MeidasTouch RESPONDS to Breaking New…Ben & Brett EVACUATED

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Speaker 5 So I was forced to be evacuated as a result of the LA fires. I'm not sure the status of my home right now, but I'm reporting from you from a safe location.
My family is safe.

Speaker 5 My dogs are safe. That's really all that matters.
And what matters to me is that as many people are safe as possible, that everybody is safe.

Speaker 5 My heart goes out to everybody impacted by the devastation that's occurred.

Speaker 5 Moments ago as well, we learned that a fire had broken out by Brett's home. Brett's home had not been the subject of any prior fires, but a fire broke out right near where his direct exit is.

Speaker 5 And so he had to flee and he had to escape. And so our hearts are with Brett right now during this chaotic moment as well.

Speaker 5 And we'll do our best to keep you updated on Brett's status, but he had to go immediately when he learned about the most recent fire.

Speaker 5 I want to talk about Donald Trump's despicable, dastardly, and divisive conduct as it relates to these fires.

Speaker 5 Constant lies about the fires, constant lies about Governor Newsom and Mayor Bass, and how it's the responsibility or the fault of DEI or ESG

Speaker 5 or wokeness, and how that has been amplified on right-wing media, on X, formerly Twitter. And I want to just talk about how

Speaker 5 never before in really in American history would natural disasters like this be used as wedge issues to divide we the people.

Speaker 5 And we see that over and over again with MAGA, not just as it relates to these fires and the devastation, but if there's a hurricane, if there's a terrorist attack, they'll blame Democrats, they'll blame migrants right away.

Speaker 5 I just want to talk about that because I'm not okay with that.

Speaker 5 And I could.

Speaker 5 I can imagine the fear that my brother's going through, the fear of other people as they were escaped.

Speaker 5 I know the fear that me and my family went through as we got an alert on our phones, you know, escape now.

Speaker 5 You know, your lives are on the line, whatever the thing said, get out of your house right now. And we and we got out, you know, just in time.

Speaker 5 And then to immediately, like immediately see Donald Trump and MAGA say, this is all Newsom's fault. This is all Democrats' fault.
Democrats this, Democrats that. And then they do these lies about.

Speaker 5 Oh, it's because Karen Bass cut this from the budget. I mean, that's false.
She didn't. That's not what happened.
Actually, $50 $50 million was added for firefighting.

Speaker 5 But we'll talk about all of that and more here. I'll also talk about some other topics.

Speaker 5 Elon Musk, for example, said that Doge, that made-up agency or cabinet position that doesn't really exist, that claims it was going to cut $2 trillion

Speaker 5 from the budget. Well, Elon Musk says it probably won't even be able to do half of that amount, so yet another lie.

Speaker 5 And when we talk about these lies, and also I've been talking about with you this concept of WMD, weapon of mass destraction.

Speaker 5 I think it's important that we take Donald Trump's threats and behavior seriously when he threatens Canada, Greenland, Denmark, Panama, Mexico, you name it.

Speaker 5 We need to take it very seriously because

Speaker 5 he does have the power and means with the United States military to attack and threaten.

Speaker 5 But I also think it's important that we not lose focus ever on the fact that Donald Trump wants us to just pay attention to these shiny objects every day and his personal immorality and his personal putrid behavior while he fails to deliver on promise after promise.

Speaker 5 Always ask yourself, okay, cool, but how does this lower our prices? Okay, cool.

Speaker 5 How does this help me get affordable housing? Okay, cool. How does this improve my health or get me access to health care?

Speaker 5 Okay, cool.

Speaker 5 How does this

Speaker 5 help my family

Speaker 5 empower themselves, better themselves? How does this help me get jobs? What about all of those promises? And so

Speaker 5 how does this relate to you promised in 24 hours you were going to end russia's war on ukraine but now instead you're talking about invading canada or greenland weren't you supposed to solve that one first like you said so i don't want us to ever lose sight about that i want to also talk about some updates in the various uh Trump court cases.

Speaker 5 We'll talk about Donald Trump's emergency appeal to the United States Supreme Court after Donald Trump lost at the trial court, intermediate division, the appellate division, and New York's top court, which happens to confusingly be called their court of appeals.

Speaker 5 You would think New York's top court is called their Supreme Court. Actually, their trial court's called the Supreme Court.
The highest court's the court of appeals. They just want to.

Speaker 5 I think throw us off there a little bit. But Trump lost at all levels.
So, of course, he goes to his buddies at the Supreme Court. And then Donald Trump called

Speaker 5 Justice Alito, one of the right-wing extremist judges who flew an American flag upside down,

Speaker 5 you know,

Speaker 5 showing what, fealty to the insurrection or showing sympathy towards the insurrection.

Speaker 5 So he calls Alito under the pretext of they're talking about one of Alito's law clerks who's looking for a job in the Trump administration, right?

Speaker 5 As Donald Trump's filing his brief to the Supreme Court before Justice Alito. Can we talk about a conflict of interest there? Like, how is that being normalized?

Speaker 5 We'll talk about the international solidarity that's growing against Donald Trump, how the EU is now talking about its

Speaker 5 defense pact to protect its own members, that if America is actually threatening to invade, that Europe Europe is ready to use its military to defend against the United States.

