Thursday Afternoon Breaking News Updates with Ben - 7/9/2026

28:21Just remember to make pre-alcohol your first drink of the night, drink responsibly, and you'll feel your best tomorrow. Every time I have pre-alcohol before drinks, I notice the difference the next day. Even after a night out, I can confidently plan on having a great next day without worrying. Look, I won't lie, I was a bit on the fence about pre-alcohol initially, but after giving it a chance, believe me, it's the real deal. July is packed with barbecues, fireworks, late weekends, and late nights with friends. Keep the good times rolling into the next day. Drink pre-alcohol before you go out and wake up ready for whatever Sunday brings.

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30:05You shouldn't be wasting your precious time fixing broken backend code or server mistakes. You want a platform that scales with you effortlessly. With Shopify, nothing stands between your idea and a real business, so go make it one. If you're ready to stop putting off your business and start hearing, then you're ready for Shopify. Start your free trial at shopify.com slash Midas today. You heard that right. Start your free trial today at shopify.com slash Midas. That's shopify.com slash Midas. M-E-I-D-A-S. Welcome back to Ben on Breaking News. I'm Ben Mycelis. This is your breaking news. I saw someone comment.

30:46Come on, Ben, do you expect the Democrats to have to respond to every time Donald Trump says something? Are they supposed to respond to every single thing?

30:57Ben Meiselas:I just say, who's the leader right now? I mean, who's out there and who's the leader? And I can tell you that people, we, you, we're motivated and want accountability for this regime. I think you saw it in the video that I showed of Nebraska, of the people at Mike Flood's town hall. But I also know we're getting close to 100 days out to the midterms, right? And so I ask you, the person who said that, I respect that. Because I want to bring accountability to Trump, frankly, in a nonpartisan way. I mean, I want justice. I think he's a criminal. I think this is a criminal fascist regime. That's what I want to see happen.

31:45Ben Meiselas:But let me ask you, I mean this sincerely. And I say this not to taunt or to mock or anything. I mean it constructively. What is the message going into the midterms that Democrats in a unified way are saying? What's the message? And how is that being communicated? Maybe I don't see it because my focus is so much on the war and international affairs and, you know, the day-to-day happenings of the corruption in the Trump regime. And maybe I have a blind spot. I mean, obviously, affordability is a major point, right? Affordability. But is there in a unified way this kind of message being communicated every single day.

32:41It doesn't have to be chasing Trump.

32:44Ben Meiselas:It could be going on the offense, right? It could be going on, but every day should be some sort of unified, doesn't have to be a press conference, but some unified message going out every day with kind of defined, okay, here's the leadership and here's what the message is. And to me, it's two A's. It's affordability and accountability. It's affordability and accountability. It's affordability and accountability. It's affordability and accountability. Why do I keep on repeating that? Because you have to do stuff like that. And I say this again, as someone who is observing. I don't come from a political background.

33:35I interned on the Hill. I gave Capitol Hill tours. I could tell you about the apotheosis of George Washington when I gave Capitol tours in 2004, 2007. So, you know, I don't plan on ever running for office. I don't want to be a politician. But I think what you have to do is you have to say affordability, accountability, affordability accountability that's what this is about you want things to be affordable you want this regime to be held accountable affordability and accountability and then you could broaden them

34:09Ben Meiselas:from there i i just i'm not suggesting that trump says something crazy there needs to be a response to everything he says i think i don't i don't see why that's a bad thing sometimes i think you got to go on the offense though and you've got to frame the discussions and you got to say affordability accountability. And you have to really mean it. And you have to really mean it. And you have to look at the American people and you have to say to them, I care about you. And if you don't actually care about them, then don't do it. Don't have these positions. But you have to look at people and empathize with what they're experiencing and not try to push them two points to this side or two points to that or move them this way or move them that way.

34:55Ben Meiselas:I don't think a lot of people think of themselves and go, you know what? I like a more center left or left-leaning. I think most people are like, I hate this criminal regime. I have progressive values. I support humanity and equality and civil rights, and I want to help marginalized communities and not punch down. I love humanity. I want peace. I don't want genocide. I think that's where most people, I want health. I want health for not just me, for my family, for my neighbors, for my community, for my city, state, country, world. And I think you have to speak to people at a very personal level.

