MeidasTouch Full Podcast - 3/13/26

23:38Ben Meiselas:You've got China and Russia helping Iran right now destroy the U.S. world order, and they're doing an effective job at it, I might add. And Trump wants to go and meet Xi Jinping because Trump has this deranged vision of themselves standing there with Xi Jinping while the Chinese soldiers march in lockstep and Donald Trump can peacock and feel very tough next to Xi Jinping while they're all laughing at what a damn loser he is. And just as he said, oh, you know, everybody's laughing at us. Yeah. Literally everybody's laughing at us right now, by the way, I'll talk about Russia in a moment, but you want to see how they're laughing at us.

24:17Ben Meiselas:I'll just watch this cartoon that the Iranian embassy in the hague put out mocking donald trump's connections to epstein and i mean by the way when you watch this cartoon it is not too different from what donald trump actually said to the press like they actually kind of used donald trump's actual press interview and like yeah this is propaganda sure but they're actually using what donald the way donald trump is communicating with the press about killing the 165 little girls, little girls in Iran. And by the way, the Epstein class that did the Epstein war that spent decades being predators against little girls, the first thing they do in this war is kill little girls.

25:05Ben Meiselas:Should tell you a lot. It's consistent with their MO, their predators, and they're behaving as such. And now they've rallied everybody in Iran who could have been supportive, who may have been supportive against the U.S. and in favor of the Atollum. Watch this. Watch this ad or whatever. You're just mocking Trump. They're laughing at him. Watch what Iran's embassy in the Hague put out. Here, play this clip. We have no issue with civilians. Why did you attack them in an obstacle?

25:36Ben Meiselas:Go on. Lie, lie, lie, lie, lie. They ain't gonna be out here. We didn't hit them in our school. America doesn't have Tomahawk missiles at all. And they care deeply about the arrangement.

26:00Ben Meiselas:You see what it said at the end? Epstein? Now I'll show you all - Sign out Epstein's client for the audio listeners. Yeah. And I'll show you the one that China put out. Here's what China put out. Mocking Donald Trump's shields of the Americas. Here's one that China put out.

26:21Ben Meiselas:Oh, no.

26:23Brett Meiselas:Let me keep everyone safe.

26:25Ben Meiselas:Sounds great. Maybe not.

26:28Brett Meiselas:Now, there we go. Relax.

26:32Jordy Meiselas:Sometimes security comes with a little control.

26:35Ben Meiselas:That's what's going on. And by the way, if you want to watch Donald Trump's speech, I mean, I'll show you the speech that he gave in Kentucky where he says, epic fury. What a name. What a name. We're winning the war. We won. We won. It's over. We won. Really? I mean, okay. We can observe what is happening throughout the Middle East right now. Like we see the fact that Iran is using unmanned vessels, these UMVs to strike these ships. We see the residential properties in Kuwait and in Bahrain and all these other areas, UAE, that are getting hit. We see the frequency now of Iran striking northern Israel, also using these cluster munitions.

27:23Ben Meiselas:We see the French base being struck in Iraq. We see.

27:28Jordy Meiselas:Ben, Ben, Ben, Ben. It's not just we see it. They see it. They see it. And they're right there doing all these actions. They are seeing everything that happens. So when Trump goes out there and he just says all of these lies about what's happening on the ground in this war and says, we won, everything's going great. Ha ha ha. We're crushing them. It just makes us look weak. Like that gaslighting makes him look extra weak. And so I'll play this clip of Trump saying what Ben was saying. We won Operation Epic Fury because it just shows how weak Donald Trump is, how weak he's making the United States look and how he's putting our country in even further danger.

28:08Jordy Meiselas:Watch this.

28:11Brett Meiselas:Paducah.

28:15Brett Meiselas:And as we take decisive action to stop the threat posed by the terrorist regime in Iran with Operation Epic Fury.

28:33Brett Meiselas:Is that a great day? Well, it's only good if you win, you know. And we won. Let me tell you, we won. You know, you never like to say too early on, we want the best. In the first hour, it was over. I mean, just, I just hate this so much. I just hate, like, it is so comically stupid. Like, it is so beneath the office. It is so beneath what I grew up knowing this country to be. And it is so deeply upsetting on so many levels that he's out there acting like he's some WWE announcer. Sorry, Brad. I can't really interrupt, but I mean, just...

29:09Jordy Meiselas:What did you say last episode? Do you remember what you said? You said Donald Trump is going to have a mission accomplished moment. Yeah. Right. That's going to that's coming any any second now. And I said, dude, he's having a mission accomplished moment every time he opens his mouth or writes on Truth Social. And sure enough, that right there. I mean, he said we won. How much more of a mission accomplished moment do you have? Does he need the banner to be up as well? and those people around him to just be clapping there like seals. Like I know like the corporate media who says like, I need to treat these people with kid gloves and be like, oh, what happened?

29:46Jordy Meiselas:Oh, maybe perhaps you'll vote for a Democrat. Perhaps you'll not vote for Donald. Those people are freaking clowns. They do not think for themselves at all. They are mindless zombies who just do whatever the hell Donald Trump wants them to do. You know, there've already been polls released on these MAGA people and the MAGA people were polled prior to the strikes on Iran. And they asked, do you want Donald Trump to bomb Iran? Do you want to war with Iran? And it was like, you know, single day. It was like 17 % or something like it. It was very low numbers is my point. No, no, that wouldn't be America first.

30:20Jordy Meiselas:That would be a betrayal. Donald Trump does it and he goes, Operation Up Infuriory. And all those people go, yay. Yeah, and now those polls show like 80 plus percent of MAGA people now are pro-war. They now support this. And so it just shows you they their whole kind of anti-war, all their whole shtick is not based in anything. It's not grounded in morals. It's not grounded in values or principles. It's simply whatever is right there at the time that could help them help Donald Trump. It's whatever Donald Trump says they will regurgitate and they will use those topics as a cudgel to attack Donald Trump's opponents as saying, Oh, you're a warmonger.

31:02Jordy Meiselas:You're this, you're that. Remember those headlines back in the day where it was like Hillary the Hawk, Donald the Dove, like all these people buying in to Donald Trump's bullshit when time and time again, he just shows us that he is the opposite of everything that he tries to portray himself as on the campaign trail to these people. But these people just don't care. Like I said, they are brainless zombies who just applaud at anything. And I'm sick of treating these people like kid gloves with kid gloves.

31:30Ben Meiselas:Look, we're going to take our first quick break of the show. We've got a lot to discuss when we come back. One of the things that we do here at the Midas Touch Network, though, is we do a painstaking research into everything that's going on on the ground, country by country, city and town within each country to try to bring all of these connections and make these connections together. When we come back, I also want to talk about what was going down in Miami yesterday, where you had Yushikov and Kirill Dmitryov, the two top Russian envoys, meeting in Miami with Wyckoff and Kushner to discuss broader economic cooperation and alliances between the United States and Russia.

