MeidasTouch Full Podcast - 1/6/26

27:34You cannot continue to have the largest energy reserves in the world under the control of adversaries of the United States, under the control of illegitimate leaders and not benefiting the people of Venezuela and stolen by a handful of oligarchs inside of Venezuela. And it's just a completely brazen and shocking thing for Waltz to say. And it sums up exactly what we were talking about, their views. And they're setting the pretext right there, what Mike Waltz is doing, in order to justify any action anywhere, at least in the Western hemisphere for now. He's saying, if you have resources and you are an adversary of the United States, they should be our resources.

28:14If you have resources and you're a competitor of the United States, they should be our resources. And the United States, under this new doctrine that we've come up with under the Trump administration reserves all rights in order to just take it on over. I mean, that's what they're saying, you know, and they're not even really hiding it. Yeah. Let's show the other clip of Walz where he said, this is not a war. He goes, this was just a legal operation. This is just a law enforcement. This is basically how you arrest people. Like everybody knows that that's what we do here. Let's play that. Colleagues, the United States successfully carried out a surgical law enforcement operation facilitated by the U.S.

28:54military against two indicted fugitives of American justice, narco-terrorist Nicolas Maduro and Celia Flores. Colleagues, Nicolas Maduro is responsible for attacks on the people of the United States for destabilizing the Western Hemisphere and illegitimately repressing the people of Venezuela. As Secretary Rubio has said, there is no war against Venezuela or its people. We are not occupying a country. This was a law enforcement operation. As all law enforcement operations, about 80 people die. There are bombs dropped by the military. There are troops on the ground, as with all regular law enforcement acts, just like arresting a drug dealer on the side of the street.

29:47Well, that's at the same time that Donald Trump pardoned Juan Orlando Hernandez, the former leader of Honduras, who was right hand or buddies, whatever you want to call it, with El Chapo. And Trump pardoned a guy that during his federal trial, there was evidence. You could see the guy's transcript in his conversation with the cartels. The guy said, we need to get those drugs up the gringo's nose and we need to kill him. The guy was sentenced to 45 plus years. He's responsible for actually bringing into the United States massive quantities of drugs that killed people. And Trump pardoned the guy.

30:34And then Trump was asked, but you pardon that guy. And then Trump was like, yeah, but what do you expect me to do? My people told me it was a good move. So I'm going to do that. All this is about is what Walt said in the first part, which is dominating the Western hemisphere. And Trump has Bukele in El Salvador, now in Honduras, where Trump interfered with the elections there. He's got a puppet leader who will do what Donald Trump says there. Donald Trump believes he has a puppet in Delce Rodriguez, although we'll ultimately see how that dynamic plays out. you did have the Venezuelan ambassador to the United Nations speaking out forcefully against the United States.

31:18But a lot of that could kind of be virtue signaling for people at home based upon a preconceived imperialistic plan that may have been hatched before. But I don't want to fully rule out what could develop there. As Donald Trump makes clear, he's not hiding it. He goes, I want to use Delcy to give me the oil. So how that ultimately plays out, I think it can have a very destabilizing effect right there. And then Donald Trump threatens Colombia, Greenland, Cuba, Mexico with invasion, with war. I mean, that flight back from Florida back to DC, we'll play you some clips when we get back from our first break.

32:07But it's Donald Trump having this bloodlust. I think in Trump's mind, he goes, I just keep doing this. I'll make this next year about invasion and invading all of these places. Then maybe they won't talk about the Epstein files and people will just cover the invasion and the war. And I get to, I mean, as Trump was describing, and I won't show the press conference from over the weekend because we've covered it in detail. But that press conference Donald Trump had over the weekend after the invasion where Donald Trump, you know, it was like watching a TV show. It was like riveting to watch. And I think Donald Trump like gets off like watching, you know, this stuff as well.

32:47I mean, like he set up the room so it looked like, and it was like a worse version, like a C-list version of the Obama room getting bin Laden. And you see behind them on the screens, like you would think like in one of these like situation room type settings, you'd have like the best Intel on the planet. You know, you're, you're getting the best information possible. They quite literally had Twitter open. They had, and multiple browsers of Twitter. They had a bunch of different tabs open. And if you zoomed in on the high quality images, each of those tabs were different random Twitter accounts.

33:21And this is how they were following their operation. Yeah. But by the way, also, what we know from this Trump regime, they are very just, they need to know what the Twitter sentiment is at all times. Like, that's how they are dictating their policy, and that's how they know if things are successful in their minds or not, is what Twitter X is telling them. Well, we'll talk about that and more when we come back from our first break of the show. A reminder, the Midas Touch State of the Union address follows this live. So for those watching here, go to patreon.com slash Midas Touch, where we'll hold that State of the Union.

33:58We'll open it up to questions as well. So we look forward to doing that. A reminder, you may think you're subscribed to our YouTube channel, but double check and make sure you're actually subscribed. And subscribe to the Midas Touch podcast on audio as well. We're really making a big push for the audio podcast this year. So just double check. And even if you don't think you're going to listen to it on audio, still subscribe to the Midas Touch on audio because you really never know. And it also helps with the algorithm and you probably will end up listening to it on audio. All right, let's take our first quick break of the show.

