Trump has Catastrophic AM and Freezes Up at Worst Time

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1:53Ben Meiselas:And then he writes, Iran can't get their act together. They don't know how to sign a non-nuclear deal. They better get smart soon! Donald, are you going to try to win this war based on memes? Are you going to win this war based on social media posts? I'm sure it's making Iran very, very scared. Here's what Iran is warning this morning. Iran has warned of unprecedented military action against continued U.S. seizures of Iran-linked vessels, state-run Press TV says, citing senior Iranian security sources. As I reported earlier this morning, Donald Trump's plan, as he has told his aides, is let's just prepare for an extended blockade indefinitely.

2:42Ben Meiselas:Let's just extend it however long until, you know, something happens. Donald Trump doesn't want to escalate with ground forces, nor does Donald Trump have the capability or willingness to negotiate with Iran and actually make concessions. And so Donald Trump's plan, extend the naval blockade forever. Gas prices continue to rise in the United States. Something catastrophic happens. And then Donald Trump will blame whoever, as he always does. Now, I think it's important to also note that on Sunday, Donald Trump went on state regime media, which calls itself Fox. And Trump said, by Wednesday morning, the oil pipelines in Iran and the oil storage was going to get so congested and so full that there was going to be a overpressurization and that was going to lead to an explosion and Iran would be destroyed this morning.

3:39Ben Meiselas:That didn't happen. We know that Donald Trump lies about everything. We know that was a ridiculous lie. I just find it interesting that he can say something like that on Sunday and say it on, you know, a widely viewed cable news program and then it doesn't happen. Yeah, that's Donald Trump, he just lies about things. It's just Donald Trump being Donald Trump. When you actually dig into analysis about Iran's oil production, take a look at this. This analysis by Robin Energy suggests that the US blockade of Iran's oil exports will not cause catastrophic or even very serious damage to its upstream oil industry.

4:19Ben Meiselas:If and when the blockade is relaxed, Iran will probably be able to resume production promptly at about 70 % and regain most of its pre-war capacity within a few months. Other Iranian commentary that's out there, as Sina Tosi explains, points to several ways to mitigate storage pressure from this US blockade without even shutting the wells in the first place. You could use these VLCCs, these very large container ships, and you can use some existing large tankers to kind of put excess storage. You can scale down production. You could rely more on fixed roof storage. You can increase refinery runs to convert crude into other products and keep some of the exports moving, albeit constrained by the naval blockade.

5:11Ben Meiselas:But we've been seeing Iran able to get around that naval blockade. One of the things that we're learning as well is that over the past 24 hours, Donald Trump's been coordinating this plan that I just mentioned with oil executives. Oil and gas executives are now basically Donald Trump's cabinet. I mean, we knew that before when it came to the invasion of Venezuela. It was Donald Trump and oil and gas executives mapping it out together before Donald Trump ever went to Donald Trump never went to Congress before even informed Congress. As Julian Manchester says, this is what the White House is telling people.

5:49Ben Meiselas:This is not some like super secret meeting like they are saying this is what we're doing. She writes,

6:24Ben Meiselas:what Donald Trump is discussing with the Chevron CEO, Mike Wirth, and other major oil and gas CEOs. We all know that consumers are not alleviated right now. In fact, gas prices continue to rise. The price per barrel of oil now is hitting$110 yet again, and the American people are suffering. But it's good to know, and I'm being sarcastic here, that Donald Trump is planning all of this out with oil and gas executives. And while all of this is taking place, you have Pete Hegseth testifying right now on Capitol Hill before the House Armed Services Committee. I'm going to do a whole other longer take on the testimony by Hegseth in a little bit.

7:09Ben Meiselas:So stay tuned for my longer take on Pete Hegseth's disastrous testimony. But you know the thing about this Trump regime, they're quite literally wrong about everything. And every answer is some attempt to blame former President Biden as well. And I'm sure you saw the video I did earlier today on Biden's final revenge. So you have the ranking member of the committee, Democratic Congress member Adam Smith. He asks, how are you and Trump so wrong about Ukraine? You all said 14 months ago when you testified here that Ukraine was never going to make it, that Russia had all of the cards, Ukraine had no cards, and Ukraine had to cut the best deal it possibly could, or else it was going to be completely obliterated.