32:21Ben Meiselas:While Russia is openly supporting Iran against the United States, the Trump regime is meeting with Russia in Miami, in Miami, in South Beach, Miami, talking about doing economic deals together and further removing Russian sanctions. And Russia is making out like a bandit in this war, selling their oil to places they could never before rearming themselves after Ukraine has launched a successful counteroffensive. This is Putin's dream right now. This is Xi Jinping's dream right now. I think the one thing that they're just shocked about is just how quick it's come about. I think they knew it was coming, but I think they're like, whoa, like we just what do we do now?

33:11Ben Meiselas:Like this is kind of sped up a little bit quicker than we thought it was going to happen.

33:16Jordy Meiselas:But that's the reordering of the world right now. You ready for this stat right here, Ben? I just think this brings the point home. Russia is now making an extra 150 million dollars per day from its oil sales due to the rising prices. So the Russian government right now is set to receive up to$5 billion in extra revenue by the end of this month, all because of Donald Trump. So when Trump posts those those social posts that says, oh, oil, high oil prices, they're good now. We're all getting rich, right? We're getting rich. High oil price. Are we great now? High oil prices. Who's getting rich? Your oil baron friends and your Russian buddies.

33:55Jordy Meiselas:Those are the only people who are getting rich. It's just making the rest of us poorer. quick break. We'll be right back.

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37:41Brett Meiselas:Shout out to our sponsors. Links in description of both the YouTube and the audio. Use the links, use the codes. If there's an exit survey, let them know we sent you Benji really quickly. A few housekeeping notes. One, I really want this to be a celebratory episode too, because for the audio listeners and for the viewers here, I've been pushing to get to those 50 ,000 reviews and we hit them. We hit the 50 ,000 review mark on audio, but it just so happened to coincide with this really strange event that Brett touched on earlier in the episode where we don't know if it was a targeted thing. It seemed to only happen to our podcast, though, where the audio feed for the last 48 hours just was not loading new episodes.

38:16Brett Meiselas:So obviously during this time when we're trying to get out crucial information to as many people as possible, that's really an issue. And it's just the whole thing feels weird because here's another thing that I noticed, too. People were leaving comments, positive comments. Thank you guys so much who do that. But then they were also telling me that like fox news like a week before started targeting our show so let me just get out and and let you guys know we would never take their you know we would never be like yeah let's do a deal with foxes no they they targeted us we have no control over those you know those programmatic type ads the ones that we control are the ones that i read and so for the commenters who did that obviously never do that so i just wanted to clear that up and now a week after that you know our feed was just shut down something weird is definitely happening so please it just goes to say if you you haven't already, download the Midas Touch podcast wherever you listen to audio.

39:05Brett Meiselas:If you're an Apple user specifically, please leave a five star review and a comment. This whole thing is

39:11Jordy Meiselas:David Wright I'm not usually an audio listener like it's gonna be super helpful if you guys because we're gonna build this momentum back. So go to the Apple podcast app on your computer on your phone at the Midas Touch podcast, leave a five star review. It only takes a couple seconds. Listen to the latest episodes, it'll be a big help. And if you already do all of that stuff, share the show with a friend. Let's get back. We got to get this momentum back i was very upset to see that this information was not getting out there huge bummer huge bummer

39:36Ben Meiselas:benji let's get you next let's get into the news folks um so the uss gerald ford that big aircraft carrier there are two massive aircraft carriers right now that surround iran one is the abraham lincoln and the other is the gerald ford well the gerald ford had a pretty major fire on it earlier today. And apparently it originated in the laundry spaces. According to the Trump regime, it was quote, non-combat related, and it got contained relatively soon thereafter. Two sailors were being medically treated in this fire. And I think what's important to note is that this Gerald Ford ship, this aircraft carrier, it's$13.3 billion, one of the flagships of the American naval power in the Middle East.

40:27Ben Meiselas:It's also not meant to be deployed for the amount of time that has already been deployed already, nearly a year. So lots of the members of the Navy who are on this ship, they've missed weddings and births and funerals and key events. And so you may recall several weeks back before the war started, I was doing reports where I was talking about sources who were telling other kind of military families back at home how low the morale was. There's been problems with the plumbing, sewage leaks, like literally like the feces and the urine would kind of come out. They have to go and fix it. There's a lot of maintenance that are required on ships like this.

41:13Ben Meiselas:And Iran recognizes that in a war of attrition, this is a war that if they just continue to stretch it out and stretch it out, the wear and tear of the United States military relative to Iran's very kind of nimble and cheap weapons systems. They have expensive ones, but they also have the Shahi drones and the unmanned vessels. This asymmetrical warfare Trump didn't prepare for. And I think that's also a big learning lesson in the world. Why am I? I'm connecting that to the fire because, you know, you put a ship out there for a long time. Things go wrong naturally. Now, the Trump regime lies to us about everything.

41:54Ben Meiselas:So who knows what the real cause was? I don't think we'll necessarily get the true story. I don't really know. I'll just flag that to be clear. But you just put ships out there. Things are going to break. Pipes are going to burst. Fires are going to start. And people need to get home. They need to be with their families. You can't work people and grind people in these types of conditions. But the thing that this war is showing, though, is, you know, America has these billion dollar systems that they sell to countries. And this is what these Arab nations bought and what the Asian nations thought that they were getting.

42:28Ben Meiselas:these Patriot missiles, these THAAD systems, these really expensive military hardware, satellites, all this expensive stuff, these massive aircraft carriers, right? Billions of dollar systems with millions of dollar or tens of millions of dollar missiles, while Iran's using$20 ,000 Shahid drones that can be very deadly. And so if you watch some of these videos of these interceptors, right? You'll have, you'll shoot six interceptors at one$20 ,000 Shahid drone. Think about that. And then Iran's developed these missiles that are these cluster munitions that are more difficult for the Patriots and the FADs to strike.

43:15Ben Meiselas:So that's another development that I don't think the U S has been prepared for. Now we should have been prepared for it. We could have been prepared for it. We could have looked what was happening in Ukraine. That's the perfect example of the way asymmetrical warfare is being fought, right? Russia came in with their heavy artillery, their tanks, right, fighting a traditional military battle. And Ukraine, yes, they were using the javelins, and yes, they've been using a lot of, you know, American-made systems. But over time, what Ukraine learned is that this is a drone-based war, and Ukraine could manufacture all of these drones.

