MeidasTouch Full Podcast - 9/25/26

17:52Jordy Meiselas:You're willing to start wars and then lie about the reason. And for Netanyahu to come to New York to release this video saying that Mamdani supports Hamas and that Mamdani incited - Forget the video. He said it on the floor of the UN. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But he set it up in the video beforehand by saying that Mamdani incited riots against the Jewish people in New York City, incited riots, and that the Jewish people were running through the city because there were riots hunting them down. I think it's a disgrace. And I think part of Netanyahu's strategy, one thing that he wants to do, which honestly really makes me incredibly angry, is I think he wants Jewish people in this country to feel scared.

18:31Jordy Meiselas:I think he wants to do as much as possible to make people feel like their life is at risk, like Mamdani is going to get you, like this person is going to get you. It's a propaganda tactic so that you say, oh, but Israel is defending me, right? Oh, but Bibi Netanyahu, he's defending me. He's the one taking strong action. No, he's the problem. He's the one causing all of this. Just like Donald Trump, it's the same strategy, right? It's the same exact mindset of approaching a population where you try to scare them, you try to, you know, other other people, you try to do whatever you can in order to get that kind of, you know, that passion out of people where they just hate the other person, right?

19:11Jordy Meiselas:Where they think that their lives are being threatened and that they have no other choice than to give their own agency over to this individual.

19:19Brett Meiselas:Well, also, yes, all of that. And additionally, is the forum at which he said it. It's not like he was on one of the Paul Brothers podcasts, which by the way, still would be reprehensible and went on this rant. He was at the freaking UN. He was addressing the UN, like the forum at which he spoke in the madness that he's spoken. First off, good job on everyone just kind of walking out when he went to go stand up and deliver a speech right on them. man. Unbelievable, man. It's really just, it's like we're at like a global disgrace where there are so many weak leaders masquerading as strong men, masquerading as like these people who know all.

19:55Brett Meiselas:They're the wise ones. They have all the answers, but only they have the answers collectively. So you have to listen to them. It's really, really pathetic.

20:03Ben Meiselas:You know, look, you go through the Epstein files and we talk about the Epstein class, But you had Epstein talking with world leaders in real time about basically destroying the global structures so that this right wing oligarchical Epstein class that causes disruption and confusion can basically use the panic to enrich themselves. I mean, you would see him talking about how that was going to impact crypto in 2013 when no one was really talking about that. I mean, he would talk about Russia's annexation of Crimea before it took place and how it could impact the ruble. I mean, they were talking about all of these things at a global world leader level.

20:43Ben Meiselas:And so when I watch the behavior of Fat Elvis, Javier Malay, you know, give this deranged speech about tearing down the UN. When I watched Donald Trump saying, we need to get rid of the ICC and UNESCO. When I see how Netanyahu behaved and how the UN ambassador from Israel behaved and like tried to hand the Iranian ambassador to the UN like a starling and like, hey, this is what you like. You show this to your people. We're going to take down your regime, you know, and like doing it for social media. You know, I think about the global chaos and division being sowed. And I think about the ultimate shared humanity that I think people naturally want to feel.

21:19Ben Meiselas:And you see how all of these bad actors are trying to pit us against each other and create great panic and great chaos in order to feast on us and in order to enrich themselves. And I think that's an objective lens of what we've seen here at the United States and globally, you know, as as well. And I think when you see the polling data that's happening right now where you're seeing this kind of catastrophic numbers for MAGA Republicans and for Trump with record low approval, I don't think it's necessarily per se an endorsement of the Democratic Party. It is a growing sense of opposition of we need to stop what this MAGA Republican oligarchical Epstein class thing is.

22:01Ben Meiselas:And then we need to hold the new group of leaders accountable for actually bringing real change and not status quo stuff. So we'll talk about that when we get back. We had a great discussion there, so I wasn't showing any clips, but I'm kind of glad I did not do the clips there so we can have that discussion. first break of the show. But I want to remind everybody, our book's called WTF America Pre Order Now. It comes out October 20th, but the momentum for the pre-orders is so good. If you're thinking about buying it, can you just do the pre-order right now? And that helps us determine where are we going to visit?

22:34Ben Meiselas:Are we going to do book tour? It really informs a lot of what we do in terms of the release and the pub day of the book. So if you're, we also have an audio that each brother recorded certain chapters. So we were the ones who did the audio. We spent a lot of time.

22:49Jordy Meiselas:We were very competitive about it. It's funny. We each had the audio individually and we had, you know, there was an engineer there with us and there's a, there's a director who's speaking with you while you're doing it, making sure you're saying everything correctly, the right pacing, the right time, you know, all that sort of stuff. And I think all of us individually said the same stupid, made the same dumb joke to the director. Uh, we were each like, uh, I, I just want to let know i'm going to be the best of all the brothers at this so let's make sure that i'm the best reader and when i said that they're like your other brother said that i actually pretty much

23:24Brett Meiselas:said verbatim i said it's very important to me that i do better than my brothers so let's make sure that happens and he's like it's hilarious you said that because ben and brett have said

23:32Ben Meiselas:the same thing yeah first break first break of the show we'll be right back after this

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26:03Jordy Meiselas:Visit collective.org slash Midas. That's C-O-L-L-E-C-T-I-V-E dot org slash Midas. M-E-I-D-A-S. Let's go.

