MeidasTouch Full Podcast - 8/11/26

17:35Jordy Meiselas:Let's worry about this fake problem that doesn't actually exist. You should actually be afraid of the rise of communism, the rise of socialism coming to this country, just feeding into Donald Trump's deranged version of reality as he installs the most radical people in every position, purges all of his positions, and implements loyalists everywhere across the board in the government, in these long positions, in these positions that were normally reserved for actual civil servants. This is the real threat that's in front of us right now. The threat of the Iran war, the complete disaster, the complete depletion of our munitions, of our defenses.

18:14Jordy Meiselas:We are right now in a crisis. We don't have to start creating or imagining fake crises because we are staring one in the face. And the fact that people cannot focus on what is right in front of us right now really drives me up the wall. But I think that's why so many people, you know, in this Midas Mighty community come here as well, because we're like, what are we doing with these dumb distractions? Can we please focus on this maniac right now that's in the freaking White House?

18:44Brett Meiselas:It's such a legacy rot, like that just playing out in front of so many people. And again, I think it's meant to like gaslight y 'all. But fortunately, we have this incredible pro-democracy community here that doesn't get gaslit by the mainstream nonsense because they tune in to independent media, which is so vital in this time. I just really want to quickly go back, just, you know, cover our butts here with the gamers. Cause I know we have a lot of gamers in the chat that I speak to quite frequently. And it's nothing against the gamers. That's not the issue in these situations, but the situation here is they're lowering the standards.

19:17Brett Meiselas:Once again, it feels like, and it's just such a weird thing to spike the football specifically at the speed of which you're hiring such a critical position. I tell people this all the time. I don't care how long it takes. I just want to make sure it's done right. And I just feel at the bare minimum, that should be the level of competence and approach that our government takes to filling very crucial roles that keep people alive, quite frankly. Not, oh, we filled these positions in expert in record time. It's like, I'm sorry, but I want the experts to actually go through the process. I want it to be a rigorous process with standards to ensure that it's the most qualified people being hired.

19:57Brett Meiselas:Like, is that a crazy thing to say, Ben and Brett?

20:00Ben Meiselas:No, look, to be fair, I think I did praise the gaming community. And I think they understood that. But I double protect our bases and give a shout out to gamers for sure. But no, I mean, look, I think that they would even want to acknowledge, okay, we should still go through the same process as everybody else. Brett, I want to pick up a point that you were saying also, which is also how is it that after seeing all of this, which appears to be so obvious, that it's not just the right-wing media, but it's just that seeing everybody kind of fall for the bait and bite the bait so obviously, the trap is so obvious.

20:40Ben Meiselas:And so frequently you have the corporate media and then even just others chase the narrative that is being set and the bent reality as we started this episode from Trump and Fox. And the moment you start even debating with this phantom fake Trump bent reality, you've already moved the Overton window so far that even if you win the debate, you've already lost because you're arguing in this kind of fake trap world that the American people aren't even in. And sometimes, you know, it's like when you look at a fish and you see the bait just kind of right there and the fish is, come on, it's like, you know it.

21:23Ben Meiselas:Didn't you see your brother fish? You know, what if you go and do that? You know, it's going to, we've done this before. And then the fish is like, I told you, it was right there. It was right in front of you. It's right in front of you.

21:34Jordy Meiselas:This is the issue though with the broader like information ecosystem right now though. I feel like everybody always feels the need that they need to be talking about X, Y, and Z because other people are talking about X, Y, Z. You don't just need a, you don't need to follow. Okay. You need to actually report on what's going on. And when there are threats as grave as what we are seeing right now, you got to be able to stay focused on that and not be the second fish that comes along.

22:01Ben Meiselas:You know, it's like, oh, so we got angry about Hassan Piker? Dude, what are you even talking about? I don't even understand what you even mean. He's a streamer. Who cares? Look, focus on the fact that the American people are unable to get healthcare right now. Focus on the fact that Donald Trump makes up every day that we're going to do deals with Iran and then says, I'm going to blow the effing S out of them. Oh, I want them to give me reparations. Or that treasury secretary Bessent says, well, the straight of Hormuz, it's just some water. It's just water. We don't even need it. We're just going to build pipelines that are going to, who's going to buy it?

22:37Ben Meiselas:Who's going

22:38Brett Meiselas:going to build these things. Ben, they're low-keying it, bro. I know they said that they were going to have the deal done last week. The deal was imminent, right? They said that. Being sarcastic. You didn't pick up on the sarcasm. And now this week, Ben, don't worry. They're low-keying it. They're low-keying it all.

22:55Ben Meiselas:Well, look, you know the 30 rule, right? That if you take over 30 private companies, that's not communism. Once you hit 31, then maybe we can have the comments. Trump's literally taken over. The United States has significant equity stakes in over 30 companies where, I don't know if that's not a form of taking over the methods and means of control. I don't know what else is. Donald Trump behaves more like an authoritarian communist than anybody. It's happening right before our eyes. It's the exact behavior, in my opinion, of the Talins and everybody like that. Yet these debates are happening like, well, what's happening in New York City with mom and dad?

23:38Ben Meiselas:I don't know, lowest crime in the history? Sounds pretty good to me. Will you disavow? Will you disavow what Hassan Piker said in episode 200? It's enough. We've made the point. And now I want to spend time talking about what the American people actually care about. I mean, just look, the price of oil went up 5%. Think about the volatility, 5%. in the last few hours because in response to Iran doing what Iran has done since March, that's why I report on it every damn day and say, here's what they've said. Their demands have remained the exact same since March. When it was a 10-point plan, when it was in the 14 points that added to it from the memorandum of understanding, which actually ended up being more friendly to Iran that the U.S.

24:26Ben Meiselas:signed to what they've stood on afterward. It's been the exact same exact stuff. They want unfrozen funds. They want Israel out of Lebanon. They want U.S. out of the bases in the region. They want a$300 billion fund for reparations for the attacks on them. This is what they've consistently want to be able to keep their ballistic missiles. They want a nuclear program. They said it won't be weapons grade. We'll do what we did in the ACPOA, but you can't. It's the exact same.

24:53Jordy Meiselas:Ben, this is why when Trump did his post earlier today where he did like the, no, you do comp, you compensate us, his 12-year-old thing, like he acted like he was surprised by this. He's like, I see that the representatives of the Islamic Republic of Iran are asking for compensation for the damage done to them. They've been asking for this the whole time. They've been asking for this from the beginning. The fact that if this is indeed a surprise to you, then somebody's not telling you things that you should know. Either way, you should not be in this position of power if you did not know on your own or did not know via people telling you that this was what they've been asking for the entire time.

