Tuesday Afternoon Breaking News Updates with Ben - 4/21/26

23:15Ben Meiselas:Maybe you have to figure out solutions with them on a going forward basis. Is that an ideal? No, but this is the reality that we're in. So pick a path. That's all I'm trying to say. But that's what Iran is expecting to do. That's what Aragji was expecting when he made the overture. But Donald Trump threatened, we've interdicted two ships. Meanwhile, what's the point of the interdicting of those two ships? According to Deloitte's list, 28 ships of Iran tankers and cargo ships have been able to bypass the blockade. It's not an effective blockade. And so we've interdicted two ships, CENTCOM now, which I can't even, how embarrassing is what CENTCOM posts.

23:59And the head of CENTCOM, that guy, he's like destroyed the credibility of CENTCOM. CENTCOM looks like a MAGA entity right now, which I don't know what's going on behind the scenes at CENTCOM, but what they're posting publicly is freaking embarrassing right now. And they'll brag, oh, we did two ships, you know, and Iran's mocking it.

24:22Ben Meiselas:Okay. So the proud U.S. Navy has become pirates. Like you're bragging that the U.S. Navy was able to interdict two Iranian ships that have cargo. Like you think that's an accomplishment? The United States, fricking Navy is bragging that on essentially international waters, you were able to board an Iranian linked ship in the Indian ocean. Um, and then, and then interdict a ship outside the Persian Gulf. Like you think that's a brag, right? That would be like LeBron James bragging that he scored a layup in a middle school game. Oh, look what I did. Look what I did. I scored two points. Yeah, you're LeBron James.

25:12Of course, you're going to score in the middle school game. What are we talking about here? Of course, you're going to,

25:18Ben Meiselas:and that's what Iran's like. Iran's like, do you realize that you're bragging that basically you know, you're Jack Sparrow, like you're a, you're pirates. Now you're like Somali pirates. Great, great work. You has real strong use of your Navy. And meanwhile, there's a fleet of, of Iran's shadow tankers that it's working with Russia and China. That's getting this oil out and getting the cargo out separately. And then the Trump regime so idiotic that they released the, They released sanctions on Iran. So Iran was able to sell most of its, it was able to transact to allow it to survive many, many months based on the prior sanctions lift that Donald Trump did.

26:04Ben Meiselas:Also, Donald Trump, of course, extends the sanctions relief, not just on Iran, but also on Russia. And they extended the sanctions relief on Russia till May, even though they said they were never going to do that. And that brings me to this point right here, Donald Trump's post, a very long-winded wave. But I want you to understand, though, the strategy and what's actually going on here. And I think how we have to think this stuff through. And I just don't think that gets enough attention. Everyone's, ooh, split screen, this side, yelling, yelling, yelling. He's so strong. He's so weak. He's so strong.

26:39He's so weak. Now shut up.

26:41Ben Meiselas:let's talk about the reality of this, of a negotiation. Like I teach negotiation at one of the top law schools in the country. And I, you know, I don't consider myself to be, you know, a nuclear expert level negotiator, but I do consider myself with my background as a law professor at a top university who teaches negotiation based on an experience of being in very high profile negotiations in my legal career before starting Midas Touch Network. I've been involved in high profile negotiations. Admittedly, nothing on the scale of this, but some of the most basic principles clearly would apply. And when I watch what's happening, I'm like, it is sickening.

27:27It is quite sickening to even observe what's happening right now. All right, let me read you the comment statement of Donald Trump.

28:00Ben Meiselas:extend the ceasefire until such time as their proposal is submitted and discussions are concluded one way or the other. Donald J. Trump. Now, this reeks of desperation and weakness. And what is the purpose of this other than for Donald Trump to taco? Although sometimes, yes, we have the taco memes. I see everybody using those taco emojis. Do you all see the taco emojis. And yes, I mean, yes, he tacos. Trump always chickens out. But it's a deeper issue, though, because the message sent internationally is utter weakness, utter weakness. China sees this utter weakness. Russia sees this utter weakness.

28:44NATO sees this utter weakness. Europe, Mexico, Central America, South America, Africa, they look at this and they go, oh, my God, how weak are you? And then what does this achieve? What are we doing here other than now we're in the two-week loop, right? The health care plan, two weeks, two weeks, two weeks, two weeks, two weeks, two weeks, it's coming, two weeks, it's coming, two weeks. We did it. We did it. We did the health care plan.

