MeidasTouch Full Podcast - 9/15/26

21:47Ben Meiselas:Well, this doesn't get talked about enough, but North Korea, Kim Jong-un, learned the lesson back in Trump's first term when Trump ripped apart the JCPOA, that even if you did a deal with the United States, the United States would rip that deal apart. So one of the reasons Obama did the JCPOA was actually thinking multiple steps ahead about denuclearization throughout all of Asia and focusing as well on North Korea. So the JCPOA was not just effective in Iran. It was a template for international coordination in North Korea. And when Kim Jong-un said, got it, I guess I need a nuclear weapon, they accelerated the program.

22:31Ben Meiselas:And Donald Trump started talking about love letters and how incredible things are. But I'll tell you, you know, and I think Iran's calculus is that they've got something, frankly, more potent and powerful than even a nuclear weapon with the control over the Strait of Hormuz right now and with their allies part of the axis of resistance controlling the Red Sea. Iran effectively, with its allies, controls 40 % of the world oil supply right now. And for them, that weapon is perhaps even more powerful than a nuclear weapon. And in terms of the nuclear capabilities, the bottom line is that if they have relations, which they do at a very strong level with China, with Iran, with North Korea and nuclear powers, their calculus is what is our role in a newly forming multipolar world order?

23:28Ben Meiselas:Do we even need, if we have sufficient backup over here from other BRICS nations and other military alliances, what does that look like here relative to our control over the Strait of Hormuz? And now effective control, even though the Ansarallah Houthis have its own structure, They're obviously allied with Iran at a very close level. They flexed in a way that doesn't have the kind of scarlet letter of the word nuclear attached to it. And they're showing every day though, how they can wield that power. Now, the ridiculous thing is the Trump regime, the ridiculous propaganda we get fed here in the United States, that the Net Yahoo regime propaganda machine spreads and lots of others is that Iran's about to collapse.

24:15Ben Meiselas:It's about to happen. They're about to collapse. I'll tell you where things actually look worse than Iran by far, in addition to the United States though, right now. I mean, if you look at Syria and you look at some of the protests that are taking place there right now over some of the issues of the supply shocks that exist, there's a lot of problems there that people should be paying attention to that aren't. And then here at home, I mean, we're in a very, very catastrophic situation. I'm not trying to be hyperbolic and pick these words. The reality is that there were lots of people who were warning about a great fuel crisis if the memorandum of understanding wasn't signed when it was signed.

24:59Ben Meiselas:And you'll recall Donald Trump when he was at the NATO summit, the same one where he left hidden with Natalie Harp on the catering container in Turkey. Remember what Donald Trump was saying there? He was saying that if we didn't sign this MOU, we're going to be in a lot of trouble. We could have global economic catastrophe. So it's one of the reasons we had to sign it. We were running so low. Well, that's happened now. Right now, the salt caverns in Texas and Louisiana, mainly the Texas is the big one, is at lows, at tank bottom, where it could even break. like the way it's a cavern. And if it's not dealt with the right way and treated the right way, it could implode on itself.

25:47Ben Meiselas:Almost the way the Trump regime was saying back in April was going to happen with the Iranian pipes. But that's something we need to actually pay attention to. But more broadly, it's the oil shortage that exists right now. And while Donald Trump is doing this blockade in Iran and bragging how commercial ships are not getting into the Gulf of Oman and then through the Strait of Hormuz and then into the Persian Gulf, the boast, the brag by CENTCOM about blocking commercial ships is that you're really admitting to war crimes. I mean, those are commercial ships. That's medicine, that's food, that's supplies.

26:26Ben Meiselas:That's not military targets. Your blockade is starvation of the people. And eventually, Iran's going to respond either directly or through groups that it's allied with. And so you saw what happened in Saudi Arabia, and Iran made this warning, whether Iran was directly responsible for it, whether it was the Houthis who are taking responsibility for it. Notably, MBS blames the Iraqi resistance, also part of the access of resistance with Iran. But the Iraqi resistance is like, we wish it was us. We would love to take credit. It was the Houthis. The Houthis are like, it's us. And then Saudi Arabia is like, nope, nope, nope.

27:03Ben Meiselas:It was the Iraqi resistance. Why? Because MBS is worried about his own standing, that he can't stop the Houthis. So he's blaming the Iraqi resistance to blame basically the Iraqi prime minister, because that's still under the control of the United States is how they perceive it. So that's why they're doing that.

27:21Jordy Meiselas:But of course, think about that. Think about that image from the other day. Okay. It was the Houthi soldier or I guess he was a soldier in flip-flops. Looked like he was in like Birkenstocks or something taking control over a US made tank that was owned by Saudi Arabia and driving off on it, going on a joy ride while in Birkenstocks. Now, if that image happened during the Biden administration, it would have been the image of defining the entire administration, a Houthi rebel soldier seizing an American tank because the United States and Saudi Arabia were defeated on the coastline at the Red Sea.

28:03Jordy Meiselas:I mean, that right there, the fact that people aren't talking about this every single day and saying what a failure this has been by Saudi Arabia, by the United States, mainly by the United States, now there's blowback on Saudi Arabia for their alliance with the United States. to me. It's crazy to me. It's absolutely crazy. Saudi Arabia is just learning, though, what happens when you buddy up with Donald Trump. They're learning the notion of everything Trump touches dies. Everything Trump touches turn to you know what. And now they're feeling the repercussions of that. And they now have to figure out how they are going to kind of save themselves as Donald Trump has really wrecked their standing in the region.

28:42Brett Meiselas:But they still have live golf. Oh, wait, never mind. They don't.

28:47Ben Meiselas:And by the way, go back to videos of Donald Trump hosting Live Golf at his tournaments when he wasn't in office. And he would say, no one's really gotten to the bottom of whether Saudi Arabia was really involved in 9-11 or not. But they're great golfing partners and they're about to make the players so rich, he said. They're so good for the game of golf is ultimately.

29:08Jordy Meiselas:And he gets a total pass on saying things like that, too. Trump buddies up with the people who actually did 9-11. Buddy's up with them. They're his best friends. Buddy's up with the people who killed Jamal Khashoggi, the Washington Post journalist. Buddy's up with them, but that's okay. Apparently, that's all right. He could be in business with them, whatever. Remember a few months back when all those comedians got in a lot of heat because they were doing that festival in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, and they're comedians. and I do think they deserved condemnation for doing this event. But the fact that they get all this coverage of how horrifying it is that they are performing for this regime, but Donald Trump is in business deals with them, having them at their golf course, nothing, just another day, to me just shows you the double standard of what's going on.

30:00Jordy Meiselas:Trump is just totally, totally, totally held on.