35:37Con artists, frauds like Donald Trump are able to see the vulnerabilities in people because they prey on it. They're predators. They prey on it. And I just tend to think that one of the issues with the opposition right now is I just think that I think it's so focused on a political battle when this is a fight for humanity and a fight for peace and a fight against genocide and a fight for equal rights and a fight for loving our fellow human beings and protecting

36:22Ben Meiselas:immigrant rights and being against fascism. When I speak to people, that's where overwhelmingly, I think that's an 80-20 issue. And I think that that needs to be communicated and harnessed by anyone. And you have to do it. You can't just say it. And again, what I said there, I don't think I even reflected, oh, this is political this, political that. Let's be human beings and let's care about each other. And let's fight for each other. because I think there are so many people who just distrust this whole system, and rightfully so, that continues to harm them and put them in precarious situations.

37:14Ben Meiselas:So speak to them, fight for them. I'll stop preaching. Going back to Air Force One, here's where we were at, where Donald Trump is like. Oh, by the way, he was on the old Air Force One, and then he moved to the Qatari Air Force One. And the White House lied. Like, oh, we did it because we wanted to show all of our troops at the Royal Air Base. They were like, please, sir. Please, sir. We really want to see the Qatari Air Force One, sir. Can we see it, Donald? So we had to show it to them first. That's why when we were in Turkey, we brought in the old Air Force One. The issue is that the old Air Force One is equipped with all of the defensive systems that the new one doesn't have.

37:59The new one has some of the installations, but it doesn't have what's needed. It's obvious that Secret Service and others told Trump, you're right there by the border of Iran. Okay? You're right there. You got to fly in the, especially while you're launching military strikes against Iran, you gotta take the old air force one and the trump regime lies about that too like why lie about that why why every everything is a lie everything is like oh by the way did you see you know donald trump refilled some of these other fountains and do you see that they're brown now you got the green reflecting pool and then you've got the brown like fountain and the brown fountains like Aaron Parnas from the Midas Touch Network and from his own Parnas Media Company was the first to post that, get that video out there.

38:52Wow. So here was Donald Trump talking about their calling. They want to make a deal so badly. They're begging me, please, sir, make a deal, make a deal. Here, play this clip. We have many ways we can win, but we've already won militarily. They have very little, they have very little left and they want to make a deal so badly. They called a little while ago. They want to make a deal so badly. I just don't know if they're worthy of making a deal. I don't know if they're going to honor the deal. That's the problem. And of course, it's always projection. He's never honored a deal in his life. By the way, if you read the art of the deal, which I don't think you should read, you'll see that he says he doesn't believe a deal is ever final.

39:33He always believes it is a way to basically take advantage of the other side's good faith and push for more once you do a deal. Because most people view deals, you keep your word. Trump's never felt that way his whole life. He's always been breaching agreements, not doing deals. It's why all of his things are always like

39:53Ben Meiselas:frameworks or oral arrangements because he doesn't do deals. Then when he does do it, he rips it apart. He rips it apart. He can't keep a deal. So he's talking about himself there. we beat him militarily. We beat him. No, we didn't. We didn't. We didn't beat him militarily. Stop. We could be objective and say, we certainly hit a lot of their military targets. We certainly hit a lot of their infrastructure. The Trump regime committed a lot of war crimes, slaughtered 168 little girls in Manabin, frankly, thousands of other innocent people in Iran. and they also targeted IRGC. Yes, there were naval ships that were hit, also unarmed naval ships.

40:35We shouldn't forget early on when a United States submarine killed all of the Iranian Navy people who were marching in India. Remember that? And as part of their arrival in India, they had to put down their weapons. So the Iranian naval ship was unarmed and then the submarine from the United States just killed all of those people and then let the people drown. and i think it was like a rescue ship from like bangladesh had to come in and and and save them or something and that's it didn't really say many but like the u.s just like watch does everybody drown which again is a war crime all these war crimes uh that are that are being committed but obviously iran still has lots of ballistic missiles it still has its fast boats which it utilizes to control the Strait of Hormuz.

41:27They certainly are able to mobilize a lot of people.