29:09Ben Meiselas:Do you hear about Trump Rx? We did it. Most favored nations. We did the most favored nations. Your drugs right now are as cheap as they're sold anywhere in the world. We're like, no, it isn't. You didn't do that. You can't just say the word most favored nations that you didn't do that plan. I would like to see the health care companies give all the money to the people and let's let the people spend the money. Okay, great. Do it then. Let's see how that works. Give every American$2 ,000. Oh, by the way, where's your Doge dividend check? Where's the tariff rebate checks? But yes, okay. Give everybody$2 ,000 to purchase their health care.

29:44Ben Meiselas:Brilliant strategy, Donald. It's not like people's health care costs more than$2 ,000. Yeah. You know what? When people show up, It's like when Donald Trump had that door dash grandma, you know, when you actually looked at what max amount she would have saved on her taxes if she claimed she was making$21 ,000 a year, which means she probably only paid a few hundred dollars in federal taxes. So no tax on tips didn't help at all. But it's like, OK, you think even if I accept that two thousand dollars was handed, you know, was given to you based on the deduction from no tax on tips, you think we're stupid enough to believe that two thousand dollars helped your husband with stage three cancer and probably paid for the first 15 minutes of one visit.

30:26Ben Meiselas:So stop treating us like we're stupid. But the point I'm making is we're now in the two-week loop, right, which never ends. Two weeks, two weeks, two weeks, two weeks, two weeks, two weeks. We'll see you later in two weeks. And then two weeks he extends. Iran didn't ask for this extension. Just think about it. Iran did not ask for this extension. They had a unified voice. They're not fractured in their leadership. And so now what Iran does, by the way, let's just say Trump wanted to chicken out, right? He's chicken shit. We all know that, right? So let's say he wants to chicken out. You know how he should have chickened out?

31:05I'm speaking to this. This is what he should have said if he wanted to make the right overture, but he doesn't because he's an idiot. And this whole regime is a bunch of idiots. They're the dumbest freaking people ever.

31:16Ben Meiselas:What he could have just said is we're making progress in the discussions. There's a lot to talk about, and we really need to get into the technical details. And so we're consulting with technical experts. We don't want to cause any unnecessary escalation while we have technical talks and explore whether a deal can be made. All options remain on the table. Thank you for your attention to this matter. That's how I would have had, even if you wanted to chicken out. OK, again, I obviously would never give. I'm not asking to be a part of this regime. I'm accepting the reality that we're in right now.

31:55And if we want to get out of the loop, if you're Marco Rubio, if you're J.D. Vance, you should be giving the advice that I'm giving right now because there's actually still a way out of this thing to get out of this two week never ending loop. You would make a statement like I'm saying that would send a signal to Iran. OK, maybe we should meet in a few weeks. Wow. They're going into technical details. They didn't he didn't trash us.

32:20Ben Meiselas:But he but Donald Trump then trashes Iran in this statement. And he goes based on the fact that the government Iran is seriously fractured. OK, so you've now by saying that statement, you've defamed Iran. They're not seriously fractured. And you've shown a cultural immaturity. There's always been a division and factions, but factions versus fractures are different. And you saying that there's a fracture emboldens them to not want to meet with you because you're misrepresenting the dynamic that exists right there. And you're only going to force them to create a unified voice that doesn't want to meet with you.

33:01Ben Meiselas:So he goes, because they're seriously fractured, not unexpectedly so. And then he goes on to say, we've been asked to hold our attack on the country of Iran until such time as their leaders and representatives could come up with a unified proposal. Iran's response behind closed doors, and obviously to Field Marshal Munir is, what the hell are they saying? We have a framework. We've given our unified proposal. We've started giving our unified proposal in early March. It's the 10-point framework. We've said it very clearly. When we got into this ceasefire process two weeks ago, Donald Trump reposted Foreign Minister Aragji saying that there is a 10-point framework.

33:47Ben Meiselas:Trump said, I agree to the 10-point framework. It is a unified proposal that Iran has stated and Iran has said. Iran controls the strait for moves. They get to charge tolls, $2 million per cargo ship. Iran gets to enrich uranium for civilian purposes and potentially in the future can enrich uranium for other purposes. But they will not give up their uranium. There are security guarantees for Iran, Hezbollah, the Houthis, and the Iranian Shiite groups in Iraq, that Iran gets reparations and all the sanctions get removed. Some of those are drawn out a little bit, and that's how you get 10 points.

