Afternoon Breaking Updates with Ben: Trump Convention Backfires — 9/10/26

22:46Jessica Tarlov:Yeah, well, I love that that's what you took from the book. And I would just add to it that none of that or efforting towards that goal means that you need to be a Pollyanna or mushy about your politics. And this isn't license for electeds to not be cutthroat. And I, you know, I have a podcast called Raging Moderates. Yes, we have the rage in there, but I've traditionally been towards the more the center of the party, center left for sure. Though us figuring out how this big tent works has, I think, pulled me a little bit to the left and in more ways than I expected, or at least understanding it better, which has been a very healthy exercise for me.

23:34Jessica Tarlov:But I disagree, and it ends on a path forward for our politics, complete with a platform that I think we can run on and win on. There's nothing mamby-pamby about it. So, yes, while we share these goals and this vision for what our time on earth is all about, which is, you know, so short in the grand scheme of things, it is also about maximizing good outcomes while we are here. And Democratic electeds and there's a Democratic administration, we have better outcomes. The economy performs better. we see this over and over again and they try to tell us no trickle down economics this is the best it's the best and it's like no actually you know when it was better because you all loved the clinton years and that was not trickle down economics so i just want to be clear it's not like a kiss your neighbor we're all going to be best friends and and think exactly the same thing It is a roadmap for building bravery to be better in these conversations and to be able to maximize the potential to get something out of them, to represent yourself better, and to also understand the person on the other side better.

24:57Jessica Tarlov:We have a listening problem in this country. We have a big listening deficit and we all want to be heard and we all want to be taken seriously. And I believe that there is a way to communicate to one another that is just a lot higher quality than where we are now. And that you can make an impression on the person that you are talking to, the group you're talking to. If you're someone who goes on podcasts or goes on TV, there is ample opportunity to disseminate a better message to the people out there about your values, your morals, your politics, and the way you see the world that won't feel threatening or that you're just constantly trying to undercut the other person.

25:47Jessica Tarlov:So that's what I disagree is.

25:50Ben Meiselas:Everybody, make sure you pre-order it right now. No matter what, make sure you go and get your copy of the book. I disagree when it comes out Tuesday, September 15th. My friend, Jessica Tarlov, the book's called I Disagree, Winning Arguments Without Losing Friends. We appreciate all the work you do, Jessica. And as you said, this was a interview long time in the making. Our audience always wanted to have you on. And there's so many other questions that I could ask. like i want to ask you about the south carolina race and that that's becoming very close and there are others there are others but why don't we save that for our next appearance uh when we have you back maybe next week or or the week as i would love that that would be fantastic jessica tarla everybody make sure you get your copy i disagree we'll put a link as well in the

26:41Jessica Tarlov:description below that's just amazing thank you it's great to see you let's take our first quick

26:47Ben Meiselas:break of the show.

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30:47Ben Meiselas:Sidenafil is the generic version of Viagra. Viagra is a registered trademark by Vietras Specialty, LLC. HIMSS is not affiliated with or endorsed by Vietras. Welcome back to Ben on Breaking News. What a great interview with Jessica Tarlov. Excited to have her back on the Midas Touch Network and getting her perspective as someone who dukes it out every day when she's the lone liberal voice at that table. And she does such an amazing job. And I've always been in awe of her great work and just how she handles the debates and the discussions and represents these issues very, very well. You know, I've been spending a lot of time here on the Midas Touch Network really since this Trump regime came back into power on international developments.

31:36Ben Meiselas:I mean, we started Midas Canada, gave the handoff to Charlie Angus to run with it. He's got full editorial control and handles the operations there. But we knew that we had to do outreach across the world because we saw that the forces of authoritarianism were international in scope. And we had to build a pro-democracy media network that was international in scope as well, forming and forging alliances all throughout the world. And, you know, we've been really in the weeds, which is where you need to be in our coverage of the various Trump wars. And there has been quite a lot of them that have taken place far from a peace president, far from someone who has not engaged in never ending wars.