43:51Ben Meiselas:And then you have to build these anti-drone interceptors, which are basically drones. They're anti-drone drones, essentially, which are the interceptor anti-drones that then are used to stop the drones. There's also techniques that you use with this, like netting that's put over certain areas. Ukraine's figured out how you deal with it. last August, Zelensky tried to help Donald Trump and say, this is what's going to happen if this war would have raged on when he invaded Iran the first time. Here's what could have happened. Fortunately, it didn't because the war ended in 12 days or so. But here's what could happen.

44:29Ben Meiselas:We want to give you our technology. We need your help in Ukraine. Trump says no. And then Trump tried to bleed Ukraine dry of its resources to help Putin take over Ukraine. We all saw that. happened. So now, uh, Eric Trump has started a defense is an investor or he's been brought into this drone startup. They now want the Ukrainian technology. So Zalinski is trying to help, but Zalinski also wants protections as well and guarantees there, which is not clear that Trump is, is giving. So Zalinski is still trying to help. And while all of this is taking place, what's Donald Trump doing? Well, he has Whit cough and Kushner meet with Yushikov and Dmitryov, the two top Russian people.

45:14Ben Meiselas:And they meet in Miami where they talk about economic cooperation. Dmitryov and Yushikov and Kremlin state media, they put out, we're talking about big economic deals together, how U.S. and Russia could be more collaborative and work together. And we talked about removing more sanctions from Russia. At the same time, Russia is helping Iran publicly. Putin's out there saying, here's what we're doing. We're, we, we are helping Iran. We stand firmly with Iran. Putin's saying it publicly. And also we know from our intelligence, it's obvious that China is helping Iran. One of the signs that, you know, they're helping Iran is that the only ships that are leaving the Strait of Hermos are Iranian and Chinese ships.

46:02Ben Meiselas:Duh, what the hell do you think is going on there? Um, we should be aware. And China is testing its military equipment, in my opinion. Seems pretty obvious that that's what's happening, but I will I will count it as my opinion here by observing how this war is being fought. China is testing its potential invasion of Taiwan by providing this military equipment and resources and satellite imagery and coordinates to Iran and testing the U.S. capabilities and the ability of U.S. to guard Taiwan. And what China is learning, what Taiwan is learning, what Japan is learning, what South Korea is learning, what all these Gulf nations are learning is that the U.S., at least under Donald Trump and now for the foreseeable future, because Trump is so degraded in our military, is incapable of protecting allies.

46:58Ben Meiselas:And the whole system was based on U.S. being the unquestioned national power that nobody can touch. You know, we're$37 trillion in debt by the time this Trump regime's over. It'll probably be closer to$60 trillion. The first Trump administration put on 25 to 30 percent of all of our national debt. So I think the number, I always said I thought the number would be significantly higher this time around. And it's heading there. So you may ask, well, how does the system function with that much debt? Well, the U.S. can just print money. And based on the full faith and credit of the United States and our Treasury Department and the fact that we basically have limitless buyers or did of our bonds, right, we continue to have very successful Treasury bond sales and other countries would put their money and pour their money into the U.S.

47:55Ben Meiselas:The U.S. dollar was unquestionably the currency of the world. The U.S. is the place you park your money. And so we can continue on this, even though it was, you know, I think destroying the future of generations because we've got to pay a trillion dollars in interest on the on the notes alone, on our debt alone. You can continue the Ponzi scheme. But like any Ponzi scheme, Trump's passed Ponzi scheme, Bernie Madoff Ponzi scheme, Enron, though not a Ponzi scheme, when they cook the books. At some point when you discover that the there there is not there and that there is no there there, the parallel paths of the financial mechanisms were tied to national strength.

48:40Ben Meiselas:And when you degrade the national strength, you degrade the financial mechanisms. As I said, pay for play. The people who pay expect you to play. But if you know Donald Trump's entire life, he would defraud. So exactly what he did with his note holders and the contractors and everybody who worked for him. Now his protection racket was exposed as an utter fraud. And that now seeps into the financial markets. And seep would be doing a lot of work there. Tsunamis into the financial market because these are interconnected principles. So I think that's important in not getting enough attention. Brett Drury.

49:18Jordy Meiselas:yeah i think that's all you know very important information and you know i would add you brought up the ponzi scheme analogy and the end result of any ponzi scheme eventually is that the chickens come home to roost eventually the scheme falls apart you're backed into a corner you're unable to actually continue and keep the ponzi scheme going and i i fear not for donald trump's sake but i fear for our sake that we are kind of in that moment right now i mean trump is completely backed into a corner. I saw earlier today the foreign minister of Iran write this message, and I would love to brush this off as just, this is just propaganda coming from the Iranian regime.

49:58Jordy Meiselas:They're lying. This is BS. But we know that everything he's saying here is actually just like is true. I'll bring up the statement from Syed Abbas Arachi. It says, factual knowledge matters. Case one, Iran's proposal to ensure no nuclear weapons was dismissed because U.S. counterparts didn't grasp the technical details. Case two, Americans won't make money from surging oil prices and tariffs. They enrich corporations and crush households. And in case two, he is quoting Donald Trump when Trump tried to frame increasing oil prices as a good thing, and Americans are going to make money from higher oil prices.

50:34Jordy Meiselas:I mean, how stupid is that? And I want to go back to case one for a second, where he says Iran's proposal to ensure no nuclear weapons was dismissed because U.S. counterparts did not grasp the technical details. Why do I want to go back to that? Because before, Ben mentioned what happened in Miami this week, which was that Jared Kushner and Steve Whitcoff met with the Russians about all this stuff. And those same two individuals, Jared Kushner and Whitcoff, were the same people who were meeting with the Iranians. In a lot of ways, they are to blame for this whole thing happening and all this falling apart.

51:07Jordy Meiselas:We remember that one day right before the strikes, I think it was like hours before the strikes, there was the Omani mediator who went on TV in a very unusual fashion because I think he saw what was happening behind the scenes. And he made clear that what was offered to, and this was an independent person who was put in as a mediator who was agreed to by the United States. So this isn't somebody who was like an Iranian person or whatever. And he said that the Iranian regime was willing to give Donald Trump basically all of their terms, that they were willing to make sure that they weren't building any nuclear weapons.

51:42Jordy Meiselas:They were willing to go even much further than they went during the Obama nuclear deal that Donald Trump tore up, and that has led us to where we are today. But now here we are. Whatever happened in those meetings, I don't know if Whitcoff and Kushner lied to Donald Trump about what happened in those meetings. I don't know if Whitcoff and Kushner did not understand what was being offered at those meetings. But whatever happened there, ultimately, the bombing obviously started and the war began. And now the entire world is in utter chaos over this. And to me, just as a layman in this whole thing, you wonder, how are you supposed to get this train back on the tracks, metaphorically speaking, if while you were trying to negotiate the deal is when you started the war, when you attacked the mediators, when you blew up the people you were trying to make the deals with.

