Thursday Afternoon Breaking Updates with Ben - 7/23/26

28:00Ben Meiselas:You did it via truth. Yes, yes, yes. That's what I mean. This whole situation is idiotic. This should not, again, this is not a political, does not mean, vote for this guy, vote for this gal. Ain't that. It is the person is unfit to be in office and it's not even close. And that's an example of it. And now that person who doesn't understand the most basics of the way enrichment even works is moving the country and the world into a world war. It's not hyperbolic. The world is at war right now. And now even the UK having more of its bases used in the Royal Air Force base, which Iran says, okay, well, now you're fair game in the UK.

28:51Ben Meiselas:You're fair game as well now. Because we saw those B1s being used in the UK. War is raging with Russia's invasion of Ukraine. War is raging in the Middle East and spreading Yemen to the Red Sea and beyond. And Donald Trump's out there. I hereby declare via this truth that if Yemen doesn't henceforth stop blowing up ships, I'm very disappointed in you, Yemen Houthis. I'm very disappointed in you. It's like, get somebody serious in this office get a serious grown-up and adult in this office this this this this this deranged apprentice dystopian reality show needs to stop it really does it really does by the way it's what we talk about in wtf america pre-order right now I think somewhere there's a QR code or somewhere in the description.

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35:23And so check it out. And if you pre-ordered, write WTF already in the chat below. And hopefully I see you on the Patreon chat tonight, patreon.com slash Midas Touch. Really excited to see you all. Look, I just want to take a step back as well for a moment, though, and recognize these are very difficult times. And I understand how difficult this must be for all of you, whether you're here in the United States or whether you're abroad. This is not a game. this is not a experiment or some reality show although sometimes it feels like we're non-consensual participants and stuck in this dystopian corrosive thing that trump and the media normalize it feels like an escape room but you know you you all remember that you know last week when I was playing the video on the fight for progress YouTube channel and they highlighted someone from Pennsylvania who had three items in her fridge.

36:41Remember that? And she would talk about how I have to decide, am I going to have one item in the fridge, three items in the fridge? what am i going to do what am i going to do for my kids how am i going to afford health care i'm losing my health care this government with all of the stuff that's going on is just take take take hurt hurt hurt inflict pain and then the chaos every damn day right and it's like while this catastrophic war is going on as well, then what's Trump doing? Tariffing Canada 50 % on hockey sticks and other items. I mean, there's a lot of exclusions from those tariffs, of course, but it is.

37:31And then whining about, oh, Canada's so unfair. Canada treats us so unfair. Canada this, Canada that. It's like, what are you whining about? Canada treating us unfairly? What do you the nicest people.

37:43Ben Meiselas:It takes the most deranged people to think that Canada treats us bad. It's truly the most deranged group of humans who are like, you know who we should be really angry with right now? Who? The Canadians. Why? And it is, you know, you go back, you remember the South Park, blame Canada, you know, and the way South Park would also mock like North Korean dictators and things like that, right? Like we used to mock this stuff, but this is what this regime is. This is what and who MAGA actually, you know, what MAGA is actually all about. And so I just want you to know that when I do these videos, when I go live, when we discuss the war, when we discuss tariffs, when we discuss ICE and Border Patrol Gestapo killing people in our streets, when we talk about civil rights violations, discriminations, the racist behavior, when we discuss health care being taken away.

38:52I just, I want you to know that at the heart of all of this reporting is you. It's grounded in what you're going through, what your experiences are, and what and what you're saying and how we can best fight for you. Along those lines, I want to share this with you as well. And this is out of Pennsylvania as well, where the cost of tariffs, just like you see, wherever you're living, or if you live in Pennsylvania, it's causing inflation to rise, which isn't just some amorphous thing. It means that things aren't affordable. You layer on top of that and you have this catastrophic war in Iran, Trump's catastrophic trade war against everybody, and people can't afford things.

39:45And so Fight for Progress highlighted the story of Lisa and John Ronka over in Pennsylvania. And Pennsylvania's, they live in Pennsylvania, 7th Congressional District. They've got a MAGA representative, this guy, Ryan McKenzie, right there, northeastern Pennsylvania, Ryan McKenzie. And he's allowed Trump's tariffs. He's enabled all of the pain and suffering that MAGA is inflicting on John and Lisa. But this is what we're seeing in your neighborhoods as well. So let me just share with you their story quickly. Let's play it. The tariffs have greatly impacted us. President Trump's tariffs are starting to have an impact on businesses and consumers.