41:31Ben Meiselas:And we didn't militarily defeat them. It's just these lies are just, it also, I guess for our propaganda media here, they could play that sound by, you know, you saw on Fox, Maria Barna Roma, they really care. Yeah, the Iranians love us. They love us. Wow. Yeah, they love us. I mean, you know, I guess the brain rot of Fox viewers, you know, they like that. I don't know. But Iran knows that's not true. So how are you, like, what's your strategy here with them? There is none. Like, I always try to think about the problems. Like, what are you trying to achieve here? When you sit in the situation room, how do you assess the situation?

42:19Ben Meiselas:And what are you trying to solve for? Like the lesson that you've gleaned out of all of this is that by bombing Iranian coastal cities, they're going to say, please, Donald and Bibby, come in here and take us over. Please, we submit, we give up. What would you like? Oh, would you like to control the Strait of Hormuz? You think that's like from all of this, that's your lesson on July 7th, 8th, and 9th is that, oh, that's what's really working. Right. And to me, that's fundamentally some of the most disturbing stuff right here, that you have the least qualified, most incompetent, idiotic people who are making the biggest decisions that impact all of our lives in this situation.

43:09because I don't have to be an intelligence officer with 40 years of experience to make the assessment that that's not the right answer to all of this. The right answer with all of the issues is actually to follow the memorandum of understanding And it is to allow Iran to have some form of symbolic victory over the Strait of Hormuz because the U.S. lost the war, to work with Oman to try to keep the Iran victory symbolic so it doesn't really cause huge financial issues for ships that want to leave the Strait of Hormuz. maybe a nominal optional fee that gets paid a la some other straits that we see but try to keep it as symbolic so that you know lean on international law and say well we understand that you're claiming this is kind of your area given its proximity to your land.

44:24So you're saying it's not international waters. All right, but let's come up with some rational compromise over there. You lean on the other Arab nations to get involved with Iran, which is what the MOU says also, to try to provide for a safe passage. And then that's it. I mean, you then unfreeze the sanctions that you said you were going to unfreeze for Iran because that's in the MOU. The$300 billion that you promised them is a difficult one. That's a lot of money. And there's no time limit as I see it on that. So you can basically say, ah, well, we'll help work to over time create investments with these Arab nations if that's normalized.

45:13And that's the path. To me, that's the best option. I think that another option, which let me be very clear, I am very against. I think it would be, I'm not suggesting that this should take place. I'm just saying that it's obvious that the airstrikes don't work as a tool of submission. So if you were going to escalate in a way to try to achieve a different result, you would have to do a different thing and you would have to do a ground invasion and you would have to commit hundreds of thousands of Americans. I don't want this to happen. Okay. I don't want this to happen, but you would have to commit hundreds of thousands of American troops for a ground invasion.

46:07And it would likely result in kind of what we see in Russia invading Ukraine. You'd probably have about 35 ,000 Americans dying each month. You'll probably have 50 ,000 to 75 ,000, maybe more, Iranians dying each month. It'll probably remain a stalemate for many years. And when you look back at it, you'll probably have about a million. Look at the Iran-Iraq War. How many deaths were in the Iran-Iraq War? by the way, where the US moved a tanker into the Strait of Hormuz and then blew up Iranian flight 655 and we killed 290 people on a commercial plane and then didn't take accountability for it.

46:58But Jeremy, find out the amount of people who were killed in the Iran-Iraq war alone. I remember just from past studying. It's a huge number. But you would have a million casualties. But if you are saying they're an existential threat and they're about to strike with a nuclear weapon, and that's what you say, you should talk to the American. I don't want that to happen at all. Yeah, it's about a million people. And the Iran-Iraq war, so that's right around where I thought this would be. I think this would be a horrible solution. I do not want that. But it's obvious an air campaign isn't going to do it.

47:40A ground invasion would lead to mass casualties. It should never happen. The deal is the only solution now. So, and we should never, let me be also clear, we should never have been involved in this catastrophic war at all, period, full stop with genocidal maniac Netanyahu. We should never have been involved at all. But doing the coastal cities bombing and thinking that the outcome is Iran's going to go, Donald, you know what? We're going to reconsider our position. M.B. Galabaf here, Donald. Dude, M.B. Galabaf, PhD, fought with the IRGC before rising up the ranks as the top civilian politician right now in Iran.

48:29And dude's had his, he's been, he's had buildings on multiple occasions blown up when he was inside. This guy has gotten pulled out of rubble, unconscious, okay?