52:33Jordy Meiselas:You think people are going to be so excited to get in a room with you and try to hash this out again when last time they did that, you killed them in the middle of it. I mean, you put yourself and that's like a war crime, by the way. So you've now put yourself in this situation where how do you even end this thing? And you cause so much damage to a nation that referring to Iran here that wants so much retribution and has such a religious history, too, with its leaders that now you have stoked something in these people that didn't even exist before. So you basically, these Iranian protesters who were out there, these pro-democracy protesters, they were in the streets and you said, go in the streets.

53:14Jordy Meiselas:We're the United States. We will have your back. All you ended up doing, Donald Trump, was you led those people to slaughter. They went in the streets and you did not have their back. And then the second you decided to show up, months after the fact, the first thing you do is you bomb a children's school and kill more than 165 little girls. And then you want them to say, oh, this is the person who's going to keep me safe. And as Ben mentioned kind of fleetingly earlier, what the BBC is now reporting is that a lot of those people who were actually hoping that the United States would do something to help after seeing the United States' actions in the region are now saying, oh, we can't trust the United States at all to help us.

53:58Jordy Meiselas:In fact, we're probably safer with the regime or somebody else because the United States right now is killing us. They're killing our families. They're causing chaos. I look up and it's nuclear. It's acid rain and looks like hell and fury, all the things that Donald Trump says. And so it's just a very, very precarious situation right now. And that's why throughout our history, even with people I vehemently disagreed with, you at least felt like there was some strategy, some plan that they were following intelligence and had specific knowledge about what to do. with these people, it feels like they just think it's the whole thing's like a video game.

54:38Jordy Meiselas:And they're just pressing buttons and seeing what happens. And then they're adjusting based on what happened. And you even see that in the, we showed you the propaganda videos from the Iranian regime and the Chinese government before the United States is doing that as well. And all of theirs are like so juvenile. They're posting clips of like Grand Theft Auto mixed with war footage or Nintendo Wii clips mixed with war footage. The same video game. American soldiers Rangers are dying. Americans are being targeted at home. Innocent Iranians are dying. Innocent people in Lebanon are dying. Innocent people in Israel are dying.

55:11Jordy Meiselas:And it's all because of Donald Trump and Bibi Netanyahu.

55:14Ben Meiselas:And just before you go, just brought to your point on the differences in the propaganda, what Iran and China are focusing on is framing the US as the predator nation, attacking others, right? Attacking Manab, you know, and then calling Trump like the Epstein client. the Chinese one, Donald Trump, exploiting the doves or the pigeons who were the nations in Central America, South America, Mexico and the Caribbean. Then the Trump propaganda plays right into it. Right. The Trump propaganda is them bombing things, blowing things up and then treating it like a video game and saying touchdown while people die.

55:58Ben Meiselas:And so it's important we recognize propaganda techniques because it is part of warfare. But notice what's happening, how Trump is even executing the propaganda terribly, literally spiking the football and videos, actually doing that.

56:15Jordy Meiselas:It's like his propaganda, though, in the United States, right? He appeals. What does he always try to appeal to? Broader the United States, everybody try to bring unity to the country. No, he tries to play specifically to his MAGA base. And so when he's doing this propaganda right now, he's once again trying to play specifically to people who are like, yeah, blow shit up, Team America, fuck yeah, you know that? Those are the people he's trying to play with. When the Iranian propaganda, and don't misconstrue this for support of the Iranian regime in any way whatsoever, I don't want anybody to get it twisted, but the Iranian propaganda is actually playing to things that Americans care about.

56:53Jordy Meiselas:They're actually quite smart, and they're thinking about this in a sophisticated way. The way they're talking about how this is going to make your gas prices more or your oil prices more. The way they're talking about Donald Trump as part of the Epstein class and Epstein's client. I mean, they know exactly what they're doing with that kind of messaging. And Donald Trump's messaging, like Ben said, is just playing in to their biggest caricature of what this government is in the United States. And that's because that caricature of what this government is in the United States is accurate

57:25Brett Meiselas:The Trump regime is full of two types of people in my opinion smart people trying to play dumb and Dumb people trying to play smart and in my opinion that that's the most dangerous combination of it You see that these people have one agenda to keep dear leader Donald Trump happy and do his bidding no matter the cost. Donald Trump was born halfway between third base and home plate with a silver spoon in his mouth. He's not some great negotiator. He's not some great businessman. He had daddy's money. He had daddy's money and connection, and he failed at everything he's doing. He's failed at everything he did, and he's failed at everything he's doing now.

58:08Brett Meiselas:And it just so happens now he's the president of the United States and his losses aren't monetary losses or business losses. He's bankrupting the country and he's getting American soldiers killed. He's getting American soldiers killed. I mean, I could just keep shouting at and shouting at it. It should just disgust all of us. He got us into a war that we did not need to be in. He got us into this and he's getting American soldiers killed and he's raising the prices here in America on a daily basis. It is impacting the Americans wallets as our soldiers are dying. Like to me, it's the be all end all of just idiocy.

58:44Brett Meiselas:And the worst of the worst of what could happen is literally happening. And in my gut, I just know, I just know it's going to keep getting worse. Like we are just that we're just at the start. He's going to declare victory every day for the, I guess, until his presidency ends on this thing. And it's just going to get worse. And so I just want to caution our viewers here. Like we need to the collective, we need to be in this together for the long haul here and call all of this bullshit out because it's going to get tiresome. Like it just is. But again, American troops are dying because of this buffoon in the White House because he's too stupid to figure out what the hell he's doing.

59:23Ben Meiselas:Yeah. You know, one of the things I'll just note as well, Brett, to your point, the various propaganda campaigns, you know, Donald Trump's out there in Kentucky or Cincinnati screaming off the top of his lungs, saying the most like heinous and outrageous and disgusting things. I mean, there was, there's one clip where he talks about, and I said, why did we kill the Navy? You know, we killed a ship, the Dena. We blew up a ship called the Dena leaving the Indian parade and the Indian parade in India, they made sure, Modi made sure they were unarmed when they entered the parade. It was like an international parade.

1:00:02Ben Meiselas:and we blew up this ship to Denna with a torpedo and killed, again, so many people and let the people drown. And part of the maritime was you have to help them. And Trump's like, so I said, why do we kill them? Let's just make them part of our Navy. And you know what the generals told me? It's more fun to kill them. It's more fun to kill. That's what Trump is saying. So that's the messages that he's putting out into the world. And then on the other hand, you have, you know, when I watch, like, what are the Iranian foreign ministers saying and what are, you know, their national security, right?