25:34Jordy Meiselas:Like, say anything you want about the Iranian regime. They've actually been remarkably consistent in the terms that they've been demanding from the United States, so much so that we could name them off the top of our head here on the Midas Touch podcast. And if we know them, the president of the United States should know them. And right now we see Iran consistently saying, hey, at this point, we're hearing from sources close to the Iranian regime, close to the Speaker of Parliament, advisors to the Speaker of Parliament saying, like, we're not going to even deal with this guy until 2029. Like, why even bother?

26:06Jordy Meiselas:Like, this guy can't be trusted. We'll just wait you out. We're just going to ice you out. We'll just wait you out. Good luck with your straight-up removes. Good luck with your economy. Good luck with your oil reserves. See you later. Goodbye. And then you see some other folks saying, like, if you want to abide by the MOU that we signed, we could go back to those terms, but we're not going to go less than those terms. Like, we hashed this out already. We had an agreement. Like, the ball's kind of in your court here, but Trump just cannot be trusted throughout any of this. And he's not only lied to them, but he's lied to the American people throughout the whole process.

26:38Brett Meiselas:Trump acting surprised about what's in the MOU too. I mean, like, it's the first time I heard of it. Well, I never heard of this before. What are you talking about? Now, of course, buddy, because you're 12. You don't pay attention. You're not listening. Stay focused here, okay? Stay focused, buddy. Try and focus here. And the real issue is the longer this drags out, the worse it is for our troops. Iran has made it clear that, hey, we have these positions that we've already agreed to, the MOU. This is how we're going to move forward here. Donald Trump has since gone back on that multiple times in multiple posts and just acting very confusing and erratic is typical behavior.

27:11Brett Meiselas:here and it's at the expense of our of our troops quite frankly right when this started there weren't 18 known soldiers dead that at least they were willing to admit the U.S. government who knows how many that know like how how big that number actually is in my opinion I believe it to be more but that's neither here nor there right now the longer this drags out is the point that I'm trying to make here the longer this drags out the more troops are going to die and it's all because Donald Trump's sheer incompetence of trying to actually behave like an adult, he's getting our troops killed. He is.

27:43Brett Meiselas:There's no other way to say it.

27:45Ben Meiselas:Remember when this all began and Trump said, it's going to end in a few days, it's a few weeks. I don't like to say we won, but we won. What we were preparing everybody for, this is never going to end. We said, this will just be like COVID. There's not a lot of things that you can say, fortunately, when it comes to COVID or any of these things, but at least there was an election in 2020 and somebody had to fix it. And the firefighter, in that case, Biden, was blamed as the arsonist who had to actually roll up his sleeves and fix it. The unfortunate thing right now, even though we have a midterms, which I believe there will be a massive repudiation of Trump, is that Trump will still be in the Oval Office, sadly.

28:21Ben Meiselas:And so I don't see how this ends for the next few years. And Iran, Brett, to your point today, through MB Galibov's advisors, a few things happened. Number one, they said, we don't believe that there's ever going to be any way to negotiate with. He's incapable. So we have a 2029 time clock right now, but also less reported, but should be reported a lot. Ayatollah Mojtaba, he's been a little bit more public lately. He met with President Pazeski and recently the president of Iran, and he announced high level appointments of all of the main Iranian military positions. And they're all IRGC kind of hardliners, you know, who have no interest in doing any type of, you know, deal anymore with the United States.

29:03Ben Meiselas:So they're prepared that this is going to be a struggle. And they're sending a message, you know, through, you know, through 20 through 2029, you know. But, you know, you just think about, you know, these things, too. Like, remember, this is one of the most ridiculous ones. You all remember April 26, 2026, Donald Trump calls state regime media Fox. He says Iran's oil infrastructure and pipelines are going to explode in three days and all of Iran's going to be naturally wiped out because the blockade is so effective. The pipeline, the pipes get congested, he says, and then it's going to blow up.

29:37Ben Meiselas:So they have three days left to live. OK, it's the most ridiculous things in a normal, healthy media environment. If the president of the United States says that and that doesn't happen or just says that or we can talk about what he did in the Oval Office today. He's removed. End of story. We don't go, well, no, no, no, no. We go, that's a psycho. That's a psychotic human, whether it's 25th Amendment or whatever. The tsunami of coverage should be, this is a sick, sick, sick, you know what? And this person's got to go, that's it. It's not a Democrat position. It's not a Republican position. This is a sicko.

30:14Ben Meiselas:And whether it's fake 90 deals in 90 days, whether it is, what, two weeks ago, we did another deal with the Board of Peace in Gaza. Netanyahu has agreed. Hamas has agreed. I did it. That's what he posted two weeks ago. And I was thinking, isn't this what they said last October? And then there's been thousands of people in Gaza killed by Netanyahu since then. But what's the, okay, but you're saying it again. Okay. So what's going to happen? Netanyahu says, no, we're not agreeing to that at all. I want to be precise. Israel rejects the 15-point document. And that's what Netanyahu said. We're supposed to move on.

30:54Ben Meiselas:Okay. What you got for me, Donnie? You got some memes of some bronze statues paint to go, Donnie? Okay. Okay. I'll see what you're doing. You're going to do some weirdo hair, Donnie? Okay. You're going to do a little weird wig for me today? No, no. I'm not distracted by that crap. I'm going to call it out as weird, but we're going to say this is sick. This is rotten. This is demonic. Not to mention they're covering up child sex trafficking rings out of the Oval Office. And they swore in the guy who's leading it with Donald Trump, Todd Blanche today. And then you've got people like these MAGA Republican senators who were complicit in all of this saying, well, I don't like RFK.

31:34Ben Meiselas:He's lying. And I almost voted against Todd Blanche, sick and rotten to the core. But we have to understand the core rottenness that leads to a Trump, how the system is broken. And that's what causes Trump to rise to begin with. And Trump's a vessel when you have these people who are so weak and pathetic and who stand for nothing and fall for everything here in this country and why we need to stand up to that. By the way, it's what we talk about in WTF America. Pre-ordered right now. It's the book that me and my brothers wrote. It comes out in October. You can scan the QR code or you can click the link in the description below, or you can search it.