7:53Ben Meiselas:You were wrong about that. You seem to be wrong about everything. What say you, Hegseth? Here, play this clip. So on Ukraine, a year plus ago, your advice, the president's advice, was Ukraine had no cards to play. They should go cut the best possible deal they could. Clearly, that was wrong. What did you miss? What did you miss about the conflict between Russia and Ukraine that you didn't see that Ukraine was going to be capable of doing what they've done in the last 14 months? What we didn't miss, and we're here in this committee, is that Joe Biden, with no accountability, gave hundreds of billions of dollars of our weapons to Ukraine to an outcome that never would have happened if President Trump was president.

8:32So he pulled out our, you guys don't talk about that. Ultimately, President Trump believes there should be a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine. But you didn't expect Ukraine to be where they're at right now. I'm asking you just from a strategic standpoint. I think the Ukrainians have shown great courage and I appreciate that Europe is now paying for the weapons that we provide. All right. I yield back. Thank you.

8:53Ben Meiselas:All right. Now I want to revive. And then you can see over here, Hegsif tries to pull that line he always does on state regime media, which calls itself Fox when being cross-examined by Democratic Congress member Adam Smith. And he's like, I want to be clear. We obliterated Iran's nuclear capabilities last June. So Adam Smith, Democratic Congress member Smith, is like, whoa, whoa, whoa. OK. So if it was obliterated, then why did you say it posed an imminent threat? And then Higgs, that's all like all over the place. And he's like the fast talking liar type. Right. Fast talking liars. He's like, well, they had ambitions.

9:33Ben Meiselas:They had ambitions like North Korea, like North Korea. You want to bring up North Korea as example? Yeah. Donald Trump exchanged love letters with the guy and then allowed the guy to get nuclear weapons. Great example, Hegseth. Here, play this clip. Who's hellbent on getting a nuclear weapon and get them to a point where they're at the table giving it up in a way that they never have it. So they haven't broken yet. Okay. We haven't gotten there yet for all of the. Well, their nuclear facilities have been obliterated underground. They're buried and watching them 24 seven. So we know where any nuclear material We're claiming my time for just a quick second here.

10:09We had to start this war, you just said, 60 days ago, because the nuclear weapon was an imminent threat. Now you're saying that it was completely obliterated? They had not given up their nuclear ambitions, and they had a conventional shield of thousands of... So Operation Midnight Hammer accomplished nothing of substance. It left us at exactly the same place we were before. So much so that we had to start a war. Their facilities were bombed and obliterated. their ambitions continued, and they're building a conventional shield. All right, let me try again. It's the North Korea strategy. You know this very well.

10:43The North Korea strategy was use conventional missiles to prevent anybody from challenging them so they could slow walk their way to a weapon. President Trump saw Iran at its weakest moment, took an action to ensure in a way that only the United States of America could do with our Israeli partners to ensure their conventional shield was brought to deal. One other question, if I could get to it. So on this Mother's Day, I've been thinking about the little things that actually define who our moms are. And for me, it's the way my mom is always checking in, making sure I'm okay, quick texts here and there.

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12:20Ben Meiselas:Also, Hegseth was protested when he was showing up. Let's just show you a brief clip of the protest when Hegseth was arriving to that hearing today in the House of Representatives. Let's play this clip.

12:42Ben Meiselas:More bad news for the Trump regime on Capitol Hill as well. Democrats forced Pam Bondi to testify before the House Oversight Committee. As you know, she was required to testify last month via a bipartisan subpoena. She just refused to show up. And she said, well, I'm not the attorney general anymore, so I don't need to show up and testify to anything. Well, Democrats issued contempt charges earlier today against Pam Bondi. Democrats wrote the following, Pam Bondi has illegally defied our committee, skipped her deposition, and refused to cooperate. Today, we have filed contempt charges. And then Democratic Congress member Garcia issued a statement regarding the contempt charges.

13:26Ben Meiselas:And then Republicans responded, boom, within 15, 20 minutes. The Republicans on the House Oversight Committee then write, this is all theater and completely unnecessary. They were happy giving the Clintons a free pass for months. We have secured Bondi's appearance for May 29th. Today, we're marking up legislation to tackle fraud at the federal level, and all Democrats can talk about is Epstein. In other words, Republicans are like, stop talking about Epstein, and they bring up the Clintons. The Clintons, the Bidens. Pam Bondi is literally the person involved in the cover-up, okay? Not the Clintons.

