Tuesday Afternoon Breaking Updates with Ben 8/11/26

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29:50I know Jordy spends a long time with them getting those discount codes. So just take a look in the description below, click the link and use those discount codes. And so at the same time that we know that the energy prices are continuing to rise, as we know, Brent crude, WTI crude have now increased significantly just over the past week. As Donald Trump says, I'm low keying it. We're just going to semi negotiate it. We're just going to we're just going to chill. We're just going to chill. Meanwhile, you have Iran striking tankers in the straight up removes that we've been covering. You have the Houthis.

30:29They struck two Saudi Arabian tankers in the Red Sea. You have a Libyan refinery that was attacked by drones. No one really took credit for it, but this Libyan refinery was attacked. You have Ukraine striking Russian tankers, cargo ships, and refineries. You've got Russia hitting hard in Ukraine as well. You've got Ukraine effectively at this point defenseless from Russian ballistic missiles right now. The U.S. has run out of its interceptors. The U.S. continuing to come up with excuses why it can't give Zelensky licenses for interceptors. I think the latest they claim that Lockheed and Raytheon are worried about their IP, which I've said before makes absolutely no sense.

31:16I don't buy that excuse because it would be very easy to work out a deal, an actual deal with Zelensky that any improvements that are done to interceptors belongs, that IP goes back to Lockheed and Raytheon. And so, you know, I heard people saying, well, Lockheed and Raytheon are worried that in Ukraine they can end up making the interceptors cheaper. Well, isn't that just an admission then of waste, fraud, and abuse that we, the taxpayers, are overpaying now for interceptors? So I'm not sympathetic to any of that. So in any event, you have a situation where I don't expect the price of oil to go down anytime soon.

32:05The strategic petroleum reserves, we can measure the strategic petroleum reserves. It's under 300 million barrels right now. That's below functional tank bottom at this point. And that means that it really isn't even able to deliver to world markets the way it was because literally the texture of what's kept in the strategic petroleum reserves is a more compromised material. I mean, if you think about like a straw, like drinking a soda, imagine when it goes to the very bottom, you could still get some of the soda or get whatever the drink is at the bottom. But you can imagine that it's harder to get.

32:54I mean, it's an overly simplistic example. But this is a bad situation that you have to draw down at this point. So just to like recap, like, you know, the guy who bankrupted casinos in Donald Trump, right? It's objective. Like objectively, you know, the guy's bankrupted most of the companies he's touched, right? If you don't believe me, look at his public disclosures to Trump media where they list bankruptcies, this casino, that casino, this business, that business. It's a whole disclosure section that you have to list by the SEC. The same guy who Trump media released their financials today for the second quarter was the three months ending in either June or July.

33:37And for those three months, for the second quarter, Trump media lost$250 million,$270 million. They've got a new CEO. Their new CEO says they're going to move out of the crypto business and they're going to move out of, remember the crypto president, they bought a lot of crypto and the value of crypto declined. So that's one of the reasons. They've incurred a very big paper loss. But now what their big focus is going to be on is selling the early access to truth social posts by Donald Trump to Wall Street firms. There's already been 10 Wall Street firms who have purchased access to Donald Trump's posts before the public gets it.

34:21And they pay$60 ,000 to$100 ,000 to effectively trade on inside information. And there's 10 firms doing that. So that's the line of business, which in my own humble opinion is illegal, but I'm giving you my opinion. You could feel, I'm giving you my opinion as protected by the first amendment of the constitution based on my background as a lawyer, but feel free to share different opinions with that. But that's the line of business that they want to expand. More Wall Street firms buying inside access to Donald Trump's social media posts that manipulate the market. Okay? So he's bankrupted these companies.