34:29Ben Meiselas:But they have a unified proposal, a unified voice, and they've made very clear what it is. And they said they're not going to show up to Pakistan unless Donald Trump agrees to the unified proposal. And Trump's response now is to blame Iran for being, quote, seriously fractured, which they're not, and to say that we're going to wait until they come up with a unified proposal, which they did. It's the 10-point framework. And then Trump says, I've therefore directed our military to continue the blockade and in all other respects remain steady and able and will therefore extend, first up, in all respects remain ready and able.

35:07What does it even mean, remain ready and able? You're just like using superfluous verbiage to make yourself sound smart. You're just exposing what an idiot you are, ready and able, okay? And then by saying we're keeping the blockade, you're now violating a ceasefire because blockades violate ceasefires inherently.

35:25Ben Meiselas:And the ceasefire, when Iran entered it, didn't agree to open the Strait of Hormuz. Iran's ceasefire proposal was they still control the Strait of Hormuz. That's the ceasefire proposal that you agree to. So when Iran sees this, they go, got it. This is all part of a plan. This is how Iran sees it. Either, and both are probably true, Trump's just a total idiot. He contradicts himself. He doesn't grasp the basics of diplomacy. He's scared and pathetic, and he just wants to delay, delay, and hope somebody bails him out. That's scenario one. And we've heard President Pazeshkin of Iran talk about that, and Aragji and Galiboff all say that.

36:04Or two, that the U.S. right now is using psychological media manipulation as a way to stall and to launch an attack on Iran and an invasion of Iran, which I think when you know Donald Trump's psychological profile, he's scared to do ground invasions. And I think it's Trump doing the blockade makes him feel tough, like he's doing something. And look, I'm boarding the ship. It's like how weak and pathetic is he and also a war criminal you're using our navy and centcom to attack like uh fishing boats off the coast of venezuela like that arouses you that you're killing freaking fishermen off the coast of like he needs to do something because he's a scared pathetic terrified little little person so he's killing and that gets him off you know he's killing right?

36:56Epstein class shit. Like it gets him off doing this gross stuff. But now the blockade makes him feel tough. Like I'm using my military and my machines, but he's too scared for ground invasion because he knows in his own mind, wow, that's going to be my own Vietnam or something worse. Or that's going to, you know, I'm going to be in a lot of trouble if I do that. But Iran's like, are they planning an invasion? Like, what are they doing? You know, and that strategic

37:22Ben Meiselas:uncertainty. Donald Trump tries to brag about and go, that's my plan. But it's like, no, you're an idiot. And from Iran's perspective, they're building up quickly and they're preparing for war. And you better believe that Russia through the Caspian Sea is giving Iran a lot of weapons. You want to take a look at where Ukraine is targeting? Ukraine knows the amount of weapons that Russia is giving Iran right now, massive amounts. You want to talk about China likely giving Iran a lot of weapons right now. That's what's going on behind the scenes also. And Iran has used this time period to build up its Shahi drones, to build up its FPV drones, to build up its unmanned vessels.

38:08And when Iran, because even though Donald Trump wants to stereotype Iran as like a bunch of people in caves screaming Allah Akbar, when that's actually what Pete Hegseth and Donald Trump are behaving like.

38:20Ben Meiselas:Iran is a sophisticated society. They have some of the best engineers in the world. And they're out there right now, $20 ,000 Shahid drones and assembly line. The amount of Shahid drones they've created during the ceasefire and ballistic missiles that they've built back up. I bet you right now they have close to 100 % or more of the weapons that they did before the war even started and before Trump and Netanyahu invaded. So a big comprehensive review, but I want to explain to you, we'll talk a little bit about in the next segment, Lori Chavez de Reamer being fired. We'll talk about what's going on on Capitol Hill, but we need sophisticated analysis.

39:06We need grown-up analysis

39:08Ben Meiselas:us about what the hell is really happening here, right? Like, I'm tired of media narrative. Oh, Donald Trump called me up and Donald Trump said, no, let's have real intellectual discussions. You're smart. You understand these things. We can communicate with each other as smart people. That's what the media needs to be doing right now and not whatever the shit is where they wake up. Donald Trump told me, no, stop with that crap. What's really happening? Let's weigh this out And let's behave like freaking adults again. Let's behave like grownups. Let's be smart. Let's make being smart, cool again.