40:32It's insane how much things have increased. Tariffs on steel and aluminum imports double to 50%. We've owned Cutter's Bike Shop for about 17 years now. The metal, aluminum, steel type tariffs really impacted our business. Our profit margin is shrinking significantly. I think tariffs are going to be great for us because it's going to make us rich. Are there any discussions about giving any relief to small businesses? They're not going to need it. Okay. They're going to make so much money. It's just so bad because to me it's just like, how dumb do you think we are? We're not getting extra money from the tariffs.

41:08We're actually losing money. Do you feel like the president could have maybe rolled it out in a more consistent way? I've heard it many times over from businesses right here in our local community that are dealing with tariffs. Whatever the number is, they're going to deal with it and they're going to adjust their business.

41:30Representative McKenzie feels that we should just adjust our business to make up for the rising costs. I would love to see McKenzie walk down the street of Bethlehem. What was your reasoning behind voting for the tariffs? Did you take into effect that this can hurt a lot of small businesses in your area? You can't just continue to absorb that. You just cannot. McKenzie, yeah, kind of left us, abandoned us a little bit, and I'm not sure why. powerful video. You can watch longer version of that at the fight for progress YouTube page. So after this live ends, you can search fight for progress, watch the full video.

42:07And will you do me a favor in the comment section, tell the folks over at fight for progress that Ben said hi. And you can even, if you wanted to tell him WTF America, and that'll be our code language as well. Well, you could tell him that Ben says hi at fight for progress. So I wanted to share that with you because when i watch you know this press conference for example that marco rubio just had marco rubio u.s secretary of state he's over at the asean conference southeast asian conference on the sidelines there where he held this press conference and to see the secretary of state whining about the Iranian Lego videos and saying they make stupid Lego videos.

42:55And it's like, y 'all are whining about Iran's Lego videos while killing little girls in Iranian elementary schools and engaging in all of these war crimes across the world. When there are people like those people in Pennsylvania seven, that I just showed you who are suffering. What do you, your, and as we talk about reconciliation 3.0 and all this money that the MAGAs want, which is part of their Ponzi scheme, you want to take our money away from giving services to people and helping people like that, like you, so that y 'all can buy missiles, tomahawks to just engage in more war crimes and kill people.

43:35That's where you're putting my taxpayer dollars for this catastrophic war and for other wars that are taking place around the world? What are we doing right here? Here's Marco Rubio whining about the Lego video. Here, play this clip. Because the price they're paying is very high, despite their tough talk and their flowery language and their stupid Lego videos they put out. I've never seen them, but they put these things out on social media. Despite all that bravado, they are suffering tremendously and they're going to suffer more until they come to their senses. They're not there yet, unfortunately.

44:07I can't tell you who told them.

44:08Ben Meiselas:I'm gonna make them suffer more. They're not there yet. This Lego video, let's play the clip.

44:38You want to blockade us? Okay, you get the point. That's what's irritating the U.S. Secretary of State right now?

44:48Ben Meiselas:That right there is what is on the mind of the United States Secretary of State right now? Okay, then Rubio says, but every day Iran's calling up. They're begging. They're begging me for deals. This is what you're going with? That they're begging you for deals? This is what Rubio said. Let's play. okay these people who are calling us every day begging let's do a deal they send us messages through other countries third countries i mean they're running out of countries to send even i had countries here coming up to me oh i just spoke to the iranians they want to do a deal the problem is every time these people do a deal they either break it or after they make it they want to change the deal so they're probably not ready to do a deal yet but they will be they will be we bomb them more we escalate more and then they'll be like donald marco we want to do a deal with you now.

45:39You before, no.

45:40Ben Meiselas:But now we want to definitely do a deal with you guys. I just, it is unfathomable to have literally the dumbest, most evil human beings up there saying the stupidest stuff. I mean, I'll show you. This is new footage earlier today by Jordan showing the moment an Iranian ballistic missile directly hit King Faisal Air Base again in Jordan, where numerous U.S. service members are stationed. This is, they're calling, they're saying, Marco Polo. Here, play this clip.