Speaker 5 So now not only is Donald Trump not solving Russia's unlawful invasion like he claimed he would do 24 hours after his election, but now we have our allies talking about using their military to stop us from

Speaker 5 invading them. I mean, seriously,

Speaker 5 this is where we're at. Also worth noting, we talked about about Trump's disastrous press conference earlier in the week.

Speaker 5 I don't want to give him more attention or time there, but we also learned that Fox, and I put this in quotes, Fox News gave Donald Trump all of their questions in advance.

Speaker 5 So everything that Donald Trump accuses,

Speaker 5 what President Biden or Kamala Harris or Democrats, which are doing, which they don't. Trump's like just getting the questions and corporate media is like, oakalye dokale, we're cool with that.

Speaker 5 Anyway, that's what we're going to talk about today.

Speaker 5 Again, my heart goes out to everybody

Speaker 5 and suffering from these devastating fires, everybody who suffers from natural disasters, whatever you're going through.

Speaker 5 My heart is with you. I wish there were ways I could help more than

Speaker 5 just having a show and having this network, but I think it is an important function that we get our truthful and accurate news. And,

Speaker 5 you know, as I'm doing this intro,

Speaker 5 my mind's wandering a little bit more than normal because I'm literally thinking about moments ago learning that Brett

Speaker 5 has to escape for his life. So I'm thinking about Brett right now as well.
So you'll have to pardon me perhaps during the show as... as my mind wanders in that direction.

Speaker 5 But thank you, everybody, for all of the wishes that you've sent my way.

Speaker 5 I have so many emotions right now, you know, and,

Speaker 5 you know, I'm thinking about Brett. I'm thinking about everybody who lost their homes,

Speaker 5 people who are still in the line of danger. And then I'm thinking about Trump's statements.
Anyway, Jordi,

Speaker 5 let me bring you in. It's

Speaker 5 not the episode I wanted to be doing at the beginning. the beginning of the year,

Speaker 5 but

Speaker 5 I want to be here with the the fighters.

Speaker 11 Oh, Benji, great intro, man. And

Speaker 11 I hear you. My heart goes out to everybody being affected by these fires.
And it was wild right before we did the show. Brett just, we just told him, go, like, he's got to go.
And

Speaker 11 man, I mean, it's just, my heart goes out to everybody impacted by these fires, what's happening right now. You know, it's interesting.

Speaker 11 perspective being out of state ben and having you and brett there and getting the minute by minute updates on on how you guys are doing and what's going on, and your families are safe, and things like that.

Speaker 11 And, you know, try and find a place of safety.

Speaker 11 And it's just, it's such a feeling of helplessness.

Speaker 11 I don't know how much I'd be able to help, even if I were there, but just being here in, you know, in Pennsylvania right now, I just, my heart just breaks for you guys and seeing what you've been through and just the bravery that you and your families have, you know, shown over these last 24, 48 hours.

Speaker 11 It's, it's amazing. And then to see the devastation on such a, you know, large scale, it's brutal.

Speaker 5 It's brutal.

Speaker 11 And I know we have a lot of Midas Mighty out there. And I hope y'all are safe genuinely.
My heart aches for you guys right now. I can't imagine what you're going through.

Speaker 11 And just know, oh, it's times like these. It's why we have this great community of these pro-democracy, you know, warriors out there that

Speaker 5 I've always said.

Speaker 11 It's the investment in this community, which sets us apart from everything and everything. We're not just a stagnant network, like the mightus mighty.
It's a real thing

Speaker 11 of people who are just truly, you know, like a family. And so to just know that there are so many being impacted who are a part of this community too, my heart breaks.

Speaker 11 And just know that we are all here for you right now and we're going to be here for you tomorrow and next week and next month.

Speaker 11 And so please, you know, keep us posted on your well-beings and how you're doing. I'm excited to get into the show.
We're going to update you guys on Brett the second we know more

Speaker 11 and just keep everyone as up-to-date as possible on that. But Benji, great, great introduction, man.
And

Speaker 11 I think you're excused if your brain wanders a little bit during this episode.

Speaker 5 Well, look,

Speaker 5 I don't feel brave. There's nothing brave that I did.
Let me be very clear. I'll tell you what, bravery is: are the first responders who are on the front lines risking their lives?

Speaker 5 That's who's brave. I mean,

Speaker 5 I got a message on my phone, like it kind of looks like when you get an Amber alert, and it said, evacuate now. So all

Speaker 5 I did was pack my stuff up, make sure my family was good, make sure my three-month-old was good, make sure my wife was good,

Speaker 5 make sure I had my dogs, took, you know,

Speaker 5 my laptop, a few other things, some clothes. and left.
So I don't view that as bravery at all.

Speaker 5 I view it as trying to survive. I view what the first responders are doing as brave.
And

Speaker 5 I wish I could do more. I mean, I mean,

Speaker 5 this is my job. I think there is a usefulness

Speaker 5 to getting out accurate information and debunking falsehoods with the platform that we have.

