of folks who really think this might be sort of a last gasp. You look at Putin, he's walking kind of weird. He doesn't look well. He, you know, it's just, you know, this is an attempt to bring back a dead empire, a long, happily dead empire. And so what we might actually be seeing is a last gasp instead of a bold move towards his future. So it'll be

interesting to find out what the connections are. I mean, when you see people like Ron Johnson, so, so desperately trying to spin things. We know John Neely Kennedy was in Moscow five years ago. What was going on? What were these people up to? And what are the connections? And you see so many of what I call the influence of Dinesh D'Souza, who's just openly horny for Putin, which I don't even get. I mean, it's like, dude, get a room. This is uncomfortable.

I mean, some of his tweets is like, my God, dude. I mean, holy cow. It's insane. And so this is a man who's invaded a Democratic neighbor. This is a man who is murdering people. He's sending his own troops to their deaths, completely unprepared. I mean, just the amateur nature of some of this. I mean, will they win? I don't know. I don't I can't predict that. No, no soldier. Any anyone who's telling you they know the end, how this goes is a liar, especially anyone who's been to war. You can you just don't know how war is going to go. Things happen. A lot of things get a vote in war. Somebody was comparing the march to Kiev, to the march to Baghdad. Yeah, well, we also got hit by, people forget we got hit by a sandstorm for two days, right? It's funny. I saw that today. I'm like, y'all remember there was weather. And that's a point is weather has a vote, right? I mean, it is, there's so many things that get a vote and how a war will go. We would have taken Baghdad in two days, but I had to stop the dash for three days to, you know,

hunker in a hole. And so I really do think that we don't have to see other sense, but we do see what I see this moment we're in is a moment of this, what is a global march to autocracy, which we've seen. And, and, and, and a lot of people say, you know, if I'd been around in 1930s when, when Hitler was coming in, man, what would I have done? Well, this is your chance. Hitler was a huge fan, which caused,

we could talk about my new project, the Beer Hall Project at some point, but one of the things we talk about at the Beer Hall Project is this connection to history where Hitler's rise to power, which was mirrored on Mussolini's rise to power, a global movement of fascists

who were tied together. They had their supporters here in the United States. How do we not? How do you not see that connection today with the supporters of Putin and his move? So so I think we're in a really interesting historic shift. You know, history happens. It's not a smooth transition, right? It's like it's like a fault. You're in California. You know, there's fault lines and pressure builds and pressure builds, pressure builds, and then it moves and there's an

earthquake. There's just a part of me who feels like we need to sit back and realize that we're in the middle of an earthquake in history. We're witnesses to real history here. And the question like an earthquake, things fall down. People get hurt. It's dangerous. But in the end, things look different, right? I mean, I live in Missouri now. The Mississippi River, if you look at the border of Missouri and its border states, Illinois, it doesn't follow the Mississippi River because there was a huge earthquake in the 1800s that shifted the Mississippi River. So parts of Missouri are on the other side of the river. And that's because that's how dynamic a shift can be, a tectonic shift. And I do feel very strongly that we seismic shifts in war, in democracy versus authoritarianism in Putin and where I get comfort in these very dark times is the EU rallying around itself. NATO rallying around,

building global alliances. That's what we see now. And it also feels, Fred, like Putin's trying to buy his way out of the bluff at this point and that he's been exposed. You described it as amateur hour in some of your writings recently with Putin and the way he's led. What do you mean by that, that it's amateur hour from a military perspective? Start in two places. One, the military aspect of it, just the way they've sent troops in without enough logistics, without the gas. It's an old yarn in the military that, was it amateur speak strategy and experts speak logistics or something along those lines. I always hated it, so I didn't use it much, but that really is the case here, right? Where they've got tanks running out of gas. They've got soldiers without, without food and water, enough ammunition to fight literally begging on the community for food and

water. You've got today, just the last thing I tweeted before we went on the air here was that someone has pictures of the Russian frequencies for the entire like week. They lost the piece of paper. Okay. You don't put the secret stuff on pieces of paper, put them in your pocket. This is like, Hey, you know what? The secret should be on paper, you know? And they did that. So things like that are so what can only be described as amateur hour as far as professional. And again, we've built up this Russian bear to be this, this, we've watched their bullshit propaganda videos. And we've see our own, you know, Jesse Kelly and these others who were like,

oh my God, you're never going to take it. These guys are, these guys are our woke army. We'll never take on the Russians. And we're seeing as much as fucking grandmas and women and kids. And my favorite one is the MP who got issued in AK-47 or AK-74 was like, I'm going to go back to my apartment

and Google how to use this thing. That fucker's shooting Russians right now. And so that you've got this moment. So on the basic military tactics, it has been amateur. On the other part of it is the great mistake that I think that will probably go down in history in a lot of ways and is fascinating to me is Putin really underestimated. I think he's been listening to the propaganda on our side about Biden. Right. Like like we've been listening to all the propaganda about Russian military. I think he's been listening to propaganda about Biden being, oh, Mr. Dementia. He doesn't have the power. My God, fellas, if you don't.

I've known I've been very fortunate to have worked with Vice President Biden way back when he was a senator, Biden. And frankly, the right likes to drag out tweets from 2012 where I kind of bashed the guy because I was Republican. And two, his foreign policy, like he would come to Iraq and say, we should split into three countries. Like, well, that's cool, but it's sort of a sovereign country. But what is Biden? Biden's a lifetime Senator. What do senators do? They build, they're all about coalitions and finding ways to work together. You couldn't have created a situation, an international situation more tailor made for the skill set that Mr. Biden brings a table, which is working in a coalition, leading, leading them to group ideas.

