MeidasTouch Full Podcast - 1/16/26

18:47Brett Meiselas:I presented the President of the United States the medal of the Nobel Peace Prize. And I told him this. Listen to this. 200 years ago, General Lafayette gave Simon Bolivar a medal with George Washington.

19:14Ben Meiselas:You know what this reminds me? She reminds me of like a Republican or a MAGA at this point, right? Like that's how the MAGA.

19:21Jordy Meiselas:It's like watching Anna Paulina Luna or something, right?

19:23Ben Meiselas:Anna Paulina Luna or, yeah, exactly. Here's what the Nobel Peace Center posted earlier. The Nobel Peace Prize medal, it measures 6.6 centimeters in diameter, weighs 196 grams, and is struck in gold. On its face, a portrait of Alfred Nobel. And on its reverse, three naked men holding around each other's shoulders as a sign of brotherhood. a design unchanged for 120 years. But did you know that some Nobel Peace Prize medals have been passed on after the award was given? A well-known case is Dmitry Muratub's medal, which was auctioned for over US dollars, 100 million US dollars, to support refugees from the war in Ukraine.

19:59Ben Meiselas:And the medal displayed at the Nobel Peace Center is actually on loan and originally belonged to Christian Louis Lange, Norway's first Peace Prize laureate. But one truth remains. As the Norwegian Nobel Committee states, once a Nobel Prize is announced, it cannot be revoked, shared, transferred to others. The decision is final and it stands for all time. A medal can change owners, but the title of a Nobel Peace Prize laureate cannot. So how do you think Donald Trump repaid Maria Machado today? Well, you had Caroline Levitt, Donald Trump's chief propagandist. She was holding a press conference earlier.

20:36Ben Meiselas:And during this press conference she was asked what is donald trump and this regime what do they think about machado does she have the respect of the people or not listen to the response um is it still the president's

20:49Brett Meiselas:assessment that it would be very hard for miss machado to leave venezuela because he says she lacks the respect and support in that country and will he raise that with her today i think the

21:01Ben Meiselas:president's assessment that you just pointed out was based on realities on the ground it was a

21:06Jordy Meiselas:a realistic assessment based on what the president was reading and hearing from his advisors and

21:12Ben Meiselas:national security team. And at this moment in time, his opinion on that matter has not changed. Yeah, he's going to go with the authoritarian. He's going to go with Delcy. Why? Because Delcy is going to put the oil money with Qatar. And that's why. And again, I don't care what political party you're from, Democrat, Republican, independent. You think that we should invade countries, take their resources, and then put those resources in bank accounts in Middle East countries without accountability like Qatar? That's what you think we should do? I just, I quite literally cannot understand anybody who's like, yeah, get that money in Qatar.

22:01Ben Meiselas:By the way, let's get that President Moore 747 jets from Qatar. And yeah, when his son-in-law fails in business like that 666 property, what a name, 666 property in Manhattan, Qataris, you bail them out, man. You do it. Yeah, America. America first. What are we talking about? Did you all know that in December, grocery prices had their highest increase since like 2022? And by the way, do you know this about the consumer price index, the CPI, which is used to measure inflation? 40 % to 50 % of all of the inputs now are made up. are made up. Admittedly, they are all estimates and guesses that the regime puts in.

22:53Ben Meiselas:And they go, well, we're just doing our best good faith estimates because there's not enough people at the Bureau of Labor Statistics to send out the surveys to the businesses in order to gauge inflation. Inflation is still up, by the way, and it's not going down. But did you know that 40 % to 50 % of the data inputs are just all made up. That's never happened before. Let me ask you this. Do you think year over year that you're only paying 2.7 % more than you did last year? I sure as hell am I going to tell you things are a lot more expensive this year from health insurance to the things that I actually have that impact me.

23:33Ben Meiselas:You know, I can't speak about inflation as it relates to, I don't know, other products that I don't use. Okay. But as it relates to like electricity costs, okay. As it relates to groceries, as it relates to things like that, they're significantly higher year over year than 2.7%.

23:51Jordy Meiselas:It's crazy. It's absolutely crazy. And, you know, all Trump cares about here is retaining power, growing his power, expanding the power of the executive branch and then using his power in order to extract whatever he can from everybody, be it the American public, be it Venezuela, be it Iran. It doesn't matter. And he does it under the guise of America First. And it cannot be more opposite of America First, everything that Donald Trump is doing. And I think it needs to be made abundantly clear that whether we're talking about Venezuela or whether we're talking about Iran or whether we're talking about the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

24:30Jordy Meiselas:Donald Trump's goal in any of these situations, including, you know, here at home, but in all situations, is never how do I actually act as a servant of the people? What am I going to do here to actually help people's lives, to make their lives easier? His only goal is how do I get richer and how do I bully these people who are in power in other countries into giving me exactly what I want? So Donald Trump gets rid of Maduro. He puts in Del C. Rodriguez. That is just fine with him because she knows that I'll be able to remain in power as long as I cut deals and give Donald Trump oil money, which he could deposit in the secret Qatar bank account rather than the U S treasury.

25:10Jordy Meiselas:And he could get rich and I'll be in power and I'll continue to oppress the people. I'll continue to crack down on all dissent. I don't give a shit about the Venezuelan people. That's the situation right there with Iran, the way that Donald Trump led the people of Iran on, to me, is one of the most despicable things. And I am seeing bipartisan condemnation of this from people who have considered themselves Republicans their entire lives and people who have considered themselves Democrats their entire lives. Because when Donald Trump urges Iranians to keep protesting and says, and I quote, help is on the way.