30:03Brett Meiselas:And then the both sides of media will be like, Like, you my cellist brothers, you Midas touch brothers, you guys wouldn't credit Trump if he stopped 9-11. He's partnering with the people who did it, y 'all. Like, what are we talking about here? Like, it's right in front of your faces. Someone with a backbone, speak out. It's unbelievable they let him slide on this.

30:24Ben Meiselas:You know, the one you always get is if Donald Trump stopped cancer, you wouldn't give him credit for stopping cancer, right? You always get, Everyone uses that one. It's like, no, if he stopped cancer, he would get credit for stopping cancer. The issue is he's taken away cancer research for kids. The issue is that he and RFK have actually spread disease and spread issues and cut back on research. If he did the thing, he would get credit for it. If he actually did the – he lies. I mean, if he brought in$20 trillion in a year, he would get praised. I would praise him for it if he brought in$20 trillion.

31:02Ben Meiselas:That's a massive accomplishment. But then I use some common sense and I go, hmm, looks like our deficit is increasing at a record rate. Hmm, looks like our debt has increased to over$40 trillion and Trump's responsible for 30 % of that. No, you don't get praised for lying and saying you're bringing in money that you did it. And you certainly then don't get the benefit of the doubt when you say you're going to give$5 ,000 to people to vote Republican again. And we know that this is a fraud. And we'll take a first quick break of the show because we got a lot to discuss on this. But then the way it was framed on the Sunday shows, and I have to watch these from my reporting, you know, is that it was like a real thing, you know, and they asked people to respond to it as though this was actually a thing.

31:49Ben Meiselas:So is it like bribing people? It's like, stop, stop, stop, stop, stop. It's not a real thing. It's a fraud. You know, if you had to respond to it, I'm not even responding to it. The guy's a liar. He's a criminal. He's a sexual predator. He's a lunatic. I'm not even addressing the issue. If you believe that he's going to give you a$5 ,000 check, then I have something else to sell you. I have a Trump token I'm going to give you right now, or as Trump puts it on his social media platform. He's got free Trump$1 ,000 bills he's going to give you, but he's only got 74 of them left, everybody. I'm going to give you one of those, okay?

32:23Ben Meiselas:Let's take our first quick break of the show. We've got a lot to discuss. We already have discussed a lot. Let's take a quick break. a reminder our book is called wtf america it comes out october 20th pre-order now we have good pre-order momentum let's keep up that momentum if you're planning on getting it october 20th pre-order it now though that helps a lot more can i can i tell people something really cool actually

32:46Jordy Meiselas:about the book this is a limited time thing so honestly take advantage of this now because i don't know how long this is going to go on for bookshop.org which supports independent bookstores I love bookshop.org. If you go to bookshop.org, put WTF America in your cart and use the code WTF15, WTF15. They give you 15 % off the book, which I think is incredible. And you also get a free WTF America sticker as long as they have supplies of those stickers. So go check it out. And then everywhere else, you know, it's available in audio book, ebook, all the books, Jordy, Ben, and I spent a lot of time in the studio doing that audio book.

33:22Jordy Meiselas:We had a lot of fun. We learned a lot about ourselves doing it and our ability to speak. But we're very, very proud of the end product. But it was no easy feat. I got to say it was tough. It was hard work, but it was really cool.

33:34Brett Meiselas:Story for another time, us being in that recording booth.

33:36Jordy Meiselas:Maybe for a Patreon exclusive or something. All right. We will be right back after this. Don't go anywhere. We got so much to talk about. We'll see you soon.

33:44Brett Meiselas:This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. Let me ask you a question. If you could wake up tomorrow and be better at one thing, what would that be? For me, I'd love to be able to put my phone down and just be more present for my family. We get so consumed with the world around us, rightfully so. But every now and again, I realize that time is just, it's so important. It's one of those things that's just finite. And quality time, even more important. Better is a feeling defined by you. And for BetterHelp, it's a BetterHelp therapist who really gets you. It's a focus on global emotional well-being with thousands of therapists and millions of members in over 100 countries.

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36:16Brett Meiselas:Now available in Canada and the UK too. That's Q-U-I-N-C-E dot com slash Midas. Let's go y 'all. Shout out to our sponsors. Links in description of both the YouTube and the audio. Use the links, use the codes. If there's an exit survey, let them know we sent you. The last thing I want to say about the book, and we'll probably talk about it again, is we are damn proud of the book. And so I know people are like, can you guys not talking so much about the book. Only a few say that, but I see it. And the short answer is no. And I'm sorry, but I'm also not sorry. We've worked tirelessly on this book and we were so excited.

36:50Jordy Meiselas:I think it's a valuable resource. And honestly, I think it helps set the stage for how we got here and how we get out of this mess, which I think is super important. And I think, to be clear, it's not an election book either. It's not like the Siyu in the midterms. It's It's not that. It's really a book that we hope stands the test of time, not any sort of one period. Brothers, we got a wild Mitch McConnell sighting today.

37:16Ben Meiselas:Mitch McConnell in the wild.

37:18Jordy Meiselas:A wild Mitch McConnell was spotted today in Washington, D.C., and the reporters swarmed him. Should we see a clip? Let's see a clip. Jordy urged me not to do the Adam Barrow voice, but it's okay.

37:34There he is being wheeled out of his home. A wild Mitch McConnell in the DC area.

37:42Jordy Meiselas:Mitch being wheeled. You can't really see him just yet. This posted by Anna Greyer of CNN. Has Mitch made his way? Mitch, can we get a thumbs up, Mitch? Mitch? Mitch, mate? Mitch, mate? Mitch? Mitch, and he's in the car. Off to the cell. No, any toe wiggle. This whole thing's so weird. Can we just say, I don't even know if there's much more to add other than this whole Mitch McConnell saga has been very strange. They have not been forthright with the American public. It's a very strange thing for a U.S. senator and someone of his stature to be so hidden like this for these months and for the public to be lied to and for him to just be wielded.

38:17Jordy Meiselas:It was very weak in the Bernie's.

38:19Brett Meiselas:I just want honesty and transparency. and that what we just watched there was, for the audio listeners, the strangest clip of Mitch McConnell being wheeled out of his home. And I'm not saying this to be funny. He doesn't move in the clip. He's physically there. Again, not saying this to be funny, like saying this because I deeply want transparency around this issue. He does not move, does not acknowledge any of the cameramen, just in like, as Brett put it perfect, like a, like a weird weekend at Bernie's MAGA-esque moment right there that we just saw.