39:44Okay. And being intelligent and carrying ourselves with, um, with dignity. Like, can we do that again, please? And none of this crap. It's, it's, it's ridiculous. It's ridiculous how gutter Trump has turned our country into, you know, and normalizing all this just weirdo behavior. And I'm not even going to go, could you imagine if Biden could you imagine if you can't even imagine any of it? Trump's behavior is the way that a second. No offense to second graders, but a petulant second grader who just watched Rambo for the first time would believe that you conduct foreign policy. And that's how Donald Trump behaves.

40:26I don't know if that makes sense. In any event, that's where we're at right now. When we come back, I want to focus on domestic issues.

40:32Ben Meiselas:I want to talk about some hearings that took place today. I want to talk about Lori Chavez, Doreem, being fired. Use those taco emojis. Become a member of our YouTube channel. Subscribe to the Midas Touch YouTube channel now. Become a member of the Midas Touch YouTube channel now. Will you do me a favor as well? Will you tell 10 people in your life about the Midas Touch Network right now who may not know about it? Email or text them when the show ends. That's all I want you to do more than anything. Let people know word of mouth. Show them this first segment and say, just watch this. Just watch the first 35 minutes of the show and you'll be able to see real analysis that's missing.

41:09Will you help me do that? We'll be right back after our first quick break. When it comes to dog food, it always feels like you have to make a trade-off. You can go fresh and healthy or you could go easy and convenient, but usually you can't have both. That's why I want to tell you about Sundays. Sundays was founded by a veterinarian and mom, Dr. Tori Waxman, who got tired of seeing so-called premium dog food packed with fillers and synthetic ingredients. So she created something better. Air-dried, real food made in a human-grade kitchen with the same care that you would use for your own meals.

41:38Every bite is made from real meat, fruits, and vegetables, no kibble and weird ingredients you can't pronounce, and no fillers. And truly, that's what I want for my dog. I try to eat well, I try to take care of myself, and I want to feed my dog the same kind of quality. Since switching, I've noticed more energy, a better mood, and just overall healthier vibes. And that's what you want for your pup. Plus, it's incredibly easy. You just scoop and serve. No freezer, no thawing, no prep, no mess. Make the switch to Sundays. Go right now to SundaysForDogs.com slash Midas50 and get 50 % off your first order.

42:14Or you can use code Midas50 at checkout. That's M-E-I-D-A-S 5-0. That's 50 % off your first order at Sundays for dogs.com slash Midas 50. Sundays for dogs.com slash Midas 50, M-E-I-D-A-S 5-0 or use code Midas 50 at checkout. ED is way more common than most guys think. Millions of guys deal with it at some point. And that's exactly why HIMSS offers a straightforward way to handle it. HIMSS connects you with licensed healthcare providers online, giving you simple access to legitimate ED treatment options from home. No awkward appointments, no pharmacy lines. Just complete a simple online intake and a provider will review your information to determine if treatment is right for you.

42:57If prescribed, your treatment ships directly to your door in discreet packaging. That includes Cidinifil, also known as generic Viagra, available through HIMSS at up to 95 % less than the brand name version. And if that option isn't right for you, there are additional treatment options available so you can find what works best for your body. It's straightforward, transparent, and designed to make getting care feel easy. To get simple online access to personalized, affordable care for ED, hair loss, weight loss, and more, visit hymns.com slash Midas. That's hymns.com slash Midas for your free online visit.

43:35hymns.com slash Midas. Prescription required. See website for details and important safety information. Sidenafil is a generic version of Viagra. Viagra is a registered trademark of Viatris Specialty LLC. HIMSS is not affiliated with or endorsed by Viatris.

43:50Ben Meiselas:Thank you for that, Jordy. Thank you to all of our sponsors. The discount codes are in the description below. Those sponsors help keep these shows going and you could get it. Jordy negotiates these great discounts for you. And we pick sponsors that we think you'll use. And so it's a win-win. So check out the discount codes in the description below. During the break, I was following what Iran is saying now that Donald Trump requested this extension of the ceasefire, or Trump says, based on what Pakistan says, we hereby extend the ceasefire. Iran's like, yeah, we didn't request that. Iran never requested an extension.

