Tuesday Afternoon Breaking Updates with Ben 7/21/2026

27:28I dedicate it to you. I've spent a lot of time writing it. It is something I'm very

27:34Ben Meiselas:passionate about to get everything me and my brothers have ever thought in a book like this. So I'm going to promote it. If you can, pre-order it now. The pre-orders help more than waiting until October. All right, let's take a quick break. We'll be right back. Look, if you're in this community, you're paying attention. You know what's happening. And a lot of what's happening. It's directly affecting your Medicare. Plans are being discontinued. Premiums are going up. And the broker you might have talked to probably pushing Medicare Advantage plans, even if they aren't right for you. That's why I want you to know about Chapter.

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32:29Ben Meiselas:Welcome back. Thank you to our sponsors. They make the show possible. They support the show. Take a look at the discount codes for the sponsors in the description below. I know Jordi works very hard with them to get these discount codes. All right, let's talk about what has happened in the past hour or so as well. You've got Donald Trump posting and then reposting the following. Afghanistan war, 20 years, 2 ,000 dead. Iraq War, nine years, 4 ,600 dead. Vietnam War, 19 years and five months, 58 ,000 dead. Korean War, three years and one month, 36 ,000 dead. Venezuela War, one day, zero dead. Iran military conflict, four months, 18 dead.

33:18Ben Meiselas:It's very strange and disgusting. four months into or five months into a catastrophic war that you started to be posting 18 dead as a number that you brag about? It'd be like saying two months into COVID or one month into the announcement of COVID. 12 cases, 25 cases, 50 cases. You're doing a brag that 18 dead and four months, we're in the middle of the war. Every one of the soldiers who have died is incredibly tragic. And you post it as though 18, that's a win? It's really vile and really disgusting. And you take a look at Afghanistan war, 20 years, 2 ,000 dead, Iraq war, nine years, 4 ,600 dead.

34:32Ben Meiselas:Iran is bigger than those countries. That is by population. the outcome of what you're doing in the region also can result in mass casualties even more than even more than this you are falling deeper and deeper into this escalation trap you're out there saying to yourself or saying, we are going to bomb the hell out of them, and that's going to make them do a good deal with us. The one thing that I think Iran, as I noted, is actually trying to avoid, and I think they're being strategic about this, if they wanted to kill a lot more American troops, they could do it right now. They have the capabilities to do it.

35:34Ben Meiselas:I think what Iran recognizes though, and this is part of their strategy, is that if there were to be a mass casualty event, 300 US troops killed rather than, and by the way, we don't even know the true numbers. I'll just say that right now. But I think what Iran recognizes, if there was 300, 500, 1 ,000 troops killed in a very short period of time, what may become the outcome is that America people may, even if you despise Donald Trump and this regime, would that then make people rally around an escalation of the war in Iran? and would that backfire on? I think Iran has to weigh that. That's part of what it's doing.

36:23Ben Meiselas:That's why right now its view is you invade us, you knock down our nuclear facilities, you hit more civilian infrastructure. That's when we'll escalate, but we're not going to escalate because I think Trump, especially when he has the USS Abraham Lincoln in the US, the supercarries and George H.W. Bush right there in the strait, Trump is looking for a Gulf of Tonkin type incident in Vietnam. And in Gulf of Tonkin, there was an initial strike, but then the second one was manufactured. And then that was the pretext for Lyndon Johnson to go and get authorization from Congress, basically, to then escalate the invasion.

37:10Ben Meiselas:And the Vietnam War really escalated after the Gulf of Tonkin, history repeating itself. So Trump has our tankers as sitting ducks. Iran could strike those aircraft carriers, those superpowers easily if it wants to, but Iran's like, we don't want to do that yet. And for Iran, I think it also recognizes strategically, time is on its side. U.S. strategic petroleum reserves, tank bottom, depleted, right? You layer on top of that, surgically shutting down Bab el-Mandab to Saudi tankers. You then strike certain refinery capacities in the area. I mean, Iraq has certain refinery capacities shut down.