38:57Ben Meiselas:We're recording this live on September 14th, 2026. I have not much else to say about it. We're approaching the midterms, right? Donald Trump has had basically two awful years in office right now where he has a, I was going to say a body of work, but I would say it's an awful, whatever you want to call it, of just destruction and devastation. And so for me, I've often been asked, like, what's your messaging? Are you going to message this or message that? I go, it's not about messaging anymore. I mean, it really isn't because it's about living, right? And wanting to live more. And I guess that's the segue there from Mitch McConnell, I guess, and our lived experience.

39:47Ben Meiselas:And if you've endured this past 20 months or so, and you've looked at it as this is great and that things are really good and you like ICE and Border Patrol Gestapo in the streets, and you like the story today that they've been throwing immigrants in little dog cages and alligator Alcatraz, where they would call them calming cages at concentration camps. If you like that every day you seem to wake up, there's another recall of some product based on the lack of safety that's going on. If you like...

40:23Jordy Meiselas:Brothers, have you heard about this? Have you heard about this Russian saying the TV in the fridge? Somebody just told me about this today. I've actually never heard it, but it really sums up what Ben's saying here. This is real?

40:33Brett Meiselas:No one's like pranking you?

40:35Jordy Meiselas:No, no, no. It's real. I looked it up and I thought the phrase was actually very telling. And it's something that was said about Russia and the Russians would say about their own government that I think, unfortunately, very much applies here. But basically, you know, you have the TV, which is the state propaganda regime media and the state propagandists telling you how great everything is, that we're in a golden age, that everything's perfect. And so they say it's great. Everything looks like they're saying it's great. Everyone on TV is telling me everything's awesome and we're winning the more and everything's good.

41:05Jordy Meiselas:And then you go to your fridge and you open up your fridge and you get a reality check. Oh, I can't afford anything. I don't have anything in here. I'm, you know, and that dichotomy between the TV and the fridge, which was a, something that was used often to describe Russia under Vladimir Putin and other authoritarian regimes, I think now very much sums up what we're going through right here in the United States. Yeah.

41:26Ben Meiselas:I don't think I've talked about Paul. People who are watching the show, you know, I mean, yes, I show clips of the debate, like the Adam Hamilton, Roger Marshall debate, but I'm just showing you clips of what they're saying. But there's very little I think I've done on this network. I don't even know the last time I did it where I was like, and this is a great political maneuver. I never say these things because to me, part of getting out of this cycle is actually rejecting the gamification of politics and just looking at this lived experience saying this is really what you want a government to do, to hurt you and inflict pain and to mock you and inflict psychological torture on you?

42:12Ben Meiselas:Like you think that it's the role of the government to steal your bread, steal your loaves of bread, then dangle breadcrumbs and then not even give you the breadcrumbs. That's what you want in a government? Okay. I mean, if that's what you want, I'm not, there's nothing I'm going to do to persuade you if you think that this was a great period right now in American history, what's unfolded. But I hope you reflect on this and go, you know what? I deserve better. My family deserves better. Future generations deserve better than this. We deserve a government made up of public service, public servants who actually do things to help me versus do things to hurt me.

42:53Ben Meiselas:And if ultimately that's not what you see, I'm not going to be able to message you. I'm not going to be able to push you two points this way, you're two points out. I just want to arm you with all the data of what's happening and what's going on around the corner and what's going on so that you could make informed decisions yourself, how that impacts your voting. You're going to have to make those calls yourself. But I don't know. This is not what I think government should be all about. I think that this is the opposite of what government should be doing. Again, we're two years in or so, and you got the guy posting, I hope everyone realizes that price increases throughout America were caused by sleepy Joe Biden and the Biden administration, not by Trump.

43:40Ben Meiselas:Even oil was higher under Biden than right now. We prevented Iran from having a nuclear weapon with the temporary exception of oil. Prices are coming down sharply and oil will drop like a rock as soon as the military conflict with Iran is over. Donald Trump was promising it would be over six months ago, but okay. Or Donald Trump then posting that the war is a scam conflagration. Y 'all remember when, who was it? Dan Quayle spelled potato wrong and that was done. Your career was over. Imagine if he referred to a very catastrophic war as a scam, conflagration, and then spelled conflagration, C-O-N-F-L-I-G-R-A-T-I-O-N.

44:26Ben Meiselas:And again, look, the spelling's the least of it. I'm just trying to shake us out of the fact that we're not in normal times where a post like this should be utterly disqualified. Could you imagine if former President Obama or Biden made posts referring to very serious things as scam conflagrations? with the typo, I guarantee you it would be front page every newspaper. That post alone would be the front page story every damn day of the week for weeks. That post alone may lead to impeachment.

45:00Jordy Meiselas:Oil is - Why did Biden even pull the troops from Afghanistan? He could have just called it a scam and a hoax. That could have been it. What a strategy.

45:07Brett Meiselas:Beyond the words, beyond the words, beyond the words, it's also equally, if not more weird that his profile picture is like a Braveheart type, like American flag over his face with the red, white and blue. He's like snarling at the camera, utterly bizarre. On top of that, he's posting from his own social media platform because he had previously gotten kicked off of of the world's social media platform where most people talk and do their... It is unbelievable times that we are living through and what the media allows to slide as just normal because they've gotten so exhausted.

45:46Jordy Meiselas:Did you see the one on the plane the other day, Jody? They're like, Mr. President, what's this music playlist you got going on? You got some good music over here. Can you share the playlist? Will you share your Spotify playlist with me, buddy? This was an actual interaction that the press had with Donald Trump. And I want to be clear, there are a lot of journalists who do amazing work and a lot of publications who do amazing work. But there are some like that that make me want to scream.

46:09Ben Meiselas:Yeah. Well, let me tie this all together. Let me tie in Braveheart. Let me tie in Jordy, Trump not being on Twitter, now X. And let me tie in Biden, Afghanistan withdrawal. And I'll tie it all together. Braveheart. Wait for it. No, wait. Hold, hold now. That was the plan that basically China had for the international architecture. And that now moment happened at the BRIC summit in New Delhi, which was a real kind of statement that was being made about a rapidly changing global architecture and the split screen between what we were seeing at BRICS while Donald Trump was in Ireland attacking NATO, attacking Canada, attacking the UK, whiny.

47:00Ben Meiselas:I mean, it couldn't have been more clear. And also what China was not doing earlier in this catastrophic war, as Trump calls it, a scam conflagration, they stopped importing oil at the rate they were in 2025 and before the war. They're the world's biggest importer of oil. And the moment they start importing, guess what's going to happen? The supply is going to decrease and the cost is going to go up. So China was actually keeping the oil. The reason that they weren't going up higher than they should have was because China was not importing. They were using their reserves that has 1.5 billion barrels, a huge dump, like 1.35.

