Latest / Combat Veteran News / My MAGA Puppet Congressman is Even Worse Than I Realized

Transcript

My MAGA Puppet Congressman is Even Worse Than I Realized · Combat Veteran News

0:02
It's no secret that
0:03
President Trump
0:04
seems to
0:05
have simply seized all
0:06
executive power, and
0:07
it's easy to shift
0:08
the blame to him, but
0:09
the reality is that
0:10
he has a whole network of
0:12
support that
0:13
propels him and keeps him
0:14
in power. And I think it's
0:20
very important,
0:21
as we're just
0:23
days away from the
0:24
midterm elections in the
0:25
United States,
0:26
that people understand the
0:27
role that Congress does
0:28
or does not play
0:29
in
0:29
checking
0:30
presidential power
0:31
. And to
0:35
illustrate this and
0:36
show you
0:37
how
0:38
frustrating it is, my
0:39
own congressman is a
0:40
classic example of a
0:41
MAGA puppet. So, I
0:46
want to show you how
0:48
it works and, of course, what
0:49
it ultimately means
0:50
for the real
0:51
voters in my
0:52
district. Our
0:55
congressman here in the 11th
0:57
district of Texas is a
0:58
man named August
1:00
Fluger. And Fluger
1:02
seems like a classic
1:03
politician. An Air Force officer
1:05
, he served briefly
1:06
on the National
1:08
Security Council, and then in
1:09
2019 was effectively
1:12
ousted from the
1:13
National Security Council
1:14
specifically to
1:15
run for
1:16
Texas' 11th congressional district. And
1:18
his opponent. We
1:22
actually
1:23
had Claire Reynolds on the channel
1:25
when she was a
1:27
primary candidate, and she had
1:28
just had a debate with
1:29
Fluger, and the
1:30
points he had to
1:32
make clearly
1:33
showed me
1:34
how much of a MAGA puppet this
1:35
guy is
1:35
. And I
1:41
just want to show
1:42
you a few of his
1:43
lines so you
1:44
understand how much
1:45
he is a mouthpiece for
1:46
President Trump.
1:50
Yes. First, when
1:52
asked about the
1:52
national debt during the debate,
1:53
Flueger simply
1:54
outright lied,
1:55
stating that he
1:56
approved
1:58
$1.5 trillion in spending cuts. This is
2:02
almost unbelievably
2:03
untrue, considering
2:04
that the actual
2:05
national deficit
2:06
this year was
2:08
nearly $2 trillion
2:09
. The biggest
2:16
deficits are not in times of
2:17
emergency, and when
2:19
asked about
2:19
immigration, he
2:21
lied again that there was an
2:22
“open
2:23
borders” policy. We have
2:27
repeatedly
2:27
said on this
2:28
channel that Joe Biden
2:30
deported millions of
2:31
people and effectively
2:32
closed the border for almost the
2:33
entire duration of the
2:34
COVID pandemic. He
2:36
only reopened it because the
2:37
courts forced him to.