26:18Brett Meiselas:Shout out to our sponsors, y 'all. Links in description of both YouTube and the audio. Use the links, use the codes. If there's an exit survey, let them know we sent you. Benji, where to next, big bro? Did you know Xi Jinping loves granite? Did you know that, Jordy? He loves helipads. I think that's kind of my main takeaway from this event. That and then Yahoo is just a psych.

26:35Ben Meiselas:And pandas, two pandas. We got, but by the way, I'm good with the pandas.

26:40Brett Meiselas:I mean, I'll keep the pandas. That's cool.

26:42Ben Meiselas:I don't think we get to keep them though. I think they're on, I think we get them for sure. They're on late. I gotta say, I think the pandas are pretty cool and I enjoy it. Wait, we don't get to keep the pandas? Listen, I think he says they visit Atlanta. I don't think he says they remain in the Atlanta Zoo. I think they're visiting.

26:54Brett Meiselas:We gotta look into this.

26:56Ben Meiselas:At least I don't have an answer

26:58Jordy Meiselas:because when we do a lot of these interviews, a lot of people are like, what's the way, I don't know why this is. It's the panda situation. No, this is the one question that every interviewer likes to have. So tell me something good that Trim did that you like. I'm like, I don't think we gotta give the guy credit for anything quite frankly, but now I'll just be like, that panda's visiting the zoo, that's exciting.

27:14Ben Meiselas:Yes, gas prices have hit record highs. Diesel prices are at record highs, and they're only going higher. The Trump regime is now saying they're going to be doing an export ban on diesel because they think, you know how you drop those prices? Just decrease the supply of diesel to the international diesel market. Isn't that the way supply and demand work? And we could also ignore the fact that in a barrel of oil, you make both gas, diesel, and jet fuel. So what's going to happen to the gas? Oh, that'll make the gas prices go down. Or maybe when there's less supply generally because the refiners are no longer sending their stuff to international markets, maybe they're not going to be able to refine as much gas.

27:55Ben Meiselas:And is that what's going to happen? Oh, the gas prices are going to go up. Who could have predicted these things? But as Donald Trump was telling people in the oil industry, well, that's a December problem. We'll try to get the prices down artificially for the next 40 days or 30 days, whatever, before the elections. And then we'll deal with the December problem. We'll blame the Democrats. We'll say they did it. We'll just be blamers. Dr. Fauci maybe did something to do with it. Dr. Fauci did it. And Biden. And Biden did. Oh, do you see the auto pen here, she? Do you see the ha ha ha? Aren't I so ridiculous?

28:28Jordy Meiselas:It shows how full of crap he is also because what's the one thing that he always says when he's asked about the war? Because he has no way out of the war at this as of this moment, right? He goes, well, I'm not worried about the midterms. I'm not worried about the midterms. I'm not going on a clock. I'm not doing this. And then in the next breath, he's like, we got to get these gas prices down before the midterms, right? He's devising these schemes, even if it's a short term win. And I put win in quotes, even if it a short term win at the expense of gas prices exploding in a month or two. he's okay with that because this is how he deals with everything in his life.

29:03Jordy Meiselas:It's always push it off, push it off, try to get a delay on the court case, try to delay it, try to delay it, and then hope that it all resolves itself at some point or that just something happens or he bullies somebody into submission. But as you're seeing with Donald Trump and Secretary, Treasury Secretary Besant, they're trying to bully these markets right now and it ain't working. And I've seen memes now, and particularly amongst the finance community, which are not particularly Trump haters, I will say, you know, after the 2024 election. And all these people are just making fun of Besson and making fun of Donald Trump.

29:39Jordy Meiselas:There are all these memes going around right now of like Besson throwing like a like a person throwing a cup of water at like a big fire. And they're like, here's Besson's, you know, plan to pump funds, you know, out to try to. The six billion bond buybacks when you deal with trillions of dollars of a bond. That'll do it. I see people like throwing cups of water in like an ocean and making fun of Besant that that's like basically what he's doing here. They're trying all these desperate moves. They're trying to bully the market, which doesn't care about their BS to a certain point. They may be able to manipulate these short term spikes and and, you know, drops like on a daily basis.

30:14Jordy Meiselas:But on an overarching basis, like the markets know that this is just all instability right now. It's why you're seeing oil prices spike. It's why you're seeing inflation rage. It's why you're seeing all of these issues that are continuing to not get better, but just to get significantly worse every single day. They're doing communism, but they've also ripped away people's health care also.

30:38Ben Meiselas:They've been doing authoritarian communism where the government does this control and that control and this and that and beef. We're going to get far and fro. The government will take far and frozen beef and we'll undercut our ranchers. How are we going to do with oil? Export controls. That's what we're going to do. What are we going to do with AI and this and that? We're going to call it SI. We're going to call it super intelligence, and that'll deal with it. And then we'll take stakes in this company and that company. And when you item up 35 companies, the United States will have government ownership.

31:13Ben Meiselas:And we're going to take away your health care while we're at it also. I mean, isn't it obvious what's going on here? You know, when these billionaires and this oligarchy, when they get together in the back, what they used to call them, like the smoke-filled cigar rooms or whatever. You know what they create? They create socialism and communism for themselves, where the wealth is shared amongst the billionaires and everybody else gets screwed. The rest of the public gets the harshest form of corporatist capitalism, not even capitalism, the harshest form of exploitation. And you know what the billionaires get and the decamillionaires get when they're all in the back room?