32:23Ben Meiselas:He's been bringing the United States into all of these conflicts and making the world a far less safe and far less stable place, spending a lot of his time attacking our allies, destroying NATO, destroying America's soft and hard power, right? Destroying things like USAID, soft power, diplomacy, gutting the State Department. And then our hard power, we're out of weapons, we're out of munitions. The United States military has never been weaker. Our top generals and admirals have been purged. We have Hegseth, of all people, running the Defense Department, who spends more time mocking Canadian high school cadets and talking about, I don't know, injecting yourself with testosterone than being involved in the minutiae of war strategy.

33:12Ben Meiselas:And like, again, we should not be involved in these catastrophic wars. But also we need to reflect on if you're going to do it. I mean, are you going to do any planning or or no? You just want to talk about injecting yourself with testosterone. And we've been talking about how there's been a rapidly changing global world order that the U.S. security umbrella in the Middle East and Asia and Europe and elsewhere has pretty much all been destroyed. And fast forward, Donald Trump managed to achieve that. If you want to talk about achieving something, he's destroyed the U.S. created post-World War II architecture pretty damn quickly in its place.

33:49Ben Meiselas:We're seeing a multipolar world with China being the global hegemon right now. Putin feeling the ability to be more aggressive in his invasion of Ukraine and some of the other more surreptitious operations that are taking place across the world. And the Trump regime is out there. Donald Trump wakes up and he posts a meme of Venezuela. And that's his plan. 65 billion barrels, he claims, go into the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve, which we know is just completely false. This is what he does. He mocks in this relatively racist, xenophobic post his Saudi friends in OPEC. He mocks Canada over there.

34:29Ben Meiselas:He claims that 65 billion barrels are going to find their way into our salt caverns, even though Venezuelan oil doesn't even mix into our salt caverns. And the reality here and abroad is very bad, very, very bad for the for the United States. And I mean, even today, don't believe me, listen to Hunkow. Hunkow, the acting secretary of Navy. What has he said? He said, yeah, he admitted in an interview this morning that was just released. Yes, indeed, Iran did blow up the U.S. military base in Bahrain. Of course, we knew that because Bahrain is the main logistical center that feeds our aircraft carriers and our ships in the region.

35:15Ben Meiselas:It's where the ships used to dock. It's where our ships would get their supplies from. And early on in the war, Bahrain was not protected the way it needed to be. Iran knew you strike Bahrain, you can cut off a main logistical supply route to the U.S. Navy. They did that. And it was covered up by the Trump regime. Throughout the war, Iran was able to successfully strike U.S. military bases in the region, pretty much destroying all the U.S. military bases, right? From Bahrain to Jordan to the UAE to Kuwait to Airbiel Iraq to Al-Udeed in Qatar. These bases, multiple U.S. bases, one by one, Iran was picking off and they were destroying our aircrafts, our equipment, our helicopters were being destroyed.

36:08Ben Meiselas:I mean, we're talking billions and billions and billions. The true extent is still being covered up, just like the true extent of the casualty count is still being covered up. Stars and Stripes reporting this past week that 60 new casualties were added to the Pentagon public list. No statement from Hegseth or Trump, but 60 new additions to people who were injured in this catastrophic war. Although the Trump regime puts those 60 people on a different list, not the list of epic fury, because Trump says we want epic fury. This is miscellaneous conflict. And if you were injured and killed in miscellaneous conflict, you don't get benefits because Trump treats our veterans like absolute crap.

36:50Ben Meiselas:He did say that they are suckers and losers. And so throughout the world, you have Donald Trump degrading U.S. military capabilities. And when we zoom in to see what else is taking place with Iran's access of resistance, we've been very much focused on the Houthi advances in Yemen now. Just positioning themselves all the... Not sure what that was. But just to give you a little zoom out on Yemen right there, you have the Houthis, which is part of the access of resistance, Iran's access of resistance, Houthis, Hezbollah, Hamas, some groups in Somalia, some groups and militia groups in Iraq that are actually part of the Iraqi military.