2:40
So, again, this
2:42
only makes sense because it's
2:43
almost verbatim
2:44
President
2:45
Trump's thesis. And I was really
2:48
surprised when he
2:49
was asked about the war with
2:51
Iran. When
2:54
asked about the war with
2:56
Iran, he literally
2:57
quoted
2:58
the president,
2:59
claiming that we have
3:00
been at
3:01
war with Iran for 47
3:03
years, claiming that
3:04
Iran has allegedly carried out
3:05
350 attacks on
3:06
American troops
3:08
. Things that are just
3:10
objectively
3:11
untrue. Again
3:13
, no
3:14
American sincerely
3:15
believes that we have been at war with
3:17
Iran for 47 years. This is
3:20
Orwell's real "1984". And obviously,
3:24
as we've already heard on
3:25
this channel,
3:26
for example, Claire
3:27
Reynolds
3:32
agrees that this is
3:33
complete absurdity, and
3:34
tries
3:35
to operate with facts and
3:36
the law, which makes it
3:37
difficult to confront
3:38
someone who is willing to not
3:39
just lie, but
3:40
lie on behalf of the
3:41
president, acting
3:43
in unison with him. And
3:47
the craziest thing is
3:54
that this is part of the system
3:55
, and Fluger is deeply
3:56
rooted in this
3:58
seemingly quite
3:59
corrupt system
4:00
that supports
4:01
the president. Because you
4:04
might think, "Oh,
4:06
the answer is on
4:06
the surface—August
4:07
Flueger just loves
4:09
Donald Trump, that's
4:10
all." But this is an incomplete
4:13
picture of how it
4:14
actually works. As
4:19
we've said, polling data
4:21
makes it quite clear that
4:22
roughly
4:23
a third to half of the
4:24
Republican
4:25
Party are cultists of
4:27
Donald Trump. These are
4:30
individual voters who
4:32
truly agree
4:33
with the statement that
4:34
supporting Donald
4:35
Trump is an important
4:36
expression of my faith. In
4:38
their eyes, Trump can do no
4:39
wrong. They
4:41
believe he is
4:42
literally anointed by
4:43
God. And of course, if
4:45
someone is anointed by
4:46
God, no amount of
4:48
Jeffrey Epstein connections or
4:49
threats of genocide against
4:50
Iranians will change
4:51
their minds. If
4:53
God says it is
4:54
allowed, then
4:55
it is good. So your
4:59
MAGA-supporting uncle
5:00
forms the base of
5:02
Donald Trump's pyramid. Here are
5:05
your MAGA voters. But
5:07
MAGA voters, yes, they
5:08
helped bring
5:10
Trump to power, but
5:11
they are necessary
5:12
but not sufficient. And
5:16
you have to understand
5:17
that Congress and
5:18
congressmen like
5:19
Fluger have two
5:20
roles. The first is to give
5:22
Trump the opportunity
5:24
to continue his
5:25
policies. And Fluger
5:26
did just that. He
5:27
voted for one
5:28
big and wonderful
5:29
bill. Again
5:31
, investing
5:32
$2 trillion,
5:34
borrowing $22 trillion
5:35
to
5:36
fund the government
5:37
for no real
5:38
reason. He also,
5:43
notably, refused
5:49
to certify the
5:49
results of the
5:51
2020 election, reinforcing
5:52
President
5:54
Trump's claims that the
5:55
2020 election was
5:56
fraudulent and
5:57
invalid, which is a
5:59
crazy idea
6:00
since August
6:01
Flueger won his
6:03
election in 2020. So
6:05
he literally
6:06
took office and
6:07
then came back and
6:08
said, "Actually,
6:09
guys, my own
6:10
election was
6:11
fraudulent," which is
6:12
pretty crazy. In
6:15
2023, he also
6:16
promoted a resolution
6:18
stating that the State of
6:19
Israel is not a
6:20
racist or
6:21
apartheid state,
6:22
that Congress rejects
6:23
all forms of
6:24
anti-Semitism and
6:25
xenophobia, and that the United States
6:26
will always be a loyal
6:28
partner and
6:29
supporter of Israel
6:30
, which is a pretty strong
6:31
statement. In fact, he
6:35
also wrote an article
6:36
arguing
6:37
that Congress
6:38
should never impose
6:39
any conditions on
6:40
aid to
6:41
Israel. Like,
6:43
Israel could
6:44
use our
6:45
aid to
6:46
literally
6:48
feed children to a
6:50
wood chipper. Israel could
6:52
even use our aid to
6:53
attack
6:54
Americans, and it
6:55
should still be given to
6:56
Israel. This is a pretty
6:57
crazy position.
7:01
But this is exactly the kind of
7:02
madness that,
7:03
again, the
7:05
MAGA base believes in, because, as we
7:06
said, they
7:07
believe that
7:08
Trump's will reflects that of an
7:09
almost
7:10
religious figure, and
7:17
Fluger is the embodiment of
7:18
that. But the reason
7:20
he embodies
7:22
this is also in what
7:23
he does, or rather, what
7:24
he doesn't do.
7:27
So, by his
7:27
presence in
7:28
Congress, he is
7:29
hindering many
7:30
other important things.