38:05Ben Meiselas:Same thing in Kuwait. Same thing in Bahrain. And Iran, it's okay. CENTCOM is going to strike us from this hour to this hour. Donald Trump's going to do his deranged shtick. We'll strike back here and here. Each day will surgically degrade more. We'll do it again. We'll do it again. We'll do it again. And the Iranian civilization and the current situation in Iran is built on resistance, revolution. It's called the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, revolution, resistance, never giving in. That's why there were people in Iran who were critical of ever even agreeing to a deal in the first place because the Iranian Revolutionary Guard is in revolutionary mode and that is a resistance to the West mode.

39:09It also certainly has its consequences and harm. I'm not trying to act like Iran's the wealthiest, most thriving place imaginable. The sanctions hurt.

39:23Ben Meiselas:not being able to do deals with the West and other areas hurts. When your main trading partners are limited to some BRICS nations, China and Russia, Russia's got its own issues that it's struggling with, understatement. That is an easy situation for when you have to look inward always for production and that ain't easy. So there are tensions in Iran about how do they maintain the revolutionary resistance posture? Do you try to adapt? There is, and there was, of course, in Iran, a festering, growing call, especially among young people for a new path that was not Ayatollah-based, but the Ayatollah IRGC have a firm grasp of Iran.

40:22It's not a weak grasp. And there were protests in January. Trump said, I'm going to come to your aid. So Trump said, I'm going to save you. I'm going to come to your aid. Because there were people who

40:35Ben Meiselas:who want there to be more reforms than what the current system looks like. It's also false to portray this civilization as like, these are unsophisticated cavemen and cavewomen who don't know. This is a very sophisticated society. The way it's done right now and the control by the Islamic Republic is strong. You saw that with respect to the Ayatollah's funeral. There are millions and millions of people who viewed the Ayatollah and view the current as their spiritual leader, not just in Iran, but Iraq and Pakistan, Yemen, and the nearby nations where there are Shiite populations. I mean, look at Pakistan, what?

41:25One third of Pakistan's Shiite. their spiritual leader, their Pope is the Ayatollah. Trump killed their Pope. And even when it comes to the protest, and undoubtedly Iran did kill protesters who were protesting for reforms and protesting for different leadership control. And there's no doubt that Iran killed people. But when Donald Trump does his 40 ,000, 52 ,000, just starts making up wild numbers, you don't even know what really happened there. Because Trump very quickly goes up to from 40 ,000 to 52 ,000. And then you start to say, are you just making up numbers? What's the real number actually.

42:16I know there were people killed, but is the number closer to 3 ,000 and 4 ,000 and you've just made up 42, 45, 50 ,000? Why do you just put, and now wait a minute, I'm trusting the guy who tells me that the reflecting pool was destroyed by vandals,$19.2 trillion was brought in. And oh, that's where this 52 ,000 number is coming from. And then you pull back and you go, what? The president of the United States is posting AI images of the people, of the ladies. He's saying you're posting AI images that say stop killing us of Iranian women with AI tears. If anything, this seems to be a message directed at Donald Trump saying stop killing the girls, stop killing the women, stop killing the children in Manab.

43:07That's what the stop killing us seems to be. If you want to see what the Iranian streets look like right now, if you want to see what the billboards are right there, Iran's been putting up billboards of Ivanka. And this is the one right here. Hey, terrorists, get ready to die. You see billboards like this all over Iran right now.

43:28Ben Meiselas:There are ones of Ivanka and Barron and the Trump family, billboards like this. There are a bunch of billboards that are going up everywhere with messages. This is the one, Ivanka, Melania, and Barron that says, hey, terrorists, get ready to die. And take a look at the streets. I mean, if you look at what Iran looks like, if you look at Bandar Abbas, where the US keeps on attacking, Bandar Abbas looks beautiful. Blue water, coastal city, the day-to-day in Bandar Abbas. it's not what the it's not what the propaganda actually shows what Bandar and Basel looks like you look in Tehran and you would based on what we're told here you would think Tehran looks like what certain areas in Saudi Arabia look like with the with the Sunni women who wear the full hijab and who and and who are you know and and you know you would think and and the women aren't driving and all of that.