37:42Ben Meiselas:Um, Yemen is controlled by kind of two main factions at this point. There is the kind of Iranian backed Houthis. Sana is their capital, uh, and they control much of Western Yemen, although they did not control Al-Mokha until today. Um, and then you have the Saudi backed government, which also gets some supplies from UAE and this kind of interesting coalition alliance that was existing in Yemen. They have their main base over in Aden. And there was this, you know, Yemen was kind of divided into these two main areas. And the Houthis did not really get involved that much in the war that Netanyahu and Trump launched on Iran, like overtly until really July, what happened in July, Saudi Arabia struck an air base in Sanaa, it's the capital of the Houthis control area of Yemen.

38:45Ben Meiselas:And then at that point for the Houthis, they were like, all right, game on, we're in a full fledged war now. Saudi Arabia did that because Iran was potentially giving supplies to the Houthis over there. Saudi Arabia thought that the U.S. had its back. So it said, look, we're going to project our power and strength because we're allied with the U.S. Look, MBS gave Donald Trump and Jared Kushner all of this money. They're going to have our back, right? So the Saudi-backed group in Yemen gets all of their forces from Saudi Arabia. They struck this airport in Sana 'a. That really led to the acceleration of the Houthis basically doing a blockade in the Red Sea, right?

39:32Ben Meiselas:In Western Yemen, you have the Red Sea. The Bab el-Mandab Strait is that area between looks like kind of Somalia over there and Yemen. And then you have the Iranian control over the Strait of Hormuz, the Persian Gulf, Gulf of Oman area over there. And so the Houthis in Yemen said, we're not going to let Saudi tankers get out of the Red Sea. And we saw all of those strikes taking place. And then the Houthis started to go on the offense. And I think they realized, wait a minute, wait a minute, the once mighty U.S. military lost to Iran. And if the U.S. military is losing to Iran and Saudi Arabia is getting its weapons from the U.S.

40:20military, wait a minute.

40:22Ben Meiselas:We can surely take on Saudi Arabia if the Saudi Arabian government is backing the government here in Yemen. So the Houthis felt emboldened by all of this. And not only that, but, you know, I know I'm getting in the weeds, but I think this is why you come to the Midas Touch Network for us getting in the weeds. The Houthis like Iran Shiite, but there are a lot of tribes in Yemen that are Sunni. Obviously, we know the clashes that have taken place between the Shia and the Sunni. But one of the things that we've seen now, you know, whereas the Sunni tribes may look and have natural allegiance to more Sunni run countries like a Saudi Arabia, say, they're seeing weakness now.

41:09Ben Meiselas:And they're seeing, whoa, it looks like the Trump regime and the United States are losing to Iran. And so they're now saying this could be a way to remove Western powers from having control and dominance over Yemen or over other areas in the Middle East. That's increasingly becoming part of the calculus in the area. And so a lot of the different Yemeni tribes are actually now welcoming the Houthis also. And when we saw the Houthis offensive that they were launching in a very short period of time, I mean, we're talking in the past 24 hours, they were able to move from Al-Khoka to Al-Moka, and now they're heading to Dubab.

41:59Ben Meiselas:They're also able to take over the Hanish Islands, this three or four island group in the Red Sea as well. And as they move closer to Dubab right there, right now the Houthis are about 60 kilometers from the Bab el-Mandab Strait. And they are moving quick. They're doing military parades in the area. And they're being greeted and welcomed into Al Mocha by the local people there. And so far, despite all of the military supplies that have been given by the United States to Saudi Arabia and Saudi Arabia to the Yemeni-backed government that Saudi Arabia is fighting against the Houthis, that's been no match for what the Houthis have been able to accomplish.

42:44Ben Meiselas:Now, CNN did a report before we went live where U.S. intelligence officials said that they believe there are hundreds of IRGC military officers currently in Yemen working with the Houthis who have been helping them with this offensive. Also, there appears to be more than 100 U.S. military advisors on the ground in Saudi Arabia, providing Saudi Arabia with intel and targeting support for the Saudi Arabian-backed proxy group there. And what we see happening right now in Yemen is the Iranian-aligned Houthis are winning, and they're winning big. What we also saw in the past 24 hours is the Saudi-backed a group claiming that it was having these major victories, saying it was going to take Sanaa, which is the Houthis capital.