25:44Jordy Meiselas:Take to the streets. Help is on the way. I will be there for you. And then those people hear his calls and they go to the streets and they protest because they are convinced that help is on the way and the United States, the world's largest superpower, is going to have their back. And then they go on the streets and they get slaughtered by the thousands. And then Donald Trump says, oh, you know, the Ayatollah is actually doing a good job right now, actually. And he promised me, he promised me no more killing this week. So all good. Nothing to worry about here. To me, it just screwed up. To me, it just screwed up.

26:17Jordy Meiselas:You led these people on. They risked their lives. Thousands of them died because of you. We see situations play out like this now all over the world because no matter how much Donald Trump tries to wrap himself in this notion of a democracy or peace, we saw today he was posting after he was with Machado. He's like, I'm making a new peace board. We're going to have the board of peace. I'm the peace guy. He's the opposite of peace. This is the opposite of peace. He does not care about peace. He cares about propaganda and using that propaganda to make himself rich. I mean, I'm sure you've even seen the story about these Trump phones.

26:51Jordy Meiselas:Just to reiterate the point that everything is a scam. Remember all those people who bought those gold Trump phones, which I believe ended up being like a stock phone that you get on one of those Chinese websites. I'm forgetting the name of like Timu or whatever those sites are and they cost like nothing. And Donald Trump was selling these gold Trump phones to his supporters for a ton of money. Not a single person has received these Trump phones, but Donald Trump has received their money. Oh, by the way, I wonder how people's bank accounts were when that automatic$5 ,000 donation hit on those Trump emails that we exposed, because you know a whole lot of those went through.

27:30Jordy Meiselas:It's just fraud, scam, grift, take as much power as you can. And I think one of the kind of scary parts of the moment that we're in, or at least one of the kind of contradictions of the moment that we're in, is like Ben said and he showed you the polling, the American people hate, hate, hate, hate what Donald Trump is doing right now. Like, despise it in record numbers. In fact, even ICE, which used to have a positive approval amongst the American people, now for the first time has a negative approval from the American people because of the way that Donald Trump has unleashed ICE onto the streets, using them as a paramilitary force against the American people.

28:09Jordy Meiselas:So people hate what Donald Trump is doing right now. In fact, Donald Trump's numbers even on immigration have cratered, I say, even on immigration because that was like Donald Trump's whole big issue. It was like his number one issue that the American people for some reason bought what he was selling on. Well, even that has collapsed. But despite that collapsing, Donald Trump continues to use the levers of government that he has acquired to continuously expand his power and inflict more pain on the American people. And that's a move that we see through all the beginnings of dictatorships all throughout the world.

28:41Jordy Meiselas:As we've kind of said, you know, in past shows and podcasts that have gone through historic examples, you know, throughout history, a lot of these dictators were elected to power democratically, right? I'm using quotes, elected to power. And they really only had like 30 % support, but they were able to use that 30 % support to then inflict this pain upon the majority, taking the power of the minority by doing all the various tactics that we see Trump is doing right now. And so to me, that's why we're in an extra dangerous situation at the moment. and it's just like the world we find ourselves in.

29:17Jordy Meiselas:So I'd like to be like, and here's the positive news. I mean, there's not a lot of positive news right now. There just isn't. Donald Trump said that, he did his little joke to Reuters, his joke, I'm saying that very sarcastically, that now we may have to cancel the midterms because everyone loves me so much. I take him at his word, but I also think we also need to remain focused on midterms and on ensuring that people are informed and getting out the proper messaging so that people actually understand what's going on. So to that respect, I am happy that these messages are breaking through because we need some sort of check on power.

29:54Jordy Meiselas:We need some sort of accountability. And I think it begins with us here spreading these messages, spreading the word, documenting everything that this administration does, everything that this regime does. So hopefully once we're able to get this regime out of power, we're able to get real accountability and have all of the crimes that they committed documented, have it on tape, shown to courts, shown to the American people, and truly expose the rot that has occurred over these years.

30:20Brett Meiselas:Well said. Yeah, look, a lot of people often ask us, you know, what can we do at this time? Like, I feel so powerless, right? I think we all get that and hear that a lot. The best thing you could do is shine a light on everything, everything, every single day, because what they're trying to do, what the regime is trying to do, they're trying to tire you out they don't want you to be paying attention to every single crazy statement that donald trump makes oh it's just because because that's when corporate news says oh it's just donnie being donnie i'm not going to take him seriously there no take him at his words take him at his words you have to and you have to amplify folks in the pro-democracy community who are willing to speak out and just amplify messaging that that gets people to a spot where everyone's shining a light on on the corruption that's going on right now donald trump is the world's biggest scam artist ever, right?

31:08Brett Meiselas:He scammed his way out of Vietnam. He scammed his way into the white house. He is a scammer. He lies to you and he only wants to benefit one person and one person only. And that is Donald Trump. He's bankrupted casinos. Think about how bad you have to be a business to bankrupt a damn casino. He is only looking out for himself at the end of the day, whether it be the phones that Brett just stated there, or whether he tweets out these true social that he's sending help, right? He's just trying to, I guess, appease folks for a time, for a brief time to make himself look good. And then he doesn't send help.

31:41Brett Meiselas:Why? Because he doesn't actually care. He doesn't care. He doesn't care about the Iranians. He doesn't care about you, the American people. He's tricked these people who wear the don't tread on me t-shirts to applaud when the FBI raids the homes of journalists. That's what he's done. He scammed people out of their money, out of their time and out of their damn dignity and out of their own self-respect, quite frankly, to continue to applaud these moves like this MAGA ilk, this MAGA movement. It's just so vile and so evil, but he's done a good job at corrupting the brains and eroding the minds, whether it be the trillions of dollars of propaganda that gets poured into the ecosystem to confuse people that what they should be is patriotic.