1:00:40Ben Meiselas:They intentionally do this. This is part of their plan. But they're acting with intentionality. Like, that's the thing. They have a strategy. It's obvious to me what their strategy is. and trump has no and their strategy is they put people wearing suits because you don't even think that and they're very calm in their delivery like almost very soft with their voice and they go well look we are trying to do all of this and here's what we like to do but however he keeps blowing up the elementary schools and you know we would love to have regional stability and they're talking in ways you would never expect because let's face let's be honest right let's talk angely like what

1:01:15Jordy Meiselas:what people are expecting when they open those videos for people to be like, to America and like screaming and shouting. But instead it's not like that at all. But when you listen to Donald Trump, that's like what he's saying about them. So he's delivering them the propaganda that they need and is making this so much worse. And I'd be remiss if I didn't at least close out this conversation by mentioning or taking a little step back and saying, why was Donald Trump in Kentucky in the first place? Why was he there of all places campaigning? Oh, he was there because he was supporting the primary challenger to Republican Representative Thomas Massey.

1:01:56Jordy Meiselas:And why was he supporting Representative Thomas Massey's Republican challenger? Because Representative Massey led the charge with Representative Roe Kama to get the Epstein files released. Not exactly beating the accusations there, Donald. Listen, we got a lot more to speak about on this episode of the Midas Touch podcast. I want to thank everybody for tuning in. It's going to be a quick break. I want to remind everybody we had those issues with the Apple podcast where they were not. They were blocking our podcast the last few days. We're finally fixed up, but we need help getting back up the charts.

1:02:28Jordy Meiselas:If you had issues, if you didn't have issues, if you're an audio listener, if you're not, go on Apple podcast, add the show, leave a five-star review, help us bounce back. We refuse to be silenced by big tech or these apps, and we need to get this information out there. Subscribe to us on Substack and all other platforms. Our Substack is MidasPlus.com. We've got great recaps every single day there. And obviously, be sure to check out the Midas Touch store. We've got some great merch there for you. Okay, last quick break of the show. Don't go anywhere.

1:03:00Brett Meiselas:Our next partner is for the person who always says, don't get me anything. This podcast is sponsored by BookByAnyone.com. BookByAnyone.com lets you create a fully personalized generated book where your friend, partner, or family member is the main character in a wild sci-fi, fantasy, thriller story, or even a nonfiction book about themselves. This is not a novelty pamphlet. It's a professionally printed hardcover book with over 200 pages of completely original content. I recently bought a book from Booked by Anyone for my wife and my son, and they absolutely loved it. My book is titled The Basketball Hoax, and it's about a podcast host, Jordy Mysellas, discovering his dog Mello's hidden basketball talents.

1:03:41Brett Meiselas:It's a stitch, and I've had so much fun reading this with my wife and son. They love it, too. So how do you make a book from Booked by Anyone? It's simple and fun. You head to BookByAnyone.com, answer a few questions about the person, pick a book idea and cover, and BookByAnyone.com does the rest. It literally takes two minutes and you have a professionally printed book on your choice of paperback or hardcover. I'm a fan of BookByAnyone because it really is the perfect gift for those folks who just always say, yeah, I don't know what I want. This is perfect for them. Plus, BookByAnyone has printed over 450 ,000 books, so you can trust that they make a quality product.

1:04:18Brett Meiselas:And shipping is always free, so you can get the best book at the best price. For a gift that's truly unforgettable, head to bookbyanyone.com, order your book today, and enjoy free shipping at bookbyanyone.com. One last time, that's bookbyanyone.com. The Midas Touch podcast is brought to you by the Freedom From Religion Foundation. What we're seeing right now is a coordinated effort to replace democracy with Christian nationalism. That's not hyperbole. It's policy. Prayer in public schools, religious exemptions to civil rights laws, judges signaling that church-state separation is optional. The Freedom From Religion Foundation is fighting back, in courtrooms, in legislatures, and on the front lines of the Constitution.

1:05:03Brett Meiselas:This isn't about attacking religion. It's about defending freedom for everyone. If you're tired of extremists hijacking faith to strip rights, well, stand up. Visit FFRF.us slash Midas or text Midas to 511-511 to learn more and join. Go to FFRF.us slash Midas or text M-E-I-D-A-S to 511-511 and help protect a country that belongs to all of us. Go to ffrf.us slash Midas or text Midas to 511511 today and help protect a country that belongs to all of us. Remember to text Midas to 511511 today. Message and data rates may apply.

1:05:52Brett Meiselas:Shout out to our sponsors. Links in description of YouTube and the audio. Use the links. Use the codes. If there's an exit survey, let them know we sent you. Benji, before I toss it to you. So that's because I guess that's becoming a little bit of a thing online is is when we come back from break When I when I say that because a couple people in my DMs on threads and in blue sky They were repeating that verbatim like just trying to poke fun of me So hey we have fun here with the Midas mighty is a fun community. So I see it. I laugh you guys are hilarious Benji

1:06:22Ben Meiselas:Where to next where to treasury secretary? Scott Besant this was all our plan We knew the Strait of Hormuz, Hormuz was going to be closed. We knew it. That's how we knew all of this was going to. This is what we wanted. It's going exactly as planned. You're watching for yourself. Let's play this clip.

1:06:48Brett Meiselas:You starting to think if this does keep persisting as it is, that the Navy has to go into the Strait of Hormuz to help ships get through, which would have a big effect on it. Look, that was always in our planning that there's a chance that U.S. Navy or perhaps an international coalition will be escorting oil tankers through. There are, in fact, tankers coming through now, Iranian tankers. I believe some Chinese flag tankers have come through, so we know that they not mind the straits. And was that what you were just discussing in the situation room? We were discussing a plethora of things. And is it your belief that the volume of ships going through the Strait of Formos will be improving immediately from now?

1:07:38Brett Meiselas:My belief that as soon as it is militarily possible, the U.S. Navy, perhaps with an international coalition, will be escorting vessels through. Well, plethora.

1:07:54Jordy Meiselas:He didn't say plethora, he said plethora.

1:07:56Ben Meiselas:Real quick.

1:08:07Brett Meiselas:Real quick, I need everyone to Google Edgar from Men in Black, because that is a dead ringer for who he reminds me of. The dude is just so uncomfortable in his own skin because he knows he knows what he's doing is wrong. Like in his heart, I truly believe that it's what I used to say with McCarthy. When he would speak, it sounded like his soul was leaving his body. That's the same exact vibes that I get there, Ben.

1:08:32Jordy Meiselas:Well, you get a plethora of cultural references. You always expect that from Geordi. And now let me give you a plethora of facts because the reporting shows that the United States was woefully unprepared for the closure of the Strait of Hormuz. It was not something that they had anticipated or expected. It was basically considered to be like the nuclear option. I feel like it's a regrettable phrase to use in the case of war. But you know what I mean. This was like Iran pulling out all the stops. I remember Pentagon officials told CNN before all of this happened, they were like, Iran would never, they would never close, fully close the Strait of Hormuz because that would be devastating.

