MeidasTouch Full Podcast - 1/20/26

21:55Ben Meiselas:So David Pepper, who's now the Lieutenant Governor candidate alongside Amy Acton in Ohio in the Democratic ticket, and they're leading right now against Vivek Ramaswamy. He came up with this concept called laboratories of autocracy, and how red states like Ohio were becoming these laboratories of autocracy to brew up some of the worst of the worst. We always view states as kind of laboratories of democracy. How do you perfect things and make it better? But it's actually the opposite. So going back to Landry, the governor of Louisiana, I mean, it's all of their priorities when you get a Republican governor like that is how do we divide and how do we mock LGBTQ and how do we punch down and what can we do to inflict pain and how do we take away from people and how do we not opt into certain Medicaid rights that people have, like when we can and actually expand healthcare to people?

22:51Ben Meiselas:Like how do we allow corporations to seize like power grids away from actually protecting it? Like, so it's all schemes and plots like that that get tested. And then they're brought through groups like the Heritage Foundation into Project 2025 style documents and then kind of impose. So anyway, the point is that Landry becomes the special envoy to Greenland right when you have Whitcoff and Kushner meeting with Demetria Venushikov and others from Russia, which I don't think is a coincidence. And also, at the same time, the Epstein Transparency Act is making its way into becoming law at the time.

23:30Ben Meiselas:And I think Trump views every time he talks about Greenland or sends one of these letters, we stopped talking about the Epstein files and we stopped talking about how things aren't affordable. And we stopped talking about his promise that he would end the war in Ukraine in 24 hours from Russia's invasion. And I mean, you just take a look at this thing, this letter that he sent. This was what he wrote. He wrote, so he sent this to every ambassador in Europe. And he said, and it was sent from Trump's national security advisors. And it says, Dear Ambassador, fill in the blank name. Trump has asked that the following message shared with Prime Minister Jonas Garstor, that's the Prime Minister of Norway, be forwarded to your, then it's your name, head of government state, depending on which state or which country the ambassador is from.

24:17Ben Meiselas:Dear Jonas, again, the prime minister of Norway, this is from Trump, text message that Trump sent. Dear Jonas, considering your country decided not to give me the Nobel Peace Prize for having eight wars plus, I no longer feel an obligation to think purely of peace, although it will always be predominant, but can now think about what is good and proper for the United States of America. Here, pause there. First up, also Norway doesn't give the Nobel Peace Prize. The Nobel Peace Prize committee does. So, you know, and then it's like, I will no longer support peace. Like just what a weird thing to say.

24:49Ben Meiselas:Denmark cannot protect that land from Russia or China. And why do they have a right of ownership anyway? There are no written documents. It's only that a boat landed there hundreds of years ago, but we had boats land there also. I have done more for NATO than any other person since its founding. And now NATO should do something for the United States. The world is not secure unless we have a complete and total control of Greenland. Thank you, DJT. They're not the same time. He invites Putin to join a, quote, peace board, Lukashenko to join a, quote, peace board. And you know what Donald Trump was responding to?

25:23Ben Meiselas:This was the message from the prime minister of Norway and Alexander Stubb, the prime minister of Finland. This is what they wrote to him. Dear Mr. President, dear Donald, regarding transatlantic relations, regarding Greenland, Gaza, Ukraine, and your tariff announcement yesterday, you know our position on these issues. However, we believe that we should all work to calm the situation and deescalate. So much is happening around us and we need to stand together. We propose a call with you later today with both of us or individually. Please give us a hint as to what you prefer. Best regards, Alex and Jonas.

26:00Ben Meiselas:That's Alexander Stubb. And then that's Jonas Storr, Finland and Norway, respectively. That's what Donald Trump responded to that message with. I mean, that's utterly, I mean, it's deranged. It's predatorial. At this point, NATO itself is just a fiction that exists purely because the NATO members think, hopefully, we can just try to get past this. There'll be another American president. What are we going to do? Or it exists to protect the other NATO members from Donald Trump. This is what they're talking about on Russian TV. Hat tip to Julia Davis. She monitors all this Russian TV stuff. And this is the through line on Russian TV from like their Sean Hannity's and Jesse Waters.

26:48Ben Meiselas:America is delivering a catastrophic blow to NATO. It absolutely benefits us. Russian TV praises Trump's attacks on Greenland. Putin loves this right now that the U.S. has given Russia more than it ever wanted or could ever dream about in such a short period of time. Let's pause there for a moment because I think it is important that we also talk about not just what's going on in Iran, not just what's going on in Venezuela, what also is going on in Syria. But the through line of this all is that Trump loves the authoritarians. In Venezuela, Delcy Rodriguez is his preference way more than Machado, the opposition pro-democracy leader.

27:33Ben Meiselas:He hates the democracy leader. He's embarrassed, humiliated her, made her grovel. That's what he wanted Zelensky to do. Well, he made the Venezuela's opposition leader do that. But Zelensky realized, if I do that, I lose. I lose all power. I show weakness, I'm done. Machado's done. Don't you for a second think that Machado's going to get the respect now of the Venezuelan people after doing this. No way, no how. He's destroyed everything she built to get the Nobel Peace Prize. And she destroyed it by thinking that's the right strategy. And he likes Delcy. Delcy helps him transfer oil money as tribute to a Qatari bank account.

28:18Ben Meiselas:To a Qatari. And that's where Trump wants the board of peace money to go to, to Qatari bank accounts for Donald Trump. And how do we not talk about this being the height of an impeachable offense. What are we doing? He's making the money for himself. It's not even corruption. It's straight out the highest form of criminality and betrayal that could exist from the president of the United States. And then you have people like Lindsey Graham who foam at the mouth and Lindsey Graham, you know, when it comes to, you know, his threats about the Ayatollah or when it comes to, you know, his own view that Donald Trump is somehow getting rid of Maduro, not just extending the regime.