32:20Brett Meiselas:This is at the end of the day, you just have to take a step back. You have to take a deep breath and you have to just morally put your conscience out there be like hey is this the right thing should should the fbi be raiding the homes of journalists it and should i as an american one will applaud that and i think the answer lies in yourself at that point you should know no this isn't a good thing this is this isn't patriotic it is crazy to see what's going on right now and i'm glad that we we the collective we the mightest mighty this community is here to speak out against all the madness quite frankly let's take our first quick

32:55Ben Meiselas:break of the show. A reminder, make sure you're subscribed to our YouTube channel. You may think you're subscribed, but you may not actually be subscribed. So subscribe, turn the notifications on. Also subscribe to our sub stack at MidasPlus.com, M-E-I-D-A-S-P-L-U-S.com. And I'm sure you've seen the fact that we've opened up a Washington, D.C. bureau. We've got Pablo Monriquez on the ground there who's joined Midas Touch, who's asking the politicians the questions that you want answered. We've been expanding our team, expanding our staff, expanding our resources. That's thanks to you. If you don't want to go to the sub stack and you just want to become a member of our YouTube, you can just click the join and you can gift memberships here as well.

33:37Ben Meiselas:And that helps us grow and expand. And so that's something you can do as well. Let's take our first quick break of the show. We will be right back.

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35:25Jordy Meiselas:You know that sluggish heavy feeling that hits right after the holidays? When you're off your routine, your energy's all over the place, and you feel like you need a hard reset? That was me, and honestly, I didn't want another resolution that I'd abandoned by February. I wanted something structured, something that actually works. Prolon's five-day fasting-mimicking diet makes it incredibly easy to reset your body, habits, and energy heading into the new year. It works at the cellular level to rejuvenate you from within, supporting fat loss, glowing skin, and sharper focus. And because it's a simple structured plan, you can build real momentum in just a few days.

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37:22Brett Meiselas:Let's go. Shout out to our sponsors. Links in description of both YouTube and the audio. Use the links, use the codes. If there's an exit survey, let them know we sent you. I saw a few folks over break gifting people memberships. So now people can use the emojis in the chat, which is always fun when I get to see a Ben and Brett emoji pop up on my screen. Feel free to gift memberships on the YouTube chat. That's a cool way to grow the channel. Benji, where to next, big bro? Jordy, what you were saying before the break, I think should be reemphasized now that

37:50Ben Meiselas:we're back from the break, which is just to ask ourselves sometimes, what's the role of government? What's the point of this? Why do we have a government? I know we don't ask these questions. When people cover politics, it's often, what did this person do? What did that person do? And then within the parties, this person is going to primary this person. This person said that. I got you. Or like you have those shows on corporate news where they all yell at each other. You're mad at you. You suck. You're awful. Okay. Okay, just take a step back. Okay, what is the role of government? Do we want a government that makes people's lives better, that uplifts, that empowers, that protects, that provides?

38:41Ben Meiselas:Just think about, I don't care what your views are necessarily about Mom Donnie, although I'm a big Mom Donnie fan. I like what he's doing, not because I like the personality of Mom Donnie. I like what he's doing. I like what he's done in the first two weeks. I like that his focus has been on things like universal child care. Say, parent, that's a big deal. I know it makes my life easier and more affordable if there is child care that the government can help support. That's a good, that's a win. Healthcare, lunches, things like that versus invasions of cities or sending masked agents to terrorize communities.

39:34Ben Meiselas:Not to go, we all want, and we'd all be supportive of federal agents working with law enforcement at a local level or on their own, going after the truly bad guys and bad gals. I'm all for that, especially if the people are very dangerous, the rapists, the murderers. Absolutely. No one wants to get in the way of that. But that's not what's happening. They're using those words, they're weaponizing those words to go after people who are doing roofing work on top of the roofs. people who are in the restaurants, who are working hard, people who are food vendors, people who are working on farms and construction jobs, people who are just trying to go about their lives or they're driving their kids to a special ed school, right?

40:39Ben Meiselas:People who are showing up as lawful asylum seekers to their court appearances, people who are contributing. And they're attacking in the most vile ways. Armed agents wearing masks, 3 ,000 of them in a city saying, let me see your papers. Let me see your papers. Prove to me that you're, let me see your papers. Let me see your papers? in the United States of America. And if someone says, I'm a citizen, prove to me that you're a citizen. That's what they're doing. And I saw this stat. I interviewed Governor Pritzker earlier. I saw this stat in Chicago. Over the past 30, 40 years in Chicago, they never used chemical weapons once.

41:31Ben Meiselas:Chicago PD, they've dealt with a lot of stuff. And I'm not trying to act like Chicago PD is a perfect police department. There really is none, but Chicago PD has gone through some things, eh? Dealt with some things. They're not masked. They don't use chemical agents on their population. And when you watch what's going on on a day-to-day basis in Minneapolis and St. Paul, again, 3 ,000 ICE and Border Patrol Gestapo who are out there. And as people are peacefully protesting. They throw gas at them. They gas them. They shoot into crowds with non-lethal, which it could be lethal. They're blinding people.

42:12Ben Meiselas:They're shooting people in the face. They killed Renee Nicole Good, and then they ordered investigations into her widow. What are we – that's what you want your government to be doing on a day-to-day basis? What are we doing here? There are so many things that the American people really need. Housing, people can't afford their rent right now. Food, people can't afford groceries right now. Healthcare, people can't afford healthcare right now. And they're getting kicked off of the Affordable Care Act plans because the subsidies were not extended. So people don't have healthcare. They may have to show up to an emergency room or just die.

42:56Ben Meiselas:That's what's happening in our country right now. People who are working jobs can't make enough money to support their family while their CEO makes 3 ,000, 5 ,000, 10 ,000 times what they're making and gets every tax loophole in the book. And they're paying less taxes than the person who's even, who's working for them. Is that what we want a government to be doing? You know, and for all the people like, we don't like what Mom Donnie's, that's socialism. You want to know what socialism or communism looks like? It's what Trump's doing for his billionaire friends. There's socialism for the billionaires.