7:43
He has stopped almost every policy that could have ensured any kind of accountability for President Trump. Yes.
7:45
In particular, any
7:46
resolution regarding war
7:48
with Iran. Every
7:50
time the matter
7:51
came up for
7:51
consideration in the House of
7:53
Representatives,
7:54
any attempt by Congress to
7:55
authorize or
7:56
condemn the war in
7:57
Iran was to overturn the
7:58
authorization, as
7:59
required by the Constitution.
8:01
He and other
8:01
MAGA Republicans are
8:02
simply killing these
8:04
initiatives so they
8:05
never see the
8:06
light of day. There are all these
8:09
mechanisms that
8:10
Congress could
8:11
use to
8:12
authorize or
8:13
control the White
8:14
House, but they
8:15
choose not to
8:16
use them.
8:17
They could
8:18
stop
8:18
funding at
8:19
any time. They
8:20
could change
8:21
the funding of offices.
8:25
And that was done,
8:26
or at least
8:27
attempted to be done, by
8:28
making
8:29
Pete Hegseth's travel budget conditional on
8:30
the introduction of
8:31
certain
8:32
parliamentary
8:33
oversight reforms that would give
8:34
Congress access to how the
8:35
military
8:36
spends money. Something that
8:39
the Constitution and the
8:40
Supreme Court
8:42
have repeatedly recognized as necessary
8:43
. Again,
8:44
people like August Flueger
8:45
stop such
8:46
accountability. Even
8:48
basic things like
8:49
allowing Congress
8:51
to visit
8:51
military bases to
8:52
observe how
8:53
the budget is being spent.
8:55
This is a basic function
8:56
of Congress, because it's
8:57
obvious that it's
8:58
impossible to write a
8:59
military budget
9:00
if you don't know what the
9:02
military does. And
9:04
the fact that
9:04
President Trump
9:05
has denied Congress
9:06
this basic level of
9:08
oversight is something that
9:09
should offend even
9:10
moderate
9:11
Republicans. But
9:13
as long as there are
9:14
congressmen like August
9:15
Flueger, there will never
9:16
be the political will
9:17
to push for
9:18
any sanctions or
9:19
condemnations. So you have
9:22
MAGA congressmen
9:23
who are engaged in both
9:25
action and
9:25
inaction. And this
9:29
ability to simultaneously
9:30
facilitate the
9:31
president's actions and
9:32
actively sabotage
9:33
efforts to hold
9:34
him
9:35
accountable—that's
9:36
part of this "
9:37
middle ground,"
9:38
right? You might
9:43
think, "You know, this sounds
9:44
a bit like
9:46
Putin's Russia." And boy,
9:48
if you think it's
9:50
similar, should we be
9:51
talking about it? Because
9:55
to gain
9:56
such control,
9:57
again, you need
9:59
these people in the middle,
10:00
these administrative
10:01
supporters who
10:02
facilitate his actions and
10:03
stop any
10:04
obstacles or
10:05
countermeasures. Some of
10:09
them are ideologues who
10:11
truly believe in it.
10:12
But, as we have seen,
10:13
President Trump
10:14
has no ideology.
10:15
Remember, he was
10:16
elected as Mr. "No
10:17
Foreign Wars," but
10:18
now he is Mr. "All
10:19
Foreign Wars."
10:21
Remember, he
10:22
was elected as Mr. "
10:23
Let's cut the budget," they
10:24
say, let's cut
10:25
the budget, take
10:26
control of government
10:27
spending, Doge
10:28
is going to
10:29
redo everything. But now
10:31
it has a deficit of
10:32
$2 trillion.
10:33
So there aren't
10:34
many real
10:35
ideologues in Congress who say,
10:37
"Oh, I believe in these things."
10:38
Trump believes in
10:39
these things too, and we can
10:40
work together. He is
10:42
not one of those people. So
10:44
why is he doing this?
10:45
The answer is for the exact
10:46
same reason the
10:48
oligarchs support
10:49
Putin. For the same
10:51
reason, in fact,
10:52
many
10:53
organized
10:54
crime syndicates operate
10:55
. And these are what you could
10:59
call bullets or
11:00
ingots, right?