47:43Ben Meiselas:And they bought, they strategized. They bought all this oil in 2025 when it was cheap. They stored it. They were using that now, in addition to all of the conflagrations that I've been talking about, China's also importing. So if China were to import a lot, do you know what happens? You could see the price per barrel of oil easily hit$150,$175 a barrel. So China not only has replaced the US in terms of kind of soft power, in terms of international alliance building, which they've been doing, they've essentially replaced OPEC as well, based on their ability to control the international price of oil by their importing.

48:30Ben Meiselas:And they showed that they can do that. So they had this, wait for it, they're playing chess on a whole different playing field while Donald Trump is playing pickup sticks, but sticking himself with the sticks in the eye, basically. So that's why I pay very close attention to these international developments right there. January 6th, one of the reasons that Donald Trump was kicked off of various social media. Well, Donald Trump, oddly, this weekend was posting videos of himself from January 6th after he, in my opinion, encouraged all of the insurrectionists to go and he said he was going to join them or words to that effect.

49:09Ben Meiselas:Remember, he then posted the video saying, all right, I definitely won. I won. I know you're sad because I'm the winner, but it's time to go home. Remember during the J6 committee, we saw how many takes it took him to do that. They gave him the script to read. He oddly posted that video over the weekend. So when he was aboard Qatari Air Force One, which is a ridiculous thing that I even say, Qatari Air Force One, here's, let me show you what he said. He didn't even remember post. He's talking about? What are you talking about? I want you to watch this for yourself. Here, play this clip.

49:43Jordy Meiselas:We need the full playlist. Can we keep playing it? Just keep writing the song sound eventually. Mr. President, on Friday, you reposted a video you took on January 6th. What was the message for posting that on Friday?

49:55Brett Meiselas:Well, I posted about 30, which one of you talking?

49:58Jordy Meiselas:You posted a video you took and posted on January 6th asking the rioters to go back home. The who? The rioters of January 6th and 2021. I don't know what she's talking about. You also reposted Maduro again, the capture of Maduro. Well, they never talk about Maduro. That was a great capture. They never talk about Maduro.

50:16Ben Meiselas:You have Mitch McConnell.

50:18Brett Meiselas:That was a great capture, Ben. That was a great capture.

50:21Ben Meiselas:Great capture. Also, for the audio listeners, just worth saying really quickly,

50:25Brett Meiselas:you see the lean in Trump's stance as he's taking these questions? All of it, all of it is so weird. and every single one of us, but every single person is going to have to explain to their grandchildren, to their great-grandchildren, what you did in these moments. In all, it's like what you did to speak out, use your voice, use whatever you can to just like try and reclaim some sort of normalcy because what we're witnessing in these clips is not normal.

50:57Ben Meiselas:Yes. I mean, and that's why when people want to have a normal political debate as we're approaching, you know, the midterm elections, it's like, I mean, this guy's like, he's like a lunatic. I mean, what is it that you want me to say to you? If truly, if you want that, good luck. What I do here at the Midas Touch Network is I'm going to show you what's happening. That's it. That's my job. My job is to show you, do I get angry at what I'm watching and do I share that anger with you? Yeah. I try to keep it as even keeled as I can, despite all these conflagrations. I try to share it with you and do it in a sober assessment to be analytical.

51:38Ben Meiselas:But sometimes I will be very angry. But if you liked whatever that was, and talking about the playlists, if you like that he's posting about helipads and blaming Biden, and you love paying more for gas, and you love never-ending wars, and you like that Donald Trump does what Netanyahu tells him to do. If you're into that and Trump getting rich while you're not and you're getting screwed while Trump's blaming Biden, if that's something that you're into at this point, we've experienced it. Because Donald Trump was able to ride the coattails a lot of Obama during the first term and because Trump had not really that normal, but semi-normal people, at least, in at first.

52:27Ben Meiselas:You really saw how bad he was when COVID hit. It was bad the whole time, but I think some of the stuff that he's doing now, he was shielded. He was not doing then. Now you see it. You see every aspect of this. He didn't go after what he referred to as the bad hombre immigrants. He went after people who were paying taxes and who were hardworking and he put them in dog cages, which also further hurt the economy and was also inhumane and disgusting. Like, you know, so if you're a Venezuelan or Cuban, if you are Haitian, if you are Mexican and you support, I genuinely don't, you know, I genuinely don't know, you know, at this point, really, you think, you know, if you thought he was going to bring democracy to Venezuela.

53:17Ben Meiselas:I got another, he brags, I took all of their oil. It's all mine. It's all mine now. And I may take all the oil of Iran too. It's all mine. I mean, you sound like a lunatic. I mean, even authoritarians who are lunatics don't say that. They don't behave that way. And often I'm like, it's like North Korea style. I'll say that. Or it's like, Like, frankly, Trump is way crazier than Kim Jong-un in North Korea. Like right now, there is no comp about this level of lunacy, this level of what we're showing you over here, you know. And so if you like this, I wish you the best. But if you don't like this, which I think the data is reflecting most Americans don't like this, then frankly, you can't normalize this.

54:11Ben Meiselas:and you can't be like, oh, well, I think there's a, stop, stop. It's a crazy, it's a lunatic, it's a predator, it's a sicko. Just shut it down, just shut it down and say this isn't wrong.

54:23Jordy Meiselas:It's why we don't need the Sunday shows acting like this$5 ,000 bribe thing is real. It's why we don't need the debate shows having somebody debate, is it a good idea or is it a bad idea? It's a fake idea. It's stupid. We shouldn't even be talking about it. Don't even give it light. Why even engage with that bullshit? I'm mad that I'm talking about it right now. And, you know, there's something that Trump is very good at weaponizing that honestly, you know, in light of this, you know, 25th anniversary of 9-11, it reminds me a lot of what happened in the wake of 9-11. And that's that kind of idea that you cannot have any dissent from the federal government.

54:56Jordy Meiselas:And I think one of the great things about the United States is always that dissent is patriotic, that we should be able to speak out, that it's actually our patriotic duty to speak out when we see ills and when we see wrongs in the country and in the world. And what Donald Trump wants to do the same way so many Republicans did in the post 9-11 era is he wants to turn everything into a you're either with us or you're with them sort of thing. And it's that kind of binary framing that I think is so incredibly dangerous. And I see so many people falling for this trap. I even see it with our coverage because I think Ben, I think from the beginning, you know, especially your coverage on the network of the Iran war has been spot on.