31:52Ben Meiselas:Socialism, where they divide the wealth amongst themselves and hoard it and steal it from you. Isn't it so damn obvious what they're doing while they take away your healthcare, these sociopaths? But by the way, when you also watch Donald Trump's behavior and just how he interacts, I mean, you see the level of sociopathic predatorial behavior this guy has. I mean, it is beyond even fathomable. The level of every sound syllable is a lie and it is psycho and it is blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. So it is hard. Think about what he, think about what he's thrown at Iran. You know, every day there's a deal.

32:31Ben Meiselas:I mean, it's crazy level. Now imagine the stuff that he does there with the media manipulation and with the constant lies and the predatorial stuff. Imagine when he goes after like E. Jean Carroll in the lawsuit because he sexually assaulted her and she was defending herself and she filed a lawsuit against him. I mean, think about what it's like. And this is the, you know, the issue that lots of people give up in because he's so in every, you know, he lives this miserable piece of shit existence. And it's like, you go, am I going to roll in the mud with this freaking mutant pig, you know, or do I just say enough, enough?

33:11Ben Meiselas:And that's what he relies on. I mean, the degree of it over and over and every damn day, he's a true freaking lunatic. And every news entity is not doing their damn job. If you don't call it out like that, there's no other way to say it. You can't just show the guy. You got to explain what the hell's happened. I mean, look at this. Look at this. This was him with Xi. Xi loves granite. Look what he says. Here, play this clip. but he loves granite.

33:41Jordy Meiselas:We had a great meeting and he has great interest in granite. He likes granite. He's an expert on stone, aside from many other things. And he loves good granite. Thank you very much.

33:53Ben Meiselas:He's got the trans, she's got the translator behind him and she's like, oh, okay. Okay. Then she gives his speech and he talks about the Thucydides trap, which he's saying, U.S., you are the declining power. You are Sparta as we see it. We, China, are the ascending power. We're Athens in this example. That's what the Thucydides trap is. Thucydides is an Athenian who wrote the story or a story on the Peloponnesian War two decades long. The idea of the Thucydides trap was coined recently as a reflection of Thucydides' writing about the Peloponnesian War. You should read this. It was really a good story on the Peloponnesian.

34:36Ben Meiselas:Not a great story, but he was a good writer about everything that went down. But how the conflict was inevitable when the established power Sparta saw the rising power Athens and what that meant. Ultimately, Sparta won the war against Athens, but then Sparta was destroyed shortly thereafter. So everybody loses in the Thucydides trap. But what he's saying in the United States, after Trump rolls out the red carpet, after our Air Force brings the red carpet, our army gets down on their knees. By the way, nobody should do this. We shouldn't have anybody doing this for foreign leaders. But like you couldn't hire a contractor.

35:13Ben Meiselas:You couldn't hire other people to like do that. It had to be our service members getting on their knees with that visual. I mean, I don't think anybody should be in that visual, but our freaking army, our freaking air force. That's what you were doing. But she talks, she talks about the Thucydides trap, what I just described. And so she is saying here, we are the rising power. You are the descending power. Don't mess with us. And Trump's like, he likes granite. He likes granite. Here, play this clip. And improve mechanisms for crisis communication and prevention.

35:49Brett Meiselas:The Thucydides trap can be overcome.

35:52Ben Meiselas:Donald Trump's like falling asleep behind him, dude.

35:55Brett Meiselas:Yeah, chances are he has any idea what the hell he's talking about.

35:57Jordy Meiselas:It really is the strangest visual.

35:59Brett Meiselas:You have a Donald Trump who is slumped over on the far, like slumped over like sleeping. Just utterly bizarre.

36:07Jordy Meiselas:Here's what also, you know, we should note, if you're thinking, I feel like I heard you talk about this before. It's because she said the same thing when Donald Trump went to China in front of Trump also. And so this is a very deliberate thing that he is trying to tell the world to tell Donald Trump about the new dynamic of power that exists due to the Trump regime's weakness. Yeah.

36:31Ben Meiselas:And he's using that language also to show how stupid Donald Trump is. While Donald Trump, it's also used to, it's perfectly picked out to say, here is a broader historical context. Because Xi in China thinks about things not in two-year cycles or elections. They think about things in thousand-year civilizations. Also a lot how Iran thinks about things as well. So invoking the Thucydides trap is invoking a spirit of thousands of years of where things are heading and not viewing things in a gamified political lens. I think that's important. But she announced the deal. The deal was the panda deal.

37:12Ben Meiselas:Everybody, multiple pandas too. Listen carefully. Does it sound like these pandas will be residing long term in Atlanta or will they simply be doing a visit? Here, play this clip. The giant panda has been an envoy of friendship. between the Chinese and Americans. Here, I have a piece of good news. In a few days, two pandas, Ping Ping and Fushuang, will come to their new home in Zoo Atlanta and meet with the American people. New home actually sounds like they're here long-term. So actually great news. Everything's amazing. Things couldn't be better. I know Americans were looking. Is it a rental?

