Tuesday Afternoon Breaking Updates with Ben 7/21/2026

Summary

Podcast Summary: The MeidasTouch Podcast – Tuesday Afternoon Breaking Updates with Ben 7/21/2026

Date: July 21, 2026
Host: Ben Meiselas (MeidasTouch Network)
Theme: Breaking down the Trump administration’s escalating foreign wars, Pentagon funding crisis, and calls for recalibration of American political values.

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Episode Overview

In this urgent, emotionally charged breaking news update, Ben Meiselas dissects live Congressional testimony by Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and provides blistering commentary on the Trump administration’s conduct of an expanding “catastrophic and unlawful war” in Iran, the alleged bankruptcy of U.S. military infrastructure, and the administration’s demands for an unprecedented $1.5 trillion military budget. The episode weaves together analysis, real-time news, and the signature MeidasTouch blend of satire and brotherly banter, culminating in a heartfelt argument for a fundamental rethinking of American priorities and values.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Live Recap: SecDef Pete Hegseth on Capitol Hill

[00:29–15:38]

• Hegseth asks Congress for $1.5 trillion for the Pentagon, alleging U.S. military bankruptcy, depleted munitions, and oil reserves—blaming prior Biden-era “neglect.”
• Ben rebuts the claim: "You all bankrupted our Defense Department. You’ve run out of munitions, our strategic petroleum reserves have been depleted. You've bankrupted it all… and now you want $1.5 trillion." [01:39]
• Escalating Iran conflict: U.S. bases in the Middle East are under continual Iranian attack, equipment destroyed, and military families send home dire footage—officials suppress true casualty counts and strike efficacy stats.
• Shift in Iranian strategy: Iran now uses precision, small-scale missile volleys (8–12 at a time), relying on U.S. interceptor systems that are now only 20–30% effective, compared to Ukraine's 90–95%.
  • Political Commentator: “Iran’s ballistics are able to evade the interceptors, and our munitions... are gone.” [05:18]
• Iron Dome as an illusion: Security deals with Arab states were empty; the U.S. moves hardware to Israel while partner states are left vulnerable.

Memorable moment:
Ben satirizes CENTCOM’s staged announcements:
"CENTCOM announces, ‘we are beginning strikes’... then ‘we finish strikes’ as though it’s some episode of Dystopian Apprentice.” [04:17]

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2. Congressional Hearings: Funding, Accountability, and Spin

[10:10–17:20]

• Senator Dick Durbin challenges Hegseth:
  • Why demand $87.6B in emergency funding when $75B remains “unobligated” from last year’s bill?
  • Hegseth dodges specifics, retreats to anti-Biden talking points, blames "woke" programs, and touts funding old-fashioned ships.
  • Ben exposes the rhetorical tactic: “A very obvious tactic of liars, right? So you’re asked a very basic question. And what do liars do? They immediately go to another topic.” [13:24]
• Senator Murray’s contradiction: Cites Hegseth’s prior claim ("Iran’s missile program is destroyed") against ongoing evidence of Iranian strikes. Hegseth concedes Iran “still has capabilities... but the amount of damage we’ve done has put them in the worst place.” [20:05–21:28]

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3. Trump’s War Narrative and Iran Escalation

[31:32–39:01]

• Trump is publicly trumpeting U.S. “success” in Iran—boasting "only 18 dead" so far.
  • Ben calls this "vile and really disgusting... Every one of these soldiers who have died is incredibly tragic. And you post it as though 18, that’s like, that’s a win.” [33:01]
• Iran’s restraint & strategy:
  • Iran avoids mass U.S. casualties to prevent giving Trump a Gulf of Tonkin-style pretext for total war.
  • Ben: “What Iran recognizes is... if there were 300, 500, a thousand troops killed... [it] would make people rally around an escalation of the war in Iran and would that backfire?” [35:04]
• Historical parallel: Trump’s administration is “looking for a Gulf of Tonkin-type incident” to justify escalation, just as Vietnam was expanded.

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4. The State of Iran: Complexity Beyond Propaganda

[39:01–44:49]

• Ben stresses U.S. media simplifications: Iran is "a sophisticated society" with genuine internal pressures for reform, but with the IRGC firmly in command.
• Contradicts Trump’s exaggerations of violence against protesters:
  • Political Commentator: “You don’t even know what really happened there, because Trump very quickly goes up from 40,000 to 52,000.” [41:03]
• Propaganda wars: Billboards in Iran with Trump family images and stark warnings; U.S.-supplied interpretations paint a one-dimensional picture.
  • Political Commentator: “We need to stop with this propaganda out there that demonizes for the sake of what Trump really wants to do...” [43:49]

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5. Venezuela: Earthquakes, Oil & Freudian Slips

[44:53–50:58]

• Trump boasts about “taking over Venezuela” and its oil post-earthquake, calling Venezuela a “happy place.”
• Ben calls out the nonchalance and bizarre linkage:
  • “Who would even bring [up] that the earthquakes are unrelated to the drilling and fracking if there wasn’t a discussion... It was unrelated, of course. That to me... seems like a guilty conscience.” [49:03]

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6. Values, Cynicism, and the Project of Recalibrating America

[54:27–end]

• Ben turns introspective, arguing for a generational shift:
  • “Is the goal to create dystopian reality shows that make us all non-consensual extras that are inflicted with new traumas every day?” [54:47]
• Warns against both celebrity worship and cynical detachment:
  • “If you focus so much on the personality, you will wind up in many ways how we got here... Instead, we need to very clearly articulate our values and principles as these threshold matters...” [54:46]
• Dismantles Trump’s economic promises (Dogecoin “dividend checks,” gold from Fort Knox, tariff rebate schemes).
• Searing critique on U.S. complicity in war crimes:
  • “If our taxpayer dollars... go to trillions of dollars to Pete Hegseth War Department to kill people, that we’re... complicit also. Do you want to be... complicit in these things? I don’t.” [68:13]
• Concludes with a call for shared humanity, empathy, and reflection—beyond politics, toward building a better approach to governance and community.