35:03He's failing at this company. His meme coin failed. I mean, just look at all his stuff. Look at all of his businesses. They all crash. They all crash. And in my opinion, the only thing Donald Trump is good at is fraud. is defrauds people. And he enriches himself at the expense of others. That's what he's done his entire life. He's bankrupted entities, but he takes, takes, takes, and takes. So is it really a shocker? Is it really a shocker that the sexual predator who was found civilly liable for sex assault is covering up a child sex trafficking ring?

35:39Ben Meiselas:Is that a shocking fact? He's found civilly liable for sexual assault. Like he's a bad guy. And he hung out with them. And one of the things you saw in the Epstein files that were released is that his crew, you know, whether it's the Jean-Luc Brunelles or the Casablanca's Epstein, you know, the whole crew of friends were predators. That's who they hung out with. That was like, that was the friend group. The friend group was predators. And so is it shocking that that's who he likes to hang out with and that's who he's close to? Is it shocking that the guy who bankrupts casinos has now bankrupted our military?

36:25Ben Meiselas:And he's a fraud. So he says, I built it. I built it. I built like literally you didn't build it. I mean, you destroyed it objectively. Our weapons are, we don't have weapons. Our weapons are gone. You know, I mean, in a war with Iran, our interceptors, our attack them, our Navy destroyer anti-ballistics, done. Small percentage left, but not enough if there were to be any other conflicts, regional or otherwise. We don't have it. What do you think China's doing? They're just sitting back. What do you think other countries in the region are doing? Why do you think the Mecca pact was formed between Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, who were already in a defense alliance, and Turkey?

37:14Ben Meiselas:And Egypt's likely going to be joining. And by the way, the foreign minister of Qatar and the foreign ministry of Qatar today said, we respect that alliance. Fascinating. They said that they appreciate that their brotherly Muslim nations are joining in alliances that are not dependent on the United States. We're going to be seeing a lot more of that develop over time. While Donald Trump's out there trying to figure out ways to, you know, sell pieces of the United States to kind of continue his Ponzi scheme now that we've run out of weapons. Why do you think there's a Saudi Arabian nuclear deal?

38:00Ben Meiselas:And who knows the status of that? Because Trump will announce that, and then he'll say, well, Saudi Arabia, you have to join the Abraham Accords and be allies with Israel, to which Saudi Arabia responds, no, we're going to actually do an alliance with Turkey. and Turkey is not allied with Israel, would be putting it lightly, and Israel's not allied with Turkey. So Saudi Arabia, in response to Trump saying, you have to join the Abraham Accords, Saudi Arabia did the opposite of the Abraham Accords by doing an alliance with Turkey. And Egypt's likely going to join. And could you imagine if other Muslim nations start to join that?

38:37Ben Meiselas:And Iran praised the Mecca Pact and said, you know, we're not really worried about it, but it's good to see our, they call it brotherly Muslim nations, sisterly Muslim nations. I'm going to say brotherly though, joining in these PACs. And so Trump has to go to the UAE and the UAE's like, by the way, the UAE sent a jet. I was following the surveillance footage or the satellite footage. The UAE sent a jet to Tehran today and they have a back and forth going on there. I've reported before how the UAE has paid Iran lots of money, billions of dollars before in order to try to avoid certain strikes.

39:19But then I did notice an uptick in some of the Iranian strikes on the Adnach ships, the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company ships in the Strait of Vermouth. And then the plane arrived today, the plane from the UAE arrived today in Tehran, which I'm like, all right, maybe they're coming back to give some more money or to figure out what to do there. But Iran's saying, this is what we want. We want these alliances with Muslim nations, even if they're not allied with us. That's part of what Iran's plan is. And Iran's plan was also not to strike Israel yet, not to strike within the Netanyahu regime country yet, because they know that that's still where there are weapons.