37:49Ben Meiselas:Is it a mortgage? I need more data behind it. But like, do we all realize that they're trolling us? Like we all like pandas. It's fine. But like, dude is there like trolling us. I bring good news, right? As treasury yields are at all time highs at mortgage rates, 30 year fixed is over 7%. As we get more horrific news. I mean, I think that a lot of these AI, you know, companies are like, you know, now invoking force majeure clauses and all like America's going through it right now. Like we're going through it. The tariffs against the world's backfiring. Groceries are all done. I bring good news, everybody.

38:26Ben Meiselas:What's the good news? Two pandas. Two pandas, everybody. Like, that's clearly a troll. I mean, am I –

38:34Brett Meiselas:People are like, hey, can we get healthcare? Can you help us with, you know, the gas at the pump? How about mortgage rates and affordable housing? They're like, hold up.

38:44Ben Meiselas:Two pandas. Two pandas. Not one. Two pandas. I come bringing good news. And then you have Treasury Secretary Besant though. And he does his rounds as well because the American people are like, dude, come on. You said this war was going to, we shouldn't have been in this war. We know it was done also to cover up your cover up of the Epstein files. You and Netanyahu slaughtered the little children in Manab and Lemaire. And you recently slaughtered the family in Syric. And before that, the family in Kesham. And there are all these war crimes being covered up. And we now learned some reporting that Hung Kao, the undersecretary of the Navy, or secretary of Navy, now acting secretary, he was undersecretary, acting secretary of Navy, he was the one who now had to admit that there were eight suicide attempts aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln alone, eight on one of the supercarriers alone.

39:36Ben Meiselas:That's how horrible the conditions were there. There was another service member who died, but wasn't included on the original list because You've got the Trump regime not claiming it's combat because they say the war is over. You have all this horrible stuff. And then you have Besant going back on the making his rounds on the news. And he's like, I don't know if it will be a week or a month, but Iran will cry uncle. They will cry uncle. What words are you using? What do you mean they'll cry uncle? Listen to what he says here. Play this clip.

40:09Brett Meiselas:We had negative wage growth. We are seeing substantial wage growth here. The wage growth is going to continue going. We will get to the other side of this Iran conflict. The energy prices will drop and you will pick your purchasing power back up.

40:26Ben Meiselas:I think there's another clip of Besant. That was one I wanted to show. But do we have the other clip of Besant where I believe it was the cry uncle clip on Iran? Let's see. A month ago, you launched what you called Economic D-Day on Iran. today oil is still as we talked about about a hundred the straight is definitely pinched there are tankers that are getting through but there a lot of them are getting attacked attacked regularly

40:47Brett Meiselas:a month in is it working well first first of all brett that the tankers they may get hit many of them just sail on they just sail on the iranians may launch three four five six the drones after them our our great navy is blocking them but we are getting between 10 15 sometimes 17 million

41:12Ben Meiselas:barrels a day out i'm not sure there's definitely i wanted to show that one also to show the front

41:17Brett Meiselas:i don't blame brett because the clips they're just like screenshots of besan's face and again his face it's just such plastic looking face that it's so hard for brett to tell the clip i don't blame

41:26Jordy Meiselas:you big bro they all look the same i'm kind of flying i'm kind of flying blind over here i'm sorry okay there's one where he says okay the the point i'm making i'll just i'm starting i'm

41:37Ben Meiselas:starting to think you're making it up no i'm just i'll just make the point okay besan says whether it's a week or a month they are going to be crying uncle soon and so it's like that's where we're at right now they're going to cry on who's who's they the people of iran i mean the lesson that you've learned from all of this is that if we just torture the iranian people that they're going to now want to support Donald Trump and Netanyahu. That's the lesson that you've gleaned now from this war that was launched in February. And also the language, cry uncle is what he says. It's like, you're going to cry uncle, I'm going to give you a swirly, then you're going to get a wedgie.

42:13Ben Meiselas:And then you're going to, it's like, okay, what are you going to cry uncle? I mean, this is, you're the treasury secretary. Could you ever fathom Janet Yellen saying, and the reality is, is that any word I I put, can you fathom Janet Yellen saying, you probably don't even know who Janet Yellen is, which is great. You shouldn't know who, you know why? Because you should not actually - Janet Yellen. We're going to give you a wet willy then. What do you say? The old treasury secretary - We're going to give you a wet willy. Do you think Janet Yellen would be like, here's what we're going to have to do?

42:45Ben Meiselas:Look, I didn't have to know what Janet Yellen was saying on a day-to-day basis. When Biden was in office and when other people, I didn't have to know what the treasury yields, the 10, the 20, the 30-year was.

42:57Jordy Meiselas:What about salt caverns?

42:58Ben Meiselas:I didn't have to know about the salt caverns. Potash trade?

43:01Jordy Meiselas:Potash trade?

43:02Ben Meiselas:Potash. I don't have to know about the potash trade and the amount of metric tons of soybeans. But the reality is that, you know why? Because that's boring, bureaucratic, but existential stuff that government would do. And we would rely on competent people, experts, science-based people who would just get the job done. And I didn't like, when I go on an airplane, I don't need, I don't want to think, you know what, I better learn to be a pilot because those pilots don't know what they're doing right there. So at any moment's notice, I got to fly the plane. No, what we expect is them to fly it. And you know what we don't expect them to do?