44:32Ben Meiselas:They don't want an extension. They're not sure why Donald Trump gave an extension other than he's weak, is basically what Iran's Tasneem media is saying. We don't want it. They also said the following, if the U.S. wants to maintain the shadow of war, it should consider the Strait of Hormuz completely closed. Continuing the naval blockade means continuing hostilities. Iran will not open the Strait of Hormuz as long as a naval blockade continues, and we will break the blockade by force if necessary. I never thought, as an American, I never thought in this country that we would have a situation where Iran just continues to dominate.

45:22Ben Meiselas:There's no other way around it. You can have state regime media go, Donald Trump, four-dimensional chess. He's doing 18-dimensional chess. Did you see how he did that? He's a loser because when he behaves like a loser, then Iran mocks him, and then we can show that Iran is fractured by the way they mocked him. Brilliant move, Donald, you did it again. Stop it. Stop it. The guy was never a good negotiator his whole life. He doesn't even know how to negotiate. He has daddy's money and he would just use what we see now, that relentless fire hose of fraud and lies. That's his skill. Whether you want to call it a skill or not, it overwhelms people that he's so relentless and doesn't stop the lies.

46:15And that not a word, syllable, sound, utterance has any bearing on reality.

46:24Ben Meiselas:His whole shtick, create a false world, make you bend into his false world. He captures you in that false world. You become compromised because now you've drifted into a reality that doesn't even exist. It's like a zombie movie, right? You get bit by the zombie. Now you're a zombie. It's hard to get out of being a zombie once you're a zombie because you've now agreed to zombie world shit. You know, excuse my language. I'm just angry today. That's why I'm cursing a lot. You know, you've just agreed to like, you live in this bizarre world. You know, it's like, what are you doing? You know, we could talk about Lori Chavez-Daremer and Jeremy, you can cue this clip of her Senate confirmation hearing where like Lori Chavez-Daremer, who was the labor secretary, who was the labor secretary.

47:11Ben Meiselas:She was fired by Donald Trump and they claimed that she resigned. She was a Republican congresswoman from Oregon. And one of her things were that she supported the proact. She supported unions. So it's like, ah, you got a Republican, but she's a pro-union Republican. That's a good data point. You know, she would pretend to support workers in Oregon. And then she became, you know, She was secretly MAGA all along. But then Donald Trump was like, you want to be the labor secretary, but you got to be against the PRO Act. You got to be against the key piece of legislation that protects unions. Right.

47:49Ben Meiselas:And then she had her confirmation hearing. And I'll show you what went down when Rand Paul, MAGA Republican from Kentucky, asked her about her prior support of the PRO Act. Here's what she said. Let's play. Do you still support the PRO Act or don't you support the PRO Act? Thank you, Senator Paul. And I appreciated our meeting as well. I thought it was quite...

48:14What you shared with me is how important it is to you and your state. And I heard that from many members. The right to work is a fundamental tenet of labor laws, where states have a right to choose if they want to be a right to work state, and that should be protected. Pro Act will overturn that. Yes. Thank you, Senator. I signed on to the PRO Act because I was representing Oregon's 5th District. But I also signed on to the PRO Act because I wanted to be at that table and have those conversations. But I fully, fairly, and support states who want to protect their right to work. I have said that to every senator that I have visited.

48:49So you no longer support the aspect of the PRO Act that would have overturned state right to work laws? Yeah. There were so many parts. That's a yes? Yes. Yes, sir.

49:01No more questions. Thank you, Senator.

49:04Ben Meiselas:With that, I go to Senator Murray. And you saw that look. He's like, I own you now. That's what I wanted you to say. You said it. Trump runs you. And this is whether it's her, whether it's RFK Jr., whether it's whoever. Okay. How do you get out of that? you could only go deeper and deeper and deeper down the lane of degeneracy, right? And that's what you see, you know, with these Trumpers, you know, and, you know, whether this was her nature to begin with, or whether she had this feeling of invincibility or whatever, you know, she used her position as labor secretary to go to Vegas, according to reports, go do Vegas trips and vacations and strip clubs and booze fueled whatever events and relationships with with underlings uh and her husband was alleged to be involved in sexual misconduct in the labor department building and you know and her underlings were abusive apparently to their underlings and it was just like what the, you guys are the labor department.