43:36Ben Meiselas:That's what's really taking place right now.

43:39Jordy Meiselas:By the way, Ben, I love how like all these, you know, MAGA people are like, Like unlimited money could be spent, right, as long as it's on trying to invade other countries, do all this foreign intervention, on attacking the people, seeking a paramilitary force against the American people. All the money spent on that, the billions and billions and billions of dollars, they're like, yes, I voted for this. I voted for this. This is the best. Yes, keep it going. And the second someone's like, all right, let me give like a few million dollars, you know, billion dollars, maybe child care, health care, you know, let's make sure people afford their health care and that they don't die.

44:17Jordy Meiselas:They're like, what? Where's this money coming from? This is social. Where's this money coming from? How are you doing this? Maybe ask that with the trillions and trillions of dollars that are being spent on our military budget. Donald Trump wanted to expand it to$1.5 trillion. Nope, no problem with that. That doesn't concern you at all while he's militarizing our streets. That's perfectly okay with you. And all the other money that Donald Trump is spending on all of this other garbage to line his own pockets. And the second someone actually tries to do something that's actually for the people, like the bare minimum to help people provide childcare, make sure people get healthcare, all of a sudden these people act all holier than thou.

44:55Jordy Meiselas:I will take – I'm happy when my taxes go towards funding things that actually help people. And it disgusts me to see our tax money being spent in ways to inflict harm on the world and on the American people. And that's the difference in what's happening right now under this regime. All of this money going to the federal government, and they are using it to inflict pain on the world, to terrorize the world, and to terrorize the American people here at home.

45:22Brett Meiselas:Not to get into a whole tax conversation here, but I do want to just – I'm okay paying tax. Yes, pay taxes towards things that will help this country continue to grow and prosper. What I cannot stand is, Brett, when these billionaires use these tax loopholes, people who are making hundreds of millions of dollars, billions of dollars per year, and then don't pay a damn dime while the American people are certainly paying. Because you know what? Uncle Sam is going to get his. He's going to get his from the regular folks who don't have the fancy smancy lawyers out there to get into the tax loopholes and evade all of this stuff.

45:58Brett Meiselas:And it drives me insane. Right. That's why this whole conversation to around billionaires is like, look, if you're going to make your money, go make your money, man. You want two yachts? That's awesome. Do you really need 14? Do you? And if you want it? OK, I mean, to me, it's kind of fucked up, but fine. But pay your damn taxes. pay your taxes to this country man because that nothing makes me angrier than that sorry

46:21Ben Meiselas:now let me i'll i'll bring attention to something that's getting no attention anywhere else but it deserves attention it just shows you like what are the maga republicans focused on right now i told you all of those things that the american people are really in need of in need of but the hearing this week was on giving legal immunity to the artificial stone industry. That's what Republicans were holding hearings on. And the issue is artificial stone, when it is utilized in construction, has been known to cause something called silicosis, which is a deadly lung disease. And so people have been suing these companies that have used artificial stone because they've gotten silicosis from working in these areas and fields with artificial stone.

47:15Ben Meiselas:So the big hearing that was taking place was granting immunity to artificial stone companies so people who get silicosis can't sue. That was the big hearing this week. I'll show you what Democratic Congress member Hank Johnson said, where he says, can we just talk about the absurdity right now of granting legal immunity to artificial stone companies, that that's what the priority is right now? Here, play this clip.

47:44Brett Meiselas:We give immunity for some medicines and some vaccines, and those are highly regulated, and they go to market and directly benefit people's health. And we also give immunity to some defense contractors who are creating weapons for use in war to protect our national security. Are there any national security implications to the manufacture of fake stone, which your company, by the way, is the largest fake stone manufacturer in the United States by far? Is there any critical national defense contribution that the company makes with this product? Yeah, first of all, this new term, fake stone, I'm unfamiliar with, but I understand.

48:38Brett Meiselas:Let me, is there any, I mean, it doesn't cure any diseases or anything like that, does it? Yeah, I'm here to tell you that. artificial stone, I call it fake stone.

48:52Ben Meiselas:I don't think there's much of a difference. That's what they were doing in Congress right there. And I guarantee you the artificial stone industry are big lobbyists for the Republicans. Let's take a look at what was happening in another hearing. So the MAGA Republicans created their own January 6th subcommittee in order to say that January 6th never happened and to go after the January 6th committee. So they previously scheduled a hearing on the pipe bomber before they realized that the pipe bomber was a two-time Trump supporter who now wants the pardon that Donald Trump gave to everybody on January 6th.

49:37Ben Meiselas:That goes, I'm a Trump supporter. And I put the pipe bomb in because I believe that the election was stolen. So I was there around January.

49:46Jordy Meiselas:They got real quiet on that story.

49:47Ben Meiselas:once they got rid of it they still had to hear they still had what do they think was going to

49:50Brett Meiselas:happen they still had the hearing though um and you had congress hold on sorry what did they think was going to happen the guy that had a pipe bomb when drum told everyone to go to january 6 and invade the capital was on their side yeah you told you you told them to come donnie of course

50:08Ben Meiselas:he's your guy the guy's gonna get the pardon i i don't know how he doesn't get the pardon like if You read how that part was written. It's for anything relating to or around January 6th on the day of any crimes committed in D.C. by the Capitol in January 6th.

50:26Brett Meiselas:You're so right.