32:12Ben Meiselas:Just be careful if you Google it, that you get the right one. There's a lot of AI people spoofing it. Just make sure it looks like the book WTF America by Ben Breton, Jordy Mycelos, The Way Out of This, Helen, Back to Democracy. Pre-order it now and let's keep the momentum. It's got good momentum, this book. It comes out october 20 but pre-order now all right let's take our first break of the show we will be right back

32:35Brett Meiselas:ask any small business owner and they'll tell you that finances can get messy quick a bank account here quickbooks there taxed invoicing apps stacked on top before long you're buried in expensive tools behind on books and unsure where your business really stands that's why there's found found eliminates the clutter by giving you one platform that handles it all banking bookkeeping invoices and taxes no more paying for multiple subscriptions and dealing with clunky, outdated apps. Found is reimagining what business banking should be by putting your bookkeeping, invoicing, and tax tools directly into your business checking account.

33:08Brett Meiselas:They've automated things like tracking expenses, finding write-offs, and budgeting for tax time. You can even send invoices for free and pay your contractors everything off from one app. Found makes it easy to regain control of your business finances so you can get back to doing what you love. The stress of juggling multiple apps, chasing receipts, or dreading tax season can become a real burden for a business owner now imagine what it's like to have everything banking bookkeeping invoicing and taxes handled all in one place that freedom means more clarity more time less stress found understands the unique challenges facing small business owners and entrepreneurs now what i love about found is that it automatically tracks expenses which means that i no longer have to carve out time every week time that i could have spent on something more important to go through my purchases and make sure everything is accounted for.

33:57Brett Meiselas:I've never felt more in control of my business finances. Take back control of your business today. Open a Found account for free at found.com. That's F-O-U-N-D.com. Found is a financial technology company, not a bank. Banking services are provided by Lead Bank, member FDIC. Join the hundreds of thousands who've already streamlined their finances with Found.

34:21Jordy Meiselas:I gotta tell you, I've been playing around with this dupe.com website. Have you used this yet? This website is incredible. I found something I really wanted online, but the price was just way more than I wanted to spend. So I put it into dupe.com and it immediately started finding similar options for way less. And it's not just furniture. You can use dupe.com for fashion, shoes, jewelry, and more. You can even just describe what you need, like comfortable couch under$2 ,000, and then let dupe.com do the searching for you. I love it because it makes comparison shopping ridiculously easy, and I've already found options that could save me a ton of money.

34:56Jordy Meiselas:Using dupe.com is insanely simple. Just go to dupe.com and paste any product URL, upload a photo, and it'll instantly show you similar items for way less. There's also an app and a browser extension if you want to make it even easier. No account needed, totally free. start saving money today with dupe.com.

35:19Brett Meiselas:Let's go. 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 he sent you. Benji, where to next?

35:28Ben Meiselas:Let's talk about what went down in the Oval Office, but first let me show you what Senator Bill Cassidy, Republican from Louisiana, who is no longer going to be the senator after the midterms because Donald Trump didn't endorse him and his career is over because of Trump. He's a doctor, Senator Bill Cassidy. He's an MD. He was the decisive vote that voted in favor of RFK Jr. to become the health secretary, even knowing that the answers that were given to the committee at the confirmation hearing by RFK Jr. went against all medical science, and this guy was a doctor. But he's like, yeah, let's give him a shot.

36:05Ben Meiselas:You know, it's also cowards like that who voted for Todd Blanche to become the attorney general. And also made it like a whole show, like, what am I going to do? And I've decided, despite my deep concerns, that I'm going to give him a shot because everything's weaponized. So what else can we do? And so today, after this deranged Oval Office presser with Trump and RFK and Bhattacharya, the NIH director, where they said that they're changing the childhood vaccine schedule and just said everything that was false, like just everything that was false, that children are getting Coke cans of vaccines.

36:45Ben Meiselas:vaccines, these vats of Coke cans injected into them is what Donald Trump and RFK were saying, what are you talking about? So that's not a thing that it's only safe to get the hepatitis B vaccine when you're 14 or 50 years old, which goes against all of the science there, that the vaccines actually explode and can kill you if you do it the way it's currently being done, making false links to autism, that people were much healthier many decades ago, and now they're much sicker as a result of vaccine. I mean, real, serious, dangerous disinformation. But this was Cassidy's post. I'm a doctor. This executive order is wrong, referring to what Trump signed today.

37:28Ben Meiselas:The president does not have the expertise to make these changes. Vaccines are overwhelmingly safe. Vaccines are effective. Vaccines do not cause autism. Breaking up vaccines will mean children have to get more shots to get the same protection, not fewer shots. It will increase hesitancy and make children less safe. Parents should listen to their child's pediatrician about vaccines rather than listening to an inaccurate executive order. This is so wrong. Go on to say what you also are implying there. Say what's explicit. it. This will kill children. This will lead to children being killed. When you rip healthcare away from people, people die.

38:11Ben Meiselas:I mean, the stat isn't reported, but how many hundreds of thousands or perhaps millions of Americans have died already since Trump has ripped healthcare away from them because they couldn't see a doctor? I've heard a lot of stories from people, and I'm sure you've heard it as well. They didn't go to the checkup because they can't afford it. They didn't go get this checked out. And it turned out it was something bad. In the United States of America, the wealthiest nation in the world, the priorities from the regime are$1.5 trillion to the military industrial complex to aid and embed genocide and war crimes and slaughtering little girls in Manab.

38:48Ben Meiselas:That's where they were. Or building Trump-class battleships in an age of drones, unmanned, submersive, anti-drone interceptors, where we see what modern warfare looks like. Donald Trump wants to spend hundreds of billions of dollars from that$1.5 trillion military budget on a Trump class of nuclear battleships because Donald Trump likes the aesthetic. He likes the way battleships look between the 1920s and the 1940s, thinks it looks good, doesn't like the way stealth looks. So as a result, that's where our taxpayer dollars are going while the American people are suffering. But it takes real complicit bootlickers, real sick, real weak humans like Bill Cassidy who go along with this.

39:35Ben Meiselas:And one of the things, and again, I won't, I'll just plug the book quickly, but then move on. But it's an important point from WTF America, but an important point that I make that Trump is a vessel. He is a horrible blob, a blobfish. We do that video. It was like a horrible blob vessel for authoritarianism and that we see this authoritarian blob fish throughout the world. Trump's the vessel in the United States. But what we used to have here, to use the medical analogy, is we used to have an immunity built up through the strength of our democracy to that authoritarian virus, where we would look at sickly countries across the world and see that authoritarian virus rear its head.