28:59Ben Meiselas:Who even knows what Lindsey Graham thinks? He's like, we're coming from you, Ayatollah. We're coming from you. Donald Trump didn't come from the Ayatollah. Trump, the ultimate betrayal to these protesters, Trump said, go out there. I got your back. There were mass casualties anywhere on the low end from three to 4 ,000 and maybe as high as 20 ,000 of these protesters were killed by the Ayatollah. And then Trump said, I have a great deal of respect that the Ayatollah is not going to hang 800 people. So Trump went from we're going in guns a blazing to I have a great deal of respect for the Ayatollah not hanging 800 people.

29:35Ben Meiselas:Trump likes the authoritarians. And he got calls from MBS. He got calls from the leader of Turkey. He got calls from the leader of Qatar, where he keeps his bank accounts now, where Trump does, saying you will destabilize the region if you go after the Ayatollah. Chill. And Trump was like, OK, which finally brings me to Syria. And this is an important point I want to talk about, that al-Shara or al-Jelani, as he was known when he was the head of ISIS, is now the leader of Syria. And don't think for a moment that this guy, some reform change guy, Trump removed the sanctions called the Caesar sanctions that were against Syria and the Assad regime immediately.

30:17Ben Meiselas:because Trump thought, Trump was physically attracted to the leader of Syria. He started sniffing him and spraying cologne on him. Remember at the White House, he started sniffing the guy. Trump said how handsome he was because the guy looks the part. And now what's actually going down is that the Kurdish population is getting slaughtered by who? By the head of ISIS, who is the head of Syria. And so all of those people who were ISIS are now running Syria. And the Kurds who were allied with the United States to defeat ISIS are getting destroyed. So the Kurdish Women's Force, remember those incredible images of the Kurdish women who were out there standing up against ISIS?

31:07Ben Meiselas:Yeah. Mass slaughter right now at the hands of Syria. What about the kind of Syrian democratic forces that are out there, the SDF and others, getting slaughtered by the ISIS regime that's running Syria that Trump supports because Trump supports the authoritarians? And now you have Lindsey Graham saying, if the Syrian government forces continue to advance north toward Raqqa, I will push for reimposing the Caesar Act sanctions on steroids. Remember Raqqa in northern Syria, why it's also such a big deal? Remember all those disgusting images of ISIS when they took over Raqqa and claimed that that was their caliphate.

31:43Ben Meiselas:That's what this regime is doing. And Trump's allowing it to happen. Trump removed the sanctions. The Syrian leader from ISIS viewed that as weakness. Let's go. We've got Trump's support to do this. And yeah, he tries to claim, oh, we're integrating the Kurdish forces. No, you're not. You're exterminating the Kurdish forces is what you're doing. And then so Lindsey Graham goes, Apparently, no one in Syria is listening to me or other U.S. government officials. I could go on on Lindsey Graham. They're listening to Trump, who's sniffing their leader and saying, oh, you smell good. You're so handsome.

32:18Ben Meiselas:And they're saying, got it. We can do whatever we want. We're killing the Kurds. And just think of all these people, the Lindsey Grahams, the Ted Cruz's, the Marco Rubio's, the J.D. Vance's, all these people who sold their souls to get behind Donald Trump and sell out the United States of America. And when this story is written in the history books, they are going to go down as collaborators the same way that collaborators of Nazi Germany are going down in history. These people are the worst of the worst. They are the scum of the earth, and they are the reason that this is all possible. Donald Trump cannot do any of this on his own, and the calculation is simple for Donald Trump.

32:52Why does he like the authoritarians? I think it's obvious, but I think I should just break it down quickly because the authoritarians have no guardrails, and he's able to get the authoritarians to cut these very shady, corrupt, and criminal deals with him so that he could enrich himself personally. Democratic governments don't do that. It doesn't happen. And I'm not saying there's no corruption in democratic governments. God knows we got a lot of corruption in our government. We got a lot of corruption in plenty of democratic governments out there. But it's a totally different ballgame when there's just an authoritarian at the top who gets to decide, gets to be judge, jury, and executioner.

33:31Donald Trump envies that. Donald Trump wants to be that. And Donald Trump knows that those are the people that he could enter in these corrupt deals. And he could say, hey, if you give me a billion dollars, I'll give you this. If you give me a billion dollars, I'll give you a piece of Ukraine. That's what we're dealing with right now. An unhinged madman who is being enabled by some of the most cowardly people in this country who happen to be United States senators, United States members of Congress, Vice President of the United States, Secretary of State, people like Scott Bessend, all of these people are total, total disgraces, and they are all part of it.

34:05They are all collaborators. They should never be forgiven. They should never be forgotten.

34:10Brett Meiselas:Absolutely, Brett. Look, 2026 is going to be a very dark year for U.S. foreign policy, where everything that was built over many decades by leaders for collective security is just torn apart by one madman, Donald Trump, the president of the United States. And mainly, Brett, to your point, exactly, because people in his own party are not only remaining silent, but are actively enabling him. This long-term generational damage that's being done, it terrifies me for the future of not just my kids, but generations to follow. The rest of the world, man, they are already looking at us like, oh, the US, man, they're on the outs.

34:57Brett Meiselas:I can't partner with them. We have to figure out ways to cut ties with them and build other alliances because the US can't trust them anymore. And quite frankly, I get where they're coming from, Ben.

