MeidasTouch Full Podcast - 7/21/26

24:05Ben Meiselas:Brett, I know you've got points, George, you've got points. Why don't we take our first quick break of the show and we come back? I do want to talk about Donald Trump getting booed at the World Cup as he tried to hog attention for himself. I want to talk about a lot of domestic issues, things that are happening right now here in the United States as some of the latest polling for Trump has his approval. worse than Nixon when Nixon resigned, I mean, amongst independents. I want to remind everybody about WTF America. Make sure you get your copy pre-ordered right now. And then we're going to do a behind the scenes on Patreon.

24:43Ben Meiselas:Why don't we do that? You know, I want to make an apology to all of our Patreon supporters. We've been spending so much time on this book that I literally haven't slept all that much. We've been working so hard on the book. But what we're going to do, to try to make up for it on Patreon, subscribe to the Midas Touch Patreon. And what we'll do there is we'll do a behind the scenes about what's in the book, what to be expected in the book. So subscribe to the Midas Touch on Patreon, patreon.com slash Midas Touch. All right, let's take our first quick break of the show, patreon.com slash Midas Touch.

25:17Ben Meiselas:One more time. First quick break of the show. We'll be right back.

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28:05Brett Meiselas:Let's go. Shout out to our sponsors. Links in description of both YouTube and the audio. Use the links. Use the codes. If there's an exit survey, that's in that we sent you. Benji, where to next, big bro?

28:14Ben Meiselas:I did a lot of speaking there, Brett. I often get asked, why do I do a lot of coverage on this? It's shocking to me. One, it's existential. What's also shocking to me is when I see just the lack of international media does a very good job on it, but just the lack of consistent coverage on what's happening in the war. I'm not to suggest that it's not like the CNNs don't cover it. I mean, but they used to, when there were wars like this, they would have people there every day. That's what we need around the clock covered. We need to know what's really going on in this. And thankfully, with the ability of open source intelligence technology, with people taking cell phone footage, with the satellites and the surveillance footage, you know, we can kind of, we have the capabilities to do that.

29:06Ben Meiselas:It's just, I don't see a lot of this coverage out there. You know, I don't see any of the analysis of the surveillance, you know, amongst at least American corporate media. So that's why I emphasize it a lot. Instead, what you hear, and I'll show you some of these clips, is, you know, Donald Trump and his sound bites about, you know, here's what's, here's why, you know, and look, if you want to play these clips, you just have to give them the right context. You have to be able to fact check them and call it out. And don't just show this as here's what he said, here's what we're reporting on. So the reporter asks a good question.

29:41Ben Meiselas:So you said the war would be four to five weeks. So what's going on? Not a bad question. But then when he kind of rambles and rants and raves, you have to then respond or editorially, you have to address it. Here, let me just play you this clip.

29:55Jordy Meiselas:Well, you keep hitting me. This is a far bigger job that we're doing. We were doing a little job at stopping them from having a certain capability. Now we're just ending it. So it's really not the same thing. What we're doing now is we're ending any chance where they can have a nuclear missile. If you look at it, after a week and a half, not four weeks, a week and a half, two weeks, we stopped them from probably, but I don't want to have the word probably. Thank you very much. Thank you, sir.

30:24Ben Meiselas:Not even speaking in complete sentences. Those words didn't form coherent sentences. We were doing a little job then. That's what you considered the war, a little job. and now we're ending it, but I don't want to say the word probably. All right, everybody, see you later. The hell does it even mean? And then he's asked, what are, he's then asked another question and he says, Iran lost everything. They lost everything, almost militarily. They're basically done. They're basically gone. And he repeats this over and over again. Here, play this.

30:57Jordy Meiselas:Well, we feel very badly, but you know, those great people, those great patriots are out there fighting that iran cannot have a nuclear weapon iran has been very very badly damaged they've lost everything almost militarily they've got very little left they've got some missiles they've got some drones they've got some manufacturing ability not much we control the strait they don't control anything so we'll see what happens but we hit them very again tonight. And we did that in honor of the probably three, it's probably three as opposed to two great patriots.

31:37Ben Meiselas:What a sick and disgusting, evil human being he is. I mean, to say we did it in honor of them. We did it in honor of them. What? We control the Strait of Hormuz. No, we don't. By the way, there was another tanker off the coast of Oman that was just hit, you know, before we went live, in addition to the one that had the Saudi oil. We don't control the Strait of Hormuz. And these people have names, by the way. Private Isabella Gonzalez, 19 years old. She's from Texas. First Lieutenant Tyler Freehand, 25 of Hawaii. There was another individual whose body parts, whose remains were recently found. That other person has not been identified.

32:20Ben Meiselas:Then somebody in Iraq who was killed when there was a drone that had a controlled detonation is what they're saying. That's what we know about. We did it in honor. I mean, you have a five-time draft dodging person who's called our troops suckers and losers saying that these patriots live their lives, 19 years, 25 years, cut short because of Donald Trump's inability to do a deal, his jealousy of Obama, that Obama actually, I mean, that Obama did an actual non-nuclear deal. And because we have a deranged psychopath, our troops are being killed.