11:02
The carrot and the stick. These
11:05
guys are being offered
11:06
fabulous riches
11:07
if they promote
11:09
President Trump's activities and
11:10
threatened with severe
11:11
punishment if
11:12
they denounce it.
11:16
So, let me
11:17
break down the
11:18
August Flueger universe right
11:19
now. despite being
11:21
in
11:22
one of the
11:22
safest
11:23
Republican
11:24
districts in the country. The weather
11:26
vane still
11:27
managed to raise
11:28
over $3 million
11:29
. And a lot of
11:32
that money, almost all of it,
11:34
essentially, comes
11:35
from
11:36
Midland,
11:37
Texas oil interests. Literally
11:39
one city, which is the
11:41
headquarters of Texas
11:42
oil, donated a
11:43
simply staggering
11:44
amount of money. And it's
11:48
actually quite
11:49
comical, because the donations
11:50
come from
11:51
the husband, and then there are
11:52
matching donations
11:53
from the wife, who is,
11:54
you know, a professional
11:55
housewife. But
11:58
you see, all these
11:59
people come from
12:00
Midland, Texas.
12:05
They all come from
12:06
oil and gas
12:07
interests, and that's
12:07
not surprising at all. It
12:11
also receives significant
12:12
contributions from
12:14
APAC-related foundations. But
12:18
you can
12:19
see quite clearly that by
12:20
supporting Trump,
12:22
he is able to
12:22
fill his
12:23
coffers to
12:24
enormous proportions
12:25
, and I just want
12:26
to show you this so
12:28
you understand
12:28
how
12:29
enormous it is. One more
12:32
thing I want to
12:33
bring to your attention:
12:34
yes, he makes
12:36
a lot of money in this
12:37
oil and gas industry,
12:38
but he also has
12:39
something that a lot of
12:41
politicians have, which is...I'm
12:42
going to
12:43
assume here. This is the point
12:44
where we move
12:45
into speculation, but I will
12:46
present the evidence. I'll
12:47
let you draw your own
12:48
conclusions,
12:49
okay? But, like Nancy
12:50
Pelosi, Nancy Pelosi
12:51
doesn't trade stocks,
12:52
my friends. I don't know if
12:53
you knew that.
12:55
Nancy Pelosi's husband trades
12:56
stocks. Nancy Pelosi is a civil
12:58
servant. Paul
12:59
Pelosi, her husband, is a
13:00
private individual who
13:01
can make any
13:02
deals he wants.
13:04
Now, the fact that
13:06
he has a family
13:07
relationship, a deep
13:08
trusting relationship with
13:09
Nancy, that's, you know, a
13:17
footnote. This has no
13:18
legal
13:19
force. And I
13:23
hypothesize that
13:24
August Flueger's brother, Carl
13:26
Flueger, is, oddly enough, the
13:27
president of an
13:28
oil and gas
13:29
company in Midland,
13:31
Texas,
13:32
called Orics Midstream Services.
13:36
In particular, friends, and I
13:37
want you to remember
13:39
this. Orex Midstream Services
13:41
is a
13:42
pipeline
13:43
services provider. They
13:44
are engaged in
13:44
the transportation of
13:45
oil. You pump
13:47
oil out of the ground, and
13:48
August Flueger's brother
13:49
ensures it
13:50
gets where it
13:51
needs to go. So, if
13:52
you're extracting oil
13:53
from the ground in Midland,
13:55
Texas, in the
13:55
Permian Basin,
13:56
August Flueger's brother
13:58
delivers it to its
13:59
destination. So it's
14:01
quite interesting that
14:02
the people who are funding
14:04
his campaign are also
14:05
from Midland,
14:06
Texas, and are also
14:08
his brother's biggest clients.
14:11
Nothing strange,
14:12
right? We literally
14:15
see an
14:16
oil
14:17
company from Midland,
14:18
Texas,
14:19
donating to the campaign of the
14:20
brother of the person who
14:21
owns the pipes to
14:22
pump it. It's
14:25
kind of suspicious, is
14:27
n't it? So, let's
14:29
talk
14:30
about the "bullet" part first
14:31
. Why does August
14:33
continue to
14:35
defend and do what
14:36
President
14:37
Trump wants? Well, there is a risk.