35:08Ben Meiselas:Right. You get the strategic $1 trillion trade deal with Canada and China. Chinese EVs are going to be heading into Canada more canola from Canada going into China. More importantly, more, not more important, equally importantly, liquefied natural gas from Canada going to China. Can I say something about Canada right now? I'm so jealous of you guys. I'm so jealous of you guys. Y 'all are brilliant. And you have, honestly, he seems like the most brilliant leader. I love the guy. Like, honestly, watching the guy, he is just the complete opposite of Donald Trump in every single way. He's an actual statesman.

35:42He's intellectual. He's a guy who obviously understands the economy given his background. The guy knows what the hell he's doing. He's a serious person. And so when you see those polls that say like 80 % plus of Canadians have a high approval of Carney, I'm like, I don't know how it's not 100 % first of all. And I'm so jealous of all you guys. And I'm just jealous. I don't know.

36:05Ben Meiselas:Well, and then also you look at Europe and the Mercusur countries with Brazil and Argentina and others entering into a massive free trade deal there. 700 million consumers under this Mercursor trade agreement. Like, Jordi, to your point, there are trade deals happening everywhere but with the United States right now. And more people - And these aren't things that just could be unwound in a day, right? These are generational things. This is generational damage to the United States. And on the flip side, it's generational moves that are being made right now by leaders like Mark Carney because they understand what the hell is going on.

36:40And I have a lot of respect for that.

36:41Ben Meiselas:All right. This was a long segment, but I had to cover it all. I could not cover it all when we come back. We still have a lot to discuss on this. We didn't do it all on that segment, okay? Just as a reminder, if you can, not only subscribe to this YouTube channel, but become a member. Join if you can and gift memberships to others. I think you've seen the expansion of the Midas Touch Network. You've seen our DC Bureau. You see the partnerships and work we're doing with Status Quo in Minneapolis. You're seeing, I think, rapid expansion in Canada and elsewhere. We need your help, which is the bottom line.

37:16Ben Meiselas:That's how we grow. So if you can join, click the join, and you can gift memberships to others. Also, subscribe to MidasPlus.com. That's our sub stack that helps us grow. And subscribe to our audio podcast if you're just getting this on YouTube and audio listeners. Subscribe to our YouTube. All right, first break of the show. Let's do it. As the new year kicks off, I'm trying to simplify everything I can, especially dinner. With work in full swing and those long winter nights, Home Chef has honestly been a lifesaver for me. Having fresh, pre-portioned meals show up at my door takes a huge weight off my plate and makes weeknights feel manageable again.

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41:01Brett Meiselas:Let's go. Shout out to our sponsors. Links in description to both the YouTube and the audio. Use the links. Use the codes. If there's an exit survey, let them know we send you. We sent you. And just a reminder, if you're watching this right now, have a lot of folks in the live stream, please hit that subscribe button. You may think you're subscribed, but you might not be. So just double check, hit the subscribe button, and let's get to 6 million subscribers, y 'all. Benji, where to next?

41:24Ben Meiselas:Two really big topics that I want to hit. First, I want to talk about the Epstein file cover-up by the Trump regime, their latest court filing, which is absolutely horrific. And then I want to talk about the ICE and Border Patrol Gestapo invasion in Minneapolis, in St. Paul, what they're doing there and the latest threats to arrest Don Lemon, which may actually be an imminent arrest. And I'll go over the law with you, which is called the FACE Act. And I'll explain to you everything that's going on there. We'll discuss that. But first, I want to talk about Epstein file, Trump regime cover-up, hat tip to Congress members Massey and Kanna, not just for pushing forward the discharge petition and being the leads on the Epstein Transparency Act, but the work they've been doing afterwards.

42:19Ben Meiselas:So they filed what's called an amicus curi brief. And they, they, they want status of what's called the Michi, where they're friends of the court in order to make a recommendation to the federal judge in the Ghislaine Maxwell case, that judge, you have the authority to compel the Department of Justice based on the fact that they've requested to modify protective orders under your jurisdiction, judge, you have the authority to order that they produce the documents pursuant to the Epstein Transparency Act. So these Congress members filed to become amici, which means they're just making recommendations.

42:58Ben Meiselas:They're not parties to the case. The case is USA versus Ghislaine Maxwell. But because the USA and Ghislaine Maxwell are sadly more aligned with each other than adversarial, there needs to be something that happens in this case where, you know, someone calling out the DOJ for their violations of the Epstein Transparency Act. What, it's been 31 days now since the documents were due? This is a criminal law. And the DOJ has produced, what, only 1 % of documents? And here's the thing. They claim they have 200 lawyers from SDNY, that's the Southern District of New York Federal Prosecutorial Office, and hundreds of others working on the Epstein document issues.

43:45Ben Meiselas:well, then why aren't you producing the documents on what's called a rolling basis? Right? Like meaning if you do 10 ,000 documents reviewed, publish the 10 ,000 documents. I've never heard in my legal career so many people working on a document production involving just a few million documents. And it may even be more than that. But like, just letting you know, when I was a litigator, I would do four or five terabyte document production reviews with five associates, and we'd get through it in 60 to 75 days. We'd work 15-hour days, but you can do what's called a rolling document production. Every time you go through 15 ,000 records, produce it.

44:27Ben Meiselas:Then produce the next 15 ,000. Then produce the next 15 ,000. Then produce the next 15 ,000 records as well. What are they doing? And then, well, I think we know they're covering it up. And then what were the 973 FBI agents who were tasked with reviewing the files from March to May or June, what were they doing for all that period of time? So the taxpayers were what, paying? We're talking about waste, fraud, and abuse then? They weren't doing any work? Or were they just looking for Donald Trump references to delete and destroy that? you've had over 1 ,100 people working on this and you only produced 12 ,500 documents?