And then all the things he's doing behind a quiet diplomacy behind the scenes, he's not going to be doing press conference about all the amazing things he did. He's going to be working. He's working at it. That's what senators do. They go into a smoky room like the old days, right? And they come out with answers. And that we're seeing. But then you reverse the other side of that is Zelensky completely misread. Everyone misreads Zelensky. Zelensky is an actor and he's stepping up to the moment. He is calling the EU up. Look at the way he's using tweets. I mean, it's just brilliant. I just got off the phone with Japan. Thank you. I just got off the phone with the president of Turkey. We appreciate you closing the Black Sea to Russian worship. He's doing a brilliant job, and he's forcing the EU's hand. You've got Biden over on one side saying, we've got to do this, we've got to do fire, right? Saying, fellas, this is Europe. This is the first fight. Now, the choice we always make in these things is, will Ukraine be where Putin starts his

domination of his empire? Or will it end his empire? I think Zelensky has done a brilliant job of being sort of a bookend. You got these bookends of Biden and Zelensky with their very, very different styles, pressuring the EU in the middle. And it's been wondrous to watch. Again, I mean, Putin may win. I mean, you can't discount sheer overwhelming firepower, right?

I mean, that's in the end, the Russian and then before then the Soviet battle technique was just overwhelming, bomb the shit out of stuff until they submit. Right. That is they don't do finesse. We are a finesse type army. Right. The Russians are don't do finesse. They do fucking hammers. And so you can't discount the effect of a hammer. But by the same token, what we've seen is a very ineffective strategy unfold. Fred, do you think Putin also miscalculated? I know you brought up

Zelensky's tweets. Do you think Putin miscalculated on the information war, so to speak? I mean, they've had such a presence in our elections and the ability to spread propaganda through digital means. And now it seems when you see Zelensky's tweets, when you see the way all social media is reacting to this, public opinion has shifted incredibly in the Ukrainians favor. And I think it's made a big impact on just the war on the ground. Aren't you guys digging how social media has become a force for the good guys? I mean, how many years have we dealt with the misinformation, disinformation that social media has sort of become a pariah in the sense of you can't trust what you read? You know, the number 10, you know, there's that daily readout of what the top 10 posts on facebook it's always damn bingo bongo and fucking dinesh d'Souza all right it's it's a

nightmare but now what you're seeing is social media being used for the good guys you know that sold my one of my favorite videos is a soldier who who you know ties you know screwing on their freaking silencer you know we're to kill you in the night. You hear that sound in the bush? That's us. And it's like, oh, this is brilliant use. And the reason it's so effective is because it is a democracy. It is an open where everybody has a phone in that country

and everybody can put on YouTube and everybody can get on. Whereas you're fighting guys who have done, have worked their asses off to restrict their people's access to information, restrict their soldiers as much as they can. So they're being brilliantly screwed with by some very smart people who are very clever in their way, not just Zelensky, but the average Ukrainian. And believe me, if you don't think that has effect, let me tell you, that has an effect on soldiers. I mean, I've been one of those guys. I've I've I've unfortunately been on the on the on the the invading side of this equation twice. And and I and and it's a very different thing here. It's awesome, guys.

If we had had the kind of public support for Saddam that Zelensky has in Ukraine, I don't you know, those thunder runs we did in Baghdad never would have worked. The fact is that he was a hated dictator and people were glad to see him go. So they let us do our thing. But if we'd had a collective response in Iraq, like they are having in Ukraine, I can't help but wonder how difficult my life would have been. So, but it's great. I mean, I'm just, I was actually talking to a friend about it. I just love the fact we're seeing actual social media used in a very positive way to just absolutely dominate the information space. And much of it organically, which has also been the cool part. And that's, I got to tell you, doctrine writers in the military are spinning right now.

I mean, Fort Leavenworth is where the army has where they write their doctrine. I can't imagine what's going on at Fort Leavenworth right now with them going, holy shit, throw the books out. We start over again. You know, how do you harness that? I mean, as a democracy ourselves, we've always worried that our freedom of information, our freedom of communication, our freedom of speech would actually hurt us in a lot of ways, right? Because you can also get the bad stuff. But what we're seeing in the same sense is that that freedom has been a very, very powerful tool when used effectively by the defenders. I got to tell you, I think people

are going to be examining this war for a long time to see how effective that's been. Yeah. I think all the critics who have said to groups that you're affiliated with and our group who have said the internet has no bearing on the real world. I think they all have egg on their face at this moment in time. So true, right? That's so true. Oh my gosh. But I think one of the disheartening things is, you know, when you look at our country, when you look at the alliances, I guess, that are that are being formed and you see Russia, you see Belarus, you see Iran and you see much of the Republican Party siding with them. And then it's the rest of the free world basically up against them. You know, it used to be a crisis even with the Iraq war. You know, then there were, of course, a big opposition to that war. But it used to be in times of crisis, America would would come together and solidarity. Rally around the flag, we used to call it.

And right now what we're seeing is the opposite. I mean, you have the official Republican Party tweeting out anti-Biden sentiment constantly, calling Biden a failure, calling NATO a failure. Can anything unite us at this point? Is there anything extreme enough to unite this country? That, sadly, I don't know. I question it myself. You're right. But I do know this. Look how ineffective they're being. I mean, everybody's going to want to do flash this, look how ineffective they're being. I mean, in a lot of, now everybody's going to want to do flash polls and there's, there's going to be so many bullshit polls and like, oh yeah, the negative rate. I hate those. But what I do know is the one thing I've always said, the one that's made me very, I think what's made me successful in business, even the military.