1:09:12Jordy Meiselas:And they couldn't take that. So that's never going to happen. Well, no, they understood how devastating it would be to the global economy. And it's part of their strategy is to kind of completely destroy the United States and the global economy by doing exactly what they were doing right now. So you have Scott Besson in the line there, and you have also Scott Besson saying things which are just so irresponsible. First, you saw the comments we showed briefly earlier where Scott Besson was like, he said this to Sky News, he said, well, maybe an international coalition could protect church. If only we had an international coalition.

1:09:48Jordy Meiselas:Yeah, you're supposed to get the international coalition together before you go to war, and you're not supposed to threaten all the partners that would be in that coalition with invading them. You're not supposed to threaten Greenland. You're not supposed to constantly threaten the UK and Spain and Mexico and you name it. Donald Canada, Donald Trump has spent all of his time threatening all of our allies and isolating the United States and turning America first into America alone. And now he expects that people are going to solve all of his problems for him. The whole thing is insane. Then there was this other comment by Scott Besson that I think is worth flagging where Scott Besson, when he was asked if rising costs would ever lead him to tell Donald Trump that the war is no longer affordable, he firmly responded to Sky News, absolutely not.

1:10:35Jordy Meiselas:And this right here is the danger of having only yes men surrounding you. To me, a good leader should have people who aren't there to try to cause confrontation, but people who are able to get in there and say, you know what, I have a different opinion on that. Or, you know what? I've looked at the impacts that these actions right now are having on our economy and the world economy. And if this thing lasts a couple more weeks, this is going to be devastating. We're talking a recession, if not a depression. So we better figure this stuff out right now. No, not doing that. Instead, all they want to do is say things that affirm Donald Trump's own beliefs, which is why we are here right now.

1:11:16Let's talk about what went down in the White House,

1:11:19Ben Meiselas:though, because this is the time where, you know, you would think about what like Truman's radio addresses or FDR addressing the nation, right? Or, uh, commander in chief commanding and really explaining whether it's fireside chats or level-headed explaining to the American people, here's what's going on, right? Here are the issues that we're confronting. But what went down in the White House was yet again Melania took center stage. Remember two weeks ago when the war started, Melania was leading the United Nations Security Council on behalf of the United States. She was placed as the U.S. representative and she led the discussions on behalf of the U.S.

1:12:07Ben Meiselas:While we were at war, while we were beginning this disastrous and awful war, Well, today Melania was also leading the discussions and she talked about how great she was and how, uh, what a visionary she was. And she was like, yeah, I won't do the Melania accent. I don't know if that's offensive or not. I'll just do it.

1:12:29Brett Meiselas:Do it. Okay. Let me do the accent. Go full accent.

1:12:32Ben Meiselas:Do your Melania then follow it up with your RFK.

1:12:34Jordy Meiselas:Boom, boom, boom. Yeah. Definitely fought.

1:12:36Ben Meiselas:Melania, RFK, and then I'll accentuate Besson and then we'll see if I still I'm able to have a job. We'll see. We'll see what that is. It's a plethora of accents. Plethora. Plethora. You know, I'll test one's cancellation on Besant where I come close to the line. And then I do Melania where I'll probably... But I think the shot in Chaser, with all of his offensive, when I do my Lutnik, I think it's like a men in black one, to use your example, Jory, and everybody's so transfixed by, He's disgusting and I would never go to such an island. It disgusts me. Well, Howard Lutnick, you were on Epstein Island?

1:13:19Ben Meiselas:Yeah. Who were you there with? My kids. Why? I brought my kids to Epstein Island. 16, 13, 12, 11. Oh, really? You think that's a good thing? Yeah. What else did you do? I brought my friends' kids. So you and a bunch of kids went to open your case. Yeah. Yeah. But you told the everybody that you never spoke to him again after 2005. Yeah. Okay. Do we go to that's bad that you shouldn't be the commerce secretary. Let me explain to you.

1:13:58Jordy Meiselas:I'm happy to report. You've not been canceled yet. A lot of people, you know, a lot of people, you got a lot of people encouraging. Let me just say, let me just say, let me say. You have a lot of people encouraging you right now, who are saying, Ben, do it. We want to hear the art. I don't know how to do it.

1:14:13Ben Meiselas:I was like, I am a... Wait. But then you have people like Michael Arsenaar who says, please don't. I'm not going to do it. I'm just playing the money. All right.

1:14:23Brett Meiselas:As a visionary, I know success is not born overnight, but rather take shape after a long and sometimes challenging process. Often alone at the top, I follow my passion, listen to my instinct, and always maintain a laser focus. In solitude, my creative mind dances, filling my imagination with originality. Attention to detail, demanding schedules, and multitasking are everyday realities when building towards success. The principle resonates across all my roles as a mother, humanitarian, philanthropist, and entrepreneur.

1:15:11Jordy Meiselas:Wait, wait, did she start that by saying as a visionary? Can we just play the beginning of that one more time?

1:15:20Brett Meiselas:There's no way she started that saying. She started it with as a visionary.

1:15:24Jordy Meiselas:I think somebody typed that, I mean, I think all of Her speeches are written with ChatGPT or she steals them from other people. This, I think, was pure ChatGPT. Just play it. Just play it.

1:15:34Ben Meiselas:Just play it. Just play it. Just play it. Just play it. Just play it. Just play it. Just play it. Just play it. As a visionary.

1:15:37Jordy Meiselas:Okay. Ready?

1:15:38Brett Meiselas:As a visionary, I know success is not born overnight, but rather take shape after a long and sometimes challenging process. Often alone at the top, I follow my passion.

1:15:54Jordy Meiselas:Often alone at the top. Listen, it is so hard to be this ridiculously good-looking and smart. And listen, being such a great podcast host, like the number one podcast host in the world, you know, it's tough, but I'm happy to tell all of you people what it's like, you know, just being so great and handsome and good-looking and intelligent. And I'm such a good athlete, and I should be a model. But I could tell you, though, what you should be doing if you want to be at the top like me.

1:16:24Ben Meiselas:I'm just as a visionary as a visionary. It was very difficult for me to go to the Kit Kat Club

1:16:32Brett Meiselas:and meet Donald Trump in the late 90s. Yeah, you know how people like sell courses like the Instagram, like influencers. So I feel like she's getting ready to sell me a course. It's a visionary.