45:09Ben Meiselas:Come on. Come on. Makes no sense at all. We all know that. But this was the filing from the Department of Justice. This is what they filed at the end of last week on Friday. And here you'll see what they say. They say over here, respectfully, the government submits that the court lacks the authority to enter the requested relief. And it says when the Constitution or laws of the United States do not support a cause of action, a federal court cannot reach out to award and remedies. The Epstein Transparency Act, the DOJ argues, does not provide a cause of action. Because the statute does not evince Congress's intent to create the private cause of action asserted, the court may not create that action through judicial mandate.

46:06Ben Meiselas:So they're not just saying that Massey and Kanna lack standing. That's one of the arguments they make. They're saying the court can't do anything. And not just this court, Judge Engelmeyer, no court can actually address the Epstein transparency. That's what they wrote in the brief. And again, for those listening in audio, we posted the brief. I read word for word that they say Congress evinced no intent to allow a court to enforce transparency under the Epstein Transparency Act. You know, a lot of reporters focused on, oh, the DOJ just argued that Massey and Kanna don't have standing, but they missed the broader point, which is what we've been focusing on, which is that they're saying no court ever can enforce the Epstein Transparency Act because Congress did not put in a private cause of action into the statute.

47:06Ben Meiselas:So what they're saying is Congress should have added a line in the Epstein Transparency Act that said in the event of non-enforcement, in the event that the DOJ does not comply, any person can bring a private cause of action or the Congress members can bring a cause of action or the survivors have the right to bring a cause of action and sue. So what really happened and why the Republicans ended up supporting this is that the DOJ, Bondi, when they all met in private, probably said, we're going to take the position that this act is unenforceable. So just sign it, Donald, because ultimately we think that it doesn't have teeth.

47:46Ben Meiselas:I think they're wrong about that. And there's a lot of law that says you can't construe a statute in a way that would render the statute meaningless. So clearly there's an implied cause of action or an enforcement mechanism because what would be the point of something to force the DOJ to produce records if a court can't enforce the DOJ to produce records? But then on top of that, in my view, the DOJ went to Judge Engelmeyer and another federal judge, Judge Berman. And they said, judge. Do you all remember this back on November 26th? They said, judge, because they wanted to blame the courts for why they were not producing the Epstein files.

48:29Ben Meiselas:Their plan was defame and blame the federal judges. And that's what they tried to carry out. You remember they did this fact sheet also and said on December 21st, they're like, the reason we're taking our time, the reason it's going slow is because the courts, it's the court's fault, while now arguing that the courts can't do anything at all. So with the DOJ in a very sneaky way, and I wonder if Kana and Massey are going to bring this up in their reply papers to what the DOJ filed. Back on November 26th, the DOJ said, Judge, we need you to modify your protective orders in this case so we can release the grand jury transcript and also so we can release all the other files under the Epstein Transparency Act.

49:20Ben Meiselas:So modify not just one protective order, modify all your protective orders. Then Judge Engelmeyer said, well, tell me what are all the documents you're going to produce if I modify the protective orders? Then the DOJ listed all the documents. So when they claim also we just found these documents in the SDNY, millions of new documents, no, you listed it in your November 26th filing. I read it. I read the filing. You listed all those documents. So you knew that the SDNY had it, not like in December when you go, oopsies, we just discovered millions of more documents. Nah, you knew about it in your November 26 filing.

49:58Ben Meiselas:You list those documents. Then on December 9th, the federal judge Engelmeyer says, great, I will amend the protective orders because you're promising to produce these records, the Epstein Transparency Act records. Then the DOJ doesn't comply. So I think that Massey and Kanna can argue, well, you've already invoked the court's jurisdiction because you asked the court to modify protective orders. The court asked you why. You said because you're going to produce the documents. Now you're blaming the court for your own delay while also filing that the court doesn't have authority. So you're setting up the court.

50:38Ben Meiselas:So this was all one gigantic ruse where you asked the court to amend the protective orders so you can blame the court for your delay. You see what they did? And I wanted to break it down because it's sneaky. It's pernicious. It's evil. And that's what they're doing. That's what their plan is. So I wonder what Judge Engelmeyer is going to do. And now today, Lisa Phillips, one of the Epstein survivors, filed that she supports an independent monitor or special master or some independent process for these documents to be produced in violation of the Epstein Transparency Act or because the DOJ is violating the Epstein Transparency Act.

51:19Ben Meiselas:By the way, hat tip to Michael Popak, who's actually representing Lisa Phillips in the case from Legal AF. He said, I'm not a practicing lawyer anymore. Popak is a practicing lawyer now. And he represents Lisa Phillips. And he's helped file that declaration on our behalf. So Michael Popak doesn't just talk the talk. He walks the walk. So that's my analysis there. The Trump regime, it's what, day 31? And 1 % of the documents have been produced? Brett and Jordy.

51:49Brett Meiselas:Brett, before I give it back to you, I just have really quickly, Ben, if I could just summarize everything that you just laid out so beautifully in just a few sentences is that what I'm hearing is Donald Trump and the Trump regime would just rather protect pedos than get to the bottom of the Epstein saga. Is that right? That's right, Jordy. Brett. And on that point, Jordy, I think that's why you could draw an adverse inference. And I think juries could draw adverse inferences. I think the public could draw adverse inferences based on exactly what is going on. And by that, I mean is you could basically judge Donald Trump's guilt by the fact that his Department of Justice, Donald Trump himself, and all these people are withholding so much from the American people and are doing so much to withhold these documents from the American people.