Speaker 5 I was... weighing, honestly, should I be going to some of the

Speaker 5 fire shelters and centers? And is it a helpful use of my time to do that? Or is it a helpful use of my time to do the show?

Speaker 5 Because I have to get out accurate info because corporate media is not getting out the accurate info or they're both sides in the issue. So I don't, I feel a lot of emotions.
I feel being as a human.

Speaker 5 So I'm not trying to act like I'm a tough guy or I'm brave. I feel guilty.
I feel sad.

Speaker 5 I feel a bit nervous. I'm thinking about Brett.
I'm wondering, should I be doing, I'm just being open with you, should I even be doing this show in the first place?

Speaker 5 My house,

Speaker 5 I don't know what's last time I checked and I'm not getting a lot of updates, but my house is still,

Speaker 5 you'll hear dogs. I'm in a place that's small, so we'll deal with it.

Speaker 5 My house, as far as I know, has not been burned down, but I've had friends whose homes have been devastated. And so,

Speaker 5 you know, there's a new set of wins that are coming tonight,

Speaker 5 hearing the news about Brett. So

Speaker 5 there's so much going on in my mind right now. I'll show you this.
This is Gavin Newsome. Let me play you this clip of Newsom, though, because he was trying to marshal resources.

Speaker 5 He's marshaling the resources. He's on the front lines.
He's doing what you expect of a governor while Donald Trump's attacking him.

Speaker 5 I want to share with you what Governor Newsom was asked by Anderson Cooper.

Speaker 5 And you'll see the fires right behind Newsom. And Newsom's trying to govern from the front lines.
By the way, something Trump would never do. And watch this interaction.
Let's play it.

Speaker 12 He even asked this question, but the president-elect chose to attack you, blame you for the, it's,

Speaker 14 one can't even respond to it. I mean, it's,

Speaker 14 you know, people are literally fleeing. People have lost their lives.
Kids lost their schools. Families completely torn asunder.
Churches burned down.

Speaker 14 This guy wanted to politicize it.

Speaker 14 I have a lot of thoughts, and I know what I want to say. I won't.

Speaker 14 I stood next to a president of the United States of America today, and I was proud to be with Joe Biden. And he had the backs of every single person in this community.

Speaker 14 He didn't play politics, didn't try to divide any of us. Finally, you're missing.

Speaker 5 Didn't play politics, didn't try to divide divide us, referring to President Biden.

Speaker 5 And when I interviewed President Biden in the Roosevelt room of the West Wing of the White House, President Biden said, I don't care if you're red state, blue state.

Speaker 5 I represent you. I'm going to get you the resources you need, whether that's infrastructure, health care,

Speaker 5 whatever.

Speaker 5 I'm the president of all Americans, even if you hate me, even if you don't like me, whatever. I'm going to deliver for all Americans.

Speaker 5 And the fact that during a crisis while newsome or karen bass and others are trying to govern they're trying to be operators and deal with things get this resource here there

Speaker 5 their goal isn't like oh i'm going to be an online troll and i need to like start you know saying oh you're calling me new scum dumpy dump the liar dumpy you are what you know like that's not what leaders do

Speaker 5 but by not doing that there's an information vacuum right because the disinfo is coming in one direction the governing is coming from one direction but there's really no one pushing back on the disinformation but then even when you're pushing back pushing back inherently means you're on the defense there's already a narrative that you need to push back on and so when you're pushing back you're like no that's not true that's that's a lie that's not happening it already sounds like well so you're just saying they're making all of this up to undermine you yeah who does that who would make up such vile facts they do MAGA does on all of these things no matter what it is MAGA makes up this stuff when it came to the hurricanes recently MAGA said FEMA's not giving you resources FEMA was the migrants are taking all of your resources they weren't They blamed the Democratic governor at the time from North Carolina.

Speaker 5 The whole thing was politicized during the recent terrorist attack in New Orleans. MAGA immediately said, migrants, it was Eagle Pass,

Speaker 5 when there was the thing on the Canadian border. where there was like someone who crashed their car in like Buffalo.
They said, oh, this is a terrorist attack. This is like, you know,

Speaker 5 like Muslim terrorists who are coming in through the borders and they would just, they'd make up things that are 100% false. So now you have to like disprove a 100% falsehood.

Speaker 5 And then you have to do things like, actually, let me explain to you the budgetary process and why it isn't true that Karen Bass cut $17 million.

Speaker 5 She actually increased. You're just looking at.
a budget item that shows one form of the appropriations, but actually she added $50 million to the budget. That's the truth, right?

Speaker 5 Karen Bass actually did not cut the budget. It was a complicated budgetary thing.
You have to look at the budget increased, but I was getting comments even from my own wife saying,

Speaker 5 while we were escaping, how do I defend this? And it was all of the lies that MAGA was spewing.

Speaker 5 And people in LA and people who she knew were reaching out to her saying, wait a minute, are Democrats causing this? Is this happening? And she's asking me, how do I defend?

Speaker 5 I'm like, you don't have to defend anything. Like, there's nothing to defend.
Like, like, let's be safe. Like, I'm sure these are all lies.
I don't even want to think about it right now.