Memorable closing: "I want to be remembered as a good father. I want to be remembered as someone who made mistakes but was kind, was empathetic, was someone who fought for people who were being bullied... I want to be remembered for helping to build a community and a rethinking of just honestly our shared humanity.” [70:45]

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Notable Quotes with Timestamps

• “You all bankrupted our Defense Department... now you want $1.5 trillion.” — Ben Meiselas [01:39]
• “Iran’s ballistics are able to evade the interceptors, and our munitions... are gone.” — Political Commentator [05:18]
• “A very obvious tactic of liars, right? So you’re asked a very basic question. And what do liars do? They immediately go to another topic.” — Ben Meiselas [13:24]
• “You can’t just recognize as a human being that there are so many innocent people being killed... you can’t take a step back and just be a human being and say this is wrong.” — Ben Meiselas [66:54]
• “If our taxpayer dollars... are going to trillions of dollars to Pete Hegseth War Department to kill people, that we’re... complicit also. Do you want to be... complicit in these things? I don’t.” — Ben Meiselas [68:13]
• “I want to be remembered... as someone who made mistakes but was kind, was empathetic, was someone who fought for people who were being bullied... for helping to build a community and a rethinking of just honestly our shared humanity.” — Ben Meiselas [70:45]

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• Secretary Hegseth’s Testimony & Budget Demand: [00:29–10:06]
• Durbin and Murray cross-examine Hegseth: [10:10–21:28]
• Trump’s Iran War PR & Dead Count: [31:32–35:04]
• Iran’s Strategy and Gulf of Tonkin Parallel: [35:04–39:01]
• Society & Propaganda in Iran: [39:01–44:53]
• Venezuela, Oil, and Earthquake: [44:53–50:58]
• Philosophical Reflection & Call for Values: [54:27–end (approx 74:00)]

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Final Thoughts

Ben Meiselas delivers a passionate, critical, and urgent analysis of America’s current war footing and the Trump regime’s narrative manipulation. The episode is notable for its clear-eyed analysis, moral clarity, biting humor, and persistent call for a restoration of American values rooted in empathy, truth, and community. For listeners seeking more than news—those wanting connection and a deeper unpacking of the moment’s stakes—this episode is a powerful, moving listen.

Transcript

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[Ben Meiselis]

Welcome to Ben on Breaking News. I'm Ben Meiselis and this is your breaking news right now as we're live. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth is on Capitol Hill speaking before the United States Senate. He's saying the 1.5 trillion dollar package that the Trump regime is demanding to further this catastrophic and unlawful war is not only necessary, but Heth is saying if we do not get that money immediately, it will be, quote, the greatest threat our nation has ever faced. The greatest threat our nation has ever faced. Let me just show you what he said moments ago. Let's play it.

[Pete Hegseth]

You know what that means? That that means 1.5 trillion. Given the world that we live in and the disaster of what the Biden administration budgets gave us, not funding, this department at 1.5 trillion dol I believe is the greatest threat that our nation faces. Either we invest in our warriors at this moment of step change on the battlefield and growing threats, or this is all just talk.

[Ben Meiselis]

Okay, so you all bankrupted our Defense Department. You've run out of munitions, our strategic petroleum reserves have been depleted. You've bankrupted it all when you had $1.1 trillion last year, and now you want $1.5 trillion.

[Political Commentator]

You want more money right now, essentially on an emergency basis. And because you've bankrupted our military, you got us involved with Netanyahu in this catastrophic and unlawful war in Iran where Iran is blowing up US bases each and every day while you all pretend they have no capabilities. That's what you're saying is the greatest threat to our nation. While the Trump regime covers up what's

[Ben Meiselis]

actually happening at our bases in the

[Political Commentator]

Middle east, we actually have, our troops are sending photos and videos to their family members.

[Ben Meiselis]

Why?

[Political Commentator]

Because they are targets for Iran right now. While the US Is moving the military equipment, while the US Is evacuating the bases, not of the people, not of the warriors, but the equipment. The equipment which is getting systematically destroyed by Iran. Moving it to Israel. Moving it to Israel. Why? Because the Iron Dome over there, the Trump regime views as still working, but the security umbrella in the Middle east for all of those Arab nations that thought when they were doing those quid pro quo deals with Donald Trump, that they were going to get the security umbrella as well. Nope. Donald Trump didn't even tell you when he was going to invade back in February with Netanyahu.

[Senator or Questioner]

Yeah.

[Political Commentator]

Your quid pro quo gifts and money to Trump and his crypto to Kushner, you didn't even get notice of it. And guess what? You didn't get either. The effective Iron Dome system, which you were told you were going to get with Trump for your countries. And so now every evening after CENTCOM announces, we are beginning strikes and then CENTCOM thereafter, we finish strikes as though

[Ben Meiselis]

it's some episode of Dystopian Apprentice, Iran

[Political Commentator]

says, okay, thanks for letting us know the episode is over. So now what we're going to do is do precise strikes at early warning systems, radar. Occasionally we have to show that we can hit the barracks, those containerized barracks. Basically, our service members in the Middle east, they live in like those containers that you see on container ships, on those big tankers, cargo ships that you see on the back of trucks. Right. That's where our service members basically live, in containerized barrack units.