43:36Ben Meiselas:And it was all bullshit. It was all lies. And they were saying that to try to project strength. And the Houthis called their bluff, maneuvered the troops in a way that was able to basically flank the Saudi back group who then retreated and they're in full retreat right now. And so what this could mean is with the Houthis now potentially fully controlling all of Western Yemen, that gives them even more control over the Bab el-Mandab Strait and the Red Sea. And this places Saudi Arabia, the monarchy, in grave danger as well, exposing their weakness, that their ability to subsist is dependent on the United States.

44:25Ben Meiselas:And if you think about the dynamic here, what Iran has always said is that we don't want to exist where we would have to be dependent on the United States or on Western powers. We have to build our own access. That's one of the main things, not just in the Trump regime, but just going back decades and decades and decades was clashing with U.S. foreign policy, which was controlling the region. That was always a major issue. But now what you're seeing actually be exposed is with the United States military so utterly degraded, it's like the dominoes are falling all throughout the Middle East. And so, yes, the big story today, the Houthis controlling much of Western Yemen, controlling MOCA, now on the march to Dubob, taking over the Hanish Islands, taking over all of these areas nearby, 1 ,500 kilometers controlled in the past 12 hours of additional territory.

45:25Ben Meiselas:The main question is, do they now march on Aden? Do they even need to march on Aden? Is that even a strategic imperative to now move east towards Aden when they control the areas that are in demand anyway? So that's, I think a question that will be answered shortly as well, which is the Saudi-backed government's kind of main area. But also, I think we're seeing a weakened Saudi monarchy. We're seeing a weakened Jordanian monarchy. One of the things that I note, and I showed this video, were the Jordanian people who were on the rooftops having dinner, and they were celebrating at the Iranian strikes on U.S.

46:08Ben Meiselas:military bases in the region. They were partying and celebrating and cheering on the Iranians destroying U.S. military bases. And then what does Donald Trump say? Ah, that never happened. None of our military bases were actually injured. None of it. It's all a lie. What did the Jordanian government say? Iran only shot 18 ballistics and we intercepted all of them. And then there were two that we didn't intercept, but they landed outside of the military bases. No issues. And then what do we learn about? Even CBS, which is its own form of regime media, what does CBS report? It was eight F-15s were damaged.

46:45Ben Meiselas:They said lightly damaged. How could you lightly damage an F-15? I think that someone clearly leaked this to CBS in order to put out some damage assessment so that there's some credible explanation, but they wanted to understate it. We've seen these videos of damaged Blackhawks leaving the region. And I've been showing, you know, today in my various videos, more satellite image showing Muwafik al-Salty base in Jordan, King Faisal base that were very significantly injured. And then we get the new casualty report of 60 more casualties that are added to the public database since August 31st. I mean, this Trump regime keeps covering stuff up there.

47:27Ben Meiselas:Remember Donald Trump's civil trial before this regime took power? Remember what the issue was? He lies about everything. He lies about numbers. He makes up numbers. Tragically, that's what our CENTCOM has become. And all of these lies, as I've said before, like with the reflecting pool, you know, you can paint it blue and you can blame this person or that person, but the algae always comes back. With the reflecting pool, it's just algae. And it's, you know, devastatingly, the Trump regime went after people like David Hearn and others and tried to like prosecute people and they're still trying to prosecute people, right?

48:01Ben Meiselas:But we're talking about a reflecting pool. You do those lies in geopolitical affairs and you weaken irreparably the United States. You put our service members' lives at risk with these heinous lies. That leads to our troops not being able to eat. It leads to the conditions we saw aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln. It leads to logistics being broken down like we saw after Bahrain was destroyed. OK, the algae always comes back. And when it comes with the United States military, that's deadly and that causes irreparable harm. And all of this, one, we want to make sure our service members are protected.