Speaker 5 But then again, those lies are spreading while the fire is spreading. Right.

Speaker 5 And people are trying to put out. the fire and they're using it as a wedge issue to divide.
I mean, take a look at Trump.

Speaker 5 I don't want to read all the Trump posts because it's like, why even give it that?

Speaker 5 Let me just say this really quickly, though.

Speaker 11 That video of Newsom, man, it breaks my heart every time I look at that and watch that video.

Speaker 11 Like I actually also get angry and angrier every time I see Newsom having to defend himself as he's trying to govern, as his area is burning, is literally on fire.

Speaker 11 He's got to be asked questions about Trump and Trump's statements. And that's the thing too, Ben.
It's not even just pushing back on the lies and then getting out the new information, right?

Speaker 11 All these leaders are doing this as they're trying to do that, lead, right? They're trying to get their people safe. They're trying to get their resources there.

Speaker 11 And now there's an onslaught of just misinformation and lies that they have to react to in live time where that couldn't be the furthest thing from his mind at the moment.

Speaker 11 All he wants to do is get the truth out there and make sure his people are safe. And so you're just seeing all this information, Ben.
And it breaks my heart too.

Speaker 11 What you just said about Soj, about your wife, that

Speaker 11 she's getting all these texts. How am I supposed to defend myself here? It's like you guys are literally.
on the move for your life. Like it's got to be the furthest thing from the point.

Speaker 11 But again, there's just so much bad information out there that it's so intentional that it's actually deadly. Like it is, it is making the situation a hundred million times worse off than

Speaker 5 it, dude. It is just so frustrating to see play out.

Speaker 11 And again, just so helpless being on the other side of the country watching you guys have to deal with all of this. It's nuts, man.

Speaker 5 This is not what the norm was in our country. When there were disasters, we used to unite together, whether it was a terrorist attack, whether it was a natural disaster.

Speaker 5 It was kind of an unspoken rule because it was basic human morality that we didn't have to speak it, who we are as Americans.

Speaker 5 We would try to rally around each other in disasters, no matter what it was, pull through together, and we were all one America. That's what we were.
And part of my

Speaker 5 frustration, would be putting it lightly, for this whole MAGA movement is that it's taken away that kind of fundamental fact of who we are, even as a country, that everything, the moment it happens, it's used as a political wedge to divide.

Speaker 5 And then it becomes a political football, every single thing.

Speaker 5 And I remember when you had John McCain during the campaign, when lies would be spread about former President Obama, at that time candidate Obama, Senator Obama's background.

Speaker 5 background, McCain would take away the mic and say, that's not true. That's not who we are.
If I'm going to win this, I want to win this on facts. You're not saying true things.

Speaker 5 And the fact that that's viewed as like weakness,

Speaker 5 when it happens from someone like the late, great Senator John McCain,

Speaker 5 who risked his life in Vietnam fighting for our country,

Speaker 5 and it's being directed at him by someone like Trump, who claimed bone spurs to get out out of Vietnam to divide us.

Speaker 5 And I think, you know, we have to think through this, though, because

Speaker 5 during disasters, people are at their most vulnerable. If you think about scammers,

Speaker 5 who do scammers go after most?

Speaker 5 Two types of people, elderly and people who are going through disasters. That's the two groups that are the most vulnerable to scammers.
And why?

Speaker 5 Because they tend to be vulnerable. And so when you're going through a tragedy, when you're feeling all of these emotions, you are more susceptible to be polluted by lies.

Speaker 5 And

Speaker 5 every,

Speaker 5 it's every event, everything

Speaker 5 MAGA turns into a political thing.

Speaker 5 Every aspect of it, Democrats, Democrats, Democrats. And you don't even think about disasters.
You don't even think about, I mean, think about

Speaker 5 international boxing

Speaker 5 and the boxer from Algeria, who was a woman, who MAGA was like, oh, that's secretly a man. And somehow Democrats, like Democrats and Bidens were somehow involved in the Algerian boxer.

Speaker 5 And you're getting mad at the Algerian boxer in the Olympics, where there's an Olympic.

Speaker 5 And no matter what it is,

Speaker 5 you can't go anywhere without MAGA doing these things. Anyway, I want to check on Brett.
We'll take our first quick break. We'll come back, talk about more things.

Speaker 5 Remind everybody to hit subscribe. Let's get to 4 million subscribers.
Check out Midasplus.com, M-E-I-D-A-S-P-L-U-S, Midasplus.com.

Speaker 5 Our editor-in-chief, Ron Filipkowski, does a great job curating that. So check that out.

Speaker 5 Patreon.com slash Midas Touch as as well we held a zoom meeting earlier in the week it was so great seeing everybody and meeting everybody it was it was really one of my favorite things to do check that out we'll be right back after our first quick break

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Speaker 11 Shout out to our pro-democracy sponsors. Use the links in the description of the YouTube and the audio.
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Speaker 11 And let me just say this too, Ben. Shout out to the first responders.
I think we mentioned at the top of the podcast, but let's just say it again.

Speaker 11 What's going on out there in LA is wild, unlike anything I've, I don't think I've ever seen, quite frankly.