[Ben Meiselis]

Prefab.

[Political Commentator]

Right. And so Iran's like, okay, we're going

[Ben Meiselis]

to trust if, if they wanted to kill more people, they could. They know if they keep on escalating, though, and killing more people, that may rally some support against them.

[Political Commentator]

So they strike when they are going to send a message. But guess what didn't really exist when they were striking Jordan anymore. Those early warning detections which tell the PAC 3, those Patriot interceptors, those Thads right, ain't working. Guess what also wasn't really working? The interceptors. Iran's ballistics are able to evade the interceptors and our munitions, as everybody's been warning and as more and more anonymous top military officials keep leaking out to the press are gone. We've depleted our munitions.

[Ben Meiselis]

Hence Hegseth on Capitol Hill begging for

[Political Commentator]

$1.5 trillion

[Ben Meiselis]

right now.

[Political Commentator]

And Iran is just saying, okay, we'll strike Jordan. This base, that base, this base, that bit Faisal, we'll do this base, that base. They'll then strike Kuwait, this space, that base, Al Udid in Qatar, base in Saudi Arabia, the a Special Forces area in Syria, technically the Syrian Jordan border, which CENTCOM said there was no strikes in the region. Yes, there was. There was. It was a Special Forces depot in

[Ben Meiselis]

the area that Iran was able to strike. And so what Iran's figured out is that Israel's Iron Dome isn't just in

[Political Commentator]

Israel that the way this whole thing was constructed, the pawns, right, you think about the pawns are the Arab nations who became the shield to Israel.

[Ben Meiselis]

Israel then has the Golden Dome.

[Political Commentator]

But these early detection stuff is because the view was all of these early detections could help Israel get ready with its Iron Dome in order to stop the Iranian ballistic missiles and shaheeds. So the first line, go look at the map. Are these Arab nations. So the strategy that Iran is pursuing, and they ain't even sending over massive amounts of ballistics. No, no, no. Iran has adapted its strategy.

[Ben Meiselis]

They're like, why would we do hundreds at a time? That's not helpful. So Instead, they do 8 to 12 at different bases.

[Political Commentator]

At this point, the interceptors by the US only have about a 20% to 30% effective rate.

[Ben Meiselis]

Contrast that with Ukraine, where Zelensky has about a 90 to 95% interception.

[Political Commentator]

Right. I don't know, maybe you could have learned a thing or two from Zelinsky there while Donald was attacking Zelinsky and

[Ben Meiselis]

being the Putin bootlicker that he is, and Iran systematically striking this base, that base, that base. And Iran has prepped its own field for when it wants to do the barrage. If the US Were to attack Pickaxe

[Political Commentator]

Mountain, if the US Were to do

[Ben Meiselis]

a ground invasion of Kesham, if the US Were to attack additional nuclear facilities in Iran, Iran now has destroyed the early detection stuff, the radars and all

[Political Commentator]

of these things to be able to effectively strike. That's what they're doing.

[Ben Meiselis]

That's their strategy.

[Political Commentator]

And by the way, you don't have to be a military strategist to see where they're striking.

[Ben Meiselis]

It's actually as obvious in many ways

[Political Commentator]

as saying that painting the reflecting pool blue is not going to change the situation of algae. Except this time, the consequences are far graver than painting it blue and then seeing the algae infestation take place within days.

[Ben Meiselis]

But just like Donald Trump during COVID like a miracle, it's all going to go away. I give myself an A. It's going great. They want to make a deal, the greatest deal, forever. I'm gonna keep on bombing them until the deal is the best, but they're begging me right now, which we know is all false. The same way when he says, I brought in $19 trillion, we know that is all false, all lies, all lies, right?

[Political Commentator]

Same thing. Like a miracle. It's all going to go away. Iran's destroyed, their military is degraded. But we need $1.5 trillion immediately, because otherwise we face the gravest threat ever in history right there.

[Ben Meiselis]

You see this meme that Salty from our team did right here?

[Political Commentator]

The Trump administration doesn't even ask you for $1.5 trillion anymore.

[Ben Meiselis]

They just look at you like this over there. Now, let me share with you. When you had Democratic Senator Dick Durbin asked Hegseth pretty basic question. So it's my understanding that you want $1.5 trillion, but you have an emergency supplemental for $87.6 billion that you want.

[Political Commentator]

You need like immediately 1.5 trillion.

[Ben Meiselis]

You say that's what you now need for the year, but you say there's

[Political Commentator]

this urgent emergency for $87.6 billion now.

[Ben Meiselis]

Well, don't you still have $75 billion

[Political Commentator]

in unobligated funding from last year's reconciliation package? You still have $75 billion unobligated, meaning you can obligate it to this.

[Ben Meiselis]

The purpose of it being unobligated was

[Political Commentator]

if there was an emergency situation to arise.

[Ben Meiselis]

So either you are even lying more than we expect about how dire and bankrupt you all are and that this $75 billion in unobligated funds doesn't exist anymore.

[Political Commentator]

Or it actually exists. But who knows?

[Ben Meiselis]

Maybe it really doesn't exist anymore. Or it does exist and now you're just demanding another $87 billion because you want to escalate this thing that much more.

[Political Commentator]

Watch.

[Ben Meiselis]

When Durbin asked this question. Let's play it.