52:39What other conclusion could you possibly come to other than that whatever is in these files about Donald Trump must be, in my opinion, devastating, horrific, some of the worst things that you ever read or heard or seen. It's the only kind of thing that you could even possibly cut. It's the only conclusion you could possibly come to, given all of this. I'm super proud of Michael Popak representing a survivor here and taking this to the court, this declaration. I think this is such an important issue. And I just always try to ground myself because this is something that, you know, I get certainly stressed about the fact that they've released less than 1 % of the files and it's painful.

53:23And I think it's just awful. And then I think about these survivors who have been calling for the release of these files, who have been looking for some sort of justice for all the people involved in this scheme now, for decades and decades and decades. And I can't imagine the pain that continues and that these wounds that open back up every time this is brought back into the news. But I applaud their strength. I applaud Michael Popak for representing them and, you know, Representatives Kanna and Massey. And it's, you know, one of those examples where, you know, this isn't about political party.

53:59You know, I'm happy we have a Republican and a Democrat there coming together. And it's a shame that the others in Massey's party, all these other Republicans are doing everything that they can to cover up for this scheme, including all of the people out there who previously made this like their number one issue. I mean, the freaking FBI director and the former deputy FBI director who left were like the biggest proponents of like, release the Epstein files. What are you hiding, FBI? Coming up with all these conspiracy theories about Donald Trump's enemies and they are the ones blocking the release of the files.

54:32I mean, Bongino left. The guy left. He bounced. He couldn't handle it. Too tough for him. God, see you later. Bye. Now you have Cash Patel. You got Bondi. Just all of these people are complicit in this. And it's just, I think it's very obvious what it all tells you.

54:48Brett Meiselas:Absolutely. On the Bongino note, the folks who were sort of put in positions to get the truth, he left. He left. Because why? Because his boss told him not to get to the truth. jordy i'm gonna let me say though i know he couldn't get the truth as the deputy fbi director but i think now that he's back as a podcaster i think he's going to get to the bottom of this i think i think you're onto something with that one but look if the files exonerated trump they would all be released don't make any other thoughts about that like it if they truly exonerated trump like he likes to put out on true social or whatever they would all be released you would have seen them a thousand times over at this point because he wouldn't let you forget that you've seen them it is so utterly disgusting this is not a political issue it to me it's simply it's not this is a humanity issue like if you care about your fellow american if you care about your fellow person you care about this because you should want justice for the survivors period end of story.

55:53Brett Meiselas:The political gamesmanship that the Trump regime is doing to block the release of these files, to delay the release of the files, to go over deadlines and say, oh, well, we did the first bet. We met the first deadline, making things up. Every red flag that could go up is up. It's so utterly obvious that the Trump regime is trying to hide the files, and there's no other conclusion that could be drawn at this point that donald trump must be literally all over them and they can't they can't avoid it at this point so what are they going to do they're just not going to release them or they're going to try and and confuse things in the courts or or or what but but i know one thing that you the listener here the midas my this pro democracy community and and many americans quite frankly that don't even identify with the midas touch network or pro democracy they still want the release of the files because again this isn't political.

56:48Brett Meiselas:This is just like human to human. You should want justice for the women now who were children at that time. It's unbelievable to me, Ben.

56:58Ben Meiselas:This is just how they handle everything. I saw an article before of Donald Trump saying, well, it must have been a, perhaps I got bad information that special forces were being sent into Greenland by these European countries. And, you know, and then people that I've seen like reporters go, oh, this is a way that Donald Trump can maybe try to deescalate with dignity. It's just like enough of this. Dude, I hate that. Enough of the, you know, although now, you know, now he's going to be like, oh, well, now I didn't really mean that because now I learned this. And then, you know, you know, because he sees the market start doing bad, you know, it's the same stick with him too.

57:36Ben Meiselas:And it's just like enough. You have to – society has appeased him and his ilk where – and just have a – they're the snake that was allowed in. And it's like as adults, as people who have morals and ethics and who care about normalcy, you just have to assert yourself and stop babying this guy. Be tough. Put it on the line. And it's just enough is enough. Enough is enough of this crap, this whole thing. It's just this whole just crap regime of every day, the onslaught of pathetic trolling and utilizing all that America meant historically for this. And no wonder what was his support among independents right now, 20, 27 percent or 29 percent among independents.

58:30Ben Meiselas:It was 26 % among independents, like the lowest ever of any president ever amongst independents right now, depending on which poll, 29, 29, 26, 29, 29, 31. It's just absolutely, absolutely pathetic anyway. 29, it's ridiculous. We'll take our last quick break of the show. A reminder, if you can join the YouTube by becoming a member, click join and then gift memberships to other people. That helps our expansion. And you know, we're competing right now against Foxes, the CBSs, NBCs, ABCs. Thanks to you. You keep us in the game and in the lead right now. And we're expanding the DC Bureau, on the ground coverage, what we're doing in Canada.

59:18Ben Meiselas:That's all thanks to you. So join if you can. Also check out our substack MidasPlus.com. Last quick break of the show. We'll be right back for The Homestruck.

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1:04:03Brett 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 survey. Other than that we sent you. Benji, where to next?

1:04:13Ben Meiselas:You know, it's interesting because, you know. Hold on.

1:04:15Brett Meiselas:Hold on. Hold on. Hold on. Brett's laughing over there in the third panel. Do you know like my coming back from break phrase? First, I know the script. Of course, I know what you say at this point. I could, I was mouthing it myself. Because I say it every episode in the exact same way. I was lip syncing, like a music video. I could do Jordy.