And then now as a political consultant is I do have a pretty damn good sense of people, right? I have a good sense for the sentiment and, and I've always had, I'm always built for the vibe of being an organization or a country. And what I sense right now is a lot of people on the wrong side of history. And as you see the Republicans with these flailing attempts to, oh, Biden's incompetent. Really? He just built a giant, I mean, what you're seeing is this gap widening. They can get away with it for a long time with saying, oh, look, he's demanding. But the gap is widening between reality and the lies they're spinning. And even the most jaded person can see that Biden is doing a brilliant job, that that we are resisting. We've done. I mean, oh, well, sanctions won't work.

I don't know. Ask the Russian Central Bank about that right now, because guess what? Their fucking credit cards aren't going through the moment. OK. Sanctions can damn sure make life hard. I mean, all of a sudden you're cut off from the international world. One day you're just, you're flying off to Saint-Tropez because it's warm that day. The next day you came and fly through the fucking airspace of Europe. If you don't think that has an effect, holy shit, have I got bad news for you. So they're so far on the wrong side of the moment.

That's what you're seeing. And I think you saw that with everything. You see that with Marjorie Terry Greene, her idiocy of going to that white nationals bullshit she went to this week, but look at the desperation when she was trying to explain it. Look at Ron Johnson, just look at Tom Cotton looking like a fucking idiot. Okay. Borrow my language, you know, with Joe Stephanopoulos yesterday. I mean, this is a guy who never shuts up about other people and he's just, Oh, I'm not here to talk about our politicians. Really, Tom?

Really? And I love the fact that Stephanopoulos did what exactly he should have done. He held his feet to the fire for like five super uncomfortable minutes. Okay. And you see it at CPAC. Look at these guys. Bob Costas is at CPAC. Axios is doing this thing where they're just vox. They're just making these guys who just never get questioned,

questioned. And so I do have assessment, taking my finger, sticking the air. There's a shift in the wind and we may not see the polls the minute it may not show up, but if you don't feel the shift in momentum, that's occurred,

you know, it's like at a football game, right? You can, you know what it happens. That interception, somebody just threw a fucking long pick six, okay? And we may still be down, right, by six or ten,

but all of a sudden the initiative shifted to an anti-autocracy shift that the toleration of authoritarianism and the march, I use this term about the march of authoritarianism. I don't know. I think they stumbled. And for me, it's been a long fight. You guys and I, you guys have been in the fight as long as I have, longer in a lot of ways, maybe, you know, in different ways, in different capacities, obviously. But even you guys, I guarantee you, you kind of feel it, right? That this, that what has been a steady rise, even with losing the

election, there was, it seemed like nothing, They attacked our capital. Nothing slowed them down. I got to tell you, I feel like they stumbled and for the first time our enemies have stumbled and they're on the wrong side. So I've got this weird feeling. I don't know what it is. It's like optimism. I've never had it in so long. What is this? What is this strange optimism? I feel it'll go away, but you know, I'm a bit of a pessimist. I've been accused possibly. But I asked this weird fucking streak of optimism that I can't get rid of. And,

and I've had to try and get rid of it, but, but there is, I do have some optimism in the moment. I do believe that for the first time in many years, the, the March of Autocracy tripped on their fucking ass. And, and, and I think they skin their, they skin their shins. And if we do it right, if the world does it right, we can kick their ass to the curb and they're going to fucking fall flat in their face because it takes a coordinate effort. And that starts here. And that's kind of like why I started the Beer Hall Project because I tell people all the time, what can I do? What can you do? Go to your city council. When's the last time you went to a city council meeting? When's the last time you

went to a school board meeting? Because that shit's being taken over right here in America by a lot of nutters, okay? QAnon freaks and right-wing nutjobs. A good friend of mine, a guy who, Gary Rower, I'll mention him by name. He's a great guy. Gary's a former, he's a pilot for Delta, he's retired. And Gary took over the mayor's race in Peachtree City, Georgia when I got mobilized by the army and had to quit running for mayor in 2001. And Gary just texted me, he goes, dude, I can't believe this.

I just made, I'm on the election board of Fayette County, Georgia. Like, hell yes. Okay. He stepped up. He stepped in. What can I do? He said, I can go on the election board. Does that sound glamorous?

It isn't, but like, like who's, who said it was a Stalin that said, it doesn't matter what the votes are. It matters who counts them. And so our enemies, Trump said that too. Right. So, so I tell people all the time, the fight for a fight against autocracy and authoritarianism is happening right here in your county. You may not believe it, but it's happening in your county. And so this authoritarian movement has built and festered over the past few years, it finally feels like we're at a defining moment for the world. But, you know, and you mentioned this idea that the Republican Party is not living in reality. When you look at

the Republican Party, a lot of them believe that Dr. Fauci is a dictator, that Justin Trudeau is a dictator, that Canada should be invaded, but that Fauci is a dictator, that Justin Trudeau is a dictator, that Canada should be invaded, but that Vladimir Putin is a peacekeeper protecting his borders. So how do you even deal with a party that is so just living on another planet? Pile on. I mean, I think that's the thing. Think about, back to military, right? So where is Russia failing? They're not reinforcing success there, and they're not reinforcing. You're not supposed to reinforce failure, right? And so we have a crack, right?

The trick now is exploit it, right? Now we pour through the gap. That's what we should be doing. This is what the forces for good should be doing. We take advantage of this moment to pile on. That's why somebody gave me a shit because I was complimenting Jennifer Griffin on Fox News. Jennifer is doing the Lord's work on Fox News right now. And I've known, I've worked with

Jennifer. We were never very close, but I've worked there on the professional capacity since probably 2005. And I was in Iraq the first time as a, as a spokesman for General Petraeus and General Dempsey. And Jennifer's always been a pro. She was always out of whack at Fox News. Now you see her in real time telling Doug McGregor he's full of shit because Doug McGregor is completely full of shit. And anybody can say anybody who's watching TV and people are going on TV saying, oh, they should surrender is clearly out of there is a liar. So I think in the war of hearts and minds in America, those who in the center who believe in freedom, they say they do, because I do believe there are people on the right who just believe in freedom and they've been they've been tortured and believing that the Democrats aren't.