48:40Ben Meiselas:And so that's important in and of itself. But then also we want to make sure we always know that this is connected to the horrific economy here at home. Why do you think it is that the price of oil is going up the way it is to$107 a barrel,$110 a barrel, exactly where we predicted that the salt cavern is in danger of imploding? Right. Remember when the Trump regime said that the Iranian oil infrastructure back in April was about to just explode and be destroyed and it was all a lie. Our salt caverns are actually close because they're actually caves and we don't have the right amount anymore of petroleum and water mixture in there.

49:20Ben Meiselas:It could actually collapse and destroy forever our petroleum reserves. That's the situation there. It wouldn't shock me if that actually happens. And the inflation report, PPI inflation, what was it, 5.4 % today, came in hotter than expected. Tomorrow, CPI will certainly come in hotter than expected. Not hotter than we expected. We all know what we're paying right now. And all Donald Trump's going to do is lie and say, I'll give you$5 ,000. I'll give you$500. It's all utter lies. So thank you for allowing me to give that detailed overview of what's going on right now in Yemen with the Houthis, with the Saudi-backed government, Al-Mokha, the islands that are nearby.

50:06Ben Meiselas:I know that's a lot to take in, but I want to give you a full picture of what's happening right there. Let's take our last quick break of the show. When we come back, we've got a lot more to discuss. Let's take our last break of the show. are you tired of having a drink after a long day only to wake up hung over and bloated that's why i've been loving willie's thc infused social tonic willie's is a premium thc infused social tonic crafted by the legendary willie nelson and let's face it if there's anyone i trust to have the best cannabis it's willie it's an alcohol alternative that actually works in about 15 minutes you can feel a relaxing uplifting euphoric buzz without the hangover it's perfect for taking the edge off after work, winding down on a weeknight, or socializing without alcohol.

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52:15Ben Meiselas:Take control over your data and keep your private life private by signing up for Delete Me, now at a special discount for our listeners. Get 20 % off your Delete Me plan when you go to joindeleteme.com slash Midas and use promo code Midas at checkout. The only way to get 20 % off is to go to www.joindeleteme.com slash Midas and enter code Midas at checkout. That's www.joindeleteme.com slash Midas, code Midas, M-E-I-D-A-S. Welcome back to Ben on Breaking News. I'm Ben Micellis. This is your Breaking News. One more thanks to Jessica Tarlov for joining us here. Make sure you all get a copy of her new book.

53:03Ben Meiselas:I disagree winning arguments without losing friends. I'd love to have Jessica back on the show next week. I like having a sidekick, Ben, on breaking news. And I think Jessica is really one of the best out there. And it's such an honor to have her on the show. All right, let's talk about just the constant barrage of lies that Trump keeps on spewing. So yesterday, as he was heading to Texas for that Republican midterm convention, it looked right out of idiocracy. Donald Trump said oil prices are going to come down. But let me tell you when. Right after the election. That's when. I promise you this time.

53:44Ben Meiselas:I know I promised you that they were going to come down in March and then April and then May and then June and July and then August. But after the election, that's when he promises. Here, play this clip. But right after the election, oil prices are going to be tumbling downward. Tumbling downward. How convenient. What about the war? The war. Remember the war that you claim we won in March? When is that going to come to an end? When are you going to, when will the war be over, Donald? Because you've been saying that there's been deal, deal, deal, deal, deal. We've done a deal over here. So is the war going to be over soon?

54:22Ben Meiselas:He goes, I think the war will end immediately after the election. Got it. After the election. Ah, God. It's not even a good fraud. Not even a good. It's just it just it's just dumb. It's just really dumb at this point at all points. But here, play this clip. Oh, I think the war is going to end immediately after the election.

54:43Jessica Tarlov:I think the war will end immediately after the election. because they can't hold out any longer.

54:50Ben Meiselas:They're desperate to try and affect the election. Not only are they not desperate, they have improved the quality of their ballistics. They have also improved the quantity. They sufficiently, unlike the United States under the Trump regime, stored enough ballistics to last a very long time. And they're using these new Kasem ballistic missiles and these new Kybar shaken castle breakers that change direction in the air. They continue to strike tankers in the Strait of Hormuz. Everything that Trump's saying is a lie. We all know it. And he looks like a crazy person, man. But when we all watch him there, right, even the press is like, because why?