1:04:30Ben Meiselas:Veggie, we'll do next. You know, now you have like Trump advisors leaking out to CNN. Is an off-ramp possible? Can we give him an off-ramp? Now that all the other, but you had Europe threatening a trade bazooka, like just going to shut off trade with the US and then the markets are reeling and then Donald Trump moves on to the next one. next one and the next one while he covers up the Epstein files and while he does, you know, longstanding damage to what the U.S. has built over centuries across the world and especially since the post-World War II world, right, where Trump views, well, as he always said, we were our richest in 1871.

1:05:14Ben Meiselas:What do you mean we were our richest in 1871? What does that even mean? But like, you know, you have someone like Treasury Secretary Besant goes on the morning shows on Sunday. And, you know, here's what he said about Greenland. Let's play Greenland one.

1:05:28Brett Meiselas:Let me just put this to you bluntly. Is Greenland or NATO more essential to the United States national security? Well, Chris, that's obviously a false choice. That's a maximum perspective of European leaders. The European leaders will come around and they will understand that they need to be under the U.S. security umbrella. What would happen in Ukraine if the U.S. pulled its support out?

1:05:55Ben Meiselas:The whole thing would collapse. They are under the security umbrella of NATO. Of NATO. That's the whole thing. America used to have 17 military bases in Greenland. America pulled out of 15 of them and now we have two. If we wanted 17, we could have it. It would be ridiculous, but we could have 17. It's part of NATO. But Donald Trump's more focused on his counter NATO, which he calls the Board of Peace, which is a board of authoritarians, right? It is the axis of evil that he's creating. So then Treasury Secretary Besant is then asked, so what's the justification? What's the emergency that you want to tariff all these European countries because they're not allowing Trump to invade Greenland?

1:06:49Ben Meiselas:because the hook that Trump tries to use on his unlawful tariffs against the world, which the Supreme Court has never ruled on, there's never going to rule on it. What's their game plan there, by the way? I mean, doesn't it show you how pathetic the Supreme Court is that they just let Donald Trump's unlawful tariffs just stay? That's why our whole legal system is someone who's a law professor, just like completely broken. No ruling. We don't get rulings on the tariffs. It takes a year while the unlawful tariffs are in place for you to get any remedy and the status quo is preserved. It's utterly ridiculous.

1:07:20Ben Meiselas:But in any event, Trump's hook is that there's an emergency, a threat facing the country, right? And Trump's threats are Canada's bringing fentanyl and Mexico is bringing this, and this country is threatening us with all these, you know, I mean, Mexico is bringing the precursor to fentanyl, not Canada. But that's Trump's hook for all of the tariffs. But so what's the emergency, Besson?

1:07:46Brett Meiselas:The Heikert's decision. What is the national emergency that justifies these new slate of tariffs? The national emergency is avoiding a national emergency. It is a strategic decision by the president. This is a geopolitical decision, and he is able to use the economic might of the U.S. to avoid a hot war. So why wouldn't we do that?

1:08:12Ben Meiselas:Same thing. He's just saying to London, there's no loss. That's what he's saying right there. What are you talking about, dude? And he does it in this, like, argument. Why wouldn't he do that? Because there's laws, man. Because there's laws. You know, and laws. We have NATO. We have a structure to protect all this stuff. All the things that you're saying are complete and total lies. You have China coming out and making statements. Beijing's like, don't invoke our name for your justification to try to seize this. Meanwhile, you have the United States, in effect, justifying China to take Taiwan, Russia to take Ukraine.

1:08:45this goes far beyond even just Greenland. This is an issue of global importance, obviously, but there's ramifications that extend even far beyond this moment. And one of the things that I hate what these people say, and it wasn't in that clip, but I think it was in that interview with Besant, is they'll go like, you know, this is just what happens when you're in the hottest country ever. We're so hot right now. We're hot. We're so hot. It's like, shut up. Shut the hell up shut the hell up the united states right now is hated hated by the world hated by the world and it's your fault and you know better scott besson these people all know better and they

1:09:21Brett Meiselas:are all collaborators didn't i can't i'm not i don't want to give besson any sort of street credit doesn't he like constantly get into fights with members of trump's cabinet like didn't he punched elon or get punched by you know these are these are all they're all weirdos dude they all weirdos. They all are narcissists. They all hate each other. They all hate themselves. They hate their lives. They're miserable people. That's the larger point. I think Bill Pulte too, he threatened to punch at a country club. This guy is some sort of hothead that they can't even get along with each other. That's how smug each one of these people are.

1:09:53Ben Meiselas:You've seen someone wants Lori Chavez Doremer out. I mean, I want her out, but there's someone in the Trump regime who's leaking to the New York Post because they're getting really good scoops on Lori Chavez Doremer. she's the secretary of labor and so the new york post broke the story first that she was under uh inspector general's investigation of the inspector general was that congress member uh who was pushed out i think he was from a new york congress member yeah i think it was new york um for like uh being involved in an affair and like bringing underlings to like getting underlings job that he was having an affair with which is one of the things that like lori chavez is being investigated for.

1:10:31Ben Meiselas:And they made that guy the IG. But in any event, that's why I think the New York Post is also leaking extra hard right now in order to expose what Lori Chavez, Dreamer, is being investigated for. But there was the report last week that she took all these trips, these lavish trips to Vegas and across the country on the taxpayer dime. And then it said that she was potentially having an affair with an insubordinate, or not insubordinate, a subordinate. They were being insupported. And now the reporting was that there was like a booze stash in her office and that she would bring this staff to strip clubs.