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37:33shout 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 let them know we sent you and then just really quick i just you'll be seeing me a lot in this brock purdy jersey as i do the ad reads going forward this month i lost the bet brothers to to our producer salty over the break and and basically the outcome of the bet is he's a big 49ers fan big brock purdy guy that i have to wear this brock purdy jersey now when I do the ad reads this month. So tough one, tough L, and we're just going to move on from that. That's going to be on the top of all of our audience's mind as they saw the ad, so I'm glad you addressed that.

38:10Yeah, exactly. I'm going to propose in the future that when you do your bets, maybe the consequences can be off the air. They don't have to actually influence production, but let's see you and Salty are top editor. High stakes. Or they could be higher, even higher stake up punishments. I mean, that's, that's easy. That's an, that's an easy one. Let's face it. A jersey. All right. Ready? Let's talk about, I just want to talk about the, like, just over the past, you know, 12, 24 hours, while all of this is going on, I mean, you know, Donald Trump's posting like an absolute maniac, right? I mean, there's posts like this one from moments ago.

38:47Pregnant women don't use Tylenol unless absolutely necessary. Don't give Tylenol to your young children for virtually any reason. Break up the MMR shot into three totally. It's like, I could keep going on, but like, why are you giving false medical advice to women and pregnant women? It's creepy. It's odd. And this is the guy who like takes, what was the medication that he takes over and over again? Aspirin. Yeah, he's guzzling aspirin. He's guzzling aspirin because he says that it makes his blood thin and he doesn't want thick blood. A guy who, you know, last week talked about, uh, actually he doesn't know the difference between an MRI and a CT scan.

39:29And, uh, he says someone waxes hand and that's why his hand. You're being a little too, you got, you guys are being a little too harsh on the guy. If he doesn't want to listen to those woke doctors and he wants to keep guzzling that aspirin, just keep guzzling that aspirin. I don't, you don't have to listen to those woke doctors, Donald. It's fine. You know, he's, he's posting messages like this or reposting messages. I like that Trump is circling back to voter fraud from 2020, just in time for the 2026 elections. Trump forgets nothing, especially the hell the Democrats put our country through.

39:59So he's been doing like hundreds of posts in the past 24 to 48 hours, lying yet

40:05MeidasTouch:again about the 2020 election. An IT expert after gaining access to a forensic image of Dominion shows that Dominion rigged the systems, including the United States on November 2020, and most recently Brazil. Trump votes were switched to Joe Biden in seconds by simply changing the index number. Again, totally false, completely a lie. And he just posted over and over again, testimony from multiple 2020 election workers find that all these deceased people voted. All lies. Every one of these things lies. The lawyers who lied about them refused to put forward evidence before federal courts. Lots of those lawyers were sanctioned and disbarred or faced other serious consequences.

40:51MeidasTouch:But this is what this maniac is posting over and over again. You know, also, I know a lot of people focused on Katie Miller, Stephen Miller's wife's post, where she did an image of Greenland with the American flag, and she says, coming soon. The one to me that was more alarming was Trump's official rapid response account, the Trump war room account, where it was an old photo that was made, but they redid the photo with Donald Trump holding a bat or a club that says Don Rowe Doctrine on it. It's like a political cartoon. And it's Donald Trump stomping on the entire Western hemisphere. His feet are on South America and North America, kind of right around Canada and Alaska area.

41:36And he kind of just

41:37MeidasTouch:straddles over with the Western hemisphere. I mean, and this is what the Trump regime talks about over and over again. They're calling the Don Roe doctrine that they should seize and take the resources from the Western hemisphere. That if you're in the West, if you're not a vassal state of the United States, that Trump reserves the right to invade you. That's what's going on. So let me share with you just what Donald Trump said on Air Force One. A reporter asked Donald Trump, are you going to demand that Delce Rodriguez, now the interim president, allow opposition figures to return or free any political prisoners, right?

42:16MeidasTouch:It's one of the important issues. Watch what Donald Trump says in response here. Play this clip. Go ahead. Now, are you going to demand that Delce Rodriguez let opposition figures return or free any political prisoners? We haven't gotten to that yet. Right now, what we want to do is fix up the oil fix up the country bring the country back and then have elections no is it is it we better bring the country back otherwise you're just gonna have you're gonna have a mess that's so bad it was really bad it's gonna get a lot worse unless we go in and fix it so then he's asked well what do you need from delcy rodriguez and he goes access to their oil here let's play this clip.

43:11So did you speak with the oil companies before the operation? Because you didn't speak with Congress. Did you speak with the oil companies? Here, play this clip. Did you speak with them before the operation took place? Yes. Did you maybe tip them off? Before and after. And they want to go in. And they're going to do a great job for the people of Venezuela. And they're going to represent us well. The oil companies. Of course I told them. Not Congress, the oil companies. I just want you to think about how dangerous that is. Then Donald Trump refers to the sick neighbors of the United States. And he says Venezuela and Colombia and that he will he would like to do an operation in Colombia, he says.