14:39
The risk, most obviously, is that
14:41
you
14:41
get Thomas
14:43
Massey. And Thomas Massey
14:44
can't even find the
14:45
words. Here he is, here he is,
14:46
here he is on
14:47
Twitter just
14:48
a few days ago,
14:48
saying: quote: “Here’s
14:49
how Trump threatens
14:50
to nominate a competitor to
14:51
any
14:51
Republican who
14:52
dares
14:53
to vote against
14:54
his bill, and
14:55
they all fall into
14:55
line. That's how, in
14:56
this case, the
14:58
FBI funding bill survives.
14:59
"Messi says: 'It's all
15:01
theater.'" Refuse
15:02
to be an actor. “And that’s a
15:03
huge part of
15:05
it. President
15:07
Trump is very openly
15:08
endorsing candidates
15:10
down to the state level, and
15:11
these candidates have
15:12
about a 96% chance of
15:14
winning their
15:15
primaries. And
15:18
by supporting,
15:19
by choosing, in whose
15:20
favor he tips the
15:21
scales, he is
15:24
simply choosing who
15:25
will win in the
15:26
Republican
15:27
primaries. So if
15:28
you want to win,
15:29
you have to be like
15:30
August Fluger. You
15:31
should kiss
15:32
his ass. And that's what
15:33
happened to Thomas
15:35
Massey. Thomas Massey has
15:36
been prominently pushing for the
15:37
release of the
15:38
Epstein files, critically
15:39
disagreeing with
15:40
Trump. Uh, it's worth
15:41
noting that the
15:42
Epstein files, despite being
15:44
horrific and
15:45
essentially confirming
15:46
Trump's long-standing friendship with
15:47
Epstein, and also
15:48
exposing other
15:49
members of the administration
15:51
, like Howard
15:52
Latnick, as
15:53
Epstein's clients, uh, no one, no
15:54
one suffered any
15:55
consequences. How even
15:57
Howard Latnick kept
15:58
his job. So, on the
15:59
one hand, he says,
16:00
“Yes, we can
16:01
put up
16:02
another candidate against you. "
16:03
But there is another, deeper
16:04
threat that says:
16:04
if you further
16:05
anger President
16:07
Trump, he can
16:07
send you to
16:08
prison." You remember,
16:11
Congressional candidate Sy Ogazalia, a
16:12
candidate for
16:13
Illinois' 10th district,
16:14
was indicted by a
16:15
federal grand
16:16
jury, but
16:17
the charges
16:18
were later dropped because the grand
16:20
jury was misled
16:21
about a protest
16:22
she attended. Uh,
16:24
of course, there was also a
16:25
candidate for the
16:26
Cook County Board of Commissioners.
16:29
Uh, there was also
16:30
Lamonica MacGyver, the
16:31
U.S. Representative from
16:32
New Jersey, who also
16:34
faced
16:35
federal
16:35
charges, uh,
16:37
after protesting at an
16:39
ICE immigration detention center. And while a
16:40
federal judge
16:41
denied her
16:42
motion to
16:43
dismiss two of
16:43
the charges against
16:44
her, the
16:45
indictments themselves are
16:46
almost comically
16:47
lame. They
16:48
say she
16:49
did, uh, uh,
16:49
maybe had a
16:50
brief
16:51
fleeting
16:52
encounter with an ICE officer.
16:53
Uh, but this is what
16:54
President Trump is
16:55
sending
16:55
a message to the entire
16:56
Congress to say,
16:57
"Listen, if you make
16:59
me really angry, I can do
17:00
this to you. I can
17:01
make you go
17:02
through all the circles of hell
17:03
in the federal
17:04
court system. "And
17:05
President Trump knows
17:06
that this is a punishment, because it is
17:07
incredibly expensive
17:09
to fight even the
17:09
most
17:10
trumped-up
17:11
charges, because
17:12
remember,
17:12
President Trump
17:13
was found guilty
17:14
of 32 counts of
17:16
crimes in
17:17
federal court. And
17:18
we see this with
17:19
other political
17:20
enemies, don't we?