55:34Jordy Meiselas:You said immediately that Trump was lying about all this stuff. You called out his propaganda. You called out his lies that this was going to be a short excursion or whatever that the hell term he used at the time. You called it out on the day. And there are so many people every time that we call out the failures of Trump and his regime in this war that people say, oh yeah, you guys hate America. You guys must hate America. Are you supporting that? No, I think it's because we love America and we want to call out when we're being lied to before we get more troops killed in this war, before there's more global instability, before more Americans are impacted at the pump or at the grocery store.

56:12Jordy Meiselas:This is actually our patriotic duty to call out this regime as long as we're allowed to do it. And so we will do it. And I will not be deterred by these threats from people who try to make it this, you're either with us or against us sort of game. I'm done with that crap. I'm not going to allow bad behavior to go unfettered with my tax dollars. I'm not going to allow this bad behavior to take place in our government and just watch it happen and not say anything. I think that is cowardly and I think that is un-American.

56:41Ben Meiselas:Let's take our last quick break of the show. We've got a lot more we can discuss. I want to talk for a moment about what's going on in Canada as Prime Minister Carney is also hosting an event that will have$120 trillion of assets represented in terms of sovereign wealth funds and all these different groups that are potentially going to be investing in Canada as Prime Minister Carney has become basically the leader of the free world, uniting the midpowers together. He's also going to be speaking at the European Union State of the Union. So we'll talk about that. We'll talk about other global developments.

57:17Ben Meiselas:I do want to show some clips of these debates that have happened everywhere from Alaska to the Kansas State Fair. So we've got a lot more show. Let's come back after this quick message.

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1:00:13Ben Meiselas:I was just reading some other news to see if it was coverage or yeah, that's what I was doing. I was going to finally connect the Biden piece. Remember I said Braveheart, J6, then Biden. Conflagrate it all. Conflagrate it all. Conglomerate it all. look biden came in and had to make hard decisions um trying to be the firefighter to put out the arson isn't easy and it can often uh demonstrate a lot of the problems that existed that were being covered up right it's easy for a doctor to tell the patient you're great you're amazing right it's more difficult for the doctor to say you know what How a wallet and how a wallet and how a wallet and how an wallet and how a wallet and how an wallet and how an Intel, Intel yeah money would hire 3D.

1:00:58Ben Meiselas:It doesn't look good and I need to help you. And here's the prognosis. I'm telling you bad things and your life is going to be difficult. But would you rather be told these things and try to get out of it and we can work on it together and come up with a pathway? Or would you rather be tell you you're great and then there be a sudden event that all of a sudden…

1:01:21Jordy Meiselas:just remind them remember when biden released the statement like you know this winter if you're unvaccinated like it could be it could be bad for you and like it could be you could get really really sick and potentially die and all those republicans were like jerry how could how could you say such a thing because they just want donald trump to say everything's great it doesn't exist there's no covid everything's fine sorry it just like the reality is is that there are very

1:01:47Ben Meiselas:difficult decisions that need to be made in the hands of very skilled operators to try to get us out of this. The concern, I'm putting that very lightly, is that even with an election, the executive branch is still the branch responsible under our constitution for taking care that laws are executed, and the executive branch is still the commander-in-chief. So the core functions of execution is still in the hands of someone who's a lunatic, a sexual predator, a deviant, a criminal, a felon, an incompetent, a bankruptor. That doesn't get changed. Now, what the elections will do is bring necessary oversight.

1:02:34Ben Meiselas:It will create certain checks and balances that are desperately needed, right? And to me, if you were an opposition party running against Donald Trump, you should basically be saying, look, there's no way to do deals with this guy. You can't do deals with bad people. But we will do ruthless and relentless oversight. And every day we will report back to you what we are doing in that capacity. And we will lay out a sprawling oversight agenda, whether that's with judiciary oversight all across the board. Heck, agriculture. Heck, you know, you know, you name the committee. We need people to deal with these situations.

1:03:18Ben Meiselas:But it takes someone who's going to say, you know what? Right now, our strategic reserves are very bad in a bad situation. Right now, the supply shock is devastating. We have to come up with difficult solutions and it's going to be hard. We don't need somebody right now saying, we won. They're begging me for a call. We're the greatest. We brought in$20 trillion. dollars. Like that's the equivalent of a doctor telling the very sick person, you're great. You're going to be amazing. Don't worry. And then the person comes back and they go, I feel way worse. Don't worry. That's just the, where are you?

1:04:02Ben Meiselas:You're living at a house. That's probably just the house's fault. I don't know. It's the community. And the person, I'm really feeling really, don't worry. You're fine. That's on the road to recovery. Those feelings are normal. And so that is what's being done writ large at our country. And you have all these other actors across the world, both former allies and adversaries, direct adversaries or competitive adversaries. They figured it out. year one, they didn't know what to do. They knew he was a lunatic. They knew he was crazy. Nonetheless, the U.S. created this post-World War II architecture.

1:04:42Ben Meiselas:Undeniably, the U.S. military power was real, even in the hands of a lunatic. The U.S. economy was still, even with Trump behaving as a lunatic, the safest place to put money in globally. There weren't all these structures that could take it out. What do you do? So year one was kind of, to give you another example, the boxing match where there's a jab here, jab there. China threatens to withhold rare earths. Donald Trump tacos, got it. Okay, Trump backs down there. Trump says, I'm going to go after whoever over here. There's another taco over there. So year one, it's kind of like, got it, like very fraudy.

1:05:32Ben Meiselas:It's looking very weak. Year two, it started to be pronounced. And then with the catastrophic handling of the war, when people saw how the US ignored the, not only ignored, but just outright lied about the framework, a deal that was done that Oman negotiated. And Trump rushed in this with Netanyahu. And then by April, May, I think the world really saw, oh my gosh, like this guy is so, and people should have seen it before, but this guy is all a bluff. The whole, and duh, the guy is a con artist his whole life. But it really set in in a different way that even with the United States post-World War II architecture behind him, even with him taking the wheel of this vehicle, if you will, that drove itself and could do great, he was still determined to crash it.

1:06:36Ben Meiselas:And that's what he's been doing. And so the world said, got it. Here's how we're going to build. And we've seen this in all different ways. While Donald Trump's out there posting the memes of drone ports and helipads and columns of the White House and behaving with this buffoonery, the world and very sophisticated operators have made sophisticated decisions about creating new world architecture that they could have only dreamed about that's going to make them wealthier. We're seeing why it's one of the reasons that the treasury yields are so high. It's because people don't want to buy our bonds anymore.