55:42Ben Meiselas:Why is it going to be over, Donald? Because because it will because they're running out of time that's why because because what do you mean this you told us in april they were going to surrender in may they were going to swear they're not going to surrender they feel and they would be right stronger than they were before this trump and net yahoo invasion took place it's the reality look at what's happening in yemen it's why i spent all that time talking about Yemen. They are part of Iran's alliance. Look at what's happening there. Look at what's happening in the region. It ain't the U.S. winning, that's for sure, but it's going to happen after the election, folks, after the election, okay?

56:31Ben Meiselas:Then we heard from MAGA Republican Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina. By the way, have you been following that other Senate race in South Carolina, between Darlene Graham and Annie Andrews, the Democratic candidate right there. Yeah, Dr. Annie Andrews. This is a neck and neck race. And folks, based on Democratic overperformance, I would not be shocked if in these midterms, you see a seat like South Carolina go Democrat. I would not be shocked because we've been seeing stuff like that happen in special elections all of the time. And I just think Americans, by and large, look at somebody like a Tim Scott or that Trump speech and they just go, I can't, I can't, I can't, I can't do.

57:23Ben Meiselas:Remember the example I gave with Jessica when I said, you know, look, just think about it. If you were a Met fan your whole life, and then the Met started saying horrible things about you, would you become a Yankee fan right away? Right? It's a little bit difficult to even do that, even if the Mets were saying, we hate you, we hate you, we hate you, we hate you. But eventually, it may break and you may go, God, I guess I get the point. Now imagine political allegiance and political ideology that, in theory, becomes every part of your fiber and being. And now you're trying to get out of that. It's not easy.

58:00Ben Meiselas:It's why when people look at American politics, like, how is this even possible? Because America has been divided for so many decades that people are entrenched and politics have been gamified. And you see all of the money that's poured into our politics to manipulate and distort before elections. That's why you get these outcomes. But I just think that we're in a new era right now where people are like, enough, enough. I mean, look, they see Tim Scott. What the hell was this? MAGA Republican Senator Tim Scott from South Carolina. Listen to what he had to say. Play this clip.

58:39Jessica Tarlov:Standing with our president, Donald J.

58:42Ben Meiselas:Trump. Stand for the president, Donald J. Trump. This is a battle for the heart of our nation. I said the heart of our nation. By the way, as I was recording, another vessel was struck in the Strait of Hormuz moments ago. We're sure I'll do a report on that later. Another tanker struck in the Strait of Hormuz. And, you know, this is what happens when you have like a loser in office. This is a political thing. You know, he's been a lifelong loser. He's been a lifelong liar. and we're seeing what that looks like when you have a loser and a liar as the commander-in-chief. It's why before the 2024 election, I was speaking so much about moral character and backgrounds of these people.

59:30Ben Meiselas:I'm like, look, this guy's a sexual predator. I'm not saying that to debate you. It's undisputed. He's been found civilly liable for sexual assault. It's undisputed fact. He was found liable for fraud separately in a criminal case. He's a convicted felon. He's a bad guy. He's a bad person and he loses. And now we all have to be losers because of this loser. And I think Americans are like, no, what are we doing here? And I don't see how it gets better anytime soon. Back in 2020, Biden won the election and Biden had to do difficult things to turn the ship around. And Biden got blamed for all of the stuff that Trump screwed up.

1:00:10Ben Meiselas:And the whole media machine, the whole MAGA media, they all went right after Biden. And Biden was all about bringing people together, kumbaya, let's get beyond this. And that just crushed him. But he had to clean the mess. And it took him four years, three and a half really, to clean it up. And then everything started trending in the right direction because he made the right moves. He listened to experts, Not on everything. Let's be clear. Not on everything. There are some major foreign policy problems. It's putting an understatement. But on the economy, inflation was heading to 2%. Manufacturing jobs were increasing.