33:01Jordy Meiselas:Yeah, none of these people had to die. None of these Americans had to die. None of these Iranians had to die, quite frankly. This is all because of Donald Trump's jealousy with Barack Obama, had he just stayed with the JCPOA, we'd be probably in a pretty good place right now in terms of Iran not pursuing a nuclear program, in terms of the Strait of Hormuz being open. And then if Donald Trump wanted to pursue some actual deal and diplomacy, he could have done that and he could have been held as a hero for doing something like that, for figuring out a way to open up trade and to secure the region.

33:32Jordy Meiselas:But instead, he has put his back up against the wall. He is cornered right now, and the entire region is less safe for it. If this is to make Israel more safe, you have made Israel less safe, and you've made more people more angry at Israel in the process. If this is to secure the Middle East and our partners and our allies, whether it's Saudi Arabia or whoever else, you have made life less safe for the people in those countries because they are now the targets because the United States is using their bases and their resources. And so this right now is just a catastrophe for so many people. And I don't think people fully understand the extent to which the American people are propagandized not only by Donald Trump, but by our media.

34:16Jordy Meiselas:And I know we – we'll take shots at the CNNs and those sorts of stations in the world. And it's really just the imbalance that you see though, right? Because you have those channels that really kind of both sides everything and give credence to Donald Trump's own words. Then you have the Newsmax, the OAN, the Fox that are just straight state regime television. And then you have this army of influencers and the oligarchs who pump them up to just constantly stoke division and constantly spread lies that end up reaching people. And then people start thinking that, oh, maybe we do control the Strait of Hormuz.

34:52Jordy Meiselas:Maybe we do have the upper hand. Maybe, in fact, Iran is on its last legs right now. And all that does is it creates an even more dangerous situation because in a wartime scenario, you have to be working with actual data. And if Donald Trump is living in fantasy land where Iran doesn't have any way to defend themselves or any way to attack the United States or soldiers, you get people who are like, WTF happened here? What WTF is going on? And so that's why we've been seeing these comments now. And honestly, these people really piss me off in such a major way. You know, the propagandists who have to play stupid with everything that happens.

35:30Jordy Meiselas:And I'll show you an example right here, right? There's this guy, Matt Van Swole. He's one of the biggest offenders right on the internet. He's like a Twitter influencer for MAGA. You know, this guy is just a total liar. He, during the Biden administration, you know, he pretended that he was like a former Democrat who saw the light. And every day of the World War III is coming, World War III is coming. And so this guy posts the other day, July 18th, he says, I'm confused. USA has the most powerful military on earth. We bombed the hell out of Iran for four months. Trump says their Air Force, Navy, and nearly all their missile capabilities are destroyed.

36:08Jordy Meiselas:So how is Iran still capable of hitting US bases right now? How indeed? Well, maybe. I'm going to posit a simple theory for you, Matt. Maybe Donald Trump lied. How about that? But you know what? You know that, Matt, because you're a liar yourself. and you stoke this division. You stoke the disinformation. You are one of these disinformation centers that poisons the American people. And it's not only you, there's a whole network of it. You're one of the Twitter ones, but of course they're on television as well. We've seen Maria Bartiromo on Fox also parroting a very similar -

36:43Ben Meiselas:I don't understand it.

36:44Jordy Meiselas:I don't understand it. Is that your Bartiromo?

36:47Ben Meiselas:I don't understand how Iran has the capabilities to fight this way. The US obliterated Iran's military. The president continues to reiterate it, everybody. I don't know. I don't know.

37:00Brett Meiselas:That's an A-plus impression.

37:02Jordy Meiselas:That's Maria Bartiromo. That's an actual quote from Maria Bartiromo. I think it's Ben as Elmer Fudd doing Maria Bartiromo, but nevertheless, a good impression. But in all seriousness, that's a real comment that she made. I don't understand how Iran has the capabilities to fight this way. Didn't Trump say the U.S. obliterated Iran's military? He keeps saying, yeah, he lied. He's a liar. But once again, you're part of this Fox state regime media apparatus. You lie to everybody out there about what's going on. And by the time this comes back to the American people, a lot of people are just confused.

37:34Jordy Meiselas:They don't know the real data. They don't know what's going on because they're getting fed this bullshit from every direction. And I think that is such a major issue right now. It's one of the big things that we are pushing back against. But when you see it in all these directions, you really see what we're up against, right? And how they never take responsibility. Like I said, during the Biden administration, every day, World War III, run on the banks. Yeah. What, you know, this happened, that, but there was a news to aliens in New Jersey. They remember there was aliens in New Jersey for two weeks.

38:07Jordy Meiselas:That was like the lead headline. What are these aliens doing? And they ran with this crap every single day. But let me tell you, I would take the sleepiness of the Biden administration any day over the chaos of this Trump administration. I know people don't like to, you know, defend Biden these days. They think it's like, I don't know, bad politically or that people don't agree with them. But Biden did a whole lot of good things every day. I remember the news hearing about Biden signed the bipartisan infrastructure law. Biden signed the American Rescue Plan, the Chips and Science Act, the Inflation Reduction Act.