46:29Yeah. That's, that's, you know, meanwhile, you have these satellite images, for example, of Ali al-Salam air base in Kuwait. This is July 23rd, but looks like there are casualties, you know, in, in, in this area. This is one of the areas where, you know, so our troops are in these containerized, are in these containerized barracks. We don't have the image, but you've seen, I've shown them before. These containerized barracks, by containerized barracks, y 'all know what I mean, containerized? They're containers. Our troops live in containers. Okay. And I use language sometimes, but like, let me explain, you know, like the containers, like the truck cargo, right?

47:10Ben Meiselas:That's where our troops live. While we don't have the interceptors and the munitions to stop the Iranian strikes after we attack Iran, if they wanted to, could attack more of these containerized barracks. But our troops basically live in the back of trucks, those cargo containers. and all in one while you have ballistic missiles and Shahid drones raining down on them. And then our CENTCOM and Defense Department goes, minor concussions, minor concussion. I mean, it's like the most offensive stuff. Again, saying a Democrat or a Republican, minor concussions after a Shahid drone and ballistic missile hit the base.

47:53Ben Meiselas:There's no such thing as a minor. It's a traumatic brain injury that will impact these people for the rest of their lives. A traumatic brain. Stop calling it a minor concussion. And again, I don't care if you're a Republican, a MAGA, a MAGA MAGA, a Teenage Mutant Ninja MAGA. I don't care what the hell you are. Minor concussion from a Shah hidden ballistic missile drone. And you're cool with that? You're cool with the behavior of this regime? saying things. This is Marco Rubio at the press conference. This is his message to the Houthis. Please stop. Houthis. Houthis. Please. Please. You're being that nice, Houthis.

48:41Ben Meiselas:The Houthis were suckered into this. They were suckered into this by Iran. Houthis. Please. Please, Houthis, don't do this to the United States. You're being very mean to us. Here play this clip.

49:22for the whole world. But I hope that will deescalate because I think the Houthis, frankly, got snookered into this thing by the Iranians and they were smart to stay out of it and they should stay out of it and they should stop. We'll see what happens there. Obviously, it's not a positive development. We'll see what happens.

49:37Ben Meiselas:Yeah, the Houthis. The Houthis. I'm going to speak with my hands the way these people, the way the people on the Trump talk. That's how I'll be more thorn. The Houthis, they got snookied from the Jersey Shore into this. They were snookied from Jersey Shore. What was the Jersey Shore? What did they do? They tanned. They wore the shirts. What was the three things on the Jersey Shore? Snookied was on the Jersey Shore, right? They got snookied into it. I know you said snookered. But who says that? You said they got snookered. What does that even mean? What were the three things, Jeremy? My editor, you were a Jersey Shore fan, Jeremy.

50:14Ben Meiselas:I mean, what were the three things? You tan, you club. He says he never watched the Jersey Shore in the comments to me. Someone in the comments will know what the three things were, and I'll talk about that. No, it's not drink. It's like three things. You iron your shirts or something. You iron. Anyway, I'll find, I'll remember what those three, anyway, let's take a step back though and be serious here. It is beyond parody though that Marco Rubio, the secretary, Do you understand who the Houthis are, the history? Does he really think that? Does he just think everybody's so stupid? Does he think when he does the hand motions also that we all are just like, okay, Marco, I guess they got snookered into this.

50:56They got snookied from the Jersey Shore into this. That's what happened. Yeah, that's what happened to the Houthis. The Houthis are allied with Iran. They didn't get snookered into anything. the history. Iran traveled to Sanaa Airport July 13th. They delivered weapons and military equipment, and they've been doing that for a long time. The access of resistance is Iran, is Hezbollah, is the Houthis. Iran set up a mosaic, decentralized defense structure that if there were to be an attack on Iran, they'd be able to escalate in a way to destroy the global economy and to inflict maximum amount of pain if they had to do that.

51:40I mean, if you think about

51:42Ben Meiselas:in wildlife or some animals that are weaker than, let's say, like a shark, like a poisonous puffer fish versus a shark or something, ultimately, you're not going to be... I don't know if this is a good example, but you get the point that I'm trying to make. One may actually be a lot more powerful, but the other has developed a strategy that if something were to attack, it's mutually assured destruction and everybody dies. The shark and the puffer, everybody, right? Everybody feels a massive amount of pain. And so what Iran was able to do and what they mapped out also with its proxies in the region is the strategy they're implementing right now.