40:24Ben Meiselas:We would call it out. In some cases, the authoritarian would be such a ridiculous person. We would mock it, Baghdad, Bob, and this or that and the other. But now it's here and our immunity has been eroded to allow the vessel, the virus, to infect. And the point we make in WTF America, but that I talk about is this has been decades and decades of a project by the right-wing oligarchs to achieve this. And so we need a generational immunity to this. We need to build up our defenses and purge the virus of authoritarianism and build up the immunity to stop it again. But it's weak people like Cassidy who go and say, well, there's nothing I can do.

41:08Ben Meiselas:What do you mean? You're a senator. You are a United States senator. You know, or people like Tom Tillis of North Carolina. Well, what do you expect me to do? He met with Todd Blanche, met with the Epstein survivors. Well, he tormented them. He went to the victims of child sex trafficking whose names he outed and who he's already caused more PTSD. And he met with them because you told him to meet with them. And then he caused them PTSD by treating them rudely and abrasively and mocking them. And then you vote for him or you go to John Cornyn of Texas. We talked about earlier in the show, Big Bend National Park.

41:50Ben Meiselas:I could give you a myriad of examples of how Texas is suffering right now under the Trump regime. I mean, they literally in Texas gave no taxes on electricity to data centers. To attract the data centers, they incentivized it with no tax on the electricity by the electricity guzzling data centers to go in their backyards. And now Greg Abbott, the governor of Texas, is like, well, we're going to audit them. We're going to study them. What are you going to audit them? You did it. You told them to all come in. And Brett, you made that great super cup in Ohio, super cut in Ohio with Vivek Ramaswamy, whose whole thing was data centers, data centers.

42:31Ben Meiselas:I never said data. Yes, you did. You did. And by the way, the way we're calling them out and focusing on the issues that matter to the American people, that's hello. That's what you focus on, not what Hassan Piker is saying, or are you a democratic socialist or this? No, because there is an authoritarian communist in the Oval Office right now. So stop the BS about, oh, well, does this person do the do the do? Look at the results. Look at the action. All I know is I see violent crime record lows in New York right now. I see businesses staying in New York right now. I see someone who is a deeply empathetic mayor in New York who's responding to the people of New York.

43:08Ben Meiselas:Well, Frederick.

43:09Jordy Meiselas:Yeah, enough of the fear mongering. And honestly, the people like Bill Cassidy make me absolutely sick. I quite frankly prefer probably the most radical of the Republicans hardliners where we actually know, you know, that that's who they are rather than this spaghetti human being who bends at every whim. I mean, just look, I'm going to pull up this picture. I pulled it up a second ago, but I don't know if I'll describe it for the audio listeners. This is Bill Cassidy right after he announced that he was, after he did that very apprentice style. Tune in at 11 a.m. and you'll find out. Will I vote for the guy who's going to weaponize our Justice Department and cover up for Jeffrey Epstein or will I not?

43:49Jordy Meiselas:I'll see you at 11 on the floor of Congress. Well, this is him walking out and like he looks like a tormented individual. And quite frankly, I hope that he is a tormented individual. I hope he understands at least a little bit of what he's done. And like you said, Ben, he's a medical doctor. To me, he's violated his Hippocratic oath of do no harm. He did like the most maximum harm on the planet. He could have stopped RFK. He didn't. He made excuses then. Well, he assured me that he wouldn't do anything. And then when RFK and Trump and them start spreading all this disinformation about vaccines and there's a measles outbreak and cyclospora and everything else that's going on, he's like, oh, but he promised me.

44:34Jordy Meiselas:He promised my RFK. You promised me. And then in that same moment, he has the ability to at least be like, you know what? I was wrong. I learned from the RFK fiasco that I can't just trust people. I should actually look at the overwhelming amount of evidence that is laying in front of me right here and make an honest, informed decision. And then he does it again with Todd Blanche. And then he wants the credit when he goes on TV during the Sunday shows this past weekend to be like, well, you know, I almost voted against him. Don't I get a pat on the back for that? These people are horrific. And there is not a Donald Trump unless there are Bill Cassidy's along the way propping up the Donald Trumps.

45:17Jordy Meiselas:And that's true throughout the entirety of history, how these autocrats come to power. And I am sick, probably most sick of the people like the Bill Cassidy's, like the Susan Collins, like the Lisa Murkowski's. And yes, I know they voted against Todd Blanche in this scenario, but I'm telling you, it's all orchestrated. They coordinate it all. They know exactly how many votes they need. They do it based on the calendar often so they could be like, look, I'm a moderate. Vote for me. I'm a moderate. See, I voted against this, even though they knew that it was going to pass anyway. They're playing games.

45:54Jordy Meiselas:They're gaslighting you. And they frankly don't give a damn about the consequences. And the consequences are enormous. The amount of medical disinformation, and I think we're going to get Dr. Vindgupta of Midas Health on the pod soon, so look out for that. The amount of medical disinformation coming from the White House today when they were speaking about autism and they were speaking about vaccines. I mean, horrific, horrific, horrific stuff to see the president of the United States saying stuff like that. I think we're lucky that this is just like an executive order that at the end of the day really doesn't have much meaning, but it's going to lead to people believing him and questioning things that are set in order to make sure that their kids stay alive so that their kids are healthy.

46:39Jordy Meiselas:And what they did today is just so irresponsible. reminds me going back to like the big Tylenol rants that Donald Trump did. But there is no more dangerous, you know, people than we could possibly have in the Oval Office and the people who are there right now.

46:53Brett Meiselas:Absolutely. Look, I think from my perspective too, from brothers, our perspectives here, we all have young children. As I mentioned at the outset of the show, I have one on the way in a couple of weeks. When I went to my pediatrician here a couple of months ago for my son's vaccinations you know we were talking about all this chaos and i just i just asked the doctor i'm like doc what do you like what do you think about this and like just the exacerbated like sigh and look on the doctor's face i just know everyone in the medical community who has studied like this stuff who's become an expert in their field has practiced for many years following the science following the data like doing their you know best to just put their best foot forward to to help children they're exhausted right now they're exhausted by this trump regime because ben as you so bluntly put it and as cassidy so cowardly tap danced around this type of action from the trump regime of mixing up these vaccination schedules what just for the heck of it who knows it's going to lead to the deaths of children there's no other way to sugarcoat it and the medical professionals know this and now they're out there doing their best having to work under certain guidelines and it's exhausting and i can only imagine what they're going through as a parent it's horrifying and scary right i i didn't study this i i don't know i lean on the doctors and i lean on the guidance to better inform my decisions right that that's the best that we can do here and when our quote-unquote leaders are seemingly self-sabotaging us and our families and our loved ones it becomes a horrible situation to to be in it becomes stressful for the doctors it becomes stressful for the parents know who it's not stressful for donald trump he doesn't give a damn he does not give a damn and this is another thing as we go forward here as a country i mean it is just so important that we have leaders who actually want to lead while they are in a position to do so right like cassidy's on his way out over here and he doesn't care anymore and so i'm glad he's speaking up in this instance he did vote to confirm blanche which is horrible and horrendous and brett as you astutely pointed out last week we knew that was all orchestrated and was gonna happen and it's just it's awful that all these people just behind the scenes here are doing what's best for for their party right and like look i'm not like a democrat republican type of guy here dems have their own issues that they obviously have to work out like that's just politics of it all but time and time again the republican party it's so obviously at the forefront here their politicians their senators their congress people they're not working for the american people they are not working for the american people they are working so they don't receive a mean tweet, a mean statement from their dear leader, Donald Trump.