44:02Here, play this clip. And where the oil is allowed to freely come out because that's good against the prices. That's good for our country. We have a very sick neighbor. It's not a neighbor, but it's close to a neighbor. And that's Venezuela is very sick. Colombia is very sick to run by a sick man who likes making cocaine and selling it to the United States. And he's not going to be doing it very long, let me tell you. What does that mean? He's not going to be doing it very long. He's not doing it very long. He has cocaine mills and cocaine factories. He's not going to be doing it very long. So there will be an operation by the U.S.

44:39in the world. It sounds good to me. You know why? Because they kill a lot of people. Actually, the leader of Colombia, Gustavo Petro, has done a lot to actually fight against the cartels in Colombia. Trump wants to bring back the dictators who actually supported the narco terrorists. That's who Trump wants to see come back into power in Colombia, the same way that's who Donald Trump wanted and now has in power in Honduras. That's what Donald Trump has with Bukele in El Salvador. That's what he's looking for. I mean, that's his end game here. Trump is asked about Greenland and Trump says, we need Greenland right now.

45:21MeidasTouch:Then he lies and says that it's covered with Russian and Chinese ships. It should also just be noted that the United States basically has full access to Greenland militarily based on prior treaties between the United States, Greenland, Denmark, Greenland's part of the Kingdom of Denmark and Europe to control the area as part of a military alliance. So there is a treaty that's been in place for a very long time that gives the U.S. a ton of authority with a military base there. But Trump wants to control it. He wants it on the map to say America. Here, play this clip. Let's talk about Greenland in 20 days.

46:05By the way, I have to I will say this about Greenland. We need Greenland from a national security situation. It's so strategic right now. Greenland is covered with Russian and Chinese ships all over the place. We need Greenland from the standpoint of national security. And Denmark is not going to be able to do it. I can tell you. You know what Denmark did recently to boost up security in Greenland, they added one more dog sled. It's true. They thought that was a great move. That's not true. They did beef up security in the area. He mocks Denmark. Let me read for you a statement from the Danish prime minister, Mehta Fredriksen.

46:56I believe one should take the American president seriously when he says that he wants Greenland, but I want to make it clear that if the U.S. chooses to attack another NATO country militarily, then everything stops, including NATO. And that's the security that has been established since the end of the Second World War. She's saying, you do that. There's no more NATO. NATO is over right there. The prime minister, premier of Greenland, put out the following statement. We have been a close and loyal friend of the United States for generations. We've stood shoulder to shoulder in difficult times. We have taken responsibility for security in the North Atlantic and not least for North America.

47:35That is what true friends do. Precisely for that reason, the current and repeated rhetoric coming from the United States is entirely unacceptable. When the president of the United States speaks of needing Greenland and links us to Venezuela in military operation, it is not only wrong, it is disrespectful. Our country is not an object in great power rhetoric. We are a people, a country, a democracy that must be respected, especially by close and loyal friends. We are part of NATO and we are fully aware of our country's strategic location. We also understand that our security depends on good friends and strong alliances.

48:10In that context, a respectful and loyal relationship with the United States is very important. That has been the case for decades. But alliances are built on trust, and trust requires respect. Threats, pressure, and talks of annexation have no place between friends. That is not how one speaks to people who have repeatedly demonstrated responsibility, stability, and loyalty. Enough is enough. No more pressure, no more insinuations, no more fantasies of annexation. We are open to dialogue. We are open to conversations, but they take place, they must take place through the proper channels and in full respect of international law.

48:46And the proper channels are not random and disrespectful posts on social media. Greenland is our home and our territory, and it will remain so. Also, most European leaders put out statements in support as well of Greenland and Denmark and spoke out against Donald Trump's very dangerous rhetoric. I'll just show you this other clip right here. This is Lindsey Graham saying, Cuba, you're next. Watch out, Cuba. We're coming for you. Let's play this clip. You just wait for Cuba. Cuba is a communist dictatorship that's killed priesthood nuns. They've prayed on their own people. Their days are numbered.

49:27We're going to wake up one day, I hope in 26, in our backyard, we're going to have allies in these countries doing business with America, not narco-terrorist dictators killing Americans. So I think Brett, let me call you back in too, but it's also linking Greenland with Cuba and Venezuela and like Canada and Mexico, all in the same bucket. The narco-terrorist label is like a denazification label. There are legitimate criticisms and strong ones that you could level at a Maduro, you could level at a Cuba. And there are legitimate ways to go about applying pressure, developing international coalitions, working through international channels like the United Nations.

50:20If ultimately you think that there should be a war, you get congressional authorization so that the will of the people can be heard. And when people oppose such imperialistic adventurism, we can level our opposition through our elected leaders. But what this is all about and what Lindsey Graham and, you know, people see the video I did this morning. Lindsey Graham is like, you know, whatever he's hiding about himself personally and whatever his own inability to deal with his own feelings about himself, that he has to think that he's this, oh, this tough guy.