[Ad Voice]

Mr. Secretary, I'd like to ask you to help me reconcile some numbers. It's my understanding that this whole supplemental refunding request is $87.6 billion. And most of the funding, 67 billion, is for the Department of Defense. Yet we are told the Department of defense still has 75 billion in unobligated funding from last year's reconciliation package. Is that true?

[Pete Hegseth]

Roughly correct numbers, yes.

[Ad Voice]

So you've left some change on the dresser before you prepared to come for this hearing. What's going to happen to that 75 billion?

[Pete Hegseth]

Well, that 75 is. There's plans and designs on that part of the rebuild of our military which had to be undertaken. And so one big, beautiful bill gave us specific avenues. I'd have to get you the exact numbers of what that is left to

[Ad Voice]

be allocated with the war in Iran.

[Pete Hegseth]

No, this is. This is rebuilding our military from what was not funded in the past under the Biden administration. So that's. These are. This is from 2026, one big beautiful bill which, which helped move the president's priorities, like golden dome for America, move away from all the woke priorities. Of, of what the Biden administration was pursuing. Give us a chance to start cutting these deals on munitions, all the things that we, the president wanted us to focus on shipbuilding, hypersonics. I mean, the Biden administration ignored hypersonics. They just decided to pretend like that technology didn't exist and we shouldn't invest in it. There are things, I don't know what Lloyd Austin did for four years. I really don't. The amount of neglect, the amount of stale thinking and bureaucracy was staggering when we took over. So one big beautiful bill gave us.

[Ad Voice]

Let me interrupt your speech for a,

[Ben Meiselis]

by the way, a very obvious tactic of liars, right? So you're asked a very basic question. And what do liars do? They immediately go to another topic. I don't even know what Biden's doing. Lloyd Austin.

[Political Commentator]

Let me get my Fox sound bite. Let me get my Fox sound bite.

[Sponsor Voice]

We need a.

[Political Commentator]

It's Biden's fault.

[Ben Meiselis]

It's Biden's fault. You have from that disastrous budget bill where you cut Medicaid and you cut health care and you took away rural hospitals and you took away things that the American people rely on to live. You put it trillions of dollars to make people die. People live in the US you said no good people die abroad. You said, yes, that's how we want to spend it. Let's spend it on killing people and engaging in war crimes and blowing up elementary schools with little girls in them in Iran. Let's help Netanyahu further commit genocide. Let's have them also. Let's help them in Lebanon commit genocide. Let's, let's. Those are the funding priorities of the United States. All let the American people suffer. Take things away. That's the Trump regime agenda. And then you say your focus was on ships.

[Political Commentator]

Ships was your focus.

[Ben Meiselis]

That's.

[Political Commentator]

That was.

[Ben Meiselis]

That's your big point.

[Political Commentator]

What ships? I seem to not recall the big

[Ben Meiselis]

ship that's out there right now. I do recall press conferences where Donald Trump talked about wanting a Donald Trump ship. The, the Trump class ships that he

[Political Commentator]

said he liked the ships from World War I.

[Ben Meiselis]

He liked them big, clunky.

[Political Commentator]

He doesn't like the aircraft carriers or stealth.

[Ben Meiselis]

He said he likes the World War I.

[Political Commentator]

Is that what you're talking about? And also, don't you think if you've

[Ben Meiselis]

studied warfare right now, the lesson maybe

[Political Commentator]

isn't let's build billion dollar ships, let's build more billion dollar planes.

[Ben Meiselis]

Don't you think the most basic lesson is invest in drones? Invest, by the way, I don't want any of this war. I want peace. I'm not a warmonger. I just want to be very clear with all of you. I think you know that. But I don't want to seem like I'm encouraging deadly weapons versus health care. What I'm simply making is the observation of if you were studied modern warfare, if you studied Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Ukraine's defense, if you've studied how Iran has been effective in fighting back and you don't pretend that the US Won when we didn't win against Iran, if you've studied the way warfare is actually being done right now, you would say, got it. It's FPV drones. It's, it's unmanned submersives. It is the Shahid style drone. The US has built a version of that. It is drone interceptors. It is making your ballistic interceptors cheaper because it's not sustainable that each patriot interceptor is $4 million. That's the lesson of all of this. Not, we need to build ships called Donald Trump. Okay? And so even if you take what he's saying, it is completely divorced from modern warfare right now. And so then you had Senator Murray cross examining Hexith and she says, you know, you urged Iran to let innocent ships pass freely.

[Political Commentator]

But then Donald Trump said that he

[Ben Meiselis]

wants to do a 20% toll.

[Political Commentator]

What? Why do you do that? Why do you need our money?

[Ben Meiselis]

If you say we're doing tolls now, and aren't you against tolls here? Let's play this clip.

[Senator or Questioner]

Also said at that same press conference, and I'm going to quote you, you urged Iran to, quote, let innocent ships pass freely. These international waters belong to all nations, not to Iran to tax toller control. Last week, President Trump said the US would charge a 20% toll to each ship to pass through the state. So based on your opposition to tolls, did you talk to the President out of that idea or did someone else?

[Pete Hegseth]

Iran's not charging tolls and they're shooting at ships right now.

[Senator or Questioner]

But Trump said that he wanted to charge a 20% toll.

[Pete Hegseth]

We have a blockade right now of all Iranian ships in Iranian ports and it's, it's effective.

[Senator or Questioner]

My time is out.