Oh, the left are all communists. Are they? Because, you know, a former communist just invaded a democracy and your party is picking his side. And so that if we cannot figure out and this is where our colleagues in the Democratic side must step up, is how do you exploit that gap and pile on? How do you aggressively message? So my colleague, I work with a candidate, and he's been messaging very hard against his opponents very directly and saying, look, we see you. We know what you're doing. And I think if we see some Democratic opponents, we see the party step out and say, look, here's your bullshit. We're calling you on it.

Not be nice. Not play nice. One of the things I tell a lot of my clients and a lot of my partners and the groups I work with is what we really need. And this is a speech I've been giving a lot. I've been speaking. I've been had the good fortune to speak here in Missouri to the Democratic Party here in Missouri. They've been very generous inviting me to speak to their groups. And what I keep telling them is, you know, you guys watched Ted Lasso, right? Tell me you watched Ted Lasso. I'd be so disappointed when you ask all of it, right? So what we're seeing, what we need to see more of, and this is where you guys, this is where we all come in. Awesome. My former organization, Lincoln Project, and now Beer Hall Project. Everybody needs a Jamie Tartt. You know, one of the big themes, remember in season two, right,

was that Roy Kent was like, you made him a team player. Okay, I'm confused. What do you mean? He goes, because you know why? Every team needs that one guy who's willing to take the yellow, right? He's ready to take the red card. He was going to be the bad guy on the good guy team, right? You've got to have that. I think too often the Democratic Party is all good guys. Well, you know, look at our policies. We're fucking. OK. And then when they do when they do have bad guys, they're fucking attacking each other. Allow me to, you know, which I won't elaborate on. But why do we have our own party offering a counter message to the State of the Union? I mean, the idea that a member of the Democratic Party is going to do a counter State of the Union to the president of their party is fucking mind-boggling.

Okay. Okay. You're on the wrong team. Right. So, so what we do need in our democratic party is, is people who are willing to take the yellow. Now we've been accused that right. Minus touch. And I think Lincoln project and beer, you know, I, and people come after a beer hall

because beer hall project is very direct about our messaging about history. I'm okay with that. You know, I, I, it was uncomfortable for me at first, cause I've always tried to be the good guy. I was in the army. I was, you know, but every team needs someone who's willing to do the hard things. Right. And I think this is our moment, the moment we now, now we need to, we need to have more people in our democratic side and the forces of democracy to say, all right, these are bad people there. We can call them that we don't have to be nice. This is evil. John Kennedy spending July 4th in Russia and now having not shit to say barely about what's going on is a tell. Ron Johnson's efforts to rewrite history and say that Biden is the reason the Ukraine's we are, you know, is is is ridiculous.

We can see we have pictures, man, and we need to hit need to hit him with that. And we need to pummel. And somebody said in the other day, what do we do? We hang this around them like an anchor. My new organization, Beer Hall Project, our logo is Josh F. and Holly, right? Doing his salute. I did a black, very intimidating silhouette of Josh Holly's picture on January 6th. And people say, you're crazy. It looks like you're glorifying. No, I'm hanging that shit around his neck. Josh Holly will never walk away from the fact that he saluted the people who marched to our capital and attacked our capital he tried to spin it after we came out you know he did this coffee mug thing where and it went like shit for him okay you know sorry dude you you saluted insurrectionist and and and trying to explain well they were peaceful when i saluted

them yeah but then they went then they went to violent that's weird no matter what explanation You saluted insurrectionists and trying to explain, well, they were peaceful when I saluted them. Yeah, but then they went to violent. That's weird. No matter what explanation he comes up with, Josh Hawley detoured his route to work so he could walk in front of an angry crowd and salute them. And I'm never going to let him forget that. Right. And so I think that's what we need to do across the board. Every candidate who's running against a seditionist needs to hold it around their neck.

And every one of them needs to be held accountable for their vote to support Trump. And so I don't know, I guess I'm aggressive kind of, but again, it starts at the local level and it goes all the way to the national level. You're spot on. Depending on the day, I think it's either Brett or Ben who are the Jamie Tard of Midas Touch. I love it. Brett, we've been talking about throughout this interview, Beer Hall Project, you co-founded it. Can you tell us more about it, more specifically? I'm really excited.

How people can get involved? It seems like an incredible organization. Classic Wellman story. So I moved to Missouri for a beautiful woman, back to my home state. And I meet some incredible people here. And a couple of guys who are alumni of some local campaigns come to me and say, hey, we want to do, you know, we're frustrated by the erasure of January 6th, the way that our Republican colleagues have managed to almost make it, oh, it's just a peaceful march, right? It was just tourists, right? And then really, for me, as a student of history of it, having gone to the military academy and is what it is, what really is significant about

the Beer Hall Putsch of 1923 is is that it was after you know hitler failed his bureau his famous bureau putsch in munich he tried to seize the government of bavaria then rally them to march to berlin to take power as mussolini had done just months before in italy because he was huge he was a huge mussolini fan i mean if you don't know that he was he was like a fanboy mussolini which is reminiscent of somebody and so so what was interesting though, is he lost, he failed. And he was put briefly in jail and had a, had a kangaroo court that was just made him more famous. Then he actually had like a VIP jail where he wrote Mein Kampf, but Hitler made a strategic decision while in jail, that violence was not his path to power, that he would manipulate the very

weak levers of power in the Weimar Republic and take power through the democratic process. 10 years later, he's chancellor. A month later is the Reichstag fire. A month later is the enabling acts that make him a dictator. And we know what happens after that. So we have this historic precedent of the march of authoritarianism from, well, the problem is so many people look at the January 6th as like the nadir or the high point, if you will, just like the invasion of, this is my point with the invasion of Ukraine. This is the worst thing.