17:22
Remember, he
17:22
indicted
17:24
New York State Attorney General
17:25
Letitia James for
17:26
mortgage
17:27
fraud—a case
17:28
that was ridiculed in court.
17:30
Again, she
17:31
appeared in
17:32
federal court,
17:33
pleaded not guilty, and the
17:35
case was essentially
17:36
...dismissed and
17:39
completely closed, and the
17:40
case itself was
17:41
simply ridiculed in
17:42
court. James Comey has
17:44
also been repeatedly
17:45
indicted over
17:46
and over again, despite the fact that
17:48
he literally
17:48
helped Trump
17:49
win the
17:51
2016 election, and every
17:52
charge against
17:53
him has also been ridiculed
17:54
in court, but not before
17:55
he had to
17:56
pay huge
17:58
fees to his
18:00
defense attorneys. The companies
18:01
donating funds to
18:02
these MAGA candidates
18:04
for Congress also
18:05
know there is a
18:06
threat. They still have a bullet in front of them
18:09
, figuratively speaking, a
18:10
target. Look,
18:11
for example, at Disney and
18:13
ABC, to whom Trump bluntly
18:14
said, "I want the FCC to
18:16
punish Disney for
18:17
airing
18:18
Stephen Colbert's show,
18:19
which makes fun of me." And
18:21
they did it.
18:22
In fact, the FCC required
18:23
eight local
18:24
ABC stations to
18:25
apply for
18:26
license renewals years
18:27
ahead of
18:28
schedule. Disney's lawyers
18:29
were forced to
18:30
argue that these actions
18:31
were directed
18:32
against them because of
18:33
ABC's editorial policies, which illegally
18:34
interfered with freedom of the
18:35
press. Amazon. In 2019,
18:38
Amazon accused the
18:40
Trump administration of
18:42
forcing the Department of
18:44
Defense to reject
18:45
Amazon's bid for a
18:47
huge
18:48
Pentagon contract
18:49
precisely because Jeff
18:51
Bezos, Amazon's founder,
18:52
also owns the Washington
18:53
Post, which has been critical of
18:55
Trump. The 2017 merger of AT&T and
19:01
Time Warner was
19:02
blocked by
19:04
Trump's Justice Department on
19:06
antitrust
19:07
charges in part—or
19:09
rather, allegedly—
19:10
because CNN
19:11
criticized Trump, and
19:13
CNN, of course, was owned by Time
19:14
Warner. And, of course, every
19:19
law firm that
19:20
took on
19:21
someone the administration didn't
19:22
like as a client
19:23
also
19:24
faced severe
19:25
sanctions and large
19:27
fines from the
19:27
administration. So...
19:33
You also saw
19:35
Trump's revenge campaign against
19:36
social media and
19:37
Section 230 after
19:38
he was kicked off
19:39
some of those
19:40
platforms for calling on
19:41
his supporters to
19:42
storm the
19:43
Capitol. Again
19:44
, an event that August
19:46
Flueger fully
19:47
supports and whose
19:48
pardons he
19:49
fully approves of. I
19:51
point these things out
19:52
because there are clear dire consequences for both
19:53
the donors who
19:54
support these
19:55
guys and the
19:56
candidates themselves of
19:59
crossing
20:00
Trump's path. But the other
20:03
side is the "golden"
20:05
part, right? And there is a
20:09
lot to be
20:09
gained by becoming
20:10
Donald
20:12
Trump's puppet. And when you
20:15
look, you see
20:17
first and foremost
20:17
the most obvious thing:
20:18
even if you
20:19
are in a district
20:20
where victory is
20:21
guaranteed, where everything is
20:22
too simple, it is worth
20:24
noting that August
20:25
Flueger
20:26
ran
20:27
unopposed last year. He had
20:32
no opponents,
20:33
but he still raised
20:35
a ton of money, and for
20:36
this election
20:37
cycle, he raised nearly
20:38
$2.5 million in a
20:39
district that
20:40
most analysts
20:42
consider
20:42
uncompetitive. I would like to
20:46
note that Claire
20:48
Reynolds
20:49
only raised $30,000.