49:33Brett Meiselas:So they continue to get invited to the party. So they continue to get invited to XYZ event. Why? Because that's what they care. They care about their access here and holding these positions is only important to them to further advance their lives, I guess, professionally, but also monetarily. And so they don't want to lose that. And so something's got to give when they don't want to lose their access and their money. And that's to the people. They don't care about the people. And it is so obvious every single day and it's just frustrating it's it's it's absolutely disheartening I do believe that we could get back to a place in the society where we actually are electing leaders who care about the people and I think I I think we're kind of at a moment here where where pavement's gonna meet the road and and it's just gonna be you know what it is and how we figure our way out through this but we can no longer elect the Bill Cassidy's like like it is just so obvious to me that the Donald Trump's like Donald Trump man he's an issue obviously Trumpism though that's the thing that has so metastasized like within our politics that has trickled down to so many politicians especially in the Republican Party we're just hatred and vitriol and making money and status symbols rather than helping people and just frankly being kind but helping the American people and actually doing your job, that's taken precedent for whatever reason.

50:52Brett Meiselas:And we have got to get that out of our politics.

50:54Ben Meiselas:You think about every area of subject matter expertise, the economy, Donald Trump, tariff, it's a beautiful word. Everybody loves the word. It means we get richer and it means we tax the other countries, which is just not what a tariff is. Everybody warned it's going to cause more inflation. It did cause more inflation. When it comes to health. Donald Trump spreads all of these lies about the vaccines and here's what I think we should do. Or you're putting Coca-Cola bottles of vaccines in babies. That's not happening. I don't know what you're even talking about. When it comes to energy, we need big, beautiful coal and windmills are horrible when it comes to war.

51:37Ben Meiselas:It's like, let's change the name of the Department of defense. And then let's say that our war fighters need to be groomed better. And that's what we need to do. And then we control the Strait of Hormuz. We're doing all these fake deals. Trust me, Iran's going to treat us like we're heroes. They're going to fall in two days. You can go to any area. And this is what the guy who runs that organization with the CIA officers, Steady States, It is Trump's wrong about everything. And you know that because he says, I'm right about Trump's right about everything means he's wrong about everything. Right.

52:17Ben Meiselas:Because that and it's always it's always the opposite about every topic. And again, it's not a Democrat or Republican thing. It's just are you are you are you right? Are you wrong? You know, and then I could do every topic, immigration, you know, killing comprehensive immigration and then lying and saying you're going after criminals, but going after hardworking people and also harming the economy and just being cruel, destroying our national parks. Everything, every single thing the guy does is cruel, unusual, and incompetent. Let's take our last quick break of the show. A reminder, pre-order WTF America.

52:57Ben Meiselas:It's the book I wrote with my brothers. It comes out October 20th, but the pre-orders are very important. gives it the momentum it needs, helps us plan our book tour. So pre-order WTF American now. You could scan the QR code link in the description below, put in the chat WTF if you've ordered it already. When we come back, we've got a lot to discuss still. Let's take our last quick break of the show.

53:22Brett Meiselas:Are you one of those people who loves coffee? The taste, the smell, the whole ritual, but the caffeine sends you straight into an anxiety spiral? Because, well, same. I love trying new coffee shops and fun seasonal drinks but one full cup and suddenly my heart is sprinting and my brain it's running in five different directions at once that's why I love mud water same morning ritual coffee chai or matcha but with functional mushrooms and adaptogenins instead of a full caffeine hit steady energy and no spiral I've been loving their original blend it's cacao chai turmeric and functional mushrooms like a spicy hot cocoa warm and grounding and actually satisfying.

53:59Brett Meiselas:For coffee shop lovers who just can't handle the full caffeine load anymore, Mudwater is this version of your morning drink that you didn't know existed. Because loving coffee shouldn't mean negotiating with it every morning. Mudwater is a coffee alternative with mushrooms and adaptogenins. About one-seventh of the caffeine of coffee, so you get the focus and energy without the jitters, crash, or anxiety. The best way to start is the starter kit. It's designed to set you up with everything you need to actually build the habit. When you order, you get a full-size tin of your chosen blend, plus a free rechargeable frother, free gifts, and free shipping.

54:35Brett Meiselas:Ready to make the switch to cleaner energy? Go to mudwater.com slash Midas and grab the starter kit. Use code Midas and you'll get 43 % off. The frother alone is worth it. That's right, up to 43 % off with code Midas at mudwtr.com. After your purchase, they'll ask how you found out about them. Please support our show. Let them know that Midas Touch sent you. Ever wake up sweaty, freezing, or just uncomfortable? The temperature in your bedroom can make or break your sleep. That's why I switched to Miracle Made Sheets. They're inspired by NASA technology and use silver-infused temperature-regulating fabric to help you sleep perfectly all night long.

55:13Brett Meiselas:Here's the thing. Thanks to their antibacterial silver technology, Miracle Made Sheets stay cleaner and fresher up to three times longer than regular sheets. That means fewer odors, fewer wash cycles, and way less laundry. All that hidden bacteria in regular sheets, it can clog your pores and cause breakouts. Miracle Made's antibacterial design helps you sleep cleaner and clearer night after night. And they feel just as good, if not better, than sheets you'd find at a five-star hotel, but without that steep price tag. Smooth, breathable, and ridiculously comfortable. Miracle Made sheets are crafted with NASA-inspired silver-infused fabric that helps regulate your body temperature.