What actually is, it can actually be simply a milestone. And in many ways, the Reichstag, excuse me, the very conscious decision to create this organization that would focus on the erasure of Germany six. And even more importantly, the effort since to turn our democracy, to allow the Republicans to take power without having to attack the Capitol next time. Right. And so and that is voting rights. That's ridiculous laws. That is restrictions on who we can, you know, what we can teach. All those things are right out of the authoritarian playbook and they're occurring right at the state and local level, of course. Right.

So my colleague, Cyrus Schick, my co-founder is very focused on the data. So we kind of see ourselves as like the OSS from war too, which is kind of a weird analogy, but here we are. If you know that again, here's Mr. History again, because I'm so fucking old. I'm almost a stork myself, but the OSS was famous as this precursor to the CIA. And what they did was they were the ones who supported the insurgents and the resistance forces in Europe. They provided them training. They provided them intelligence.

They provided them weapons and supported their efforts without necessarily doing the fight themselves. So in many ways, what we see is those who are fighting for our democracy are doing it out in the field. They're doing it in Missouri. They're doing it in Texas. And so how do we create an organization that can empower them better? There's a lot to be like, you guys are great. What you're doing is great. What Linkapod is doing great, but we don't need another one of those.

And frankly, I can never do the videos you guys do. Cause again, back to that whole oldest shit thing. And so, you know, so, you know, let's do what it is. But I can help people succeed. So my colleague, Cyrus, is going to lead our efforts. We're going to do the research. We're going to find out why are so many voters or so many Americans is completely disconnected from our democratic process.

There's estimates as high as 27% of Americans simply don't know what the hell is going on. We talk a lot in politics about right, left, independent. There's also this category we keep forgetting, which is the, I don't fucking know what I am category, right? They're just not even engaged. There's the spectrum of politics and there's like a quarter of American people who aren't even on the damn spectrum. You know what I'm saying? They're completely, they're checked out. And by the way, that is the difference between, I mean, when you're winning elections by two or 3%, if 27% of Americans are just checked the fuck out, we need to work really hard to figure out to check them back in.

Right. And how do we do that? So we're hoping to do, to raise the money and do the work to do that research, focus groups, polling other people's data, put it together, you know,

kind of like, you know, like it. So, so that's a big, that's the intelligence part. The other part is the training part. You know what?

They wrote these shitty laws in Georgia and Iowa and Texas. Well, there's got to be a way around those. I mean, if they say you can't drive a bus to, you can't bus people to the polls, well, maybe you can use a van. I don't know. You know, I'd love nothing more, right? I'd love nothing more to hire some lawyers who just go through these laws line by line and say, well, here's a huge freaking hole. Let's exploit that. And I would love to see the Republicans have to go back in session, try to close the loopholes they created in their own evil laws. So we really want to go on the offensive. But again, a lot of this is about arming those who are in the fight to do the work and to hold them accountable. At the same time, we'll be educating people. We'll be doing original

reporting. We'll be doing the original research to say, here's the historic analogy. You can see it. There's a playbook. People have written books literally called the authoritarian playbook about how obvious through the last hundred years, especially those movements have been. And Trump is one of them. If you look at Ruth Bengad's book, which is like my Bible, I should have it here. Trump's in there for a reason. And so it's up to us to stop it. So the beer halls are really unique. And again, we're obviously no shit in your face about the historic analogy. It was kind of funny when it first came out,

people, I think Fox News tried to hit on us saying, oh, it's anti-Semitic. And ADL was like, nah, we're good. You know, I was like, nah, it's not. It's anti-Semitic just like Putin is trying to denazify Ukraine. Right, exactly. This is a historic analogy of,

because I think the, I gotta say, it was Holocaust Remembrance Day last month. to denazify ukraine exactly this is this historic analogy of a because i'm and and i think that i gotta say you know it was the it was holocaust remembrance day last month yeah this month and the auschwitz museum did a wonderful job they said you know we here at auschwitz you know we focus on the end of essentially the end of the spectrum of what hitler and the nazis did which is the last thing right the the gassingassing and the work camps and the murder. But they pointed out it started way back before that with the othering, with the violence in the streets, with the, you know, people aren't good enough to be Germans. And that's, the Holocaust is the end point of what had been a long process of splitting Germans against each other, splitting people against each other.

And look, you can see right now, Marjorie Taylor Greene spoke at a white nationalist conference. OK, Paul Gosar is there. You see the Proud Boys causing violence. How are the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers any different than the black shirts in Italy, the Squadristas, or the SA, causing violence in the street, fighting with the Bolsheviks. Instead of fighting Bolsheviks like the fascists did, they're fighting Antifa. It's the same thing. They want to create chaos so that we overreact to it. And so I got to tell you that the history, if you just look, it just slaps you in the freaking face so much. So anyway, long, long answer is always for you guys. And I'm sorry about that. But, but again, I think, I think what's unique about Beer Hall and what we're doing is really unique. And I I'm really happy. We had a great start.

Edward Norton was kind enough to come in and narrate our first video for us. Again, I'm not a video guy, but luckily Jay Toscano is. And luckily I know smart people and it really made an impact and I'm hoping to get more. And hopefully, people pay attention. And again, we see ourselves just like when you and I partnered before when I was with my former organization. We're part of a coalition. And a good coalition brings different tools to the fight. And you guys are good at what you do.