52:28Ben Meiselas:And by the way, it doesn't just stop at the Houthis. It's also in Somalia. They have the access right there as well of resistance, as they call it, which is also bordering through the eastern side of Somalia on the Red Sea. So from the west in Yemen, from the east in Somalia, you can shut down the Red Sea. And Somalia really hasn't been activated yet, but they could. You can shut down the Red of Iran as well, it can easily target these other areas. It's proximity to the UAE. It's proximity to Bahrain. It's proximity to Qatar. It's proximity to all of these countries. What Iran realized was its mistake before is that it would attack Israel right away, but Israel was well-funded by the United States and had the Iron Dome.

53:20And Iran's learning lesson was, why would you go after Israel?

53:26Ben Meiselas:They have a massive military they've got the Iron Dome. The bases in the Arab nations, if you look at how they were positioned, actually form the first layer of the Iron Dome to protect the actual Iron Dome in Israel. In other words, if you think about your chessboard, if you will, the very first line are actually the Arab nations and those U.S. bases over there were actually structured in a way to protect Israel. So what Iran realized and what its strategy is, is, okay, let's pick off these bases first. Let's not. We'll figure out what we're going to do with Israel later. But why bring them involved in this fight as of now?

54:09Ben Meiselas:Let's pick off these other air bases. So if you look at the strikes, Iran's getting rid of and hitting radar bases, early detection in all of these Arab nations that form the first line of the perimeter where Israel is. Secondarily, Iran has activated the Houthis and Bab el-Mandaab to shut down these Saudi tankers over there. One of the reasons that I suspected that Trump was giving our semiconductor technology classified to UAE and nuclear stuff to, we'll see what even happens to Saudi Arabia, was because our security umbrella failed there. So Trump now has to give him something for the quid pro quos that he was involved, you know, that he was involved with.

54:50Ben Meiselas:And so Iran is now implementing a strategy that anybody who knew what I just knew would tell you this was exactly what they were going to do. It's what I was saying before the war started. And let me say this to myself about me. I don't have access to the information that the top people in the government have. And if I knew that, then they should clearly know that. And I think from someone like a Marco Rubio or a whoever, if they articulated what I just said publicly, we would know what's happening. And you could at least, I think this war is catastrophic and unlawful. We should never be involved in it.

55:38I'll be very clear. This whole thing is a catastrophe.

55:42Ben Meiselas:you you should at least though explain publicly what what is happening and what the dynamic is rather than say that the huthies were on a jersey shore episode with snooki or something like that whatever rubio was saying snookered all right let's take our last quick break of the show make sure you get your copy of wtf america right now i'll see you also patreon.com slash midas touch after the brother show last quick break we still have some show to go i like that i like that Put WTF right now in the chat if you pre-ordered. We'll be right back after our last quick break. If you've ever actually looked at the ingredient list on your dog's food, it gets pretty wild after the first ingredient.

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58:57Strengthen your gut integrity and support healthy fat metabolism to empower your body with the blueprint to revitalize health from the inside out. We've worked out a special offer for my audience. Receive 30 % off your first subscription order. Go to armra.com slash Midas or enter Midas to get 30 % off your first subscription order. That's A-R-M-R-A dot com slash Midas. welcome back to ben on breaking news the three things they said in jersey shore were gym tan and laundry i looked it up during the break those were the three things and why if you're just joining am i saying that so you don't say i thought i was watching a show on breaking news because marco rubio said that the houthis were snookered into helping iran like they were just tricked, if you will.

59:55And then I said, is he saying that they were snooky from Jersey Shore because it's just as ridiculous and absurd as saying that the Houthis were somehow snookered. So that's how I got there. That makes you want to stay and watch this more. Look, in all seriousness, though, right now, things are rapidly escalating in this catastrophic and unlawful war. Based on the latest reporting, over 150 medical personnel have on an emergency basis been moved to Germany right now. 10 medevac flights are taking place in the region as well, where it does seem that numerous of the containerized barracks have been hit recently.