38:39Jordy Meiselas:He did the COVID recovery. He was getting a coalition together in NATO to increase the size of NATO, get more countries in NATO and protect Ukraine. These were the kind of stories that we would hear about every day under the Biden administration, while all of these liars would pump out, lie, lie, lie, lie, lie, lie, lie, until enough people believed that that was the case, until enough people believed that there was chaos, until enough people believed that it was Biden's administration that was weaponizing the Justice Department and that Donald Trump is the one just setting things right. It's all such bullshit being funneled at people.

39:15Jordy Meiselas:And Americans are some of the most propagandized people in the entire world, but they don't realize it because I think a lot of people think they have the illusion of choice, yet they're being fed this bullshit every day from all these sources.

39:27Brett Meiselas:And that's what's frustrating to me. I believe strongly in a strong fourth state. I think that's vital to this country succeeding or in an effort to succeed and move forward here. But under the Biden presidency, it just felt like corporate media always had the knives out. When's he going to slip up? When's he going to slip up? Okay, over here. Under the Donald Trump administration or the Donald Trump regime, Trump is continuously slipping up. His sons are profiting from the office of the presidency in plain sight. And corporate media is like, I'm full, knives down. I'm full. I don't need to eat anymore.

40:00Brett Meiselas:No, it's all good. We'll pick this up later on. It's like that question to Trump about why we still in this war is a fair and legitimate question. Great job. When Trump then says, we own the straight, we totally control the straight. How about a follow-up question? Excuse me? No, you don't, dude. But no, but it's crickets. It's crickets. And that's the frustrating part to me because to me, it just feels like, oh, the corporate media game, they're showing their cards. I know what they're trying to do here. They're just trying to, they're going to let them, you know, mulligan on this one, Trump.

40:32Brett Meiselas:All good. All good. You'll still invite me to the, I could be invited and ask you questions again on air force one. Yeah. Okay. I'm not going to follow up, sir. No, thank you. Okay. Guys, apparently we have the straight now when all the information out there points to the opposite time and time again. And at the root of it, like if the lies weren't so stupid, they would be funny. But again, our troops are dying. We showed the pictures of those folks. I mean, 25 and 19 years old. That is so young. That is so young. A life cut short. And they don't give a damn. They don't give a damn.

41:06Ben Meiselas:Johnny, Johnny, Mom Danny. Mom Danny wants to babysit your children, Johnny. Did you know that Zoran Mom Danny in New York, the communist, you know what he's trying to do? He wants to babysit your kids, Johnny. Nothing good happens when the Momdani and the communists babysit your children. That's what we need to be outraged with. Not Donald Trump literally destroying the freaking economy. Inflation surging, never-ending wars, taking away your healthcare, quite literally killing you right now. Now it's Zoran Momdani, everybody. This is what they're, and they are pushing the shit out of messages like this.

41:47Ben Meiselas:And you've got, I did a whole video on it this morning. You've got MAGA Mike Johnson out there in Iowa talking about, you know, the communists are coming. This is a existential spiritual battle between we've never been in a situation in our country like this before. It's spiritual. It's scripture. It's God. It's God. It's the others who are very godless right now. First, I want to show you what they're saying on state regime. It wasn't Maria Bartiroma, but she did do a segment on this as well. This was like, while all of these things are happening in the world right now, right? And on state regime media, they're attacking Zoran Mamdani for like proposing a parent's night out.

42:31Ben Meiselas:Oh my God. Do you know what happens on parents' nights out? Here, let's play this first clip. Let's start off in New York City, where Mayor Zoran Mamdani wants to babysit your kids. Next month, the city's parks department is set to host a parents' night out, where New Yorkers can drop off their kids at a city rec center for free babysitting. What could possibly go wrong? Joining us now with Reaction, Fox News contributor Joe Concha. I'm assuming from that look on your face, you're not going to be dropping your kids off with Zoran Mamdani.

43:11Jordy Meiselas:No, Charlie, you've met my kids. I mean, would you trust your child or children with a total stranger?

43:16Ben Meiselas:I mean, what the fresh hell is this? Hey, honey, let's go bowling tonight and leave the kids with commie kindergarten. Let's go bring him with.

43:24Jordy Meiselas:I mean, and it's such an evil network, right? It's such an evil network. And they'll do that, by the way, by any policy that could possibly help people, whether it's paid maternity leave, whether it's universal health care, they will do that with any policy, you know, universal pre-K, they will try to make some sort of sick and twisted angle. And the fact that they go into some like weird kind of like, what's he going to do with your kids sort of thing also kind of, I think is, is very projection. Like the moment, by the way, like the

43:50Ben Meiselas:idea of babysitting school, you know, and, and that's not to suggest that like, of course, sadly and sickly, we know from the Epstein files that Donald Trump is, I mean, I think that's what they're implying. Like, you know, that Donald Trump is covering up, you know, that there are bad people in this world. But your first idea of a parent's night out is what they're implying is like, that's, that's how you think this parent's night out. Like, that's your view of parents' night out is, and then even the way he speaks, he's just like, he's like, next up in the city, Zora, my daddy. I mean, just even the way they like talk, like, I don't even know what's happening with this channel.