1:07:16Ben Meiselas:So if they don't want to buy our bonds, the yields are higher because the U.S. has to pay higher returns on those notes to induce people to buy them. And then when Besant does, oh, the bond buybacks, and I'm going to do this, and I'm going to do that, economic D-Day. When you have the Treasury Secretary talking that way and then behaving so pathetically, the world looks at it and goes, got it, you're a loser too. you. Lutnik, you're, oh my God, it's all filled with losers. I mean, what was the thing that Besant posted today? After threatening economic D-Day against any country that does business with Iran, any country that does business with Iran, we will make sure that we go after you.

1:07:57Ben Meiselas:So China, Russia. At the BRICS, you had this group photo where they were all basically taunting Besant, and they were all there together, the president of Iran and all these other world leaders saying, we're doing more economic cooperation with Iran. In response to what we saw at BRICS, this was Treasury Secretary Besant's message. Here, pull that up one more time. Treasury Secretary Besant talks about a whistleblower hotline that you can call. Pull it up if we have the whistleblower hotline.

1:08:26Jordy Meiselas:I just lost it with my eyes. I'll find it in a second.

1:08:29Ben Meiselas:Anyway, Treasury Secretary Besant in the mess area. Treasury launched Operation Economic Outcast to cut off all financial lifelines to the Iranian regime and its enablers. That's why I issued a new call for whistleblowers to come forward with tips about those who facilitate Iran's territory. What the hell are you talking? You did a tip line? Your economic D-Day is a tip line? And Jordi, even worse than maybe the Trump Braveheart photo is that you've got Besson up, you know, Besson, oh, I am the house now. Well, yeah, if you're the house now, Donald Trump's bankrupted casino. So I guess you are the house now.

1:09:10Ben Meiselas:And it just be clown, be clown, be clown. So then compare that to Prime Minister Carney. Let me just show you what Prime Minister Carney was doing and saying earlier. Prime Minister Carney said, something's changed over the past year in our country. Canadians, we all know what I'm talking about here play this clip once again canadians are coming together once again our ambition is catching up with our potential something's changed over the past year in our

1:09:41Brett Meiselas:country canadians we all know what i'm talking about we feel it everywhere canadians are standing

1:09:50Ben Meiselas:United buying Canadian, confidently choosing a Canadian future. Yeah, Canada's got that guy. And we got Jared Kushner at some security conference talking about how... I'm in a role as the... As the...

1:10:10Brett Meiselas:It's the best impression on the show.

1:10:13Ben Meiselas:As the mediator here.

1:10:17Jordy Meiselas:As the mediator here. with Russia.

1:10:23Ben Meiselas:I told you, me and Mr. Wendt cough. Here, just play Kushner. It's crazy biz. Here, play this.

1:10:30Brett Meiselas:Look, I think right now from the Ukraine perspective, I mean, President Putin's laid out his line of what he wants to achieve. If Ukraine wanted to withdraw to that line, then obviously we have the rest of the deal set up and put together. Ukraine right now does not want to do that and obviously our job as the mediators to figure out how can we come up with a creative solution that doesn't um that doesn't violate their desires and that helps them achieve you know their objective and does in a way that we can get uh russia to to end the uh to end the conflict in a way that hopefully um you know allows both parties to move forward in a framework

1:11:03Ben Meiselas:that uh that where this doesn't happen again so just a bunch of words and i use the word framework And so we've identified the core issue. Okay. Russia. The face is perfect. Russia has told us what they want, which is all of Eastern Ukraine. Okay. And Ukraine has told us, they don't want to get it. That was a quick side-by-side. Who's doing the graphics tonight? They don't, Ukraine. So, you know, we're gonna come up with a framework to figure this one out, everybody. That's what we figured out what the real central problem is. Russia wants it. Ukraine doesn't want to give off their country. So we're going to mediate this.

1:11:50Ben Meiselas:I'm going to mediate this. Guys, me and Whitcoff, we're mediators. We're the mediator team. What do you mean you're the mediators? You're the United States. You know what they told you growing up? Don't make funny faces because your face is going to end up looking like that.

1:12:07Brett Meiselas:Fred, bring up the graphic again. just going for the sake of this i'm just going to ignore everything that kushner said every time he speaks brett if you could pull up that crap it it looks like like he's got like a sour stomach is like the nicest way i could put it like it always looks like he he's got to go to the bathroom i've noticed every time he's speaking and it's kind of what we always say here too it's like these people like like like the kushners of the world like the folks in the trump regime when they speak they speak in these weird like intonations and things like that because it's their soul leaving their body as they're speaking like you actively see it because they are such sellouts i just

1:12:43Ben Meiselas:think about donald trump saying in 2024 i got the best words i gotta know my directions other way other way other way to your right do you want him behind kushner no no no no no side by side just so you know on my screen and my screen this puts me we're trying to get bent on a side by for

1:13:03Jordy Meiselas:the audio or trying to get in on a side by side you're perfect we've been over this with the

1:13:06Brett Meiselas:screen flipping though remember you know the other direction you know what jordy do the qr

1:13:09Ben Meiselas:same way kushner shouldn't be a mediator i shouldn't be stage production of the of the you're perfect it took him two years to realize after donald trump i'm going to resolve this i'm going to resolve it the central problem seems to be olinsky doesn't want to surrender and putin wants him to surrender i just guys i just figured this one out okay Okay. I'm the mediator. Ivanka, do we take over Albanian Island and turn it into Trump and Steen? I mean, first off, this guy, why this guy? Again, I go back to, I'm not political messaging, right? If you want the son-in-law of a freaking sexual predator loser and a loser son-in-law, you know, to be doing our foreign, why is this guy even like, we shouldn't even accept that this guy is a legitimate human, right?

1:14:01Ben Meiselas:Like, who are you? Like, why are you even here? I'm not even just like, if someone would be like, well, what do you think about, I'm not even talking about Kushner. This guy's illegitimate. Who is this guy? Why is this son-in-law doing America? Where's Marco Rubio, who, by the way, while I despise him, at least that's the role of a secretary of state. Why is it that there's a normal protocol at BRICS where you have foreign ministers meeting, but we have the son-in-law, right? Even in countries that will be like, oh my God, this is authoritarian country, whatever we say about them. They've got their position, their foreign minister are meeting with foreign minister.

1:14:35Ben Meiselas:We've got Trump's scumbag real estate guy from Manhattan, Steve Whitcoff, right? Who's part of a world Liberty Financial with Donald Trump making hundreds of millions of dollars in a Middle East country. And we've got Donald Trump's son-in-law. Again, this is ridiculous. This is not a Democrat talking point. This doesn't need political messaging with you. This is freaking ridiculous. But I will show you, I promised I would show you the debate stuff. So the end scene on Mike Kushner, I mean, just utterly pathetic stuff.