50:57MeidasTouch:I'm a real alpha. You know, in the face and the foaming at the mouth. What a weird human being he is. There's also – can I show you the – do the Howard Lutnick clip as well. It was like Trump and Lutnick and Lutnick is like, we're going to do deals. This is about business deals. We're putting companies to do this deal and that deal and we're going to do this deal. I'm like watching this and Lutnick is this weird character as well. So let's play that clip if we got that one, Brent. Are there any other companies that you've talked to about dealing with Venezuela? Maybe Mr. Lutnick can talk about that.

51:32Are there any other corporations, entities outside of Venezuela? many outside of the oil business. Well, the oil business, yes, but outside, yes. Howard, you want to say that? You have steel, you have minerals, right? All the critical minerals. They have a great mining history that's gone rusty. So steel, aluminum, minerals, I mean, this is all, it's rich. It was once upon a time one of the great economies and cultures of the world, and it was destroyed, and now President Trump is going to fix it and bring it back. before the Venezuela. We're going to take it. We're going to take the steel and their minerals, and we're going to take it all.

52:11Let me just say this, Brett. I'll kick it to you in one second. I don't mean to make light of this, but when you see Lutnick and Graham and Trump there, they look like children that are at some sort of sleepover who are trying to pitch to their parents why they should stay up later. The way Lutnick is creepily behind the door, sneaking out with his nose poking through, The whole situation is just so strange. They are so deeply unserious doing very serious things where it's just infuriating. Sorry, Brett, go ahead. No, I've never seen somebody get as horny for war as Lindsey Graham does. I mean, like Ben said, it takes over him.

52:48It's a bizarre thing to watch. If you are listening to this, I do advise, watch it on our YouTube channel because it is freaking weird when you see the passion that fills his face when he talks about bombing and killing people and taking over countries. It is quite disturbing. And yeah, I'll say this, the pretext that they've said, as we've said throughout this episode and other times, as Ben was saying before, the narco-terrorism thing, the drugs, the this, the that, it's obviously bullshit. We all know that's fake. We all know it's a complete lie. We know it because there's so many examples of hypocrisy, like Ben said, with Juan Orlando Hernandez, with the guy who Trump freed the guy who did the Silk Road.

53:26Trump freed a lot of other drug dealers. This ain't about the drugs. And when you read the indictment, you also see, like I said, like Trump said, fentanyl, fentanyl, Venezuela, fentanyl, fentanyl. Not even mentioned once in the indictment, as fentanyl mentioned. Not a single time in the 25-page indictment against Maduro and the others. But the thing that they are telling the truth about, and the thing that we need to listen to, are the things that Howard Lutnick said there, and the things that Donald Trump has been saying. And that's that this is about one thing, and it's about the resources.

53:54And that's what connects all of those countries, as Ben was saying. It's not that Greenland is a narco-terrorist state and Canada is a narco-terrorist state. Although you remember, what was Donald Trump saying about Canada? He was also saying there's a fentanyl problem. It's all coming in from the country. And I think the statistic was like that there are like 40 pounds of fentanyl that managed to come through the border into the United States from Canada, like an insignificant, you know, just like none, basically virtually zero. But Donald Trump was trying to accuse Canada of being this major drug traffickers sending fentanyl to the United States.

54:27Why? Because that's the fake reasoning. That's the pretext. That's the BS. The real thing, though, is that they want to extract the resources, and they want to make these deals with their oligarch friends to make them richer, to make themselves richer. There's a lot of sketchy things also going on in the background with people with insider information over these things, making deals in the background. And so I think you have to monitor kind of the whole situation, not to mention, what does this tell China? What does this tell Russia? China, who's looking at us, who's eyeing Taiwan, and seeing that we're coming up with all these BS pretexts for doing these actions in the Western hemisphere.

55:06Russia, looking at Ukraine, they've already made their BS pretext for taking over Ukraine. What moral authority does it give the United States to say, you can't do that? We have none. We have none. Donald Trump has blown up all the rules. And I'm not saying we had a perfect record before this. far from it. We've engaged in regime chains as I went through the list, both parties numerous times, but this is just something on another level that we have not seen. This is like, kind of like very like mafia, like very like mob, like very like extorting you like Trump's philosophy seems to be where the United States of America, we have power.

55:44And while other presidents recently have viewed that power as a responsibility to create a stable world order, Donald Trump views that power as something that you use to dominate over other countries and other people. And so you country need to bend to my whim and do exactly what I say, or we will take you over. And same with this country and same with that country. And it doesn't matter if the reason is something actually very important to national security, or if it's something incredibly petty, like Maduro danced on TV and Donald Trump didn't like it. You know, Gustavo Petro, you know, he spoke out about Donald Trump's strike on boats and called Trump out, basically said that Trump was committing murder, said that he had heard from his own people that there were people on those boats, fishermen on those boats who were killed by Donald Trump.

56:32I'm sure Donald Trump did not like that. I'm sure that's factoring in to Trump's opinions about Colombia and what he wants to do with Colombia while past presidents have had great relationships with Petro and other Colombian leaders. And so this is where we find ourselves right now. And I think we just need to be completely clear as to what's happening, what Donald Trump is doing right now and what he plans to do from here. Well said. I just want to get into this. You bring up such a good point, too. It's very mafia-esque. It's very wise guy-esque. I mean, you even look at them in their suits and their long ties.