20:53
So, Fluger collected
20:54
an amount equal to
20:56
the price of a
20:56
Tomahawk missile, and Claire collected
20:58
the amount equal to the cost of a
20:59
used Toyota Corolla.
21:06
The reason is pretty
21:07
obvious: Claire
21:07
Reynolds is a lawyer
21:09
and country mom, and
21:10
August Flueger is a
21:11
Donald
21:12
Trump puppet and a leader of
21:13
the interests of the
21:15
Texas oil industry. So, first of all
21:20
, if you are a
21:21
candidate, you can
21:23
make a lot of
21:24
money. But this is not the
21:27
only source, because
21:28
we said that his
21:29
brother is a family member,
21:30
let's say, his
21:31
closest circle
21:33
. And assuming,
21:39
as I think is
21:40
quite fair,
21:41
that your brother's interests
21:42
coincide with yours,
21:44
that if your brother's
21:45
things are going well,
21:46
then so are yours—that's
21:47
usually how it
21:48
works. Interestingly,
21:55
his brother was allowed to
21:57
invest
21:58
$10 million in
21:59
Truth Social when it was
22:00
founded in December
22:02
2021, just a
22:03
few months after
22:05
Flueger
22:06
took office. And what's
22:13
fascinating is that we
22:14
don't know what
22:15
percentage of
22:17
Truth Social's ownership that $10
22:18
million investment gave
22:20
, but the company is now
22:21
valued at
22:23
$2.44 billion. So
22:25
, according to my estimates,
22:27
the capital has increased
22:28
at least tenfold
22:29
. Karl Flueger is one
22:31
of the largest
22:32
investors. And here you
22:33
see the market
22:34
capitalization—2.26
22:36
billion. And that's a
22:37
significant drop, by the way,
22:39
guys. At its peak, it
22:40
probably cost
22:42
almost 10 times
22:43
as much. So,
22:44
the price was probably closer to
22:45
$20 billion.
22:50
But this is not all
22:51
the enrichment, this is not the
22:52
only profit that the
22:53
oil and gas
22:54
pipeline
22:55
company owned by
22:57
August Flueger's brother has received.
23:00
In fact, Orics Midstream
23:02
Services, Karl
23:03
Flueger's company, received
23:05
an investment of 550
23:06
million—almost half a
23:07
billion dollars—
23:09
from who would you think?
23:11
From the Qatar
23:12
Investment
23:13
Authority. Ha?
23:15
Qataris. And aren't these the
23:17
same people who gave
23:18
Donald Trump a
23:20
$400 million private jet
23:21
around the same
23:22
time? Strange, isn't it?
23:26
And again, it's quite
23:27
strange that the CEO of
23:30
Qatar's investment authority has
23:31
invested in a direct
23:32
competitor to
23:33
Saudi oil
23:34
money, which seems
23:35
a bit strange. But what
23:40
luck. I mean,
23:42
half a billion dollars
23:43
is a lot of money. But
23:45
there are a few other
23:46
strange transactions
23:47
that look too good to be
23:48
true. For example,
23:50
although the trade
23:51
war with Canada
23:52
recently flared up
23:54
with renewed vigor, it is worth
23:55
noting that in
23:56
May 2025 they
23:59
found that the situation
24:00
had calmed down somewhat.
24:02
Canada effectively
24:03
suspended
24:04
most of its
24:05
response,
24:06
and...a meeting was held
24:13
where there seemed to be a
24:14
real
24:15
opportunity for
24:16
progress; Carney and
24:17
Trump met.
24:20
They said a few
24:21
nice words
24:22
about each other.
24:23
Trade
24:24
tensions seemed to be easing, and in
24:25
that wonderful
24:26
little window in the
24:28
first quarter of 2026
24:29
. Well, in June 2025,
24:35
All Planes
24:36
American Pipeline, which was the
24:38
parent
24:39
company of Orex Holdings,
24:40
coincidentally
24:41
used this
24:42
short window to
24:44
sell its
24:45
Canadian business for
24:46
$4 billion to an
24:48
oil company from
24:49
Canada. And then, as soon as
24:54
the deal was
24:55
closed, the trade
24:57
war suddenly
24:57
resumed. July
25:00
2026, tariffs 50% or
25:02
more. Isn't that right?