43:46Ben Meiselas:I don't expect them to go over the loudspeaker, the pilots, when you get on the plane and they're like, hey, everybody, you want to talk about my ballroom? And aren't I the greatest pilot ever? I'm such a great pilot. You know, the previous pilot was going to crash your plane. And I'm so much better than the other pilot. You know, it's like, no, just shut up and be a grownup. Get me to point A to point B. Be respectful. Be an adult and stop this crap. And there's so much of this that is not a political thing. And that's what I keep on coming back to. And frankly, that's why I also think, okay, Brett's got the clip.

44:23Ben Meiselas:I'll play the clip just so you know that I'm not making up the clip. Here's the clip.

44:26Brett Meiselas:In terms of constricting and cutting off the financial oxygen to them. And I don't know whether it's going to be a week, a month or two months, but they're going to yell uncle.

44:37Ben Meiselas:The goal is to make him cry uncle and to cut off the financial lifeline. That's a war crime. You're describing a war crime and you're not going to make the people of Iran want to rebel or revolt or march in the streets for Donald Trump? If you behave like that, when you slaughter the little girls in their elementary school and then you cover it up and then you blame them for using their tomahawks when they don't have tomahawks, what do you think the reaction is? Do you think they're going to want to welcome you? Or do you think it brings more solidarity against you? What do you think is going to happen when you say things like this.

45:13Ben Meiselas:I mean, it is so absurd. It is so dumb. It is so offensive. It is so conscious, shocking, and we need to call it out. When we come back, we've got a lot more to discuss on this episode. We'll take our last break of the show, but remember, WTF America, it's dedicated to all of you, the might is mighty, the way out of this hell, and back to democracy. Pre-order it if you can. If you're planning on buying it when it comes out October 20th, I would just ask, do the pre-orders because the pre-orders really help with the momentum of the book. They help guide our strategy for pub date. So if you are able to buy it and you can get the copy of the audio or download the audio because - And the ebook as well.

45:56Ben Meiselas:The ebook, we got it on all formats. All right, last break of the show. We'll be right back.

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47:35Ben Meiselas:By the way, if you're on Medicare, I've got good news and bad news that you might want to hear. According to the National Council on Aging, the average senior on Medicare is overpaying by more than$1 ,000 a year for their coverage. And it gets worse. One in 10 is overpaying by$2 ,000 or more. And only about 10 % are on the plan that actually fits their needs best. It's easy to see why the system is so confusing and that confusion allows unscrupulous brokers and insurance companies to rob you blind. That's why it's so important to talk to a trusted advisor whose only job is getting you the best coverage for you at the best price.

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48:59Brett Meiselas:Let's go. Shout out to our sponsors. Links in description of both YouTube and the audio. Use the links, use the codes. There's that exit survey. Let them know we sent you. Brett, real quick. It would have been kind of funny if right before you played the Bessing clip, actually when you played it, it was the wrong clip.

49:13Jordy Meiselas:Yeah, I was going to say, the bit should have been it was the wrong clip.

49:16Brett Meiselas:If that was just the bit.

49:17Jordy Meiselas:Yeah.

49:18Brett Meiselas:Yeah.

49:19Jordy Meiselas:I felt bad by that point.

49:21Ben Meiselas:But I wanted to show that because the point is what you've gleaned. I mean, look, we have all of the knowledge that we should have gathered since this catastrophic war. Point one, we should never have been involved in this catastrophic war to begin with. Easy, obvious, done. Okay. But now your main lesson is that if we sanction Iran more, if we torture the people more, the Trump regime says, then the people are going to rise up and they're going to support Donald Trump and Netanyahu, and they're going to want to turn Iran into Gaza or Southern Lebanon, or they're going to want to become like, that's your letter.

50:00Jordy Meiselas:It was a failed plan to begin with because they thought that they could win with overwhelming military force. As by the way, many presidents have felt about the Middle East for decades and decades and decades. The Iranians were smart. They actually do have smart leadership who understand the mechanics of the global economy and the United States of America and what's important to the global economy and the United States of America. And they played the long game and they're continuing to play the long game, just as we see with China, by the way, we see all these countries playing the long game because they know that they could squeeze the United States, they could harm our economy, they could hit us where it hurts.

50:34Jordy Meiselas:And that Donald Trump is at the whim of these elections and is now slated to just get shellacked in the midterm elections. And so you're seeing all of this stuff happen. And it really is just they keep doubling down on these failed strategies, thinking that they're going to get a different result. They're not going to get a different result. It's going to keep getting worse if they continue to go down this road. And it's like, how many chances could you get? I've never seen people be afforded more chances in my life than these people who destroy everything. And then things start getting marginally better.

51:06Jordy Meiselas:And then they can't help themselves and they destroy things again. It's like it's been Donald Trump's entire life and it's been his entire presidency where you see Donald Trump coming in and interest rates are coming down and inflation is coming down and gas prices are down and all these things. And Trump goes, we can't have that. I got to do something stupid. I got to do a liberation day, right? There reverses the trend, right? Everything goes back up, up, up, up, up. You get that knock down. Things start coming back down. Remember before the Iran war, what was happening? Interest rates were coming back down.

51:38Jordy Meiselas:Gas prices were coming back down. These were starting to head down. Donald Trump once again, well, we can't have any of that. We need to go into this lawless war, this illegal war. Back up it goes, up, up, up, up, up, up, up. And you have the Republicans justifying it every step of the way. And they give you this false choice, which is either you could either accept paying 7.3 % interest rates and$8.50 diesel and everything you buy cost double what it cost last year. You could accept that because the alternative was you were going to get killed by nuclear annihilation. That's really the premise that they're trying to set up.