50:26Ben Meiselas:I just I don't know how you say that it doesn't. It applies to the Oath Keeper, but it doesn't apply to the pipe bomber. And guess who they invited into the hearing? The main Oath Keeper. they invited Stuart Rhodes the MAGA Republicans put in the VIP area that's usually reserved for the family members of a witness the oath keeper who was there on Capitol Hill and watch Moskowitz say so we've got an oath keeper in the house here play this clip by the way the head of the

50:55Jordy Meiselas:oath keepers is here with us in the audience Stuart Rhodes is here here today it's not every day of course not every day of course you you someone you have to meet someone who was convicted

51:07Ben Meiselas:of seditious conspiracy against the United States.

51:10Jordy Meiselas:Hasn't happened in 30 years, of course.

51:13Ben Meiselas:Sitting in the front row in the reserved section,

51:15Jordy Meiselas:which is controlled by my colleagues across the aisle. Not sure why he's here. I don't know if he's here to tell us about the Oath Keeper's secret handshake or what treehouse they meet in or whether girls are allowed in. I've always wondered that about the Oath Keepers. But yeah, he's here. I mean, I don't know. You have any questions, my colleagues across the aisle,

51:33Ben Meiselas:for the head of the Oath Keepers that's sitting in the reserved section? of this hearing? I mean, he wasn't pardoned. He's still convicted of seditious conspiracy. Something you guys say didn't happen, right? There wasn't an insurrection. I don't know how you get convicted of seditious conspiracy. Sick. Sick. Sick stuff. We're gonna take our last quick break of the show. When we come back, we have much more that we still want to discuss. So let's take that last quick break. A reminder, hit subscribe on our YouTube channel and join if you can. You can gift memberships to other people. That helps this channel grow.

52:12Ben Meiselas:And I hope you've seen the growth because we've made a very diligent effort to execute the plan that we told you all we were going to do at the end of last year. And I think it's having an impact. I mean, when we have somebody on the Hill asking questions of politicians like, do you support more funding for ICE? I don't care if it's a Democrat or Republican. We're going to ask them that question. And I think it was a big service that Pablo Manriquez did this week where he asked all the Democrats that question. Did everybody see him do that? And he said, you know, this is, I think, the power of the Midas Touch having someone on the Hill.

52:51Ben Meiselas:went to everybody, including the main people who do the appropriations.

52:55Jordy Meiselas:Some of them got quite mad at us because we presented, I'm talking about the Democrats, because we showed their answers to the American people when they said, when they wouldn't answer the question or wouldn't commit to not increasing ICE funding or wouldn't commit to reducing ICE funding or getting rid of ICE entirely. We just played their answers, their own words. Some of these people got quite upset and then had to try to do damage control and all that. But the American people need to know. And I'm telling people right now, stop chasing the polls. By the way, the polls are already gotten ahead of you, right?

53:26Jordy Meiselas:You're living in polls from years ago, right? The American people have turned against ICE. They've seen what happens when you give unlimited resources to an organization that is a paramilitary force that could be used against the American people the way it's being used. The American people hate this stuff. So if you're going to keep thinking about in this old school way, then I'm going to see where the polls go, and I'm going to make my decision based on that because it may not sound politically good, and they might say I'm against law enforcement if I'm against ICE. No, these people are not real law enforcement.

53:55Jordy Meiselas:These people are a Gestapo-like force that's being inflicted on the American people. They are torturing and terrorizing the American people. All politicians need to grow a damn spine and stand up to these people and say, no, no more. We're not going to let this happen. We're defunding them entirely. It's not like a sacrosanct organization. It's not like ICE has been here since our founding or anything. ICE is younger than me. ICE is much younger than me. ICE is like 23 years old.

54:20Brett Meiselas:ICE can barely have a drink.

54:21Jordy Meiselas:ICE can barely have a drink. What the hell are we doing here? What are we doing here, people? It's unbelievable.

54:26Ben Meiselas:Let's take our last quick break of the show. I wanted to mention that, though, because I think it's important because the politics of, I care about the issues more than the politicians. That's what we all do here. That's to me at the end of the day. And if you're not going to support defunding ice. I'm going to make sure that that's very clear to the American people because the American people want ice defunded right now, right? I mean, it's a Gestapo force. Let's take our last quick break of the show. We'll be right back.

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57:36Brett Meiselas:Let's go. Shout out to our sponsors. Links in description of both the YouTube and the audio. Use the links, use the codes. If there's an exit, let them know he sent you. What was that look, Brett?

57:45Jordy Meiselas:You gave me a look. I always do looks.

57:47Brett Meiselas:You gave me a look. Anyway, I wanted to add one thing going conversation before break is like, I don't want to speak for you guys as the brother. I'll speak. I don't view myself as a political person. I've never viewed myself as a political person. That was until I guess, you know, the politics of it all threw itself in front of us. And maybe that's to a fault, right? Maybe, you know, we should have been more engaged younger in our lives or whatnot. But when the pandemic hit, as this community knows, that's when us as brothers at least sort of got together and was like, whoa, this stuff is crazy.

58:20Brett Meiselas:They're mobile morgues right now in New York City. What is going on? And it just became too much to sort of avoid. And at that point, year after year after that, the craziness just kind of seemed to not stop. And here we are with ICE now murdering people on the streets. And that is just so despicable to me in so many ways. And so bringing this full circle here is I'm just really proud of where we are, this community is five years later, or six years later, sheesh, now that we're in 2026 here and continuing to go strong here as this community, is that I don't care what political party you are, quite frankly, Democrat, Republican in the traditional sense or what that, as long as you want to have pro-democracy ideals, like let's sit down and have a good faith conversation here.