25:05
Again, I
25:07
mean, the timing is
25:08
just perfect,
25:09
right?
25:12
Everything seemed to be going well. Carney is
25:15
repealing tariffs,
25:16
right? Everything looked
25:17
great. And then, in
25:20
July, right after
25:21
the deal closed,
25:23
all the tariffs suddenly came back. So that's
25:32
one of the things that
25:34
bothers me so much: this
25:34
looks like the actions of an
25:37
influence-peddling politician whose family is
25:38
making huge
25:39
money in the
25:40
oil and gas industry
25:41
through
25:41
insider
25:42
information. And
25:54
running against them is
25:55
a person who
25:55
behaves honestly,
25:57
has no super-rich
25:58
relatives, and is literally
25:59
running a modest election
26:00
campaign
26:01
focused on the
26:01
rule of law
26:03
and caring for
26:03
ordinary people. Is
26:09
n't that right? Of course, we
26:10
had Claire on the channel.
26:11
If it's not obvious, I'm
26:13
going to vote
26:14
for her. And the reason
26:15
I say this outright is because
26:16
, first of all
26:18
, in 2024, I didn't
26:19
say outright
26:20
which candidate I
26:21
thought I should
26:22
vote for. I
26:24
tried to hint
26:25
at this, but I also
26:26
think it's part of a
26:28
civic
26:29
duty to say:
26:30
this is an election where I
26:31
live. These are the issues that are
26:33
important to me, and that's
26:34
who I'm voting for.
26:37
And of course, if you
26:38
want to
26:39
contribute to her campaign,
26:41
you can go to
26:42
clarinsforcongress.org, or I
26:43
think I would also
26:44
encourage you to do
26:46
the same in your
26:47
district. You would be
26:48
surprised in the age of
26:50
AI, right? You should
26:51
be able to
26:52
ask: hello, this is
26:53
my address. Can
26:54
you tell me who the
26:55
candidates are here? And
26:56
even if your
26:57
chances are slim, because the
26:58
other thing is,
26:59
even if you
27:00
say, "Oh my god,
27:01
Claire has no chance."
27:04
Why should I
27:05
vote, because the very
27:07
presence of
27:08
insurgent candidates forced me
27:09
to spend $2.5 million
27:11
, which would otherwise have
27:12
gone to other
27:13
candidates, on a
27:14
safe district. And
27:18
every time you
27:19
make that MAGA money
27:21
just burn
27:22
itself out, you still
27:23
achieve some
27:24
level of victory. So I
27:29
think, I hope,
27:31
you found this valuable.
27:33
I hope you
27:34
find this important,
27:36
and I really hope
27:37
you do the same
27:38
in your districts, and
27:40
if you are in the 11th District of
27:41
Texas, you will go out and
27:42
cast your vote
27:44
for Claire, as well as the
27:45
other candidates
27:46
that you have
27:47
researched and
27:48
support. I
27:50
mean, again,
27:51
it almost went without
27:52
saying, in the
27:54
Texas Senate race, James Trico
27:55
and Ken Paxton. I
27:57
mean, you'd have to be
27:58
brainless not to
27:59
see that Trico is a
28:00
decent man with
28:02
real
28:02
values, and Ken
28:03
Paxton is a
28:04
real criminal.
28:07
So I don't even know
28:08
what else to tell you.
28:10
Thank you to all the
28:11
"Colonel" level participants. By
28:13
the way, in no way am I
28:14
implying that
28:16
membership at the
28:17
Colonel level supports
28:18
any
28:19
political
28:20
candidate, right? But
28:22
John T., Kevin, Michael,
28:23
Rob, William, Al,
28:24
lieutenants, right?
28:26
Again, these
28:26
guys here
28:27
support me,
28:28
support what I
28:28
do. Thank you
28:29
guys for what you
28:30
do and see you
28:31
in the next issue.
28:32
See you later.