[Ben Meiselis]

Okay? Iran is charging certain insurance fee, much less than 20%. And when the MOU was in effect for technically, Trump started breaching it the moment he held it up in Versailles. But there were ships that were leaving. A lot of the ships were coordinating with the irgc and there was a nominal, almost symbolic type of fee because the US Lost the war. In the first salvo of it, although it's still been going on and the ships were able to get out of the Strait of Hormuz, no problem. Then Even though the MoU said that Iran is the administrator of the Strait of Hormuz, the US without consulting with Iran, said, aha, we gotcha. We tricked you. We never said that we can't create our own lane by Oman. So even though we couldn't achieve that during the war itself, and you locked down the Strait of Hormuz. Gotcha, gotcha. You should have put that in the agreement. And then Iran's like, well, when we put, we administrate it, we thought that that's kind of covered it. But okay, if you want to do this without consultation with us, then we're going to strike those ships. And that's what happened around. The ships can go this way. And then Donald Trump says, I am

[Political Commentator]

the guardian of Hormuz. It is me the guardian of her moves.

[Ben Meiselis]

And it's like, are you deranged, maniac? What do you mean you're the guardian of her moves? What the hell does it, what does that even mean?

[Political Commentator]

20%.

[Ben Meiselis]

20%. And then Senator Murray asked hegseth another basic question. On May 5, you claim that Iran, she says, on April 8, you said their missile program is destroyed, launchers productions gone.

[Political Commentator]

You said that they are begging for mercy. That's what you said on April 8.

[Ben Meiselis]

It's July 21. Here, play this clip.

[Senator or Questioner]

I've had a lot of trouble following this administration's contradictory statements about the war. On April 8, you said, and I quote, their missile program is functionally destroyed, launchers, production facilities and existing stockpiles depleted and decimated and almost completely ineffective. Mr. Secretary, Iran has been firing at US military, military bases in the region and its ships for the last week. How is it possible, if their capabilities were, quote, functionally destroyed three months earlier, as she claimed, for them to be doing this now?

[Pete Hegseth]

Well, Senator, Iran is at the weakest point militarily it has ever been in, in the past decade, certainly maybe in 47 years, as they've gathered effectively a terror army. And that terror army was built to try to create conventional capabilities to defend against a pursuit of nuclear weapons, which meant thousands of ballistics missiles, many of which we have destroyed, others of which they have put inside facilities and hidden in underground facilities. That's what terror regimes would do. So I acknowledge they still have capabilities, no doubt, but the amount of, the amount of damage that we've done to them over the course of, of These series of operations has put them in the worst place they've ever.

[Senator or Questioner]

Okay, well, let me move on.

[Ben Meiselis]

Oh, wow. They certainly. It's this, like a miracle. It's all going to go away. Covid gets killed with the heat. I give myself an A. We've never been better with pandemics than we were with COVID It's all good.

[Political Commentator]

We brought in $19 trillion, everybody.

[Ben Meiselis]

Things are amazing.

[Political Commentator]

There's a manufacturing boom. Housing is affordable. Right now, Walmart is doing a sale, everybody, on beef. That means that beef is lower priced across the country right now. Everything is amazing, everybody. Oh, and by the way, did you see the gas prices at the Freedom Centers over there? There are 12 gas stations in Pennsylvania that Trump's oligarchs are subsidizing for $3.47, because 47 is the number of the president, which is more expensive than it was last year. But we're going to extrapolate that to say gas prices are down despite the fact that the price of crude right now is over $91 a barrel, and most Americans on average are paying over $4. And in many states, it's about $6 a gallon right now. But, folks, everything is going amazing. They're so weak. They're begging. All of those strikes that you see every night hitting our bases with their precise ballistic missiles, that's not. That just shows you how weak they are. Right, everybody? The fact that we said we were going to end this war in days, then we said four to five weeks because they were just begging and begging and begging. Yeah. Their weakness is part of the plan. We just wanted to drag it out for five more months so we can show. Look, everybody, look how weak it is.

[Senator or Questioner]

We.

[Political Commentator]

We just like going to war for five months, apparently. And you know how every time new tankers try to move through the Strait of Hormuz and they get shot by Iran and struck and they have to be abandoned by the crew because they're hit. Oh, that's part of the whole. That's part of everything. We want that to happen. Oh, and you see how the Babel Mandab straight right now is the Houthis are effectively shutting down the Bab El Mandab Strait with Saudi tankers. All part of the plan. All part of the. That's weakness, man. That's weakness, man. Hit me with another testosterone shot, bro. We're gonna bro out with some testosterone, everybody. Yeah, you want one? You wanna. You want a little testosterone shot? Oh, this is a manly right here, right? Right? Oh, yeah. They're so weak. You know they're hitting Amazon data center facilities. Give me another testosterone shot. I'll show you how freaking manly I am. Yeah, yeah. America, America. Dude, what are you talking about? What are and the blaming of the Biden, the this and the that. Seriously, shut up. Take very this isn't a Democratic position, a Republican or independent position. Evaluate what's happening right now. It's obvious what is happening right now. That is the US has depleted its munitions, okay? Iran has not depleted it. Iran has its capabilities. No one's doubting that the U S has lots of weapons and that the

[Ben Meiselis]

U S was may still be was by the volume of weaponry and the types of technological innovation. The most powerful military out there. I'm not sure if it is vis a vis, you know, relative to China right now, you know with us focusing on the Trump class ships while they focused on drones and other things like that.

[Political Commentator]

But you know, but, but okay, it's

[Ben Meiselis]

a debate for another day but we

[Political Commentator]

certainly tactic again we shouldn't be in

[Ben Meiselis]

this war to begin with.