Speaker 11 And just shout out to the super brave and incredible first responders just helping out. Unbelievable.

Speaker 5 Here's the thing, too. We've got first responders from all over Canada.
I mean,

Speaker 5 first off, all over California.

Speaker 5 Then in Canada, they're helping out as well. In Mexico, they are sending support as well.
And then neighboring states.

Speaker 5 So I just want you to think about that because while Donald Trump tries to divide and he threatens Canada and Mexico, all throughout Canada, they're giving resources to help in California.

Speaker 5 Also, one of the things that Governor Newsom did as well in advance of the fires was he called into action firefighters from Northern California who also came to help and were prepared with their trucks.

Speaker 5 So this is a monumental effort right now. And this is

Speaker 5 a fire, the likes of which,

Speaker 5 you know,

Speaker 5 it's no longer once in a lifetime because of global warming and climate change. I wish it was once in a lifetime.

Speaker 5 But this, you know, given the winds, given the dryness, given all of the conditions, it aligned to create this cataclysmic. natural disaster.

Speaker 5 It didn't matter if you had a bajillion gallons of water at that time. I mean, if you've seen those fires, it would be practically impossible to contain despite all of the best efforts.

Speaker 5 And so there are ways to try to deal with it and mitigate it, but to somehow blame that

Speaker 5 on,

Speaker 5 oh, there's not enough water when there are literally millions of barrels of water.

Speaker 5 And then one of the things you have to be careful with as well is that if you keep the electricity on and you don't shut down electricity, you then become susceptible to additional fires starting based on the electric grid that's in place.

Speaker 5 And then it could spread even more rapidly and quicker. And that grid can serve as kind of a conduit to then.

Speaker 5 force that fire to rapidly spread into additional residential neighborhoods that it might not otherwise do.

Speaker 5 So there are complex considerations of how you deal with it, but those need to be actively considered, discussed in a bipartisan way and dealt with.

Speaker 5 But the moment a tragedy strikes, boom, MAGA Republicans are there to blame it on Democrats, to blame it on transgender people, to blame it on migrants, to blame it on whatever group they're getting.

Speaker 5 There's always a blame right away. And again, I don't want to read all of Trump's posts.
By the way, I appreciate that our audience likes that I no longer play Trump videos or audios.

Speaker 5 It's a great, it's like a great policy that we don't show.

Speaker 11 It's a really good policy.

Speaker 5 Because here's the thing: if you, I hope by now I've established enough trust over the last four years that you know he says when I say he says something, he says it.

Speaker 5 But also, if you want to go, you can watch the clips. It's still on our social media, it's just not on our YouTube videos that I do.

Speaker 5 So you can always verify, wait a minute, let me check the Midas Blue Sky account or the Midas blue, whatever it, whatever the account is, and ultimately check it out.

Speaker 5 But here's one post where he goes, Governor Gavin Newscomb refused to sign a water restoration declaration because he cares more about a fish called smelt. Like all of that's false.

Speaker 5 There's nothing true about it. There's no such thing as a water restoration.
declaration. So if you try to, what is his water restoration declaration that he refused to sign? That's not a true thing.

Speaker 5 He didn't prioritize smelt over the people in California. That's false.

Speaker 5 And he's not to blame for this, but that was one of their angles of attack.

Speaker 5 They also say that

Speaker 5 it was because of Ukraine. I mean, Don Jr.
goes, oh, look, of course, the LA Fire Department donated a bunch of their supplies. to Ukraine.

Speaker 5 They then go on to blame it on DEI, Elon Musk repost libs of TikTok.

Speaker 5 And then this stuff gets millions and millions of views because Elon Musk amplifies on the algorithm himself and all this right-wing nonsense. They prioritize DEI over saving lives and homes.

Speaker 5 And they show this thing, which was like, oh, Karen Bass cut $17 million from the fire department. She didn't.
There was actually $50 million added.

Speaker 5 They're looking at one budget item that was removed, but they didn't look at the full context of the budget that actually there was not a reduction. There was actually

Speaker 5 an increase that was made. And by the way, even if there was a reduction, I would still want to know,

Speaker 5 you'd have to explain to me in terms, well, then how would that have impacted a cataclysmic fire? I mean, Republicans are the ones who cut fire departments everywhere.

Speaker 5 They're the first essential services.

Speaker 5 So even if you accepted their argument, which was false and accepted their premise, you have to then articulate to me how a cataclysmic fire would have been stopped with an additional $17 million.

Speaker 5 And the answer is it wouldn't, but it's BS anyway

Speaker 5 and just not accurate and not true.

Speaker 5 You have additional posts by Elon Musk, who is amplifying. Alex Jones posts.

Speaker 5 Alex Jones goes, destroyed by Biden. Los Angeles fires are part of a larger globalist plot to wage economic warfare and deindustrialize the United States before triggering total collapse.

Speaker 5 Alex Jones is the guy found liable for defaming the parents who lost their kids in school shootings by saying that the kids who died, didn't really die and that they and their parents were crisis actors who made up the school shooting and are faking their kids' death.

Speaker 5 This is who Trump and MAGA and Elon Musk pal around with.