1:00:45Ben Meiselas:We addressed the issue of semiconductor supply chains with the CHIPS Act. you had a lot of major legislation and he would have gotten comprehensive immigration reform passed, except Trump killed it. When Trump wasn't in office, he had all the MAGA Republicans block comprehensive immigration reform, which would have dealt with strong borders, which I do think most Americans want strong borders, me included, but we also want to have asylum seekers be treated with dignity. We want people who have been here for a long time and paying taxes and who have families and who contribute. We want them to be treated with dignity and to have a pathway to citizenship.

1:01:29Ben Meiselas:There's a way that businesses can benefit. People can be, human beings can be treated with dignity and we can enhance border control in the right way. And it's done in a way with dignity. Biden had a deal, but Trump destroyed the deal because that's what Trump does his whole time. He's a deal breaker. He's a deal destroyer. That would have actually been good. Anytime we try to solve problems, either Trump destroys it or his right-wing Supreme Court destroys it. Although for the very first time, the Supreme Court made a decent ruling, a good ruling today, upholding the right-wing Missouri Supreme Court's unanimous decision that the pre-gerrymandered maps before the MAGA Republican AG and MAGA Republican Secretary of State screwed with the Missouri maps and made it a seven to one when it was previously a six Republican, two Democratic seat, congressional seat state.

1:02:28Ben Meiselas:And what the Missouri Supreme Court said is you can change the maps, but you got to do a referendum and we'll do a referendum in November. And if the voters want a new map, let them vote on it the way they voted on it in California. They do a new map. That's what the Missouri Supreme Court said. And the MAGA-controlled Missouri legislature and AG and Secretary of State said, no, we're going to just push forward HB1, our own piece of legislation. We're going to push forward our own legislation and just do it. And then we're going to say, now you can't rule against us because we've already gone through a primary.

1:03:07Ben Meiselas:nothing you can do now. And the Missouri Supreme Courts, and not only that, right-wing Supreme Court, five right-wing justices, they said, nope, and we're going to hold the Secretary of State in contempt. And so they held the Secretary of State in contempt today until the Secretary of State finally said, and backed down and said, okay, we're going to put in the original maps that were supposed to be used for this election. But that was after the Supreme Court said that the Missouri state Supreme Court did the right thing in a seven to zero decision. But you had a Trump appointed district court judge and the Eighth Circuit before this went up to the Supreme Court.

1:03:48Ben Meiselas:The district court judge tried to overrule the Missouri state Supreme Court and based it on some bizarre interpretation of the Constitution, which says that elections are a time, place, and manner is a state's rights issue. But this Trump appointed judge is like, well, because the primaries already took place, then we're just going to say the constitution says you got to go forward with it just because, because primaries are important. I'm like, well, what are you basically just making up fake law? They were. The Trump appointed judge made up a fake law. The eighth circuit claimed we don't have jurisdiction.

1:04:29Ben Meiselas:And actually the United States Supreme Court made the right call and overruled the Trump appointed judge, overruled the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeal, and agreed with the state, the state Supreme Court, and said it's the old map, do your referendum, that's it. So actually a good development. And then let me just leave everybody with this as well. Donald Trump during his speech yesterday, he says that this has been the most successful two years economically in the history of the United States. One of his closing messages from last night, that this has been the most successful two years we've ever experienced.

1:05:08Ben Meiselas:Listen to what he has to say. Let's play. You four years of disaster, bedlam, and death under sleepy Joe Biden.

1:05:18Jessica Tarlov:And I'm asking you to let us finish the job we began with the greatest two years in the history of the presidency.

1:05:25Ben Meiselas:This has been the most successful two years financially and every other way in the history of the presidency. I mean, couldn't it be more false? And we all know it's more false. And here's the thing. When you looked at the crowd there, there were a lot of empty seats. The way they set up the stage, it really only utilized half of the stadium where the Dallas Mavericks play. So maybe there was 7 ,500 people, 7 ,000 people, you know, who were there, which, you know, people who are able to attract 7 ,000 people, you know, it is what it is. But I'll say this. I mean, the fact that there's still a group of people, I was watching the people behind him.