1:15:04Brett Meiselas:Wait, quick question on the Kushner before we go on. Brett, bring up the photo just one more time. Ben, 22-year-old you in mom's basement stuttering for the LSAT, just working away at night, night after night, studying. Do you think, no, no, no. Can you bring up the one of Ben and and kushner i deleted that one why are you deleting graphics we're actively having conversations about they're hilarious that you're making i'm studying for lsets yes do you just like

1:15:30Ben Meiselas:was this where you thought you'd be no that's why that's why i that's why i did it by the way this guy's my age you know this guy if you told me right now ben we want you to mediate between these two I'd be like, what are you talking about? I'm talking about the media. Like, you know what? I'm doing YouTube, you know? I'm a professor. I like to believe I'm giving educated info. I think I'm well-researched and I'm giving the right facts. I'm running a media. Why is this guy anywhere near anything like this? And by the way, this is precisely why Putin wanted Whitcoff and Kushner. Putin picked his mediators because you've got literally Jim Carrey's Dumb and Dumber movie of these two people out there and their very presence, even at these conferences, is a massive damage to the United States, even more than missiles, you know, hitting the East-West pipeline.

1:16:31Ben Meiselas:These people are weapons of mass destruction to the reputation and credibility because it's like, oh, really, we got to deal with Whitcoff and Kushner? Are they going to send Whitcoff and Kushner? What are you talking about? You know, used to mediate high profile cases, you would know the seriousness of which the mediation was being taken by who was sent to the mediation, right? Like it would tell you before you went, oh, got it. They don't have like the right level insurance carrier and their board represented. It's not going to be a well worth it mediation. They're just here to tap me along.

1:17:02Ben Meiselas:That would happen. You send Kushner and Witkoff. I mean, imagine what Zelensky has to deal with. Oh, really? And then from Putin's perspective, it's like, God, Witkoff's going to come in and glaze me and tell me how great I am and what a memorable day this is going to be just because he was invited to the Kremlin. And this is what Putin wanted. What Putin's dream was, was to establish Russia in the position before the Cold War ended and to establish Russia as a world player. And I saw Poland's foreign minister today basically say, and that dream will never be a reality. And that is NATO will always be united.

1:17:45Ben Meiselas:And I'm thinking to myself, okay, I mean, I don't know. Is it nice to say those things? Like we should be objective about it. NATO is not united. NATO has never been less united. The main member of NATO is attacking NATO. So don't act like NATO is united. I mean, there are some NATO supreme commanders and people in the military leadership level at NATO that still do their best to pretend that NATO's around and they'll do the exercises and the drills. But let's be real. You think anybody is going to actually invoke Article 4 and 5 and that Donald Trump's going to agree? Come on. That's just the reality.

1:18:23Ben Meiselas:What are we talking about here? It's sad to see that happen, but it's the reality. All right. Let me do less Kushner impressions and let me land this plane, if you will. Not a Qatari plane. Let me land the Midas plane. Let me show you what happened during the debate between the MAGA Republican incumbent from Alaska, Dan Sullivan, when he's debating against the Democratic candidate for that Senate seat, Mary Peltola. And Mary is someone who knows Alaska. Like she's like, you know, the people who know the issues of the community. She's like, she is Alaska. She's Alaska. And so what would happen was the debate moderator would ask pretty basic questions, but sound complex if you're not from Alaska about, you know, what do you think about the migratory fishing?

1:19:16Ben Meiselas:What do you think about whatever the issues were, right? And then dude, Republican, would look at her like the guy who would be cheating off the person on an exam in elementary school. He'd look to see what she said, and he would steal her answers during the debate. Let me show you what went down here, play.

1:19:33Brett Meiselas:Do the North Pacific Fishery Management Council and NOAA Fisheries adequately consider impacts on subsistence users, salmon migration, habitat, and indigenous ways of life?

1:19:45Jordy Meiselas:she holds up no yes he looks over notices her answer gives the same one we have two no's thank

1:19:50Ben Meiselas:you and that's you know that's ridiculous that's disqualifying you know i know people laugh but like that's your economy dude doesn't know how could you even not because republican democrat how could you fathom electing dude who doesn't know basic issues about your economy and he had to look and cheat to get the answer. It's like the same thing like with the Trump stuff. I don't even approach it as a Republican, Democrat. He's not even a Republican. I don't even know. He's a Trump. He's a Trump party, Trump, Trump. That's all it is, is Trump. You like that. That's not something that he doesn't know America.

1:20:30Ben Meiselas:He doesn't know what's happening. What did he say about interest rates, which are likely going to be hiked in the next 48 hours, by the way, when we were expecting three interest rate cuts, the market's priced in multiple interest rate hikes now, which is going to make it much more difficult for people to afford homes and things are going to get much more difficult for people. But what did he say? I know the formulas. I'm the best with formulas. Donald Trump said it. I'm the best with, what do you mean you're the best with formulas? When you say that you're dumb. What do you mean you're the best with formulas?

1:20:58Ben Meiselas:It's stupidest shit in the world. Like that's it. That's disqualifying. You say you're the best with I know oil better than everybody. I know interest rates better than anybody. I know it's better than everybody. I know this better than everybody. I know this better than everybody. You don't, You know it worse than anybody. You don't know what you're talking about. You really don't. You're an idiot and you're a malicious idiot, which makes it equally worse. And you see why he's bankrupted casinos. You see why, I mean, Treasury Secretary best. I'm the House now. Bet against me, if you will. Yeah, people bet against Donald Trump when he ran casinos.

1:21:29Ben Meiselas:The House always lost with Donald Trump. But I digress. But let me take you out of this episode with MAGA Republican Senator from Kansas, Roger Marshall at the Kansas State Fair. And he's debating against this guy, Adam Hamilton, a guy I never even heard of, Frank. I should have known more about this guy. But he's a pastor over there. He's a great, I mean, he knows the state very, very well. I hadn't even seen that many, I'm just going to be honest, when I know stuff and I don't, I watched this state fair and I was like, woof, I was mad at myself for not paying more attention to this. I was focused on a lot.

1:22:07Ben Meiselas:I'm focused on Iowa and Ohio and Michigan and Florida and Texas and Maine and all these. South Carolina, I think, could be a sleeper Democratic Senate pickup. But I wasn't paying attention to Kansas. And I should have because Roger Marshall, the MAGA senator right now, New York Times did an expose. This guy, when he was an OBGYN, an obstetrician gynecologist, he would sue his patients and not like one, 700 patients. Dude, how do you even sue 700 patients? It's a crazy number. And he would wage garnish them. He would bring them to court. He would screw their credit if they didn't pay 100 bucks or 150 bucks.