52:18Jordy Meiselas:But it's like, no, first off, Iran is not any further away from a nuclear weapon than they were to begin with. So it's not even like we haven't done anything here to even help that goal. And additionally, the economy is in utter turmoil and people are suffering from this. So it's like you're giving me two options. it's a false choice and you failed at both options.

52:41Brett Meiselas:Well, it's also how they weaponize patriotism from that party. It's what they do, right? They have their people wrap themselves in the American flag and they say, it's your patriotic duty to pay more at the pump. And if you're unwilling to do that and unwilling to sacrifice your money to pay more at the pump in order to make sure, to order to ensure Iran will never have a nuclear weapon, well, then you're not a patriot. Then you don't love this country. I thought you loved this country. And then Donald Trump is, well, don't you love me? It's really manipulative and really freaky shit.

53:11Ben Meiselas:And it goes back to the Epstein class, right? In my view, what this behavior is reflective of is Epstein class behavior. I mean, these people are predators. And so the conduct you described, Brett, is they prey on people's happiness and they don't like seeing people happy or doing well. And for them only, they can fix it. And they need to inflict the pain. And then they'll say, now I need to help you with the pain that I inflicted. You need me. You need me in your life. They're sick. These are sick, sick, sick people. They're predators. They're Epstein class people. They are the arsonists. Yes.

53:51Ben Meiselas:Then they want to be the firefighters, but it's deeper than just that metaphor. They are sick Epstein class predators who are vultures, who it isn't enough for them to have even wealth. Limitless wealth for generations to come is not enough for them. They need to measure it based on your suffering. And that is who they are. They relish the suffering. They like the slaughter. I mean, it's not a coincidence, right, that when you look at the Trump regime, yes, they're covering up child sex trafficking rings here in the United States. And then they start this catastrophic war and they start slaughtering little girls.

54:34Ben Meiselas:They slaughter little children, little girls in Manab, little girls during volleyball practice in Le Maire. This is who the Trump regime is. When you look at a lot of these images coming from Gaza as well, you see little girls going to school who are murdered and slaughtered with their backpacks on. I mean, it is absolutely, absolutely horrific. And then, you know, you look at these people, these MAGA Republican senators, like Senator Kennedy. I mean, look, let me do it like this way. You want to know how we resolve the catastrophic situation in Iran right now caused by Trump and Netanyahu's invasion?

55:13Ben Meiselas:You want to know how you do it? You want me to solve it? I'm going to do accordion hands. Will that help with it. According to hands, here's what you do. You take the two aircraft carriers that are in the Arabian Sea and you leave. That's what you do. And then if Iran still won't let tankers leave the Strait of Ramuz, then you go, see, international community, we left. Look what they're doing. Then you can build an international coalition. And it's a pretty big -

55:41Jordy Meiselas:I'm all for the quiet quitting approach. And I know Donald Trump was floating that at some point. Just, just like pretend it never happened. Just leave.

55:46Ben Meiselas:Just get out. You leave. You know what's going to happen to, you know, the, the, the lunacy of it all. After all of the attacks on Biden, this, you know, right. If Trump just took the freaking aircraft carriers and left, all of a sudden the price of oil would go down. The price of diesel would go down. The treasury yields would go down and people would be like, he did it. Right. People would genuinely, even today, even September 24th of 2026, if he took that action, he would get probably not the same credit he would if he did this earlier, which he does not deserve. And let me be very clear, dude deserves no credit.

56:25Ben Meiselas:Dude's a war criminal. Dude's a felon. Dude's a sexual threat. I hate the guy. I think that this Trump regime is the, corruption doesn't do it justice. So I'm not trying to give, co-sign this idea. I'm just telling you the lunacy of all of this right now, this shared collective reality. If he just took the steps of removing the aircraft carrier, he'd actually be praised as doing the right thing. You would see all these metrics go in the right direction. And the guy who did the damage would get credit for the damage that he caused, which should never take place in the first place. But at the same time, and I mean this sincerely, and I don't say this as a political question, I just say it as an observer.

57:09Ben Meiselas:Like, where the hell are Democrats right now? Where the hell is leadership? Where the hell is anybody looking at this and saying in a profound way that can break through, this is crazy. This is lunacy. What the hell? I mean, could you – let me know. We've done this. Can you imagine this person, that person? But the moment they roll out the red carpet for she, you know what the Democrats should do or any opposition party? Do a press conference. Bring a freaking red carpet. Call it your red carpet press conference and basically say, we just rolled out. This was embarrassing. This is humiliating.

57:47Ben Meiselas:We're going to hold hearings. I mean, just do some shit like that. Like it doesn't seem and I don't want just some people like, oh, I want you to run. I don't want to run. I don't want to run for Congress. I don't want to run for Senate. I don't want to run. I have no intent. Those are not my ambitions. My ambitions is my role here at this network to build independent media and to continue to grow it. That's it. And I think it's important to have someone focused on that. And that's what I am focused on doing here. But come on. This is like from a political standpoint, this is some layup stuff right here.