44:30Ben Meiselas:I mean, creating drama out of this thing. They want to babysit your kids. Joe Concha. And then the Concha guy is like, I'm judging by your face, Concha. You don't like this. What in the commie hell is this? I'm like, what world are you people freaking living in right now? Because the world that I'm living in right now, Donald Trump has taken away healthcare from millions of Americans and millions more will lose their healthcare after the midterms because the way that disastrous budget bill phases in, it mostly hits after the midterms as well. I'm living in a world where inflation is surging right now, where Trump's in a never ending war right now, where people can't afford anything right now.

45:19Ben Meiselas:That's the world that I'm living in. And they point to what Momdani is doing in New York by all accounts, as Zoran is their evil archetype of what he's doing in New York City right now, working in a very productive way with the governor of New York to actually deliver things and bring things to people in a very kind of stable, predictable, orderly way. Frankly, if we only had that at a national level where people were fighting for the American people, not fighting the American people and taking things from American people and using the government as a tool of division. And let me just share this with you.

45:58Ben Meiselas:I mean, this was Magamike's speech. You can play any of them. I'm just, do we have any of Magamike? It's just Magamike out there. And Magamike just says, you know, we're in an existential spiritual battle right now. And that's really what's against the Marxist and against the communists right now. And also, I just want to say one thing, though. That's it right there. I just want to say one thing also, you know, before we go to break two, because I want to talk a little bit about the World Cup. With everything that's going on in this country, with the fact that unless you're a rich right-wing oligarch or billionaire or a deca-millionaire, you're struggling and you're suffering in this country.

46:39Ben Meiselas:Debt is surging,$39.5 trillion, and it's only going to get higher, while the Trump regime wants part of their Ponzi scheme reconciliation 3.0, more hundreds of billions of dollars to go to the military industrial complex, in addition to another over$1.34 trillion, in addition to go to the Defense Department, while they take away critical services for the American people. While the American people are struggling, you have the Trump family posing for group photos at the World Cup, wearing their finest attire, of course. And then you have the Trump family all there, group photos, smiles. Everybody's doing amazing in the Trump family.

47:26Ben Meiselas:You had weirdo Giuliani's kid out there. There's the photo right there saying, praise be to Donald. The World Cup would not have happened without Donald. Trump really. Donald, it existed and did great in spite of Donald Trump being weird and being deranged. And every time he touched it, it wasn't good. And when he just left it alone, it was great. And that's kind of a broader lesson also. Just stay the hell away. The American people are on their own, you know, by and large, scrappy, caring, empathetic. It's when you inject the Trump and the this and the that, that's when it makes it deranged and weird and harmful.

48:11Ben Meiselas:So Brett, I know you want to say.

48:13Jordy Meiselas:Well, let me just say this also, and I'm going to take the same line, you know, that you went with speaking about, you know, all that stuff that's going on, right? With all of this going on, you know, you have the Trump family out there posing for photos at the FIFA World Cup, right? And all this stuff. Let me now aim this a little differently. While all this is going on out there, you have the Democratic Party who is approaching a midterm that should be an absolute layup for them, deciding that now is a good time to form a circular firing squad and to try to destroy each other. Can I just say, what the hell are all of you doing?

48:50Jordy Meiselas:What is wrong with these consultants? What is wrong with all these various factions? Can you understand right now that it is an existential moment and we are dealing with an actual authoritarian threat that threatens to destroy the united states of america and our democracy for good and you are the people fortunately or unfortunately who are there right now to hold the line and every time i look at these people they are all fighting each other rather than honing their aim aiming at the person in charge who is making everybody's life miserable who is stringing us along on these illegal wars. There is so much for people to be messaging about every single day.

49:32Jordy Meiselas:There are so many issues the American people are going through right now. There are so many things the American people need, whether that is healthcare for all, whether that is a way to take care of their kids, whether that is a way to pay for college, to afford their groceries. I don't think they care about your stupid little factions. I don't think they care about your little civil war and all your little sideshows that are going on. Just focus on the people. The Republicans, Trump, MAGA, they are going to label you whatever they're going to label you, no matter what. They will call you communists or socialists or Antifa or whatever.

50:10Jordy Meiselas:Focus on delivering for the people. I promise you the people that I speak to who aren't so glued into politics like all of us, they don't go around speaking in political lingo. They don't go around thinking, oh, I'm left or I'm right or I'm this or I'm that. They just want people who are going to fight for them. And I think that's why when you see these inspiring figures who come up and go out there and are able to gather these large crowds, I think the through line in all of them is that they are speaking to people's frustrations about what they are going through right now, the problems in their life.

50:44Jordy Meiselas:So don't lose track of those problems in order to take your own little personal gripes out on each other. I'm no democratic strategist. Frankly, whatever you guys want to do, you're going to do, right? But that's going to be my advice because I care about the people and I want people who are going to fight for the people in our government.

51:04Ben Meiselas:It reminds me why I hate politics so much and why I love people though, because the people are speaking very loudly and clearly about what the problems are out there and how they want fighters to fight for them. And you need to listen to what the people are actually saying out there, what they're feeling. And if you wanna step into the arena and be a leader in this space, then by leading, you have to listen and not try to impose what you think is better. Listen to what people, be empathetic, fight for the people, champion the people, defend the people. That's to me the most important thing. And that often gets missed.