1:11:13Ben Meiselas:By the way, like in the taxpayers would be paying for these trips where they would go to strip clubs and they got a photo of Angel's PDX club in Portland. She used to be a Congress member from Portland. She used to pretend and Chavez Dorema that she cared about unions. And then as soon as she had her hearing to be confirmed, she was asked whether she supports the PRO Act. And she goes, no, no, I don't support the PRO Act. Your whole thing was you supported the PRO Act. Then she said she doesn't support the PRO Act. I don't know how you could be a labor secretary if you literally despise and you hate labor.

1:11:46Ben Meiselas:She supports the POL Act at Angel Strip Club in Phoenix. And this is what they're doing. This is what the taxpayers, you know, I mean, look, You have Kristi Noem buying private jets, gallivanting around on these horse videos. Spot looks real high-end. High-end. High-end strip club. But this is what the Trump regime, these are a group of degenerate. I mean, look, I'm not going to judge people. If you want to go to the strip club, you go to the strip club. But don't do it on the taxpayer dime. Yeah, that's the point. If you want to go to the strip club.

1:12:18Brett Meiselas:But don't do it on the taxpayer dime.

1:12:20Ben Meiselas:If you want to go, you can go. But like you're supposed to be the labor secretary and I'm not sure this is necessarily the support of labor that we expect. We expect you to support the unions, not – anyway, I won't get into the debate there. This is one way to support labor. This is one way to – that's where I was going. But don't use taxpayer money for it. And then there's more information about the person who worked for her, the whole – but there's so much – And then like last week, they started doing this weird ad campaign for whole milk. And they did these like weird sexualized fetish whole milk videos that went beyond like the mustache.

1:12:56Ben Meiselas:Like, what do you do? Okay, whole milk's good, sure. But like, then people thought, well, maybe they were trying to push RFK Jr.'s raw milk because he likes raw milk. And then someone's like, you can't do the raw milk stuff. So we're all in on whole milk. And it's like, I don't even know, what are you even talking about? Like, what is this? It's the dumbest administration. I'm all for whole milk. I like home milk. I like home milk. It's great. Sure. But their messaging is too, like, they wanted to take this away. It was gone. We brought it back. We're like, what are you talking about? Nobody was taking away your home milk.

1:13:25Brett Meiselas:Who is trying to take your whole milk? Show me in the room. And they do these weird AI videos of RFK with milk mustaches dancing. And it's like weird. It's like, it's honestly the most like this, this combination of like these AI weird videos that they put out with the fascism, with the weird poll, like just, it's all so dystopian. It's all so bizarre. It's all so weird. It's like the worst slop that we see coming from the White House. And it's just atrocious. It's just atrocious. And I totally, totally, totally support the hypothesis that they had built an entire campaign around. We're going to announce that everyone should be drinking raw milk and that the government lawyers went, y 'all are going to kill a lot of people because this is not recommended for everybody and you should not do this.

1:14:14And I guarantee you, they were about to go live with that. And then we're told, please don't do it, please. And for some reason, they listened to those lawyers and they switched to whole milk. And now the entire campaign makes zero sense. It's just another ridiculous thing. Meanwhile, measles cases are skyrocketing across the country. We have like a measles, you know, outbreak in the country, like, you know, RFK Jr. yelling at Germany as to what they should do for their health policy. And Germany's like, shut up, shut up, dude. Like, what are you talking about? Our life expectancy is higher than yours.

1:14:44The health of our people is higher than yours. It's better than yours. Like, deal with your own crap. Like, stop trying to boss the world around. And you see how these America first, quote unquote, America first people now are just trying to use their predatory nature to inflict pain on countries around the world and bully them into doing what they want in every aspect these are dangerous people they are predators they gotta go the american people need to do something congress needs to do something step up people step up and i'm calling on other countries as i said in the beginning of this episode do something we won't be offended i promise you and this is why i i just can't stand when corporate

1:15:21Brett Meiselas:media bends over backwards to like talk like make it seem like what trump is doing is so genius right like they like work themselves like they work it all backwards like trump announces the crazy fucking thing that he's going to do. And they're going to be like, this is why, this is why it's so smart what Donald Trump is doing. I saw a couple of headlines over the weekend about the whole Greenland thing. And they're just trying to make like Donald Trump is some sort of genius because he wants to take over Greenland. And it's just infuriating for me. So I just want to use the, I know we're running out of time on the show today, but like, thank you guys for always listening and supporting us here at the Midas Touch Network and quite independent media, quite frankly, in general.

1:15:58Brett Meiselas:It's more important than ever that we amplify our voices to just get out the truth. Thank you for trusting us to get out the facts, the data, the information, the receipts. And Jordi, on that note, that's why I got to give a shout out to other people in independent media who are crushing it, like Don Lemon, who right now is being, you know, basically threatened with arrest by the Trump regime for covering these protests in this church in Minneapolis. There were protesters at a church, I think the pastor was thought to be in ICE or on ICE patrol, something working with ICE, and they were protesting inside this church.

1:16:30And now you have the Department of Justice, all these Twitter influencers, all these people now calling for Don Lemon's arrest. You have the Department of Justice, the head of the Civil Rights Division, Harmeet Dillon, going on TV, calling for Don Lemon's arrest. Essentially, you have Donald Trump on his social media calling for his arrest. And this obviously doesn't come in a vacuum. I mean, last week we saw the Trump regime raid the home of a Washington Post journalist who had a lot of sources inside the administration, just workers, people who were doing their duties. She would be on Reddit threads asking if anyone had information about what was going on in the government, especially during Doge.