48:45Ben Meiselas:And he fought in the Iran-Iraq war, okay? This guy is not, you know, Donald, you know what? after we saw those little teeny tiny crowds for the Ayatollah and now you're bombing all those AstroTurf crowds. I'm being sarcastic. And now you're bombing Sirik and Keshem again. You know what, Donald? We're going to reconsider. And we're going to do it. You want the straight? What do you want? You want to run us? You want to rule us? Okay, Donald, we'll reconsider. No, no. And go back to what I said at the beginning. This is, they know in Iran that the U.S. strategic reserves are being depleted right now.

49:32Iran's lookout is, we control the Strait of Hormuz. We will knock out ships that try to use the U.S. southern route near Oman. We'll keep on doing that. The U.S. won't be able to replenish the strategic reserves. The U.S. is slow walking or fast walking itself into catastrophe. And it's so obvious that that's what's happening. They see what's happening. All right. Jeremy, do we have one more break of the show that we got to take right now? Because if we do, let's take our last quick break of the show. We'll be right back. A lot more to discuss. Take our last break. Knockoffs might look the same at first, but we all know that they never hold up.

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53:57You seem like you are healthy. The information you are dealing with is heavy. Take care. No, I'm doing great. And I got to spend a lot of time with my daughter last night, which I think is what's also kind of calmed me and put a lot in perspective. But I guess this is my job now, right? I quit being a litigator. And I'm no longer a day-to-day lawyer. I teach at USC. in the spring. So I guess this is a job technically, but I don't view it as a job at all. I don't go like, what do you do? This is my job. I view this as life. This is what I got to do. I view it like eating, breathing, sleeping, being with my family, going on here and talking with you and spending this time with you more than like oh this is like my job oh it's not a game this isn't a game i mean this stuff this stuff this stuff hits and it is kind of deep and that's why i was you know on tuesday when it's like we went we got back into this thing you know it reminded me of the start of how midas touch was founded even when i think about like right when back in 2020 and COVID when Trump said like a miracle, it's all going to go away.

55:22The curve

55:22Ben Meiselas:is going to be bent. It's not going to come here. Maybe three cases max, we're good. We're good. And it's like, to me, if that's not a disqualifying thing that you said like a miracle, it's going to go away. And the cases, there may be two or three cases max, right? I mean, that just is like when Donald Trump said at the beginning of this catastrophic war. He literally said, right, it's going to be a day or two. It's going to be a few days. They're going to submit like a miracle. It's going to be great. They want this. They're going to want me to run them. And it's all going to be fine. And they want to make a deal.

56:05And it's amazing. And, you know, and, and you see him doing, you know, it's, it's different, but it's a version of when he was like, inject yourself with bleach. Remember he's like, I know more about this than anybody inject yourself with bleach. You know, we're dealing with issues of war and peace and perhaps not global pandemics, but the parallels, you know, are so close that That it's him doing everything you shouldn't do. And then it's so obvious to me that we shouldn't be doing these things.

56:43Ben Meiselas:And again, not as a partisan political person, just as someone who studies this and who can see and who's been in the room with people like this in my past life as a litigator. And just seeing and saying like, why are you doing like, come on, man. And again, you then get into these kind of pretzel moral thoughts because it's like, I'm not rooting for it. I don't want to root for him. I want to root for America. I want July 4th to be great. I want the fireworks show to be amazing. I want the reflecting pool to look good. Although if I had a list of priorities, reflecting pool looking good probably doesn't make the top 1 million.

57:24Although I'd like to see it look good. I don't want to mock the reflect. I don't want it to look stupid. it. I don't want us to look dumb on an international stage.

57:34Ben Meiselas:Despite me despising Trump, I would like for any president of the United States to look the way Prime Minister Carney does of Canada. If you went on the international stage and you behaved with dignity and competence and you did great work and then you came back and then you did the right thing. And, you know, and you signed the housing affordability bill that was done on a bipartisan basis, right, by Democrats and Republicans. And we, you know, I mean, even when you think about these so-called Trump accounts, he made it weird. And by the way, it could have been something that potentially was a good thing, but he also then had to make it like a weird, corrupt, grifty thing that didn't have to be.