Speaker 5 And by the way, if you go and look at the post from Gavin Newsom's team that tries to correct the disinfo, and you look at the bottom, you'll see like how many views that gets on X. And it's like,

Speaker 5 it gets like 30,000 views, 25,000 views.

Speaker 5 Oh, this one from Brandon Richards, 6,000 views where he actually lays out the facts that all of this is a lie. Here's the fact.
Here's the budget item.

Speaker 5 Here's the amount of local government fire engines. Here's all of the things we did, right? So that gets 6,838 views.
Look at the bottom right there. You can see that.

Speaker 5 But this Alex Jones post about a globalist plot to deindustrialize, take a look at that. 3.8 million views.

Speaker 5 Life defied by Musk. So the question is, is

Speaker 5 when you have that thing taking place, you see how dangerous it could be. And by the way, there was once a time where the algorithm was neutral and actually truthful facts would do better.

Speaker 5 You can complain what you want. Was Twitter run perfectly before Elon Musk won it?

Speaker 11 No, there were lots of issues with it.

Speaker 5 But it was a pretty

Speaker 5 the best content, content rose to the top.

Speaker 5 Now it's, it's, you know, artificial, everything they accuse Twitter of doing.

Speaker 5 Exactly.

Speaker 11 Everything they accuse Twitter of doing is what Elon Musk's ex is now actually doing for the right-wing mob. I mean, it is absolutely bonkers.
I have to read it.

Speaker 11 It is vile to be spreading so much, any at all, but all of this misinformation right now, when people on the ground there are literally looking for resources and facts and just trying to survive.

Speaker 11 And what are you going to do? You're going to, you're going to shit post on X?

Speaker 5 x oh the dems oh the libs oh ukraine what are you doing like it is absolutely bonkers and other countries must be looking at it it's like y'all are politicizing fires y'all are politicizing natural disasters and it's not even going to come as such a shock to them because well the right-wing mob did it for the the hurricanes not too long ago this is what they do They don't care about the citizens of this country.

Speaker 5 They really don't.

Speaker 11 What they care about is shit posting and spreading disinformation as as long as it puts forward their agenda, whatever agenda, hate-filled agenda that is. It is bonkers.
It is sad. It is disgusting.

Speaker 11 And frankly, it has to stop. And that's why I'm so glad that we get to do this show, Ben, and get people the facts and get the information out there.

Speaker 11 So now the Mightus Mighty in this community could take the information that you've shared, Ben, and thank you for sharing all of that stuff.

Speaker 11 to their circles because I'm sure they're getting asked, oh,

Speaker 5 did they really donate all of that to Ukraine?

Speaker 11 Why are we even talking about this right now? People's lives are on the line, first of all.

Speaker 11 And just thank goodness that there, again, is this community that exists.

Speaker 11 Because, again, my head's a little bit all over the place thinking about Brett and thinking about you for this episode and everybody out there.

Speaker 11 And it's just, I just love and appreciate this community so damn much and just so grateful that we have this, the collective we. And so, Ben, what say you?

Speaker 5 There's just this

Speaker 5 brain rot, if you will, that has

Speaker 5 really caused so many people who have perpetually lived in digital spaces and

Speaker 5 have not connected with kind of the outside world and outside communities that

Speaker 5 their minds have been so wired into this, into these conspiracy portals that move them deeper and deeper and deeper, kind of into this madness and hate and divisiveness. And,

Speaker 5 you know, one of the crazy things that I was just experiencing too is even when I would type in the name of my town to try to get accurate information about what was going on, you know, and it's not like a well-known town that's like out there that like lots of people talk about.

Speaker 5 You know, I would see people ostensibly who live in my town or near my town. And I would like look at their profiles because this is where I would have to go on X to look at it.

Speaker 5 And I would see the where we go one, we go all stuff. And like all of this, like, like, like, just wild stuff.
And I'm thinking to myself, I'm like, I don't know, is this my name?

Speaker 5 These people live near me. Like, like, what, what is even, what is even going on? I mean,

Speaker 5 you're QAnon?

Speaker 5 I mean, how are you functioning? You're buying this QAnon stuff.

Speaker 5 while the leader of your party was found liable for sexual assault, but you find

Speaker 5 that not believable. I mean, he he hung out with Jeffrey Epstein, but like that doesn't, that doesn't like bother you.
Like women who were trafficked by Epstein were at Mar-a-Lago.

Speaker 5 Like they worked at Mar-a-Lago. Donald Trump Dwiske Lane Maxwell,

Speaker 5 that doesn't bother you. Like there's the Matt Gates

Speaker 5 report, the ethics report, which talks about how

Speaker 5 they found substantial evidence of statutory rape of a 17-year-old while he was on all these drugs. And Trump appointed him to be the attorney general.
And then he backed out of Attorney General.

Speaker 5 But like, he's like a hero of the MAGA movement. I'm like thinking to myself, you know, are you reading these messages?

Speaker 5 Like, you're, you know, all of the MAGA Republicans, other than those in the ethics committee, pretty much tried to cover up for Gates.