40:04The Iron Dome does work in Israel. And what Iran's plan was to show that the Arab Dome was not a dome at all. The Arab Dome was basically the first line of defense for Israel. That's how Trump and Netanyahu were setting it up, basically positioning the Arab nations to bear the brunt of anything first and to have the setup there of the interceptors to eventually alert Israel before the missiles got to Israel. and that's what iran wanted to expose so that's what their plan was uh that's what their plan was there so we have all that going on so what what what is you heard what trump saying we control the strait not true then you have secretary chris wright the energy secretary this is what he posted this morning thanks to the coordinated efforts of the u.s military and our gulf allies the seven-day average for oil leaving the strait of hormuz is currently up to almost nine million barrels per day.

41:01When combined with the additional 5 to 7 million barrels per day, leaving the region via newly upgraded pipelines and export facilities, total oil flows are currently averaging approximately 15 million barrels per day. On Sunday alone, over 20 million barrels left the Arabian Gulf, which is above the pre-conflict average. I mean, again, these people are just the biggest frauds.

41:28Ben Meiselas:And they're just the biggest frauds about everything. So you're telling me right now, with all we know, with the massive drawdowns in our strategic petroleum reserves, with the satellite footage where we can see the ships that are leaving these straight-up removes. Obviously, if they have their transponders on, we can track them. But if they don't. You can see the satellite footage. These ships are big. They're VLCCs. They're very large. The VL, they're very large. You can see them on the satellite images leaving the strait. It's just not happening. What he's saying, what CENCOM is saying, what Trump is saying, not only is it not happening, it's not even close to what the reality is.

42:17Ben Meiselas:And if it was close to what the reality is, then why do we care? Why do we even care about opening up this? Why do a blockade? If we objectively are getting more oil out than before, then what? Okay, great. Then just you don't even need to do a blockade of this trade. What's the point of any of this? It is all not just a lie. It is all massive market manipulation. And it is being done to help Trump and his right wing oligarchs and screw over everybody else. That's what this is all about. And I hope you're paying attention, though, to this right wing media machine that's out there pumping the disinformation.

42:59Ben Meiselas:But not only do I hope you're paying attention to that, I hope what you're seeing is how left-wing media, if you want to even call it that, or other corporate media that may not be overtly regime media, and how the political consultant class also for left-wing or whatever you want to refer to it as, they buy into these right-wing narratives and they debate within these narratives. And it's not where the people are. Where the people are right now is they see a fascist regime in the Oval Office that is literally killing Americans, that's destroying people's life here, that's ripped away health care, that has lied about everything, that's made the cost of living completely out of reach, and a regime that's involved in war crimes abroad, using our taxpayer dollars to commit war crimes, to aid and evet genocide and to be involved in horrible things abroad when Americans don't want any of this.

44:01Ben Meiselas:And Americans want to be able to just to go about, live their lives, get paid with dignity, afford a home. That's where people are feeling right now here in the United States, overwhelmingly, overwhelmingly. Real people out there are not having debates about, Do you disavow this podcaster or do you disavow that podcaster? Or what about this podcaster? Oh, or, you know, no one's having this. Stop falling for the bait and going down those rabbit holes. Focus on what your own narrative should be is not living in right-wing MAGA narrative world. That's why I don't even deal with that stuff. Or if I do, I do it purely to call out the tactic in the propaganda to say, here is what we need to guard against.

44:55Because what we need to be focused on is not just Trump is horrible, Trump's the worst, Trump's a fraud, Trump's a con artist, Trump's a scammer, Trump's a coward. He's all of those things. He's all of those things. But we have to connect it to people's lives. And here is how it is hurting you. And here is how we can fix it. Here is a way out of it. and you can see how terrified these right-wing oligarchs are, this system that's propped up the vessel of fascism, Donald Trump, how terrified they are of ways to find solutions. Even the discussion and the debate about what these solutions can be, they're terrified of it.