50:25What, what, what, what the hell, what is this? Like, what, how are you, you function, what are you functioning like? You know, and again, we see this with, you know, the Christie gnomes and the jets and this and the

50:36Ben Meiselas:that and the bondies, but let's be very clear. Trump's male cabinet members just as bad, if not worse, but it is telling that the three cabinet members that Donald Trump fires first are all women, right? That shouldn't shock you knowing Donald Trump, and replaces them all with men. The acting AG, now the Homeland Security Secretary, the acting Department of Labor Secretary, all men replace the women on the cabinet, while RFK Jr. is cutting off raccoon penises, apparently, and running around, you know, putting dead bears in Central Park and removing experts from vaccine boards and endorsing glyphosate in your food product and engaging in all of that.

51:30Raccoon penis boy doesn't get fired for his sicko behavior and more sicko than the raccoon penis stuff is what he's done with our vaccine boards. But like, what the hell is wrong with this guy. You have Howard Lutnick. I've never been around Epstein. Well, the emails show that you were with Epstein Island with the kids. Yeah, I brought my kids all, but you said you weren't on the island. So you brought your children? Yeah. They were my kids and my friends' kids. Okay. Do you think that's bad that you did that? No. Okay. Okay, Donald, you know, your guy, Lutnik, who was Epstein's neighbor who claimed he never hung out, he brings his little children to the island.

52:19Yeah, he brought his children. Okay, we're good with that? Yeah, definitely nothing wrong with that. Okay, I mean, you've got Scott Besant. I'm never going to extend the sanctions removal from Russia. We're never going to extend the withholding of those sanctions. That's it. You just did it. Well, yeah, we need to do it. Why? It's not even a big deal. Whatever. That's just what we do. Okay. You know, this Pete Hegseth, you know, quoting Pulp Fiction verses as Bible verses. we're gonna rain down hell we loiter over you and we shoot down death and destruction that's what we do the biggest lethality lethality do we have um do we have his big announcement today jeremy hegsett's big announcement like with everything going on as part of our lethality mission pete hegsett says this is what we're going to do everybody because our war fighters are discriminated against because they're told get a flu vaccine.

53:31That's discrimination. That's woke. That is woke. Now, under the Trump administration, you don't need flu vaccines at all.

53:41Ben Meiselas:Yeah. Score one for Trump. Boom. Here, play this clip. Under President Trump, the War Department continues to take decisive action to once again restore freedom and strength to our joint force. We're seizing this moment to discard any absurd, overreaching mandates that only weaken our warfighting capabilities. In this case, this includes the universal flu vaccine and the mandate behind it. The notion that a flu vaccine must be mandatory for every service member everywhere in every circumstance at all times is just overly broad and not rational. What do you mean it's overly broad and non-rational?

54:22Ben Meiselas:For your war fighters, I don't know, maybe you want to read a little bit of history there. Maybe you want to look it up. Maybe you want to look at a little thing called, I don't know, like the Spanish flu, for example, in 1918, 1919. Killed a large number of soldiers around World War I. In some cases, killing more military lives than direct combat for certain nations. like ours. You know, want to look at that? Approximately 45 ,000 American soldiers died from influenza and related pneumonia by the end of 1918. And that number is slightly below or comparable to 53 ,402 U.S. combat deaths in World War I.

55:14Ben Meiselas:Overall disease deaths, mostly flu among U.S. troops reached about 63 ,000 exceeding battle deaths. And so, you know, there may be a reason why with soldiers, like with our population, you may want a flu vaccine because let's just say they're on a ship. Because it's not like the USS Gerald Ford has been out on the high seas for like 300 days. Not like that's happening or the USS Tripoli or the Abraham Lincoln or the George H.W. Bush strike group. It's not like we have people in confined areas. And if it's not like the flu is contagious or anything, right? It's not. No, no, it isn't. And it's not like if you have an outbreak that that could be very harmful, right?

56:05No. The freedom, the freedom to be sick. I mean, You know, he was stupid people. He's a real dumb, to the core, stupid people. I mean, a Fox Weekend host is talking about freedom from the flu vaccine when you're a

56:24Ben Meiselas:soldier. Read a little bit of history on the flu during World War I and in general during other wars. You can go back and read your history of the Civil War, of the Revolutionary War, of lots of wars or of, ah, the books are too woke. I know woke books. But if you looked at some of these woke books and you understood history, you would understand that if they had a vaccine in the middle ages, it wouldn't be woke to take the vaccine to stop the bubonic plague during the so-called dark ages. It wouldn't, it wouldn't be a woke move or the flu during world war one, or, you know, or any of these diseases, you'd be like, oh my gosh, we've developed as a country, as a world with science that we can stop these diseases.