59:04Brett Meiselas:It's just what's going on with MAGA and ICE. It's too much at times. It's really just - I'm going to give this selfish analysis

59:13Jordy Meiselas:for the rich people out there, right? For the people who are running companies, for the people who are making movies, for the people who are, you name it, right? And that's that fabric of society only works when there is stability in society and people don't feel left out of the society and sidelined by the society and made an enemy of the state. Because people, I think, are much more inclined to care about things like, I don't know, like the Oscars or the Grammys or the Golden Globes or this celebrity or that celebrity or respect this entrepreneur or that entrepreneur if they feel like they have a piece of the pie, if they feel like they are included in society, and if they feel like the state hasn't completely turned against them and isn't trying to terrorize them.

1:00:08Jordy Meiselas:But when people are on a day-to-day basis being traumatized by the government of the United States, and when they're being traumatized and psychologically tortured because they can't afford a proper meal or can't afford to buy a house or can't afford to send their kids to college or you name it, right? You name what sort of day-to-day issue it is, then there's a lot less time to actually be engaging in these other aspects of society and to say, I feel good. I want to be entertained. Let's watch a movie. Let's care about the celebrity gossip, all that stuff. I think we're in a time right now of just such crisis that I actually think it's bringing down everything.

1:00:56Jordy Meiselas:I think it's so much more than politics right now. That goes to your point, Jordi, where this has intruded on, I think, the turf of people who never cared about politics before or just want to go about their lives, or to the commenter who made the comment earlier in the show saying, I just want things to be boring, right? And I think all of us want things to be boring so that we could be spending our time and our mental energy doing things other than caring about this. But we're kind of like in a, you know, like these European nations are like a war posture in Greenland. Like we're all kind of like that in the United States right now, right?

1:01:31Jordy Meiselas:We are all together in this forming a community in order to push back against the overreaches, and that's an understatement, of this regime. And I think there is a power in that, though. And if there's one silver lining, it's that we do have this community, and that the community continues to grow and continues to build, and that I think people are all in this same mission together. But that's my selfish analysis of the situation for all of those out there who think, why should I be caring about politics? I just want to make movies or I just want to run my business or whatever. It affects you.

1:02:09Jordy Meiselas:All of this affects you and it affects our society when we are so morally rotten the way we are right now.

1:02:16Ben Meiselas:You know, you take a look at, and Brad, it's such a great point, Democratic Congress member Jason Crow posted the following. Trump gets a gold-plated new ballroom, but you get a piece of chicken, one piece of broccoli, and one corn tortilla, one small piece of chicken. What he's referring to is the agriculture secretary, Brooke Rollins, for the Trump regime ran a thousand simulations. And she's saying, look, at the end of the day, if you just ate one piece of chicken, one piece of broccoli, and one corn tortilla a day, you could pretty much accomplish this at around three bucks. So I'm not really sure why everybody's complaining about affordability.

1:02:59Ben Meiselas:We've run a thousand simulations. That's what that's what it looks like right there. Let's play the clip of what she says. Let's play it.

1:03:07Brett Meiselas:I think the question you're asking, and it's a really important one, is while we're asking Americans to reconsider what they're eating, are we actually asking Americans, especially those who are living on the margins, are we asking them to spend more on their diet? And the answer to that is no. We've run over a thousand simulations. It can cost around$3 a meal for a piece of chicken, a piece of broccoli, corn tortilla, and one other thing. And so there is a way to do this that actually will save the average American consumer money.

1:03:39Ben Meiselas:That's their view on affordability. And I mean, could you imagine the things that they're saying? I mean, so you've got, that's their view on affordability. We'll show you what's going on in the streets right now of Minneapolis. This is taken from status coup. They're on the ground right now in Minneapolis doing an incredible job showing you what's really taking place there. Let's play this clip.

1:04:10Oh,

1:04:12Brett Meiselas:I got hit in the head really bad.

1:04:23Ben Meiselas:Out of the blue, police are moving forward. Shooting, firing. I got hit in the head, man. The hell are we doing? I mean, seriously, what the hell are we doing? What is that? Has anybody, what is that? You know, one of the things during COVID that sticks with me right now is the way life was viewed by the so-called pro-lifers as actually having no meaning at all. Mass death was so normalized and just an acceptable thing. I mean, just think about in the first year of this Trump regime, when you talk about the Guadalupe River flooding and hundreds of kids died needlessly too. And there were still kids who were missing.

1:05:16Ben Meiselas:And they died because at every level, Republican leadership at state, local, and federal level failed. But it was just like, whatever. That's how it was being, I'm like watching this, you know, and Donald Trump's like, and the waves were so high that, you know, and then Melania was like, and they gave me a little charm ring. They gave me a charm ring. and it was such a beautiful charm ring. They just go in the mass death that took place that was just glossed over. And truly, the federal government, state and local were all responsible. And the Biden administration gave the state and local authorities the money for the warning system and they rejected it and stole it and gave it as bonuses for the officers.

1:06:04Ben Meiselas:And then Kristi Noem shut down the call centers. So when people needed emergency aid, nobody called. Remember the reconnaissance vehicles and the reconnaissance missions? They weren't activated until like three days later and then the head of that unit quit because they were being blamed, but they wanted to go. They just didn't get the authorization from Kristi Noem who wasn't responding during the holidays. And people just, boom, just forget about that. Like when we're talking about what's happening in Iran, when Trump was asked about it, how many people died? I don't know. Could have been 1 ,000.

1:06:41Ben Meiselas:I heard different numbers, big numbers, small numbers. When he said if one protester was killed, America's got their back. And it may be as much as 20 ,000 protesters who are killed right now. so it's it's it's believing having a meaning and when you see what's taking place there in minneapolis that clip it's like what the hell are we doing here then there was uh but ben but ben

1:07:11Brett Meiselas:but ben the trump regime they've ran over 3 000 simulations 3 000 simulations and you get I mean, could you imagine if, like, do you remember the don't tread on me stuff?