45:48So they have to label it all of these things and they go back to, oh, let's talk about the WNBA and Sophie Cunningham and Democratic Socialist this, and they're coming to get you. And, you know, they're going to they're going to take your health care away. Excuse me. They're going to take your you already took the health care away. You already took the health care away. I reduced it 600 percent. Most favored nations clause. You didn't do any of that. You're a liar. You're a liar. They're all liars. They're all liars. and they, with Project 2025, with their disastrous budget bill, with covering up the Epstein files, with supporting never-ending wars, they've made life so much worse.

46:31And so what we need to talk about is, and not be afraid to talk about it, is how to make life better. We need to lean in on empathy. We need to lean in on joy. We need to lean in on solutions. We need to lean in on fixing this and calling it out for what it is and just stop with the stupid debates over, do you believe that in 2020, this podcast, it's not what American people are worried about. What American people are worried about is it's August 11th. I'm recording this at 2.20 PM. And people are looking at their calendars right now. And they're saying, wow, this summer is almost over. My kids are going back to school.

47:17Am I going to be able to afford to pack a lunch for my kids right now? Am I going to be able to get them a bologna and cheese sandwich? And am I going to have to miss a doctor appointment for myself that I really needed a checkup because I can't afford it? And if I go there, I'm not going to be able to get my kid's lunch. Or the parent who's looking at their kid who's saying they're not going to have a better life than I had. Far from it. That's what's going on right now in this country. And that's what needs to be discussed. All right, let's take our last quick break of the show. Reminder, WTF America is the book I wrote with my brothers.

48:00Pre-order it now. We'll be right back after our last quick break.

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51:30I know you know this, but like you'll have Caroline Levitt going on state regime media Fox and state regime media Fox won't even address the fact that Donald Trump was so damn cowardly at that NATO summit in Turkey that he hit on the catering truck. They won't even address it. They won't talk about it. Again, can you imagine if Biden did that? Biden went on the train and took that ride, knowing that he was on it, from Poland into Ukraine, 19 hours. That's what you do. You're the commander in chief. What message do you think it sends, by the way, to our sailors who have been stuck on the USS Abraham Lincoln for going on 270 days right now when they see that the commander in chief, a five-time draft dodger at the NATO summit was so terrified of Iran that he snuck out of old Air Force One in a catering truck.

52:35What message do you think that sends to our sailors who already have the worst morale over on the USS Lincoln? And think about it, our sailors before who were on the USS Gerald Ford, and that ship was there for 326 days. And now you have the USS George H.W. Bush and the USS Abraham Lincoln there, we're seeing that the food rations that they're getting, they're getting, and by the way, let's talk about food rations and water rations. This is nearly not getting any attention at all in Puerto Rico right now. As you know, they have the water rations right there in Puerto Rico. They're not getting, they don't have drinking water over there.

53:20I know Donald Trump wants to do his memes about how everything's amazing in Venezuela right now, as the people in Venezuela are doing worse than before the US invasion, not even just because of the terrible earthquake right there, the back-to-back, very rare back-to-back earthquake right there. But in Puerto Rico, which we know that Donald Trump says that he never liked Puerto Rico would be an understatement, struggling to get basic water over there. But anyway, I digress. What do you think the message it sends to our troops? That that's your commander in chief, the five-time Vietnam draft dodger?

54:01Of course he said our service, but he thinks everybody's a sucker and a loser. He probably thought the press and the staff who went on that old Air Force One were suckers and losers.

54:10Ben Meiselas:He duped them. He used them as a decoy. What a sick thing to do. What a sick thing to do while you're out there saying that Iran is begging to make a deal and you're winning, that's your behavior. But no, what does Fox want to do? They want to bring on Caroline Levitt and just these radical, extreme, liberal, socialists, communists, whatever you want to call them. This is not your grandpa's party. I want you to understand that the power structures often create the language. So this idea that somehow wanting health care for everybody, that's not radical at all. The idea that Americans shouldn't be paid like$7.25 an hour in some states and that the fact that there should be a wage with dignity, the fact that people should be able to afford homes, these are not radical ideas.