57:18And then imagine telling people in the past, we found a cure to like this stuff, but the military believes that we should encourage people as part of their freedom to die of the sickness. And they would be like, come on, that's, I don't believe that. I go, yeah, that's good. That's good. That's going to be the future.

57:41Ben Meiselas:It's going to be the future for you. I mean, and then when corporate news reports this, it's just like, here's what this side says. Here's what that, no, no, no. Stop with the both sides. Stop framing this as a freedom issue. Okay. Just, you want to be in the military, you should probably be taking vaccines so that you don't get sick and spread your diseases to other people. So you can be combat ready. How about that? It's not a crazy concept I'm coming up with right here. What are we talking about? That was your announcement today. And these people are just dumb. They're idiots. They're dangerous.

58:19This is the most, this is the worst group of humans. Imagine on a bipartisan, it's not a, this isn't like, Like, oh, because they're Republican. No, there's bad human beings. Every level. Like, anyone ever play like a PlayStation video game of like Madden? And it's like, you know, like you create your own player and it's like agility, 100, speed, 100, strength, 100, right? Like these people, like Hex, it's like zero, zero, zero, zero, zero. They're like zero. They're like zero human beings. And then they pretend to be, you know, this. And then they go out on the field and it's like, dude, you're a zero human being.

58:57and you're competing with high functioning people and you think you're smarter than them because you can bullshit other zero human beings that you're trying to trick. And you're trying to like create this cult and your cult likes you, but outside of your stupid

59:14Ben Meiselas:cult, people get what you're doing. And fortunately, people are recognizing the dangers of this cult and where the cult is bringing them to right now and the horrors it is. So I'll just share with you before I go. Also, this testimony of Kevin Warsh. You know, this Kevin Warsh guy who Donald Trump has picked to be the next chairman of the Federal Reserve. Well, he's there for his confirmation hearing. He's in front of one of the United States Senate committees right now that would oversee this. And he was asked by Senator Elizabeth Warren, pretty basic question. about his assets, about his funds, about his Epstein connections.

59:57Watch how he answers it. Here, play this clip.

1:00:03Could you answer, Mike? He has been plagued by deeply disturbing ethics scandals in recent years involving at least six Fed officials. So it's critical that the next chair have no financial conflicts, none. You have more than$100 million in investments that you have refused to disclose to ethics officials and to the public. So let me ask, do the Juggernaut Fund or the THSDFS LLC invest in any companies affiliated with President Trump or his family, companies that have facilitated money Laundering, Chinese-controlled companies, or financing vehicles established by Jeffrey Epstein. Senator Warren, thank you.

1:00:52So let me first share a point of agreement with you. The Fed has two tools. One is its monetary policy, and the second is its credibility. And the scandals that you talked about, the ethics problems you talked about, went to the core of -

1:01:08Ben Meiselas:Next clip. Let's play it. Would you answer my question, please? I ask. You have$100 million in undisclosed assets. And what I'm asking is, are any of those with this outfit that invests in companies affiliated with President Tromper's family, companies that have facilitated money laundering, Chinese-controlled companies, or financing vehicles set up by Jeffrey Epstein? It's a yes or no question. Senator, I've worked tirelessly with the ethics officials at the Office of Government Ethics. Yes, and you have not revealed$100 million in assets. I'm doing an ethics agreement with them and have agreed, Senator, to sell all of my financial assets, including the Duquesne assets.

1:01:53Are you refusing to tell us if you have investments, for example, in vehicles set up to advance Jeffrey Epstein? Is that what you're telling us? You just won't tell us? Senator, what I'm telling you is that those assets that you represent as juggernaut will be sold if I'm confirmed before I take office and sign the oath of office. Let me follow up on that. Will you at least disclose how you plan to disclose and divest these secret assets? I'm sure you understand that the public might question your motives if, for example, billionaire Stanley Druckenmiller, who you honored in your opening statement.

1:02:34And who makes a living guessing what the Fed will do next cuts you a massive check for$100 million as you take the oath of office to become the new Federal Reserve chair? Senator, as you know, it sounds like your fight might not be with me, but the Office of Government Ethics, I have come to full agreement with them and have agreed to divest all of those assets. I'm asking you a very straightforward question, Mr. Walsh. And that is, it seems to me like you're a real complaint.