1:17:09And while all this chaos was happening, well, they went to her house, they took her phones, they took her laptops, they took all of her communications. And this is what we're living under under Donald Trump. I mean, we've been threatened by these people, the Trump administration people, their followers is calling for our arrest for various things, for just covering these topics, for having on the ground reporting. This is the nature that we find ourselves in. And so is it a position I ever thought I'd be in? No. Is it a position that I think Don Lemon ever thought he'd be in? I think not. But there's a danger to reporting on authoritarian regimes, and that's shown throughout history.

1:17:44And so, yeah, I'm not asking for any sympathy here, but I will say support Don Don Lemon, go check out his channel. He's doing a great job. I'm proud of him for standing up to all this, for covering it the way that he's doing. And we're just dealing with right now just fundamentally evil people who are really trying to erase everything, in my opinion, that's great for the country.

1:18:05Ben Meiselas:Show that clip of Harmeet Dillon, who runs the civil rights division of the DOJ, and what she said about Don Lemon. I think we've got this. Let's play it.

1:18:16Brett Meiselas:Imagine you have a bank robbery that's being planned by a number of criminals. They're crossing state lines or using the wires. And then a podcaster says, well, let me embed myself in here and come along for the ride and live stream the crime. That would not be protected by the First Amendment. And so it is a crime to disrupt and harass and make people in a church or any house of worship feel unsafe in this country. And when you're part of that planning and show up and ride along and and laugh outside about and make commentary outside about how disrupting and putting people in fear is literally part of protest and part of the plan.

1:18:58Brett Meiselas:You know, we are not reaching conclusions now. Of course, everybody is entitled to the presumption of innocence. But if I were giving advice to a journalist about this, which I have done in the past, I would say do not participate in a crime actively.

1:19:12Ben Meiselas:So the statute they're threatening Lemon with is something called the FACE Act, Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act of 1994. And it says,

1:19:51Ben Meiselas:religious freedoms at a place of worship. So originally what this law was intended to cover was reproductive health care visits where there were people standing outside of abortion clinics and would physically push people away and threaten you. If you do this, you'll get killed or you'll get hurt, right? Physical threat or physical use of body to block a woman who needed to access Planned Parenthood or something like that. To make it a bipartisan bill, right-wing people wanted there to be churches that were covered. And so what they're arguing is that that's what applies here because Don Lemon was covering protesters inside this church.

1:20:32Ben Meiselas:I watched the video and for you to prosecute somebody, you have to show that Don Lemon used force, force, physical obstruction, or the threat of force. I mean, we all watched the video. He didn't threaten anybody. It seemed like there was somebody at the church who touched him, actually. And then Lemon was like, don't touch me, don't touch me. And then Lemon was asking, why are you, you know, he would ask the people, like, what are you doing? Like, there's a reason that this DOJ loses a lot of cases right now, and they've been losing case after case after. Like, you know, you can indict a ham sandwich, although this DOJ struggles to do that.

1:21:21Ben Meiselas:Like they're going to still have to impanel a grand jury in Minnesota that they've attacked that community and ask for a Minnesota grand jury to indict Lemon for covering the ICE invasion, which I think is going to be hard. And we've seen this DOJ fail to secure indictments before, but that even if they do, they have to prove that he engaged in these threats and intimidation, physical threats, physical abilities. He's did it, as I've seen the video. So, you know, it doesn't mean they won't try. But anyway, that's where we're at. We're there. I'll leave everybody with this. Let's show that clip of Governor Spanberger's inauguration.

1:22:10Ben Meiselas:I know I discussed what she did in the first 24 hours, but let's just watch this clip so we can have a YouTube cleanser and see what politics is supposed to be about. Let's play this clip.

1:22:21Brett Meiselas:This next chapter, we will work relentlessly to make life more affordable for our fellow Virginians. We will tackle the high cost of housing, whether you're renting, buying, or trying to stay in your home. We will cut red tape, increase housing supply, and help communities keep housing affordable.

1:22:48Brett Meiselas:We will work to lower energy costs by producing more energy and by ensuring that high-energy users pay their fair share.

1:23:01Brett Meiselas:And we will contend with an impending health care crisis by protecting health care access, cracking down on the middlemen who are driving up drug prices, and making sure Virginians aren't going into spiraling medical debt because of a single emergency. Powerful, powerful, powerful.

1:23:21Ben Meiselas:So we'll leave you with that. We covered a lot of topics here. A reminder, you want to support the growth of this independent media network. join subscribe tell others to subscribe but click join then gift memberships to others that's a great way you can help us so consider doing that um also uh go to our sub stack at midas plus.com subscribe there and thank you so much i know we covered a lot of topics on this episode a lot of topics but it was all very important stuff and um subscribe if you watch on youtube subscribe to our audio, just search on audio podcast, Midas Touch. Same thing. If you listen on audio, subscribe to our YouTube.

1:24:01Ben Meiselas:That helps us out a ton. Thanks, everybody. We appreciate you. We'll see you next time on the Midas Touch podcast. And keep checking back the Midas Touch YouTube channel and our podcast audio feed for updates throughout the day. Jordi, take it away.

1:24:14Brett Meiselas:Shout out to the Midas Mighty.

1:24:24Brett Meiselas:It's the fascists we sing our song. We will get it right whenever... Want to stay plugged in? Become a subscriber to our sub stack at MidasPlus.com. You'll get daily recaps from Ron Filipkowski, add free episodes of our podcast, and more exclusive content only available at MidasPlus.com.

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