44:31You go look at Iran and you saw the World Cup and you saw what's going on there on a day-to-day and what's going on in the malls and what's happening there. And I'm not suggesting that it's this Western short dresses. It's certainly not that. There's certainly headscarves that are being worn, but you take a look at it. We just need to understand what's going on in the world. And we need to stop with this propaganda out there that demonizes for the sake of what Trump really wants to do here, which is just take people's oil and conquer. And we're loitering above you. We're going to destroy you from above.

45:18And I want to talk more about what others aren't talking about in Venezuela because what Trump said to me raises a lot more red flags today. And I've been saying this. And again, I'm not going down the rabbit hole of making the link and saying, ah, it's because of the US drilling and the fracking and all of the kind of sudden shock by the US going into the dirt and deep in the dirt. I don't know. I don't have the data. So when I don't know, I say I don't know. I'll tell you what I do know. We do know that fracking and other certain types of drilling are known to cause certain seismic geological events.

46:06We do know that a foreshock aftershock that took place in Venezuela is incredibly rare, right? Normally you have the earthquake, Then you have aftershocks thereafter. And then it kind of wanes. Okay. But here we had the foreshock 7.1, the aftershock, boom, right after each other. And that pattern is statistically not something that often happens. And no one's even asking the question. And what I found fascinating was in Donald Trump's press conference when he had the president of Lebanon, by his side today is I want you to watch what he said. First, he says, we took over Venezuela. We took their oil.

46:55We conquered them. We took their oil. Let me play you this one first. Let's play it. I think people are very impressed. I mean, we took over Venezuela. We now have a great relationship with Venezuela. We went to war with Venezuela and the war ended in one day. And we have now an incredible relationship with Venezuela. We're taking out millions of barrels of oil. They're making more money now than they ever made before, ever.

47:21Ben Meiselas:Who's the they? Have you spoken to Venezuelan people? Have you asked the people in Venezuela, hey, you happy right now under Delcy? How is it going right now with thousands dead and tens of thousands. Y 'all are happy there in Venezuela right now? Now we know that Delcy gave medals to the Trump search and rescue teams that were there. It seemed like there was more time being spent on awarding themselves stuffs and medals and press conference than doing immediate urgent search and rescue. I'm sure there were search and rescue people who were there with good intentions and deserve to be applauded, but do we need to give them medals right away during, I mean, like right after a horrific event?

48:10Ben Meiselas:I mean, within days, you start giving them medals? Medals? While there are bodies that are there, they're getting medals? I don't think that's the time. But notice what Trump says here when he says, and he talks about it, Venezuela is a happy place. They had a tragic event that took place a couple of days ago, a couple of weeks ago, doesn't even know what had happened. They had a movement, a shifting of earth that was unbelievable. I guess you would call it an earthquake. I guess you would call it an earthquake? What do you call it? A shifting of the earth? Here, play this clip. The President is very closely with the administration and we get along very well.

49:02Venezuela is a very happy place. They had a tragic incident with the, you know, with the event that took place a couple of days ago, a couple of weeks ago. What a terrible thing that was. They had a, they had a movement, a shifting of earth that was unbelievable. Nobody's ever, they've never seen anything like it. A lot of people were killed. So it's all unrelated. But by the way, we were the first ones there to help. We were there to help Venezuela. It was an earthquake, I guess you'd call it. It was a pretty massive earthquake. And we were able to do a lot of good. But they lost a lot of people.

49:38Venezuela, the people are so happy that we're there. The jobs, everything's happening. And we're taking out many, many times the money that we spent on the war. This one...

49:52Ben Meiselas:It was unrelated, he said, unrelated to the drilling. Who would even bring that up unless that's a thought? I mean, again, why would you even bring up that the earthquakes are unrelated to the drilling and fracking if there wasn't a discussion even going on about that, about what happened? It was unrelated, of course. That to me, and you may disagree, seems like a guilty conscience. Well, there's no guilt when it comes to him. It seems like a Freudian slip or Freudian conscience, I should say. That guy doesn't feel guilty about anything. He just lets it spew sometimes. I think, and I know it's, you know, I don't know if it's not the right thing to criticize people getting medals right afterwards.