1:00:44I believe the Trump regime is covering up additional casualty numbers, at least injuries. I don't know about fatalities. I think I can confidently say that they're understating the injuries, I believe, by multiples of three to five times. And they're downplaying the injuries and saying things are minor concussions when there's no such thing as a minor concussion. It's a traumatic brain injury. Last week, right, I did numerous videos last week where the titles of my videos were where basically Trump is losing control as he hides casualties, as he hides air bases being destroyed. I did numerous videos like that.

1:01:23And I got a lot of comments basically saying, well, why are you saying these things? I'm not hearing it anywhere else. Are you telling us the truth? Why are you saying these things? Are you the only one saying these things? That didn't happen. No one else is saying these things. And look, do I get it right all of the time? I mean,

1:01:40Ben Meiselas:no one can get it right all of the time, but the United States has banned the satellite companies from showing the photos that used to be taken in the Middle East, this open source stuff. There's companies that do these photos for private entities. One of them is called Planet Labs, but they and others have been banned from showing photos of the Middle East. So a lot of the satellite footage that we get comes from open source intelligence from China. You can't ban, you know, just think about it. You know, as Trump's out there saying, you know, China's, you know, bans everything and all this information.

1:02:19Ben Meiselas:The China footage is there. So and it's been accurate to date. It hasn't been inaccurate. So we look at those. There's other open source intelligence satellite images from other countries as well that make its way out there from Russia and elsewhere. I don't like that I have to rely on that, but I do want to know, is it accurate? I'm like, is it showing me fake AI images of the bases being destroyed? Or are these images actually containerized barracks in Kuwait and Jordan and Al-Udeed and others being destroyed? Is the footage of Al-Udeed base, the one in Qatar, being totally abandoned at this point?

1:02:59Ben Meiselas:There's no US aircraft or other equipment in Al-Udeed in Qatar. Think about that. and we're saying we're strong, we abandoned the base. We've abandoned numerous bases in the region. You can see that from the satellite footage, and you can see where Iran has done direct hits. Now, sometimes the IRGC will say, we killed lots of soldiers in Syria, and that proves not to be true. And I'm trying to be very careful when, just because the IRGC or Tasneem News or MERS or FARS reports on something, I don't go, well, Tasneem must be, I understand very well that in the theater of war, you're going to get propaganda from Iran.

1:03:45Ben Meiselas:You're going to get propaganda from the United States. In the past, while I think we all knew we were getting propaganda from the United States government, I at least thought that when CENTCOM would post something, it wouldn't just border on the, not border on, be worse than the Baghdad Bob type of propaganda, right? I mean, when you see what CENTCOM posts these days, well, they'll say, truth, the Strait of Hormuz is opened. It is free for everybody. Ships are sailing through and things are amazing. Do y 'all remember, since I'm doing pop culture references. My wife had no clue what I was talking about here, but help me out on this one.

1:04:29Starship Troopers. Remember Starship Troopers? I think they live in Argentina at the time and they would go to war against the space aliens and all of that. And on Starship Troopers,

1:04:41Ben Meiselas:they would have their CENTCOM, right? And they would have their media. Another great day for the Starship Troopers. Here's the footage from over. And they would show the footage and then after the propaganda footage would roll and you would actually see what's... I think I'm going to watch that. I don't know with what time I'm going to watch it. But with my fake imaginary time, I'm going to watch Starship Troopers one of these days again. Like, what are you talking about, Ben? You're not like sleeping right now in general. But I do want to watch Starship Troopers. In my make-believe life, I'm going to watch it.

1:05:16Ben Meiselas:But then when you would actually see what was happening in the planet, like the aliens were like taking out all of the... and they were not winning the war. And all of the comets, remember those aliens would launch the comets into Earth and they always get hit. And I'm like, how'd that happen?

1:05:36Ben Meiselas:Between 1984 Starship Troopers and all of these things, it's absurd. It's absurd what CENTCOM is saying. I mean, that guy, Admiral Brad Cooper, the head of CENTCOM, I mean, is a clown. and lots of top military people tell me privately that they think this guy is a clown. He's be clowned himself. He wasn't before, but anytime that guy speaks and he says the stuff, you know, that he knows will please Trump and Hegseth. I mean, it's sad, but Admiral Brad Cooper, the head of CENCOM is a clown. He's a liar. And I hate to say that. I really do. Because I thought But CENCOM, that was untouchable. But no, the Trump regime tainted CENCOM.