58:21Ben Meiselas:Speak out. I mean, look, you've got MAGA Republican Senator Kennedy from Louisiana. here's what he says this what this is this is his take his assessment of this whole situation this is how he sees it this is like like I truly wonder what what what what how do people even

58:38Brett Meiselas:think like this here play this clip I think that the people running Iran are reptiles um and they're part of a colony of reptiles China, North Korea, Russia, and as I said Iran. The chief reptile, the quarterback, is President Xi in China. You can't trust any of them. All four of them are the same. It's like the same hooker in different dresses. They all lie like timeshare salesmen. You can't trust them. I wouldn't turn my back on any of them, even if I thought and knew they were two days dead.

59:33Ben Meiselas:Okay, yeah, hooker, reptile, hookers. So are you saying the reptile, hooker, timeshare salesman is in the White House and we're bowing down to the multifaceted, multi-dressed reptilian hooker timeshare salesman at the white house that's so that's

59:53Jordy Meiselas:so that and then you also managed to pick that they managed to pick like one of the politicians who actually resembles a reptile also i'm just gonna it's gonna the only only person they could have picked uh you know that would have been more like a reptile would have been rick scott i think uh but uh it's the thing is these are smart people too you know the thing about a guy like senator john kennedy by the way ever that whole affect he puts on his voice the voice is fake it's all fake. It's all literally fake. And I believe like he went to like, he'd like got some degree from like Oxford at some point.

1:00:23Jordy Meiselas:Like he's a very bright guy. And you see those moments in those hearings occasionally when Kash Patel comes there, right? When he starts talking about, so what's this about the bestiality? Right. And it's a pretty good impression. And you're like, oh, he's like, Like, you know, cash had his defenses down and now he kind of got trapped by this guy. And you've seen that a couple of times. And so it makes it all the more maddening that these people are actually intelligent and know what they're doing and continue to do stuff like that. Somebody who doesn't fit this category, who's not intelligent and shows it all the time is Senator Tommy Tuberville, coach Tuberville, Tuberville.

1:01:01Jordy Meiselas:And his whole thing now, as we have interest rates spiking and people suffering, his big concern right now that he wants the American people to know is that, did you know that pilots are furries? They engage in sexual behavior while wearing animal costumes, and we need to do something about pilot furries. And you must be saying, Brett, that's ridiculous. Well, he literally said it is, but it's real. He said it on the floor of the United States Senate. And when he got called out by it, and a lot of people made fun of him for it because of how ridiculous it is. He had to defend himself with this ridiculous tweet where he wrote, I know the deranged Democrats don't like the fact that I called out the insane furry culture this week.

1:01:46Jordy Meiselas:The hell are you talking? The deranged Democrats? Everyone making fun of you, dude. But the truth is there is an alarming, and by the way, these words are like all caps for the audio listeners, alarming number of these deranged people working in our airline industry. Don't believe me? Just a few months ago, pilots were meowing and barking at each other over the radio at DCA. I don't even know.

1:02:14Brett Meiselas:I'm going to say something using my First Amendment right here. And I fully believe that Tommy Tuberville, he's really into furry porn. Like that is, I'm pretty sure I could say that. So that's my takeaway. If someone is so fixated on this as Tommy Tuberville's coach, then you're the legal expert.

1:02:32Ben Meiselas:Contrast that, though, to what the parliament leader and lead Iranian negotiator Mbigal Abaf posted today. Happy 5.1 % 10-year America. Celebrate. It's the floor two years out. You wanted Iran dragged back to the 1970s? Nobody told you Iran isn't for arrogant amateurs? will return you to 1970s rates plus high gas prices, diesel shortages, and bell bottoms. Enjoy the nostalgia. And then Goluboff posts wild E. Coyote memes with that also that MAGA meme guy who wears the MAGA hat that's been going viral lately. And then it's news articles like, Besant dares traders bet against him. I am the house.

1:03:21Ben Meiselas:You realize that Donald Trump was the house with the Trump casinos and they went bankrupt, like not once, not twice, not three times, not four times, like five times, like six times, like he bankrupted casinos over and over and over again with the same pathological flaws, which is putting it nicely, the same behavior, the same malicious incompetence, recklessness, malice that we're seeing right now. It's the same stuff. That's why they were bankrupt because we're seeing what Trump does in real time. It's happening now with our country. And so as MB Gala Baf is posting that, what's the actual data?

1:03:56Ben Meiselas:In a three-hour time period, treasury yields on the 10-year notes now went above 5.2 % for the first time in 19 years. The 10-year note yield is now up 50 basis points in 30 days and 30 basis points in two days. 30 basis points in two days, even more.

1:04:17Jordy Meiselas:Can I also just do, can I just do the math on those years, by the way, because 19 years ago, it's actually a significant time period. 19 years ago from right now is 2007, right before the great financial crisis. And so I think that's worth pointing out. I know to me when I think, I'm sure everyone has their own version of this. When I think like 19 years ago, I'm like, oh, you mean like, you know, 19, when was 19 years ago? I always think like 20 years ago is 1980. I always think like 30 years ago is 1970. You know, my time's all off, but 19 years is 2007, right before the great financial crisis, right before the great recession.

1:04:54Ben Meiselas:Yeah, but you know, our leaders who aren't leaders are behaving like this. He loves his granite. Look at the reptile hookers. Oh, furries barking, meow, meow. You know, and their leaders, you can say what you want about them. Say what you want. M.B. Galabaf is a – do you realize they're all doctors? They're all PhDs. They all have engineering backgrounds, technical backgrounds. I mean, Iran's president is a world-renowned cardiovascular surgeon, Dr. Pazeskian, who's like invented methodologies of certain types of bypass surgeries. Dr. Aragchi, Iran's foreign minister, wrote the main treatise on international diplomatic negotiations and guiding principles that's used by foreign ministers across the world.