57:04I try not to make this comparison much because I think there's been like a romanticization about mafia and mob life in this country and like it might make them look cool but that's what it is he he's going around and he's like hey if I if we can't agree to this or if you rub me the wrong if you rub the Don the wrong way I'm gonna go break your kneecaps I'm gonna steal your oil and that's that I'm gonna blow up your boats I'm blow up your fish like that's what I'm gonna do so what what are you gonna do about it huh and it's just it's such a pathetic mentality really it's it's it's a weak weak mentality and then i just want to touch on the oil companies here too because if we heard trump correctly there it seemed like he consulted with the heads of the oil companies before talking to congress that's that's what i heard so let me just oversimplify this mandaro bad guy yet it doesn't give the united states and the trump regime carte blanche to just drop bombs on venezuela and kidnap him and forcibly remove him and his wife to the u.s without first going through the proper channels and procedures.

57:59You can't just unilaterally skip over branches of government in these ways. And you know who does things like that? Dictators. Did Trump speak to Congress? No. But he spoke to the heads of the oil companies? This tells you everything you need to know. It's so banana land, this country that we're living in right now. And here's the thing too. Did he really speak to the oil companies? Or is he so kind of delusional and narcissistic in his mind that he, in his own mind, is doing it for the, he knows he's going to shake down the oil companies at some point in time. So yes, maybe he talked to a person in the oil industry or Kushner spoke to some person, but did he even

58:36MeidasTouch:have the conversation or is that ultimately what his goal and objective is? Because I think if you spoke to someone actually thoughtful in the oil industry right now, I think that they would tell you is that it probably costs on the low end 25 to 50 billion in CapEx capital expenditures. If you were going to start to revitalize the Venezuelan oil industry and the type of investments that need to be made there, if you were a oil company and you had shareholders, you You also want to determine if there's going to be a stable democratic future, what would be stopping somebody like Delcy or a future Maduro or a future authoritarian from renationalizing it if you were to make billions of dollars of investments right there.

59:33MeidasTouch:And so just a question is, you need fundamental stability and plans. The same reason why you actually don't see a lot of or why you've seen a manufacturing decline in the U.S., construction declining in the U.S., a lot of the uncertainty in the business community caused by Donald Trump waking up and his arbitrary capricious and maliciousness prevents businesses from doing the right type of planning. So the reality is, is what oil company, though? Yes, there may be this allure for a greedy oil company of additional oil to be used, then has to be refined, by the way. But ultimately, who's going to make those investments without understanding what an actual plan is?

1:00:24MeidasTouch:So I just want to flag that aspect as well. Also, it's like, do you think the oil companies really want to flood the market with so much more oil where it's going to then decrease the prices significantly and hurt their bottom line? Like that's going to be a factor as well. And like you were saying, this is the Venezuelan oil is a very particular kind of oil, too, which is very difficult to refine. And it's it takes a lot more processing. And so you have all of these things that are actually working against it. Like we've even seen, you know, remember as the more oil leases, as there was more drilling kind of under the Biden administration and, you know, throughout the past few years, a lot of these oil companies didn't want to drill on the lands that they already had permitted.

1:01:07Like it wasn't an issue of why isn't Biden doing more permits? Like, you know, the oil drilling was at its all time high under Biden, but the oil companies did not want to expand their oil drilling because they knew that prices would have got too low and it would end up screwing them at the end of the day. So I'm not even sure this makes sense from that sort of business stance, but I do think there are going to be a lot of people like Trump and in Trump's orbit who are going to make a lot of money off this by extracting resources in various ways.

1:01:34MeidasTouch:I think they want to, and they're going to create the conditions for a speculative stock market for them to make a lot of paper wealth and then to cash out on the expense of investors and the greater expense of the American people because that's what we've seen them actually do. But I think the question becomes, is there a, you know, what is the plan? In these types of things, you expect there to be a plan articulated. And for Trump, it's just seizing their oil, running it, we're going to run it, and then appointing a puppet right now. And what happens in the future, we're going to be reporting on it every step of the way here.

1:02:13MeidasTouch:All right, let's take our last quick break of the show. A quick reminder, as soon as the show ends, head over to patreon.com slash Midas Touch, where we will be holding our Midas Touch State of the Union, and we will be opening it up to questions for us. So I'm excited to do that. I'm excited to see all of you there. And make sure you subscribe to this YouTube channel. You may think you're subscribed, but you may not actually be subscribed. When we come back, let's talk about the Trump regime covering up the Epstein files, which a lot of what's happening here is part of that. Let's talk about Governor Walz in Minnesota, him announcing he's not running for another term.

1:02:50MeidasTouch:Let's talk about the censure by the Department of Defense unlawfully calling themselves the Department of War against Senator Kelly. We'll talk about that and more. Let's take our last quick break of the show.