Speaker 5 I mean, they were the party that was going to try to cover up statutory rape. You know, and like, it's like, you're like, you're okay with this? And I just think about the double standards.

Speaker 5 Like, if Democrats, Democrats are getting, put it this way, Democrats are getting attacked for things that are made up and don't exist, like that aren't even happening. And that's like disqualifying.

Speaker 5 Yet alone, if Democrats actually did any of these. I mean, could you imagine if President Biden was out there posting about

Speaker 5 going to war with Denmark to use the military? against Panama? Put it this way. If President Biden said it, no one would be like, oh, he's trolling.
People would be like, oh,

Speaker 5 he's ready to go. Like, because when a leader speaks, you should speak with clarity when you say things like that.

Speaker 5 It's incomprehensible to me that you would do that just to troll. It has real ramifications.
Like when we talk about what's going on.

Speaker 5 in the international community, think about from the perspective of Russia and China, where Russia's territorial ambitions, not just of Ukraine, but of other neighbors, whether it's Finland, Poland, whatever neighbor.

Speaker 5 Donald Trump, by saying he thinks it's acceptable to annex Canada and take over Greenland and Panama, gives by itself justification for Russia.

Speaker 5 to say, yeah, we're going after this country, that country. Why is it wrong for us? Trump's going Greenland and Mexico and Canada.
This is just what you do.

Speaker 5 It's no longer the law of international law. It's the law of the strong.
And I'm telling you, in a law of the strong, international geopolitical realm, you need allies, idiot.

Speaker 5 You need allies. If you're going to go that way, you need allies.
Okay.

Speaker 5 And in the law of the strong, the the guy who claimed bone spurs to avoid fighting in Vietnam ain't going to win the law of strong versus a former KGB agent in Vladimir Putin.

Speaker 5 Let's be very clear there. Okay.
Donald Trump invited President Xi Jinping to his inauguration and Xi Jinping said

Speaker 5 no. I want to be clear.
And don't you think that it justifies China's one China policy?

Speaker 5 And for all this talk that Republicans, oh, we're supporting Taiwan taiwan and you know we need to stop all their tough talk on China like y'all realize that by Donald Trump just spouting this stupid rhetoric and this dangerous rhetoric justifies China taking over Taiwan because they go why don't we get Taiwan you're saying Canada and Mexico and Greenland and Panama so we say Taiwan and we say think about what you're doing and the way you're destabilizing the entire world.

Speaker 5 We'll talk about that. We'll talk a little bit about some of these court cases.
We're going to take our last break of the day. I'm trying to get a hold of Brett to try to give everybody an update.

Speaker 5 I haven't got a hold of him yet. We'll do our best to get you an update there.
Make sure to hit subscribe here. Oh, by the way, make sure you subscribe to our audio podcast as well.
That's important.

Speaker 5 And so just search the Mightest Touch podcast. Even if you don't listen on audio, it helps.

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Speaker 5 And also, don't just subscribe to this YouTube channel, which by the way is free. Turn your notifications on for the YouTube channel.
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Speaker 5 And we'll take a quick break, our last quick break, and we've got a bunch to discuss when we get back.

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Speaker 5 Click the links, use the codes, let them know we sent you. Benji, where to?

Speaker 5 Yeah, let's talk about some of Donald Trump's threats internationally.

Speaker 5 When I do this, though, I want to go back to a theme I've been talking about, which is weapon of mass distraction, WMD,

Speaker 5 which is we always

Speaker 5 we need to take what Trump says seriously when he threatens foreign countries because it has serious implications. And we're seeing serious reactions from serious people in foreign countries.
Okay.

Speaker 5 It has a serious impact. And the fact that it's just a troll, I don't buy that, but I do think it's part, I think he's just reckless, outrageous,

Speaker 5 but it's dangerous. And I think you, how do you, you have to assume, if you're a foreign country, that

Speaker 5 he may do the things he says he's going to do, which is why the European Union's joint defense agreement is essentially being triggered, right? They're saying, okay, they've had meetings.

Speaker 5 European leaders are basically saying, look, if Trump's doing this, we need to make clear that we will support each other in a war against the United States of America.

Speaker 5 if he tries to take over the sovereignty of a nation, that we will go to war with America.

Speaker 5 I can't even believe I'm saying those words, that our allies in Europe have to now think about using their military in a war against the United States because Donald Trump is threatening war against Europe right now

Speaker 5 while

Speaker 5 attacking

Speaker 5 all just all of our allies. I mean,

Speaker 5 this reckless attack on everybody, you're just going to go, you're go it alone? Don't you think that's going to play right into the hands of Putin and China?

Speaker 5 And then you just hear these MAGA Republican congressmen, and it's like,

Speaker 5 you know,

Speaker 5 do they make this brand of idiot in a factory, like a MAGA factory? I mean, who uses language like that? I'm not going to show you the videos, but I'll just tell you what they said.

Speaker 5 The MAGA Republicans are saying things like this. This is Brandon Gill.
Trust me, you don't want to hear this guy's voice anyway.

Speaker 5 He goes, President Trump is bringing us into a golden age of America.

Speaker 5 This is the new manifest destiny, reacquiring the Panama Canal, acquiring Greenland, renaming the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America. This is the light of America expanding.