58:29Ben Meiselas:And like I say it again, I'm not an apologist, but just think about it. It could have been a potential investment account for children like a 401k that wouldn't be called Trump. It could be nonpartisan. I heard some Democrats talking about a plan like that before. perhaps it could have been articulated to the public in a transparent way what types of stocks are held you know in in these in these accounts but what ultimately kind of happened is he called it the trump account then he brought over the right-wing oligarchs he made it so that they could take deductions by putting money into them and then they would show up to the White House and he would pump up their stock and their stocks would go up.

59:21And then it's like they buy these ETFs, these exchange traded funds of certain types of companies and doesn't really have transparency over why those companies versus

59:37Ben Meiselas:maybe more American companies that have been around for a long time. To me, there's ways to try to figure out bipartisan solutions to things. And when Melania Trump is out there talking about for helping foster children, that's a noble cause, but her focus is on the Trump accounts with foster children, but there are kind of deeper, more systemic issues about our foster care system that need to be addressed. And Republicans are defunding huge amounts of money that could be going to actually addressing the system. And so where I say, you know, you look at all of these things as a reporter, and I'm going back to time T-Money's questions is when you have a fascist regime in power that makes the worst decisions, both in terms of its maliciousness and in its incompetence combined, it's lethal and it's deadly.

1:00:56Ben Meiselas:And hence the opposition is to the threat that it poses to all of us. it doesn't make it so you're like, come on, man, just don't do that. Just follow the MOU. Let's help the American people. Sign the affordability bill. Truly try to reduce healthcare prices. Stop claiming that you reduced them 800%. You didn't. Really, people are really suffering right now. Stop. Let's figure out solutions to help people. And then every day to see some psychopath there in the Oval Office, who's literally a psychotic human who constantly inflicts pain on all of you and on this country and the world. That's awesome time, you know, but that's why we fight together.

1:01:41Ben Meiselas:That's why we unite together. That's why we stand up together. You know, then I saw somebody in the comments also post something as well. That's crazy how friendly Iran and Iraq are now after killing half a million of each other's people was another comment that I got in one of the chats. Well, that's why, you know, this kind of deep historical knowledge is important and it's important to know. And Trump doesn't understand the difference between Shiites and Sunnis and the dynamic that exists and Kurds and the Christian communities that live in these countries. And it is important that we are well-versed and understand what's, Knowledge is really important when we talk about while we're having energy crises, while Donald Trump's out there destroying wind and solar and renewables while China's cleaning our clock by investing in these things which are good for jobs and business and important for energy crisis to deal with as well.

1:02:42Ben Meiselas:And then, you know, Trump, oh, we need coal. Beautiful, beautiful coal, right? It's the beautiful, beautiful coal. Paint the reflecting pool blue. Oh, they in Iran, they're begging for us to come back. They're begging for a deal. It's all part of this perverted ignorance, maliciousness, turd, all in one. And that's just, we're so much better than that. I hope we are. As a country, why have we reduced ourselves to that turd and to that shit when there's so much greatness that could be achieved if we cared about science and each other and love and humanity and compassion? And so, yeah, it's important to know the Sunni-Shiite dynamic and how the U.S.

1:03:33Ben Meiselas:propped up Saddam Hussein, propped up Iraq, and then invaded Iraq after propping it up. And we should learn the history about how the United States blew up Iran's flight 655 and killed 290 Iranians aboard a commercial jet and never apologized, never did anything, never accepted responsibility. He gave the guy who blew him up an award, an award for heroism in combat. He blew up a commercial plane and we gave the guy an award for it. And then you wonder why Iran feels certain ways about this country. We need to learn our history and the dynamics of why it is significant that the Ayatollah's funeral in Iraq was so big.

1:04:27Ben Meiselas:Because one of the things that Iran also wants to be able to show, And this is an important thing that Trump needs to understand, that anybody needs to understand, is that any regime change plan in Iran, which should never even be considered, you're also dealing with Iraq. Because the Ayatollah is the equivalent of their pope for the Shiite community, not just in Iran, but in Iraq. So when you see all those millions of people, not just on the streets in Iran, but in Iraq, any actual effort of so-called regime change necessarily means the entire Shiite community in the region. it means the houthis in yemen it means the shiite community and all the surrounding arab nations as well who would be united in that fight for their way of life and for their leadership and for their civil that is and then you can go back to world war ii and before with redrawing of maps and all of these things that led to a lot of these issues and horrific issues.