55:10Ben Meiselas:the radical communism that exists in the Oval Office right now. You want to talk about who is the closest to the authoritarian communism that we've seen rear its head in history? It's Donald Trump. Trump is a communist to the T in the image of the Stalins of the world. And he also embodies the malignant narcissism as well. I mean, that's the reality of what the situation is. But the American people right now are being exploited by this regime. And so all they have are these words, you're radical, you're extremist, you're a socialist, you're a this, that's all they have are those words. We have to be focused on what's actually happening out there.

56:00Here, play this clip of Caroline Leavitt. Let's play it. These are radical, extreme liberals, socialists, communists, whatever you want to call them, Sean. What matters most is their extreme policy positions. This is no longer the Democrat Party of JFK. Heck, this is not even the Democrat Party of Barack Obama. This is a party that has been totally captivated by these far left extreme liberals who support massively raising your taxes, who support abolishing your police, who support abolishing private prisons, who support opening, reopening our southern border and our nation's borders to illegal alien criminals all over the world.

56:41So we've had two years now with this Trump regime, and they've implemented their Project 2025. they think that right now what they've done is not the most radical horrible thing to our country we've never been weaker we've never been poorer unless you're one of donald trump's right-wing oligarch friends that's just objectively what's happening they want to talk about states rights they put ice and border patrol gestapo into states to literally invade states I mean, they want to talk about socialism. Donald Trump has equity stakes in 30 companies.

57:28Ben Meiselas:He's taken over 30 companies or has major equity stakes in them. They want to use the word socialism and communism. I mean, Donald Trump has a social welfare system for billionaires. And when he was speaking in Nevada recently, the governor there admitted it. And the governor of Nevada said, we need that. The billionaires need our help first because the only way everybody else can be saved or can be helped is if first we make sure we take care of the billionaires because they'll be the ones who give everybody jobs. That's what they say. They're saying they want data centers in everybody's backyard.

58:10Ben Meiselas:This is what they're saying out loud. This is what they're saying. Imagine what they're saying behind the scenes as well. There's never been more radical, more dangerous, more communist-like, more authoritarian people than those who are in control right now. And I just think about the image. And, you know, I don't do political ads. I don't, as you know, I increasingly care. I mean, not increasingly. I care far much more about the values and principles than a specific politician or political person. But just think about that image of Donald Trump golfing with the surface-to-air missiles behind him while the American people are suffering and can't afford homes and are in foreclosure and are having their lives tortured by this regime.

59:04And he's out there golfing.

59:05Ben Meiselas:Think about the radical. You want to talk about radical and also weak and pathetic? That's part of it for me too, is that this guy is just a loser. Like I don't think it would make it better if the authoritarian was actually strong and competent, but it definitely makes it worse that this guy at his core is a scared loser. And you're just like, because the rest of the world sees it. And then we have to deal with this gamified politics here in the United States where the way the news tries to report on this is they act like this guy is like tough. The guy's a scared loser who hides in catering trucks.

59:45Ben Meiselas:He's a freaking loser, man. That's part of it. I look at him and I'm like, ugh, this freaking loser? Really? Really? That guy? We're going to get you this time. We're really going to. We're going to blow up all of you. We shouldn't have been involved in this war. We're going to get you. All right, all right, all right. I'm speaking to the Ayatollah. We had a good conversation. What do you think? They're thinking in Iran about us. They're like, really? I mean, if you look at these comments now coming from the Iranian leadership, they're acting like they're lecturing us about just honor your deals, grow up, understand the conditions.

1:00:23And I'm just like, this is the United States of America, man. The National Review headline, is anyone in Iran willing to accept Trump's surrender? That's how embarrassing it is. He's trying to surrender. Like, please just open up the Strait of Hormuz. We're cool, right? And Iran's like, no, you got to pay us because we don't trust you. And Trump's like, oh, then you pay me. Then you pay me also. Really? You pay me also? You started the war with Netanyahu. You invaded them. You said that their nuclear stuff was obliterated last year. You started the war. What are you talking about? You pay me. What do you mean?