Speaker 5 If you all have an opportunity, watch the interview I did. with Corey Hargraves,

Speaker 5 who when he was 18 years old, he left the Native American reservation where he was living, grew a poor single mom.

Speaker 5 And he was,

Speaker 5 he joined the army. He became an army sniper.
He served two tours in Iraq in very, very serious war zones. And he shared with me one specific moment where he took another human's life at close range.

Speaker 5 And he shared what that experience was like. This is an individual who, as a sniper, saw saw things in war that

Speaker 5 I don't even need to say.

Speaker 5 And he came back to the home front

Speaker 5 and dealt with things that I don't even need to say, but you could imagine what he dealt with. Got in trouble with the law, but turned his life around.

Speaker 5 And I speak to him because he's the type of person, he shares with me a story, that will be going to wars.

Speaker 5 that Donald Trump is starting on social media, that Trump is picking these wars with Canada, with Denmark, Mexico,

Speaker 5 and he's going to send,

Speaker 5 this wasn't the whole thing for MAGA that he's going to stop a hypothetical World War III from happening.

Speaker 5 But no, he wants to be the bad guy in World War III.

Speaker 5 He wants to be the conquering nation in World War III.

Speaker 5 That makes sense to you, MAGA? But it does. For MAGA, they're like into this.
You take a look at Ansley Earhart on Fox. And, you know, these are just exemplars.

Speaker 5 I could show you so many more of this where she's like, it would make sense that we take Greenland for war purposes. It would make sense that we take Greenland for war purposes.

Speaker 5 What are you talking about? Here's a meme that we posted.

Speaker 5 Voters, can we get lower gas prices? And it's from the pawn shop store. pawn stars, whatever it's called.

Speaker 5 Trump, best I can do is invade Canada. Right.
I mean, the whole thing was lower prices,

Speaker 5 egg prices, housing, all of these things, right? That's what corporate media was telling us.

Speaker 5 This is why they voted Trump, but now, but now, if you notice, too, when Democrats are going on like CNN and corporate media, if you're even watching it anymore, they'll be, they'll be saying, yeah, but what is, what about lower prices?

Speaker 5 What about this? And the corporate media is like,

Speaker 5 but people like Donald Trump because

Speaker 5 He's bregadocious. They like his bravado.
They like the negotiating. It's like, what are you talking about? What the hell is this? Invading Greenland?

Speaker 5 Again, imagine if Biden talked about invading Greenland. He would be impeached immediately by Democrats, may I add.

Speaker 5 I want you to think about that.

Speaker 5 And this is somehow a normal discussion even amongst corporate media that this is something that's going to happen. And so, you know,

Speaker 5 there's all these articles about how Russian is cheering for Trump. He will dismantle the remnants of the old world order much faster and more effectively than we could.
We do it from the outside.

Speaker 5 He does it from within. And for Russia, they're like, great, now we can lay claim to Estonia, Finland, Poland, and other nations.

Speaker 5 The Chancellor of Germany has to warn Donald Trump about taking control of Greenland. The foreign minister of France has to warn Donald Trump about attacking European nations.

Speaker 5 You have Claudius Scheinbaum, the president of Mexico, kind of just trolling Donald Trump with the map of Mexico from 1608 and basically saying, maybe we should rename this Mexico Mexican American

Speaker 5 or Mexico America, basically.

Speaker 5 You know, and Claudius Scheinbaum knows, and a lot of these nations, whether it's Mexico or if you go towards Central America, or if you go towards

Speaker 5 getting this, we'll cut this, we'll cut the show short soon, actually. You have to go.

Speaker 5 And

Speaker 5 I could go for like, I'll go for like two or three more minutes because I hope it's not coming into the area where

Speaker 5 I moved to, but everybody heard that one right there.

Speaker 5 But I want you to just think about, you know, they'll lean towards China. They'll lean towards, you know, other nations and just new alliances

Speaker 5 are going to be formed

Speaker 5 as a result of that.

Speaker 5 We'll try to get you more clarity from

Speaker 5 Brett. I know Brett's been trying to leave.
We'll post something, maybe we'll post something on Midasplus.com or or Patreon.

Speaker 5 We'll post something there to try to give people

Speaker 5 an update there.

Speaker 5 And look, we appreciate you all for watching this. I'm going to go and figure out what

Speaker 5 this is. Go for it.

Speaker 11 Keep me posted.

Speaker 5 Anyway, everybody,

Speaker 5 we'll close the show anyway. I mean, I think we've said everything.
I mean, the only updates on the court cases is that

Speaker 5 New York's highest court rejected Donald Trump's appeal, and we'll see what happens ultimately with this sentencing.

Speaker 5 So we'll figure that out. But Trump lost over and over and over again.
He lost at the trial court, the appellate division, and then the top court, which is called the Court of Appeals there.

Speaker 5 So he's a triple loser there. All right, everybody.
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Speaker 5 We appreciate you greatly. And thank you for watching.
All right.

Speaker 5 Shout out to the Midas Mighty.

Speaker 11 Hey, Midas Mighty. Love this report.
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