55:52Brett Meiselas:Hot sleeper, cold sleeper, it doesn't matter. These sheets help keep you in the comfort zone all night long. Upgrade your sleep or give the gift a better rest. Go to trymiracle.com slash Midas to try Miracle Made Sheets today. You'll save over 40 % and when you use promo code Midas, you'll get an extra 20 % off plus a free three-piece towel set. They make an amazing gift and with a 30-day money-back guarantee, there's no risk. that's try miracle.com slash Midas code Midas at checkout thanks to Miracle Made for sponsoring this episode shout out to our sponsors y 'all links in the descriptions of the YouTube and the audio use the links use the codes there's an exit survey let them know he sent you I didn't want to interrupt Ben because you were on a flow but you know Trump bringing back what was it though the World War II style submarines was that was that was that what you're just because he thinks it looks cool because he doesn't like stealth yeah of course he's 12 you're 12 buddy that's why I think it looks cool, so we have to spend some money.

56:52Jordy Meiselas:You guys see these photos of Trump, by the way, golfing? Trump is genuinely terrified of getting killed by Iran. And I don't know if everybody has seen these pictures. But now when he goes around, he was on his golf course in Bedminster over the weekend. And he had missile interceptors next to him on the golf course in Bedminster. And I feel like I've never seen this before. So I don't know if this has ever happened with another president. It seems very peculiar to me and also peculiar that this isn't even like a bigger story than it is. But here's a photo of Trump. When I first saw this, I was like, it has to be AI, right?

57:27Jordy Meiselas:It has to be AI. And then I found videographic proof that it was legitimate. And these are, they appear to be ANTWQ1 Avenger short range air defense systems. and throughout the entire weekend while Donald Trump was at his golf course at Bedminster, like they were also like intercepting all these planes. They had F-16 fighter jets intercepting like two or three planes who flew near the restricted airspace around Donald Trump because as the war goes on and on and on, Donald Trump is becoming increasingly paranoid. I mean, remember even just a few weeks back when he did that last minute swap of the Qatari jet, swapped the Qatari jet for the old Air Force One.

58:12Jordy Meiselas:And then he made really weird comments to the press on the plane where they would ask him about it. And he'd be like, hey, if they get me, they get you too. Like this has been in his head for a while. He's really been haunted by it. I think seeing the intelligence that is theoretically out there and also the signs that people have up in Iran and just the way the war is going. But I think just a really kind of fascinating sight to see these interceptors. And also contrasted with the fact that our interceptors and munitions and everything are running low overseas, but now we're using these interceptors to protect Donald Trump while he goes golfing over the weekend.

58:55Jordy Meiselas:I think it's a metaphor for something there.

58:57Brett Meiselas:For the audio listeners, Brett's playing the video right now. The interceptor is literally behind Donald Trump as he's taking his backstory. I'm not being sarcastic. This isn't AI either. And I don't say this on the show because like I'm being funny. This is a guy, bread and Ben Midas mighty. He's deeply concerned about his own mortality. He, he, he is. That's why he's doing the funny wig thing these days where he just looks preposterous with this new wig that he wears. It's why he covers his hand when he speaks because he's deeply embarrassed that he's rotting from the inside out. It's why he wants to name things after himself and build the golden arch and rename the, the Kennedy center, the Trump Kennedy center.

59:35Brett Meiselas:It's because He knows that he does not have a legacy to leave in the United States that is any somewhat positive at all. And so what is he trying to do? He's trying to manipulate what that legacy looks like by taking all these alternate routes to just put his footprint on there.

59:50Ben Meiselas:You know, Trump gave defense companies a 21-day ultimatum to come up with immediate plans, how they're going to build back interceptor stocks also and attack them and high Mars and all of the weapons that Trump depleted with poor management. Sometimes a lot of this though is also, it gets debated on corporate news through these partisan lens and this and that, and this is this side and this, that side. No, no. Objectively, the United States ran out of weapons in the war in about a 40-day period of time. And we knew that before the reporting because we would look at the surveillance footage and the satellite footage, and we would see that the interceptors were not stopping Iran's ballistics.

1:00:39Ben Meiselas:So Iran's ballistics would be able to shoot the U.S. bases in the region with relative ease, such that the U.S. had to abandon most of its bases in the Middle East. Other than Israel, the US has basically abandoned all of the Middle East bases. Do you know that? Like in Bahrain, the Fifth Fleet, abandoned. One of the reasons also why our sailors on the Abraham Lincoln, USS Abraham Lincoln supercarrier, are struggling. They're not getting their mail. They're not getting supplies. A lot of the supplies were routed through, you guessed it, Bahrain and the Fifth Fleet, and then it would go to the supercarrier, but that supply route has been shut off by Iran.

1:01:21Ben Meiselas:I can talk about Kuwait. I could talk about Jordan. I could talk about Al-Yudid in Qatar. I could talk about the bases in UAE or Beal in Iraq. Iran obliterated those bases. At least$12 to$13 billion in damages, probably more there. And that's in addition to the US running out of weapons. So Donald Trump has now ordered defense companies. You figure it out. Dude, you had a$1 trillion defense budget last year,$1 trillion. And now here you are blaming Biden. You blame Biden for the economy. You blame Biden for this, Biden for that, Biden for this, Biden for that. Truthfully, Biden should have been blaming you for the things that you did because that was actually real when Biden came in.

1:02:05Ben Meiselas:But Biden didn't. He acted like a leader and he took it and he said, I'm going to fix it. That's what I do. I'm going to put my head down. I'm going to fix it. And then two rough years. But then we noticed manufacturing booms and things were getting better and inflation was decreasing. And then Donald Trump screwed it all up all over again. And that's just what we see repeatedly. I want to point this out as well so you understand some of the developments. It was also announced recently that Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, who already have a defense alliance. They just brought in Turkey and they're calling it the Mecca Pact.

1:02:41Ben Meiselas:And we believe Egypt is going to be joining soon. And so what's actually significant, and by the way, Iran kind of applauded it, but also is wary of it because Iran's like, well, at least you're learning that Arab nations, Muslim nations need to form alliances with itself. It was a funny comment by Iran's foreign ministry spokesperson who was like, we're not worried about this. And you could tell they're not worried about it because the Houthis who are aligned with Iran continue to strike Eastern Saudi Arabia at an Aramco facility today, which is also a contrast that Ben Minster over the weekend where Donald Trump put those interceptors.