1:06:25Ben Meiselas:And their social media account, frankly, is less accurate a lot of times than what I read on Tasneem. That's crazy. That's absurd that I see them posting these things. I see the images. And I see CENCOM saying the Strait of Hormuz is open. And I'm like, am I really looking at Tasneem? Am I looking at Tasnim and Mares and Fars and these statements? And they appear to be more accurate than what CENTCOM is saying to me. You know, CENTCOM will say no troops are killed in the region when they know the troops were killed in the region. Then you find out two days later there were troops killed and they were covering it up, which makes me want to go back even more.

1:07:10Ben Meiselas:you know, and I remember the war with the Houthis that lots of people don't talk about anymore in 2025 with the signal chat. Remember Hegseth and all these people were communicating on the, Mike Waltz, who used to be, you know, in the national security advisor. And then now he became, he got promoted to the ambassador of the United Nations after inviting in that Jeffrey Goldberg guy from the Atlantic onto the signal chat where they were like giving away the war plans. Remember they would say back then that Starship Troopers would come on. Another airplane mysteriously fell off the aircraft carrier into the water.

1:07:50Ben Meiselas:We're not sure how this happened, but Donald Trump has a plan. He's going to do a deal with the Houthis, who are very brave, very courageous people, according to Donald Trump. It has no relation to the fact that F-15s are falling off of aircraft carriers at all. America has won another war, right? This was May 2025, what Donald Trump said about the Houthis. Let's play it. Take a look. But we had really a very good, as you know, We had a very good outcome with the Houthis, and we honor their word. I mean, they made a commitment, and we dealt with other countries that were close to them and their surrogates.

1:08:41And we honor all of their words. We'll see what happens, but I think, you know, I believe that hopefully that's over with. And they'll leave the ships alone, you know, just leave those ships alone. But so we do. We take their word for it. it was, you know, we hit them very hard. They had a great capacity to withstand punishment. They took tremendous punishment. And, you know, you could say there's a lot of bravery there. It was amazing what they took. But we honor their commitment and their word. They gave us their word that they wouldn't be shooting ships anymore. And we honor that. I want to thank you We honor him.

1:09:23Ben Meiselas:We honor your word, Houthis. Just want to let you know. And why we so loudly and are often falsely accused of being hyperbolic is because these moments are existential. I'm going to scream from the rooftop, WTF is that. And to me, treating that as normal is actually hyperbolic in a self-defeating way, not accurately calling it out and saying WTF. You know what I mean? If you go back to everything he does, it looks like that. We could talk about the reflecting pool and vandals that he makes up. You can talk about COVID like a miracle. It's all going to go away. You can talk about the nuclear deal he claims he's making with Saudi Arabia and then says they need to join the Abraham Accords and they don't need to join the Abraham Accords and that the enrichment is not going to be allowed, even though that's the way civil use nuclear energy works.

1:10:40There's enrichment just at a certain level. You know, you, you, you, this is what he says about Russia's invasion of Ukraine and the war there. It's a good deal. Putin had a great, we had a

1:10:52Ben Meiselas:great conversation. It's very close to being resolved. Really, it's very close to being resolved. I see Kiev and Zyprosia and Donetsk and all of these areas. And Odessa, I see Russia striking very hard in Ukraine every day. I see Ukraine with its FP1, FP2, FP5 drones and ballistics hitting Russia very hard. I see the Wildberries facilities, which are their logistical centers getting blown up in Russia and Moscow region and other areas nearby. I see war everywhere right now. And, you know, it's all good. Everything's great. Never been better. Could you imagine what it would have been like under Joe Biden and Kamala?

1:11:42Kamala and Joe Biden. I brought in all these billions of dollars. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. It's like, dude, shut up. And clearly you look at his polling data, latest Pew Research poll, his approval's at 34%. he'll be in the 30s. He'll be in the low 30s soon. I talk about this in WTF America. There are 28 % to 30 % of Americans

1:12:12Ben Meiselas:that like this, that actually like this. And we're never going to get through to them. It just is. They like this. I can't I can try to give you explanations and you can say well is it racism, is it hating immigrants, is it feeling like they're going to be part of the club is it there is 70 % of the country who doesn't like this shit I go into this as a big part of WTF America that I talk about, because what Trump is able to do, though, is if you start with the 30%, politics is a game of addition, not subtraction. It's simple. Democrats often view politics as a game of subtraction, not addition, which is a problem.