50:52Ben Meiselas:You know, is it too soon for me to be critical of it? I just don't know. I personally don't believe you start awarding yourself things while there are bodies in the ground that were not rescued, but that's me. and I think there are not questions being asked about what's going on there. Where's this money going? It's not going to the people. Was there any causal relation here? You know, at the Midas Touch Network, when I say I don't know things, I say I don't know. I don't know. I don't have the answer. I don't know. Okay? I may be very wrong. I just think that my spidey sense, the sense that I used in founding this network, in thinking critically about issues before, whether it was the Epstein files or other things early on.

51:45Ben Meiselas:My spidey sense is saying, look more into that. Look more into that, by the way. WTF America is the book. Pre-order it right now. Really helps if you pre-order. Can you do me a favor too, put in the comments WTF if you've pre-ordered it. But don't lie. Really only put WTF if you've actually pre-ordered, if you really pre-ordered. Or if you will pre-order it today, do WTF in the comments. All right, let's take our last quick break of the show.

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55:24Ben Meiselas:Welcome back. Great ad reads, Jordy. Thank you to our sponsors who make this show possible. What I try to do in WTF America, I'm not holding information back on the show. You know how lots of books, they hold the information and it's like, well, here's what I've been waiting to share. I've never held anything back. But what it is, WTF America, and why I want the title to punch WTF is I really want it to be this kind of enduring snapshot of where we are right now. I want it to convey a philosophy that we talk about here. When I say we, I include you in that. I mean, it's the Midas Mighty philosophy.

56:15Ben Meiselas:and notice that on a lot of the episodes that I do, I rarely am getting in the weeds of the gamification of politics. It doesn't mean I don't care about the day-to-day happenings in a primary race or a specific election. But to me, the project that we're all engaged in here is not simply one election or two elections or being reactive to that type of mindset. To me, it is more fundamental, and it is how do we generationally get out of a death loop that has saddled us with death and with these dire conditions that people are feeling. Because those feelings can either bring us in a direction of fascism and strong men, I alone can fix it, and scapegoating and easy solutions or blaming people for complex situations, bullying, corrosiveness, further destruction.

57:45Ben Meiselas:the situation can allow the very people who have caused the situation to be the wolves in sheep clothing saying that they're the ones who are going to help. Or we can get out of this together, not just in a single election cycle, but I think as we saw after Trump won, it was very easy with oligarch-run media, with disinformation, with lots of right-wing money, trillions of dollars being put into this, to blame the firefighters for the damage that the arsonists did. So what I often talk about here is values and principles. It never shocks me when a politician lets us down. I come to expect it. I don't put my chips, my proverbial chips with a politician.

58:48Ben Meiselas:That doesn't mean I don't think certain politicians are inspiring or do a good job or have good ideas on certain things. But if you focus so much on the personality, the persona, you will wind up in many ways how we got here. Instead, what I argue and what you know I always argue is that we need to very clearly articulate our values and our principles as these threshold matters. We need to take a step back and ask more basic questions about what is the point of government. And governance is the goal to create dystopian reality shows that make us all non-consensual extras that are inflicted with new traumas every day and that we feel like we're living in a constant escape room.

59:54Ben Meiselas:Is that the goal of government? I hope not for any political part. I hope that's not what government is. What I believe it should be is something that makes lives better, that provides services, that protects basic human rights and equality, and that does not intrude and intervene in our personal lives, in our bedrooms, in our private decision-making, and that they stay out. You know, I find it interesting when Donald Trump, again, just like in the Venezuela clip that I showed you, it's unrelated, it's unrelated. You know, we're doing a lot of drilling, but it's totally unrelated. When you study the patterns, when you study how he speaks, the types of things that he says, there's often a lot of confession and projection, right?

1:00:58Ben Meiselas:So when he says, I would be the greatest communist ever, like Lenin, he says, like Lenin, that's what he calls Lenin, because he says, I would promise you all of these things. This is free. That's free. And then I would never have to deliver those things. And you think about the Trump regime and what they do. I think that his behavior more closely resembles the typical communist leadership, in my opinion, than any other example out there. What's more Stalin? What's more Lenin than the way Donald Trump behaves? He takes over control of the methods and means of productions of companies. He hoists up a VIP class who gets subsidized and get benefits.