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1:06:28Let'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, let them know we sent you. Those are two of my favorite, Mando and Wild Grain. Definitely, definitely check them out. Benji, where to next? I think something I want to flag as well is the top Trump DOJ official reposted the following. So Ed Martin, who's Donald Trump's pardon attorney, who's also on like Trump's weaponization committee as well, reposted the following. It's going to be wild when Maduro tries to plead to lesser charges by proffering evidence that the 2020 election was stolen, as Ann Bauer writes.

1:07:09Hours before Maduro's first court appearance on federal criminal charges, a senior Justice Department official amplified a post speculating that the Venezuelan dictator would try to plead to lesser charges by proffering evidence that the 2020 election was stolen. Remember, a lot of Donald Trump's lies about the 2020 election was that Hugo Chavez of Venezuela

1:07:32MeidasTouch:created a technology that beamed something into outer space to change the boat tabulations, and that this is being operated by Venezuela, right? And so I just want to put this on your radar. I mean, Maduro pled not guilty and said he's a political prisoner and that he's the leader of country. That's basically what he said. That was all the statements that he made. But would it shock you if one of Donald Trump's other plans is to work something out with Putin to eventually send Maduro to Putin or to Turkey or somewhere else as was offered before in exchange for Maduro saying the 2020 election was stolen?

1:08:06MeidasTouch:I flag that not to be conspiratorial myself, but when you have Ed Martin, the top DOJ official reposting those things. And in theory, the DOJ is prosecuting, um, is prosecuting Maduro, the charges against Maduro for like having machine guns, like the, you know, uh, conspiracy to commit narco drug trafficking. It's going to be an interesting case. And they actually try to put this case on again, someone who is the leader of a nation and what that trial actually looks like. But anyway, I wanted to flag that piece of it right there for you, just as a thought we could come back to that part in a few weeks or months when inevitably our predictions tend to be right on these types of things, Brett.

1:08:54I mean, Trump is transactional and he's crazy and he's conspiratorial and he wants to be right. I mean, one of his big phrases that he always says, even though he's wrong about just about everything, is Trump is always right about everything. And so we know that this 2020 election that he keeps going back to, we showed the posts from earlier today. We know that this is on his mind. It's not a coincidence that it's on his mind as he kidnaps, abducts the leader of Venezuela. It's all tied together. And if Donald Trump can extract that from him, I think he's a transactional guy who could possibly let him off the hook.

1:09:25I don't think it's even conspiratorial to think that. I think that's how Donald Trump thinks. And nothing is beyond the realm of possibility. We're dealing with a psychotic man. We're dealing with a sociopath. We're dealing with somebody who does not have any boundaries. And so anything could happen here. And honestly, just from a gut feeling, the whole scene with Maduro has just been so bizarre. The entire travel to the United States has been weird. Him with the DEA agents has been weird. He's got the thumbs up next to the agents. And I feel like every picture with the DEA agents or with the federal agents, they're all taking pictures with him like he's a celebrity.

1:10:00It's like you'd think the guy was like Timothee Chalamet or something, like watching him walk around these facilities. You see even the way he's behaving. There was that clip of him walking through the DEA facility in handcuffs. They sort of did like a little perp walk. And he was just like, hello, happy new year. Happy new year, everybody. Actually, I have that clip. I'll play it quickly in case people haven't seen this one.

1:10:31Happy New Year. Good night. Happy New Year. Thumbs up. A million pictures with D.H. Is this Nicolas Maduro or is this Justin Bieber? Like, it's truly just bizarre and it defies all logic. And I think it's very possible that there's a lot more happening behind the scenes that we don't know, that stuff that, you know, Ben was hinting at just before, that could be a reason for all the strange behavior, because something is not quite clicking into focus for me, at least. I don't want to make light of that clip that you just showed, but nothing else comes to my mind when you look at Maduro walking down saying what's up to the camera folks and people flashing.

1:11:06He looks like an athlete doing a walk into the game. He's got dope outfits on. He's got Nike sweatsuits. Something's going on. I agree. I really do think your gut is 100 % right, Brad. I'm a big believer in trust in Brett's gut on these things. And it's just the whole thing has just been bizarre. The photos that have come out. It's something. It's stankier than Trump right now. Thanks. Yeah. A few other things to point out too, you know, like Charlie Angus has been saying on the Midas Touch Network for a long time. He starts, he's started and he's the leader right now of Midas Canada. He leads the Midas Canada resistance tour.

1:11:41By the way, he's going to be in Edmonton pretty soon. So go check out the Charlie Angus tour dates if you happen to be in the area. But you know, he's been saying like, we need to prepare for a potential invasion by the United States of Canada. It's like, the U.S. is serious about this. And now the Globe and Mail editorial board, which is kind of like the New York Times there in Canada, if you will, their editorial board says Venezuela's fate is a warning for Canada. And Angus writes, when the Globe and Mail editorial board is warning that the Venezuela invasion represents a threat to Canada, you know how serious the menace is from the gangster fascist regime.

1:12:24I'll share this with you as well. You have, I just want to mention this, the Japanese Prime Minister Takeishi says that challenges to the international order are now gaining momentum in the Indo-Pacific, where we're seeing further military buildups by China and North Korea, as well as the strengthening cooperation between China and Russia and Russia and North Korea. You had a missile test recently by North Korea, which under the Obama administration, when Kim Jong-un would test these missiles, people would go, oh, he's so weak, Obama. How are you letting him test these missiles? Like that's just happening regularly right now under the Trump regime.