51:49Ben Meiselas:And then to Brett, your point, there's the circling firing squad, which ultimately just leads to Trump and people like Trump. And it's so obvious that that's the logical conclusion of this. It's so self-defeating in any event. We'll take our last quick break of the show. A reminder, WTF America is the new book. And the first book that I wrote with my brothers, it's called WTF America. Hit the QR code or scan the QR code and pre-order it right now. It helps with the pre-orders. So if you're able to pre-order it, pre-order it right now. We dedicated it to you and it is something that we spend a lot of time working on.

52:31Ben Meiselas:And I think it will be one of the, if not the kind of definitive book of this moment. And again, we were inspired by you to write it. We'll talk about it on our Patreon chat on Thursday after the Thursday show. We'll go live on Patreon. So once that show ends, we'll immediately go live and that's patreon.com slash Midas Touch. And we'll give a behind the scenes, how the book come about, what you can expect in the book, et cetera, et cetera. All right, let's take our last quick break of the show. We'll be right back.

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54:45Brett Meiselas:It was invented by PhD scientists to tackle rough mornings after drinking. And here's how it works. When you drink, alcohol gets converted into a toxic byproduct in the gut. It's a buildup of this byproduct, not dehydration. that's to blame for rough days after drinking. Pre-alcohol produces an enzyme to break this by-product down. Just remember to make pre-alcohol your first drink of the night, drink responsibly, and you'll feel your best tomorrow. Every time I have pre-alcohol before drinks, I notice the difference the next day. Even after a night out, I can confidently plan on having a great next day without worrying.

55:20Brett Meiselas:Look, I won't lie, I was a bit on the fence about pre-alcohol initially, but after giving it a chance, believe me, it's the real deal. July is packed with barbecues, fireworks, late weekends, and late nights with friends. Keep the good times rolling into the next day. Drink pre-alcohol before you go out and wake up ready for whatever Sunday brings. Remember to head to zbiotics.com slash Midas and use the code Midas at checkout for 15 % off. Shout out to our sponsors, y 'all. Links in description of both YouTube and the audio. Use the links, use the codes. If there's an exit survey, let them know we sent you.

55:56Brett Meiselas:Benji, before I kick it back to you, I just wanted to build on that last conversation we had before break. And you're so right, right? Like politicians, man, they'll let you down. They will let you down. But if you put your heart and your energy and your time in upholding like a strong belief system in the integrity of specific values and using those as your North Star instead of a specific politician, you're going to feel better not only about yourself, but also about ultimately the decisions that then come forward from said politician, right? As long as you have a strong focus on what those values and ethos and core principles are, you can sleep well at night knowing that you know in your heart of hearts, it's not a person.

56:40Brett Meiselas:No, these are a value system that I believe in, that we believe in, that will get you through the night. That will get you through the days. That will help keeping you wanting to fight. Because again, politicians, people, they will eventually let you down. It's just the case.

56:56Ben Meiselas:One of the things with the Trump regime, though, is they engage in such horrific behavior that when they do something that would be big news at the beginning of the term, it kind of doesn't even become news anymore. Like remember early on when Donald Trump threatened these massive tariffs against Canada and Mexico? I mean, remember in the very beginning of Trump's term, I'm even talking about before Liberation Day, they called it, which was Liquidation Day, which we know that that was objectively a disaster. We know that manufacturing jobs have not been added, by the way. Since Trump took office, manufacturing jobs have decreased, whereas under former President Biden, manufacturing jobs have increased substantially, and we were having a manufacturing boom.

57:37Ben Meiselas:But that was a big story, right? That would move the market because it was actually a big deal because by imposing the tariffs against Canada or Mexico or when Trump threatened it against China, et cetera, that would result in higher costs passed on to the consumers. That would result in inflation. That would result in eventually interest rates going up when interest rates were expected to go down. And the markets are often described as, I mean, I view them as heavily manipulated by right-wing oligarchs, but also described as a future-looking indicator. And so the markets would price these things in and it would be devastating because the impact is devastating.

58:17Ben Meiselas:But you see, we're seeing the devastating impacts now on most American people. And a lot of this stuff is kind of shrugged off as whatever. And to me, that is even more disconcerting when you now make everything so numb, but the consequences are being felt. You know, if you go to a doctor and you numb yourself, but there's still a, you know, a trauma of that's imposed to a certain area. You may be numb, but the thing still happens. And I think that there's been a numbing and a dumbing, but a numbing as a dumbing by the Trump regime, but also a numbing as well. And so last week when there was 25 % tariffs imposed on Brazil late at night by the Trump regime, it was just an announcement, 25 % on most imports.

59:06Ben Meiselas:Why? Because the Trump regime is working with Jair Bolsonaro's kid, Flavio Bolsonaro, Mauro Jair is the former insurrectionist president of Brazil, did what Trump did on J6, but did it in Brazil. He's been put in prison for Brazil for basically the rest of his life, for 25, 30 years. His son Flavio is a politician running against Lula. So Trump and Flavio say, here's what we'll do. We'll shake down Brazil, harm the people of Brazil, also harm the people in America because the tariffs still hurt the country of origin because it makes people in the US want to trade less with the people in Brazil because you have to pay the tariff.