1:01:55Ben Meiselas:and it's basically a welfare system for billionaires who are part of his clique while everybody else suffers, he promises, I will make your life so much better. Electricity prices will be down 50 % on day one. Groceries will go down on day one. Inflation will go down immediately. Gas prices will be lower immediately, less than$2 a gallon. I will be able to fix it all. I've brought in Doge dividend checks. I mean, just think about it. The idea of a Doge dividend check, which again is a lie, the government is going to seize apparatus, create its own Politburo, and then hand out money and dole out to people that it views as more worthy of it.

1:03:01Ben Meiselas:but I will give you$5 ,000 each. Doge dividend checks. That never happened. There will be this gold in Fort Knox that we will give you. We'll give you gold from Fort Knox and people will get very rich. Tariff rebate checks. We will give you these tariff rebate checks. You're going to get so much money. You're going to make so much money. I mean, heck, even something that I think could be a good thing. Sometimes people ask, Ben, is there anything you think that could be good? I like the idea of no tax on tips. I like, however, however, you need to get tips. Hospitality is down. So the people who that's supposed to help more than anyone are out of jobs.

1:03:51And then when you actually look at the no tax on tips, it's qualified by all of these things.

1:03:57Ben Meiselas:that when the deduction is actually implemented, it doesn't anyway come close to offsetting the wealth shift from the people to the very rich people. It is a fugazi. It is the smoke and mirrors to actually pickpocket from those people to give it to the preferred class. Now, what the Trump regime, and again, this is why I set out the philosophy in WTF America, because we need to understand, we need to think this way, in my view, more than just, oh, you know what, this person in this primary and this person said this about this person. And so that person responded to this person and this person responded and I don't like that person and this person and this person and that person.

1:04:53I want to step back and say, what are we looking for in politicians? What are we looking for our government to achieve? Be very wary of labels.

1:05:05Ben Meiselas:Be very wary of slogans. You'll often find they're empty. You'll often find that they are tools for manipulation and fraud. Trump recognizes that. That's why his view of the American dream is something to dangle and never deliver on. But to me, I want to see the actions. I want to see what the person is actually doing here. What are you doing? How are you helping? Are you truly helping? Did we really bring in$19.1 trillion? Of course we didn't. How could we be$3.5 trillion more in debt this year and it's only July Why if we brought in$19.1 trillion? If the overall economy is$32 trillion, you're saying that only$11 million is consumption?

1:06:00That doesn't make any sense. So then you said, oh, wait a minute. This is all one big fraud. This whole number is made up. Everything is a fraud. Everything is a fake. We have to step out of that. And we have to align the interests of the people and make our voices heard more profoundly, louder,

1:06:27Ben Meiselas:and not chase any specific politician. Anyway, that's what I think is really important, you know, in this moment. Because when you're rooted in values and principles and, you know, it's frankly why I don't like, you know, to, you know, I don't like these, you know, silly debates where another person is living in an alternate reality and they've got their talking points. well what about buying it it's like dude just shut up what what what what are you truly happy with the never-ending war in iran you really think that they're obliterated right now you think that that's what's going on you're you're you're happy about the way this is being handled you're happy with the way this is being handled you you you you you can call out the genocide that's taking place in Gaza.

1:07:25Everything to you has to be rooted in some political slogan that

1:07:30Ben Meiselas:you can't just recognize as a human being, that there are so many innocent people being killed and mothers and children and fathers and not just killed, but maimed. You can't even as a human, Everything to you has to be through some political prism of gotcha this, gotcha that, that you can't take a step back and just be a human being and say, this is wrong. You can't do that. You can't look at the bombings by Israel in Lebanon and say that's wrong in residential areas and that that's unacceptable and that's not okay. You can't look at Donald Trump blowing up a hospital in elementary school in Manab and killing little girls.