1:03:08Ben Meiselas:I'm going to use my hands like this and I'm going to put my chin up arrogantly. Seems like you're concerned. No, our concern is that you seem to have been in investment funds with Jeffrey Epstein, apparently, or a fund that has Epstein assets in it. And that you rather than say, nope, that's not true. It's a way to answer the question. That's not true. I didn't do that. You know, he's also in the Epstein files. This guy is like going to, you want to address that? Do you want to talk about that and just say, hey, that's not true. That didn't happen. I'm not in a fund that has like Epstein assets involved or, you know, why don't you come out and talk about what, you know, what, what it is, you know, that would be, you know, or to the extent you did do that.

1:03:56And you want to explain why, you know, maybe you say, look, these funds, J.P. Morgan, Deutsche Bank, lots of people. I'm not suggesting that this is the right answer. Lots of people took money and they're not disqualified. And they've reached settlements. And so the way the trust was set up, I don't know necessarily, I mean, whether this is true or not, I don't know that my funds were part of a fund where Epstein funds were also in. And had I known that I would never have been okay with that. Or, you know, you know, lots of people's funds are in that are in this big fund. And so, you know, I can't monitor who the other limited partners.

1:04:44I don't know. I'm not trying to make it just be clear. I'm not trying to make excuses for it. But the question is trying to get out a fact, which is, are you going to make disclosures about whether these things happened. Why did they happen? Could we have at least a discussion about, oh, you know, the government ethics has told us that I'm divesting. And so, yeah, but did you do the, and all that matters is that the government ethics has told me, I mean, this is a guy who was

1:05:17Ben Meiselas:out there praising mortgage-backed securities in 2007 before the Great Recession. It's just like also when you look at that guy, what's that guy? The National Economic Advisor of Donald Trump. Kevin, what's the guy's name? I don't know why I'm drawing a blank on the guy's name right now. Cassett. He was the guy who was like, right before the dot-com crash, he was like, we're going to the moon. He wrote like a whole book about putting all your money in these dot com companies before the crash. It's like all of these humans were not they did not advance on merit or in other areas because they're bad people.

1:05:59And here they are under this Trump regime, finding a community in a cabinet of the of like the worst of like the worst people, You know, and I don't, to be very clear, I don't know one way or another what this fund is, why, you know, why he invested in this, what it is. But I want to get answers to those questions. Don't you want to know why? And that answer is just MAGA talk, MAGA bullshit. And I just think, I just think even former MAGA people are just, are just over it. But I think when you have someone like Alex Jones saying this, I just think MAGA is over it here. Let me show you what Alex Jones just said.

1:06:46Just play any of the clips. It's fine. And we're supposed to sit here and love this crap. It's just poll numbers go straight down. All the polls show the Republicans are going to lose the midterms in seven months by a landslide, a disaster, a total and complete disaster. Trump is not that stupid. he's made some deal with the deep state to throw the election to Democrats. That's the only thing this can be. Ridiculous.

1:07:09Ben Meiselas:Do we have the other one of him too? Let's play the other one. I think there's a second one. No, we don't need to play the other one. I think play Tucker quickly. Yeah, play Tucker quickly. You and I and everyone else who supported him, you wrote speeches for him. I campaigned for him. I mean, we're implicated in this for sure. Yes. it's not enough to say, well, I changed my mind or like, oh, this is bad. I'm out. It's like in very small ways, but in real ways, you and me and millions of people like us are the reason this is happening right now. Yes. So I do think it's like a moment to wrestle with our own consciences.

1:07:51Uh, you know, we'll be tormented by it for a long time. I will be. and I want to say I'm sorry for misleading people. It was not intentional. That's all I'll say. But anyway. Well, we'll leave on that note, everybody. Thanks for watching. Become a member if you can of the YouTube channel.

1:08:09Ben Meiselas:Check out our sub stack as well, the Midas Touch sub stack. Word of mouth works. Tell people about this show. Also, you're all going to be sent to the Katie Fang Show. The Katie Fang Show starts now as well. So you don't have to do anything, but the Katie Fang Show is already running. You will be slingshot into Katie Fang right now. So if you don't, you can search Katie Fang, but you will now be directed to the Katie Fang Show. Thanks, everybody, for watching and support our sponsors. Thank you so much. We appreciate you. Shout out Midas Mighty. Want to stay plugged in? Become a subscriber to our sub stack at MidasPlus.com.

1:08:50You'll get daily recaps from Ron Filipkowski, add free episodes of our podcast, and more exclusive content. only available at MidasPlus.com.