1:22:47Ben Meiselas:And so that's who we're dealing with. And this guy's like, we love the tariffs here in Kansas. We love them. What do you mean you love them? It's screwing people in Kansas. When Donald Trump even says, we're going to bankrupt Bombardier. You may want to check there's a massive Bombardier plant in Kansas and they use more American parts than Gulfstream does. You know, so this guy's like the tariffs are working. They're not working objectively. They're not working. Stop it. They're not working at all. They're failing as everybody said they were going to fail. Just because the one month after Donald Trump announced Liberation Day, it didn't totally get destroyed.

1:23:24Ben Meiselas:Things take time. It wasn't. Now we're seeing the inflation. So we're seeing all the things that experts warned about. They're happening. They're not hoaxes, right? The whole thing Donald Trump said, I'm the hoax buster. That was Trump's post. I'm the hoax buster. AI is a hoax, he posted. Data center is a hoax. That's just the golden goose. I love flock cameras, not flock camera hoax, data center hoax, AI hoax. Just so you all know, I'm not being hyperbolic. Donald Trump said, people who are worried that AI could be harmful, that's a hoax. People who are worried that data centers are harmful, that's a hoax.

1:24:04Ben Meiselas:People who are worried that flat cameras will intrude on your privacy, that's a hoax. He said that. He wrote that. He said these comments. But if you want that, I'm not going to political message you. If you want to be treaded on and to be treated this way, then I wish you the best. I don't know what to say. As our editor-in-chief, Ron Filippowski says, Trump likes flat cameras, data centers, deregulated AI, new foreign wars, no carbon standards for coal and gas power plants, crypto scams, selling pardons and covering up the Epstein files to protect himself and his wealthy cronies. But MAGA cultists think he cares about them.

1:24:42Ben Meiselas:If you like this shit, I'm not going to convince you at this point. I'm not going to show you an ad and move you two points to the right. If you really like this world, good luck. I truly don't know how you brush your teeth in the morning. I don't know how you get it. I don't know how you do your day. If you look at that, I truly wonder how you go about your day. But I actually don't want to get into the depths of that depravity. So I wish you the best at this point. Good luck. I'm not trying to convince you of that. Enjoy. Enjoy whatever this is. In any event, let me play you out with what happened at this debate.

1:25:14Ben Meiselas:Let's play. The Republican incumbent, Dr. Roger Marshall.

1:25:20Jordy Meiselas:I guess I could just ask the audience, who do you want solving this problem?

1:25:31Brett Meiselas:The tariffs are a disaster for everyone across the state of Kansas, whether you realize it or not. Look, these tariffs are working. We are expanding our export markets because of them. We love Kansas. We will live here. After I'm elected Senate, I'm not going to sell my house and move to Florida as you did. All a social media myth made by the social media Nazis as well. That the average cost of gasoline has been less under President Trump than it was under Joe Biden. You can look it up. You can fact check me as well. If you love$6 a gallon diesel fuel, you can thank Roger Marshall. He supported this.

1:26:12Brett Meiselas:He told us to tighten our belts because this was the cost of being safe in America We were supposed to be out of this war after four weeks, maybe six weeks. We're six months in

1:26:21Jordy Meiselas:With all the people in the room that I ran, one, I ran to have a nuclear weapon, raise your hand for me

1:26:26Brett Meiselas:Does anybody in this room want Iran to have a nuclear weapon? Well, last year when you voted for the one big beautiful bill, you gave$30 billion in tax cuts to data centers You may not agree with me on everything, but you're going to know exactly where I stand Whose SNAP benefits are being taken away by you and you're saying they all have fraud We're talking about 18 ,000 children in Kansas who lost their snap benefits under his leadership And I've worked hand in hand with Bobby Kennedy to help bring these make America healthy again Encourages when you stand up to your president and your party and you say this is hurting people back home And you say it even if your president's gonna bully you pick on you primary you and call you names you still say, this is not okay.

1:27:12Brett Meiselas:Thank you.

1:27:14Ben Meiselas:And then, of course, I mean, it speaks for itself, as we would say in the law. I'm going to do a longer video on this, so I didn't cover it in extensive detail on this episode, so watch the longer detail. But the Supreme Court officially denied Donald Trump's emergency request to restrict mail-in ballots for midterm elections. Alito and Thomas dissented. And this was what we predicted was going to happen this morning. Do you remember the video I made this morning? And I was saying, this is the reason why you had Judge Carl Nichols, the Trump appointed judge, issue that 1230 AM ruling in the DC district court blocking Donald Trump's mail ballot scheme where Trump was going to change the barcodes and have a Trump voter list.

1:28:06Ben Meiselas:I said he wanted to send, you know, this Trump appointed judge wanted to send a signal that this was a bipartisan blocking of Trump's unlawful conduct, right? And so you had Judge Telwani, the Massachusetts district court judge, an Obama appointee blocked it. But now we have the Trump appointee district court judge block it. So an Obama judge and a Trump judge blocked it, right? And so then it also, I think, gave a little bit more cover to this right-wing Supreme Court to be like, here's our ruling. And then Trump can't really be like, it was a right wing, it was a left wing Obama thing. So that's why I said, I believe that judge was doing this at 1230 AM.

1:28:50Ben Meiselas:So we'll leave with that. We'll leave with that positive news. Brett and George, you agree?

1:28:55Jordy Meiselas:I agree. I always get to end on a positive note. Donald Trump being smacked down by the supreme court a very very very important ruling and uh it's good good to see that and uh excited to uh see your longer take on that then all right sounds good i appreciate you

1:29:12Brett Meiselas:oh darn kushner the kushner the kushner face i was skeptical at first because i don't know if i saw the video i think i could find it and make it better yeah you conflagrated it yeah perfect conflagration ben perfect conflagration oh boy all right hi everybody appreciate you

1:29:31Jordy Meiselas:get that you love you to have america pre-order now uh please pre-order it for just for in honor

1:29:37Ben Meiselas:of the various faces i put it all on the line right there so ben's doing uh uh permanent damage to his face permanent damage as my parents would tell me growing up my face may stay like cushion may get stuck like that i may get stuck like kushner's face so if i get stuck this is this This is all I got. This is all I got. Thanks, everybody. Appreciate it.

1:29:57Brett Meiselas:Shout out to the Midas Mighty.

1:29:58Jordy Meiselas:The Midas Mighty standing strong.

1:30:07Jordy Meiselas:Against the fascists we sing our song. We will get it right when ever.

1:30:17Brett Meiselas:Before you go, our book, WTF America, is available for pre-order now. It's the story of how we got here and how we fight our way back. To pre-order, scan the QR code or click the link in the description. Let's do this.