1:13:16Ben Meiselas:And who can you get rid of? who can you get out of versus who can you bring in? It can be very simple. By the way, I hate politics. I go on these rants, so I'm evaluating it from a more pragmatic level, though, of my observation, because the day-to-day politics, I just, not for me. I care about people and principles and values and fighting for people where those align with politics. Great. But that's increasingly where I'm at. All politicians will let you down, but it's important that we find people who truly fight and who are aligned with values and principles. But what Trump does, if you start with 28 or 30%, then you go and you make promises to all these other groups.

1:14:00Ben Meiselas:And for Trump, he lies to all of them. The Maha Moms, I'm going to give you all of this, or the Jim Alpha, looks max whatever the hell you know the you know i i'm gonna give you this i'm gonna give you know this group this i'm gonna give that group that it's often all kind of contradictory and it's all lies and you know the crypto people i'm gonna give you all of this okay cryptos crashed never been worse glyphosate all these pesticides donald trump promote every one of these groups this cultural reference may make sense. It makes sense to me, at least. I hope it makes sense to you because I discuss it in the book too, is you know how the bad guy in the cartoons that you grew up with, or I grew up with, you know, would be like a soul sucker.

1:14:51Ben Meiselas:And the way they got their energy is by taking away the energy from the, you know, the other people. And so Trump will go kind of group by group, you know, he has his kind of 30%, 20 % base, then it goes to other people and just kind takes it takes it and you know now they promote glyphosate it's the preferred pesticide it's the measles outbreaks so it's like great great work maha great work you know the you get literally got the worst you know the worst person you know the crypto people trump made a lot of money on crypto look at the price of bitcoin look at the price of crypto you know look at all these nft they all crashed under trump trump just you know trump destroyed it um go one by one by one you But this is what he's done his whole life.

1:15:32Ben Meiselas:This is what he's done his whole life. He's bankrupted most things he's touched. I don't say that in a hyperbolic way. He has objectively. He's bankrupted this casino, that casino, this company, that company, this thing, and that thing. And you see why he has a demented pathology. He's a demented psychotic thing. That's why He bankrupts all of these things. What was happening, what was going to happen if he escalated the war in Iran is deeply obvious. I'm not trying to be like, oh, I figured it out. It's obvious. There's a lot of the stuff that I've said about what would happen in Bab al-Mandab, what would happen in the Strait of Hormuz, how the Houthis would respond, how Hezbollah would respond, how Iran would utilize its access of resistance groups, how it would activate all of the, how Iran would respond.

1:16:25Ben Meiselas:You could have studied Iran's response in 2024 in Tel Aviv. You could have studied Iran's Shahid drone production and how the Shahids were helping Russia invade Ukraine and that that was one of the big things that have kept Russia in their invasion was Iranian weapons. You can study the Iranian culture, or you can just stereotype Iranians and pretend they're cavemen and that all they do is scream Allah Akbar every day and they don't know what they're doing and they're begging for deals. That's just stupid. Don't be stupid. but respect what the civilization is able to accomplish, respect that they have some of the best engineering ever.

1:17:15Ben Meiselas:You have to have a deep understanding of what's happening. We should never go to war at all. Let me be very clear that this war is catastrophic. It's unlawful. It's horrible. But we have to be approaching this, everything, with a sense of the most basic of logic, and we're not. Trump doing tariffs against the world, painting the reflecting pool blue, doing this war. Your lesson after inflation rising because of tariffs is to do more tariffs. And you may go, what the hell? Doesn't he see that everybody, that this is the worst and the tariffs are bad? And it's not for Donald. He's getting richer every day, just like when his companies went bankrupt.