59:46Ben Meiselas:The importer pays the tariff. So it impacts the whole trade relationship in general, which is often and usually. That's what tariffs can be used surgically in certain things. It's not always a bad thing, but it's usually a bad thing and especially a bad thing how the Trump regime used it. But so the ideas will hurt Brazil, but only Flavio Bolsonaro can do it. So it's a tool to intrude on Brazilian and sovereignty. And that's how it's being used there. And it's a tool to induce quid pro quos with Donald Trump. You got to pay Trump stuff, give him gold, give him this, give him that, and maybe he'll remove some of the tariffs against you if you personally enrich Donald Trump or enrich his family.

1:00:30Ben Meiselas:So it's also, but by the way, did you even hear that as a story that registered? I mean, again, your coffee, your produce already going up. We get a lot of stuff from Brazil. And big deal, 25 % across the board tariffs, but it didn't even really register as like a story. And of course, that's going to impact everything. And then Donald Trump today announces 50 % tariffs in Canada, 50 % on most Canadian products as well, and doing it in a very vindictive way. Like, I mean, there's no non-vindictive way about it, but cars, alcohol, dairy, goods from wine, hockey sticks, you name it. And the justification is that Canada responded to the US tariffs by imposing retaliatory measures, both formally and also the Canadian people, elbows up, said, we're not going to buy your liquor.

1:01:28Ben Meiselas:If you're going to threaten our sovereignty, we don't want to buy your shit. We don't want to travel to your country. So our hospitality industry in the United States has been crushed. Go ask governors and politicians and leaders from states where there used to be a lot of Canadian travel, from Vegas to California, to Maine, to Michigan, you name it. Tourism is down significantly. And hospitality jobs, with Donald Trump, no tax on tips. Well, you need to have customers for that to even be helpful. And there's been a lot of unemployment in the hospitality sector because of Donald Trump's attacks on Canada.

1:02:10Ben Meiselas:And as we talked about earlier in this episode, Donald Trump's idea with Iran, which is predatorial, Epstein class shit, disgusting predator stuff, is if we bomb you more, you're going to do a deal. The idea with Canada is if we attack you with tariffs, then you will want to do a better deal with us. You will want to help us. You will want to become the 51st state. You will bend the knee and you will submit. What is it actually demonstrated? While there are people, while there are Trump bootlickers in the media who have, oligarchs who have when there are countries like Canada and others who say, no, we're not bending the knee.

1:02:58Ben Meiselas:We're fighting. All this stuff does is further entrench the country against you. This isn't going to make Canadians say, how can we do a deal with you, sir? It's going to make Canada say, what can we do more to hurt you more? What can we do more? We're willing to make the sacrifice because for us, we stand for something. For Trump, he stands for nothing for Trump. So the United States falls for everything. Canada, they're standing for Canadian pride. And that's an important thing. And Trump doesn't understand that people could be fighting for things other than short-term transactional gain, where you have to be under the thumb of a maniac like Donald Trump.

1:03:41Jordy Meiselas:It was a good comparison he made because it's so true. It's trying the same strategy to the same end. You're not going to get the Canadians to be like, oh, now it's a 50 % tariff. Okay, we give up. Okay, no. People are going to go, F you, dude. F you, we're going to double down because the Canadians I know are fighters, right? They might seem nice and they are nice people, but do not cross them because they will show you. And I will just show you. First off, let me just read one of the ridiculous things from this new tariff announcement from Ambassador Jameson Greer, who says here, because it's just there's a ridiculous part I want to point out.

1:04:18Jordy Meiselas:He says that Canada, unlike other partners and allies, continues to retaliate against the United States for its efforts to rebalance trade and protect U.S. industry and national security sensitive sectors. Specifically, Canada has taken U.S. alcohol products off Canadian shelves. I'm struggling to see how that is a national security sensitive sector. the alcohol industry, but that's one of the bases, one of the main bases that Jameson Greer lists here for these new tariffs against the Canadian people. And I'll just read you, you know, we reported on this earlier on our social media. I just want to read you, you know, some of the comments, you know, we'll see that I see here because I think they show you the attitudes of Canadians.

1:05:02Jordy Meiselas:I know a lot of Canadians who watch and listen. Ray here says, as a Canadian, I think retaliation and retaliate are words to be proud of because we have not knuckled under to Trump's demands. Then this Akita says, this Canadian says, bring it on. Then you have a lot of people mocking Jameson Greer for the statement. Mike says, alcohol is now in our national security sector. Jeremiah says, Canada, Biden and Obama live rent-free in his mind. And it is hilarious. so they're mad that Canada doesn't bend the knee, and it goes on and on and on. I see instantly, right here, and I know because we have such a good relationship with our Canadian audience, that this will have the opposite effect.

1:05:45Jordy Meiselas:Once again, like Donald Trump's everything he does in Iran, it's going to have the opposite effect on the Canadian people because unlike so many in our country, unlike so many in the Republican Party who bend the knee to Donald Trump every single day, the Canadians go elbows up instead. That's what they do. And that's what's going to happen here again. Donald Trump is a menace. He is a predator. He is going to continue to double down on these failed strategies. It reminds me of what Pete Hegseth said the other day when there was that flyover. What did he say? The flyovers will continue until the morale improves.