1:13:04And, you know, it barely gets a passing mention, though. So I want to bring it here. Let's round out this topic right here as I'll show you what the ambassador from China to the United Nations had to say during the United Nations meeting about strongly condemning the unilateral acts by the United States. Then there's another clip where he says we urge the U.S. to abide by international law. First, this is China is deeply shocked. Here, let's play the first clip. On January 3rd, the United States blatantly launched large-scale military strikes against Venezuela, forcibly seized Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, and took them out of the country.

1:13:48It claimed that it will run Venezuela and even didn't rule out launching a second round of military operations on an even larger scale. China is deeply shocked by and strongly condemns the unilateral, illegal and bullying acts of the U.S. For some time now, the international community has repeatedly expressed grave concern over the U.S. sanctions, blockade, and threats of force against Venezuela. The council convened two emergency meetings during which Secretary General Guterres, many council members and countries in the region and beyond unanimously called for abiding by the U.N. Charter and the international law.

1:14:28And now I'll show you this one where that same deputy ambassador urges the United States to abide by international law and cease infringing upon the sovereignty of other countries. Here, play this clip. In Latin America and the Caribbean, and indeed internationally, China firmly opposes this, and the international community has also expressed widespread grave concern and strong condemnation. We urge the U.S. to heed the overwhelming voice of the international community, abide by international law and the purposes and principles of the UN Charter, cease infringing upon the sovereignty and security of other countries, stop toppling the government of Venezuela, and return to the path of political solutions through dialogue and negotiations.

1:15:16We call on the U.S. to ensure the personal safety of President Maduro and his wife and to release them at once. We support the Council in fulfilling its primary responsibility to maintain international peace and security. And we support all efforts by the UN Secretary General, regional countries and organizations that contribute to promoting dialogue and de-escalating the situation. Okay, I mean, when I was watching that, I'm like, why does China sound like the United States would normally sound at something like that? The United States ambassador is all alone. and all of the countries are like condemning the United States action.

1:15:54The US isn't even talking about UN charter or sovereignty. We dominate the Western hemisphere. It's honestly one of the most shameful things I've ever watched. And I think this will be studied a lot in the future, what took place at that United Nations Security Council meeting. A few other things I just want to mention quickly. Governor Tim Walz of Minnesota announced that he will not be seeking re-election. He says that as he considered running again, he said that he decided not to run again. He said that I won't mince words. Donald Trump and his allies in Washington and St. Paul want to make our state a colder, meaner place.

1:16:36They want to poison our people against each other by attacking our neighbors. And ultimately, they want to take away much of what makes Minnesota the best place in America to raise a family. They've already begun that by taking our tax dollars that were meant to help families afford child care. And he goes, look, we're deeply concerned about fraud. A lot of these cases were prosecuted under former President Biden. Governor Walz requested more authority to deal with fraud, which was rejected by the state legislature there. Bad guys need to go to prison. The Trump regime is misrepresenting the nature and extent of the fraud that takes place.

1:17:14But let's be clear, fraud is fraud is fraud and it's bad. But he said that I don't want to be a distraction right now to the state. And so he's going to step aside, not run for reelection. Many people believe that Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar is going to run. We'll keep you posted there. I think you can debate whether, you know, Governor Walz being bullied by MAGA and attacked relentlessly every day through their billion dollar propaganda machine and him saying he's not running. if that's kind of bowing down to the pressure of the MAGA propaganda machine, or if at some point you appreciate that it's like, look, the bottom line is that that propaganda machine is so strong and it's created all this taint and distraction and noise that you don't run and then you put somebody else in and then you don't have to deal.

1:18:09Think about what else Paul's was dealing with. You had Trump posting just like the most horrific conspiracy theories from the darkest areas of the Internet, accusing Tim Walls of being responsible for the murder of Melissa Hortman and her family and the other Minnesota lawmakers. Like there is no low that is too low for this MAGA movement and for Donald Trump. And so, you know, that Walls and his family have just been facing so much harassment on a day to day basis. They have people driving past his house every day calling him the R-word because Trump called him that. They are not really safe, like their families being harassed.

1:18:46So I can only imagine how he feels being the main target of this horrific Trump machine. I think it's very sad that he felt like he had to step down to probably protect himself and his family. But if Klobuchar goes in, that would be a great thing for Democrats there. It should be an incredibly strong candidate. But I just find the whole situation sad and just a representative of just the moral rot that we've seen come from this country and from MAGA. Right. You have Senator Kelly, Arizona Senator, decorated pilot, astronaut, someone who's been in combat. He was censured by the Department of Defense, which calls itself the Department of War.

1:19:39Pete Hegseth didn't want to court martial him where he'd have to go and get due process. So instead, Pete Hegseth used something else, which was a censure and a demotion to do a reduction in the retired pay of Kelly. Kelly can still challenge that. Kelly put out a state. And then in the letter about the censure, you have Hegseth threatening Kelly, if you continue to engage in conduct prejudicial to good order and discipline, you may subject yourself to criminal prosecution or further administrative action. I mean, you have someone like Exif, who's incompetent, not qualified, been pathetic in every job that he's held going against a decorated veteran like this.