[Political Commentator]

But tactically if you think that Iran is the worst in 10 years and you're going from an assumption that you

[Ben Meiselis]

just bomb Iran more and that makes

[Political Commentator]

them want to do a deal. WTF WTF is why I call the book WTF America. Scan the QR code wherever the QR code is. Pre order it now this WTF America? It's a rallying call. It ain't about Democrats or Republicans or independents or it's about what the F is happening. What the F is that? What the. Seriously, what the F is happening? We need to get back to normalcy. We need to get back to an objective reality. It is disgusting that we have our troops as sitting ducks in the Middle east while our equipment now is going to Israel while the Trump regime covers this all up. It's disgusting. While Trump said oh we did a deal. The greatest deal ever. What the f. Seriously, what the f Pre I'm going to promote the book.

[Ben Meiselis]

There's some people.

[Political Commentator]

Oh stop promoting. I'm going to promote it. I spend all spend a long I dedicated to you. I've spent a lot of time writing it.

[Ben Meiselis]

It is a something I'm very passionate about to get all this 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, it helps 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

[Political Commentator]

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[Ben Meiselis]

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[Political Commentator]

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[Ben Meiselis]

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[Political Commentator]

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[Ben Meiselis]

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[Political Commentator]

is out there for Chapter, and so

[Ben Meiselis]

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[Political Commentator]

So call 82 Medicare today to speak with chapter that is 82 Medicare and

[Ben Meiselis]

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[Ben Meiselis]

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 Jordy works very hard with them to get these discount codes. All right, let's talk about what's just 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. 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. I, it'd be like saying two months into covet 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. You we're in the middle of the war. Every one of these soldiers who have died is incredibly tragic. And you post it as though 18, that's like, that's a win. It's really, 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. Iran is bigger than those countries by population. The outcome of what you're doing in the region also can result in mass casualties, even more than in, even, 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. 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, a thousand troops killed in a very short period of

[Pete Hegseth]

time,

[Ben Meiselis]

what may become the outcome is that American people make, even if you despise Donald Trump in 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. 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 Super Carries and George H.W. bush right there in the straight. Trump is looking for a Gulf of Tonkin type incident in Viet, 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. You know, and the Vietnam War really escalated after the Gulf of Tonkin. It's, you know, history repeating itself. So Trump has our tankers as sitting ducks. Iran could strike those aircraft carriers, those super cowers, easily if, if, 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 Bob El Mandam to Saudi tankers. You then strike certain refinery capacities in the area. I mean, Iraq has certain refinery capacities shut down. Same thing in Kuwait. Same thing in Bahrain and Iran.

[Political Commentator]

It's okay.

[Ben Meiselis]

CENTCOM is going to strike us from this hour to this hour. Donald Trump's going to do his deranged stick. 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

[Political Commentator]

the current

[Ben Meiselis]

situation in Iran is built on resistance. Revolution.

[Trump or Trump Surrogate]

Okay?

[Political Commentator]

It's called the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Revolution. Resistance, never giving in.

[Ben Meiselis]

That's why there were people in Iran

[Political Commentator]

who were critical of ever even agreeing

[Ben Meiselis]

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.

[Political Commentator]

So also certainly has its consequences and harm.

[Ben Meiselis]

You know, I'm not trying to act

[Political Commentator]

like Iran's like the wealthiest, most thriving place imaginable. The sanctions hurt. Not doing, not being able to do

[Ben Meiselis]

deals with the west and other areas hurts.

[Political Commentator]

When your main trading partners are limited to bricks.

[Ben Meiselis]

Block some brics nations, China and Russia. Russia's got its own issues that it's struggling with. Understatement. That, that, that is an easy situation, you know, for when you have to look inward always for production. And that, that ain't, that ain't easy. So there are tensions in Iran about how do they maintain the revolutionary resistance posture.

[Political Commentator]

Do you try to adapt?

[Ben Meiselis]

There is.

[Political Commentator]

And there was, of course, in Iran a festering, growing call, especially among young

[Ben Meiselis]

people, for a new path that was not ayatollah based. And, you know, but the Ayatollah, IRGC have a firm grasp of Iran. It's not a weak grasp. And there were protests in January.

[Political Commentator]

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, who want

[Ben Meiselis]

there to be more reforms that the. Than what the current system looks like.

[Political Commentator]

It's also false to portray this civilization as like, these are unsophisticated, like cavemen

[Ben Meiselis]

and cave women who don't know.

[Political Commentator]

This is a very sophisticated society, the way it's done right now.

[Ben Meiselis]

And the control by the Islamic Republic is strong. You saw that with respect to the Ayatollah's funeral.

[Political Commentator]

There are millions and millions of people

[Ben Meiselis]

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.

[Political Commentator]

There's a.

[Ben Meiselis]

And I mean, look at Pakistan. What? One third of Pakistan, Shiite.

[Political Commentator]

Their spiritual leader, their pope is the ayatollah. You know, Trump killed their pope. And even when it comes to the protest, and undoubtedly Iran did kill protesters

[Ben Meiselis]

who were protesting for reforms and protesting for different leadership control. And there's no doubt that Iran killed people.

[Political Commentator]

But when Donald Trump does his 40,000,

[Ben Meiselis]

52,000 just starts making up wild numbers.

[Political Commentator]

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?

[Ben Meiselis]

Actually, you know, I know there were

[Political Commentator]

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, you know, and, 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. 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, 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 Manob. That'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. This is the one right here. Hey terrorists, get ready to die. You see billboards like this all over Iran right now. There are ones of Ivanka and Baron

[Ben Meiselis]

and the Trump family billboards like this.