1:07:25Ben Meiselas:What was one of the main things the don't tread on me bullshit was all about? Michelle Obama's school lunches, recommending healthier lunches. Don't you tread on me, Michelle. That's what it was about a lot of it.

1:07:38Jordy Meiselas:Now they're like, tread on me, daddy. Tread on me now, daddy. Thanks for treading on me. I appreciate you treading on me. More tread.

1:07:46Ben Meiselas:I wasn't even going to show these, but they're literally like trying to be daddy that pulled it. Pull the Fox clips from earlier. Like I could give you I give you the earlier where where's the one where they were like, Dr. Oz said that he's got the most testosterone ever. Here, let's let's play this clip.

1:08:03Brett Meiselas:I saw this morning, actually, it was Dr. Oz who said that President Trump has the highest testosterone level of any man over 70 that he's ever seen. So you compare. He knows that. He actually went on to say, like, President Trump's going to be really thrilled that I said that. But you compare President Trump to someone, I mean, any of the Democratic male leaders, someone like Tim Walz, if you will, you know, Mr. Jazz Hands. You ask any 20-year-old boy, especially on a college campus, who they would rather spend a day golfing with, President Trump or Tim Walz. You have to imagine that majority of them are going to say President Trump.

1:08:44Ben Meiselas:Actually, Donald Trump's approval amongst Gen Z right now is at like an all-time low right now. Gen Z hates this guy. And by the way, what's the whole point of that? And like she tries to project like I'm for women's rights or whatever it is. Like the whole thing that she's trying to say there is that Governor Walz is gay, right? That's like he is jazzed. Like they're trying to –

1:09:09Brett Meiselas:Yeah, that's the whistle.

1:09:10Ben Meiselas:That's what she's saying, that he's gay and Trump's got all – You know, and it's like, what do you even, why is this a conversation? And, you know, I've said this before, like, J.D. Vance said he was gay throughout all of high school and then said that he converted and he's no longer gay anymore. I mean, that's in J.D. Vance's book, that he was gay and now he's not gay. Why can't we just love people in general? Like, why are you mocking you? Jazz hands? And this and that.

1:09:39Brett Meiselas:It's just the most ridiculous. I bet. I don't want to belabor that clip right there. But, like, just step back. it's weird right like y 'all just watch that and listen to that that's weird we would never get on here and be like joe biden oh man he is an alpha look at all that testosterone most testosterone for anyone over 70 ever how incredible is that i just can't play golf with somebody it would be it would be president biden it's just weird and you would get mocked and we would get mocked off youtube we would get mocked and by the way rightfully so that is a news network right there fox news i put news in quotes that is being beamed beamed into the homes from your from their devices into people's brains 24 7 because they have a trillion dollar propaganda arm that is funneling them and so like it is just absolutely insane when you watch that clip it is so beyond pathetic that that that's a serious conversation that they were having on air if we

1:10:34Jordy Meiselas:ever do a broadcast like this i give you all of you in the comments everyone watching i give you permission to say, all right, you've jumped the shark time to wrap it up. And I'll say point taken. This is our last show. Like I will, I will, I will happily admit to that if we ever go in that direction, but it really, it truly is just, just so weird. And you could imagine as Geordie often says the outrage, if a Biden administration person said, we've got the affordability thing figured out, we've run our calculations and it's a corn tortilla, a piece of chicken, one floret of broccoli, and possibly one other thing.

1:11:12Jordy Meiselas:Like, the outrage would be insane and deservedly so.

1:11:16Brett Meiselas:And another thing. Like, she didn't even have, it was four things. She couldn't remember the fourth thing. She couldn't find the fourth. And some other thing. Just whatever the other thing is.

1:11:25Ben Meiselas:It's these three things and another thing. But then, this is what they said. Riley Gaines now is like a host on Fox, apparently. And she's like, they call Donald Trump a massage. Watch what she says. Here's the most ridiculous thing. Let's play it.

1:11:38Jordy Meiselas:I have to find that one.

1:11:40Ben Meiselas:They called him a misogynist, but he's the worst misogynist ever. Then there's the other one. He's a billionaire, but he's a different kind of billionaire. He loves his family.

1:11:50Jordy Meiselas:All right, I got it. We can start with misogynist. Here it is. He respects women. He's hired a lot of tremendously talented women. We've interviewed them.

1:11:58Brett Meiselas:We've met them. And my dad, former military, as you know, used to say that the test of a man is how he treats the women in his life can he be that alpha and be loving and generous and all those things yeah they call him a misogynist but really he's like the worst misogynist ever gives away suzy wiles tulsi gabbard caroline leavitt all wonderful women a part of here they go he's a

1:12:25Ben Meiselas:billionaire but a different type of billionaire here play this clip yeah you know it kind of goes

1:12:30Brett Meiselas:back to something that Riley just said. He's a billionaire.

1:12:33Jordy Meiselas:He's different. It's ironic, though, but he's not really all that different. He loves McDonald's.

1:12:38Brett Meiselas:He likes to hang. He loves his family. Not that McDonald's is poor to being an all-American, but I think it is. I love those fries. Two things super quickly. In the first clip, Riley Gaines called him the worst misogynist ever. And there was just... That wasn't us not talking. That was the clip playing out. Everyone went dead silent. And Riley even saw it on her face. She did this flub on air and it's like just so beyond pathetic and listen like again you want to be a billionaire it's weird what if what i'm not what you're going to spend your time your free time judging teen usa pageants as a billionaire can we just like that's weird right like that's weird right you're you could do anything you want you're a billionaire you're going to spend your free time judging miss teen USA pageants.

1:13:28Brett Meiselas:It's a red flag. Sorry. Red flag. Sorry.