1:20:24You know, it's despicable. And Senator Mark Kelly responded, look, over 25 years in the U.S. Navy, 39 combat missions and four missions to space. I risked my life for this country. And he basically says, like, I've earned my rank. I've earned my retirement. If you think that I'm going to be afraid of you, you've got something else coming. So something to follow. I want to flag it here. And finally, I guess Trump thinks this isn't getting attention, and this is why he wants to continue to try to distract. But as Senator Chris Van Hollen talked about today, he said in a statement that in the bipartisan funding agreement, as reported by Nathaniel Reed, Republicans removed his amendment, which was passed in the committee unanimously, to require the Department of Justice to retain, preserve, and compile any records or evidence related to Jeffrey Epstein.

1:21:19Van Hollen said the following about the Republicans scrapping the Epstein Amendment. Given the GOP's previous support of this amendment on the floor and in the committee, their backtracking is particularly egregious. It's clear they're still opposed to providing the victims and the American people the answers they deserve. And if you're confused and saying, well, how is this different than the Epstein Transparency Act?

1:21:43MeidasTouch:It basically reconfirms what's in the Epstein Transparency Act, but orders a preservation of evidence request as well, not just a production request. And the Republicans refuse to agree to the most basic thing, which is just a restatement of what your obligations are. Don't delete and destroy the evidence about Epstein. And the Republicans in the Senate said, nope, we don't support that. And this also comes at the same day where there was a deadline that really wasn't on lots of people's radar, but the Epstein Transparency Act did two things. On December 19th, all the records had to be produced, and the DOJ was allowed to do redactions just of the victims' names and the victims' faces.

1:22:27MeidasTouch:That's it. And the DOJ violated the law. They turned over, what, 4 % to 5 % of the records. Now they claim there's 5 million or 10 million missing records. After the Midas Touch, we found that there was at least an additional 1.2 million. They fessed up that there was millions of records that were missing. Got it. But there was also another obligation. Basically, I forget if it was 10 or 15 days after that, whatever the date was for yesterday, the DOJ had to prepare a report that explained its review of the files, what it did, what it searched, and the redaction choices it made and why it redacted the things that it did.

1:23:11MeidasTouch:It had to prepare the report to Congress. DOJ just said, no, we're not doing it. Just ignored it. Just ignored the deadline as though it didn't exist, which again is another criminal violation. So you have Pam Bondi clearly engaged in high crimes, not just misdemeanors, felony, I mean, felon, covering up a child sex trafficking ring in violation of the Epstein Transparency Act. To me, the whole command structure and anybody who's been involved in the DOJ in doing this, I believe could be criminally prosecuted in a future Rico case, a racketeering case for being involved in covering up a child sex trafficking ring.

1:23:50MeidasTouch:I mean, I get it. They're saying, okay, no, we're not doing it. There's a deadline. Who cares about the deadline? And you know what they're going to say? Ah, we were at war though. You expect us to give you the redactions. We were involved in a special legal operation in Venezuela. That's what they're calling the war and the unlawful invasion in Venezuela. This is what they're doing. They're thugs, they're criminals, but it's consistent with Donald Trump's behavior. Like if you were wondering, what would it be like if you put a sexual abuser, a sexual predator, if you put someone who was a bankruptor, if you put someone who destroyed a lot of his businesses, if you put someone who's a felon, if you put somebody who is a fraud, if you put someone whose entire life has been involved in shady and abhorrent and disgusting behavior in the position, how do they behave like this.

1:24:43MeidasTouch:Trump's entire life has been one of the most vile and shameful, cancerous things to the world, even before he was in office. He's a predator. He's a bad guy. He's an evil person. And he attracts other evil people who run an evil regime, who are involved in making the world worse. They get off on your pain. They don't want to see people happy. They don't want to see people in situations where people work together and build things together. So that's what you're dealing with right now. But we're going to keep building the Midas Touch Network. We're going to talk about in the State of the Union address coming up right now on patreon.com slash Midas Touch, what we're doing to build.

1:25:30MeidasTouch:Building out a DC bureau, building out DC staff and DC employees so that we can bring you exclusives. You've already seen them today. If you're on the Midas Touch social media account, we're breaking news. We've got reporters there getting exclusive statements from reporters that, but for our reporters asking, you wouldn't have heard this anywhere else and getting people on the record. I think it's gonna be a game changer what we're building over there. So we'll talk about that and more. Reminder, patreon.com slash Midas Touch for the State of the Union of Midas Touch address. That's all I got, Brett and Jordy.

1:26:07MeidasTouch:We've covered a lot. Covered a lot. I'm back from Disney. I'm ready to work. Ready to work. And so thank you, everybody. We appreciate you. We'll see you next time on the Midas Touch podcast. Have a great one, everybody. Shout out to the Midas Mighty. The Midas Mighty standing strong

1:26:30Against the fascists we sing our song We will get it right whenever