1:01:00It's just he's a cringy loser. And there's just part of that also that's just like, come on, man. And then you have the state regime, MediaFox. It's like, all right, let's talk about penises and vaginas, everybody, because that's crazy. Oh, let's talk about trans people also. Talk about WNBA and let's make up a fake controversy. Let's spend all our time talking about that. Our digital editor, Asin, went through all of the topics that they're talking about on Fox.

1:01:30Ben Meiselas:And let me be very clear, though. They are building a message, and they've built a message for 60 years. We talk about that in WTF America, by the way, since Roger Ailes' memo about how we could avoid a future situation where a future Nixon is held accountable. That's the origin of a lot of this. But they are pushing a concerted narrative that is coordinated with the White House, and they just push it relentlessly, relentlessly. It's not random. It is intended to divide. It is intended to distract. It is intended to take people's eyes off of what the real issues are. It's a playbook that they run.

1:02:19Ben Meiselas:They run it very successfully. It's not unique in the United States. Orban ran it. You see right wing, lots of right wing governments run it. You know, I saw this morning Israel's diaspora chief talking about how Israel's worked with a lot of these right wing governments, whether it's Le Pen in France, whether it's the so-called reform party in the UK, whether it's the far right wing, whether it's the AFD in Germany, whether it's, you know, this is a concerted force that they use the same tactics. They use the same, they use the same playbook. My dogs are barking. Let me share this with you, though.

1:03:07This is part of the, this is part of the way they see divide the population.

1:03:12Ben Meiselas:Because most of America, when you really break it down, we're 70-30, we're 80-20 on most of the issues. We really are. There's a lot more that brings us together than that actually divides us. But where they could divide us, that's where the right-wing oligarchs are able to entrench their own power if they keep us divided. That's the goal of all of this. So I just want to show you the tactics. This is a state regime media host, Copagno. And she's like, you know, this is what's going to happen when you have a bunch of dudes beat all of your girls. Here, play this clip. Finally, I just want to say this, the coach of the fever, how dare you not stand up?

1:03:54There's so much here. First of all, I love how Sophie Kenningham communicates, which is clearly and concisely and just common sense. And that's partly now why she has drawn attention. She has always loved the Lord. She has always been common sense with everything. But now when she decided to come out and or whatever the time was an answer to a question and say, you know, yeah, this is this should be for girls only. Now she is the subject of that very vocal minority. She is the subject of the hordes online of social media that are swarming her and making her out to seem like this transphobic, horrific individual.

1:04:29I mean, I truly have no clue what they're even talking about. I mean, I understand that Sophie Cunningham did like that with her finger and then she like follows MAGA accounts. So they like her.

1:04:42Ben Meiselas:And I don't I don't. There were two right wing MAGA former NBA players who said that they're now ident. in order to mock the transgender community. They said they're identifying as women and they're going to join the WNBA draft just so that they can create problems. And now Fox reports on that as like, oh, look, now they've identified as women. So now they're going to, what you're going to do now, WNBA? I really don't care. I really don't care. WNBA, do whatever you want to do. Don't let them play. It's stupid. But, you know, I care about the fact that there's a genocide going on in Palestine right now, that there is mass slaughter taking place in Lebanon with our taxpayer dollars.

1:05:32That's what I care about. I care about that our government has used trillions of our dollars to slaughter little girls in Manab and to kill people around the world, not to make us more safe, to make us less safe here in the United States. I care about our sailors who are in the Persian Gulf right now, who, again, the United States was so terrified of the Houthis that one of the aircraft carriers, the George H.W. Bush, had to travel around Africa because the U.S. was too afraid to travel it through the Red Sea, the same way Donald Trump hid in a catering container in Turkey. I'm concerned about the morale of our troops.