And my former organization is good at what they do. So as we looked at the spectrum of opportunity, we saw an opportunity to come in and say, hey, you know what? Let's have an organization that's literally arming people at street level to resist. And thank you, Ukrainians. You gave me a great example of let's give them the AK-47s. Let's give them the ammo. Let's give them the recipe for a Molotov cocktail. But what it ends up being is taking over election boards with the good people who care about our country, taking over city councils, the people who care about our country and resisting these forces of authoritarianism that are occurring right here in America. Fred Wellman, thank you so much for joining us on the Midas Touch Project. You can check out Fred Wellman's project.

We're all fucking projects now. Fred's in your head, Ben. I merged. I got you. Look, my next thing will not have project in the name, I swear to God. We are hereby announcing a merger between the- I fucking love it. Great. Thank you for joining the Midas Touch Project, the Midas Touch Podcast Project with Beer Hall Project co-founder- Love it.

Fred Wellman. You thought that I said something really horrible there. No, it's great. I fucking love it. It's me news. I mean, Fox is going to go crazy. BeerHallProject.com. Check out what we're doing. I, again, I'd love your support. I'm not going to like the use of donations.

Research costs money, but, uh, but we're going to get there and I'm really, I just can't thank you guys enough. And again, I, and you don't get this enough. I just want to thank you guys. Um, you know, you've been really big fighters in this, this, this, this anti-democratic fight we're in and, and fighting for the right reasons. And you've put up some bullshit yourselves. You've been great partners to me, both before this job and in my previous job. And I don't think it gets said enough how much I personally thank you for, gosh, what you do and what you continue to do for our democracy. So thank you for the opportunity to be a part of your team. So keep up the good work and don't let the haters get to you.

Thanks, Fred. The feeling is mutual and we so appreciate all of your support and we will continue working with you and look forward to working with the Beer Hall Project. Fred Wellman, co-founder of the Beer Hall Project. Thank you so much for joining us. So great having Fred Wellman on. I called us the Midas Touch Project instead of the Midas Touch Podcast, just giving fodder to all the conspiracy

theorists out there. I had the name of his new organization, Beer Hall Project, in front of me, so I conflated the Midas Touch Podcast with the Beer Hall Project. But I also have a deposition coming up, unfortunately, or fortunately for my clients, or unfortunately for the pod, I have to run and actually take a deposition because it is true, as they say, that I am still a practicing lawyer while I do the podcast. We got to fix that then. Yeah. I can't believe the suits allow this. But in speaking about the law and legal issues, I do want to talk about Biden's nomination for the Supreme Court, Katonji Brown Jackson. She's an incredibly qualified individual for this Supreme Court position. She was previously in a bipartisan fashion nominated and confirmed for the United

States Circuit Court in D.C. Prior to that, she was a district court judge. So she was a trial court level judge at the district judge. She was a D.C. Circuit Court of Appeal judge confirmed with bipartisan support. And she's now nominated for the Supreme Court. Her background as well, in addition to being the editor of the Harvard Law Review and being top of her class, she was a public defender. And so she actually tried cases and has intimate experience at all levels. I cannot think of a more- And she'd be the first public defender on the Supreme Court, yeah? Yeah. I cannot think of anyone more qualified for this position. And even during these times where we talk about what's going on in foreign policy and war, we have Biden doing

the hard work here on the domestic front. Brett and Jordy and our listeners, the pods in great hands. I do. You have to talk more about Marjorie Taylor green though, when I'm gone. And I know that's the secret sauce of Jordy, but I'm going to sign on to my deposition right now, Brett and Jordy. Go get them, Ben. I don't know how depositions go, but you got this. Depose them. Depose those jerks. I'll let you take it from here. All right. See you then. Good luck

with your deposition. And before we discuss more about Marjorie Taylor Greene and her white nationalist conference, let's call it what it is, a Nazi conference. It was, it was a Nazi rally that she attended and participated in. Let's first talk about our incredible sponsor that I love so much. Jordy, you know, who's coming up Spoon. And I bet they're going to just love that segue. Let's get in there. I was thinking about that as I said it, but let me tell you about Magic Spoon because it's the new year and Magic Spoon is perfect for meeting your goals, whether it's eating healthier or saving more time in your morning routine. Magic Spoon has been amazing for my morning routine because in the morning I am just trying to get up and get to work as quickly as possible. I try to get a workout in and magic spoon allows me to

get a meal, get the nutrients that I need and have something delicious to start my day. Because growing up, I'm going to be honest with you. Cereal was one of the best parts of being a kid, but I had to give it up because you realize it's full of sugar and junk and things you really shouldn't eat. And when we're all trying to eat better, you don't want a boring breakfast, but healthy breakfast doesn't have to be boring. Magic spoon has all those amazing flavors you love, but without all the bad stuff. And it's amazing as a midnight snack as well. So when I've been trying to cut down on carbs, sugar and unhealthy food, I realized I basically can't eat anything, but magic spoon is perfect. And I'll tell you why here are the numbers, zero grams of sugar, 13 to 14 grams

of protein, and only four net grams of carbs in each serving. It's only 140 calories a serving, and it's keto friendly, gluten-free, grain-free, soy-free, and low carb. You could build your own box. They have available flavors to build your very own custom bundle, including cocoa, fruity, frosted, peanut butter, blueberry, cinnamon, cookies, and cream, and maple waffle. One of my favorite combinations when I get my bundle is I do a little bit of the peanut butter, a little bit of the chocolate, make like a peanut butter cup cereal. That's a little pro move right there for the listeners. I highly recommend you try that little-