1:05:52Ben Meiselas:But it's important that we remain knowledgeable and focused on what's going on. And so when I see Donald Trump's behavior at NATO, when I see him sitting next to Zelensky and calling him President Putin. And it's not just that. It's this ignorant, psychotic, malicious monster over there who's representing us. So sometimes I personally, I get angry. You know what I mean? I'm like, how does anybody think that this is a good way to represent us? Here, play this clip. And he doesn't. He doesn't, of course. But it's humiliating. As a proud patriotic person, it is humiliating. Here, play him talking about President Putin while pointing to Zelensky.

1:06:52Ben Meiselas:Let's play it. Do you have a question for President Putin, please? Do you have a question for President Putin, not Zelensky?

1:07:06Then he said that I would be the greatest communist like Lenin. Like Lenin. I'd be the great communist like Lenin. Here, play this clip.

1:07:19Do we got that clip or no? I would be the greatest communist in history. I'd be right up there with Lenin. I'd be as good as anybody. You've got free rent.

1:07:29Ben Meiselas:By the way, that is how you ran your campaign. Electricity bills will be cut in half. This will be this, this. I'll give you this. I'll give you that. I'll give you that. I'll give you that. I'll give you that. I'll give you that. Lie, lie, lie, lie, lie, lie, lie. Then Trump says, all right, ask a question to Putin. Huh? Ask a question to Putin. Okay. He's not there. Pretend I'm Putin. I'll answer as if I'm Putin. You're at NATO pretending to be Putin? because you called Zelensky Putin, so now you need to cover that up by... Your way to deal with that situation where you called Zelensky Putin is to now pretend that that's what you intended to do.

1:08:14Ben Meiselas:So now you want to role play as Putin as though that now makes it a bit... Oh, he was role playing, guys. Guys, I see what he did there. He was doing some improv. at nato and he said seen i'm putin everybody ask me questions and seen because that's normal that's what he does here play this clip of him last year you called russia a paper tiger referring that they're not doing who did i call i'm from telegraph to the ukrainian media uh no give us a question not for zelinski give us a question for Putin. Because I'm speaking to him today. Yeah. Putin, why is he a good, hard question? When will he end this war?

1:09:04Ben Meiselas:That's a good question. I don't think I've ever answered that question. I've been asking that question. Mr. President, what's the status of a trial deal between the U.S. and Ukraine? What's the status of a trial deal between the U.S. and Ukraine? Say it? What's the status of a trial deal between the U.S. and Ukraine? By the way, I will tell you, though, he's going to tell you that he wants it ended as soon as he can end it. Do you believe that? He wants to end it. He wants to end it soon. And I ask him, and we talk. I talk to him a lot. I talk to him a little bit less, but the relationship is very good.

1:09:33But I talk to President Putin a lot. He wants to end the war. A lot of people don't believe that. What are President Putin's conditions for ending the war? Well, they were certain conditions. They were a little bit different. I think they're changing. I think they're probably getting a little bit better toward some of the things that you'd like.

1:10:01Ben Meiselas:Yeah, I mean, as I said, you can't normalize that. It's not just enough to say, oh, well, he was pretending he was Putin. Oh, Donald Trump, he's crazy. He's a crazy guy. It's really deeper. It's really existential and it's really about our dignity. It's about our dignity.

1:10:34About the walking vomit that struts around this country and internet and makes all of us look horrible. I don't know how anybody can see that. I often see these CEOs who talk about this like this is normal. I just don't get it. My dogs don't get it. But they didn't bark for most of this episode. So that's good. that's all right look i have the show with the brothers tonight everybody gonna watch the show with me and my brothers at five pacific eight eastern obviously focus on different things there um and you'll get the take of me and my brother so i hope i see you tonight there um i just i just did i was very very angry on tuesday right i'm still angry today at everything this regime is doing.

1:11:39But I think for my blood pressure, keep it at this level today.

1:11:48USA. USA. And we'll keep on fighting every day in all seriousness though. I appreciate you. I appreciate your love. I love this community. We're going to keep fighting together every day. We're going to get through this together. and the key word is together. Keep on fighting. Stay in there. I love you. I appreciate you. I'm grateful for you and I'll see you next time and subscribe to the Midas Touch audio podcast as well. Have a good one, everybody. Shout out to the Midas Mighty.

1:12:48We'll see you next time.

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