1:03:19Ben Meiselas:It was sponsored by Aramco with a legacy deal while the Houthis were striking in Eastern Saudi Arabia and also striking within Yemen and areas by the Saudi backed government. So the Houthis weren't afraid of that announcement, But that announcement was made because the U.S. security umbrella is broken and China is going to move in and they already have moved in. And it's going to basically replace the U.S., though, with a more Muslim nation, Arab nation forward security alliance in the region. That's, I think, an important thing to point out. Another thing I want to point out, because it's not getting enough attention or it's being framed the wrong way.

1:03:53Ben Meiselas:I don't know if you saw this. We've been talking about how Trump has been depriving Ukraine of the interceptors that it needs in order to shoot down the Russian ballistics. And as a result, Russia has been able to really strike hard in Ukraine because Ukraine doesn't, Ukraine can strike down the drones. Ukraine can strike down cruise missiles, but Ukraine struggles, can't, they're struggles, they can't strike down ballistics without PAC-3 or THAAD interceptors. Trump promised that they would sell, that the US would sell it to Europe and Europe would sell it to Ukraine. And then Trump went back on that.

1:04:23Ben Meiselas:Trump promised they would give Ukraine a license. Trump went back on that. So Trump lied, tabbed Zelensky along the entire time. But now, I don't know if you saw this, Raytheon, the story is that the reason that Ukraine can't get the license is that Raytheon and Lockheed are worried that Ukraine may develop better versions of the interceptors if they get that technology so that it's an IP issue by Lockheed and Raytheon. Let me just say it now clearly so when it's proven to be correct, we can say let's go back and roll the tape. In my opinion, as part of Donald Trump giving$50,$60 billion more to Lockheed to produce Interceptors and giving billions and billions more to Raytheon, he's having them say that so that it could be blamed on them as an IP issue versus a Trump issue?

1:05:21Ben Meiselas:Because it literally makes noise. Let's use common sense. How easy would it be for Donald Trump to say to Zelensky, if he actually cared, you can have the license, but for the next 50 years, any interceptors that are made by Ukraine become the ownership of the United States. And Zelensky would agree to it in negative five seconds, right? He said, of course, we need the interceptors. What do you want? That would actually be a deal. And Trump could do that in a second. So you're telling me it's an IP issue that they're worried that Zelensky is going to make better IP. If anything, if you're Lockheed and you're Raytheon, you can get a windfall.

1:06:02Ben Meiselas:If they make better weapons, just claim ownership of it. And that's an actual deal that, you know, you would say, okay, that was a smart deal. But obviously that's being used as the excuse, in my opinion, to help Putin. So I want everybody to pay attention to these international developments because they have important ramifications. And I just want to talk about this too. The Pew Research poll, we talked about at the outset, that Trump's approval rating before the midterms is the lowest of any president after 1953. And that's like when this polling first started. Okay. And I think ASIN from our network did this analysis, which was, which we got to do this analysis every day because it focused on what state regime media was Fox, what they were focused on.

1:06:50Ben Meiselas:So between 9.00 AM and 3.00 PM, the main topics on state regime media, Fox, the WNBA was mentioned 34 times. Sophie Cunningham, 15 times. Hong, the Wisconsin governor candidate, 32 times, AOC 20 times, Al-Sayed 35 times, Hassan Piker 12 times, Obama 14 times, Mamdani 24 times, Fauci 45 times. That's like their main coverage right now. It's something about focused on the important things. And how there are these two 6 '10 and 7 '1 NBA players, Royce White and Enes Kanter, who they say that they're trans now so that they can mock trans people and they want to join the the WNBA draft. So they go on Fox, like wearing wigs.

1:07:38Ben Meiselas:And they're like, look, we're trans now. We're doing the draft. And then Fox is like, oh, the Dems are going crazy by this. It's like, dude, no one's going, we don't know what the hell, what are you doing? What are you talking about? What is this? They're like, the Dems are going crazy over his hair. Like, dude, no one cares. It's just, it's weird.

1:07:55Jordy Meiselas:It's objectively strange. I think that people just want healthcare. All right. People just don't, people want to be able to get, uh, take out food and take out food or make dinner for their family and not spend a fortune. People want to be able to go to the doctor, not go bankrupt. They don't care about your ridiculous stunts. They don't care about all this other BS. They really don't. They care that there's a fascist that's been taking over our country and an entire class of people around him who have been enabling him. These are the things people care about, but that's why they want to keep people distracted with all this other garbage.

1:08:24Jordy Meiselas:So I think so much of when we're speaking about these topics, almost as important as what you speak about is also the things that you don't speak about. And that's why, and Fox knows that, and the right-wing media knows that. And that's why they often try to push all of this BS at you, because they'd rather you talk about that garbage than the stuff that's actually impacting your lives. Because if they actually speak about the stuff that's impacting their lives, inevitably their viewers are the ones who are probably getting effed over far more than even most of the country. It's just the facts of the matter here, but they don't want them focused on that.

1:09:04Jordy Meiselas:They want them focused on this other garbage. And, uh, and by the way, I want to go to this other story too quickly before, before we get out of here, because it's, it's just a crazy story and it really goes, it sums it up a little bit because before I was talking about Donald Trump, uh, being afraid of these, uh, attacks against him. And every day we're learning more and more and more about Donald Trump's panic and Donald Trump's fear. And then, you know, that's why when you start your videos or you do a video about Trump panicking or Trump being terrified and stuff. Sometimes you get comments that are like, no, he's not.

1:09:36Jordy Meiselas:He's not panicking. He's not scared. He's not terrified. And they buy into the image that he's trying to portray. And then the actual substantiated evidence is so far to the contrary. And so there was a Washington Post story out tonight that is worth bringing up because it fits into this bucket. And what the Washington Post says, let me pull up the headline right here, contradicting public statements, Trump took secret flight from Turkey amid Iranian threat. Secret flight from Turkey amid Iranian threat. And this goes back to exactly what I was speaking about before when I was talking about how Donald Trump ended up switching planes.

1:10:16Jordy Meiselas:He had that Qatar jet and then all of a sudden he was on the old Air Force One. And so what this article is saying, I'll just kind of summarize it quickly, is that that assassination threat against Trump, there was a secret operation that had to take place because Donald Trump was so terrified of that assassination threat that he publicly boarded the Air Force One, the legacy Air Force One that he had, you know, switched to, or so we thought. He was then secretly moved by an airport catering truck, like a shuttle, a catering truck, moved secretly to a smaller military aircraft while journalists and then White House staff flew on this decoy plane.