1:06:19Jordy Meiselas:First off, why is the morale, why does it in need of improvement, Hegseth? Why don't you answer that at first, because I think that's a revealing statement in and of itself. But again, that's not a way to get people to do what you want. You don't continue the beatings until morale improves. You actually have to think thoughtfully and try to actually have a path, chart a path forward. And to do this also, as Donald Trump has done, with another justification of the wildfire smoke from Canada coming to the United States, is one of the most offensive, outrageous, just disgusting things that I could have that I've ever heard a president say and I know that there's a lot of disgusting things that this president has said but to kick a country when they're down when they are trying to put out these fires when that country in question Canada rush to our defense whenever we have fires when we had the fires here in LA what did Canada do they sent firefighters to help us that's what a good neighbor does when we had fires in the Colorado area.

1:07:19Jordy Meiselas:What did Canada do? They sent people here to help us and a Canadian died fighting those fires in Colorado. And now Donald Trump has the nerve not to send help and actually figure out a way, how do we actually solve this problem, but to kick Canada and try to bully them like the predator that he is. That right there is shameful, shameful behavior, disgusting behavior. Nobody should be okay with that.

1:07:42Brett Meiselas:Exactly. Look, and it's also what I always say is that Donald Trump is in this for himself and himself only. Like, yeah, Donald Trump didn't send help during those fires. But also, even if he was looking at it like a selfish way and selfish, I mean, I don't know, looking out for the American people, you think he would want to send help just knowing where the winds were blowing and how the United States would have been impacted. So even from a selfish level of helping the American people, he didn't care enough. He didn't care enough to. And so sanctions now. Sanctions. See, what frustrates me so much and like really worries me and actually keeps me up at night, if I could get candid here, is just the generational damage that Donald Trump has done to America, to this country, to its people.

1:08:24Brett Meiselas:I think there's deep trauma that the American citizens are going to have to just kind of come to terms with and grapple with as this country sort of progresses and goes forward. Hopefully, we could be at a place where we maintain our democracy and actually try and make some progress here in the near future. But what Donald Trump has done to us on a world stage, I mean, I don't know about you guys. I don't like being embarrassed. It feels like every day Donald Trump is embarrassing us, America, the American people, by what he says, by what he does, by the actions that he takes, by his failed leadership, by his incompetence, by his rambling.

1:09:01Brett Meiselas:it is so beyond the pale that you know i sit back and brothers you guys know i text you guys this stuff and it just like it keeps me up at night and it really does frustrate me and unfortunately you know or fortunately like at least we're all going through this together i guess is is what i've come to you know terms with here is like you know at least if we're in it we're in it with a you know community and and pro-democracy coalition as great as the mightest mighty that are all seeing through this BS that all see through Donald Trump's BS and how corporate media is manipulating and propagandizing its citizens.

1:09:34Brett Meiselas:It doesn't make me sleep any better, but at least we're here together to call it out. And I do believe that there will be light at the end of the tunnel so long as we all continue to work for it. We can't just sit on our hands and be like, oh, it's going to happen one day. We'll get out of this. That's not the mentality. We need to figure out how to actively continue to combat this Trump regime, get the truth out combat the propaganda get the truth out as best as possible a few quick observations before

1:10:02Ben Meiselas:we go and we talk about this in wtf america pre-order it right now hit the qr code wherever the qr code is and we talk about how midas touch started during the early days of covid when donald trump said don't worry the cases there's only going to be two or three cases like a miracle It's all going to go away. It'll definitely be gone by Easter. It's never going to hit the shores. Then inject yourself with bleach and the same kind of feelings, right, of what's going to happen tomorrow. What the hell is he saying? What the F, right? That's what led to the founding of the Midas Touch Network. This community, because that's what this network is, forging ahead together, changing the media landscape to prepare for moments like this and to prepare generationally in order to call this out and building the machinery to meet the moment and adapt.

1:11:05Ben Meiselas:We're in a WTF moment. We've been in it for quite some time. And the parallels between how Trump didn't handle COVID and how he is disastrously handing a catastrophic and unlawful war he started. It directionally is very, very similar. It's why early on when he starts this war, we go, he's lying. This is never going to end. Maybe at the end of his term, maybe anytime there's going to be an MOU or don't trust it, it's not real. It's not going to happen. He's never going to be able. He pathologically can't. He's unable to. He's a loser. He's been a lifelong loser who bankrupted things over and over again.

1:11:45Ben Meiselas:Look at this loser behavior. Today, the White House account posts overwhelming support for Iran peace deal. They cite big data poll registered voters, and they say 60 % of Americans support Iran peace deal. They posted that from the official White House account. Today, as Donald Trump is in his 10th day escalating the war. He's calling, US officials are calling to Fox, we're going to be hitting the nuclear plan soon. We're going to be escalating even more. All out war is going on. And you're posting overwhelming support for the peace deal that you pulled out of and that you broke and that you're not moving towards a deal at all.

1:12:26Ben Meiselas:I mean, who the hell is posting this thing? At the same time, while they're saying, okay, everything's going well, everything's going great. The strategic petroleum reserves. I know talking about strategic petroleum reserves sounds nerdy and geeky. Who cares? We should all care because we're at tank bottom right now. And what that means is while the data says crude oil stocks fell by 5.1 barrels last week to 311.4 million barrels, the lowest level since 1983. But in the past episodes where I showed you a visual of what the reserves actually look like. When you get to the lower parts of the reserves, it isn't a good quality and consistency of oil, petroleum, crude that can be refined.