[Political Commentator]

There are a bunch of billboards, you know, that are going up everywhere with messages.

[Ben Meiselis]

This is the one, Ivanka, Melania and

[Political Commentator]

Baron that says, hey, terrorists, get ready to die. And take a look at the streets.

[Pete Hegseth]

I mean

[Political Commentator]

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

[Ben Meiselis]

the propaganda actually shows what Bandar Abbas looks like.

[Political Commentator]

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

[Ben Meiselis]

know, you would think, and, and the

[Political Commentator]

women are driving and all of that. You go look at Iran and you saw the World cup and you saw what's going on there in the, you know, on a day to day and what's going on in the malls and what's happening there. And I'm, I'm not suggesting that it's

[Ben Meiselis]

this, you know, Western, you know, short

[Political Commentator]

dresses, it's certainly not that, there's certainly headscarves that are being worn. But you take a look at it, we need, 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. And 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, of making the link and saying, ah, it's because of the US drilling and the fracking and all of the kind of sudden shrubs, sudden shock by the US going into the dirt and deep in the dirt, I don't know,

[Ben Meiselis]

I don't have the data.

[Political Commentator]

So when I don't know, I say I don't know. 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. We 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.

[Ben Meiselis]

And what I found fascinating was in

[Political Commentator]

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, we conquered them, we took their oil. Let me play you this one first.

[Ben Meiselis]

Let's play it.

[Trump or Trump Surrogate]

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.

[Political Commentator]

Who's the they?

[Ben Meiselis]

Have you spoken to Venezuelan people? Have you asked the people in Venezuela,

[Political Commentator]

hey, you happy right now? Under Delsey, how is it going right

[Ben Meiselis]

now with thousands dead and tens of thousands missing?

[Political Commentator]

Y' all are happy there in Venezuela right now?

[Ben Meiselis]

Now we know that Delsey gave medals to the Trump search and rescue teams that were there. Seemed like there was more time being spent on awarding them 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 the, with good intentions and deserve to be applauded. But do we need to give them medals right away during, I mean, like, like right after a horrific event? I mean, within days you start giving them medals, medals while they're, while, while there are bodies that are there, they're getting medals.

[Political Commentator]

Don't, 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

[Ben Meiselis]

place a couple of days ago, a couple of weeks ago. Doesn't even know when it happened. They had, they had a movement, a shifting of earth that was unbelievable.

[Political Commentator]

I guess you would call it an earthquake. I guess you would call it an earthquake.

[Ben Meiselis]

What do you call it?

[Political Commentator]

A shifting of the earth.

[Ben Meiselis]

Here, play this clip very closely with

[Trump or Trump Surrogate]

the administration and we get along very well. Venezuela is a very happy place. I had a tragic Incident with the, you know, with the event that took place a couple of days ago, A couple. A week ago. What a terrible thing that was. They had a. They had. They had a movement, a shifting of earth that was unbelievable. Nobody's ever. They'd 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. Venezuela, 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,

[Ben Meiselis]

it was unrelated, he said, unrelated to the drilling.

[Political Commentator]

Who would even bring that up?

[Ben Meiselis]

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.

[Political Commentator]

It seems like a Freudian slip or

[Ben Meiselis]

Freudian conscience, I should say. That guy's not guilt, 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, you know, is it too soon for me to be critical of it? I understand. I personally don't believe you get 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.

[Political Commentator]

Where's this money going?

[Ben Meiselis]

It's not going to the people. Were. 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, 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.

[Political Commentator]

Can you do me a favor too?

[Ben Meiselis]

Put in the comments. WTF if you've pre ordered it. But don't don't lie. Really only put WTF if you've actually pre ordered. If you really preorder 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 if we can. Let's do it right.

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[Ben Meiselis]

Welcome back. Great ad reads Jordy. Thank you to our sponsors who make this show possible. You know what I try to do in WTF America? I don't hold, you know, I'm not like holding information back on the show. So let me you know how like lots of books, they hold the information

[Political Commentator]

and it's like, well here's what I've

[Ben Meiselis]

been waiting to share. I've never held anything back but what it is WTF America? And why I want the title to punch like WTF is. I really want it to be this kind of enduring snapshot of where we are right now. I wanted 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. 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 debt, with death, and with these dire conditions that 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. It, the, 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, I don't have a lot of, I don't put my chips, my proverbial chips with a, with a politician. 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, 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? 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

[Political Commentator]

that they stay out.

[Ben Meiselis]

You know, I find it interesting when Donald Trump again, just like in the Venezuela clip that I showed you, where it's unrelated, is unrelated. You know, we're doing a lot of drilling, but it's totally unrelated. You know, 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? So when he says I would be the greatest communist ever, like Lenine, he says, like Lenine, that's how, 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 Lenine 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, and it's basically 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.

[Political Commentator]

I will be able to fix it all.

[Ben Meiselis]

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

[Political Commentator]

seize

[Ben Meiselis]

apparatus, create its own politburo, and then hand

[Political Commentator]

out money

[Ben Meiselis]

and dole out to people that it views as more worthy of it. 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. No tariff rebate checks.

[Political Commentator]

We will give you these tariff rebate checks. You're going to get so much money.

[Ben Meiselis]

You're going to make so much money.

[Political Commentator]

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?

[Ben Meiselis]

I like the idea of no tax on tips.

[Political Commentator]

I like, however, however you need to get tips. Hospitality is down. So the people who that's supposed to

[Ben Meiselis]

help more than anyone are out of jobs.