1:18:02Ben Meiselas:He didn't give a shit about the shareholders. He didn't give a shit about the credit or anything he cares about any of that. No, he would get rich. Then he'd move on to the next one and then the next one and then the next one and then the next one. That's what he would do. And that's what he's doing right now. And for Iran also, though, You think about the historic moment for them and the historical perspective that they have. And now they get someone as dumb and idiotic and as selfish and stupid as Trump for them, who keeps lying about them wanting to make deals. I mean, just think about civilization-wise the opportunity that they probably also go see in this moment that Trump, if he continues to escalate and escalate, which he seems intent on doing, this could go – look, Trump could have done the MOU.

1:19:06Ben Meiselas:and in our culture where people forget about this, that, and the other thing, if inflation leveled out, if things got somewhat back to normal, if he just stopped talking about Iran and the next distractions, sadly, perhaps the accountability levers may not have even been there. We would have been calling them out. Hopefully, independent media would have been able to make sure. I think people would remember. But even with the horrors that he did, if he did the MOU, things are getting back to normal. But he's incapable. He's not going to end until he loses every chip on the table. And sadly, though chips on the table now, it's America.

1:19:53Ben Meiselas:It's our history. It's who we are. It's our people. It's people in the world, actually. It's not just you know, unique to us. And this is one of these kind of generational, world-defining, polar-shifting moments where this guy every day is doing a catastrophic damage to the United States history. And it's not me being hyper-like, like, to our future. It is literally, it is that significant what's taking place right now. And that's how it needs to be reported. That's how maybe once upon a time when reporting was really the fourth estate, they would say it, but that's what's happening right now.

1:20:47Ben Meiselas:And so he'll escalate further and further. We'll run out of munitions. Iran will feel further emboldened. They're not being destroyed. They're not being obliterated. They don't want to make a deal. They have every incentive right now. There's no deal to be made with Trump. He's a liar about everything. Iran knows$100 a barrel,$120 a barrel,$150 a barrel. Market will continue to tank each and every day. That's what's going to happen. And then Iran can just keep this going. Trump sends and ground forces, that'll be catastrophic.

1:21:29Ben Meiselas:Iran has the cards right. And to me, it doesn't make me unpatriotic to say that. Frankly, I think if you're a true, although the term has been co-opted, patriot, patriot, but if you're actually patriotic and you care about the country and you care about what you hope this country could stand for, you would be saying the things that I think I'm saying. I think that's how you actually fight for this country is by calling out the truth and trying to course correct, trying to do something to get us back to, to get us the hell out of there. But Iran sees what's happening. Look, we covered a lot of material today.

1:22:12Ben Meiselas:I don't look, I'm going to cover a lot more with the brothers, a lot more clips, a lot more insight into what's happening. Do me a favor. If you pre-order WTF America right now, I didn't give away the whole book. That was just one of the chapters that was on my mind. But the whole point of the book also is that I don't hide things. I don't hide things that you only could find out if they're in the book. That's not the style of this. But this to me is something that will live on a framework for thinking generationally of getting out of this death loop of Trump and MAGA. And it's inspired by the Midas Mighty.

1:22:48Ben Meiselas:So pre-order it right now, wherever the pre-order thing is, there or there. I don't know. I'm not a weatherman. I don't know where to point. Put WTF if you're going to order it now. I want to give also a special shout out as well to all of the folks over, all my editors, all the people who are working hard at the Midas Touch Network right now every single day. Thank you. It's been a lot of sleepless nights here. I want to thank all of you, the Midas Mighty, for staying in this fight, trying to bring you all the accurate coverage day in, day out over here. I want to give a shout out to the folks that fight for progress.

1:23:30Ben Meiselas:Subscribe to their YouTube channel. Watch that full story about tariffs are killing us. And then put in the comments that I sent you. You can even say WTF America or Ben sent us, watch the full video. It's about nine minutes long and it's definitely worth your time to watch. We'll keep our coverage going throughout the day. Patreon.com slash Midas Touch as well. We'll talk about the book, behind the scenes info about the book. All right. I've been talking for a long time. What was I going to say? Jim Tan Laundry. Snooki from Jersey Shore, Jim Tan Laundry. starship troopers the bad guy from captain planet we covered a lot of it is it's some of this stuff is so it's so difficult that sometimes having these um references helps us i think digest it a little bit better and helps us communicate and convey things a little better thanks everybody i'll see you tonight i'll see you on patreon hopefully you've ordered the book thank you love you appreciate you see you next time have a good one everybody Want to stay plugged in?

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