1:06:17I'm concerned that when you hear from their family members, they say that their loved ones who are on board these carriers know that they're engaged in war crimes and they don't want to be a part of it.

1:06:30Ben Meiselas:And that's weighing on their mental state right now. You hear a lot from family members saying that. I'm worried about the people here who can't afford a home. I'm worried about the people who have tapped out of their savings at this point. You know, I'm worried about, you know, I have family members who, you know, work in honest days living out here. And, you know, they'll work as a nurse or they'll work as this. And they'll have three kids and they can't afford rent. And I know that story is repeated over and over and over again countless times. That's what I'm focused on right now. That's my worry.

1:07:10Ben Meiselas:And we need to have problems. We need to solve them. And so where you have somebody like New York City Mayor Momdani trying to figure out a plan. How do we do this? By the way, working with a governor in New York in Hochul who is trying to deliver on affordability, real affordability. And she's listening to Mom Donnie. And I think it's a good dynamic to see what happens when you have a governor working with a mayor like that and trying to figure out a relentless affordability agenda that actually works. And we can have debates one way or another, but I think we should all agree, man, is that fair that you have these millionaires and billionaires in New York City who claim their main residence is in Florida so that they can avoid paying New York State income tax, but they suck up the New York City services while they keep their apartments or their homes or their condos in New York City, which appreciate in value.

1:08:15while they don't live there, which gets the benefit of all the New York City services, and they avoid those New York City taxes and the New York State taxes, and they go to a place like Florida, which has a very regressive tax policy where people end up paying a lot more money, but I guess the rich are able to avoid the big state income tax hit. and should we have a solution? Now, one, we have to ask ourselves, should that cohort of people who also pay less taxes often than my family member who I was just talking about are probably you. And I'm not just talking about percentage. I'm also talking about sometimes they find ways to put losses here and put losses there.

1:09:07And we saw Trump's past taxes. The guy barely paid any taxes all before he gave himself tax immunity. Should we figure out a system that's a little bit more fair? I think the answer is yes. So then when one tries to be implemented, oh, my God, that's socialist. You know, when I saw, I forget which, I forget who I saw talk about it this way.

1:09:29Ben Meiselas:But, you know, they said, you know, it's fascinating because you often, you know, you often hear right wing people talking about, you know, America was better. In the 50s and the 60s, they have this idea. Well, Mike, you want to look at what the tax code was like then? You want to look at what the tax code was then? You actually had a more fair, more pro-middle class tax system at that period of time than you have right now as private equity and all these hedge funds and all these people have figured out all the loopholes in order to make things far more expensive and in order to avoid paying taxes.

1:10:02Ben Meiselas:And that's why we have a broken system that we need to fix. and you have these right-wing oligarchs are terrified by anybody who tries to come up with some ways to fix it. That's not some radical agenda. I'd argue it's the least radical thing. It's radical to do what's happening right now. I mean, that's what's very, what's radical is when they roll out alligator Alcatraz and they brag about alligators and crocodiles eating up immigrants and then laugh about it and then incompetently run it. They can't even run the alligator out and then shut it down after spending billions of our dollars that could have went to hospitals or could have went to lunches or could have went to making life more affordable for people.

1:10:49Ben Meiselas:We're all of these ICE detention centers where they've ripped apart families and they put people in these detention centers right now and pay their right-wing oligarch friends, billions of dollars. I mean, think about it in Texas. You've got what? Big Bend National Park, the contractor who was like demolishing this beautiful national park by the Rio Grande, getting billions of dollars, a Trump donor while they destroy a beautiful place. That's freaking radical. That's radical and crazy. It's crazy stuff that that's taking place. I mean, in Texas, You want to talk about radical? No taxes for the electricity bills for data centers.