1:10:57Jordy Meiselas:And they thought that most of them thought that Trump was still on that plane with them. They thought he was still on that Air Force One with them when he actually flew in a nondescript plane to Britain on a nondescript call sign with the tracking systems disabled, concealing his location for hours and hours while they publicly claimed that Trump was on this other plane. If that doesn't just sum up what's going on in Donald Trump's head and the reality that he is kind of having to grapple with, and to Geordi's point, the mortality that he is now grappling with and the fear that lives with him every single day, then I don't know what else is.

1:11:37Jordy Meiselas:What a crazy, crazy, crazy story.

1:11:39Ben Meiselas:Yeah, you know, it's fascinating because I would say, you know, being self-aware, the criticism that I frequently get is he's not panicking. Melania didn't disappear. The polls aren't crashing. I'm like, oh, you use other words. I think the issue is underplaying it and not using the right words for the moment. All I can do is observe what's happening. And it's not hyperbolic when Donald Trump is doing things so overtly catastrophic. So it is a catastrophe. Yes. When you're in the Oval Office and you're telling 14 and 15-year-olds to wait until you're 14 or 50 to get the Hep V vaccine and lying about babies getting Coca-Cola vats of vaccines, 72 jabs that kill them, and I say it's a disastrous event, it is.

1:12:40Ben Meiselas:That doesn't mean there could be multiple disastrous events. But I think using a headline that says, you know, questions are raised about, you know, is missing what this is. This is a three alarm, five alarm, 10 alarm fire. You know, whatever word you want to say, this is an emergency situation in our country. And to meet the moment, you have to use the language of the moment. And you have to be descriptive about what's actually happening. Yeah, where the hell is Bologna. I mean, she has to where she's gone. What the hell is she doing? Yes, Donald Trump is panicking. He's flying on other planes while having freaking drone interceptors follow him around on a golf course while he lies and claims he's doing deals and then says, I'm not doing deals or I'm going to blow the effing, he said, I'm going to blow the effing S out of them.

1:13:37Ben Meiselas:And now the plan, just by the way, I mean, the plan is, according to him, we're going to low key it. We're going to semi-negotiate it, and we're not going to do anything. Okay, well, Iran's going to strike the tankers in the Strait of Hormuz. They've been striking one or two tankers a day. The price of crude went up about 5 % to 6%. By next week, on this path, we will probably hit close to$100 a barrel again. The only reason why gas prices, the paper price of gas was in the 70s is the market is obviously being manipulated by, and I'm not, they're not me speculating or being hyperbolic, like the market is being manipulated.

1:14:19Ben Meiselas:It's happening before our eyes. There's a part of it that's being done a little bit more surreptitiously by having, I think these kind of well short shorters working with Besant to short crude and to try to keep it down, but they're timed also with Donald Trump's statements and Besson's statements where Besson goes on CNBC financial programs to affirmatively manipulate the markets. That's actually happening. But in the real world, we are at tank bottom. We're less than 300 million barrels of oil right now. And you have the price of oil going up, up, up, up, up. That's what's happening right now in the real world.

1:15:07Ben Meiselas:And that means prices are going to stay up for a while. And if Trump's plan is, I'm going to low key it. I'm just going to do nothing. I'm going to pretend it's not happening. Brett, to your point and Jordi, to your point, that's also the tactic of the 12 year old. And so we'll have this episode go full circle and no offense to 12 year olds because they behave more maturely. But when we talk about leadership, when we talk about patterning behavior to adult, to act like grown up, just saying, nah, I'm not even going to deal with it anymore. Oh, you're going to do it? I'm going to do it too. Or I'm going to blow the effing S out of you.

1:15:44Ben Meiselas:That's the behavior of deeply disturbed 12-year-olds who we probably knew growing up, that behavior, the 12-year-old deranged bully who's frequently put in their place. And that's what we're in. And we can't accept that reality. We can't accept that reality. And then I'll toss it at Bridger, but I'll leave you with this because some people are like, well, you guys are saying it, but what are you doing about it? Well, first off, building a media network that does this the right way is important. Would you all say that Fox is ineffective because all they do is talk about it? No, of course not. So we have to build something that sets the narrative about the things that people are talking about.

1:16:25Ben Meiselas:We need to set the narrative, set the framework, set the conversation, set the language, set the tone so that it is aligned with the people, not disaligned with disinformation by Fox. But then I got to give a hat tip to the people who are doing things, people like Katie Fang and Alison Gill and so many others at this network that don't just talk the talk but are in there. And they're fighting every day to do more than most politicians are out there doing right now. And so creating a support structure that allows that to happen is something that is an important thing. But you have to build infrastructure.

1:17:02Ben Meiselas:You have to build an institution. You have to then build an ecosystem around the institution. Right wing fascist media has been doing this for 60, 70 years to build it. And to counteract it, you have to build the remedy. You have to build the antidote. You have to stop it. And that's what our focus is on here to do that hard work. And that's what we're going to keep on doing every damn day here. So I'll leave you with that. Brett and Jordy, if you want to say anything else.

1:17:33Jordy Meiselas:I'll just pause in one quick theory for people to chew on before we go. And that's Donald Trump. We're just talking about his trip to Turkey and how he did the secret voyage away. Donald Trump goes to Turkey. A few weeks later, new hair. Coincidence? I'm just saying. I'm just saying, folks. Somebody might want to dig into that. Okay, I end on a stupid note. But a lot of serious stuff discussed on this episode of the Midas Touch podcast. I want to thank everybody for being here. Thanks to everybody who pre-ordered the book. Remember, if you're watching live, write WTF or use the WTF emoji. If you pre-ordered the book or plan on pre-ordering, pre-orders are huge, like Ben and Jordy said.

1:18:10Jordy Meiselas:They really help ace at the tone of the release, but also allow us to figure out what cities we're going to go to for a book tour and other sort of events like that. We're really proud of it. Thanks for not minding too much when we talk about it. But we're just we're so proud of it. And I think it's a really important resource that's not just for kind of this time, but, you know, hopefully for for all times. And I'm really excited for you to get your hands on it. All right, Jordy, take it away.

1:18:39Brett Meiselas:Shout out to the Midas Mighty.

1:18:40Jordy Meiselas:The mightest, mightest standing strong.

1:18:49Jordy Meiselas:Against the fascists, we sing our song. We will get it right when ever.

1:18:59Brett Meiselas:Breaking news right now. My brothers and I wrote a book. It's called WTF America. And well, doesn't that just say it all? It comes out officially this October, but you can pre-order your copy today. just scan the QR code or click the link in the description below