Really hungry. That's a life hack right now. So go do it right now. Go to magicspoon.com slash Midas and grab a custom bundle of cereal and start your new year off right. And be sure to use our promo code Midas, that's M-E-I-D-A-S, at checkout to save $5 off your order. And Magic Spoon is so confident in their product. It's backed with a 100% happiness guarantee. So if you don't like it for any reason, they'll refund your money. No questions asked. Remember to get your next delicious bowl of

guilt-free cereal at magicspoon.com slash Midas and use that code Midas to save $5 off. Let's also talk about Masterworks quickly. Let's take a break from the news for just a nanosecond. Just one nanosecond. Just a nanosecond. Just stick with us because breaking news doesn't have to be about the latest court decisions, drama on Capitol Hill or Web3. I don't even know what that is. What's Web3? I don't even know. In fact, here's some tech news you may have missed and it has to do with get this fine art. A Picasso painting sold for over a hundred million dollars at auction last year, marking a 1400% increase from its original price, a 1400% increase, which is shocking. But when you learn that the blue

trip art price appreciation has outpaced the S andP 500 for over two decades, and that the Wall Street Journal deemed that the art market was one of the hottest on earth, you could see why it doesn't take a computer scientist or someone who knows what Web3 is, I truthfully don't even know what that is, to see that blue chip artwork might be one of the smartest investments you can make in 2022. And thanks to Masterworks, you yourself can now invest in blue chip artwork without having a Bezos-sized bank account. They're the fintech unicorn democratizing the art market, enabling you to add fine art to your portfolio without being a millionaire. I'm talking about paintings by Banksy, Basquiat, Picasso, and more. Don't get nipped in the bud by Bitcoin when you could be

investing in works by iconic artists like these. And Midas Touch listeners can receive priority access to their newest offering. So get started at masterworks.art slash Midas. Again, that's masterwork.art, A-R-T slash Midas and see important disclaimers at masterworks.io slash disclaimers. Jordy, Jordy, Jordy. Marjorie Taylor Greene. So Marjorie Taylor Greene attended a conference this weekend. And I need to apologize to our listeners before we get into this, because I remember stating pretty clearly that we would never on this podcast, ever on this podcast, talk about Nick Fuentes again.

But you just can't ignore this one. You just cannot ignore it. Well, here's the thing, Jordy. A lot of people try to act like, and a lot of Republicans try to act like, oh, Nick Fuentes again, but you just can't ignore this one. You just can't ignore it. Well, here's the thing, Jordy. A lot of people try to act like, and a lot of Republicans try to act like, oh, Nick Fuentes, he's just a crazy character. He's just this outlandish guy who says crazy things. He doesn't represent the beliefs of the Republican Party. He's just some fringe actor. But Nick Fuentes hosted an event this week alongside CPAC. It wasn't a CPAC event, but it was near CPAC and where CPAC was going on. And he actually hosted multiple members of Congress, Republican members

of Congress at this event. And the event was a white nationalist event, Nazi event. Let's be real about what it was. A big auditorium. Yeah. Big auditorium, big crowd. And Nick Fuentes, who denies the Holocaust exists. That's one of his main beliefs. If you remember from our podcast a few months ago, Fuentes is the guy who played the clip where he goes, I'm going to give the most anti-Semitic, the most racist, the most hateful speech on the planet. And so he gives this speech. And in the speech, I don't even know if we have to play it. I'm sick of hearing the guy's voice, to be honest. But Nick Fuentes basically said, let's give a round of applause for Russia,

everybody. Let's give a round of applause. And the crowd claps, applauds, goes wild. Not only that, they start breaking onto a chant, Putin, Putin. That's what happened. And this happened before. Let's be clear. This happened before Marjorie Taylor Greene went up to speak.

You had her there. You had Wendy Rogers there. You had Paul Gosar there. All the- What a crew. You had former Congressman Steve King of Iowa there. Just a disgusting, disgraceful Nazi event. This is the Republican Party. This is what they believe. And they could distance themselves all they want. But when you have three members of your party attending a Nazi rally and you don't name them and shame them and expel them from your party, you are complicit in the fact that you have a Nazi party. You know what happens, Jordy, if you're at a table, Jordy, if you're at a table, you're at an event. Okay. Yeah. And 10 people around you are Nazis and you're sitting there. You know what that makes you?

Doesn't make me a Nazi. Yeah. It makes you, it makes you a Nazi. And so unfortunately, that's what we're seeing with the Republican party. And sure, it received criticism from other Republicans. And Liz Cheney spoke out forcefully. And Mitt Romney spoke out forcefully, as we played his clip earlier in the show. But the fact is, this happened. And when confronted about it, Marjorie Taylor Greene didn't even have a response. She didn't even know what to do at that point. She looked flustered.

She tried to filibuster her answer. She tried to say that, oh, I didn't know what the event was. I didn't know it was a white nationalist event. I just loved the youth. I just wanted to get my message to the youth. Well, first off, that's just a complete and total lie. The Nazi youth? Yeah, the Nazi. It's a good point. So there's no backtracking. And this is part of the things, as we go through the list of everything that we've been speaking about this episode about Republicans, the way they bow down to Putin, the way they attend white nationalist rallies,

the way they attend these Nazi events with people who are actively denying the Holocaust, these events and praising Putin and praising authoritarianism. I mean, this is a real problem. This is a real scourge. And I just want to let you know that you have a large chunk of people who are just completely politically disengaged. They let you know that you have a large chunk of people who are just completely politically disengaged. They don't know that this is going on. They see the parties as two sides of the same coin. They go, oh, Republicans, Democrats, it's all the same. They're all corrupt. They're all this, they're all that. It's the lesser of two evils. So that's where you come in. As we're seeing with this messaging war to bring the show