1:11:31Ben Meiselas:Did you know that? Did you know that in Texas? I'm sure if you lived in Texas, you knew that. And then they have the audacity to be like, well, now that we see people don't like the data centers, I'm going to do an audit of it is what happens. You're going to do an audit on it? You gave them no taxes on electricity as they guzzled up all of the electricity. That's freaking radical. That sounds like some form of weird oligarchical communism to me, while the people are the ones who struggle. That's what we talk about a lot. So in WTF America, people are like, is the book going to get outdated after the election?

1:12:06Ben Meiselas:Quite the opposite. The book is not meant for the election. The book is actually meant for a generational perspective of getting out of this loop. Because if we just continue with the loop of Obama, Trump, Biden, Trump, you fill in the person, Ossoff, AOC, Nusa, you pick the person, then Rubio or whoever, and then you go back and forth, that's a broken freaking system. That's a broken system on the decline. So what I'm focused on, what I want to do with this platform is figure out how do you break this loop? And how do we get into a trajectory of a generational move in the right direction? Because if you just keep slingshotting back and forth and the arsonists blame the firefighters, and then the firefighters fix it, and the arsonists destroy it, that's what we've had now for the better part of the last 60, 70 years.

1:13:10Ben Meiselas:And it's been disastrous. And so you add those conditions. You add the international conditions. that creates the recipe for fascism. And a vessel like Donald Trump, who says, I alone can fix it, takes advantage of the pain and suffering that people are legitimately feeling. But he's the one who's caused the pain and suffering. Why he has such a good insight, and this is not to applaud him, but why Trump has a good insight into the pain and suffering that people are feeling is because Trump's the one causing it. He sees it because he's inflicting it, He's doing it. And he knows how to keep on doing it.

1:13:45Ben Meiselas:And so what we have to do is recognize that pain and suffering is real. It's not a talking point. It's not an election cycle thing. And I think that's one of the disenchanting things I see watching this election cycle is people who I didn't hear from over the past two years when it would have been nice to hear their voice. they come out during the election cycle. And now they want to lecture me and you about the election. I don't want to be lectured by you about the election. You weren't there for me at the inauguration. You weren't there for me after November when hope felt lost. You weren't there for me during those periods.

1:14:28Ben Meiselas:So don't show up now and then start telling me that you know from the focus groups or that you know from your own instinct back what you did in the 1990s or this or that, that you know what the people are. Where were you when we needed you? You were nowhere to be found. Maybe you were at the country club. Maybe you were hanging out at the same places where these MAGA people. I don't know where you were, but you weren't fighting for us. So I don't need to hear you lecture me and lecture my audience to lecture our community, to lecture the Midas Mighty, to lecture what we've all built together, built by this community about what you think about.

1:15:06Ben Meiselas:No, you weren't there for us. And that's the thing about it. I want people to speak to values and principles, and I want them to understand what you're going through and what everybody's experiencing and offer problems and solutions, not bash this candidate or I need you to disavow what you said and shut the hell up. I don't need you to tell me what you need to disavow in 2019 or 2020. No, I want to know, is this an authentic fighter for me and for this community and for this world right now? Is that what we need right now? That's it. That's what we're looking for. It's that simple. It's that simple.

1:15:44Ben Meiselas:And it's not enough just to be anti-Trump. It's what are you doing? And you have to have moral clarity. It's a genocide. Call out the genocide. Just say it. I don't need to say it. Just say it. It is what it is. That's what it is. Okay? People are suffering. People are feeling pain here. Trump's a war criminal. Trump's a fascist. Just say it. They're covering up a child sex trafficking ring. That's what they're doing. That's what they're doing. That's what they're covering up. It's sick. It's disgusting. That's what's happening. And we need to move beyond that. We need to get into a better place as a country.

1:16:17Anyway, I'll stop preaching. Get your copy of WTF America. I appreciate you watching this. Thank you for everything. I'm truly, I'm just, I'm grateful for, always grateful for this community. Pre-order it now. We'll chat soon. Thanks everybody. Keep fighting, hang in there. Shout out Midas Mighty. 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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