14:08Ben Meiselas:Hillary Clinton's not even in any email and nobody even met the guy. Okay. Pam Bondi is the person. If you don't see the distinction there and you just think you're going to go Clintons, Biden, Obama, it's why people hate politics. We just want you to stop covering up a damn child sex trafficking ring, please. We just want you to be normal and not post photos of yourself with AR-15 style rifles and say, No more Mr. Nice Guy like it's some horrific Rambo movie, but we're all non-consensual extras in this dystopian reality TV show. We just want to be able to afford our rent and buy groceries and live normal lives with our families and live in peace without you Trump MAGA maniacs treading on all of us.

14:56Ben Meiselas:That's it. It's just that it's just that simple right there. Forty five minutes after the contempt charges, Pam Bondi gives a date. I want to give a shout out also to Governor Gavin Newsom mocking Donald Trump mercilessly and perfectly. You know that Donald Trump, in addition to putting his face all over the National Park passes, well, Donald Trump wants to do that on the newly issued passports. Trump's face on passports coming soon. That's what the State Department is pushing. So California Governor Gavin Newsom posted this, that all new California driver's license will have Newsom's face on it.

15:32Ben Meiselas:In honor of California's 175th anniversary, we'll be rolling out a very special driver's license for every Californian this summer. It will feature a handsome, high-quality photo of me, Gavin C. Newsom. Many people are saying it's the best license ever made in the history of the United States. So with the American people absolutely livid at this Trump regime, what does the Trump regime need to do? Cheat. They need to work with their fascist right-wing Supreme Court sycophants. That's six to three right-wing Supreme Court majority. I'll do a longer video on this as well, where I'll break down the ruling for all of you.

16:08Ben Meiselas:But the Supreme Court issued a very bad ruling today in the case, Louisiana versus Callas. And in a six to three decision, the Supreme Court struck down Louisiana's congressional map that added a second majority black district, ruling it unconstitutional as a racial gerrymander. The opinion written by right-wing fascist Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito narrows how the Voting Rights Act is interpreted moving forward. It basically guts all of Section 2 in the Voting Rights Act, which prohibits discrimination in doing gerrymandering. And what the Supreme Court essentially says in its ruling is that we've moved past racism, that racism really isn't a thing anymore.

16:54Ben Meiselas:So by having even a consideration of black populations, for example, in a district, in order to avoid racism, you are actually being racist by ensuring that black votes are not diluted by saying we need to create a majority black congressional district. What the Supreme Court saying that's a racist thing by protecting black people who suffered from segregation and who suffered from slavery in the past and who suffer racism right now, that even making those considerations is racist. And so what states should be able to do is just call their racist gerrymandering political gerrymandering. And if you counter it and say, no, no, no, you're being racist by just calling it political gerrymandering, but you're diluting all of the black vote.

17:48Ben Meiselas:The Supreme Court says, no, no, no, you're the racist for saying that they should not be able to politically gerrymander to dilute black voting. That's basically the ruling in a nutshell. So what this is going to encourage all states to do is draw the most racist maps imaginable and just say political, political, and they're going to cite this case. So we'll keep you posted every step of the way. I'll do a longer take on it to really break it down. Of course, Legal AF will do some good takes on it as well to let you know the implications. But this is what the Trump regime does. They're losers.

18:20Ben Meiselas:And when they're backed into a corner, they rush to their right-wing Supreme Court justices for help. They have a very dark, fascist, disgusting vision for this country that you see right now. We could either live in a loving, empathetic, supportive place, or you can live in this MAGA hellhole. It's really, you know, to me, it's really a basic, it's really a basic thing where I don't want to wake up in the morning to see the president of the United States posting weird AI memes of himself with AR-15 style rifles and AI images of a country being blown up after war crimes were committed in said country against little elementary school girls, okay?

19:01Ben Meiselas:I don't want to see that. I don't want to wake up to that in the morning in my country and these United States of America. company. You tell me how you think. Hit subscribe. Let's get to 7 million subscribers. Thanks, everybody, for watching. Want to stay plugged in? Become a subscriber to our sub stack at MidasPlus.com. You'll get daily recaps from Ron Filipkowski, ad-free episodes of our podcast, and more exclusive content only available at MidasPlus.com.

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