1:08:27Ben Meiselas:And you can't just be like, that's horrible and that's wrong. And one of the hard things for me is those are our taxpayer dollars. Right? If you gave money to a murderer to buy a gun and that person killed people, you'd feel responsible. So doesn't it follow that if our taxpayer dollars, rather than going to help Americans live thriving lives, are going to trillions of dollars to Pete Hegseth's War Department to kill people? that we're unreluctant we're reluctantly we don't want to be involved but we're complicit also you want to be you want to be complicit in these things I don't want to be complicit in these things but that's our taxpayer dollars are going to that and I don't know this isn't a talking point this isn't therefore I want you This is a true feeling of pain and sadness.

1:09:53And to say I don't like that, it is something we need to really get out of. And we need to fundamentally rethink. Not in an election cycle. It's not an election book, WTF. It's not a, let's just get out. It's not. It is step back. think, what are we doing here with our lives? What is the point of living? What is the point of making sure that future generations have a better place? I mean, is the purpose of the short time we're here take, take, take, take, take, take, take, take, take, take die? I mean, you know, you look at Lindsey Graham's life, you know, and death, you know, I mean, what was, you were born, you then went to work on Capitol Hill, and then you spent your time encouraging people to kill people with a bloodthirst, with a bloodthirst.

1:11:06and then Donald J. Trump, Donald J. Trump, Donald J. Trump and then you're dead. You're dead.

1:11:13Ben Meiselas:That's the point of being alive? That's why that's the point of your existence? You're dead now, Lindsay. That was all worth it? Being alone at Disney with a bubble machine alone while having this weird look on your face about murdering children?

1:11:42You're dead now. And, you know, the devices in our hand,

1:11:50Ben Meiselas:the algorithms, you know, the loud echo chain, the loud whatever, I want Midas Touch. I want this network. I want ultimately the book to be like, frankly, what I want people to remember. Remember what I did here for. I want to be remembered as a good father. I want to be remembered as a good husband. I want to be remembered as someone who made mistakes, but was nice and kind, more than nice, was kind, was empathetic, was someone who fought for people who were being bullied. But more directionally than just even the Midas Touch network, I want to be remembered for helping to build a community and a rethinking of just, honestly, our shared humanity.

1:12:54Ben Meiselas:And even just for a moment to reflect and think, why are you talking about this? What are we doing on a day-to-day basis? We need to recalibrate. We need to recalibrate the North Star and be on that direction, as opposed to chasing this politician or that politician, or this political game, or that political game or this specific campaign or that specific game. Where your values align with the political party, that's great. But find them who represent your values and who are willing to fight against the other values, the non-values, the hate. Who's going to be a better fighter? And how do you harness the power of you not giving in, you not submitting?

1:13:43Ben Meiselas:So anyway, I guess I just spent the last segment giving, well, I want you to be able to read, but that's a lot of what I think we need to be focused on, even more than just the day-to-day. That's what I think about. I, of course, have to do the daily videos and the daily hits, but that to me is a broader thing that I'll leave you with today. So on that note, thank you. Pre-order it. put WTF in the chat if you truly pre-ordered it, but don't. Be truthful, only if you actually have. And I wonder if, I know the economy is very difficult right now for most Americans. I wonder, and you tell me what you think in the chat, if there are people who have the ability, I wonder if there's a way to do like 10 books and then be, I don't, I don't, I don't, I generally don't know if the book publishing company can do that and then give out the books or figure out a way to do that.

1:14:47Ben Meiselas:I don't know. I'll think my brothers may be like, you can't do that. That's not a thing. I don't know. All right. Well, thank you everybody for watching. I'm going to cover the Hegseth hearing in a little bit as well. So make sure you check back. I'll probably drop that video around four or four 30. Got a little sentimental on this episode. I got to tell you, but I'm glad we shared it together. Thanks for watching. We appreciate you. Scan the QR code above. Have a good one, everybody. We appreciate you. Want to stay plugged in? Become a subscriber to our sub stack at MidasPlus.com. You'll get daily recaps from Ron Filipkowski, add free episodes of our podcast, and more exclusive content only available at MidasPlus.com.

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