1:13:31Ben Meiselas:But that is regime meat. That's why I call it regime meat. I don't even know what the hell that is. And that's what they feed to this right-wing audience every single day. And that is truly some Kim Jong-un stuff. That's a weird way of dealing with politics. That's very, very strange. change. And that's why, you know, you got to pull back sometimes and say, what are we doing here? And why are we doing it? And what is the moment that politics becomes a form of kind of entertainment and the entertainment value exceeds the ability of it to deliver, and that shrouds the purpose of government. That's one of the reasons you have Trump.

1:14:26Ben Meiselas:I mean, the reality guy, the dystopian reality thing that we live in right now, it's one big, sick, disgusting reality show where we're non-consensual extras and you wake up every day and it's like a game of Survivor or one of these stupid shows. And it's just like, I just want to be able to raise my family and not have to deal with this guy bringing armies in my streets. I just want to be able to raise my family and not worry, is this guy going to invade Greenland today or threaten this country today or say America's a predator today or threaten to arrest the chairman of the federal Reserve today or threaten this person or that person or like government right now is simply a tool of a maniac who's unleashing it on the people, on you.

1:15:30Ben Meiselas:And what we have to do, what's clear to me is that Trump looked back to 2025 as he thought that the Elon Musk plan, Doge, that he would be able to capture the country and make people bend to his will. He thought that was going to happen in the first term. That did not happen in the first term.

1:16:00I think he starts 2026, he accelerates all of this stuff.

1:16:07Ben Meiselas:And he's going to try to continue to accelerate it. And it's Minnesota now, it's the cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul. But then it goes, as we've seen, it ratchets up in all of these areas. That's what they want. And where this ultimately heads is for the midterms to shut down the midterms. That's where it's all going. And so I say this not to scare you. I say it so we can all be prepared. And the type of no kings protest that we previously saw last year needs to be 10 times bigger. and the ability of independent media to unite needs to be taken very seriously. We need to make sure that we are taking account of what happens.

1:16:59Ben Meiselas:And as he accelerates, we have to accelerate our resistance and our desire for protecting democracy. That's what has to happen. And that's what's going on right now. That's why we've accelerated at Midas Touch what we're doing. Yeah.

1:17:17Jordy Meiselas:And I think also that's why we try to flag so much of this propaganda as well, because so much of this depends on these billionaires controlling the flow of information to you and figuring out ways to mask the information that's getting to you and wrap it in ways that seem palatable and legitimate. And Fox does that with its shiny sets and chyrons and graphics and all of that stuff. They present you with the trappings of a real news network, and then they deliver you North Korean propaganda. But then there are organizations right now that are even far more sinister than that, in my opinion, as we've seen with the direction that CBS News has taken in these past few weeks or months or, I don't know, time is all points together for me.

1:18:08Jordy Meiselas:But you see how they are deploying their ownership of these new propaganda arms, because like the other day, yesterday, today, because I have no sense of time, but CBS News did like a tweet that was like, we've learned from two anonymous sources inside the Trump administration that Jonathan Ross, the officer who shot Renee Good, suffered internal bleeding, and he wasn't doing very well. We're like, really? That's weird to suffer internal bleeding from not being hit by anything? They just mean he has blood flowing through him like a human being? What are you talking about? But CBS News tweets that out, whether they're just believing the Trump administration officials, anonymous officials who lied about the whole situation every step of the way and lie about everything, and then they parrot that propaganda, or if they're doing it on purpose, whatever it is.

1:18:58Jordy Meiselas:But they put that out so that J.D. Vance could then come through and he could say, look, CBS News, unbiased, right? A legitimate news station. They are saying the truth about what happened here. To me, that's what makes it so evil and and malicious and devious as to what they're doing here by legitimizing the propaganda of this regime. Because the average person, their guard is up, I think, more when it's like an OAN, right? When it's an OAN or a Newsmax, I think most people kind of instinctively know or know through experience that those are MAGA propaganda stations. And so if J.D. Vance is quoting an an OAN to say that this officer has really suffered so much.

1:19:43Jordy Meiselas:This guy, it's not an officer, this guy, Jonathan Ross, has really suffered so much and he's in all this. People could go, it's OAN, it's bullshit, right? It's propaganda. But CBS saying that, oh, now the regime has something that they could hang their hat on and that they could go to try to manipulate the American people with. And that's why I think it's important that we show what's happening on Fox and speak about what is happening with the takeover of various platforms and organizations like CBS, because the administration, the regime, is counting on people not always putting these things together, and that's how they get away with some of their worst behavior.

1:20:22Jordy Meiselas:I'll tell you, if a Fox didn't exist, this media control didn't exist, the approval of this administration would be like 5%. The only reason, it's propped up by all of this propaganda. That is a potent propaganda, plays on people's hate, tells people that Trump hates the same people who they hate, gets people on their side with all of these very vicious tactics. And so I think it's part of our job here to call it out and to get firsthand information, whether it's linking up with groups who are on the ground in Minneapolis with partnerships, whether it's bringing on people to have a DC bureau and ask the questions directly to politicians and get their raw, unfiltered answers to the public and we couldn't do without you.

1:21:05Jordy Meiselas:And so just, just, just wanted to say that.

1:21:08Ben Meiselas:Absolutely. Thank you everybody for watching this episode of the Midas Touch podcast. We're grateful for you. Thank you all so much. Make sure you hit subscribe. If you can join as a paid member of our YouTube, great. No worries. If you can't, you can give memberships to people as well. If you're able to, it's a great way to be able to spread the love, but again, no worries. if you can't. Also check out our sub stack, MidasPlus.com. We continue to grow that as well. So we're grateful for you. Thank you all so much and we'll see you next time on the Midas Touch Podcast. Have a good one everybody.

1:21:42Brett Meiselas:Shout out to the Midas Mighty!

1:21:59Get it right whenever...

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