1:05:45Ben Meiselas:You have M.B. Galaboff right there, Dr. Galaboff, who himself is a PhD, a background in very, very kind of technical areas and who has - How many New York real estate guys do they have though? Yeah, well, we have Trump's son-in-law, Kushner, who basically bankrupted his one business deal before all the grift was to bank. I mean, it was probably grift too, but using daddy's money, bankrupt a building on Fifth Avenue. Then people forget this in the first term, we did like a blockade on Qatar with the Saudis. And then Qatar bailed Kushner out and then the blockade was removed. And then Kushner went and did all that, did all his deals.

1:06:28Ben Meiselas:You have Donald Trump's scumbag real estate guy, Whitcoff, Whitcoff and Kushner out there making fools of themselves. And so you've got this incredibly just, again, from a nonpolitical lens, we're putting out the weirdest losers out there and they're putting in their A-team of smart, sophisticated people. And then we are, and it's a collective, I know we are underestimating them and mocking them and behaving this way. And then I'll just leave you with this. I don't want to show Netanyahu what he's doing because I did a video on it, enough Netanyahu. And I didn't even have to show that many Trump clips.

1:07:02Ben Meiselas:But I want you just to look at right here, the Israeli ambassador to the United Nations. And this guy has been making his rounds on all the U.S. media, attacking Mamdani and threatening war with Iran. And we're going to bring the U.S. back into war. So he shows up and goes and gets right into the face of the Iranian ambassador to the UN and brings a starlink to give to the Iranian ambassador, then records it for like the propaganda for the Netanyahu campaign in Israel. Just watch this here, play this clip. I thought it's appropriate to give you the Starlink, if you are the prime minister. It can be very useful for you to allow the Iranian people to get their freedom after what you did to them.

1:07:43Ben Meiselas:So you want to take it and deliver it back to Tehran? It can be very useful for you in Iran. We love the Iranian people and we pray for the regime change there. It will come that day. And then you expect, I mean, just think about it. So you're saying to the guy, we pray for regime change, meaning we pray for you to be dead, basically. That's what that means. And then we're saying that we want to negotiate and try to do a deal and that we're going to do a deal and that Iran respects Whitcoff and Kushner, which they don't. We talk about this in WTF America. At a basic level, if you're going to do a deal with someone, you're going to have to expect and understand their existence.

1:08:28Ben Meiselas:Okay. You're not going to do a deal the way the Trump regime is doing, you know, and threatening, we're going to kill you. We're going to make you cry uncle. I mean, again, this behavior is so disgusting and it's weak and it's pathetic behavior. And you know, what I hope you see that we're calling out here are universal, bigger principles here on the Midas Touch Network that it's like right and wrong and just basic stuff here. And so in any event, we're calling it out every step of the way. I wanted to end with that to share what was going on there. I did a whole video on Netanyahu's speech, but he attacks Mamdani, and then he says, we're going to get rid of the Iranian regime.

1:09:06Ben Meiselas:He attacks Syria's president, al-Shara, and it's just nonstop attacking country after country and saying, we're for peace, not for genocide. And so I don't want to play it, but I know we covered a lot on this episode. So I'll leave it at that. Brett, anything you want to say?

1:09:21Jordy Meiselas:No, it was all very Trumpy. But you see, one of the things we try to highlight is this kind of network of autocrats and how they all kind of use the same strategies with their own kind of flavor to it, so to speak, based on where they are and who the people they represent are. And you see it everywhere from the United States to you saw it in Brazil with Bolsonaro, you see it in Turkey, you see versions of it in Argentina, in Israel, you see it all over and and it's all interconnected. And so I think it's important to kind of continue to, you know, connect those threads and, and show everybody what's going on.

1:09:54Jordy Meiselas:This has been a great episode. Great to be here with you brothers. Great to be here with you. Might is mighty. I just truly want to thank, you know, everybody from the bottom of our hearts who has everyone who has pre-ordered WTF America. It truly, truly, truly means the world to us. We worked incredibly hard and thanks. You know, I know there are some folks who say, you guys keep talking about it. I know it just means a lot to us. We poured our hearts and soul into it. So thank you for tolerating us speaking about it a lot. Thank you for pre-ordering it, whether you got it on audio or ebook or hardcover.

1:10:24Jordy Meiselas:It's available in Canada. It's available all in North America right now, and it should be coming international later on. We'll let you know. But super excited to hopefully get a chance to meet you all once we figure out what we're doing for the book tour and all of that, and the pre-orders help figure out where we go and everything. So thank you, thank you, thank you. This has been such a great show. Remember to listen to the Midas Touch podcast. We've got ongoing updates every day on that podcast feed, so make sure you go check it out. It's completely free anywhere you find podcasts. This has been great.

1:10:53Jordy Meiselas:Always such a pleasure to spend time with the Midas Mighty. Thank you to our incredible mods here, and thank you, brothers. Always an absolute pleasure. Jordy, take it away.

1:11:01Brett Meiselas:Shout out to the Midas Mighty.

1:11:17We'll get it right whenever we go.

1:11:21Brett 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.

1:11:42Lets Fieta