1:16:45Ben Meiselas:Paolo Zampoli told me, you know, the wealthy man in Manhattan are, you go to the Kit Kat Club. And so I went to the Kit Kat. It was very beautiful. And I met Donald at the Kit Kat. The lights, the glamour. And I met him. He was on a date. And he said, you, you are the one, Melania. And then I met Jeffrey Epstein and Zilay Maxwell. And I said, hey, G, you are incredible. And you're, and you're, that spread of you and Jeffrey Epstein in New York Magazine. Amazing. Amazing. Jeffrey Epstein looked great. You look beautiful in the photos. To which Zilay responded to me and said, hey, sweet pea, I'm too busy for you.

1:17:35Ben Meiselas:right now sweet pea but i will see you again in minhattan soon am i canceled just give me a no i think you're good i think i see a plethora of positive comments and by the way that was a real

1:17:51Jordy Meiselas:email i think that was like yeah that was email one of the funny things is like we know that was actually the email that i read that was said i also appreciate that like i know we know milani's

1:18:01Ben Meiselas:people like watch the show sure we're not saying anything bad about her so hey hope you oh i'm just gonna say this everything well look i mean that's the email described the email to the best of my ability and also pursuant to the first amendment of the united states i'm sharing my opinion speech and clearly there was also parity mixed with opinion based upon my accent so both a humor exception as well as an opinion exception and also the factual exception as well as it relates to those portions there. Thanks with views. They go and play the clip and it's me, you know, sitting in a way. What if we just played the clip and it was you in a wig doing the impression.

1:18:43Ben Meiselas:Are you trying to roll us back into real stuff? Oh, wait, I was going to talk about real stuff. Sorry. Okay. But I do want to talk about this. Coded language by the Air Force General Grankowicz. This is all seriousness now. At the Senate hearing, I want to cue you in on the language that was being used because there were things happening at different levels right here. So this top Air Force general, who's now the United States Supreme Allied Commander in Europe, is actually a really good guy. Like, I'm not just saying, like, you know, he's been someone who's been dedicated to service his entire life.

1:19:24Ben Meiselas:He was an Air Force pilot. He climbed the ranks and he's doing his best to help Ukraine and to help keep NATO. I follow him in the various moves. I watched his speech in Sweden. If you watch the Mind is Touch Network, you know that I actually cover Grankowicz a lot because I'm trying to see who's trying to just keep this all together right now in the face of Donald Trump trying to break everything. And he's trying to keep it together. So the first one of the first clips I want to show you is where he talks about how what he's observed as an Air Force pilot is that when you attack civilian populations and you bomb them in airstrikes and you hit civilians and you miss military targets, you harden the resolve of the people.

1:20:13Ben Meiselas:This is a red alert that he's actually telling the Senate and specifically the intelligence community. He's delivering a coded or not so coded message that this is not going well right now. And he's limited in what he can say because he doesn't want to get fired. And this is why there's this dance going on between the way the Senate is asking him the questions and how he's answering. So let's play this first clip of him saying that. Let's play it.

1:20:41Brett Meiselas:In the war, and what I've observed over the course of studying air power in history is that anytime you attack a civilian population, you usually end up finding that it just hardens their resolve. We take this all the way back to the London blitz of World War II. The Brits just had to step up their lip and kept on fighting. And I think that's what we've seen in Ukraine as well.

1:21:02Ben Meiselas:And he's using the examples of the Brits and Ukraine, though, to talk about what's happening with the Iranian people right now as well, and how it is actually causing them to coalesce around the Ayatollah. And he's giving these historical examples where to try to make it make sense where Ukraine and the Brits were under attack. Here he is again when he's asked by the Democratic senator about how the oil prices going up have benefited Russia. I want you to listen, though. I'm going to cue you in on some of this coded language here as well.

1:21:40Jordy Meiselas:One of the unexpected beneficiaries of our operations in Iran has been Russia. The price of gas has increased dramatically, which benefits their economy at a point where their economy was suffering

1:21:57Brett Meiselas:after multiple years of warfare. We've, in fact, lifted sanctions on the delivery of the oil with India and other countries. We are now in a position where we must send missiles, particularly Patriot, to the Gulf area to replenish our supplies rather than to provide them to Ukrainians. This all seems to be a situation where Putin is benefiting dramatically. Is that your perception that this has unexpectedly or unintentionally given him a significant increase in staying power? Senator, a couple of thoughts on this. First, I'm very proud of the role that European Command is playing to support Operation Epic Fury.

1:22:46Brett Meiselas:and our soldiers, sailors, airmen, marines, and guardians have been operating at a high tempo in the Eastern Med and elsewhere, defending Alliance territory and defending our forces and projecting power into U.S. Central Command. As you noted, the price of oil and gas has gone up. We know that Putin does depend on that. I think how much he benefits from it depends on how long those prices remain elevated. I know the leadership of the department is watching this very closely. I know the president's watching this very closely and that they're certainly concerned about the prices that are out there.

1:23:23Brett Meiselas:So I guess, you know, on the emissions front, what I would say on that is we do continue to flow munitions into Ukraine. I could get into some of the specifics on implications in the classified session later today, but I assure you that support continues.

1:23:37Ben Meiselas:And there's a few things going on there as well. Notice that he says what he's proud of and it's subtle he's proud of european command supporting the high tempo nature and defending our forces to project power into central command a lot of word salad right there but what he's doing is differentiating what he's doing from what hegseth is doing at the defense department and he's actually saying our role that we're doing is not causing this to happen and we're doing our job and the implication is we're doing what we're supposed to be doing you know i'm not the guy for this question and like look at look over there he can say that publicly but that's actually a message where you may be thinking well is he trying to cover up exactly like they're doing good.

1:24:32Ben Meiselas:No, he's making a very narrow thing. We're doing our job. And the implication is, yes, they're not doing their job the right way. And yes, I'm aware the president is watching this. In other words, you should be watching this very closely because this is a major issue and this can be helping Russia. But he still wants to assure the senators that at least as he's there and he's asking for protection. I don't know if you think he's asking them to protect him without saying it. I'm aware that we're still flowing munitions into Ukraine. And there was a lot going on in that. And then finally, I'll show you Senator Gillibrand's questioning with him.

1:25:13Ben Meiselas:Let's play this clip.

1:25:15Brett Meiselas:Any person who can get satellite access to Google Maps today can see that this was a school. New York Times had no problem getting that data and information for a report today. What do you intend to do at UConn to make sure your targeting is consistent with American values? Yes, Senator, thanks. You know, over the course of my career, as a fighter pilot, I've always done everything I can to avoid civilian harm and civilian casualties. And I would tell you, I'm absolutely committed to that. I know the department is committed to that. And that when tragedies like this happen, it causes us all to reflect and try to improve our processes.