home, the messaging war starts with you. It starts with you going out there, taking the learnings that you have from this podcast, taking the learnings that you have from social media, from watching the news, from being well-read, from being politically active, and going to your neighbors and going to your mother, your father, your brother, your cousin, and having real conversations with them about what's actually happening with them in America, and explaining to them why this moment in time is so important for them to get politically engaged. Because believe me, you could start a movement. Your ripple could start a wave of democracy, a blue wave of democracy that goes through the United States of America. It begins with you. So don't look to the pundits. Don't look to the politicians to do the work for

you. Don't look to the DNC. Don't look to these organizations to do the work for you. Everybody needs to step up. You need to step up. We need to step up. This is an inflection point, as Fred Wellman said, for the heart and soul of democracy, not only in the United States, but as we're seeing around the world. Now is the time. Let's been an excellent podcast that I've been listening to because I've been watching John. Have you watched John Heilman on MSNBC? Dude, he is unbelievable. He's been absolutely crushing it. And I realized he had a podcast and I've been like obsessed with this podcast now. His podcast is called Hell and High Water. It's hosted by John Heilman, who's just one of the most prolific journalists out there at this point in the country. And you see him. If you're watching MSNBC, you see John. His insight is impeccable. He was on the Midas Touch podcast a couple months

ago, probably at this point, I have no sense of time, but I recommend you listen to our episode with John Heilman on the Midas Touch podcast. He's also the host of the Circus on Showtime, which is one of the most incredible political shows of all time. Takes you in the weeds of political campaigns in a way I've never seen before. It's a brilliant, brilliant show. On Hell and High Water, John dissects our tumultuous times with deep thinkers from the world of politics, policy, and culture. People like Brian Cox, AKA Logan Roy from Succession, you know, fuck off. Oh my goodness. Former Brian COVID advisor, Andy Slavitt, journalist Anne Applebaum, and LA mayoral candidate representative Karen Bass. So if you like in-depth conversations that get to the heart

of the apocalyptic moment we are still living through, and that is a good way to put it, then Hell and High Water is the podcast for you. So make sure to subscribe to Hell and High Water wherever you get your podcasts. Jordy, good episode today, huh? What do you think? Really good. Really heavy episode. Heavy episode, but really, really, really important episode. I think we did a great job. Loved our guests. Fred was absolutely amazing. I have a story that wouldn't fly if Ben was typically on the show. All right, let's hear it. Let's hear it. So I've been going through, this has nothing to do with politics. So if you think you're

getting any more political information, you can just turn the show off right now. I have no idea where you're going with this. I'm a little concerned, but proceed. Honestly, I am still. So the reason why I wasn't talking so much in this particular episode was because over the last 48 hours, I had something very interesting and scary happen. Mellow, my puppy, ate a rabbit. This is a true story. And so I've been in between vet visits and getting him the right medication to make sure he doesn't have, he's fine. He's fine. What happened is, and I gave the end of the story before the beginning. It's actually kind of funny. We go food shopping for in-laws who are just the most

beautiful people ever. I absolutely love them. And so we're, we're going food shopping for them. We come home and we bring them their food and we drip, we drop Mel off before, because it's going to take a while because we do our shop at the time too. And they're like, Jordy, guess what? And they have these smiles on their faces. And like I say, they're the most loving, most caring people, but they're so hard to read. So we pull up Jordy, guess what happened? I'm like, what? What happened? They're smiling. They go, Mello, he ate a rabbit. And I'm like, what? And I look at my fiance Lexi and she's like, she's got the most panic looking nervous. I'm like, what? And I look at my fiance Lexi and she's like, she's got the most panic look in her face. She's like, what? We quickly Google like what we're

supposed to be doing for this. And so anyway, we've been at vet visits the last 48 hours. Everything's okay. Mello is doing great. Just, yeah, just thought I'd end with that. Quite the story, quite the tangent to go on on this episode about democracy and global affairs. But I'm glad that Mello is okay, Jordi. And I want to end this note, you're ending it with levity. I want to end it with optimism also, because I think Fred's statements ring true to me. And I hope that you feel it too. There's a sense of optimism out there. There's a sense that this could be the death knell that we've all been waiting for of authoritarianism across the globe, the death knell of despots and dictators and strongmen. Now, I want you to take that optimism and let it fuel your activism, fuel your engagement and get out there and use

that energy for good. You see it, right, Jordy? You see it out there. I see it. I see it. And I see all your messages. I see all your tweets. I see all the DMs. And I also want to thank everybody for the reaction that we got to our video, Defeat Putin, which has all been so humbling. The video that we made to show support with the Ukrainian people. And I hope that you look up our Defeat Putin video on our Twitter account and on our YouTube. But you see the optimism out there. You see the world coming together like never before. Putin miscalculated here. Putin miscalculated and he is uniting the world in a way that has not been seen since World War II. Now let's use that same energy that we are seeing to save democracy around the world and all commit ourselves right now to protecting democracy

within the borders of our own country in the United States of America. Let's do this. We have a big year. Preserve democracy. Make these strongmen, despot, Putin-loving assholes, make them all irrelevant, and let's rise up and create the biggest movement of peace, of prosperity, of democracy this nation has ever seen. I want to thank everybody for listening to this episode of the Midas Touch podcast. And remember to subscribe to all the podcasts on the Midas Media Network. We've got some incredible shows, especially relevant right now is our show Kremlin File, hosted by two incredible researchers and academics who are experts in Russia relations.

And so highly, highly recommend if you want to get a true sense of everything that's going on from experts in Ukraine, then make sure that you listen to Kremlin File. Thank you so much. Keep fighting for democracy. And Jordy, I will let you bring us out. Shout out to the Midas Mighty!