1:06:12Ben Meiselas:I was watching, it was mostly ladies behind him. And I think they set it up that way on purpose as well, especially as Trump is having more and more difficult issues with women voters, which he always had before. But he's having issues with all voters. But as I watch that and I'm thinking to myself, I know what the world is thinking about us, but how shameful for our country that this literal psycho, like you can't get much worse than this objectively. objectively, and I'm not saying this because I don't like the guy, which I don't. I'm not saying this because, you know, I think MAGA is a dangerous movement, which I do think, of course, it's a dangerous movement.

1:06:54Ben Meiselas:I'm just saying, objectively, as I'm recording this, September 10th, we're in a disaster. Objectively, we're in a disaster. There's no other way around it. It's not a talking point. It's not political messaging that I'm doing. It's just the reality. We're in a disaster. Gas prices, diesel prices, the price of crude, WTI and Brent losing this catastrophic war with seemingly no way out. More tankers being hit in the Strait of Vermeer every damn day. The Houthis now controlling mostly all of Yemen. China asserting itself more than ever before. The war rages on with Russia's invasion of Ukraine. The strikes are only escalating there.

1:07:38Ben Meiselas:It's going to be a very, very deadly autumn and winter there. That's for sure. You look around the world, there's chaos everywhere. The world is literally at war. Whether future historians will call this moment World War III, I leave that to them. But objectively, the world is in a war. Every country is somehow involved in some war right now, right across the entire world, which is exactly what Trump and MAGA were trying to warn about with Biden, which never actually happened. And health care has been ripped away from American people. More people's Medicaid will be lost after the midterms because the trigger for a lot of the Medicaid cuts happens after November.

1:08:26Ben Meiselas:and the Republicans set it up that way so they could try to claim, oh, well, it wasn't all that bad. No, it was that bad. And it's only going to get worse there. People can pay their rent. We're in a dire, I mean, objectively, we're in a dire situation. And he's out there saying it's amazing. And you still have people behind him, like they're watching Shamu catch a sardine in his mouth. And it's a very bizarre thing. It's a very bizarre thing to observe and a very strange phenomenon to observe that people can be treated like absolute horseshit and then smear it on their face and then cheer for the infected horse.

1:09:06Ben Meiselas:It's a very strange thing to observe. But the rest of the world, they don't see this. It was Governor Newsom who once said, Donald Trump is weakness masquerading as strength. To me, it's weakness masquerading as weirdness and weakness. And the world sees it. And they're like, got it. They don't know what they're doing anymore. They got rid of their top people. They're losers. They're a loser. That's how the world sees us now as a loser country, because all we do is lose. And all Trump does is post weird memes and make threats. And I'm going to do this and I'm going to do that. I'm going to go after you, Canada.

1:09:44Ben Meiselas:I'm going to go after you, UK. Falkland Island War. It's a nightmare. It is. And look, I think as we approach the midterms i think more and more americans see it for what it is i think um i think republicans are going to have a rude awakening in the midterms i think it's going to be way more of a wipeout than anybody expects just judging by these special elections and if you look at the trajectory of where things are going it's just just going to get worse sadly for this country right from here until then. And what the plan is, we're going to give you$5 ,000 and it's going to lie about giving you money and more bribes, more lying about bribing the American people.

1:10:29Sick, sick stuff.

1:10:31Ben Meiselas:We'll keep on reporting it every day. We'll keep delivering this breaking news. Keep checking back on our YouTube channel every 90 minutes for more breaking news. We appreciate you. We're grateful for you. Make sure you watch The Brother Show. check out Jessica Tarlob's new book. We love Jessica. We're so grateful for her to join me on the show and get our book too. You could get both books while you're doing books. WTF America is our book and Jessica's book is over there. Thanks everybody. Appreciate you. Shout out Midas Mighty. I'll see you on the brother show tonight. Thanks everybody. Want to stay plugged in?

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