1:26:05Brett Meiselas:I've been involved in the targeting process, both at the tactical and the operational levels throughout my career. And I would tell you, we do have a number of safeguards in the system. You know, every single time that at the tactical level I was going to release a weapon on a target, I was personally making an assessment as to whether there was any chance of civilian harm. And if there was, was that proportional to the military necessity of striking the target. At the operational level, both from my time in U.S. Central Command previously and then now at U.S. European Command, I can assure you that we have robust standards that we go through and look to see and update the imagery and update our understanding of the target and refresh the intelligence on a recurring basis to determine the chances of civilian harm and to address any collateral concerns that might be there.

1:26:51Brett Meiselas:So you just know I'm absolutely committed to trying to mitigate that risk. I appreciate your testimony. I'm highly concerned, however, that Secretary Hegseth does not agree with you. Secretary Hegseth has criticized rules of engagement designed to adhere to the laws of armed conflict and support civilian harm mitigation. Secretary Hegseth has also cut the Civilian Protection Center of Excellence by about 90 percent.

1:27:18Ben Meiselas:And by the way, the back and forth you see there is choreographed. And it's not to say that they said, here's what I'm going to ask you and here's what you're going to respond. But what they're both communicating is that this is Hegsatz doing this and that this is coming from the Defense Department. And he's saying, I'm doing what I can do, but we are getting pulled into this direction. And they're also admitting, you know, what happened in Manab. And of course, this is what the U.S. did. They killed 165 little girls there and 185 people, you know. And now, you know, one of the things over here that we're talking about also is the Iranian girls school, which military investigators believe was bombed by the U.S.

1:28:04Ben Meiselas:It was bombed by the U.S. Like it had a years long presence, dozens of photos of the children and their activities. like it was very well known that this was a school. I want to give you some more breaking news right now as well. French President Emmanuel Macron is now confirming that a French soldier was killed in Iraq tonight after a drone attack targeted a counter-ISIS deployment in the Erbil region. Remember how he said that? There were six French soldiers who were injured in that attack. Well, one has now been pronounced dead and French president Emmanuel Macron says it. I'll just, I'll just say anecdotally, sometimes I see in the comments and I appreciate, you know, interacting live with comments sometimes, but sometimes in the comments, but what's the breaking news?

1:28:53Ben Meiselas:Like all of it, the whole show is, we start off every aspect of his breaking daily. All this stuff that we talked about from the beginning until the end is quite literally early news that is either breaking during the show or broke within two hours before the show. And sometimes I see comments that they're just like, what's breaking? I mean, that, all of that. Quite literally all of it. Can I let you know, on a lighter note, what I thought you were going to say? Because you were holding your glasses.

1:29:21Brett Meiselas:I've seen 20 people at least say, Ben, please clean your glasses in tonight's episode. So I, on behalf of all of them, who I see in the comments asking you to clean your glass. It gets super foggy. It gets super foggy. You know, the sprays and the pan. You use many hot takes to get my room. The hot takes. I like that the hot takes actually. It's super hot. It gets muddy. I'm just relaying the information because obviously if 20 people said it, it means like 2 million people are thinking it.

1:29:50Jordy Meiselas:Well, and go back to this thing before. I think so many people are just like burnt out by just the never ending chaos on a daily basis. And so it's like, you know, breaking news, like enough stories happened today. That would be months long controversies, scandals, news stories in a previous time period. And just the news cycle moves so fast right now that it feels like, oh, a war started. Oh, a tanker got bombed. oh, this happened, the plane crashed. Like, there's so many things that happen in the Daily Base. I think people are just kind of numb to it. And that's, to me, one of the scary things, honestly, about kind of this Trump era.

1:30:34Jordy Meiselas:And I think it's by design of, you know, of Donald Trump. The amount of stories, Brett, and also the amount of what would be

1:30:41Brett Meiselas:like career-ending scandals, like from an administration. It's like a series like Hell Breaks Loose.

1:30:49Jordy Meiselas:People are like, where did Hell Breaks Loose? That's hyperbolic. It's like, yeah, the world's on fire.

1:30:53Brett Meiselas:The United States government is actively lying and covering up how many troops are dead and injured. Like that in itself is a career ending, career ending cover up that's actively occurring in front of our eyes. That's just one. And so when we go and Ben goes and reports on stories after the story, I give you all the credit in the world, man, for getting up and digging through the filings and digging through the receipts and grabbing the videos and just bringing it to the people in the way you do because I just think it's so needed in a time when someone needs to just be easily to like pick up a phone and be like wow look at this look at this right now because unless it's in your face the way you're able to present it Ben to the audience it's like so so smart and so succinct it's in one ear and out the other for people so I appreciate Ben's information I appreciate our platform you guys know you made me sad with the dirty glasses i'm sorry i didn't know i was on a roll and i i i wasn't trying to push it i thought you were you were holding off the end by the way i really i mean everything that i just said benji it's okay we love you it's okay i'm just joking it's fine

1:32:08Ben Meiselas:it's fine um i still love you

1:32:17Ben Meiselas:look at the end of the day we covered a lot this is how we tease each other and you're a visionary

1:32:22Brett Meiselas:ben i mean as a busy benji it's must be lonely at the top it's gotta be lonely at the top but he's very well. He's very well. And number one, Kenny Aron is a smart man. I beat Rogan.

1:32:36Ben Meiselas:I beat Candace Owens and Duarte. As he is in Eddie, nobody says to me, allowed me, you number one. You beat Joe Rogan five weeks in a row. You've no one writes articles about me winning. Where can one person just write an article and say, Ben, you are number one on the YouTube charts. Five weeks. Five weeks in a row. Everybody glazes everybody. Five weeks, not one article. Nope, not one article about you. Nobody grazes anything that you do. Nobody cares. It's lonely at the top. It's too lonely at the top. I just want one person to say that you do good work, bud. Thank you, everybody. With all the crazy news, we have to be.

1:33:19Ben Meiselas:We have to laugh, folks. We have to. All right. Well, thanks, everybody. Thanks, everybody, for watching. We're grateful for you. We appreciate you. Hit subscribe. help us get to 7 million subscribers let's get there soon become a member if you can join right now become a member go to our sub stack MidasPlus.com check that out go to store.midastouch.com and get the gear Midas Touch Gear give us some reviews subscribe to the audio podcast that's everyone's homework right now

1:33:52Jordy Meiselas:Apple Podcasts go bring us back they tried to silence us and I'm not happy about it It really upset me. That one really upset me. Not happy. And now I say we'll go to the Kit Kat club tonight.

1:34:05Ben Meiselas:Jody, take it away. Shout out to the Midas Mighty!

1:34:08Jordy Meiselas:The Midas Mighty standing strong

1:34:17Brett Meiselas:Against the fascists we sing our song We will get it right whenever Want to stay plugged in? Become a subscriber to our sub stack at MidasPlus.com. You'll get daily recaps from Ron Falkowski, add free episodes of our podcast, and more exclusive content only available at MidasPlus.com.

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