[Political Commentator]

And then when you actually look at

[Ben Meiselis]

the no tax on tips, it's qualified by all of these things 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.

[Political Commentator]

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, and again, this is why I

[Ben Meiselis]

set out the philosophy in WTF America,

[Political Commentator]

because we need to, we need to

[Ben Meiselis]

understand, we need to think this way in my view, more than just,

[Political Commentator]

oh, you know what? This, 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. I want to step back and say,

[Ben Meiselis]

what are we looking for in politicians?

[Political Commentator]

What are we looking for our government to achieve? Be very wary of labels.

[Ben Meiselis]

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.

[Political Commentator]

But to me, I want to see the actions.

[Ben Meiselis]

I want to see what the person is actually doing here.

[Political Commentator]

What are you doing?

[Ben Meiselis]

How are you helping?

[Political Commentator]

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 if we brought in $19.1 trillion, if the overall economy is $32 trillion,

[Ben Meiselis]

you're saying that only 11 million is consumption?

[Political Commentator]

That 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.

[Ben Meiselis]

We have to step out of that

[Political Commentator]

and we have to, we have to

[Ben Meiselis]

align the interests of the people

[Ad Voice]

and

[Ben Meiselis]

make our voices heard more profoundly louder and not chase any specific politician. Anyway, that's what I think is really important, you know, in, you know, in, in, in this moment. Because when you're rooted in values and principles and, you know, yeah, it's, it's, it's frankly why I don't like, you know, to, you know, I, you know, I don't like these, you know, silly debates where another person's living in an alternate reality and they've got their talking points.

[Political Commentator]

Well, what about Biden? It's like, dude, just shut up.

[Ben Meiselis]

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, you can call out the genocide that's taking place in Gaza. Everything to you has to be rooted in some political slogan that you can't just recognize as a human being that there are so many innocent people being killed and mothers and children, and it's not, it's not. And mothers and children and fathers and, and not just killed, but maimed. Like, like you can't even as a human.

[Political Commentator]

Everything to you has to be through

[Ben Meiselis]

some Some political prism of gotcha. This got you that, that you can take a step back and just be a human being and say this is wrong.

[Political Commentator]

You can't do that.

[Ben Meiselis]

You can't look at the bombings by Israel in Lebanon and say that that's, that's wrong in residential areas and that we're not and that that's unacceptable and that's, that's not okay. You can't look at Donald Trump blowing up a hospital in elementary school in Manob and killing little girls. And you can't just be like, that's, like, that's, that's, that's horrible and that's wrong. And, you know, one of the hard

[Political Commentator]

things for me is those are our taxpayer dollars, right? If, if, if you gave money to a murderer to buy a gun and that person killed people, you'd feel responsible.

[Ben Meiselis]

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 War

[Political Commentator]

Department to kill people, that we're, that

[Ben Meiselis]

we're unreliable, unreluctant, we're reluctantly, we don't

[Political Commentator]

want to be involved, but we're complicit also.

[Ben Meiselis]

Do 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.

[Political Commentator]

Our taxpayer dollars are going to.

[Pete Hegseth]

That.

[Political Commentator]

And I don't know. This isn't a talking point. This isn't. And therefore I want you to don't. This is, this is a true feeling

[Ben Meiselis]

of, of, of, of, of pain and sadness. And I don't, I don't, I don't

[Political Commentator]

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.

[Ben Meiselis]

Wtf.

[Political Commentator]

It's not a. Let's just get out.

[Ben Meiselis]

It's not. It is.

[Political Commentator]

Step back.

[Ben Meiselis]

Think what are we doing here with our lives? What is the point of living?

[Political Commentator]

What is the point. What is the point of making sure that future generations have a better place?

[Ben Meiselis]

I mean, is, is, is the purpose

[Political Commentator]

of the short time we're here? Take, take, take, take, take, take, take, take, take, take die.

[Ben Meiselis]

I mean, you know, you look at Lindsey Graham's life, you know, and death, you know, I mean, what, what, what?

[Political Commentator]

Then went to work on Capitol Hill, and then you spent your time encouraging

[Ben Meiselis]

people to kill people with a, with a blood thirst. With a blood thirst.

[Political Commentator]

And then Donald J. Trump Donald J. Trump. Donald J. Trump. And then you're dead.

[Ben Meiselis]

You're dead. That's, that's the, that's the point of being alive. That's why, that's the point of your existence.

[Political Commentator]

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.

[Ben Meiselis]

You're dead now. And you know, I, I, I, I, the devices in our hand, the algorithms, you know, the, the, the, the loud echo chain, the loud whatever. I, I, I, I want Midas Touch. I want this network. I want ultimately like frankly what I want people to remember, 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 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. 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, values, the non values, the, the, the, the hate. Who's going to be a better fighter? And how do you, how do you harness the power of you not giving in, you not submitting? So anyway, I guess, I guess I just spent the last segment giving. Well, I, I want you to be able to read, but that's a lot of the, A lot of what? You know 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, you know, that to me is a broader thing that I'll, 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've, 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 genuinely 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. I don't know. I think my brothers may be like, you can't do that.

[Political Commentator]

That's not a thing.

[Ben Meiselis]

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 4 or 4:30. Got a little sentimental on this episode, I gotta 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.

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[Ben Meiselis]

to tell you that Mint's offer of unlimited Premium Wireless for $15 a month is back. So I thought it would be fun if we made $15 bills, but it turns out that's very illegal. So there goes my big idea for the commercial. Give it a [e-mail] switch upfront payment

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