1:13:19Ben Meiselas:It's a different material. So it's harder to refine. We're at that stage right now where we're at a tank bottom stage. We'll soon be at a stage where there's no more, but it's this sludgy type of material now at the bottom that's harder to refine. And this is a big issue because there's going to be a day where it's going to be like, oh my God, now it's the same way with COVID. You know, it went from 10 cases to 100 cases to 2000 cases, you know, to 20 ,000 cases, and then to thousands of deaths every day. And it's like, well, where did this happen? All this stuff is very clear if we just opened up our eyes.

1:13:58Ben Meiselas:Final point I want to make before we go. And I hear Canadian viewers and listeners say this to us all the time because you have US media propagandists will say, well, in Canada, they don't have like the American dream. They don't have the Canadian dream. And then in Canada, they go, it's not a dream. We're awake. We see what's happening. There isn't a Canadian dream because we're awake. We're alert. We know what's going on right now. And Trump looked at the United States and saw the American dream. And he said, got it. The American dream is something that's not obtainable. It is something that can be dangled.

1:14:44Ben Meiselas:And the con artist, the lifelong fraud, liar, con artist, bankrupt, grifter said, if you can just dangle that dream, that's always right around the corner. The GDP, it's going to be really good. the fourth quarter of 2025. Nope. The second quarter of 2026. Nope. In 2027, it's going to be great. 2025, we set the stage. 2026, the banquet. 2027, it's right around the corner. Fort Knox has all of this gold. It's about to be reached. Don't worry, you're going to get rich. The Doge dividend in checks, they're still coming right around the corner. All of the factories, that$19.1 trillion number that isn't true that Donald Trump makes up, all of these factories are going to be built.

1:15:35Ben Meiselas:And we know that right now it's just may seem difficult, but don't worry right around the corner, things are going to be excellent and you're going to be so rich. You may get an invite to Mar-a-Lago. You may get to hang out at Bedminster. You may be rich just like the Trump regime club. You may get to hang with them. You may get to do all one big fraud and lie. And we need to understand that this regime is malicious, incompetent, idiotic, and evil. that there are demons amongst us. There are true evil people at the leadership level and throughout this regime who want to hurt you, who want bad outcomes.

1:16:26Ben Meiselas:As long as they're enriching themselves, they don't give a crap about this country. They don't give a crap about you. In fact, they relish in your suffering because they view everything as a zero-sum game. Their happiness can't be satiated by all of the riches they already have. That doesn't quench their thirst for more. No, it only ends when they see you suffering. That's how they feel they've made it. They're sickos and they want to hurt you. That's the reality of what, and they are hurting you. That's what's happening. And I don't care what political party you're from, what the label is, this, that, and more center left and more left and more center more independent if you don't understand fundamental truths about what the hell is happening about the existential moment that we are really in right now then get the hell out and don't even be involved in this to begin with at all this ain't a game americans are suffering americans are dying people in the world are suffering and dying.

1:17:38Ben Meiselas:And it doesn't have to be that way. It doesn't have to be that way. So I'll leave you with that. Brett and Jordi, anything else you want to say?

1:17:46Jordy Meiselas:Well said. No, I want to thank for everybody, you know, for tuning in every single day. I'm excited to be able to chat with you this Thursday. Those who are on Patreon or want to sign up for Patreon at patreon.com slash Midas Touch. We've got a lot to speak about. I'm excited to speak about everybody about the book too. It's obviously been like a big kind of secret project that we've been doing in between every little nook and cranny. Every single kind of free minute that we've had has gone to writing this book, but we're really proud of it. Really, really proud of it. And so, you know, I apologize if you're like, ah, you're talking about the book again.

1:18:16Jordy Meiselas:I know I get it. I get it. Listen, it's been a labor of love. And so I've been wanting to speak about it with you for so long. And now we have the opportunity. I've seen some questions. It's available right now in all of North America. And so, you know, Canada should be Mexico also. If you're in North America, you should be able to go to the link that either this QR code that's on the screen or the link in the description to the video or podcast, and you should be able to pre-order and pre-orders are so important for books. So this is the, this is the time right now. And, and then we're also looking into getting it into some of the other countries in Europe and things like that.

1:18:50Jordy Meiselas:So more to come on that. But we are, we are grinding. I want to make a statement here. I want to thank you for everyone's support. I want to thank you for also your, your just resilience every single day. The fact that you're just like paying attention, you know, throughout all of this chaos, I think just shows how resilient and how strong everybody who listens to the show is. I know how much you really care about whether it's the United States or the world or your families. I'm so grateful that you're tuning in. I'm so grateful to consider you part of the Midas Mighty. So thank you. Thank you.

1:19:22Jordy Meiselas:Thank you. Jordy, take it away.

1:19:24Brett Meiselas:Shout out to the Midas Mighty.

1:19:33Jordy Meiselas:Against the fascists we sing our song We will get it right whenever Want to stay plugged in?

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